Some people have supposed that utility is good in itself, non-in-strumentally good, as distinct from good because conducive to other good things. And in modern versions of this view, utility often means want-satisfaction, as distinct from pleasure or happiness. For your want that p to be satisfied, is it necessary that you know or believe that p, or sufficient merely that p is true? However that question is answered, there are problems with the view that want-satisfaction is a non-instrumental good. (...) What if you want something only because you have a false belief? What if the time at which you want that p is fifty or five hundred years before the time to which p itself refers? To meet these difficulties, qualifications have to be introduced, and much has been written about how exactly these qualifications are to be framed.1 There is however what may be a rather more serious objection to the view that want-satisfaction is a non-instrumental good, or rather to the combination of that view with the principle that it is sufficient for your want that p to be satisfied simply that p is true. The objection is that this combination forces you to give undue weight to the mere acquisition of desires when you come to make judgements about changes in the value of things. It forces you to say that for any true proposition p, which initially you do not want to be true, your mere acquisition of a desire that p will, other things being equal, make the world better. Non-instrumental value can be increased merely by multiplying desires, even though everything else remains the same. Surely, however, improving the world is not as easy as that. (shrink)

Мета. Автор цієї статті має на меті привернути увагу дослідників до створення етичної системи, яка здатна гармонійно поєднувати універсальні принципи та культурне різноманіття, враховуючи права і гідність кожної людини як ключового учасника етичних дискусій. Стверджується, що ефективна етична система дає можливість кожній людині брати участь у моральних обговореннях та прийнятті етичних рішень. Теоретичний базис. Ґрунтуючись на підходах Канта, Ролза, Сінгера та інших, автор наполягає на необхідності визначення та узгодження універсальних принципів. Вони мають стати основою всіх подальших етичних обговорень. Захист особистої (...) ідентичності підкреслено через міжкультурну чутливість (Герсковіц, Бенедикт). Люди з різних культурних контекстів повинні бути включені в етичні дебати. Також наголошено на важливості дослідження гнучкості етичних концепцій відповідно до космополітизму Аппіа та підходу до можливостей Нуссбаум. Етичні теорії мають балансувати між культурним плюралізмом та універсальністю. Культурна чутливість в етичних теоріях повинна визнавати, поважати та надавати простір для інших моральних систем, показуючи шлях для формулювання відкритих етичних теорій. Антропологічні та філософські погляди вкладають у досягнення необхідного балансу між основними принципами та гнучкістю, щоб створити можливості для діалогу й консенсусу. Нарешті, намагаючись досягти універсальності, культурної чутливості та адаптивності, етичні системи у взаємопов’язаному світі повинні застосовувати принципи в різних суспільствах, поважати різноманітність цінностей і враховувати зміни в цих суспільствах. Наукова новизна. Окреслено контури можливого збалансованого підходу, відзначено універсальність як центральний елемент етичної теорії, а також міжкультурну чутливість, гнучкість і адаптивність. Це дозволяє кожній людині зберегти ідентичність та відчувати свою участь в етиці. Висновки. Автор демонструє, що необхідно просувати такі якості, як розуміння культурної специфіки, емпатія до інших культур та співпраця у вирішенні моральних дилем на шляху до етичної досконалості. Лише збалансований підхід, який поєднує універсальні принципи та враховує культурне різноманіття, визнає права та гідність кожної людини і перевершує культурні відмінності. (shrink)

The purpose of the study is to identify a common theoretical basis for the study of human life as capital and unconditional higher value. Theoretical basis is based on the value-laden and revised structural constructivism, provided by the French philosopher and sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, critical analysis of the concepts of capital as the embodiment of social expectations, the biological concept of the value of human life, as well as the concepts of its sanctity. Originality. It is proved that one should (...) not consider the value of human life as capital only but instead takes into account its different value interpretations, especially when forming the social identity of a person. Moreover, in each of the value systems, the value of human life can be recognized as unconditional, which does not prevent the coexistence of such different value interpretations within the framework of one social identity, which then inevitably becomes a multiple social identity. Conclusions. Human life cannot be considered as a result of integrating economic expectations into the concept of "advertising" capital: first, expectations may well be inadequate; second, expectations by themselves are not directly related to capital; third, expectations do not necessarily lead to development; fourth, one should clearly distinguish between the spontaneous "expectations" and the values that express people’s strong motivation as members of social communities. The multiplicity of possible cultural conditions that affirm the unconditional value of life indicates that this unconditionality is always relevant rather than absolute. The multiple social identities could be used to add value to the protection of human life, the affirmation of multiple social identities is a means of affirming the unconditional value of human life – it is unconditional in several alternative ways. (shrink)

After briefly vindicating casuistries which successively apply a number of different moral principles, I describe some of the principles of justice liable to figure in such casuistries, assess the relative popularity of these principles and show that some of the most popular cannot be consistently applied in all circumstances.

This study aims at assessing the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) concerning reproductive health (RH) among adolescent college-going girls in the urban and rural areas of Chittagong District, Bangladesh. A college-based cross-sectional study was conducted among college-going girls (N = 792) of four colleges attending Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) classes (eleven/twelve classes) in Chittagong District. Data were collected using a structured and self-administered questionnaire. Chi-square (χ2) and independent-samples t-test were conducted to make the comparison between urban and rural (...) participants. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS version 24.0. The authors’ interpretation of the findings was also informed by anthropological as well as qualitative considerations. Mothers were reported to be the key informants of reproductive health for the adolescent girls of both urban and rural areas. Besides, urban respondents were more likely than rural respondents (p <.001) to feel comfortable during the discussion on RH with mother/sister/relative; to communicate frequently with their mothers; to discuss RH issues regularly; to have prior knowledge on menstruation. Moreover, this study also found significant differences (p <.05) regarding most of the items addressing RH knowledge, attitude, and practice between adolescent girls in urban and rural areas of Bangladesh due to the existing socio-cultural disparities between the areas of residence. (shrink)

The purpose of this essay is to show that there was one person, perhaps only one, who developed a rigorously scientific cosmology nearly two thousand years ago. Cosmology is the largest of all subjects, with a long history, and the cosmology considered here is the one that endured for the longest part, nearly three-quarters, of that history. By cosmology I mean a description of the universe as a whole and of the arrangement of its principal parts. But by scientific cosmology, (...) I mean something more. For a cosmology to be considered scientific, three criteria must be met: it must be quantitative, physical, and empirical. Quantitative means that it must assign some scale of distances and sizes to its parts. Physical means that it must rest upon some kind of physical or mechanical principles, causes, for the ordering and motion of its parts. Finally, empirical means that it must either be derived from observation or, if derived theoretically, as from physical or mechanical principles, it must be confirmed by observation. I set out these criteria, which may not be exclusive or exhaustive but are surely within reason, in order to define our subject and exclude mythological or theological cosmologies, which generally meet none of the criteria, and philosophical cosmologies, as those of Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes, which may meet one or two in some way, although not rigorously, but surely do not meet all three. I am not concerned with whether the cosmology or the criteria upon which it is based are correct. Compared to our present understanding, the scale may be off by orders of magnitude, the physics may be entirely mistaken, and the observations may be inaccurate. But if all three are present I would call the cosmology scientific, and if not I would not call the cosmology scientific. (shrink)

A systematic study of rational or justified belief, which throws fresh light on current debates about foundations and coherence theories of knowledge, the validation of induction and moral scepticism. Dr Nathan focuses attention on the largely unsatisfiable desires for active and self-conscious assurance of truth liable to be engendered by philosophical reflection about total belief-systems and the sources of knowledge. He extracts a kernel of truth from the doctrine that a regress of justification is both necessary and impossible, contrasts the (...) resultant scepticism with more familiar complaints about the inapplicability of supposedly essential cognitive concepts and explores the feasibility of non-Humean modes of consolation. This is an original and carefully constructed book, which will interest professional philosophers and advanced students of epistemology. (shrink)

This paper describes the topological aspect of a logic-based, artificial intelligence approach to formalising the qualitative description of spatial properties and relations, and reasoning about those properties and relations. This approach, known as RCC theory, has been under development for several years at the University of Leeds. The main rationale for this project is that qualitative descriptions of spatial properties and relationships, and qualitative spatial reasoning, are of fundamental importance in human thinking about the world: even where quantitative spatial data (...) are most important, they must be attached to the components of a perceived spatial structure if we are to make use of them. RCC theory covers other qualitative aspects of spatial description and reasoning, but the topological properties and relations of spatially extended entities are fundamental to our work. The topological formalisms used by mathematicians are, in general, not well suited to the task of formalising the kinds of ‘common-sense’ or ‘everyday’ qualitative spatial description and reasoning which are our primary interest. Nevertheless, we must come to grips with the concepts of topology as practised by mathematicians if we are not to risk constantly ‘reinventing wheels’. (shrink)

Upshot: According to Biology of Cognition and Language (Maturana’s approach) the immune system is not a cognitive system and defining of a cognitive paradigm is not what we understand as a Maturanian approach to immunology. The true cognitive actions in immunology are performed by immunologists acting as observers, not by body organs or systems. Stimuli and responses are not adequate concepts in the description of systems. As a closed network of cellular/molecular interactions, the immune system yields patterns of activity as (...) is transparent in robust conserved profiles of reactivity of natural immunoglobulins, as investigated by Nóbrega et al. and Cohen et al., which offer the opportunity to unravel its natural, spontaneous activity. Dietary materials, products of the commensal microbiome are the most abundant and common elements continuously incorporated to the network activity and, thus, also represent an important avenue of investigation. (shrink)

Ukraine has a special geopolitical location in Europe - between East and West, South and North. The specificity of this provision is due to multi-year contacts between peoples who lived or passed through its territory, the interactions of different cultures, traditions and worldviews. As a result, there is a rather varied ethno-national and religious palette of Ukrainian population. In today's conditions of building an independent state and civil society, this can be both a positive and a negative factor. Recent events (...) and practices show that the problem of religious and ethnic renaissance has acquired a special political and spiritual significance. Different directions of Christianity, other religions, existing for centuries on the Ukrainian ethnic basis, have been influenced by a wide range of social and national life. In addition, ethno-national and religious processes took place differently in the western and eastern regions of Ukraine, in the village and in the city. (shrink)