The question of the sources of the currently critical state of the relation between human beings and the natural environment holds a considerable place in Western ecological research.

Background: Little is known about U.S. healthcare provider views and practices regarding evidence, counseling, and shared decision-making about in-hospital versus out-of-hospital birth settings. Methods: We conducted 19 in-depth, semistructured, qualitative interviews of eight obstetricians, eight midwives, and three pediatricians from across the United States. Interviews explored healthcare providers’ interpretation of the current evidence and their personal and professional experiences with childbirth within the existing medical, ethical, and legal context in the United States. Results: Themes emerged concerning risks and benefits, decision-making, (...) and patient-provider power dynamics. Collectively, the narratives illuminated fundamental ideological tensions between in- and out-of-hospital providers arising from divergent assignment of value to described risks and benefits. The majority of physicians focused on U.S.-specific data demonstrating increased neonatal morbidity and mortality associated with delayed access to hospital-based interventions, thereby justifying hospital birth as the standard of care. By contrast, midwives emphasized data demonstrating fewer interventions and superior maternal and neonatal outcomes in high-income European countries, where out-of-hospital birth is more common for low-risk birthing people. A key gap in counseling was revealed, as no interviewees offered anticipatory counseling regarding birth setting options. Providers directly and indirectly illustrated the propensity for asymmetric power relations between birth providers and pregnant people, especially in hospital settings. Conclusions: The narratives highlight the common goal of optimizing maternal and neonatal outcomes despite tensions arising from divergent prioritization of specific maternal and neonatal risks. Our findings suggest opportunities to foster collaboration and optimize outcomes via mutual respect and improved integration of care. (shrink)

Papers delivered at the joint meeting of the Hegel Society of America and the Hegel Society of Great Britain held at Merton College, Oxford, Sept. 1-4, 1981, to mark the 150th anniversary of Hegel's death. Includes bibliographical references and index.

This article delineates the core concerns and motivations of the ontological work of Gilles Deleuze, and is intended as a programmatic statement for a general philosophical audience. The article consists of two main parts. In the first, two early writings by Deleuze are analysed in order to clarify his understanding of ontology broadly, and to specify the precise aim of his understanding of being in terms of difference. The second part of the article looks at the work of Heidegger and (...) Derrida in order to distinguish Deleuze's conceptions of ontology and difference from theirs. A final section clarifies Deleuze's efforts to undertake the construction of an ontology divergent from the dominant tradition and in contrast to the emphasis on the closure of metaphysics in the thought of Heidegger and Derrida. (shrink)

Lectures based on the commentaries on Brahmasūtra of Bādarāyaṇa.

The intensive process of differentiation of knowledge that has in the past decade come to include philosophy has had the results, inter alia, that ethics, esthetics, and empirical sociology have undergone a kind of secondary "branching off" from the philosophy of society and culture . On the level of teaching this had the consequence that a department of esthetics and ethics was carved out of the department of historical materialism at the Philosophical Faculty of Moscow University, and was subsequently divided (...) into departments of esthetics and ethics, respectively. It was thus that the independent department of ethics made its appearance for the first time in the history of Moscow University. This occurred in 1969, and recently the department of Marxist- Leninist ethics marked its modest first decade. (shrink)

A.P. Martinich's interpretation that in Leviathan Thomas Hobbes believed that the laws of nature are the commands of God and that he did not rely on the Bible to prove this has been criticized by Greg Forster in this journal (2003). Forster uses these criticisms to develop his own view that Hobbes was insincere when he professed religious beliefs. We argue that Forster misrepresents Martinich's view, is mistaken about what evidence is relevant to interpreting whether Hobbes was sincere or not, (...) and is mistaken about some of Hobbes's central doctrines. Forster's criticisms are worth discussing at length for at least three reasons. He takes the debate about Hobbes's sincerity to a new level of sophistication; his misinterpretations of Hobbes may become accepted as correct; and his criticisms raise issues about the proper method of interpreting historical texts. (shrink)

This article aims to study the Hadiths which ascribe morality to Allah, regarding narration and understanding, and how these Hadiths have cont-ributed to the establishment of a moral framework. The primary research problem is based upon understanding the meaning of Allah’s morality, how scholars have dealt with these Hadiths, and how they have benefited from them in the field of Islamic ethics. There are several key research questions, the most important of which are: What is the authenticity of these Hadiths (...) that attribute morality to Allah? What is the intended meaning of Allah’s morality? How have scholars addressed these Hadiths? Perhaps the most significant question is how these Hadiths have contributed to the develop-ment of an ethical theory. The research investigated the Hadiths that attri-bute qualities to Allah and studied them through the analysis of their chains of transmission. It then analysed how the phrase "Allah’s morality" contri-buted to the ethical theory among thinkers. The paper arrived at several conclusions, the most important of which is that there are five Hadiths att-ributing morality to Allah, all of which are weak according to Hadithic principles. However, these Hadiths support each other, and there are addi-tional references that espouse the idea of Allah being characterized by cer-tain morals, such as the Hadiths "Indeed, Allah is Tayyib (Pure)" and "In-deed, Allah is Modest." These Hadiths embrace the notion that Allah has attributes He loves His servants to embody. Therefore, the five Hadiths can be accepted as Hasan (good) due to external support. These Hadiths were accepted by some thinkers who interpreted Allah’s morality as His Beautiful Names (Asmāʾ llāhi al-ḥusnā). Consequently, Allah’s morality is understood as His Beautiful Names. The impact of these Hadiths can be observed in the works of Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī, Al- Ghazālī, and Al- Rāzī, as they placed the Beautiful Names of Allah at the centre of their ethical views. It is no-teworthy that those who accepted the idea of Allah’s morality were cauti-ous in dealing with it. An important observation is that those who based an ethical perspective on these Hadiths were not Hadith scholars, but rather individuals engaged in other fields of study. This can be ascribed to several reasons: one being that the Hadiths attributing morality to Allah are not authentic, and another being that many Hadith scholars refrained from in-terpretation and were content with the literal meaning of the Hadiths. (shrink)

On the philosophy of death in Hindu traditions; study based on Mr̥tyupurāṇa of Svāmī Mr̥tyujayānanda.

This paper treats Deleuze's first synthesis of time and the corresponding concept of larval subjectivity by routing it through a biophilosophy of organism. I develop, out of my reading of Deleuze, a temporal concept of organismic subjectivity.

The outline of modern macroeconomics took shape in Britain in the early nineteenth century thanks, in part, to David Ricardo, one of the most influential economists of the time. Britain was challenged by monetary inflation, industrial unemployment and the loss of jobs abroad. Ricardo pointed the way forward. As a financier and Member of Parliament, he was well versed in politics and commercial affairs. His expertise is shown by the practicality of his proposals, including the resumption of the gold standard, (...) which was essential given the destabilizing policy of the Bank of England. Ricardo's expertise appears also in his debate with T. R. Malthus about whether an industrial economy can suffer a prolonged depression. Say's Law of Markets and the Quantity Theory of Money figure prominently in his works, but not in an extreme form. He was instead a subtle theorist, recognizing the non-neutrality of money, trade depressions and unemployment. (shrink)