Case-based, multidisciplinary seminars provided a vehicle for clinicians, philosophers and students to debate current problems in medical ethics in a manner which ensured maximum learning and interest for all participants. Prior training in philosophical medical ethics was an essential prerequisite, giving students the knowledge and skills to take part in the discussions at an appropriate level of sophistication.

What is disappointing of course is not the dispersion of psychology into so many diverse subjects, but their apparent lack of relation to a central core of laws and theories. The topics of psychology, such as sensation, perception, cognition and emotion, which are treated in the first section of the present book, do not appear to constitute a general base for the branches of psychology, for clinical psychology, nor for the so-called borderland subjects. The branch--Animal and Comparative Psychology--does not carry (...) over from general psychology a basic theory of learning, which it then adapts or applies to its own special field. On the contrary, contemporary theory of learning, or rather theories, have been largely evolved within this branch. Similarly, Psychometrics, Child Psychology, and Applied and Social Psychology have, to a great extent, developed their own principles and methods. (shrink)

Since James defined emotion as consciousness of bodily reactions and Cannon and others detailed the nature of these reactions, there has been an increasing tendency among behaviorists to equate emotions with visceral reactions and to neglect some of the genetic and adaptive aspects of emotion which had been discussed by Darwin.

In the philosophy of mathematical practice, the aim is to understand the various aspects of this practice. Even though definitions are a central element of mathematical practice, the study of this aspect of mathematical practice is still in its infancy. In particular, there is little empirical evidence to substantiate claims about definitions in practice. In this article, we address this gap by reporting on an empirical investigation on how mathematicians create definitions and which roles and properties they attribute to them. (...) On the basis of interviews with thirteen research mathematicians, we provide a broad range of relevant aspects of definitions. In particular, we address various roles of definitions and show that definitions are not just a product of mathematical factors, but also of social and contingent factors. Furthermore, we provide concrete examples of how mathematicians interact and think about definition. This broad empirical basis with a variety of examples provides an optimal starting point for future investigations into definitions in mathematical practice. (shrink)

The topic of consent in paediatrics is made more difficult, and at the same time more interesting, by the complexity of the issues involved and the consequent diversity of viewpoints. In a teaching session for senior medical students on consent in paediatrics it proved necessary to reinstate previous learning from a range of disciplines. Philosophical medical ethics, developmental psychology, communication skills and the appropriate legal definitions all contributed to a proper understanding of the cases presented. The two most important additional (...) components appeared to be a) a basic knowledge of cognitive development and how to apply it, and b) an awareness of the need to balance an individual child's rights or best interests, with those of the family unit, as well as the wider society. (shrink)

This paper presents findings from a longitudinal study of patient refusals (as reported by graduating medical students) to take part in the teaching function of public hospitals. Results from a smaller study of non-patients' attitudes are also reported. Findings are discussed in terms of patients' rights, issues of personal privacy, medical education, and the public good.

Constraints to the sustainability of insecticide use include effects on human health, agroecosystems (e.g., beneficial insects), the wider environment (e.g., non-target species, landscapes and communities) and the selection of insecticide-resistant traits. It is possible to find examples where insecticides have impacted disastrously on all these variables and others where the hazards posed have been (through accident or design) ameliorated. In this review, we examine what can currently be surmised about the direct and indirect long-term, field impacts of insecticides upon the (...) environment. We detail specific examples, describe current insecticide use patterns, consider the contexts within which insecticide use occurs and discuss the role of regulation and legislation in reducing risk. We consider how insecticide use is changing in response to increasing environmental awareness and inevitably, as we discuss the main constraints to insecticide use, we suggest why they cannot easily be discarded. (shrink)

Neither the chronology nor the interpretation of the history of the years 375 to 371 BC is yet settled. The date of the peace that followed the Athenian naval victory over Sparta at Alyzeia in Scirophorion 375 is put variously in the second half of 375 or 374 or even in spring 374. The status of the Boeotian cities at the time of the peace as well as the role of the King and the participation of Thebes are controversial, and (...) this affects the interpretation of the peace itself. (shrink)

In opposition to phenomenology and other currents of recent philosophy, Farber holds that the progress of science and the accumulation of human experience furnish a foundation on which philosophy can safely build, and which it is a waste of time to question. Among the basic truths are.

The resulting separation of the two disciplines was probably inevitable, but there is a question whether it has not gone too far and also whether it has actually gone as far as is commonly supposed. Do psychologists succeed in avoiding philosophy, and do philosophers succeed in maintaining their aloofness on analytic, methodological or categorial levels, with nothing implied as to mental activity or behavior? The jurisdictional problem cannot be resolved if each side simply retreats before the other, back toward its (...) inner citadel: experiment, on the one hand, and logic, on the other. For experimental results have to be interpreted, and interesting problems of method and sometimes epistemology are involved which experiment cannot settle. Similarly, if the distinction between analytic and synthetic judgments depends, in the final count, on attention-span or memory-span, and a theory of the meaning of proper names can be tested by a canvas of actual usage, then even logic is not autonomous. (shrink)