Recent highly publicized privacy breaches in health care and genomics research have led many to question whether current standards of data protection are adequate. Improvements in de-identification techniques, combined with pervasive data sharing, have increased the likelihood that external parties can track individuals across multiple databases. This paper focuses on the communication of identifiability risks in the process of obtaining consent for donation and research. Most ethical discussions of identifiability risks have focused on the severity of the risk and how (...) it might be mitigated, and what precisely is at stake in pervasive data sharing. However, there has been little discussion of whether and how to communicate the risk to potential donors. We review the ethical arguments behind favoring different types of risk communication in the consent process, and outline how identifiability concerns can be incorporated into either a detailed or simplified method of communicating risks during the consent process. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Origines Veliae In Pompeius Trogus, Prologue XVIIIWaldemar HeckelThe so-called “Prologues” (more appropriately “summaries”) of Pompeius Trogus’ Philippic History contain numerous references to people, places, and events not discussed by Justin in his abbreviation of the work. In CP 62 (1969) 162–64, V. Iliescu considered Prol. xviii (origines Phoenicum et Sidonis et Veliae Carthaginisque res gestae in excessu dictae) and argued that Veliae should be “corrected” to read Tyri. 1 (...) O. Seel, in the apparatus to his Teubner edition (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1971), writes “quae urbs contextui male convenire videtur.” But Seel remained unconvinced by Iliescu’s proposal or G. Radke’s more imaginative origines... Didonis vel Elissae.... 2 The latter is, at any rate, doubtful, as Iliescu noted (163), because origines is used in the Prologues of peoples, cities and regions, but not of specific persons (but cf. Justin xi 11.2, where Alexander consults Ammon de origine sua). These emendations are, however, unnecessary. There is good reason to suppose that Pompeius did, in fact, discuss the origins of Velia in southern Italy at precisely this point in his history.Ammianus Marcellinus xv 9.2ff. (= Timagenes, FGrH 88 F2) includes the following observation:A Phocaea vero Asiaticus populus, Harpali [sic] inclementiam vitans, Cyri regis praefecti, Italiam navigio petit. Cuius pars in Lucania Veliam, alia condidit in Viennensi Massiliam: dein secutis aetatibus oppida, aucta virium copia, instituere non pauca.But, in fact, a people of Asia from Phocaea, to avoid the severity of Harpalus [read: “Harpagus”], prefect of king Cyrus, set sail for Italy. A part of them founded Velia in Lucania, the rest, Massilia in the region of Vienne. Then in subsequent ages they established no small number of towns, as their strength and resources increased.”(xv 9.7; tr. J. C. Rolfe)Now we know from Herodotus i 163ff. that, when the Phocaeans fled to the west, some of them settled in Corsica, whither they had sent colonists some twenty years earlier. They maintained themselves through piracy until a naval coalition of Etruscans and Carthaginians met them in the so-called “battle of Alalia” (Hdt. i 166) and made the Phocaean position [End Page 309] in Corsica untenable. According to Herodotus, the Phocaeans sailed to Rhegium, from which they set out to found Elea or Velia (“they founded that city in the land of Oenotria which is now called Hyele”: Hdt. i 167.3; cf. D. Ridgway, CAH iv 2 672).Trogus’ report concerning the origins of the Phocaean colony of Velia was included in his eighteenth book, which, as we can see from Justin’s “Epitome,” dealt with the early history of Carthage from its foundation to the events of the late sixth century (cf. D. Asheri, CAH iv 2 750–52). Since the confrontation at Alalia in c. 535 B.C. formed an important part of the history of Carthaginian expansion in the western Mediterranean, it is most probable that Trogus included an account of the battle and, in the discussion of its aftermath, included a digression on the foundation of Velia. The Phocaeans had, of course, founded Marseille, and their early history will have been well known to Trogus, who discussed the Greeks in Gaul in Book xliii 3ff. The Phocaeans at Velia, however, belonged, historically and geographically, in the context of Carthaginian expansion and in Book xviii. The text of Trogus, Prologue xviii, is thus correct as it stands and requires no emendation.Waldemar HeckelUniversity of CalgaryFootnotes1. Or, less likely, Tyrorum.2. RE viii A2 (1958) col. 2403.Copyright © 1996 The Johns Hopkins University Press... (shrink)

What does it mean to be religious believers for people whose living conditions are defined by an increasingly secularized environment? Is the common distinction between faith and knowledge valid? The 21 essays cover approaches from various fields of the humanities. Some explore post-Kantian thoughts, discussing, i.a., American Pragmatism, M. Buber, M. Horkheimer, H. Putnam, J. Habermas, Ch. Taylor and variants of deconstruction, while other essays focus on ways in which the conflict between agnostics and seekers is addressed in US literary (...) works, as in Fl. O’Connor, W. Percy, N. Hawthorne, J. Updike and in novels dealing with pandemics, for instance by L. Wright, E. M. Wiseman and R. Cook. Historical studies examine the intermingling of the sacred and the secular in the American South and neo-scholastic objections to modernity. Theological issues are being re-framed in essays discussing the relevance of pluralism, the relation of religious conviction and public opinion, the situation of scientists who believe and the thoughts of N. Frye and M. McLuhan. Finally, essays pay attention to religious aspects in works of art, e.g. in Ukrainian poetry, G. Mahler’s symphonies and in a TV show presenting new “American Gods” of globalization. (shrink)

Thirty years ago, Alvin Plantinga gave a lecture called "Two Dozen (or so) Theistic Arguments," which served as an underground inspiration for two generations of scholars and students. In it, he proposed a number of novel and creative arguments for the existence of God which have yet to receive the attention they deserve. In Two Dozen (or so) Arguments for God, each of Plantinga's original suggestions, many of which he only briefly sketched, is developed in detail by a wide variety (...) of accomplished scholars. The authors look to metaphysics, epistemology, semantics, ethics, aesthetics, and beyond, finding evidence for God in almost every dimension of reality. Those arguments new to natural theology are more fully developed, and well-known arguments are given new life. Not only does this collection present ground-breaking research, but it lays the foundations for research projects for years to come."--Back cover. (shrink)

The first student-friendly introduction to the philosophical issues surrounding torture. It is a timely and useful contribution to a highly topical and on-going debate.

Although St Thomas Aquinas famously claimed that his Summa Theologiae was written for 'beginners', contemporary readers find it unusually difficult. Now, amid a surge of interest in virtue ethics J. Budziszewski clarifies and analyzes the text's challenging arguments about the moral, intellectual, and spiritual virtues, with a spotlight on the virtue of justice. In what might be the first contemporary commentary on Aquinas's virtue ethics, he juxtaposes the original text with paraphrase and detailed discussion, guiding us through its complex arguments (...) and classical rhetorical figures. Keeping an eye on contemporary philosophical issues, he contextualizes one of the greatest virtue theorists in history and brings Aquinas into the interdisciplinary debates of today. His brisk and clear style illuminates the most crucial of Aquinas' writings on moral character and guides us through the labyrinth of this difficult but pivotal work. (shrink)

The practical problem of assuaging the opponents of animal research may be solved without formally addressing (or resolving) the underlying ethical questions of the debate. Specifically, a peaceful boycott of the "fruits" of animal research may lead to a wider cessation of such research, than, say, vocal or even violent protest. To assist those who might wish to participate in such a boycott- and, moreover, to critically inform them of the implications of their actions-1 offer a modest proposal: the use (...) of an "animal research advance directive", a form which enumerates precisely which "fruits of research" are declined. (shrink)

The present essay offers a sketch of a philosophy of value, what I shall here refer to as ‘ethical instrumentalism.’ My primary aim is to say just what this view involves and what its commitments are. In the course of doing so, I find it necessary to distinguish this view from another with which it shares a common basis and which, in reference to its most influential proponent, I refer to as ‘Humeanism.’ A second, more general, aim is to make (...) plausible the idea that, given the common basis, ethical instrumentalism provides a more compelling picture of the philosophy of value than Humeanism does. (shrink)

Scholars of the classical American philosophical tradition have not written much about prayer, despite the fact that almost every single one of the major figures of this tradition acknowledged its significance. The gap in the literature is notable in the case of George Santayana, who discusses prayer in several of his major works. And of all the classical American philosophers, Santayana may have the most fully developed treatment of prayer, particularly as it relates to the problem of petitionary prayer. Yet (...) his account of payer has not received much attention. This is surprising since, on the one hand, many of Santayana’s other views on religion and spirituality have been widely commented on, and, on the other hand, prayer has been a prominent topic in philosophy of religion in recent decades. And it makes sense for scholars of the classical American tradition nowadays to consider Santayana’s views about prayer, at the least because this tradition concerns itself with the problems of ordinary people, and to most Americans–and even to some atheist Americans–prayer seems to matter a great deal. Santayana’s treatment of prayer can be organized into two phases. First, he offers a twofold case against the common view that petitionary prayer is materially efficacious–that is, the view that petitionary prayer can do something to affect whether God brings about a desired state of affairs that would not have otherwise obtained had the request for it not been made. (shrink)

Some major leftist thinkers, including Alain Badiou, Slavoj Žižek and Terry Eagleton, have lately offered readings that claim the relevance of alternative interpretations of the Christian tradition in the face both of the conservative turn in the Catholic Church and of the contemporary secular oblivion of anything that has to do with religion. Furthermore, post-colonial studies have tended to blame the West en bloc for the disasters of past and present colonization, and have attacked the western endeavour to extend universal (...) truths as an ethnocentric device to facilitate and justify exploitation. In Holy Terror, Terry Eagleton both condemns western politics and questions its appeal to universals; but he also hears in this tradition a demand for a relationship with the other which offers an alternative to that established by current politics and capitalist exploitation. The other is the excluded, the oppressed, the exploited; the true material, rather than ideal, universal produced by global capitalist exploitation. As a consequence, anything that happens in any part of the planet belongs in our world and indicts us, though we tend to build barriers around an ideally safe and stable identity that ignores part of its own reality and that is therefore haunted by it. Texts like the Bacchae or the New Testament open the gates of the city and of the heart to the excluded. Terrorists — saints for their own communities and satanic for the rest — offer an example of the other that is impossible to comprehend within our conventional ways of life. Nevertheless, only if we hear in their violence a demand for justice can an exit be found from the vicious circle of violence and revenge. (shrink)

J. Arthur Baird is the author of several important books in New Testament studies, his best known perhaps being his Audience Criticism and the Historical Jesus. At his untimely death, he left a nearly complete manuscript, now published here. In this timely and relevant manuscript, Baird offers first a critical introduction to the historical paradigm, pointing out its limitations in terms of tracing the paradigm of New Testament formation. He then traces this development himself, beginning with the starting point of (...) the Holy Word and noting its development through the context, theological interpretation, and application, to its manifestation in the apostles, schools and fathers. He concludes with comments on its current implications. This book represents the last and lasting final thoughts of a scholar who was very much devoted to the importance of the Holy Word. (shrink)