An important Belgian avant-garde poet, Daive's investigations alternate between poetry, narration and reflective prose. In addition to translations of Daive's poetry, van Gerven Oei offers a lush presentation of Daive's poetry and its relationship to the production-analysis of signification.

In November 2018, the practice of health care ethics consultation crossed a major threshold when 138 candidates took the inaugural Healthcare Ethics Consultant Certification Examination. This accomplishment, long in the making, has had and continues to have both advocates and critics. The Healthcare Ethics Consultant Certification Commission, a functionally autonomous body created and funded by the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, was charged with overseeing creation of the certification process, developing the exam, and formulating certification standards and policies to (...) assess candidates’ qualifications. In this essay, as members of the commission, we describe the process of developing, administering, and scoring the certification examination as well as the historical context and the outlook for certification. By detailing the decisions and actions of the commission, we aim to provide a transparent account of the commission's efforts to develop a psychometrically sound, reliable, and secure examination through a deliberative, fair, and data‐driven process. (shrink)

We describe the ethics consultation service (ECS) at the Cleveland Clinic and report on its activities over a 24-month period in which 478 consultations were performed. To our knowledge, this is the largest case series of ethics consultations reported to date. Established more than 25 years ago, the ECS at the Cleveland Clinic is staffed by multiple consultants with advanced training in bioethics. Several of these ethicists work closely with specialized clinical units and research departments, where they participate in multidisciplinary (...) meetings and provide specialized assistance. This combination of historical experience, large numbers of consultation requests, and specialized clinical ethicists suggests that the experience at the Cleveland Clinic may be helpful to ethicists and others who may be considering how to structure and sustain a vibrant ECS. Our results highlight the diversity of activities performed by a high-volume ECS at a tertiary care facility. Our hope in sharing the inner workings of the ECS at the Cleveland Clinic is to promote dialogue on common practices and approaches across medical institutions that support ethics consultation. (shrink)

It is generally accepted that appropriate documentation of activities and recommendations of ethics consultants in patients’ medical records is critical. Despite this acceptance, the bioethics literature is largely devoid of guidance on key elements of an ethics chart note, the degree of specificity that it should contain, and its stylistic tenor. We aim to provide guidance for a variety of persons engaged in clinical ethics consultation: new and seasoned ethics committee members who are new to ethics consultation, students and trainees (...) in clinical ethics, and those who have significant experience with ethics consultation so that they can reflect on their practice. Toward the goal of promoting quality charting practices in ethics consultations, we propose recommendations on a broad array of questions concerning clinical ethics consultation chart notes, including whether and when to write a chart note, and practical considerations for the tenor, purpose, and content of a chart note. Our broader aim is to promote discussion about good charting practices in clinical ethics, with the hope of contributing to clear standards of excellence in clinical ethics consultation. (shrink)

The way metrologists conceive of measurement has undergone a major shift in the last two decades. This shift can in great part be traced to a change in the statistical methods used to deal with the expression of measurement results, and, more particularly, with the calculation of measurement uncertainties. Indeed, as we show, the incapacity of the frequentist approach to the calculus of uncertainty to deal with systematic errors has prompted the replacement of the customary frequentist methods by fully Bayesian (...) procedures. The epistemological ramifications of the Bayesian approach merge with a deep empiricist mood tantamount to an “epistemic turn”: measurement results are analysed in terms of degrees of belief, and central concepts such as error and accuracy are called into question. We challenge the perspective entailed by this epistemic turn: we insist on the centrality of the concepts of error and accuracy by underlining the intentional character of measurement that is intimately linked to the process of correction of experimental data. We further circumvent the difficulties posed by the classical analysis of measurement by stressing the social rather than the epistemic dimension of measurement activities. (shrink)

INTRODUCTION Adam Wodeham, OFM (d.) has received only passing mention in the textbooks on the history of medieval philosophy. Although recognized as a major ...

Against the background of changing assessments of Nominalism and its meanings before Ockham, this book examines the reception of Ockham's thought at Oxford and ...

Systems of units still fail to attract the philosophical attention they deserve, but this could change with the current reform of the International System of Units. Most of the SI base units will henceforth be based on certain laws of nature and a choice of fundamental constants whose values will be frozen. The theoretical, experimental and institutional work required to implement the reform highlights the entanglement of scientific, technological and social features in scientific enterprise, while it also invites a philosophical (...) inquiry that promises to overcome the tensions that have long obstructed science studies. (shrink)

The authors work in a variety of clinical ethics consultation services (CECSs) that employ a range of methods and approaches. This article discusses the approach to ethics consultation at the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine and describes the development and transformation of the authors’ CECSs. It discusses how one CECS shifted from a nascent program with only fifty consultations a year to a vibrant, heavily staffed service with five hundred ethics consultations a year.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The early history of Scotism has been extensively explored in books and articles and is a topic frequently recounted in histories of medieval scholastic thought. Although Scotus read the Sentences at Oxford and possibly Cambridge before being appointed to read the Sentences at Paris, it was at Paris that Scotism is said to have developed out of the teaching of Scotus who, except for an interruption of almost a (...) year, taught from 1302 to 1307, first as a bachelor of the Sentences and then as regent master in the faculty of theology.2 During his Parisian teaching career many students are said to have studied under him, among them Henry of Harclay, William of Alnwick, Aufredus Gonteri, “his most favorite student” John of Bassolis, “his most faithful disciple” Antonio Andreae, and Hugh of Novocastro, whose commentary on the Sentences is considered a major work of early Scotism. These students, most of whom became bachelors and masters, carried Scotus’s thought back to England, to Spain and Italy, and to other parts of France.While much of that picture is valid in its general outline, there are a number of problems with it, some because of misunderstandings about how mendicant education was structured in this period, and some because of unwarranted conclusions relating to individual biographies. In the following essay both these issues will be addressed, resulting in a different and, I hope, more nuanced picture of the emergence of early Scotism.I. Structural Considerations: Scotus in the Context of the Franciscan Educational SystemOne misconception common in the literature is that friars sent to Paris for study were enrolled as students in the faculty of theology and, if sufficiently capable, advanced in a continuous manner to become bachelors and later masters of theology. Such was not the case. By the opening years of the fourteenth century each of the mendicant convents in Paris had two distinct groups of friars simultaneously resident at the convent for educational purposes. One group, most of them probably in their twenties, was sent there for study in the lectorate program to prepare them to be lectors in the convents and studia of their home province. In the case of the Franciscans, each province could send two or three friars to Paris for advanced training in theology. These friars stayed usually for three years, were taught within the convent, and were not part of the university community or its faculties. They might number as many as a 100 depending on the period. The other group was more advanced and numbered less than ten. These were the friars designated by the order to read the Sentences at Paris, to participate as formed bachelors in the disputations and academic exercises of the faculty of theology, and if possible to be licensed and incept as doctors of theology.3Those chosen to return to Paris to read the Sentences, receive the license, and incept as a doctor of theology were in their thirties or older, and in most cases had a period of teaching and administrative duties behind them when they returned to Paris. Many, as was the case with Peter Auriol in the next decade, had already read the Sentences at a studium of the order or, as in the case of Scotus, at another studium generale before being sent to Paris to read for a second or a third time. And for those who did incept in theology, their regency lasted no more than a year or two.There are several implications that emerge from recognizing these two separate tracks or educational programs at the Franciscan convent of Cordeliers in Paris. One is that those chosen by the order to be bachelors at Paris and be presented for licensing and inception would most likely have been resident at the Paris convent at an earlier stage of their.. (shrink)

The philosophical significance attached to the construction of systems of units has traditionally been confined to the notion of convention, while their adoption was considered to be the exclusive province of the history and sociology of science. Against this tradition, a close articulation between history, philosophy, and sociology of science is needed in order to analyse the recent reform of the International system of units. In the new SI, units are redefined on the basis of certain fundamental constants of nature, (...) established by physical theories, whose values are fixed without uncertainty. The purpose of this article is to show that the redefinition of SI units, far from being a convention, involves a holistic reconstruction of our concepts of quantities from accepted theoretical laws. Fixing the values of the defining constants stabilizes these laws within the framework of physics through a twofold adjustment procedure that ensures both a semantic coordination between theory and world and an intersubjective coordination between human agents required by social activities. This double adjustment implies a treatment of uncertainties that results in closely entwining the pursuit of truth as correspondence and truth as coherence which turn out to be complementary, thus highlighting the anthropological underpinnings of scientific realism. (shrink)

While valuable work has been done addressing clinical ethics within established healthcare systems, we anticipate that the projected growth in acquisitions of community hospitals and facilities by large tertiary hospitals will impact the field of clinical ethics and the day-to-day responsibilities of clinical ethicists in ways that have yet to be explored. Toward the goal of providing clinical ethicists guidance on a range of issues that they may encounter in the systematization process, we discuss key considerations and potential challenges in (...) implementing system-wide ethics consultation services. Specifically, we identify four models for organizing, developing, and enhancing ethics consultation activities within a system created through acquisitions: train-the-trainer, local capacity-building, circuit-riding, and consolidated accountability. We note each model’s benefits and challenges. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to consider the broader landscape of issues affected by consolidation. We anticipate that clinical ethicists, volunteer consultants, and hospital administrators will benefit from our recommendations. (shrink)

This reexamination of documents purporting to show that Henry of Ghent served on a commission of 16 theologians that compiled the 219 articles condemned in 1277 produces a different picture. It shows that Henry did not serve on a special commission appointed by bishop Tempier but was present at a meeting of all masters, who condemned the articles. It also shows that Tempier did not bypass masters in the faculty of theology, but had them vote on the articles.

The confrontation between Philip the Fair and Boniface VIII has long been seen as a major turning point for the medieval papacy, for the rise of national monarchies, and for the political shaping of public opinion in late-medieval France. Philip's campaign to gain and display the support of the clergy, the nobility, and townspeople throughout the realm also generated a large body of documentation, much of which survives today. Although frequently explored and exploited during the last four centuries, the archival (...) record is not as straightforward as it appears. While recognizing it as part of a masterly propaganda campaign, one needs to look not simply at the shaping of opinion, but at the shaping of the written record—a case in which the silences, what is not recorded, are often as important as the voices on which our attention has been focused. But before turning to that issue, a brief review of events may be useful. (shrink)

Patients who enter the health care system for acute care may become “permanent” patients of the hospital when a lack of resources precludes discharge to the next level of post-acute care. The care of these patients contributes to the rising costs of health care and will remain largely unaffected by the Affordable Care Act. For example, some resources may be available for treatment of undocumented persons, but Medicaid enrollment is unavailable for this population. Even where patients have access to Medicaid, (...) it takes up to three months between applying for and actually receiving Medicaid benefits. During that time, patients may be ready for hospital discharge. However, post-acute care facilities have no financial incentive or legal obligation to accept patients with no insurance or only pending Medicaid coverage. (shrink)

While we know the year in which many bachelors of theology read the Sentences at Paris, we do not have equivalent information on bachelors of theology at Oxford. This note discusses the limitations of the principal source for Oxford, the Biographical Register of the University of Oxford, and illustrates the importance of consulting the manuscript sources, especially both series of registers of common letters in the Vatican Archives.