Despite the frequency of stillbirths, the subsequent implications are overlooked and underappreciated. We present findings from comprehensive, systematic literature reviews, and new analyses of published and unpublished data, to establish the effect of stillbirth on parents, families, health-care providers, and societies worldwide. Data for direct costs of this event are sparse but suggest that a stillbirth needs more resources than a livebirth, both in the perinatal period and in additional surveillance during subsequent pregnancies. Indirect and intangible costs of stillbirth are (...) extensive and are usually met by families alone. This issue is particularly onerous for those with few resources. Negative effects, particularly on parental mental health, might be moderated by empathic attitudes of care providers and tailored interventions. The value of the baby, as well as the associated costs for parents, families, care providers, communities, and society, should be considered to prevent stillbirths and reduce associated morbidity. (shrink)

The contention that medical artificial intelligence (AI) should be ‘explainable’ is widespread in contemporary philosophy and in legal and best practice documents. Yet critics argue that ‘explainability’ is not a stable concept; non-explainable AI is often more accurate; mechanisms intended to improve explainability do not improve understanding and introduce new epistemic concerns; and explainability requirements are ad hoc where human medical decision-making is often opaque. A recent ‘political response’ to these issues contends that AI used in high-stakes scenarios, including medical (...) AI, must be explainable to meet basic standards of legitimacy: People are owed reasons for decisions that impact their vital interests, and this requires explainable AI. This article demonstrates why the political response fails. Attending to systemic considerations, as its proponents desire, suggests that the political response is subject to the same criticisms as other arguments for explainable AI and presents new issues. It also suggests that decision-making about non-explainable medical AI can meet public reason standards. The most plausible version of the response amounts to a simple claim that public reason demands reasons why AI is permitted. But that does not actually support explainable AI or respond to criticisms of strong requirements for explainable medical AI. (shrink)

Although the doctrine of divine simplicity has faced substantial criticism in recent years, Jeffrey Brower has recently offered a novel defense of the view by appealing to contemporary truthmaker theory. In this paper, I will argue that Brower’s defense of divine simplicity requires an implausible account of how truthmaking works for essential intrinsic predications. I will first argue that, unless Brower is willing to make an ad hoc exception for how truthmaking works in God’s case, he is committed to saying (...) that essential intrinsic predications about any object are made true by that object alone, not by its having essential properties. I will then argue that reflecting on cases where distinct essential intrinsic predications about an object have different causal explanations behind them shows that this general view of truthmaking is implausible. (shrink)

RESUMO: A relação entre arte e filosofia é examinada com base na noção de Stimmung, que surge no século XVIII, na teoria musical, como relação de proporção entre tons ou instrumentos, sendo, em seguida, transposta para a estética, no final do século, com Kant e Fichte. Em Kant, a Stimmung refere-se à disposição das faculdades de conhecimento para um conhecimento em geral, isto é, como o pressuposto da apresentação estética, por meio da qual se preserva a noção de proporção entre (...) as faculdades. Em Sobre o espírito e a letra na filosofia, Fichte assinala que a disposição estética é o modo de atuar do impulso estético, ligado livremente e diretamente à faculdade da imaginação e à atividade de criação. Essa tradição estética é revista pelo historiador Aloïs Riegl, em 1899, no ensaio intitulado Die Stimmung als Inhalt der moderne Kunst, no qual o conceito de Stimmung é pela primeira vez apresentado em chave histórica, enquanto conteúdo da arte moderna, no sentido de atmosfera, isto é, da vivência de uma relação por meio da qual a consciência, em conformidade com a lei imanente, adquire alguma certeza. Revisão semelhante foi realizada pelo jovem filósofo György Lukács, em A alma e as formas, de 1910, na qual o autor pensa as diferenças de sentido entre as noções de Stimmung e de atmosfera. ABSTRACT: The relationship between art and philosophy is examined based on the notion of Stimmung, which appears in eighteenth-century music theory as a proportional relationship between tones or instruments; it was then incorporated into aesthetics at the end of the century in the works of Kant and Fichte. In Kant's works, Stimmung refers to the capacity of the faculties of knowledge for knowledge in general, that is, as a presupposition of aesthetic presentation through which the notion of proportion between the faculties is preserved. In his On the Spirit and the Letter in Philosophy, Fichte points out that the aesthetic disposition is the mode by which the aesthetic impulse acts out, connected freely and directly to the faculty of imagination and to the activity of creation. This aesthetic tradition is revisited by the historian Alois Riegl in 1899 in the essay Die Stimmung als Inhalt der moderne Kunst, where the concept of Stimmung is first presented from historical perspective as content of modern art in the sense of atmosphere, i.e., the experience of a relationship by which awareness, in accordance with immanent law, acquires certainty. A similar review was done by the young philosopher György Lukács in 1910 in Soul and Form, where the author conceptualizes the differences in meaning between the notions of Stimmung and Atmosphäre. (shrink)

A principal hipótese deste trabalho é a de que Sócrates, na Apologia de Platão, utiliza determinados jogos de palavras como uma específica ferramenta retórica. O intuito disso parece ser convencer o leitor de uma prevalência da verdade no conjunto do discurso socrático. Para tanto, busca-se contrabalancear um jogo entre os termos discurso (logon 18b, 19b, 20e, 23d, 27c 28b, 31b, 34b; logos 20c, 26b, 34e; logou 23b; logoi 28c, 32d, 34a, 40b), verdade (aletheian, 17b, 20d, 33c; aletheiai 23b, 28d, 36d; (...) aletheias 29e, 39b) e falsidade ou mentira (epseusanto 17a; pseude 18a; pseudei 26a; pseudetai 20e, 21b; pseudomenoi 34b; pseudos 34e). Nesse sentido, a proposta é apresentar como o discurso de defesa expõe, por meio desses termos, um sentido de hermenêutica socrática, como uma forma peculiar de interpretar oráculos e enigmas. Como obra dramática, a Apologia promove com essa encenação de Sócrates diante do tribunal um efeito retórico claro, pois o foco do discurso não é o júri, mas o leitor. Portanto, é necessário, no plano do discurso de defesa, que Sócrates utilize os recursos de linguagem que o mostrem ao leitor como distinto dos seus acusadores, que “muitas mentiras disseram” (ton pollon hon epseusanto). Palavras-chave: Sócrates; Hermenêutica; Verdade; Discurso. Speech, Truth and Enigma in the Apology Abstract: The main hypothesis of this work is that Socrates, in Plato's Apology, uses certain wordplays as a specific rhetorical tool. The purpose of this seems to be to convince the reader of the prevalence of truth in the whole of Socratic discourse. Therefore, we seek to counterbalance a game between the terms discourse (logon 18b, 19b, 20e, 23d, 27c 28b, 31b, 34b; logos 20c, 26b, 34e; logou 23b; logoi 28c, 32d, 34a, 40b), truth (aletheian, 17b, 20d, 33c; aletheiai 23b, 28d, 36d; aletheias 29e, 39b) and falsehood or lie (epseusanto 17a; pseude 18a; pseudei 26a; pseudetai 20e, 21b; pseudomenoi 34b; pseudos 34e). In this sense, the proposal is to present how the defense discourse exposes, through these terms, a sense of Socratic hermeneutics, as a peculiar way of interpreting oracles and enigmas. As a dramatic work, the Apology promotes with this staging of Socrates in front of the court a clear rhetorical effect, since the focus of the discourse is not the jury, but the reader. Therefore, it is necessary, at the level of the defense discourse, that Socrates uses the language resources that show him to the reader as distinct from his accusers, who “told many lies” (ton pollon hon epseusanto). Key-words: Socrates; Hermeneutics; Truth; Discourse. Discurso, verdad y enigma en la Apología Resumen: La principal hipótesis de este trabajo es que Sócrates, en la Apología de Platón, utiliza ciertos juegos de palabras como herramienta retórica específica. El propósito de esto parece ser convencer al lector del predominio de la verdad en todo el discurso socrático. Por lo tanto, buscamos contrapesar un juego entre los términos discurso (logon 18b, 19b, 20e, 23d, 27c 28b, 31b, 34b; logos 20c, 26b, 34e; logou 23b; logoi 28c, 32d, 34a, 40b), verdad (aletheian, 17b, 20d, 33c; aletheiai 23b, 28d, 36d; aletheias 29e, 39b) y falsedad o mentira (epseusanto 17a; pseude 18a; pseudei 26a; pseudetai 20e, 21b; pseudomenoi 34b; pseudos 34e). En ese sentido, la propuesta es presentar cómo el discurso de la defensa expone, a través de estos términos, un sentido de la hermenéutica socrática, como una forma peculiar de interpretar los oráculos y los enigmas. Como obra dramatica, la Apología promueve con esta puesta en escena de Sócrates frente a la corte un claro efecto retórico, ya que el centro del discurso no es el jurado, sino el lector. Por tanto, es necesario, a nivel del discurso de defensa, que Sócrates utilice los recursos lingüísticos que lo muestren al lector como distinto de sus acusadores, quienes “dijeron muchas mentiras” (ton pollon hon epseusanto). Palabras-clave: Sócrates; Hermenéutica; Verdad; Discurso. Data de registro: 02/08/2023 Data de aceite: 24/01/2024. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Amartya Sen’s capability approach is often used in disability research as a normative framework for describing and evaluating the well-being of people with disabilities. Nevertheless, recently, the possibility of going beyond description to the use of the capability approach as an explanatory tool has been raised. However, to allow the use of the capability approach in this way requires grounding it in an appropriate research paradigm. In this paper, critical realism is adopted for this purpose. It is argued that (...) critical realism can provide the ontology needed to justify finding explanations for the way that people with disabilities achieve their valued capabilities. The assumption here is that there are real, emergent structures and mechanisms that underlie empirical capabilities; and that these structures and mechanisms are related to people’s agency, as described by critical realism’s conception of the relationship between structure and agency. (shrink)

Objective of the study: To analyze the costs and profits of sugarcane production regarding the cultural practices of sugarcane suppliers. Methodology/approach: This study positions itself in this gap by comparatively analyzing 6 types of cultural practices: unraveling, windrowing, application of correctives, herbicides, insecticides and fertilizers, with the option of two systems Fixed rate (TF) and Variable rate (TV). Originality/Relevance: Brazil is a world reference in sugarcane production, with the State of São Paulo being the largest Brazilian producer. However, for sugarcane (...) suppliers to maintain this activity there is a need to reduce production costs and increase profitability/ha. However, there is a theoretical-practical gap in the financial assessment (costs and profits) of different cultural practices inherent to sugarcane production. Main results: The results demonstrated that the costs of cultural practices represent more than 30% of the total sugarcane production costs. The TF system proved to be more cost-efficient in the following operations: correctives, herbicides and insecticides. In the application of fertilizers, the TV system, in broadcast mode, had the best result. Finally, the profit/ton was R$1.70, demonstrating a very low profit margin/ha given the risk of the activity. Theoretical/methodological contributions: The sample for this research comprised 55 sugarcane suppliers from the State of São Paulo, whose data were obtained through a survey. The comparative analysis was based on the difference in costs of cultural practices and the estimation of the level of certainty (profit/costs), analyzed through the cumulative frequency carried out through the Monte Carlo Simulation (SMC). (shrink)

The resource-based model of self-regulation provides a pessimistic view of self-regulation that people are destined to lose their self-control after having engaged in any act of self-regulation because these acts deplete the limited resource that people need for successful self-regulation. The cognitive control theory, however, offers an alternative explanation and suggests that the depletion effect reflects switch costs between different cognitive control processes recruited to deal with demanding tasks. This account implies that the depletion effect will not occur once people (...) have had the opportunity to adapt to the self-regulatory task initially engaged in. Consistent with this idea, the present study showed that engaging in a demanding task led to performance deficits on a subsequent self-regulatory task only when the initial demanding task was relatively short but not when it was long enough for participants to adapt. Our results were unrelated to self-efficacy, mood, and motivation. (shrink)

Though there are many factors that contribute to the perceived legitimacy of business ethics education, this research focuses on one factor that is given great attention both formally and informally in many business schools: student satisfaction with the course. To understand the nature of student satisfaction, the authors draw from multiple theories with central claims relating expectations with satisfaction. The authors then compare student expectations of business ethics courses with instructor objectives and discover that business ethics courses are not necessarily (...) designed to meet student expectations. The authors speculate that this general mismatch between student expectations and instructor objectives has material consequences. As one example, the authors analyze student evaluations from three business schools and identify a “business ethics course effect”: a negative association between business ethics courses and student evaluations. The authors discuss the implications for business ethics education of a situation where pedagogical objectives and market prescriptions point in different directions. (shrink)

We argue that the main results of scientific papers may appropriately be published even if they are false, unjustified, and not believed to be true or justified by their author. To defend this claim we draw upon the literature studying the norms of assertion, and consider how they would apply if one attempted to hold claims made in scientific papers to their strictures, as assertions and discovery claims in scientific papers seem naturally analogous. We first use a case study of (...) William H. Bragg’s early 20th century work in physics to demonstrate that successful science has in fact violated these norms. We then argue that features of the social epistemic arrangement of science which are necessary for its long run success require that we do not hold claims of scientific results to their standards. We end by making a suggestion about the norms that it would be appropriate to hold scientific claims to, along with an explanation of why the social epistemology of science—considered as an instance of collective inquiry—would require such apparently lax norms for claims to be put forward. (shrink)

Natural language processing techniques contribute more and more in analyzing legal documents recently, which supports the implementation of laws and rules using computers. Previous approaches in representing a legal sentence often based on logical patterns that illustrate the relations between concepts in the sentence, often consist of multiple words. Those representations cause the lack of semantic information at the word level. In our work, we aim to tackle such shortcomings by representing legal texts in the form of abstract meaning representation, (...) a graph-based semantic representation that gains lots of polarity in NLP community recently. We present our study in AMR Parsing and AMR-to-text Generation specifically for legal domain. We also introduce JCivilCode, a human-annotated legal AMR dataset which was created and verified by a group of linguistic and legal experts. We conduct an empirical evaluation of various approaches in parsing and generating AMR on our own dataset and show the current challenges. Based on our observation, we propose our domain adaptation method applying in the training phase and decoding phase of a neural AMR-to-text generation model. Our method improves the quality of text generated from AMR graph compared to the baseline model. 2018; and “Legal Text Generation fromMeaning Representation”, published in the 32nd International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems 2019.). (shrink)

Graphical AbstractRecent evidence indicates that branched actin might control cell progression through G1 in addition to lamellipodium protrusion.

Nazi evil makes the people of Eichmann, this is the whole context of the banality of evil. The destruction of Nazi evil is so unprecedented that it forms a whole new evil- Radical evil. Radical evil is not the change in the degree of evil, but the lack of traditional cognition or conception that suits it. Compared with the traditional evil, Radical evil cancels the concept of man itself. The banality of evil does not oppose Radical evil is a new (...) evil, does not deny its destruction, it criticizes the understanding of this evil as the devil. Replacing Radical evil with Extreme evil highlights the feature of no thinking of this evil. The banality of evil goes against words and thought, and it cannot be understood in the way of exploring the roots. The banality of evil is about thinking rather than knowing, aiming to seek meaning rather than knowledge. Thinking is a political activity, which does not directly bring knowledge and directly guide behavior, but generates independent judgment, thus helping to deal with evil. (shrink)

Despite receiving a great deal of research attention, the effect of corporate philanthropy on shareholder value remains inconclusive. To address this issue, the present paper examines emotionality as an important factor based on which investors infer about the firm’s motive as well as the beneficiary’s worthiness and react accordingly. Consistent with attribution theory, our event study shows that announcements with more emotional expressions are associated with higher cumulative abnormal stock returns and the effect is stronger when investor attention is greater. (...) We further find that the positive interaction effect between emotionality and investor attention is more pronounced for scandal-free firms than for firms with corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). The empirical evidence remains consistent under various robustness tests. The paper concludes with implications for future research and managerial practices. (shrink)

I argue that collaborators do not need to reach broad agreement over the justification of a consensus claim. This is because maintaining a diversity of justifiers within a scientific collaboration has important epistemic value. I develop a view of collective justification that depends on the diversity of epistemic perspectives present in a group. I argue that a group can be collectively justified in asserting that P as long as the disagreement among collaborators over the reasons for P is itself justified. (...) In conclusion, I make a case for multimethod collaborative research and work through an example in the social sciences. (shrink)

Miracle narratives are an essential part of nearly all religious traditions. The importance of miracles also applies to Christianity. The Gospels record thirty-five miracles that Jesus is said to have performed, including twenty-three miraculous healings and nine nature miracles (for example, stilling a storm and turning water into wine). At the heart of Christian faith lies the story of Jesus' resurrection from the dead. However, the factuality of these events has been increasingly problematised, especially since the period of the Enlightenment. (...) In this study, it is argued that the current debate between science-oriented critics of miracles and their religious opponents focuses predominantly on the question of factuality and evidence at the loss of the religious meaning of miracles. The suggestion that science and religion would be opposite approaches is denied in a proposal of a balanced hermeneutical approach of miracles that does justice to scientific findings, religious texts and experience. (shrink)

Informal caregivers provide care to their family or friends in case of an illness, disability, or frailty. The caregiving situation of informal caregivers may vary based on the relationship they have with the care recipient, e.g., being a spouse or being an adult child. It might be that these different ICGs also have different needs. This study aims to explore and compare the needs of different groups of ICGs based on the relationship they have with their CR. We conducted a (...) systematic review, performing a search in the databases PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. We included studies with qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-method study designs. We analyzed the data using the thematic analysis method. We included 22 articles. The included articles reported the needs of ICGs taking care of a spouse, parent, or sibling aged 18 years or above. We did not include other relationships due to the limited number of articles on these relationships. The most prominent needs reported by the spousal, adult child, and adult sibling ICGs were the need for information and need for support. The three groups differed in their needs as well. Adult child and adult sibling ICGs indicated a need to be acknowledged by the people around them for their role of carer, while they also needed to be seen as an individual having their own personal needs. Moreover, spousal ICGs indicated a unique need of redefining their role and relationship with their CR. Overall, the findings indicate that along with experiencing common needs, the investigated groups have unique needs as well. Knowing the needs of different groups of ICGs can help develop tailored solutions to improve the quality of life of the ICGs and their CR.Systematic Review Registration: [www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/], identifier [CRD42020188560]. (shrink)

In this chapter, we aimed at further characterizing the functional neuroanatomy of the human rapid eye movement (REM) sleep at the population level. We carried out a meta-analysis of a large dataset of positron emission tomography (PET) scans acquired during wakefulness, slow wave sleep and REM sleep, and focused especially on the brain areas in which the activity diminishes during REM sleep. Results show that quiescent regions are confined to the inferior and middle frontal cortex and to the inferior parietal (...) lobule. Providing a plausible explanation for some of the features of dream reports, these findings may help in refining the concepts, which try to account for human cognition during REM sleep. In particular, we discuss the significance of these results to explain the alteration in executive processes, episodic memory retrieval and self representation during REM sleep dreaming as well as the incorporation of external stimuli into the dream narrative. (shrink)

Social rights were to be the completion of the citizenship status of all members within a political community. Through a variety of causes the development of these rights has been arrested. The article sketches some of the origins of the present predicament of rights and citizenship. The article is informed by the hope that the arguments it puts forward may contribute to a renewed discussion on the necessity and promises of an EU form of citizenship that is worth instituting and (...) emulating. (shrink)

For further development of organic agriculture, it will become increasingly essential to integrate experienced innovative practitioners in research projects. The characteristics of this process of co-learning have been transformed into a research approach, theoretically conceptualized as “experiential science” (Baars 2007 , Baars and Baars 2007 ). The approach integrates social sciences, natural sciences, and human sciences. It is derived from action research and belongs to the wider field of transdiscliplinary research. In a dialogue-based culture of equality and mutual exchange the (...) principal of a “bottom-up” experiential learning process can be stimulated and fully reflective. It provides an opportunity to develop organic agriculture as multiple best-practices based on transdisciplinary projects, cases studies, and case series. The aim of the article is to describe the methodological characteristics and the theoretical and practical potential of experiential science for research in and development of organic farming. Three characteristic projects are outlined to illustrate the main elements of the methodology: the retrospective reflection on intuitive and experiential knowledge held by farmers; the knowledge derived from on-farm experimentation; the exchange of knowledge and experiences between farming pioneers within a “masterclass” setting. The study concludes that experiential science offers an important philosophical reconciliation process whereby a synthesis of different approaches to research becomes possible in solving real-life problems: quantitative and qualitative, subjective and objective, reductionistic and holistic, practice and science. Recognizing that there are multiple elements contributing to the process of acquiring knowledge, experiential science draws on a broad field of scientific methods thereby integrating the hermeneutic approach of social sciences and the Humanities with the established methods of contemporary natural science. (shrink)

The book explores two radical changes of cultural and social paradigm that determined the World after 1945 - Modernism and Postmodernism. From the cataclysmic atmosphere emerged the second wave of Modernism. In art this attitude was manifested in the form of a radical break with the aesthetic and stylistic characteristics of prior generations. In architecture the International Style was born, meanwhile similar "universality" was also a characteristic of musical serialism. From the beginning of the 1970s the wheels again began to (...) turn in the other direction. The powerful destructive will of modernism increasingly waivered, and the period after modernism - postmodernism - began. The book answers questions related to the reasons for these turnarounds, their consequences and their implications. (shrink)

Why would eligible people decline an offer of welfare services? In regard to this question and in the context of changes in the welfare state, this paper discusses the shift 'from entitlements to provisions'. After sketching the size of non-take-up and the social composition of those declining the offer of services, some tentative reasons or motives for non-take-up are presented. The discussion is derived from various approaches including the capability approach, Dahrendorf's approach of the “modern social conflict”, and social quality (...) theory. These approaches are placed in the perspective of the “person,” as in the group/grid scheme developed by anthropologist Mary Douglas. The paper concludes that, in order to understand the phenomenon of non-take-up, a differentiated conception of the person, for which SQT is a prime inspiration, is a condition sine qua non. (shrink)

Logicians treat assertions as true, believed or merely hypothesized sentences. The reasoner who uses them, however, is the sole referee who can validate their truth, their aptness to describe an actual situation, their strength (as beliefs) or the relevance of their use in the current logical context. Moreover, the reasoner actively counts on these factors, as part of the reasoning process itself, and should normally be capable, when asked to do so, to assign consistently relative strengths to the assertions used. (...) The paper assumes, first, that assertions have -each- an associated, measurable strength, and that, second, this strength has significant -and measurable- effects on the truth of the sentences, the validity of the conclusion and the soundness of the reasoning. The concepts and formulas required for this are explored, and a semantics and proof theory for a sentential calculus of assertions are proposed as a natural extension of ordinary two-valued reasoning. The resulting theory, though reminiscent of Probability,is autonomous, self-contained and of a purely logical nature. (shrink)

Dream is a state of consciousness characterized by internally-generated sensory, cognitive and emotional experiences occurring during sleep. Dream reports tend to be particularly abundant, with complex, emotional, and perceptually vivid experiences after awakenings from rapid eye movement sleep. This is why our current knowledge of the cerebral correlates of dreaming, mainly derives from studies of REM sleep. Neuroimaging results show that REM sleep is characterized by a specific pattern of regional brain activity. We demonstrate that this heterogeneous distribution of brain (...) activity during sleep explains many typical features in dreams. Reciprocally, specific dream characteristics suggest the activation of selective brain regions during sleep. Such an integration of neuroimaging data of human sleep, mental imagery, and the content of dreams is critical for current models of dreaming; it also provides neurobiological support for an implication of sleep and dreaming in some important functions such as emotional regulation. (shrink)

This paper addresses the problem of judgment aggregation in science. How should scientists decide which propositions to assert in a collaborative document? We distinguish the question of what to write in a collaborative document from the question of collective belief. We argue that recent objections to the application of the formal literature on judgment aggregation to the problem of judgment aggregation in science apply to the latter, not the former question. The formal literature has introduced various desiderata for an aggregation (...) procedure. Proposition-wise majority voting emerges as a procedure that satisfies all desiderata which represent norms of science. An interesting consequence is that not all collaborating scientists need to endorse every proposition asserted in a collaborative document. (shrink)

My main purpose in this article is to establish the meaning of a ‘good death’ when death is self-chosen. I will take as my point of departure the new notion of ‘self-euthanasia’ and the corresponding practice that has evolved in the Netherlands in recent years. Both physician-euthanasia and self-euthanasia refer to an ideal process of a good death, the first being ultimately the physician's responsibility, while the second is definitely the responsibility of the individual choosing to die. However, if we (...) also accept the existence of a fundamental moral difference between ending another person's life and ending your own life, and if we accept this moral difference to be also relevant to the normatively laden good death, then this difference represents a strong reason for preferring self-euthanasia to physician-euthanasia. (shrink)

The article is focused on the profession of faith and the oath of fidelity, as has been formulated in 1989 by the Congregation of Faith. Catholic clergy as well as Catholic theologians are obliged to profess the Catholic faith and to take the oath before assuming an ecclesiastical office or function. The analyses and reflections are from the point of view of canon law. A retro prospective view makes clear that the profession and oath belong to the disciplinary tradition of (...) the Church. The Council of Trent offered the first more or less systematic regulation. The profession and the oath intend to guarantee that ecclesiastical ministers and Catholic theologians are in full communion with the Catholic Church. The three additional paragraphs of the profession and the text of the oath are condensed formulations of canons of the Code of Canon Law. In that way the profession and the oath are indirectly a part of the disciplinary corps of the Code. Their canonical disciplinairy significance has been investigated. The article ends with some general conclusions and considerations. (shrink)

Before she became a Buddhist nun in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, Sister Dang Nghiem was a doctor. Born during the Tet Offensive and part of the amnesty for Amerasian children of the late 1970s, Dang Nghiem arrived in this country virtually penniless and with no home. She lived with three foster families, graduated high school with honors, earned two undergraduate degrees, and became a doctor. When the man she thought she'd spend her life with suddenly drowned, Sister Dang (...) Nghiem left medicine and joined the monastic community of Thich Nhat Hanh. It is from this vantage point that Dang Nghiem writes about her journey of healing. Devastated by the diagnosis and symptoms of Lyme Disease, she realized that she was also reliving many of the unresolved traumas from earlier in her life. She applied both her medical knowledge and her advanced understanding and practice of mindfulness to healing. Through meditation she finally came to understand what it means to "master" suffering. In Mindfulness as Medicine Sister Dang Nghiem leads readers through her profound journey of healing and shares step-by-step directions for the techniques she used to transform her suffering. (shrink)

In his early work, the philosopher Stanley Cavell offers a sustained engagement with the threat of epistemological scepticism, shaped by the intuition that although (as the late Wittgenstein shows) ordinary language use is the practice within which alone meaning is possible (and which can thus not be further analysed or rationalised), it is also a basic human inclination to wish to escape the limitations of the ‘ordinary’. This, for Cavell, is the root of scepticism. Scepticism, on this view, thus appears (...) not primarily as an epistemological but as an (injurious) moral stance, which cannot be refuted but must be continually confronted and overcome. Vis-à-vis scepticism, ‘acknowledgement’ is the practice-based recognition of the world and other people in their continuing elusiveness, which ineluctably involves risk, but just so is the only way of knowing that is appropriate to and honours the (finite) human condition. One problematic aspect of this (very fertile) approach is that Cavell’s secular viewpoint makes it difficult for him to say both why the desire for a ‘beyond’ arises in the first place, and why its expression as denial is morally wrong (rather than merely misguided). His approach thus invites a theological ‘supplementation’ which grounds the human condition in an original and real relation to God that is meant to draw the believer, through Christ, into the divine life itself. Such a reinterpretation both elucidates the concepts of scepticism and acknowledgement, and makes these concepts available for a theological outlook that is able to accommodate Cavell’s profound insights into ‘the human’. (shrink)

In the recruitment process, manually selecting suitable candidates from curriculum vitae (CVs) for a job description (JD) is both time-consuming and expensive. Traditional keyword-based methods struggle to capture skill semantics, prompting the development of more advanced JD-CV matching systems. This paper aims to investigate and construct an ontology-based skills recommendation system, with objectives including creating a skills ontology and developing skills matching methods for JD-CV pairs. The objective of our approach is to enhance the accuracy and contextual relevance of recommendations (...) by utilizing the proposed score. The proposed skills ontology and skills matching strategies are applied to a real dataset in Vietnam. The results of our study can automatically recommend a list of CVs for a given JD. Furthermore, the findings indicate that our proposed model surpasses comparative approaches by a margin of at least 1% to 5%. Overall, the study demonstrates the potential of utilizing ontology-based approaches to offer a practical solution for enhancing hiring practices. (shrink)

In this paper a corporate social responsibility audit is developed following the underlying methodology of the quality award/excellence models. Firstly the extent to which the quality awards already incorporate the development of social responsibility is examined by looking at the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the European Quality Award. It will be shown that the quality awards do not yet include ethical aspects in relation to social responsibility. Both a clear definition of social responsibility and an improved audit instrument (...) are required. A definition and an audit instrument are developed which stimulate movement in that direction and help organisations to reflect on their position in relation to social responsibility. (shrink)

The article is about the freedom in Rousseau splitting of two basic ideas. The first is that the freedom existed markedly in the natural man and the second is this man came to lose it along his history, when by far historical processes constituted in society. The text proposes a discussion – from the reading of two works of Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men and The Social Contract – of the possibility of a return (...) to freedom in civil society, where perceives the opportunity of this rescue. For Rousseau, the man in the state of nature lived happy and in peace, whereas in the state of society there is a predominance of the inequality between the men: the moral inequality. The social pact is guarantee of the life in society and of the convergence of interests of his members. A pact by the freedom of the individual and by the democratic society. (shrink)

Ever since Aristotle proposed the definition of truth, people have not stopped discerning the concept of truth. Different from the traditional correspondence theory of truth, the modern understanding of the concept of truth emphasizes the role of justification. In the context of pragmatism, Bernstein agrees with the role of justification in understanding truth and appreciates Rorty’s cautionary usage of truth to advance the work of understanding truth, but at the same time, proposes that the concept of truth contains the dimension (...) of normative power, and it is this dimension that allows truth to avoid both metaphysical accusations and relativist reproaches while retaining the positive meaning of justification. From the correspondence theory of truth to the regulative ideal, to the cautionary usage, and finally, to the normative power, people continue to deepen their understanding of the concept of truth by means of criticism of criticism. (shrink)

Caregiving dyads work as an interdependent emotional system, whereby it is assumed that what happens to one member of the dyad essentially happens to the other. For example, both members of the dyad are involved in care giving and care receiving experiences and therefore major life events, such as a serious illness affect the dyad and not only the individual. Consequently, informal caregiving may be considered an example of dyadic interdependence, which is “the process by which interacting people influence one (...) another’s experience.” This systematic review aimed to synthesize studies of dyadic interdependence, specifically in non-spousal caregiving dyads. Electronic databases were systematically searched for dyadic studies reporting on interdependence in the emotional and relational wellbeing of non-spousal caregiving dyads. A total of 239 full-text studies were reviewed, of which 14 quantitative and qualitative studies met the inclusion criteria with a majority of dyads consisting of adult daughters caring for their older mothers. A narrative synthesis suggested mutual influences between non-spousal caregiving dyad members based on: associations between intrapersonal and interpersonal variables and emotional and relational wellbeing of the dyad; associations between care context variables and emotional and relational wellbeing of the dyad; and patterns of covariation between caregivers’ and care recipients’ wellbeing. Evidence supporting dyadic interdependence among non-spousal caregiving dyads shed light on the ways dyad members influence each other’s wellbeing while providing and receiving care. Future studies investigating mutual influences in dyads, should differentiate subsamples of caregivers based on relationship type, and adopt dyadic and longitudinal designs.Systematic Review Registration[https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/#recordDetails], identifier [CRD42021213147]. (shrink)

This paper examines the vital role played by electron microscopy toward the modern definition of viruses, as formulated in the late 1950s. Before the 1930s viruses could neither be visualized by available technologies nor grown in artificial media. As such they were usually identified by their ability to cause diseases in their hosts and defined in such negative terms as “ultramicroscopic” or invisible infectious agents that could not be cultivated outside living cells. The invention of the electron microscope, with magnification (...) and resolution powers several orders of magnitude better than that of optical instruments, opened up possibilities for biological applications. The hitherto invisible viruses lent themselves especially well to investigation with this new instrument. We first offer a historical consideration of the development of the instrument and, more significantly, advances in techniques for preparing and observing specimens that turned the electron microscope into a routine biological tool. We then describe the ways in which the electron microscopic images, or micrographs, functioned as forms of new knowledge about viruses and resulted in a paradigm shift in the very definition of these entities. Micrographs were not mere illustrations since they did the work for the electron microscopists. Drawing extensively on primary publications, we adduce the role of the new instrument in understanding the so-called eclipse phase in virus multiplication and the unexpected spinoffs of data from electron microscopy in naming and classifying viruses. Thus, we show that electron microscopy functioned not only to provide evidence, but also arguments in facilitating a reordering of the world that it brought into the visual realm. (shrink)

Resumo: Tomando o pensamento lukacsiano, podemos afirmar que as distorções que se apresentam no trabalho refletem diretamente nos atos reprodutivos do homem, na sua sociabilidade. Portanto, todas as categorias da superestrutura ficam comprometidas, inclusive a educação, visto que o espelhamento da realidade estará fundamentado na exploração promovida pelo capital. Partindo dessas considerações o presente artigo objetiva mostrar como o duplo aspecto da reprodução também se reflete na educação. Para tanto tomamos o pensamento do filósofo György Lukács, a partir da sua (...) obra Ontologia do Ser Social, demonstrando ainda que essa dupla face pode ser relacionada à tematização de Saviani em relação às Teorias Não-Críticas, Teorias Crítico-Reprodutivistas e à Pedagogia Histórico-Crítica. Em nossas conclusões afirmamos que a educação no sentido omnilateral, correspondente à face positiva da reprodução, sendo uma das alternativas viáveis para a mudança do estado atual de coisas. Palavras-chave: Trabalho; Reprodução; Educação. The double aspect of reproduction and its influence on education: Taking lukacsian thought, we can say that the distortions that appear at work reflect directly on the reproductive acts of man, on his sociability. Therefore, all categories of the superstructure are compromised, including the education, since the mirroring of reality will be based on the exploration promoted by capital. From these considerations the present article aims to show how the double aspect of reproduction is also reflected in education. For this we take the thought of the philosopher György Lukács, from his work Ontology of the Social Being, further demonstrating that this double face can be related to Saviani's thematization in relation to Non-Critical Theories, Critical-Reproductive Theories and Pedagogy Historical-Criticism. In our conclusions we affirm state that education in the omnilateral sense, corresponding to the positive face of reproduction, is one of the viable alternatives for changing the current state of things. Key-words: Work; Reproduction; Education. Le double aspect de la reproduction et son influence en education Résumé: Selon la pensée lukacsienne, nous pouvons affirmer que les distorsions existantes dans le travail influent directement sur les actes de reproduction de l’homme, sur sa sociabilité. Par conséquent, toutes les catégories de la superstructure sont compromises, notamment l’éducation, puisque le reflet de la réalité sera fondé sur l’exploitation promue par le capital. A partir de ces considérations, le présent article cherche à montrer comment le double aspect de la reproduction se reflète également en éducation. Pour ce faire, nous nous référons à la pensée du philosophe György Lukács, dans son œuvre L’ontologie de l’être social, en démontrant de même que cette double face peut être mise en relation avec la conceptualisation de Saviani, à propos des Théories non critiques, des Théories reproductivistes critiques et de sa Pédagogie historique-critique. Nous affirmons, pour conclure, que l’éducation en un sens omnilatéral correspond à la face positive de la reproduction, ce qui en fait une des alternatives viables en vue du changement de l’état actuel des choses. Mots clés: Travail; Reproduction; Education. Data de registro: 07/09/2021 Data de aceite: 19/01/2022. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Taoism, Teaching, and Learning: A Nature-Based Approach to Education by John P. Miller, with Xiang Li and Tian RuanJing Dang (bio)Taoism, Teaching, and Learning: A Nature-Based Approach to Education. By John P. Miller, with Xiang Li and Tian Ruan. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022. Pp. 134, Paperback $29.95, ISBN 978-1-4875-4095-1.John Miller’s Taoism, Teaching, and Learning: A Nature-Based Approach to Education (hereafter Taoism, Teaching, and Learning) develops a (...) nature-based account of modern education grounded in Daoism (or Taoism), a school of thought often misunderstood in the West. Daoism has historically been categorized both as a religion (dao jiao 道教) and as a philosophy (dao jia zhe xue 道家哲學); in many cases the spiritual and mystical side of Daoism impresses itself on the reader at the expense of its scientific and philosophical side--as happened with the European missionaries who first exported Daoism to the West. Yet Daoism, especially in relation to pedagogy, cuts across this philosophical/mystical distinction. Happily, Miller and his students, Xiang Li and Tian Ruan, betray no such tendency to pigeon-hole Daoism into one or the other of these categories. The authors adopt a connected and holistic concept of Daoism, which they use to inform and justify their approach to modern education. As such, in the eight chapters of this book, we can see a natural and sensible connection between a holistic Daoism--spiritual, mystical and philosophical--and modern philosophical and educational theories, including Montessori’s cosmic education, Steiner Education, holistic education, and the pedagogical practices of meditation and mindfulness.Miller’s modus operandi is to apply Daoist concepts to contemporary (especially Western) educational issues, both theoretically and practically. In terms of the Daoist belief in the interconnectedness of all things, Miller questions modern subject divisions. When we divide education into geometry, mathematics and so on, we fragment the natural oneness of knowledge and reality as the Daoists would have it. Instead, Miller advocates faith in nature and looks to curricula that reflect the wholeness of nature, such as “cosmic education” and “holistic education” (Chapters 2 and 6). Through such education “we see the relationship between the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of life” (p. 27), and feel the support from the invisible and unproven world.Miller makes excellent use of the Daoist concepts of yin (陰) and yang [End Page 1] (陽), which signify the complementary balance and interplay between opposites. He uses the yinyang paradigm to explore the need for balance in a wide range of interesting and important pedagogical situations; for instance, group collaboration versus individual competition, knowledge versus imagination, intuition versus reason, qualitative versus quantitative, etc. (Chapter 5). He also implements yinyang to unpack the model of creative thinking laid down by Graham Wallace (pp. 66 -70); here, yin and yang are applied to a process within the individual. As we move from confusion to enlightenment, we enact within ourselves a dance between our yin and yang factors.Under the heading “Self-Cultivation” (Chapter 3), Miller attempts to evaluate a number of pedagogical strategies with broad ties to Daoism; namely, “silence,” “contemplation,” “calmness,” “sincerity,” “non-violence and embracing the feminine,” and “humility”. These are informed by Miller’s own personal experience of teaching and applying meditation at the University of Toronto. This provides a useful connection between the spiritual and philosophical dao 道, the mystical and the practical. More generally, these strategies recall Daoist wuwei 無爲 (non-coercive or spontaneous action) and ziran 自然 (spontaneity), which Miller subsequently applies to teaching and mindfulness in Chapter 4 (more on which below).Whereas Miller’s contribution is more theoretical, the two chapters written by his students showcase concrete examples of Daoist pedagogy in the classroom. Li’s chapter (Chapter 1) details a class of high school students learning from nature. Here we find a student club centered around a garden, where the students are allowed to wander in the direction of their interests, rather than imbibing the lessons of the teacher according to a top-down lesson plan. Ruan’s chapter (Chapter 7) looks to the various ways play can be utilized in kindergartens for children’s holistic development, including their social, intellectual, spiritual, physical... (shrink)

The definition of the technique as the mediation between man and nature raises some philosophical problems. Such mediation was established based on imperatives, among which we can highlight efficiency and domination, both exercised over nature. In order to expand the possibilities for improving the human condition, the notion of technical progress has become an emerging need for the consolidation of ancient and modern civilizations. However, it is necessary to establish the criteria for a critique of the limits of unrestrained progress (...) in order to be able to highlight the ambiguity of this process. The development of reality goes through a series of increasingly sophisticated domains without which the objective achievements that structure human life would not be possible. As it oscillates more and more rapidly between production and destruction, technology - understood as the applied discourse of technique - accuses its own limit when submitted to the imperative of efficiency and domination. The purpose of this paper is to show that the ambiguous consequences of technical progress work as an instinctive mechanism for both the welfare state and the state of war. The methodology used to address these issues will be the clash of ideas present in the studies of thinkers who reflected the theme of the technique. Our conclusion, in addition to pointing to a reflection on the limits of technique in human life, intends to rethink the unfolding of the imperatives of a civilization guided by the notion of technical progress and its inevitable contradiction with the notion of human progress. (shrink)

This article draws from Charles Taylor’s work of retrieval to advance moral foundations theory (MFT). Taylor’s contribution to MFT lies in his insistence that we retrieve the moral sources that have helped constitute, substantiate, and give meaning to individuals’ moral sensibilities. Applying Taylor’s insights to MFT, this article seeks to advance a view of moral foundations that connects them more explicitly to their underlying moral sources. Using this retrieved account of moral foundations, this article then addresses current issues within moral (...) foundations research and theory. Finally, this article suggests ways in which Taylor’s philosophy can contribute to three areas within business ethics: ethical leadership, behavioral ethics, and ethics pedagogy. (shrink)

First I will explore the importance granted by Wittgenstein, in the middle period, to memory, in the primary/phenomenological world. According to him, memory is the source of time , past , knowledge and identity . The main objective of this article is to present Wittgenstein's reasons for the rejection of the phenomenological project, using as backdrop his analysis about time (and the abandonment of the semantical and epistemological roles granted to memory). For this purpose it will be crucial to understand (...) a false analogy, that according to him was the cause for the quest for an ideal language. This false analogy can be interpreted as the attribution of a mistaken status to memory (in the phenomenological sense), that leads to the illusion of a criteria of exactitude for the phenomenological description. At the end of this article, I will point out briefly the importance of those ideas to the understanding of the so called "private language argument". (shrink)

The extended pragma-dialectical argumentation theory assumes that people engaged in argumentative discourse manoeuvre strategically. In argumentative reality, the strategic manoeuvring is often carried out according to an argumentative strategy. Language users make an effort to present their strategic manoeuvres in a specific way and the analysis of the stylistic choices in actual argumentative discourse is the most important basis for identification and analysis of argumentative strategies. In this article, it is shown what requirements must be satisfied by a systematic stylistic (...) analysis of argumentative discourse, and the results of such an analysis are illustrated by means of a case study. (shrink)

Night eating syndrome is currently classified as an Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder under the Diagnostic Statistical Manual−5. This systematic review aims to consolidate the studies that describe the sociodemographic, clinical and psychological features of NES in a population of patients with eating disorders, obesity, or those undergoing bariatric surgery, and were published after the publication of the DSM-5. A further aim was to compare, where possible, NES with BED on the aforementioned variables. Lastly, we aimed to appraise the (...) quality of the studies being included in the review. We conducted a systematic search on three databases which resulted in the selection of 22 studies for the review. We included the articles that studied patients with NES and their sociodemographic, clinical and psychological features in a clinical population, through a quantitative study design. Articles were excluded if the NES patients included in the study had a comorbid psychological disorder, and/or the sample was collected from a university/non-clinical population, and/or the study design was qualitative, and/or NES features were compared with any other disorder, except BED. Our study found that no conclusions about the link between any sociodemographic feature and an NES diagnosis could be made. Further, NES patients presented with elevated ED pathology and higher occurrence of depressive symptoms than controls. Contrary to the literature suggesting that NES and Binge Eating Disorder patients often report overlapping features, questioning the validity of NES as an ED diagnosis, we found that BED can be differentiated from NES by the higher occurrence of emotional eating, body related concerns and abnormal eating episodes. The review also suggested an overlap between NES and Sleep-Related Eating Disorder. We recommend that it is essential to study NES as an independent disorder to further develop its diagnostic criteria and treatment options, thereby, increasing the quality of life of the patients suffering from this syndrome. (shrink)

This paper deals with the claims of industrial operators and their insurers that expanding liability is being experienced in many legal systems in Europe and will lead to the uninsurability of certain risks. In this paper we address some aspects of this insurability problem by trying to identify precisely what might make an expanding liability risk uninsurable. Then we examine whether there are remedies for expanding liability that might result in certain risks remaining insurable. In that respect we shall consider (...) alternative compensation systems, financial caps, differentiation of risks, and the application of insurance policies over time, more specifically related to so-called ‘long-tail’ risks. Although each of these aspects might merit a separate paper, we prefer to discuss them in an integrated way by providing a balanced answer to current questions concerning the insurability of modem industrial hazards. (shrink)

Este artigo pretende demonstrar que o amor próprio na complacência e no autoengano são os fundamentos da possibilidade do solipsismo moral em Kant. Dividiremos o trabalho em duas partes. A primeira parte indicará que o amor próprio é um princípio volitivo, na medida em que é capaz de transformar uma inclinação em um fim da vontade. Isto é possível porque o ser humano subordina a lei moral à sua própria felicidade. Na segunda parte, o autoengano será avaliado como forma de (...) anular a culpa por meio da intenção e das más consequências da ação. Neste caso, o autoengano é o efeito sensível da força deste tipo de amor egoísta sobre o espírito do ser humano, porque a consciência moral é anulada pelas próprias mentiras. Por fim, será demonstrado que o amor próprio na complacência é a parte formal, um princípio volitivo capaz de transformar uma inclinação em objeto de desejo, e que o autoengano é o efeito sensível que este princípio produz na natureza humana. Palavras-chave: Amor Próprio; Solipsismo Moral; Felicidade; Natureza Humana; Liberdade. Moral solipsism in Kant: the dark side of moral consciousness Abstract: This article aims to demonstrate that self-love in complacency and self-deception are the foundations of the possibility of moral solipsism in Kant. We will divide the work into two parts. The first part will indicate that self-love is a volitional principle, in that it is capable of transforming an inclination into an end of the will. This is possible, since the human being subordinates the moral law to his own happiness. In the second part, self-deception will be evaluated as a way to nullify guilt through intention and the bad consequences of the action. In this case, self-deception is the sensitive effect of the force of this type of selfish love on the spirit of the human being, because moral conscience is annulled by one's own lies. Finally, it will be demonstrated that self-love in complacency is the formal part, a volitional principle capable of transforming an inclination into an object of desire, and that self-deception is the sensitive effect that this principle produces in human nature. Keywords: Self-Love; Moral Solipsism; Happiness; Human Nature; Freedom. Solipsismo moral en Kant: el lado oscuro de la conciencia moral Resumen: Este artículo pretende demostrar que el amor propio en la complacencia y el autoengaño son los fundamentos de la posibilidad del solipsismo moral en Kant. Dividiremos el trabajo en dos partes. La primera parte indicará que el amor propio es un principio volitivo, en cuanto que es capaz de transformar una inclinación en un fin de la voluntad. Esto es posible, ya que el ser humano subordina la ley moral a su propia felicidad. En la segunda parte se evaluará el autoengaño como una forma de anular la culpa a través de la intención y las malas consecuencias de la acción. En este caso, el autoengaño es el efecto sensible de la fuerza de este tipo de amor egoísta sobre el espíritu del ser humano, porque la conciencia moral es anulada por las propias mentiras. Finalmente, se demostrará que el amor propio en la complacencia es la parte formal, un principio volitivo capaz de transformar una inclinación en objeto de querer, y que el autoengaño es el efecto sensitivo que produce este principio en la naturaleza humana. Palabras-clave: Amor Propio; Solipsismo Moral; Felicidad; Naturaleza Humana; Libertad. Data de registro: 30/07/2024 Data de aceite: 30/10/2024. (shrink)

There has been a time in my teaching career that I used to cite in my introductory classes ‘Moral Philosophy’ from Erica Jong's Fear of Flying . The situation leading up to the quote is that the main character, Isadora, is asked a sexual favour by her brother in law, Pierre. Her answer and the subsequent dialogue read then as follows: ‘I can't’ , I said. ‘Come on,’ Pierre said, ‘I'll teach you.’ ‘I didn't mean that … I meant that (...) I can't; morally , I can…’. (shrink)

What I set out to do is to cast some doubt on the thesis that, in Bernard Williams's words, any appeal to God in morality “either adds nothing at all, or it adds the wrong sort of thing”. A first conclusion is that a morality of real, inescapable and (sometimes) for the agent costly obligations, while being at home in a theistic metaphysic, does not sit easily with metaphysical, atheistic naturalism. The second conclusion is that Christine Korsgaard's impressive ethical project (...) which is neutral towards theism and atheism fails in giving a satisfying account of such obligations. My final claim is that a theistic account in terms of a strong divine command theory might succeed where non- and atheistic accounts seem to founder. (shrink)

In the first part of the paper an argument is developed to the effect that (1) there is no moral ground for individual persons to feel responsible for or guilty about crimes of their group to which they have in no way contributed; and (2) since there is no irreducibly collective responsibility nor guilt at any time, there is no question of them persisting over time. In the second part it is argued that there is nevertheless sufficient reason for innocent (...) individual members of a group (that persists over time) to take on responsibility and guilt for the evil other (earlier) members have committed. The reason depends on the acceptability of a particular psychological theory of personal identity. (shrink)

SummaryIn the 1940s a controversy developed between John H. Northrop (Nobel Laureate, 1946) and Max Delbrück (Nobel Laureate, 1969) on the formation of bacteriophage. From the historiography of molecular biology there emerges a picture of an obstinate Northrop who repudiated the ‘correct’ insights revealed by the experiments of Delbrück. The established reputation of Northrop confronts one with the question of why Delbrück's epoch-making experiments were not convincing for Northrop. It will be argued that this was a consequence of local incommensurability (...) between Northrop's physiological/chemical research style and Delbrück's bacteriological/genetic research style. The analysis of this controversy reveals the elements that made up these two research styles. (shrink)

This article analyses how faith-based civil society organisations have advocated the value-add of faith to governmental and non-governmental development actors in the highly secularised context of the Netherlands. Its social value lies in the space for reflexivity it opens up on how the religious and the secular are entangled in the field of development through shifting the gaze towards secularised Europe. Its academic value lies in how it combines the study of faith and development, with a critical analysis of the (...) secular formations in which much of the thinking around faith and development is shaped. The article builds on an academic study of and long-term engagement with the Dutch non-governmental organisation (NGO)-based Knowledge Centre Religion and Development (KCRD), offering a critical overview of the KCRD’s work between 2006 and 2016. Data were gathered through interviews, document analysis and participant observation as part of the academic research, as well as informal observations and analysis through professional engagement. The KCRD, because of its institutional setting, had to adopt an instrumental approach towards the role of religion in development, which prevented it from challenging the reigning secular paradigm in development and its biases towards faith-based actors. The article will recommend that future initiatives on faith and development more consciously anchor their approach to faith in their institutional practices and mainstream discussions on the European continent. (shrink)