Dolores Dooley Clarke describes how the course in medical ethics at University College, Cork is structured, how it has changed and how it is likely to change as time goes on. Originally, the students seemed to view it as an intrusion 'to be tolerated' in their programme of 'strictly medical' studies. However, having moved on from that and away from the lecturer always being a Roman Catholic priest as well as a member of the Philosophy Department, the (...) students now appear to view it as producing a stimulus for a new interest in the area of ethics for physicians. This seems to have come about through the more extensive participation of students in researching and presenting issues of medical ethics. (shrink)

The dominant emphasis in medical ethics during the last decade has been on specific moral problems of individual or small group decision-making. Justice and Healthcare attempts to correct the imbalance of focus by 1) examining the health care institutions within which micro problems arise; 2) investigating the larger array of institutions of which the health care sector is only one part.

Public lecture series do not always, unfortunately, result in a published volume of interdisciplinary, informed and well argued papers. Medical Ethics and the Future of Health Care has succeeded, however, in doing just this. A public lecture series was organised by the Adelaide Hospital Society, Dublin, Ireland in 1999 to facilitate better public understanding of complex issues in health care confronting citizens and carers. The book assumes correctly that the Republic of Ireland is now indisputably a pluralist society, discomforting to (...) some readers who might look to the book for absolute answers and certainties. They would be disappointed because the essays show rather that it will be public debate and reasoned, imaginative approaches to decision making in health care that will replace the comforts of traditional certainties. Coming from the internationally recognised philosopher of principlism, James Childress, the nurse ethicist, Verena Tschudin and representatives from …. (shrink)

Wheeler's contribution in this unique partnership gives a woman's consciousness to the philosophy of sexual equality.

As the ethical framework of the Catholic Church becomes incapable of accommodating the cultural diversity in Ireland, the search for a new moral discourse takes on a greater urgency. In its absence, litigation in Ireland is on the increase.

The Republic of Ireland has some of the most restrictive abortion legislation in the world which grants to the ‘unborn’ an equal right to life to that of the pregnant woman. This article outlines recent developments in the public discourse on abortion in Ireland and explains the particular cultural and religious context that informs the ethical case for access to abortion services. Our perspective rests on respect for two very familiar moral principles – autonomy and justice – which are at (...) the centre of social and democratic societies around the world. This article explains the context for the deployment of these concepts in order to support the claim that the current legislation and its operationalisation in clinical practice poses serious risks to the health, lives and well-being of pregnant women, tramples on their autonomy rights and requires of them a self-sacrifice that is unreasonable and unjust. (shrink)

In "Mathematical Truth", Paul Benacerraf articulated an epistemological problem for mathematical realism. His formulation of the problem relied on a causal theory of knowledge which is now widely rejected. But it is generally agreed that Benacerraf was onto a genuine problem for mathematical realism nevertheless. Hartry Field describes it as the problem of explaining the reliability of our mathematical beliefs, realistically construed. In this paper, I argue that the Benacerraf Problem cannot be made out. There simply is no intelligible problem (...) that satisfies all of the constraints which have been placed on the Benacerraf Problem. The point generalizes to all arguments with the structure of the Benacerraf Problem aimed at realism about a domain meeting certain conditions. Such arguments include so-called "Evolutionary Debunking Arguments" aimed at moral realism. I conclude with some suggestions about the relationship between the Benacerraf Problem and the Gettier Problem. (shrink)

"A thematic exposition focused on the "whole man," especially in his practical, aesthetic, ethical, and religious dimensions, moving from consideration of the stream of consciousness and consciousness as selective according to interests, through the ethical and religious aspects of man's aspiration and experience, to the humanistic bases of James' pragmatism and radical empiricism ... Dooley's account is remarkably clear and streamlined, stressing the consistency rather than the tensions in James' thought. Thus, while James' own texts provide at once the (...) most authoritative and the most attractive approach to his thought for readers at all levels, Dooley's book seems most likely to be helpful as supplementary reading for teachers and students in introductory courses.". (shrink)

All these specialist aspects of one life are different facets of the intellectual diamond which scintillates in the huge quarry of The Bertrand Russell Archives at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. This is the quintessential man, the bundle of contradictions passionately dedicated to intellect, at times carrying the rational argument to irrational extremes; the natural-born emotional adventurer forever hampered by orphaned youth and too-early marriage. This Russell in the round is greater than the sum of his constituent parts, a man of (...) epic proportions, struggling through a lifetime beset with frustration and near-disaster; in youth the constitutional sceptic, in old age the sometimes splendid figure with "courage never to submit or yield.". (shrink)