This essay examines the claim that physicians have a special obligation to engage in social and political activism. Four ethical paradigms are considered. Two paradigms, the preventive medicine and the social medicine models, embody a limited professional obligation to advocate the priority of health in society; the justification for a more aggressive stance is limited by the failings of paternalism. The radical model and the heroic model speak to issues of personal virtue rather than professional obligation; they are not strictly (...) comparable. (shrink)

Definitions of death are based on subjective standards, priorities, and social conventions rather than on objective facts about the state of human physiology. It is the meaning assigned to the facts that determines whensomeone may be deemed to have died, not the facts themselves. Even though subjective standards for the diagnosis of death show remarkable consistency across communities, they are extrinsic. They are driven, implicitly or explicitly, by ideas about what benefits the community rather than what benefits the indidvidual. The (...) differences that do exist across communities generally reduce to questions about legitimacy and not fact. The questions at the core of the debate about brain death are better framed by asking: Whom ought we deem to be dead? rather than: Who is dead. The rationale for equating brain death with death, therefore, extends well beyond somatic and biological concepts of death. (shrink)

Summary and ConclusionMinutes before the jury would have returned a decision in Kaufman's favor, assessing damages of almost a half-million dollars against the physicians who treated her, she settled out of court for approximately half that sum. I would argue that responsibility in medicine, that liability for malpractice, should be restricted to cases of negligence in which there is no question concerning the proximate causality of the physician's proven negligence to the harm which resulted. It is clear that “negligence” covers (...) a wide range of actions. The solution to this problem lies in the definition of the physician's duties—not in the use of malpractice settlements for the compensation of tragic but accidental consequences whose risks were realistically inevitable or else willfully assumed by the patient as well as the physician. In medicine, there is a strict prima facie duty to know as much as possible. In practice, this approaches an ideal duty. The distinction between an ideal duty and a realistic duty emphasizes the importance of having the patient assume as full responsibility for the risks attendant to inevitable and unforeseeable consequences as the physician. In assessing fault for such consequences, it is essential to recollect that an agent cannot be said to have caused every happenstance which occurs while he acts; moreover, he certainly cannot be held strictly responsible for the cause of every event which succeeds his act. Thus, the primary problem in medical ethics is epistemological rather than normative. (shrink)

Both the therapeutic effects and the complications associated with neuromodulation of the brain can result in experiences that are neither reliably predictable nor easily describable. For this reason, protocols for informed consent must be carefully tailored to the procedure, the indication, and the patient, and satisfy very strict, often subjective patient standards of disclosure. These three elements can be combined to categorize procedures for neuromodulation (and as well as others) and optimize the protection of the patient.

In recent years modal syllogistic provided by 14th century logician John Buridan has attracted increasing attention of historians of medieval logic. The widespread use of quantified modal logic with the apparatus of possible worlds semantics in current analytic philosophy has encouraged the investigation of the relation of Buridan’s theory of modality with the modern developments of symbolic modal logic. We focus on the semantics of and the inferential relations among the propositions that underlie Buridan’s theory of modal syllogism. First, we (...) review all inferences between propositions of necessity, possibility, contingency, and non-contingency, with or without quod est locution, that are valid in Buridan’s semantics, and offer a comprehensive diagrammatic representation that includes them all. We then ask the question if there is a way to model those results in first order modal logic. Three ways of formalizing Buridan’s propositions in quantified modal logic are considered. Comparison of inferences between the quantified formulas and Buridan’s propositions reveals that, when supplied with a suitable formalization, Buridan’s semantics of categorical statements and immediate inferences among them can be fully captured by the quantified modal system T. (shrink)

Straipsnyje tiriamos dvi XX a. viduryje iðplëtotos funkcionalistinio sàmonës aiðkinimo kryptys: D. Armstrongo ir D. Lewiso analitinis funkcionalizmas ir H. Putnamo komputacinis funkcionalizmas. Siekiamaparodyti, kad ðios dvi kryptys ið esmës sutampa metodologiniu poþiûriu, taèiau jø atstovai suteikiasavøjø teorijø metodologiniam pagrindui skirtingas ontologines interpretacijas. Sutardami, kad fizikinio bûvio ir funkcinio bûvio sàvokos skiriasi, jie nesutaria dël to, ar funkcinio bûvio sàvokà reikialaikyti iðskirianèia atskirà ontologinæ bûviø kategorijà, ar ði sàvoka iðreiðkia tik skirtingà tø paèiø fizikiniø bûviø identifikavimo realiame pasaulyje bûdà. Ðiame (...) nesutarime ið esmës uþsimezga ðiuolaikineisàmonës filosofijai bûdinga kontroversija klausimu: savybiø ontologija turi bûti rekonstruojama intensiniu ar ekstensiniu pagrindu?Pagrindiniai þodþiai: funkcionalizmas, materializmas, ávairiopa realizacija, reduktyvistinës sàmonës teorijos. (shrink)

The question of transtemporal identity of objects in general and persons in particular is an important issue in both philosophy and psychology. While the focus of philosophers traditionally was on questions of the nature of identity relation and criteria that allow to settle ontological issues about identity, psychologists are mostly concerned with how people think about identity, and how they track identity of objects and people through time. In this article, we critically engage with widespread use of inferring folk judgments (...) of identity from study participants’ use of proper names in response to experimental vignettes. We provide reasons to doubt that using this method one can reliably infer judgments of numerical identity over time and transformations. We also critically examine allegedly-Kripkean justification of this method and find it lacking. Merely assuming that names are rigid designators will not help. A study participant’s use of proper names can be taken to track the participant’s identity judgments only if supported by the participant’s belief that names used in the scenario are used rigidly. (shrink)

Straipsnyje nagrinėjama analitinės kalbos ir mokslo filosofijos raida Lietuvoje. Konstatuojama, kad analitinė filosofija Lietuvoje pradėta plėtoti XX amžiaus aštuntajame dešimtmetyje, kai Evaldas Nekrašas ir Rolandas Pavilionis paskelbė savo pirmųjų mokslo filosofijos ir kalbos filosofijos tyrinėjimų, kuriuose remiamasi analitine tradicija, rezultatus. Straipsnyje analizuojami jų ir kitų tyrėjų, kurie rėmėsi ta pačia tradicija, pirmiausia Algirdo Degučio ir Albino Plėšnio darbai. Analitinė filosofija buvo pirmoji nemarksistinės filosofijos kryptis, pradėta plėtoti pokarinėje Lietuvoje, todėl aštuntajame ir devintajame dešimtmečiuose ji atliko svarbų vaidmenį plečiant šalyje filosofinių (...) tyrinėjimų tematiką ir keičiant jų metodologinius pagrindus. Nors pastaruoju metu jos įtaka Lietuvos filosofijoje kiek sumažėjo, ji aiškiai juntama kai kuriuose pastarojo meto darbuose, kuriuose nagrinėjamos sąmonės filosofijos, priežastingumo, humanitarinių ir socialinių mokslų metodologijos problemos. Ji padarė nemažą poveikį ir pozityvizmo raidos bei politinės filosofijos problemų tyrimui. Pagrindiniai žodžiai: Lietuvos filosofija, analitinė filosofija, kalbos filosofija, mokslo filosofija, pozityvizmas. (shrink)

Formalizing categorical propositions of traditional logic in the language of quantifiers and propositional functions is no straightforward matter, especially when modalities get involved. Starting...

The past decade has seen a rapid development and proliferation of sophisticated computer systems in organizations. Designers, however, have minimized the importance of security control systems, (except for those systems where data security and access control have obviously been of major importance). The result is an increasing recognition that computer systems security is often easily compromised.This research will provide the initial step in assessing ways in which attorneys retained to prosecute computer crimes and computer people who discover these violations can (...) work together to strengthen both our computer systems to thwart violators and the laws that are currently on the books that can be used to prosecute violators. (shrink)

Šio straipsnio tikslas – bendrais bruožais aptarti reduktyvizmo raišką šiuolaikinėje analitinėje sąmonės, moralės, veiksmo ir priežastingumo filosofijoje bei įvertinti redukcijos strategijų šiose filosofijos šakose panašumus ir skirtumus. Straipsnyje aptariamos šešios reduktyvizmo strategijos – sąvokų sinonimija paremta redukcija, a posteriori tapatybės tezė, analitinis funkcionalizmas, anomalusis monizmas, analizė pasitelkiant pareities sąvoką, konceptualinė analizė be sąvokų sinonimijos – ir konstatuojama, kad skirtingose filosofijos srityse šios strategijos reiškiasi skirtingai, taip pat yra skirtingai kritikuojamos ir interpretuojamos. Straipsnyje mėginama paaiškinti kai kuriuos šių skirtumų ir daroma (...) išvada, kad šiuolaikinėje analitinėje filosofijoje neperspektyvu kalbėti apie reduktyvizmą apskritai, kaip vieną visas sritis apimantį reiškinį, paremtą visas reduktyvistines koncepcijas vienijančiu reduktyvizmo modeliu, forma ar vizija. (shrink)

Straipsnyje analitinës filosofijos poþiûriu analizuojamas Descartes’o sàmonës ir kûno skirtingumo árodymas, siekiant atskleisti jo panaðumus su ðiuolaikinëje sàmonës filosofijoje populiariu Davido Chalmerso pateiktu „zombio“ mintiniu eksperimentu ir juo grindþiamu dualizmo árodymu. Siekiama parodyti, kad ðiuolaikinis modaline semantikos analize grindþiamas árodymo variantas yra techniðkai sudë-tingesnis ir atsparesnis fizikalistinei kritikai, taèiau jis paremtas nutylëta ir nepagrásta episteminio sà-vokø skaidrumo prielaida, kuri iðskirstina kaip viena originalaus dekartiðko árodymo silpnybiø. Tai leidþia tvirtinti, kad Antoine’o Arnauld kritika, pateikta Descartes’o árodymui, lygiai taip pat sëkmingaitaikytina ir (...) Chalmerso antifizikalistiniams samprotavimams.Reikðminiai þodþiai: sàmonës filosofija, dualizmo árodymai, „zombio“ mintinis eksperimentas, fizikalizmas. (shrink)

The article raises the question what is the content of Frege’s infamous notion of Bedeutung? It is claimed that the so–called standard interpretation of this notion – Bedeutung as referential relation between a name and an object – was developed and established evaluating Frege’s ideas in philosophy of language in isolation from his logicist ideas. However, precisely his logicist concerns have motivated Frege’s interest in semantic issues. A broader consideration of Frege’s works reveals an internalist and rationalist notion of meaning, (...) that is based on the context principle, and that should not be reduced to mere reference. The question of the meaning of subsentential components, for Frege, is closely related to the question of the meaning of the whole sentence, that is, the meaning of sub–sentential components should be construed as secondary with regard to the meaning of the whole sentence. (shrink)

The article analyzes John McTaggart’s argument for unreality of time, a classical piece of fin de siècleBrittish idealist metaphysics. Having accepted the distinction between A-series and B-series, one can only resist McTaggartian conclusion by denying at least one of the two: that B-series alone is insufficient for change or that A-series implies a contradiction. Hugh Mellor’s criticism is taken to represent thisstrategy. The lesson to be learnt from this debate is that if the world is conceived as a mere totality (...) of facts no change could be real in such a world, and so McTaggart would right. However, if the reality of things determining those facts is recognized as more fundamental, it would not be denied that at least some of these things undergo genuine temporal change, and time as a dimension of this real change cannot be rejected. (shrink)

The paper analyses the relation between religion and morality. It is argued that absolutistic theistic conception of morality, which transforms metaphysical issues into moral ones, despite being the most popular folk understanding of morality, is neither the only one possible nor the most effective one. Accepting Bernard Williams‘ remark that religion in the context of morality adds either nothing or a wrong sort of thing, a conclusion is drawn that philosophical issues of morality can and should be considered in isolation (...) from religious issues. (shrink)

The paper is devoted to a discussion and critical evaluation of antisceptical arguments in epistemology that are based on causal theory of reference, with the special focus upon the revised version of the Hilary Putnam‘s Brain-in-a-Vat argument presented by Olaf Müller. Müller claims that his argument is based on the metaphysically neutral principles of semantic externalism and disquotation, however more thorough analysis of these principles and of the possibility to use them for antisceptical purposes reveals the flaw in his argument. (...) It seems that Müller reaches his conclusion by confusing the syntactically identical, though semantically distinct utterances in BIV language, non-BIV language, and metalanguage. The reconstruction and analysis of Müller‘s argument shows that his argument, provided that its premises are formulated carefully so as not to beg the question against the sceptic, fails to establish anything more than the original version provided by Putnam.Keywords: scepticism, Olaf Müller, semantic externalism, disquotation, brain-in-a-Vat. (shrink)

Straipsnyje kritikuojamas 68-ame „Problemø“ numeryje skelbtas J. Èiurlionio teiginys, kad matematiniai Zenono Elëjieèio aporijos sprendimai „remiasi klaidinga implikacine prielaida“. Pirma, logikosdësniai nedraudþia ið klaidingø teiginiø pagrástai iðvesti teisingus teiginius, todël prielaidos klaidingumas neuþtikrina iðvados klaidingumo. Antra, minimos implikacijos antecedento loginæ reikðmæ lemiaempirinis faktas, todël net jei implikacijos konsekventas bûtinai klaidingas, implikacija yra loginiupoþiûriu atsitiktinë. Treèia, implikacijos konsekventas gali bûti interpretuojamas dvejopai. Viena interpretacija padaro já nomologiðkai bûtinai klaidingà, bet nerelevantiðkà Zenono aporijai; kita interpretacija padaro teiginá relevantiðkà, bet nebûtinai klaidingà. Taigi (...) nëra jokio pagrindo manyti, kad implikacinë prielaida, kuria, Èiulionio teigimu, remiasi matematiniai Zenono Elëjieèio aporijos sprendimai, yra klaidinga.Pagrindiniai þodþiai: Achilo ir vëþlio aporija, tapatumo sàlygos, aporijø sprendimai. (shrink)

Funkcinës psichiniø savybiø analizës atveriama jø materialiojo ákûnijimo ávairovës galimybë verèia materialistiná monizmà sàmonës filosofijoje formuluoti ne psichiniø ir fiziniø savybiø tapatumo, bet pirmøjø pareities nuo antrøjø tezæ. Pareities sàvoka sàmonës filosofijoje iðreiðkia minimalius reikalavimus fizikalistinëms teorijoms – paneigus pareities fizikalizmà bûtø paneigtos ir stipresnës fizikalizmoversijos. Straipsnyje tyrinëjama fizikalizmo kritika paremta vadinamuoju kokybiø perkeitimo galimybës argumentu. Parodoma, kad, viena vertus, toks argumentas negali bûti atremtas nuorodomis áempirinius duomenis, nes svarstoma hipotetinë situacija numano jos empiriná nestebimumà; kita vertus, jei svarstoma situacija (...) ið tikrøjø yra galima, tai kokybinës psichinës charakteristikos niekaip nërasusaistytos funkciðkai ar fiziologiðkai apraðomais ryðiais, vadinasi, antireduktyvistinæ iðvadà galima grástisvarstant ne tik atvejus, kai kokybës perkeistos, bet ir kai jø apskritai nëra.Pagrindiniai þodþiai: sàmonës filosofija, fizikalizmas, funkcionalizmas, pareitis, perkeistos kokybës. (shrink)

The most urgent challenge of this year – the COVID-19 pandemic and measures of response to it – has sharpened and accelerated the process which was initially driven by bureaucratization and formalization: increasing depersonalization of academic life and the erosion of the university as a unique form of coexistence. The Assuming the concept of the university as a value category, this article aims to review and assess the changes in the self-perception of the academic community that have matured and acquired (...) institutional forms in an attempt to adapt to rapidly shifting societal expectations and needs. Modern trends in university development are best expressed in terms such as “bureaucratization”, “formalization”, “depersonalization”, “instrumentalization of knowledge”, and “community fragmentation”. The pandemic of effective management that has affected Western universities and has gradually reached Vilnius University, no less than the pandemic of COVID-19 and administrative response to it, weakens the academic community based on autonomous and collegial decisions, which should be considered among the most important grounds of uniqueness of university as an institution. (shrink)

Some philosophers have thought that life could only be meaningful if there is no God. For Sartre and Nagel, for example, a God of the traditional classical theistic sort would constrain our powers of self-creative autonomy in ways that would severely detract from the meaning of our lives, possibly even evacuate our lives of all meaning. Some philosophers, by contrast, have thought that life could only be meaningful if there is a God. God and the Meanings of Life is interested (...) in exploring the truth in both these schools of thought, seeking to discover what God could and couldn't do to make life meaningful (as well as what he would and wouldn't do). Mawson espouses a version of the 'amalgam' or 'pluralism' thesis about the issue of life's meaning – in essence, that there are a number of different legitimate meanings of 'meaning' (and indeed 'life') in the question of life's meaning. According to Mawson, God, were he to exist, would help make life meaningful in some of these senses and hinder in some others. He argues that whilst there could be meaning in a Godless universe, there could be other sorts of meaning in a Godly one and that these would be deeper. (shrink)

Technology has made it easier and cheaper for human resource managers to gather and maintain an infinite amount of data about present and prospective employees. An essential component in the success of managing this data is the Human Resource Information System (HRIS), a database of personal information about each employee. Because of the power to access and use this data, HR managers must be aware of the ethical and legal issues associated with both the creation and use of those data (...) in the HRIS. (shrink)

T. A. Cavanaugh's Hippocrates' Oath and Asclepius' Snake: The Birth of the Medical Profession articulates the Oath as establishing the medical profession's unique internal medical ethic - in its most basic and least controvertible form, this ethic mandates that physicians help and not harm the sick. Relying on Greek myth, drama, and medical experience (e.g., homeopathy), the book shows how this medical ethic arose from reflection on the most vexing medical-ethical problem -- injury caused by a physician -- and argues (...) that deliberate iatrogenic harm, especially the harm of a doctor choosing to kill (physician assisted suicide, euthanasia, abortion, and involvement in capital punishment), amounts to an abandonment of medicine as an exclusively therapeutic profession. The book argues that medicine as a profession necessarily involves stating before others what one stands for: the good one seeks and the bad one seeks to avoid on behalf of the sick, and rejects the view that medicine is purely a technique lacking its own unique internal ethic. It concludes noting that medical promising (as found in the White Coat Ceremony through which U. S. medical students matriculate) implicates medical autonomy which in turn merits respect, including honoring professional conscientious objections. (shrink)

How do we think about animals? How do we decide what they deserve and how we ought to treat them? Subhuman takes an interdisciplinary approach to these questions, drawing from research in philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, law, history, sociology, economics, and anthropology. Subhuman argues that our attitudes to nonhuman animals, both positive and negative, largely arise from our need to compare ourselves to them.

Exegesis, with text, on the Nyāyasūtra of Gautama, basic aphoristic text of Nyāya.