Le présent article est la réaction juridique d'une magistrate, cheffe de juridiction, à l'analyse sociologique développée par Alexia Boucherie dans son ouvrage Troubles dans le consentement. Le concept de « zone grise » dans le consentement, en tant que curseur du permis et de l'interdit, du consenti et du non-consenti, du légal et de l'illégal, intéresse particulièrement les praticiens. C'est sur le terrain du droit pénal que la question du consentement à l'acte sexuel est abordée car c'est bien là l'enjeu (...) de la réflexion. Ces zones grises trouvent application en matière d'infractions sexuelles, qu'il s'agisse du crime de viol ou du délit d'agression sexuelle. L'établissement de la preuve de l'absence de consentement sexuel est au cœur de l'office des juges. Or si la juriste rejoint parfois certaines intuitions de la sociologue, elle doit s'en distancier. La question des bornes du consentement sexuel fournit cependant un terreau fertile à une réflexion pluridisciplinaire qui conduit à questionner la pratique du juge face au consentement sexuel. (shrink)

The author examines the functional explanation that G. A. Cohen employs in his book Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defense in light of its recent republication. In recent years, Roy Bhaskar has provided a convincing critique of the empiricist philosophy of social science that Cohen employs, and this article tries to provide an assessment of his method from a Bhaskarian perspective. It begins with an exposition of functional explanation, followed by the Bhaskarian critique by demonstrating that functionalism is unworkable (...) because it is dependent on an empiricist account of causation. (shrink)

Cohen employs in his book Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defense in light of its recent republication. In recent years, Roy Bhaskar has provided a convincing critique of the empiricist philosophy of social science that Cohen employs, and this article tries to provide an assessment of his method from a Bhaskarian perspective. It begins with an exposition of functional explanation, followed by the Bhaskarian critique by demonstrating that functionalism is unworkable because it is dependent on an empiricist account of (...) causation. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage n'est ni un commentaire ni une explication d'obedience historiciste ou deterministe. Par questionnement, lecture et interpretation, l'auteur a voulu produire une semantique philosophique. La doctrine des idees est ainsi reexaminee a la convergence des problemes du langage, de la science et de la cite (logos, episteme, polis). Elle ne peut plus des lors etre interpretee sous l'hypothese de l' idealisme. Elle se manifeste comme une serie de questions de sens ou s'indique une philosophie de la raison. Partout ou (...) le logos nous porte, c'est la qu'il faut aller, tel en serait le mot d'ordre, mais avec la precision qu'a l'articulation du mythique et du theorique, du tragique et du philosohique, et plus profondement de la deraison et du logos, le rationalisme platonicien n'est fait que de raison. (shrink)

Next SectionThe present investigation looks for a solution to the problem of the influence of feelings and emotions on our ethical decisions. This problem can be formulated in the following way. On the one hand, emotions (fear, pity and so on) can alter our sense of discrimination and lead us to make our wrong decisions. On the other hand, it is known that lack of sensitivity can alter our judgment and lead us to sacrifice basic ethical principles such as autonomy, (...) beneficence, non-maleficence and justice. Only emotions can turn a decision into an ethical one, but they can also turn it into an unreasonable one. To avoid this contradiction, suggest integrating emotions with the decisional factors of the process of “retrospective thinking”. During this thinking, doctors usually try to identify the nature and impact of feelings on the decision they have just made. In this retrospective moment of analysis of the decision, doctors also question themselves on the feelings they did not experience. They do this to estimate the consequences of this lack of feeling on the way they behaved with the patient. (shrink)

Annoncer une mauvaise nouvelle, décider d'un arrêt de traitement, tenter une opération risquée, réanimer un patient suicidaire... les dilemmes moraux ne sont pas rares en médecine. Les problèmes éthiques ont néanmoins revêtu une acuité particulière de nos jours du fait des progrès techniques, du coût des thérapeutiques innovantes, de l'évolution des moeurs, du vieillissement de la population. Cette nouvelle conjoncture conduit peu à peu à changer les façons d'exercer la médecine. Une culture du partage s'instaure avec les soignants, le monde (...) associatif ou les sciences humaines et sociales. La philosophie morale se trouve également mise à contribution. Car pour être une démarche rigoureuse, l'éthique biomédicale ne doit pas se réduire à un échange d'opinions informelles et spontanées. Elle doit se nourrir de la connaissance des travaux des philosophes d'hier et d'aujourd'hui. A cette fin, le présent ouvrage propose aux professionnels de santé, ainsi qu'à tous ceux qui sont concernés par leurs décisions, de découvrir les grands principes et les principales théories de la philosophie morale. De l'éthique des vertus au contractualisme moral, en passant par le probabilisme, le déontologisme, l'utilitarisme, le libertarisme, l'éthique de la sollicitude ou l'éthique narrative, l'histoire de l'éthique est riche en ressources. Chaque théorie morale apporte un éclairage nouveau et fournit des repères, tant pour l'élucidation des problèmes d'éthique au quotidien que pour la compréhension des débats de société autour de la bioéthique. (shrink)

Media exposure influences mental health symptomology in response to salient aversive events, like terrorist attacks, but little has been done to explore the impact of news coverage that varies more subtly in affective content. Here, we utilized an existing data set in which participants self-reported physical symptoms, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms, and completed a potentiated startle task assessing their physiological reactivity to aversive stimuli at three time points (waves) over a 9-month period. Using a computational linguistics approach, we then (...) calculated an average ratio of words with positive vs. negative affective connotations for only articles from news sources to which each participant self-reported being exposed over the prior 2 weeks at each wave of data collection. As hypothesized, individuals exposed to news coverage with more negative affective tone over the prior 2 weeks reported significantly greater physical and depressive symptoms, and had significantly greater physiological reactivity to aversive stimuli. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage n'est ni un commentaire ni une explication d'obedience historiciste ou deterministe. Par questionnement, lecture et interpretation, l'auteur a voulu produire une semantique philosophique. La doctrine des idees est ainsi reexaminee a la convergence des problemes du langage, de la science et de la cite (logos, episteme, polis). Elle ne peut plus des lors etre interpretee sous l'hypothese de l' idealisme. Elle se manifeste comme une serie de questions de sens ou s'indique une philosophie de la raison. Partout ou (...) le logos nous porte, c'est la qu'il faut aller, tel en serait le mot d'ordre, mais avec la precision qu'a l'articulation du mythique et du theorique, du tragique et du philosohique, et plus profondement de la deraison et du logos, le rationalisme platonicien n'est fait que de raison. (shrink)

La France a été le premier pays au monde à institutionnaliser la bioéthique en créant un comité consultatif national d’éthique. Les philosophes qui participent aux débats de cette instance normative doivent se livrer à une expérience de pensée inhabituelle, sur un mode collégial et interdisciplinaire. Compte tenu des décisions politiques qui seront prises en fonction des recommandations du Comité, leur implication doit aussi s’accompagner d’une réflexion critique et épistémologique sur le processus de production des avis.

"Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu" de Maurice Joly. Journaliste et écrivain français (1829-1878).

Investment Management makes heavy ethical demands which are not an optional add‐on, but part of the job of being a financial agent and fiduciary. The author is founder and President of Skandia Fonds, the Norwegian mutual funds management company affiliated with Skandia Group which pioneered the concept of green mutual funds in Norway. This paper was delivered at the Sixth Annual Conference of the European Business Ethics Network, held in Oslo last month. Its views are those of the author, and (...) do not necessarily represent his company's policy. (shrink)

Francis Bacon critique souvent l ' attitude et les pratiques des alchimistes. Pour autant, il ne rejette pas l ' alchimie, qui est la chimie de son temps. Non seulement il intègre dans sa philosophie naturelle des aspects essentiels de la pensée paracelsienne, mais surtout il fait de l ' alchimie l ' une des sciences auxquelles sa nouvelle méthode doit s ' appliquer de manière privilégiée en vue de la perfectionner. Comme de nombreux philosophes naturels du XVIIe siècle, il (...) n ' hésite pas à développer sa propre conception de la transmutation des métaux. Francis Bacon often criticizes both attitude and practice of the alchemists. Yet he doesn ' t, give away alchemy which is the chemistry of his time. Not only does he integrate in his natural philosophy a few major aspects of Paracelsian thought, but first and foremost does he turn alchemy into one of the sciences to which his new method should be applied in apriviledged way in order to improve it. As was the case with quite a few natural philosophers of the XVIIth century, never does he quavers in developing his own conception of the metallic transmutation. (shrink)

This article outlines procedures for the feedback of individual research data to participants. This feedback framework was developed in the context of a personalized medicine research project in Canada. Researchers in this domain have an ethical obligation to return individual research results and/or material incidental findings that are clinically significant, valid and actionable to participants. Communication of individual research data must proceed in an ethical and efficient manner. Feedback involves three procedural steps: assessing the health relevance of a finding, re-identifying (...) the affected participant, and communicating the finding. Re-identification requires researchers to break the code in place to protect participant identities. Coding systems replace personal identifiers with a numerical code. Double coding systems provide added privacy protection by separating research data from personal identifying data with a third "linkage" database. A trusted and independent intermediary, the "keyholder", controls access to this linkage database. (shrink)

Participatory Technology Assessment initiatives have usually been analyzed as if they existed in a social and political vacuum. This article analyzes the linkages that occur, in both directions, between the microcosm set up by a pTA exercise and the real world outside. This dual-dynamics perspective leads to a new way of understanding the function and significance of pTA initiatives. Rather than viewing them as a means to create the ideal conditions for real public debate, they are viewed here as an (...) additional public arena in which sociotechnical controversies are played out. This perspective is developed from the analysis of an interactive technology assessment exercise conducted by the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, on the topic of genetically modified vines. (shrink)

The concept of continuing professional development (CPD) for teachers combines issues of training, recognition, and professional effectiveness. In this article, we examine the conditions and effects of the implementation of CPD policies at the international and national levels, before looking comparatively at concrete CPD training provision in two “academies” in France. We seek to identify certain conditions for the renewal of in-service teacher training engineering devices and, more broadly, to document major contemporary issues for the teaching profession: attractiveness, recognition, renewal, (...) mobility, and professional development. (shrink)

To view Virusland, please visit: https://vimeo.com/547675919. Password: virusland. To view the entire Virusland 2020 project, visit www.virusland.org.Science fiction in found footage. This is not the future. You could buy any of these helmets. Just look at the credits at the end of the video. You find the name of the helmet you like best. You can order online. They are usually sold in different colors. The front is made of plexiglass. But the plastic behind the head and around the face (...) varies in shape and color. Some of these helmets make you look like a cosmonaut. But most often you would just look weird.We have mainly used commercials, which we found on the Web. It does not mean there was no work involved. In... Read More. (shrink)

The European Union approach to data protection consists of assessing the adequacy of the data protection offered by the laws of a particular jurisdiction against a set of principles that includes purpose limitation, transparency, quality, proportionality, security, access, and rectification. The EU's Data Protection Directive sets conditions on the transfer of data to third countries by prohibiting Member States from transferring to such countries as have been deemed inadequate in terms of the data protection regimes. In theory, each jurisdiction is (...) evaluated similarly and must be found fully compliant with the EU's data protection principles to be considered adequate. In practice, the inconsistency with which these evaluations are made presents a hurdle to international data-sharing and makes difficult the integration of different data-sharing approaches; in the 20 years since the Directive was first adopted, the laws of only five countries from outside of the EU, Economic Area, or the European Free Trade Agreement have been deemed adequate to engage in data transfers without the need for further administrative safeguards. (shrink)

The paper investigates how field experimentation of genetically modified crops became central to the French controversy on genetically modified organisms in recent years. Initially constructed in the 1980s as a cognitive endeavor to be preserved from lay interference, field trials of genetically modified crops were reconceived as “an intrusion in the social space,” which had to be negotiated with actors from that space. In order to analyze this transformation, the authors suggest that it is necessary to develop an interpretive framework (...) that combines theoretical perspectives from science and technology studies and the sociology of social problems, and emphasizes the importance of the way in which actors compete in a heterogeneous public space, to put forward alternative framings of problems. The authors present a detailed analysis of the interactions and conflicts between actors in diverse social arenas in order to better understand the dynamics of this sociotechnical controversy. (shrink)

A common finding in the study of emotion and decision making is the tendency for fear and anxiety to decrease risk taking. The current meta-analysis summarises the strength and variability of this...

Five years ago, an article co-written by two of us (Joly and Simard) presented an emerging trend to disclose certain individual genetic results to research participants. Since then, both technologies and research practices have evolved significantly. Given this rapid evolution, our goal is to provide updated and thorough guidance on this issue. Our paper begins by identifying the ethical principles that support the return of results: justice, beneficence, and respect for persons. Then, it presents the results of an analysis (...) of international norms on the return of results, covering both general and individual research results. It reveals existing divergence and consensus on these topics within the international community. With the goal of promoting greater harmonization, we conclude by proposing a flexible framework for the return of individual research results. (shrink)

Five years ago, an article co-written by some of us presented an emerging trend to disclose some individual genetic results to research participants within the international research community. At the time, ethical norms and scholarly publications on the return of results often did not distinguish between the return of research results in general and the return of unexpected results. Both technologies and research practices have evolved significantly. Today whole genome and exome sequencing are increasingly affordable and frequently used in genetic (...) research. Because these techniques produce a vast amount of interpretable and non-interpretable data about an individual, the issue of how to manage information generated by such technologies needs to be considered. However, the development of international ethical guidelines has not kept up with the rapid pace of technological progress. Indeed developments in genomic biobanking also challenge the duty to disclose research results. (shrink)

Physicians frequently face ethical dilemmas when caring for patients. To help them to cope with these, biomedical ethics aims to implement moral norms for particular problems and contexts. As a means of studying the cognitive and neurobiological features underlying the respect for these norms, moral cognitive neuroscience could help us to understand and improve ethical questioning. The article reviews recent developments in the field and presents neurobiological arguments to highlight why some moral rules are universally shared and why some ethical (...) responses are very dependent on context. (shrink)

Epistemic injustice occurs when someone is wronged in their capacity as a knower.[1] More and more attention is being paid to the epistemic injustices that exist in our scientific practices. In a recent paper, Fabien Medvecky argues that science communication is fundamentally epistemically unjust. In what follows we briefly explain his argument before raising several challenges to it.

Anticipatory policy for gene editing requires assessing public opinion about this new technology. Although previous surveys have examined respondents’ views on the moral acceptability of various hypothetical uses of CRISPR, they have not considered whether these scenarios are perceived as plausible. Research in construal level theory indicates that participants make different moral judgments about scenarios seen as likely or near and those seen as unlikely or distant. Therefore, we surveyed a representative sample of 400 Americans and Canadians about both the (...) likelihood and the permissibility of 23 commonly discussed uses of gene editing. Respondents with more knowledge of gene editing generally thought these applications would be more likely within the next 20 years. There was a strong positive relationship between the perceived likelihood and permissibility of most CRISPR applications. Our results suggest that ongoing public engagement efforts for gene editing could be improved by taking its perceived time-frames into account. (shrink)

Although Canada has not yet enacted any biobanking-specific privacy law, guidance and oversight are provided via various federal and provincial health and privacy-related laws as well as via ethics and policy documents. The primary policy document governing health research, the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, provides the framework for the strong role of Research Ethics Boards in Canada, and limits research funding from Canada's three main federal funding agencies to those who agree to adhere to its (...) policies. The broad consent model is gaining traction in Canada, although lack of legal and constitutional precedence for the broad consent or opt-out options makes this an evolving issue. In general, data is required to be coded; more specific security measures are outlined in guidelines that may be implemented by local policy. International sharing is allowed, and Canada meets the European Union's standards for receipt of data and samples. (shrink)

With a population of over 1.3 billion, China is the most populous country in the world. It is facing an acute aging population problem, with a projected 440 million residents over age 60 and 101 million over age 80 by 2050. Furthermore, rapid industrialization and urbanization in China have resulted in serious air pollution and associated public health problems, including an increase in respiratory diseases and cancers. These and other demographic trends have generated concerns about the cost of health care (...) and its impact on population health. In recent years, the Chinese government has invested heavily in the fields of translational research and biobanking with the hope that research in both fields can yield effective solutions to improve the public’s health and quality of life. The establishment of national biobanks was identified as a major initiative needed for the biomedical industry in the 12th Five-Year National Development Plan of Strategic Emerging Industries promulgated by the State Council in 2012. (shrink)

Members of oppressed groups are often silenced. One form of silencing is what Kristie Dotson calls “testimonial smothering”. Testimonial smothering occurs when a speaker limits her testimony in virtue of the reasonable risk of it being misunderstood or misapplied by the audience. Testimonial smothering is thus a form of epistemic paternalism since the speaker is interfering with the audience’s inquiry for their benefit without first consulting them. In this paper, we explore the connections between epistemic injustice and epistemic paternalism through (...) the phenomenon of silencing. We argue that when you silence your testimony as a result of epistemic injustice it is an act of epistemic paternalism and that it is epistemically permissible. In fact, self-silencing resulting from epistemic injustice is a particularly clear example of permissible epistemic paternalism. (shrink)

(2011). ACCE, Pharmacogenomics, and Stopping Clinical Trials: Time to Extend the CONSORT Statement? The American Journal of Bioethics: Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 11-13.

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, Issue 1, Page 13-15, January 2012.

In “The Possibility of Epistemic Nudging” (2021), Thomas Grundmann examines nudging as applied to doxastic attitudes. Grundmann argues that given the right presuppositions about knowledge, justified beliefs, and the relevant belief-forming processes, doxastic nudging can result in justified beliefs and even knowledge in the nudgee. In this short response we will raise some critical concerns for Grundmann’s project as well as open up a path for epistemic nudges (nudges that result in justified beliefs or knowledge) that Grundmann too quickly dismisses.

With a population of over 1.3 billion, China is the most populous country in the world. It is facing an acute aging population problem, with a projected 440 million residents over age 60 and 101 million over age 80 by 2050. Furthermore, rapid industrialization and urbanization in China have resulted in serious air pollution and associated public health problems, including an increase in respiratory diseases and cancers. These and other demographic trends have generated concerns about the cost of health care (...) and its impact on population health. In recent years, the Chinese government has invested heavily in the fields of translational research and biobanking with the hope that research in both fields can yield effective solutions to improve the public’s health and quality of life. The establishment of national biobanks was identified as a major initiative needed for the biomedical industry in the 12th Five-Year National Development Plan of Strategic Emerging Industries promulgated by the State Council in 2012. (shrink)