A significant number of asylum seekers who largely survived torture live in the United States. Asylum seekers have complex social and medical problems with significant barriers to health care access. When evaluating and providing care for survivors, health providers face important challenges regarding medical ethics and professional codes. We review ethical concerns in regard to accountability, the patient–physician relationship, and moral responsibilities to offer health care irrespective of patient legal status; competing professional responsibility toward society and the judiciary system; concerns (...) about the consistency of asylum seekers’ claims; ethical concerns surrounding involving trainees and researching within the evaluation setting; and the implication of broader societal views towards rights and social justice. We discuss contributing factors, including inadequate and insufficient provider training, varying and inadequate institutional commitment, asylum seekers’ significant medical and social problems, and the broader health and social system issues. We review existing resources to address these concerns and offer suggestions. (shrink)

Short-term humanitarian medical volunteerism has grown significantly among both clinicians and trainees over the past several years. Increasingly, both volunteers and their respective institutions have faced important challenges in regard to medical ethics and professional codes that should not be overlooked. We explore these potential concerns and their risk factors in three categories: ethical responsibilities in patient care, professional responsibility to communities and populations, and institutional responsibilities towards trainees. We discuss factors increasing the risk of harm to patients and communities, (...) including inadequate preparation, the use of advanced technology and the translation of Western medicine, issues with clinical epidemiology and test utility, difficulties with the principles of justice and clinical justice, the lack of population-based medicine, sociopolitical effects of foreign aid, volunteer stress management, and need for sufficient trainee supervision. We review existing resources and offer suggestions for future skill-based training, organisational responsibilities, and ethical preparation. (shrink)

Gegenwärtig wird das Wiedererstarken von Verschwörungstheorien explizit als Gefahr für die westlichen Demokratien begriffen. Einerseits, weil Verschwörungstheoretiker*innen die heutige Demokratie als manipuliert betrachten. Für sie wird Demokratie nur vorgespielt, die eigentlichen Entscheidungen werden an anderer Stelle getroffen. Andererseits, weil die Verbreitung genau jenes Glaubens ein Kernelement von Demokratien verunmöglicht: den fairen Streit um das beste Argument. Dabei stehen Verschwörungstheorien der Idee von Demokratie nicht diametral gegenüber, sondern bedienen sich dieser bisweilen als Inspirationsquelle, beispielsweise wenn das Volk sich gegen die Machenschaften (...) einer korrupten Elite wehren soll. Der Beitrag untersucht deshalb, welche Verbindungen zwischen Verschwörungstheorien und Demokratie bestehen. Gibt es eine undurchdringbare Beziehung zwischen beiden Bereichen, die den Umgang mit ihnen zu einem fortdauernden normativen Problem werden lässt? Jener Beziehung wird auf zwei Wegen nachgegangen. Der eine Weg kann als Postfaktizitätsstrang bezeichnet werden. Die These lautet, dass wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse, die grob als Poststrukturalismus zusammengefasst werden, ein grundsätzliches Misstrauen gegenüber etablierten epistemischen und politischen Strukturen transportieren. Diese eigentlich demokratische Öffnung ist dann als Einfallstor für absurde Theorien aller Art zu verstehen. Anhand der Theorien radikaler Demokratie wird diskutiert, weshalb gerade die epistemischen Grundlagen der Demokratie Verschwörungstheorien einen berechtigen Platz im demokratischen Diskurs einräumen sollen und wie sie sich wiederum von dem Diskurs abgrenzen lassen. Der Ideologiestrang dagegen betont nicht eine Auflösung von Gewissheit und damit eine relativistische Grundhaltung, sondern die Rückkehr zu ideologisch aufgeladenen Weltbildern, beispielsweise in völkischen Semantiken. Verschwörungstheorien, so lässt es sich in den Analysen Kritischer Theorie nachlesen, kreieren durch Komplexitätsreduzierung ein Verständnis der Welt, in dem sich entgegen aller globaler Vernetzung wirkliche demokratische Selbstbestimmung zurückerobern lässt. Als Elitenkritik antworten sie so auf Entfremdungsprozesse moderner Gesellschaften. Beide Stränge ergeben eine eigentümliche Gemengelage. Während einerseits der Aufstieg von Verschwörungstheorien auf Komplexitätssteigerung und dem damit verbundenen Zusammenbruch traditioneller und epistemischer Autorität zurückgeführt wird, werden Verschwörungstheorien andererseits als bloße Form der Komplexitätsreduktion verstanden. Folgend gilt zu zeigen, wie sich beide Stränge zueinander verhalten, um einerseits die erneute Popularität von Verschwörungstheorien zu verstehen und anderseits der Gefahr einer Instrumentalisierung demokratischer Semantiken etwas entgegenzuhalten. (shrink)

Almost all researchers are familiar with the concept of plagiarism these days. However, many scholars allege that plagiarism and its ethical ramifications are new western concepts that have not exi...

This paper briefly examines the topic of business ethics and attempts to suggest a code of ethics for multinational firms. While most companies have basic policies on employee integrity, confidentiality and sexual harassment, relatively few have established policies regarding bribery, exploitive child labor, human rights violations and other issues they may encounter in the global market place (Drake, 1998). Until recently, very few companies had truly global operations. Consequently little attention was paid to the issue of ethical guidelines in a (...) global context. Recent changes in international markets have led to an explosion of corporations with global operations, and the need for a global code of ethics has grown commensurately. In this paper we explore the issue of global business ethics and attempt to provide a framework for future discussion. We also examine some of the unique difficulties surrounding the development of any set of global business standards. Key among these difficulties is the issue of competing ethical values in home and host countries. (shrink)

Analysing cylindromatosis and the associated defects in the CYLD gene is providing novel insights into the molecular principles of epithelial growth control and carcinogenesis in, and beyond, the skin. In this review, we summarize the histopathology and histogenesis of cylindromas, and the available genetic information on patients with these skin appendage tumors. Focusing on recent data concerning the normal functions and signaling interactions of the CYLD gene product, we explain how CYLD interferes with TNF‐α or TLR‐mediated signaling as well as (...) with JNK or NF‐κB‐dependent p65/50 signaling to limit inflammation. In addition, we delineate how CYLD interferes with activation of the proto‐oncogene Bcl3 and with cyclin D1 expression to limit tumorigenesis, and chart how tumor growth‐promoting agents or UV light and inflammatory mediators can activate CYLD. We argue that these recent insights into CYLD function and cylindroma pathogenesis may lead to the development of novel molecular strategies for cancer prevention and treatment. BioEssays 29:1203–1214, 2007. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

The World Medical Association (WMA), the global representation of the medical profession, first adopted the International Code of Medical Ethics (ICoME) in 1949 to outline the professional duties of physicians to patients, other physicians and health professionals, themselves and society as a whole. The ICoME recently underwent a major 4-year revision process, culminating in its unanimous adoption by the WMA General Assembly in October 2022 in Berlin. This article describes and discusses the ICoME, its revision process, the controversial and uncontroversial (...) issues, and the broad consensus achieved among WMA constituent members, representing over 10 million physicians worldwide. The authors analyse the ICoME, including its response to contemporary changes and challenges like ethical plurality and globalisation, in light of ethical theories and approaches, reaching the conclusion that the document is a good example of international ethical professional self-regulation. (shrink)

This book brings together a series of interviews conducted by noted Iranian social scientist Ramin Jahanbagloo. These interviews cover the ideas of Indian-ness, Indian thought, religion, politics, secularism, and pluralism, as well as Gandhi, India and Pakistan, democracy, globalization and culture.

Mahatma Gandhi was one of those rare human beings who was simultaneously a theoretician and practitioner of tolerance. Gandhi was possessed of an inner conviction that tolerance was not only one of the key words of his own century but of centuries still to come. It is in this sense that his ideas on non-violence and tolerance transcend the context of India itself, even though these ideas were initially conceived in relation to India's independence and future. Nevertheless, in spite of (...) what may seem obvious, it is no mere truism to state that Gandhi would not have been Gandhi had he not been born Indian. We say this in order to underscore that Gandhi's concept of tolerance was rooted in Indian culture. (shrink)

Unsicherheit und Kontingenz sind zu paradigmatischen Kategorien für die Interpretation des sozialen und politischen Raumes geworden. Sie wecken Hoffnung auf Veränderung, werden aber auch für gegenwärtige Herausforderungen wie die sogenannte Postfaktizität und den Populismus verantwortlich gemacht. Lucas von Ramin legt den Kern einer postmodernen Sozialphilosophie frei und rekonstruiert damit, wie aus der Kontingenz der Welt doch Zuversicht geschöpft werden kann. Er zeigt auf, dass der normative Anspruch einer solchen Philosophie nicht hoch genug geschätzt werden kann, ihre Grenzen jedoch an (...) der Gegenwart gemessen werden müssen. (shrink)

"A celebrated master of the spoken as well as the written word, Isaiah Berlin here gives us a rare memoir in the form of a dialogue." "Isaiah Berlin is renowned the world over for his analysis of the ideas that have influenced or transformed societies. He has a deep commitment to liberty and pluralism, and has devoted the half century and more of his professional life as a teacher and lecturer to exploring the conditions that allow these ideals to flourish, (...) and those that threaten them." "Berlin here intersperses insights into the development of his ideas and political philosophy with rich personal reminiscences. He discusses Machiavelli, Marx, Vico, Herder, and Herzen, among others, and their influence over him." "As he leads us from Petrograd to Oxford, Washington, Moscow, London, and Jerusalem, he speaks of his friends and contemporaries: W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, Igor Stravinsky, A. J. Ayer, Bertrand Russell, and many others. He tells of his moving encounters with Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, and Chaim Weizmann, and of his passion for music and literature." "Frank and engaging, Conversations with Isaiah Berlin is a remarkable record of one of the great intellectual odysseys of our time."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved. (shrink)

ABSTRACTDeath as an inevitable reality is a subject of study in various philosophical schools. This concept can be reviewed within three realms: semantics, ontology, and epistemology. The objective of this article is to examine death within the ontological realm in the thoughts of Mullā Sadrā and Schopenhauer, and it attempts to answer the question whether philosophical discussions on the concept of death in Sadrā’s transcendental wisdom, despite differences in principles, methods, and objectives, are comparable to Schopenhauer’s intellectual framework. Using a (...) descriptive-analytical approach, the present study first investigates the issue of death in the thought of both philosophers and then focuses on their comparative analysis. The findings of this study show that both philosophers believe in the dichotomy in the world, immortality of human nature after death, existence of suffering in the world, asceticism, austerity, love, and affection to all human beings. However, each of them analyzes and explains the issue of death within his own intellectual framework. (shrink)

At this ‘needy time’ in which humanity has been deteriorated into just dominance over nature through modern technicity, Martin Heidegger introduced art as the only way to overcome this modernity cr...

In recent years, Rorty’s anti-authoritarianism has been repeatedly associated with the loss of truth and a post-factual age. At the same time, Rorty is presented as a strict opponent of such positions. How is it that the same thinker who is held responsible for a postmodern decline is also to be understood as the most severe critic? To answer this question, this paper reconstructs Rorty’s anti-authoritarianism as a practice of solidarity by referring to his theory of recognition and virtue of (...) contingency. Subsequently, it can be shown why the accusations of post-facticity and ethnocentrism fall short. On the contrary, because his theory combines different political archetypes, the paper presents Rorty’s description of anti-authoritarianism as a social paradigm of contemporary societies. (shrink)

Iranian scholar Ramin Jahanbegloo interviews one of the most well-known environment activists of our time, Vandana Shiva, and in the process, addresses issues ranging from nature and spiritualism, the Chipko Movement and the birth of Navdanya, 'earth democracy', and 'seed globalization' to the functioning of neoliberal paradigm in India, swadeshi and village governance, corruption in India, the future of Indian farmers, and the relevance of Gandhi in the twenty-first century.

The goal of the study was to determine which aspects of interpersonal touch interactions lead to a positive or negative experience. Previous research has focused primarily on physical characteristics. We suggest that this may not be sufficient to fully capture the complexity of the experience. Specifically, we examined how fulfilment of psychological needs influences touch experiences and how this relates to physical touch characteristics and situational factors.In two mixed-method studies, participants described their most positive and most negative interpersonal touch experience (...) within a specific time frame. They reported fulfilment of nine needs, affect, intention, and reason for positivity/negativity, as well as the body part(s) touched, location, type of touch, interaction partner, and particular touch characteristics (e.g. humidity).Positive and negative touch experiences shared similar touch types, locations, and body parts touched, but differed in intended purpose and reasons. Overall, the valence of a touch experience could be predicted from fulfilment of relatedness, the interaction partner and initiator, and physical touch characteristics. Positive affect increased with need fulfilment, and negative affect decreased.The results highlight the importance of relatedness and reciprocity for the valence of touch, and emphasise the need to incorporate psychological needs in touch research. (shrink)

Iranian scholar Ramin Jahanbegloo interviews one of the leading political thinkers of our time, Bhikhu Parekh, and in the process, addresses issues ranging from cultural diversity, religion, and global ethics to identity politics, liberal democracy, Islam and Europe, Gandhi's role as a political thinker and social reformer, and the significance of multiculturalism and pluralism in the twenty-first century.

This paper examines the economic impact of implementing Corporate Social Responsibility in the supply chain operations of multinational corporations. Because they have global supply chains in emerging markets, MNCs face certain operational challenges. For example, unethical operations often result in a huge loss to MNCs in the long run, even though their initial cost seems to be low. In this paper, we extend the Bullwhip Effect theory in supply chain management to the ethical operations context, and define and evaluate a (...) special Bullwhip Effect due to Unethical Operations. Using economic data from various sources including Ford, Toyota, and GM in the auto industry, we first estimate the indices of BEUO for the three companies and demonstrate the economic necessity for MNCs to incorporate CSR with supply chain operations. We then propose a coherent approach, blending what we term the bottom-up and proactive methods, to achieve such an outcome. The bottom-up approach requires MNCs to switch their focus on stakeholders, shifting from shareholders to consumers and workers, and on decision levels from public relationships to supply chain operations. The proactive approach recommends initializing specific CSR operations to mitigate the negative impact of BEUO. Both theoretical analysis and case studies are conducted to evaluate our developed propositions that MNCs adopting the proposed CSR operations will in the long run achieve better economic performance. Recommended actions for implementation, based on best practices, are also presented. (shrink)

Talking Philosophy is as much a recollection of Sorabjis childhood and his scholarly life at Oxford as it is a philosophical reflection on issues as varied and complex as whether animals have reason or whether Gandhi could be considered an ethical role model.

Recent research shows that 20% of children face a form of chronic illness during childhood. The illness and its associated physical and mental challenges can affect such children's ‘being’ and influence how they develop as people. A significant aspect of a child's life that can be profoundly influenced by a chronic illness is education. This study employed a phenomenological approach to shed more light on the special education of such children. Temporality and embodiment were examined as two philosophical bases in (...) the phenomenological education of children with such chronic illnesses. Also, this educational model highlights that phenomenological understanding, and the healing connection in education, can increase the affected children's positive self-concept, directing them towards a satisfying and happy life. (shrink)

Research has shown that “no use” drug education programs, with the objective of scaring or shaming youth into abstinence, have not been effective in addressing problematic substance use. The ineffectiveness of such scare tactic approaches has led program developers to focus on prevention and harm reduction associated with drug use, or in general, health literacy promotion. While significant ‘discussion-based’ drug education programs have been developed over the past decade and has encouraged students to be expressive and critical thinkers regarding drug (...) use, their effective implementation has been a challenge. This paper introduces Engaged Philosophical Inquiry as a pedagogical approach in order to promote drug literacy. The EPI approach is used both as the content and means of professional development for high school teachers to address the significant role of teachers in these programs. Its goal is to help teachers become aware of and re-evaluate their biases, beliefs and behaviors, before they are able to facilitate a non-stereotyped, open, and thoughtful discussion on drug use related topics. The overall idea of this paper is based on an in-progress research project sponsored by Mitacs organization. It discusses the significance of the project by first presenting the existing methods and theoretical approaches to drug education. On that basis, it shows how EPI can contribute to traditional drug education approaches. It then describes how the methodology and phases of the project are rooted in a dialogical process that aim for a close collaboration with teachers. (shrink)

We thank our commentators for their thoughtful responses to our paper1 covering among other issues the relationships of ethics law and professional codes, the tensions between ethical universalism and cultural relativism and the phenomenon of moral judgement required when ethical norms conflict, including the norms of patient care versus obligations to others both now and in the future. Although the comments deserve more extensive discussion, in what follows we respond briefly to specific aspects of each commentary and remind readers that (...) professional codes of ethics are necessarily brief and that the International Code of Medical Ethics (ICoME) explicitly refers to the World Medical Association’s (WMA) mutually concordant and far more extensive ‘body of policies’.2 Sarela raises a fundamental and, as stated in the commentary, unresolved debate: ‘should ethics shape law or is it the converse’?3 We understand the ‘global medical ethos’ represented in the WMA’s revised ICoME to be firmly embedded in the assumption that ethics should shape law and that only where laws are so shaped do people governed by them have an ethical obligation to obey them. For the medical profession, laws permitting participation in torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading practices and punishments are categorically unethical, and therefore, doctors must not facilitate or participate in them—difficult as it may be for some doctors in some regions or environments to act accordingly. Schantz and Mansoori claim that ‘if a code of ethics is an act of professional self-regulation and professional self-regulation is community-dependent, then a code of ethics cannot be …. (shrink)

Collaborative learning with cases characteristically involves discussing and developing shared explanations. We investigated the argumentation scheme which learners use in constructing shared explanations over evidence. We observed medical students attempting to explain how a judge had arrived at his verdict in a case of medical negligence. The students were learning within a virtual learning environment and their communication was computer mediated. We identify the dialogue type that these learners construct and show that their argumentation conforms with an abductive form of (...) argumentation scheme (‘inference to the best explanation’). We also assessed the students’ learning and propose that it is related to particular features of this argumentation scheme. (shrink)

The protests which followed the death of Black citizens killed by White police officers in the United States show us clearly that the question of non-violent democratic theory is on the table as it was 60 years ago. Martin Luther King, Jr. was well aware of this issue when he became the most important leader of America’s Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. King’s recognition of Mahatma Gandhi’s legacy of non-violence helped him in his campaigns for integration and (...) voting rights, while guiding him to democratize the American democracy and re-evaluate the two concepts of ‘individual’ and ‘community’. (shrink)

Ramin Jahanbegloo elucidates the central concepts in the moral and political thought of Martin Luther King Jr., bringing out the subtlety, potency, and universal importance of his concepts of Agape love and non-violence, the Beloved Community and revolution of values, and his view of the relation between justice and compassion in politics.

This book suggests a link between the citizen-philosopher Socrates and the radical, disobedient, and nonviolent Socrates. Ramin Jahanbegloo explains how these two complementary characteristics were transmitted to nonviolent reformers and practitioners Henry David Thoreau, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Albert Camus.

What do we mean by nonviolence? What can nonviolence achieve? Are there limits to nonviolence? These are the questions that Ramin Jahanbegloo tackles in his journey through the major political advocates of nonviolence during the 20th century. Focusing on examples of their way of thinking in different cultural, geographic and political contexts, from the Indian Independence Movement and US Civil rights and Anti-Apartheid movements to the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia and nonviolent protests in Tunisia, Iran, Serbia and Hong-Kong, Jahanbegloo (...) explores why nonviolence remains relevant as a form of resistance against injustice and oppression around the world. (shrink)

We carry out some of Galois' work in the setting of an arbitrary first-order theory T. We replace the ambient algebraically closed field by a large model M of T, replace fields by definably closed subsets of M, assume that T codes finite sets, and obtain the fundamental duality of Galois theory matching subgroups of the Galois group of L over F with intermediate extensions F ≤ K ≤ L. This exposition of a special case of [10] has the advantage (...) of requiring almost no background beyond familiarity with fields, polynomials, first-order formulae, and automorphisms. (shrink)

Inspired from Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, this work is in the form of letters from an old philosopher to a young student, guiding, instructing, and passing on wisdom gathered from the experiences of life. They cover a comprehensive introduction to philosophy, wisdom, and the art of thinking, as well as discuss a range of themes and issues such as love, education, friendship, violence, ignorance, mediocrity, and happiness.

Amidst the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East and the reshaping of political systems in the region, the Iranian people remain mired in difficulties on their path to democratization. Much of this can be blamed on the gradual decline in activity within Iranian civil society and the stagnation of political imagination. If Iran is to have a future built on the solid foundation of a viable and legitimate political authority, Iranian civic actors must reimagine and revisit the notion of constitution-making (...) through sustained dissent and deliberation. Hannah Arendt's ideas are extremely helpful in this regard. The main purpose of this essay will be to explore how some of her most useful concepts may be applicable in the Iranian context. Briefly tracing the history of Iran since the Islamic Revolution, the paper then turns to a deeper examination of Arendt’s ideas to determine how they can foster resistance, civic engagement and eventual legitimate authority. The focus in the end will be on what Iranians can do to begin anew, to build foundations for the future, and to tell themselves a new story about their identity. (shrink)

After 30 years of research, the mechanisms underlying the evaluative priming effect are still a topic of debate. In this study, we tested whether the evaluative priming effect can result from associative relatedness rather than evaluative congruency. Stimuli that share the same evaluative connotation are more likely to show some degree of non-evaluative associative relatedness than stimuli that have a different evaluative connotation. Therefore, unless associative relatedness is explicitly controlled for, evaluative priming effects reported in earlier research may be driven (...) by associative relatedness instead of evaluative relatedness. To address this possibility, we performed an evaluative priming study in which evaluative congruency and associative relatedness were manipulated independently from each other. The valent/neutral categorisation task was used to ensure evaluative stimulus processing in the absence of response priming effects. Results showed an effect of associative relatedness but no effect of evaluative congruency. Our findings highlight the importance of controlling for associative relatedness when testing for evaluative priming effects. (shrink)

The Declaration of Geneva is one of the core documents of medical ethics. A revision process was started by the World Medical Association in 2016. The WMA has also used this occasion to examine how the Declaration of Geneva is used in countries throughout the world by conducting a survey of all WMA constituent members. The findings are highly important and raise urgent questions for the World Medical Association and its National Medical Associations : The Declaration of Geneva is only (...) rarely used as an oath text despite the fact that physicians’ oaths are generally widespread. This is not consistent with the intention and claim of the Declaration of Geneva. The article then discusses three questions. Should there be one single binding oath? Which organization should be responsible for such an oath? Which oath is the most obvious candidate? In a globalized world and despite all cultural diversity, the medical profession should have one core moral basis which is binding for physicians all over the world. The most obvious candidate for an oath incorporating this moral basis is the Declaration of Geneva. (shrink)