Wolf stories, including the systematic and government-sponsored killing of Yukon wolves, provide a context for the examination of assumptions about Western epistemology, and particularly science, in light of the “ethics-based epistemology” presented by Jim Cheney and Anthony Weston, with implications for research, responsibility, and animal welfare. Working from a premise of universal consideration, andminding the ethical basis of knowledge claims, enables richer conceptions of environmental ethics and creates new possibilities for animal welfare and managing for wildlife.

Cet article s'intéresse à la manière avec laquelle les résultats aux référendums français et néerlandais sur la Constitution européenne sont interprétés dans la presse anglo-canadienne et franco-québécoise à l'aune des récentes crises constitutionnelles. Les quotidiens ont ajusté leur « focale médiatique » en fonction de leur compréhension locale de l'événement, de sa mise en marché, de son usage politique, voire de la constitution de communautés émotionnelles. Ainsi, les journaux anglo-canadiens cantonneraient l'événement au temps très court de l'actualité quotidienne, alors que (...) les franco-québécois privilégieraient une trame temporelle plus longue.This article looks at the way in which the results to French and Dutch referenda on the European Constitution are interpreted in the Anglo-Canadian and Franco-Quebec in the light of recent constitutional crises. The adjusted their daily "Focal media" according to their local understanding of the event, its marketing, its political use, and even the formation of emotional communities. Thus, the Anglo-Canadian newspapers cantonneraient event at very short daily news, while Franco-Quebecois prefer a longer time frame. (shrink)

The changes in the short version of Leontios of Neapolis’ Life of John the Almsgiver are analyzed in order to evaluate their cause and to expose their literary character. It is shown that the saint’s oaths are suppressed due to a misunderstanding of a passage in the Prologue, and by respect of the Evangelical commandment. The short version also eliminates pagan concepts of fortune, emphasises the social hierarchy, the accordance between words and thoughts, the action of God as a cause (...) of miracles, and avoids to name God as a reason. The short version raises the stylistical level of the text using the methods of the Metaphrast which is common in the 10th century. The textual tradition also allows to date it into this century. The long version is surely the original text, and the changes made to it show a cultural change between the 7th and 10th centuries. (shrink)

_Systematic public vaccination constitutes a tremendous health success, perhaps the greatest achievement of biomedicine so far. There is, however, room for improvement. Each year, 1.5 million deaths could be avoided with enhanced immunisation coverage. In recent years, many countries have introduced mandatory childhood vaccination programmes in an attempt to avoid deaths. In Norway, however, the vaccination programme has remained voluntary. Our childhood immunisation programme covers protection for twelve infectious diseases, and Norwegian children are systematically immunised from six weeks to sixteen (...) years of age. In this article, we address the question of whether our country, Norway, should make the childhood vaccination programme mandatory. This question has received considerable public attention in the media, yet surprisingly little academic discussion has followed. The aim of the article is to systematically discuss whether it is morally justified to introduce a mandatory childhood vaccination programme in Norway. Our discussion proceeds as follows: We begin by presenting relevant background information on the history of vaccines and the current Norwegian childhood vaccination programme. Next, we discuss what we consider to be the most central arguments against mandatory childhood vaccination: the argument from the standpoints of parental rights, bodily integrity, naturalness, mistrust, and immunisation coverage. After that, we examine the central arguments in favour of mandatory childhood vaccination from the standpoints of harm, herd immunity, and as a precautionary strategy. We conclude that there are convincing moral arguments in favour of adopting a policy of mandatory childhood vaccination in Norway._ _Keywords_: autonomy, harm principle, herd immunity, parental rights, precautionary approach. (shrink)

We will all have sometimes cried out, while running between the bedroom and the bathroom, in the morning, as did King Peter of Georg Buechner’s Leonce und Lena: “But where is my shirt? and my trousers? Halt, few! Free will is here all open in front of me. Where are morals? Where are my cuffs? The categories are in the most scandalous confusion : two more buttons are sewn on, the snuff-box is stuck in the right pocket; my whole system (...) is in disarray.”. (shrink)

Most students of Greek philosophy would probably find it difficult to recount significant features of Cynic philosophy from their undergraduate or graduate courses in philosophy; it would often be omitted from the treatment of Hellenistic or later philosophy. Such omission was due not simply to an oversight on the part of the instructor but also to the general lack of interest among the scholarly community. Of course, the scholarly community had little material to nourish its insights; Dudley’s work was about (...) the only book easily to be found on the topic. However, evidence of a new interest in the Cynics is evidenced not simply by this book but by other works that have been emerging over the last while—even beyond the narrow confines of philosophy. Navia had recently published a detailed bibliography on the Cynics. Canadians can be happy that already years ago Paquet published at Ottawa an important sourcebook on the Cynics, with fragments pertaining to them translated into French. Recently a scholarly conference of CNRS in France put its proceedings into print on this topic, while somewhat earlier, a German anthology on the subject also appeared. All these stirrings of interest notwithstanding, there are other and even more provocative reasons to take note of the Cynics. Some theologians have been courting the idea that Jesus might have been a Cynic. The most serious work along these lines has been done by Downing, who has published a book of fragments as well as a monograph on the topic. In the more popular sphere, Crossan has been advocating the thesis that Jesus was a “Jewish Cynic.” Finally, given the many so-called “cynical” attitudes that have developed on the part of the general populace toward politicians, authority figures, sports heroes, and even entertainers, it seems worthwhile to pause for a consideration of the roots of cynicism and look at what is thought to be its ancient namesake. (shrink)