The author argues that the new digital possibilities in scientific communication do not imply, by any means, that many old requirements are becoming dispensable. The essential elements of the system, such as quality assurance, authenticity, orientation and navigation will still demand considerable expense. The overall system costs will rather be higher in a hybrid system. In the second part of his lecture, the author discusses the two fundamentally different open access models, the Golden Road, which is supposed to be able (...) to operate, eventually, without any publishers, and the Green Road, whose functioning is based on primary publication through publishing houses. Finally, the basic issue of the indispensable qualitative stratigraphy of scientific documents is addressed. For this, the published journals, which also provide topical focus and, thus, orientation as well as active marketing in terms of optimal diffusion, still are a very capable tool. It is questionable to what extent these tasks could be fulfilled by university-based repositories. The publishing houses, on the other hand, have a proven track record of providing a wide range of useful value-adding services in digital publishing. (shrink)

Peirce and Frege both distinguished between the propositional content of an assertion and the assertion of a propositional content, but with different notational means. We present a modification of Peirce’s graphical method of logic that can be used to reason about assertions in a manner similar to Peirce’s original method. We propose a new system of Assertive Graphs, which unlike the tradition that follows Frege involves no ad hoc sign of assertion. We show that axioms of intuitionistic logic can be (...) derived from AGs, and argue that AGs analyse and represent assertions and illocutionary content in a way which is motivated both by its logical properties and its historical connection with the ideas that led to the development of the graphical method. (shrink)

In 2018-2019, at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, we developed and piloted a narrative-based health systems science intervention for patients living with HIV and medical students in which medical students co-wrote patients’ life narratives for inclusion in the electronic health record. The pilot study aimed to assess the acceptability of the “life narrative protocol” from multiple stakeholder positions and characterize participants’ experiences of the clinical and pedagogical implications of the LNP. Students were recruited from (...) KSOM. Patients and staff were recruited from the Maternal, Child, and Adolescent/Adult Center for Infectious Disease and Virology at Los Angeles County+USC Medical Center. Ten patients, seventeen students, and ten MCA staff participated in the pilot study. Qualitative methods were used to gather data from students’, patients’, and staff’s perspectives. Three themes emerged from the thematic analysis: patients’ life narratives conveyed their unique life experiences and voices; the protocol could result in wide-ranging effects on HIV care; the LNP enabled students to contribute value to patients’ healthcare. Across groups, participants considered the LNP an acceptable intervention. The LNP, its limitations, and implications for HIV care, narrative medicine, and health information technology are presented. (shrink)

This study investigates the relative importance of trait anger and trait anxiety in financial decision-making. Given the disparate economic, cultural and social environments within an emerging market, this study focuses on South Africa to provide unique insights. The use of a student experimental cohort and hypothetical scenarios allows for the assessment of prima facie evidence of the merits of future research using more experienced participants and more realistic scenarios. Gender and race are incorporated as explanatory variables given the history of (...) South Africa and the disparate opportunities amongst individuals of different races. Both variables are also notable indicators of financial behaviour and decision-making. A questionnaire was completed by 288 university students which measured Trait anxiety and Trait anger using the Anxiety Inventory and Anger Expression Inventory-2. Using multinomial logistic regressions, the results showed that White participants and those individuals with higher levels of anger are more inclined to invest in equity. Alternatively, Women and individuals with higher levels of anxiety were found to be more risk averse. These findings are relevant to financial advisers as most of the predictive outcomes relate to risk which is vital in making investment decisions. While prior research has shown the relevance of personality traits on investment performance, the added dimension of gender and race adds practicality to the findings. It also highlights the necessity of including demographic variables when assessing personality traits. (shrink)

This anthology of philosophical texts by Greek and Roman authors brings together works from the late fifth century BC to the sixth century AD that comment on major aesthetic issues such as the perception of beauty and harmony in music and the visual arts, structure and style in literature, and aesthetic judgement. It includes important texts by Plato and Aristotle on the status and the role of the arts in society and in education, and Longinus' reflections on the sublime in (...) literature, in addition to less well-known writings by Philodemus, Cicero, Seneca, Plotinus, Augustine and Proclus. Most of the texts have been newly translated for this volume, and some are available in English for the first time. A detailed introduction traces the development of classical aesthetics from its roots in Platonism and Aristotelianism to its ultimate form in late Antiquity. (shrink)

BackgroundPublic awareness and engagement are among the main prerequisites for protecting the rights of research participants and for successful and sustainable functioning of research biobanks. The aim of our study was to analyse public awareness and attitudes towards research biobanks in Latvia, and to compare these data with the results of the 2010 Eurobarometer study. We also analysed the influence of awareness and attitudes towards biobanks on willingness to participate in biobank studies and on preferred type of informed consent.MethodsWe developed (...) a 12-question survey repeating seven questions about biobanks from the 2010 Eurobarometer questionnaire and adding five others. After describing the study variables, we performed a two-stage analysis of the results. In the first stage we analysed differences between the answers from 2010 and 2019 and conducted univariate analyses of relationships among particular variables, and between those variables and the socio-demographic characteristics of participants. In the second stage we investigated multivariable associations of willingness to participate and type of consent with awareness, trust and the socio-economic characteristics of participants.ResultsAccording to our study, the general public in Latvia is still not well informed about research biobanks. Fewer respondents have heard about research biobanks than in 2010. At the same time, the number of respondents who are willing to donate biological samples and personal data to a biobank has increased, e.g. the number of respondents who would definitely or probably be willing to provide information about themselves has increased from 25.8.% to 40.7 since 2010. Overall, concerns about the donation of different types of biological samples and data to a biobank have slightly decreased.ConclusionsPublic awareness about biobanks is important for their sustainability. It needs to be increased not only by traditional methods of informing the public, but also by more innovative and participatory approaches, e.g. by citizen science projects. There is a need to strengthen the public visibility and trustworthiness of ethics committees in Latvia in the field of biobanking. (shrink)

L’Epistola ad V. C. de Henry More ( Epistola H. Mori ad V.C. quae Apologiam complectitur pro Cartesio, quaeque introductionis loco esse poterit ad universam philosophiam cartesianam ), publiée plusieurs fois du vivant de More, a toujours été lue, par les commentateurs, essentiellement comme une étape, tout à fait centrale, dans l’histoire des relations de More à Descartes. C’est une thèse interprétative que je partage, mais à laquelle je voudrais essayer d’ajouter une perspective de lecture. Je voudrais montrer que l’Epistola, (...) si elle est considérée dans toutes les étapes de son histoire éditoriale, peut être lue, davantage que comme une étape, quoique capitale, comme un condensé de l’histoire du changement d’attitude de More par rapport à Descartes. En effet, l’histoire des péripéties éditoriales qui la caractérisent reproduit à petite échelle l’histoire complexe du rapport de More à la philosophie cartésienne et, en même temps, permet de mieux l’éclairer. (shrink)

Recent studies showing that pontine burst cells carry a monocular code for rapid eye movements raise questions about the organisation of signals at more central levels. Evidence that the superior colliculus may also be involved in the coding of movements in depth is reviewed. Recent work showing that the global effect is a property of refixations in 3-D space is another indication that the oculomotor systems for direction and depth are centrally coupled.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Moral Motivation and the Development of Francis Hutcheson’s PhilosophyJohn D. BishopHutcheson was an able philosopher, but philosophical analysis was not his only purpose in writing about morals. 1 Throughout his life his writings aimed at promoting virtue; his changing philosophical views often had to conform, if he could make them, to that rhetorical end. But a mind which understands philosophical argument cannot always control the conclusions at which it (...) arrives. The result for Hutcheson was often tension in his thought—which in the end produced a farrago when he tried to create a system of moral philosophy.Throughout his writing career, Hutcheson’s views on the problem of moral motivation were a combination of change and development against a background of certain constant views. A close examination of his views on moral motivation throws light on the development of his thought, including his growing Stoicism, and some of the changes he made to the moral sense theory.The phrase “moral motivation” can refer to either of two issues. On the one hand there is the question of what motivates virtuous actions, and the usual answer for Hutcheson is benevolence. Because they are approved by the moral sense, actions motivated by benevolence are morally good or virtuous (terms which I will use interchangeably). Hutcheson in his late writings calls such actions “formally good” to distinguish them from actions which do in fact promote the greatest happiness, or the natural good, of others; these latter actions are “materially good.” 2 On the other hand there is [End Page 277] the question of how our knowledge of the virtuousness of certain actions can motivate and how in particular such knowledge can motivate morally good actions. For Hutcheson we know which actions are morally good because we have a moral sense, but how this knowledge motivates morally good actions is a question Hutcheson made several attempts to answer. This second question, how the moral sense can motivate morally good actions, is the focus of this paper. The development of Hutcheson’s idea of benevolence will be commented on briefly, but first we need to look at some of the unchanging aspects of Hutcheson’s thought and purposes to provide background to the issue of motivation.Virtuous actions are the result of virtuous character. Hutcheson maintained this from his earliest publications (Reflections, par. 5) to his posthumous System. 3 A virtuous character cannot be directly chosen, even if we wanted to, because we cannot choose to have benevolent desires: “[N]either benevolence nor any other affection or desire can be directly raised by volition” (Inquiry, IV, 139; revised from first edition).But virtue can be cultivated:... virtue, itself, or good dispositions of mind, are not directly taught, or produced by instruction; they must be originally planted in our nature by its great Author, and afterwards strengthened and confirmed by our own cultivation.(Inquiry, IV, 271. Changed from I, 253, with reference to cultivation added; cf. also Introduction, 13, 25, 38, 39, 58–59, etc.)We can cultivate virtue in ourselves; and through writing, teaching, conversation, and social interaction, we can cultivate it in others. 4 At the start of his career, when announcing in Reflections the purpose of his writing on [End Page 278] moral theory, Hutcheson regrets that the moral systems common in his day are not conducive to promoting virtue: they are written, he says, by moralists who are “sour and morose in their deportment;... easily put out of humour...; dejected with common calamities, and insolent upon any prosperous change in fortune” (Reflections, par. 4). He promises that his forthcoming Inquiry will not have this fault. In the preface to the Essay he complains about the writings of the ethical egoists because “many [people] have been discouraged from all attempts of cultivating kind generous affections in themselves, by a previous notion that there are no such affections in nature...” (I, v; III, v). Throughout all the rest of his writings on morality Hutcheson advocates both the private and communal cultivation of virtue, and at the same time he contributes to that cultivation.The other constant which dominates the moral motivation issue is Hutcheson’s rejection of egoism. Benevolence is a... (shrink)

This essay tracks Merleau-Ponty’s understanding of the relationship between ontology and the practice of philosophy. More specifically, it aims to situate the later Merleau-Ponty’s conviction that philosophy would be reborn in a “return” to ontology alongside recent shifts in what we understand ontology to be and in the widely variable ways in which ontology is figured over the half-century since his death. Cet essai retrace la compréhension merleau-pontienne de la relation entre l’ontologie et la pratique de la philosophie. Plus spécifiquement, (...) il vise à situer la conviction du dernier Merleau-Ponty que la philosophie pourrait renaître d’un “retour” à l’ontologie, par rapport aux récents changements dans la compréhension de celle-ci, ainsi qu’aux manières très différentes dont elle a été conçue au cours d’un demi-siècle après sa mort. Questo articolo ripercorre la concezione merleau-pontiana della relazione tra ontologia e pratica della filosofia. In particolare, l’articolo mira a contestualizzare la convinzione, che ritroviamo nell’ultimo Merleau-Ponty, che la filosofia possa rinascere attraverso un “ritorno” all’ontologia, in riferimento ad alcune recenti oscillazioni nel modo in cui quest’ultima viene intesa e ai molteplici modi in cui essa è stata concepita nel corso dei cinquant’anni successivi alla sua morte. (shrink)

The quantified relevant logic RQ is given a new semantics in which a formula for all xA is true when there is some true proposition that implies all x-instantiations of A. Formulae are modelled as functions from variable-assignments to propositions, where a proposition is a set of worlds in a relevant model structure. A completeness proof is given for a basic quantificational system QR from which RQ is obtained by adding the axiom EC of 'extensional confinement': for all x(A V (...) B) -> (A V for all xB). with x not free in A. Validity of EC requires an additional model condition involving the boolean difference of propositions. A QR-model falsifying EC is constructed by forming the disjoint union of two natural arithmetical structures in which negation is interpreted by the minus operation. (shrink)

The Logic R4 is obtained by adding the axiom □(A v B) → (◇A v □B) to the modal relevant logic NR. We produce a model theory for this logic and show completeness. We also show that there is a natural embedding of a Kripke model for S4 in each R4 model structure.

RésuméLe mathématicien et astronome andalou Ibn Muʿāḏ al-Jayyānī est l'auteur d'un important commentaire sur le concept de rapport, dans lequel il se propose de justifier la définition euclidienne de la proportionnalité entre grandeurs – la célèbre Définition V.5 – et celle du rapport plus grand. Nous donnons, en plus d'une analyse de ce commentaire, une traduction française et une édition critique du texte original arabe. Nous avons également tenté de faire le point sur certains détails liés à la biographie d'Ibn (...) Muʿāḏ. (shrink)

Рассматриваются актуальные проблемы философской антропологии, проводится анализ парадоксов и противоречий, возникающих при изучении человека, тех кардинальных сдвигов в культуре, которые открыли новые стороны человеческого бытия. Для студентов.

The transition from self-consciousness as the unhappy consciousness to reason as the critique of idealism is among the most important in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. Yet this transition is implicit and not readily discernible. This paper investigates whether we can discover and describe any roadblock that the unhappy consciousness is able to knock down, or despite which it is able to maneuver, and so become reason; or whether the unhappy consciousness arrives at an impassable dead end and either manages to (...) create a detour around it or just begins again, unexplained and unexplainably, almost ex nihilo, as reason; or whether, despite its implicitness, there exists a continuous, tenable, and unimpeded path from self-consciousness to reason. (shrink)

The term 'Machiavellianism', used to designate a tough politics knowing no ethical barriers, entered firmly into circulation as far back as the sixteenth century. It was the negative reaction to the maxims in The Prince that defined the initial attitude toward Machiavelli's doctrine, and the internal polemic with this initial assessment has spawned an endless stream of literature endeavoring to justify in one way or other the ill-starred secretary of the Florentine Republic. In sheer number of publications, pro-Machiavelli views exceed (...) anti-Machiavelli views by many times. And yet questions remain; the original negative reaction is not eradicated, just as the striving for apologetics is not eradicated. (shrink)

The second half of the 1940s left its mark on the history of Soviet scholarship [nauka] as a special period in the interrelations between scholarship and society, as a time of direct encroachment on the development of scholarship by the totalitarian state. This direct ideological diktat over the activity of scholars [uchenye] took the form of scholarly [nauchnye] discussions, as they were called. They were an expression of the striving of Party-bureaucratic structures to unify the development of knowledge and to (...) impose like-mindedness on the basic directions of scholarly activity. References to the philosophical discussion, the Lysenko session of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agriculture [VASKhNIL], the intrusion into the development of physics and chemistry, the discussions on issues of linguistics, physiology, etc., have become commonplace and have entered the textbooks, although the extent to which they have been studied varies. (shrink)

The Andalusian mathematician and astronomer Ibn Mun the celebrated Definition V.5.

Violence is a natural human state, a natural means of communication between one individual and another and it will remain so as long as society is in the stage of its "animal" evolution, as long as man in the mass remains, as Nietzsche put it, a "superchimpanzee." Violence is natural, and goodness and altruism are artificial; one must make a great effort to be good. To be good is an art. There are no laws that make us love one another. (...) But there are laws according to which we must fear or hate, or try to subjugate others. These are the laws of nature. (shrink)

Gender is known to be a term used to define the sociocultural form of the existence of gender: man and woman act not as natural definitions but as sociocultural phenomena. If gender is determined on the basis of physical, organic and psychophysiological characteristics, then, unlike it, gender is derived from the social, cultural and historical features of human being. Human behavior in society and how it is perceived in it and defines gender as a social gender. Gender is thus one (...) of the ways of social stratification of a society that, in combination with such socio-demographic factors as race, nationality, class, age, organizes the system of social hierarchy. Because gender is not a natural thing but a social construct, it implies self-awareness and self-determination. Gender has always been and remains a meaningful term. In the social sciences, "gender" has become more narrowly defined, denoting "social gender", that is, socially determined roles, identities and spheres of activity of men and women, which depend not on biological sexual differences, but on the social organization of society. Central to gender studies is the problem of social inequality between men and women. (shrink)