We examine the ethical, social, and regulatory barriers that may hinder research on therapeutic potential of certain controversial controlled substances like marijuana, heroin, or ketamine. Hazards for individuals and society and potential adverse effects on communities may be good reasons for limiting access and justify careful monitoring of these substances. Overly strict regulations, fear of legal consequences, stigma associated with abuse and populations using illicit drugs, and lack of funding may, however, limit research on their considerable therapeutic potential. We review (...) the surprisingly sparse literature and address the particular ethical concerns pertinent to research with illicit and addictive substances, such as undue inducement, informed consent, therapeutic misconception, and risk to participants, researchers, and institutions. We consider the perspectives of key research stakeholders and explore whether they may be infected with bias. We conclude by proposing an empirical research agenda to provide an evidentiary basis for ethical reasoning. (shrink)

Many diseases and disease symptoms still lack effective treatment. At the same time, certain controversial Schedule I drugs, such as heroin and cannabis, have been reputed to have considerable therapeutic potential for addressing significant medical problems. Yet, there is a paucity of U.S. clinical studies on the therapeutic uses of controlled drugs. For example, people living with HIV/aids experience a variety of disease- and medication-related symptoms. Their chronic pain is intense, frequent, and difficult to treat. Nevertheless, clinical trials of compassionate (...) management for their chronic symptoms, which should be a research priority, are stymied. Stakeholders’ Views on Barriers to Research on Controlled Substances Evelyn Rhodes, Michael Andreae, Tyler Bourgiose, Debbie Indyk, Rosamond Rhodes, and Henry Sacks We employed qualitative methods to develop an understanding of the barriers to research on potential therapeutic uses of Schedule I drugs so that they might be addressed. We elicited the perspectives of key stakeholder groups that would be involved in such studies: people living with HIV/aids, clinicians, and members of institutional review boards. As we identified obstacles to research, we found that all of the stakeholder groups arrived at the same conclusion, that clinical research on the therapeutic potential of these drugs is ethically required. (shrink)

Masked priming experiments occasionally revealed surprising effects: Participants responded slower for congruent compared to incongruent primes. This negative congruency effect was ascribed to inhibition of prime-induced activation [Eimer, M., & Schlaghecken, F. . Response faciliation and inhibition in subliminal priming. Biological Psychology, 64, 7–26.] that sets in if the prime activation is sufficiently strong. The current study tests this assumption by implementing manipulations designed to vary the amount of prime-induced activation in three experiments. In Experiments 1 and 3, NCEs were (...) observed despite reduced prime-induced activation. Experiment 2 revealed no NCE with at least similar prime strength. Thus, the amount of prime activation did not predict whether or not NCEs occurred. The findings are discussed with regard to the inhibition account and the recently proposed account of mask-induced activation [cf. Lleras, A., & Enns, J. T. . Negative compatibility or object updating? A cautionary tale of mask-dependent priming. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 475–493; Verleger, R., Jaskowski, P., Aydemir, A., van der Lubbe, R. H. J., & Groen, M. . Qualitative differences between conscious and nonconscious processing? On inverse priming induced by masked arrows. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 494–515]. (shrink)

Cognitive functions like perception, memory, language, or consciousness are based on highly parallel and distributed information processing by the brain. One of the major unresolved questions is how information can be integrated and how coherent representational states can be established in the distributed neuronal systems subserving these functions. It has been suggested that this so-called ''binding problem'' may be solved in the temporal domain. The hypothesis is that synchronization of neuronal discharges can serve for the integration of distributed neurons into (...) cell assemblies and that this process may underlie the selection of perceptually and behaviorally relevant information. As we intend to show here, this temporal binding hypothesis has implications for the search of the neural correlate of consciousness. We review experimental results, mainly obtained in the visual system, which support the notion of temporal binding. In particular, we discuss recent experiments on the neural mechanisms of binocular rivalry which suggest that appropriate synchronization among cortical neurons may be one of the necessary conditions for the buildup of perceptual states and awareness of sensory stimuli. (shrink)

By means of the examples of classical and Bohmian quantum mechanics, we illustrate the well-known ideas of Boltzmann as to how one gets from laws defined for the universe as a whole to dynamical relations describing the evolution of subsystems. We explain how probabilities enter into this process, what quantum and classical probabilities have in common and where exactly their difference lies.

After presenting the current version of principlism, in the process repudiating a widespread deductivist misinterpretation, a fundamental metaethical disagreement is developed by outlining the deductivistic critique of principlism. Once the grounds for this critique have been understood, the dispute between casuistry, deductivism and principlism can be restructured, and the model of "application" proven to be the central difference. In the concluding section it is argued that principlism is the most attractive position, if the perceptual model of weak intuitionism is made (...) more explicit. (shrink)

In this paper we calibrate the exact proof-theoretic strength of Kruskal's theorem, thereby giving, in some sense, the most elementary proof of Kruskal's theorem. Furthermore, these investigations give rise to ordinal analyses of restricted bar induction.

We set out a fundamental ontology of atomism in terms of matter points. While being most parsimonious, this ontology is able to match both classical and quantum mechanics, and it remains a viable option for any future theory of cosmology that goes beyond current quantum physics. The matter points are structurally individuated: all there is to them are the spatial relations in which they stand; neither a commitment to intrinsic properties nor to an absolute space is required. The spatial relations (...) change. All that is needed to capture change is a dynamical structure, namely dynamical relations as expressed in terms of the dynamical parameters of a physical theory. (shrink)

This paper presents a report on the first Swiss Master Class in Corporate Social Responsibility, which was held between the 8th and 9th December 2006 at HEC Lausanne in Switzerland. The first section of the report introduces the topic of the master class – ‚Corporations as Political Actors – Facing the Postnational Challenge’ – as well as the concept of the master class. The second section gives an overview of papers written by nine young scholars that were selected to present (...) their research. The brief summary of each paper also includes a summary of comments from the masters, practitioners, and NGO representatives at the event. The third section brings in the perspectives of one master and one NGO representative on the discussed issues. The final section offers a brief wrap-up of the discussed topics and outlines ways to structure future conceptual and empirical research. (shrink)

Hursthouse :57–68, 1991) argues that arational actions—e.g. kicking a door out of anger—cannot be explained by belief–desire pairs. The Humean Response to Hursthouse :25–38, 2000b) defends the Humean model from Hursthouse’s challenge. We argue that the Humean Response fails because belief–desire pairs are neither necessary nor sufficient for causing emotional actions. The Emotionist Response is to embrace Hursthouse’s conclusion that emotions provide an independent source of explanation for intentional actions. We consider Döring’s :214–230, 2003) feeling-based Emotionist account and argue that (...) it fails to explain arational actions. Finally, we develop our own Emotionist account, grounded in the Motivational Theory of Emotions one of us has developed. On our account, arational actions form a non-homogeneous class, some members of which must be understood as instrumental actions and some members of which must be understood as displacement behaviors of the kind animals display when their motivations are thwarted or in conflict. (shrink)

An essential part of particularism as a systematic option in philosophical ethics is the structure of perception. In this paper, we defend perception as a central feature against the meta-ethical and meta-epistemological prejudices of rationalism.The insurmountable border between perception and justification, which is central to rationalist ethics, rests on three premises that are rejected by particularism: ethical knowledge is not exclusively inferential or discursive, ethical reflection is not solely deductive reasoning, and the bases of justified actions do not have to (...) be universal laws.Against rationalist ethics, we defend perception as a central and primary source of ethical knowledge, as a way of non-discursive reflection and as a genuine form of ethical justification. Ethical experience is not only reason but the complex responsiveness of persons that develops biographically as a result of situations in social and culturally contingent contexts. (shrink)

Scientificity is essentially methodology. The use of information technology as methodological instruments in science has been increasing for decades, this raises the question: Does this transform science? This question is the subject of the Special Issue in Minds and Machines “The epistemological significance of methods in computer simulation and machine learning”. We show that there is a technological change in this area that has three methodological and epistemic consequences: methodological opacity, reproducibility issues, and altered forms of justification.

Crop genetic resources constitute a ‘new’ global commons, characterized by multiple layers of activities of farmers, genebanks, public and private research and development organizations, and regulatory agencies operating from local to global levels. This paper presents sui generis biocultural community protocols that were developed by four communities in Benin and Madagascar to improve their ability to contribute to, and benefit from, the crop commons. The communities were motivated in part by the fact that their national governments’ had recently ratified the (...) Plant Treaty and the Nagoya Protocol, which make commitments to promoting the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities and farmers, without being prescriptive as to how Contracting Parties should implement those commitments. The communities identified the protocols as useful means to advance their interests and/or rights under both the Plant Treaty and the Nagoya Protocol to be recognized as managers of local socio-ecological systems, to access genetic resources from outside the communities, and to control others’ access to resources managed by the community. (shrink)

This paper contributes to the (re-)conceptualisation of responsible innovation by proposing an evolutionary economic approach that focuses on the role of consumers in the innovation process. After a discussion of the philosophical foundations and ethical implications of this approach, which bears an explanatory potential that has not been adequately considered in previous discussions of responsible innovation, we present a first step towards capturing the important but often neglected role of consumers in innovation processes (including responsible innovation): We propose an agent-based (...) model that incorporates a multidimensional space of characteristics in which new products or services are represented by more than the mere aspect of price and quality. Instead, innovations are denoted by a large set of characteristics, including also negative or harmful ones. The model is used to illustrate that consumers’ heterogeneity and bounded rationality – even if considered in a simple manner – indeed play a crucial role in the creation and diffusion of responsible innovation which can and should be used for further work in this field and for possible extensions of the model. (shrink)

Adaptation to right-shifting prisms improves left neglect for mental number line bisection. This study examined whether adaptation affects the mental number line in normal participants. Thirty-six participants completed a mental number line task before and after adaptation to either: left-shifting prisms, right-shifting prisms or control spectacles that did not shift the visual scene. Participants viewed number triplets (e.g. 16, 36, 55) and determined whether the numerical distance was greater on the left or right side of the inner number. Participants demonstrated (...) a leftward bias (i.e. overestimated the length occupied by numbers located on the left side of the number line) that was consistent with the effect of pseudoneglect. The leftward bias was corrected by a short period of visuomotor adaptation to left-shifting prisms, but remained unaffected by adaptation to right-shifting prisms and control spectacles. The findings demonstrate that a simple visuomotor task alters the representation of space on the mental number line in normal participants. (shrink)

Infantologies is a collective writing project designed to express and summarise important ideas, approaches and forms of advocacy in a short and condensed method, in order to present a network of d...

O artigo reexamina a questão dos xenotransplantes, tecendo várias obser-vações sobre as práticas de xenotransplantes com o intuito de determinar com precisão o que se entende por “xenotransplante” e de esclarecer em que medida um transplante de animais no organismo humano pode ser denominado uma “quimera”. Em seguida, os aspectos problemáticos do XTP, desde uma perspectiva ética, embora não sejam abordados no artigo, são nomeados em sua relevância teórica para o conceito de justificação, num sentido ético-normativo. Esclarecimentos conceituais e terminológicos (...) preliminares são oferecidos pelos Autores a fim de deixar claro o que se entende, afinal, por “natureza”, tanto num sentido restrito quanto em sua relevância para as discussões éticas. O atual debate em torno de questões normativas e naturalistas da natureza e da ética é revisado em vários aspectos, culminando numa alternativa sistemática a ser desenvolvida e proposta. (shrink)

Entscheidungen verweisen in einem begrifflichen Sinne auf Gründe. Entscheidungssysteme bieten eine probabilistische Verlässlichkeit als Rechtfertigung von Empfehlungen an. Doch nicht für alle Situationen mögen Verlässlichkeitsgründe auch angemessene Gründe sein. Damit eröffnet sich die Idee, die Güte von Gründen von ihrer Angemessenheit zu unterscheiden. Der Aufsatz betrachtet an einem Beispiel, einem KI-Lügendetektor, die Frage, ob eine (zumindest aktuell nicht gegebene) hohe Verlässlichkeit den Einsatz rechtfertigen kann. Gleicht er nicht einem Richter, der anhand einer Statistik Urteile fällen würde?

Since Mathematics really is about what mathematicians do, in this paper, we will look at the mathematical practice of framing , in which an object of interest is viewed in terms of well-understood mathematical structures. The new perspective not only allows to deepen the understanding of e resp. object, it also facilitates new insights. We propose a model for framing in the context of theory graphs, and show how framing can be exploited to enhance the interaction with MKM systems. We (...) use the framing extension of our SACHS system — a semantic help system for MS Excel — as a concrete example. (shrink)

Based on the distinction between living body and lived body, we describe the disease-subject as representing the impact of disease on the existential life-project of the subject. Traditionally, an individual's subjectivity experiences disorders of the body and describes ensuing pain, discomfort and unpleasantness. The idea of a disease-subject goes further, representing the lived body suffering existential disruption and the possible limitations that disease most probably will impose. In this limit situation, the disease-subject will have to elaborate a new life-story, a (...) new character or way-of-being-in-the-world, it will become a different subject. (shrink)

Despite organizational ethical training programs, some employees still engage in unethical behavior. As such, organizational researchers have sought to examine why employees engage in unethical behavior and whether interventions can improve ethical misconduct. While some instruments measure moral development or ethical/unethical behaviors toward the organization, this study utilized a unique scale which evaluates perceptions of ethical misconduct (PEMS). Data from a large Midwestern university, a large Southeastern university, and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk were used in the analyses. An exploratory and confirmatory (...) factor analyses were used in the creation of the PEMS. To examine the validity of the scale, the PEMS was correlated to scales which measure Dark Triad traits and Counterproductive Work Behaviors (CWBs). Findings showed a significant positive correlation between the PEMS and both scales. The results also show that the PEMS mediates the relationship between psychopathy and CWBs. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungDie Schweigepflicht, einer der Grundpfeiler medizinischer Ethik, spielt in der aktuellen Diskussion um die Verbesserung des Kinderschutzes eine zentrale Rolle. Unklare und mehrdeutige gesetzliche Regelungen und Handlungsanweisungen, wie mit Anhaltspunkten für eine Kindeswohlgefährdung umzugehen ist, wenn die Sorgeberechtigten eine weitergehende Hilfe ablehnen, werden als Hindernis für einen wirksamen Kinderschutz betrachtet. Aus der schwer durchschaubaren Rechtslage resultieren für Angehörige der Gesundheitsberufe regelmäßig Handlungsunsicherheiten, die im Einzelfall notwendige Hilfe verzögern oder gar verhindern könnten. Neue Gesetze auf Länderebene haben deshalb im Sinne eines (...) verbesserten Kinderschutzes eine Erhöhung der Rechtssicherheit sowie eine Förderung der Vernetzung der beteiligten Akteure zum Ziel. Wenn auch einigen der Gesetze ein gewisses Klarstellungspotenzial zugebilligt werden kann, ist doch im Augenblick ihr Beitrag zu mehr Rechtssicherheit im Umgang mit Kinderschutzfällen noch als sehr eingeschränkt zu betrachten. Ein Bundesgesetz, welches die Intention hatte, die heterogenen Landesnormen durch eine bundeseinheitliche Regelung zu ersetzen, ist wenigstens in der letzten Legislaturperiode gescheitert. (shrink)

One of the major issues for user assistance systems consists of “providing help at an appropriate level”. In this paper we analyze the problem of modeling task experience — a prerequisite for provisioning adequate help. In contrast to level-based approaches we propose an ontology-based model, which allows fine-grained modeling of task experience using the concepts of the task domain as granules. The model is semantic in the sense that it allows to take advantage of the relations between concepts to provide (...) novel semantic services and interactions. We present the SACHS (Semantic Annotations for a Controlling Help System, a semantic help system for a spreadsheet-based financial controlling system) software as an exemplary application of the proposed task experience model. (shrink)

We discuss methodological problems and present our own empirical data on calculation tasks in toddlers. We propose to develop enriching theoretical models concerning quantity representations, based on empirical findings from developmental psychology. A revitalization of the debate is worthy, because it is reminiscent of the philosophical dispute on universal entities in scholasticism and Plato's theory of ideal numbers.

In this article we investigate whether the following conjecture is true or not: does the addition-free theta functions form a canonical notation system for the linear versions of Friedman’s well-partial-orders with the so-called gap-condition over a finite set of n labels. Rather surprisingly, we can show this is the case for two labels, but not for more than two labels. To this end, we determine the order type of the notation systems for addition-free theta functions in terms of ordinals less (...) than ε0\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\varepsilon _0$$\end{document}. We further show that the maximal order type of the Friedman ordering can be obtained by a certain ordinal notation system which is based on specific binary theta functions. (shrink)

Die Schweigepflicht, einer der Grundpfeiler medizinischer Ethik, spielt in der aktuellen Diskussion um die Verbesserung des Kinderschutzes eine zentrale Rolle. Unklare und mehrdeutige gesetzliche Regelungen und Handlungsanweisungen, wie mit Anhaltspunkten für eine Kindeswohlgefährdung umzugehen ist, wenn die Sorgeberechtigten eine weitergehende Hilfe ablehnen, werden als Hindernis für einen wirksamen Kinderschutz betrachtet. Aus der schwer durchschaubaren Rechtslage resultieren für Angehörige der Gesundheitsberufe regelmäßig Handlungsunsicherheiten, die im Einzelfall notwendige Hilfe verzögern oder gar verhindern könnten. Neue Gesetze auf Länderebene haben deshalb im Sinne eines (...) verbesserten Kinderschutzes eine Erhöhung der Rechtssicherheit sowie eine Förderung der Vernetzung der beteiligten Akteure zum Ziel. Wenn auch einigen der Gesetze ein gewisses Klarstellungspotenzial zugebilligt werden kann, ist doch im Augenblick ihr Beitrag zu mehr Rechtssicherheit im Umgang mit Kinderschutzfällen noch als sehr eingeschränkt zu betrachten. Ein Bundesgesetz, welches die Intention hatte, die heterogenen Landesnormen durch eine bundeseinheitliche Regelung zu ersetzen, ist wenigstens in der letzten Legislaturperiode gescheitert. (shrink)

Wissenschaftsreflexion: eine neue interdisziplinäre Perspektive auf die Geschichte, Theorie und Ethik der Wissenschaften sowie auf die praktischen Auswirkungen von wissenschaftlicher Forschung und Erkenntnis. Die Wissenschaften sehen sich gegenwärtig mit Blick auf ihre Geltungs- und Wahrheitsansprüche, ihre Vertrauenswürdigkeit und ihre Rolle in der Gesellschaft vor grundlegende Herausforderungen gestellt. Die Diskussionen betreffen dabei so unterschiedliche Themen wie Unsicherheit, Scheitern oder "Fake News“ in den Wissenschaften, Klimawandel, Gentechnik, Impfungen und Alternativmedizin oder Evolutionstheorien. Nur eine interdisziplinär angelegte Reflexion über die Rolle der Wissenschaften, ihren (...) Erkenntnisanspruch und ihre Methoden wird diesen neuen Herausforderungen gerecht. Mit dem vorliegenden Band wird erstmals der Begriff der Wissenschaftsreflexion differenziert eingeführt und interdisziplinär diskutiert. Der Band umfasst vielfältige Beiträge zu Grundlagen- und Anwendungsfragen aus unterschiedlichen Disziplinen, die gemeinsam eine pluralistische Perspektive eröffnen und konkrete Lösungsmöglichkeiten aufzeigen. Mit Beiträgen von: Michael Jungert, Andreas Frewer, Erasmus Mayr, Miguel Ohnesorge, Nina Janich, Jon Leefmann, Rainer Bromme, Sebastian Schuol, Kärin Nickelsen, Caterina Schürch, Julia Carina Böttcher, Bernd Flessner, Christoph Merdes, Martina Schmidhuber, Katrin Götz-Votteler, Simone Hespers, Alexander Christian, Alexander Reutlinger, Martin Carrier, Martin Kusch und Carsten Könneker. (shrink)