The standard process for starting anamnesis in the follow-up cancer consultation is for the doctor to ask a ‘How are you?’ question. This question gives the patient the opportunity to give a gloss of their general condition and offer the first topic of discussion. Findings in earlier analyses of US and UK data in a broad array of medical contexts show that the question is ambiguous and hence patients may interpret it as social rather than medical. A discourse analysis of (...) a corpus of 28 video-taped consultations shows that the ‘How are you?’ question in the context of Dutch follow-up cancer consultations is consistently interpreted by both doctor and patients as a holistic medical question, making relevant a – frequently complex and nuanced – medically oriented response. We suggest that this difference may have to do with the interactional norms of hospital visits in the Netherlands, and with the specific contextual parameters of return visits, more specifically with follow-up cancer consultations, which affect the way the HAY question is placed, intended and understood. (shrink)

Social media platforms’ digital advertising revenues depend considerably on partnerships. Business partnerships are endemic and essential to the business of platforms, yet their role remains relatively underexplored in the literature on platformisation and platform power. This article considers the significance of partnerships in the social media ecosystem to better understand how industry platforms, and the infrastructure they build, mediate and shape platform power and governance. We argue that partners contribute to ‘platformisation’ through their collective development of business-to-business platform infrastructures. Specifically, (...) we examine how partners have integrated social media platforms with what we call the audience economy – an exceptionally complex global and interconnected marketplace of intermediaries involved in the creation, commodification, analysis, and circulation of data audiences for purposes including but not limited to digital advertising and marketing. We determined which relationships are involved, which are exclusive or shared, and identified key ecosystem partners. Further, we found that partners build and integrate extensive infrastructures for data-sourcing and media distribution, surfacing infrastructural and strategic sources and locations, or ‘nodes’, of power in this ecosystem. The empirical findings thus highlight the significance of partnerships and partner integrations and draw attention to the powerful industry players and intermediaries that remain largely invisible. (shrink)

This article reflects on the contribution that stakeholder involvement could give to circular bioeconomy transformation. By comparing argument for stakeholder involvement in literature as well as on our own experiences in six stakeholder involvement workshops, we argue that it is probably unrealistic to fully achieve both normative and co-design goals in a single workshop. Furthermore, stakeholder involvement can help to acquire insight into dependencies in the market and offer an opportunity to connect people to deal with them. Therefore we propose (...) for future stakeholder involvement initiatives for CBE to focus on identify relationships of dependency which make it hard for players in the market to change, develop strategies to change while mitigating the detrimental effects on already existing relationships and gradually breaking down relationships and building new ones that support CBE. (shrink)

This article explores the arguments for and against victims’ mitigating opinions on sentence. It describes a recent South African appeal case, compares it with a similar New Zealand appeal court judgment, and then investigates the legal position in England and Wales. It appears that, as a general rule, victims’ recommendations as to penalty must be avoided. However, unlike in South Africa and New Zealand, the jurisprudence in England and Wales has developed exceptions in this regard when certain categories of victims (...) request a more lenient sentence. Several cases from England and Wales reveal that, through considering the harms and needs of victims and ameliorating the sentences accordingly, a restorative justice approach is blended with a just deserts requirement for the protection of lower limits in sentencing. This ensures that the principles of proportionality, certainty and consistency are still adhered to. It is concluded that, had the South African court properly considered these comparative legal developments, it would, at the very least, have created a better precedent by providing guidelines to inform the complex, but important, process of considering victims mitigating opinions in the sentencing process. (shrink)

Palliative care philosophy is based on a holistic approach to patients, but research shows that possibilities for living up to this philosophy seem limited by historical and administrative structures. From the nurse perspective, this article aims to explore nursing practice in specialised palliative homecare, and how it is influenced by organisational and cultural structures. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews with nine nurses were conducted, inspired by Bourdieu. The findings showed that nurses consolidate the doxa of medicine, including medical-professional values that configure a (...) control-oriented, positivistic approach, supported by the organising policy for clinical practice. Hierarchically, nurses were positioned under doctors:medical rounds functioned as a structuring structure for their working day. They acted as medical assistants, and the prevailingmedical logic seemed to make it difficult for nurses to meet their own humanistic ideals. Only short time slots allowednurses to prioritise psychosocial needs of patients and relatives. Point-of-actions had high priority, added financial resourcesand ensured that budgets were allocated. Weekly visits made it possible for nurses to measure, control and govern patients’drugs and symptoms which was a necessity for their function as medical assistants. The findings challenge nurses to takeon an ethical point of view, partly to ensure that patients and their families receive good palliative care focusing on morethan medical issues and logic, and partly to strengthen the nurses’ profession in the palliative field and help them implementpalliative care philosophy in practice. (shrink)

There is a growing consensus that the offer of a reasonable compensation for oocyte donation for reproductive treatment is acceptable if it does not compromise voluntary and altruistically motivated donation. However, how to translate this ‘reasonable compensation’ in practice remains unclear as compensation rates offered to oocyte donors between different European Union countries vary significantly. Clinics involved in oocyte donation, as well as those in other medical contexts, might be encouraged in calculating a more consistent and transparent compensation for donors (...) if the elements that constitute a reasonable compensation are explicated. In doing so, lessons can be learnt from living organ donation and medical research participation. Practices in which the elements of a reasonable compensation for the individuals involved have already been more defined in the literature. By means of analogical reasoning, we will outline the different components of a reasonable compensation and subsequently apply these to the context of oocyte donation. We will argue that oocyte donors should first of all be reasonably reimbursed direct expenses related to the donation, without standard remuneration of lost wages. Second, donating oocytes requests a serious time investment, therefore donors are entitled to suitable compensation for their time spent and efforts made. Finally, we will explain that a reasonable compensation consisting of these two components allows for altruism to remain the key value of oocyte donation for reproductive treatment. However, if we acknowledge that donors’ motives are more complex and often include reasons from self-interest, the reasonable compensation may be complemented with modest monetary benefits. (shrink)

This study reports the findings of a 2.5 year intervention project to reduce psychosocial risks and increase employee well-being in 15 emergency departments in the Netherlands. The project uses the psychosocial risk management approach “PRIMA” which includes cycles of risk assessment, designing and implementing changes, evaluating changes and adapting the approach if necessary. In addition, principles of participative action research were used to empower the departments in designing and implementing their own actions during the project. Next to determining overall effects, (...) the study aims to assess potential moderators including the level of intervening, process variables and partaking in a Psychosocial Safety Climate intervention offered during the second half of the project. The results of linear mixed-model analyses showed that all job factors improved with the exception of autonomy, which did increase halfway the project but not when considering the entire timeframe. In addition, work engagement decreased and symptoms of burnout remained stable. Emergency departments that implemented more fitting actions, communicated better and involved their employees more in the process, had more favorable changes in job factors and more stable well-being. More activity and a multilevel approach regarding stress management did not lead to greater improvements. The Psychosocial Safety Climate intervention was effective in improving Psychosocial Safety Climate, but a longer follow-up period seems required to evaluate its effect on job factors and well-being. Overall, the project resulted in positive changes in most job factors, and its findings emphasize the importance of process variables in stress management interventions. Longer follow-up and higher quality multilevel interventions seem essential to also improve well-being. (shrink)

The neo-Kantian Hermann Cohen famously wrote that Kant “is the true and real originator of German socialism.” This paper seeks to explicate Cohen’s socialist reconstruction of Kant’s ethics and show that this reconstruction overcomes some weaknesses of Kant’s ethics. In conclusion, the paper discusses the contemporary relevance of Cohen’s cooperative socialism.

It is often argued that clinical research should not violate the Kantian principle that people must not be used merely as a means for the purposes of others. At first sight, the practice of clinical research itself, however, seems to violate precisely this principle: clinical research is often beneficial to future people rather than to participants; even if participants benefit, all things considered, they are exposed to discomforts which are absent both in regular care for their diseases and in other (...) areas of daily life. Therefore, in this paper we will consider whether people are used merely as a means by being enrolled in clinical research. On the basis of recent studies of Kantian scholars we will argue that clinical research is compatible with the Kantian principle if the conditions of possible consent and end-sharing have been met. Participants are not used merely as a means if they have sufficient reasons to consent to being enrolled in clinical research and can share the ends of the researchers who use them. Moreover, we will claim that even if people are used merely as a means by participating in clinical research, it may not always be morally wrong to use them in this way. (shrink)

Peer review is a widely accepted instrument for raising the quality of science. Peer review limits the enormous unstructured influx of information and the sheer amount of dubious data, which in its absence would plunge science into chaos. In particular, peer review offers the benefit of eliminating papers that suffer from poor craftsmanship or methodological shortcomings, especially in the experimental sciences. However, we believe that peer review is not always appropriate for the evaluation of controversial hypothetical science. We argue that (...) the process of peer review can be prone to bias towards ideas that affirm the prior convictions of reviewers and against innovation and radical new ideas. Innovative hypotheses are thus highly vulnerable to being “filtered out” or made to accord with conventional wisdom by the peer review process. Consequently, having introduced peer review, the Elsevier journal Medical Hypotheses may be unable to continue its tradition as a radical journal allowing discussion of improbable or unconventional ideas. Hence we conclude by asking the publisher to consider re-introducing the system of editorial review to Medical Hypotheses. (shrink)

Within the tradition of what is called 'the ontological Kant interpretation' the aimof this article is to show that development in Kant's writings before 1770 can be understood on the basis of an explanation of the meaning of the concept of 'real repugnance. In order to meet the shortcomings of a pure logical approach of philosophy Kant emphasizes 'real repugnant' relations, which are to be found in different areas of philosophy, in contrast to logical repugnance . While (...) trying to determine the meaning and role of real repugnance in relation to his metaphysical views of force , space and time and judgement, Kant is forced to renew and to make explicit his view of the relation between experience and metaphysics. Although he recurrent topic of repugnance may be a motive for the development towards a critical approach of philosophy, that establishes new relations between logic, metaphysics and practical philosophy in Critique of Pure Reason, the meaning and function of the concept remain unaffected. (shrink)

Harry van der Linden's review of: Howard Williams, Kant and the End of War: A Critique of Just War Theory, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 216pp., $90.00 , ISBN 9780230244207.

Harry van der Linden's review of: Unnecessary Evil: History and Moral Progress in the Philosophy of Immanuel Kant. By Sharon Anderson-Gold. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001. Pp. xiii, 138. ISBN 0-7914-4819-3 $50.50; 0-7914-4820-7 $17.95.

This detailed study examines the close cooperation between the two main figures of the Marburg School, Hermann Cohen and Paul Natorp, primarily from the time that Natorp came to the University of Marburg in 1880 to write his Habilitationsschrift under Cohen until Cohen’s resignation from Marburg in 1912. It is a common view that during this period Cohen and Natorp were of one philosophical mind: Cohen developed the basic premises of Marburg Kantianism, first in his explications of Kant’s three (...) Critiques, and later in his own philosophical system [Logic of Pure Cognition, Ethics of the Pure Will, and Aesthetics of Pure Feeling ], while Natorp used these premises in his historical studies and in the construction of his social pedagogy. On this account, it was not until Cohen’s departure from Marburg, or even not until the latter’s death, that Natorp’s philosophy began to differentiate clearly from Cohen’s, taking an increasingly metaphysical-mystical turn. Holzhey successfully undermines this view. He shows that during Cohen’s Marburg period Natorp was actually critical of some basic aspects of Cohen’s epistemic logic, ethics, and philosophy of religion, but that Natorp underplayed his disagreements and largely kept them from becoming public. (shrink)

Harry van der Linden's review of: Richard L. Velldey, Freedom and the End of Reason: On the Moral Foundation of Kant's Critical Philosophy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 1989. Pp. xxi + 222. US$29.95. ISBN 0-226-85260-1.

The current study explores how the cultural distance of ethnic outgroups relative to the ethnic ingroup is related to stereotypical news representations. It does so by drawing on a sample of more than three million Dutch newspaper articles and uses advanced methods of automated content analysis, namely word embeddings. The results show that distant ethnic outgroup members are associated with negative characteristics and issues, while this is not the case for close ethnic outgroup members. The current study demonstrates the usefulness (...) of word embeddings as a tool to study subtle aspects of ethnic bias in mass-mediated content. (shrink)

ABSTRACTTaking its cue from Hannah Arendt’s comment that ‘truth gets lost in the Enlightenment’ and Lessing’s parable of God’s ‘left hand’, this paper traces a historical shift in moral and religious thought: roughly from truth to sincerity. From traditional conceptions of conscience as conditional on the objective truth of its content, the paper moves on, via the Reformation and seventeenth-century Augustinian turn, to early modern debates on toleration and the ‘erring conscience’. It is argued that Pierre Bayle’s Commentaire Philosophique of (...) 1686 can be read as a crucial catalogue for understanding the substitution of truth with sincerity : so that not truth but truthfulness is considered to be essential for moral and religious justification. Moving from Bayle to Immanuel Kant, the paper then shows how many of the same questions rise in Kant’s late essay on theodicy, which is also an essay on sincerity or integrity, via the Book of Job. Through these two thinkers, various themes are connected: from conscience and sincerity to the problem of the conscientious persecutor. Finally, these themes of truth, error and integrity are linked to the modern debate on authenticity, and a framework is proposed for conceptualising these various shifts. (shrink)

Kant argues that it is the duty of humanity to strive for an enduring peace between the nations. For Kant, political progress within each nation is essential to realizing lasting peace, and so one would expect him to view political intervention- defined as coercive interference by one nation, or some of its citizens, with the affairs of another nation in order to bring about political improvements in that nation-as justified in some cases.! Kant, however, explicitly rejects all (...) intervention by force, and some aspects of his work support an unqualified prohibition of political intervention. In this paper I will examine on which grounds, stated or inferred, Kant's practical philosophy upholds the absolute prohibition of political intervention, and conclude that, although these grounds are inadequate, they have the merit of pointing to important restrictions on justified political intervention. (shrink)

"Immanuel Kant," published in Ethics, Revised Edition, pages 804-06, reprinted by permission of the publisher Salem Press. Copyright, ©, 2004 by Salem Press.