We show there is only one consistent way to update a probability assignment, that given by Bayes's rule. The price of inconsistent updating is a loss of efficiency. The implications of this for the problem of induction are discussed.

One of the arguments against conducting human subject trials in the Third World adopts a distributive justice principle found in a commentary of the CIOM'S Eighth Guideline for international research on human subjects. Critics argue that non-participant members of the community in which the trials are conducted are exploited because sponsoring agencies do not ensure that the products developed have been made reasonably available to these individuals. I argue that the distributive principle's wording is too vague and ambiguous to be (...) used to criticize any trial. Furthermore, the mere fact that an experiment does not fulfill this particular distributive justice principle does not entail that it is unethical. (shrink)

The Greeks attributed to Thales a great many discoveries and achievements. Few, if any, of these can be said to rest on thoroughly reliable testimony, most of them being the ascriptions of commentators and compilers who lived anything from 700 to 1,000 years after his death—a period of time equivalent to that between William the Conqueror and the present day. Inevitably there ilso accumulated round the name of Thales, as round that of Pythagoras , a number of anecdotes of varying (...) degrees of plausibility and of no historical worth whatsoever. These and the achievements credited to Thales have, of course, been painstakingly brought together by Hermann Diels in Der Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. Useful and necessary as this work undoubtedly is, it nevertheless has probably contributed as much as any other book to the exaggerated and false Aew of Thales which we meet in so many modern histories of science or philosophy, and which it is the purpose of this article to combat. (shrink)

Due to the competitive nature of business as a whole, it is sometimes difficult to develop moral relationships with others. However, though friendships are possible in business, most relationships must be kept on the lower level of business acquaintanceship.

It has been alleged that Bayesian usage of prior probabilities allows one to obtain empirical statements on the basis of no evidence whatever. We examine this charge with reference to several examples from the literature, arguing, first, that the difference between probabilities based on weighty evidence and those based on little evidence can be drawn in terms of the variance of a distribution. Moreover, qua summaries of vague prior knowledge, prior distributions only transmit the empirical information therein contained and, therefore, (...) their consequences for long-run frequency behavior are "a priori" in at best a Pickwickian sense. (shrink)

In one study funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, people from North Dakota were interviewed to discover which moral principles they use in evaluating the morality of transgenic organisms and their introduction into markets. It was found that although the moral codes the human subjects employed were very similar, their views on transgenics were vastly different. In this paper, the codes that were used by the respondents are developed, compared to that of the academically composed Belmont Report, and (...) then modified to create the more practical Common Moral Code. At the end, it is shown that the Common Moral Code has inherent inconsistency flaws that might be resolvable, but would require extensive work on the definition of terms and principles. However, the effort is worthwhile, especially if it results in a common moral code that all those involved in the debate are willing to use in negotiating a resolution to their differences. (shrink)

Some would argue that the more promising areas of business ethics research are "sensitive." In such areas, it would be expected that subjects, if inclined to respond at all, would be guarded in their responses, or respond inaccurately. We provide an introduction to an empirical approach -- the unmatched block count (UCT) -- for collecting these potentially sensitive data which provides absolute anonymity and confidentiality to subjects and "legal immunity" to the researcher. Interestingly, under UCT protocol researchers could not divulge (...) subjects' responses even if they were inclined to do so. Beyond that, UCTs provide complete disclosure to subjects and there is no deception. (shrink)

Constituting a special double issue of Theodor Reik's Journal of Psychoanalytic Psychology, this small volume will be of interest to those who approach Freud from the greatest variety of points of view. Particularly noteworthy is the paper on religion by Jacob Taubes.--D. R.

Consists of two papers, Jung's "Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle," and Pauli's "The Influence of Archetypal Ideas on the Scientific Theories of Kepler." The latter is of interest as an application of Jungian psychology. The idea of synchronicity in Jung's paper is defined as "the simultaneous occurrence of a certain psychic state with one or more external events which appear as meaningful parallels to the momentary subjective state," and as "acausal orderedness.". This principle is put forth as a necessary supplement (...) to the causality principle, to which it can in no way be reduced. The evidence for this view is drawn from fields as diverse as microphysics and astrology, and is supported by many references to the history of thought. Jung perhaps fails to be fully convincing, but he has succeeded in illuminating an important yet hitherto highly obscure field of inquiry.--D. R. (shrink)

The author claims to present an interpretation of logic and dialectic, and in the second part of his brief work takes Hegel, Gentile, and Allmayer as examples for study. Not even his three page "clarifying note," however, makes his thesis clear.--R. D. G.

Starting with a Leninist thesis on the identity of dialectic and logic, the author concludes that the only authentic logic is dialectico-materialistic. Lenin predominates; though such logicians as Hilbert, Russell, and Carnap are mentioned, they are not seriously considered.--R. D. G.

A general introduction to Hegel's philosophic system and dialectical method, from the perspective of Engels, Marx and Lenin.--R. D. G.

"This study attempts to evaluate some main trends in Soviet Marxism in terms of an 'immanent critique,' that is to say it starts from the theoretical premises of Soviet Marxism, develops their ideological and sociological consequences, and reexamines the premises in the light of these consequences." In two sections the author treats "Political Tenets" and the too seldom presented Soviet Ethics, which is most striking for its externalization of values and paucity of content. Written neither for the political theorist nor (...) the ethicist, the work while popular and often superficial presents an interesting and frequently illuminating study. --R. D. G. (shrink)

Based on the Gallahue Conference on Religion and Psychiatry which was held at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1963, and which took as its topic "Will and Willing," this book sets out from the fact that although for a long time unfashionable, questions are now being raised which seem to involve some reconsideration of will and willing within the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and theology. It offers a lively presentation of the issues discussed by the twenty four invited participants in small (...) face to face conferences: Modes of Approach; What does "to will" mean? New Light on Willing from Psychoanalysis? and Does the Will have Power? Opening with a historical survey which argues the necessity of an empirical base, a series of papers by scholars in the fields of psychology, clinical psychiatry, and theology who participated in the conference deal with the problem of will and willing successively within the framework of Heidegger's existentialist philosophy, as handled in traditional and contemporary theology, and as newly approached via the findings of the behavioral sciences; a long and intriguing study of the computer under the title "Willing in Androids" argues that willing and acts of choosing by humans are like the selecting and execution of complicated subroutines in computers; and a final chapter by editor James N. Lapsley of Princeton Theological Seminary, drawing together the threads of discussion in the context of a historical and psychological study of the "self," argues that the whole conception of will and willing is of sufficient scope and significance to warrant renewed consideration.--R. D. (shrink)