Groundless Gods: The Theological Prospects of Post-Metaphysical Thought deals with possible interpretations of an emerging interest in contemporary theology: postmetaphysical theology. This book attempts to openly come to grips, not only with what metaphysics and postmetaphysics imply, but also with what it could mean to do or not do theology from the standpoint of the nonmetaphysician. The book asks, for instance, whether this world has any singular definition, and whether God is some being standing apart from the world or an (...) experience within the world. (shrink)

In this latest installment of the Homebrewed Christianity series, Eric E. Hall approaches the question of God from various perspectives, including philosophy, personal revelation, Christian tradition, and other religions. At the end of this romp through history and pop culture, Hall argues that the God you need may be the very God you rejected years ago.--Back cover.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Law’s Virtue: Fostering Autonomy and Solidarity in American Society by Cathleen KavenyEric E. SchnitgerLaw’s Virtue: Fostering Autonomy and Solidarity in American Society By Cathleen Kaveny WASHINGTON, DC: GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2012. 304 PP. $29.95In Law’s Virtue, Cathleen Kaveny calls those in Western liberal countries to rethink their fundamental framework of ethics and law through the guiding principles of autonomy and solidarity, understood through the Catholic context of Thomistic (...) virtue. The law operates not as the fence of individual isolation as it does in Enlightenment rights theory, whereby liberty is preserved through negative restraint, but as the teacher of a limited form of the virtues of prudence and justice (52). The law teaches this thin form of prudence through autonomy, which Kaveny takes from Joseph Raz as “the capacity to be the ‘part-author’ of one’s own life” (53). Solidarity, pulling from Pope John Paul II, correlates to a learned justice, in that it “attend[s] to the unseen members” of the community (54). It recognizes that the good of the community and the good of individual members are inexorably intertwined.The opening epigram of the preface, which sets the tone for the whole work, is a quotation from Isidore of Seville found in Aquinas: “Law shall be virtuous, just, possible to nature, according to the custom of the country, suitable to place and time, necessary, useful; clearly expressed, lest by its obscurity it lead to misunderstanding; framed for no private benefit, but for the common good” (xi). Kaveny argues that the phrases “possible to nature” and “custom of the country” need more attention in pluralist, democratic societies, because law is morally formed by its constituent community and there are deep disagreements within those communities. This gives a direction for how Catholics, and all citizens, should attempt to influence laws in these democracies. Because the law is a form of consensus over time, it should use severe sanctions such as criminal law only to reinforce the consensus that it represents. Tort and tax law are less severe tools that can encourage the moral direction of society, which, when used well, maintain the consensus of the law but still allow it to be a moral teacher.Kaveny’s practical thinking in this text does have some seeds of radical change. When she moves to the practicalities of life issues in the law—such as abortion, euthanasia, and genetics—she argues that the “entire fabric of the Anglo-American legal system” needs to add the concept of the “vulnerable” person to the “reasonable person” (79). In addition, her reframing of life issues contends that the Catholic view of issues like abortion is too different from [End Page 212] the “custom of the country” to make a change to the virtues and practices of other citizens. Instead, attention to the support necessary for families and social difficulties of economic poverty represents a way of using the law as a moral teacher while recognizing its limits (89, 156, 209). The book concludes with an incisive look at voting, in which Kaveny argues that the idea of issues-based voting is wrongheaded; instead, she urges voters to consider that they are voting for an individual who will take a broad moral stance and make a broad set of decisions (197 ff.).The quality of Kaveny’s clear thinking and moral consistency makes this book a pleasure to read—even for those who may disagree about the nature of the law or the virtues that Christians should bring to political, legislative, and judicial systems. This text, from its depth of legal and theological commitments, sets a high bar for further dialogue.Eric E. SchnitgerFuller Theological SeminaryCopyright © 2015 Society of Christian Ethics... (shrink)

Most accounts of why physicians have a duty to treat patients during a pandemic look to the special ethical standards of the medical profession. An adequate account must be deeper and broader: it must set the professional duty alongside other individual commitments and broader social values.

Human clinical research has become a huge economic enterprise (Morin et al. 2002; Noah 2002). Because the human subject at the center can be so easily marginalized, many commentators recommend spec...

A proposta deste estudo é abordar de forma teórica o pensamento do filósofo e cientista político, germano-americano, Eric Voegelin, buscando compreender a relação que promove entre o gnosticismo e a modernidade, tendo como foco sua afirmação de que o gnosticismo é o fundamento da modernidade. Para esta pesquisa, são utilizados como base teórica fundamental dois conceitos de sua teoria: religiões políticas e gnosticismo. Divide-se o trabalho em uma introdução ao tema e três capítulos, seguidos da conclusão. Na introdução, se (...) aborda o contexto histórico-político que fornece o estofo para o surgimento da modernidade e movimentos totalitários; com a biografia do autor, buscam-se elementos essenciais para a compreensão de sua posição de combate irrestrito às ideologias, principalmente ao nacional-socialismo alemão e socialismo stalinista. A partir da crítica ao movimento positivista, que considera a ciência natural e seus métodos o modo por excelência de apreensão da realidade, Voegelin demonstra que a dimensão simbólica, espiritual e transcendente do ser fica relegada a uma posição inferior, inexistente ou banalizada, causando uma deformação da verdade, que pode se manifestar em dogmas ou doutrinas ideológicas. No segundo capítulo, introduz-se sua noção de que o gnosticismo é o fundamento da sociedade moderna, na medida em que a insatisfação com a ordem corrente, a crença e desejo de mudança do indivíduo por meio do conhecimento, se firmam como contrários ao desenvolvimento do ser, apontando uma tendência nos movimentos ideológicos modernos à imanentização da escatologia cristã. No terceiro capítulo, apresentam-se as principais discussões a respeito dos limites e alcances de sua teoria, sua aproximação com uma filosofia da consciência e as possibilidades de utilizá-la para a compreensão dos fenômenos totalitários na atualidade, vistos como uma doença pneumopatológica. Concluiu-se que Voegelin, categórico ao apontar para a necessidade de uma nova abordagem para a ciência social e política, evidenciou uma estrutura religiosa nos movimentos modernos, ditos seculares; o conceito de gnosticismo como fundamento da modernidade, apesar de revisto pelo próprio autor e ainda fomentar controvérsias, pode ser um ponto de partida para estudos complementares, uma vez que enfatiza a necessidade de ampliação da consciência para a restauração da ordem social e política, e de incluir o aspecto transcendente do ser, que se expressa em seus símbolos e em suas experiências religiosas ao longo da história, para a compreensão da modernidade. (shrink)

L'oeuvre philosophique d'Eric Weil (1904-1977) est l'une des plus importantes de la seconde moitié du XXe siècle. Oeuvre systématique qui repense l'héritage de la philosophie en fonction du problème radicalement moderne que pose le choix de la violence absolue - dont la réalité hitlérienne est l'exemple -, la Logique de la philosophie (1950) est prolongée par une Philosophie politique (1956), une Philosophie morale (1961), qui explicitent le même problème dans les domaines déterminés de la réalité politique et de la (...) vie morale, et elle se double de la lecture philosophique des philosophes -Hegel et l'Etat (1950), Problèmes kantiens (1963), 2è édition augmentée, 1970) - et de nombreuses études dont quelques-unes sont réunies dans Essais et conférences (1970-71). Co-fondateur de Critique, Eric Weil fut professeur aux Université de Lille (1956-68) et de Nice (1968-74).Un premier colloque sur la pensée d'Eric Weil s'est tenu à l'Ecole Normale Supérieure de Pise, les 7 et 8 novembre 1979. A l'initiative de notre Centre et des Archives de Philosophie, un second colloque aura lieu les 21 et 22 mai 1982, à Chantilly, qui portera sur l'actualité d'Eric Weil.Les membres de l'équipe qui a fondée en 1979 à l'UER de Philosophie de Lille III le Centre Eric Weil ont, pour la plupart, suivi l'enseignement de Weil à Lille et participé à son séminaire dont aujourd'hui, cinq ans après la mort du philosophe, ils entendent encore la leçon. Ces Sept Etudes sur Eric Weil, présentées et discutées lors de rencontres régulières et amicales, prennent la suite de leurs contributions au numéro spécial de 1970 des Archives de Philosophie, au colloque de Pise de 1979, aux Cahiers philosophiques de 1981/82. Ont collaboré à cet ouvrage: Gérard AlmalehAlbert BaraquinLucien BescondMireille DepadtGilbert KirscherJean QuillienJean-François Robinet. (shrink)

In this essay I propose to explicate and defend a new and improved version of a Lockean proviso—the self-ownership proviso . I shall presume here that individuals possess robust rights of self-ownership. I shall take it that each individual has strong moral claims over the elements which constitute her person, e.g., her body parts, her talents, and her energies. However, in the course of the essay, I shall be challenging what I take to be the standard conception of self-ownership and (...) proposing an enrichment of that conception. The SOP is presented and in part justified as an implication of the right of self-ownership as it is more richly conceived—hence its designation as the self-ownership proviso. As an implication of the right of self-ownership which is also compatible, in theory and practice, with extensive and robust private property rights, the SOP is offered as an integral element of classical-liberal political theory. (shrink)

O mal radical em Eric Weil compreende a suspeita a respeito das paixões: encontra-se nelas o motivo da ação? As paixões, entretanto, podem ser domesticadas. É nessa perspectiva que o mal radical se relaciona com a instrução. Para abordar essa relação, nosso estudo desenvolve um tratamento do mal, desafio para a filosofia, que em Weil tem como resposta o conceito de violência. Após situarmos o desafio do mal como violência, é possível entender no que Weil se difencia de Kant (...) ao apresentar o conceito de mal radical. Apresentarmos brevemente a leitura de Weil do mal radical kantiano, para em seguida comparar as semelhanças e diferenças entre ambos. Encerramos apresentando o modo como a instrução pode educar as paixões. (shrink)

“What is the structure of thought?” is as central a question as any in cognitive science. A classic answer to this question has appealed to a Language of Thought (LoT). We point to emerging research from disparate branches of the field that supports the LoT hypothesis, but also uncovers diversity in LoTs across cognitive systems, stages of development, and species. Our letter formulates open research questions for cognitive science concerning the varieties of rules and representations that underwrite various LoT-based systems (...) and how these variations can help researchers taxonomize cognitive systems. (shrink)

Objective: There are benefits and risks of giving patients more granular control of their personal health information in electronic health record (EHR) systems. When designing EHR systems and policies, informaticists and system developers must balance these benefits and risks. Ethical considerations should be an explicit part of this balancing. Our objective was to develop a structured ethics framework to accomplish this. -/- Methods: We reviewed existing literature on the ethical and policy issues, developed an ethics framework called a “Points to (...) Consider” (P2C) document, and convened a national expert panel to review and critique the P2C. -/- Results: We developed the P2C to aid informaticists designing an advanced query tool for an electronic health record (EHR) system in Indianapolis. The P2C consists of six questions (“Points”) that frame important ethical issues, apply accepted principles of bioethics and Fair Information Practices, comment on how questions might be answered, and address implications for patient care. -/- Discussion: The P2C is intended to clarify whatis at stake when designers try to accommodate potentially competing ethical commitments and logistical realities. The P2C was developed to guide informaticists who were designing a query tool in an existing EHR that would permit patient granular control. While consideration of ethical issues is coming to the forefront of medical informatics design and development practices, more reflection is needed to facilitate optimal collaboration between designers and ethicists. This report contributes to that discussion. (shrink)

This book examines influential conceptions of sport and then analyses the interplay of challenging borderline cases with the standard definitions of sport. It is meant to inspire more thought and debate on just what sport is, how it relates to other activities and human endeavors, and what we can learn about ourselves by studying sport.

O objetivo principal deste artigo é apresentar alguns dos principais argumentos de Eric Weil que sustentam a relevante tese da importância da escolha livre e deliberada do ser humano pela vida racional, demonstrando, por conseguinte, ser razoável a busca por uma existência cada vez mais humanizada e alicerçada sobre valores fundamentais da vida humana, tais como, a honestidade, a justiça e a felicidade, possibilitando, paulatina e progressivamente, a superação e o desaparecimento, tanto quanto possível, dos diferentes tipos de violência, (...) estando o ser humano ciente, no entanto, de que a erradicação total da violência no mundo é impensável, uma vez ser a liberdade do ser humano um processo de contínua deliberação e escolha, tanto em nível pessoal, como também, comunitário e social. (shrink)

Aarons recognizes the usefulnes of markets, but argues that without some conscious human control they are unsustainable and would ultimately destroy the conditions for human life on the planet.

Aarons recognizes the usefulnes of markets, but argues that without some conscious human control they are unsustainable and would ultimately destroy the conditions for human life on the planet.

In 1945–46, representatives of the U.S. government made similar discoveries in both Germany and Japan, unearthing evidence of unethical experiments on human beings that could be viewed as war crimes. The outcomes in the two defeated nations, however, were strikingly different. In Germany, the United States, influenced by the Canadian physician John Thompson, played a key role in bringing Nazi physicians to trial and publicizing their misdeeds. In Japan, the United States played an equally key role in concealing information about (...) the biological warfare experiments and in securing immunity from prosecution for the perpetrators. The greater force of appeals to national security and wartime exigency help to explain these different outcomes. (shrink)

O artigo visa mostrar como Eric Weil (1904-1977) recompreendeu a famosa tese do “fim da história”, elaborada por Alexandre Kojève (1902-1968) desde os anos de 1930, propondo uma nova versão de caráter essencialmente “kantiano pós-hegeliano”: um elemento teórico fundamental do inter histórico- filosófico weiliano, que emergiria claramente dos estudos específicos sobre Kant aos quais Weil se dedicou de modo pontual a partir da década de 1960. Veremos, portanto, como as reviravoltas “práticas” de tal recompreensão tenham de fato indicado a (...) estrada para a constituição de uma nova filosofia política, eminentemente crítica e antidogmática. (shrink)

With breathtalung speed, traditional criminal prohibitions against assisted suicide have been declared unconstitutional in twelve states, including California and New York. This poses great promise and great peril. The promise is that competent terminally ill patients, as a compassionate measure of last resort, will have the option of putting an end to their suffering by physician-assisted suicide. More sigmficant, legally permitting this controversial option may be a catalyst for doctors, health care institutions, and society to improve the care of the (...) dying. PAS should be limited only to those relatively few competent patients who continue to suffer intolerably despite unrestrained efforts to palliate and who face a continued existence that they regard as worse than death. When dying patients know they will not be abandoned to miserable and pointless suffering if palliative care fails, they will be fortified to cope better with the process of dying.The immediate peril is that PAS will become a quick fix, available on demand to any patient diagnosed as terminally ill, thus bypassing palliative care and producing premature deaths. (shrink)

O artigo compreende a relação entre filosofia e democracia no pensamento político de Eric Weil. O tema se torna particularmente relevante no atual contexto de crises de regimes democráticos ocidentais, e a sua principal contribuição é distinguir a leitura propriamente filosófica desse quadro. Para tanto, o texto se divide em duas partes, na primeira, mostra que filosofia e democracia compartilham os mesmo pressupostos, isto é, a razoabilidade do homem; na segunda analisa o diálogo como fundamental registro político da linguagem, (...) aquele, único capaz de sustentar efetivamente o discurso e a discussão numa democracia. Por fim, a obra de Weil apresenta, mantendo-se sempre na perspectiva do filósofo, uma interpretação consistente da democracia a partir do reconhecimento dos seus limites e das pressões às quais ela pode estar exposta, confrontando suas definições formais às nossas experiências históricas e apontando a superação dos ditos limites no esforço contínuo da educação do homem para a formação do povo. (shrink)

L’avenir de la philosophie é a conferência proferida por Eric Weil à Association régionale des professeurs de philosophie, da cidade de Nice, em 1974. Nela, ficam destacadas alguns temas fundamentais com os quais o autor se preocupou a partir da publicação da sua Logique de la philosophie, em 1950. A tradução do texto vem aqui precedida por uma apresentação que visa a, justamente, sublinhar elementos essenciais à compreensão da obra weiliana, e presentes na conferência, tais como o caráter capital (...) do problema da violência para a filosofia, a importância da escolha pela razoabilidade e, por fim, a filosofia compreendida na passagem da certeza à discussão. (shrink)

Recent experimental evidence indicates that intuitions about inherence and system justification are distinct psychological processes, and that the inherence heuristic supplies important explanatory frameworks that are accepted or rejected based on their consistency with one's motivation to justify the system.

RESUMO O artigo apresenta a proposta de Eric Weil para a leitura filosófica de um evento histórico. Trata-se de um exercício de filosofia da história, destacando os termos essenciais da relação entre filosofia e história, o que assume traços precisos na reflexão de Weil sobre o avanço histórico. Para tanto, acompanha a reflexão de Weil sobre as recepções britânica e alemã da Revolução francesa, isto é, do pano de fundo a partir do qual podemos compreender os contornos modernos da (...) moral, da política, da filosofia e da história. Em outras palavras, ao pensar a Revolução, o filósofo lida com Breakthrough que funda o novo quadro referencial no qual são recolocadas as questões da tradição, do sentido e do fim da história. ABSTRACT This paper presents Eric Weil’s proposal for the philosophical reading of a historical event. It is an exercise in the philosophy of history, highlighting the essential terms of the relationship between philosophy and history. These same terms assume precise features in Weil’s reflection on historic Breakthrough. To do this, the article follows Weil’s reflection on the British and German reception of the French Revolution, that is, from the background from which we can understand the modern contours of morality, politics, philosophy and history. In other words, when thinking about the Revolution, the philosopher deals with the framework that founds the new references of the questions of tradition, meaning and the end of history. (shrink)

Volume 34, Issue 8, December 2020, Page 1632-1645.

Para além do fato de comungarem as suspeitas contra os desenvolvimentos modernos da técnica e os riscos que eles representam para o mundo humano, Hans Jonas e Hannah Arendt se distanciam quanto às condições que permitiriam preservar um tal mundo. O primeiro nos convida a desenvolver uma ética da responsabilidade para com a vida enquanto a segunda desenha uma política da ação humana que escapa do ciclo vital. A constatação dessa divergência serve, no entanto, de pretexto para pensarmos uma complementaridade: (...) a natalidade arendtiana pode receber uma justificação bioontológica e a ética jonasiana pode encontrar um modo de encarnação política na filosofia de Hannah Arendt. (shrink)

My goal in this essay is to say something helpful about the philosophical foundations of deontic restraints, i.e., moral restraints on actions that are, roughly speaking, grounded in the wrongful character of the actions themselves and not merely in the disvalue of their results. An account of deontic restraints will be formulated and offered against the backdrop of three related, but broader, contrasts or puzzles within moral theory. The plausibility of this account of deontic restraints rests in part on how (...) well this account resolves the puzzles or illuminates the contrasts which make up this theoretical backdrop. (shrink)

The American Urological Association (AUA) and American College of Surgeons (ACS) codes of professionalism require surgeons to disclose the specific roles and responsibilities of trainees to patients during the informed consent process. The objective of this study is to analyze how these requirements are met by urology training programs. An anonymous electronic survey was distributed to the program directors (PDs) of the 143 Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education urology residency programs in the United States in 2021. Information was collected (...) regarding program demographics, aspects of the program’s consent process, and the disclosure to patients of the role and participation of residents in their surgery. There were 49 responses to the survey (34.3% response rate). Nearly 70 percent of PDs reported that attending physicians lead the consent process. The topics covered during consent discussion include possible complications (25%), expected recovery time (23%), length of the surgery (22%), the people involved (18%), and their specific roles (7%). Many PDs do not explicitly discuss trainee involvement (48.8%) or when a resident is to perform the majority of the case (87.8%). The majority of PDs (78.8%) communicate medical student involvement, but 73.2 percent reported having a patient decline participation of a trainee after describing their role. Despite the AUA and ACS codes of professionalism, many urologists do not disclose resident involvement in surgery to patients. Further discussions are needed to explore how to better balance resident education and patient autonomy. (shrink)