Requests by patients or their families for treatment which the patient's physician considers to be "inappropriate" are becoming more frequent than refusals of treatment which the physician considers appropriate. Such requests are often based on the patient's religious beliefs about the attributes of God (sovereignty, omnipotence), the attributes of persons (sanctity of life), or the individual's personal relationship with God (communication, commands, etc). We present four such cases and discuss some of the basic religious tenets of the three Abrahamic faith (...) traditions as they relate to such requests. We suggest that religious reasons for requesting "inappropriate" treatment are "special" and deserve serious consideration. We offer guidance to assist clinicians and clinical ethicists as they attempt to resolve these conflicts, emphasising the importance of understanding the religious beliefs of the patient/surrogate and suggesting the assistance of a religious interpreter. We suggest open discussion with patients and families of both the clinical situation and the theological basis for these requests. We also suggest that clinicians use additional religious doctrines or principles from patients' own traditions to balance the reasons behind the requests. We conclude that most persistent requests for "inappropriate" treatment should be honoured. (shrink)

The paper illustrates how organic chemists dramatically altered their practices in the middle part of the twentieth century through the adoption of analytical instrumentation - such as ultraviolet and infrared absorption spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy - through which the difficult process of structure determination for small molecules became routine. Changes in practice were manifested in two ways: in the use of these instruments in the development of 'rule-based' theories; and in an increased focus on synthesis, at the expense (...) of chemical analysis. These rule-based theories took the form of generalizations relating structure to chemical and physical properties, as measured by instrumentation. This 'Instrumental Revolution' in organic chemistry was two-fold: encompassing an embrace of new tools that provided unprecedented access to structures, and a new way of thinking about molecules and their reactivity in terms of shape and structure. These practices suggest the possibility of a change in the ontological status of chemical structures, brought about by the regular use of instruments. The career of Robert Burns Woodward (1917-1979) provides the central historical examples for the paper. Woodward was an organic chemist at Harvard from 1937 until the time of his death. In 1965, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. (shrink)

S'il est un point que les réflexions contemporaines sur le temps ont mis en relief et inscrit profondément dans notre conscience, c'est que l'avenir qu'on espère dépend directement du présent qu'on réalise. Telle est notre attitude en face du présent, telle elle sera inéluctablement en face de l'avenir; et donc l'avenir lui-même, puisque ce dernier n'est rien sinon un présent caché encore, au cœur d'un présent déjà actuel, et explicite. Il est en effet de l'essence même de notre condition humaine (...) d'avoir un présent structuré et comme stratifié. Certes on peut imaginer le présent comme un point sans épaisseur, comme la limite évanescente entre un segment de ligne qui marque le passé à jamais révolu, et l'avenir qui se meut vers nous pour basculer inexorablement vers le non-être en franchissant ce présent. Mais cette image, utile pour bien des tâches, ne correspond d'aucune manière à la réalité vivante de la conscience humaine et des activités qui lui sont propres. Nous sommes dans le présent ce que nous sommes et ce que, en un sens, nous croyons pouvoir dire que nous avons été. Une grande partie de ce que nous appelons le passé, notre passé personnel et sans doute notre passé spécifique, est présent, non seulement à titre de souvenir, pouvant être, ou non, évoqué, mais à titre de schéma dynamique modifiant notre être-au-monde, notre présente réaction au réel le plus réel, à la situation où nous avons à déployer notre activité. (shrink)

Recent work in the ontology of music suggests that we will avoid confusion if we distinguish between two kinds of question that are typically posed in music ontology. Thus, a distinction has been made between fundamental ontology and higher-order ontology. The former addresses questions about the basic metaphysical options from which ontologists choose. For instance, are musical works types, indicated types, classes of particulars, or some other kind of entity? Higher-order ontology addresses the question of what lies ‘at the centre’ (...) of a specific form of music, such as rock or jazz—or perhaps classical music. The argument of this essay is, first, that a close examination of the best efforts in two of these territories shows that they have the effect of pressing the music in each sphere into implausible Procrustean beds. Second, it is argued that the general question that higher-order ontologies pose, that is, ‘What work-kind is it that lies at the centre of a given kind of music, F?’ is a question based on a mistaken but seductive assumption, namely that the concept of the work of F has actual application. In fact, these concepts—upon which higher-order ontology depends—are mere artefacts of philosophy. The question is also addressed why the assumption is so seductive. Finally, the question finally is posed about what, if anything, is implied from the foregoing about the traditional ontology of classical music. (shrink)

L B Daniels; Some Comments on ‘Value in Education’ by Johanna Burgess1, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 8, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 237–250, https.

The papers in the 2010 “Clinical Ethics” number of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy explore issues along La Frontera, the borders and boundaries of clinical ethics. The first three papers in this “Clinical Ethics” number of the Journal explore borders and boundaries drawn within clinical ethics, concerning the moral standing of complementary and alternative medicine, palliative sedation, and induced abortion and feticide. The fourth and fifth papers explore the borders and boundaries between research ethics and clinical ethics.

Содерж.: о Судзуки С±сане, Исиде Байгане, Ниномии Сонтоку, Сибусаве Эйити. В прил. включ. выдержки из работ представл. мыслителей.

Virgil's fourth Eclogue is one of the most quoted, adapted and discussed works of classical literature. This study traces the fortunes of Eclogue 4 in the literature and art of the Italian Renaissance. It sheds new light on some of the most canonical works of Western art and literature, as well as introducing a large number of other, lesser-known items, some of which have not appeared in print since their original publication, while others are extant only in manuscript. Individual chapters (...) are devoted to the uses made of the fourth Eclogue in the political panegyric of Medici Florence, the Venetian Republic and the Renaissance papacy, and to religious appropriations of the Virgilian text in the genres of epic and pastoral poetry. The book also investigates the appearance of quotations from the poem in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century fresco cycles representing the prophetic Sibyls in Italian churches. (shrink)

We offer a critique of one prominent understanding of the principle of respect for autonomy and of analyses of medical paternalism based on that understanding. Our main critique is that understanding respect for autonomy as respect for freedom from interference is mistaken because it is overly influenced by four-alarm cases, because it fails to appreciate the full dimensions of legal self-determination (one of its main sources), because it conflates the research and therapeutic settings, and because it fails to appreciate themes (...) of authority and power that have historically shaped the principle of respect for freedom from interference. We argue that respect for autonomy involves more than just freedom from interference and, on this basis, offer a critique of prevailing accounts of medical paternalism. (shrink)

In recent years, W. H. Walsh and William Dray have introduced to methodological studies of history the term “colligation.” An historian who colligates explains, roughly, what an event ‘really’ was, or what it ‘amounts to’, by relating particular events into a single entity, by synthesizing parts into a whole. He thus explains many of the events of fifteenth-century Italy as a renaissance or those of eighteenth-century France as a revolution. The explanatory power of colligation is said to lie in the (...) newness of the interpretation of a collection of events which historians have previously ascertained to have occurred. (shrink)

The five papers in the 2008 “Clinical Ethics” number of the journal address the conceptual and empirical foundations of clinical ethics. Three articles take up the concept of professionalism in medicine, exploring its possibilities and implications. The fourth article provides a distinctive, phenomenological account of the “placebo effect,” a vexing topic of surprising durability in the clinical setting. The final article, a systematic review of the qualitative literature on bedside rationing of resources, creates an empirical foundation for philosophical analysis and (...) argument of a distinctive kind. (shrink)

The article is devoted to philosophy of mathematics. Mathematical heuristics, being a complex of methods for solving the non-standard problems of mathematics (such problems which have no known algorithms to be solved), is the main subject of the research. As a specific mechanism for thinking, generating elements of guesswork needed as the basis of mathematical heuristics, the author considers intuition. In the work, the author uses Descartes’s, Poincaré’s, Hadamard’s and Piaget’s findings. Based on Descartes’s concept of rational intuition, the author (...) develops the concept of heuristic intuition. As a result, the author turns to the question of possibility of a complete translation of the user-derived mathematical statements in a discourse, in fact, that means a maximum depth of mathematical proof, i.e. its maximum rationalization. For this purpose, it is necessary to re-attract the intuition since it is able to transform the intuitive elements into the discourse ones. Therefore, from this point of view, the rationale is intuitively derived mathematical proof should be no more than a ‘multilayer‘ creative process. In general, the author, based on Poincaré’s research, proves that the essence of mathematical creativity is not to «sort out» and «choose». Referring to examples for illustration, the author reveals moments of «interference» of intuition, even in the process of solving school problems. Therefore, it is currently impossible to ignore the phenomenon of intuition and the results that have been historically derived a theory of knowledge in the study of creative mechanisms. (shrink)

In this article the philosophy of mathematics issues related to the procedure of mathematical symbolization are studied on the basis of phenomenon of implicit knowledge. The specificity of mathematical symbolization and conditions of its implementation, defines the role of mathematical symbolization in the development of mathematics. The author believes that the results can justify the thesis that the basis of mathematical symbolization is a priori epistemological ‘foundation‘. The author believes that the conclusions of the article significantly limit the prospects of (...) the popular contemporary philosophy of science epistemological relativism in the philosophy of mathematics, as well as in the theory of knowledge in general. Further studies on the role of implicit knowledge in the development of mathematics, according to the author, should contribute to the strengthening and further spread of a similar approach in the theory of knowledge. (shrink)

In the article, the phenomenon of understanding in mathematics is studied. This topic is relevant in contemporary philosophy of science, in which the classic dichotomy of ‘understanding-explanation‘, characteristic of classical science, undergoes serious transformations. One reason for this transformation is a quantitative increase in the flow of information in modern science. It is clear that in such a situation you want to hold a serious understanding of this information in the context of modern scientific picture of the world. As the (...) modern science is inextricably linked to mathematical science, it is required to rely on the results of studies of the phenomenon of understanding in mathematics. Such studies are already under way in the modern philosophical and scientific literature, although this issue is still relatively new. The author identifies the most important, in his view, types of understanding in math, taking into account the situation of the teaching of mathematics, the situation of mathematical discovery, and ‘mathematical symbolism‘. A study of the main types of understanding in math and the identification of its specificity would have been impossible without the support of the concept of tacit knowledge taken as a methodological tool and author’s previously published works taken as a basis. In this article, the author relies on the classic work on the philosophy of mathematics, as well as the works of famous contemporary Russian and foreign scientists and philosophers. The results of the study are summarized in the form of conclusions. (shrink)

An enormous amount of philosophical literature gets published nowadays. Some of it is good; some is fit only for pulping. We get into the habit not so much of reading as of glancing through the torrent that pours down on us. But sometimes special conditions arise. It so happened that I was forced to spend about a month in the hospital. I took with me the book Evolutionary Epistemology and the Logic of the Social Sciences: K. Popper and His Critics (...) [Evoliutsionnaia epistemologiia i logika sotsial'nykh nauk. K. Popper i ego kritiki] . I attentively read it through and without any irony I can say that I felt "legitimate pride and deep satisfaction." Legitimate pride for philosophy and deep satisfaction with the content of the book. And although readers of Problems of Philosophy [Voprosy filosofii] have already had the opportunity of reading a review of this book , I would like to return to it and make in passing a number of points about Popper's philosophy in general. (shrink)

It is argued that ideas and theories often evolve into preconceptions of our perceptions. Such evolution is implicit in Heidegger's notion of truths of alethia. The description of this process holds implications for the traditional givenness of humans for themselves in terms of the changabllity of absolute presuppositions. Among the implications are 1. the insufficiency of the historical mode for explaining changes in human self-perception; 2. the inadequacy of radical subjectivism and environmentalism; 3. a radical contingency and complexity to the (...) course of human conceptualization; and 4. the awareness that human efforts can influence alterations in preconceptions. The influence of modern brain theory is subject to these conditions. (shrink)