Today there are multiple implantable medical devices on the market. The type of implants that interface the body’s tissues has been considered to have particular strong ethical implications. This article describes a development of a novel practice for ethical assessment and reflection within medical device research and development of non-CE marked medical devices, taking the perspective of both the ethicist and the researcher. The research case was an EU funded project where the aim was to develop and compare the efficiency (...) of invasive and non-invasive technological medical devices to create meaningful sensations as a novel therapy for phantom limb pain. An Independent Ethical Advisor with a regulatory and advisory role was assigned to the project, allowing us to investigate the projects deliberate incorporation of ethics. In the article we suggest and applied a novel framework based on action research for combining ethical assessment with building ethical reflection. The case analyse five different activities / elements: 1) the use of informed consent; 2) a survey amongst the research partners; 3) a workshop session; 4) observation of consortium meetings; and 5) an interview with a participating patient. (shrink)

It is commonly assumed that there are differences in physicians’ and caregivers’ ethical attitudes towards clinical situations. The assumption is that the difference is driven by different values, views and judgements in specific situations. At Aalborg University Hospital, Denmark, we aimed to investigate these assumptions by conducting a large quantitative study. The study design, based on the Factorial Survey Method, was a carefully constructed survey with 50 questions designed to test which factors influenced the respondents’ ethical reasoning. The factors were (...) clustered into three categories of ethical reasoning and values. The categories were formulated in terms of easily recognizable ethical positions: consequential ethics, deontological ethics and relational ethics. Based on 2129 respondents, we found significant support for the assumption of differences between physicians and caregivers. The group of caregivers favoured the relational ethics view in clinical ethical situations, and the group of ph... (shrink)

_Vi gennemførte i 2016 et omfattende empirisk studie på Aalborg Universitetshospital med henblik på at afdække de forskellige sundhedsprofessioners etiske holdninger. Hensigten var at afdække eventuelle forskelle mellem professionerne samt at få begrebsliggjort de etiske tankemønstre, der er tilstede i den kliniske praksis. Vi fandt i den indledende dataanalyse, at vi med signifikans kunne vise, at plejegruppen i højere grad bruger nærhedsetiske og omsorgsetiske vurderinger, til forskel fra lægegruppen, der er mere pligtetisk funderet__. Undersøgelsen blev sat op ved brug af (...) vignetmetoden, der giver mulighed for at indsamle kvantitative data, der er velegnede til en statistisk analyse, men som samtidig også muliggør en kvalitativ undersøgelse ved en efterfølgende hermeneutisk analyse af udvalgte besvarelser. I denne artikel studerer vi undersøgelsens resultater inden for sygeplejegruppen alene med det formål at uddrage, hvad deres vurderinger kommer an på, og at diskutere, hvordan disse faktorer indbyrdes forholder sig til hinanden og skaber sammenhæng. Med udgangspunkt i dette finder vi frem til, hvordan sygeplejerskernes etiske holdninger som helhed formes af de særlige værdier, som den nærhedsetiske profil understøtter, men som videre også giver et mere fleksibelt og nuanceret billede af sygeplejeetikken._ _Nøgleord:_ sygeplejeetik, vignetmetoden, hermeneutik, patientperspektiv, klinisk praksis _ _ _English title: _Factors that influence nurses' attitude to "good clinical practice" - a qualitative analysis of data from an empirical study at Aalborg University Hospital In 2016, we conducted a comprehensive empirical study at Aalborg University Hospital in order to uncover the ethical attitudes of various health professions. The intention was to uncover any differences between professions as well as to conceptualize the ethical thought patterns present in clinical practice. We found in the preliminary data analysis that we could show with significance that the group of care givers uses relational ethics and care ethics assessments to a greater extent as opposed to the more duty ethics based group of physicians. The study was set up using the vignette method, which allows for the collection of quantitative data suitable for statistical analysis, but which also allows for a qualitative study by a subsequent hermeneutical analysis of selected answers. In this article we study the results of the study within the nursing group solely for the purpose of extracting what their assessments depend on and discussing how these factors relate to each other and create some form of moral coherence. Based on this we find how nurses' ethical attitudes are shaped by the particular values ​​that the relational ethical profile supports, but also how this profile is modified and flexible to the conditions of clinical settings and situations. In the end our interpretation provides us with a more nuanced picture of nursing ethics than a single theoretical perspective or a set of guidelines provide. _Keywords:_ nursing ethics, the vignette method, hermeneutics, patient perspective, clinical practice. (shrink)

Den form for anvendt etik, som denne antologi repræsenterer, sigter mod at anvise løsninger på de etiske problemer, som samfunds- og teknologi-udviklingen fører med sig. De helt konkrete aktuelle etiske udfordringer, som tages op i denne bog er: Virksomheders adgang til jobansøgeres straffeattester, det fælles medicinkort, fordelingsretfærdighed i forhold til miljøudfordringer, Al Qaedas brug af de elektroniske medier, Irak-krigens legitimitet, evidensbaseret pædagogik samt personers ansvar for egen sundhed. Bogens syv bidrag er skrevet af forskere ved universiteterne i Aalborg, Roskilde, Aarhus (...) og Syddanske Universitet og forsynet med en indledning ved de to redaktører Patrik Kjærsdam Telléus og Mogens Pahuus. (shrink)

It has often been remarked that science is a young man's game. Thomas Kuhn, for example, claims that revolutionary changes in science are almost always initiated by either young scientists or those new to a field. I subject Kuhn's hypothesis to testing. I examine 24 revolutionary scientific figures mentioned in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions to determine if young scientists are more likely to make revolutionary discoveries than older scientists. My analysis suggests that middle-aged scientists are responsible for initiating more (...) scientific revolutions than young scientists, given the proportion of each group in the total population of scientists. I argue that the popular myth about the correlation between youth and scientific discovery fails to take into account the proportion of young scientists in the population of scientists. (shrink)

Written by leading researchers in educational and social psychology, learning science, and neuroscience, this edited volume is suitable for a wide-academic readership. It gives definitions of key terms related to motivation and learning alongside developed explanations of significant findings in the field. It also presents cohesive descriptions concerning how motivation relates to learning, and produces a novel and insightful combination of issues and findings from studies of motivation and/or learning across the authors' collective range of scientific fields. The authors provide (...) a variety of perspectives on motivational constructs and their measurement, which can be used by multiple and distinct scientific communities, both basic and applied. (shrink)

This paper spells out the attention schema theory of consciousness in terms of the predictive processing framework. As it stands, the attention schema theory lacks a plausible computational formalization that could be used for developing possible mechanistic models of how it is realized in the brain. The predictive processing framework, on the other hand, fails to provide a plausible explanation of the subjective quality or the phenomenal aspect of conscious experience. The aim of this work is to apply the formal (...) tools of predictive processing to outline a possible model of cognition that details a plausible way in which organisms may acquire or construct the kinds of schemas postulated by the attention schema theory. This is done in terms of Bayesian control models, which tend to favour representing information in a frugal or 'sparse' manner that strips away detail in precisely the way that the attention schema requires. Once integrated, these two accounts can offer a plausible explanation of the supposedly irreducible and mysterious 'feel' of conscious experience, in terms of the frugal manner in which perceptual mechanisms are represented by the attention schema. (shrink)

Sexual objectification, in the broadest terms, involves treating people as things. Philosophers have offered different accounts of what, more precisely, this involves. According to the conjoint view of Catherine Mackinnon and Sally Haslanger, sexual objectification is necessarily morally objectionable. According to Martha Nussbaum, it is not: there can be benign instances of it, in the course of a healthy sexual relationship, for instance. This is taken to be a serious disagreement, both by Nussbaum and by recent commentators such as Lina (...) Papadaki. However it isn't a serious disagreement, for the two theories have different aims and methodology, and are not rivals. They both could be apt, simultaneously. (shrink)

This book provides a defence of epistemological relativism against its most powerful opponents.

Is the existence of God a question of fact? To the majority of theists, both now and in the past, I think it has seemed clear that, if the phrase ‘God exists’ is to be meaningful, then it is a fact, either that God exists or that he does not. This assertion may even seem trivially true; and yet it has evidently been denied, in recent years, by many theologians. The reasons for such a denial are, in part, to be (...) found in the general reaction against metaphysical philosophy, which was characteristic of the early years of this century, and which is, in Britain, epitomised by A. J. Ayer's stipulation that no proposition can be factually significant unless it is verifiable; unless, in principle at least, some series of observations could conceivably show it to be true. By restricting ‘observation’ to the senses of the physical body, and by emphasising the fact that God, as transcendent by definition, was not a possible object of the senses, some philosophically sensitive theologians were startled into denying that ‘God’ was, even in principle, verifiable; and consequently into denying that propositions purporting to assert his existence were factual. (shrink)

In this article I caution that María Lugones's critiques of Kimberlé Crenshaw's intersectional theory posit a dangerous form of epistemic erasure, which underlies Lugones's decolonial methodology. This essay serves as a critical engagement with Lugones's essay “Radical Multiculturalism and Women of Color Feminisms” in order to uncover the decolonial lens within Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality. In her assertion that intersectionality is a “white bourgeois feminism colluding with the oppression of Women of Color,” Lugones precludes any possibility of intersectionality operating as (...) a decolonial method. Although Lugones states that her “decolonial feminism” is for all women of color, it ultimately excludes Black women, particularly with her misconstruing of Crenshaw's articulation of intersectionality that is rooted within the Black American feminist tradition. I explore Lugones's claims by juxtaposing her rendering of intersectionality with Crenshaw's and conclude that Lugones's decolonial theory risks erasing Black women from her framework. (shrink)

Context: Although second-order cybernetics was proposed as a new way of cybernetic investigations around 1970, its general status and its modus operandi are still far from obvious. Problem: We want to provide a new perspective on the scope and the currently available potential of second-order cybernetics within today’s science landscapes. Method: We invited a group of scholars who have produced foundational work on second-order cybernetics in recent years, and organized an open call for new approaches to second-order cybernetics. The accepted (...) contributions are discussed and mapped. We also investigate the relations between second-order cybernetics and second-order science. Results: We present a coherent outlook on the scope of second-order cybernetics today, identify a general methodology of science and show that second-order cybernetics can be used in a large number of disciplines that go well beyond purely scientific domains. These results are based on a new epistemic mode “from within,” which can be traced back directly to von Foerster. We also arrived at the conclusion that from its early years onwards second-order cybernetics was developed in two different ways, so that second-order cybernetics and second-order science operate in different domains. Implications: Both the coherent perspective of the scope of second-order cybernetics with a new five-part agenda and the outline for a general methodology of science based on a new epistemic mode that was created within and for second-order cybernetics demonstrate the growing importance of reflexivity in science, which, so far, has not been widely recognized. (shrink)

We present an algorithm to infer causal relations between a set of measured variables on the basis of experiments on these variables. The algorithm assumes that the causal relations are linear, but is otherwise completely general: It provides consistent estimates when the true causal structure contains feedback loops and latent variables, while the experiments can involve surgical or `soft' interventions on one or multiple variables at a time. The algorithm is `online' in the sense that it combines the results from (...) any set of available experiments, can incorporate background knowledge and resolves conflicts that arise from combining results from different experiments. In addition we provide a necessary and sufficient condition that determines when the algorithm can uniquely return the true graph, and can be used to select the next best experiment until this condition is satisfied. We demonstrate the method by applying it to simulated data and the flow cytometry data of Sachs et al. (shrink)

The German philosopher Rickert substituted for Hegel's formulation of the dialectic a "Heterological Principle of Thought" where identity and otherness become moments within the pure logical object of thought. The logical object of thought takes precedence over dialectical movement, and otherness takes precedence over negation. Flach expounds and defends Rickert's position against its critics. The discussion is specialized but contains some valuable insights into Hegel. --R. H. K.

Fasıl ve vasıl konusu, nahvin atıf konusuyla da ilişkili olarak cümlelerin bağlanma hususunu ele alan belagatın me‘ânî alanının önemli bir konusudur. Bu konuda, cümleler arasındaki anlam ilişkilerine dair bir takım kavramlar geliştirilmiş, cümlelerin bağlanmasıyla ilgili esaslar oluşturulmuştur. Bu konunun ele aldığı cümleler, aralarında sebep-sonuç, zıtlık, karşılaştırma vb. anlam ilişkileri bulunan cümleler değil, bu tür anlam ilişkileri dışında art arda gelen ve paragrafın oluşumuna katkı sunan cümlelerdir. Bu cümleler, bağlama dışında başka bir anlamı olmayan vav bağlacıyla veya bağlaçsız biçimde sıralanır. Bağlaçsız (...) sıralanan cümleler arasında modern dönemde noktalama işaretleri kullanılmaktadır. Fasıl ve vasıl konusu kendi kavramları ve sistematiği içerisinde cümlelerin bağlanmasını ve bağlanma esaslarını açıklamaktadır. Ancak bu tür cümlelerin ve bunların bağlanma konusunun Türkçe dilbilgisindeki karşılığı tartışılmamıştır. Çalışmanın bir kısmında bu konunun Türkçe kavramsal karşılığı teorik olarak tartışılmakta ve sıralı bağlı cümleler olduğu tespiti yapılmaktadır. Çalışmanın diğer kısmında ise fasıl ve vasıl konusunda ele alınan cümleler Türkçe dilbilgisi perspektifinden hareketle yeni bir bakışla sunulmaktadır. Sıralı bağlı cümlelerin noktalama işaretleriyle ilişkisi olduğundan fasıl ve vasıl konusundaki cümlelerin bu işaretlerle olan ilişkisi de açıklığa kavuşturulmaktadır. (shrink)

Some decades ago, Heidi Hartmann lamented that “[t]he ‘marriage’ between marxism and feminism has been like the marriage of husband and wife depicted in English common law: marxism and feminism are one, and that one is marxism.”[1] By this, she meant that attempts at a feminist theory had ultimately collapsed into marxism, and so succeeded only in rendering sex inequality derivative of, hence, secondary to class inequality, and as such to be overcome only by ending class inequality. These attempts were (...) in a sense self-defeating, negating the need from which they had emerged, the need for feminism as such. In 1982, Catharine MacKinnon confronted and attempted to remedy this. She developed a theory of sexuality as to feminism what work is to marxism, and thereby elevated feminism to a theory of the kind that marxism is, parallel rather than subordinate to it. She thus made sex inequality finally the issue. But, paradoxically, at the very same time, MacKinnon paralysed feminism, for she revealed men’s oppression of women as unknowable. If men’s oppression of women is unknowable, then feminism, as the movement to end that oppression, is impossible. Susan Bernick recognised this, saying, “MacKinnon’s legacy to feminism is the impossibility of any future feminism. Her account makes feminism theoretically impossible.”[2] This makes the most urgent task for feminism that of explaining how women can know men’s oppression of them. In this thesis, I attempt such an explanation. (shrink)