Informed consent in surgical settings requires not only the accurate communication of medical information but also the establishment of trust through empathic engagement. The use of large language models (LLMs) offers a novel opportunity to enhance the informed consent process by combining advanced information retrieval capabilities with simulated emotional responsiveness. However, the ethical implications of simulated empathy raise concerns about patient autonomy, trust and transparency. This paper examines the challenges of surgical informed consent, the potential benefits and limitations of digital (...) tools such as LLMs and the ethical implications of simulated empathy. We distinguish between active empathy, which carries the risk of creating a misleading illusion of emotional connection and passive empathy, which focuses on recognising and signalling patient distress cues, such as fear or uncertainty, rather than attempting to simulate genuine empathy. We argue that LLMs should be limited to the latter, recognising and signalling patient distress cues and alerting healthcare providers to patient anxiety. This approach preserves the authenticity of human empathy while leveraging the analytical strengths of LLMs to assist surgeons in addressing patient concerns. This paper highlights how LLMs can ethically enhance the informed consent process without undermining the relational integrity essential to patient-centred care. By maintaining transparency and respecting the irreplaceable role of human empathy, LLMs can serve as valuable tools to support, rather than replace, the relational trust essential to informed consent. (shrink)

BackgroundHealthcare providers have to make ethically complex clinical decisions which may be a source of stress. Researchers have recently introduced Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based applications to assist in clinical ethical decision-making. However, the use of such tools is controversial. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the reasons given in the academic literature for and against their use.MethodsPubMed, Web of Science, Philpapers.org and Google Scholar were searched for all relevant publications. The resulting set of publications was title and abstract (...) screened according to defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, resulting in 44 papers whose full texts were analysed using the Kuckartz method of qualitative text analysis.ResultsArtificial Intelligence might increase patient autonomy by improving the accuracy of predictions and allowing patients to receive their preferred treatment. It is thought to increase beneficence by providing reliable information, thereby, supporting surrogate decision-making. Some authors fear that reducing ethical decision-making to statistical correlations may limit autonomy. Others argue that AI may not be able to replicate the process of ethical deliberation because it lacks human characteristics. Concerns have been raised about issues of justice, as AI may replicate existing biases in the decision-making process.ConclusionsThe prospective benefits of using AI in clinical ethical decision-making are manifold, but its development and use should be undertaken carefully to avoid ethical pitfalls. Several issues that are central to the discussion of Clinical Decision Support Systems, such as justice, explicability or human–machine interaction, have been neglected in the debate on AI for clinical ethics so far.Trial registrationThis review is registered at Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/wvcs9). (shrink)

This paper argues that an adequate conception of a good life should recognize, in addition to happiness and morality, a third dimension of meaningfulness. It further proposes that we understand meaningfulness as involving both a subjective and an objective condition, suitably linked. Meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness. In other words one’s life is meaningful insofar as one is gripped or excited by things worthy of one’s love, and one is able to do something positive about it. The (...) paper concludes with some speculations about how this conception of meaningfulness might help to explain the conditions under which social volunteering can be especially rewarding. (shrink)

Disclosing unpublished research findings to participants during an ongoing clinical study requires careful consideration. As researchers, we are obliged to provide study participants with informati...

How can we solve the paradox of false-belief understanding: if infants pass the implicit false belief task by nonverbal behavioural responses why do they nonetheless typically fail the explicit FBT till they are 4 years old? Starting with the divide between situational and cognitive accounts of the development of false-belief understanding, we argue that we need to consider both situational and internal cognitive factors together and describe their interaction to adequately explain the development of children’s Theory of Mind ability. We (...) then argue that a further challenge is raised for existing accounts by helping behaviour versions of the FBT. We argue that the common two-stage accounts are inadequate: we need to allow for three central stages in a continuous development. Furthermore, drawing on Perner et al.’s and Perner and Leahy’s : 491–508, 2016) recent mental files account, we provide a new account of the development of these three stages of ToM ability by describing the changes of the structure and organisation of mental files including the systematic triggering role of types of situations. Thereby we aim to establish a situational mental file account as a new and adequate solution to the paradox of false-belief understanding. (shrink)

The rapid development of machine-learning algorithms, which underpin contemporary artificial intelligence systems, has created new opportunities for the automation of work processes and management functions. While algorithmic management has been observed primarily within the platform-mediated gig economy, its transformative reach and consequences are also spreading to more standard work settings. Exploring algorithmic management as a sociotechnical concept, which reflects both technological infrastructures and organizational choices, we discuss how algorithmic management may influence existing power and social structures within organizations. We identify (...) three key issues. First, we explore how algorithmic management shapes pre-existing power dynamics between workers and managers. Second, we discuss how algorithmic management demands new roles and competencies while also fostering oppositional attitudes toward algorithms. Third, we explain how algorithmic management impacts knowledge and information exchange within an organization, unpacking the concept of opacity on both a technical and organizational level. We conclude by situating this piece in broader discussions on the future of work, accountability, and identifying future research steps. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 8, August 2020, Page 41-43.

We develop and apply a multi-dimensional account of explanatory depth towards a comparative analysis of inflationary and bouncing paradigms in primordial cosmology. Our analysis builds on earlier work due to Azhar and Loeb (2021) that establishes initial conditions fine-tuning as a dimension of explanatory depth relevant to debates in contemporary cosmology. We propose dynamical fine-tuning and autonomy as two further dimensions of depth in the context of problems with instability and trans-Planckian modes that afflict bouncing and inflationary approaches respectively. In (...) the context of the latter issue, we argue that the recently formulated trans-Planckian censorship conjecture leads to a trade-off for inflationary models between dynamical fine-tuning and autonomy. We conclude with the suggestion that explanatory preference with regard to the different dimensions of depth is best understood in terms of differing attitudes towards heuristics for future model building. (shrink)

Canonically, ‘classic’ tests of general relativity (GR) include perihelion precession, the bending of light around stars, and gravitational redshift; ‘modern’ tests have to do with, _inter alia_, relativistic time delay, equivalence principle tests, gravitational lensing, strong field gravity, and gravitational waves. The orthodoxy is that both classic and modern tests of GR afford experimental confirmation of that theory _in particular_. In this article, we question this orthodoxy, by showing there are classes of both relativistic theories (with spatiotemporal geometrical properties different (...) from those of GR) and non-relativistic theories (in which the lightcones of a relativistic spacetime are ‘widened’) which would also pass such tests. Thus, (a) issues of underdetermination in the context of GR loom much larger than one might have thought, and (b) given this, one has to think more carefully about what exactly such tests in fact _are_ testing. (shrink)

Taking his cue from a brief comment by an obscure Greek poet, Isaiah Berlin made a famous taxological distinction between intellectual hedgehogs and foxes. Intellectual hedgehogs know "one big thing." They have a key insight that gives them a perspective from which to view and discuss many different problems. Intellectual foxes "know many things." "Foxes" have many different and sometimes unrelated insights, flashes of insight and understanding that come from many different sources. When you meet a hedgehog, it's a fair (...) bet that you can make an informed prediction about what she or he will say about many different subjects. At least, you may be able to do this if you have an understanding of the Big Underlying Insight that unifies the Hedgehog's thought. But when you meet an intellectual fox, it wiU be difficult to predict his or her perspective or opinion in novel domains. Those who have more tools to choose from have more available options, and the reason the fox is hard to catch is that it is harder to predict. (shrink)

This bibliography covers writers in both the ordinary language and formal language wings of 20th-century analytic philosophy from 1940 to 1996. A wide range of topics is covered, from the nature of religion as a human activity to various doctrines about the nature of God. More than 5,000 items are listed, with many of them cross-indexed.The bibliography is topically organized into sixteen main categories, with approximately 80 subject headings used to further organize the material. An author index completes the bibliography.

Due to the increasingly heterogeneous trajectories of aging, gerontology requires theoretical models and empirical methods that can meaningfully, reliably, and precisely describe, explain, and predict causes and effects within the aging process, considering particular contexts and situations. Human behavior occurs in contexts; nevertheless, situational changes are often neglected in context-based behavior research. This article follows the tradition of environmental gerontology research based on Lawton’s Person-Environment-Interaction model and the theoretical developments of recent years. The authors discuss that, despite an explicit time (...) component, current P-E models could be strengthened by focusing on detecting P-E interactions in various everyday situations. Enhancing Lawton’s original formula via a situationally based component not only changes the theoretical perspectives on the interplay between person and environment but also demands new data collection approaches in empirical environmental research. Those approaches are discussed through the example of collecting mobile data with smartphones. Future research should include the situational dimension to investigate the complex nature of person environment interactions. (shrink)

This paper offers a defense against the primary objection to the view that goodness and other value properties give normative reasons, which is T. M. Scanlon’s influential redundancy argument. Scanlon reasons that value properties cannot add anything over and above what non-evaluative properties contribute. I suggest this line of reasoning is analogous to Jaegwon Kim’s causal exclusion argument against non-reductive physicalism, and adapt Ned Block’s objection to exclusion—a generalization and regress argument—into a reason for rejecting Scanlon’s argument. Differences between reasons (...) and causes make Scanlon’s task more difficult than Kim’s. (shrink)

Excellent patient care within the emergency department requires interdisciplinary training, teamwork, and communication to manage the chaos of the environment. Specifically, invasive procedures required to manage airway, breathing, and circulation via intubation, chest compressions, and establishing intravenous access can provide a direct benefit to save lives but also have the potential to harm both patients and health care clinicians alike; emergency health care clinicians can be exposed to significant amounts of blood and body fluids as well as other threats of (...) physical and psychological harm. The ethical components of care in this environment are often under‐recognized due to the need for rapid patient assessment and immediate action. Moreover, challenges to practice that can include lack of qualified personnel, equipment, and other resources to provide safe care to a large volume of patients can lead to moral distress in ED staff. Because the ED is a high‐uncertainty, high‐acuity environment, continuing interprofessional communication, collaboration, and planning is critical. Opportunities for multidisciplinary policy dialogue and the development of professional guidelines can make the ED a safer environment for both patients and providers. (shrink)

"Humanismus" ist eine kulturelle Bewegung, ein Bildungsprogramm, eine Epoche, eine Tradition, eine Weltanschauung, eine Form von praktischer Philosophie, eine politische Grundhaltung, welche für die Durchsetzung der Menschenrechte und für humanitäre Praxis eintritt. Das Kompendium erfasst die einfachen und allgemeinen Begriffe in ihrem Zusammenhang und stellt den Nutzen für die Erkenntnis gegenwärtiger Probleme in Medizin, Ethik, Ökonomie, Recht und Politik dar. Der Band enthält einen systematischen Teil und einen Teil mit den Grundbegriffen. Die verschiedenen Richtungen und Institutionen der humanistischen Bewegung in (...) Geschichte und Gegenwart werden im Umriss sichtbar gemacht und die neuen Felder und Aufgaben, die der Humanismusforschung durch die Entwicklung der modernen Medizin, der Menschenrechtspolitik und der Geschlechterstudien, der digitalen Revolution und der Globalisierung entstanden sind. Das humanistische Erbe aus Antike, Renaissance und Aufklärung wird kritisch mit diesen neuen globalen Anforderungen vermittelt. (shrink)

Our ability to select relevant information from the environment is limited by the resolution of attention – i.e., the minimum size of the region that can be selected. Neural mechanisms that underlie this limit and its development are not yet understood. Functional MRI was performed during an object tracking task in 7- and 11-year-old children, and in young adults. Object tracking activated canonical fronto-parietal attention systems and motion-sensitive area MT in children as young as 7 years. Object tracking performance improved (...) with age, together with stronger recruitment of parietal attention areas and a shift from low-level to higher-level visual areas. Increasing the required resolution of spatial attention – which was implemented by varying the distance between target and distractors in the object tracking task – led to activation increases in fronto-insular cortex, medial frontal cortex including anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and supplementary motor area, superior colliculi, and thalamus. This core circuitry for attentional precision was recruited by all age groups, but ACC showed an age-related activation reduction. Our results suggest that age-related improvements in selective visual attention and in the resolution of attention are characterized by an increased use of more functionally specialized brain regions during the course of development. (shrink)

This book offers readers a collection of 50 short chapter entries on topics in the philosophy of language. Each entry addresses a paradox, a longstanding puzzle, or a major theme that has emerged in the field from the last 150 years, tracing overlap with issues in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, ethics, political philosophy, and literature. Each of the 50 entries is written as a piece that can stand on its own, though useful connections to other entries are mentioned throughout (...) the text. Readers can open the book and start with almost any of the entries, following themes of greatest interest to them. Each entry includes recommendations for further reading on the topic. -/- Philosophy of Language: 50 Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Thought Experiments is useful as a standalone textbook, or can be supplemented by additional readings that instructors choose. The accessible style makes it suitable for introductory level through intermediate undergraduate courses, as well as for independent learners, or even as a reference for more advanced students and researchers. (shrink)

This paper attempts to analyse and criticize the arguments and motives of those who reject any discussion of active euthanasia. A distinction is drawn between freedom of discussion in academic and in public con texts. Academic discussion demands unrestricted freedom, whereas in public debates the feelings of the groups concerned should be considered. The author argues that these restrictions are not serious enough to justify suppressing the debate. Problems of euthanasia are too vital to be left to the experts without (...) public control. (shrink)

To this very day some philosophers cannot forgive Lacan and psychoanalysis that it dares to transmit the lack – of total and unquestionable clarity, for example – without relying solely on the universality that in philosophy remains the main player. On the other hand, neither Freud nor Lacan trusted philosophy. Indeed, by overestimating knowledge, philosophers, they argue, strive to cover up the lack in being. Freud situated philosophy in the field of Weltanschauung, namely as a discipline and practice of presenting (...) a picture of the self-contained world that is free from incoherence. Psychoanalysis, on the contrary, by allowing the unconscious to interpret thoughtlessly remains in the position of apensé. Thus instead of trying to account for philosophical error for the benefit of philosophy, psychoanalysis aims to show that a philosophical error – which consists in a paranoiac effect of causally linking being and thought, and making no room for illusion – can only be accounted for by the subject. (shrink)

The transition to socialism is only conceivable at the concrete meeting-point of a variety of contradictions. In this regard, the ecological crisis reinterpreted in terms of a Marxist theory of capital manifests a paradoxical primacy.