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The self-report of some autistic individuals that they experience social motivation should not be interpreted as a refutation of neuroimaging evidence supporting the social motivation hypothesis of autism. Neuroimaging evidence supports subtle differences in unconscious reward processing, which emerge at the group level and which may not be perceptible to individuals, but which may nonetheless impact an individual's behavior.

The book's aim is to give a working representation of what metaphysics is today. The historical contributions reveal the roots of metaphysical themes and how today's methods are linked to their Aristotelian and Leibnizian past. The volume also touches on the relationships between ontological and linguistic analysis, the questions of realism and ontological commitment, the nature of abstract objects, the existential meaning of particular quantification, the primitiveness of identity, the question of epistemic versus ontological vagueness, the necessity of origin, the (...) nature of natural necessity, the possibility of intermittent existence, the notion of a temporal part and its place in an account of persistence, the question of identity and change across time and possible worlds, and many more. Readership: A toolbox for any researcher in metaphysics and an essential source for any PhD student with ontological interests. (shrink)

Advanced globalization has raised prosperity and significant progress in various areas of our lives, including healthcare. Technological innovation is a driver behind these changes, which would be unimaginable without increased automation, digitalization, and connectivity. Nonetheless, advanced globalization has increased local inequality and worsened overuse of natural resources, pollution of the environment, and waste of resources. Moreover, worldwide population is growing: from 7.6 billion in 2017 to 11.2 billion in 2100, especially in the Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). This raises urgent (...) global health and disparities issues, as pointed out in the 2030-Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Healthcare 5.0 emerges as a new trend towards the societal role of technologies, by pursuing three main pillars of Industry 5.0: (1) human-centric approach: i.e., the technology is adapted to different users and needs; (2) sustainability: i.e., reducing energy consumption and analysing the impact of technology on economy and society; (3) resilience: i.e., the ability to cope with change, disruptions, crises. Robotics and digital technologies play a fundamental role in shaping the future society by pursuing the aforementioned pillars. This chapter provides an overview on this topic and some examples of robotic technologies addressing the issue of human-centric design, sustainability, and resilience. (shrink)

In order to accommodate for the present shortage of oocyte donors, oocyte-donation programs place ads in college newspapers and provide large monetary compensation to encourage participation. Large compensation acts as a strong incentive for young women to undergo the potentially risky procedure of donation. In this enticing situation, it is particularly important for programs to fully inform prospective donors of the risks of the procedure so that they can accurately weigh the costs and benefits of donating. However, because oocyte-donor programs (...) must alleviate the shortage of donors if they wish to maintain a financially viable business, there is reason to fear that they may minimize or misrepresent risks when recruiting egg donors. In this pilot study, the risk information provided by programs (n=19) to prospective oocyte donors in a preliminary phone call inquiry was investigated. The majority of the programs provided incomplete and/or inaccurate risk information. Policy changes are recommended to reduce the potential for undue influence and to standardize and regulate the risk information provided to prospective egg donors. (shrink)

In this work, Colleen Clements presents her case for the need to subject the field of bioethics to a critical external analysis apart from the current postmodern assumptions. Clements argues that, since the 1970s, bioethics has refuted human values in favour of political consensus building. This failure to recognize basic human values in the ethical critique of modern medicine has lead to a dehumanization of the medical system by the field. Clements proceeds to advocate a naturalistic theory (...) of bioethics that reinstates primary human values. (shrink)

The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has recently issued a revised "Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants" (IFAC Code). As a requirement for membership in IFAC, a national accounting organization must either adopt the IFAC Code or adopt a code of conduct that is not "less stringent" than the IFAC Code. In this paper, we examine the extent to which 158 national accounting organizations have adopted the revised IFAC Code as their own. Our results indicate that 80 of our sample (...) organizations have adopted the IFAC Code (sometimes with minor modifications), while the remaining 78 opted not to utilize the model IFAC Code. We then test the hypothesis that national accounting organizations in lower income economies would be less likely to adopt the IFAC Code than those in high income economies. Our results do not support the hypothesis. We argue that one potential reason for such a finding is that adopting the IFAC Code may be a cost effective means of adopting a code of ethics for organizations in lower income economies. (shrink)

The Direction of Medical Ethics The direction bioethics, and specifically medical ethics, will take in the next few years will be crucial. It is an emerging specialty that has attempted a great deal, that has many differing agendas, and that has its own identity crisis. Is it a subspecialty of clinical medicine? Is it a medical reform movement? Is it a consumer pro tection movement? Is it a branch of professional ethics? Is it a ra tionale for legal decisions and (...) agency regulations? Is it something physicians and ethical theorists do constructively together? Or is it a morally concentrated attack on high technology, with the prac titioners of scientific medicine and the medical ethicists in an adversarial role? Is it a conservative endeavor, exhibiting a Frankenstein syn drome in Medical Genetics ("this time, they have gone too far"), or a Clockwork Orange syndrome in Psychotherapy ("we have met hods to make you talk-walk-cry-kill")? Or does it suffer the afflic tion of overdependency on the informal fallacy of the Slippery Slope ("one step down this hill and we will never be able to stop") that remains an informal fallacy no matter how frequently it's used? Is it a restricted endeavor of analytic philosophy: what is the meaning of "disease," how is "justice" used in the allocation of medical resources, what constitutes "informed" or "consent?" Is it applied ethics, leading in clinical practice to some recommenda tion for therapeutic or preventive action? This incomplete list of questions indicates just how complex. (shrink)

PurposeThe so‐called strategic information systems define systems that represent instruments able to provide a competitive advantage. In this case, the purpose of this paper is to go further and broaden the perspective to examine business sectors. Namely, information systems are conceived also as factors that reconfigure entire business systems.Design/methodology/approachThe research strategy followed can be considered in the circle of the case study. Specifically the case is Yoox, a virtual boutique. The theoretical approach for answering to the questions how and why (...) information systems are determinant in Yoox's development is based on Normann's work (Reframing Business). In fact, it outlines modalities through which information systems reconfigure value space and give details to forces enacted consequently.FindingsThe Yoox case study throws light on the fact that, actually, information systems can be a useful instrument not only for reformulating business models but also dynamics that characterize entire business sectors.Research limitations/implicationsThe perspective proposed is limited to marginal aspects of the fashion business, i.e. global brands such as Armani have been involved in pursuing new online distribution channels outsourcing these services to a Dot.com company like Yoox.Originality/valueA business such as a virtual boutique for a multi‐brand fashion and design is imitable due to the worldwide competition. The fact that Yoox became a provider of e‐commerce platform, forming the logistical side to the marketing strategies on the net, changes the scenario significantly. Yoox's mission is not only to sell fashion online but to provide a technological platform for e‐commerce. In this way, Armani, at first, was a Yoox provider but now it is also a customer. In some sense, the rules of the game of the fashion sector, have been, albeit marginally, modified. (shrink)

Essays discuss reason, self-control, self-definition, time, cause and effect, accidents, and responsibility, and explain why people want free will.

In contemporary medical ethics health is rarely acknowledged to be an ethical obligation. This oversight is due to the preoccupation of most bioethicists with a rationalist, contract model for ethics in which moral obligation is limited to truth-telling and promise-keeping. Such an ethics is poorly suited to medicine because it fails to appreciate that medicine's basis as a moral enterprise is oriented towards health values. A naturalistic model for medical ethics is proposed which builds upon biological and medical values. This (...) perspective clarifies ethical obligations to ourselves and to others for life and health. It provides a normative framework for the doctor-patient relationship within which to formulate medical advice and by which to evaluate patient choice. (shrink)

Mais quelle est la source de cette force qui nous laisse sans peur devant la source de la peur, sans desarroi devant la source du desarroi? A quelle puissance la joie trouve-t-elle soudain cette force qui lui permet de resister a l'effet corrosif d'une tragedie a laquelle elle s'expose? Telle est la question essentielle a laquelle nous devons enfin proposer une reponse. Voici ce dont un Clement Rosset d'a peine 21 ans rapporte l'experience et l'analyse dans cet essai inedit qui (...) prefigure de maniere originale bon nombre de ses reflexions ulterieures, et notamment celle-ci: l'impossibilite de rendre raison de la joie tragique, lucide d'exister. (shrink)

Quiconque considère la résurgence du cynisme à la Renaissance pénètre un domaine vaste, mais laissé en friche par les philosophes et délaissé des littéraires. Quelques exemples suffisent à en évaluer l'étendue : reconnaître Diogène dans le Christ et faire - subrepticement - du premier des Adages un adage diogénique ; s'assimiler à Diogène roulant son tonneau pour illustrer la fabrique du Tiers Livre ; attaquer saint Augustin pour son incapacité à comprendre l'impudeur des cyniques ; souhaiter comme idéal pour l'homme (...) de n'être "serf de personne". Voilà quatre positions où l'on aura reconnu Erasme, Rabelais, Montaigne ainsi que La Boétie et qui attestent que, si le cynisme est bien une philosophie de la Renaissance, il a aussi été un formidable moyen de penser et de parler à neuf. Alors que le bien-dire envahit l'espace public, le dire vrai des cyniques, incisif, est apte à façonner des formes littéraires inédites et à procurer de nouveaux moyens critiques. Contre ceux qui pensent conforter la morale avec des discours bien-pensants, Diogène n'affirmait-il pas, crânement, que l'exercice de la vertu n'est pas pour les pisse-froid, qu'on peut être obscène et vertueux, violent et pédagogue, tout en restant "joyeux entre mille"? (shrink)

This chapter outlines Critical Race Psychology (CRP) as a theoretical framework that integrates the main themes articulated in Critical Race Theory and critical social-psychological approaches to understanding race and racism. Critical race studies in psychology dispel the idea that racism is primarily perpetuated by individual bigots and racists and instead look toward the everyday beliefs, justifications, ideas, and behaviors that are inextricably tied to the broader sociocultural and historical context of globalized systemic inequality. Drawing from several critical approaches in psychology, (...) CRP utilizes identity consciousness as a tool to reveal the sociocultural and psychological resources holding current societal structures in place. (shrink)

Ohne Ubertreibung kann man sagen, dass der Philosoph Wilhelm Friedrich Weischedel - ein Schuler Martin Heideggers - im Problem des Nihilismus, d.h. des Todes Gottes und des damit verbundenen Sinn- und Seinsverlusts, die tiefste Herausforderung des Denkens sah. Vor allem seine Philosophische Theologie entfaltet dieses Grundproblem. Uber verschiedene denkerische Schritte gelangt er zu einer ihm plausibel erscheinenden Antwort auf den Nihilismus, zum Gott der Philosophen. Diese Schritte aber wurden Gegenstand heftiger Kontroversen. Sowohl theologische wie auch philosophische Kritiker haben sie abgelehnt. (...) In der vorliegenden Studie setzt sich der Verfasser mit dem historischen Nahrboden, der Entwicklung und den Schwierigkeiten der Weischedelschen Gotteslehre auseinander. Denn nur auf der Basis einer solchen Auseinandersetzung lasst zich klaren, ob diese Lehre heute ein Licht im Schatten des Nihilismus sein kann. (shrink)

This paper provides a philosophical analysis of striking results in the science of self-talk. Subtle grammatical variations in the way we address ourselves in our inner voice—using the first-person pronoun 'I' versus the second-person pronoun 'You' or one’s own name—has distinct effects on motivation, emotion regulation, and performance, even when the content of the proposition entertained remains the same. According to the dominant explanation, indirect self-talk involves a shift in perspective that enhances psychological self-distance. In this paper, I argue that (...) appealing to psychological distance in this context is both obscure and unexplanatory. Instead, I propose a more direct account of the effects, drawing on the Prima Facie View of perceptual imagination. I argue that the differential efficacy of indirect self-talk stems from the implicit assertoric force of auditory imagery: when we address ourselves in the second or third person, we have the prima facie impression that someone else is making a claim about us. This account builds on the cognitive architecture of imagery processing and explains the effect as arising from associative responses to grammatical structures typically used by others when addressing us. (shrink)

Émilie Du Châtelet’s Foundations of Physics (Institutions de physique, 1740/42) has recently been attracting increasing interest from analytical philosophy in the anglophone world. Du Châtelet’s conception of space and time constitutes a controversial issue. I argue that the current debate underestimates the modal approach and epistemological turn in Du Châtelet’s view on space and time. A historical perspective on Abraham Gotthelf Kästner’s criticism and Jean Henry Samuel Formey’s plagiarism of Du Châtelet underlines the significance of this turning point. Against this (...) background, I revisit Leonhard Euler’s space-time realism and its influence on Immanuel Kant. -/- Les Institutions de physique (1740/1742) d’Émilie Du Châtelet suscitent depuis peu un intérêt croissant dans le monde anglophone, chez les philosophes analytiques. Une question controversée concerne les concepts d’espace et de temps de Du Châtelet. Je soutiens que le débat actuel sous-estime l’approche modale et la tournure épistémologique des considérations de Du Châtelet sur l’espace et le temps. Un regard historique sur la critique d’Abraham Gotthelf Kästner et le plagiat de Du Châtelet par Jean Henry Samuel Formey souligne l’importance de ce tournant. Dans ce contexte, je revisite le réalisme spatio-temporel de Leonhard Euler et son influence sur Emmanuel Kant. (shrink)

Book reviewed in this article: In That Case: Medical Ethics in Everyday Practice. By Alastair Campbell and Roger Higgs. Medical Genetics Casebook: A Clinical Introduction to Medical Ethics Systems Theory. By Colleen D. Clements. Cases in Bioethics from the Hastings Center Report. Edited by Carol Levine and Robert M. Veatch. Hastings‐on‐Hudson.

Il contributo consiste in una analisi e commento della prima sezione del De docta ignorantia di Nicola Cusano (capp. I-XVI), dedicata ai concetti di precisione matematica e di uguaglianza. Il saggio offre la possibilità di ripercorrere la teoria della conoscenza di Cusano, laddove l'impossibilità per la ragione di giungere ad una mens-ura precisa dell'oggetto da conoscere non si trasforma in una mera cultura del limite, bensì la filosofia negativa diviene base per la mistica. In altri termini l'obiettivo specifico del saggio (...) è rilevare come il metodo della dotta ignoranza apra alla conoscenza dell'infinito proprio nel momento in cui essa nega ogni conoscenza razionale precisa. La matematica diviene dunque il fondamento su cui far leva per innalzare la propria mente (transferre) verso la conoscenza simbolica di Dio, nel medesimo solco tracciato da Dionigi e dalla tradizione della mistica speculativa. (shrink)

L’article brosse un portrait de l’humanisme en Autriche au milieu du xv e siècle à travers l’analyse des lettres et des sermons, encore inédits, de Bernard de Kraiburg († 1477), évêque de Chiemsee, collaborateur de Nicolas de Cues et de Enea S. Piccolomini et détenteur d’une extraordinaire bibliothèque personnelle. La production de Bernard aide à comprendre la triangulation culturelle entre l’enseignement universitaire à Vienne (Thomas Ebendorfer), la tradition spirituelle bénédictine (Bernard de Waging) mise à l’épreuve par la réforme de Melk (...) (Jean Schlitpacher) et les débats issus dans les récents conciles à Constance et Bâle. Se dessine un humanisme autrichien, caractérisé par l’influence de l’humanisme padouen (en particulier de Pétrarque), par une tentative de retour à la théologie du xii e siècle et par une ouverture spirituelle au mysticisme. (shrink)

Il presente lavoro può essere letto come un manuale di metodologia lessicografica nella documentazione linguistica nell'opera di Tommaso d'Aquino e come saggio ermeneutico sul concetto tommasiano di comunicazione come sistematica riflessione metafisica sull'atto di comunicare.

Consumer involvement in clinical research is an essential component of a comprehensive response during emergent health challenges. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the moderation of research policies and regulation to facilitate research may raise ethical issues. Meaningful, diverse consumer involvement can help to identify practical approaches to prioritize, design, and conduct rapidly developed clinical research amid current events. Consumer involvement might also elucidate the acceptability of flexible ethics review approaches that aim to protect participants whilst being sensitive to the challenging context (...) in which research is taking place. This article describes the main ethical challenges arising from pandemic research and how involving consumers and the community could enable resolution of such issues. (shrink)

Sensorimotor learning refers to improvements that occur through practice in the performance of sensory-guided motor behaviors. Leveraging novel technical capabilities of an immersive virtual environment, we probed the component kinematic processes that mediate sensorimotor learning. Twenty naïve subjects performed a simulated marksmanship task modeled after Olympic Trap Shooting standards. We measured movement kinematics and shooting performance as participants practiced 350 trials while receiving trial-by-trial feedback about shooting success. Spatiotemporal analysis of motion tracking elucidated the ballistic and refinement phases of hand (...) movements. We found systematic changes in movement kinematics that accompanied improvements in shot accuracy during training, though reaction and response times did not change over blocks. In particular, we observed longer, slower, and more precise ballistic movements that replaced effort spent on corrections and refinement. Collectively, these results leverage developments in immersive virtual reality technology to quantify and compare the kinematics of movement during early learning of full-body sensorimotor orienting. (shrink)

Stretching exercises to increase the range of motion (ROM) of joints have been used by sports coaches and medical professionals for improving performance and rehabilitation. The ability of connective and muscular tissues to change their architecture in response to stretching is important for their proper function, repair and performance. Given the dearth of relevant data in the literature, this review examined two key elements of stretching: stretch intensity and stretch position; and their significance to ROM, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), (...) and inflammation in different populations. A search of three databases, Pub-Med, Google Scholar, and Cochrane Reviews, identified 152 articles, which were subsequently categorized into four groups; athletes (n = 24), clinical (n = 29), elderly (n = 12), and general population (n = 87). The use of different populations facilitated a wider examination of the stretching components and their effects. All 152 articles incorporated information regarding duration, frequency and stretch position, whereas only 79 referred to the intensity of stretching and 22 of these 79 studies were deemed high quality. It appears that the intensity of stretching is relatively under-researched, and the importance of body position and its influence on stretch intensity, is largely unknown. In conclusion, this review has highlighted areas for future research, including stretch intensity and position and their effect on musculo-tendinous tissue, in relation to the sensation of pain, delayed onset muscle soreness, inflammation, as well as muscle health and performance. (shrink)