I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The MRCT Center Post-trial Responsibilities: Continued Access to an Investigational Medicine Framework outlines a case-based, principled, stakeholder approach to evaluate and guide ethical responsibilities to provide continued access to an investigational medicine at the conclusion of a patient’s participation in a clinical trial. The Post-trial Responsibilities (PTR) Framework includes this Guidance Document as well as the accompanying Toolkit. A 41-member international multi-stakeholder Workgroup convened by the Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard University (...) (MRCT Center) developed this Guidance and Toolkit. Project Motivation A number of international organizations have discussed the responsibilities stakeholders have to provide continued access to investigational medicines. The World Medical Association, for example, addressed post-trial access to medicines in Paragraph 34 of the Declaration of Helsinki (WMA, 2013): “In advance of a clinical trial, sponsors, researchers and host country governments should make provisions for post-trial access for all participants who still need an intervention identified as beneficial in the trial. This information must also be disclosed to participants during the informed consent process.” This paragraph and other international guidance documents converge on several consensus points: • Post-trial access (hereafter referred to as “continued access” in this Framework [for terminology clarification – see definitions]) is the responsibility of sponsors, researchers, and host country governments; • The plan for continued access should be determined before the trial begins, and before any individual gives their informed consent; • The protocol should delineate continued access plans; and • The plan should be transparent to potential participants and explained during the informed consent process. However, there is no guidance on how to fulfill these responsibilities (i.e., linking specific responsibilities with specific stakeholders, conditions, and duration). To fill this gap, the MRCT Center convened a working group in September of 2014 to develop a framework to guide stakeholders with identified responsibilities. This resultant Framework sets forth applicable principles, approaches, recommendations and ethical rationales for PTR regarding continued access to investigational medicines for research participants. (shrink)

In recent years, feminist scholarship on emotional labor has proliferated. I identify a related but distinct form of care labor, hermeneutic labor. Hermeneutic labor is the burdensome activity of: understanding and coherently expressing one’s own feelings, desires, intentions, and movitations; discerning those of others; and inventing solutions for relational issues arising from interpersonal tensions. I argue that hermeneutic labor disproportionately falls on women’s shoulders in heteropatriachal societies, especially in intimate relationships between women and men. I also suggest that some of (...) the gendered burdens of emotional labor that feminist scholars point out would better be described as hermeneutic labor. Drawing on feminist philosophy as well as findings from social psychology and sociology, I argue that the exploitation of women’s hermeneutic labor is a pervasive element of what Sandra Bartky calls the ‘micropolitics’ of intimate relationships. The widespread expectation that women are relationship maintenance experts, as well as the prevalence of a gendered demand-withdraw pattern of communication, leads an exploitative situation to appear natural or even desirable, even as it leads to women’s dissatisfaction. This situation may be considered misogynistic in Kate Manne’s sense, where misogyny is a property of social environments rather than a worldview. (shrink)

Rather than as a giving of permission to someone to transgress one’s bodily boundaries, I argue for defining sexual consent as feeling-with one’s sexual partner. Dominant approaches to consent within feminist philosophy have failed to capture the intercorporeal character of erotic consciousness by treating it as a form of giving permission, as is evident in the debate between attitudinal and performative theories of consent. Building on the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Ann Cahill, Linda Martín Alcoff, and others, I argue that (...) taking consent to be an intercorporeal and dynamic coexistence of desiring bodies opens up new ways of thinking about the role of consent in sexual ethics. I suggest that phenomenology’s theories of embodied consciousness, operative intentionality, and the direct perception of others provide a better groundwork for conceptualizing the role of ambiguity and subtle power dynamics in sexual encounters than attitudinal or performative accounts of consent. I also defend my view against Jonathan Jenkins Ichikawa’s argument for doing away with the concept of consent in sexual ethics due to consent's stubborn and infelicitous presupposition of permission-giving. (shrink)

This paper has two aims: First, to provide an elucidation of the kind of meta-ethical programme at work in Mary Midgley's (1919-2018) Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature (published in 1978). Second, to make the case for Midgley's placement within the philosophical and philosophical-historical canon, specifically, as an important figure within the meta-ethical movement of ‘Neo-Aristotelian naturalism'. On historical and systematic grounds, I argue that Midgley should be classified as a neo-Aristotelian ethical naturalist notwithstanding the distinctive features of (...) Midgley’s specific brand of neo-Aristotelianism. In doing so, I suggest a more generally applicable family resemblance approach to the history of philosophy in order to classify and re-introduce into the canon figures in the history of philosophy that are in danger of falling into oblivion. (shrink)

In ‘Where Ethics and Aesthetics Meet: Titian’s Rape of Europa’ (2003), A.W. Eaton conducts an in-depth analysis of Titian’s Rape of Europa, presenting the painting as an example of a work that is ethically defective and whose ethical defect diminishes the work aesthetically. In this paper, I argue that while Eaton convincingly pinpoints an ethical defect in the work, she fails to show that it is thereby aesthetically defective. My argument revives what she calls the ‘Objection from Creepiness’ (OfC), which (...) appeals to the existence of ‘creeps’, for whom the ethical defect in a work does not block the prescribed response. I argue that Eaton’s dismissal of the objection is too quick, and that a reconsideration of the OfC shows it to be particularly powerful in cases where (1) creeps are the target audience of a work, and (2) the ethical defects of the work concern the erotic. (shrink)

Jean-Paul Sartre’s theory of “the look” has generally been understood as an argument for the impossibility of mutual recognition between consciousnesses. Being-looked-at reveals me as an object for the other, but I can never grasp this object that I am. I argue here that the chapter “The Look” in Being and Nothingness has been widely misunderstood, causing many to dismiss Sartre’s view unfairly. Like Hegel’s account of recognition, Sartre’s “look” is meant as a theory of successful mutual recognition that proves (...) the existence of others. Yet Sartre claims that such an account is plausible only if recognition is affective, not cognitive. Situating Sartre’s account of the look within his technical understanding of affect’s distinctness from cognition not only enables a better understanding of Sartre’s view, but also reveals a compelling alternative to the understanding of self-other relations in contemporary affect theory. (shrink)

This volume celebrates the moral and ethical thought one of the most prolific philosophers in the history of twentieth-century philosophy, Mary Midgley (1919-2018). Midgley’s vision of philosophy is expansive and resists simple characterisation (a feature Midgley would welcome given her avid resistance to oversimplification and reduction). Perhaps the best characterisation is that offered by Midgley herself: ‘[philosophy] is itself the art of connecting things’ (Midgley, 2016, 227).

In the words of Iris Murdoch, Mary Midgley’s Beast and Man built “an urgently needed bridge between science and philosophy”.1 While science and philosophy have never been entirely remote, Murdoch was right to observe the achievement of her friend, Midgley, in drawing a new and insightful connection between these disciplines. A bridge, more specifically, between scientific investigations into human and animal behaviour, and philosophical enquiries into the concept of human nature. A moral philosopher by trade, Midgley imbues the neo-Aristotelian understanding (...) of man as a ‘rational animal’ with the many traits (she argues) we share with our diverse earthly neighbours – nonhuman animals. (shrink)

Mary Midgley (1919–2018) was an undergraduate at Oxford University when her friend Elizabeth Anscombe first met Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951). When Anscombe persuaded Wittgenstein to come and speak to the undergraduate students at Oxford University in the late 1940s, Midgley was there. She found Wittgenstein’s words ‘important and illuminating’, and ‘scolded herself for not having brought a notebook’ (Mac Cumhaill & Wiseman 2022: 172). An Anscombe-Wittgensteinian influence is clear and informative on Midgley’s philosophy of language and meta-philosophy, but it has been (...) scarcely explored in the literature. With this in mind, the aims of this chapter are twofold. Primarily, I aim to provide an account of Wittgenstein’s influence on Midgley’s philosophy. I do so by focusing on how Wittgenstein’s ideas influence Midgley’s meta-philosophy and philosophy of language – in particular, her use of cluster concepts (akin to family-resemblance concepts), discussion of ‘life forms’, and implicit description of something like Wittgensteinian language games (PI: 19, 23, 241). (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to provide an exposition of Susan Stebbing’s moral philosophy. Stebbing is increasingly recognized as a key figure in early analytic philosophy. However, there is no existing scholarship on her moral philosophy. We examine how Stebbing’s moral philosophy connects to that of two important figures who Stebbing herself identifies as influences on her work: Moore and Aristotle. We argue that while there are clear signs of influence from Moore, Stebbing is also critical of his abstract (...) approach to moral theorizing. In a manner more reminiscent of Aristotle, Stebbing argues that moral philosophy must concern itself with “the ways in which men live.” We argue that Stebbing can plausibly be characterized as both a first level and second level ‘Aristotelian’ ethicist. This is significant since neo-Aristotelian ethics is usually understood as having emerged in the second half of the twentieth century in the work of thinkers like Foot, Hursthouse, and MacIntyre. We also raise an objection to Stebbing from her student, Margaret Macdonald, and reconstruct a response to that objection on Stebbing's behalf. (shrink)

Phenomenologists have long viewed love as a central form of inter-subjective engagement. I show here that it is also of concern to phenomenological ethics. After establishing the relation of phenomenology to ethics, I show that both classical and existential phenomenology view love as an act of valuing the loved one. I argue that a second act of valuing is latent in phenomenology: valuing the relationship. These values are evident in the phenomenological distinction between true love, which generates a “perspective in (...) difference,” and false love, which seeks union with the beloved manifesting in devotion and/or jealousy. Because culturally dominant heteronormative scripts incline individuals toward false love, lovers should create their own pacts for ethical relationships. I consider consensually non-monogamous relationships as an example. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that the literature on victims’ duties to resist their own oppression has not paid enough attention to the heterogeneity of victims and how this affects their duties. The main aim of the paper is to introduce considerations and complications—informed by an intersectional analysis, and particularly the concept of privilege—that must be taken into account when determining how to assign duties to resist. I argue that failure to recognize these nuances results in an overcautiousness when it (...) comes to assigning duties of resistance, and that a blanket reluctance to assign such duties is of most detriment to the most marginalized. (shrink)

While Simone de Beauvoir’s theory of alterity has been the topic of much discussion within Beauvoir scholarship, feminist theory, and social and political philosophy, it has not commonly been a reference point for those working within ethics. However, Beauvoir develops a novel view that those concerned with the ethical import of respect for others should consider seriously, especially those working within the Levinasian tradition. I claim that Beauvoir distinguishes between two forms of otherness: namely, existential alterity and sociopolitical alterity. While (...) sociopolitical alterity is a contingent and surmountable form of otherness that results from oppression of individuals and groups, existential alterity is a necessary feature of the human condition that discloses the foreignness of the other as a freedom. Out of this view of existential alterity, I argue, Beauvoir develops an ethic of asymmetrical reciprocity. In contrast with Levinas, who dismisses reciprocity as a symmetrical or reversible model of relation that minimizes difference, Beauvoir promulgates a view of reciprocity that does not fall into the problems that Levinas diagnoses. Moreover, asymmetrical reciprocity more successfully figures the ethical relation to the other than the absolute asymmetry one finds in Levinas, which becomes evident through revisiting Levinas’s account of eros and contrasting it with that of Beauvoir. (shrink)

In recent decades, interest in non-monogamous intimate relationships has grown rapidly. Polyamory, relationship anarchy, consensual or ethical non-monogamy, and more have become popular in academic and public discourse. These practices destabilize the privileging of heterosexual nuclear families and the assumption that romantic coupledom is the ultimate form of love. Non-monogamous approaches flout cultural norms of exclusivity by avowing that intimacy is compatible with multiple dyadic and/or multi-party relationships. This article explores Simone de Beauvoir's theory and practice of non-monogamy in her (...) theoretical writings and diaries. (shrink)

This commentary expresses sympathy with Wong’s focus on the nurturing metaphors used in the _Xúnzǐ_, but it raises challenges to Wong’s desire-satisfaction interpretation of Xúnzǐ’s views on moral cultivation and the origin of moral motivation. It argues that Wong’s interpretation may overemphasize continuity throughout the process of moral cultivation. It highlights the challenges facing Wong’s desire-satisfaction interpretation by pointing to both textual and theoretical difficulties, including the problem of intractability due to the combinatorial complexities involved in determining the best satisfaction (...) using a bottom-up approach. The commentary also draws attention to Xúnzǐ’s view of moral transformation, arguing that Wong’s account struggles to explain the discontinuities in the fundamental changes involved in moral transformation. Finally, it offers an interpretation of Xúnzǐ’s view of moral cultivation, called “capacities in order.” It contends that this account, which combines both top-down and bottom-up approaches, aligns with the text more effectively and better explains the continuity and discontinuity present in Xúnzǐ’s view of moral transformation. (shrink)

Retracted research publications reached an all-time high in 2023, and COVID-19 publications may have higher retraction rates than other publications. To better understand the impact of COVID-19 on the research literature, we analyzed 244 retracted publications related to COVID-19 in the PubMed database and the reasons for their retraction. Peer-review manipulation (18.4%) and error (20.9%) were the most common reasons for retraction, with time to retraction occurring far more quickly than in the past (13.2 mos, compared with 32.9 mos in (...) a 2012 study). Publications focused on controversial topics were retracted rapidly (mean time to retraction 10.8 mos) but continued to receive media attention, suggesting that retraction alone may be insufficient to prevent the spread of scientific misinformation. More than half of the retractions resulted from problems that could have been detected prior to publication, including compromise of the peer review process, plagiarism, authorship issues, lack of ethics approvals, or journal errors, suggesting that more robust screening and peer review by journals can help to mitigate the recent rise in retractions. (shrink)

Fraser’s book offers a rich and insightful examination of key intellectual movements from the late Warring States period, drawing on texts such as the Guǎnzǐ, Hánfēizǐ, Lǚ’s Annals, Mǎwángduī silk manuscripts, Mòzǐ, Shāngjūn Shū, Xúnzǐ, and Zhuāngzǐ. The work has two notable strengths. First, it incorporates lesser-studied texts in English-language scholarship on Chinese philosophy, such as the Guǎnzǐ, Lǚ’s Annals, and the outer chapters of the Zhuāngzǐ. Fraser’s nuanced distinctions and analysis of the different strands of thought within the Zhuāngzǐ (...) are particularly valuable for revealing the richness of the text. Second, the book adopts a topic-oriented approach, addressing themes like the Way (dào), the state... Read More. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The ethics of reciprocity offered by Simone de Beauvoir is founded upon an irreducible epistemic gap between self and other. This gap is often overlooked by commentators, who have tended to imply that the ethics of reciprocity requires recognition of oneself in the other. I claim that Beauvoir's ethics forecloses such recognition of oneself in the other and reveals that it is at once illusory and dangerous. Recognition in this sense is based upon a false notion of self and (...) constitutes a violation of the alterity of the other. I argue that Beauvoir stages this dangerous form of recognition in her novel She Came to Stay, while her claims about reciprocity in The Second Sex provide an image of a different, more positive recognition capable of respecting alterity. Finally, I claim that the epistemic gap characteristic of reciprocity also holds with respect to one's self-relation. (shrink)

This study examines the Ionic frieze of the Parthenon, focussing on the concept of ‘Divinespace’ and ‘Mortalspace’ within its artistic composition. I examine how divinities and mortal figures are depicted in specifically designated spaces and how they intersect during the Panathenaic procession. Notably, two gods, Aphrodite and Hermes, are observed crossing into ‘Mortalspace’, identified by the two groups of athlothetai—officials responsible for the festival’s organization. The casual nature of their presence and the lack of awareness shown towards divine intrusions add (...) depth to the understanding of ancient Greek religious art and rituals. By analysing votive reliefs from the Athenian Akropolis and by comparing them to the frieze, this research sheds light on the intricacies of the depiction and symbolism in this remarkable ancient artwork. (shrink)

Eros is often considered to be a desire or inclination for what is irreducibly other to the self. This view is particularly prominent among philosophers who reject a “fusion” model of erotic love in favor of one that foregrounds the difference between lovers. Drawing from this “difference” model, I argue in this essay that autoeroticism is a genuine form of Eros, even when Eros is understood to involve irreducible alterity. I claim that the autoerotic act is not adequately captured by (...) traditional views of masturbation, where it is seen as distinct from the erotic encounter with another being. Instead, I employ Derrida and Irigaray to argue that the autoerotic act is auto-hetero-erotic, which depends on a view of the self as self-othering and heterogeneous. (shrink)

Cette étude a été initiée neuf mois après l’incendie Lubrizol survenu le 26 septembre 2019 à Rouen. Elle a mis en œuvre une enquête par questionnaire en juin 2020 auprès de 178 collégiens et lycéens de la région rouennaise. Une enquête qualitative par entretiens individuels et focus groups a ensuite été conduite en 2021 auprès de 25 étudiants qui logeaient dans l’agglomération rouennaise au moment de l’incendie. Les résultats ont souligné les enjeux pour les familles et les attentes familiales des (...) jeunes dans les heures qui ont suivi l’incendie et au-delà. L’étude montre d’une part que les recommandations familiales en matière de comportements de protection ont été suivies par les jeunes qui ont accordé plus de crédit aux parents, médecins et professeurs qu’au maire, au préfet ou aux informations sur internet ; d’autre part que la famille s’est montrée attentive aux signes de désarroi des jeunes et à leurs stratégies de régulation émotionnelle dans les jours post-incendie. La famille a été perçue comme un espace de protection, de refuge et de réassurance. (shrink)

The ‘reflexive turn’ transcended disciplinary boundaries within the social sciences. Feminist scholars in particular have taken up its core concerns, establishing a wide-ranging literature on reflexivity in feminist theory and practice. In this paper, I contribute to this scholarship by deconstructing the ‘story’ of my own research as a white, genderqueer, masculine-presenting researcher in Ghana. This deconstruction is based on thirteen months of field research exploring LGBT activism in the capital city of Accra. Using a series of ethnographic vignettes, I (...) examine questions of queer subjectivity, embodiment and self/other dynamics in the research encounter. Specifically, I interrogate what a reflexive concern for power relations means when researchers share moments of commonality and difference with research participants, here in relation to axes of gender, sexuality, race and class. Finally, I explore the challenge of theorising resistance in light of feminist postcolonial critiques of the politics of representation. I conclude that it is only by locating these tensions and dissonances in the foreground of our inquiries that reflexivity becomes meaningful as a way of rendering knowledge production more accountable and transparent, of practising feminist solidarity, and of excavating our own queer research journeys. (shrink)

It is always a delight to see contemporary engagement with the rich insights of Mencius and Xunzi. In the case of Sungmoon Kim’s thoughtful and ambitious book, this delight is further accompanied by a feeling of confidence about future possibilities. Indeed, the analytic style and the conceptual devices Kim adopts in his discussion and reconstruction of these two thinkers’ ideas provide us with a more focused and structured way to notice and appreciate their commonalities and differences. Moreover, he attends to (...) the differences in the social and political contexts these two thinkers were embedded in, as well as their different views regarding human nature and moral psychology. This attention is then followed by his... (shrink)

Infection by a temperate phage can lead to death of the bacterial cell, but sometimes these phages integrate into the bacterial chromosome, offering the potential for a more long-lasting relationship to be established. Here we define three major ecological and evolutionary benefits of temperate phage for bacteria: as agents of horizontal gene transfer, as sources of genetic variation for evolutionary innovation, and as weapons of bacterial competition. We suggest that a coevolutionary perspective is required to understand the roles of temperate (...) phages in bacterial populations. The dual personality of temperate phages – as infectious lytic phages or prophages integrated within the bacterial genome – creates a complex interaction with bacterial hosts. Although potentially lethal, prophages confer a multitude of benefits for the host, suggesting the potential for both conflict and collaboration which must be viewed from a coevolutionary perspective that considers both host and phage fitness interests. (shrink)

This study focused on cultural differences in the portrayal of gender in British and Japanese television advertisements. In all, 196 British advertisements were analyzed using a coding scheme based on established coding categories (Furnham, Babitzkow, and Uguccioni, 2000; McArthur and Resko, 1975). Contrary to prediction, chi-square analyses showed less gender stereotyping in these advertisements than reported in previous British studies (Furnham and Skae, 1997). Next, 228 Japanese advertisements were analyzed. It was found that Japanese advertisements showed a high degree of (...) gender stereotyping as could be expected from Japan's high masculinity score (Hofstede, 1991). Analyses were carried out for ‘visual’ and ‘aural’ characters, and for advertisements with both one and two central figures. Results for the aural and 2-central figure sub-samples were more significant. (shrink)

This volume celebrates the moral and ethical thought one of the most prolific philosophers in the history of twentieth-century philosophy, Mary Midgley (1919-2018). Midgley’s vision of philosophy is difficult to capture in a single sentence (a feature Midgley herself would welcome, given her avid resistance to oversimplification and reduction). Perhaps the best characterisation I can offer for now is that put forward by this book’s dedication: for Mary, the first Midgleyan. The chapters in this volume celebrate Midgley’s moral philosophy by (...) engaging deeply and critically with her many texts, considering their historical place within the scholarship and examining their implications not just within academic philosophy, but for ‘think[ing] as whole people’ as Midgley insists we do. -/- This volume is distinctive in being the first single volume to publish about Midgley’s writing on moral philosophy and ethics. It brings together newly commissioned essay’s on Midgley’s meta-philosophy, moral philosophy, and ethics – interconnected areas in Midgley’s philosophy that are under-represented in scholarship to date. (shrink)

This Virtual Special Issue celebrates some central figures in the history of twentieth century philosophy – all of whom are women. Here we have collected and republished the first ten Inaugural Addresses delivered by the first ten women Presidents of the Aristotelian Society, from 1930-2001.

Our bodies have a story to tell. The Embodied Path weaves inspiring and ordinary body stories together with discussion questions, writing prompts, and breath and body practices to help anyone interested in creating more capacity for compassion for themselves and others by doing the internal work to contend with trauma and privilege.

Discussions of sexual ethics often focus on the wrong of treating another as a mere object instead of as a person worthy of respect. On this view, the task of sexual ethics becomes putting the other’s subjectivity above their status as erotic object so as to avoid the harms of objectification. Ward and Anderson argue that such a view disregards the crucial, moral role that erotic objecthood plays in sexual encounters. Important moral features of intimacy are disclosed through the experience (...) of being an erotic object for another, as well as in perceiving another as an erotic object. Drawing on phenomenology, especially the insights of Simone de Beauvoir, Ward and Anderson argue that erotic encounters are shaped by the human condition of ambiguity, where being an object for others is intertwined with bodily agency. Because sexual agency is complex in this way, theories of sexual ethics and responsibility must widen their focus beyond transparent communication and authoritative expressions of will. (shrink)

The quantum logical `or' is analyzed from a physical perspective. We show that it is the existence of EPR-like correlation states for the quantum mechanical entity under consideration that make it nonequivalent to the classical situation. Specifically, the presence of potentiality in these correlation states gives rise to the quantum deviation from the classical logical `or'. We show how this arises not only in the microworld, but also in macroscopic situations where EPR-like correlation states are present. We investigate how application (...) of this analysis to concepts could alleviate some well known problems in cognitive science. (shrink)