Introduction : reading Nietzsche skeptically -- Nietzsche and the Pyrrhonian tradition -- Skepticism in Nietzsche's early work : the case of "on truth and lie" -- The question of Nietzsche's "naturalism" -- Perspectivism and Ephexis in interpretation -- Skepticism and health -- Skepticism as immoralism.

BackgroundDecision-making in initiating life-sustaining health technology is complex and often conducted at time-critical junctures in clinical care. Many of these decisions have profound, often irreversible, consequences for the child and family, as well as potential benefits for functioning, health and quality of life. Yet little is known about what influences these decisions. A systematic review of reasoning identified the range of reasons clinicians give in the literature when initiating technology dependence in a child, and as a result helps determine the (...) range of influences on these decisions.MethodsMedline, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, Web of Science, ASSIA and Global Health Library databases were searched to identify all reasons given for the initiation of technology dependence in a child. Each reason was coded as a broad and narrow reason type, and whether it supported or rejected technology dependence.Results53 relevant papers were retained from 1604 publications, containing 116 broad reason types and 383 narrow reason types. These were grouped into broad thematic categories: clinical factors, quality of life factors, moral imperatives and duty and personal values; and whether they supported, rejected or described the initiation of technology dependence. The majority were conceptual or discussion papers, less than a third were empirical studies. Most discussed neonates and focused on end-of-life care.ConclusionsThere is a lack of empirical studies on this topic, scant knowledge about the experience of older children and their families in particular; and little written on choices made outside ‘end-of-life’ care. This review provides a sound basis for empirical research into the important influences on a child’s potential technology dependence. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Pyrrhonian Revival in Montaigne and NietzscheJessica N. BerryMichel de Montaigne occupies a unique place in Nietzsche's history of ideas. He is one of a very few figures for whom Nietzsche expresses deep admiration and about whom he has virtually nothing critical to say. This is a rare enough mark of distinction; but contrary to what it might lead us to expect, the relationship between Montaigne and Nietzsche has (...) seldom been carefully examined. There has yet to be a book-length study devoted solely to Montaigne and Nietzsche,1 and article-length treatments of the relationship between their works and thought have been surprisingly scarce. What discussions there have been tend to locate the connections between Nietzsche and Montaigne mainly in matters of either literary or personal style,2 but studies that examine Montaigne's influence on Nietzsche with an eye toward philosophical rather than literary or stylistic issues have been almost non-existent.3 This dearth of treatments can be explained, at least in part, by the fact that, while Montaigne is rightly recognized for the literary merits of his work and for its subsequent influence on later prose stylists (and not only in French), his work on the whole has seldom been appreciated as having any philosophical value in its own right. Small wonder, then, that the connection between Montaigne and Nietzsche has [End Page 497] appeared more significant to commentators on Montaigne who are interested in tracing his influence on later thinkers than to scholars of Nietzsche—even those Nietzsche scholars who take an acute interest in his intellectual heritage. What I will argue here is that Montaigne makes a more concrete and philosophically more substantive contribution to Nietzsche's thought than has generally been appreciated; specifically, by giving impetus to the naturalism that develops in Human, All Too Human as an antidote to Schopenhauer's pessimistic metaphysics of will.In this essay, I present a two-fold thesis about Montaigne's influence on Nietzsche's early work. First, I will argue that the "naturalistic turn" in Human, All Too Human reflects Nietzsche's engagement with Montaigne during a crucial moment in the development of his thought. Second, I will demonstrate that the naturalism Nietzsche adopts from Montaigne has roots in the tradition of Pyrrhonian skepticism that Montaigne carries forward into the Renaissance. In the end, a better understanding of the skeptical ancestry of Nietzsche's naturalism should help us make better sense of Human, All Too Human and its immediate successors in Nietzsche's oeuvre, which cultivate what otherwise seems to be an uneasy partnership between naturalism and skepticism.I. It is by now widely accepted that Nietzsche's estimation of the value of the techniques and methods of the natural sciences undergoes radical revision in the period culminating in the first volume of Human, All Too Human (HAH),4 a book sometimes described as inaugurating a "positivist" phase in Nietzsche's work. From the first of its nine major sections, "Of First and Last Things," HAH narrates a struggle between science on the one hand and philosophy on the other. It is important to note the breadth of the extension of the term "science" (Wissenschaft), which includes not only what we think of as the "hard" or physical sciences (physics, chemistry, and the like) but also areas of inquiry we now consider "behavioral sciences" such as psychology and sociology—and, Nietzsche would say, philology as well. "Philosophy," by contrast is specified more narrowly. As Nietzsche uses the term throughout HAH, "philosophy" is usually shorthand for "metaphysical philosophy" and singles out for criticism the discourse of metaphysics that has dominated the philosophical landscape at least since Plato.In the sense in which Nietzsche worries about it "metaphysical philosophy" promotes speculation about such supra-sensible entities as Platonic forms, Descartes's "immaterial substances," and Kantian things-in-themselves. That its contributions include, for instance, theories about the existence and immortality of the soul accounts for Nietzsche's grouping "metaphysical philosophy" [End Page 498] together with religion and art as "arts of narcosis."5 Consciously or not they endeavor to comfort us by assuaging our fear of death, our existential anxieties about the purposelessness of... (shrink)

In management research, theory testing confronts a paradox described by Meehl in which designing studies with greater methodological rigor puts theories at less risk of falsification. This paradox exists because most management theories make predictions that are merely directional, such as stating that two variables will be positively or negatively related. As methodological rigor increases, the probability that an estimated effect will differ from zero likewise increases, and the likelihood of finding support for a directional prediction boils down to a (...) coin toss. This paradox can be resolved by developing theories with greater precision, such that their propositions predict something more meaningful than deviations from zero. This article evaluates the precision of theories in management research, offers guidelines for making theories more precise, and discusses ways to overcome barriers to the pursuit of theoretical precision. (shrink)

Identifying sporting talent remains a difficult task due to the complex nature of sport. Technical skill assessments are used throughout the talent pathway to monitor athletes in an attempt to more effectively predict future performance. These assessments however, largely focus on the isolated execution of key skills devoid of any game context. When assessments are representative of match-play and applied in a setting where all four components of competition (i.e., technical, tactical, physiological and psychological) are assessed within an integrated approach, (...) prediction of talent is more likely to be successful. This article explores the current talent identification technical skill assessments, with a particular focus on Australian Football, and proposes a 5-level performance assessment model for athlete assessment. The model separates technical game skill on a continuum from Level-1 (i.e., laboratory analysis) to Level-5 (i.e., match-play). These levels, using the assumptions of the expert performance model and representative learning design theory, incorporate a step-wise progression of performance demands to more closely represent match-play conditions. The proposed model will provide researchers and practitioners with a structured framework to consider when assessing, or developing, new assessments of technical game-based skill. (shrink)

Research suggests that metacognitive monitoring ability does not decline with age. For example, judgments-of-learning accuracy is roughly equivalent between younger and older adults. But few studies have asked whether younger and older adults’ metacognitive ability varies across different types of memory processes. The current study tested the relationship between memory and post-decision confidence ratings at the trial level on item and associative memory recognition tests. As predicted, younger and older adults had similarmetacognitive efficiency, when using meta-d’/d’, a measure derived from (...) Signal Detection Theory, despite a significant age effect favoring younger adults on memory performance. This result is consistent with previous work showing age-equivalent metacognitive efficiency in the memory domain. We also found that metacognitive efficiency was higher for associative memory than for item memory across age groups, even though associative and item recognition memory were statistically equivalent. Higher accuracy on post-test decision confidence ratings for associative recognition relative to item recognition on resolution accuracy itself and when corrected for performance differences are novel findings. Implications for associative metacognition are discussed. (shrink)

Between his calling into question, on the one hand, the apparently unquestionable value of compassion itself, and his refusal, on the other hand, to concede that suffering is unconditionally bad, Nietzsche has been understood by many as expressing a callous indifference, or worse, to most human suffering. This article aims to show that this interpretation relies on an oversimplified characterization of the relevant moral emotions. Compassion (or pity, either of which word can be used to translate the German das Mitleid) (...) is ‘a polyphonous being’, as Nietzsche insists in Daybreak (1881). A closer look at some key passages in Nietzsche’s text, and some help from Greek thinkers Nietzsche points us toward, will demonstrate that this term has meanings that have been lost to us. Recovering those meanings will shed light both on Nietzsche’s critique of compassion (or pity) and on his own attitude toward suffering. (shrink)

Nietzsche's Antichrist is subtitled "A Curse on Christianity." In its last numbered section, he pronounces his "eternal indictment" of two millennia of tradition: —Now I have come to the end and I pronounce my judgment. I condemn Christianity, I indict the Christian church on the most terrible charges an accuser has ever had in his mouth. I consider it the greatest corruption conceivable, it had the will to the last possible corruption. [...] I want to write this eternal indictment of (...) Christianity on every wall, wherever there are walls,—[...] I call Christianity the one great curse, the one great innermost corruption, the one great instinct of revenge that does not consider any method to be poisonous... (shrink)

Three papers included in this issue were presented to the North American Nietzsche Society (NANS) in San Francisco during the Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association. Participants were invited by the NANS program committee to address the theme, “Nietzsche and Antiquity.” The session, held on March 31, 2010 and chaired by R. Lanier Anderson (Stanford), included papers by Nickolas Pappas (CUNY), who proposes to shed new light on BT by examining some peculiar distortions in Nietzsche’s presentation of the (...) god Apollo; Joel E. Mann (St. Norbert College), who delves insightfully into Nietzsche’s “medical posture” and his allusions to Hippocrates and ancient medicine in D; and Wilson H. Shearin .. (shrink)

Introduction No consent for health and medical research is appropriate when the criteria for a waiver of consent are met, yet some ethics committees and data custodians still require informed consent. Methods A single-blind parallel-group randomised controlled trial: 1129 families of children born at a South Australian hospital were sent information explaining data linkage of childhood immunisation and hospital records for vaccine safety surveillance with 4 weeks to opt in or opt out by reply form, telephone or email. A subsequent (...) telephone interview gauged the intent of 1026 parents (91%) in relation to their actions and the sociodemographic differences between participants and non-participants in each arm. Results The participation rate was 21% (n=120/564) in the opt-in arm and 96% (n=540/565) in the opt-out arm (χ2 (1 df) = 567.7, p<0.001). Participants in the opt-in arm were more likely than non-participants to be older, married/de facto, university educated and of higher socioeconomic status. Participants in the opt-out arm were similar to non-participants, except men were more likely to opt out. Substantial proportions did not receive, understand or properly consider study invitations, and opting in or opting out behaviour was often at odds with parents' stated underlying intentions. Conclusions The opt-in approach resulted in low participation and a biased sample that would render any subsequent data linkage unfeasible, while the opt-out approach achieved high participation and a representative sample. The waiver of consent afforded under current privacy regulations for data linkage studies meeting all appropriate criteria should be granted by ethics committees, and supported by data custodians. Trial registration number Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12610000332022. (shrink)

This article reports research in three Nottingham schools, concerned with (1) 'The school as fertile ground: how the ethos of a school enables everyone in it to benefit from the presence of artists in class'; (2) 'Children on the edge: how the arts reach those children who otherwise exclude themselves from class activities, for any reason' and (3) 'Children's voices and choices: how even very young children can learn to express their wishes, and then have them realised through arts projects'. (...) The research methodology was rooted in two modes of inquiry, philosophical investigation and action research. The article draws on this research to argue that arts-based work in school has helped disadvantaged and/or disaffected children to engage in activities (both arts-based and others), and to be able to lay the groundwork for exercising voice and agency as they did so. If social justice is to flourish there is a need for particular kinds of public spaces and a need to create conditions such that children can learn to participate in those spaces, whether or not they are comfortable with the usual settings for 'rational argument' or 'deliberative democracy'. It is suggested that arts-based education, in some forms, is one good way of creating these conditions. (shrink)

The composition of the human person is a central issue for Augustine. He addresses it in a philosophico-theological way; particularly in The Soliloquies and in The Confessions. What is at stake here is his exposition of “what” constitutes a person’s being human. This paper refers to some of his key ideas in this regard and attempts to identify and establish what this great thinker understands by specific terminology: the soul, the mind, and the self. His hunger for knowledge of the (...) self helps his readers to ponder on the shifting emphasis between interiority and exteriority as well as a person’s consciousness and selfhood. Augustine wrestles with the concept of the soul, but at no point does he minimise the role of the intellect. After examining four definitions given by Augustine of the human person, this paper attempts to clarify all underpinnings related to this subject, as to be able to answer the topic in question. (shrink)

For the North American Nietzsche Society group meeting at the 2013 Eastern Division Meeting of the APA in Baltimore, the program committee invited Professor Jesse Prinz to deliver remarks on the contribution and the uniqueness of Nietzsche’s genealogical method. At the panel, chaired by R. Lanier Anderson on December 28, 2013, Rahul Chaudhri and Mark Migotti commented on his presentation, “Genealogies of Morals: Nietzsche’s Method Compared.” We are pleased to present Professor Prinz’s essay and both commentaries in this issue. Also (...) included here are the winning selections from the annual North American Nietzsche Society call for... (shrink)

This issue includes four papers originally presented to the North American Nietzsche Society at group sessions of the April 2007 Central Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association in Chicago. The program committee selected these papers by blind review from among responses to its annual call for papers. In Session I, chaired by Jacqueline Scott (Loyola University Chicago), Morgan Rempel, now Associate Professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, presented a reading of Daybreak 72, and Bryan Finken, currently teaching at (...) the University of Colorado at Denver, presented his examination of a peculiar type of genetic fallacy against which Nietzsche struggles, especially in his earlier published .. (shrink)

The papers published in this issue were presented at North American Nietzsche Society (NANS) sessions held in conjunction with the divisional meetings of the American Philosophical Association from the end of 2007 through 2009. I would like to thank Richard Schacht and the other members of the program committee for their continued service to Nietzsche studies, and I thank Cameron Smith for invaluable editorial assistance in the production of this issue. The first three papers published here were presented on December (...) 29, 2007 at the Eastern Division Meeting in Baltimore, where NANS held an ‘Author Meets Critics’ session devoted to a discussion of Robert B. Pippin’s Nietzsche, moraliste français: La conception .. (shrink)

The program committee of the North American Nietzsche Society recently elected to suspend their long-standing practice of holding group sessions in conjunction with divisional meetings of the American Philosophical Association, and to organize bi-annual conferences instead. This journal will continue to bring its readers select presentations from those events. In the meantime, the seven articles in this issue represent the last of the complete Proceedings and Addresses of the North American Nietzsche Society.The first two articles, on the affirmation and the (...) denial of life, by Guy Elgat and Daniel I. Harris, were selected by the program committee... (shrink)

For the North American Nietzsche Society group meeting at the 2013 Eastern Division Meeting of the APA in Baltimore, the program committee invited Professor Jesse Prinz to deliver remarks on the contribution and the uniqueness of Nietzsche’s genealogical method. At the panel, chaired by R. Lanier Anderson on December 28, 2013, Rahul Chaudhri and Mark Migotti commented on his presentation, “Genealogies of Morals: Nietzsche’s Method Compared.” We are pleased to present Professor Prinz’s essay and both commentaries in this issue. Also (...) included here are the winning selections from the annual North American Nietzsche Society call for... (shrink)

On April 5, 2012, the North American Nietzsche Society held a session, chaired by myself, at the American Philosophical Association Pacific Division Meeting in Seattle on reading Nietzsche as a figure within the history of philosophy. Paul Loeb commented on papers by Michael Green and Gary Shapiro. Professor Green’s contribution, published in this issue, argues for the importance of Afrikan Spir’s work for understanding the “falsification thesis” about empirical judgments that he attributes to Nietzsche; here, he responds to Nadeem Hussain’s (...) work on Nietzsche and Spir and brings us a closer look at the arguments of Spir’s.. (shrink)

On behalf of the Program Committee of the North American Nietzsche Society, I am pleased to be able to introduce in this issue three papers from an Author-Meets-Critics session devoted to Paul Katsafanas’s recent book, Agency and the Foundations of Ethics: Nietzschean Constitutivism. In a group meeting chaired by R. Lanier Anderson and held on December 28, 2014, in conjunction with the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting in Philadelphia, Professors Bernard Reginster and Jorah Dannenberg addressed their comments and criticisms (...) to Professor Katsafanas, whose thoughtful replies are... (shrink)

What is the future of Nietzsche studies? What are the most pressing questions its scholars should address? What texts and issues demand our urgent attention? And as we turn to these issues, what methodological and interpretive principles should guide us? The Journal of Nietzsche Studies recently put these questions to some of the most prominent names in Anglophone Nietzsche scholarship. Here, we bring you ten thoughtful responses, as a starting point for shaping discussions in these pages and elsewhere about the (...) most fruitful directions for us to take and the most promising avenues for building on the best recent... (shrink)

Dear Readers,In this issue, several authors contribute their insights on social and political themes in Nietzsche: Robert Miner looks to the works of the “middle period” to add nuance to Nietzsche’s critical attitude to socialism; Birte Loschenkohl asks again what Nietzsche has in mind with his enigmatic call for “great politics,” arguing that Zarathustra holds the key to understanding his vision; and Sacha Golob looks back to the second Untimely Meditation to analyze Nietzsche’s views on education and the role that (...) exemplary figures like Schopenhauer can and should play in that process. Iain Morrison, too, by focusing on the question of how drives and affects create the systems of value that take hold within... (shrink)

Dear Readers,Nietzsche's familiarity with the anti-Semitic literature of his era and its various tropes—the nature, depth, and extent of that familiarity, his references and appeals to seminal works, and even his employment of those tropes—have long been an object of grim fascination for Nietzsche scholars and casual readers. The mission of this journal is to advance our understanding of Nietzsche's philosophical thought and significance, and discharging that mission successfully requires our coming to terms with what seem to be even the (...) least agreeable, most uncomfortable aspects of his legacy. In this issue, we bring you a symposium on "The Biology of Evil," by Ken Gemes, a study that illuminates... (shrink)

Dear Readers,With this issue of the Journal of Nietzsche Studies, I am particularly pleased to welcome Chris Fowles, formerly an editorial assistant, to the Associate Editorship desk alongside Scott Jenkins. His sharp editorial eye and sound philosophical judgment will help us continue to bring you some of the best recent work on Nietzsche’s philosophical thought.At the same time, I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Alexander Prescott-Couch, whose term as Book Reviews Editor will end with this issue. During (...) his time at the reviews desk, he has worked hard to benefit our entire readership by commissioning substantive engagements with a well-curated... (shrink)

Dear Readers,This is a time of many transitions for JNS and of exciting new developments in Nietzsche studies. Since 2011, I have had the pleasure and the privilege of working as an Associate Editor under Christa Davis Acampora, and as I now step into her editorial role, I know you will join me in thanking her for service to the journal, where her wise stewardship has secured its reputation as the preeminent venue for English-language scholarship on Nietzsche’s thought and work. (...) Her efforts have increased submissions, kept acceptances competitive, encouraged scholarly accuracy, consistency, and rigor, and enhanced the visibility of the journal through electronic distribution services that have made it an ever more... (shrink)

Dear Readers,In this issue, we bring you four longer explorations of topics central to Nietzsche’s thought. Alexander Nehamas revives the discussion of “falsification” in Nietzsche’s work, challenging the notion that Nietzsche is committed at any time in his life to the view that all human beliefs “falsify” reality—what has come to be known as the “falsification thesis”— and reopening questions about the value of truth, and of falsehood, for Nietzsche. Professor Nehamas was among the first to draw the attention of (...) scholars interested in Nietzsche to these important issues, and in his contribution he answers many of the voices who have joined this debate over the years. Deeply connected to the themes of truth and... (shrink)

OBJECTIVES: To show that a Local Research Ethics Committee (LREC) can carry out an audit of ethical standards in research. To find out if a researcher met certain ethical standards in recruiting subjects for clinical trials and in obtaining their consent. DESIGN: Postal questionnaire. SETTING: Clinical research by one doctor during one year. SUBJECTS: Eleven patients entered in clinical trials. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Success in ethics committee obtaining data. Achievement of ethical standards in recruitment of subjects and in obtaining consent. (...) RESULTS: The audit was successfully carried out and standards were partly met. CONCLUSIONS: Local Research Ethics Committees can carry out audits of the conduct of research projects which they have approved. Provision for possible audits can be made at the time of application to the committee. Our committee thought the ethical standards in the research which we audited were acceptable. (shrink)

A growing literature in recent epistemology leverages the fact of persistent, systematic disagreement among philosophers to reach deeply skeptical conclusions, not just about philosophical propositions, but about the practice of philosophy itself. This article argues that a version of this argument is implicit in Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, and that Nietzsche is best read as occupying a stance that would be called “conciliationist” today. The only sincere effort to date to attribute to Nietzsche a skeptical position on the basis (...) of disagreement, I argue, both overcommits him in some ways and undercommits him in others. Correctly assessing his target and scope and appreciating the conciliationist strain in Nietzsche’s thought improves our understanding of his philosophical project. (shrink)