The management of child protection concerns arouses strong emotions and controversies and creates ethical tensions for all concerned. This paper provides a rational analysis of some of the issues involved and suggests responses to them. The ethical and legal duties of health-care professionals are to act in the best interests of the child by safeguarding children and reporting concerns. But this may involve conflicts with parents and produce reluctance of professionals to become involved, especially in controversial types of abuse. Mandatory (...) reporting of concerns might overcome such reluctance, but may be ineffective in the face of diagnostic uncertainties. Assembly of a stronger diagnostic evidence base would seem ethically justified, but organization of the necessary case controlled studies might be problematic. Even with a comprehensive evidence base, individual diagnoses of abuse will always involve value judgements that should be underpinned by effective training and assessment of core competencies of professionals. These manoeuvres are unlikely to prevent both justified and vexatious complaints, often in relation to breaches in professional duties or concerning professional misconduct. The tendency to blame experts may have contributed to a reluctance of other professionals to become involved, despite proposals for reforms in the expert witness and court systems. Current approaches to child protection may neither promote greater understanding nor be in the best interests of children. A revised social contract for the effective protection of children could include: a duty of care that adequately addresses the primacy of the child's welfare; the acquisition of a sound evidence base; professional transparency and accountability (but with protection from malicious and vexatious complaints); and a shift emphasis towards a more inquisitorial system that embraced the principles of truth and reconciliation. (shrink)

We outline a process, undertaken at a large tertiary children's hospital, intended to provide practical guidance and support for those involved in the management of children with life-limiting conditions. Initial discussions with representatives of clinical and support services identified communication problems and ethical dilemmas as key issues. These were further explored in multidisciplinary hospital meetings, culminating in a conference (Living Well, Dying Well) where individual perspectives - clinical, multi-faith, parental and legal - and cases were presented. Communication problems were found (...) to involve unrealistic expectations, failures of anticipation and difficulties in discussing sensitive issues, while ethical dilemmas arose from balancing burdens and benefits, clinical uncertainty, respecting autonomy and achieving equity and justice in delivery of care. An integrated service has been developed that is intended to provide clinical and spiritual care, psychosocial and ethical support, advice and mediation for children, families and staff, and to address the latter's educational and training needs. (shrink)

Countries throughout the world are counting the health and socioeconomic costs of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the strategies necessary to contain it. Profound consequences from social isolation are beginning to emerge, and there is an urgency about charting a path to recovery, albeit to a ‘new normal’ that mitigates them. Children have not suffered as much from the direct effects of COVID-19 infection as older adults. Still, there is mounting evidence that their health and welfare are being adversely affected. Closure (...) of schools has been a critical component of social isolation but has a far broader impact than the diminution of educational opportunities, as important as these are. Reopening of schools is therefore essential to recovery, with some countries already tentatively implementing it. Children’s interests are vital considerations in any recovery plan, but the question remains as to how to address them within the context of how society views children; should they be regarded as pawns, pathfinders or partners in this enterprise? (shrink)

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the need for hospital clinical ethics committees by studying the frequency with which ethical dilemmas arose, the perceived adequacy of the process of their resolution, and the teaching and training of staff in medical ethics. DESIGN: Interviews with individuals and three multidisciplinary teams; questionnaire to randomly selected individuals. SETTING: Two major London children's hospitals. RESULTS: Ethical dilemmas arose frequently but were resolved in a relatively unstructured fashion. Ethical concerns included: the validity of consent for investigations and treatment; (...) lack of children's involvement in consent; initiation of heroic or futile treatments; resource allocation. Staff expressed the need for a forum which would provide consultation on ethical issues, develop guidelines for good ethical practice, undertake teaching and training, and provide ethical reflection outside the acute clinical setting. CONCLUSION: Multidisciplinary, accountable and audited clinical ethics committees with predominantly advisory, practice development and educational roles could provide a valuable contribution to UK clinical practice and perhaps in other countries that have not developed hospital clinical ethics committees. (shrink)

Se evalúa la posibilidad de calificar la fenomenología de Merleau-Ponty como crascendental. Partiendo de la crítica al problema de la afección en Kant, desarrollada en La Estntcmra del Comportamiento (sección 1), se explicitan las dificultades de adoptar una definición formalista de conciencia, junto con la propuestaalternativa de Merleau-Poncy (sección 2). Luego se reivindica la percepción como captación de estrucruras y existencias, frente al abordaje in telecrualisra que opera en la Crítica (sección 3). Finalmente, se argumenta que las cuestiones desarrolladas expresan (...) el proyecto merleau-poncyano de efecmar una reflexión radical, que implica hacer del cuerpo el sujeto de la percepción y redefinir el a priori (sección 4). Se concluye que su postura resulta incompatible con la filosofía trascendental. (shrink)

[fr] Dans les Ḫaṣā’iṣ, Ibn Ǧinnī (m. 392/1002) fait état, incidemment, d’une différenciation entre parlers arabes nomades et sédentaires, ces derniers étant caractérisés par une perte partielle de la flexion désinentielle (’i‘rāb). Dans la mesure où Ibn Ǧinnī se réfère sur ce point à une source antérieure de près de deux siècles d’une part, indique qu’il n’y a presque plus, à son époque, de bédouin au parler « châtié » (faṣīḥ, c’est-à-dire fléchi mu‘rab) d’autre part, on peut voir dans ses (...) remarques une reconnaissance implicite d’une situation de diglossie, les parlers nomades étant à l’origine de la variété haute (al-luġa al-‘arabiyya al-faṣīḥa). Cette situation est d’ailleurs révélée par une anecdote, où l’on voit un même usager, d’origine bédouine, alterner ce qu’Ibn Ǧinnī appelle « les deux manières de parler » (ǧihatā al-kalām), avec et sans flexion désinentielle. Malgré les apparences, il ne s’agit pas de sociolinguistique et d’histoire de la langue. Il s’agit de théorie du langage, avec l’hypothèse d’un phénomène d’entropie, liée à l’utilisation de la langue, l’utilisateur se passant, par d’autres moyens, de la flexion désinentielle, source de difficulté et d’erreurs. Il s’agit aussi et surtout d’un discours épilinguistique, conforme à l’idéologie linguistique (thèse de la faṣāḥa bédouine) et à la théologie (thèse de la « langue du Ḥiǧāz » comme al-luġa alfuṣḥā), deux thèses difficilement conciliables. (shrink)

The responses of 178 Latin dioceses in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to the Preparatory Document for the Synod on Synodality were synthesized in fourteen regional reports. From these reports, and a report of lay groups, the USCCB produced the US report, which was synthesized with 111 other national reports into the Working Document for the Continental Stage (DCS). The latter was provided to seven continental assemblies. North American participants discussed the DCS in virtual meetings, and a (...) writing team produced the North American report. The synthesized result of the continental assemblies’ reports was the synod’s 2023 Instrumentum laboris. This article discusses US diocesan participation and the North American response to the DCS as they contributed to the Instrumentum laboris’ statement relative to “the question of women’s inclusion in the diaconate.” It includes a table documenting US diocesan responses to questions of women’s participation in the Church. (shrink)

A balance needs to be struck between facilitating compassionate access to innovative treatments for those in desperate need, and the duty to protect such vulnerable individuals from the harms of untested/unlicensed treatments. We introduced a principle-based framework to evaluate such requests and describe its application in the context of recently evolved UK, US and European regulatory processes. 24 referrals were received by our quaternary children's hospital Clinical Ethics Committee over the 5-year period. The CEC-rapid response group evaluated individual cases within (...) 48-hours; the main referrers being haematology/oncology, immunology or transplant services. Most requests were for drug/vaccine/pre-trial access or biological/cellular therapies. The majority of individual requests were approved ; neutral or negative opinions were given in 5, including 3 group requests. Recently evolved regulatory processes share common criteria and conditions to our framework including: demonstration of clinical need; sound scientific basis with lack of viable alternative; risks-benefit/best interests evaluation; arrangements for fully informed consent; no compromise of arrangements to test treatment for licensing purposes; consideration of resource implications. There are differences between individual processes and with our framework, with respect to procedures, scope, application format, costs and obligation to make available all outcome data. Our experience has emphasized the need for an independent, principled, consistent, fair and transparent response to the increasing demand for innovative treatment on a compassionate basis. We believe that there is a need for harmonization of the recent proliferation of regulation and legislation in this area. (shrink)

The study aimed to comprehensively overview the experiences encountered by public school employees during the recruitment, selection, and placement (RSP) process within the DepEd Bohol Division. Employing a qualitative-descriptive research design, the researchers utilized a phenomenological approach to delve deeply into these experiences, shedding light on the nuances and intricacies of the division's RSP process. As Lambert et al. (2013) described, qualitative- descriptive studies aim to provide a comprehensive and detailed summary of specific events experienced by individuals or groups in (...) everyday terms. To achieve this, Colaizzi's (1978) data analysis method was applied, meticulously gathering, transcribing, and analyzing recorded participant responses. The rigorous analysis revealed that an overwhelming 81% of the participants recognized significant challenges within the current RSP system of the division, underscoring the pressing need for a renewed approach to address these identified challenges. This highlighted the necessity for an RSP policy that is responsive and innovative, tailored to meet the evolving needs and expectations of applicants, schools, and the division. By implementing improvements to the RSP process, a more efficient and timely filling of vacated and newly available positions is anticipated, contributing to the seamless functioning of the educational system and ultimately enhancing the prospects of success. (shrink)

The paucity of research data to guide current paediatric practice has led to children being termed therapeutic orphans. This difficulty is especially pertinent to research in emergency situations, such as acute resuscitation or critical care, where accepted ethical standards for overall research, have historically created practical difficulties for researchers. The welcome establishment of organisations to support UK paediatric research is helping to ensure safer and more effective medications for children, however as the balance between protection and access at the heart (...) of the paediatric research ethical debate shifts to ever increasing access for researchers to children, it remains crucial to ensure the protection for these vulnerable participants. The fundamental protection for research subjects, namely their full informed consent before any recruitment, is not tenable in true emergency situations and so other approaches are warranted if standards are to be improved by human subjects research in such areas. Proxy, deferred and retrospective consent have all been advocated as solutions to this difficulty and this paper explores the ethical justification for these approaches and their utility in safeguarding children and families in emergency situations when traditional informed consent, as currently defined, cannot be obtained in the necessary time frame to enable research. (shrink)

À la posture de l’écrivain engagé dont la littérature viserait l’éveil national de son peuple, l’écrivain martiniquais Patrick Chamoiseau préfère l’art de mettre les histoires au service d’une mutation des imaginaires,..

L’esclavage colonial occupe une place récente dans les médias français. Soumis aux récupérations et manipulations médiatiques des uns ou des autres, souvent non spécialistes, il fait généralement l’objet sur les plateaux de télévision, dans la presse, de simplifications maladroites, d’amalgames fâcheux, traduisant finalement l’ampleur de l’ignorance et de l’indifférence incrustées au fil des années dans la société civile sur une période de l’histoire de la France de plus de trois siècles, et pourtant fondatrice de l’Empire colonial français.

In the UK an increasing number of Clinical Ethics Committees (CECs) have been developed mainly in response to local need and interest. Their functions include education of health professionals, of policy and guideline development, and case review (both retrospective analysis of topics and advice on acute cases). The UK Clinical Ethics Network, a charitable foundation provides CEC s with help, support and advice and enables them to share their experience The legal status of UK CECs is unclear but some legal (...) commentators have suggested that CECs lack competencies and procedural rules necessary for acute case review. The UKCEN has proposed core competencies for CECs that lists the ethical, operational and procedural skills, knowledge and personal attributes required and how they may be acquired, assessed and maintained. Their implementation might lead to the development of ethical and legal governance which should benefit to future patient care. (shrink)

This electronic document serves as a guide on how to get a LAMP stack running on a Google Compute Engine virtual machine instance running Debian.

SILYANE LARCHER. — La question coloniale ne se pose pas aux Antilles comme ailleurs, puisque la période coloniale ne s’est pas suivie de l’indépendance, mais de l’assimilation juridico-politique faisant de la Martinique et de la Guadeloupe des départements français d’outre-mer, au même titre que n’importe quel département en France. Comment définiriez-vous..

This research tackled the challenges public secondary schools in Sagbayan District, Bohol, faced regarding records management. The study employed a mixed research design, combining both descriptive-qualitative and descriptive- quantitative methods. The qualitative phase involved conducting in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with relevant stakeholders involved in records management. On the other hand, the quantitative phase utilized survey questionnaires to gather data from relevant stakeholders to determine the acceptability of the proposed MIS among end-users. The first phase findings revealed various challenges (...) in records management faced by the schools, such as inefficient manual record-keeping systems, difficulties in data retrieval, and the risk of data loss due to inadequate backup procedures. These challenges highlighted the need for a comprehensive, technology-driven solution to streamline records management processes and ensure data security. The evaluation results in the second phase showed that the developed Management Information System (MIS) was well-accepted among the end users. The absence of any significant difference in the level of acceptability among the participants further validated the system's suitability for addressing their specific needs. The successful implementation of the MIS proved to be an effective solution to the records management challenges faced by the public secondary schools in Sagbayan District, Bohol. (shrink)

The article deals with the chances of illustration of Mohammed: is it forbidden to depict Mohammed in the Islam? What the history or the religion say about it? The following sentences try to get a brief but deep approaching to that issue, underlying the importance that just a few time ago when several problems related to misunderstanding and hatred set the Muslim world in front of the Western people as violent in a behavior that no one could share. Through the (...) article we will see the lack of respect there was in some images that were published provoking all kind of reactions in the world. (shrink)

El autor expone las dimensiones y circunstancias de una investigación cualitativa realizada en un prestigioso instituto de docentes en Uruguay. Indagando en los rituales de interacción aplicados en el ámbito educativo, se observan los modelos de relación, la construcción de la identidad de docente y demás elementos propios de la institución educativa. En ese contexto, se identifican distintos contextos y situaciones cotidianas que reproducen procesos sociales en los que la finalidad está clara: la enseñanza y el aprendizaje.

The emigration is an arduous and complex process that includes practically all the aspects of the life of a human being. One is a sociological phenomenon: the challenging of the emigrant, the decision making, the election of the destination place, and so on; they are determined by the social issue, by the family, the friends and social networks. Normally the studies on the subject are of a quantitative type, as a matter of fact, the topic has a so deep meaning (...) and it affects so much the human being and its surroundings that seemed essential to me a qualitative approach to respond to the question: what desires, anxieties, fears and frustrations move the people to leave their homes and get themselves to a distant and practically unknown country? (shrink)

En el terreno de la moral, el contraste entre lo ¿que el filósofo Wilfrid Sellars denominó «la ¿imagen manifiesta» y la «imagen científica» es enorme y tiene unas consecuencias prácticas ineludibles. Este libro reduce la distancia entre esa imagen manifiesta y la imagen científica, dotando al lector de referencias fundamentales, enfoques diversos y un amplio abanico de temáticas a partir de investigaciones experimentales sobre nuestra conducta moral.

We present an experiment designed to investigate three different mechanisms to achieve impartiality in distributive justice. We consider a first-person procedure, inspired by the Rawlsian veil of ignorance, and two third-party procedures, an involved spectator and a detached observer. First-person veiled stakeholders and involved spectators are affected by an initially unfair distribution that, in the stakeholders’ case, is to be redressed. We find substantial differences in the redressing task. Detached observers propose significantly fairer redistributions than veiled stakeholders or involved spectators. (...) Risk preferences partly explain why veiled stakeholders propose less egalitarian redistributions. Surprisingly, involved spectators, who are informed about their position in society, tend to favour stakeholders holding the same position as they do after the initial distribution. (shrink)

To begin with -- Genealogy of the cerebral subject -- Disciplines of the neuro -- Cerebralizing distress -- Brains on screen and paper -- Up for grabs.

This work offers an analysis of all the legal and moral issues surrounding humanitarian intervention: the deaths of innocent persons and the Doctrine of Double Effect Governmental legitimacy - The Doctrine of Effective Political Control; UN Charter and evaluation of the Nicaragua ruling; The Morality of not intervening; US-led invasion of Iraq; Humanitarian intervention authorised by the UN Security Council - Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda, and Bosnia among others highlight NATO's intervention in Kosovo; The Nicaragua Decision; and The precedents of (...) Panama, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The book's features include: a new framework based on the doctrine of double effect; basic principles of international ethics; outline of the moral argument for humanitarian intervention; explores the morality and legality of military action to end tyranny or anarchy; arguments in a much more detailed and complete fashion than in previous editions; in-depth examination of philosophy of international law; the relationship between custom and moral theory; new discussion of the question of right authority; and a full analysis of recent interventions in Kosovo and Iraq. book addresses a broad interdisciplinary audience of international lawyers, philosophers, and political scientists. In this new edition, the author responds to critics while updating the discussion in the light of the momentous events that took place at the beginning of the new millennium. (shrink)

Why should sovereign states obey international law? What compels them to owe allegiance to a higher set of rules when each country is its own law of the land? What is the basis of their obligations to each other? Conventional wisdom suggests that countries are too different from one another culturally to follow laws out of mere loyalty to each other or a set of shared moral values. Surely, the prevailing view holds, countries act simply out of self-interest, and they (...) eventually consent to norms of international law to regulate matters of common interest.In this groundbreaking book, Fernando Tesón goes against this prevailing thought by arguing, in the Kantian tradition, that a shared respect for individual human rights underpins not just the obligation countries feel to follow international law but also international laws themselves and even the very legitimacy of nations in the eyes of the international community. Tesón, both a lawyer and a philosopher, proposes that an overlapping respect for human rights has created a moral common ground among the countries of the world; and moreover, that such an outlook is the only one that is rationally defensible. It is this common set of values rather than self-interest that ultimately provides legitimacy to international law. Using the tools of moral philosophy, Tesón analyzes the concepts of sovereignty, intervention, and national interest; the contributions of social contact theory, game theory, and feminist theory; and the puzzles of self-determination and group rights.More than simply outlining his theory, Tesón goes on to give detailed examples of international laws, international institutions, and their human rights foundations, putting his ideas to work and addressing legal reforms called for by the theory. He suggests that treaties, for example, should be considered binding if, and only if, the consent to the treaty was given by a genuinely representative government, one that acts out of interest for the human rights of its citizens. Although the theoretical achievement of this book is to challenge received wisdom on the foundation of international law, the practical ambition is a call to reform the international legal system for the post–Cold War era, to substitute for the old order one that gives primacy to human dignity and freedom over state power. (shrink)

In this article, I seek to present some examples of the philosophy of myth in Japan during the early Shōwa era (1926–1945), especially in works by Tanabe Hajime, Kihira Tadayoshi, Isobe Tadamasa, Kōsaka Masaaki and Miki Kiyoshi. While the concept of myth is closely linked to the question of nationality, I intend to show that the philosophical concept of myth is also related to a fundamental ambiguity that prevents an absolutisation of myth and offers specific conceptual tools for a critique (...) of nationality. (shrink)

My aim in this paper is twofold: I will try to clarify what the conditions developed in EN I a discipline or an argument must meet to be assumed as precise are, and, then, try to present evidence that the exam of akrasia in EN VII 3 meets these conditions. In the first part of this paper, I will select passages in which such conditions are displayed, and also distinguish between practical precision and theoretical precision. In the second part, where (...) the analysis of the senses of having but not using knowledge in EN VII 3 is carried on, I will claim that Aristotle’s objective is reaching the adequate statement of the explanandum that will be the subject of causal enquiry of akrasia. My concluding remarks will claim that the conditions displayed in this paper’s first part are met by Aristotelian procedure in EN VII 3. (shrink)

The book explores Peirce's non standard thoughts on a synthetic continuum, topological logics, existential graphs, and relational semiotics, offering full mathematical developments on these areas. More precisely, the following new advances are offered: (1) two extensions of Peirce's existential graphs, to intuitionistic logics (a new symbol for implication), and other non-classical logics (new actions on nonplanar surfaces); (2) a complete formalization of Peirce's continuum, capturing all Peirce's original demands (genericity, supermultitudeness, reflexivity, modality), thanks to an inverse ordinally iterated sheaf of (...) real lines; (3) an array of subformalizations and proofs of Peirce's pragmaticist maxim, through methods in category theory, HoTT techniques, and modal logics. The book will be relevant to Peirce scholars, mathematicians, and philosophers alike, thanks to thorough assessments of Peirce's mathematical heritage, compact surveys of the literature, and new perspectives offered through formal and modern mathematizations of the topics studied. (shrink)

We perform an experimental investigation using a dictator game in which individuals must make a moral decision —to give or not to give an amount of money to poor people in the Third World. A questionnaire in which the subjects are asked about the reasons for their decision shows that, at least in this case, moral motivations carry a heavy weight in the decision: the majority of dictators give the money for reasons of a consequentialist nature. Based on the results (...) presented here and of other analogous experiments, we conclude that dicator behavior can be understood in terms of moral distance rather than social distance and that it systematically deviates from the egoism assumption in economic models and game theory. (shrink)

This article introduces the little-studied figure of Saigusa Hiroto, a twentieth century Marxist philosopher who reconstructed the history of technical thought in Japan. The article focuses on Saigusa’s thought between 1939 and 1942, contextualizes his thinking in relation to the technology controversy of the 1930s and presents his critique of the dualism between spiritual and technological culture. Saigusa defines technology as a “means as a process” and not a skill or system of things. The author argues that Saigusa’s notion of (...) “means as a process” dislocates the idea of Western technology as superior to Eastern technology, paving the way for current debates in the field of post-European philosophies of technology. (shrink)

We present the case of a six-year-old child with a fatal brainstem tumour, who was left in a ‘locked-in state’ post-decompressive biopsy. A discussion of the ethical dilemma this situation presents, together with the deliberations of the ethics service when consulted about the optimal course of action, follow. The issues raised highlight an important conflict between the parental view of what is in the child's best interests and what may appear, prima facie, to clinical staff, to be in that child's (...) best interests. We discuss how creative ethical thinking may facilitate resolution of seemingly insoluble situations. (shrink)

Los derechos de las personas LGTBI están de actualidad en la sociedad del si- glo XXI. Es nuestro propósito estudiar las normas sobre orientación sexual e identidad de género en los países del Norte de Europa (Reino Unido, Irlanda, Islandia, Finlandia, Dinamarca, Noruega, Suecia, Estonia, Letonia y Lituania). Nos dedicaremos sobre todo al estudio del grado de reconocimiento del derecho al cambio de género en las leyes nacionales, así como si esas legislaciones res- petan o no el Convenio Europeo de (...) Derechos Humanos y la legislación de la Unión Europea, a través de las resoluciones del Tribunal Derechos Humanos y del Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that Miki’s concept of myth offers a continuation and consolidation of his Philosophy of History, providing an important conceptual tool to comprehend his philosophica...

This paper attempts to examine how the concept of character in Tosaka’s philosophy presents us with the distinctive features of a situated epistemology. To do this, I will make comparative, although by no means exhaustive, use of the work of Heinrich Rickert. I will not attempt to argue that Rickert was Tosaka’s main interlocutor; however, I will show that the concept of character can be understood as a response to one of the challenges posed by the neo-Kantian philosopher: how can (...) history be grasped philosophically without falling into metaphysical reduction or subjective relativism? Tosaka would answer this question through the concepts of character and everydayness. (shrink)

This paper explores the notion of cosmotechnics in the context of the history of Latin American philosophy. Since the nineteenth century, Latin American philosophy has developed through an ongoing confrontation between conceptions of “civilization and barbarism.” This tension in turn has impacted the relationship between Latin American philosophy and technology. Consequently, a certain “absence of technique” is visible as a recurring topos in Latin American philosophies. To overcome this apparent absence, this paper criticizes the notion of mestizaje using Silvia Rivera (...) Cusicanqui’s concept of ch’ixi (‘motley’) as an alternative framework. From this perspective, Guaman Poma de Ayala’s description of colonial violence reveals some hints for deconstructing the idea of “Latin Americanness”, while retaining the notion of cosmotechnics. Thus, this paper goes beyond geocultures and metatechnology by formulating a theory of cosmotechnics that is able to articulate politically antagonistic narratives in terms of technical materiality. (shrink)

This paper explores the concept of myth in two books written by Kōsaka Masaaki, The Historical World and Philosophy of the Nation. In both, myth appears as a central moment in the transition from primitive to modern societies. The role of myth is closely related to Kōsaka’s notion of nature, since one goal of his reflection is to show how history is supported by the “substratum” of nature. In this sense, he also distinguishes between the natural and historical aspects of (...) nations. After analyzing the subcategories of primordial nature, environmental nature, and historical nature, the paper shows how these layers are articulated by myth. Authority, in the contractual form of potlatch, signalizes the moment of transition to the true self-determination of nations. Miki Kiyoshi was one author who pointed out the problematic aspects of Kōsaka’s theory of nation. A comparison with Miki’s thought uncovers how authority is the main characteristic of Kōsaka’s view of myth. The paper finishes by investigating where this authority comes from. Since it cannot come from nature alone, it should also come from the past character of myth itself, which is an expression of what Kōsaka terms “the eternal now”. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Tetsugaku Companion to Nishida Kitarō ed. by Matsumaru Hisao, Arisaka Yoko, and Lucy Christine SchultzFernando Wirtz (bio)Tetsugaku Companion to Nishida Kitarō. Edited by Matsumaru Hisao, Arisaka Yoko, and Lucy Christine Schultz. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2022. Pp. v + 240. Hardcover $109.99, isbn 978–3-319417-83-7.This collection of essays has several virtues. First, although Nishida is one of the most widely translated Japanese philosophers into English, this is the first collection (...) of interpretative essays that attempts to cover the different aspects and stages of his work in a comprehensive manner.Second, this collection gives voice to several Japanese scholars who have long been working on Nishida's philosophy, but who are nevertheless little known outside Japan. Of course, as the editors explain in the introduction, the book intentionally seeks to incorporate perspectives that may dislocate the reader given the "fact that academic authors in countries other than the English-speaking Anglo-American regions write differently to express their ideas" (p. vii). This is a significant gesture, since Japanese philosophy has from its very beginnings been wracked by the problem of translation and counter-translation. It is an act of courage for the book to acknowledge that there are different "forms of expression" that, even if they may confuse the Anglo-American reader, serve to broaden the reader's philosophical sensibility (p. xiii–xiv).Third, rather than each chapter limiting itself to expounding Nishida's thought in a general way, each in turn problematizes specific aspects of the philosopher's work, connecting it with other authors and problems.As the editors explain, the book has a bipartite structure. In the first part, several contributors explore "seven principal concepts" that are intended to reflect Nishida's perception of his own system, while in the second part, contributors investigate the place of Nishida's thought in the global history of philosophy, drawing connections between Nishida's thought and other fields such as religion, science, and art. In addition, the relevance of his thought to both the present and the future is discussed. The book includes an appendix with a chronology of Nishida's life and work and also a glossary of fundamental concepts.In Chapter 1, Nakajima Yuta explores the concept of "pure experience," highlighting its importance in Nishida's later philosophy and its relation to the self-developing structure of consciousness. In particular, Nakajima analyzes the influence of Wilhelm Wundt's Outlines of Psychology in the work An Inquiry into [End Page 1] the Good. In that sense, this article provides the historical context in which Nishida developed his ideas in contrast to the psychologist. As the author points out: "The main point of criticism is that Nishida regards the foundational elements in Wundtian psychology as mere virtual abstractions of the primordial systematic unity of experience" (p. 7). This last statement leads to the recognition that any linguistic limitation of this primordial unity becomes an abstraction, since pure experience is the framework of the meaningful, where all meanings are dynamically generated and superimposed (p. 10).Itabashi Yūjin, in Chapter 2, establishes the transition from pure experience to "absolute free will" in the work, Intuition and Reflection in Self-Awareness, by comparing Nishida's text with the philosophies of Cohen and Schopenhauer. To understand this transition, we must not lose sight, as the author says, that when the self reflects itself in itself, it is self-producing and self-determining. This self-determination is not purely intellectual, but a total activity in which "thinking and sensation are one" (p. 20). Thus, the will is absolute because there is nothing prior to the self-productive activity of the will. For this reason, it is precisely in religious experience that "authentic life" (p. 22) emerges from the negation of the subjective self, that is, from the fiction of a foundation of absolute will.The person responsible for presenting the concept of "self-awareness" is Okada Katsuaki. In Chapter 3, Okada takes as a starting point the "subjectless" (p. 28) character of the Japanese language in order to explain the paradoxical possibility of experience experiencing itself. (p. 30). The self-awareness of the activity of the previous chapters becomes... (shrink)

We study the emergence of all references to modern mathematics in Difference and Repetition, and we explain how, using these mathematical approaches, Deleuze constructs an “ideal synthesis of difference” which goes well beyond the usual reductionist perspectives of his commentators.