The problem of moral absolutes in the ethics of Vladimir Solov'ëv

Conclusion Moral absolutes were perceived, by Solov'?v, in a dual manner: a) from the side of content, of psychology, as when we speak of feelings, emotions, etc.; and b) under a formal aspect, as “ideas,” i.e. logically. Neither of these can be treated without relating to moral absolutes astrue, and without a rationalbelief in their truth, a truth that cannot be logically proved. In my opinion, our time has become keenly aware of the universally human value of Vladimir Solov'?v's ethics, of its humanist nature, oriented towards the everyday and the ideal tasks of man, and of the concrete direction of his philosophy of “practical idealism”.     

“Imma march’ toward Ka’ba”: Islam in Swedish hip-hop

The common history of Islam and the hip-hop culture can be traced back to the early expression of the culture. Since the early days of hip-hop, Muslims have used hip-hop to convey Islamic messages. Artists driven, in equal parts, by a strong personal belief in Islam and a love for hip-hop music have taken Islamic-themed hip-hop outside its country of birth, the U.S., and have made it into a matter of global concern. In an attempt to contribute to and, hopefully, complicate the picture of what has been called the transglobal hip-hop umma, this article explores how Swedish Muslims articulate their beliefs through hip-hop in Sweden. With examples from both the Swedish mainstream and the underground, it highlights hip-hop music with an Islamic engagement whose aim is to promote and perform what is understood as ??Islamic values,?? such as ethics, peace, social responsibility, and a strong personal belief.     

Antinomism, trinity and the challenge of Solov’?van pantheism in the theology of Sergij Bulgakov

The paper argues that Sergej Bulgakov??s sophiology was an attempt, via antinomism or the philosophy of antinomies, to overcome the rationalism, monism, and determinism (in a word, ??pantheism??) of Vladimir Solov???v??s philosophy of the Absolute understood as an abstract Trinitarianism. After detailing Solov???v??s thought on the Trinity and Bulgakov??s criticisms of it, the study then describes Bulgakov??s antinomism and its application to the doctrine of God. However, it is contended that Bulgakov??s antinomism ultimately falls into the same problems with pantheism found in Solov???v and so the last part of the paper tentatively proposes resources in his work, stated in the form of a suggested ??fourth (Bulgakovian) antinomy?? between ousia (divine Being as such) and Sophia (the revelation in God and the world of the divine Being), that might help to avoid a collapse of God and the world by making the divine Being proper utterly transcendent and unknowable.     

“We Didn’t Know”: Silence and Silencing in Organizations

This article examines the dynamic processes within organizations that contribute to systemic silence and silencing and the “we didn’t know” defense, particularly for those groups in which secrecy replaces transparency to the detriment of the organization and its members. The events of the past more than 10 years within the American Psychological Association (APA) surrounding the role of psychologists in interrogation of detainees, including advising on and monitoring interrogations that have been construed as torture, will serve as a case example of the systemic forces that may contribute to leading an organization away from its principal mission. I explore how what was done was turned into its opposite. That is: “We are protecting psychologists by providing them with ethical guidelines in detention centers with detainees” became the explanatory rubric for a position that violated the association’s stated mission and exposed the organization and individual members to public shame. In addition, I explore how self-silencing becomes a way of adapting to a culture that censures dissent.     

Radicalizing the Role of the Emancipatory Teacher in the Crisis of Democracy: Erich Fromm’s Psychoanalytic Approach to Deweyan Democratic Education

Studies in Philosophy and Education - This paper explores Erich Fromm’s contribution to Deweyan democratic education by referring to his psychoanalytic interpretation of John Dewey’s...     

“TANCRED’S WOUND”:

A recent debate over trauma theory in Holocaust studies has implications for writing by the “generation after.” This article looks at Anne Karpf’s The War After (1996) and the 1998 movie Left Luggage (based on a novel by Carl Friedman), as well as David Grossman’s See Under: Love (1985), as examples of how traumatic knowledge is accessed through literary narratives and the imagination, rather than the historical events. In particular, the trope of “autism” serves to symbolize the difficulty of communicating repressed traumatic memory, while images of containment symbolize the unspeakable contents of the psychic envelope.     

“It’s Worth It in the End”: Veterans’ Experiences in Prolonged Exposure and Cognitive Processing Therapy

Despite the efficacy of evidence-based psychotherapies (EBP) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and efforts to disseminate them, only 6–13% of veterans seeking care through the Veterans Affairs health care system receive these treatments. EBPs such as prolonged exposure (PE) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT) are exposure-based treatments. Provider and patient fears regarding the tolerability of exposure-based treatments likely impede their delivery and completion. The present study utilized qualitative interviews with 23 veterans who completed at least eight sessions of either PE or CPT to elicit firsthand accounts of veterans’ experiences in these EBPs. Results suggest that while a minority of veterans reported initial symptom worsening, the majority of veterans reported positive experiences and felt that, despite being stressful, these EBPs were “worth it.” Most veterans discussed thoughts of discontinuing treatment prematurely, but stated that adherence was encouraged by their commitment to finishing, desperation for relief, therapist/group support, and family support. Veterans believed exposure made an important contribution to symptom improvement, as did greater self-understanding and changing negative or unhelpful beliefs. These findings indicate veteran satisfaction with PE and CPT, and may assist providers to develop strategies to increase adherence and treatment completion.     

Distance Learning: Empathy and Culture in Junot Diaz’s “Wildwood”

This essay discusses critical approaches to culture, difference, and empathy in health care education through a reading of Junot Diaz’s “Wildwood” chapter from the 2007 novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I begin with an analysis of the way that Diaz’s narrative invites readers to imagine and explore the experiences of others with subtlety and complexity. My reading of “Wildwood” illuminates its double-edged injunction to try to imagine another’s perspective while recognizing the limits to—or even the impossibility of—that exercise. I draw on post-colonial theory and feminist science studies to illuminate a text that is created and interpreted in a post-colonial context—the Dominican diaspora in the United States. The essay offers a model of historical and critical analysis that health care educators can use to frame the concept of empathy in the classroom and the clinic.     

“This isn’t getting easier”: Valuing emotion in development research

This paper explores the importance of ‘mess’ in development research and in particular the emotional mess of research. Through an exploration of my own research with a development education organisation, I argue that capturing and understanding emotion can lead to insights that are not only particularly revealing about the research process and the motivations of the researcher but are also highly informative about the subject area, in this case research in and for development.     

Public Voices in Pharmaceutical Deliberations: Negotiating “Clinical Benefit” in the FDA’s Avastin Hearing

This article offers a hybrid rhetorical-qualitative discourse analysis of the FDA’s 2011 Avastin Hearing, which considered the revocation of the breast cancer indication for the popular cancer drug Avastin. We explore the multiplicity of stakeholders, the questions that motivated deliberations, and the kinds of evidence presented during the hearing. Pairing our findings with contemporary scholarship in rhetorical stasis theory, Mol’s (2002) construct of multiple ontologies, and Callon, Lascoumes, and Barthe’s (2011) “hybrid forums,” we demonstrate that the FDA’s deliberative procedures elides various sources of evidence and the potential multiplicity of definitions for “clinical benefit.” Our findings suggest that while the FDA invited multiple stakeholders to offer testimony, there are ways that the FDA might have more meaningfully incorporated public voices in the deliberative process. We conclude with suggestions for how a true hybrid forum might be deployed.     

“Uterus Loquitur”: Trauma and the Human Organism in Ferenczi’s “Physiology of Pleasure”

The paper reconstructs Ferenczi’s unique and largely neglected physiology of pleasure. It highlights the prominent place of the libido in Ferenczi’s writings, the transition from the physiology of use to the physiology of pleasure and the role of trauma in Ferenczi’s work with a special emphasis on the beauty and plasticity of the body, the relations between its organs as well as the adaptive potential, the Orphic powers, and the natural vigor of the human organism. Ferenczi’s theoretical assumptions and his powerful images of the human organism are examined in the light of Goethe’s, Schopenhauer’s, and Nietzsche’s philosophies.     

“It’s Scary but It’s Also Exciting”: Evidence of Meta-Affective Learning in Science

We study the case of Marya, a freshman engineering major who showed and spoke of a drastic shift in her feelings and approach to learning physics during an introductory course. For the first several weeks, she was anxiously manipulating equations without considering physical meaning, and she was terribly worried about being correct. By the end of the semester, however, she was sense-making and taking pleasure in it, showing and expressing an enjoyment of challenges and uncertainty. In this paper, we illustrate Marya’s transformation using data from her interview and coursework, and we propose it as an example of meta-affective learning. We argue that meta-affective learning was an important part of Marya’s physics learning and that it was deeply entangled with her developing epistemology.     

“It is Sometimes Soul-Destroying”: Doctors’ Reflections on Unemployment and Health in Thatcher’s Britain

Journal of Medical Humanities - Through an analysis of two sets of writing in the British Medical Journal from the 1980s, this article explores relationships between unemployment and health....     

“Socialism of the soul:” Holocaust in Saul Bellow’s The Victim

Saul Bellow wrote his second novel The Victim at the Partisan Review group’s instance. In the aftermath of the Holocaust the PR group advocated the assimilation of the American Jews into mainstream American life for their future safety and prosperity. Keeping in view Bellow’s creative potentials and belief in Marxism/Trotskyism, the PR members asked him to educate the Jews in this matter through his fiction. Bellow treated the subject of Jewish assimilation in an allegorical vein, projecting the idea of universal brotherhood based on common human grounds. Here, a Jew, Asa Leventhal, behaves like a Gentile and a Gentile, Kirby Allbee, like a Jew as victim and victimizer of each other. Their repeated encounters mitigate their racial apprehensions and bring the two closer to each other. Both discover one into the other as his inescapable self, bound by a common human connection. Finally they make peace with each other, projecting Bellow’s allegory of inexorable cosmic kinship—“socialism of the soul”—despite their differences of blood, race and religion.