Husserl on Scientific Method and Conceptual Change: A Realist Appraisal

Husserl claimed that all theoretical scientific concepts originate in and are valid in reference to 'life-world' experience and that scientific traditions preserve the sense and validity of such concepts through unitary and cumulative change. Each of these claims will, in turn, be sympathetically laid out and assessed in comparison with more standard characterizations of scientific method and conceptual change as well as the history of physics, concerning particularly the challenge they may pose for scientific realism. The Husserlian phenomenological framework is accepted here without defense, and hence the present project is limited to the task of asking what can and cannot be accommodated within that framework on its own terms. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Reflections on Bill Kell: The Legend and His Legacy

Bill Kell influenced many contemporary counseling psychologists through his work as author and as director of training at the Michigan State University Counseling Center from 1957 until his death in 1973. This article describes the legend and legacy of Bill Kell, by using excerpts from six oral histories collected from former trainees, colleagues, and family members.     

The T. Mort. Chaplaincy at Ground Zero: Presence and Privilege on Holy Ground

Drawing on interviews with the chaplains and archival material from Disaster Chaplaincy Services—NY, this article discusses the formation of the chaplaincy at the Temporary Mortuary at Ground Zero after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. It describes the initial chaplaincy response in New York by local clergy and the SAIR team of the American Red Cross. The first 6 weeks of chaplaincy at Ground Zero are explored highlighting the significant contributions of the Archdiocese of New York and Episcopal Diocese of New York out of St. Paul’s Chapel. The mission and impact of the Temporary Mortuary chaplains’ ministry of presence and blessing is discussed with some final reflections for the future of Disaster Chaplaincy.     

Challenging tasks: The role of employees' and supervisors' goal orientations

Research shows that challenging jobs stimulate employee learning and retention. Nevertheless, empirical knowledge on what influences the amount of challenging tasks employees perform in their job is lacking. In this study, we examined the extent to which the performance of challenging tasks is related to employees' and supervisors' goal orientations. We found a positive relationship between employees' mastery-approach orientation and the performance of challenging tasks. Furthermore, if supervisors had authority over the tasks of their employees, supervisors' goal orientations were related to employees' task challenge. Performing challenging tasks was negatively related to supervisors' performance-approach orientation and positively related to supervisors' performance-avoidance orientation.     

The ethics of clinical innovation in psychopharmacology: Challenging traditional bioethics

Advance health care directives and informed consent remain the cornerstones of patients' right to self-determination regarding medical care and preferences at the end-of-life. However, the effectiveness and clinical applicability of advance health care directives to decision-making on the use of life support systems at the end-of-life is questionable. The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA) has been revised in 2006 to permit the use of life support systems at or near death for the purpose of maximizing procurement opportunities of organs medically suitable for transplantation. Some states have enacted the Revised UAGA (2006) and a few of those have included amendments while attempting to preserve the uniformity of the revised Act. Other states have introduced the Revised UAGA (2006) for legislation and remaining states are likely to follow soon. The Revised UAGA (2006) poses challenges to the Patient Self Determination Act (PSDA) embodied in advance health care directives and individual expression about the use of life support systems at the end-of-life. The challenges are predicated on the UAGA revising the default choice to presumption of donation intent and the use of life support systems to ensure medical suitability of organs for transplantation. The default choice trumps the expressed intent in an individual's advance health care directive to withhold and/or withdraw life support systems at the end-of-life. The Revised UAGA (2006) overrides advance directives on utilitarian grounds, which is a serious ethical challenge to society. The subtle progression of the Revised UAGA (2006) towards the presumption about how to dispose of one's organs at death can pave the way for an affirmative "duty to donate". There are at least two steps required to resolve these challenges. First, physicians and hospitals must fulfill their responsibilities to educate patients on the new legislations and document their preferences about the use of life support systems for organ donation at the end-of-life. Second, a broad based societal discussion must be initiated to decide if the Revised UAGA (2006) infringes on the PSDA and the individual's right of autonomy. The discussion should also address other ethical concerns raised by the Revised UAGA (2006), including the moral stance on 1) the interpretation of the refusal of life support systems as not applicable to organ donation and 2) the disregarding of the diversity of cultural beliefs about end-of-life in a pluralistic society.     

The ethics of clinical innovation in psychopharmacology: Challenging traditional bioethics

Objective  

To assess the scientific and ethical basis for clinical innovation in psychopharmacology.     

Challenging research on human subjects: justice and uncompensated harms

Ethical challenges to certain aspects of research on human subjects are not uncommon; examples include challenges to first-in-human trials (Chapman in J Clin Res Bioethics 2(4):1–8, 2011), certain placebo controlled trials (Anderson in J Med Philos 31:65–81, 2006; Anderson and Kimmelman in Kennedy Inst Ethics J 20(1):75–98, 2010) and “sham” surgery (Macklin in N Engl J Med 341:992–996, 1999). To date, however, there are few challenges to research when the subjects are competent and the research is more than minimal risk with no promise of direct benefit. The principal reason given for allowing research that is more than minimal risk without benefit is that we should respect the autonomy of competent subjects. I argue that though the moral intuitions informing respect for autonomy are sound, there is another set of intuitions regarding what we take to be just treatment of another when one agent knowingly causes or allows suffering on another agent. I argue that concerns generated by commutative justice serve as limitations on permissible research. I highlight our intuitions informing this notion of justice by appealing to work done on theodicy; what counts as a morally sufficient reason for God to allow suffering in humans is applicable also to the researcher-subject relationship. I conclude that all human subjects who are exposed to more than minimal risk research should enjoy the same actual protections (e.g., subpart D) as those given subjects who cannot consent.     

The Annotated Luther: Updating His Essential Writings

This article provides a summary of how The Annotated Luther series was conceived and developed to reach a broad readership for a new generation of students of Luther and the Reformation. Included is a brief history of the project and the editorial principles that have guided the translation of Luther's writings, as well as the supporting annotations, introductions, and images.