A view of guidance from Africa

Modern Africa has achieved great progress in education, urbanization, and economic development. Modernization, however, brings the traditional into frequent confrontation with the modern and tends to create conflicts in the lives of individuals. Modern Africa's youth need guidance. But to be effective, guidance practice must be based on philosophies that reflect true African thinking. Foreign models will be inadequate. This article examines some African viewpoints in order to suggest elements that might be used in formulating a philosophy of guidance and a mode of practice suitable for Africa.     

Experts in science: a view from the trenches

In this paper I analyze four so-called “principles of expertise”; that is, good epistemic practices that are normatively motivated by the epistemological literature on expert judgment. I highlight some of the problems that the four principles of expertise run into, when we try to implement them in concrete contexts of application (e.g. in science committees). I suggest some possible alternatives and adjustments to the principles, arguing in general that the epistemology of expertise should be informed both by case studies and by the literature on the use of experts in science practice.     

All-women's groups: a view from inside

All-women's counseling groups are the subject of controversy among counselors. In this article the author presents a rationale for such groups, discussing several ways in which women find them more therapeutically helpful than mixed groups. She deals with the dynamics of different kinds of groups, and she urges counselors to seriously consider using all-women's groups in their work.     

Reflections on public bioethics: a view from the trenches

For many reasons, and more than its predecessors, the President's Council on Bioethics has been the subject of much public attention and heated controversy. But little of that attention and controversy has been informed by knowledge of the Council's mission, its ways of working, and, most importantly, its actual work. This essay describes the Council's mission, discusses its public ways of working, and reviews the five major works produced during the Council's first term. In all its activities, the Council has sought to develop a richer bioethics, one that recognizes and tries to do justice to the deep issues of our humanity raised by the age of biotechnology. Believing that these issues are properly matters to be discussed and governed by the polity as a whole, the Council also has sought to contribute to a genuinely public or political bioethics, beyond the rule of "experts," scientific and bioethical.     

The role of philosophers in the public policy process: a view from the President's Commission

A lawyer who was assistant director of the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research describes the difficulties he sees in participation by philosophers in the making of public policy. He attributes the Commission's considerable success in influencing public policy to its consensus building approach. However, in its analysis of the appropriate governmental response to compensation of injured research subjects, the Commission produced only a "useless" report calling for further study. The problem was that the force of the simple argument for compensation based on justice was undercut by an academic libertarian argument. Technical questions of program design are refractory to philosophical analysis, and philosophers are not receptive to pragmatic compromise. Accordingly, philosophers should provide a moral critique of political compromises, rather than play a direct role in policy making.     

Families left behind at the source of migration: implications for career guidance practitioners

Issues surrounding migration are receiving unprecedented attention at the global, regional, as well as national levels. However, a review of the literature shows that there is more focus on international migration compared to internal migration. Further, there is more emphasis on issues related to the migration destination rather than those at the source of migration. Using the cultural preparation process model as a framework, this paper aims to understand the career and livelihood planning needs of those who are left behind. The left-behind families of pine resin tappers in the Changar region of the Indian Himalayas are presented as a case study to draw the attention of career guidance and counselling professionals to this unattended population.     

The view from here: Emergence of graphical literacy

The purpose of this study is to describe upper elementary students' understandings of four graphical devices that frequently occur in social studies texts: captioned images, maps, tables, and timelines. Using verbal protocol data collection procedures, we collected information on students' metacognitive processes when they were explicitly asked to engage with these graphical devices. We investigate the degree to which these children were able to identify, describe, and utilize these four graphical devices, as well as students' emergent (i.e., not yet conventional) understandings and interpretations of these devices. Implications for research, teacher education, and teacher practice are addressed.     

The idea of emancipation from a cosmopolitan point of view

R. Rorty uncouples cosmopolitanism from emancipation and rejects the latter on both phylogenetic and ontogenetic grounds. Thus: 1. There is no human nature to be emancipated, and 2. The notion of a rational, transcendental and conditioning subject (presupposed by traditional theories of emancipation) is obsolete. He preserves the idea of cosmopolitanism, which, in an effort to avoid foundationalisrn, he associates only with the development and progress of liberal societies. His cosmopolitanism relies on the distinction between persuasion and force and his preference for conversation over rational discourse. In this paper, I discuss Rorty's claims and trace residues of biologism, positivism, and behaviourism in them. By putting forward an immanent critique of Rorty's account of cosmopolitanism and emancipation, I defend a non-foundationalist notion of redemption as self-realization and propose a new justification of Rorty's distinction between force and persuasion.     

The conflict over creation from a medieval point of view

Many theological terms such as ‘causation’ and ‘creation’ carried technical meanings during the late thirteenth century but these same terms are often treated commonly in modern discourse. When the tension between creationism and evolution is examined in light of what well known medieval theologians wrote, it appears that the current debates related to evolution often lapse into the fallacy of equivocation. One unfortunate consequence of this breakdown is that the root of the problem, the subtle language involved, often remains unexposed. Moreover, the level of passionate discourse surrounding evolution suggests that a nearly scholastic approach is required if further confusion is to be limited.     

From the left to the right: How the brain compensates progressive loss of language function

In normal right-handed subjects language production usually is a function oft the left brain hemisphere. Patients with aphasia following brain damage to the left hemisphere have a considerable potential to compensate for the loss of this function. Sometimes, but not always, areas of the right hemisphere which are homologous to language areas of the left hemisphere in normal subjects are successfully employed for compensation but this integration process may need time to develop. We investigated right-handed patients with left hemisphere brain tumors as a model of continuously progressive brain damage to left hemisphere language areas using functional neuroimaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to identify factors which determine successful compensation of lost language function. Only patients with slowly progressing brain lesions recovered right-sided language function as detected by TMS. In patients with rapidly progressive lesions no right-sided language function was found and language performance was linearly correlated with the lateralization of language related brain activation to the left hemisphere. It can thus be concluded that time is the factor which determines successful integration of the right hemisphere into the language network for compensation of lost left hemisphere language function.     

从患者角度看循证医学

循证医学是一门发展中的朝阳学科,其哲学思想正发生着演绎。在临床医学领域中,其定义也在不断拓展、深化。当前,更加强调:循证医学应是一种人性化的医学实践方法,在临床决策中,仅靠证据还远远不够,应有效地融合病人的价值观及意愿选择。从患者的角度来认识循证医学的理念与方法,探讨循证实践中病人的价值观及意愿选择。