Reciprocity,Vulnerability, and the Moral Significance of Herd Immunity

This article proposes a novel defense of vaccine mandates: such policies are justifiable because they protect the capabilities of individuals who cannot cultivate individual immunity against infection. We begin by considering a nearby argument that has recently enjoyed popularity, which claims individuals have an enforceable obligation to get vaccinated because they have benefited from community protection (often referred to as ‘herd immunity’), and thus they ought to do their fair share in sustaining that public good by getting vaccinated. We object, however, that this kind of argument misstates the ethical basis for vaccine mandates because community protection primarily protects unvaccinated people. We contend that the duty to vaccinate is not fundamentally an obligation to make a fair contribution to a public good from which vaccinated people benefit, but a duty to protect the wellbeing of otherwise vulnerable third parties. We flesh out our view by drawing on Martha Nussbaum's capabilities approach.     

The utility of verbal and behavioral assessments of value.

Subjects lived in a laboratory apartment for up to 30 days, engaging in ordinary activities such as reading, sewing, and artwork. The amount of time devoted to each activity was recorded and compared with periodic verbal ratings of the amount of time devoted to the activities. The verbal and observational assessments of the time distribution were very similar, but there were some discrepancies. Based on self-reports and on observation of time actually devoted to the activities, contingencies were arranged in which time devoted to one activity produced time available for a second activity. When the contingency relation was based on behavioral assessment, predictions of time redistribution were more accurate than when the relations were based on verbal assessment. The close correspondence between observed distributions of time and verbally assessed distributions was probably due to the well-specified situation and rigorous assessment methods. Contrary to some cognitive-behavioral accounts, the contingency results suggest that verbal assessment is not necessarily preferable to observation when the two make discrepant predictions. It is suggested that verbal reports might be used more often in behavior analysis in place of lengthy or difficult observations, and attention is drawn to a personality model that parallels important components of behavior analysis.     

CONTRACTUALISM AND ANIMALS

Philosophical Studies -     

Beyond belief bias: Reasoning from conceptual structures by mental models manipulation

Mental models constitute an alternative to the rule-based systems in the explanation of human reasoning (Johnson-Laird, 1983). In this paper, we claim that the concept of believability generally used to categorize content and context effects is of little use within a semantic theory. Thus, we propose the use of categories that are directly extracted from subjective relations among concepts within the reasoning problem. We demonstrate that manipulations based on this kind of categorization produce predictable patterns of responses in reasoning problems. We present two experiments to test our predictions, using conditional and syllogistic reasoning problems, and in both cases, we demonstrate the influence of conceptual knowledge not only in natural contexts, but also in experimentally created artificial contexts.     

Detachment and defeasibility in deontic logic

The purpose of the paper is to present a logical framework that allow to formalize a kind of prima facie duties, defeasible conditional duties, indefeasible conditional duties and actual (indefeasible) duties, as well as to show their logical interconnections.     

Enhancement of the Post-training Cholinergic Tone Antagonizes the Impairment of Retention Induced by a Nitric Oxide Synthase Inhibitor in Mice

The present experiments examined the role of the central cholinergic system in the memory impairment induced by post-training administration of a nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor in mice. Male Swiss mice received a one-trial inhibitory avoidance training (0.8 mA, 50 Hz, 1-s footshock) followed immediately by an ip injection of the NOS inhibitor -N^G-nitroarginine methyl ester ( -NAME; 100 mg/kg). Retention (cut-off time, 300 s) was tested 48 h after training. The administration of -NAME results in memory impairment for the inhibitory avoidance task. The effects of -NAME (100 mg/kg, ip) on retention were reversed in a dose-related manner by the centrally acting anticholinesterase physostigmine (35, 70, or 150 μg/kg, sc) administered 30 min after the NOS inhibitor. Further, -NAME (100 mg/kg, ip)-induced memory impairment was completely antagonized by the centrally acting muscarinic cholinergic agonist oxotremorine (OTM; 25, 50, or 100 μg/kg, sc) when given 30 min after -NAME. The peripherally acting anticholinesterase neostigmine (150 μg/kg, sc) did not modify the memory-impairing effects of -NAME. These findings suggest that the memory impairment following post-training administration of a NOS inhibitor is mediated, at least in part, by a reduction of the activity of central muscarinic cholinergic mechanisms and are consistent with our previous view that nitric oxide may be involved in post-training neural processes underlying the storage of newly acquired information.     

Effects of Posttraining Administration of Glucose on Retention of a Habituation Response in Mice: Participation of a Central Cholinergic Mechanism

Male Swiss mice were allowed to explore a novel environment, provided by an open-field activity chamber, for 10 min. The procedure was repeated twice with a 24-h interval. The difference in the exploratory activity between the first (training) and the second (testing) exposures to the chamber was taken as an index of retention of this habituation task. Posttraining intraperitoneal administration of glucose (10–300 mg/kg) enhanced retention in a dose-related manner, although only the dose of 30 mg/kg of glucose produced significant effects. Thus, the dose–response curve adopted an inverted U-shaped form. Glucose (30 mg/kg) given to untrained mice did not modify their exploratory performance when recorded 24 h later. The effects of glucose on retention were time-dependent, suggesting an action on memory storage. The memory-improving actions of glucose were prevented by the simultaneous administration of both the central acting muscarinic cholinergic antagonist atropine (0.5 mg/kg) and by the central acting nicotinic cholinergic antagonist mecamylamine (5 mg/kg). In contrast, neither methylatropine (0.5 mg/kg), a peripherally acting muscarinic receptor blocker, nor hexamethonium (5 mg/kg), a peripherally acting nicotinic receptor blocker, prevented the effects of glucose on retention. Low subeffective doses of glucose (10 mg/kg) and the central anticholinesterase physostigmine (35 μg/kg), but not neostigmine (35 μg/kg), given together, act synergistically and facilitated retention. We suggest that glucose modulates memory storage of one form of learning elicited by stimuli repeatedly presented without reinforcement, probably through an enhancement of brain acetylcholine synthesis and/or its release.     

Are there constraints on childhood disfluency?

Analysis of the spontaneous speech of eight stuttering and eight normally fluent children reveals that (a) the location of both stuttering and normal disfluent moments is constrained by sentential constituent structure, and (b) stuttering children experience fluency breakdown with a particular type of constituent (verb phrase) not usually disfluently produced by normals. A view of early stuttering as a sentence planning and integration disorder is present.