CURRENT TRENDS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF MEDICINE

Abstract. The philosophy of medicine, a developing discipline, is defined as critical reflection on the activity of medicine. The clinical encounter is both its central aspect and the focus for philosophical analysis. The most systematic example of this discipline employs a mixture of empiricism and phenomenology. Systems thought presents an organizing schema by which the philosophy of medicine can move toward a more comprehensive and fundamental analysis of its own agenda, which includes four main topics: understanding the patient-physician interaction, concepts of health and disease, foundations of medical ethics, and the dialogue between medicine and the larger culture.     

Can Science Help Construct a New Global Ethic? The Development and Implications of Moral Transformation Theory

This paper reports the results of a ten-year search for consensus among scientific findings on the nature of the origin and development of moral sensitivity and morality. Significant agreement on six underlying factors was found. Based on these foundations, a new theory of moral transformation and a scientific "global ethic" relating to the global ethic of Hans Kung and the Parliament of the World's Religions is proposed. Fields surveyed include psychology, sociology, political science, economics, history, and gender and feminist studies in social science; physics and biology in natural science; and brain research, archaeology, and both old and new evolutionary studies and theory, including chaos, self-organizing, and other nonlinear theories, in systems science.     

Creation, Co-operation, and Causality: A Reply to Gregersen

Niels H. Gregersen seeks to illuminate the nature of continuing divine action in the world and to show that the classical theistic doctrine of continuous creation is consonant with some recent scientific theories of self-productive ("autopoietic") systems. Central to these theories is the concept of co-operation; central to Gregersen's theological appropriation of these theories is also the notion of structuring causality developed by philosopher Fred Dretske. While supportive of Gregersen's overall aims and emphases, we find significant disanalogies between co-operation as a theological construct and as an evolutionary strategy. We also doubt the utility of Dretske's notion for his project.     

Attachment as an Integrating Concept in Couple and Family Therapy: Some Considerations with Special Reference to South Africa

Couples, marital, and family therapy in South Africa and throughout the world have undergone radical changes in theory and practice in the last three to four decades. These developments are seen in the emergence of different approaches which may be regarded as modern or post-modern, intrapsychic or systemic. While these different approaches are often seen as theoretically and clinically incompatible, it is the aim in this paper to suggest that the time has come to seek points of integration of these different approaches, and the construct of attachment is proposed as an ideal integrating concept. Two case illustrations are used to demonstrate attachment as an integrating concept. It is suggested that the concept of attachment may also be applied to family therapists and associations, including and especially in South Africa.     

Systems measures of word use and differential diagnosis

This paper presents findings on the power of two systems measures of word use to discriminate four patient groups. The first is the slope of accumulated entropy or complexity of the sample (known to be logarithmic over time). The other is the average Poisson rate for the use of new words (known to be a Poisson process). The four groups consisted of cancer, depressed, paranoid, and somatization patients. The two word measures discriminate the first three groups from the fourth. There is evidence that larger samples will identify a similar discriminator for each of the first three groups from one another. The results are discussed in terms of how these methods may offer fresh insight into the relationship between language use and psychopathology.     

Grafting Modalities onto Substructural Implication Systems

We investigate the semantics of the logical systems obtained by introducing the modalities and into the family of substructural implication logics (including relevant, linear and intuitionistic implication). Then, in the spirit of the LDS (Labelled Deductive Systems) methodology, we "import" this semantics into the classical proof system KE. This leads to the formulation of a uniform labelled refutation system for the new logics which is a natural extension of a system for substructural implication developed by the first two authors in a previous paper.     

Correspondence Results for Relational Proof Systems with Application to the Lambek Calculus

We present a general framework for proof systems for relational theories. We discuss principles of the construction of deduction rules and correspondences reflecting relationships between semantics of relational logics and the rules of the respective proof systems. We illustrate the methods developed in the paper with examples relevant for the Lambek calculus and some of its extensions.     

DIMENSIONS OF LIFE: A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO THE INORGANIC AND THE ORGANIC IN PAUL TILLICH AND PIERRE TEILHARD DE CHARDIN

Abstract. Systems theory provides a surprisingly fruitful approach to several important ideas held in common by Paul Tillich and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. These include complexity or organization as the key to understanding the distinction between the inorganic and the organic, and hierarchy or levels in complex systems. Teilhard and systems theorists accept hierarchy as fundamental. Tillich questions the concept and prefers “dimensions,” including the inorganic, organic, psychological, spiritual, and historical dimensions. Tillich's rejection of hierarchy is questioned, but significant correlations are discovered in the systems interpretation of the psychological and spiritual dimensions as well as in the use of “centeredness” by both thinkers.     

Adding pieces to the puzzle: a commentary

In Jensen's theme paper she did an excellent job of outlining and explaining ways in which motor developmentalists can use the tools of biomechanics and engineering to address research questions. We extend her thorough efforts in two ways. First, we highlight the communication value provided by the precision of biomechanics terminology, and second, we reinforce the need to embed motion (the kinematics and kinetics) in context and function in order to understand the complexity of behaviour. We illustrate how one biomechanical tool, mechanical models, can facilitate this and provide insight to the development of control. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.