"Social science is explanation or it is nothing." Introduction to a debate.

This essay introduces contributions to a special section, which documents and extends a debate on the proposition "Social Science is Explanation or it is Nothing" held at the London School of Economics on October 13th, 2022. It discusses the history of the "Group for Theoretical Debates in Anthropology" led by Tim Ingold, Peter Wade and Soumhya Venkatesan, which has handed down a list of credible candidates for issues that had a chance of engaging every anthropologist, including students and those with interdisciplinary interests. It raises questions about the specific affordances of debates as forms of academic engagements. It argues that the chosen proposition concerning explanation invites a discussion about the contributions of the social sciences at a time when impulses from science and technology studies as well as fruitful exchanges across the boundary between "theory" and "method" have helped us moved beyond the older question as to whether or not sociology is "a science".

Medicine, Life, and Transformations of Matter.

This Ambix special issue explores premodern alchemical ideas and practices in their entanglements with medicine. It employs diverse methods, from traditional close reading to the new distant-reading framework of computational humanities, to investigate alchemical thought over a timespan of several centuries. In medieval times, everyday practices could offer heuristic models of material transformation - such as the fermentation of bread as a model for metallic transmutation (Schmechel). Paracelsus relied on "fire" to link his natural philosophy with his medical alchemy; new computational methods show how his ideas evolved over time (Hedesan). Early modern medical pluralism favoured the thriving of chemical medicine in Italy; diplomatic efforts introduced chemical remedies into acknowledged pharmacopoeias (Clericuzio). An English physician offers William Cavendish both practical distillation recipes and the hope of learning more about the principles of chemistry (Begley). In eighteenth-century France, Diderot draws on chemical ideas to blur the conceptual boundary between living and non-living matter (Wolfe). The papers largely adhere to integrated history and philosophy of science (iHPS) and to a pragmatist "operational ideal of knowledge" (Chang). They showcase the interdisciplinarity of premodern scientific thought and examine how medicine and alchemy, but also theory and (everyday) practice informed each other fruitfully across the ages.

Theoretical concepts as goal-derived concepts.

In this paper, I will focus on the nature of theoretical concepts, i.e., the psychological entities related to theoretical terms in science. I will first argue that the standard picture of theoretical concepts in twentieth-century philosophy of science understood them as representation-oriented common taxonomic concepts. However, I will show how, in light of recent pragmatist approaches to scientific laws and theories, several important theoretical concepts in science do not seem to fit such picture. I will then argue that these theoretical concepts should be understood instead as goal-derived concepts, since their construction and use exhibit the typical characteristics that cognitive scientists assign to goal-derived concepts. I will furthermore argue that the existence of theoretical concepts that are goal-derived concepts represents yet another example of the central role that human goals play in science.

Racism in psychiatry and the case of presentism.

Acknowledging the impact of imperialist and colonialist attitudes on the development of psychiatry allows for the recovery of the work of practitioners whose contribution may have been overlooked, as well as recognising racist attitudes in predominant thinking. These combined approaches aid in the construction of a more complete critical history.

Value sensitive design and the artificial placenta.

Artificial placenta technologies (also termed 'artificial wombs') for use in place of conventional neonatal intensive care are increasingly closer to first-in-human use. There is growing ethical interest in partial ectogestation (the use of an artificial placenta to continue gestation of an underdeveloped human entity extra uterum), however, there has been little reflection on the ethical issues in the design of the technology. While some have noted the importance of such reflection, and others have noted that a 'value sensitive design' approach should be preferred, they have not elaborated on what this means. In this article, we consider what a value sensitive design approach to artificial placenta design might encompass. We believe that applying this framework to the topic at hand raises theoretical and substantive ethical questions that merit further elucidation. Highlighting that there is a careful need to separate preferences from values and that our intervention should be considered only a starting point, we explore some of the values that could be used to make ethical design choices about the artificial placenta: efficacy, compassion and accessibility.

The Rarest and Purest Form of Generosity: Simone Weil's Attention and Medical Practice.

Attention is essential to the practice of medicine. It is required for expert and timely diagnoses and treatments, is implicated in the techniques and practices oriented toward healing, and enlivens the interpersonal dimensions of care. Attention enables witnessing, presence, compassion, and discernment. The French philosopher and activist Simone Weil (1909-1943) developed one of the most original and important descriptions of attention in the last century. For Weil, attention is not an attitude of strained focus but of perceptive waiting that leads to the acquisition and integration of knowledge. Contrary to activities often foregrounded in clinical medicine, it requires renunciation of the will, gentle directedness toward the origin of actions, and diminishment of the self. This paper critically examines Weil's concept of attention as it applies to health systems, technical/intellectual work, and interpersonal care, as well as its connection to theology, and considers whether attention might find a home within the contemporary clinic.

Social Assistive Robotics: An Ethical and Political Inquiry Through the Lens of Freedom.

The development of social assistive robots for supporting healthcare provision faces a lack of an ethical approach that adequately addresses the normatively relevant challenges regarding its deployment. Current ethical reflection is primarily informed by an individual-centered perspective focused on robots' implications for their end-users and thereby limited to the dyadic human-robot interaction sphere. Considering that this is tightly correlated to the restricted understanding of core ethical concepts upon which reflection stands, this paper delves into the concept of freedom from a philosophical perspective to unfold its full normative breadth for a critical assessment of technological development. By bringing to the fore the political-structural dimension of freedom and, in turn, elaborating the political dimension of technology, the undertaken philosophical approach discloses freedom as a transversal ethical concept for a normative reflection on technology. Thereby, it broadens the scope of ethical attention beyond the sphere of human-robot interaction and turns attention to the so far overlooked structural dimension of human-robot relations. Drawing on conceptions of freedom as non-domination, among others, the paper approaches social assistive robotics and reexamines the terrain of relevant issues for its development. Since freedom is one major issue upon which current concerns revolve, the undertaken analysis substantially enriches the ongoing ethical discussion on social assistive robotics' implications for human freedom. In this way, this work contributes to going beyond the current individual-centered ethical perspective by laying conceptual grounds for a comprehensive ethical approach to social assistive robotics' development.

The Pluralities of Property.

In Property Rights: A Re-Examination, James Penner returns to and develops a project that he has been engaged in for nearly three decades: to replace the influential 'bundle of rights' picture of property, which he regards as irredeemably flawed, with an alternative account-one that regards property as a unified entitlement. In this review article, I expound and analyse the central features of Penner's theory. I defend the view that, in its original iteration, Penner's account was trebly monistic: it regarded property as a single entitlement justified by a single human interest and protected by a single duty of non-interference. I go on to critically examine one of Penner's central ideas-that to understand property it is necessary to understand its justification. Along the way, I trace how Penner's account has evolved and explain how certain alterations have put some problems to bed while generating others.

The views of nurses and healthcare users on the development of Ubuntu community model in nursing in selected provinces in South Africa: A participatory action research.

BACKGROUND: The Ubuntu philosophy which emanates from the African saying, muthu ndi muthu nga vhathu, a person is a person because of other persons, resonates with nursing ethics. PURPOSE: To describe the views of nurses and healthcare users on the development of the Ubuntu community model in nursing. METHODS: A Participatory Action Research approach was used. The participants were professional nurses and healthcare users in three selected provinces in South Africa. Data were gathered through focus group discussions. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. FINDINGS: The following themes were identified: the value of a person/human being; human beings are part of nature; values in nursing; principles of Ubuntu in health; and Ubuntu caring actions. DISCUSSION: By upholding foundational values and principles of Ubuntu, healthcare professionals, particularly nurses, should aim to foster dialogue, empower patients, promote their emancipation, engage with them, and enable the people under their care. CONCLUSION: Ubuntu serves as a lens through which nursing can engage with South African populations to design and implement best care for population-specific care outcomes. Understanding the principles and values of Ubuntu can assist nursing students and practicing nurses in developing a moral consciousness that embodies the spirit of Ubuntu, thereby enhancing their ability to address health disparities and improve health outcomes.

Assessing task-based language needs of students of philosophy: Comparing teachers and students' attitudes.

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and Needs Analysis (NA) have been of significant interest to researchers for decades. Reviewing related studies strongly emphasizes NA as the foundational step in ESP course development. However, the task-based language needs (TBLNs) of philosophy students have yet to be thoroughly examined from the perspectives of both teachers and undergraduate students. Employing a mixed-method research design, 30 informants were selected via theoretical sampling for the qualitative phase and interviewed to elucidate TBLNs at the university level. In the quantitative phase, a researcher-developed scale was administered to 450 philosophy teachers and students, but 405 returned the completely filled-in questionnaires. Data analysis involved exploratory factor analysis and independent samples t-tests. Results indicated that philosophy students' TBLNs encompassed seven main themes comprising 27 distinct needs. Furthermore, the developed scale demonstrated acceptable reliability, divergent validity, and convergent validity. Statistical analysis also revealed significant differences in mean scores between students and teachers across most identified tasks. These findings suggest that philosophy students require proficiency in all language skills and sub-skills to succeed in their studies. The implications of these findings are significant for ESP educators, university administrators, policymakers, and administrators within philosophy departments, both theoretically and pedagogically.

[Theoretical foundations of clinical ethics consultation in psychiatry]. / Theoretische Grundlagen der klinischen Ethikberatung in der Psychiatrie.

BACKGROUND: Clinical ethics consultants support mental health professionals in identifying and analyzing moral problems in clinical practice. OBJECTIVE: Presentation of key ethical concepts and normative theories that are relevant for clinical ethics consultation in mental healthcare. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Conceptual and ethical analyses. RESULTS: After distinguishing between morality, ethics and law, moral problems are differentiated from other types of problems encountered in clinical practice. Subsequently, key ethical concepts and the concept of moral distress are clarified. In relation to the normative framework a distinction is made between philosophical ethical theories and medical ethical theories, such as principlism and the ethics of care. Finally, justification tests for ethical decision-making in situations of danger to self or others based on the harm principle and soft paternalism are proposed. CONCLUSION: Knowledge of key ethical concepts and normative theories is important for the identification and analysis of moral problems in mental healthcare and should be given greater weight in the training of clinical ethics consultants.

Suicidal behaviour is pathological: implications for psychiatric euthanasia.

Some have challenged the validity of labelling suicidal thoughts and behaviours (STB) as pathological. In this paper, we argue that STB is indeed pathological, thereby, situating suicide prevention within the realm of medicine, complicating calls for the legalisation of medical assistance in dying for individuals whose sole condition is psychiatric (psychiatric medical assistance in dying (MAID)). Evidence shows STB predicts the risk of suicide; moreover, several mental illnesses are associated with STB, and 70%-90% of suicide deaths are linked to psychiatric illness. Treating psychiatric illnesses can prevent suicide. We contend that this clinical evidence not only warrants the classification of STB as pathological but also necessitates its treatment and prevention. This perspective poses a challenge to legislation that would legalise psychiatric MAID.

Milking a spherical cow: Toy models in neuroscience.

There are many different kinds of models, and they play many different roles in the scientific endeavour. Neuroscience, and biology more generally, has understandably tended to emphasise empirical models that are grounded in data and make specific, experimentally testable predictions. Meanwhile, strongly idealised or 'toy' models have played a central role in the theoretical development of other sciences such as physics. In this paper, we examine the nature of toy models and their prospects in neuroscience.

All psychiatric disorders are equal, but some are more equal than others! An unconscious bias that calls for precision terminology.

We address the unconsciously biased perception of psychiatric disorders, highlighting a hierarchical perspective that favours certain diagnoses over others. We aim to uncover reasons for these inequities, emphasising the need for a shift toward pathophysiology-based nomenclature that can promote equal support for each disorder, enhance treatment adherence and encourage open discussions.

The life sciences and the history of analytic philosophy.

Comparative to the commonplace focus onto developments in mathematics and physics, the life sciences appear to have received relatively sparse attention within the early history of analytic philosophy. This paper addresses two related aspects of this phenomenon. On the one hand, it asks: to the extent that the significance of the life sciences was indeed downplayed by early analytic philosophers, why was this the case? An answer to this question may be found in Bertrand Russell's 1914 discussions of the relation between biology and philosophy. Contrary to received views of the history of analytic philosophy, Russell presented his own 'logical atomism' in opposition not only to British Idealism, but also to 'evolutionism'. On the other hand, I will question whether this purported neglect of the life sciences does indeed accurately characterise the history of analytic philosophy. In answering this, I turn first to Susan Stebbing's criticisms of Russell's overlooking of biology, her influence on J.H. Woodger, and her critical discussion of T.H. Huxley's and C.H. Waddington's application of evolutionary views to philosophical questions. I then discuss the case of Moritz Schlick, whose evolutionist philosophy has been overlooked within recent debates concerning Logical Empiricism's relation to the philosophy of biology.

Mental integrity, autonomy, and fundamental interests.

Many technology ethicists hold that the time has come to articulate neurorights: our normative claims vis-à-vis our brains and minds. One such claim is the right to mental integrity ('MI'). I begin by considering some paradigmatic threats to MI (§1) and how the dominant autonomy-based conception ('ABC') of MI attempts to make sense of them (§2). I next consider the objection that the ABC is overbroad in its understanding of what threatens MI and suggest a friendly revision to the ABC that addresses the objection (§3). I then consider a second objection: that the ABC cannot make sense of the MI of the non-autonomous This objection appears fatal even to the revised ABC (§4). On that basis, I develop an alternative conception on which MI is grounded in a plurality of simpler capacities, namely, those for affect, cognition, and volition Each of these more basic capacities grounds a set of fundamental interests, and they are for that reason worthy of protection even when they do not rise to the level of complexity necessary for autonomy (§5). This yields a fully general theory of MI that accounts for its manifestations in both the autonomous and the non-autonomous.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves: we have no idea if moral reasoning causes moral progress.

An important question about moral progress is what causes it. One of the most popular proposed mechanisms is moral reasoning: moral progress often happens because lots of people reason their way to improved moral beliefs. Authors who defend moral reasoning as a cause of moral progress have relied on two broad lines of argument: the general and the specific line. The general line presents evidence that moral reasoning is in general a powerful mechanism of moral belief change, while the specific line tries to establish that moral reasoning can explain specific historical examples of moral progress. In this paper, we examine these lines in detail, using Kumar and Campbell's (2022, A Better Ape: The Evolution of the Moral Mind and How It Made Us Human. Oxford University Press) model of rational moral progress to sharpen our focus. For each line, we explain the empirical assumptions it makes; we then argue that the available evidence supports none of these assumptions. We conclude that at this point, we have no idea if moral reasoning causes moral progress.

Reimagining a nursing ecosystem in an uncertain world.

The discussion paper synthesises the insights shared during a keynote panel at the 26th International Philosophy of Nursing Conference, themed "Reimagining a nursing ecosystem in an uncertain world." It delves into the substantial impact uncertainty has on nursing, offering innovative strategies for reconceptualization. Through a critical examination of evidence-based practice, the tendency to homogenise nursing is discussed, prompting advocacy for a Nietzschean political framework as a form of resistance and emancipation. Drawing inspiration from Donna Haraway, a transition from individualistic to relational approaches is needed, especially amidst social and economic instability. Furthermore, the integration of caritas and Indigenous epistemologies underscore the significance of cultural sensitivity in nursing. Meanwhile, Ubuntu philosophy champions empathy and collective values, while a convergence of Eastern and Western philosophical traditions promises to enrich nursing practice. Ultimately, the panellists advocate for overcoming rigid ideologies in favour of a pluralistic approaches, ontologies, epistemologies and ethics to address contemporary challenges, and signal for a philosophical reorientation to engage uncertainty and reshape nursing roles in an ever-evolving and world.

What is a cure through gene therapy? An analysis and evaluation of the use of "cure".

The development of gene therapy has always come with the expectation that it will offer a cure for various disorders, of which hemophilia is a paradigm example. However, although the term is used regularly, it is unclear what exactly is meant with "cure". Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse how the concept of cure is used in practice and evaluate which of the interpretations is most suitable in discussions surrounding gene therapy. We analysed how cure is used in four different medical fields where the concept raises discussion. We show that cure can be used in three different ways: cure as normalization of the body, cure as obtaining a normal life, or cure as a change in identity. We argue that since cure is a practical term, its interpretation should be context-specific and the various uses can exist simultaneously, as long as their use is suitable to the function the notion of cure plays in each of the settings. We end by highlighting three different settings in the domain of hemophilia gene therapy in which the term cure is used and explore the function(s) it serves in each setting. We conclude that in the clinical application of gene therapy, it could be better to abandon the term cure, whereas more modest and specified definitions of cure are required in the context of health resource allocation decisions and decisions on research funding.