According to advocates of internalism about reasons for action, there is an interesting connection between an agent’s reasons and the agent’s present desires. On the simplest version of this view, an agent has a reason to act a certain way at some time if and only if acting that way would promote his present desires. Let us call this the sub-Humean model.1 The sub-Humean model is widely regarde...

Synopsis. In a cartesian closed category with an initial object and a dominance that classiies it, an intensional notion of approximation between maps |the path relation (c.f. link relation)| is deened. It is shown that if such a category admits strict/upper-closed factorisations then it preorder-enriches (as a cartesian closed category) with respect to the path relation. By imposing further ax...

Most physicians dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) who refuse blood-based treatment are uncertain as to any obligation to educate patients where it concerns the JW blood doctrine itself. They often feel they must unquestioningly comply when demands are framed as religiously based. Recent discussion by dissidents and reformers of morally questionable policies by the JW organisation raise eth...

Opioids and sedative drugs are commonly used to control symptoms in patients with advanced cancer. However, it is often assumed that the use of these drugs inevitably results in shortening of life. Ethically, this outcome is excused by reference to the doctrine of double effect. In this review, we assess the evidence for patterns of use of opioids and sedatives in palliative care and examine wh...

Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramon y Cajal shared the Nobel Prize in 1906 for their work on the histology of the nerve cell, but both held diametrically opposed views about the Neuron Doctrine which emphasizes the structural, functional and developmental singularity of the nerve cell. Golgi's reticularist views remained entrenched and his work on the nervous system did not venture greatly into ne...

of the Christian tradition,1 and is stated in its fullest form in the theological doctrine of God's impeccability.2, God is not only free from sin, He is incapable of moral deviation. God not only does not sin, He cannot sin. This is generally held to be part of what is communicated in the claim that God is perfectly good. On the surface, at least, this doctrine appears to be in conflict with t...

Though still barely known outside of Randian circles, the doctrine of the arbitrary assertion has come to occupy a prominent place in Objectivist epistemology. Ayn Rand’s disciple Leonard Peikoff is responsible for its only detailed presentation in print. The doctrine raises several philosophical questions. Does an epistemology firmly grounded in facts about human mental functioning, as Rand’s ...

According to the modern scientific doctrine, human beings are considered to be the “super organism” as compared to microbes [1]. These organisms help in maintaining a proper intestinal balance and offer a number of other health benefits hence termed as the friendly bacteria or ‘Robotics’. Basically word ‘Robotic’ is a mixture of Latin and a Greek word i.e. ‘pro’ and ‘biotic’, which mean ‘for’ a...