Search results for "Philosophy of Science"

Ethical realism before social constructionism

2021

In this article, I explore the idea that there is a fundamental ethical aspect that precedes social constructionism. I suggest that within social constructionism we can identify a development from seeing knowledge as socially constructed ( epistemological social constructionism) to seeing not only knowledge, but also corporeal ways of being as socially constructed ( ontological social constructionism). As a next step, I propose incorporating what I refer to as ethical realism in social constructionist perspectives. In the encounter with the other human being, I argue that there is a real ethical impulse that precedes social constructionism and puts it in motion. This impulse is real in the…

Lead Poisoning in France around 1840: Managing Proofs and Uncertainties in Laboratories, Courtrooms, and Workplaces.

2021

This article reviews one of the most famous cases of lead poisoning in France, the Ponchon affair, which occurred in 1843 during a crucial period for French toxicology. The trial attracted public attention and inflamed controversy among medical and legal experts. The debate involved toxicological methods and their reliability, and gave rise to more general questions about the value of expert evidence, the way it was presented in court, and its relationship to other forms of legal evidence. I begin with a general overview of lead poisoning and toxicological research on lead compounds around 1840. I then discuss different toxicological proofs employed for detecting or preventing lead poisonin…

Method and analysis in Piero Sraffa's 1925 critique of Marshallian economics

2000

This paper provides an analysis of the logical structure and analytical content of Piero Sraffa's 1925 Italian paper, ‘Sulle relazioni fra costo e quantita prodotta’. It shows that Sraffa's criticism of the supply side of Marshall's theory of value in a competitive partial equilibrium model involves analytical and methodological issues. Endorsing an agressive methodology Sraffa logically reconstructs Marshall's model on variable returns to determine its empirical domain. He demonstrates that the latter encompasses only the empirically irrelevant cases of specific factor industries and specific external economies industries and that it cannot be generalized to non-specific factor industries …

Integrative thinking is the key: An evaluation of current research into the development of adult thinking

2011

Post-formal relativistic-dialectical thinking has been widely claimed to be a new developmental stage of intellectual development. Other theoretical models come very close to post-formal thinking, with overlapping features such as the study of wisdom and epistemic understanding, as well as models of expertise, critical thinking, and scepticism. No coherent theory exists in the fields of post-formal and relativistic-dialectical thinking, though scholars have claimed that there is some similarity between the models. While empirical evidence of interconnectedness between them exists, a major difficulty lies in the theoretical definition of concepts. We critically assess the definitions of rel…

Distribution of HSV-1 in Human Geniculate and Vestibular Ganglia: Implications for Vestibular Neuritis

2003

Three Determinants of Vestibular Hemispheric Dominance during Caloric Stimulation: A Positron Emission Tomography Study

2003

Epidemiology, Risk Factors, and Natural History of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

2002

The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma is increasing in many countries. The estimated number of new cases annually is over 500,000, and the yearly incidence comprises between 2.5 and 7% of patients with liver cirrhosis. The incidence varies between different geographic areas, being higher in developing areas; males are predominantly affected, with a 2:3 male/female ratio. The heterogeneous geographic distribution reflects the epidemiologic impact of the main etiologic factors and environmental risk, which are the hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) viruses. The percentage of cases of hepatocellular carcinoma attributable to HBV worldwide is 52.3% and is higher in Asia where the serop…

Uptake and Metabolism of ?-Carotene Isomers in Rats

1993

Health and the war. Changing schemes and health conditions during the Spanish civil war

2008

This paper focuses on the health reforms during the republican Spain (1931-1939) and the crisis derived from the three-year of civil war. It considers how the war affected the health system and the impairment of health conditions of the population during the late 1930s, considering the changing conditions caused by the conflict. Some of the specific topics analysed are the changing healthcare system, the adaptation of health organization after the outbreak of the war, the impact of the war on the health of the population and epidemiological changes, the problem of the refugees and the clinical studies by experts, mainly on undernourishment.

Poisoned Wine: Regulation, Chemical Analyses, and Spanish-French Trade in the 1930s

2018

This paper describes the resources, scientific spaces, and experts involved in the study of a mass poisoning caused by the drinking of arsenic-contaminated wine exported from Spain to France in 1932. Local and international periodicals record the poisoning of 300 French sailors, and stressed the commercial implications of the case. We discuss the reports prepared by different experts (mainly physicians, agricultural engineers, and customs chemists). Their work was not limited to preparing technical publications or chemical analyses; they also actively defended the quality of their local wine, and played a major role in the discussions regarding the regulation of the international wine marke…