Eric Matthews

Family Communication about Genetic Risk: The Little That Is Known

Although family communication is important in clinical genetics only a small number of studies have specifically explored the passing on of genetic knowledge to family members. In addition, many of these present exploratory or tentative findings based upon small sample sizes, or data collected only a short time after testing. Nevertheless, if health professionals are to develop effective strategies to help patients’ deal with communication issues, we need to know more about what actually happens in families. The aim of this commentary is to identify factors which appear to influence whether patients share information about genetic risk with relatives who are unaware of that risk, with whom they share it and how they go about it. The paper draws upon evidence and thinking from the disciplines of psychology (including family therapy), sociology, medicine and genetic counselling. It is presented under the following headings: disease factors, individual factors, family factors and sociocultural factors. It concludes by highlighting a number of key issues which are relevant for health professionals.

Merleau-Ponty's body-subject and psychiatry.

The paper aims to shed philosophical light on the ways in which we can make sense of human behaviour, using some aspects of the thoughts of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961). The concept of ‘intentionality’ is introduced as a mark of human action, and a traditional philosophical distinction between the causal explanation of movements and the ‘empathetic’ understanding of intentional actions is examined. It is argued that this distinction creates difficulties for the explanation of mental disorder. Merleau-Pontys concept of the ‘body-subject’ is argued to be a way of overcoming these difficulties, by proposing a form of non-eliminativist materialism. Mental disorder is to be seen as a deviant way of ‘being-in-the-world’, which can be ‘understood’, but only with difficulty, and where the deviance requires in addition a causal explanation, either in neurophysiological terms or in terms of early development. It is concluded that this offers a way of combining a humanistic approach to psychiatric disorder with full recognition of the role of physical treatments.

The Philosophy of Thomas Reid

Note on references to the works of Thomas Reid.- Section 1 - Perception.- Reids Attack on the Theory of Ideas.- Reid on Perception and Conception.- The Theory of Sensations.- Reids View of Sensations Vindicated.- Sensation, Perception and Reids Realism.- Reids Opposition to the Theory of Ideas.- Thomas Reid on the Five Senses.- Section 2 - Knowledge and Common Sense.- Reid on Evidence and Conception.- The Defence of Common Sense in Reid and Moore.- The Scottish Kant?.- Did Reid Hold Coherentist Views?.- Reid and Peirce on Belief.- Reid on Testimony.- Section 3 - Mind and Action.- Making Out the Signatures: Reids Account of the Knowledge of Other Minds.- Causality and Agency in the Philosophy of Thomas Reid.- Reid, Scholasticism and Current Philosophy of Mind.- Section 4 - Aesthetics, Moral and Political Philosophy.- Seeing (and so forth) is Believing(among other things) on the Significance of Reid in the History of Aesthetics.- Reid versus Hume: a Dilemma in the Theory of Moral Worth.- Reid and Active Virtue.- Thomas Reid on Justice: A Rights-Based Theory.- Taking Upon Oneself a Character: Reid on Political Obligation.- Section 5 - Historical Context and Influences.- Thomas Reid and Pneumatology: the Text of the Old, the Tradition of the New.- Reid in the Philosophical Society.- Common Sense and the Association of Ideas the Reid-Priestley Controversy.- Reid on Hypotheses and the Ether: a Reassessment.- The Role of Thomas Reids Philosophy in Science and Technology: the Case of W.J.M. Rankine.- George Jardines Course in Logic and Rhetoric: an Application of Thomas Reids Common Sense Philosophy.- Index of Names.

Informed consent of very old patients and modern genomics

Biogerontologists benefited from the advancements of the modern technologies of proteomics and genomics, for studying their favourite biogerontological model systems, some of them involving taking biopsies from old persons, including centenarians and super-centenarians. A great deal has been heard about genomics. The public has been alerted about dangers such as the potential use of genotyping when hiring people, selling them insurances, etc. This remains a constant subject of debate since the technologies of genomics are constantly evolving. Beside the technological aspects of these technologies and their possible pitfalls regarding privacy and safety, there are more general problems linked with their cost and the societal consequences of these costs. Another potential ethical pitfall is the use of these technologies for diagnosis, etc. Most of babies born today have a good chance of becoming centenarian in 2104. This has tremendous societal consequences that we are only starting to measure.

Turning on the Mind: French philosophers on television

looked to a rich and diverse cultural past, the Soviets sought to create a new, revolutionary future. Given the belief that the Czarist system was corrupt and bourgeois, the new socialist nation demanded a vibrant, proletarian art. Yet for all the rhetoric about freedom and creativity, Soviet musicians and directors found themselves slaves to the commissars who enforced the doctrines of Socialist Realism. This artistic theory meshed with the Marxist model of social engineering and stifled individuality and modernist expression. Sergi Eisenstein initially thrived within this limited system while pushing the boundaries of Soviet policy. Better known for his theory of filmic montage, Eisenstein also practiced what he called ‘vertical montage.’ For Eisenstein, both sound and visual contributed to the artistic whole. In the film Aleksandr Nevskiy, Sergi Prokofiev teamed with Sergi Eisenstein to produce a classic of the Soviet cinema, while testing the rules of Socialist Realism. Composer and director collaborated, combining sound and visual into a heroic re-enactment of the great victory of the Russians over the despised Teutonic Knights. While concentrating on the masses as they destroy the Germanic enemy, Prokofiev subtly experimented with modern mixing techniques. His score was basically conservative and within the bounds of the model. His overall presentation of sound coupled with Eisenstein’s visuals represented an extension of the rigid limits of the Soviet cultural environment. This excellent edition concludes with a discussion of the quasi-science-fiction film Liquid Sky, a modernist, experimental work released in 1982. Nothing is what it seems. Time, space, and sound are manipulated into a distortion of the senses. The audience is transported into a world of complete individual experiences. Reality itself is challenged for the subjective force that it is. There are no answers. There is only existence. Composing for the Screen is a welcome addition to the literature of the cultural history of Germany and the USSR. Its rather eclectic collection of essays will hopefully encourage further research and analysis into this fascinating area. The only potential drawback is that the editors presume a level of competence concerning the vocabulary of musical theory beyond that of the general reader, or perhaps the untrained specialist in German-Soviet affairs. With this limited criticism, the collection should be required reading for anyone interested in this important subject.

Deduction of Pure Aesthetic Judgments

K: but we do not need a deduction for JS [their exposition is their deduction], because what we judge purposive is not the object, but our use of the object that is, our use is already purposive [designed to reveal superiority of reason over sensibility {imagination}]; this superiority is the very basis of the will [will is designed to be governed by pure practical reason]; so as internal and matching our very power of purposes, we need not justify our use of a reflection that relies on the superiority of reason

References to the Major Works of Thomas Reid

A uniform system has been adopted throughout this volume for referring to passages in Reid’s most often quoted works.

Seven Theories of Human Nature.

INTRODUCTION: RIVAL THEORIES AND CRITICAL ASSESSMENTS 1. Confucianism: the Way of the Sages by David Haberman 2. Upanishadic Hinduism: Quest for Ultimate Knowledge by David Haberman 3. Buddhism: In the Footsteps of the Buddha by David Haberman 4. Plato: the Rule of Reason 5. Aristotle: the Ideal of Human Fulfilment 6. The Bible: Humanity in relation to God HISTORICAL INTERLUDE 7. Kant: Reasons and Causes, History and Religion 8. Marx: The Economic Basis of Human Nature 9. Sartre: Atheistic Existentialism 10. Darwinian Theories of Human Nature CONCLUSION: TOWARDS A SYNTHESIS OF THE THEORIES?