Peter Berkowitz

Evaluation of Topical Cromolyn Sodium in the Treatment of Vernal Keratoconjunctivitis

A randomized, double-masked, placebo-controlled multicenter study was conducted for 6 weeks in 12 centers to evaluate the efficacy and safety of cromolyn sodium 4% ophthalmic solution (Opticrom) for the treatment of active bilateral vernal conjunctivitis. Objective clinical signs were graded weekly by an ophthalmologist while patients kept a daily record of the severity of their symptoms. Sixty-five patients completed the study; 35 received cromolyn sodium and 30 were treated with a matching placebo (the drug vehicle). Statistically significant differences in favor of cromolyn sodium treatment were found for conjunctival injection, limbal injection, limbal edema, tearing, and symptoms summary score. There were few side effects (usually mild stinging and burning which did not require drug stoppage). Only one patient required drug discontinuation for possible drug- or vehicle-related side effects. Cromolyn sodium was found to be significantly more effective than placebo in treating the signs and symptoms of vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC). When results were stratified in terms of the atopic status of the patient, it was clear that the allergic patients responded better to cromolyn sodium than did those in whom allergic (IgE-mediated) factors appeared unimportant in the disease process.

Between Principles: Liberal Democracy and the Communitarian Challenge

Democracies come in different shapes and sizes. In the West, the preferred form of democracy is liberal democracy, a hybrid whose name calls attention to the different principles out of which it is formed.

Nietzsche's Ethics of History

In On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life Nietzsche sets forth prescriptions for placing history in the service of human excellence. Nietzsches prescriptions are based on a substantive metaphysical doctrine and a definite conception of human needs and capacities. Contrary to the dominant trends in recent scholarship that depict Nietzsche as primarily a teacher of antifoundationalism, historicism, and perspectivism, in his major thematic statement on the matter Nietzsche views history as a means to discover and to display nonhistorical and enduring knowledge about human nature and the rank order of desires, human types, and forms of life. For Nietzsche, the task of the “genuine historian” is nothing less than the transformation of history into poetry in the effort to defend wisdom, to distinguish nobility from baseness, and to establish the love of truth as a resplendent vice and noble faith. Nietzsches account of the right use of history suggests an underappreciated unity in his writings by raising the possibility that in his several histories Nietzsche wrote from the perspective, and assumed the responsibility, of the genuine historian.

The Cambridge Companion to Nietzsche.

Part I. Introduction to Nietzsches Works: 1. Nietzsches works and their themes Bernd Magnus and Kathleen M. Higgins Part II. The Use and Abuse of Nietzsches Life and Works: 2. The hero as outsider R. J. Hollingdale 3. Nietzsche and the Judaeo-Christian tradition Jorg Salaquarda 4. Nietzsches political misappropriation Tracy B. Strong Part III. Nietzsche as Philosopher: 5. Nietzsches kind of philosophy Richard Schacht 6. Nietzsches Ad Hominem arguments: perspectivism, slave morality and ressentiment revisited Robert C. Solomon 7. Nietzsche, modernity, aestheticism Alexander Nehamas 8. Nietzsches alleged farewell: the premodern, modern, and postmodern Nietzsche Robert B. Pippin Part IV. Nietzsches Influence: 9. Nietzsche in the twentieth century Ernst Behler 10. Nietzsches French legacy Alan D. Schrift 11. Nietzsche and East Asian thought: influences, impacts, and resonances Graham Parkes.