Toward Transparency on Animal Experimentation in Switzerland: Seven Recommendations for the Provision of Public Information in Swiss Law.Nicole Lüthi,Christian Rodriguez Perez,Kirsten Persson,Bernice Elger &David Shaw -2024 -Animals 14 (15).detailsIn Switzerland, the importance of transparency in animal experimentation is emphasized by the Swiss Federal Council, recognizing the public’s great interest in this matter. Federal reporting on animal experimentation indicates a total of 585,991 animals used in experiments in Switzerland in 2022. By Swiss law, the report enables the public to learn about many aspects such as the species and degree of suffering experienced by the animals, but some information of interest to the public is missing, such as the fate (...) of the animals at the end of the experiment (e.g., euthanized, rehomed in a private home, reused in another experiment). When it comes to animals bred in facilities but not used in experiments, further information of interest is not required to be made public according to Swiss law, for example, the number and fate of “surplus” animals (i.e., animals bred but not used in experiments for a variety of reasons such as not carrying the phenotypical properties needed). Considering that the Swiss government has a duty to provide a full accounting of animal experimentation conducted on the public’s behalf, further relevant information should be disclosed. While efforts toward transparency, such as the STAAR Agreement, have been made in the scientific community, these mostly reflect the legal requirements already in force. If Switzerland is to move toward more transparency in public information on animal experimentation, an update of the legal requirements is needed. In this article, we give recommendations for Swiss law to move toward more transparency in public information on seven aspects: (1) the fate of the animals at the end of the experiment; (2) the sources of funding for animal experimentation; (3) the harm-benefit analysis performed by researchers and ethics committees to justify an experiment using animals; (4) the number of breeding/surplus animals; (5) the fate of breeding/surplus animals; (6) the harms experienced by animals in facilities; and (7) the funding of animal facilities. (shrink)
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The “sense of agency” and its underlying cognitive and neural mechanisms.Nicole David,Albert Newen &Kai Vogeley -2008 -Consciousness and Cognition 17 (2):523-534.detailsThe sense of agency is a central aspect of human self-consciousness and refers to the experience of oneself as the agent of one’s own actions. Several different cognitive theories on the sense of agency have been proposed implying divergent empirical approaches and results, especially with respect to neural correlates. A multifactorial and multilevel model of the sense of agency may provide the most constructive framework for integrating divergent theories and findings, meeting the complex nature of this intriguing phenomenon.
Common Rule Revisions to Govern Machine Learning on Indigenous Data: Implementing the Expectations.Nicole B. Halmai,Stephanie Russo Carroll,Ibrahim Garba,Joseph Manuel Yracheta &Nanibaa’ A. Garrison -2025 -American Journal of Bioethics 25 (2):73-76.detailsWe agree with Chapman et al. (2025) that the Common Rule needs revision, particularly regarding the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) in health research with Indig...
Moral Rackets.Nicole Dular -forthcoming -Philosophical Quarterly.detailsProtection rackets are used by criminal organizations to secure power, wherein “protection” is offered to individuals for threats coming from the criminal organization itself. In this paper, I put forth the concept of a moral racket as a type of structural racket wherein social dominants exploit moral reputation to perpetuate systems of domination. A moral racket occurs when individuals forcefully position themselves as moral saints for moral issues that either don’t exist, or do, but were created by the wrongful actions (...) of these individuals themselves. Considering three real-world cases of moral rackets of white saviorism within nonprofits, elite philanthropy, and anti-LGBTQ legislation, I show how they are particularly pernicious instruments of oppression. Moral rackets do this by performing several key ideological functions, including creating a perception of legitimacy of systems of domination, undermining moral knowledge, thwarting attention from true sources of social problems, and blocking off avenues of resistance. (shrink)
Universality Revisited.Nicole L. Nelson &James A. Russell -2013 -Emotion Review 5 (1):8-15.detailsEvidence does not support the claim that observers universally recognize basic emotions from signals on the face. The percentage of observers who matched the face with the predicted emotion (matching score) is not universal, but varies with culture and language. Matching scores are also inflated by the commonly used methods: within-subject design; posed, exaggerated facial expressions (devoid of context); multiple examples of each type of expression; and a response format that funnels a variety of interpretations into one word specified by (...) the experimenter. Without these methodological aids, matching scores are modest and subject to various explanations. (shrink)
Ethics of Biohybrid Robotics Invertebrate Research: Biohybrid Robotic Jellyfish as a Case Study.Nicole W. Xu,Olga Lenczewska,Sarah E. Wieten,Carole A. Federico &John O. Dabiri -2025 -Bioinspiration and Biomimetics 20 (3):1-15.detailsInvertebrate research ethics has largely been ignored compared to the consideration of higher order animals, but more recent focus has questioned this trend. Using the robotic control of Aurelia aurita as a case study, we examine ethical considerations in invertebrate work and provide recommendations for future guidelines. We also analyze these issues for prior bioethics cases, such as cyborg insects and the 'microslavery' of microbes. However, biohybrid robotic jellyfish pose further ethical questions regarding potential ecological consequences as ocean monitoring tools, (...) including the impact of electronic waste in the ocean. After in-depth evaluations, we recommend that publishers require brief ethical statements for invertebrate research, and we delineate the need for invertebrate nociception studies to revise or validate current standards. These actions provide a stronger basis for the ethical study of invertebrates, with implications for individual, species-wide, and ecological impacts, as well as for studies in science, engineering, and philosophy. (shrink)
What do you mean I should take responsibility for my own ill health.Nicole A. Vincent -2009 -Journal of Applied Ethics and Philosophy 1 (1):39-51.detailsLuck egalitarians think that considerations of responsibility can excuse departures from strict equality. However critics argue that allowing responsibility to play this role has objectionably harsh consequences. Luck egalitarians usually respond either by explaining why that harshness is not excessive, or by identifying allegedly legitimate exclusions from the default responsibility-tracking rule to tone down that harshness. And in response, critics respectively deny that this harshness is not excessive, or they argue that those exclusions would be ineffective or lacking in justification. (...) Rather than taking sides, after criticizing both positions I also argue that this way of carrying on the debate – i.e. as a debate about whether the harsh demands of responsibility outweigh other considerations, and about whether exclusions to responsibility-tracking would be effective and/or justified – is deeply problematic. On my account, the demands of responsibility do not – in fact, they can not – conflict with the demands of other normative considerations, because responsibility only provides a formal structure within which those other considerations determine how people may be treated, but it does not generate its own practical demands. (shrink)
Philosophy on the border.Robin May Schott &Kirsten Klercke (eds.) -2007 - Lancaster: Gazelle Drake Academic [distributor].detailsThis anthology is inspired by the conviction that the big questions of human existence, including matters of love and hate, responsibility and war, matter to us ...
Free Trade, Poverty, and Inequality.Nicole Hassoun -2011 -Journal of Moral Philosophy 8 (1):5-44.detailsAnyone familiar with The Economist knows the mantra: Free trade will ameliorate poverty by increasing growth and reducing inequality. This paper suggests that problems underlying measurement of poverty, inequality, and free trade provide reason to worry about this argument. Furthermore, the paper suggests that better evidence is necessary to establish that free trade is causing inequality and poverty to fall. Experimental studies usually provide the best evidence of causation. So, the paper concludes with a call for further research into the (...) prospects for ethically acceptable experimental testing of free trade's impact on poverty and inequality. Although the paper is unabashedly methodological, its conclusions bear on many ethical debates. Ethicists sometimes argue, for instance, that there is reason to encourage free trade because they believe free trade is decreasing poverty and inequality. Clarifying the empirical facts may not settle ethical debates but it may inform them. (shrink)
Neuroimaging and Responsibility Assessments.Nicole A. Vincent -2011 -Neuroethics 4 (1):35-49.detailsCould neuroimaging evidence help us to assess the degree of a person’s responsibility for a crime which we know that they committed? This essay defends an affirmative answer to this question. A range of standard objections to this high-tech approach to assessing people’s responsibility is considered and then set aside, but I also bring to light and then reject a novel objection—an objection which is only encountered when functional (rather than structural) neuroimaging is used to assess people’s responsibility.
Essais de morale.PierreNicole -1999 - Paris: Presses Universitaires de France - PUF. Edited by Laurent Thirouin.detailsEtrange personnage que PierreNicole. La postérité l'a rangé parmi les deuxièmes rôles de Port-Royal, une sorte de permanent du parti janséniste. Il a secondé le grand Arnauld, instruit Racine dans les Petites Ecoles, aidé Pascal et traduit en latin ses Provinciales. Fidèle entre les fidèles, et en même temps mal à l'aise dans cette atmosphère de fronde et de résistance que représente le milieu de Port-Royal, au sein de la France du XVII e siècle, ce latiniste timoré ne (...) songeait qu'aux Moyens de conserver la paix avec les hommes - titre de l'un de ses essais les plus célèbres. Dès que les tensions semblent s'apaiser, pendant la trêve appelée "la Paix de l'Eglise",Nicole peut enfin laisser libre cours à sa vocation de moraliste et de psychologue. Il publie, volume après volume ses Essais de morale : le succès sera tel que le libraire, après la mort de PierreNicole, s'ingéniera à en augmenter la série jusqu'à atteindre vingt-cinq volumes. Depuis la fin du XVIII e siècle, ce classique de la littérature morale était devenu pour ainsi dire inaccessible. On en publie parfois quelques pages choisies, défigurées par les coupures et les corrections. Il est proposé ici au lecteur moderne de redécouvrir dix essais deNicole, donnés dans leur intégralité. Certains nous replongent dans les principes moraux d'un autre âge (et tirent de cet exotisme une part de leur valeur). D'autres présentent les qualités de finesse, le piquant, le goût du paradoxe qui ont longtemps fait jugerNicole comme un des grands représentants, à côté de Pascal et de La Rochefoucauld, de la littérature morale classique. L'oeuvre morale deNicole s'avère ainsi demeurer passionnante pour un lecteur moderne, au moins à trois égards : 1/ ses considérations sur l'amour-propre, qui constituent les premiers jalons d'un utilitarisme économique ; 2/ ses réflexions sur la sociabilité et une approche originale de la civilité ; 3/ ses observations pédagogiques, émanant d'un des principaux maîtres des Petites Ecoles de Port-Royal. (shrink)
Derrida: ethics under erasure.Nicole Anderson -2012 - New York: Continuum.detailsThe 'ethics of deconstruction'? -- Ethical (im)possibilities -- Ethics under erasure -- Ethical experience : a cinematic example.
Informed consent for MRI and fMRI research: Analysis of a sample of Canadian consent documents.Nicole Palmour,William Affleck,Emily Bell,Constance Deslauriers,Bruce Pike,Julien Doyon &Eric Racine -2011 -BMC Medical Ethics 12 (1):1.detailsBackgroundResearch ethics and the measures deployed to ensure ethical oversight of research (e.g., informed consent forms, ethics review) are vested with extremely important ethical and practical goals. Accordingly, these measures need to function effectively in real-world research and to follow high level standards.MethodsWe examined approved consent forms for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) studies approved by Canadian research ethics boards (REBs).ResultsWe found evidence of variability in consent forms in matters of physical and psychological risk reporting. (...) Approaches used to tackle the emerging issue of incidental findings exposed extensive variability between and within research sites.ConclusionThe causes of variability in approved consent forms and studies need to be better understood. However, mounting evidence of administrative and practical hurdles within current ethics governance systems combined with potential sub-optimal provision of information to and protection of research subjects support other calls for more scrutiny of research ethics practices and applicable revisions. (shrink)
Key cultural texts in translation.Kirsten Malmkjær,Adriana Serban &Fransiska Louwagie (eds.) -2018 - John Benjamins Publishing Company.detailsIn the context of increased movement across borders, this book examines how key cultural texts and concepts are transferred between nations and languages as well as across different media. The texts examined in this book are considered fundamental to their source culture and can also take on a particular relevance to other cultures. The chapters investigate cultural transfers and differences realised through translation and reflect critically upon the implications of these with regard to matters of cultural identity. The book offers (...) an important contribution to cultural approaches in translation studies, with ramifications across different disciplines, including literary studies, history, philosophy, and gender studies. The chapters offer a range of cultural and methodological frameworks and are written by scholars from a variety of language and cultural backgrounds, Western and Eastern. (shrink)
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When do children with Autism Spectrum Disorder take common ground into account during communication?Louise Malkin,Kirsten Abbot-Smith,David M. Williams &John Ayling -unknowndetailsOne feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a deficit in verbal reference production; i.e., providing an appropriate amount of verbal information for the listener to refer to things, people, and events. However, very few studies have manipulated whether individuals with ASD can take a speaker’s perspective in order to interpret verbal reference. A critical limitation of all interpretation studies is that comprehension of another’s verbal reference required the participant to represent only the other’s visual perspective. Yet, many everyday interpretations (...) of verbal reference require knowledge of social perspective (i.e., a consideration of which experiences one has shared with which interlocutor). We investigated whether 22 5;0- to 7;11-year-old children with ASD and 22 well-matched typically developing (TD) children used social perspective to comprehend (Study 1) and produce (Study 2) verbal reference. Social perspective-taking was manipulated by having children collaboratively complete activities with one of two interlocutors such that for a given activity, one interlocutor was Knowledgeable and one was Naïve. Study 1 found no between-group differences for the interpretation of ambiguous references based on social perspective. In Study 2, when producing referring terms, the ASD group made modifications based on listener needs, but this effect was significantly stronger in the TD group. Overall, the findings suggest that high-functioning children with ASD know with which interlocutor they have previously shared a given experience and can take this information into account to steer verbal reference. Nonetheless, they show clear performance limitations in this regard relative to well-matched controls. (shrink)
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Les féministes chinoises dans la Chine d’aujourd’hui : résistance et dilemmes.Wang Zheng &Nicole G. Albert -2021 -Diogène n° 267-267 (3-4):217-233.detailsCet article retrace les changements intervenus au sein du militantisme féministe chinois dans un climat de détérioration politique deux décennies après la Quatrième Conférence mondiale sur les femmes (QCMF) en 1995. Il met en lumière les actions novatrices menées par les jeunes féministes, de même que l’intense surveillance qu’exerce, sur le militantisme organisé, un État totalitaire qui craint de perdre son pouvoir. Bien que la sphère publique et le cyber espace ne laissent guère beaucoup de place à l’activisme, les féministes (...) chinoises se sont mobilisées pour continuer d’expérimenter de nouvelles façons d’exiger l’égalité de genre et de poursuivre des transformations sociales et culturelles. (shrink)
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Being-with: Response to Mikael Lindtfelt and Roger Burggraeve.Nicole Note -2016 -Foundations of Science 21 (2):311-314.detailsThis final comment provides, a theoretical framework on how to conceive the self as presented in the key-note paper ‘Meaningfulness, volunteering and being moved. The event of witnessing’. This is deemed requisite to achieve a full understanding of how depth in meaningfulness comes about.
Comment on Martin Drenthen's Article, 'Ecological Restoration and Place Attachment: Emplacing Non-Places?'.Nicole Note -2013 -Environmental Values 22 (1):7-16.detailsI analyse Drenthen's article ‘Ecological restoration and place attachment: emplacing non-places?’ ( Environmental Values 18(3): 285-312), focusing in particular on his use of the notions of ‘appropriation’ and ‘estrangement’ from the perspective of meaningfulness. I show that, for deeper meaningfulness as place attachment, within the appropriable there is always a tension with the non-appropriable; there is a successful connection between both. Estrangement and loss of meaning occur the moment the non-appropriable resides outside the familiar. Drenthen unintentionally causes confusion by failing (...) to take this subtlety into account systematically. (shrink)
Reflections on Meaningfulness and its Social Relevance.Nicole Note -2010 -Kritike 4 (1):138-149.detailsPhilosophers who write about the meaning of life are few nowadays. Thesubject has lost its attractiveness. Perceived from a viewpoint of logical positivism or language philosophy, the whole issue of meaningfulness seems rather pointless. It is often considered to be related to metaphysics, making it less suitable for philosophical inquiry. The topic of meaningfulness seems too intangible. Indeed, the few philosophers that have embarked on examining meaningfulness have proven to be well aware of the challenges this poses. At times they (...) acknowledge that the more they concentrate on the subject, the more it seems to fall apart into unintelligible pieces about whichnothing of philosophical value can be said. (shrink)
Finding Sanctuary with bell hooks.Nicole Yokum -2025 -Journal of World Philosophies 9 (2).detailsI pay tribute to bell hooks in this essay by reflecting on the multiple provocations she offers to me and my feminist philosophy students: on revolutionary vs. reform feminism; the need for self-love and healing in the quest for social transformation; and deeply entrenched racist and sexist barriers to multiracial feminist coalition building. I consider hooks’s position, within academic spaces, as a Black Feminist killjoy who distinctively rejects respectability while offering sanctuary to those, like me, who come to theory from (...) a place of pain. I conclude by raising questions about hooks’s approach to the relationship between theory and praxis, arguing that she envisions a radical critical praxis theory while acknowledging that there may have been some limits on her “revolutionary” love. (shrink)
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The 4B Movement is a Labor Strike.Nicole Dular -2024 -Blog of the Apa.detailsThis essay analyzes the 4B movement, which originates in Korea, as a feminist movement. In particular, I conceptualize it as a labor strike, considered against the backdrop of recent empirical research on comparative rates of unpaid labor, happiness, and well-being between men and women in heterosexual relationships. In doing so, I situate it within a historical context of the successes and failures of second-wave and recent "Girl Boss" feminist movements, particularly as regards their intersections with capitalism.
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Universal Health Coverage and Social Protection: Evolution and Future Opportunities for Global Health Law and Equity.Nicole D. Foster,Kimberley Benjamin,Pramiti Parwani &Katrina Perehudoff -forthcoming -Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics:1-5.detailsFrom its beginnings in the 1978 Declaration of Alma-Ata, universal health coverage (UHC) has been constantly evolving, notably so within the last ten years. Although the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals, which identify both UHC and social protection among its targets, represent an important juncture in this evolution, several States are unlikely to meet the 2030 target deadline. This article traces the history of UHC and social (health) protection in global health law, focusing on their development over the past ten years. (...) It concludes by reflecting on what the future of UHC and social (health) protection should look like and what is needed to fully realize their potential to achieve equity and to meaningfully contribute to the betterment of people and planet, highlighting human rights, One Health, legal and financial considerations as key for the future. (shrink)
Œuvres morales.PierreNicole -2015 - Paris: Éditions Manucius. Edited by Thibault Barrier & Denis Kambouchner.detailsPubliés dans le dernier quart du XVIIe siècle, les Essais de morale de PierreNicole (1625-1695), l'un des auteurs les plus importants de Port-Royal, constituèrent pendant plus d'un siècle une référence incontournable de la pensée morale. Fort de leur succès immédiat, les Essais furent très vite republiés et enrichis par les éditeurs de textes posthumes et de lettres jusqu'à former un ensemble de vingt-cinq tomes en 1771. Pour introduire à la lecture d'un tel massif, le présent volume offre un (...) choix de traités et lettres extraits de la série des Essais de morale, établis et annotés à partir des éditions originales. Ces textes proposent un parcours dont le fil directeur est la critique des attraits engendrés par le monde visible. Le monde des hommes est en effet envisagé parNicole comme un spectacle chatoyant et trompeur dans lequel l'esprit, charmé par tant d'éclat, s'enfonce jusqu'à se perdre. Mais, outre le déploiement d'une anthropologie de la concupiscence fondée sur l'analyse précise des mécanismes psychiques et affectifs, la puissance théorique de ces Essais tient au fait qu'ils proposent des remèdes ordinaires et humains, et donc, praticables dès cette vie, pour neutraliser les effets de cette séduction qui s'exerce par l'entremise du regard. Pour ce faire,Nicole ne se contente pas de produire des exposés généraux et abstraits, il décrit au contraire avec une grande minutie les dangers souvent inapparaissants de ces instruments de fascination de l'âme. La plupart des essais proposés n'avaient pas été réédités depuis plus d'un siècle. Ce volume souhaite donc rendre à nouveau disponible ces textes majeurs et pourtant encore peu connus de la littérature morale du Grand siècle. (shrink)
Reflecting on the Meaning of Life.Nicole Note -2009 -Philosophy in the Contemporary World 16 (2):22-31.detailsThe question of the meaning and meaningfulness of life is neglected by philosophers today. Meaning is implicitly assumed to be associated with individual choices and preferences. This article argues that meaningfulness works in another way as well, when something provokes meaningfulness. One of the consequences of this vision is that there may well be implicit "standards" for meaning. Certain benchmarks for meaning-references concerned with our "being-in-the-world"-have not been explored fully enough. Another point that as been neglected in the recent discussion (...) on meaningfulness is the very structure of being that is appealed to. This is the key to the experience of a deeper kind of meaningfulness. (shrink)
Crossing the Lines of Caste: Viśvāmitra and the Construction of Brahmin Power in Hindu Mythology. By Adheesh A. Sathaye.GregBailey -2021 -Journal of the American Oriental Society 137 (1).detailsCrossing the Lines of Caste: Viśvāmitra and the Construction of Brahmin Power in Hindu Mythology. By Adheesh A. Sathaye. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. xxii + 310. $99 ; $35.
Emendations of Seneca 'Rhetor'.D. R. ShackletonBailey -1969 -Classical Quarterly 19 (02):320-.detailsSeneca ‘Rhetor’ was last critically edited by H. J. Müller in 1887; the editions of H. Bornecque and W. A. Edward lack an apparatus criticus, though the latter's notes give some attention to textual points. Whoever next addresses himself to the task can take heart from Eduard Norden : ‘der Text ist schwer korrupt, für Konjekturalkritik noch viel zu tun.’ It may be added that he will do a service by jettisoning a large proportion of what Konjekturalkritik has already produced-too (...) much of this nature in Müller's text and apparatus, to say nothing of later contributions, is merely depressing. (shrink)
Interpreting your world: five lenses for engaging theology and culture.Justin ArielBailey -2022 - Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, a division of Baker Publishing Group.detailsThis accessibly written book offers an approach to cultural engagement that is attentive to the hunger for meaning, beauty, and justice and governed by the gospel virtues of faith, love, and hope.
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