Pragmatic Arguments Research Articles

Lifelong Education: a duty to oneself?

There is a strong pragmatic argument that in our times, dominated as they are by continuous change, one's education needs to be a lifelong process. But can another, different, argument be made that lifelong education is a moral duty everyone owes to oneself irrespective of any other pragmatic justijication? The answer evidently depends largely on whether the notion of a moral duty owed to oneself is an intelligible one. In effect, it turns out, on examination, to be very problematic. It is suggested rather that a moral duty to educate oneselffor life can be more coherently grounded in another different notion: one of membership in one's community regarded as a ‘learning society’.

Germ-Line Engineering: A Few European Voices

We have surveyed various recent European opinions on germ-line engineering. The majority express more or less severe reservations about any interventions on the human germ-line, including therapeutic ones. However, they are divided over the pragmatic, or categorical-ethical nature of the relevant arguments. This split reflects two competing views of technology. The 'pessimistic' one is deeply concerned by the slippery slope leading from bona fide therapeutic applications of genetic engineering to eugenic practices. It insists that, if anything can defend us against these evils, it must be a set of strong, ethically-based prohibitions. The other, 'optimist' view is more confident in the discriminating powers of societal regulation. We argue for the latter view and suggest that the pragmatic arguments brought to this debate are less problematic than the ethical ones.

Active euthanasia and forgoing life-sustaining treatment: Can we hold the line?

Public sentiment in favor of permitting voluntary active euthanasia creates a dilemma for a bioethics rooted in a libertarian notion of autonomy. At stake in the active euthanasia debate is actually a question of power—the individual's assertion of sovereignty over the timing and circumstances of his or her own death. Also at stake is society's unwillingness to impose a conception of the good—and a good dying—on individuals whose personal values and conceptions of the good may differ. In order both to reject voluntary active euthanasia and to affirm the patient's right to forgo life-sustaining treatment, some societal conception of the good must be developed and agreed upon to counter unbridled claims of individual self-sovereignty over dying. Pragmatic arguments alone, such as the need to maintain confidence in the doctor-patient relationship, will not be sufficient.

Cognitive Science in Medicine: Biomedical Modeling

Cognitive science has much to offer medicine. As the synthesis of cognitive psychology, theoretical linguistics, and computer science, the field provides novel models of biomedical knowledge. These promising efforts can provide mechanisms for improving medical reasoning and artificial intelligence. Furthermore, opportunities to study judgment are personally compelling, given that we have all made mistakes. This volume offers both empirical and theoretical reports on the field from the perspective of medical information sciences. The ten chapters address the difference between idealized models of problem solving and actual clinical practice. The first motivates the reader by listing various reasons for studying cognitive science, most notably the pragmatic argument of improving communication, education, and computer modeling. The second chapter invokes the issues of estrogen replacement therapy to highlight the discrepancy between intuitive decision making and formal decision analysis. Chapter 3 explores the tension between basic scientific knowledge and clinical knowledge (and why the

Popular Versus Skinnerian Views on the Relation Between Human Freedom and Dignity

ABSTRACT This study evaluated Skinner's (1971) contention that the function relating the degree to which a person's behavior is ascribed to voluntary choice and the level of dignity ascribed to that person originates at zero dignity for zero choice. In Study 1, 91 American college students answered questions about themselves, their beliefs about voluntary versus environmental control of behavior, and their bases for judging dignity. Then they attempted to describe their views of the functional relationship between perceived human dignity and perceived voluntary control of both prosocial and antisocial behaviors. Most indicated belief in voluntary choice, and some in intrinsic (unearned) dignity, but few could relate them quantitatively. A second study used 27 students in an advanced class, for whom the theoretical implications of various functional relationships were discussed before the functions were drawn. Both studies refuted Skinner's pragmatic argument against the concepts of freedom and intrinsic d...

What's Morally Special about Free Exchange?

Is there anything morally special about free exchange? In asking this, I am asking not only about extreme, so-called “libertarian” views, on which free exchange is sacrosanct, but about more widespread, moderate views, on which there is at least something morally special about free exchange. On these more compromising views, other moral considerations may override the moral importance of free exchange, but even when rights of free exchange are restricted for good reason, something morally important is lost. For some, free exchange may preserve liberty, in some morally significant sense, or realize some such moral value as “to each his own.” Alternatively, a system of free exchange may have a special moral status by virtue of the kinds of pragmatic arguments that economists give, arguments that free exchange produces good social results. Whether free exchange has any such virtues as these is the broad question I address in this paper. I offer what I have to say somewhat in the spirit of an overview. Philosophical scrutiny and economic analysis combine, it seems to me, to delineate fairly clearly what is, and what is not, morally special about free exchange.

Are Consumer Payments Necessary in an Efficient Health Care System?

This paper is concerned with a policy issue associated with the specification of insurance policies for medical care expenditures, viz. whether health insurance schemes should incorporate provisions (deductibles and/or co-insurance rates) such that patients bear some part of the cost of any medical service. The we 1 fare economic literature on this issue is shown to be can fused as a result of non-recognition of the significance of risk aversion. When the issue is viewed as a problem of port folio selection it is clear that no simple policy conclusion is forthcoming. With respect to the pragmatic argument that co-payments will reduce health expenditures it is shown that such an effect is "once-off", is quantitatively small and has the effect of increasing administrative coats. It is argued that the distributional effects may be adverse for persons with low incomes.

The psychotherapist's fear of empirical research.

The reasons for the reluctance of psychotherapists against empirical research are the following: (1) psychotherapy is a 'hermeneutic' process which cannot be measured (basic argument); (2) empirical research interferes in the process (technical argument); (3) it contradicts the specific private working contract of psychotherapy (ethical argument); (4) in comparative psychotherapy research we compare not systems, but individual therapists (personal argument), and (5) in many institutions, care has a higher priority than documentation (pragmatic argument). These arguments are mainly rationalizations. Empirical research is necessary for the survival of psychotherapy as a respected discipline in medicine.

Radial flow simulation of drawing and extrusion of rigid/hardening materials

A combination of rigorous relations (drawn from continuum plasticity) with pragmatic engineering arguments, leads to new approximate formulae for the stress fields and velocity profiles in some basic steady forming processes. The latter include drawing and extrusion in two (plane strain) and three (axisymmetric) dimensions. The theory derived here accuonts for wall friction and, more important, is not restricted by any particular choice of the strain hardening function. The applicability of the present analysis is limited, though, to dies of sufficiently small angles, taper and wall friction. Confidence in our results is gained by comparing them with a few consistent approximations obtained from available exact solutions in theoretical plasticity. The simplicity and usefulness of the new formulae is demonstrated by specifying the results for rigid/power-hardening materials, and evaluating the drawing limits associated with the occurrence of necking and separation at the exit of the die. It is also shown that the present approximate solution can be used for rapid evaluation of the stress field in drawing of rigid/perfectly-plastic composite (bimetallic) sheets and tubes.

The case for Citizen Participation In Social Programmes

This paper presents both theoretical and pragmatic arguments for the involvement of citizens and consumers in the provision of social services. Two central points are advanced in the discussion. First that an informed constituency is required to support social programmes and second that the participation of consumers is necessary in order to increase the effectiveness of social programmes.

For women only?

Some feminists demand that all pupils should have access to the same curriculum and that all subjects should be made gender-neutral. Others demand Women's Studies specially for women. We discuss how both demands are rooted in egalitarian ethics but involve different assumptions. ‘Liberal≐ and ‘revolutionary≐ feminists are distinguished and differences between them explored, including what they would include in the curriculum about women. The differences are argued to result of conceptualizing problems at different levels and different understandings of what equality for women would involve. Within revolutionary feminism there is disagreement about the exclusion of men from Women's Studies courses. Some employ pragmatic arguments but others make it a matter of principle. The arguments for both positions are examined, in particular the argument from women's epistemic privilege, and the conflict explained in terms of differences in beliefs about the possibility of empathy and egalitarian dialogue between men and women under patriarchy. The revolutionary concept of women's oppression is discussed and the impossibility of resolving the issue theoretically now is argued for. A suggestion for alternative pragmatic grounds for decisions about the exclusion of men if the question arises in practice is made.

HAS SOCIAL DEMOCRACY FAILED IN BRITAIN?

It has often been said that the Labour Party in recent years has lacked books, theories, ideas of what it should be seeking in politics. The last major attempt to produce a theory of socialism appropriate to the post-war period was the late Tony Crosland’s The Future of Socialism published in 1956.1 He shared these ideas with his close friend, Hugh Gaitskell. Although Gaitskell was replaced as leader of the Labour Party by an opponent from the Left, Harold Wilson, for practical purposes Crosland’s ideas continued to be almost unchallenged and dominated the Labour Governments of 1964 to 1970. After the 1970 defeat, there were attacks from a revived Left, though apart from Stuart Holland’s book, The Socialist Challenge (1975), these lacked a theoretical base. Much of the struggle was involved with pragmatic arguments over the Common Market. Yet despite this revival of a left-wing critique, the Labour Government which came into office in 1974 edged back towards a Croslandite position. By this time these views were being described as ‘social democratic’ in contrast to the unqualified socialism of the Left. When Mr Callaghan succeeded Mr Wilson in 1976, the social democrats felt discouraged and defeated. Their leader, Roy Jenkins, left British politics, but at the same time, if any ideas or policies could be said to have characterised Mr Callaghan’s very matter-of-fact and cautious government, they were the continuation of an approach which Tony Crosland had set out in 1956. So any reappraisal of the theoretical basis in which the Labour Party has rested in the past twenty years must begin with and focus on a critique of Crosland’s position.

On Vindicating Induction

This paper deals with the problem of vindicating a particular type of inductive rule, a rule to govern inferences from observed frequencies to limits of relative frequencies. Reichenbach's rule of induction is defended. By application of two conditions, normalizing conditions and a criterion of linguistic invariance, it is argued that alternative rules lead to contradiction. It is then argued that the rule of induction does not lead to contradiction when suitable restrictions are placed upon the predicates admitted. Goodman's grue-bleen paradox is considered, and an attempt to resolve it is offered. Finally, Reichenbach's pragmatic argument, hinging on convergence properties, is applied.