Rationalistic Approach Research Articles

Dare to be different! Keynote at the Wonca world conference in Prague, June 2013

ABSTRACTAfter decades of developing family medicine, one can see that it has been successful in defining its principles and in proving the importance of its contribution using quantitative measures of quality that are prevailing today. But if family medicine needs to make a real contribution to society, it needs not to forget that using only rationalistic approach is not enough to define its quality and that caring for a fellow being is as important as science.Our contribution to changing the world for the better should be in constantly reminding that personal care is essential for every doctor regardless the speciality. This largely neglected feature of medicine can be best taught and researched in the context of family medicine, because it represents the very essence of the discipline.This implies that we must often take a different path from other disciplines when we address the issues of policy, research and education and use every opportunity to stress the importance of personal care.

Abstract 1015: Targeting actin cytoskeleton pathway overcomes resistance to histone deacetylase inhibitors in multiple myeloma cells.

Abstract Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) are novel therapeutics compounds being utilised in multiple myeloma (MM) clinical trials in combination with approved and investigational agents. While proteasome inhibitors are known to synergise effectively with HDACi, there is a lack of understanding concerning other potential partner drugs. In this report, utilising human myeloma cell lines (HMCL) as a paradigm, gene expression profile was performed to determine if a genetic signature associated with HDACi-resistance could be identified. Nine HMCLs were treated with HDACi (LBH589, SAHA or FK228) and cell death proportion determined after 48 hours through flow cytometric enumeration of propidium iodide staining. Of the nine cell lines, five were sensitive (70-90% cell death), two showed an intermediate response (70-40%) and two were resistant (40-10%) to HDACi. Following the determination of HDACi-response of HMCLs, RNA was extracted from untreated cell lines and gene expression profiling was performed utilising the Illumina HT-12 platform. Analysis revealed that 97 genes were differentially regulated between the sensitive and resistant cell lines. Gene ontology enrichment analysis identified six pathways that were significantly different and these included notch signalling pathway (p=0.01), protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum (p=0.02), glutathione metabolism (p=0.01), melanoma (p=0.02), regulation of actin cytoskeleton (p=0.03) and apoptosis (p=0.03). Furthermore, 4889 probes were tested for their correlation to grade of sensitivity using Spearmann rank algorithm and 35 genes were found to have >80% correlation. Enrichment analyses indicated two pathways as being significantly different based on their correlation to HDACi-sensitivity and these included regulation of actin cytoskeleton (p=0.03) and protein processing in endoplasmic reticulum (p=0.02). The actin cytoskeleton represents a major network of proteins that impinge on motility, invasion, polarity, survival and growth of normal cells, and is often altered in tumour cells. Actin cytoskeleton modifications are known to be involved in MM cell metastasis and a number of agents that destabilize the action cytoskeleton have been utilised in MM pre-clinical studies. When HDACi-resistance cell lines were treated with a combination of HDACi and actin cytoskeleton pathway inhibitors (MEK inhibitor - GSK1120212, focal adhesion inhibitors - TAE-226 and PF-573228 and actin cytoskeleton destabilising agents - NVP-HSP990 and AUY922), synergistic cell death was observed, indicating that these agents can be used in combination with HDACi for MM therapy. This report provides a rationalistic approach for identification of HDACi partner drugs for anti-MM therapy and has provided the framework to identify promising new therapeutic combinations for the treatment of MM utilising HDACi. Citation Format: Sridurga Mithraprabhu, Tiffany Khong, Andrew Spencer. Targeting actin cytoskeleton pathway overcomes resistance to histone deacetylase inhibitors in multiple myeloma cells. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1015. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-1015

Broken Circle &/ Spiral Hill?: Smithson’s spirals, pataphysics, syzygy and survival

Abstract The copious literature on the work of artist Robert Smithson has made very little of the many parallels between the inventor of earthworks and the nineteenth-century author of pataphysics, despite the established fact that the artist read and made notes from Alfred Jarry’s Dr. Faustroll (1898) while working on the Spiral Jetty in 1970, which undoubtedly influenced the subsequent Broken Circle &/ Spiral Hill (1971, Emmen). Given the insightful literature reassessing Jarry’s influence on twentieth-century artists including Marcel Duchamp, John Cage and Rodney Graham, a consideration of Smithson’s spiral earthworks in connection with Jarry is long overdue. In contrast to prevailing art research practices today, Smithson’s work is much more aligned with the pataphysical pursuit of ‘imaginary solutions’ that examine ‘the laws governing exceptions’ and describe ‘a universe which can be – and perhaps should be – envisaged in place of the traditional one’. Art historian Jack Burnham’s interprets Smithson’s earthworks as a ‘time-bound web of man-nature interactions … didactic exercises … [that] show a desperate need for environmental sensibility’. In this respect, the work of both Jarry and Smithson can provide a useful corrective to an overly rationalistic approach to art research, offering the field – and contemporary art in general – potentially valuable tools for forms of practice that challenge rather than adopt conventional academic models and epistemological constructs.

A Reciprocal Turn in Criminal Justice? Shifting Conceptions of Legitimate Authority

The past decade has seen the rise of a fierce, ongoing controversy concerning the authority of criminal courts and the legitimacy of the criminal justice system as such. This article aims to provide some much needed conceptual clarity regarding the primal subjects under discussion: To what do we actually refer when we are using the words 'authority' and 'legitimacy'? What is 'legitimate authority'? For an answer to this question, reference is made to a number of theoretical developments within (political) philosophy. The article investigates how developments within the doctrines of the general part of substantive criminal law are related to shifting contemporary views on the general conditions for a legitimate exercise of practical authority. An account of a number of interlocking developments within the doctrinal system of Dutch substantive criminal law serves as a starting point for the subsequent inquiry. It is argued that these developments exemplify shifts in the way authority is distributed over various agents involved in criminal proceedings. It is further argued that these shifts in the distribution of authority parallel notable movements within the philosophical literature on the concept of legitimate authority, that is: a movement from a rationalistic and top-down approach toward a reciprocal, bottom-up approach.

Does A Professional Self-Conception Make One More Unethical?

This paper explores the role of professional self-conceptions on ethical behavior. Relying on recent literature on moral licensing and consequences of the amoral, rationalistic approach to ethical decision-making, contrary to conventional wisdom, I suggest that professional self-conceptions lead individuals to engage in unethical behaviors. The results of Study 1 demonstrated that individuals perceiving themselves as a professional were more likely to act unethically. Study 2 tested for differential effect of accessibility of professional self- conceptions versus concept of professionalism and showed that seeing oneself as a professional, and not the accessibility of the concept of professionalism per se, is needed to increase unethical acts. Study 3, a field study, showed that membership in occupations traditionally associated with professions compared to other occupations led to higher unethical behaviors and professional self-conceptions mediated the effect of occupational membership on unethical behav...

POLA RUANG KOMUNAL DI RUMAH SUSUN BANDARHARJO SEMARANG

Behind the good will of government to build flats for low-income communities, there was a reduction of socio-cultural essence of life of its inhabitants. Reduction is happening in social interaction, initially living in a neighboring village, later turned into a mood of alienation and limitations because living in flats story a lot. This study used qualitative rationalistic approach, which aims to reveal the patterns of communal space as a space of social interaction of residents, expected results will be the next design evaluation flats. Research on patterns of communal space is taking the case of flats located in the Bandarharjo. More than eighteen years, residents tried to build social interaction with neighbors although no longer made in the halls of the road as well as in the villages. Their efforts are utilizing the functions of each floor of the building and the lobby open spaces around the ground floor of the building for social interaction among residents. Utilization of space functions has resulted in a communal space patterns in groups with the intensity of the use of high, medium, and low. The communal lounge with high intensity use tend to be close to their house.

Partisipasi Masyarakat Dalam Pembangunan Jalan Poros Desa di Kecamatan Panceng Kabupaten Gresik

Strategi pembangunan wilayah partisipatif di Kabupaten Gresik menitikberatkan pada pembangunanprasarana jalan melalui program Bantuan Keuangan Pembangunan Jalan Poros Desa. Cakupan wilayahstudi ini meliputi Kecamatan Panceng, Kabupaten Gresik. Tujuan penelitian adalah mengetahui bentukdan tingkat partisipasi masyarakat dalam Pembangunan Jalan Poros Desa yang dibedakan oleh jarakkegiatan dari permukiman di tiap desa. Pendekatan penelitian yang digunakan adalah pendekatanpostpositivistik rasionalistik dengan metode penelitian deskriptif kuantitatif. Proses penelitian secaradeduktif, dengan menggunakan konsep atau kajian teori sehingga muncul pertanyaan penelitian:bagaimana partisipasi masyarakat dalam Pembangunan Jalan Poros Desa di Kecamatan PancengKabupaten Gresik? Studi ini menganalisis bentuk dan tingkat partisipasi, serta pengaruh lokasi terhadapbentuk dan tingkat partisipasi masyarakat yang dilakukan pada kedua kategori desa tersebut. Hasilanalisa yang dilaksanakan menunjukkan adanya perbedaan bentuk dan tingkat partisipasi antara keduakategori desa. Pada desa kategori pertama terdapat bentuk partisipasi pengendalian penuh (Full Control)dengan tingkat partisipasi tinggi dan pada desa kategori kedua teramati bentuk partisipasi pengendalianterbagi (Shared Control) dengan tingkat partisipasi sedang.Kata kunci : partisipasi masyarakat, pembangunan jalan poros desa

The Refiner's Fire and the Imago Dei:

The Refiner's Fire and the Imago Dei:

Sparks of Divine Light: Dirck Volckertsz Coornhert’s Rationalistic Perspective on Man and Morals

This article aims to shed light on a sixteenth-century rationalistic approach to man and morals: the philosophy of the Dutch proponent of tolerance and free thought D. V. Coornhert (1522–90), who advocated a theory based on the possibility of attaining moral perfection through rational knowledge and constant moral training. After a short overview of Coornhert’s life and work, the anthropological foundations of his rationalistic perspective on man and morals are addressed, before the outlines of Coornhert’s ethics are examined in detail, including the role of key notions such as ignorance, the passions, evil habits, free will, and Coornhert’s interpretation of original sin. A special focus lies on the role of reason, that powerful ‘spark of Divine Light’ that God gave humankind to obtain truth and perfection.

METAFORA RISK AND RETURN SEBAGAI DASAR PENGEMBANGAN BAITUL MAAL WA TAMWIL (BMT) YANG MANDIRI

The purpose of this study is to find out how Baitul Maal Wa Tamwil (BMT) candevelop their independence as microfinance institutions, based on the expansion ofthe nature and development (metaphor) risk & return. With post positivism rational-istic approach, the results of this study are: (1) the risk faced by BMT in addition tofinancial risk (conventional), as well as more broadly in the form of guaran-tees(goodwill) and guarantee facilities of customer funds. 2) On the return, in addi-tion to financial return (conventional) the meaning has expanded on customer loyalty,market expansion and social functioning of the BMT.Keywords: metaphor, risk, return, independency

Subjectivity sense, language and subject: a new postrationalist perspective in psychotherapy

This paper discusses the philosophical roots of the concept of sense in Russian philosophy and linguistic, analyzing its consequences for the social sciences, in particular for psychology. Starting from the relevance of the Vygotsky's definition of sense, through which that concept became psychological, is discussed its relevance for advancing forward in a proposal about subjectivity from a cultural historical approach. Advancing on this proposal, the concept of subjective sense is defined as a subjective unity whose focus, rather than being on the unity between word and psychological elements, as Vygotsky stated, is on the unity between symbolical processes and emotions. This theoretical account leads to a different representation of the relation between language, subject and subjectivity, which support a non rationalistic reductionism concerning subjectivity. Finally, on the basis of this non individualistic and non essentialist definition of subjectivity are discussed some of its implications for the development of a non rationalistic approach in psychotherapy.

Quantity implicatures, exhaustive interpretation, and rational conversation

Quantity implicatures are inferences triggered by an utterance based on what other utterances a speaker could have made instead. Using ideas and formalisms from game theory, I demonstrate that these inferences can be explained in a strictly Gricean sense as *rational behavior*. To this end, I offer a procedure for constructing the context of utterance insofar as it is relevant for quantity reasoning as a game between speaker and hearer. I then give a new solution concept that improves on classical equilibrium approaches in that it uniquely selects the desired "empirically correct" play in these interpretation games by a chain of back-and-forth reasoning about players' behavior. To make this formal approach more accessible to a wider audience, I give a simple algorithm with the help of which the model's solution can be computed without having to do heavy calculations of probabilities, expected utilities and the like. This rationalistic approach subsumes and improves on recent exhaustivity-based approaches. It makes correct and uniform predictions for quantity implicatures of various epistemic varieties, free choice readings of disjunctions, as well as a phenomenon tightly related to the latter, namely so-called "simplification of disjunctive antecedents". doi:10.3765/sp.4.1 BibTeX info

The Ethical Dangers of Deliberative Decision Making

Research on ethical decision making has been heavily influenced by normative decision theories that view intelligent choices as involving conscious deliberation and analysis. Recent developments in moral psychology, however, suggest that moral functions involved in ethical decision making are metaphorical and embodied. The research presented here suggests that deliberative decision making may actually increase unethical behaviors and reduce altruistic motives when it overshadows implicit, intuitive influences on moral judgments and decisions. Three lab experiments explored the potential ethical dangers of deliberative decision making. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that deliberative decision making, activated by a math problem-solving task or by simply framing the choice as a decision rather than an intuitive reaction, increased deception in a one-shot deception game. Experiment 3—which activated systematic thinking or intuitive feeling about the choice to donate to a charity—found that deliberative decision making could also decrease altruism. These findings highlight the potential ethical downsides of a rationalistic approach toward ethical decision making and call for a better understanding of the intuitive nature of moral functioning.

METAFORA RISK AND RETURN SEBAGAI DASAR PENGEMBANGAN BAITUL MAAL WA TAMWIL (BMT) YANG MANDIRI

The purpose of this study is to find out how Baitul Maal Wa Tamwil (BMT) candevelop their independence as microfinance institutions, based on the expansion ofthe nature and development (metaphor) risk & return. With post positivism rational-istic approach, the results of this study are: (1) the risk faced by BMT in addition tofinancial risk (conventional), as well as more broadly in the form of guaran-tees(goodwill) and guarantee facilities of customer funds. 2) On the return, in addi-tion to financial return (conventional) the meaning has expanded on customer loyalty,market expansion and social functioning of the BMT.

From drought to deluge: how information overload saturated absorption capacity in a disrupted health sector

Provision of technical assistance is a common form of support to health sectors emerging from prolonged conflicts. But what actions signal that the Ministry of Health (MoH) is, or is not, actively analysing and digesting the output of this assistance? Where are the boundaries between doing with and doing for? This article presents a qualitative description of an early post-conflict policy process in southern Sudan, which represented an opportunity to test these boundaries. The methodology of provision of technical assistance to the MoH in the formulation of a human resource plan is reviewed. Initial objectives are compared with the results accomplished. Shortcomings are discussed and recommendations for technical assistance programmes in similar contexts are provided. Between October 2005 and May 2006, World Health Organization advisers supported the MoH in conducting a human resources assessment to lay the grounds for a human resources development plan. The study employed three consultants, ten data collectors and entailed questionnaires, field visits, interviews and a review of literature. The survey shed new important evidence on the human resources situation in southern Sudan, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, and formulated specific recommendations. The formulation of the human resources plan, however, took another direction, apparently unrelated to the findings of the survey. Various factors contributed to the scope and methodology of the survey being inappropriate to the reality of southern Sudan. In the presence of systemic capacity gaps, including uncertain governance and precarious management systems, the benefit of one-off comprehensive surveys is likely to be negligible. Inaction is not always rooted in the lack of information, as too often assumed; this case study exposes the limits of a rationalistic approach to policy formulation and planning in the field of human resources for health. An alternative approach that entails incremental steps to institutional capacity building is suggested.

Cape Verdean Notions of Migrant Remittances

The transfer of money from migrants to their non-migrant relatives is a key, symbol of the quality and meaning of transnational kinship relations. This article analyses how people in Cape Verde view migrant family members’ economic obligations and it examines the concomitant moral discourse. Through a detailed ethnographic study the article explores how gender and kinship positions interplay with the moral obligation to send remittances, and it also inquires into the differences between rural and urban people’s attitudes towards monetary gifts. Moreover, the importance of the receiver’s status in the local society is discussed and the role of the personal relation between the sender and the receiver. Thus the analysis goes beyond an instrumental and rationalistic approach to remittances, which is common in much research, and explores the significance of this money for emotions and social relations.

The Instructions for Legislation in the Netherlands: A Critical Appraisal

AbstractThe Dutch Instructions for Legislation are supposed to improve the quality of legislation. In this article the contents and structure of the Instructions are described. The use of the Instructions by legislative drafters and others is discussed as well. Then the question is asked whether the Instructions really have a positive effect on legislative quality. In order to be able to answer this question the issue whether law-making can be guided by rules has been debated, which resulted in criticism about a rationalistic approach to legislation. Also comments are made about the value and quality of the Instructions themselves. As there are hardly any empirical data to determine the impact of the Instructions on the quality of legislation the conclusion of this article is tentative: a positive effect of the Instructions on legislative quality is likely, even though their effect can not be determined beyond doubt.

Streams of Convergence

This paper sketches a broad outline of the relationships governing fundamentalism, modernism, and Pentecostalism in the first half of the twentieth century in the United States. Fundamentalism and Pentecostalism were tangentially aligned through a common nineteenth century evangelical ethos via the holiness movement. Modernism shared with Pentecostalism certain aspects of Pietism but diverged dramatically in its rationalistic approach to Scripture. Fundamentalism and modernism agreed in this rationalist endeavour but parted over the role of the supernatural in Christianity. A mutual distrust of modernism and their shared evangelical ethos led ultimately to cooperation between fundamentalists and Pentecostals by the beginnings of World War II.

Yin-Yang and Spirits in the Teaching of Zhu Xi ―Supernatural Phenomena from the Rationalistic Approach of Qi(氣)

Yin-Yang and Spirits in the Teaching of Zhu Xi ―Supernatural Phenomena from the Rationalistic Approach of Qi(氣)

The upside of presentism

Presentism is generally regarded as a necessary evil in historiography. This paper explores the upside of that inevitability. Using a philosophical approach to discourse analysis in the tradition of new cultural history, the paper distinguishes between a strategic use of presentism on the one hand, and a rationalistic approach to history on the other hand. The paper concludes by considering some political implications of rationalistic accounts and strategically presentistic accounts in historiography. Rationalistic accounts inscribe expectations of the past into visions of the future; they cast the historian in the role of prophet; and they perpetuate notions of ahistoric agency. In contrast, strategically presentistic histories incorporate an orientation that deliberately uses the lenses and perspectives of the present in order to bring current assumptions and perspectives into focus. When assumptions are examined in relation to presentistic perspectives, those assumptions loosen their reins on thought. Since presentism is unavoidable, presentism should not be dismissed outright, but ought to be subject to probing and critical examination. With such a focus, strategically presentistic historiography allows for a reflection on the limits of what it is possible to think.