Suchergebnisse

The Euromissile Accord : the British Point of View, by David Mellor
The verdict of the British government on the INF negotiations is unequivocal : the Washington Treaty is a good one and perfectly compatible with the defence of Western Europe. Further, it has been made possible by the unity of NATO and its determination to negotiate from a position of force. It has established a precedent, a first in the nuclear era. Doubts have however arisen — a risk of less effective deterrence, weakening of the ties between the United States and Europe, and the impossibility of effective verification. According to the author, these worries are misplaced, though it must be said that the intermediate missile accord does not solve ail Europe's defence problems. It is important from now on that the West succeed in imposing its own priorities in the field of arms control.

"'Mind, Meaning, and reality' contains fifteen philosophical papers by D. H. Mellor, including a new defence of 'success semantics', and an introduction arguing that metaphysics can and need only be justified by doing it and not by a 'meta-metaphysics', which it needs no more than physics needs metaphysics. The papers are grouped into three parts. Part I is about how the ways we are disposed to act fixes what we believe and what we use language to mean. Part II is about what there is: the reality of dispositions: what makes beliefs and sentences true; why there is only one universe; and how social groups, and other things composed of parts, are related to the people and other things that constitute them. Part III is about time, and includes discussions of twentieth-century developments in the philosophy of time; why Kant was right about tense, even though he was wrong about time; why forward time-travel is trivial and backward time travel impossible; and what gives time its direction"--Publisher's description, p. [4] of dust jacket

This paper describes the development of the Family Life Education Programme, an innovative group approach to parenting issues. The programme aims to (i) utilise the strengths of a multidisciplinary allied health team and (ii) to avoid focusing on the limited issues of child management and discipline. Previous styles of parent education groups are discussed, together with their shortcomings and the authors' frustrations with such approaches. The rationale for the format of the new programme is described, and the detailed structure outlined. Two innovations are highlighted. Firstly, the programme focuses on issues from both the child and parent perspective (eg, child's play/parents' recreation). Secondly, the six-week programme uses professionals from various disciplines as weekly consultants, while one member of the team provides week-to-week continuity as an anchor. The programme is evaluated in terms of the impact on the multi-disciplinary team, and the feedback from participants. It is argued that the Family Life Education Programme offers a balanced approach to the many issues confronting parents of young children and it could be implemented not only within multi-disciplinary teams, but also co-operatively across agencies.

Conceptual frameworks for understanding animal welfare scientifically have become influential. An early "biological functioning" framework still influences expert opinions prepared for Courts hearing animal cruelty cases, despite deficiencies revealed by the emergence and wide scientific adoption of an "affective state" framework. According to "biological functioning" precepts, indices of negative welfare states should predominantly be physical and/or clinical and any reference to animals' supposed subjective experiences, i.e., their "affective states", should be excluded. However, "affective state" concepts, which have neuroscience and animal behaviour foundations, show that behavioural indices may be used to credibly identify negative welfare outcomes or affects. Acceptance of the "affective state" framework is entirely consistent with the current extensive international recognition that vertebrate animals are "sentient" beings. A long list of negative affects is discussed and each one is described as a prelude to updating the concept of "suffering" or "distress", often referred to in animal welfare legislation and prosecutions for alleged ill-treatment of animals. The Five Domains Model for assessing and grading animal welfare compromise is then discussed using examples of severe-to-very-severe ill-treatment of dogs. It is concluded that experts should frame their opinions in ways that include negative affective outcomes.