In the midst of and at the edges of this maelstrom : Experience and Archives After the Falling Away

Things Fall Away: Philippine Historical Experience and the Makings of Globalization by Neferti X. M. Tadiar. (A John Hope Franklin Center book. Post-Contemporary Interventions Series. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009. Pp. 496. $99.95 cloth,$28.95 paper.

Moral responsibility in Thomas Pogge's cosmopolitan imperative

Pogge claims that affluent nations and their citizens are collectively morally responsible for severe global poverty. In the absence of collaboration between the agents deemed collectively responsible, how do we justify the ascription of collective responsibility? I begin by showing how Rawls’ theory of justice incited Pogge to construct a global justice theory. I discuss how Pogge arrives at the thesis that the global order is unjust, according to various – yet related – conceptions of justice. I then outline the implicated agents in his theory. Using John Searle’s theory of collective intentionality, I demonstrate how collective responsibility can be ascribed in the absence of collective agency or collaboration. Agents who are part of a collective that harms are only deemed responsible for their contributions, where the requirements of moral responsibility are satisfied when an agent foreseeably causes avoidable harm. I then distinguish between two kinds of collective responsibility, namely, collective responsibility in the absence of collective agency and collective responsibility of collective agents. Invoking the work of collective agency theorists, I argue that it is possible to ascribe Pogge’s broadly Kantian conception of moral responsibility to collective agents. Finally, I claim that the ascription of merit-based moral responsibility to ordinary individuals is unjustified, on the grounds that they have no accessible alternative courses of action. I nevertheless argue that, on a roughly consequentialist construal of moral responsibility, we should be able to hold people to a higher standard than the status quo, for this would enable moral progress

Moral responsibility in Thomas Pogge's cosmopolitan imperative

Pogge claims that affluent nations and their citizens are collectively morally responsible for severe global poverty. In the absence of collaboration between the agents deemed collectively responsible, how do we justify the ascription of collective responsibility? I begin by showing how Rawls’ theory of justice incited Pogge to construct a global justice theory. I discuss how Pogge arrives at the thesis that the global order is unjust, according to various – yet related – conceptions of justice. I then outline the implicated agents in his theory. Using John Searle’s theory of collective intentionality, I demonstrate how collective responsibility can be ascribed in the absence of collective agency or collaboration. Agents who are part of a collective that harms are only deemed responsible for their contributions, where the requirements of moral responsibility are satisfied when an agent foreseeably causes avoidable harm. I then distinguish between two kinds of collective responsibility, namely, collective responsibility in the absence of collective agency and collective responsibility of collective agents. Invoking the work of collective agency theorists, I argue that it is possible to ascribe Pogge’s broadly Kantian conception of moral responsibility to collective agents. Finally, I claim that the ascription of merit-based moral responsibility to ordinary individuals is unjustified, on the grounds that they have no accessible alternative courses of action. I nevertheless argue that, on a roughly consequentialist construal of moral responsibility, we should be able to hold people to a higher standard than the status quo, for this would enable moral progress

Towards a unified theory of oppression

There is a distinction between the core concept of oppression and various conceptions of it. Whilst there is a lot of work on the various conceptions of oppression, very little work has been done on the concept of oppression itself. Only Ann Cudd offers a unified criterion, but her criterion is problematic for the reason that IM Young identified: it is exclusionary. Philip Pettit’s theory of domination is marshalled and converted into an account of oppression, which unites IM Young’s Five Faces of Oppression and Sally Haslanger’s twopronged conception of oppression. Domination occurs when an agent has the capacity to arbitrarily interfere with another. But the most relevant type of group in cases of oppression does not have agency, so “agent” cannot just be replaced with “social group.” I thus source the capacity for arbitrary interference from social group membership. A further contrast between Cudd’s account and the republican notion of domination is that Cudd requires harm to occur, whereas, for Pettit, mere capacity for harm is sufficient. The group aspect of oppression allows the circumvention of this dilemma, for in saying that the capacity to arbitrarily interfere must be exercised, it does not follow that every agent in the privileged group exercises the capacity. In treating the ontological as conceptually distinct from the epistemic aspect of oppression, the question of how there can be a justified belief of oppression is considered. The pragmatist conception of truth and standpoint epistemology are drawn from to provide a framework for justifying oppression claims. Finally, the implications of this unified theory with regards to responsibility are explored before considering the possibilities for and complexities surrounding the project of overcoming oppression

Addressing Mental Health in the Medical School Setting Using a Peer Forum

Background: Medical students have a particularly higher incidence of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation compared to the general population. Consequently, there is a need to address students’ mental health as a component of professional development. At a medical school in the northeastern United States, we utilize a student-led, medical student-only forum that focuses on mental health topics and experiences. The intent is to educate and advocate for mental health acceptance and treatment through open discussion among peers. It is anticipated that this forum results in professional help-seeking behaviors and continued mental health discussions both inside and outside of the school community. Methods: This study reviewed voluntary surveys of first and second-year students over two years following a two-hour Mental Health Perspective (MHP) forum. The survey inquired about help-seeking behaviors and continued mental health discussion specifically resulting from the MHP forum. Results: 102 first and second-year medical students completed the follow-up survey. 50% of students endorsed having mental health concerns during medical school. As a result of the MHP forum, 1 in 5 respondents were able to identify new personal mental health concerns and 1 in 4 sought professional mental health treatment services. Nearly 3 in 4 attendees reported discussing mental health topics with peers with whom they have never discussed mental health before. Over half of the students continued to discuss mental health topics with peers outside of the school community and nearly the same amount performed self-guided research on mental health topics following the MHP forum. Conclusions: This study exemplifies the value of open discussion in the realm of mental health, especially in graduate medical education. Events like the MHP forum are a cost-effective and influential modality to aid in ameliorating the stigma surrounding mental health and to advocate for mental illness to be properly treated and addressed in the medical student population

Regeneration of blood vessels within diabetic wounds after treatment with mesenchymal stem cells

Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects more than 30 million Americans. This disorder leads to a variety of acute and chronic complications, including diabetic ulcers (chronic wounds). Chronic wounds often persist due to poor regeneration of the blood supply which is essential to bring nutrients for healing. Particularly, diabetic individuals are prone to damage in their peripheral tissues which leads to a high prevalence of ulcers in their extremities, often leading to limb amputations. The aim of this study is to improve healing outcomes for diabetics through the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to stimulate healing, in which vasculogenesis is an important aspect. Catecholamines such as epinephrine (adrenaline) are prevalent in diabetic foot ulcer tissue and have been shown to inhibit wound healing. In this study, healing rates of type II diabetic mice wounds were evaluated when human MSCs were delivered within a collagen scaffold (IntegraTM) and treated with Timolol, a beta blocker that inhibits the effects of epinephrine. We examined wounded mice after 7 days that had received either no MSCs (control), MSCs, or MSCs treated with timolol for blood vessel development using immunohistochemical staining and confocal fluorescence microscopy. Blood vessel biomarkers GSL-I Isolectin B4 and CD31 were used to stain the wound tissue and fluorescent imaging data was quantified using software. Our results indicate that wound tissue treated with MSCs and timolol had the highest blood vessel regeneration and it was statistically significant when compared to control levels. Additionally, a Fluorescent in situ Hybridization (FISH) protocol to identify human chromosomes was successfully implemented using positive and negative control slides so that human MSCs can be identified when delivered to mouse wound tissue. Future experiments will examine how long the MSCs persist and whether they migrate outside the wound tissue bed

The Case of the Disappearing Filipino American Houseboy: Speculations on Double Indemnity and United States Imperialism

The creations of a new cultural formation, US imperialism, development, and globalization are traced in this article by the use of James M. Cain’s 1936 pulp novella-turned-film Double Indemnity. Representations of the Fil-Am houseboy, his disappearance and re-appearance in the texts, provide an impetus for discovering the cultural transitions from the colonial to the postcolonial periods

Compatriot partiality and cosmopolitan justice: Can we justify compatriot partiality within the cosmopolitan framework?

This paper shows an alternative way in which compatriot partiality could be justified within the framework of global distributive justice. Philosophers who argue that compatriot partiality is similar to racial partiality capture something correct about compatriot partiality. However, the analogy should not lead us to comprehensively reject compatriot partiality. We can justify compatriot partiality on the same grounds that liberation movements and affirmative action have been justified. Hence, given cosmopolitan demands of justice, special consideration for the economic well-being of your nation as a whole is justified if and only if the country it identifies is an oppressed developing nation in an unjust global order. This justification is incomplete. We also need to say why Person A, qua national of Country A, is justified in helping her compatriots in Country A over similarly or slightly more oppressed non-compatriots in Country B. I argue that Person A’s partiality towards her compatriots admits further vindication because it is part of an oppressed group’s project of self-emancipation, which is preferable to paternalistic emancipation. Finally, I identify three benefits in my justification for compatriot partiality. First, I do not offer a blanket justification for all forms of compatriot partiality. Partiality between members of oppressed groups is only a temporary effective measure designed to level an unlevel playing field. Second, because history attests that sovereign republics could arise as a collective response to colonial oppression, justifying compatriot partiality on the grounds that I have identified is conducive to the development of sovereignty and even democracy in poor countries, thereby avoiding problems of infringement that many humanitarian poverty alleviation efforts encounter. Finally, my justification for compatriot partiality complies with the implicit cosmopolitan commitment to the realizability of global justice theories. Article first published online: 9 NOV 201