A Greek Tragedy? A Hegelian Perspective on Greece's Sovereign Debt Crisis

Focusing on Greece, this essay aims to contribute to a philosophical understanding of Europe's current financial crisis and, more generally, of the aporetic implications of the modern determination of freedom as such. One the one hand, I draw on Hegel's Philosophy of Right in order to argue that modernity entails a potential conflict between a market economy and a state that is supposed to further the interests of the society as a whole. On the other hand, I draw on Sophocles' Oedipus the King as well as on Hegel's account of tragedy in the Phenomenology of Spirit to reinterpret the conflict between the spheres of civil society and the state as a tragic conflict. Modernity threatens to undermine itself from within, I maintain, because the simultaneous development of capitalism and democracy makes it very hard to prevent the sphere of particular interests from encroaching upon the sphere of politics

Ideal Embodiment: Kant's Theory of Sensibility

A Review of: Ideal Embodiment: Kant's Theory of Sensibility, by Angelica Nuzzo. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2008, 414 pp. ISBN: 978-0-253-35229-3 hb, $75.00, ISBN 978-0-253-22015-8 pb,$ 27.95

Attrition-enhanced total resolution leads to homochiral families of amino acid derivatives

The total resolution of five structurally similar racemizable amino acid derivatives, three of which have racemic crystal structures, was performed simultaneously. By enantioselective incorporation in an amino acid derivative that forms a conglomerate the other four were deracemized on attrition-induced grinding. The outcome of the resolution was random (R) or (S), but all compounds had the same absolute configuration and high enantiomeric purities.

Should night shifts be discouraged in (post)menopausal female hospital workers? [Honours College Research Project]

Night shifts are known to severely disrupt biological rhythmicity, which has been linked to a plethora of health adversities. The menopause similarly disrupts biological rhythmicity and has its own slew of negative health effects. With health care as the largest employer of night shift work and its workforce consisting for a significant part of menopausal women, a substantial amount of female hospital workers have to work night shifts during or after their menopause. As disturbances in biological rhythmicity have been shown to be able to stack, these women might be at increased risk, making it unfavourable for menopausal hospital workers to work night shifts. Through semi-structured interviews, this research collected the experiences of eight menopausal hospital workers with night shifts and analysed these for striking results or patterns. The interviews brought forward that individual variation and with it the freedom of choice were paramount in scheduling night shifts during or after the menopause. Therefore, night shifts should not generally be discouraged in menopausal hospital workers. However, further research should be done into the possible connections between the menopause and working night shifts, as many factors are still unknown

Should night shifts be discouraged in (post)menopausal female hospital workers? [Honours College Research Project]

Night shifts are known to severely disrupt biological rhythmicity, which has been linked to a plethora of health adversities. The menopause similarly disrupts biological rhythmicity and has its own slew of negative health effects. With health care as the largest employer of night shift work and its workforce consisting for a significant part of menopausal women, a substantial amount of female hospital workers have to work night shifts during or after their menopause. As disturbances in biological rhythmicity have been shown to be able to stack, these women might be at increased risk, making it unfavourable for menopausal hospital workers to work night shifts. Through semi-structured interviews, this research collected the experiences of eight menopausal hospital workers with night shifts and analysed these for striking results or patterns. The interviews brought forward that individual variation and with it the freedom of choice were paramount in scheduling night shifts during or after the menopause. Therefore, night shifts should not generally be discouraged in menopausal hospital workers. However, further research should be done into the possible connections between the menopause and working night shifts, as many factors are still unknown

Kant’s Account of Sensible Concepts in the Inaugural Dissertation and the Critique of Pure Reason

The present paper aims to trace back Kant’s account of the schematism of the pure understanding in the Critique of Pure Reason to the Dissertation. I do so by discussing Kant’s understanding of sensible cognition in view of his assessment of metaphysics. I argue, first, that Kant in both texts aims to defend metaphysics against skeptical attacks by discarding those of its elements he considers unwarranted and, second, that this undertaking hinges on his account of concepts that function as the sensible condition of cognition. Yet whereas Kant argues in 1770 that metaphysics must be purely intellectual, he in 1781 draws on his earlier account of sensible concepts to argue, against the Wolffians, that determining intelligible objects by purely intellectual means does not amount to cognition proper