41 research outputs found
Developing cancer warning statements for alcoholic beverages
Background: There is growing evidence of the increased cancer risk associated with alcohol consumption, but this is not well understood by the general public. This study investigated the acceptability among drinkers of cancer warning statements for alcoholic beverages. Methods: Six focus groups were conducted with Australian drinkers to develop a series of cancer-related warning statements for alcohol products. Eleven cancer warning statements and one general health warning statement were subsequently tested on 2,168 drinkers via an online survey. The statements varied by message frame (positive vs negative), cancer reference (general vs specific), and the way causality was communicated (âincreases risk of cancerâ vs âcan cause cancerâ). Results: Overall, responses to the cancer statements were neutral to favorable, indicating that they are unlikely to encounter high levels of negative reaction from the community if introduced on alcoholic beverages. Females, younger respondents, and those with higher levels of education generally found the statements to be more believable, convincing, and personally relevant. Positively framed messages, those referring to specific forms of cancer, and those using âincreases risk of cancerâ performed better than negatively framed messages, those referring to cancer in general, and those using the term âcan cause cancerâ. Conclusion: Cancer warning statements on alcoholic beverages constitute a potential means of increasing awareness about the relationship between alcohol consumption and cancer risk
âSnakes and Laddersâ â âTherapyâ as Liberation in Nagarjuna and Wittgensteinâs Tractatus
This paper reconsiders the notion that Nagarjuna and Wittgensteinâs Tractatus may only be seen as comparable under a shared ineffability thesis, that is, the idea that reality is impossible to describe in sensible discourse. Historically, Nagarjuna and the early Wittgenstein have both been widely construed as offering either metaphysical theories or attempts to refute all such theories. Instead, by employing an interpretive framework based on a âresoluteâ reading of the Tractatus, I suggest we see their philosophical affinity in terms of a shared conception of philosophical method without proposing theses. In doing so, this offers us a new way to understand Nagarjunaâs characteristic claims both to have âno viewsâ (MĆ«lamadhyamakakÄrikÄ 13.8 and 27.30) and refusal to accept that things exist âinherentlyâ or with âessenceâ (svabhÄva). Therefore, instead of either a view about the nature of a mind-independent âultimate realityâ or a thesis concerning the rejection of such a domain, I propose that we understand Nagarjunaâs primary aim as âtherapeuticâ, that is, concerned with the dissolution of philosophical problems. However, this âtherapyâ should neither be confined to the psychotherapeutic metaphor nor should it be taken to imply a private enlightenment only available to philosophers. Instead, for Nagarjuna and Wittgenstein, philosophical problems are cast as a source of disquiet for all of us; what their work offers is a soteriology, a means towards our salvation
Rethinking the role of alpha toxin in Clostridium perfringens-associated enteric diseases: a review on bovine necro-haemorrhagic enteritis
Nonsense Made Intelligible
My topic is the relation between nonsense and (un-)intelligibility, and the contrast between nonsense and falsehood which played a pivotal role in the rise of analytic philosophy (sct. 1). I shall pursue three lines of inquiry. First I shall briefly consider the positive case, namely linguistic understanding (sct. 2). Secondly, I shall consider the negative caseâdifferent breakdowns of understanding and connected forms of failure to make sense (sct. 3â4). Third, I shall criticize three important misconceptions of nonsense and unintelligibility: the austere conception of nonsense propounded by the New Wittgensteinians (scts. 5â6); the âno nonsense positionâ which roundly denies that there are cases of nonsenseâChomskyâs semantic anomalies or Ryleâs category mistakesâthat are grammatically well-formed, without even having the potential for being used to make a truth-apt statement (scts. 7â8); the individualistic conception of language and of semantic mistakes championed by Davidson (scts. 9â10). All three positions, I shall argue, ignore or deny combinatorial nonsense, the fact that perfectly meaningful sentence-components can be combined in a way that may be grammatical, yet without resulting in a sentence that is itself âmeaningfulâ, i.e. endowed with linguistic sense. At a more strategic level, the first and the third position deny or ignore that natural languages are communal historical practices that go beyond idiolects and the employments of expressions in specific contexts and that are guided by semantic rulesâstandards for the meaningful use of words