Buber, educational technology, and the expansion of dialogic space

Buber’s distinction between the ‘I-It’ mode and the ‘I-Thou’ mode is seminal for dialogic education. While Buber introduces the idea of dialogic space, an idea which has proved useful for the analysis of dialogic education with technology, his account fails to engage adequately with the role of technology. This paper offers an introduction to the significance of the I-It/I-Thou duality of technology in relation to opening dialogic space. This is followed by a short schematic history of educational technology which reveals the role technology plays, not only in opening dialogic space, but also in expanding dialogic space. The expansion of dialogic space is an expansion of what it means to be ‘us’ as dialogic engagement facilitates the incorporation, into our shared sense of identity, of aspects of reality that are initially experienced as alien or ‘other’. Augmenting Buber with an alternative understanding of dialogic space enables us to see how dialogue mediated by technology, as well as dialogue with monologised fragments of technology (robots), can, through education, lead to an expansion of what it means to be human

The Moral Duty of Self-Preservation

UIDB/00183/2020 UIDP/00183/2020This chapter provides an in-depth examination of Kant’s view of suicide. After a contextualization of Kant’s prohibition of suicide (§2.1), seven different arguments against the moral permissibility of suicide are identified: three from the Lectures on Ethics (§2.2) and four from the published writings (§2.3). Each argument is presented (with possible variations) and explained. Strengths and flaws are pointed out, and possible objections and counter-objections are discussed, taking into consideration the abundant bibliography on the subject. The conclusion is that, against a recent trend in secondary literature, which tends to read Kant as justifying not only a right, but even a duty to suicide, Kant does not allow for any exception to his strict prohibition of suicide.authorsversionpublishe

Predictors of trend in CD4-positive T-cell count and mortality among HIV-1-infected individuals with virological failure to all three antiretroviral-drug classes.

Background Treatment strategies for patients in whom HIV replication is not suppressed after exposure to several drug classes remain unclear. We aimed to assess the inter-relations between viral load, CD4-cell count, and clinical outcome in patients who had experienced three-class virological failure.Methods We undertook collaborative joint analysis of 13 HIV cohorts from Europe, North America, and Australia, involving patients who had had three-class virological failure (viral load >1000 copies per mL for >4 months). Regression analyses were used to quantify the associations between CD4-cell-count slope, HIV-1 RNA concentration, treatment information, and demographic characteristics. Predictors of death were analysed by Cox\u2019s proportional-hazards models.Findings 2488 patients were included. 2118 (85%) had started antiretroviral therapy with single or dual therapy. During 5015 person-years of follow-up, 276 patients died (mortality rate 5\ub75 per 100 person-years; 3-year mortality risk 15\ub73% (95% CI 13\ub75\u201317\ub73). Risk of death was strongly influenced by the latest CD4-cell count with a relative hazard of 15\ub78 (95% CI 9\ub728\u201327\ub70) for counts below 50 cells per \u3bcL versus above 200 cells per L. The latest viral load did not independently predict death. For any given viral load, patients on treatment had more favourable CD4- cell-count slopes than those off treatment. For patients on treatment and with stable viral load, CD4-cell counts tended to be increasing at times when the current viral load was below 10 000 copies per mL or 1\ub75 log10 copies per mL below off-treatment values.Interpretation In patients for whom viral-load suppression to below the level of detection is not possible, achievement and maintenance of a CD4-cell count above 200 per L becomes the primary aim. Treatment regimens that maintain the viral load below 10 000 copies per mL or at least provide 1\ub75 log10 copies per mL suppression below the off-treatment value do not seem to be associated with appreciable CD4-cell-count decline