Virtue and austerity

Virtue ethics is often proposed as a third way in health-care ethics, that while consequentialism and deontology focus on action guidelines, virtue focuses on character; all three aim to help agents discern morally right action although virtue seems to have least to contribute to political issues, such as austerity. I claim: (1) This is a bad way to characterize virtue ethics. The 20th century renaissance of virtue ethics was first proposed as a response to the difficulty of making sense of ‘moral rightness’ outside a religious context. For Aristotle the right action is that which is practically best; that means best for the agent in order to live a flourishing life.There are no moral considerations besides this. (2) Properly characterized, virtue ethics can contribute to discussion of austerity. A criticism of virtue ethics is that fixed characteristics seem a bad idea in ever-changing environments; perhaps we should be generous in prosperity, selfish in austerity. Furthermore, empirical evidence suggests that people indeed do change with their environment. However, I argue that virtues concern fixed values not fixed behaviour; the values underlying virtue allow for different behaviour in different circumstances: in austerity, virtues still give the agent the best chance of flourishing. Two questions arise. (a) In austere environments might not injustice help an individual flourish by, say, obtaining material goods? No, because unjust acts undermine the type of society the agent needs for flourishing. (b) What good is virtue to those lacking the other means to flourish? The notion of degrees of flourishing shows that most people would benefit somewhat from virtue. However, in extreme circumstances virtue might harm rather than benefit the agent: such circumstances are to be avoided; virtue ethics thus has a political agenda to enable flourishing. This requires justice, a fortiori when in austerity

The radical cation of bacteriochlorophyll b. A liquid-phase endor and triple resonance study

The previous termradical cationnext term of bacterioehlorophyll b (BChl b) is investigated by ENDOR and TRIPLE resonance in liquid solution. The experimental hyperfine coupling constants, ten proton and three nitrogen couplings, are compared with the predictions from advanced molecular-orbital calculations (RHF INDO/SP). The detailed picture obtained of the spin density distribution is a prerequisite for the investigation of the primary electron donor previous termradical cationnext term in BChl b containing photosynthetic bacteria

Spectral diffusion and 14N quadrupole splittings in absorption detected magnetic resonance hole burning spectra of photosynthetic reaction centers

Zero field absorption detected magnetic resonance hole burning measurements were performed on photosynthetic reaction centers of the bacteria Rhodobacter sphaeroides R26 and Rhodopseudomonas viridis. Extrapolation to zero microwave power yielded pseudohomogeneous linewidths of 2.0 MHz for Rhodopseudomonas viridis, 1.0 and 0.9 MHz for the protonated forms of Rhodobacter sphaeroides R26 with and without monomer bacteriochlorophyll exchanged, and 0.25 MHz as an upper limit for fully deuterated reaction centers of Rhodobacter sphaeroides R26. The measured linewidths were interpreted as being due to unresolved hyperfine interaction between the nuclear spins and the triplet electron spin, the line shape being determined by spectral diffusion among the nuclei. The difference in linewidths between Rhodobacter sphaeroides R26 and Rhodopseudomonas viridis is then explained by triplet delocalization on the special pair in the former, and localization on one dimer half on the latter. In the fully deuterated sample, four quadrupole satellites were observed in the hole spectra arising from the eight 14N nitrogens in the special pair. The quadrupole parameters seem to be very similar for all nitrogens and were determined to =1.25±0.1 MHz and =0.9±0.1 MHz. The Journal of Chemical Physics is copyrighted by The American Institute of Physics

Exact Solution for the Time Evolution of Network Rewiring Models

We consider the rewiring of a bipartite graph using a mixture of random and preferential attachment. The full mean field equations for the degree distribution and its generating function are given. The exact solution of these equations for all finite parameter values at any time is found in terms of standard functions. It is demonstrated that these solutions are an excellent fit to numerical simulations of the model. We discuss the relationship between our model and several others in the literature including examples of Urn, Backgammon, and Balls-in-Boxes models, the Watts and Strogatz rewiring problem and some models of zero range processes. Our model is also equivalent to those used in various applications including cultural transmission, family name and gene frequencies, glasses, and wealth distributions. Finally some Voter models and an example of a Minority game also show features described by our model.Comment: This version contains a few footnotes not in published Phys.Rev.E versio

Refocusing generalised normalisation

When defined with general elimination/application rules, natural deduction and $\lambda$-calculus become closer to sequent calculus. In order to get real isomorphism, normalisation has to be defined in a ``multiary'' variant, in which reduction rules are necessarily non-local (reason: nomalisation, like cut-elimination, acts at the \emph{head} of applicative terms, but natural deduction focuses at the \emph{tail} of such terms). Non-local rules are bad, for instance, for the mechanization of the system. A solution is to extend natural deduction even further to a \emph{unified calculus} based on the unification of cut and general elimination. In the unified calculus, a sequent term behaves like in the sequent calculus, whereas the reduction steps of a natural deduction term are interleaved with explicit steps for bringing heads to focus. A variant of the calculus has the symmetric role of improving sequent calculus in dealing with tail-active permutative conversions

Social Freedom and Self-Actualization: “Normative Reconstruction” as a Theory of Justice

In Freedom's Right Axel Honneth seeks to provide a theory of justice by appropriatingHegel's account of ethical substance in the Philosophy of Right, but hewants to do sowithout endorsingHegel'smore robust idealist commitments. I argue that this project can only succeed if Honneth can offer an alternative, comparatively robust demonstration of the rationality and normative coherence of existing social institutions. I contend that the grounds Honneth provides for this claimare insufficient for his purposes. In particular, I argue that Honneth's claim that "justice and individual self-determination are mutually referential," even were it to be accepted, would be insufficient to underwrite hismore robust identification between the normative foundations of justice, autonomy and reciprocal self-realization. In the final section of the paper, I turn to Honneth's analysis of the "social institution" of friendship,which he, followingHegel, holds up as a paradigmatic instantiation of social freedom understood as, in Hegel's words, "being with oneself in another" (Beisichselbstsein in einem Anderen). I argue that an analysis of the normative import of friendship wholly in terms of mutual recognition misses an important aspect of the kind of self-realization that friendship makes possible

Gut thinking: the gut microbiome and mental health beyond the head

Background: In recent decades, dominant models of mental illness have become increasingly focused on the head, with mental disorders being figured as brain disorders. However, research into the active role that the microbiome-gut-brain axis plays in affecting mood and behaviour may lead to the conclusion that mental health is more than an internalised problem of individual brains. Objective: This article explores the implications of shifting understandings about mental health that have come about through research into links between the gut microbiome and mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. It aims to analyse the different ways that the lines between mind and body and mental and physical health are re-shaped by this research, which is starting to inform clinical and public understanding. Design: As mental health has become a pressing issue of political and public concern it has become increasingly constructed in socio-cultural and personal terms beyond clinical spaces, requiring a conceptual response that exceeds biomedical inquiry. This article argues that an interdisciplinary critical medical humanities approach is well positioned to analyse the impact of microbiome-gut-brain research on conceptions of mind. Results: The entanglement of mind and matter evinced by microbiome-gut-brain axis research potentially provides a different way to conceptualise the physical and social concomitants of mental distress. Conclusion: Mental health is not narrowly located in the head but is assimilated by the physical body and intermingled with the natural world, requiring different methods of research to unfold the meanings and implications of gut thinking for conceptions of human selfhood

Markovian Master Equations: A Critical Study

We derive Markovian master equations of single and interacting harmonic systems in different scenarios, including strong internal coupling. By comparing the dynamics resulting from the corresponding Markovian master equations with exact numerical simulations of the evolution of the global system, we precisely delimit their validity regimes and assess the robustness of the assumptions usually made in the process of deriving the reduced dynamics. The proposed method is sufficiently general to suggest that the conclusions made here are widely applicable to a large class of settings involving interacting chains subject to a weak interaction with an environment.Comment: 40 pages, 14 figures, final versio

An Alternative Interpretation of Statistical Mechanics

In this paper I propose an interpretation of classical statistical mechanics that centers on taking seriously the idea that probability measures represent complete states of statistical mechanical systems. I show how this leads naturally to the idea that the stochasticity of statistical mechanics is associated directly with the observables of the theory rather than with the microstates (as traditional accounts would have it). The usual assumption that microstates are representationally significant in the theory is therefore dispensable, a consequence which suggests interesting possibilities for developing non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and investigating inter-theoretic answers to the foundational questions of statistical mechanics