¿Puede considerarse a Spinoza como un exponente de la Ilustración Oriental más que como un exponente de la Ilustración Occidental?

In philosophy the relation between reason or wisdom and happiness is a returning theme, and so it is for Spinoza. In his Ethics he describes a path to happiness, but he states that reason often fails to reach it, because of the power of the passions. Only reason with an affective loading can be decisive. For this way of knowing Spinoza uses the word ‘intuitive’ knowledge. This has led to some interpretations of Spinoza’s philosophy as mysticism. In my contribution I suggest that Spinoza who is sometimes considered as belonging to the Western Enlightenment, because of his emphasis on reason, can be considered also as a representative of the eastern enlightenment, because of the great value he attach to the intuitive knowledge.En la filosofía la relación entre la razón o la sabiduría y la felicidad es un tema importante, y así es para Spinoza. En su Ética describe un camino hacia la felicidad, pero afirma que la razón sola no es apta para conseguir eso, a causa del poder de las pasiones. Solamente la ‘razón afectiva’ puede ser decisiva. Para esta forma de conocimiento Spinoza utiliza las palabras “conocimiento intuitivo’. Esto ha llevado a algunas interpretaciones de la filosofía de Spinoza como misticismo. En mi artículo argumento que Spinoza, a quién se considera como perteneciente a la ilustración occidental, también se puede considerar como un representante de la ilustración del este, debido a la importancia que da al conocimiento intuitivo

Authentizität und Selbsterhaltung: einige Argumente wider den Affekt gegen das Besondere

Der Selbstmord Kleists ist zum Anlaß genommen worden, die Hintergründe der postmodernen Rede vom Tode des Subjekts zu erforschen. In meinem Beitrag möchte ich zeigen, daß Selbsterhaltungsmotive nicht ausschließlich dem aufklärerischen Projekt der Selbstreflexion und daß agonale Impulse nicht nur der spätromantischen Bezugnahme auf das "Andere der Vernunft" eigen sind, sondern daß Selbstreflexion und die Orientierung auf "das Andere" durch eine grundsätzliche Ambiguität gekennzeichnet sind. Daß Reflexion das Mittel der Versöhnung von Gegensätzen sein könnte, ist die Hoffnung der Aufklärung. Sie hält am Programm der Herstellung von Einheit fest, auch dann, als die durch die Modernisierungsprozesse unmittelbar hervortretenden Effekte der Rationalisierung diese Hoffnung zweifelhaft erscheinen lassen. Die Postmoderne greift zurück auf die barocke Idee der unversöhnbaren Extreme, transformiert aber den subjektivistischen Ansatz der Spätromantik in eine politische, Kultur- und Wissenschaftskritik. Der Tod des Subjekts - damit ist dann nicht nur das Ende des autonomen Subjekts, wie es sich die Aufklärung vorstellte, gemeint, sondern auch das Ende eines bestimmten Typus von Beschreibung neuzeitlicher Subjektivität und unserer Relation mit unserer sozialen und natürlichen Umwelt. Wir können das Subjekt nur noch beschreiben als eine pragmatisch zu fassende Einheit gegensätzlicher Kräfte. Fragmentarisierung der Erfahrung und der Lebenskontexte, Diskontinuität in der Lebensplanung und in der Geschichte als Folge der Einsicht, daß jeder Versuch, eine übergreifende zeitliche Einheit herzustellen, Züge von Zwangs- und Wahnvorstellungen habe, und die Unmöglichkeit, Erkenntnisse zu begründen und somit eine klare Trennungslinie zwischen Realität und Fiktion zu ziehen, sind Phänomene, an denen sich die neue Qualität und die historischen Quellen unserer Situation aufzeigen lassen. Es wäre indessen falsch, zu meinen, daß postmodernes Denken uns zur Untätigkeit verdammen oder in die Arme der Reaktion treiben wurde. Die Erfahrung der neuen Unsicherheit führt zu einer kritischen Einstellung gegenüber jeglicher inhaltlichen Bestimmung, sei sie politischer, theoretischer oder praktischer Art. Das schließt ein praktisches Eintreten für Demokratie und Toleranz nicht aus, aber läßt Zurückhaltung geboten erscheinen, wenn es um die Aufforderung geht, diese Ideale philosophisch zu begründen

Effects of Pleasant Ambient Fragrances on Dental Fear: Comparing Apples and Oranges

Previous studies showed that orange odor reduces the anticipatory anxiety and improves the mood of patients waiting for scheduled appointments in small dental practices. We replicated these previous studies in the setting of three large dental clinics. In addition, we investigated whether another pleasant fruity smell (apple odor) is similarly associated with reduced anxiety. We included 219 patients (117 males, 102 females) between the ages of 18 and 81 in this study. While they were waiting for dental treatment, the participants were either exposed to the ambient odor of orange (N = 81) or apple (N = 69), or they received no stimulation. State anxiety, mood, and perceived level of pain of the participants were assessed using questionnaires. Statistical analysis showed no significant difference between the responses of patients in each of the three experimental groups. We therefore conclude that orange and apple odors have no effect on the anticipatory anxiety or mood of patients waiting for scheduled appointments in large dental clinics

Randomised Clinical Trial of Supervised Exercise Therapy vs. Endovascular Revascularisation for Intermittent Claudication Caused by Iliac Artery Obstruction:The SUPER study

OBJECTIVE: International guidelines recommend supervised exercise therapy (SET) as primary treatment for all patients with intermittent claudication (IC), yet primary endovascular revascularisation (ER) might be more effective in patients with iliac artery obstruction. METHODS: This was a multicentre RCT including patients with IC caused by iliac artery stenosis or occlusion (NCT01385774). Patients were allocated randomly to SET or ER stratified for maximum walking distance (MWD) and concomitant SFA disease. Primary endpoints were MWD on a treadmill (3.2 km/h, 10% incline) and disease specific quality of life (VascuQol) after one year. Additional interventions during a mean follow up of 5.5 years were recorded. RESULTS: Between November 2010 and May 2015, 114 patients were allocated to SET, and 126 to ER. The trial was terminated prematurely after 240 patients were included. Compliance with SET was 57/114 (50%) after six months. Ten patients allocated to ER (8%) did not receive this intervention. One year follow up was complete for 90/114 (79%) SET patients and for 104/126 (83%) ER patients. The mean MWD improved from 187 to 561 m in SET patients and from 196 to 574 m in ER patients (p = .69). VascuQol sumscore improved from 4.24 to 5.58 in SET patients, and from 4.28 to 5.88 in ER patients (p = .048). Some 33/114 (29%) SET patients had an ER within one year, and 2/114 (2%) surgical revascularisation (SR). Some 10/126 (8%) ER patients had additional ER within one year and 10/126 (8%) SR. After a mean of 5.5 years, 49% of SET patients and 27% of ER patients underwent an additional intervention for IC. CONCLUSION: Taking into account the many limitations of the SUPER study, both a strategy of primary SET and primary ER improve MWD on a treadmill and disease specific Qol of patients with IC caused by an iliac artery obstruction. It seems reasonable to start with SET in these patients and accept a 30% failure rate, which, of course, must be discussed with the patient. Patients continue to have interventions beyond one year

Using ILIAS to develop large-scale software training

Van der Baaren, J., Wopereis, I., & Bos-Van den Reijen, M. (2013, 29 August). Using ILIAS to develop large-scale software training. Project presented at the Twelfth International ILIAS Conference, Munich, Germany.Around 2000 employees of Mondriaan, a large Dutch institution for mental healthcare, had to be trained within two months’ time to use an upgraded electronic medical record (EMR) software package. Since the training period was short and traditional training facilities were limited, it was decided to adopt an e-learning solution. Contemporary instructional design principles like the whole task approach were applied to create the learning tasks (Van Merriënboer & Kirschner, 2013). Task analyses revealed professional tasks for four distinct user groups, namely administrators, nurses, therapists, and doctors. For each user group an e-learning course was designed consisting of interactive exercises on how to use the new EMR software, For each professional task (e.g. Create a day care plan) exercises were arranged from easy (i.e., much instructional support like hints and direct feedback) to difficult (i.e., little instructional support). Each course included a 12 to 16 item test. The courses were developed as SCORM modules using the Ilias Scorm editor. Student course progress was stored so students could interrupt their learning at any time. The exercises were created with Adobe’s Captivate 5.5 software. The tests were created and implemented with the Ilias test tool. The results of the e-learning solution were very satisfactory. Within two months time the employees successfully completed the course with an average test score of 85%. On average they spend 90 minutes on the course and the test whereas it was expected it would take them on average 120 minutes to complete both. A questionnaire administered eighth weeks after introduction of the new EMR software shows that users had very little problems using the new software. It further indicates that this e-learning solution should be used for similar situations in the future