Susanna Rinard has recently offered a new argument for pragmatism and against evidentialism. According to Rinard, evidentialists must hold that the rationality of belief is determined in a way that is different from how the rationality of other states is determined. She argues that we should instead endorse a view she calls Equal Treatment, according to which the rationality of all states is determined in the same way. In this paper, I show that Rinard’s claims are mistaken, and that evidentialism (...) is more theoretically virtuous than its opponents sometimes give it credit for. Not only does evidentialism not make an exception for belief, but it fits naturally into a unified, explanatorily powerful account of the rationality of intentional mental states. According to such an account, the rationality of all intentional mental states, including belief, is determined by the right kind of reasons for those states. Since the right kind of reasons for belief just are evidential considerations, this unified account entails evidentialism. I conclude, contra Rinard, that evidentialism can be situated within a general account of rationality that is at least as theoretically virtuous as pragmatism, if not more so. (shrink)

This paper explores the scholastic debate about antiperistasis, a mechanism in Aristotle’s dynamics described in the first book of Meteorology as an intensification of a quality caused by the action of the contrary one. After having distinguished this process from a homonymous, but totally different, principle concerning the dynamics of fluids that Aristotle describes in his Physics, I focus on the medieval reception of the former. Scholastic commentators oriented their exegetical effort in elaborating a consistent explanation of an apparently paradoxical (...) process like the intensification of a quality by the opposite one. From the fourteenth century onwards, most of the commentators resorted to the theory of the multiplication of species, according to which each entity acts through the emission of simulacra of the objects (species) that spread spherically in the medium. When these rays encounter an obstacle, such as a contrary quality, they are pushed back towards their source. The reflection of the species determined by the surrounding and opposite quality produces a concentration of the first one, which is therefore intensified. Another distinctive feature of the scholastic interpretation of Aristotle’s antiperistasis is the convergence between the discussions on inorganic and organic matter, physical and medical discourse. This convergence found its most significant expression in the adoption of the model described in the first book of Aristotle’s Meteorology to the biological context of Hippocrates’s Aphorisms I, 15. Following Galen’s exegesis of this passage, medieval commentators established a link between physics and medicine substantially extraneous to Aristotle’s theory. (shrink)

Prolife theorists typically hold to the claim that all human beings possess equal moral status from conception and consequently possess a right to life. This, they believe, entails that abortion is impermissible in all circumstances. Critics characterize this as an extreme anti-abortion position, as it prima facie allows no exceptions, even in cases of rape. Here, I examine whether the prolife claim regarding equal moral status is compatible with a more attractive moderate stance that permits an exception in the (...) case of rape. I show that Judith Jarvis Thomson's analysis of rights can be used to modify the prolife position in this way, but that doing so involves concessions that prolife theorists are unlikely to find acceptable. (shrink)

Joseph Boyle raises important questions about the place of the double-effect exception in absolutist moral theories. His own absolutist theory (held by many, but not all, Catholic moralists), which derives from the principles that fundamental human goods may not be intentionally violated, cannot dispense with such exceptions, although he rightly rejects some widely held views about what they are. By contrast, Kantian absolutist theory, which derives from the principle that lawful freedom must not be violated, has a corollary – (...) that it is a duty, where possible, to coerce those who try to violate lawful freedom – which makes superfluous many of the double-effect exceptions Boyle allows. Other implications of the two theories are contrasted. Inter alia, it is argued that, in Boyle's theory, that a violation of a fundamental human good can be viewed as a cost proportionate to a benefit obtained, cannot yield a double-effect exception to the prohibition of intentionally violating that good, because paying a cost cannot be unintentional. Keywords: cost-benefit analysis, double effect, intention, side effect CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

Taking the classification of certainties or hinges in Wittgenstein’s sense provided by Moyal-Sharrock, (Moyal-Sharrock, Understanding Wittgenstein’s On Certainty, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) as a reference, Fortney (Fortney, Philosophia 48:967–979, 2020, this journal) held that certainties can be regarded as universal when they are restricted to those certainties that we should have to be able to participate in complex language-games. In this paper, however, I show that Fortney’s conception of universal certainties is wrong, for it does not allow us to distinguish between (...) local and universal certainties. After this first approach, in which I attempt to clarify what universal certainties are not, I focus on what they are. To this end, I analyze Pleasants’ (Pleasants, Ethical Perspectives 22:197–215, 2015) proposal to consider the certainty of the wrongness of killing innocents as a universal certainty that allows exceptions. Focusing on the mentioned certainty, I explain why a universal certainty that admits exceptions should be regarded as a local certainty. But this analysis also leads me to conclude that universal certainties are those that allow no exception at any time or in any culture. (shrink)

In 2003, the concept of precarity emerged as the central organizing platform for a series of social struggles that would spread across the space of Europe. Four years later, almost as suddenly as the precarity movement appeared, so it would enter into crisis. To understand precarity as a political concept it is necessary to go beyond economistic approaches that see social conditions as determined by the mode of production. Such a move requires us to see Fordism as exception and (...) precarity as the norm. The political concept and practice of translation enables us to frame the precarity of creative labour in a broader historical and geographical perspective, shedding light on its contestation and relation to the concept of the common. Our interest is in the potential for novel forms of connection, subjectivization and political organization. Such processes of translation are themselves inherently precarious, transborder undertakings. (shrink)

This article analyzes the category of extreme cases—cases involving catastrophic consequences the avoiding of which requires severe measures (e.g., torture, shooting a plane in 9/11 situations). Our proposal maintains that what is most pernicious is not the violation of moral rules as such but their principled or rule-governed violation. Maintaining a normative distinction between acts performed under the direction of principles/rules, on the one hand, and unprincipled, context-generated acts, acts performed under the force of circumstances, on the other, allows for (...) accommodating the necessity of infringements in extreme cases within a (non-conventional) deontological framework. Agents who perform acts in extreme cases ought not to be guided by rules or principles. Instead, they ought to make particular judgments not governed by rules. (shrink)

This essay reviews the main themes and ideas of a couple of recent books on liberalism written by two intellectual historians, Alan S. Kahan and Nathaniel Wolloch.Their books shed fresh light on the internal diversity and complexity of the liberal tradition, especially in relation to the Radical and Moderate Enlightenment as well as the French Revolution. Wolloch and Kahan show that many of the ideas and aims of the Radical Enlightenment ended up being implemented by thinkers who belonged to the (...) tradition of moderate liberalism. The essay also argues that two books offer a timely opportunity to revisit the limits and virtues of liberal principles and respond to their recent critics. (shrink)

Community consultation and public disclosure are key components of exception from informed consent (EFIC) trials, and mandated by the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, it is not known how demographic characteristics of community members impact their willingness to participate in such studies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the demographics of community members regarding their attitudes towards participation in an EFIC trial; participation of relatives in such (...) a trial; the need for emergency medical research; and, the execution of the trial in their community. This analysis is focused on the minority of individuals who have unfavorable views towards participation and emergency care research so that we can better understand their needs and concerns. Multinomial logistic regression analysis of responses to a survey distributed as part of the community consultation campaigns for a large, multicenter EFIC trial in trauma patients. The surveys were distributed to community members in the catchment areas of 77 trauma centers. A total of 88,711 responses to four separate survey questions were received and analyzed, along with demographics of the survey respondents. 13,201 of 22,441 respondents (58.8%) indicated they would want to be entered in the trial. 3,625 (16.2%) responded they would not want to be enrolled and 5,615 (25.1%) responded “I don’t know” or “I don’t want to answer”. 19,430 of 22,329 (87.0%) responded they believe that emergency medical research was necessary and 19,555 of 22,324 (87.6%) believed that this study should be done in their community. Individuals who responded “No” or “I don’t know”’ to the questions were younger, female, non-white, had a lower education level, and unknown or lower household income. The pattern was broadly similar for people who responded “I don’t know” or “I don’t want to answer”, albeit with some differences. Community consultation is a key component of establishing trust with the community in which a given study will be conducted. Understanding which individuals, or groups of individuals, are reluctant to engage is important. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Miracle of MetaphorRethinking the State of Exception with Rosenzweig and SchmittBonnie Honig (bio)For the word is mere inception until it finds reception in an ear and response in a mouth.—Franz Rosenzweig, The Star of RedemptionThe legal anthropologist Carol Greenhouse opens her book on time, A Moment’s Notice, with a story recorded by Goethe, who, when traveling through Italy, observed a trial and took note of its peculiar (...) timekeeping practices. A man seated at a desk held in his hand a glass sand bottle, a timepiece. It was not immediately clear what his purpose was. But Goethe soon noticed that as the prosecutor spoke the man kept the bottle lying on its side, its sands inert, and whenever the defense began to speak the man would turn the bottle upright and restart its sand flow. When the state spoke, time stopped. The defense, however, was subject to time.The story accords well with the views of state sovereignty propounded by Carl Schmitt, who identifies sovereignty as such with the power to legally suspend law for a time by declaring a state of exception. For Schmitt, as for Giorgio Agamben, who works in his wake, the state of exception is that paradoxical situation in which the law is legally suspended by sovereign power. The ensuing condition is one in which we—or, rather, sovereign powers—are neither subject to law nor free of it but rather both, since the state of exception is itself a legal condition of alegality. Grounded in paradox—the legal suspension of law—and seeming well positioned to explain elements of the current political landscape that liberal and deliberative democratic theorists only criticize, Schmitt’s “state of exception,” I think it is fair to say, has captured the imagination of contemporary political theory.I seek to loosen its hold on our imagination by pluralizing the particular political theology on which Schmitt’s account is based and from which it draws sustenance. And I do so with the intent of highlighting the dependence of the so-called state of exception upon democratic energies and its vulnerability, therefore, to democratic action and resistance.I begin by devoting sustained attention to Schmitt’s metaphor for the state of exception—the miracle, noting that we may accept his metaphorization and yet be drawn by it to very different conclusions. Alternative conceptions of miracle, as we shall see, point not to singular sovereign ruptural power but rather to receptivity, popular power, and the importance of orientation in everyday life to divinity or sovereignty. For this alternative, I turn to Franz Rosenzweig’s theology. Another implication of the work begun here is to lay the groundwork for questioning contemporary identifications of action with event and politics with singularity. I ask whether the metaphor of miracle, normally taken to mark extraordinary, ruptural, or inaugurative politics (as, for example, by Hannah Arendt), might not license instead a turn to the ordinary, away from rupture to the everyday, from transcendence to immanence (though, as William Connolly points out, the immanent can also be ruptural [Pluralism] and, as Eric Santner points out, the rupture sought by Rosenzweig’s new thinking is one that would return us to a different ordinary [On the [End Page 78] Psychotheology of Everyday Life and “Miracles Happen”]). Motivating this exploration is an intuition: that contemporary political theory’s debates about whether political action is best seen as ordinary or extraordinary, ruptural or rule-governed, may be a reiteration of earlier debates in political theology about the status of the extraordinary—god and miracle or divine agency—in the ordinary human world. Mindful of that reiteration, and with the help of Rosenzweig’s “new theology,” we may rechart our course and see opportunities to rethink emergency politics in the state of exception in more democratic terms.A Secret Conversation?In Political Theology, Carl Schmitt, the soon-to-be-lapsed Catholic legal thinker who would later become jurist to the Nazi party in 1930s Germany, claimed that all significant political concepts are reinhabitations of theological concepts and should be treated as such. In The Enemy, an intellectual biography of Schmitt, Gopal Balakrishnan points out this is an overstatement... (shrink)

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a ‘perfect crisis’ that combined health, ecological and economic crises, resulting in the death of millions of people and the unemployment of others. While states took extraordinary measures to manage the crisis, social scientists tried to make sense of this situation. Early in the pandemic, Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben controversially claimed that states were instrumentalizing the disease to proclaim, “an authentic state of exception”. This study contributes to the criticisms of Agamben through a critical (...) rereading of German legal theorist, Carl Schmitt. The main argument is that Agamben’s approach to the pandemic is too strongly social constructivist, over-philosophical, over-political and a-historical due to his general philosopho-political project. Agamben’s decisionist and over-political approach is derived from his use of Schmitt’s problematic concept of the “state of exception”. However, Agamben’s use is even more problematic because he uses it to analyze various political developments ahistorically, which obliviates the concept’s analytical consistency. (shrink)

Recommendation systems (RSs) predict what the user likes and recommend it to them. While at the onset of RSs, the latter was designed to maximize the recommendation accuracy (i.e., accuracy was their only goal), nowadays many RSs models include diversity in recommendations (which thus is a further goal of RSs). In the computer science community, the introduction of diversity in RSs is justified mainly through economic reasons: diversity increases user satisfaction and, in niche markets, profits.I contend that, first, the economic (...) justification of diversity in RSs risks reducing it to an empirical matter of preference; second, diversity is ethically relevant as it supports two autonomy rights of the user: the right to an open present and the right to be treated as an individual. So far, diversity in RSs has been morally defended only in the case of RSs of news and scholarly content: diversity is held to have a depolarizing effect in a democratic society and the scientific community and make the users more autonomous in their news choices. I provide a justification of diversity in RSs that embraces all kinds of RSs (i.e., a holistic moral defense) and is based on a normative principle founded on the agency of the user, which I call the right to be an exception to predictions. Such a right holds that the proper treatment of a RS user qua agent forbids providing them with recommendations based only on their past or similar users’ choices. (shrink)

At IAPS Ljubljana conference (September 2007) Dag Vidar Hanstad and Sigmund Loland presented a paper on elite-level athletes' duty to provide information on their whereabouts, to decide between two opposing positions: is this WADA demand justifiable anti-doping work or an indefensible surveillance regime? They concluded that on moral grounds this regime is conditionally acceptable, the condition being the acceptability of a general framework and objectives embodied in anti-doping global legislative foundations (the World Anti-Doping Code). But, as they said, principled objections (...) against the system have more universal relevance, which has to be taken seriously . To take this ambiguous and intriguing conclusion a step further, I propose a legal rather than ethical approach, from the aspect of constitutional and international human rights law, and the possible clash of two legally acknowledged values - the concept of elite sport without doping, and the concept of individual human rights. This conflict between ideological or moral values and the legality of individual rights is not a novelty. This paper presents three instances of this conflict: Bernard de Mandeville's differentiation between public and private values; Eug ne Sue's parallel legal and civil morals; and the contemporary moralisation of law which conflates legality into morality. The subordination of legality to morality has potentially dangerous consequences: here, Agamben's 'state of exception' comes to mind, with his analysis of potestas and auctoritas. However, in the case of sport and the war against doping, the origin of power is not in the nation state; it originates in civil society's non-governmental national and international bodies recognised as autonomous sources of legal order. (shrink)

This article sets out to investigate aspects of the uptake of Renaissance law and medicine from some of the logical and natural-philosophical components of the university arts course. Medicine is shown to have a much laxer operative logic than law, reflecting its commitment to the theory of idiosyncrasy as opposed to the demands made upon the law by the need for a uniform application of justice. Symptomatic of the different uptake arc the contrasting meanings of "regulariter" and "generaliter" in the (...) two disciplines. Whereas the law treats the rule as inviolable and the exception as only valid if made explicit in due legal form, medicine is able to conceive of a nature as a field of knowledge broader than that encompassed by its rules of art. Both law and medicine approach evidence. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Existing literature has noticed two competing ideas about the state-citizen relationship promoted in China’s moral education curriculum: protecting one’s freedom and rights, and contributing to and even sacrificing for the country. To reconcile this contradiction, this study uses the framework of ‘neoliberalism as exception’ to analyze the textbooks of Morality and Laws, the primary teaching and learning materials in China’s moral education. Defining neoliberalism as a focus on individual conduct, including self-reliance, self-entrepreneurship, and individual rights and freedom, this (...) study shows how these textbooks selectively employ neoliberal ideas to promote an understanding of personhood where students are expected to not only practice self-reliance but also prioritize collective and national interests over their rights and freedom. This selective adoption of neoliberal tenets contributes to China’s economic development and national cohesion, but it risks perpetuating systemic inequity since all students are posited as coming from the same socioeconomic background. (shrink)

One of the important themes in contemporary global issues is police violence directed against ethnic minorities in resource-rich and industrially underdeveloped border zones and conflict areas. This study explores how Giorgio Agamben’s concept of the state of exception throws new light on arbitrary killings enacted by police and security forces. We draw on narrative vignettes based on the first author’s experience in a national security organization in the border zone of Assam in India to identify three indistinguishable organizational thresholds: (...) ordinary/extraordinary, potentiality/actuality, and celebration/intimidation, which blur the boundaries between legal and extra-legal violence. The narrative account indicates that organizational enactments within state security agencies enabling arbitrary violence include the demonization of minorities, proliferation of security agencies, emergence of new organizational forms that dilute accountability, informal celebrations of violence, construction of fictional narratives of gallantry, awards to personnel committing arbitrary killings, and the institutional disempowerment of resistors. These enactments operate within the indistinguishable organizational thresholds, entrenching the normalization of state violence. We show that the narrative vignettes are productive in revealing the complex interplay between individual experiences, organizational practices, and broader structures of the state in the context of arbitrary killings. (shrink)

Theologian. Conspirator. Martyr. Saint. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was killed in the waning days of World War II, having been implicated in the July 20th assassination attempt on Hitler. Since his death, Bonhoeffer’s life and writings have inspired contradictory responses. He is often seen as a model for Christian pacifist resistance, and more recently for violent direct political action. Bonhoeffer’s name has been invoked by violent anti-abortion protestors as well as political leaders calling for support on a ‘war on terror’ in the (...) aftermath of 9/11. Petra Brown critically analyses Bonhoeffer’s writing preceding and during his conspiracy involvement, particularly his recurring concept of the ‘extraordinary.’ Brown examines this idea in light of ‘the state of exception,’ a concept coined by the one-time Nazi jurist and political theorist, Carl Schmitt. She also draws on the existentialist philosopher Sören Kierkegaard to consider what happens when discipleship is understood as obedience to a divine command. This book aims to complicate an unreflective admiration of Bonhoeffer’s decision for conspiracy, and draws attention to the potentially dangerous implications of his emerging political theology. (shrink)

This article argues that the semiotics of the war on terrorism points at a significant shift in United States' discourses on security. This shift can best be described as a move from defence to prevention or from danger to risk. Whereas the notion of defence is closely connected to the state of war, this article claims that the war on terrorism instead institutionalises a permanent state of exception. Building upon Agamben's notion that the state of exception is the (...) non-localisable foundation of a political order, this article makes two claims. First, it argues that semiotic shifts in United States' security politics point at a general trend that, to some extent, structures international American interventions. In a sense, the semiotic shifts in American security discourse declare the United States as the sovereign of the global order: they allow the United States to exempt itself from the (international) framework of law, while demanding compliance by others. Second, it claims that this production of American sovereignty is paralleled by reducing the life of (some) individuals to the bare life of homo sacer(life that can be killed without punishment). In the war on terrorism, the production of bare life is mainly brought about by bureaucratic techniques of risk management and surveillance, which reduce human life to biographic risk profiles. (shrink)

At the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, several countries declared “states of exception,” that is, authorized legal devices that, in the face of circumstances deemed catastrophic, permit the implementation of extraordinary measures and the temporary suspension of some rights in order to restore the previous state of affairs as soon as possible. This paper offers a comparative textual analysis of the different states of exception declared in the USA, France, and Spain. I argue that these texts constitute a (...) privileged site to explore how prevalent global political logics and mainstream discourses on illness are interwoven. Regarding the global political logics in play, I hold that these declarations constitute an instantiation of democracy’s autoimmune character; it attacks itself in order to protect itself. Regarding mainstream discourses on illness, I explore how illness is regarded as a threat to one’s self (by something seemingly other) and the notion that therapy must consist of securing the self’s triumph over anything seemingly other. This twofold analysis reveals that an aporetic dialectic between self and other—as regards politics and illness—operates in these declarations, most likely because it is, in fact, one and the same dialectic, upon which Western epistemology rests. Furthermore, I suggest that these texts reflect and promote these dominant logics, contributing to shape human relationships around the globe in a certain dangerous way. (shrink)

This article examines the extensive restrictions on personal autonomy of refugees housed in emergency camps. Emergency camps are defined as a specific form of refugee camps that are strongly shaped by a state of exception and are associated with intensified limitations of their residents’ autonomy. Although originally designed as temporary accommodations, these camps often evolve into semi-permanent living environments in which people live under quasi-detention conditions. Spatial isolation, controlled access, and the extensive regulation of everyday activities create conditions under (...) which residents’ ability to perceive themselves as autonomous agents is significantly impaired. This article builds on a concept of autonomy that goes beyond mere freedom of choice. It includes the capacity to develop a coherent self-concept and to live in accordance with it. To enable this, it is essential that individuals have a broad range of options available to them in various areas of life. Autonomy is thus considered a constitutive element of well-being. The analysis presented demonstrates that a lack of autonomy can lead to self-alienation, as individuals are unable to express their self-conception through their actions. The living conditions in emergency camps severely compromise personal autonomy and, consequently, the well-being of their inhabitants, and are therefore morally unjustifiable. This paper argues that, in order to ensure a minimal level of well-being for residents of emergency camps, the highest possible degree of autonomy must be granted to them. It posits that autonomy, understood as having a wide range of choices in as many areas of life as possible, should be a central consideration in the structural and organizational planning of refugee camps. The paper concludes that for an individual to be autonomous, it is essential to have a multitude of options concerning both life and everyday decisions. Regarding emergency camp residents, however, it is particularly important that they have as many options as possible when making everyday decisions. Specific recommendations for the restructuring of emergency camps can be derived from these results. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to engage with the readers in a theoretical reflection on nursing practices in forensic psychiatric settings. In this paper, we argue that practices of exclusion in forensic psychiatric settings share some common ground with Agamben's description of sovereign power and, consequently, the possible creation of zones of exception in this environment. The concept of exception is, therefore, purposely used to shift our thinking, highlight the political forces surrounding exclusionary practices in forensic psychiatric (...) nursing, and explore the ethical tensions that arise for nurses who become entangled in the control of these zones of exception. We argue that ethical and political discussions regarding this phenomenon are necessary if we wish to further understand the complexities of this field of practice and promote constructive change. (shrink)

The present paper argues that abortion ban advocates can justify an exception for rape. Recently, Blackshaw offered an interesting argument that if abortion ban advocates modified their position along the lines of Thomson’s analysis of rights, they could make an exception for rape. However, doing so would require making concessions they would be unlikely to make, the crucial one being subscribing to an absurd view that abortion in the case of rape is permissible but only if it is (...) performed in a certain way, that is, in a way that withdraws life support from the fetus. Agreeing first with Blackshaw’s premises, we argue that the view in question is hardly absurd. Thus, relying on Boonin’s acknowledgment that although very rare, a position according to which abortion should be legal but only if it is performed in a way that lets the fetus die rather than kills it is a possible position, we argue, first, that it is Blackshaw’s position that is inconsistent, second, that since deontology sees permissibility of a given result as path-dependent, deontologically oriented abortion ban advocates should find the view in question appealing rather than absurd and, third, that although there are indeed scenarios in which withdrawing life support is morally equivalent to killing, extraction abortions in the case of rape are not amongst them. Since in the case of rape the fetus is not entitled to life support, extraction abortions are better classified as permissible non-omissive allowings than impermissible killings. Thus, there is nothing absurd in the view that abortion in the case of rape is permissible but only if it is performed in a certain way. Accordingly, adopting this view does not seem to be much of a concession for abortion ban advocates who can therefore make an exception for rape. (shrink)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Knud Ejler Løgstrup were WWII contemporaries: Lutheran theologians and religious figures in their respective German and Danish communities; both active in the anti-Nazi resistance. Being involved in the resistance, Bonhoeffer and Løgstrup were required to rethink what it meant to be ethical, in particular in relation to disclosure and the telling of truth, in a situation of war. In this paper, we consider the grounds on which both Løgstrup and Bonhoeffer acted, their belief in a duty or (...) requirement to resist, in light of the more general problem presented by resistance as action undertaken in a state of exception. We investigate the distinction between the normativity of ordinary or stable time, and action required in a state of exception, using the specific example of truth-telling as a normative demand and its conflict with the exceptional imperative to lie. The example of truth-telling raises important questions about the role of agency and phronetic judgment in a state of exception. In order to determine a foundation for such judgment, we turn to the framework adapted by both Bonhoeffer and Løgstrup to ground their requirement to lie: Luther’s concept of three estates. We consider how their respective concepts of mandates and laws of life/sovereign expressions of life both illuminate and highlight the more general problem of the relation between norm and exceptional action. (shrink)

Exception phrases often consist of an exceptive marker and a noun phrase. Though these markers all have to do with making exceptions, they differ somewhat in their semantic properties. This chapter focuses on English and on its presumably most typical exceptive marker: except. Except can be inserted in sentences in several different positions. The distinction between free and connected exception phrases is discussed. This chapter also casts some doubt on the so-called Inclusion Condition and the Negative Condition (in (...) its various versions), arguing that these are often too strong, but suggests a principle of exception conservativity that seems to hold generally. The so-called Quantifier Constraint, which says that only the quantifiers _every_ and _no_ admit exceptions, is examined. (shrink)

This study takes the graphic novel V for Vendetta as a reference for the debate on the relationship between citizens and a Government based on authoritarian laws, in which we can identify a “Rule of Law” not at all democratic. Moreover, it proposes a discussion over the strategies that in the plot are used to overcome the state of exception, in a dialogue with the political theories of Walter Benjamin, Carl Schmitt e Giorgio Agamben. Published in the 80s in (...) England, V for Vendetta was written as a critical instrument against the government of Margaret Thatcher, marked by authoritarian and conservative elements. In the graphic novel, revolution and anarchy seemed to be the only way to promote a real change in the authoritarian government (in the state of exception) of the story. It is an interesting illustration that provokes the reader to the polarization of two ideas: on the one hand, the call for a strong and centralized power able to promote order and to fight war and instability; on the other, the apology of anarchy as a resource to fight the subjection of citizens and despotism. In order to discuss those ideas we resort to authors such as Hardt and Negri that claim that we can live in a world dominated by the masses. V for Vendetta is an up-to-date story that can be useful for the discussions on State of Exception and Rule of Law. One can easily find some of its elements in today’s society, such as the constant struggle of certain groups against the illegitimate control of the State. Besides, it provide us with a striking example of a literary work that exceeds its own pages and have become a symbolic living part of our time, as the mask of the protagonist has been used for many protesters around the globe. (shrink)

This chapter builds a foundation to critically analyse the ethical and political implications of Bonhoeffer’s concept of the ‘extraordinary situation’. It does so through an investigation of a key concept, introduced by the most prominent theorist of the ‘exception’ in the twentieth century, Carl Schmitt. In Political Theology (1933), Schmitt introduces the ‘state of exception’ in connection with strong sovereignty and the event of war. This chapter considers the political and social implications of Schmitt’s account of exception, (...) in particular the danger of dictatorship, the loss of a democratic and shared world and the introduction of a force or violence without boundaries. (shrink)

The theory of life that Badiou proposes at the end of Logics of Worlds is considered in this paper as a retooling of the old idea that the human is an exception in the order of things. What distinguishes Badiou’s account of the human from others though is the fact that it posits the human not as an exception from other animals, nor as an exception to ordinary life, but an exception that is other to the (...) individual as such. The way in which Alexandre Kojève framed the human in his reading of Hegel is used to establish the basic philosophical grammar for Badiou’s thinking about the human. What Badiou calls “democratic materialism” – his philosophical nemesis – is also considered from the perspective of that grammar. (shrink)

This chapter critically analyses Bonhoeffer’s concept of the ‘extraordinary situation’ in light of Schmitt’s idea of the ‘state of exception’. It considers the extent to which Bonhoeffer’s writing on the ‘extraordinary situation’ suffers from the same dangers inherent in Schmitt’s thinking around exception. It suggests that Bonhoeffer’s concept of the ‘extraordinary’ potentially radicalises Schmitt’s concept of ‘exception’ as it extends to each disciple or follower of Christ, thereby potentially authorising each follower of Christ to enact violence in (...) a ‘last resort’ scenario. (shrink)

In this chapter, we deal with the change from the exception to the rule in biological systems, both by the action of nature and by the changes that occur due to human action. We talk about the origin of life on planet Earth, the first organisms that colonized primitive environments and changed the atmosphere, giving rise to new forms of life, the appearance of eukaryotic, multicellular organisms, and the different forms of reproduction. We focus on events and changes that (...) were initially considered teratological and that are familiar to our current vision. We also mention adaptations, plasticity, and different phenotypes that became advantages and allowed organisms to continue living in different environments. On the other hand, we point to global processes that affect humans and that in many cases are caused by humans. We discuss examples of diseases that turn into pandemics, the processes of environmental pollution, and accelerated climate change. Finally, we will discuss the changes in scientific ideas, which are closely linked to the social context at each moment in human history, the changes in the different fields of study and within society itself. (shrink)

Giorgio Agamben defines the sacred man or Homo Sacer as one who is not worthy of sacrifice. Having lost all rights, the person is reduced to the non-human. In modern times, banishment or banning by the law occurs when a state of exception is sanctioned by a totalitarian supremacy that suspends judicial power. The state of exception does not lie within or outside the boundaries of the judicial order, but in a zone of indifference. The state of (...) class='Hi'>exception in which the norm is annulled represents the inclusion, which in turn captures the space in which law becomes suspended. Here, I discuss how the authorities in José Saramago's Blindness and The Cave function within the law of exception, confining and defining space, and ultimately marking the Homo Sacer. (shrink)

Dans cet article, nous relions la solitude à la souffrance chez Kierkegaard. Nous montrons que la pensée existentielle est un travail de distance, précisément un jeu de dissimulation dont la signification réside dans la capacité à sauvegarder le silence. Le secret de intériorité est intraduisible dans l’extériorité du langage, ce qui isole et fait souffrir, mais ouvre le passage vers le religieux. Dieu seul peut voir les efforts de l’existant dissimulant dialectiquement sa souffrance dans la différence entre l’infini et le (...) fini. Pour illustrer cette thèse, nous approfondissons les cas où Kierkegaard présente la souffrance en recourant à des figures d’exception — des marqueurs de solitude — comme Abraham, Job et le quidam. Nous relisons l’« Histoire de la souffrance » des Stades et le Post-scriptum pour mieux saisir les liens entre la souffrance et la solitude — une idée qui se trouve justifiée dans le Point de vue explicatif — de celui qui se veut, finalement, seul devant Dieu. (shrink)

This article questions whether we can posit a more radical desuturing of the law from the event: Can radical shifts in law produce events? Can the law itself be an event, thereby conditioning the very nature of the event itself, creating a new subjectivity and a new time? I would like to argue that the law can do so. How? Badiou begins “The Three Negations” by discussing the work of the German jurist Carl Schmitt. I would like to argue that (...) the state of exception, as elaborated by Carl Schmitt, can serve as the willed decision of a sovereign that brings about an event. We can understand the sovereign as a kind of legal subject that has the force to bring about a new event, rupturing with an established order and introducing a new form of subjectivity and time. (shrink)

The concept of the exception has heavily shaped modern political theory. In modernity, Kierkegaard was one of the first philosophers to propound the exception as a facilitator of metaphysical transcendence. Merging Kierkegaard’s metaphysical exception with early modern political theorist Jean Bodin’s theory of sovereignty, Carl Schmitt introduced sovereignty to metaphysics. He thereby made an early modern concept usable in a post-metaphysical world. This essay carries Schmitt’s appropriation one step further. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s replacement of transcendental metaphysics (...) with contingent creaturehood, it reintroduces the anti-foundationalist concept of repetition that was implicit in Kierkegaard’s paradigm but which was not made lucid until Benjamin crafted from the Schmittian exception a vision of political life grounded in creaturely existence. -/- . (shrink)

Clinical trials in emergency situations present unique challenges, because they involve enrolling individuals who lack capacity to consent in the context of acute illness or injury. The US Department of Health and Human Services and Food and Drug Administration regulations allowing an Exception from Informed Consent in these circumstances contain requirements for community consultation, public disclosure and restrictions on study risks and benefits. In this paper, we analyse an issue raised in the regulations that has received little attention or (...) analysis but is ethically complex. This challenge is when to solicit and honour objections to EFIC trial enrolment, including from non-legally appointed representatives. We address novel questions involving whose objections should be honoured, what level of understanding is necessary for objections to be considered valid and how hard investigators should work to offer an opportunity to object. We present a set of criteria that provide conceptual and practical guidance. We argue that objections should be honoured if they undermine one of the key assumptions that allows for the permissibility of EFIC trials: that individuals would likely not object to enrolment based on their values or preferences. We then clarify the practical implications of this approach through examination of three cases of refusal in an EFIC study. (shrink)

Despite a vast amount of research into school bullying and the widespread implementation of anti-bullying policies and programs, large numbers of students continue to report that they are routinely subjected to bullying by their peers. In this theoretical article, I argue that part of the problem is that there has been a lack of critical discussion of the theoretical foundations upon which such studies are based. Drawing on recent theoretical contributions within the field of school bullying, the work of anthropologist (...) James C. Scott, and the work of philosophers Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, I take particular issue with the notion of power that has long been a foundational pillar of bullying definitions. Utilizing a Foucauldian understanding of power, I argue that rather than focusing on the power imbalance involved in bullying relations, focus instead needs to shift onto the role that bullying plays in power relations. Reimagining Agamben’s figure of homo sacer as a victim of school bullying, I consider the ways in which some individuals are reduced to bare life and forced into a state of exception whereby social laws are no longer deemed applicable. The article concludes with a discussion of how this state of exception might be challenged. (shrink)

The formal justice model proposed by Anita Silvers in Disability, Discrimination, and Difference emphasizes the social model of disability and the need for full equality of opportunity, and it suggests that a distributive model of justice that gives special benefits to individuals with disabilities is self-defeating. Yet in that work, Silvers allows an exception for the "profoundly impaired." In this paper, I show how the formal justice theory falls short when it comes to defining and dealing with "profoundly impaired" (...) individuals and explore the ways in which making the exception raises serious theoretical concerns for the grounding of the formal justice model. (shrink)

Objectives: To examine the willingness of patients to participate in a resuscitation study that requires exception from informed consent and to determine if willingness to participate is associated with demographic and other characteristics.Methods: Adult patients in an emergency department and in a geriatric outpatient clinic were surveyed. Patients were asked to imagine that they presented to an emergency department with cardiac arrest and asked about their willingness to receive a new drug outside of a study, receive a new drug (...) as part of a study and participate in a randomised controlled trial for a new drug. Patients were also asked about participation in studies of invasive procedures.Results: 213 patients from a geriatric clinic and 207 from an emergency department were surveyed. Two thirds of patients from the geriatric clinic and 83% from the emergency department were willing to receive an experimental drug outside of a study. Patients were less willing to participate in a study of the new drug and even less likely to participate in an RCT for the new drug . Patients were less likely to participate in a study of thoracotomy than in a study that required placement of a femoral catheter . Willingness to participate was not associated with trust in the doctors.Conclusions: Study design and invasiveness of the intervention were associated with the willingness of patients to participate in resuscitation studies that require exception from informed consent. (shrink)

OBJECTIVE: To apply component analysis, a structured approach to the ethical analysis of risks and potential benefits in research, to published emergency research using a waiver of/exception from informed consent. The hypothesis was that component analysis could be used with a high degree of interrater reliability, and that the vast majority of emergency research would comply with a minimal-risk threshold. METHODS: A Medline search and manual search were done to identify studies using a waiver of/exception from informed consent (...) published between July 1996 and December 2000. A review panel of physicians and bioethicists independently classified nontherapeutic procedures in each study as minimal risk, probably minimal risk, or probably more than minimal risk. RESULTS: Seventy studies using a waiver of/exception from informed consent were identified. A majority of reviewers classified nontherapeutic procedures in 62 studies (88.6%) as minimal risk. Reviewers classified nontherapeutic procedures in six studies (8.6%) as minimal risk or probably minimal risk. In two studies (2.9%), nontherapeutic procedures were classified as probably more than minimal risk. The intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.89 (95% CI = 0.85 to 0.93), indicating very high interrater reliability. CONCLUSIONS: Component analysis can be used with high reliability to review emergency research and may improve the consistency of institutional review board review of emergency research. The vast majority of published emergency research performed using a waiver of/exception from consent complies with a properly-applied minimal-risk threshold. A minimal-risk threshold for nontherapeutic procedures protects subjects better than current U.S. regulations while permitting important emergency research to continue. (shrink)

The paper begins with analysing Schmitt’s essential work Political Theology, 100 years after its publication. In it, the German legal philosopher formulated the concept of political theology, which indicates the relationship between the state of exception and decisionism as a form of legal-political thinking. The contribution of the paper is reflected in its emphasis on the importance of a twofold understanding of the concept of the state of exception: in the first place, as a notion of the (...) class='Hi'>exception that funds the philosophy of law and legal theory, and in the second as the state of exception that marks the constitutional category of the state of emergency. Schmitt will insist that the question of the state of exception is not a question of a mere state of necessity or emergency but a broader philosophical-legal concept based on the metaphysical origin of voluntary decision. The sovereign is not the one who decides “in” but “on” the state of exception, which means that, according to the decisionist model, he is just establishing it. Schmitt’s controversial book rarely left anyone indifferent, so it was supported by both right-wing and left-wing political theorists and philosophers, and it must be reconsidered today as a warning about the danger of the concept of the state of exception (state of emergency), which is increasingly becoming a political issue. (shrink)