Background Considering the disruptive potential of AI technology, its current and future impact in healthcare, as well as healthcare professionals’ lack of training in how to use it, the paper summarizes how to approach the challenges of AI from an ethical and legal perspective. It concludes with suggestions for improvements to help healthcare professionals better navigate the AI wave. Methods We analyzed the literature that specifically discusses ethics and law related to the development and implementation of AI in healthcare as (...) well as relevant normative documents that pertain to both ethical and legal issues. After such analysis, we created categories regrouping the most frequently cited and discussed ethical and legal issues. We then proposed a breakdown within such categories that emphasizes the different - yet often interconnecting - ways in which ethics and law are approached for each category of issues. Finally, we identified several key ideas for healthcare professionals and organizations to better integrate ethics and law into their practices. Results We identified six categories of issues related to AI development and implementation in healthcare: (1) privacy; (2) individual autonomy; (3) bias; (4) responsibility and liability; (5) evaluation and oversight; and (6) work, professions and the job market. While each one raises different questions depending on perspective, we propose three main legal and ethical priorities: education and training of healthcare professionals, offering support and guidance throughout the use of AI systems, and integrating the necessary ethical and legal reflection at the heart of the AI tools themselves. Conclusions By highlighting the main ethical and legal issues involved in the development and implementation of AI technologies in healthcare, we illustrate their profound effects on professionals as well as their relationship with patients and other organizations in the healthcare sector. We must be able to identify AI technologies in medical practices and distinguish them by their nature so we can better react and respond to them. Healthcare professionals need to work closely with ethicists and lawyers involved in the healthcare system, or the development of reliable and trusted AI will be jeopardized. (shrink)

Alan Gewirth's Reason and Morality directed philosophical attention to the possibility of presenting a rational and rigorous demonstration of fundamental moral principles. Now, these previously unpublished essays from some of the most distinguished philosophers of our generation subject Gewirth's program to thorough evaluation and assessment. In a tour de force of philosophical analysis, Professor Gewirth provides detailed replies to all of his critics--a major, genuinely clarifying essay of intrinsic philosophical interest.

In the present work, the notion of chemical element is analyzed from the perspective of chemical education. Chemists refer to elements either as the final term of chemical analysis (i.e., simple substances) or as what persists in a chemical change. This duality has deep historical roots and it is sanctioned by IUPAC’s definition of chemical element. Nevertheless, it is inherently contradictory and it may result in deep misunderstandings in the educational context. After discussing the problems raised by the identification of (...) the element with any material body—either macroscopic or microscopic—we analyze a number of definitions of elements, proposed by chemists, epistemologists, and educators. After pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of such definitions, we argue that the chemical element is a unifying chemical concept that designates an abstract category, identified by the atomic number. (shrink)

Existe-t-il une rationalité de la décision judiciaire qui ne soit pas tributaire de sa justification juridique? C’est ce que présuppose toute théorie qui prétendrait rendre compte de manière causale et empirique de l’action du juge. Une telle ambition se heurte toutefois aux difficultés ontologiques et heuristiques posées par l’intentionnalité : caractériser le sens d’une action ou d’une décision n’est pas le fruit d’une simple observation mais de sa rationalisation au regard d’une norme de comportement stipulée. Une explication causale de la (...) décision judiciaire risque dès lors d’être circulaire ou privée d’intérêt du point de vue d’une théorie du droit. Le « problème de l’intentionnalité », c’est-à-dire le fait qu’une décision judiciaire puisse méconnaître la norme pour l’application de laquelle elle a été rendue et produire néanmoins des effets de droit, peut en revanche être surmonté dans le cadre d’une approche normativiste de la décision et d’une conception dynamique du système juridique dans le prolongement des travaux d’Hans Kelsen et de l’école de Vienne en théorie du droit. (shrink)

In recent years, the definition of mole, the unit of the amount of substance, has changed to have the base units of the International System defined by “explicit-constant” formulations. The old definition, by referring explicitly to both mass and elementary units, suggests that the mole is a bridge between the macroscopic and microscopic registers. Conversely, the new definition emphasizes the aspect of counting, referred to any kind of elementary unit. Paradoxically, this results in the disappearance of the notion of substance (...) from the very unit of the quantity amount of substance. This change of definition elicited both positive and negative remarks from various authors, in relation to its epistemological, disciplinary, lexical and educational implications. In the present paper, we analyze some of these issues, highlighting the (conflicting) motivations of metrologists and chemists. We argue that the new definition of mole reflects a view of chemistry according to which the microscopic perspective prevails, possibly entailing the loss of reference to the macroscopic register; this could be related with the profound change undergone by the cognitive practices of chemistry along this last century. (shrink)

Background: Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease in which the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons leads to initially sporadic and eventually widespread damage of the nervous system resulting in significant musculoskeletal and cognitive deterioration. Loss of motor function alongside increasing cognitive impairment is part of the natural disease progression. Gait is often considered an automatic activity; however, walking is the result of a delicate balance of multiple systems which maintain the body’s center of mass over an ever-changing base of support. (...) It is a complex motor behavior that requires components of attention and memory to prevent falls and injury. In addition, evidence points to the critical role of salient visual information to gait adaptability. There is a growing understanding that treatment for PD needs to address movement as it occurs naturally and walking needs to be practiced in more complex environments than traditional therapy has provided.MethodsIn this single-blinded randomized-controlled pilot study, an immersive treadmill training was piloted to determine feasibility and preliminary efficacy on gait and cognition in people with PD. Eighteen participants with Hoehn and Yahr stages I-III PD were randomized to either an intervention or a waitlist control group. Following baseline data collection, the intervention group trained for 30 min, three times/week for 4 weeks on a split belt treadmill combined with a first-person immersive video game targeting visuospatial skills and working memory. Assessment was repeated after 4 weeks of training for the experimental group and 1-month after baseline for the control group. Primary motor outcomes were captured with the APDM Opal sensors during 6 MWT, TUG, and TUG Cognitive. Secondary outcomes of cognition were measured with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Verbal Fluency and the Symbol Digit Modality Test. Within subject differences were calculated using the Wilcoxon Signed Ranked Test and between subject comparisons were analyzed using the Mann Whitney U-test.ResultsThis novel treadmill training program was well-tolerated with all participants in the intervention group completing 4 weeks of training three times a week without any adverse effects. After immersive cognitive motor training, the experimental group made clinically relevant improvements in gait speed and walking distance during the 6 MWT while members of the control group showed no change or decreased gait speed and walking distance over the 1-month trial. In addition, the experimental group demonstrated significant improvement for the TUG Cognitive and those changes were greater than the control group. The experimental group also improved scores on MoCA and SDMT cognitive outcome measures while the control group did not.ConclusionThe use of immersive gaming technology to engage specific areas of cognition related to gait is feasible in PD. The treadmill training program paired with a customized interactive video game improved walking velocity in addition to non-significant but consistent improvements in other gait measures and cognitive performance in participants with early to mid-stage PD. (shrink)

Penser l’acte de décider en droit comme une opération mentale d’interprétation conduit bien souvent à en faire un objet métaphysique donné à la connaissance du droit et non construit par elle. Cette réification implique également de recourir à un modèle causal de la décision judiciaire, lequel recèle de nombreuses difficultés au regard du caractère proprement juridique d’une telle enquête. En appréhendant cette problématique de la décision par les outils de la philosophie analytique de l’esprit et de l’action, cet article entend (...) défendre une autre approche qui, dans le prolongement des travaux du juriste Hans Kelsen, s’efforce de penser la décision judiciaire comme un acte de justification au sein d’un cadre de rationalité stipulé. (shrink)

« Deuxième du titre, ces Mythologiques prolongent l'enquête inaugurée dans le Cru et le cuit. Aussi, avons-nous pris soin de récapituler au début, tout en les éclairant d'un nouveau jour, les renseignements indispensables, pour qu'on puisse, sans connaître l e précédent volume, se lancer hardiment dans celui-ci qui prétend montrer que la terre de la Mythologie est ronde ».