scholarly journals Reflections on the Enlightenment and Modernity: In Our Plague Year

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 247-255
Author(s):  
Margaret C. Jacob

Abstract Written as a polemical piece, the essay confronts the detractors of the Enlightenment and modernity. It asks if science is simply a social construction, how can we put so much faith in it to help solve the current crisis brought about by COVID-19? If we turn away from the Enlightenment and its values, how can we deploy liberal solutions to work in our current predicament and preserve what is progressive within modernity?

Author(s):  
Janicce Martínez Richard

An overview of critical-discursive Social Constructionism is presented, showing its historical development and its critique of any methodological approaches that do not take into consideration the social-historical reality. In particular, it criticises the dualistic ‘external object - cognitive subject’ position of the Positivist current that has its roots in the Enlightenment and later in Modernity, which leads to a conception of reason and scientific truth as supposedly incontrovertible realities outside of any historical and social construction. Finally, social constructionism is presented not as a formal theory grounded of strict methodological principles, but rather as an approach that attempts to show the limitations of certain scientific or methodological views, emphasising the importance of social construction through language and the relative relevance of different positions, from which a certain vindication of epistemological relativism emerges.


Chronos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 7-48
Author(s):  
Nikos Chrysoloras

The aim of this paper is to describe, analyse and explain the historical emergence of nationalism in Greece. Initially, and in accordance with the modernist approach, we will be arguing that the emergence of the nationalist phenomenon in Greece is inseparably linked with the objective conditions of modernity. The emergence of an educated Greek-speaking middle class, the development of trade and industry, and the diffusion of the liberal, secular and scientific spirit of the Enlightenment in the Greek peninsula, were instrumental factors for the construction of the idea of the nation. In that sense, the Greek nation- like every nation- is an historical and social construction, which emerges as a result of the fundamental split between the pre-modern and the modern.


Soft Power ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-150
Author(s):  
Matthias Flatscher ◽  
Sergej Seitz

This paper, first published in German in Le Foucaldien 4(1) 2018 and in English in Le Foucaldien 6(1) 2020, explores Bruno Latour’s critique of contemporary critical theory. According to Latour, poststructuralist conceptions of critical inquiry are becoming increasingly outdated. In our “post-factual” era, attempting to expose facts as results of power-laden processes of social construction plays into the hands of anti-scientific obscurantists. This is not to say, however, that one ought to opt for some reductionist notion of objectivity. Instead, Latour proposes a new form of critical realism. While we agree with Latour about the necessity of widening our epistemological paradigm, we deem his critique of poststructuralism unfair and exaggerated. Moreover, we argue that he fails to account for the relationship between epistemology, power, and subjectivity. Since Foucault, on the other hand, succeeds where Latour falls short and probes into this very relationship, his is a form of critique that remains crucial to tackling the current crisis of truth.


2000 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 657-660
Author(s):  
Mary Gergen
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  

1992 ◽  
Vol 37 (11) ◽  
pp. 1186-1186
Author(s):  
Garth J. O. Fletcher

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (04) ◽  
pp. 294-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lutz S. Freudenberg ◽  
Ulf Dittmer ◽  
Ken Herrmann

Abstract Introduction Preparations of health systems to accommodate large number of severely ill COVID-19 patients in March/April 2020 has a significant impact on nuclear medicine departments. Materials and Methods A web-based questionnaire was designed to differentiate the impact of the pandemic on inpatient and outpatient nuclear medicine operations and on public versus private health systems, respectively. Questions were addressing the following issues: impact on nuclear medicine diagnostics and therapy, use of recommendations, personal protective equipment, and organizational adaptations. The survey was available for 6 days and closed on April 20, 2020. Results 113 complete responses were recorded. Nearly all participants (97 %) report a decline of nuclear medicine diagnostic procedures. The mean reduction in the last three weeks for PET/CT, scintigraphies of bone, myocardium, lung thyroid, sentinel lymph-node are –14.4 %, –47.2 %, –47.5 %, –40.7 %, –58.4 %, and –25.2 % respectively. Furthermore, 76 % of the participants report a reduction in therapies especially for benign thyroid disease (-41.8 %) and radiosynoviorthesis (–53.8 %) while tumor therapies remained mainly stable. 48 % of the participants report a shortage of personal protective equipment. Conclusions Nuclear medicine services are notably reduced 3 weeks after the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic reached Germany, Austria and Switzerland on a large scale. We must be aware that the current crisis will also have a significant economic impact on the healthcare system. As the survey cannot adapt to daily dynamic changes in priorities, it serves as a first snapshot requiring follow-up studies and comparisons with other countries and regions.


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