Aquinas's Explanatory Framework: The Four Causes

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-48
Author(s):  
Robert Pasnau ◽  
Christopher Shields
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
Four Causes

Distinguishing The Cognitive Processes Of Mindfulness: Developing A Standardised Mindfulness Technique For Use In Longitudinal Randomised Control Trials

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Isbel ◽  
Mathew J Summers
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Mindfulness Training ◽  
Mindfulness Practice ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
Cognitive Faculty ◽  
Metacognitive Processes ◽  
Capacity Model ◽  
Developmental Progression ◽  
Open Monitoring ◽  
Randomised Control Trials

A capacity model of mindfulness is adopted to differentiate the cognitive faculty of mindfulness from the metacognitive processes required to cultivate this faculty in mindfulness training. The model provides an explanatory framework incorporating both the developmental progression from focussed attention to open monitoring styles of mindfulness practice, along with the development of equanimity and insight. A standardised technique for activating these processes without the addition of secondary components is then introduced. Mindfulness-based interventions currently available for use in randomised control trials introduce components ancillary to the cognitive processes of mindfulness, limiting their ability to draw clear causative inferences. The standardised technique presented here does not introduce such ancillary factors, rendering it a valuable tool with which to investigate the processes activated in this practice.

Aristotle's Four Causes

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Hennig
Keyword(s):  
Four Causes

Aristotle on Principles as Elements

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Malink
Keyword(s):  
Four Causes

In his discussion of the four causes, Aristotle claims that ‘the hypotheses are material causes of the conclusion’ (Physics 2. 3, MetaphysicsΔ‎ 2). This claim has puzzled commentators since antiquity. It is usually taken to mean that the premisses of any deduction are material causes of the conclusion. By contrast, I argue that the claim does not apply to deductions in general but only to scientific demonstrations. For Aristotle, the theorems of a given science are composites consisting of the indemonstrable premisses from which they are demonstrated. Accordingly, these premisses are elements, and hence material causes, of the theorems. In this way, Aristotle’s claim can be shown to be well motivated and illuminating.

Toward a Nonidealist Evolutionary Synthesis

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart A. Newman
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Theory ◽  
Raw Material ◽  
Evolutionary Synthesis ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Evolution Of Development ◽  
Search Process ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
Material Systems ◽  
Modern Physics

The received model of evolution sees all inherited features resulting from deterministic networks of interacting genes, implying that living systems are reducible to information in genetic programs. The model requires these programs and their associated phenotypes to have evolved by an isotropic search process occurring in gradual steps with no preferred morphological outcomes. The alternative is to recognize that clusters and aggregates of cells, the raw material of evolution, constitute middle-scale material systems. This implies the necessity of bringing the modern physics of mesoscale matter into the explanatory framework for the evolution of development. The relevant, often nonlinear, physical processes were mobilized at the inception of the phyla when their signature morphological outcomes first appeared and remain as efficient causes, albeit transformed, in present-day embryos. This physicogenetic perspective reengages with concepts of saltation, orthogenesis, and environment-induced plasticity long excluded from evolutionary theory.

scholarly journals Postcolonial theory and Canada’s health care professions: bridging the gap

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Wilmot
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Professional Knowledge ◽  
Healthcare Personnel ◽  
Positive Outcomes ◽  
Training Context ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
Health Care Professions

AbstractIn recent years there have been several calls in professional and academic journals for healthcare personnel in Canada to raise the profile of postcolonial theory as a theoretical and explanatory framework for their practice with Indigenous people. In this paper I explore some of the challenges that are likely to confront those healthcare personnel in engaging with postcolonial theory in a training context. I consider these challenges in relation to three areas of conflict. First I consider conflicts around paradigms of knowledge, wherein postcolonial theory operates from a different base from most professional knowledge in health care. Second I consider conflicts of ideology, wherein postcolonial theory is largely at odds with Canada’s political and popular cultures. And finally I consider issues around the question of Canada’s legitimacy, which postcolonial theory puts in doubt. I suggest ways in which these conflicts might be addressed and managed in the training context, and also identify potential positive outcomes that would be enabling for healthcare personnel, and might also contribute to an improvement in Canada’s relationship with its indigenous peoples.

Autopoiesis and evolution: the role of organisms in natural drift

2021 ◽  
pp. 105971232110306
Author(s):  
Vincenzo Raimondi
Keyword(s):  
Living Systems ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
Alternative Framework ◽  
Natural Drift ◽  
Genetic Reductionism ◽  
Development And Evolution

Genetic reductionism is increasingly seen as a severely limited approach to understanding living systems. The Neo-Darwinian explanatory framework tends to overlook the role of the organism for an understanding of development and evolution. In the current fast-changing theoretical landscape, the autopoietic approach provides conceptual distinctions and tools that may contribute to building an alternative framework. In this article, I examine the implications of the theories of autopoiesis and natural drift for an organism-centered view of evolution. By shifting the attention from genes to ontogenetic organism-niche configurations and their transformations over generations, this approach presents a compelling perspective on the role of organismal behavior in guiding phylogenetic drift.

scholarly journals Monitoring progress with national and subnational health goals by integrating verbal autopsy and medically certified cause of death data

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. e005387
Author(s):  
Tim Adair ◽  
Sonja Firth ◽  
Tint Pa Pa Phyo ◽  
Khin Sandar Bo ◽  
Alan D Lopez
Keyword(s):  
Cause Of Death ◽  
Verbal Autopsy ◽  
Integration Method ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
Death Registration ◽  
Chronic Respiratory Diseases ◽  
Health Goals ◽  
Specific Mortality ◽  
Four Causes

IntroductionThe measurement of progress towards many Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and other health goals requires accurate and timely all-cause and cause of death (COD) data. However, existing guidance to countries to calculate these indicators is inadequate for populations with incomplete death registration and poor-quality COD data. We introduce a replicable method to estimate national and subnational cause-specific mortality rates (and hence many such indicators) where death registration is incomplete by integrating data from Medical Certificates of Cause of Death (MCCOD) for hospital deaths with routine verbal autopsy (VA) for community deaths.MethodsThe integration method calculates population-level cause-specific mortality fractions (CSMFs) from the CSMFs of MCCODs and VAs weighted by estimated deaths in hospitals and the community. Estimated deaths are calculated by applying the empirical completeness method to incomplete death registration/reporting. The resultant cause-specific mortality rates are used to estimate SDG Indicator 23: mortality between ages 30 and 70 years from cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. We demonstrate the method using nationally representative data in Myanmar, comprising over 42 000 VAs and 7600 MCCODs.ResultsIn Myanmar in 2019, 89% of deaths were estimated to occur in the community. VAs comprised an estimated 70% of community deaths. Both the proportion of deaths in the community and CSMFs for the four causes increased with older age. We estimated that the probability of dying from any of the four causes between 30 and 70 years was 0.265 for men and 0.216 for women. This indicator is 50% higher if based on CSMFs from the integration of data sources than on MCCOD data from hospitals.ConclusionThis integration method facilitates country authorities to use their data to monitor progress with national and subnational health goals, rather than rely on estimates made by external organisations. The method is particularly relevant given the increasing application of routine VA in country Civil Registration and Vital Statistics systems.

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