Betting on CPR: a modern version of Pascal’s Wager

Many patients believe that cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is more likely to be successful than it really is in clinical practice. Even when working with accurate information, some nevertheless remain resolute in demanding maximal treatment. They maintain that even if survival after cardiac arrest with CPR is extremely low, the fact remains that it is still greater than the probability of survival after cardiac arrest without CPR (ie, zero). Without realising it, this line of reasoning is strikingly similar to Pascal’s Wager, a Renaissance-era argument for accepting the proposition for God’s existence. But while the original argument is quite logical—if not universally compelling—the modern variant makes several erroneous assumptions. The authors here present a case of a patient who unwittingly appeals to Pascal’s Wager to explain his request for maximal treatment, in order to highlight the crucial divergences from the original Wager. In understanding the faulty assumptions inherent in the application of Pascal’s Wager to code status decisions—and identifying the underlying motivations which the Wager serves to confirm—providers can better ensure that the true values and preferences of patients are upheld.

Flipped Classroom Evaluation using the Teaching Analysis Poll

The increasing digitalization also affects universities. Therefore, electronic teaching is experiencing an upwind. Flipped Classroom is a special form of digital teaching is. Here, the basics are taught via online content and are interactively deepened in presence phases in class. For this quite modern variant of blended learning, there are numerous case descriptions in research with different evaluations available. However, a systematic examination of the evaluation of this form of teaching has not yet been carried out. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to diminish this research gap and to present the model of the Teaching Analysis Poll (TAP) as a systematic and easy to handle evaluation method in the Flipped Classroom. After a short review of recent research in the corresponding areas, we give a systematic overview of evaluations of Flipped Classroom. We introduce from the example of a Flipped Classroom Course the application of TAP as an adequate evaluation format.

Twofold Freedom and Contingency

The paper shows that the semantic complex of freedom assumes the form of a twofold freedom as horizontally differentiated realms of meaning gain autonomy: on the one side, individual and interpersonal freedom, and, on the other side, the freedom and self-determination of social fields or subsystems, both of which presuppose, stabilize, and destabilize one another. This co-constitution is proven with three exemplary thinkers. Simmel sees money as a decisive factor in the genesis of the modern social form of freedom and individuality. His argument is brought into systematic comparison with Constant’s prior work on individual freedom in European modernity, and with Luhmann’s later notion of contingency and constitutionally guaranteed freedom of communication as prerequisite for factual differentiation. It is demonstrated that in Simmel’s work, the modern variant of the social form of freedom is described as a specific interrelation that ties the objectification of culture to a depersonalisation of social differentiation as well as to a temporalization of dependencies.

Bone memory: the necrogeography of the Armenian Genocide in Dayr al-Zur, Syria

This article discusses how Armenians have collected, displayed and exchanged the bones of their murdered ancestors in formal and informal ceremonies of remembrance in Dayr al-Zur, Syria – the final destination for hundreds of thousands of Armenians during the deportations of 1915. These pilgrimages – replete with overlapping secular and nationalist motifs – are a modern variant of historical pilgrimage practices; yet these bones are more than relics. Bone rituals, displays and vernacular memorials are enacted in spaces of memory that lie outside of official state memorials, making unmarked sites of atrocity more legible. Vernacular memorial practices are of particular interest as we consider new archives for the history of the Armenian Genocide. The rehabilitation of this historical site into public consciousness is particularly urgent, since the Armenian Genocide Memorial Museum and Martyr’s Church at the centre of the pilgrimage site were both destroyed by ISIS (Islamic State in Syria) in 2014.

Whither climate change post-Paris?

The Paris Climate Agreement has been welcomed by many as providing a remarkably strong basis for global action on anthropogenically mediated climate change, by underpinning a highly ambitious, very clever and forward-looking political process. On the other hand, the sum total of the fresh emission reductions pledged is very small. A new climate-economics model is explored to help focus on two key points remaining at issue post-Paris, namely where are we now and where are we headed? The output reinforces the unpalatable finding that in the absence of even stronger carbon-pricing policies, temperatures and sea-level will, this century, rise significantly beyond what are currently deemed to be ‘dangerous’ levels. Pigouvian taxes have long been championed by economists as providing a simple, down-to-earth corrective remedy for market failures, such as excessive carbon emissions. The Wilsonian modification, or ‘feebate’, provides an attractive modern variant that could easily be implemented post-Paris.

Addiction: The dance between concept and terms

Room, R., Hellman, M., & Stenius, K. (2015). Addiction: The dance between concept and terms. The International Journal Of Alcohol And Drug Research, 4(1), 27-35. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v4i1.199The paper discusses the relation between a concept of addiction and the terminology used for its communication, drawing on and analyzing historical citations from the Oxford English Dictionary. The history of words used in English illustrates that terms for a concept change over time, often by an existing word being repurposed. “Addiction” as a term existed prior to the contemporary concept, but with a descriptive meaning that did not carry the explanatory power intrinsic in the modern variant. So its use as a word for the modern conception of the addiction phenomenon was delayed well beyond the emergence of the concept. The experience in English of interplay between concept and terms is discussed in the context of two frames: of influence in both directions between medical and popular concepts and terms, and of cross-cultural variations in the concept and of terms for it.

Oligarchy in Thailand?

A modern conception of oligarchy, which can be housed under an authoritarian regime as easily as it can under a liberal democratic one, can affect our understanding of the potential national political repercussions of extreme inequalities of wealth. This article has two goals: (1) to conceptually analyse the meaning of oligarchy; and (2) to make a descriptive case for its use in the Thai context. The test case of contemporary Thailand shows what exactly an oligarch or oligarchy means under a military regime and the potential effects for national politics of an oligarchy based on material wealth. Utilizing Jeffrey A. Winters’ Aristotelian-grounded conception of oligarchy for the contemporary world, this article argues that some political outcomes in Thailand are inexplicable without recourse to a modern variant of oligarchic theory and analysis.