Sometimes it can take an old model ...

 

'Sometimes it can take an old model, 
to build a new one, 
that makes the existing model obsolete.'

To borrow from Buckminster Fuller.                         

 
Resurgence & Ecologist, Sept/Oct 2020, Issue 322, p.33.

Call for Papers: Bioethics and Philosophical Health - JECP

Submission Deadline: Thursday, 31 December 2026

Contemporary bioethics has developed sophisticated tools for ethical decision-making. Yet it often operates within assumptions that reduce life to physiological viability. Ethical questions are frequently treated as matters of procedure and consent. Meanwhile, patients and clinicians face questions that exceed these frameworks. What makes a life worth living? How does illness disrupt or reveal meaning? What forms of care support not just survival but existential coherence? These questions call for a deeper engagement between bioethics and the philosophy of existence.

Despite growing interest in person-centred care, conceptual tools for clinical evaluation remain limited. Frameworks for assessing philosophical sense-making and existential orientation are underdeveloped. The Philosophical Health perspective addresses this gap by going beyond physical and psychological health. It asks how we cultivate meaningful lives through bodily experience, self-understanding, relational belonging, engagement with possibility, purposeful action, and philosophical reflection. The concept draws on the ancient tradition of bios philosophikos. It proposes that healthcare should attend not only to pathology but to the philosophical dimensions of human existence.

This special issue creates space for exploring how philosophical health can deepen bioethical inquiry as an embodied ethics of the good life. It challenges reductive assumptions and fosters practices that support purpose and meaning in lives, even when disrupted by health challenges. We welcome transdisciplinary contributions from philosophers, bioethicists, clinicians, medical humanists, and social scientists. Topics include how philosophical frameworks enrich clinical practice, how healthcare shapes existential experience, how the 4E cognitive approach may inform bioethical theory, and how dialogical methodologies can be integrated into institutional contexts. The issue aims to rediscover bioethics as a genuinely philosophical and existential enterprise, that is as bios ethikos.

Topics of interest for this call for papers include but are not restricted to:

• Philosophical frameworks for enriching or transforming bioethical practice and clinical evaluation;
• Philosophical dimensions of clinical encounters: embodiment, selfhood, temporality, and meaning-making;
• Critiques of the reduction of ethical deliberation to procedure, regulation, or risk management;
• How healthcare practices shape or constrain the philosophical dimensions of human existence;
• The 4E cognitive approach (embodied, extended, enactive, embedded) applied to bioethical theory and practice;
• Integration of philosophical inquiry and dialogical methods into clinical or institutional contexts;
• Empirical and conceptual engagement with the Philosophical Health methodology, including SMILE_PH;
• Cross-cultural and planetary perspectives on philosophical health and the good life;
• Methodological innovations in clinical philosophy, philosophical counselling, and reflective practice.

More details here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/13652753/call-for-papers/si-2026-000772

_______

Dr Luis de Miranda

Associate Professor (Docent) in Bioethics, Uppsala University

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow, Turku Institute for Advanced Studies
Associated Researcher, Centre for Research Ethics and Bioethics,

Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University

https://www.luisdemiranda.com/

My source: Philos-L "The Liverpool List" is run by the Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/philos-l/ Messages to the list are archived at http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/philos-l.html. Follow the list on Twitter @PhilosL. Follow the Department of Philosophy @LiverpoolPhilos

Total eclipse: The terminator moves faster than you think

individual

|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES             

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   

|

group

Between the new and full moon the terminator - the line demarcating what is lit from what is dark changes all the time. This is imperceptible with the naked eye.	A telescope at low magnification reveals the moon in all its glory. At a higher power with manual control you have to keep moving to keep up, as the moon other-worldly slides out of view.
What of the terminator between poverty and wealth; ultrapoverty and ultrawealthy?	It is plain to see and so - easy to deny; but their instruments are hopeless, they watch indoors, fixed on their screens.

Total Solar Eclipse – August 12, 2026

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_(solar) 

Previously: 'terminator' 

Philosophical Counselling - Reading group: Taylor 2002 'Central Value of Philosophical Counseling'

In addition to Kantian Desert (this p.m.) it is proving helpful to join a reading group on Philosophical Counselling. Being able to combine clinical and therapy experience* with philosophy is a welcome and rather overdue development. The reading for tomorrow (online for me I hope) is: 

Taylor J.S. (2002) The Central Value of Philosophical Counseling. International Journal of Philosophical Practice. 1 (2):1-9.

ABSTRACT: The title of this paper is deliberately ambiguous. It could refer either to the central value that philosophical counseling has for philosophy in general, or else it could refer to something (such as personal autonomy, or personal well-being) that philosophical counselors believe to be of value, and that they are able to help their clients pursue. In fact, this paper will be addressing both of these topics in order to demonstrate
the links that hold between them, and, in so doing, will attempt to further elucidate the nature of philosophical counseling itself.

Taylor (and related papers) also joins the dot (object?) that is Hodges' model, for example (with my emphasis):

'In this vein philosophical counseling is viewed as a Socratic drawing out of the knowledge that the client already possess, and that may be revealed through the careful questioning of a well-trained practitioner of the elenchic method.' pp.1-2.

I've long used guided discovery, by which the students (usually)/audience co-produce the model through a discussion.

'However, the difference between Socrates as a seeker after truth and the philosophical counselor as a professional who helps his or her client map out his or her own world-view in order to address particular problems that he or she is concerned with should not be overstated.' p.2.

'Furthermore—and perhaps most galling of all to philosophical counselors—academic philosophers often seem to view philosophical counseling as not being “real” philosophy at all, but more perhaps a species of social work, or an unsophisticated variant ofpsychotherapy.' p.4.

'Again, this information may be used by the counselor to help the client reflect more acutely upon her own views concerning the morality of abortion.' p.6.

'Given these two senses of “autonomy” it appears that the philosophical counselor is most concerned with enhancing autonomy in the second, Millian, sense of this concept. This is because philosophical counselors often try to aid persons in making decisions (or discoveries) about what it is that they really want to do, what their personal value-system or world-view really consists of.' p.11. 
(A contribution to person-centredness? Critical thinking is also noted by Taylor.)

 See also: https://www.igpp.org/english

 *Including, counselling, family, cognitive and behavioral therapies, plus psychosocial intervention.

Reading group: Kantian Justice - KantianDESERT

Dear all,

The KantianDESERT project's reading group will return on Tuesday 11th August, from 12-1:30 UK time. We will be starting to read Joseph de la Torre Dwyer's 2020 book 'Chance, Merit, and Economic Inequality'. The first session will focus on the Introduction and chapter 2.

The reading group will take place both in-person in Liverpool, and online via Teams. All are welcome. Please email: erc.kantiandesert.ukri AT liverpool.ac.uk if you'd like to attend and we can send you the room details/invite/reading.

My source: Kantian DESERT list and Philos-L "The Liverpool List". Messages to the Philos-L are archived at 
http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/philos-l.html. Follow the list on Twitter @PhilosL. Follow the Department of Philosophy @LiverpoolPhilos

[n.b. With apologies for short-notice. PJ ].

Mathematical terms: domain, plane, 'field' ...

individual

|
INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES             

humanistic ------------------------------- mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL   

|

group

Such is the innocence of youth, of all children, that should they be ensnared by the new-age 'scrolls' ...	... they will miss out on the life-affirming experience of the playing field.
This is a great shame, a tragedy no less, of missed opportunities to learn social and life-skills, to know joy, and make friends, who might just be lifelong ...	... as they prepare to make their way in the [un-] level playing field.

'From Tree to Sea [5] - The Bare Necessities' c/o BBC R4

My name is not Robinson Crusoe, but I feel privileged to live on an island. The sea has always been close. Liverpool (Scouser) has a history, to celebrate and seek forgiveness for. It was a surprise and yet wasn't from the map in the Bluecoat of the slave ships that plied the route to West Africa, to the West Indies and USA to see the same reflections in the dock area of Nantes in May 2025.

These reflections followed a BBC Radio 4 programme this afternoon (one of a series):

5. From Tree to Sea - The Bare Necessities

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002ztzy

'We are living in turbulent times and it is easy to feel anxious about the state of the world. The pace of change is fast, and the future often seems uncertain and out of our control. Given our reliance on technology, any sort of outage could be catastrophic. Could you survive - and thrive - in a world without global supply chains, the internet and 24-hour energy?

In this series the writer Dan Richards seeks out the tradition bearers and carriers of ancient knowledge who actively choose to live in close connection with the natural world around them. A return to first principles of what it means to be human and the kind of people you would like to be around if things fell apart.

Dan heads to Whithorn in Dumfries and Galloway where he meets Traditional Boat Builder Gail McGarva who is putting the finishing touches to a skiff before its launch. Gail has gathered knowledge of the ancient craft of wooden boat building through her relationship with tradition bearers and mentors, without whom the knowledge would disappear completely. What Dan finds is that this small wooden boat represents not only an evolution of form and process, but soul. The souls of all who have gone before and how they might influence a sustainable future with community at the heart of it.'

In making the skiff there is a marvellous observation about:

 "when the boat hits the water it knows what to do ..".

For students entering a profession or trade (any) that strikes a chord.

Writing - next project - parts 1 & 2 in search of titles

Currently, I'm pulling together what have become two drafts, that consider Hodges' model as a mathematical object. Part 1, put-down in the new year, and picked-up now; a good start as there is more than I thought. There's a cost of that, of course? Part 2 is a gathering of tatters. Well, it is an effort.

As I don't work in academia where connections may more readily follow, can I claim that Hodges' model also does work? That the model can help in finding potential collaborators and co-authors? Once the fundamentals are understood, and again - it's not rocket science - for some people thankfully, something clicks. It clicks absolutely where it is should.

The model can be quite addictive in a positive way, as one of many among the vast array of assessment, evaluation and other tools. It is complementary.

So, with much needed support to follow, including from previous publication (please see the bibliography in the sidebar), plus April's WCCS26 conference, I'm working away to share them in 12 days or so. Then the work really begins as I benefit from collegial input, new perspectives, views, critique and the reward of constructive debate, experience and knowledge of others. I hope the drafts reward the curiosity that's been displayed. It is still quite exciting. Hoping too that students and early career researchers might pick this up ...

"It's an equation Jim, but not as we know it!"

Silver (2013) in “The Signal and the Noise” refers to Drake’s equation, which has fascinated me since my teens. It is a formula that provides a framework for predicting the number of intelligent extraterrestrial species in the galaxy. Due to the high number of parameters and uncertainties that make up Drake's equation, Silver describes how the extreme range of results depend on the initial ‘inputs’. Given the variables presented they are estimates. I made a connection to Drake's work through BBC BASIC programming:

'The Nursing Process'
'Computer-Aided Patient Assessment'
'Blood Groups'
'Shades of Grey'

As time went on the simplicity of 'The NP' gave way to DIM arrays, which can provide data structures, and DEF PROC and DEF FN with parameters. 

The evidence for the elements of Drake's equation has made great strides since the 1990s. Despite the remaining uncertainties, Silver notes that Drake's equation has provided a useful lens for astronomers, plus - philosophers and the lay-person to think about life, the universe and everything.

Is there an implicit theory – an equation – in Hodges’ model?

See also: BBC BASIC

Previously: 'Sagan' : 'SETI' ; 'math' : 'Publication list (2024)'

Nate Silver (2013). “The Signal and the Noise”, Notes 89, London: Penguin. p.488.

Title Ack. the original is often misattributed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCARADb9asE

Brief introduction to Hodges' model

Hodges’ model is a conceptual framework of universal value in theoretical work, practice, policy and care management. While this model is a product of the health-education sector, it is global in scope, taking in the current situation, history and future as complicated by scientific, socio-political, technology and climate change. Practice-based, Hodges’ model is a tool simple in form and yet powerful in terms of how it can help users frame the problems and opportunities of the 21st century. The model was originally taught in studies for the post-registration certificate of care of the mentally ill in the community and other courses. Student assessment included the completion of a case study (vignette), demonstrating competence in application of the model and its embedded (implicit) values.

Access to education, especially early years, is emphasised as foundational for personal and community growth and development. For individuals this can set the course for lifelong learning and an ability to contribute to society and the economy. Given this primary challenge, global institutions and policy makers point to the need for curricula that are relevant. In turn employers and industry leaders need a (global) workforce who are: 

• reflective practitioners;
• critical thinkers;
• able to see the ‘big-picture’; and focus on detail and priorities when needed (risk and triage);
• decompose a problem, but also integrate (care);
• work as team-members;
• and extend across several literacies.

These challenges are ongoing for education (being health literate, so as to address personal, social, health and economic education, and the sustainable development goals), and increasingly climate impacts.