Why Tolerate Conscience?

In Why Tolerate Religion?, Brian Leiter argues against the special legal status of religion, claiming that religion should not be the only ground for exemptions to the law and that this form of protection should be, in principle, available for the claims of secular conscience as well. However, in the last chapter of his book, he objects to a universal regime of exemptions for both religious and secular claims of conscience, highlighting the practical and moral flaws associated with it. We believe that Leiter identifies a genuine and important contemporary legal and philosophical problem. We find much to admire in his reasoning. However, we raise questions about two claims that are crucial for his argument. The first claim is that it is not religion as such, but conscience that deserves toleration and respect. The second claim is that respect for religion and conscience demands ‘principled toleration’ but does not entail stronger policies of legal exemptions. Against the first claim, we argue that Leiter does not successfully distinguish religious belief from secular conscience and morality; and he does not explain why secular conscience (which shares many of religious conscience’s epistemic features) deserves respect. Against the second claim, we argue that the most promising theories of legal exemptions are not classical theories of liberal toleration.     

Oakeshott, Freedom and Republicanism

It is contended that Michael Oakeshott resists classification in terms of conventional labels of conservative, liberal, right or left, and that it is difficult to incorporate him in discussions of modern liberal theory because his concerns are not with human rights, distributive justice or multiculturalism. It is with reference to the classical republicanism of Rome that Oakeshott's distinctive contribution to political philosophy is illuminated because of his emphasis upon authority, the rule of law and freedom as non-domination. These are the very features that Oakeshott highlights in his lectures on the 'Political Experience' and 'Political Thought' of the Romans. Oakeshott values the distinction that the Romans, but not the Greeks, made between public and private, but unlike later republicans he does not associate the public sphere exclusively with political participation and civic virtues. One may contribute just as significantly to the public concern by being a music-hall entertainer. Oakeshott is clearly differentiated from modern instrumental republicans who in his view would be rationalists obsessed with institutional design and with viewing the civil condition as an enterprise association.     

Fatal Case of a 27‐Year‐Old Male After Taking Iboga in Withdrawal Treatment: GC‐MS/MS Determination of Ibogaine and Ibogamine in Iboga Roots and Postmortem Biological Material

We report the case of a man who died twelve hours after ingesting powdered iboga root, commonly taken for its stimulant and hallucinogenic properties. Ibogaine and ibogamine were quantified in the powder ingested and the victim's body fluids by GC‐MS/MS after liquid–liquid extraction (Toxi‐tubes A^®). The concentrations of ibogaine measured in the blood samples taken at the scene and in the peripheral blood, urine, and gastric fluid samples taken during the autopsy were 0.65, 1.27, 1.7, and 53.5 μg/mL, while the iboga content in the powder was 7.2%. Moreover, systematic toxicological analyses of biological samples showed the presence of diazepam and methadone in therapeutic concentrations. Death was attributed to the ingestion of a substantial quantity of iboga in the context of simultaneous methadone and diazepam consumption.     

Fable pour économistes

Sommaire. Cette fable satirique veut décrire, en puisant fortement dans le vocabulaire ésotérique des économistes, la manie qu'ont ces demiers d'aborder un problième par le biais d'un modèle et la tentation qu'ils possèdent de pérorer a partir de ce modèle sur ce que devrait être la réalité. Donc, il était une fois, une tribu appelée les Economix. Etant les sages de la contrée, ils observaient la nature (économique) afin d'extrapoler des com-portements permanents et universels pour les autres membres de la tribu, les chasseurs. Toutefois, survint une querelle épique sur l'analyse du comportement de l'oiseau, l'objet de leurs observations. Après quelques moments de reflexion, l'on organisa un symposium et les deux écoles présentèrent leurs modèles. La première, après avoir observé, dans des conditions données, Ie comportement de l'oiseau, émit l'opinion que la meilleure représentation de l'oiseau en vol l'était par un avion à hélice tandis que la seconde avança, sur des prémisses totalement différentes, une fusée à un étage, comme étant la représentation de l'essence même de l'oiseau. Cependant, le symposium prit une toumure inattendue lorsque l'on s'engagea à parler de l'aéronef en tant qu'aéronef plutôt que de l'aéronef comme étant une simple approximation (par l'homme) de l'oiseau. Durant ce temps-là, les chasseurs (non-Economix), privés de leurs sages, cuntinuaient leur chasse quotidienne en utilisant beaucoup d'information a priori que les Economix ne pouvaient insérer dans leur moditle. En effet, les non-Economix n'avaient jamais oublié que la réalité est concriète! Abstract. The purpose of this satirical fable is to illustrate, by borrowing freely from the esoteric vocabulary of the economists, the craze they have for approaching problems by way of a model and their temptation to spout, basing themselves on that model, on what reality should be. So, once upon a time, there was a tribe called the Economix. Being the wise men of the country, they watched (economic) nature in order to extrapolate continuing and universal behaviour patterns for the other members of the tribe, the Hunters. However, a spectacular quarrel developed about the behavioural analysis of the bird, subject of their study. After some time to think it over, it was decided to organize a symposium for the two schools to present their models. The fist one, having observed - in controlled conditions - the behaviour of the bird, suggested that the best representation of the bird in flight was a propeller lane, while the second school, basing itself on a completely different set oP premises, contended that a one-stage rocket was the representation of the very nature of the bird. However, the symposium took an unexpected turn when it was decided to discuss the aircraft as an aircraft, rather than as an approximation of the bird (by man). In the meantime, the Hunters (non-Economix), deprived of their wise men, went on with their daily hunt, using a lot of a riori information that the Economk could not incorporate in their models. The non-Economix, you see, had never forgotten the concrete character of reality.     

Risk,Credit Constraints and Financial Efficiency in Peruvian Agriculture

Based on a panel data set, we use a two-stage analysis to evaluate the effects of access to formal credit on financial efficiency of farms in northern Peru. The first stage uses non-parametric data envelope analysis to estimate farm-specific measures of financial efficiency; 28 per cent of farmers are financially inefficient and credit constraints reduce profits of these farmers by an average of between 17 and 27 per cent. The second stage uses Tobit regression to evaluate the determinants of financial inefficiency; the results point to uninsured risk as a key determinant of financial inefficiency and suggest that policies to strengthen agricultural insurance markets would likely pay large dividends in rural Peru.     

fractured identity and agency and the plays of Adrienne Kennedy

This paper examines the plays of African-American playwright Adrienne Kennedy, Funnyhouse of a Negro (1962) and The Owl Answers (1963), which remain important for their engagement with notions of African-American identity, resistance and agency through their attention to mixed race female characters or mulattas who experience bodily and psychological traumas that demonstrate the abuse of the colonized on a deeply visceral level. Kennedy's plays have remained controversial because of their failure to comply with the nationalistic orientation of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) of 1960s America. I aim to examine these plays through a framework of postcolonial-feminist performance analysis that finds its way back to histories of colonization and slavery, enabling through such returns, a compelling critique of the manoeuvrings of racial hierarchies and power imbalances. As well, I argue that Kennedy's protagonists are de-essentialized fractured beings who fail to embody either White superiority or Black nationalist pride, as they oscillate between two polarities. Such failure (on the part of Kennedy's mulattas) allows for a strategic de-essentialization of identity that interrogates fixed categorization. As well, through a form that is fluid, fragmented and blurs the distinctions among history, memory, space and time, her works impart political agency to the characters and enable an empowered sense of the ‘self-in-process.’     

A Fatality Following Ingestion of the Designer Drug Meta‐Chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP) in an Asthmatic—HPLC‐MS/MS Detection in Biofluids and Hair

A 20‐year‐old man, a cocaine addict and regular ecstasy user, with a medical history of allergic asthma died after ingesting half a tablet earlier the same day. The white tablet, stamped with a “smiling sun” logo looked very much like an ecstasy tablet and was sold as such. He experienced a severe asthma attack just after ingesting the half tablet and it evolved over the next few hours into fatal cardiorespiratory arrest. Biological samples, taken after embalming, were analyzed by high‐performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC‐MS/MS). Analysis revealed meta‐chlorophenylpiperazine (mCPP) in concentrations of 45.8 mg in a similar tablet obtained later from the drug dealer, 5.1 ng/mL in the bile, 0.3 ng/g in the liver, 15.0 ng/mL in the urine, and its absence in a hair sample (<0.02 ng/mg), which indicated he was not a regular user (whereas strong concentrations of MDMA and cocaine were found in the hair). Interrogated by the police after his arrest, the dealer said that he had sold the victim and for the very first time two tablets with the same “smiling sun” logo. The tablet used for analysis was from the same brand as the one ingested by the victim. The autopsy excluded other causes of death, while the histological analyses showed a large number of polynuclear eosinophils in the bronchial walls, confirming the asthmatic pathology. None of the other organs examined (larynx, liver, heart, adrenal glands, and kidneys) showed any distinctive signs, and in particular no inflammatory infiltrate. The death was the result of an asthma attack in an asthmatic person, violently decompensated following ingestion of approximately 20 mg of mCPP.