Reductionism in Alf Ross's Early Philosophy: A Comparison with Georges Politzer and Theodor Geiger

Ross's Kritik der sogenannten praktischen Erkenntnis pertains more to moral philosophy than to the philosophy of law, even if its contents are important for the latter, too. Its main objective is to show the theoretical groundlessness of any evaluative judgment. This happens when Ross takes the behaviourist approach of reducing psychology to physiology, which opens up fruitful comparisons with Marxist materialism, and in particular with that of Georges Politzer. Another fundamental question concerns the assumption that theoretical nihilism would lead to practical nihilism, as argued by Theodor Geiger (but denied by Ross). And yet, if Geiger is right, can this have no effect on people's everyday lives?     

Incentives, criminal defence lawyers and plea bargaining

Plea bargaining has become a central feature of criminal procedure in Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions. This paper explores an area seldom discussed in the economic literature on plea bargaining: the influence of the defence lawyer's fee contract on the terms of the bargain. In particular, it uses data from one jurisdiction of the impact on case trajectories of changes in publicly funded defence lawyers’ contracts to test the proposition that the nature of the lawyer's contract influences how cases are managed. An event study methodology on a pooled time-series cross-section data set of case trajectories before and after the change in the nature of the contract is used to examine whether the new payment regime significantly changed the trajectories of cases through the summary criminal justice system. Overall the results seem to suggest that the behaviour of defence lawyers may be influenced by financial incentives. This implies that the terms of plea bargains reached between prosecution and defence lawyers may be affected by the defence lawyer's remuneration contract. Consequently, the authors conclude that the role of defence lawyers has been under-researched in the literature on the economics of plea bargaining.     

Secularization and Tolerance

In this paper, starting from Condorcet's discussion on progress, the author analyzes the relationship between the decline of religions, the end of State paternalism and tolerance. The author underlines how history shows a different course with respect to illuminist previsions.     

Enucleation in psychosis associated with aqueductal stenosis

Reports of self-enucleation are frequent in medical literature, but cases of enucleation towards another are rare. We report the case of a man, 20 years of age, who suffered from psychosis with hydrocephalus and aqueductal stenosis that required a forensic psychiatric investigation to ascertain whether he was of unsound mind when he assaulted and enucleated the right eye of an officer and led to the surgical enucleation of the victim's left eye. Based on his clinical interviews and hospitalization record, we conclude that at the time of the assault, he was suffering from a delusional disorder with religious and demonic content, visual and auditory hallucinations, illusion phenomena, delusional interpretations, imaginative elements, a feeling of terror, and command hallucinations that compelled him to perform the act of aggression.     

Rethinking the Porter Hypothesis: The Underappreciated Importance of Value Appropriation and Pollution Intensity

The impact of environmental regulation on the competitiveness of firms and industries remains a hot topic. Since the formulation of the Porter hypothesis, scholars from different research areas have tried to confirm or deny it. However, despite a vast literature engaging this debate, it remains unclear whether and under what conditions the hypothesis could be considered valid. We believe that this is due to the need to consider some additional factors. The aim of this review is to propose additional and significant themes, namely value appropriation and pollution intensity, to be considered when examining the impact of environmental regulation on the innovation and profitability of firms. Results show that the validity of the Porter hypothesis cannot be proved in any condition, but at the same time, there are additional factors that have a relevant influence on that construct, which can lead to a validation or rejection of the hypothesis.     

Sex Assessment from the Sacral Base by Means of Image Processing

Abstract:  To help improve sex assessment from skeletal remains, the present study considers the diagnostic value of the sacral base (basis osseus sacri) based on its planar image and related metric data. For this purpose, 114 adult sacra of known sex and age from two early 20th century Italian populations were examined, the first from Bologna, northern Italy ( n  = 76), and the second from Sassari, Sardinia ( n  = 38). Digital photos of the sacral base were taken with each bone in a standardized orientation. Technical drawing software was used to trace its profile and to measure related dimensions (area, perimeter, and breadth of S1 and total breadth of the sacrum). The measurements were subjected to discriminant and classification function analyses. The sex prediction success of 93.2% for the Bolognese sample, 81.6% for the Sassarese sample, and 88.3% for the pooled sample indicates that the first sacral vertebra is a good character for sex determination.     

Spontaneous umbilical cord hematoma: an unusual cause of fetal mortality: a report of 3 cases and review of the literature

Spontaneous hematoma of the umbilical cord represents a rare cause of fetal morbidity and mortality and the outcome is poor in half of the cases. There are many risk factors, such as infections, morphologic anomalies, alterations of the vessel walls, prolapses, twisting and traction of the cord, but in many cases the causes remain unknown. We present 3 cases of umbilical cord hematoma which took place at the end of the pregnancy and were followed by perinatal death of the fetus. In the 3 cases, which were autopsied including macroscopical and histopathologic examination of the placenta and the umbilical cord, a cordonal pathology was present; in all cases, there were alterations of the vascular wall, and in the third case inflammatory vasculopathy was found. In all 3 cases, the cause of death was attributed to acute anoxia due to the cordonal hematoma.