Showing papers on "Connotation published in 1982"

Philanthropy in Medicine: Some Historical Perspectives

Abstract: There is a somewhat nebulous and elusive quality usually desired and sometimes present in medical practice, variously called caring, compassion, humanitarianism, altruism, beneficence, or philanthropy. None of these words individually is adequate to encompass the quality to which this historical investigation is addressed, and none is truly synonymous with any other. Each of these words can be taken as having a negative connotation in that each assumes, as it were, even if only slightly, a need or a deficiency in someone to which the quality expressed by the word is, at least in part, a response. As one reads through this list of words, that negative connotation grows in intensity until, when one reaches ‘philanthropy’, one is dealing with a term that has of late, when applied to medical practice, received some rather ‘bad press’. This is especially evident in articles by William F. May [31] and Robert M. Veatch [45], both of whom are concerned with some fundamental questions of the basis for medical ethics and obligations within the physician/patient relationship. Both stress the desirability of obligations founded on reciprocity rather than on deontology that arises from the profession’s own definition of its role-specific duties. Both authors consider philanthropy as a central feature of the latter, that is, of a one-sided definition of obligations. May writes about “the conceit of philanthropy when it is assumed that the professional’s commitment to his fellow man is a gratuitous, rather than a responsive or reciprocal, act. Statements of medical ethics that obscure the doctor’s prior indebtedness to the community are tainted with the odor of condescension” ([31], p. 31). There is a degree of condescension, or at least a potential for suspicion of condescension, in each of the words listed above, indeed in that very quality in medical practice for which we are at a loss to find a suitable word. In the present paper we shall avoid being prescriptive as we seek to describe that elusive element in the history of ancient and medieval medicine.

Fuzzy Representation Systems in Linguistic Semantics An Empirical Approach to the Reconstruction of Lexical Meanings from East- and West-German Newspapers ⁄

Abstract: Word Semantics is gaining increasing importance within linguistics. Due to the fact that both, formal and operational means have been devised to analyse and represent word connotation and/or denotation adequately, this paper discusses some of the empirical problems connected with natural languages’ essentially varying and vague meanings, how these can be analysed statistically from discourse data, and represented formally as fuzzy system of vocabulary mappings. Some examples computed from East- and West-German newspaper texts will be to illustrate the approach’s feasibility.

A Note on Spinoza's Contribution to Systemic Therapy

Abstract: Writing 300 years ago the philosopher Spinoza anticipated some of the fundamental principles of systemic therapy, notably a respect for the remorseless logic of natural systems and the value of positive connotation. In the debate about the ethics of paradoxical methods, he offers a logical, and humble, defense.

Myths of grantsmanship.

Abstract: A grantsman is usually considered to be a person who successfully writes grant applications. The term carries a connotation that the writer of the grant has some particular ability or inside track on the method needed to apply for and successfully acquire funds to support a project. There is also a negative aura that surrounds the term grantsmanship, which has been built up primarily by those unsuccessful in competing for funds. This negative connotation has been promulgated in the form of myths that are untrue stories without a base of reality. The purpose of this article is to dispel some of these misconceptions and untruths that are counterproductive in the preparation of a quality research grant application. In the preparation of this article, discussions have been held with a number of persons including grant applicants, former study section members, council members, and members of the National Institute of Neurological and