Kant begins his most important ethical writing, Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals, with a very strong statement that 'it is impossible to think of anything at all in the world, or indeed beyond it, that could be considered good without limitation except a good will'. Other goods, or good features of human nature and the benefits of a good life, are good only under some proper conditions, the most important of which is precisely the good will. It is the capacity of autonomy, and entirely independent of all external ('empirical') conditions, and such a capacity is present in every moral agent capable to act 'from the duty', i. e. on the basis that morality could be the sole reason for doing what is right. So, good will is the ground of morality, and an expression of the presence of the personal autonomy
The papers on pacifism in this issue of Philosophia were presented at an international conference in Belgrade in June 2012. Out of the twenty papers presented, Asa Kasher, Editor in Chief of Philosophia, and the two of us have chosen seven to be published, after due double-blind peer review, in Philosophia.The Belgrade conference was the 12th installment of ILECS (International Law and Ethics Conference Series). It was not conceived as a call for global war, as some might have feared-conferences on pacifism have at times been a sign of looming world wars-but arose from a need to see how the idea fits within the context of rethinking the issues of war and increased violence and hypocrisy we witness in the world today. Indeed, in times when the concept of war is facing radical changes, from attempts at its criminalization, its instrumentalization in humanitarian interventions, its usage in "asymmetric" and anti-terrorist warfare, to the ever growing privatization of warfare-pacifism might seem to be quite obsolete and redundant. Could it mean that pacifism is not an issue anymore? Or, on the contrary, is it one of those issues which are always with us, looming from the mist of unstable reality as a promise, or false promise, or as a refuge or escape? Could it even be a long awaited, even final, response to our ever increased sensitivity to many injustices around us, offering a solution which should guard us from pitfalls and predicaments of our uncertain and non-transparent future, full of threatening conflicts?Two points mentioned here seem to be of special interest: stability and transparency of the future. Those are precisely what peace should accomplish: the control of our future time. Are pacifists concerned with peace? Putting aside the problem of conflation of meanings of several close issues like civil disobedience, non-violent resistance, conflict resolution activism, or vigilance on civil rights, the problem with pacifism always seemed to be the direction of their interest. Namely, pacifism seems to be antipolitical, interested not in peace as valid and legitimate control of future time but in avoiding certain specific means (as morally wrong and forbidden), i. e. use of power and violence, to attain that state of affairs, the peace. In this sense they violate, or rather Philosophia (2013) 41:923-924
The article is an encyclopedia item prepared for an Encyclopedia of Democracy, forthcoming in Službeni Glasnik, Belgrade, in collaboration with the School for Political Sciences at Belgrade University. The main goal in the article is to develop a definition of the morality as the subject of study for ethics, a part of philosophy dealing with the nature and the scope of possible application of morality as a specific evaluational criterion. Some basic features of this specificity have been explored, and a list of ethical theories have been briefly analyzed, two of them in some more details. A squelch of a possible connection between ethics and democracy has been given at the very end of the article
BACKGROUND: Brachytherapy of cervix carcinoma often results in high doses to surrounding structures, such as rectum and bladder. Therefore, these organs should be closely monitored. Purpose of this work was to evaluate rectal marker made in our institution for rectal dose measurements by comparing it with the method recommended in ICRU (International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements) Report 38. METHODS: In this work rectal dosimetry was performed by two different methods. In one, rectal marker made in Institute of Oncology Sremska Kamenica was used, while in the other method recommended in ICRU Report 38 dose on ICRU rectal point was measured A total of 34 applications using Microselectron HDR and its standard applicator set were performed in a prospective way. The prescribed dose was 7.6 Gy to point A for each application. Rectal doses were calculated by Nucletron Plato Treatment Planning System. RESULTS: Differences found between the means of ICRU point R and rectal marker points Rref and Rmax were significant (P<0.002 and P<0.00002). The same result was obtained for Rref and Rmax pair (P<0.003). CONCLUSION: Maximal doses obtained using rectal marker were in most cases high- er than those obtained by ICRU method. It conforms well to several CT-based dosimetry studies where rectum dose was found to be higher from that obtained by ICRU method
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