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It is common in the literature to claim that legitimacy is the right to rule and that, accordingly, Hohfeldian rights analysis can be used to understand the concept. However, we argue that authors in the legitimacy literature have not generally realised the full potential of Hohfeldian analysis. We discuss extant approaches in the literature that conceptually identify legitimacy with one particular Hohfeldian incident, or, more rarely, a determinate set of incidents. Against these views, and building on parallel debates in property theory, we suggest that Hohfeldian analysis pushes one towards the claim that legitimacy possesses no determinate essence. We provide a rationale for this novel view and disarm a series of objections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many philosophers have claimed that relying on the testimony of others in normative questions is in some way problematic. In this paper, I consider whether we should be troubled by deference in democratic politics. I argue that (i) deference is less problematic in impure cases of political deference, and (ii) most non-ideal cases of political deference are impure. To establish the second point, I rely on empirical research from political psychology. I also outline two principled reasons why we should expect political deference to be untroubling: political problems are difficult and require a division of epistemic labour; furthermore, there is value in exercising epistemic solidarity with those one shares an identity or interests with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some authors have argued that legitimacy without authority is possible, though their work has not found much uptake in mainstream political philosophy. I provide an improved model how legitimate political institutions without authority are possible, the Transmission Model, which I couple with a thin substantive position, the Moral Value View. I defend the model against three common objections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political instrumentalism claims that the right to rule should be distributed such that justice is promoted best. Building on a distinction made by consequentialists in moral philosophy, I argue that instrumentalists should distinguish two levels of normative thinking about legitimacy, the critical and applied level. An indirect instrumentalism which acknowledges this distinction has significant advantages over simpler forms of instrumentalism that do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two crucial distinctions regarding political competence must be made. First, the mere probability that you will make a morally right decision (reliability) is distinct from your ability to skillfully make a decision (competence). Empirical and normative accounts have focused primarily on reliability, but competence is more important if we take central normative commitments seriously. Second, the competence you have on your own (direct competence) is distinct from the competence you have in contributing to some collective enterprise (contributory competence). Direct competence is likely to be extremely demanding in a democratic context, so we should move to a contributory account of competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been little debate in political philosophy about whether the intentions of governments matter to the legitimacy of their policies. This paper fills this gap. First, I provide a rigorous statement of political anti-intentionalism, the view that intentions do not matter to political legitimacy. I do so by building on analogous debates in moral philosophy. Second, I sketch some strategies to defend political anti-intentionalism, which I argue are promising and available to a wide range of theories of legitimacy. Third, I show that the distinction has implications for debates surrounding neutrality and political liberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: One of the most common arguments in favour of the state's authority is that without the coordinating hand of political institutions, we could not achieve important moral benefits. I argue that if we understand authority correctly, then coordination cannot even in principle establish that coordinators have political authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

James Urmson famously claimed that all ethical theories which only operate with the three deontic categories of the required, the optional, and the forbidden were ‘totally inadequate to the facts of morality’ because they fail to recognise a fourth category of actions, which we can call the supererogatory. Supererogatory actions should be seen as ‘meritorious non-duty’, as something which is good but in no sense required. A number of examples can be provided to make the existence of such a realm outside duty plausible: the soldier throwing herself on a live hand grenade to save her companions, the torture victim who forgives her tormentors even though they do not regret, or the doctor who voluntarily travels to a war zone to treat the wounded. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The erratum makes an addendum to the last line of the paper to include two additional references. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Light fields from localized light sources create a variety of interesting glory phenomena when reflected by small glass spheres (microbeads). Starting with single glass spheres, the interplay of the underlying optical phenomena, i.e., refraction, reflection, diffraction, and dispersion, have been studied both theoretically and experimentally. In a second step, we considered retroreflecting screens formed by flat arrays of tiny glass spheres when exposed to divergent illumination. The arising glories show a specific ring pattern and appear freely floating around the light source as their blurred real image. The investigated glory structures will have numerous applications in sophisticated lamp and illumination designs, as demonstration tools in optical education or advertising, and artistic installations, in particular when appearing as three-dimensional objects by stereoscopic observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intraoperative testing with several fibrillation/defibrillation apisodes (FDEs) is routinely performed during defibrillator implantation. Testing is considered safe even in patients with severe cardiac impairment, provided the recovery timespans and number of FDEs are adapted to the individual patient. Myocardial lactate extraction (MLE) was examined in two testing protocols. In 30 patients with coronary artery disease defibrillator implantations were performed under intravenous anesthesia. A percutaneous catheter was positioned into the coronary sinus (CS) under fluoroscopy. Two groups were randomly formed: group A (n = 20, mean number of FDEs: 4.2/patient) with 2 minutes waiting time between FDEs, and group B (n =10. mean number of FDEs 4.1/ patients) with 10 minutes between FDEs. Defibrillation pulses were released 15 seconds after T wave shock induced fibrillation. To estimate MLE, arterial and CS blood samples were collected before and after each FDE. After the last FDE, samples were obtained after 5, 10, and up to 20 minutes. In group A, MLE fell from a baseline value of 29.6% ± 3.6% before the FDEs to 7.8% ± 5.4% immediately after the episodes. MLE recovered to 27.2% ± 6.5% within 1 minute and overshot to 35.6% ± 5.8% within 5 minutes. In group B, MLE decreased from 37.6% ± 7.5% to 15.1% ± 8.1% immediately after each FDE and rose to its original value (33.6 ± 7.8) within the 5-minute recovery period. MLE decreased immediately after each FDE, and recovered within 1 minute even in poor left ventricular function. For full MLE recovery a 2-minute wait between episodes is sufficient, if the total number of FDEs does not exceed four. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study the effects of pindolol [nonselective β-adrenoceptor antagonist with strong partial agonistic activity (PAA)] on β-adrenoceptor density in lymphocytes (assessed by (-)-[I]iodocyanopindolol (ICYP) binding) were compared with those of the β-selective antagonists celiprolol (with PAA) and bisoprolol (no PAA) in normotensive young volunteers to get further insights into the nature of PAA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) using polymer blends as a single emissive layer often suffer from large color shifts with changing operational voltage. Until now, such devices cannot stand the critical demands of lighting industry. In this contribution, we introduce a pulse-width-modulation-based driver concept, enabling the user to simultaneously and independently adjust color and luminance of a single device with two contacts. This concept makes color-shifting OLEDs highly interesting for “mood-light” applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]