On Moral Nose.

There are many authors who consider the so-called "moral nose" a valid epistemological tool in the field of morality. The expression was used by George Orwell, following in Friedrich Nietzsche's footsteps and was very clearly described by Leo Tolstoy. It has also been employed by authors such as Elisabeth Anscombe, Bernard Williams, Noam Chomsky, Stuart Hampshire, Mary Warnock, and Leon Kass. This article examines John Harris' detailed criticism of what he ironically calls the "olfactory school of moral philosophy." Harris' criticism is contrasted with Jonathan Glover's defense of the moral nose. Glover draws some useful distinctions between the various meanings that the notion of moral nose can assume. Finally, the notion of moral nose is compared with classic notions such as Aristotelian phronesis, Heideggerian aletheia, and the concept of "sentiment" proposed by the philosopher Thomas Reid. The conclusion reached is that morality cannot be based only on reason, or-as David Hume would have it-only on feelings.

Subjetividade dos animais não-humanos em “A Revolução dos Bichos” de George Orwell / Subjectivity of non-human animals in “Animal Farm” by George Orwell

Este artigo apresenta uma interpretação sobre a subjetividade dos animais não-humanos na obra A Revolução dos Bichos, de George Orwell. A primeira seção disserta sobre a clássica interpretação política e jurídica da obra orwelliana e a ressignifica sob os preceitos da teoria crítica do Direito e apresenta o processo de emancipação do sujeito de direito como componente da gramática jurídica. A segunda seção apresenta uma parte fracionada do processo de reconhecimento interespécies através da subjetividade para considerar os animais não-humanos como centro de imputação do ordenamento jurídico. Utiliza-se o método dedutivo e o método de pesquisa integrada para o presente raciocínio (AU)

Este artículo presenta una interpretación sobre la subjetividad de los animales no humanos en "Rebelión en la granja" de George Orwell. La primera sección disecciona la interpretación política y jurídica clásica de la obra orwelliana y la reanuda bajo los preceptos de la teoría crítica del derecho y presenta el proceso de emancipación del sujeto de derecho como un componente de la gramática jurídica. La segunda sección presenta una parte fraccionada del proceso de reconocimiento interespecies a través de la subjetividad para considerar a los animales no humanos como el centro de imputación del sistema legal. Para el presente razonamiento se utilizan el método deductivo y el método de investigación integrada (AU)

This article presents an interpretation of the subjectivity of non-human animals in George Orwell's The Animal Farm. The first section dissects the classical political and juridical interpretation of the Orwellian work and resumes it under the precepts of the critical theory of law and presents the process of emancipation of the subject of law as a component of juridical grammar. The second section presents a fractioned part of interspecies recognition through subjectivity to consider non-human animals as the center of the imputation of the legal system. The deductive method and the integrated research method are used for the present reasoning (AU)

Aquest article presenta una interpretació sobre la subjectivitat dels animals no humans en ·Rebel·lió en la granja" de George Orwell. La primera secció dissecciona la interpretació política i jurídica clàssica de l'obra orwel·liana i la reprèn sota els preceptes de la teoria crítica del dret i presenta el procés d'emancipació del subjecte de dret com un component de la gramàtica jurídica. La segona secció presenta una part fraccionada del procés de reconeixement interespecies a través de la subjectivitat per a considerar als animals no humans com el centre d'imputació del sistema legal. Per al present raonament s'utilitzen el mètode deductiu i el mètode de recerca integrada (AU)

Sleep, disruption and the 'nightmare of total illumination' in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century dystopian fiction.

This article addresses the charge that the introduction of the electric light in the late nineteenth century increased disruptions to the human body's biological processes and interfered with the oscillating sleeping-waking cycle. By considering the nineteenth century research into the factors that motivate and disrupt sleep in concert with contemporary discussions of the physiology of street lighting, this article exposes how social and political forces shaped the impact of artificial light on sleep and, more perniciously, on bodily autonomy. As a close reading of artificial light in three influential dystopian novels building on these historical contexts demonstrates, dystopian fiction challenges the commonplace assumption that the advent of the electric light, or of widespread street lighting in public urban spaces, posed an immediate or inherent threat to sleep. Beginning with H. G. Wells's The Sleeper Awakes (1899), in which the eponymous sleeper emerges from a cataleptic trance into a future in which electric light and power are used to control the populace, representations of artificial light in early dystopian fiction of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries depict a nightmare of total illumination in which the state exerted its control over the individual. In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), constant artificial illumination plays a vital role in the chemical and behavioural conditioning undergone by individuals in a post-Fordian world. George Orwell intensifies this relationship between light and individual autonomy in Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), where access to electric current (and thus light) is limited at certain times of the day, brownouts and electrical rationing occur intermittently, and total illumination is used to torture and reprogram individuals believed to have betrayed Big Brother.

"1984": What Orwell could not predict. Proteomic analysis of his scripts.

George Orwell, fighter for the Republican Army during the Spanish Civil War, was shot through the throat by a sniper on 20th May 1937 and nearly killed. After receiving only a summary external treatment, on the 29th, he was cured in a Barcelona hospital where he was infected by the Koch bacillus. After fleeing from Spain on 23rd June 1937, he repaired to his cottage in Wallington, Hertfordshire, wherefrom he wrote a letter to Sergey Dynamov, Editor of Soviet journal "Foreign Literature." This typewritten letter was analyzed by application of five EVA strips (ethylene vinyl acetate studded with strong cation and anion and with C8 and C18 resins; four on the corners and one over his signature), searching for biological traces. Upon elution of the captured biologicals, trypsin digestion and Orbitrap Fusion trihybrid mass spectrometer analyses, three of the five strips yielded clear traces of six unique proteins (via proteotypic peptides) of the tuberculosis bacterium. Additionally, MALDI TOF analysis of saliva of a tuberculosis patient and the EVA strip eluates gave a spectrum of 14 peptide bands (Mr 2700 to 6700 Da range) coincident between the two samples, thus, fully confirming Orwell's pathology. These results are attributed to saliva traces on Orwell's fingertips and to the fact that the letter was written on 2nd July 1937, when Orwell's pathology was at its peak.

The Impact of Sarcopenic Obesity on Health-Related Quality of Life of Treatment-Seeking Patients with Obesity.

BACKGROUND: There is a paucity of studies on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and sarcopenic obesity (SO). OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the potential association between SO and impaired HRQoL. METHODS: The ORWELL 97 questionnaire was used to assess HRQoL and body composition was measured using a bioimpedance analyser (Tanita BC-418) in 130 patients with obesity, referred to the Nutritional and Weight Management outpatient clinic of Beirut Arab University in Lebanon. Participants were then categorized on the basis of the absence or presence of SO. RESULTS: Sixty-four of the 130 participants met the criteria for SO (49.2%) and displayed significantly higher total ORWELL 97 scores than those in the group without SO (64.00 vs. 41.00, p=0.001), indicative of poorer HRQoL. Linear regression analysis showed that SO was associated with an increase in ORWELL 97 scores by nearly 24 units (ß=24.35, 95% CI=11.45-37.26; p<0.0001). Moreover, the logistic regression analysis showed that SO increased the odds of clinically significant impairment of HRQoL (ORWELL 97 score ≥74.25) by nearly seven-fold (OR=7.37, 95% CI=1.92-28.39; p=0.004). CONCLUSION: Our findings show that the presence of SO was associated with increased impairment of HRQoL that reaches clinical significance when compared to obesity only. Future studies are needed to clarify whether this may influence clinical outcomes. If this is shown to be the case, weight management programs should incorporate additional strategies to improve HRQoL in individuals with SO.

The Association between Body Mass Index and Health-Related Quality of Life in Treatment-Seeking Arab Adults with Obesity.

Few studies have thus far been carried out on Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) and obesity in Arab-speaking countries, an issue that we therefore set out to investigate in this study. HRQoL was assessed by the validated Arabic version of the ORWELL 97 questionnaire in 129 treatment-seeking individuals with obesity referred to the Nutritional and Weight Management Outpatient Clinic at the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics of Beirut Arab University (BAU) in Lebanon, and 129 normal-weight participants of similar age and gender. Participants with obesity, regardless of gender, displayed higher total ORWELL 97 scores when compared with normal-weight controls, indicating that obesity is associated with lower HRQoL. Linear regression analysis showed that a higher body mass index (BMI) is associated with an increase in ORWELL 97 scores, but only among female, not male, participants with obesity (ß = 2.89, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.43-4.53, p < 0.001). Moreover, logistic regression analysis showed that a one unit increase in BMI increases the odds of an ORWELL 97 score ≥ 71.75-considered indicative of a clinically significant impairment of HRQoL-by nearly 23% (odds ratio (OR), 95% CI = 1.23, 1.09-1.40, p < 0.05). If confirmed, our findings should prompt clinicians operating in Arab countries to encourage patients with obesity to initiate and persevere in weight-loss programs at the earliest opportunity.

Assessing quality of life in severe obesity: development and psychometric properties of the ORWELL-R.

PURPOSE: Several health-related quality-of-life (HRQoL) dimensions are affected by obesity. Our goal was to characterize the psychometric properties of the ORWELL-R, a new obesity-related quality-of-life instrument for assessing the "individual experience of overweightness". METHODS: This psychometric assessment included two different samples: one multicenter clinical sample, used for assessing internal consistency, construct validity and temporal reliability; and a community sample (collected through a cross-sectional mailing survey design), used for additional construct validity assessment and model fit confirmation. RESULTS: Overall, 946 persons participated (188 from the clinical sample; 758 from community sample). An alpha coefficient of 0.925 (clinical sample) and 0.934 (community sample) was found. Three subscales were identified (53.2 % of variance): Body environment experience (alpha = 0.875), Illness perception and distress (alpha = 0.864), Physical symptoms (alpha = 0.674). Adequate test-retest reliability has been confirmed (ICC: 0.78 for the overall score). ORWELL-R scores were worse in the clinical sample. Worst HRQoL, as measured by higher ORWELL-R scores, was associated with BMI increases. ORWELL-R scores were associated with IWQOL-Lite and lower scores in happiness. CONCLUSIONS: ORWELL-R shows good internal consistency and adequate test-retest reliability. Good construct validity was also observed (for convergent and discriminant validity) and confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis (in both clinical and community samples). Presented data sustain ORWELL-R as a reliable and useful instrument to assess obesity-related QoL, in both research and clinical contexts.

Nutritional advice from George Orwell. Exploring the social mechanisms behind the overconsumption of unhealthy foods by people with low socio-economic status.

Despite a general consensus and recognition of the importance of the "social gradient" on nutritional standards and ultimately people's health, (Budrys, 2003; Marmot & Wilkinson, 1999; Marmot et al., 1991; Ross & Wu, 1995), the body of literature identifying and describing the actual underlying social mechanisms which could explain this association is small, fragmented and not contained within one single discipline of thought - the effects of this conundrum seem easier to describe than to explain. The aim of this article is therefore to explore and identify social mechanisms, which could help explain why people with low socio-economic status consume a disproportionate amount of unhealthy foods and therefore also observe poorer diets. It is therefore in many ways an exploration into the nature of (relative) poverty. The point of departure for this exploration and identification is historical descriptions (in the form of excerpts) from George Orwell's (1937) book "The Road to Wigan Pier" on the living conditions of the British working classes. These descriptions will be aligned with results from contemporary research into nutritional behaviour. Strong similarities are identified between George Orwell's historical descriptions of the working-class's unhealthy diet and the findings from contemporary research into nutritional behaviour of people with a low socio-economic status. Certain social mechanisms influencing nutritional choices are readily identifiable across disciplines, and even partly reproduced in different historical, social and spatial contexts, with stronger negative (nutritional) consequences for people with low socio-economic status. The disregard of social mechanisms, and therefore implicitly issues of class, could indicate a general "de-socialization" of nutritional advice also in its dispersal through various health-promotion initiatives and campaigns, which raises serious questions about the usefulness of much nutritional advice, already tentatively questioned by some nutritionist (Burr et al., 2007) as well as "food" sociologist (Smith & Holm, 2010).

A atualidade da novilíngua / The actuality of newspeak

Lançamos mão da discussão estabelecida por Orwell, em 1984, a propósito do extremo da desresponsabilização subjetiva, passando por Arendt e a questão da responsabilidade do sujeito, no intuito de aproximar a novilíngua de Orwell do demarcado por Czermak sobre o texto em nossa atualidade, definida por ele como paranóica. Com esse percurso, pudemos observar que o texto na atualidade caracteriza-se por enunciados cuja enunciação foi apagada, seguindo exatamente os propósitos da novilíngua(AU)

We use Orwell's reflections in 1984 about the extreme subjective non-responsibility, passing through Arendt and subjective responsibility question, with the intention to approach Orwell's newspeak to that established by Czermak about current days text, defined by him as paranoiac. Thus, we could observe that present time text, exactly as the newspeak, present statements without enunciation(AU)