Re-orienting health services: Health services re-orientation is characterized by a more explicit concern for the achievement of population health outcomes in the ways in which the health system is organized and funded. This must lead to a change of attitude and organization of health services, which focuses on the needs of the individual as a… Read More

Reductionism: doctrine according to which complex phenomena are merely the sum of simpler constituents, thereby implying an elimination of subjective experience or choice. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: Oxford,… Read More

Reification: To regard an abstraction or concept as a self-subsistent entity; with Platonic reification an hypostasis of what is in common among particulars into an independent entity standing above them as alone ultimate and real. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and… Read More

Relations of Production: In Marx, the way in which resource ownership and labour control is organized in any society. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: Oxford, 2004-11. 

Relativism: A generic term for the view that there are no objective or universal values because all values are by their nature relative to the contingent cultures, preferences, individuals, practices and world-views in which they are embedded. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy… Read More

Religion: May be theist or non-theist, faith or reason based, but religion is always an organized set of ideas seeking to explain the cosmos/universe and humanity’s place in it, the ultimate nature of enlightenment or truth, and good and evil ways of life. See also Morality. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and… Read More

Renaissance: the revival of classical ancient culture in 15th-century Italy and, successively, in Europe, with a new emphasis on human-centered reason and arts. Source: ‘What is Good? What is Bad? The Value of All Values across Time, Place and Theories’ by John McMurtry, Philosophy and World Problems, Volume I-III, UNESCO in partnership with Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems: Oxford, 2004-11.