In this paper we present a new framework of idealization in biology. We characterize idealizations as a network of counterfactual and hypothetical conditionals that can exhibit different “degrees of contingency”. We use this idea to say that, in departing more or less from the actual world, idealizations can serve numerous epistemic, methodological or heuristic purposes within scientific research. We defend that, in part, this structure explains why idealizations, despite being deformations of reality, are so successful in scientific practice. For illustrative (...) purposes, we provide an example from population genetics, the Wright-Fisher Model. (shrink)
DISSERTAÇÃO DE MESTRADO SANTOS, Ariadna de Oliveira. Discurso pentecostal e diálogo inter-religioso: um estudo sob a perspectiva da metáfora conceptual. 2011. 111 folhas. Dissertação (Mestrado) – Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências da Religião, Belo Horizonte.
In this paper we present a new framework of idealization in biology. We characterize idealizations as a network of counterfactual conditionals that can exhibit different degrees of contingency. We use the idea of possible worlds to say that, in departing more or less from the actual world, idealizations can serve numerous epistemic, methodological or heuristic purposes within scientific research. We defend that, in part, it is this structure what helps explain why idealizations, despite being deformations of reality, are so successful (...) in scientific practice. (shrink)
Abstract: This essay examines two interpretations of Kant's argument for the formula of humanity. Christine M. Korsgaard defends a constructivist reading of Kant's argument, maintaining that humans must view themselves as having absolute value because their power for rational choice confers value on their ends. Allen Wood, however, defends a realist interpretation of Kant's argument, maintaining that humans actually are absolutely valuable and that their choices do not confer value but rather reflect their understanding of how the objects of their (...) choices fulfill their needs and wants and contribute to their flourishing. Though Korsgaard's reading is more consistent with Kant's prioritizing of the right over the good, this essay raises a metaethical question regarding her constructivist position, namely, “What is meant by her claim that rational choice ‘confers’ value on objects?” In developing this question, it presents a realist account of goodness that is taken from Peter Geach's “Good and Evil.”. (shrink)
As third wave feminist philosophers attending graduate schools in different parts of the country, we decided to use our e-mail discussion as the format for presenting our thinking on the subject of third wave feminism. Our dialogue takes us through the subjects of postmodernism, the relationship between theory and practice, the generation gap, and the power relations associated with feminist philosophy as an established part of the academy.
In this article, we shed light on the debate about the financial performance of socially responsible investment (SRI) mutual funds by separately analyzing the contributions of before-fee performance and fees to SRI funds’ performance, and by investigating the role played by fund management companies in the determination of those variables. We apply the matching estimator methodology to obtain our results and find that in the period 1997–2005, US SRI funds had better before- and after-fee performance than conventional funds with similar (...) characteristics. The differences, however, are driven exclusively by SRI funds run by management companies specialized in SRI. While these funds significantly outperform similar conventional funds, funds run by companies not specialized in SRI underperform their matched conventional funds. We find no significant differences in fees between SRI and conventional funds except in one case: SRI funds are cheaper than conventional funds run by the same management company. (shrink)
The issue of same-sex marriage continues to be controversial in the United States. Opponents of same-sex marriage offer a variety of objections in defense of their position. One such objection (which I identify as the Inability to Love objection, or ILO) is that legalizing same-sex marriage would promote a counterfeit good (homosexual marriage) as a genuine good (heterosexual marriage), since homosexuals are incapable of genuine, full erotic love. Proponents of ILO argue that homosexuals are incapable of genuine erotic love because (...) all homosexual relationships lack genuine sexual and affective complementarity. Relying on the arguments of Gareth Moore, I argue against ILO, claiming that it rests on an erroneous conception of desire. Once this conception of desire is corrected, the mythof “homosexual desire” is debunked and along with it the main argument in support of the claim that homosexuals are incapable of love. (shrink)
The "justice of markets" is intricately connected to the treatment of the poor and the disadvantaged in market economies. The increased interest of multinational corporations in low-income market segments affords, on one hand, the opportunity for a more inclusive capitalism, and on the other, the threat of greater exploitation of poor and disadvantaged consumers. This article traces the contributions of Catholic Social Teaching and its basic principles toward providing insight into what constitutes "justice" in such "marketing to the impoverished" situations.
Increasingly, companies implement social and environmental standards as instruments towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) in supply chains. This is based on the assumption that such standards increase legitimacy among stakeholders. Yet, a wide variety of standards with different requirement levels exist and companies might tend to introduce the ones with low exigencies, using them as a legitimacy front. This strategy jeopardizes the reputation of social and environmental standards among stakeholders and their long-term trust in these instruments of CSR, meaning that (...) all expenses for their implementation are of no avail for the companies. Therefore, this paper highlights which criteria are important for the selection, implementation and improvement in order to achieve a company's aim, but also to strengthen the legitimacy of social and environmental standards. This research is based on conceptual thought and some existing empirical research, comparing four different social and environmental standards, revealing weaknesses and strengths. It exposes the basic conditions for the success of such standards among stakeholders and identifies the need for more empirical data. (shrink)
‘‘Adaptive radiation’’ is an evocative metaphor for explosive evolutionary divergence, which for over 100 years has given a powerful heuristic to countless scientists working on all types of organisms at all phylogenetic levels. However, success has come at the price of making ‘‘adaptive radiation’’ so vague that it can no longer reflect the detailed results yielded by powerful new phylogeny-based techniques that quantify continuous adaptive radiation variables such as speciation rate, phylogenetic tree shape, and morphological diversity. Attempts to shoehorn the (...) results of these techniques into categorical ‘‘adaptive radiation: yes/no’’ schemes lead to reification, in which arbitrary quantitative thresholds are regarded as real. Our account of the life cycle of metaphors in science suggests that it is time to exchange the spent metaphor for new concepts that better represent the full range of diversity, disparity, and speciation rate across all of life. (shrink)
Tomasello et al. provide a new account of cultural uniqueness, one that hinges on a uniquely human motivation to share intentionality with others. We favor an alternative to this motivational account – one that relies on a modular explanation of the primate intention-reading system. We discuss this view in light of recent comparative experiments using competitive intention-reading tasks.
This essay is about experience, and not only about ideas. I have been drawn to write about John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus for a number of reasons: First, I find his work to be part of a new turn in LGBT art and media that take queer lives as a point of departure, and not only as narrative focus, for their work. These areworks that are not just about being queer, but cross the line into being queer works. Of those who (...) can be said to be a part of this recent turn, I find Mitchell’s work to be both especially philosophical and formally interesting. Not only does his work take up philosophical questions over what it means to be human, and the nature of love and sex, but also his works are produced through an organic, cooperative process that re-frames what it could mean to queer representation, political or otherwise. (shrink)
Though Husserl tends to receive less attention than other phenomenologists, there is growing interest in his ethics. Proponents of Husserl’s ethics argue that his moral philosophy is not merely of historical interest; Husserl, they claim, can contribute positively to contemporary debates in ethics, specifically debates about the role of feelings in moral agency. This paper raises questions about this last claim. I argue that, on the one hand, Husserl’s moral psychology proves superior to some of his modern predecessors, insofar as (...) Husserl accounts (1) for the intentionality of emotions and (2) for their cognitive content, and (3) for the connections between emotions and evaluation and between emotions and reasons. On the other hand, I argue that Husserl mistakenly claims that all valuing requires some feeling on the part of the person valuing. This error, I argue, is due to Husserl’s conflation of desires and emotions. I defend my critique of Husserl by reference to an Aristotelian account of rational and non-rational desires. (shrink)
This paper addresses the experimental trade?off between the exercise of control over the actions of the experimental participants and the potential to provide understanding about human behavior. Control is a requirement of the experimental method to produce pertinent and intelligible results for scientific inquiry. But the more control is exercised the more the experimental results are the outcome of economists' actions. Economic experiments must therefore achieve a difficult balance. They must elicit intelligible behavior while ensuring that the actions of those (...) taking part in the experiment are not determined by the design set?up and the rules of the experiment. The paper puts forward criteria for the analysis of the level of participation of experimental subjects in economics experiments and applies them to several experiments to illustrate the relevance of assessing the agency of experimental participants when deriving inferences about human behavior. (shrink)
Un discurso sobre las ciencias -- Hacia una epistemología de la ceguera : por qué razón las nuevas formas de "adecuación ceremonial" no regulan ni emancipan? -- Hacia una sociología de las ausencias y una sociología de las emergencias -- Más allá del pensamiento abismal : de las líneas globales a una ecología de saberes -- El fin de los descubrimientos imperiales -- Nuestra América : reinventando un paradigma subalterno de reconocimiento y redistribución -- Entre Próspero y Caliban : colonialismo, (...) poscolonialismo e inter-identidad -- De lo posmoderno a lo poscolonial y más allá de uno y de otro. (shrink)
The generality relativist has been accused of holding a self-defeating thesis. Kit Fine proposed a modal version of generality relativism that tries to resist this claim. We discuss his proposal and argue that one of its formulations is self-defeating.
O objetivo deste texto é analisar o argumento da economia que justificaria a tolerância como um dos maiores fatores para o desenvolvimento dos povos, no século XVII, segundo a interpretação de Locke. Expressando de outro modo, este texto pretende responder a seguinte questão: qual o lugar da dimensão econômica na teoria lockiana sobre a tolerância? The objective of this text is to analyze the economic argument that justifies tolerance as a major contributor to the development of peoples in the seventeenth (...) century, according to the interpretation of Locke. Put another way, this paper aims to answer the following question: What is the place of the economic dimension in the Lockean theory of tolerance? (shrink)
Resenha do livro de: Rodrigo Duarte, Adorno/Horkheimer & A dialetica do esclarecimento. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 2002. Colecao Filosofia Passa-a-passo 4. 70 paginas.
In this paper we use Hobby's duality for semi-De Morgan algebras, to characterize those algebras having only principal congruences in the classes of semi-De Morgan algebras, demi-pseudocomplemented lattices and almost pseudocomplemented lattices. This work extends some of the results reached by Beazer in [3] and [4].
O presente estudo tenta compreender, ainda que de maneira sumária, quais os caminhos que a Estética tomou; desde Hegel e a dedução filosófica dos conceitos, até a corrente, influenciada por Wittgenstein, da análise da linguagem comum, acabando por apontar, diante das dificuldades dos referidos caminhos, para a Estética da circularidade; tanto a de Heidegger quanto a de George Dickie. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Estética. Filosofia da arte. Conceito. Linguagem comum. Circularidade.
In this article the author attempts to establish whether we can find a “theory of appearance” in the philosophy of Jan Patočka. The “appearance” for Patočka is basically composed of two elements. First there is a “primeval movement” which accounts for an infinite possibility of phenomena. The second element is the relation of this movement with an “addressee”, the subjectivity. If we begin to analyse the unity of these two elements we fundamentally come across three problems: what is it that (...) appears, when appearance presupposes a certain totality of appearance; how does this total appearance come forth; and, finally, is this whole “structure of appearance” taken as a free movement, kept once and for all within the boundaries of phenomenology, which is founded on a precise and positive term of “appearance” — or do we have to stipulate a special “experience” as the starting point of a phenomenology, which accepts the abyssal impossibility to control its frame? (shrink)
Em primeiro lugar, (1) examinarei a chamada Destruktion fenomenológica da ontologia medieval, componente básico do método a partir da história da ontologia. Nessa seção, coloco algumas questões sobre a apropriação da Idade Média com base na escolástica tardia, como se esta fosse o "cume" das reflexões precedentes! Em segundo lugar, (2) apresento a reflexão de próprio Heidegger sobre a ontologia medieval tal como se expõe no curso de semestre de verão de 1927 ("Os problemas fundamentais da fenomenologia"), ministrado na Universidade (...) de Marburg. Igualmente nessa parte, faço algumas reflexões críticas sobre a leitura heideggeriana dos medievais, que se presta muito mais para conhecer o próprio modo de pensar de Heidegger do que os medievais em si mesmos, ou seja, pela leitura cursiva dos textos em seu contexto histórico e cultural: sem o élan espiritual, consubstancial aos escritos de Tomás de Aquino, por exemplo, a organização conceitual deste último não pareceria um sistema assaz grandioso e seco? Esta não terá sido a compreensão de Heidegger, fruto da separação metodológica feita entre mística medieval e filosofia escolástica desde o curso não proferido intitulado "Fundamentos filosóficos da Mística Medieval" (1918-1919)? First, I will examine the so-called phenomenological Destruktion of medieval ontology, a basic component of the method of the history of ontology. In this section I put forth some questions regarding the appropriation of the Middle Ages by late scholasticism, which supposed itself the apex of preceding reflections. Secondly, I present Heidegger's own reflections on medieval ontology as presented in his course of the summer semester of 1927 ("The fundamental problems of phenomenology") taught at the University of Marburg. In this part I also make some critical reflections on Heidegger's reading of the medieval philosophers, which lends itself more to understanding Heidegger's way of thinking than that of the medievals themselves (i.e. as read in their historical and cultural context). Without spiritual élan, consubstantial with the writings of Thomas Aquinas, for example, would not the conceptual organization of Aquinas' system seem rather grandiose and dry? Would not this have been Heidegger's understanding, which was the result of a methodological separation made between medieval mysticism and Scholastic philosophy ever since his undelivered course entitled "Philosophical Foundations of Medieval Mysticism" (1918-1919)? (shrink)
I begin by drawing a parallel between the intuitionistic understanding of quantification over all natural numbers and the generality relativist understanding of quantification over absolutely everything. I then argue that adoption of an intuitionistic reading of relativism not only provides an immediate reply to the absolutist's charge of incoherence but it also throws a new light on the debates surrounding absolute generality.
Reseha do livro de Cornelius Castoriadis. Sobre ‘O Político’ de Platáo. Traduçáo de Luciana Moreira Pudenzi. Sáo Paulo: Loyola, 2004. [Coleçáo Leituras Filosóficas].
Since Stalbaum’s 1838 translation revived interest in Plato’s Timaeus, commentators have tended to bracket the discourse on Necessity, reading it as either mythical or mystical. This essay offers an interpretation of Necessity that is also an assertion of its importance for understanding the philosophically important conception of chora-space found therein. Beginning with throwing ourselves back into the Presocratic milieu, I examine what remains of Presocratic notions of kreon and ananke (necessity) in order to move forward a more robust interpretation of (...) the discourse on Necessity and chora-space. (shrink)
This paper analyses the gender pay determinants between top and lower level of Portuguese employees. A relatively large data pool, for 2003, covering business functions hitherto neglected, sheds a new light into the factors that lead to the earnings of men and women. Our analysis combines human capital with internal-labour-markets theories. Our findings allow the identification of jobsegregation as one important source of the gender pay gap. Moreover, they confirm that earnings are determined by different factors and suggest a reasonable (...) opportunity for women to combine career and family. (shrink)
Do humans start life with the capacity to detect and mentally represent the objects around them? Or is our object knowledge instead derived only as the result of prolonged experience with the external world? Are we simply able to perceive objects by watching their actions in the world, or do we have to act on objects ourselves in order to learn about their behavior? Finally, do we come to know all aspects of objects in the same way, or are some (...) aspects of our object understanding more epistemologically privileged than others? -/- "The Origins of Object Knowledge" presents the most up-to-date survey of the research into how the developing human mind understands the world of objects and their properties. It presents some of the best findings from leading research groups in the field of object representation approached from the perspective of developmental and comparative psychology. Topics covered in the book all address some aspect of what objects are from a psychological perspective; how humans and animals conceive what they are made of; what properties they possess; how we count them and how we categorize them; even how the difference between animate and inanimate objects leads to different expectations. The chapters also cover the variety of methodologies and techniques that must be used to study infants, young children, and non-human primates and the value of combining approaches to discovering what each group knows. -/- Bringing together leading researchers, communicating the most contemporary and exciting findings within the field of object representation, this volume will be an important work in the cognitive sciences, and of interest to those across the fields of developmental and comparative psychology. (shrink)
O estudo da natureza da mente ocupa um lugar de destaque na agenda das investigações da Filosofia da Mente, porque sua abordagem parece fornecer uma explicaçáo da forma pela qual os humanos têm acesso aos dados da realidade. Pretendemos problematizar a teoria cartesiana de natureza da mente a partir de sua concepçáo de idéias inatas produzida a partir de um instrumental matemático, que segundo Descartes, nasce com o sujeito. Para tanto, faremos uma breve explanaçáo do método cartesiano, assim como de (...) sua concepçáo de sujeito, para chegar, enfim, à análise do que Descartes entende como idéia. Após o que uma breve análise da noçáo de idéias inatas será por nós realizada. Indicaremos entáo, como o pensamento cartesiano dá margem para o questionamento de sua distinçáo mente/corpo, esta que o neurocientista Damásio náo aceita, assim como náo aceita a prioridade da razáo sobre o sentimento. A natureza da mente náo é metafísica como o disse Descartes, para Damásio ela é biológica. (shrink)
El corpuscularismo sirvió a los físicos del XVII para matematizar la naturaleza al considerarla un conjunto de sistemas mecánicos. Pero la discontinuidad del atomismo chocaba con la continuidad de las magnitudes básicas, espacio y el tiempo, y derivadas. En su madurez, Galileo fundió física y matemáticas propo-niendo componer tanto los cuerpos como las magnitudes continuas a base de átomos inextensos (indivisibles). En el proceso inició el análisis de las propiedades de los conjuntos infinitos, pero no logró elaborar un cálculo que (...) le permitiese computar diferentes movimientos acelerados, mientras que en física no resolvió en problema fundamental de la condensación y la rarefacción.Seventeenth century atomism envisioned Nature as a set of mechanical systems to be treated mathematically. But the basic discontinuity of atomic theory of matter appeared inconsistent with the essential continuous character of geometrical magnitudes. In his old age Galileo devised a way to unify mathematics and physics via composing matter and continuous magnitudes out of an infinity of indivisible (atomic) units. Even though he forwarded the analysis of infinite sets, he couldn’t establish a calculus to compute and compare different accelerated motions. In physics he never solved the basic problem of condensation and rarefaction of substances. But the side results were interesting and even fascinating. (shrink)
O objetivo do presente estudo é apresentar o debate travado por Leão XIII sobre a libertação dos escravos no Brasil. Afirma-se que a libertação dos escravos, no Brasil e nos demais países das Américas, não significou o fim dos problemas e conflitos sociais que os negros e seus descendentes historicamente enfrentaram, mas o início de um novo ciclo de lutas e conquistas sociais e políticas. No entanto, não se pode negar que a luta pelo fim do sistema escravagista e, por (...) conseguinte, da libertação dos cativos, foi de suma importância. Dentro dessa luta a Igreja e outras organizações sociais tiveram um papel decisivo. (shrink)
Going beyond the present controversy surrounding personhood in various non-philosophical contexts, this book seeks to defend the renewed philosophical interest in issues connected with this topic and the need for a more credible philosophical conception of the person. Taking the theory of John Locke as a starting point and in dialogue with contemporary philosophers such as Derek Parfit and P.F. Strawson, the authors develop an original philosophical anthropology based on the writings of Charles Hartshorne and A.N. Whitehead. The authors then (...) show the implications for ethics of this conception of the person and the self. (shrink)
Resenha do livro de: LANDIM FILHO, Raul. Questões disputadas de metafísica e de crítica do conhecimento . Sáo Paulo: Discurso Editorial, 2009, Coleçáo Philosophia, 475 p.
Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabela normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} O objetivo desse artigo é apresentar duas reflexões sobre a relaçáo entre Wittgenstein e as preocupações contemporâneas da filosofia. Essas reflexões sáo fundamentadas principalmente nas Investigações filosóficas . Para se alcançar esse objetivo, inicialmente, é apresentada a crítica que Wittgenstein realiza, nas Investigações filosóficas , a tradiçáo filosófico-linguística do (...) Ocidente. Após essa apresentaçáo, sáo feitas as considerações sobre a relaçáo entre Wittgenstein e as preocupações contemporâneas da filosofia. (shrink)
In the natural sciences there is a general consensus on the epistemic value conferred by the participation of the ?material world? in the experimental process of knowledge production. This is no different in experimental economics. However, an inquiry into the epistemic role of the ?materials? of economics is still underdeveloped. The present paper is meant as a contribution to this inquiry. Two categories of experiments are identified according to the differentiated role of the ?materials? of economics. It is argued that (...) the crucial ?material? of technological experiments is the market institution that is tailored in the laboratory to accomplish specific purposes. The crucial ?material? of behavioral experiments is instead the participation of the experimental subjects in the production of knowledge of individual and collective behavior. FCC spectrum auctions and ultimatum game experiments illustrate technological and behavioral experiments, respectively. General policy implications are also drawn from each kind of experiment. (shrink)
One of the major problems posed by the human rights issue to philosophy is its philosophical foundation. The background of this discussion raises questions such as: how can one philosophically explain / justify the demand for human rights recognition? This paper focuses on the argumentative basis on which Höffe structures his proposal. For him human rights are closely connected to the concept of justice. This concept must be understood primarily as an exchange (Gerechtigkeit als Tausch). Although the concept seems simple, (...) it offers many difficulties regarding its foundation. (shrink)
Abstract: In response to Arroyo, I explain my position on the concept of “natural goodness” and how my use of that concept compares to that of Geach and Foot. An Aristotelian or functional notion of goodness provides the material for Kantian endorsement in a theory of value that avoids a metaphysical commitment to intrinsic values. In response to Cummiskey, I review reasons for thinking Kantianism and consequentialism incompatible, especially those objections to aggregation that arise from the notion of the natural (...) good previously described. In response to Moland, I explain why I think Hegelian worries about the supposed emptiness of the Kantian self do not apply to my account. And in response to both Moland and Bird-Pollan, I argue that, contrary to the view of some Hegelians, the intersubjective normativity of reason is not something developed through actual social relations; rather, it is something essential to an individual's relations with himself or herself. (shrink)
: Those who are morally opposed to abortion generally make several pivotal assumptions. This paper focuses on the assumption that we have full moral status throughout our existence. Coupled with the assumption that we come into existence at conception, the assumption about moral status entails that all human fetuses have full moral status, including a right to life. Is the assumption about moral status correct? In addressing this question, I respond to several arguments advanced, in this journal and other venues, (...) by Alfonso Gómez-Lobo. Gómez-Lobo's reasoning resolves into two basic arguments: (1) an appeal to the practical necessity of early moral protection and (2) an appeal to our kind membership and potentiality. I respond to these in turn before offering further reflections. (shrink)
Ellen Furlong and Laurie Santos helpfully summarize a number of fascinating studies of certain influences on both human and monkey behavior. As someone who works primarily in philosophy, I am not in a position to dispute the details of the studies themselves. But in this brief commentary I do want to raise some questions about the inferences Furlong and Santos make on the basis of those studies. In general, I worry that they may be overreaching beyond what their own data (...) suggests. (shrink)
Nel 2011 sono mancati Paolo Lucentini e Alfonso Maierù. Nel ricordarne la vicenda umana e professionale come ricercatori e come docenti, questo articolo intende mettere in luce in particolare il contributo che essi hanno dato alla Storia del pensiero medievale accompagnando gli studi dottrinali con importanti edizioni di testi inediti. Paolo Lucentini and Alfonso Maierù passed away in 2011. This article, in remembrance of their personal and professional roles as researchers and teachers, will highlight the contributions that they (...) made to the history of medieval thought, showing how they combined doctrinal studies with important editions of unedited texts. (shrink)
