Two studies examine whether income volatility might lead to greater personal financial insecurity and might create a decision environment that discourages planning ahead on personal finances. In Study 1, participants who reported more month-to-month variability in their actual income were less likely to have planned for financial contingencies. A lower internal locus of control partially mediated the link between volatility and financial planning decisions in Study 1, and lower internal locus of economic control predicted financial planning decisions independently of volatility. (...) In Study 2, participants who were randomly assigned to receive volatile payments in a simulated work environment were less likely to save their compensation for this work. Again, lower internal locus of economic control predicted financial planning decisions independently of volatility. This is the first study to demonstrate a causal link between income volatility and financial decisions, specifically a heightened tendency to make short-term financial decisions. Both studies also underlined the importance of internal locus of control for financial planning decisions. (shrink)

Contemporary literature in philosophy of action seems to be divided overthe place of action in the natural causal world. I think that a disagreementabout ontology underlies the division. I argue here that human action isproperly understood only by reference to a category of process or activity,where this is not a category of particulars.

This essay explores the speech act of dogwhistling (sometimes referred to as ‘using coded language’). Dogwhistles may be overt or covert, and within each of these categories may be intentional or unintentional. Dogwhistles are a powerful form of political speech, allowing people to be manipulated in ways they would resist if the manipulation was carried outmore openly—often drawing on racist attitudes that are consciously rejected. If philosophers focus only on content expressed or otherwise consciously conveyed they may miss what is (...) most powerful and pernicious in the speech of political culture. This essay is a call to start paying attention to these more covert speech acts, and a first attempt at beginning to theorize them. It argues that dogwhistles present a complex and interesting case for the philosopher of language, and explores their implications for democratic politics. (shrink)

Jacob (history, New School for Social Research) proposes that the science of the 17th and 18th centuries was eventually accepted because it was made compatible with larger political and economic interests. A celebration of the recently concluded 33 volume edition of the Collected works of John Stuart Mill, produced over a period of nearly 30 years, the last 20 under the guiding genius (and hand) of general editor Robson. Following a tributary history of the project itself, essays cover Mill's (...) career as a thinker and as a bureaucrat and public servant, exploring the effects of the various milieu--domestic, political, administrative, religious, and cultural--in which he moved. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR. (shrink)

Testimony is an invaluable source of knowledge. We rely on the reports of those around us for everything from the ingredients in our food and medicine to the identity of our family members. Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in the epistemology of testimony. Despite the multitude of views offered, a single thesis is nearly universally accepted: testimonial knowledge is acquired through the process of transmission from speaker to hearer. In this book, Jennifer Lackey shows that this (...) thesis is false and, hence, that the literature on testimony has been shaped at its core by a view that is fundamentally misguided. She then defends a detailed alternative to this conception of testimony: whereas the views currently dominant focus on the epistemic status of what speakers believe, Lackey advances a theory that instead centers on what speakers say. The upshot is that, strictly speaking, we do not learn from one another's beliefs - we learn from one another's words. Once this shift in focus is in place, Lackey goes on to argue that, though positive reasons are necessary for testimonial knowledge, testimony itself is an irreducible epistemic source. This leads to the development of a theory that gives proper credence to testimony's epistemologically dual nature: both the speaker and the hearer must make a positive epistemic contribution to testimonial knowledge. The resulting view not only reveals that testimony has the capacity to generate knowledge, but it also gives appropriate weight to our nature as both socially indebted and individually rational creatures. The approach found in this book will, then, represent a radical departure from the views currently dominating the epistemology of testimony, and thus is intended to reshape our understanding of the deep and ubiquitous reliance we have on the testimony of those around us. (shrink)

This article explores the nature and theoretical import of a hitherto neglected class of fictions which we term ‘self-involving interactive fictions’. SIIFs are interactive fictions, but they differ from standard examples of interactive fictions by being, in some important sense, about those who consume them. In order to better understand the nature of SIIFs, and the ways in which they differ from other fictions, we focus primarily on the most prominent example of the category: video-game fictions. We argue that appreciating (...) the self-involving nature of video-game fictions is key to understanding various otherwise puzzling phenomena concerning the ways in which consumers respond to them. Video-game fictions are, however, far from being the only extant example of this class; and we suggest that the recent philosophical interest in video games would be better focused on the wider class of self-involving interactive fictions. (shrink)

Civil society organizations (CSOs) have significantly impacted on the politics of health research and the field of bioethics. In the globalHIVepidemic,CSOs have served a pivotal stakeholder role. The dire need for development of new prevention technologies has raised critical challenges for the ethical engagement of community stakeholders inHIVresearch. This study explored the perspectives ofCSOrepresentatives involved inHIVprevention trials (HPTs) on the impact of premature trial closures on stakeholder engagement. Fourteen respondents fromSouthAfrican and internationalCSOs representing activist and advocacy groups, community mobilisation initiatives, (...) and human and legal rights groups were purposively sampled based on involvement inHPTs. Interviews were conducted fromFebruary‐May 2010. Descriptive analysis was undertaken across interviews and key themes were developed inductively.CSOrepresentatives largely described positive outcomes of recent microbicide andHIVvaccine trial terminations, particularly inSouthAfrica, which they attributed to improvements in stakeholder engagement. Ongoing challenges to community engagement included the need for principled justifications for selective stakeholder engagement at strategic time‐points, as well as the need for legitimate alternatives toCABs as mechanisms for engagement. Key issues forCSOs in relation to research were also raised. (shrink)

In this collection of original essays, international scholars put Asian traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, into conversation with one or more contemporary feminist philosophies, founding a new mode of inquiry that attends to diverse voices and the complex global relationships that define our world. -/- These cross-cultural meditations focus on the liberation of persons from suffering, oppression, illusion, harmful conventions and desires, and other impediments to full personhood by deploying a methodology that traverses multiple philosophical styles, historical (...) texts, and frames of reference. Hailing from the discipline of philosophy in addition to Asian, gender, and religious studies, the contributors offer a fresh take on the classic concerns of free will, consciousness, knowledge, objectivity, sexual difference, embodiment, selfhood, the state, morality, and hermeneutics. One of the first anthologies to embody the practice of feminist comparative philosophy, this collection creatively and effectively engages with global, cultural, and gender differences within the realms of scholarly inquiry and theory construction. -/- http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-16624-9/asian-and-feminist-philosophies-in-dialogue. (shrink)

Este Trabalho discute ações transgressoras didático-pedagógicas ao processo neocolonial no ambiente educacional formal, com o olhar à formação inicial, continuada e a pedagogia no chão da escola, inerentes à superação dos preconceitos, sutis ou não, ao fenótipo negro. Inicialmente rastreou-se, indício das boas práticas didático-pedagógicas, por uma revisão literária, ao se relacionar formação inicial continuada e práticas transgressoras de auto identificação étnico racial no chão da escola, ancorada externamente pelas lutas por uma sociedade e educação antirracistas. Importou sistematizar o processo (...) de silenciamento do fenótipo negro, indutor de subjetividades negras ainda escravizadas, por vezes simbolicamente, nos ambientes educacionais. Além de práticas didático-pedagógicas transgressoras, ao longo do tempo que apresentaram ou têm potencial para atenuação ou superação, segundo a literatura revisada do epistemicídio, conforme a amostragem considerada nos processos de auto identificação inicial e as possíveis identificações mais sólidas no longo prazo detectadas naquelas produções científicas levantadas. As discussões são precedidas pelos alicerces materiais e simbólicos do racismo estrutural, seguidos pelas ações inerentes à formação inicial e continuada, e práticas pedagógicas transgressoras ao neocolonialismo e racismo estrutural. Destaca-se a importância em divulgar os fazeres pedagógicos libertadores para um aquilombamento frente ao neocolonialismo. (shrink)

Introduction -- Elucidating complexity theories -- Complexity in the natural sciences -- Complexity in social theory -- Towards transdisciplinarity -- Complexity in philosophy: complexification and the limits to knowledge -- Complexity in ethics -- Earth in the anthropocene -- Complexity and climate change -- American dreams, ecological nightmares and new visions -- Complexity and sustainability: wicked problems, gordian knots and synergistic solutions -- Conclusion.

The key to understanding what is problematic about The Man's behavior lies in considering his inflexible attitude toward following a particular kind of rule: the construction instructions accompanying his various LEGO sets. The Man treats the LEGO instructions he is following—which clearly have, at best, the status of conventional, rather than moral, rules—in a manner fitting only for moral requirements. To understand the severity of The Man's mistake, people need only contrast his attitude with that of Emmet Brickowoski at the (...) start of The LEGO Movie. Emmet is largely to be pitied rather than blamed for his inflexible rule‐following behavior. By contrast, there is no indication that The Man's rule‐following behavior is in any way aimed, even unsuccessfully, at attaining some genuine good. Rather, The Man follows the rules merely because they are, well, the rules. (shrink)

Background The field of bioethics has evolved over the past half-century, incorporating new domains of inquiry that signal developments in health research, clinical practice, public health in its broadest sense and more recently sensitivity to the interdependence of global health and the environment. These extensions of the reach of bioethics are a welcome response to the growth of global health as a field of vital interest and activity. Methods This paper provides a critical interpretive review of how the term “global (...) health ethics” has been used and defined in the literature to date to identify ethical issues that arise and need to be addressed when deliberating on and working to improve the discourse on ethical issues in health globally. Results Selected publications were analyzed by year of publication and geographical distribution, journal and field, level of engagement, and ethical framework. Of the literature selected, 151 articles were written by authors in high-income countries, as defined by the World Bank country classifications, 8 articles were written by authors in low- or middle-income countries, and 13 articles were collaborations between authors in HIC and LMIC. All of the articles selected except one from 1977 were published after 1998. Literature on global health ethics spiked considerably from the early 2000s, with the highest number in 2011. One hundred twenty-seven articles identified were published in academic journals, 1 document was an official training document, and 44 were chapters in published books. The dominant journals were the American Journal of Bioethics, Developing World Bioethics, and Bioethics. We coded the articles by level of engagement within the ethical domain at different levels: interpersonal, institutional, international, and structural. The ethical frameworks at use corresponded to four functional categories: those examining practical or narrowly applied ethical questions; those concerned with normative ethics; those examining an issue through a single philosophical tradition; and those comparing and contrasting insights from multiple ethical frameworks. Conclusions This critical interpretive review is intended to delineate the current contours and revitalize the conversation around the future charge of global health ethics scholarship. (shrink)

How, in a secular world, should we resolve ethically controversial and troubling issues relating to health care? Should we, as some argue, make a clean sweep, getting rid of the Hippocratic ethic, such vestiges of it as remain? Jennifer Jackson seeks to answer these significant questions, establishing new foundations for a traditional and secular ethic which would not require a radical and problematic overhaul of the old. These new foundations rest on familiar observations of human nature and human needs. (...) Jackson presents morality as a loose anatomy of constituent virtues that are related in different ways to how we fare in life, and suggests that in order to address problems in medical ethics, a virtues-based approach is needed. Throughout, attention is paid to the role of philosophy in medical ethics, and how it can be used to clarify key notions and distinctions that underlie current debates and controversial issues. By reinstating such concepts as justice, cardinal virtue, and moral duty, Jackson lays the groundwork for an ethics of health care that makes headway toward resolving seeming dilemmas in medical ethics today. This penetrating and accessible book will be invaluable to students of sociology and health care, as well as those who are interested in the ethical uncertainties faced by the medical world. (shrink)

This article deals with the feeling of strangeness in the human being. When it comes to being human, it is traditionally understood as beings containing reasons and emotions. Thus, to better understand the feeling of the foreigner, its context is analyzed on the perspective of humean moral sentimentalism and on the intertwining, proposed by Husserl, between the intellectual and affective spheres. From these philosophers one can see the convergence between the intellectual and affective spheres, as well as between reason and (...) emotion. Therefore, contemporary emotional theories bring an explanatory gain for understanding the feeling of the foreigner in the face of new environments and cultures, as both cognitive and non-cognitive elements are perceived. Therefore, Goldie and Husserl contribute to the analysis of the foreigner's feeling of strangeness in its various peculiarities. (shrink)

We are subject with consciousness. For this we have to have self-consciousness so that consciousness can exist. In this way, there is the possibility of self-knowledge of one's own mental states. Thus, the article aims at investigating the possibility of self-knowledge of one's own mental states, their applicability and consequences in relation to Kantian moral theory. Therefore, it reflects on how self-knowledge of one's own mental states and the characteristics of Kantian moral theory occur. Finally, there is the possibility of (...) moral responsibility for one's own mental states related to Kantian morality and the method of self-knowledge of the very action of the moral agent. (shrink)

"Held at the University of Toronto on 3-5 May 1973, honouring the bicentenary of James Mill's birth and the centenary of John Stuart Mill's death." Includes bibliographical references.

This article is about self-knowledge on one's own mental states. Considering human as rational beings, this study aims to problematize the position of subject in process of self-knowledge, as well as to realize the state of knowledge about self-knowledge. In this way, Richard Moran constitutes the method of transparency about the knowledge of one's own mental states. Such a method receives some criticism from the philosopher Quassim Cassam and the philosopher Brie-Gertler. In the same extent, both authors problematize some characteristics (...) of self-knowledge, in which criticism reaches some points studied by Brazilian philosophers, namely Paulo Farias, Waldomiro Silva Filho and André Abath. The latter two authors are based on Moran's methodology and thus constitute his reflections on conditions of daily life as well as the incomplete understanding of human beings. (shrink)

Some philosophers writing on the possibility of faultless disagreement have argued that the only way to account for the intuition that there could be disagreements which are faultless in every sense is to accept a relativistic semantics. In this article we demonstrate that this view is mistaken by constructing an absolutist semantics for a particular domain – aesthetic discourse – which allows for the possibility of genuinely faultless disagreements. We argue that this position is an improvement over previous absolutist responses (...) to the relativist's challenge and that it presents an independently plausible account of the semantics of aesthetic discourse. (shrink)

Self-knowledge is the cognitive ability of the agent to know his or her own mental states. There are several types of mental states, and there is a method for the knowledge of each type. The focus of this dissertation is on the knowledge of one‘s own beliefs. With this goal in mind, we present the empiricist and the rationalist approaches to the knowledge of one‘s own beliefs. Empiricist theories of self-knowledge proposes introspection as the method for the knowledge of one‘s (...) own beliefs. However, there are issues related to the phenomenology of belief – what it is like to believe that p? The best rationalist theories of self-knowledge proposes that an agent ―look outwards to constitute her own mind and her own belief. Our final question is about the relationship between knowledge of one‘s beliefs and rationality. Burge (2013) requires that, in order to be rational, one must have self-knowledge. We argue that the kind of rationality specified by Burge is too demanding. As agents in the realm of common life, we have incomplete understanding of our own doxastic mental states, but that is not a problem for the knowledge of our own beliefs as dispositions, since they does not come from rational deliberation; nevertheless, we are responsible and our beliefs as commitments. Both kinds of belief can be known by the transparency method. We conclude claiming that the transparency method is enough for the self-knowledge of doxastic mental state and ensuring the rationality of the agent. (shrink)

This article deals with self-knowledge of beliefs. There are several mental states with their own peculiarities. Desires, judgments, feelings, emotions and beliefs. The focus of the article is on the know-ledge of one’s beliefs. Self-knowledge has characteristics, namely, first-person authority, aprioristic character, cognitive-discriminative capacity, infallibility, omniscience, asymmetry between the first and third person and impossibility of misuse of the pronoun “I” (SILVA FILHO, 2013, p. 33, n.2). In the everyday realm of common sense, there is no doubt about the self-attribution (...) of beliefs, but concepts are not always used correctly, that is, there is an incomplete unders-tanding of one’s beliefs. However, does attributing rationality to the agent require knowledge of one’s beliefs? According to Coliva (2016), there are dispositional beliefs and as commitment. With respect to the first type of belief, the agent has no epistemic responsibility, with the second yes. Therefore, self-knowledge of doxastic beliefs as commit-ment requires rationality of the epistemic agent, because there is the epistemic responsibility of the rational agent. (shrink)

Resumo Apresentaremos neste artigo uma breve discussão acerca das influências do comunitarismo cristão na vida social e política brasileira. Trata-se de um ensaio exploratório. O objetivo é uma revisão bibliográfica sobre o tema. A partir daquilo que foi possível selecionar, tentamos elaborar algumas ideias, no sentido de apresentar, mesmo que sucintamente, tópicos que podem indicar a importância do comunitarismo cristão, tradição forte e influente não somente nas décadas de 1960 e 1970, mas que, sobretudo no atual contexto político, ainda desempenha (...) um papel central na sociedade brasileira. Recorte especial é a análise sobre as influências do comunitarismo nas ações da Igreja Católica, no Brasil. Assim, a Teologia da Libertação e as Comunidades Eclesiais de Base (CEBs) derivariam do pensamento comunitarista. Por fim, o comunitarismo cristão é apresentado como uma reação ao neoliberalismo, por priorizar "o valor inelutável da dignidade e da transcendência humana e uma resistência insuperável a deixar engolfar o destino humano em uma lógica mercantil, de individualismo possessivo. Essa tradição, em grande medida identificada com as posições hoje encarnadas pela CNBB, é responsável por vastas experiências de solidariedade entre os pobres e oprimidos brasileiros". Palavras-chave: Comunitarismo cristão; Igreja Católica; Ação social; Política; Movimentos sociais.This article discusses briefly the influences of Christian Communitarianism on Brazilian social and political life. It is an exploratory essay aimed at a bibliographical review of the subject. Based on what was possible to select, we tried to elaborate some ideas to present topics that may indicate the importance of Christian Communitarianism, a strong and influent tradition, not only in the 1960s and 1970s, but especially in the current political context, still playing a central role in Brazilian society. A special point is the analysis of the influences of Communitarianism on actions of the Catholic Church in Brazil. Thus, the Theology of Liberation and the Base Ecclesial Communities (BECs) could have derived from the communitarian thought. Finally, Christian Communitarianism is presented as a reaction against neoliberalism, as it gives priority to "the inestimable value of human dignity and transcendence and an insuperable resistance to let human destiny be engulfed by a mercantile logic of possessive individualism. This tradition, largely identified with the positions assumed by CNBB, is responsible for vast experiences of solidarity between the Brazilian poor and oppressed". Key words: Christian Communitarianism; Catholic Church; Social action; Politics; Social movements. (shrink)

Um dos principais problemas sociais da atualidade é o assustador crescimento de várias modalidades de crimes violentos em várias cidades brasileiras. O retrato atual da violência no Brasil pode ser assim exposto: crescimento da delinqüência urbana, com espantoso aumento dos homicídios em torno do tráfico de drogas nas grandes cidades; consolidação da criminalidade organizada, através de redes de tráfico internacional, tráfico de órgãos e seres humanos, máfias internacionais de contrabando e pirataria; aumento das violações de direitos humanos, comprometendo a ordem (...) social e política e, no campo, a explosão de conflitos motivados pela estrutura agrária concentradora e historicamente violenta. Como a religião, enquanto instrumento de coesão social, pode contribuir para a reversão dessa perversa onda de criminalidade e violência? É o que pretendemos apresentar. Palavras-chave: Religião; Violência urbana; Criminalidade; Coesão social; Doutrina Social da Igreja; Cultura da paz. ABSTRACT One of the main current social problems is the appalling growth of various kinds of violent crime in many Brazilian cities. The current portrait of violence in Brazil can be thus designed: the growth of urban delinquency, with a remarkable increase in the number of murders connected to drug traffic in big cities; the consolidation of organised crime, through nets of international traffic, organs and human beings’ traffic, international smuggling and piracy mafias; an increase in the violation of human rights, jeopardising social and political order; and, in the rural area, the explosion of conflicts motivated by an agrarian structure of concentration and historical violence. How can religion, as an instrument of social cohesion, contribute to revert that hideous wave of criminality and violence? This is our scope. Key words: Religion; Urban violence; Criminality; Social cohesion; Social doctrine of the Church; Culture of peace. (shrink)

Este trabalho visa mostrar a forma em que o filósofo Kant percebe o conceito de ciência e interage com ele na escrita da Crítica da Razão Pura, por essa razão, é necessário recorrermos a textos do período pré-crítico onde poderemos perceber como foi construído o conceito de ciência em Kant a partir daquilo que ele vivia no século XVIII. Assim, esse texto possui seis alíneas descritivas, quais sejam: a primeira norteia o leitor a entender o ponto de onde partimos e (...) o caminho a ser percorrido, seguido pela descrição do problema que envolve a ciência em suas nuances. A terceira alínea descreve a formação Kantiana, em sua historicidade, desde o que se estudava na Alemanha, seguido pela forma em que Kant apresenta o conceito de ciência como condição de possibilidade e a última aponta uma possibilidade de reflexão à luz daquilo que Kant entende sobre ciência. (shrink)

O artigo procura mostrar de que modo Heidegger pensa a poesia como essência da linguagem. Com esse intuito, tem por objetivo desenvolver a articulação entre poesia e linguagem, mostrando que, se a “matéria” da poesia é a linguagem, a linguagem, por sua vez, é, em sua essência, poesia. No desenvolvimento dessa questão, tomaremos Hölderlin como interlocutor privilegiado de Heidegger por mostrar, de modo exemplar, a poesia como tarefa de testemunhar o divino, que se realiza através do combate entre deuses e (...) homens. Nesse combate se realiza a tensão entre a essência e a não-essência da linguagem, entre o seu caráter divino e vulgar, que apresenta, por um lado, a poesia como a mais inocente das ocupações e, por outro lado, a linguagem como o mais perigoso dos bens. A linguagem é simultaneamente as duas coisas, sendo, por isso, em sua essência, um mistério. Heidegger pensa esse mistério a partir da relação entre dasein e ser. Nessa relação o ser encontra abrigo na linguagem, que testemunha o ser a partir do ser. Sendo aquele que testemunha, o dasein, contudo, não é o sujeito que possui a linguagem, mas aquele que pode testemunhar porque é obrigado a falar, a trazer para a palavra aquilo que quase o faz perder a língua, este que é o mais estranho, o mais inóspito de todos os hóspedes, o ser.: The article tries to show how Heidegger think the poetry as essence of language. To that end, aims to develop the relationship between poetry and language, showing that if the “matter” of poetry is the language, the language, in turn, is, in essence, poetry. In the development of this issue, we will take Hölderlin as a privileged interlocutor of Heidegger for show in an exemplary way, the poetry as task of witness the divine, which is realized through the fight between gods and men. In this fight takes place the tension between essence and non-essence of language, between his divine and vulgar character, which has, on the one hand, poetry as the most innocent of occupations and, on the other hand, the language as most dangerous of goods. The language is simultaneously both, and is therefore, in essence, a mystery. Heidegger thinks this mystery from the relationship between dasein and being. In this relationship, the being found shelter under the language that witness the being from being. Being that which witness, the dasein, however, is not the subject which has the language, but that which can witness because it is forced to speak, to bring for the word that almost makes you lose the language, this that is the strangest, the most inhospitable of all guests, the being. Keywords: Heidegger, Hölderlin, poetry, language, being. (shrink)

The present article tries to identify philosophical similar aspects in the investigation around the nature of the true knowledge through the criticism to the rhetorical sophistry in the texts of the speech “Against the Sophists ”, of Isocrates, and of dialog “ Phedro”, of Plato, articulating his perspectives so to find similar points in theirs respective examinations about what is understood like true knowledge, from the criticism that both thinkers do to the sophists who specialized in the development of the (...) political eloquence as well as to who contented himself with writing manuals of rhetoric. (shrink)

Interpretações históricas do percurso científico inicial de Skinner destacam as inovações teóricas, empíricas e instrumentais de seu esboço de uma ciência do comportamento. Apesar desse empenho historiográfico, um aspecto tem sido tratado de modo secundário na análise dessa fase da carreira de Skinner, a saber, os impactos dos contextos institucionais da universidade de Harvard nos rumos de sua trajetória e ciência. O objetivo deste artigo é investigar esse aspecto por meio da apreciação das práticas institucionalizadas dos Departamentos de Psicologia e (...) de Fisiologia Geral daquela universidade, e suas relações com a emergência da proposta científica de Skinner e suas peculiaridades teóricas e metodológicas. De acordo com nossa interpretação, singularidades dos primórdios da ciência skinneriana são compreendidas de modo mais amplo quando identificadas as condições institucionais que permitiram a Skinner se distanciar do mainstream da psicologia experimental estadunidense. Por fim, sugerimos que embora este estudo refira-se à história de um eminente cientista, em um momento e cenário histórico específicos, ele serve para ilustrar o papel de controles sociais, inerentes à prática científica, nos rumos da carreira de cientistas e suas produções intelectuais. Historical interpretations of the initial career of B. F. Skinner include theoretical and empirical innovations of his stub of a behavioral science. Despite this historiographical commitment, one aspect has been treated as secondary in the analysis of this phase of Skinner's career, namely, the impacts of institutional context of Harvard University. The purpose of this article is to explore this aspect through the analysis of the institutionalized practices of the departments of psychology and general physiology of that university, and its relations with the emergence of the scientific proposal of Skinner and its peculiarities. According to our interpretation, some singularities of this proposal are more broadly understood as institutional conditions that enabled Skinner to distance himself from the mainstream of American experimental psychology. Finally, we suggest that even though this study refers to an eminent scientist at a specific historical context, it offers the possibility to illustrate the role of social controls inherent to scientific practices in the course of scientific careers. (shrink)

Why do we find agents less blameworthy when they face mitigating circumstances, and what does this show about philosophical theories of moral responsibility? We present novel evidence that the tendency to mitigate the blameworthiness of agents is driven both by the perception that they are less normatively competent—in particular, less able to know that what they are doing is wrong—and by the perception that their behavior is less attributable to their deep selves. Consequently, we argue that philosophers cannot rely on (...) the case strategy to support the Normative Competence theory of moral responsibility over the Deep Self theory. However, we also outline ways in which further empirical and philosophical work would shift the debate, by showing that there is a significant departure between ordinary concepts and corresponding philosophical concepts, or by focusing on a different type of coherence with ordinary judgments. (shrink)

Michael Devitt ([2006a], [2006b]) argues that, insofar as linguists possess better theories about language than non-linguists, their linguistic intuitions are more reliable. (Culbertson and Gross [2009]) presented empirical evidence contrary to this claim. Devitt ([2010]) replies that, in part because we overemphasize the distinction between acceptability and grammaticality, we misunderstand linguists' claims, fall into inconsistency, and fail to see how our empirical results can be squared with his position. We reply in this note. Inter alia we argue that Devitt's focus (...) on grammaticality intuitions, rather than acceptability intuitions, distances his discussion from actual linguistic practice. We close by questioning a demand that drives his discussion—viz., that, for linguistic intuitions to supply evidence for linguistic theorizing, a better account of why they are evidence is required. (shrink)

Timothy Murphy argues in his article “In Defense of Irreligious Bioethics” (2012) that the role of religion in normative bioethics should be limited and that a viable means for limiting its role (o...

This essay addresses feminist approaches to medical aid in dying (MAID), considering whether it is a practice that should be supported for women and other marginalized groups. Some feminists have raised rights and justice-based arguments in support of MAID; others have taken a care-based approach to suggest that the practice violates relationships of care and only worsens distrust between marginalized groups and the medical establishment. I argue that we need to adopt both justice and care approaches to develop a robust (...) feminist account of MAID. I defend a woman’s right to choose death in cases of terminal illness or suffering but argue that relational concerns of care, trust, and trustworthiness must be addressed at the same time to ensure that MAID is justly practiced and accessible to all those who want it. (shrink)

Literary beauty was once understood as intertwining sensations and ideas, and thus as providing subjective and objective reasons for literary appreciation. However, as theory and philosophy developed, the inevitable claims and counterclaims led to the view that subjective experience was not a reliable guide to literary merit. Literary theory then replaced aesthetics as did philosophy’s focus on literary truth. Along with the demise of the relevance of sensations, literary form also took a back seat. This suggested to some that either (...) literature communicated truth like any other literal form of communication or it was a mere diversion: a springboard to harmless reverie or daydreaming. Neither response satisfactorily captured what was distinctive about literature: the love readers can have for literary texts and the edification or insight claimed of works within each culture’s respective catalogue of classics. However, a concept of literary beauty has again become viable due to developments in theories of pleasure and imagination. If the defining aspect of literature is the imaginative engagement it occasions, and if this imagining is constrained by plausibility and endorsed as effective relative to our goals, ideals, and interests, then literature is not reduced to either mere fact or wish fulfillment. An account of literary beauty is available which defines literature accordingly and explains how subjective and objective reasons for appreciation intertwine to evoke pleasure and insight. (shrink)

Era Nietzsche um relativista conservador ou, pelo contrário, seria possível alocar o filósofo no sítio teórico do pensamento crítico? Tal pergunta-problema delimita o presente artigo. Ela se refere a uma conhecida querela entre modelos interpretativos (SEBOLD, [20--?]) pós-modernos e naturalistas e, especificamente, deriva da revisão de literatura de uma pesquisa em andamento, realizada no âmbito do curso de doutorado do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, a partir da qual observamos uma ausência, talvez um esquecimento (...) em relação à contribuição de Nietzsche para a filosofia crítica no campo da Educação, espaço acadêmico no qual as pesquisas, em grande medida, alinham-se à recepção relativista de seu pensamento. A hipótese central, comprovada pela análise de posições filosóficas de Nietzsche (1979; 1992a; 1992b; 1998; 2000; 2003; 2004) e de alguns de seus comentadores, considera que o filósofo é um pensador crítico (HEIT, 2018; HEIT; PICHLER, 2015), não relativista (MARTON, 2011), perspectivista (CORBANEZI, 2013; MATTOS, 2013) e adepto a um tipo perspectivístico de naturalismo (CARVALHO, 2018; HEIT, 2016; HEIT, 2015; ITAPARICA, 2018), traços que de certa forma tendem a impactar a cosmovisão, quase hegemônica, no que diz respeito à recepção nietzschiana no campo da educação. O objetivo central do artigo é destacar que a discussão destes aspectos pode levar a um reposicionamento da filosofia de Nietzsche no universo do pensamento contemporâneo, incluindo-se aí a pesquisa em educação, bem como compreender em que medida a perspectiva crítica se choca com a perspectiva relativista no que diz respeito à teorização de uma formação de caráter emancipatório. Em termos metodológicos, a análise da revisão de literatura recorre à hermenêutica crítica. (shrink)

Jennifer Church presents a new account of perception, which shows how imagining alternative perspectives and possibilities plays a key role in creating and validating experiences of self-evident objectivity. She explores the nature of moral perception and aesthetic perception, and argues that perception can be both literal and substantive.

This article seeks to achieve two goals. First, to present a panoramic analysis of the three main contemporary conceptions about the demarcation problem. Traditionally, the demarcation problem has intended to conceptually delimit the boundaries between “science”, “non-science” and/or “pseudoscience” via criteria and definitions of science or scientificity. This issue – mainly in the 20th century, but not only – was present as one of the great intellectual challenges of the philosophy of science and in related areas. Indeed, our analysis has (...) produced a division that selects three main phases, namely, optimistic perspectives, pessimistic perspectives, and, so to speak, hybrid perspectives. In light of this context, and in order to support the general architecture of the article, two authors from each phase were chosen for a schematic analysis. Second, this article seeks, in the end, to argue that the problem of demarcation is better understood and answered if characterized as more than an exclusively methodological and epistemological problem, that is, in this sense it would also be a value-added problem with political, social and therefore, practical. We termed it the dual dimension of the demarcation problem. Furthermore, we highlight that our emphasis on this interpretation is essentially in accordance with the defense made by the third approach analyzed in this paper. In the end, we defend that the third conception outlined here is a comparatively better alternative than the others. (shrink)

Despite the conceptual problems in identifying the placebo effect, an increasing number of multidisciplinary inquiries rest on the assumption that there is a distinct class of effects, placebo effects. In this chapter, I argue against this assumption. I present cases and characterizations of the placebo effect as offered in the literature, and argue that the latter are subject to insurmountable problems. Moreover, I argue that identification of placebo effects as such is not useful for the three main purposes offered in (...) the literature. I then offer suggestions for why it may remain intuitive that some effects are placebo effects and close by noting the potential benefits of ultimately explaining away these intuitions. (shrink)

Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 A vinda da Ordem Redentorista para o estado de Goiás, em 1894, revela um contexto político, econômico e religioso peculiar vivido pelo estado, em que, com o fim do regime de padroado, o controle das romarias populares, tanto quanto das manifestações religiosas não-católicas, foram de fundamental importância para a manutenção da hegemonia católica local. O papel desempenhado pelos redentoristas em Goiás, tanto no controle da romaria de Trindade, quanto no combate às religiões e (...) religiosidades não-católicas, teve importante reflexo na edição do jornal “Santuário da Trindade”, através do qual os religiosos incentivavam a participação popular na romaria, e, especialmente, intentavam a formação catequética dos fiéis católicos contra as “falsas religiões”. Este posicionamento redentorista diante das demais religiões, a partir do referido jornal, não condiz, no entanto, com as posições adotadas pelos religiosos da primeira geração, vinda ao estado em 1894, o que nos remete a mudanças significativas em sua postura política e religiosa que merecem ser interrogadas e investigadas. Destarte, o presente artigo objetiva uma análise histórica das mudanças de posicionamento da Ordem Redentorista em Goiás nas primeiras décadas do período pós-padroado, tomando como principal objeto de pesquisa o jornal “Santuário da Trindade”, publicado entre 1922 e 1931. Palavras-chave: Ultramontanismo. Ordem Redentorista. Goiás.The coming of the Redemptorist Order to the State of Goiás, in Brazil, in 1894, reveals a political, economic and religious peculiar context lived by the State. The end of the system of patronage and the control of popular pilgrimages, like non-Catholic religious manifestations, were of fundamental importance for the maintenance of local Catholic hegemony. The role played by the Redemptorists in Goiás, in the control of the pilgrimage of the Trinity or in conflict with non-Catholic religions and beliefs, influenced the journal "Santuário da Trindade", through which the Catholics encouraged popular participation in the pilgrimage, and especially encouraged the catechetical formation of Catholics against the so called "false religions”. Such positioning was contrary to the positions adopted by the religious of the first generation that arrived in Goiás in the year of 1894, which refers to significant changes in religious and political diverse posture that deserve to be questioned and investigated. Thus, this article aims to examine the positioning changes of the Redemptorist Order in Goiás in the first decades of the pós-padroado period, taking as its principal object the research journal "Shrine of the Trinity", published between 1922 and 1931. Keywords : Ultramontanism. Redemptorist Order. Goiás. (shrink)