With an overwhelming volume of studies on Venice's port architecture and coastal protection, the challenge remains to convey to lay readers how the science of hydraulics was applied. This article reports an experiment in creating a vivid narrative of the movement and effects of sand over a relatively short period of twelve years (1610-1622), which, in this case, started with the fifteen-year-old carcass of a shipwreck at risk of capsizing. I emulate how the erosion of sandbanks triggered by the stranded (...) wreck affected the subsequent silting of the canal. This, in turn, influenced the relationships between land and sea, access and obstruction, and arrivals and departures. Such a microhistory of sand offers a broad picture of the maritime know-how and technology that came into play. Finally, the essay reflects on microhistory's potential to explore port architecture’s technicalities. This approach yields an understanding of the exquisitely practical, in-depth details of the engineering response to significant, contemporary, normal, and catastrophic events. (shrink)

En este texto confluyen logradamente varios géneros literarios: es una autobiografía, porque ante nuestros ojos vemos transcurrir parte de la vida del autor; pero también es un testimonio histórico, porque aborda acontecimientos verídicamente ocurridos en el Chile que existió entre los años 1965 y 1973. Paralelamente, estamos en presencia de un texto político, que aborda la problemática de la lucha de clases y su expresión en cuanto a correlación de fuerzas sociales, políticas y, al menos esb..

A typology of rumours is constructed according to their relation to reality after their veracity has been authenticated. True rumours become information. Untrue rumours are categorized as affirming or denying rumours; affirming rumours state the reality of imaginary facts, whereas denying rumours undermine the reality of established facts. Denying rumour types are distinguished and discussed under rubrics of alleged survival, doubles, bogus events and so on, and through their characteristic features of hypercritical thinking, hidden reality revelation and plot denunciation. In (...) a world where knowledge is no longer seen as objective or final, where the public have become suspicious of governments and the media, and where real and synthetic images are often indistinguishable, denying rumours and ideas are expected to feature more significantly on the information market, as already typified by activity on the web. (shrink)

At first approach the use of the word “superstition” is such that it is impossible to apply the term strictly in the human sciences. Its connotation, that is its content, is particularly subjective and negative. And its extension, that is its area of application, is indefinite and makes of it a concept that can refer to just about anything.

The image of the Other, particularly in the Western World, expresses itself through a continuous flow of representations of fabulous peoples with strange physical appearance living in far-away places. In our day, the successors to the sirens, Cyclops, unípedes and cynecephala of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance are the Sirians, Saturnians, Selenites and Martians of the 17th through the 20th centuries.

This article discusses the notion of stylization of character in the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche through a few central themes of his philosophy, such as the evaluative critique of western modernity, the 'eternal recurrence' and the meaning of 'untimely'. Using his complete works and a few interpreters, the article aims at establishing an interpretation of the meaning of 'active wisdom' through the development and the mixture, simultaneously unsystematic and careful, of the themes mentioned above.O artigo aborda o tema da estilização (...) do caráter no pensamento de Friedrich Nietzsche, através da apropriação de alguns dos temas centrais da sua filosofia, tais como a crítica avaliativa da modernidade ocidental, o pensamento do 'eterno retorno' e o sentido da 'extemporaneidade' [unzeitgemässe]. Através de um percurso pelo conjunto da sua obra e pelos textos de alguns dos seus comentadores, procura-se estabelecer uma interpretação do significado da sabedoria ativa através do desenvolvimento e embaralhamento, ao mesmo tempo livre e cuidadoso, dos temas referidos acima. (shrink)

O artigo aborda o tema da estilização do caráter no pensamento de Friedrich Nietzsche, através da apropriação de alguns dos temas centrais da sua filosofia, tais como a crítica avaliativa da modernidade ocidental, o pensamento do ‘eterno retorno’ e o sentido da ‘extemporaneidade’ [unzeitgemässe]. Através de um percurso pelo conjunto da sua obra e pelos textos de alguns dos seus comentadores, procura-se estabelecer uma interpretação do significado da sabedoria ativa através do desenvolvimento e embaralhamento, ao mesmo tempo livre e cuidadoso, (...) dos temas referidos acima. (shrink)

Resumo: O artigo inicia-se com uma distinção entre poesia e filosofia, a partir do destaque da relação especial que a primeira mantém com a palavra. O enfoque desloca-se para o pensamento de Friedrich Nietzsche, argumentando haver, em seus escritos, a construção de uma filosofia nada convencional, em parte por conta do estatuto das ideias expostas, mas também e sobremaneira pela relação íntima com a arte poética, o que se faz evidente pela estilização do pensamento. A hipótese principal é de que (...) não se pode bem compreender a transgressão semântica operada por Nietzsche - sua famosa "transvaloração dos valores" - sem que se considere a transgressão estilística. Por fim, a linguagem aforismática utilizada por Nietzsche é apresentada como a sua "arte do estilo" por excelência.: This article begins by distinguishing poetry from philosophy on the basis of the special relationship that the former has with the written word. The focus then shifts to the thinking of Friedrich Nietzsche, and it is argued that in his writings one finds the construction of an unconventional philosophy in part because of the ideas expounded by the author, but also and especially because of its intimate relationship with poetic art, evident in the stylization of thought. It is further argued that Nietzsche's semantic transgression - his famous "transvaluation of values" - can not be properly understood without stylistic transgression. Finally, Nietzsche's aphoristic language is presented as his "art of style" par excellence. (shrink)

The article consistes in a comparative study between Friedrich Nietzsche's and Max Weber's conceptions of culture, their critical analyses of modernity and the ethical answers that follow from them. In spite of the important affinities between the two authors, the article tries to show that the main character of the comparison is that of the divergence and incompatibility.O artigo consiste num estudo comparativo entre as concepções de cultura de Friedrich Nietzsche e Max Weber, suas análises críticas da modernidade e as (...) respostas éticas que as acompanham. Apesar das importantes afinidades encontradas entre os autores, o artigo procura mostrar que o caráter principal da comparação entre os seus pensamentos é o do desencontro e da incompatibilidade. (shrink)

O artigo consiste num estudo comparativo entre as concepções de cultura de Friedrich Nietzsche e Max Weber, suas análises críticas da modernidade e as respostas éticas que as acompanham. Apesar das importantes afinidades encontradas entre os autores, o artigo procura mostrar que o caráter principal da comparação entre os seus pensamentos é o do desencontro e da incompatibilidade.

A historical investigation of the exclusion of Africa and Asia from modern histories of philosophy.

Putative counterexamples to the Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles (PII) are notoriously inconclusive. I establish ground rules for debate in this area, offer a new response to such counterexamples for friends of the PII, but then argue that no response is entirely satisfactory. Finally, I undermine some positive arguments for PII.

Mental health research and care in the twenty first century faces a series of conceptual and ethical challenges arising from unprecedented advances in the neurosciences, combined with radical cultural and organisational change. The Oxford Textbook of Philosophy of Psychiatry is aimed at all those responding to these challenges, from professionals in health and social care, managers, lawyers and policy makers; service users, informal carers and others in the voluntary sector; through to philosophers, neuroscientists and clinical researchers. Organised around a series (...) of case studies in five key topic areas - concepts of disorder, the philosophical history of psychopathology, philosophy of science, ethics and philosophical value theory, and philosophy of mind - the book provides a detailed introduction to the field and a framework for study and skill development. Each case study is supported by selected readings from both philosophy and mental health, thinking skills exercises, self-test questions, key learning points and detailed guides to further reading. There is an introduction for philosophers to classification and descriptive psychopathology, and for practitioners to philosophical methods (including logic). The philosophical topics covered include philosophical methods (analytic and Continental); phenomenology, hermeneutics and existentialism, logical empiricism and its successors; idealism and realism; reasons and causes; and modern theories of mind and brain, free will and personal identity. Topics from mental health include psychiatry and 'anti-psychiatry'; Jaspers' psychopathology and the new neurosciences; the future of psychiatric classifications; strengths-based approaches, recovery practice, social inclusion and diversity; and key topics in psychopathology, such as delusion, autism, disorders of volition, thought insertion and other experiences in schizophrenia. The Oxford Textbook of Philosophy of Psychiatry aims to secure the skills-base of the discipline by bringing philosophers closer to the realities of practice in mental health, and mental health practitioners closer to the resources of philosophy as a partner to the sciences in responding to the challenges of twenty-first century mental health and social care. (shrink)

This book is a defense of modal realism; the thesis that our world is but one of a plurality of worlds, and that the individuals that inhabit our world are only a few out of all the inhabitants of all the worlds. Lewis argues that the philosophical utility of modal realism is a good reason for believing that it is true.

Les textes composant le dossier thématique de ce numéro abordent quelques facettes de la relation qu’entretiennent les technologies numéri­ques avec l’éthique. L’emprise des technologies sur une grande partie des activités humaines est aujourd’hui difficilement contestable et le monde numérique comporte son lot de pratiques et de règles, parfois en rupture avec les modèles existants. Dans ce contexte, comment faire en sorte que les diverses manifestations du numérique respectent l’éthique et,..

How (Not) to Be Secular is what Jamie Smith calls "your hitchhiker's guide to the present" -- it is both a reading guide to Charles Taylor's monumental work A Secular Age and philosophical guidance on how we might learn to live in our times. Taylor's landmark book A Secular Age (2007) provides a monumental, incisive analysis of what it means to live in the post-Christian present -- a pluralist world of competing beliefs and growing unbelief. Jamie Smith's book is a (...) compact field guide to Taylor's insightful study of the secular, making that very significant but daunting work accessible to a wide array of readers. Even more, though, Smith's How (Not) to Be Secular is a practical philosophical guidebook, a kind of how-to manual on how to live in our secular age. It ultimately offers us an adventure in self-understanding and maps out a way to get our bearings in today's secular culture, no matter who "we" are -- whether believers or skeptics, devout or doubting, self-assured or puzzled and confused. This is a book for any thinking person to chew on. (shrink)

Philosophy has much to offer psychiatry, not least regarding ethical issues, but also issues regarding the mind, identity, values, and volition. This has become only more important as we have witnessed the growth and power of the pharmaceutical industry, accompanied by developments in the neurosciences. However, too few practising psychiatrists are familiar with the literature in this area. -/- The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry offers the most comprehensive reference resource for this area ever published. It assembles challenging and (...) insightful contributions from key philosophers and others to the interactive fields of philosophy and psychiatry. Each contributions is original, stimulating, thorough, and clearly and engagingly written - with no potentially significant philosophical stone left unturned. Broad in scope, the book includes coverage of several areas of philosophy, including philosophy of mind, science, and ethics. For philosophers and psychiatrists, The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychiatry is a landmark publication in the field - one that will be of value to both students and researchers in this rapidly growing area. (shrink)

We can construct a typology of rumours - defined broadly as unverified news - according to their relation to reality after their degree of veracity has been established, at least in the current state of knowledge, by experts (historians, scientists, police officers, journalists, and so on). If a rumour turns out to be correct it becomes an item of information. If a rumour is untrue it comes into the categories of affirming or denying rumours. Affirming rumours, which are the most (...) common type, state the reality of imaginary facts, for instance the rumour claiming that bananas from Costa Rica pass on to people flesh-eating bacteria that cause general necrosis. Denying rumours, which are rarer, deny the reality of established facts, for example rumours claiming that Elvis Presley is not dead or that Americans have never walked on the moon.It seems useful to distinguish various terms indicating negation. Rumours will be termed negative when they state facts associated with fear or hostility, whereas positive rumours evoke happy, welcome events. French researchers, who assign colours to rumours, talk about ‘black’ rumours or ‘rose-tinted’ ones. Specialists agree that there are around nine black rumours for every rose-tinted one. Rouquette (1975, 1990) has thoroughly studied this ‘bias towards negativity’, which is one of the main features of rumours. I shall talk about denying rumours and ideas when they deny commonly accepted events. These rumours are not necessarily negative: for instance survival legends often express the wish that a loved person were not dead. Finally, among denying rumours and ideas, we shall reserve the word negationist for revisionist claims that the gas chambers did not exist, or that a Nazi did not plan to exterminate the Jews during the Second World War. (shrink)

Generative AI programs can produce high-quality written and visual content that may be used for good or ill. We argue that a credit–blame asymmetry arises for assigning responsibility for these outputs and discuss urgent ethical and policy implications focused on large-scale language models.

How can aesthetic enquiry contribute to the study of visual culture? There seems to be little doubt that aesthetic theory ought to be of interest to the study of visual culture. For one thing, aesthetic vocabulary has far from vanished from contemporary debates on the nature of our visual experiences and its various shapes, a fact especially pertinent where dissatisfaction with vulgar value relativism prevails. Besides, the very question ubiquitous in the debates on visual culture of what is natural and (...) what is acquired in our visual experiences has been a topic in aesthetics at least since the Enlightenment. And last but not least, despite attempts to study visual culture without employing the concept of art, there is no prospect of this central subject of aesthetic theory ebbing away from visual studies. The essays compiled in this volume show a variety of points of intersection and involvement between aesthetics and visual studies; some consider the future of visual art, some the conditions and characteristics of contemporary visual aesthetic experience, while others take on the difficult question of the relation between visual representation and reality. What unites them is their authors' willingness to think about contemporary visual culture in the conceptual frame of aesthetics. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of philosophical aesthetics, art history, and cultural studies. (shrink)

Neoplatonic allegorical interpretation expounds how literary texts present philosophical ideas in an enigmatic and coded form, offering an alternative path to the divine truths. The Neoplatonist Porphyry’s _On the Cave of the Nymphs_ is one of the most significant allegorical interpretation handed down to us from Antiquity. This monograph, exclusively dedicated to the analysis of _On the Cave of Nymphs_, demonstrates that Porphyry interprets Homer’s verse from Odyssey 13.102-112 to convey his philosophical thoughts, particularly on the material world, relationship between (...) soul and body and the salvation of the soul through the doctrines of Plato and Plotinus. The Homeric cave of the nymphs with two gates is a station where the souls descend into genesis and ascend to the intelligible realm. Porphyry associates Odysseus’ long wanderings with the journey of the soul and its salvation from the irrational to rational through escape from all toils of the material world. (shrink)

DaB fUr die Entwicklung der Phanomenologie Husserls nicht zuletzt auch,wissenschaftstheoretische' Motive ausschlaggebend waren, ist hinreichend bekannt. Umso mehr verwundert es, daB die Husserl-Rezeption sich diese Motive nur selten zueigen gemacht hat. Zwar sind in einer Reihe von Einzel­ wissenschaften, wie in der Literaturwissenschaft, der Sozialwissenschaft und besonders auch der Psychologie, phanomenologische Motive wirksam gewor­ den. Versuche einer ausdriicklichen wissenschaftskritischen Anwendung der Husserlschen Philosophie auf einzelwissenschaftliehe Theorien jedoch, wie sie z.B. Alfred Schiitz in seinem friihen Werk zur phanomenologischen Grundlegung der "verstehenden (...) Soziologie"l ansatzweise unternommen hat, sind rar. Freilich ging auch Husserl hier nieht eben mit gutem Beispiel voran. Auch er selbst hat seine wissenschaftstheoretische Programmatik nirgends einer ernsthaften Bewahrungsprobe unterzogen. Die vorliegende Untersuchung will diese Frage einer wissenschaftstheore­ tischen Anwendbarkeit der transzendentalen Phiinomenologie paradigmatisch im Hinblick auf die Problemstellungen der Geschiehtswissenschaft iiberprii­ fen. Was also kann die Phanomenologie fUr die Historik leisten? DaB sieh fiir eine solche Absieht gerade die geschichtstheoretischen Perspektiven in Hus­ serls Werk anbieten, hat vor allem zwei Griinde. (shrink)

This chapter provides an introduction to higher-order metaphysics as well as to the contributions to this volume. We discuss five topics, corresponding to the five parts of this volume, and summarize the contributions to each part. First, we motivate the usefulness of higher-order quantification in metaphysics using a number of examples, and discuss the question of how such quantifiers should be interpreted. We provide a brief introduction to the most common forms of higher-order logics used in metaphysics, and indicate a (...) number of questions which can be raised in such systems using logical vocabulary alone. Using a further example, we return to applications of higher-order logics in metaphysics. We also mention key developments in the history of higher-order logic as it pertains to metaphysics. Finally, we mention certain arguments which have been raised against the use of higher-order logic, and some ways of responding to them. (shrink)

Practical deliberation often involves conditional judgements about what will (likely) happen if certain alternatives are pursued. It is widely assumed that the conditionals useful in deliberation are counterfactual or subjunctive conditionals. Against this, I argue that the conditionals of deliberation are indicatives. Key to the argument is an account of the relation between 'straightforward' future-directed conditionals like ' If the house is not painted, it will soon look quite shabby' and * "w e r e ' ' e d F (...) D C s like ' If the house were not to be painted, it would soon look quite shabby': an account on which both of these types of FDCs are grouped with the indicatives for semantic treatment and on which, while conditionals of both types are properly used in means/ends deliberations, those of the ' were'ed-up variety are especially well suited for that purpose. (shrink)

Mitos ve Logos kavramları Antik Yunan uygarlığında söz kavramına karşılık gelen sözcükleri karşılamak için kullanılmıştır. Felsefe tarihinin başlangıcı için yapılan tanımlamalarda ise mitos kavramının yerine logos kavramının tercih edilmesi iki kavram arasında bir farklılığı ortaya koymak için yapılmaktadır. Bu ayrımın nedeni ise mitos’un daha çok dinsel içerikle anılması logos’un ise içerisinde bir tür akılsallık barındırması şeklindeki yorumlarda kendini göstermektedir. Ancak söz konusu ayrımın ilk doğa filozofu/ilk felsefeci olarak nitelendirilen Thales için geçerli olup olmadığı geçmişte olduğu gibi günümüzde de halen tartışılmaktadır. (...) Felsefe tarihi yazımlarında ilk sıraya konan Thales’in anılan kavramları gerçekten farklı şekilde yorumlayıp yorumlamadığı bizce de tartışmaya açık bir husustur. Bu açıdan bakıldığında Thales, söz konusu kavramları iki farklı problemler alanı olarak mı görmüştür? Onun düşüncelerinde kendinden önceki mitolojik mirasın izleri bulunabilir mi? O, katışıksız bir rasyonel midir, yoksa henüz felsefenin yeni filizlendiği bir toplumda bir ara basamağı mı temsil etmektedir? Bu makalenin içerisinde tartışacağımız bu sorular, felsefe tarihinin başlangıcına ilişkin kavramsal arka planın ne olduğu hakkında bize katkı sağlayacaktır. (shrink)