Despite the occasional upsurge of climate change scepticism amongst conservative politicians and journalists, there is a near-consensus amongst scientists that current levels of atmospheric greenhouse gas are sufficient to alter global weather patterns to possibly disastrous effect. Like the hole in the ozone layer as described by Bruno Latour, global warming is a ‘hybrid’ natural-social-discursive phenomenon. And science fiction seems to occupy a critical location within this nature/culture nexus. This paper takes as its subject matter what Daniel Bloom dubs ‘cli-fi’. (...) It seeks to describe how a genre defined in relation to science finds itself obliged to produce fictional responses to problems actually thrown up by contemporary scientific research. It argues against the view that ‘catastrophic’ SF is best understood as a variant of the kind of ‘apocalyptic’ fiction inspired by the Christian Book of Revelation, or Apokalypsis, on the grounds that this tends to downplay the historical novelty of SF as a genre defined primarily in relation to modern science and technology. And it examines the narrative strategies pursued in both print and audio-visual SF texts that deal with anthropogenic climate change. (shrink)

Mind wandering is typically operationalized as task-unrelated thought. Some argue for the need to distinguish between unintentional and intentional mind wandering, where an agent voluntarily shifts attention from task-related to task-unrelated thoughts. We reveal an inconsistency between the standard, task-unrelated thought definition of mind wandering and the occurrence of intentional mind wandering (together with plausible assumptions about tasks and intentions). This suggests that either the standard definition of mind wandering should be rejected or that intentional mind wandering is an incoherent (...) category. Solving this puzzle is critical for advancing theoretical frameworks of mind wandering. (shrink)

From this post-reflective point of view, the book argues for an intimate relationship between cognition, sensorimotor embodiment, and the integrative character ...

Confabulation is typically understood to be dysfunctional. But this understanding neglects the phenomenon’s potential benefits. In fact, we think that the benefits of non-clinical confabulation provide a better foundation for a general account of confabulation. In this paper, we start from these benefits to develop a social teleological account of confabulation. Central to our account is the idea that confabulation manifests a kind of willful ignorance. By understanding confabulation in this way, we can provide principled explanations for the difference between (...) clinical and non-clinical cases of confabulation and the extent to which confabulation is rational. (shrink)

We sometimes fail unwittingly to do things that we ought to do. And we are, from time to time, culpable for these unwitting omissions. We provide an outline of a theory of responsibility for unwitting omissions. We emphasize two distinctive ideas: (i) many unwitting omissions can be understood as failures of appropriate vigilance, and; (ii) the sort of self-control implicated in these failures of appropriate vigilance is valuable. We argue that the norms that govern vigilance and the value of self-control (...) explain culpability for unwitting omissions. (shrink)

Hugh Murray's comments on the civil rights movement recall Marge Schott's badly received observations on the Nazi regime. Murray is also describing something that turned out badly but which he insists began well. Contrary to Murray and Dinesh D'Souza, whose book he reviews, the continuities of the Civil Rights Movement and affirmative action policies are more significant than its alleged turning points. Affirmative action as a practice goes back to the last year of the Johnson administration, but (...) some civil rights leaders supported it before. As early as 1965, Martin Luther King, Jr., whom D'Souza elevates to a cultic figure, advocated the preferential treatment of blacks under a vastly expanded state apparatus. (shrink)

According to the attentional resources account, mind wandering (or “task-unrelated thought”) is thought to compete with a focal task for attentional resources. Here, we tested two key predictions of this account: First, that mind wandering should not interfere with performance on a task that does not require attentional resources; second, that as task requirements become automatized, performance should improve and depth of mind wandering should increase. Here, we used a serial reaction time task with implicit- and explicit-learning groups to test (...) these predictions. Providing novel evidence for the attentional resource account’s first prediction, results indicated that depth of mind wandering was negatively associated with learning in the explicit, but not the implicit, group, indicating that mind wandering is associated with impaired explicit, but not implicit, learning. Corroborating the attention resource account’s second prediction, we also found that, overall, performance improved while at the same time depth of mind wandering increased. From an implicit learning perspective, these results are consistent with the claim that explicit learning is impaired under attentional load, but implicit learning is not. (shrink)

(Re)presentations of evil in media, philosophy and literature -- The dangerous ones : when evil was a woman -- Space/times of evil : political life and social worlds.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Francis Bacon: The Theological Foundations of Valerius TerminusBenjamin MilnerFrancis Bacon’s Great Instauration for learning and the sciences, formally launched with the publication of Novum Organum (1620), may fairly be said to have commenced fifteen years earlier with the publication of The Proficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human (1605), which, revised and translated into Latin as De Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum (1623), became an integral part of the (...) Instauration. A few years earlier, however, Bacon made an attempt to formulate his philosophy of nature, or science, in a work which he evidently planned to publish but never did—Valerius Terminus: Of the Interpretation of Nature with the Annotations of Hermes Stella (1603?). 1 Fragmentary as it is, this work contains the ingredients of Bacon’s natural philosophy, although they are not in all respects identical with those of the later works which superseded it. The most distinctive feature of Valerius, however, is its disclosure of Bacon’s original interest in setting his program for the advancement of science on a theological footing. 2 What the nature of that foundation is, why Bacon thought it necessary, and why it was abandoned are questions that, as I shall try to show, are principally answered by an analysis of two earlier works, the Meditationes Sacrae (1597), the unpublished Confession of Faith (1602?), and Valerius Terminus itself.Bacon’s first published work actually comprises three different texts: one on rhetoric, Colors of Good and Evil; a collection of Essays; and Meditationes Sacrae. Of these, Meditationes fared most poorly in subsequent years. It was never translated into English by Bacon himself and was soon severed from the [End Page 245] Essays (VII, 229). Rarely commented upon, it has apparently been dismissed as having any significance for our understanding of Bacon’s thought, but a second look will show that this is not the case.There are twelve meditations, each of which has a biblical text, and the homilies that follow reflect biblical teaching. They have quite a range: “the works of God and the works of man,” “the miracles of our savior,” “the exaltation of charity,” “of earthly hope,” “of hypocrites,” “of heresies,” “the church and the scriptures”; but it is clear that two themes—Charity and Heresy—subsume the rest.Charity is not merely a thought or feeling but the actual performance of good works, the demand for which—in the life of the believer—is total: unless your work is God’s work “thou shalt work in pain and distress, and thou shalt look back upon thy work with disgust and reproach” (VII, 243). Three successive meditations deal explicitly with hypocrisy in religion, but Bacon brings each of these under the rubric of good works, deriding those who are ostentatious in the celebration and observation of ritual detail and cultic practice but who ignore the commandment to love their neighbor. The works of Jesus furnish the best model: all his miracles, Bacon keenly observes, “were for the benefit of the human body, his doctrine for the benefit of the human soul” (VII, 244). The religion espoused is one of good works, and Bacon invokes here, as elsewhere, the well-known definition of James (Jas.I.27): “pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the orphans and widows in their affliction” (VII, 249).“Heresy” is the subject of the second group of meditations, but in these Bacon intends not so much to condemn or to exhort as to lay down theological positions. The text of the first, “Of Atheism,” is taken from Psalms 14.1: “the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” But this is not what the fool has thought, Bacon insists, only what he has said. “That is, it is not so much that he feels it inwardly as that he wishes to believe it.” Strive as he may to do so, however, “there remains in him that sparkle of original light (igniculus luminis primi) whereby we acknowledge a divinity, to extinguish which utterly, and pluck the instinct (stimulum) out of his heart, he strives in vain.” It is not “out of his natural sense and judgment” that... (shrink)

Contemporary theories of consciousness are based on widely different concepts of its nature, most or all of which probably embody aspects of the truth about it. Starting with a concept of consciousness indicated by the phrase “the feeling of what happens” (the title of a book by Antonio Damásio), we attempt to build a framework capable of supporting and resolving divergent views. We picture consciousness in terms of Reality experiencing itself from the perspective of cognitive agents. Each conscious experience is (...) regarded as composed of momentary feeling events that are combined by recognition and evaluation into extended conscious episodes that bind cognitive contents with a wide range of apparent durations (0.1 secs to 2 or more secs, for us humans, depending on circumstances and context). Three necessary conditions for the existence of consciousness are identified: a) a ground of Reality, envisaged as an universal field of potentiality encompassing all possible manifestations, whether material or 'mental'; b) a transitional zone, leading to; c) a manifest world with its fundamental divisions into material, 'informational' and quale-endowed aspects. We explore ideas about the nature of these necessary conditions, how they may relate to one another and whether our suggestions have empirical implications. (shrink)

One popular theory of moral responsibility locates responsible agency in exercises of control. These control-based theories often appeal to tracing to explain responsibility in cases where some agent is intuitively responsible for bringing about some outcome despite lacking direct control over that outcome’s obtaining. Some question whether control-based theories are committed to utilizing tracing to explain responsibility in certain cases. I argue that reflecting on certain kinds of negligence shows that tracing plays an ineliminable role in any adequate control-based theory (...) of responsibility. (shrink)

" With this succinct formulation, Murray Bookchin launches his most ambitious work, The Ecology of Freedom.

The thesis of this bk is that the brain is innately constructed to initiate behaviors likely to promote the survival of the species & to sensitize sensory systems to stimuli required for those behaviors. Intended for behavioral & brain scientists.

I explain why, from the perspective of knowledge-centric anti-luck epistemology, objective act consequentialist theories of ethics imply skepticism about the moral status of our prospective actions and also tend to be self-defeating, undermining the justification of consequentialist theories themselves. For according to knowledge-centric anti-luck epistemology there are modal anti-luck demands on both knowledge and justification, and it turns out that our beliefs about the moral status of our prospective actions are almost never able to satisfy these demands if objective act (...) consequentialism is true. This kind of applied moral skepticism introduces problematic limits on our ability to use objective act consequentialism’s explanatory power as evidence for its truth. This is, in part, a product of higher-order defeat as I explain in the final section. There is, however, a silver lining for objective act consequentialists. For there is at least one type of objective act consequentialism, prior existence consequentialism, that is poised to avoid at least some of the epistemic problems discussed in this paper. (shrink)

In 1772, Kant outlined the new problem of his critical period in terms of four possible “ways” of understanding the agreement of knowledge with its object. This study expands Kant’s terse descriptions of these ways, examining why he rejected them. Apart from clarifying the historical context in which Kant saw his own achievement (the Fifth Way), the chief benefits of exploring the historical background of Way Two, in particular, are that it (1) explains the puzzling intuitus originarius/intellectus archetypus dichotomy, and (...) (2) casts doubt on the received idea that Kant broke with the traditional theocentric model of cognition. (shrink)

In _The Global and the Local: An Environmental Ethics Casebook_, Dale Murray presents fifty-one compelling case studies. By interweaving theoretical considerations into case studies, Murray illuminates a comprehensive range of the most pressing environmental issues facing our biosphere.

A challenging new work of cultural and political theory rethinks the concept of hegemony.

Two nurses diagnosed with opioid addiction launched legal action after being found guilty of unprofessional conduct due to addiction‐related behaviors. When covered by the media, their cases sparked both public and legal controversies. We are curious about the broader discursive framings that led to these strong reactions, and analyze the underlying structures of knowledge and power that shape the issue of opioid addiction in the profession of nursing through a critical discourse analysis of popular media, legal blogs and hearing tribunals. (...) We argue that addiction in nursing is framed as personal choice, as a failure in the moral character of the nurses, as decontextualized from addiction as disease arguments, and as an individualized issue devoid of contextual factors leading to addiction. Our investigation offers a critical case study of a nursing regulatory body that upheld popular assumptions of addiction as an autonomous, rational choice replete with individual‐based consequences – a framing that is inconsistent with evidence‐based practice in health‐care. We put forth this critical interrogation to open up possibilities for counterdiscourses that may promote more nuanced and effective responses to the issue of addiction in nursing. (shrink)

Provides a comprehensive overview and introduction to the Routledge Handbook of Propositions.

This volume assesses the ethical, quantitative, and qualitative questions posed by the current financing of biomedical research.

Charles Griswold has written a comprehensive philosophical study of Smith's moral and political thought. Griswold sets Smith's work in the context of the Enlightenment and relates it to current discussions in moral and political philosophy. Smith's appropriation as well as criticism of ancient philosophy, and his carefully balanced defence of a liberal and humane moral and political outlook, are also explored. This 1999 book is a major philosophical and historical reassessment of a key figure in the Enlightenment that will be (...) of particular interest to philosophers and political and legal theorists, as well as historians of ideas, rhetoric, and political economy. (shrink)

In earlier work, the author has studied the economic role of planning horizons in making a case for complementarity as the predominant feature of social interdependence. This paper compares the different choice strategies implied by substitution, opposition and conflicts of interest in an economics of fear with those arising from horizon effects, economic complementarity and concerts of interest in an economics based on love. The contrasting implications of a psychological literature on negative vs. positive emotions and their health effects, along (...) with the findings in neurophysiological research about how humans are hard-wired for empathy and compassion leads to some fundamental changes in how we might address and revise social problems through economic analysis. The aim of this paper is to extend a horizonal case for complementarity in the author's previous work into its psychological links to research findings on healthy cognitive function and its emotional basis. An economics of substitution yields quite different conclusions about optimal institutional forms and how we address and frame social relations than are implied by an explicitly horizonal economics of complementary social relations. Recent psychological and neurophysiological studies support a horizonal case for complementarity in social relations, showing that our orthodox substitution assumptions and models of competitive equilibrium should be rejected for a renewed economic analysis based on horizonal models of complementarity and cooperation as a means to achieve greater social well-being in a healthier and more integrative form of social organization. The issues to be explored are not entertained within the currently existing frame of orthodox economics, so we must step beyond our standard habitual assumptions. (shrink)

A qualitative analysis of societal silences, demonstrating how the unsaid directs social action and shapes individual and collective lives.

Increasingly, Western culture embraces confusion as a virtue and decries certainty as a sin. Those who are confused about sexuality and identity are viewed as heroes. Those who are confused about morality are progressive pioneers. Those who are confused about spirituality are praised as tolerant. Conversely, those who express certainty about any of these issues are seen as bigoted, oppressive, arrogant, or intolerant. This cultural phenomenon led the compilers of the Oxford English Dictionary to name "post-truth" their word of the (...) year in 2016. How can Christians offer truth and clarity to a world that shuns both? By accurately describing the Culture of Confusion and how it has affected our society, author Abdu Murray seeks to awaken Westerners to the plight we find ourselves in. He also challenges Christians to consider how they have played a part in fostering the Culture of Confusion through bad arguments, unwise labeling, and emotional attacks. Ultimately, Saving Truth provides arguments from a Christian perspective for the foundations of truth and how those foundations apply to sexuality, identity, morality, and spirituality. For those enmeshed in the culture of confusion, the book offers a way to untangle oneself and find hope in the clarity that Christ offers. (shrink)