The issue of whether or not there are visual arguments has been an issue in informal logic and argumentation theory at least since 1996. In recent years, books, sections of prominent conferences and special journals issues have been devoted to it, thus significantly raising the profile of the debate. In this paper I will attempt to show how the views of the later Wittgenstein, particularly his views on images and the no- tion of “picturing”, can be brought to bear on (...) the question of whether there are such things as “purely visual” arguments. I shall draw on Wittgenstein’s remarks in the Blue and Brown Books and in Philosophical Investigations in order to argue that al- though visual images may occur as elements of argumentation, broadly conceived, it is a mistake to think that there are purely visual arguments, in the sense of illative moves from premises to conclusions that are conveyed by images alone, without the support or framing of words. (shrink)

Virginia Held nos propõe em seu capítulo “Care and Human Rights”, do livro Philosophical Foudantion of Human Rights, que utilizemos a perspectiva da ética do cuidado para pensar e efetivar as demandas que escolhemos tratar com a linguagem dos direitos humanos, na qual se prioriza tradicionalmente as questões da justiça. Ainda que reconheça a importância que os direitos humanos possuem em mobilizar forças tanto em âmbito internacional como na esfera nacional, no que diz respeito à efetivação de leis e (...) de políticas voltadas para problemas que afetam seriamente as populações dos países, Held frisa que milhares de pessoas ainda escapam a esse alcance, inclusive crianças, que morrem em número alarmante por desnutrição ou por doenças tratáveis. Destaca, ainda, que nossa concepção de direitos humanos é herdeira de uma visão individualista e violenta da tradição liberal, na qual o sujeito solitário vai enfrentar sozinho as forças do mundo, incluindo aí a natureza e as outras pessoas. Uma ética do cuidado, pela sua característica de reconhecer nossa situação necessária de vulnerabilidade e de interdependência, propõe-se como uma alternativa mais eficiente, por focar na relação entre cuidador/a e cuidado/a, buscando-se afastar das abstrações tradicionais como as que ela entende ser as demais abordagens éticas como a kantiana e a utilitarista, ainda tributárias daquela tradição liberal. (shrink)

This essay criticizes David Held's proposal of cosmopolitan democracy. Held argues that cosmopolitan realities are emerging, which help to open up the possibility of a cosmopolitan democracy. However, the author argues that Held tends to exaggerate cosmopolitan realities. What Held sees as cosmopolitan realities are international realities rather than cosmopolitan, and what he calls 'transnational civil society' is in fact the product of nation-states. Held endorses 'the institutionalization of cosmopolitan principles', which implies two different institutionalizations, (...) though Held does not explicitly recognize this difference: the global and national institutionalization. However, the global institutionalization of cosmopolitan principles would not only fail to work but also cause undesirable consequences, in particular, global cultural homogenization, while the national one does not deserve the name of cosmopolitanism. Instead of introducing a cosmopolitan democracy, the author proposes that we should utilize and enhance the capacities of nation-states and develop the existing international order so as to cope with global problems. (shrink)

The relation between aisthesis and interiority manifests in Wittgenstein’s account of the subject and his private language argument. But it is also an overlooked leitmotif in Dostoevsky’s novels—one of Wittgenstein’s favorite authors, and in W.G. Sebald’s work—who was inspired by Wittgenstein’s philosophy. This book reflects on the role literature can play in answering the philosophical question of an adequate presentation of intention and pain.

Simple type theory is a higher-order predicate logic for reasoning about truth values, individuals, and simply typed total functions. We present in this paper a version of simple type theory, called PF*, in which functions may be partial and types may have subtypes. We define both a Henkin-style general models semantics and an axiomatic system for PF*, and we prove that the axiomatic system is complete with respect to the general models semantics. We also define a notion of an interpretation (...) of one PF* theory in another. PF* is intended as a foundation for mechanized mathematics. It is the basis for the logic of , an Interactive Mathematical Proof System developed at The MITRE Corporation. (shrink)

This chapter describes the phenomenology of the political world. Phenomenology must get underway with an analysis of the political world. The chapter evaluates more precisely the relation between the concept of world or worldliness and the openness of the political. Using the term ‘political world’ is preferred to utilising the traditional terms because it is less burdened by prejudice. The guiding impulse towards the clarification of the Sache of political philosophy as political world stems from Hannah Arendt, who does not (...) make use of the phenomenological conception of ‘horizon’. Science's confidence that it can attain a knowledge free of all horizonal plurality is among the most fundamental prejudices that phenomenology endeavours to overcome. Phenomenology is the decided present renewal of the most ancient idea of epistêmê. (shrink)

This classic essay on the responsibilities of a doctor was first published in New York in 1769. It remains a perfect gift for a young doctor just starting out or for one who is older and wiser. This classic will be an inspiration to any who read its timeless message.

A volume dedicated to the achievements of Norwegian archaeologist Gutorm Gjessing (1906-1979). Contents: 1) Why a Circumpolar Reappraisal? An Introduction (Christer Westerdahl); 2) The Search for a Saami Past, and Some Reflections on the Gjessing Legacy (Noel D. Broadbent); 3) Shamanism and Material Culture in the Northern Circumpolar Area, brought to the fore by some newly discovered South-Saami Drums with Accessories in the Norwegian Mountains (Birgitta Berglund); 4) Northern Snow Patch Archaeology (Martin Callanan); 5) Surface Pressure Flaking in Northern Eurasia (...) at the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition-a technological virus? (Kim Darmark); 6) A Reappraisal of Circumpolar Microblade Technology (E. James Dixon); 7) Arctic Cultures and Global Theory: Historical Tracks Along the Circumpolar Road (William W. Fitzhugh); 8) Cross-cultural contacts between European whalers and Russian hunters (Louwrens Hacquebord and Ypie Aalders); 9) Interpreting bear imagery in the spirit of Gutorm Gjessing (Knut Helskog); 10) A Reapraisal of the Ainu Bear Festival (Takashi Irimoto); 11) Maritime Culture of the White Sea Littoral: Traditional Ships and Boats of Pomorye in the First Half of the 18th Century (Marek E. Jasinski & Oleg V. Ovsyannikov); 12) Major Changes in the Holocene Climate (Wibjorn Karlen); 13) On the Diffusion of the Bark Canoes, Skin Boats and Expanded Log Boats in the Eurasian North (Harri Luukkanen); 14) Early Spread of Pottery in Circumpolar Eurasia (Milton Nunez); 15) Feeding the Fire in the Circumpolar Hearths (Ulla Odgaard); 16) Archaeology as Social Anthropology (Knut Odner); 17) Potential Insights Cultural Material Conservation Can Contribute to Circumpolar Research Questions as Illustrated by Textile and Leather Artefacts Recovered from Archaeological Investigations of Two Russian Pomor Hunting Stations on Svalbard (Elizabeth E. Peacock); 18) Gutorm Gjessing and Norwegian Rock-Art (K. J. Sognnes); 19) Gjessing, Dialectics and the New Archaeology (Frans-Arne Stylegar); 20) Aesthetic Expressions in the Circumpolar North: Art Among Three Indigenous Peoples, the Ainu, the Netsilik, and the Sami (Tom G. Svensson); 21) Sea versus Land. An Arctic and Subarctic Cosmology? (Christer Westerdahl); 22) Ancient boats of the Sami in Fennoscandia. A brief survey with a focus on the inland environments, in particular those of the Forest Sami (Christer Westerdahl); 230 Visualizing Sami Waterscapes in Northern Norway from an Archaeological Perspective (Stephen Wickler); 24) A Reappraisal of Eurasian Shamanism: Continuity or Discontinuity of the Concept of Spiritual Beings (Takako Yamada); 25) Bibliography of Gutorm Gjessing. (shrink)

Contemporary society is in the grip of contractual thinking. Realities are interpreted in contractual terms, and goals are formulated in terms of rational contracts. The leading current conceptions of rationality begin with assumptions that human beings are independent, self-interested or mutually disinterested, individuals; they then typically argue that it is often rational for human beings to enter into contractual relationships with each other.

Contemporary society is in the grip of contractual thinking. Realities are interpreted in contractual terms, and goals are formulated in terms of rational contracts. The leading current conceptions of rationality begin with assumptions that human beings are independent, self-interested or mutually disinterested, individuals; they then typically argue that it is often rational for human beings to enter into contractual relationships with each other.

In this article, an analysis was made of what’s new in the debate on the condition of the contemporary political community brought up by the discussion about the relationship between care and justice. The author introduces the category of care in philosophy and its understanding and with particular emphasis on the views of Virginia Held. He analyzes the importance of a relationship of care as the foundation for the proper functioning of the socio-political community and criticism of the idea (...) of a social contract undertaken by representatives of the ethics of care. Critically, he presents the consequences of the assumptions of the civic community accepted by Held. (shrink)

A monist theory of explanation is one that seeks a common definition for all speech acts answering why-questions. One recent example is the counterfactual theory of explanation, which assumes that an ideal explanation can be characterized by the familiar Hempelian criteria for a scientific explanation plus a certain counterfactual that is supported by the laws mentioned in the explanans. I show that the CTE fails. My discussion leads to a critique of the CTE’s key concept of counterfactual dependence and to (...) the suggestion of an alternative: For an argument to be a scientific explanation, a certain necessary-condition claim must be true. For an answer to a why-question to be an explanation, it must express a certain necessary condition. (shrink)

This paper is based on the findings of research into the attitudes towards business ethics of a group of business students in Western Australia. The questionnaire upon which the research was based was originally used by Preble and Reichel (1988) in an investigation they undertook into the attitudes towards business ethics held by two similar groups of United States and Israeli business students. The specific purpose of the current investigation was to administer the same questionnaire with one minor modification (...) to: (1) two groups of Curtin University students; (2) a group of Asian students from the Australian Institute of Business and Technology (AIBT), a privately funded tertiary institution affiliated with Curtin University; and (3) a group of managers from the Australian Institute of Management (AIM), many of whom would not have been university graduates. The questionnaire was preceded by a profile inventory to establish the participant''s age, sex, occupation, course of study, whether or not they were born in Australia, their attitudes towards religion, and whether or not they saw themselves as ethically minded persons. In the original questionnaire, Preble and Reichel had asked the US and Israeli students to indicate on a five point scale, their attitudes towards a selection of business ethics situations by reflecting on thirty statements. In the replicate study, the means and standard deviations of each response of the four groups of Western Australian students were calculated and then compared with the means and standard deviations of the US and Israeli students. In summary, statistically significant differences in the scores of the original study were noted between nineteen out of thirty of the US and Israeli students in their attitudes towards business ethics. However, a closer examination and interpretation showed several of these differences to have little meaning. (p. 946) The purpose of this current study therefore, was to see if the Curtin, AIBT and AIM students'' results were statistically significant (different) to the US and Israeli student scores. The implications of understanding the way a selected group of business students in Western Australia react towards a range of ethical issues ought to have relevance for those involved in developing management education courses, particularly in view of the current economic and business climate. Studies into attitudes towards ethical issues in business have, as yet, received little attention in Australasia. This present study will hopefully lead to more thoughtful discussion of these issues. (shrink)

In the aftermath of the Second World War the international institutional breakthroughs that occurred provided the momentum for decades of sustained economic growth and geopolitical stability sufficient for the transformation of the world economy, the shift from the cold war to a multipolar order, and the rise of new communication and network societies. However, what worked then does not work as well now, as gridlock freezes problem-solving capacity in global governance. The search for pathways through and beyond gridlock is a (...) hugely significant task – nationally and globally – if global governance is to be once again effective, responsive and fit for purpose. This article explores these issues and provides elements of a theory of global governance in order to begin to understand the challenges of the 21st century and how to surmount them. (shrink)

SpanFor generations the elements of humor, poignancy, fantasy, and unfettered morality found within acclaimed children's author Roald Dahl's most famous tales have captivated both children and adults. Editor Jacob M. Held has collected the insights of today's leading philosophers into the significances, messages, and greater truths at which Dahl's rhythmic writing winks, revealing a whole new way to appreciate the creation of a man and mind to which readers of all ages are still drawn. /span...

Particularly, but not exclusively, in Germany, concerns are uttered as to the consequences of modern biotechnological advances and their range of applications in the field of human genetics. Whereas the proponents of this research are mainly focussing on the possible knowledge that could be gained by understanding the causes of developmental processes and of disease on the molecular level, the critics fear the beginnings of a new eugenics movement. Without claiming a logical relationship between genetic sciences and eugenics movements, it (...) is nevertheless suggested in this article that a connection between both can become established when the distinction between scientifically validated statements on one hand and guiding hypotheses and assumptions on the other hand is blurred, as is observed particularly when scientists report their results to the public. This claim is demonstrated in comparisons between the current state of scientific knowledge on the role of genes in development and causation of diseases, and the way this is presented to the public. It is required that a debate on biotechnology should include reflections on the validity of claims made by scientists. (shrink)