I Introduction In recent years there have arisen from several quarters, even within analytic philosophy itself, various challenges to the "positivist" ...

Livings things are so very strange -- The quest for a theory of life -- Understanding 'understanding' -- Stability and instability -- The knotty origin of life problem -- Biology's crisis of identity -- Biology is chemistry -- What is life?

Yael Tamir; Two Concepts of Multiculturalism, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 29, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 161–172, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467.

"This is a most timely, intelligent, well-written, and absorbing essay on a central and painful social and political problem of out time."--Sir Isaiah Berlin"The major achievement of this remarkable book is a critical theory of nationalism, worked through historical and contemporary examples, explaining the value of national commitments and defining their moral limits. Tamir explores a set of problems that philosophers have been notably reluctant to take on, and leaves us all in her debt."--Michael WalzerIn this provocative work, Yael Tamir (...) urges liberals not to surrender the concept of nationalism to conservative, chauvinist, or racist ideologies. In her view, liberalism, with its respect for personal autonomy, reflection, and choice, and nationalism, with its emphasis on belonging, loyalty, and solidarity are not irreconcilable. Here she offers a new theory, "liberal nationalism," which allows each set of values to accommodate the other. Tamir sees nationalism as an affirmation of communal and cultural memberships and as a quest for recognition and self-respect. Persuasively she argues that national groups can enjoy these benefits through political arrangements other than the nation-state. While acknowledging that nationalism places members of national minorities at a disadvantage, the author offers guidelines for alleviating the problems involved using examples from currents conflicts in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe.Liberal Nationalismis an impressive attempt to tie together a wide range of issues often kept apart: personal autonomy, cultural membership, political obligations, particularity versus impartiality in moral duties, and global justice. Drawing on material from disparate fields--including political philosophy, ethics, law, and sociology--Tamir brings out important and previously unnoticed interconnections between them, offering a new perspective on the influence of nationalism on modern political philosophy. (shrink)

Yael Tamir; Whose Education Is It Anyẃay?, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 24, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 161–170, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-97.

No texto ora apresentado, procuramos para além da discussão sobre o território e a territorialidade Pataxó, desenvolver uma contextualização breve sobre os povos Jê dos Sertões e como estes grupos foram categorizados ao longo da história, um esforço que contribui para entendermos a dinâmica da conquista da região aqui estudada e de como os grupos indígenas, dentre eles os Pataxó, foram ao longo da história da colonização sendo representados, categorizados e submetidos à situação de territorialização, ao ponto de se organizarem (...) e constituírem como etnia tal qual estudamos na atualidade, e, do mesmo modo, as mudanças ocorridas em seu território, os impactos da expansão das fronteiras, das Unidades de Conservação e do desenvolvimento das cidades ao longo do século XX e especialmente na segunda metade deste. (shrink)

Karen Neander’s (1991a, b) Selected Effects (SE) theory of biological proper functions argues that the function of a trait is the action for which it was “caused” to be selected by natural selection. Her life’s work has already left a lasting impact, however SE theory has yet to be more properly formalized as a conceptual analysis of biological functions. Although other SE theories have sought to build upon Neander’s work (e.g., Garson, 2017), there remains an ambiguity in the theory’s use (...) of causal descriptors. For the success of her successors, delineating the function of causality for SE theory is of utmost importance. Here, I systematize Neander’s theory according to the different senses of causation inherent to it. I argue that structuring SE theory in terms of causal transitivity and intransitivity reveals that Neander’s analysis not only supersedes her detractors but likely exposes areas of vulnerability in others’ SE theory derivatives. (shrink)

We advance a theory of the representational role of Euclidean diagrams according to which they are samples of co-exact features. We contrast our theory with two other conceptions, the instantial conception and Macbeth’s iconic view, with respect to how well they accommodate three fundamental constraints on theories of the Euclidean diagrammatic practice— that Euclidean diagrams are used in proofs whose results are wholly general, that Euclidean diagrams indicate the co-exact features that the geometer is allowed to infer from them and (...) that Euclidean diagrams play the same role in both direct proofs and indirect proofs by reductio—and argue that our view is the one best suited to account for them. We conclude by illustrating the virtues of our conception of Euclidean diagrams as samples by means of an analysis of Saccheri’s quadrilateral. (shrink)

Recognizing the links between childhood trauma and delinquency, many juvenile delinquency systems now emphasize trauma-informed care. This commentary examines established and emerging research on childhood trauma among American Indian and Alaska Native children and contrasts the development and implementation of “trauma-informed” approaches in state and tribal juvenile systems. It identifies three key innovations present in tribal models and calls for further research to identify best practices that work for Native children and tribal communities.

As teorias historicistas da racionalidade científica são produtos relativamente recentes da filosofia da ciência. Adequando-se aos dados extraídos da história da ciência, elas diferem de abordagens mais abstratas ou normativas da atividade científica que predominaram na primeira metade do século vinte. As teorias historicistas, contudo, são desafiadas pela dificuldade de conciliar a adequação empírica à história da ciência com a atribuição de racionalidade aos cientistas eles mesmos, especialmente quando escolhem entre hipóteses científicas rivais. Este artigo discute três influentes teorias historicistas (...) da racionalidade científica, devidas a Kuhn, Lakatos e Laudan, analisando como cada uma trata da racionalidade dessas escolhas, e argumenta em favor de análises de tipo kuhniana, que exploram o papel dos valores nas escolhas científicas e não as concebem como guiadas exclusivamente por regras de aplicação unívoca ou universal. Palavras-chave: Kuhn; valores; regras; teorias historicistas; racionalidade científica. (shrink)

The functional neural mechanisms underlying the cognitive benefits of aerobic exercise have been a subject of ongoing research in recent years. However, while most neuroimaging studies to date which examined functional neural correlates of aerobic exercise have used simple stimuli in highly controlled and artificial experimental conditions, our everyday life experiences require a much more complex and dynamic neurocognitive processing. Therefore, we have used a naturalistic complex information processing fMRI paradigm of story comprehension to investigate the role of an aerobically (...) active lifestyle in the processing of real-life cognitive-demanding situations. By employing the inter-subject correlation approach, we have identified differences in reliable stimulus-induced neural responses between groups of aerobically active and non-active cognitively intact older adults. Since cardiorespiratory fitness has previously been suggested to play a key role in the neuroprotective potential of aerobic exercise, we have investigated its dose-response relationship with regional inter-subject neural responses. We found that aerobically active lifestyle and cardiorespiratory fitness were associated with more synchronized inter-subject neural responses during story comprehension in higher order cognitive and linguistic brain regions in the prefrontal and temporo-parietal cortices. In addition, while higher regional inter-SC values were associated with higher performance on a post-listening memory task, this was not translated to a significant between-group difference in task performance. We, therefore, suggest that the modulatory potential of aerobic exercise and cardiorespiratory fitness on cognitive processing may extend beyond simple and highly controlled stimuli to situations in which the brain faces continuous real-life complex information. Additional studies incorporating other aspects of real-life situations such as naturalistic visual stimuli, everyday life decision making, and motor responses in these situations are desired to further validate the observed relationship between aerobic exercise, cardiorespiratory fitness, and complex naturalistic information processing. (shrink)

The difficulties about other minds are deep and of central philosophical importance. This text explores attempts to apply Wittgenstein's concept of criteria in explaining how we can know other minds and their properties. It is shown that the use of criteria for this purpose is misguided.

Mental time travel is defined as projecting the self into the past and the future. Despite growing evidence of the similarities of remembering past and imagining future events, dominant theories conceive of these as distinct capacities. I propose that memory and imagination are fundamentally the same process – constructive episodic simulation – and demonstrate that the ‘simulation system’ meets the three criteria of a neurocognitive system. Irrespective of whether one is remembering or imagining, the simulation system: acts on the same (...) information, drawing on elements of experience ranging from fine-grained perceptual details to coarser-grained conceptual information and schemas about the world; is governed by the same rules of operation, including associative processes that facilitate construction of a schematic scaffold, the event representation itself, and the dynamic interplay between the two ; and is subserved by the same brain system. I also propose that by forming associations between schemas, the simulation system constructs multi-dimensional cognitive spaces, within which any given simulation is mapped by the hippocampus. Finally, I suggest that simulation is a general capacity that underpins other domains of cognition, such as the perception of ongoing experience. This proposal has some important implications for the construct of ‘MTT’, suggesting that ‘time’ and ‘travel’ may not be defining, or even essential, features. Rather, it is the ‘mental’ rendering of experience that is the most fundamental function of this domain-general simulation system enabling humans to re-experience the past, pre-experience the future, and also comprehend the complexities of the present. (shrink)

Practical ability manifested through robust and reliable task performance, as well as information relevance and well-structured representation, are key factors indicative of understanding in the philosophical literature. We explore these factors in the context of deep learning, identifying prominent patterns in how the results of these algorithms represent information. While the estimation applications of modern neural networks do not qualify as the mental activity of persons, we argue that coupling analyses from philosophical accounts with the empirical and theoretical basis for (...) identifying these factors in deep learning representations provides a framework for discussing and critically evaluating potential machine understanding given the continually improving task performance enabled by such algorithms. (shrink)

Cell membranes are now emerging as finely tuned molecular systems, signifying that re‐evaluation of our understanding of their structure is essential. Although the idea that cell membrane lipid bilayers do little more than give shape and form to cells and limit diffusion between cells and their environment is totally passé, the structural, compositional, and functional complexity of lipid bilayers often catches cell and molecular biologists by surprise. Models of lipid bilayer structure have developed considerably since the heyday of the fluid (...) mosaic model, principally by the discovery of the restricted diffusion of membrane proteins and lipids within the plane of the bilayer. In reviewing this field, we now suggest that further refinement of current models is necessary and propose that describing lipid bilayers as “finely‐tuned molecular assemblies” best portrays their complexity and function. Also see the video abstract here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddkP-QRZTl8. (shrink)

O presente artigo tangencia o conceito de tensor esgueirando-se pelos platôs linguísticos de Mil platôs, agenciando o que Deleuze e Guattari potencializam em o que passou?, e que buscamos atualizar em o que passa? Nesse sentido, buscamos a articulação entre o que ambos os conceitos movimentam: isso, que acontece na relação entre dois ou mais estratos. Percebemos que o tensor transversa a obra de Deleuze e Guattari e, mesmo que não exerça um relevo, está lá, estrategicamente em funcionamento. Destarte, desejamos (...) articular com esses conceitos de partida, uma possibilidade para poder inventariar os deslocamentos imanentes de escrileitura, como forma de aproximar procedimentos didático-tradutórios, que possam vir a ser envolvidos em uma pesquisa, que deseja experimentarse em momentos de invenção. Para tanto, problematizamos uma tríade conceitual – tensor, o que passa?, e escrileitura, de modo a possibilitar perspectivas de composição e de funcionamentode uma máquina abstrata escrileitora de invenções. Com o Método Maquinatório de Pesquisa, afirmamos a busca por dar vez e voz a um processo de maquinações, que possam vir tensionar uma crítica sintomatológica, duplamente articulada a uma clínica maquinatória; um Plano de Organização tensionado por um Plano de Invenção; e, no intermezzo desses encontros, algo passa, algo pode passar; e, assim, persistem os rastros de uma escrileitura, envolta e revolta em um contínuo recursivo: escrever-ler-escrever. Nesse percurso, jogamos os dados em um tabuleiro desejante; procuramos abrir um caminho para a passagem de procedimentos escrileitores de invenção, e ensaiamos uma aposta: poder tensionar a transitividade atual-potencial do fazer linguístico, literário e escritureiro. Palavras-chave: Educação. Filosofia da diferença. Método Maquinatório de Pesquisa. Escrileitura. Tensor. (shrink)

Yael Tamir; Two Concepts of Multiculturalism, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 29, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 161–172, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467.

Syntactic and structural models specify relationships between their constituents but cannot show what outcomes their interaction would produce over time in the world. Simulation consists in iterating the states of a model, so as to produce behaviour over a period of simulated time. Iteration enables us to trace the implications and outcomes of inference rules and other assumptions implemented in the models that make up a theory. We apply this method to experiments which we treat as models of the particular (...) aspects of reality they are designed to investigate. Scientific experiments are constantly designed and re-designed in the context of implementation and use. They mediate between theoretical understanding and the practicalities of engaging with the empirical and social world. In order to model experiments we need to identify and represent features that all experiments have in common. We treat these features as parameters of a general model of experiment so that by varying these parameters different types of experiment can be modelled. (shrink)

The surprising case for liberal nationalism Around the world today, nationalism is back—and it’s often deeply troubling. Populist politicians exploit nationalism for authoritarian, chauvinistic, racist, and xenophobic purposes, reinforcing the view that it is fundamentally reactionary and antidemocratic. But Yael Tamir makes a passionate argument for a very different kind of nationalism—one that revives its participatory, creative, and egalitarian virtues, answers many of the problems caused by neoliberalism and hyperglobalism, and is essential to democracy at its best. In Why Nationalism, (...) she explains why it is more important than ever for the Left to recognize these positive qualities of nationalism, to reclaim it from right-wing extremists, and to redirect its power to progressive ends. Provocative and hopeful, Why Nationalism is a timely and essential rethinking of a defining feature of our politics. (shrink)

Yael Tamir; Whose Education Is It Anyẃay?, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 24, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 161–170, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-97.

Whether intentional suppression of an unpleasant or unwanted memory reduces the ability to recall that memory subsequently is a contested issue in contemporary memory research. Building on findings that similar processes are recruited when individuals remember the past and imagine the future, we measured the effects of thought suppression on memory for imagined future scenarios. Thought suppression reduced the ability to recall emotionally negative scenarios, but not those that were emotionally positive. This finding suggests that intentionally avoiding thoughts about emotionally (...) negative episodes may inhibit representations of those memories, progressively reducing their availability to recall. (shrink)

In this paper I critically review the long history of attempts to formulate and derive the geodesic principle, which claims that massive bodies follow geodesic paths in general relativity theory. I argue that if the principle is interpreted as a dynamical law of motion describing the actual evolution of gravitating bodies as endorsed by Einstein, then it is impossible to apply the law to massive bodies in a way that is coherent with his own field equations. Rejecting this canonical interpretation, (...) I propose an alternative interpretation of the geodesic principle as a type of universality thesis analogous to the universality behavior exhibited in thermal systems during phase transitions. (shrink)

In this paper I critically review the long history of attempts to formulate and derive the geodesic principle, which claims that massive bodies follow geodesic paths in general relativity theory. I argue that if the principle is interpreted as a dynamical law of motion describing the actual evolution of gravitating bodies as endorsed by Einstein, then it is impossible to apply the law to massive bodies in a way that is coherent with his own field equations. Rejecting this canonical interpretation, (...) I propose an alternative interpretation of the geodesic principle as a type of universality thesis analogous to the universality behavior exhibited in thermal systems during phase transitions. (shrink)

Special relativity is based on the apparent contradiction between two postulates, namely, Galilean vs. c-invariance. We show that anomalies ensue by holding the former postulate alone. In order for Galilean invariance to be consistent, it must hold not only for bodies’ motions, but also for the signals and forces they exchange. If the latter ones do not obey the Galilean version of the Velocities Addition Law, invariance is violated. If, however, they do, causal anomalies, information loss and conservation laws’ violations (...) are bound to occur. These anomalies are largely remedied by introducing waves and fields that disobey Galilean invariance. Therefore, from these inconsistencies within classical mechanics, electromagnetism could be predicted before experiment proved its existence. Special relativity, it might be argued, would then follow naturally, either as a resolution of the resulting conflict or as an extrapolation of the path between the theories. We conclude with a review of earlier attempts to base SR on a single postulate, and point out the originality of the present work. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo discutir o sentido de estado de natureza e compreender a sua transformação em estado de civil e político. Nesse sentido, foram analisados e apresentados conceitos baseados nas obras de Thomas Hobbes, sobretudo em seu livro “O Leviatã”.

O objetivo de nosso artigo é desnaturalizar as construções epistemológicas e axiológicas do pensamento colonial produzido pelo ocidente, abrindo possibilidade para a construção de novas categorias de pensamento em relação ao processo de reconhecimento sobre nós mesmos e sobre os outros. Os conceitos de raça e racismo, vistos por uma perspectiva que denuncia o caráter estrutural dos dispositivos de colonialidade na construção da civilização ocidental, são historicizados por uma crítica que localiza as condições de possibilidade para o surgimento desse pensamento (...) na filosofia liberal europeia, no século XVIII. Assim, queremos produzir uma discussão acerca dos dispositivos coloniais de poder e a violência operada por eles na construção das subjetividades, propagando discursos assimilacionistas e outrificadores em relação às diferenças culturais, naturalizando e imputando, via discursos racistas, determinadas características de cunho ontológico. Com isso, visamos enunciar que é possível a elaboração de uma prática decolonial libertária, pautada na construção de categorias éticas e políticas permeadas pela luta antiracista. (shrink)

Emotions and moods have been distinguished in the literature. If they are distinct, we may expect emotion regulation and mood regulation to be distinct too. We show that although emotion regulation and mood regulation are considered theoretically distinct, they are often confounded empirically. We review characteristics proposed to distinguish emotions from moods by different theoretical approaches to emotion. We also review challenges to these propositions, suggesting that one valid distinction involves intentionality. Building on the above, we discuss possible differences between (...) emotion regulation and mood regulation. Finally, we encourage the use of accurate terminology, argue for the importance of empirically testing hypotheses regarding distinctions between emotion regulation and mood regulation, and discuss possible implications. (shrink)