We begin by taking “naturalism” in the sense in which P. F. Strawson (“Scepticism, Naturalism and Transcendental Arguments”, 1985) presented Wittgenstein’s anti-sceptical arguments as “naturalistic”. According to Strawson, this naturalism connects the philosophy of Wittgenstein with that of Hume. Then, we proceed to compare Hume’s and Wittgenstein’s positions and establish a tenet common to them, which we qualify as “meta‐philosophical”: philosophy rests on a bedrock that resists our demands of justification, a contingent “so we are, so we act” that is (...) beyond philosophical analysis. But this negative thesis leads to differentcommitments in each philosopher: a commitment with the autonomy of nature in the case of Hume, and a commitment with the autonomy of grammar in the case of Wittgenstein. Next, we analyze the epistemological implications of each commitment, particularly with reference to the status of natural science. We find a deep divergence between Hume and Wittgenstein on this point, so that the former, but not the latter, could still be labelled as “naturalist” in a positive, more substantial sense. Our central point here is the difficulty to give a naturalistic interpretation of such Wittgensteinian notions as “language game” or “form of life”. Finally, we stress that the distance between Hume and Wittgenstein is most clearly evidenced when we consider the normative (moral) implications of Hume’s concept of nature, which are completely absent from Wittgenstein’s approach, this being a feature of Wittgenstein’s philosophy that remained unchanged all along his work. (shrink)

I discuss Robert Brandom’s contention that his “analytic” or “linguistic” pragmatism is, as his book Perspectives on Pragmatism: Classical, Recent, and Contemporary argues, a “way forward from the ideas of American pragmatists.” In this connection, I compare Brandom’s and Dewey’s answers to the demarcation question (how are linguistic practices distinguished from nonlinguistic ones) in order to show that Brandom’s linguistic “exceptionalism” departs from one fundamental contribution of the pragmatic tradition, namely the idea that discursive normativity emerges from previous, already linguistic (...) practices through the development of inquiry as a practical, social achievement (an idea summarized in Dewey’s claim that “logic is a social discipline”). I contend that Dewey’s distinction between two meanings of “language”—as a medium of communication and as an agency of inquiry—puts us in a better position to give an account of how discursive norms came into existence within language, and of what are they good for. (shrink)

This book compiles 17 short pieces in which the renowned Spanish philosopher and intellectual Fernando Savater (San Sebastián, 1947) evokes the thought and character of George Santayana. The selection spans over more than 30 years – the earliest text was originally published in 1977 and the last one dates from 2010 –, revealing Savater’s sustained interest in, and fondness for the figure of Santayana. Completing the collection of self-contained texts there are two more sections: one of fragme...

This book bears witness to the wide range of topics of philosophical interest in which classical as well as contemporary pragmatist philosophers are involved, or to which they have made durable contributions, or simply on which they have an original word to say. Reading the headings of the six parts that make up this volume – Democracy, Normativity, Religion, Action and Habit, Inquiry, and Ontology and Meaning – one has the feeling that no other philosophical movement of the present can (...) affor... (shrink)

_Confines of Democracy_ is a collection of critical assessments and interpretations of Richard J. Bernstein’s extensive and illuminating work on pragmatism, epistemology, hermeneutics, and social and political theory, including Bernstein’s replies to the contributors.

Rehabilitation For Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a state-of-the-science review of the effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions.

Patient report of functioning is one component of the neurocognitive exam following traumatic brain injury, and standardized patient-reported outcomes measures are useful to track outcomes during rehabilitation. The Traumatic Brain Injury Quality of Life measurement system is a TBI-specific extension of the PROMIS and Neuro-QoL measurement systems that includes 20 item banks across physical, emotional, social, and cognitive domains. Previous research has evaluated the responsiveness of the TBI-QOL measures in community-dwelling individuals and found clinically important change over a 6-month assessment (...) interval in a sample of individuals who were on average 5 years post-injury. In the present study, we report on the responsiveness of the TBI-QOL Cognition–General Concerns and Executive Function item bank scores and the Cognitive Health Composite scores in a recently injured sample over a 1-year study period. Data from 128 participants with complicated mild, moderate, or severe TBI within the previous 6 months were evaluated. The majority of the sample was male, white, and non-Hispanic. The participants were 18–92 years of age and were first evaluated from 0 to 5 months post-injury. Eighty participants completed the 1-year follow-up assessment. Results show acceptable standard response mean values for all measures and minimal detectable change values ranging from 8.2 to 8.8 T-score points for Cognition–General Concerns and Executive Functioning measures. Anchor rating analysis revealed that changes in scores on the Executive Function item bank and the Cognitive Health Composite were meaningfully associated with participant-reported changes in the areas of attention, multitasking, and memory. Evaluation of change score differences by a variety of clinical indicators demonstrated a small but significant difference in the three TBI-QOL change scores by TBI injury severity grouping. These results support the responsiveness of the TBI-QOL cognition measures in newly injured individuals and provides information on the minimal important differences for the TBI-QOL cognition measures, which can be used for score interpretation by clinicians and researchers seeking patient-reported outcome measures of self-reported cognitive QOL after TBI. (shrink)

There has been longstanding interest in the consistency of decisions made by research ethics committees in the UK, but most of the evidence has come from single studies submitted to multiple committees. A systematic comparison was carried out of the decisions made on 18 purposively selected applications, each of which was reviewed independently by three different RECs in a single strategic health authority. Decisions on 11 applications were consistent, but disparities were found among RECs on decisions on seven applications. An (...) analysis of the agreement between decisions of RECs yielded an overall measure of agreement of κ = 0.286 , indicating a level of agreement that, although probably better than chance, may be described as “slight”. The small sample size limits the robustness of these findings. Further research on reasons for inconsistencies in decision making between RECs, and on the importance of such inconsistencies for a range of arguments, is needed. (shrink)

Research Ethics Committees (RECs) are frequently a focus of complaints from researchers, but evidence about the operation and decisions of RECs tends to be anecdotal. We conducted a systematic study to identify and compare the ethical issues raised in 54 letters to researchers about the same 18 applications submitted to three RECs over one year. The most common type of ethical trouble identified in REC letters related to informed consent, followed by scientific design and conduct, care and protection of research (...) participants, confidentiality, recruitment and documentation. Community considerations were least frequently raised. There was evidence of variability in the ethical troubles identified and the remedies recommended. This analysis suggests that some principles may be more institutionalized than others, and offers some evidence of inconsistency between RECs. Inconsistency is often treated as evidence of incompetence and caprice, but a more sophisticated understanding of the role of RECs and their functioning is required. (shrink)

This collection of essays is dedicated to the prolific career of Paul Ricoeur. Honoring his work, this anthology addresses questions and concerns that defined Ricoeur’s.

Este trabajo se inscribe en una revisión in progress del Derecho antidiscriminatorio moderno que las autoras vienen efectuando desde hace más de tres lustros. En la primera parte del mismo se examinan los textos de una f ilósofa política y de dos juristas esta- dounidenses (I. M. Young, C. A. MacKinnon y K. Crensahw) que inspiran la propuesta de un concepto de discriminación y de una visión de la interseccionalidad basados en el reconocimiento de los sistemas de opresión. La segunda (...) parte se centra en el análisis del concepto de discriminación múltiple o interseccional propuesto por la doctrina jurídica española a partir de la jurisprudencia referida al caso de una mujer (“La Nena”) casada por el rito gitano que ve denegada su pensión de viudedad. A partir de lo anterior, el trabajo concluye con una serie de propuestas entre las que destacan las referidas a la necesidad de evitar que el discurso sobre la interseccionalidad disuelva la identidad política de los grupos en la individualidad, refuerce el sistema sexo-género y consolide un Derecho antidiscriminatorio de corte excesivamente jurisprudencial. (shrink)

The aim of the study was to use an clustering analysis method to classify and identify native and foreign basketball players into similar groups based on game-related statistics; use the Pearson’s Chi-square test to identify the key clusters that affect whether a team enters the playoffs; and use the classification tree analysis to stimulate the prediction of team ability and the construction of the team roster. The sample consisted of 422 foreign players and 1,775 native players across 9 seasons from (...) 2011 to 2019. The clustering process allowed for the identification of nine native and six foreign player performance profiles. In addition, two clusters of native players and one cluster of foreign players were identified that had a significant impact on team ability. These results provide alternative references for basketball staff concerning the process of evaluating native and foreign player performance in the Chinese Basketball Association. (shrink)

Erickson's treatise intertwines and confuses two major, but separable, issues: whether there are basic tastes and how taste stimuli are encoded. The idea of basic tastes may reflect a natural process of concept formation. By only discussing two spatial coding schemes for taste, Erickson ignores the temporal dimension of taste responses and the contribution of neuronal cooperativity.

We analysed research ethics committee (REC) letters. We found that RECs frequently identify process errors in applications from researchers that are not deemed “favourable” at first review. Errors include procedural violations (identified in 74% of all applications), missing information (68%), slip-ups (44%) and discrepancies (25%). Important questions arise about why the level of error identified by RECs is so high, and about how errors of different types should be handled.

Recently there has been an outpouring of consumer frustration over rising food and energy prices. Many politicians railed against “speculators” who allegedly drove up the prices of key necessities. Is speculation unethical? This article reviews the traditional arguments against speculation. Many of the standard criticisms confuse speculation with gambling. In much the same way as ethicists now draw distinctions between usury and normal business interest, we draw a distinction between socially useful speculation and gambling. Gambling involves taking on risk with (...) no plausible expectation of making a profit. Gambling may provide entertainment value to some people, but like other addictive activities causes grave harm to a subset of users. Speculation involves taking on a business risk with a plausible expectation that a profit will result. Speculators provide an important risk bearing service by taking on risks that others do not want. They help markets to function better by helping to incorporate information into prices as well as providing liquidity. Speculators may actually reduce shortages by causing quicker price increases that motivate producers to increase production and consumers to conserve. But even socially useful speculation may have an ethical dark side. Does such speculation cause damage by adding excess volatility to prices? Speculators may contribute to price bubbles. At what point does legitimate speculation become odious “price gouging?” We also draw an ethical distinction between speculation, which seeks to benefit from changing prices, and manipulation, actions taken to push prices away from their economically appropriate levels. (shrink)

Sabemos que desde una perspectiva científica, al activar determinados estímulos musicales se produce una activación a nivel cerebral. Con las agrupaciones musicales escolares se requiere previamente activar las técnicas de audición e interpretación de forma individual para lograr en el grupo, aptitudes motoras, perceptivas, cognitivas y activar procesos afectivos y de socialización. De esta forma, la atención a la diversidad no quedaría excluida. La música, en definitiva, favorece el desarrollo de la persona en todas sus dimensiones, lo cual redunda en (...) una mejora de la calidad de vida y es un gran avance a nivel personal, familiar, escolar, clínico y social. La actividad musical es como un sistema de introducción en el marco cultural insustituible. (shrink)