Epigenetic research has brought several important technological achievements, including identifying epigenetic clocks and signatures, and developing epigenetic editing. The potential military applications of such technologies we discuss are stratifying soldiers’ health, exposure to trauma using epigenetic testing, information about biological clocks, confirming child soldiers’ minor status using epigenetic clocks, and inducing epigenetic modifications in soldiers. These uses could become a reality. This article presents a comprehensive literature review, and analysis by interdisciplinary experts of the scientific, legal, ethical, and societal issues (...) surrounding epigenetics and the military. Notwithstanding the potential benefit from these applications, our findings indicate that the current lack of scientific validation for epigenetic technologies suggests a careful scientific review and the establishment of a robust governance framework before consideration for use in the military. In this article, we highlight general concerns about the application of epigenetic technologies in the military context, especially discrimination and data privacy issues if soldiers are used as research subjects. We also highlight the potential of epigenetic clocks to support child soldiers’ rights and ethical questions about using epigenetic engineering for soldiers’ enhancement and conclude with considerations for an ethical framework for epigenetic applications in the military, defense, and security contexts. (shrink)

We welcome Soltis' use of evolutionary signaling theory, but question his interpretations of colic as a signal of vigor and his explanation of abnormal high-pitched crying as a signal of poor infant quality. Instead, we suggest that these phenomena may be suboptimal by-products of a generally adaptive learning process by which infants adjust their crying levels in relation to parental responsiveness.

Hegels im Jahr 1807 erschienene "Phänomenologie des Geistes" kann ohne Zweifel zu den meistdiskutierten Werken der abendländischen Philosophiegeschichte gezählt werden. In ihr gelangt Hegels Philosophieren dazu, die Fülle alles Wissbaren zu einem einheitlichen, systematischen Ganzen zu organisieren. Dabei musste sowohl das Phänomen des Lebens mit dem erkennenden Bewusstsein, beide zusammen aber mit den geschichtlichen Entfaltungen des Geistes vermittelt werden, so dass sich die "Wissenschaft der Erfahrung des Bewusstseins" zu einer "Phänomenologie des Geistes" ausgestalten konnte. Zentral für Hegels Idee einer dialektischen (...) Vermittlung ist das Prinzip der Anerkennung; dieses kann aus moderner Perspektive für die Ordnung unterschiedlicher Wissenssphären wie auch für aktuelle Konzeptionen praktischer Philosophie als wegweisend gelten. In den letzten Jahrzehnten sind durch die editorische und entwicklungsgeschichtliche Aufarbeitung des Jenaer Hegel Konzeption und systematischer Aufbau der Phänomenologie erstmals deutlich geworden. (shrink)

At present, ‘naturalism’ is arguably the dominant trend in both Anglo-American and European philosophy. Owing to the influence of the works of W.V.O. Quine, Wilfred Sellars, and Hillary Putnam, among others, naturalism both as a methodological and ontological position has become one of the mainstays of contemporary analytic approaches to knowledge, mind and ethics. From the early 1990s onward, European philosophy in the English-speaking world has been witnessing a turn from the philosophies of the subjects of phenomenology, hermeneutics and existentialism (...) and a revival of a certain kind of vitalism, whether Bergsonian or Nietzschean, and also of a certain kind of materialism that is close in spirit to Spinoza’s _Ethics_ and to the naturalism and monism of the early Ionian thinkers. This book comprises essays written by experts in both the European and the Anglo-American traditions such as John Sallis, David Papineau, David Cerbone, Dan Zahavi, Paul Patton, Bernhard Weiss, Jack Reynolds and Benedict Smith, who explore the limit of naturalism and the debate between naturalism and phenomenology. This book also considers the relation between Deleuze’s philosophy and naturalism as well as the critique of phenomenology by speculative realism. This book was originally published as a special issue of the _International Journal of Philosophical Studies. _. (shrink)

‘To be is to be the value of a bound variable’W.V. QuineIn ‘Should the Numbers Count?’ John Taurek asks whether the relative numbers of people whose welfare is affected by a given choice is ever of itself a determining factor in moral trade-off situations. No one raises a question like this unless they have a surprise, and so Taurek unsurprisingly concludes that numbers alone should not, or need not, ever be regarded as significant in moral decision. Taurek's strategy is to (...) argue that the common belief that, other things being equal, we are morally required to help the greater number is incompatible with other things that many of us commonly believe. He additionally argues that the preference for higher numbers in itself represents a dubious and confused way of thinking. (shrink)

As the world has increasingly embraced globalization, temptations to encroach on traditional boundaries of state sovereignty for reasons of self-interest mount. Argumentation studies provide an important lens for examining the public discourse used to justify such moves. This essay examines the Bush administration’s strategic use of the definitional processes of association and dissociation to build its public case for regime change in Afghanistan. After exploring how the Bush administration’s early rhetoric after 9/11 failed to actually provide the Taliban a choice (...) to remain in power, the essay reveals three combinations of the terrorism/state relationship that functioned as an argument by definition to gain support for the US campaign to overthrow the regime. (shrink)

The notion of ontography is characterizable as open-source, both due to its collaborative development, its heterogeneous backgrounds and its broad applicability. In my paper, I concretize these open-source aspects of ontography firstly by redefining it with reference to E. Winkler’s dialogue Die Erkundung der Linie and secondly by applying it to the Gestalttheoretical topics of figure-ground reversals and bidirectional part-whole relations.

Very soon after I began working on the identity of magic-workers in classical antiquity, I realized that it was necessary to come to terms with a thesis about depictions of erotic magic-working in Greek and Roman literature. It asserted that male writers engaged in a systematic misrepresentation of the realities of magic-working in portraying erotic magic as an exclusively female preserve; the reality was that men were the main participants in this form of magic-working. The thesis is based on the (...) supposition that the truth about erotic magic and the people who performed it is to be found in the formularies or spell-books preserved in papyrus and in defixiones. These two sources of information are said to show us that erotic magic was performed by men and not by the women who are the persons depicted engaging in love-magic in literature. The scholar who first presented the thesis was the late John Winkler. A version of it is to be found in Fritz Graf's general account of Greek and Roman magic. There is agreement over what are taken to be the facts, but views diverge over their interpretation. Winkler appeals to the Freudian notion of denial and transference to offer an explanation not only of the discrepancy between life and literature, but of what he took to be the belief held by the young men who cast erotic spells that the girls who were the objects of their spells were as sexually eager as they were: men, when overwhelmed by sexual desire for unattainable women, through a process of denial transfer that feeling to women, whether old or young, whom they fondly imagine suffer the same intense sexual longings as themselves. (shrink)

Welche Problemlagen fordern Christen heute heraus, sich politisch zu engagieren? In welchen Formen reagieren sie darauf? Wie soll sich Christliche Sozialethik auf solche "Politik aus dem Glauben" beziehen und wie kann sie diese orientierend unterstutzen? Das Buch ist dem Theorie-Praxis-Verhaltnis der Christlichen Sozialethik gewidmet, das fur das Denken von Prof. Dr. Friedhelm Hengsbach SJ zentral ist. Aus Anlass seines 80. Geburtstags setzen sich 22 namhafte Autorinnen und Autoren mit dieser Fragestellung auseinander. Neben Beitragen zum Wandel der politischen Praxis von Christen (...) und Grundlagenreflexionen zum Status der Sozialethik als praktischer Wissenschaft enthalt der Band Untersuchungen zu politischen Antworten auf Digitalisierung, europaische Krise und Rechtspopulismus sowie Artikel, in denen exemplarisch aufgezeigt wird, wie Sozialethik zur Orientierung sozialpolitischen oder wirtschaftlichen Handelns beitragen kann. Das Buch endet mit einer Antwort Friedhelm Hengsbachs. Mit Beitragen von Anika Christina Albert, Michelle Becka, Rainer Bucher, Bernhard Emunds, Johannes Eurich, Karl Gabriel, Stephan Goertz, Friedhelm Hengsbach SJ, Hans-Joachim Hohn, Traugott Jahnichen, Judith Konemann, Bernhard Laux, Walter Lesch, Andreas Lob-Hudepohl, Torsten Meireis, Dietmar Mieth, Matthias Mohring-Hesse, Martin Schneider, Michael Schramm, Christian Spiess, Johannes Ulrich, Markus Vogt, Gunter Wilhelm und Katja Winkler. (shrink)

Es wurde in der Vergangenheit viel darüber debattiert, ob das Zentrum der Kritik der reinen Vernunft in der Erkenntnistheorie der „Transzendentalen Analytik“ oder in der Metaphysikkritik der „Transzendentalen Dialektik“ liegt. Stellt man den Begriff der Einheit des Bewusstseins in den Mittelpunkt der Auseinandersetzung, dann verliert diese Debatte an Bedeutung. Die „Einheit des Bewusstseins“ ist einerseits von zentraler Wichtigkeit für Kants Theorie der Objektivität, wie er sie in der „Deduktion der Kategorien“ entwickelt. Sie gehört andererseits in die Seelenlehre und wird daher (...) von Kant in den der Rationalen Psychologie gewidmeten Teilen der „Transzendentalen Dialektik“ thematisiert. Die vorliegenden Analysen von Henny Blomme, Bernd Dörflinger, Corey W. Dyck, Dietmar H. Heidemann, Thomas Höwing, Toni Kannisto, Heiner F. Klemme, Rudolf Mösenbacher, Giuseppe Motta, Dennis Schulting, Camilla Serck-Hanssen, Thomas Sturm, Udo Thiel, Violetta Waibel und Falk Wunderlich vertiefen das Verständnis dieses zentralen Begriffes der Kantischen Philosophie. (shrink)

Exploring the concepts of Freezing: Theoretical and empirical perspectives. Theoretical advancement. Ur Shlonsky and Luigi Rizzi: Criterial Freezing in small clauses and the cartography of copular constructions -- Angel J. Gallego: Freezing Effects in a free-Merge System -- Gereon Maller: Freezing in complex prefields. Empirical domains. Norbert Corver: The Freezing points of the (Dutch) adjectival system -- Jutta M. Hartmann: Freezing in it-clefts: Movement and focus -- Josef Bayer: Criterial Freezing in the syntax of particles -- Michael S. Rochemont: Only (...) syntax -- Maria Polinsky: Freezing and phi-feature agreement: On the role of [PERSON] -- BalÃízs SurÃínyi and Gerg Turi: Freezing, Topic Opacity and Phase-based Cyclicity in Subject Islands. Interface extensions. Peter W. Culicover and Susanne Winkler: Freezing: Between grammar and processing -- Andreas Konietzko: Heavy NP shift in context: On the interaction of information structure and subextraction from shifted constituents -- Rui P. Chaves: Freezing as a probabilistic phenomenon -- Marion Jaeger: An experimental study on freezing and topicalization in English. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be (...) preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

"[Mitchell] undertakes to explore the nature of images by comparing them with words, or, more precisely, by looking at them from the viewpoint of verbal language.... The most lucid exposition of the subject I have ever read."—Rudolf Arnheim, _Times Literary Supplement_.

In this paper, we outline a theory of the nature of self-directed agents. What is distinctive about self-directed agents is their ability to anticipate interaction processes and to evaluate their performance, and thus their sensitivity to context. They can improve performance relative to goals, and can, in certain instances, construct new goals. We contrast self-directedness with reactive action processes that are not modifiable by the agent, though they may be modified by supra-agent processes such as populational adaptation or external design.Self-directedness (...) lies at the nexus of issues concerning the evolution and nature of intentionality, intelligence, and agency. It provides some insight into the evolution of intelligence because it helps explain how organisms are able to manage variable interaction processes, e.g., a hunting strategy that varies with prey type, ground condition, and hunger level. Simple self-directed organisms like bumblebees manage variability in one or a few dimensions. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:184 BOOK REVIEWS knower, one may avoid undercutting the position that the cognitive powers are passive, without failing to do justice to the fact that aware· ness and discrimination are activities of the knower {pp. 71-72; 148· 49, n. 6). Second, Kai holds that the individual human being cannot really he said to have intuitive mind in himself: "Man has mind; hut only to a certain degree and without (...) mind losing its independence from the human whole.... the divine mind is present in man without los· ing its character of divine mind " (p. 75). If only God has intuitive mind {pp. 155, n. 32; 156-57, n. 13), how can the individual human being really know, even in the sense of having discursive thought? Since knowledge depends on first principles, what does not possess the intuitive mind which knows the first principles would, it seems, not properly have knowledge. The only hope for a definitive interpretation of the disconcertingly brief De Anima, 3. 5, lies in the possibility that one can establish a definite connection between this chapter and other elements in the Aris· totelian corpus, a connection that would elucidate the otherwise in· scrutable teaching on active mind. It is the great merit of Kai to have made an excellent case for a connection between De Anima, 3. 5, and two other elements in the Aristotelian corpus: nous as it functions in the logic and epistemology, and the unmoved mover of Metaphysics, Lambda. Exploring this connection in a penetrating and thorough analysis of a great body of Aristotelian and secondary te~ts, Kai has not merely taken a position on a more than two-thousand-year-old con· troversy, hut also has decisively advanced our understanding of active mind. St. John's University Jamaica, New York JAMES T. H. MARTIN Anselm Studies: An Occasional Journal. Vol. 2. Edited by JosEPH ScHNAUBELT, OSA, et al., White Plains, New York: Kraus Inter· national Publications, 1988. Pp. 634. $55.00. This volume contains the proceedings of the Fifth International Saint Anselm Conference (Villanova University, September 16-21, 1985). Held in conjunction with the Tenth International Patristic, Medieval, and Renaissance Conference, the meeting occasioned papers concen· trating on areas of "influence and juncture" in the life and thought of St. Anselm and St. Augustine. Given the dependence of much of Anselm's work on the thought of St. Augustine, the Conference took as its particular objective the understanding of the relationship between BOOK REVIEWS 185 faith and reason. While the focus of the papers in this volume includes both saints, the principal emphasis falls on Anselm as inheritor and interpretor of the methods and ideas of his intellectual ancestor. A brief introduction provides cameo presentations of Anselm's character as abbot, monk, and archbishop, together with a conspectus on Anselm's position vis-a-vis the canonical and ecclesiological issues of his day. The papers are then divided into five chapters: "Anselm's Monasticism." "The Proslogion Argument," "Truth: Anselm and Augustine," "Theological Method," and "The Anselmian Worldview." While the papers are of use to scholarly readers desiring detailed treatment of central issues in Anselm's logic and epistemology, the un· doubted strength of the collection lies in its well-calculated effort to integrate an understanding of Anselm's intellectual and spiritual out· look with the theological, spiritual, and literacy currents of his time. Especially for the historian of intellect and society, the essays in this volume provide analysis that advances our understanding of the cultural context of the 11th and 12th centuries. The contribution to our understanding of Anselm's culture is par· ticularly clear in the first and fourth divisions of the volume, the sec· tions dealing with monasticism and Anselm's worldview. In the former division, Glenn Olsen's assessment of " Anselm and Homosexuality" neatly evaluates the evidence for Anselm's sexual orientation made controversial by John Boswell's Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality. In fact, the present article, together with its notes, provides a useful summary of the critical literature which has grown up of late around the Boswellian thesis as well as the study of literary expressions of affection in the 11th and 12th centuries. Olsen grasps the... (shrink)

Nudging works through dispositions to decide with specific heuristics, and has three component parts. A nudge is a feature of an environment that enables such a disposition; a person is nudged when such a disposition is triggered; and a person performs a nudged action when such a disposition manifests in action. This analysis clarifies an autonomy-based worry about nudging as used in public policy or for private profit: that a person’s ability to reason well is undermined when she is nudged. (...) Reasoning well is a component of self-guidance, which is an aspect of autonomy and so something there is reason to promote, preserve, or respect. However, a person can reason well when she is nudged: Many of these heuristics are good rules to reason with, and she can be flexible with respect to them when she takes there to be a better way to reason. Along the way, this paper uncovers several design specifications for responsible nudging, and discusses open empirical questions. However, nudging’s being compatible with reasoning well crystallizes a distinct worry about manipulation: that nudge designers can rely on nudged people guiding themselves toward the designers’ own ends. Manipulation of this sort exploits one aspect of autonomy (namely, self-guidance) to undermine autonomy in other respects. (shrink)

Tomemos el camino iniciado por Ricœur, quien, de la mano de Aristóteles, reconoce en el Mythos, en la trama, la estructura lingüística más conveniente para decir aquello en lo que consiste “devenir un sí mismo”. ¿Caben relatos que digan más pertinentemente qué es un sí mismo? La aparición, cada vez más insistente, de otros modos de narrar ―extraños y peculiares por su falta de estructura y por su condición de narraciones decepcionantes― cuestionan que la trama sea el modo narrativo que (...) más le pertenece a la identidad personal. Tal sería el caso de P. Handke, J. Winkler, H. Müller, T. Bernhard, C. Lispector, E. Jelinek, D. Kis o W.G Sebald. Entonces cabría la posibilidad de relatarnos no ya para sostenernos, para apacentarnos con viento ―en palabras de Sánchez Ferlosio― sino para decir más verdaderamente lo que somos: ruido y furia. «Es significativo que la relación que aquí se aprecia entre nuestra lectora y la literatura sea tan radicalmente filosófica. La lectora ha escrito un texto en el que destellan los aspectos más nodales del pensar contemporáneo, que en su realidad no deja de ser clásico. No se trata de que haya escudriñado asuntos filosóficos en los textos literarios, es que lo que resulta filosófico es su propia lectura, su mirada, su consideración, porque trata a los textos como la literatura se trata a sí misma». (shrink)

We welcome Blumenthal-Barby’s et al. (2022) plaidoyer for the integration of philosophy in bioethics because of a perceived mutual benefit. Drawing on experience from a collaborative project, funde...

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

In this essay I propose that what design principles in systems biology and systems neuroscience do is to present abstract characterizations of mechanisms, and thereby facilitate mechanistic explanation. To show this, one design principle in systems neuroscience, i.e., the multilayer perceptron, is examined. However, Braillard (2010) contends that design principles provide a sort of non-mechanistic explanation due to two related reasons: they are very general and describe non-causal dependence relationships. In response to this, I argue that, on the one hand, (...) all mechanisms are more or less general (or abstract), and on the other, many (if not all) design principles are causal systems. (shrink)

This is the third of five chapters on good, and inquires into what kinds of things are intrinsically good. The first thing claimed as intrinsically good is virtuous disposition and action; the second is pleasure in itself. These two approaches are briefly analysed, with the goodness or badness of pleasure given particular attention. Ross concludes that four things can be seen to be intrinsically good—virtue, pleasure, the allocation of pleasure to the virtuous, and knowledge. He is unable to discover anything (...) that is intrinsically good that is not either one or a combination of these. (shrink)

1. The last 25 years have seen an increasing interest in the area of formal argumentation. The ultimate goal of the field is to come up with computational models of how we make decisions, based on...