An interesting metatheoretical controversy took place during the 1980’s and 1990’s between pattern and phylogenetic cladists. What was always at stake in the discussion was not how work in systematics should be carried out, but rather how this practice should be metatheoretically interpreted. In this article, we criticize Pearson’s account of the metatheoretical factors at play in this discussion. Following him, we focus on the issue of circularity, and on the role that phylogenetic hypotheses play in the determination of “primary (...) homologies”. Pearson argues that the recognition of primary homologies cannot be achieved without recourse to previous phylogenetic knowledge, and that to claim otherwise is to state that primary homologies are observable. To show why that view would be inadequate, he appeals to Hanson’s views about theory-laden observation, alongside with a specific case study, which allegedly illustrates the more complex relation between observation and theory. We will argue that the pattern cladists’ point is better addressed by taking a quite different approach: instead of thinking in terms of observability, the topic can be tackled by paying attention to the way in which concepts are determined. We will take the notion of T-theoricity from metatheoretical structuralism and show that, once the issue is discussed with the appropriate metatheoretical framework, the alleged counterexample brought up by Pearson is not problematic at all for pattern cladism. (shrink)

I argue that changes in the numerical identity of groups do not necessarily speak in favour of the supersession of some historical injustice. I contend that the correlativity between the perpetrator and the victim of injustices is not broken when the identity of groups changes. I develop this argument by considering indigenous people's claims in Argentina for the injustices suffered during the Conquest of the Desert. I argue that present claimants do not need to be part of the same entity (...) whose members suffered injustices many years ago. For identifying the proper recipients of reparation, all that is necessary is that the group who suffered the historical injustice under consideration has survived into the present. I also support a view upon which present living members of a certain group have reasons to redress those injustices perpetrated by their predecessors if they are relevantly connected with each other. In particular, by relying on the notion of collective inheritance, I argue that if present-day members of a certain group claim that they are the continuation of the group whose past members bequeathed them certain goods, they cannot consistently reject such a membership when the very same people legated them certain evils. (shrink)

In this article, I explore the relationship between the supersession thesis and the rights of future people. In particular, I show that changes in circumstances might supersede future people’s rights. I argue that appropriating resources that belong to future people does not necessarily result in a duty to return the resources in full. I explore how these findings are relevant for climate change justice. Assuming future generations of developing countries originally had a right to use a certain amount of the (...) carbon budget, changing circumstances could result in rights-supersession. Consequently, members of future generations of industrialized countries may be allowed to use part of the share of the carbon budget belonging to developing countries. (shrink)

Much of the climate justice discussion revolves around how the remaining carbon budget should be globally allocated. Some authors defend the unjust enrichment interpretation of the beneficiary pays principle (BPP). According to this principle, those states unjustly enriched from historical emissions should pay. I argue that if the BPP is to be constructed along the lines of the unjust enrichment doctrine, countervailing reasons that might be able to block the existence of a duty of restitution should be assessed. One might (...) think that the duty to provide restitution no longer has moral weight if many benefits were already consumed, if the particular benefits obtained from historical emissions cannot be transferred from one country to another, or if present members of developed countries framed their life plans based upon the expectation of continued possession of those benefits. I show that none of these reasons negate the duty to provide restitution. (shrink)

An introduction, from an al-Ghazâlî´s text, into a philosophic theodicy and an Arabic rationalistic theology (mu`tazili). Both of them, theology and philosophy, belive that God has created the best of possible worlds, so that, this world is optimistic and deterministic. However this optimism sense has different causes in them; for theodicy that is owing to Good wishes, while for philosophy is because of the causality and logical necessity.

Due to an unfortunate turn of events, the family name of the first author was erroneously published as ‘RoffÕ’ in the original publication. The correct representation of the first author’s family name is listed above and below.

En el presente artículo se pretende hacer un recorrido por aquellas herramientas metodológicas utilizadas por Foucault para el estudio de la institución educativa disciplinaria y su posible aplicación al nuevo panorama educativo en las sociedades de control. Foucault analiza los discursos y prácticas como formas de poder en la sociedad disciplinaria, los cuales configuran una individualidad determinada: el cuerpo dócil. Tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial, nuevas modalidades de poder dan lugar a la sociedad de control, conformando una individualidad autogobernada. En (...) la educación secundaria actual aparecen tanto formas del régimen disciplinario como del régimen de control. (shrink)

The literature on autonomous language learning reveals both, scholars’ great enthusiasm for the revolutionary potential of learner autonomy as well as pessimism for its continual depoliticization within higher education. Similar to how ‘learner autonomy’ is still today an unfinished construct that raises considerable confusion among scholars, the critical theory of learner autonomy in the field of language learning remains largely unexplored; and thus, yet to be fully articulated. Building on the relevant literature, this article attempts to provide a coherent and (...) nuanced theoretical framework for the critical practice of learner autonomy in higher education. Results show how the field of language learning is dominated by uncritical and apolitical approaches that render learner autonomy a politically impotent practice. Critical autonomous language learning must be both critically aware—so it can raise students’ awareness of the structural and discursive constraints on their autonomy—and politically active—so it may lead to education reform and social change—, while also aiming at reaching the highest levels of institutional material support and student control possible. (shrink)

Chronic migraine is a difficult disease to diagnose, and its pathophysiology remains undefined. Its symptoms affect the quality of life and daily living tasks of the affected person, leading to momentary disability. This is a pilot, randomized, controlled, double-blind clinical trial study with female patients between 18 and 65 years old with chronic migraine. The patients underwent twelve mindfulness sessions paired with anodal transcranial direct-current stimulation over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, with current intensity of 2 mA applied for 20 (...) min, three times a week for 4 weeks. In addition, 20 min of mindfulness home practices were performed by guided meditation audio files. A total of 30 participants were evaluated after the treatment, and these were subdivided into two groups—active tDCS and sham tDCS, both set to mindfulness practice. The FFMQ-BR, MIDAS, and HIT-6 questionnaires were used to evaluate the outcomes. After the treatment, the active mindfulness and tDCS group showed better results in all outcomes. The sham group also showed improvements, but with smaller effect sizes compared to the active group. The only significant difference in the intergroup analysis was the outcome evaluated by HIT-6 in the post treatment result. Our results provide the first therapeutic evidence of mindfulness practices associated with left DLPFC anodal tDCS with a consequent increase in the level of full attention and analgesic benefits in the clinical symptoms of patients with chronic migraine. (shrink)

One of the most widely used procedures applied to non-human animals or pre-linguistic humans is the “violation of expectation paradigm”. Curiously there is almost no discussion in the philosophical literature about it. Our objective will be to provide a first approach to the meta-theoretical nature of the assumptions behind the procedure that appeals to the violation of expectation and to extract some consequences. We show that behind them exists an empirical principle that affirms that the violation of the expectation of (...) certain mental rules generates surprise. We then proceeded to discuss the nature of these “mental rules”. We show that, as is often the case with theoretical concepts proposed by theories, they do not have a fixed interpretation. This will allow us to show that the usual relationship found in the developmental psychology literature between this experimental paradigm and cognitive approaches (which interpret experimental results in terms of higher-level mental activities) is not necessary. Finally, we relate this experimental design with the mark test and the inequity aversion test and discuss the possible ampliation of the application of the empirical principle of violation of expectation. (shrink)

Considera a produção científica brasileira da Ciência da Informação (CI), de pesquisadores institucionalmente reconhecidos da área, para realçar movimentos de transformação e influências intelectuais sobre o quadro teórico por eles construído. Questiona os conceitos de pós-modernidade e pós-modernismo no contexto destas produções, analisando criticamente a produção científica periódica, indexada na Base de Dados Referenciais de Artigos de Periódicos em Ciência da Informação (Brapci), dos Bolsistas de Produtividade em Pesquisa (PQ), do Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), desde o (...) ano de 1990 até 2022, para descrever o fenômeno do pós-modernismo e da pós-modernidade, tanto como processo de transformação e estímulo à produção sobre as contradições encontradas nessa cultura, quanto para o reconhecimento de teorias, conceitos, posicionamentos políticos e ideológicos. Adota a distinção apresentada por Terry Eagleton, entre pós-modernismo e pós-modernidade, para reconhecer os significados dos termos enfocados e seus correlatos, e em quais contextos são analisados no corpus da pesquisa. Seleciona os textos com potencial de contribuição para uma síntese histórico-evolutiva. Conclui, destacando duas posições mais evidentes. A predominante associa à condição da CI como ciência pós-moderna, à arquivística pós-moderna, ao paradigma pós-custodial, à sociedade pós-moderna e a considerações genéricas sobre o saber e a informação como mercadorias básicas da pós-modernidade. A posição mais crítica fundamenta-se em autores como Terry Eagleton, ao denunciar as ilusões do pós-modernismo e David Harvey, cujos principais argumentos relacionam a ascensão de formas culturais pós-modernas e a emergência de modos flexíveis de acumulação ao ciclo de compressão do tempo-espaço na organização do capitalismo. (shrink)

Ao reconhecer a influência do filósofo alemão Jürgen Habermas na área de Ciência da Informação, esta pesquisa questiona especificamente como ela se verifica e se caracteriza na produção científica dos pesquisadores Bolsistas de Produtividade do Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). Com o objetivo de destacar as influências do pensador sobre estes pesquisadores em artigos indexados na Base de Dados Referencial de Artigos de Periódicos em Ciência da Informação (Brapci), o estudo realiza o mapeamento da produção dos autores (...) mais proeminentes e mais receptivos entre os citantes de Habermas, para caracterizá-la, destacando: as influências das reflexões do filósofo sobre eles; os principais veículos fontes; os temas de maior destaque; as instituições e a distribuição desses elementos nos 69 artigos do período entre 1987 e 2019. Com esse propósito, realiza procedimentos métricos e utiliza a análise de conteúdo, a partir da leitura dos textos completos dos artigos indexados, organizados e representados em seus elementos relacionais, destacando a intensidade de variáveis como a concentração de frequências, obras citadas, periódicos, instituições e temas. Inicialmente, identifica os bolsistas PQ vinculados à área de CI, caracterizando-os conforme suas especificidades, seleciona da base Brapci os artigos citantes de Habermas, organiza o corpus referente aos artigos de periódicos dos pesquisadores, relaciona-os com os temas e questões habermasianos em seus textos, contextualizando-os conforme uma estrutura representativa multidimensional. Destaca, assim, as principais influências de Habermas sobre os pesquisadores e para analisar numa visão diacrônica as correlações entre os pesquisadores e o autor seminal que os fundamenta, constrói ilustrações representativas dessa evolução. Aponta as condições favoráveis à crítica ao processo de produção do conhecimento, cuja consequência é o desenvolvimento de possibilidades oferecidas ao investigador no seu cotidiano universitário, tendo como instrumentos a Base dos pesquisadores do CNPq da área de CI e a Brapci. Como resultados, destaca as obras Técnica e Ciência como Ideologia (TCI), Teoria do Agir Comunicativo (TAC), Mudança estrutural da esfera pública (MEEP), Conhecimento e Interesse (CeI) e Consciência moral e agir comunicativo (CMAC) como as citadas pela maior diversidade de pesquisadores, relacionando-as com as questões discutidas no corpus analisado. As configurações temáticas mais expressivas ocorrem sobre termos relacionados à teoria da ação comunicativa, como a de maior repercussão na construção do conhecimento da área, e a influência do autor, na produção dos citantes, concentra-se em temas como a esfera pública informacional e a importância do acesso à informação na construção da cidadania, o desempenho das instituições na gestão da informação e seu papel como mediadoras das informações públicas, ativas na transparência das ações do Estado e na consolidação da democracia. Conclui, sugerindo as principais questões a partir dos resultados iniciais, como a dinâmica que envolve uma esfera pública, baseada na sociedade civil e na formação da opinião e da vontade nos complexos parlamentares, bem como na prática de decisão de ambientes institucionais, como forma de exercício habermasiano de política deliberativa. (shrink)

En este estudio se presentan las líneas directrices de una investigación que se propone analizar el sentido y el significado que se otorga a los conceptos de “bien común” e “interés general” en la retórica de los poderes públicos de nuestro tiempo. A continuación, trata de dar respuesta al interrogante de si ambos conceptos son perfectamente intercambiables en el debate público o, por el contrario, estamos ante conceptos que proceden de presupuestos antagónicos.

El tema del espacio público ha sido un problema filosófico tanto en la forma de teorizarse como en la de habitarse, lo que históricamente ha ocupado la atención de múltiples disciplinas, saberes e instituciones políticas. A partir de un ejercicio interpretativo en el campo de la sociología y antropología urbanas, se muestra que éste es el resultado de las contingencias y dinámicas ciudadanas propias que trascienden cualquier especulación teórica, pero que genera un modo de ser particular de los ciudadanos por (...) su comprensión y apropiación, en este caso, de los habitantes de Medellín. (shrink)

Apresenta as características da produção científica brasileira representada na Web of Science (WOS) como exemplo ilustrativo resultante das relações entre elementos estruturais e conjunturais na dinâmica das políticas científicas adotadas pelo governo em relação à ciência brasileira. Subsidia metodologicamente o estudo relacional do campo científico no Brasil, optando pela utilização da análise de conjuntura em prol da compreensão da diversidade dos elementos empíricos representativos da produção científica brasileira indexada na WOS, entre os anos de 2017 e 2019. Analisa como as (...) exigências produtivistas das agências de fomento se intensificaram nas últimas décadas e se fazem presentes nas discussões em diferentes campos do saber, argumentando que as rígidas práticas empregadas no campo da Ciência justificam estudos sobre as correlações e interações em prol da compreensão e do respeito ao campo e às instituições nas quais se alicerça. Apresenta como resultados, a partir dos dados empíricos, a formação de cinco grandes clusters entre os quais se destaca a Universidade de São Paulo (USP) como nó central e polo de produção científica nacional. Reconhece que, embora a base de dados escolhida, represente a big science internacionalizada e centralizada na produção oriunda dos Estados Unidos e de países europeus, a representatividade brasileira é relevante, especialmente se consideradas as temáticas de interesse endêmico como as doenças tropicais e que são pesquisadas, predominantemente, pelo Brasil e por países abaixo da linha do equador. (shrink)

IntroductionThe observation that animals may respond to emotional states of conspecific or even hetero-specific individuals is not new. Darwin broached the question by underlying the ability of animals to express sympathy, i.e. the response to non-self-emotional status, and this across species barriers. More importantly, he tried to find the evolutionary origin of this animal trait, suggesting that it evolved from the selective advantages of kinship behaviour in the struggle for life (Darwin, 1872). Such a behaviour corresponds, for instance, to alloparental (...) care relatively common in mammals and birds, and now also characterized in fishes and insects (Josi, Taborsky, & Frommen, 2019; Wu, Walser, Sun, & Kölliker, 2020). After more than one century, the need of defining what exactly non-human animals are able to feel, and from this starting point, rethink the legal status and place of animals in human societies, suddenly arises. This can mainly be considered as an indirect consequence of people awareness of human-driven dramatic impacts on global climate, biodiversity, but also on a more daily basis on animal life and welfare. However, because assessable currencies are required to establish laws, animals were classified into categories based on ecological (e.g. invasive species, pest, wild, domestic), biological (e.g. vertebrates and invertebrates) or cognitive (e.g. primates, cephalopods) traits. This should help lawyers to define ethical rules of animal use by humans and t... (shrink)

The contrast between the strategies of research employed in reductionism and holism masks a radical contradiction between two different scientific philosophies. We concentrate in particular on an analysis of the key philosophical issues which give structure to holistic thought. A first (non-exhaustive) analysis of the philosophical tradition will dwell upon: a) the theory of emergence: each level of organisation is characterised by properties whose laws cannot be deduced from the laws of the inferior levels of organisation (Engels, Morgan); b) clarification (...) of the relations between the “whole” and the “parts” (Woodger, Needham); c) the ontological or epistemological nature of the emergent properties; are they a phenomenological reality or solely an artefact of the state of our knowledge? (Pepper, Henle, Hempel and Oppenheim); d) the proposition of the holistic theoretical and methodological model ( Novikoff, Feibleman). I then go on to examine the differences that exist between the reductionist and the holistic approaches at various levels of analysis: that is to say, the differences which affect their ontologies, methodologies and epistemologies respectively. I attempt to understand the spirit of a holistic approach to ecology by analyzing the major work of E.P. Odum Fundamentals of ecology (1953, 1959, 1971). I set forward what might be meant by the “holistic approach”, which is implicated in all the different levels of organisation at which the problem of “complexity” is debated. Ecology presents itself as an “holistic science” and Odum’s book offers a vision of the world which dates far back in the history of philosophy. By looking at the three different editions of this fundamental text on ecology, we may become aware of the evolution of Odum’s thought. In fact, only in the third and last edition is there a conscious appropriation of the holistic approach (by using the theoretical models of Feibleman who, for his part, refers to Novikoff). However, even when formally referring to the theory of emergence (that is to say the ontological nucleus of every holistic approach), Odum’s systemic analysis presents the same logical errors, which push him back into the reductionist domain. Above all, in his examination of the main concepts of “population”, “community” and “ecosystem”, there is a misunderstanding of the profound difference between “collective properties” and “emergent properties”. Moreover, the cybernetic models of Odum’s systemic analysis (introduced into ecology by Margalef), allowed him to vastly oversimplify his methodological task: in fact, neither how many levels nor which levels of organization are fundamental for the study of each individual level is clearly marked. Finally, Odum analyses the ecosystem as composed of energetic flux and cycles of matter, referring to the trophic-dynamic vision of Lindeman. That is to say, in my opinion, he juxtaposes a reductionistic methodology and epistemology to an holistic ontology. (shrink)

Our purpose in this paper is to contribute to a practice-based characterization of scientific inference. We want to explore whether Brandom’s pragmatist–inferentialist framework can suitably accommodate several types of ampliative inference common in scientific reasoning and explanation (probabilistic reasoning, abduction and idealisation). First, we argue that Brandom’s view of induction in terms of merely permissive inferences is inadequate; in order to overcome the shortcoming of Brandom’s proposal, we put forward an alternative conception of inductive, probabilistic reasoning by appeal to the (...) notion of degrees of commitment. Moreover, we examine the sorts of inferential commitments operative in other types of ampliative inferences, such as abduction or reasoning involving idealizations and assumptions. We suggest that agents engaging in these forms of reasoning often undertake restricted inferential commitments, whose scope and reach are more limited that in the case of the commitments associated with full beliefs. (shrink)

The classical holism-reductionism debate, which has been of major importance to the development of ecological theory and methodology, is an epistemological patchwork. At any moment, there is a risk of it slipping into an incoherent, chaotic Tower of Babel. Yet philosophy, like the sciences, requires that words and their correlative concepts be used rigorously and univocally. The prevalent use of everyday language in the holism-reductionism issue may give a false impression regarding its underlying clarity and coherence. In reality, the conceptual (...) categories underlying the debate have yet to be accurately defined and consistently used. There is a need to map out a clear conceptual, logical and epistemological framework. To this end, we propose a minimalist epistemological foundation. The issue is easier to grasp if we keep in mind that holism generally represents the ontological background of emergentism, but does not necessarily coincide with it. We therefore speak in very loose terms of the “holism-reductionism” debate, although it would really be better characterised by the terms emergentism and reductionism. The confrontation between these antagonistic paradigms unfolds at various semantic and operational levels. In definitional terms, there is not just emergentism and reductionism, but various kinds of emergentisms and reductionisms. (shrink)