Se presenta el argumento de W. T. Stace sobre el realismo señalando no que éste sea falso sino solamente que no hay absolutamente ninguna razón para considerar que sea verdadero y por tanto no tenemos por qué creerlo. Esto se aplica a la discusión de la pregunta: ¿Cómo sabemos que los átomos existen? Haciendo referencia a algunas de las respuestas científicas más importantes conocidas que son en orden cronológico: i) La ley de las proporciones definidas o Ley de Proust, ii) (...) la teoría cinética de los gases, iii) el movimiento Browniano y, iv) imágenes de microscopio de efecto túnel. (shrink)

The US poultry industry based on flexible accumulation has been advanced as the model of agro-industrial development for agrifood globalization. Similarly, Mexico has been presented as a noteworthy example of the negative effects of neoliberal restructuring associated with the globalization project. In this paper we use both of these assertions as points of departure to guide an investigation of the case of the restructuring of the Mexican poultry industry. Informed by a commodity systems analysis, archival data and key informant interviews (...) are used to generate an overview of the history of the poultry industry in Mexico. A sociology of agrifood theoretical framework informed by regimes theory is employed to analyze the events of the case. We conclude that neoregulation related to the IMF and NAFTA restructuring in Mexico facilitated the diffusion of the US model of poultry production. (shrink)

"Tough, smart, superbly engaging, The Material Ghost is a terrific book." -- Edward W. Said In The Material Ghost , Gilberto Perez draws on his lifelong love of the movies as well as his work as a film scholar to write a lively, wide-ranging, penetrating study of films and filmmakers and the nature of the art form. For Perez, film is complex and richly contradictory, lifelike and dreamlike at once, a peculiar mix of reality and imagination. "The images on (...) the screen," he writes, "carry in them something of the world itself, something material, and yet something transposed, transformed into another world: the material ghost." "Dazzling... The sheer intelligence at work in these lucid pages is exhilarating." -- Alfred Guzzetti, Boston Book Review "A pleasure. Gilberto Perez is one of the smartest film critics writing anywhere." -- Jonathan Rosenbaum "Strikes an ideal balance between insightful analysis and graceful writing... A model of thoughtful criticism." -- David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor "Brilliantly polemical in his critique of cynical reason ('the official philosophy of late capitalism'), no less passionate in defending the truth-value of cinema, Perez seems to be the clearest heir to the great humanist critic André Bazin." -- Sight & amp Sound "The chapters on Keaton and Renoir are stunning, full of perceptive remarks the chapter on Godard is a persuasive rehabilitation none of the chapters is without memorable insights." -- Michael Wood, London Review of Books "Gilberto Perez's ambitious, abundant, and cultivated book--the fruit of decades of thinking and teaching -- accompanies readers on a journey of discovery into the wonder of film." -- Stanley Cavell "Few books of film criticism in the past twenty-five years have been so enjoyable or instructive... [Perez] has excellent things to say about authorship, about documentaries, about popular genres, about cinematic point of view and narrative technique, about actors, and above all about camera style... He makes us want to look once more at the remarkable pictures he discusses." -- James Naremore, Cineaste. (shrink)

This paper investigates whether 'even if A, B' is pragmatically polysemic, so that a nonconcessive conditional may have 'even if', and whether concessive conditionals, pragmatically defined, can fail to have 'even if' or a non-temporal 'still'. Different paraphrases are used to help elucidate pragmatic meanings. A theory of the pragmatic meanings of concessive and implicative conditionals is presented. The semantic meaning of 'even if' and the question of whether concessive conditionals imply the truth of their consequents are also discussed.

An extended examination of Libet's works led to a comprehensive reinterpretation of his results. According to this reinterpretation, the Minimum Train Duration of electrical brain stimulation should be considered as the time needed to create a brain stimulus efficient for producing conscious sensation and not as a basis for inferring the latency for conscious sensation of peripheral origin. Latency for conscious sensation with brain stimulation may occurafterthe Minimum Train Duration. Backward masking with cortical stimuli suggests a 125-300 ms minimum value (...) for the latency for conscious sensation of threshold skin stimuli. Backward enhancement is not suitable for inferring this latency. For determining temporal relations between stimuli that correspond to subjects' reports, theendof cerebral Minimum Train Duration should be used as reference, rather than its onset. Results of coupling peripheral and cortical stimuli are explained by a latency after the cortical Minimum Train Duration, having roughly the same duration as the latency for supraliminal skin stimuli. Results of coupling peripheral stimuli and stimuli to medial lemniscus (LM) are explained by a shorter LM latency and/or a longer peripheral latency. This interpretation suggests a 230 ms minimum value for the latency for conscious sensation of somatosensory near-threshold stimuli. The backward referral hypothesis, as formulated by Libet, should not be retained. Long readiness potentials preceding spontaneous conscious or nonconscious movements suggest that both kinds of movement are nonconsciously initiated. The validity of Libet's measures of W and M moments (Libet et al., 1983a) is questionable due to problems involving latencies, training, and introspective distinction of W and M. Veto of intended actions may be initially nonconscious but dependent on conscious awareness. (shrink)

Claims that necessary and sufficient conditions are not converse relations are discussed, as well as the related claim that If A, then B is not equivalent to A only if B . The analysis of alleged counterexamples has shown, among other things, how necessary and sufficient conditions should be understood, especially in the case of causal conditions, and the importance of distinguishing sufficient-cause conditionals from necessary-cause conditionals. It is concluded that necessary and sufficient conditions, adequately interpreted, are converse relations in (...) all cases. (shrink)

Hodgson’s (Journal of Consciousness Studies, 12 (1), 2005) defense of the plain person’s view that free will exists in conscious voluntary action is discussed. His position against the view that human action is automatically determined is favored, but his view that free will is incompatible with natural causation is countered. Eccles’ hypothesis to account for the presence of a readiness potential prior to a conscious decision to act now is discussed. It is argued that it is possible to preserve what (...) is good in a plain person’s concept of free will in a way that is compatible with natural causation. (shrink)

The prima facie heterogeneity between psychical and physical phenomena seems to be a serious objection to psychoneural identity thesis, according to many authors, from Leibniz to Popper. It is argued that this objection can be superseded by a different conception of consciousness. Consciousness, while being conscious of something, is always unconscious of itself . Consciousness of being conscious is not immediate, it involves another, second-order, conscious state. The appearance of mental states to second-order consciousness does not reveal their true nature. (...) Psychoneural identity can thus be considered a valid hypothesis. Related views of Kant, Freud, Shaffer, Bunge and others are considered. “Naive psychical realism” is criticised. Consciousness of mental events is considered as the result of the action of a cerebral system that observes the neural events hypothetically identical to mental events. The theory combines a materialist view with a due consideration of subjective experience. (shrink)

O presente ensaio se empenha em problematizar elementos contidos nos conceitos de illness e disease proposto pelo Dr. Arthur Kleinman ; especificamente no capítulo II do seu livro “The illness narratives: surfering, healing and the human condition. Nesta obra Kleinman vai dissecar o fenômeno da enfermidade e suas aflições tendo reflexos nas reações psicológicas e sociais. Ou seja, a disease tendo desdobramento na illness. A questão fundamental a que esse ensaio propõe é pensar uma inversão e refletir se illness altera (...) disease? Minha proposta é adentrar neste caminho pela via das reações emocionais e homeostasia. (shrink)

Cinema is commonly hailed as "the universal language," but how does it communicate so effortlessly across cultural and linguistic borders? Drawing on a lifetime's worth of viewing an reviewing, influential critic Gilberto Perez invokes a dizzying array of masters past and present includin Chaplin, Ford, Kiarostami, Eisenstein, Malick, Mizoguchi, Haneke, Hitchcock, and Godard--to explore the transaction between filmmaker and audience. The Eloquent Screen shows how cinema, as the consummate contemporary art form, establishes a thoroughly modern rhetoric in which different (...) points of view are brought into clear focus.". (shrink)

Considering the most recent advances in artificial intelligence and biomechanics, a hypothetical future of physicalism is explored. It is concluded that a rational and sensible extrapolation of present and expected future advances in those two areas will have vast consequences in the physicalist view. In particular, it is also argued that consciousness cannot be defined in a simple general manner, but only understood through the observable and behavioural actions of humans or sufficiently advanced robots, which may be, at some future (...) time, indistinct. This last result is established by applying what we call Plato’s trap, and our main conclusion is a defence of physicalism. It is argued that human beings are robots which soon will be indistinguishable from suitable advanced man-made robots, which will in turn render many philosophical questions and objections to physicalism irrelevant and, in fact, quite similar in sense and importance to some philosophical medieval questions about God, the soul and immortality. (shrink)

Varzi (2005) discussed 6 ways of symbolizing the sentence 'If Alf went to the movies then Beth went too, but only if she found a taxi-cab.' In the present reply, a seventh symbolization is offered, along with an analysis of the six alternatives discussed by Varzi.

It is argued that contraposition is valid for a class of natural language conditionals, if some modifications are allowed to preserve the meaning of the original conditional. In many cases, implicit temporal indices must be considered, making a change in verb tense necessary. A suitable contrapositive for implicative counterfactual conditionals can also usually be found. In some cases, the addition of certain words is necessary to preserve meaning that is present in the original sentence and would be lost or changed (...) in the contrapositive without them. A distinction is made between adding new meaning and adding new words to preserve existing meaning. For concessive conditionals and relevance conditionals, however, no valid contrapositive can be found. They do not belong to the class of contraposable conditionals, which can be independently defined. Difficult cases are also discussed in which the contradictory of the consequent semantically entails the truth of the antecedent. In such cases the content of the antecedent is implicit in the meaning of the consequent. Contraposition becomes possible if what is implicit in the original consequent is made explicit in the contrapositive antecedent. (shrink)

Uma das principais preocupações de Ludwig Wittgenstein, presente já desde as suas primeiras observações, é a autonomia do pensamento próprio. Nosso objetivo neste texto é indicar alguns aspectos metodológicos do diagnóstico e da crítica que o filósofo vienense opera em relação à tradição filosófica ocidental com vistas a possibilitar a obtenção de resultados seguros e pacíficos no universo polêmico da filosofia. Para tanto, indicaremos a importância de recuperar o papel que a tradição filosófica desempenha para o pensamento próprio, assim como (...) a importância de conscientizar-se de que a principal dificuldade da filosofia é estar diante dos conceitos sem pré-conceitos. Além disso, ressaltaremos a necessidade de superação das dificuldades humanas como a da vontade mostrando na filosofia de Wittgenstein a presença da atividade destruidora dos vícios, adornos e ídolos herdados bem como a sua importância para a averiguação das condições lingüísticas do próprio pensar. (shrink)

O autor apresenta alguns princípios da clínica winnicottiana através da discussão do artigo de Winnicott de 1941 intitulado "A observação de bebês em uma situação estabelecida". Enfatiza a dimensão do tempo como fator fundamental na situação clínica. A situação clínica organiza-se ao redor do gesto, da ação, do acontecer do self. Por essa razão a intervenção do analista aborda fundamentalmente a ação no mundo. Desde as primeiras sessões é importante permitir que o gesto do paciente crie o final da sessão, (...) para que haja um trabalho de construção da finalização da análise e do morrer, como parte da saúde.The author presents some of the principles of the winnicottian clinic through the discussion of Winnicott's article of 1941 "The observation of Infants in a Set Situation". It is stressed the dimension of time as a fundamental factor in the clinical situation. The clinical situation organizes itself around the gesture, the action, the happening of the self. For this reason the analyst's intervention fundamentally approaches the action in the world. From the first sessions it is important to allow the patient's gesture that creates the end of the session this permits that a work of the ending of analysis of dying as part of health. (shrink)

'Consciousness' is used in different ways, but not all of these uses reflect clear concepts. In his target article Christian de Quincey (2006) notes that confusion about consciousness is widespread and sets out to distinguish two main meanings of the word. However, his treatment of the subject is confused and the proposed distinction misses the point. I argue that the effort to clarify the meaning of consciousness should proceed in a different direction. We should first find some empirical criterion that (...) allows one to distinguish between being conscious and being unconscious of something in some typical cases. Then we may try to envisage other cases in which a person or animal may be conscious or unconscious of something. Finally, we should try to understand what the difference is between these states. These three lines are developed in this paper. (shrink)

In this article, an epistemological and ontological view of Statistical Mechanics is presented. The author believes that this is a clear-cut example that can prove to be useful as a resource material for teachers, and also, a clear pedagogical material for science students when taking courses of Philosophy of Science. Statistical Mechanics is a regular course on most science and engineering programs, we believe that this fact facilitate the understanding of the philosophical discussion here presented.

This paper investigates the implicative conditional, a connective intended to describe the logical behavior of an empirically defined class of natural language conditionals, also named implicative conditionals, which excludes concessive and some other conditionals. The implicative conditional strengthens the strict conditional with the possibility of the antecedent and of the contradictory of the consequent. $${p\Rightarrow q}$$ p ⇒ q is thus defined as $${\lnot } \Diamond {(p \wedge \lnot q) \wedge } \Diamond {p \wedge } \Diamond {\lnot q}$$ ¬ ◊ (...) ( p ∧ ¬ q ) ∧ ◊ p ∧ ◊ ¬ q. We explore the logical properties of this conditional in a reflexive normal Kripke semantics, provide an axiomatic system and prove it to be sound and complete for our semantics. The implicative conditional validates transitivity and contraposition, which we take to be integral parts of reasoning and communication. But it only validates restricted versions of strengthening the antecedent, right weakening, simplification, and rational monotonicity. Apparent counterexamples to some of these properties are explained as due to contextual factors. Finally, the implicative conditional avoids the paradoxes of material and strict implication, and validates some connexive principles such as Aristotle’s theses and weak Boethius’ thesis, as well as some highly entrenched principles of conditionals, such as conjunction of consequents, disjunction of antecedents, modus ponens, cautious monotonicity and cut. (shrink)

In the Poetics of Aristotle there is a definition of the human being that perhaps has not yet been well considered in educational theory and practice. This definition calls into question a dynamism that according to Plato was unavoidable for an appropriate understanding of the educational process that turns a human being into a beautiful, good and just citizen: mimesis. The paper's intent is to reconsider the definition of the human being, centred on mimesis, presented by Aristotle in the Poetics (...) to demonstrate if, and how, it might establish new paradigms for human coexistence. Aristotle's anthropological statement is included in a much wider discourse concerning philosophy of art; but if isolated from the context, it is an essential definition of human beings that can be synthesised as follows: human beings are the mimetic animal par excellence, and their process of understanding has a fundamental connection with such excellence. Ignorance and/or negligence of how relevant mimesis might be in the educational process may have decisively contributed to separate human beings from this core aspect of their humanity and therefore produced painful consequences in human coexistence. As long as education does not pay attention to the pedagogical implications of the definition taken from the Poetics, how can human flourishing be safeguarded? I argue that recognition of the centrality of mimesis in the educational process allows human edification to proceed devoid of ideological basis, be it secular or confessional; and overcomes the risk of relativism. Mimesis, formerly recognised by Plato as a link between what is expressed and what really is, is masterfully reinterpreted by Aristotle. Aristotle recognised its positive pedagogic value in the Poetics, and nowadays we can recognise how it offers existential dynamics that restore the vital human relationship between self and other. The sense of this proposal lies in giving mimesis the role it deserves in education, by raising the significance of how coexistence might benefit from a vast human dimension, capable of recognising our humanity beyond our rational capacity. (shrink)

Resumo O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar os temas do “novo método” filosófico e da “Filosofia da Psicologia”, nos escritos tardios de Ludwig Wittgenstein, como relacionados prática e necessariamente. Para o proposto, a estratégia expositiva segue a seguinte ordem: analisam-se os pressupostos filosóficos relativamente irrefletidos que determinam a visão que o jovem Wittgenstein tinha do “método correto da Filosofia” e da “Filosofia da Psicologia”; interpreta-se a volta filosófica de 1929 como comprometida em apresentar o rosto ainda informe do “novo método” (...) e retomar criticamente os alvos do TLP, sob essa nova perspectiva metodológica; e considera-se a Filosofia da psicologia de Wittgenstein inserida numa perspectiva diferente da perspectiva da ciência psicológica do fim do século XIX e início do século XX, fundamentada em investigações empíricas. Essas observações constituem propriamente uma prática do “novo método” de apresentação perspícua e se caracteriza como um aspecto-chave e necessário, um filtro, para a compreensão das observações do filósofo em torno da psicologia e de seu objetivo em dissolver os problemas metafísicos ali presentes.The main purpose of this article is to present the themes of the philosophical “new method” and the “philosophy of psychology” in Ludwig Wittgenstein’s late writings as practically and necessarily related. For the proposed, our expository strategy follows the following order: we analyzed the relatively unreasonable philosophical presuppositions that determine the young Ludwig’s view of the “correct method of philosophy” and of “philosophy of psychology”; we interpreted the philosophical turn of 1929 as committed to presenting the still-informed face of the “new method” and to critically revisiting the TLP targets under this new methodological perspective; and we considered Wittgenstein’s philosophy of psychology inserted in a different perspective from the perspective of the psychological science of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century based on empirical investigations. These observations are properly a practice of the “new method” of perspicuous presentation and they are characterized as a key and necessary aspect, a filter, for the understanding of the philosopher’s observations about psychology, and his goal in dissolving the metaphysical problems present there. (shrink)

1. Introduction The readiness potential was found to precede voluntary acts by about half a second or more (Kornhuber & Deecke, 1965). Kornhuber (1984) discussed the readiness potential in terms of volition, arguing that it is not the manifestation of an attentional processes. Libet discussed it in relation to consciousness and to free will (Libet et al. 1983a; 1983b; Libet, 1985, 1992, 1993). Libet asked the following questions. Are voluntary acts initiated by a conscious decision to act? Are the physiological (...) facts compatible with the belief that free will determines our voluntary acts? What is the role of consciousness in voluntary action? In this paper I will discuss these questions and the answers that Libet gave to them. (shrink)

Este artigo tem o objetivo de desvelar o núcleo da forma das relações socioeconômicas no sistema capitalista de exploração para acumulação de propriedade privada. Referido núcleo deriva nos sujeitos de direito, no Estado e nas demais instituições que derivam do modo de produção posto pela classe socioeconômica dominante que detém a propriedade privada dos meios de produção. Por meio do método materialismo histórico-dialética em Karl Marx e sob a ótica da interpretação filosófica e científica de Evguiéni Bronislavovitch Pachukanis e especialistas (...) contemporâneos. A derivação do modo de produção interpela a forma das relações socioeconômicas. A forma direito forjada com a ideologia capitalista trata formalmente todos os sujeitos como se fossem iguais, equivalendo-os como sujeitos de direito, com a autorização ideológica da forma Estado, em que ambas as formas conformam-se ao poder político da burguesia. O núcleo das relações socioeconômicas tem como átomo a mercadoria, as mercadorias não possuem valor de uso, mas sim valor de troca. Ninguém tem o direito de usar um bem necessário para sua vida, mas somente se puder contratar essa mercadoria. Logo, não somos sujeitos de direito, somos sujeitos pelo direito, ou seja, somos uma mercadoria no sistema capitalista a ser explorada pela classe proprietária dos meios de produção. (shrink)

A commentary is given on Trevena and Miller . The comparability of their experimental task and of the potential they recorded with those used and recorded by Libet, Gleason, Wright, and Pearl is questioned. An interpretation is given for the similarity of event-related potentials recorded when subjects decided to move and when they decided not to move.

This book discusses the impact of brain researches on different domains, not only on biological and medical/health ones, but more generally on social ones. A decade ago, neuroscience and neurotechnology gave official birth to a new field of inquiry called “neuroethics”. This term is usually referred to both the analysis of ethical implications of research and clinical practice in theneuroscientific area, and to the understanding of how brain processes moral judgements. After historically reconstructing the origins of neuroethics, the authors show (...) main issues related to the spreading of neuroimaging, the technology with which neuroscientific advancements and applications are identified. The book faces principal neuroethical questions, from the impact of neuroscientific theories and technologies on the explanation and treatment of psychiatric disorders, to the controversial argument of the enhancement of cognitive capacities (the possibility of using drugs, implants and other neurotechnological devices to intervene on the brain in order to improve cognitive performances). Moreover, staring off with some Italian legal cases, a debate on the relevance of neuroscientific data and arguments in legal proceedings will be develop all along the book. This book has the ambition to present neuroethical and bioethical issues in a coherent philosophical framework, in order to go beyond the usual polarizations, which have alimented confusion and misunderstandings within the debate. (shrink)

In this article some intriguing aspects of electromagnetic theory and its relation to mathematics and reality are discussed, in particular those related to the suppositions needed to obtain the wave equations from Maxwell equations and from there Helmholtz equation. The following questions are discussed. How is that equations obtained with so many irreal or fictitious assumptions may provide a description that is in a high degree verifiable? Must everything that is possible to deduce from a theoretical mathematical model occur in (...) the world? Does everything that takes place in the world have a mathematical description? (shrink)

A partir de un enfoque internalista para los estados mentales, se propone que los términos metafísicos son el resultado de estados mentales que, a su vez, son propiedades emergentes de sistemas dinámicos caóticos con atractores coexistentes en el cerebro. Se sugiere que esto proporciona una explicación física para los conceptos metafísicos. Esto se hace a partir de la propuesta de que todos los sistemas dinámicos con atractores coexistentes caóticos, como el cerebro, presentan propiedades emergentes. Obtenemos así una explicación no reductiva (...) de los estados mentales y su alta sensibilidad al ruido y a las condiciones iniciales. (shrink)

One of the most important characteristics of modern science is its replicability and objectivity. This means that a scientific result is taken as such only when it has been reproduced by other scientists. Indeed, the replicability of a scientific result in an objective and independent way by members of a scientific community is the cornerstone of science. Experimental laser physics is an example of “normal” science, where it is no doubt that the phenomenon could be replicated; however, the replication process (...) may not be straightforward since it requires a good understanding of the physics behind it, as well as good technical skills. In this article, two laboratory cases of experiments on laser physics are presented: the first one deals with a Nitrogen N2 laser with a Polloni excitation circuit, and the second one deals with a transversally excited TEA carbon dioxide laser. For the nitrogen laser, it will be shown that reproducibility failed, and therefore, the reported experiment cannot be taken as a valid contribution to the advancement and understanding of nitrogen laser physics and technology. On the other hand, for the case of the TEA carbon dioxide laser, several comments are presented on the development of this finally successful experiment. Both cases show the importance of being technically up-dated in order to reproduce or improve the results reported by other researchers. Finally, a discussion about: What can we learn about the research practice from these two cases? It is presented, as well as the conclusions about the case studies; we hope they may be useful to philosophers of science and young scientists alike. (shrink)

The blogosphere’s heterogeneity has significantly increased in recent years. Thus, the blog-as-diary approach has shown its limitations. Viewing blogs as a genre is also misleading, as it confuses medium and genre. Considering that the studies of blog genres still need further theoretical and empirical investigations, we propose a method to assess blog posts, understood as utterances, the minimal unit of a blog. We then conduct an analysis of two large datasets from 100 Brazilian blogs. Three reviewers read and judged 5218 (...) posts from 50 A-list blogs and 1527 posts from 50 non-A-list blogs, captured in a 30-day period. Posts’ compositional form, theme and style were cross-analyzed in and between datasets. Our findings lead to the conclusion that blogs in the A-list group tend to post more and stick to themes that attract audiences. Non-A-list blogs post less and focus on themes of interest to bloggers themselves, not necessarily hype topics. (shrink)

Libet's (2000) arguments in defense of his interpretation of his experimental results are insufficient. The claims of my critical review (Gomes, 2008) do not suffer with his new statements.

A commentary on articles by Klein, Pockett, and Trevena and Miller, in this issue, is given. Average shift in the point of subjective equality , calculated by Klein on Libet's data, and corresponding change in mean shift, calculated by Libet et al. , may be “corrected,” taking as a reference point the end of the minimum train duration. Values obtained, if significant, indicate a latency for conscious sensation of the skin stimulus of at least 230 ms. Pockett's main conclusions are (...) favored, but her explanation of peripheral–lemniscal couplings is found to be unconvincing. Trevena and Miller's article unsuccessfully tries to rescue a dualist interactionist view. Libet's method of timing intentions is thoroughly criticized. (shrink)

A theory of necessary and sufficient conditions is presented, as well as a theory of necessary and sufficient causes and effects, viewed as a particular case of the former. Ambiguities of the terms 'condition' and 'necessary condition' are explored, and a neutral meaning for 'condition' is favoured. The relation between necessary and sufficient conditions and implicative conditionals (including counterfactuals) is also discussed. Two problems of counterfactual theories of causal explanation are indicated, concerning (i) how to account for causes that are (...) not necessary and (ii) how to interpret the counterfactual from the negation of the effect to the negation of the cause. Application of the theory of necessary and sufficient conditions to Euler’s explanation of the Königsberg bridge problem is discussed. The theory of necessary and sufficient causes and effects is then applied to the flagpole shadow explanation and to two biological explanations, one involving a sufficient but not necessary cause and the other a necessary but not sufficient cause. Causes that are neither sufficient nor necessary are also recognized. Finally, a probabilistic approach to causes that are either not sufficient or not necessary is explored, including its application to examples of such cases. (shrink)