This article provides a sociological explanation for urban “greening,” the normative practice of using everyday signifiers of nature to fix problems with urbanism. Although greening is commonly understood as a reaction against the pathologies of the industrial metropolis, such explanations cannot account for greening’s recurrence across varied social and historical contexts. Through a study of greening in Germany’s Ruhr region, a polycentric urban region that has repeatedly greened in the absence of a traditional city, I argue that greening is made (...) possible by a social imaginary of nature as an indirect or moral good, which I call urbanized nature, that is an outcome of, and subsequently becomes a variable in, urbanization. I draw on processual accounts of urbanization and the sociology of morality to explain urbanized nature’s emergence in the Ruhr at the beginning of the twentieth century, and its use to fulfill two competing visions of urban democracy in the postwar period. I find that rather than an ideological reaction against cities, greening is an aspirational practice that can be mobilized by a range of actors in a variety of places and times. By showing how a new social imaginary made new forms of moral action possible and how those ideals were then materialized in urban space, this article draws attention to the role of cultural imaginaries in urban change and to the material consequences of moral beliefs. (shrink)

It is almost a truism that nature is social, but by what means is nature made social at the level of the interactional encounter? While the transformation of society/nature relationships is often approached through the problematic of distance, and at the scale of macro-historical transformation, this article uses a conflict between American birdwatchers and ornithologists over scientific “collecting” (literally, the killing of birds) to examine the processes through which individuals come to know nature, and come to know it so differently. (...) With John Dewey’s (1958 [1925]) “experience” as the unit of analysis, I trace changes in each group’s experience with birds over the past century; the phenomenology of the resulting encounters; and the understanding that emerges from each in order to understand (1) how, empirically, these two very different loves of birds are formed, and (2) knowledge of nature as an affective sensibility shaped by experiences of closeness. (shrink)

En este artículo abordaremos el problema de la relación entre el Estado y el capital como una disputa abierta en la modernidad entre la política y la economía. Desde la perspectiva de la filosofía hegeliana de la historia y el derecho, analizaremos la manera en la que la economía tiende en su proceso estructural de expansión espacial global a subsumir y subordinar las funciones administrativas y jurídicas de las formas estatales previas al ciclo sistémico inglés de acumulación capitalista. Para esto (...) analizaremos primero la conceptualización hegeliana de la economía política, para después exponer la manera específica en que esta se traduce en una forma de comportamiento global determinado por los procesos de distribución diferencial del capital y así, finalmente, abordar la manera en la que la economía cumple sus funciones determinantes en la conformación del mercado mundial y la historia universal, teniendo siempre como referencia directa el tiempo histórico en el cual Hegel desarrolló sus reflexiones filosóficas sobre la economía. (shrink)

RESUMO Este artigo tem como objetivo discutir a questão da materialidade significante do corpo no enlace discursivo do político imbricado nas fronteiras com o social, a partir das obras de Dan Halter. Para tanto, proponho um diálogo teórico-analítico entre a perspectiva dialógica desenvolvida pelo russo Mikhail Bakhtin e a perspectiva do materialismo-histórico, tendo como base o dispositivo teórico da Análise do Discurso francesa, a fim de analisar o objeto de estudo em questão na relação corpo, memória e discurso. Nesse sentido, (...) ao trabalhar com a imbricação entre a materialidade verbal e não verbal, busco lançar olhar sobre duas obras do artista zimbabueano Dan Halter, considerando, desse modo, os efeitos de sentido que deslizam metafórica e metonimicamente para outros sentidos do corpo que se desdobram em diferentes imagens do sujeito, tendo em vista os processos de estruturação do conflito e da tensividade do/no social a partir dos espaços ocupados por estes corpos e atravessados que são pelo simbólico, pela ideologia e pela história. ABSTRACT This article aims to discuss the question of the signifying materiality of the body in the discursive interlacement of the political imbricated on the frontiers with the social, based on the works of Dan Halter. To this end, we propose a theoretical-analytical dialogue between the dialogical perspective developed by Russian Mikhail Bakhtin and the historical-materialism perspective, based on the theoretical assumptions of the French Discourse Analysis, in order to analyze the object of this study in its relation with body, memory, and discourse. In this sense, by working with the imbrication between verbal and non-verbal materiality, we intend to focus on two specific works by Zimbabwean artist Dan Halter, considering the meaning effects that slide metaphorically and metonymically to other senses of the body that unfold in different images of the subject, in view of the processes that structure the conflict and tensivity of the social from the spaces occupied by these bodies and crossed by the symbolic, by ideology, and history. (shrink)

In this paper, we review and connect the three essential conditions needed by the collapse model to achieve a complete and exact formulation, namely the theoretical, the experimental, and the ontological ones. These features correspond to the three parts of the paper. In any empirical science, the first two features are obviously connected but, as is well known, among the different formulations and interpretations of non-relativistic quantum mechanics, only collapse models, as the paper well illustrates with a richness of details, (...) have experimental consequences. Finally, we show that a clarification of the ontological intimations of collapse models is needed for at least three reasons: (1) to respond to the indispensable task of answering the question ’what are collapse models (and in general any physical theory) about?’; (2) to achieve a deeper understanding of their different formulations; (3) to enlarge the panorama of possible readings of a theory, which historically has often played a fundamental heuristic role. (shrink)

The trial of Dmitri Karamazov embodies Dostoevsky’s general legal and moral philosophy. This book explains and critically analyses such notions as the rule of law, the adversary system of adjudication, the principle of universal moral responsibility, the plausibility of unconditional love, and the contours of human nature. The ballast for conclusions about all these ideas is an understanding of the relationship between individuals and their communities.

This essay provides a critical philosophical assessment of “offensiphobia,” which is the belief that higher educational academic freedom ought to be to some important extent censured because of the mere offensiveness of certain kinds of expressions, whether those expressions are perceived as being racist, sexist, etc., effectively holding that the offensiveness of such expressions is a sufficient condition to justify its prohibition. This paper concisely sets forth the general legal parameters of the United States constitutional First Amendment right to freedom (...) of expression. Subsequently, it follows Joel Feinberg in distinguishing between harms and offenses and explains why the law should only protect against harms and not mere offenses. Following this, logical and moral considerations are brought to bear in order to further assess the implicitly supporting view of offensiphobia that faculty and students in higher educational contexts have a claim right to not be offended correlated with a duty of others to not offend them. For example, the use-mention distinction is discussed in order to explain why linguistic intent is crucial for the determination of what genuinely counts as being racist, sexist or otherwise offensive discourse. In the end, there are a variety of reasons for thinking that there is no moral right to not be offended correlated with a moral duty of others to not offend in higher educational contexts and that the law and public policy ought to track this fact. Without a right to not be offended, those who seek to curtail higher educational academic freedom rights by way of censorship stand on unreasonable ethical grounds to do so, though the law seems to permit private institutions to delimit offensive expressions. Offensiphobia ought to be rejected as it is unsupported by the balance of reason. (shrink)

The presence of fetal cells has been associated with both positive and negative effects on maternal health. These paradoxical effects may be due to the fact that maternal and offspring fitness interests are aligned in certain domains and conflicting in others, which may have led to the evolution of fetal microchimeric phenotypes that can manipulate maternal tissues. We use cooperation and conflict theory to generate testable predictions about domains in which fetal microchimerism may enhance maternal health and those in which (...) it may be detrimental. This framework suggests that fetal cells may function both to contribute to maternal somatic maintenance (e.g. wound healing) and to manipulate maternal physiology to enhance resource transmission to offspring (e.g. enhancing milk production). In this review, we use an evolutionary framework to make testable predictions about the role of fetal microchimerism in lactation, thyroid function, autoimmune disease, cancer and maternal emotional, and psychological health.Also watch the Video Abstract. (shrink)

This essay provides a critical philosophical assessment of “offensiphobia,” which is the belief that higher educational academic freedom ought to be to some important extent censured because of the mere offensiveness of certain kinds of expressions, whether those expressions are perceived as being racist, sexist, etc., effectively holding that the offensiveness of such expressions is a sufficient condition to justify its prohibition. This paper concisely sets forth the general legal parameters of the United States constitutional First Amendment right to freedom (...) of expression. Subsequently, it follows Joel Feinberg in distinguishing between harms and offenses and explains why the law should only protect against harms and not mere offenses. Following this, logical and moral considerations are brought to bear in order to further assess the implicitly supporting view of offensiphobia that faculty and students in higher educational contexts have a claim right to not be offended correlated with a duty of others to not offend them. For example, the use-mention distinction is discussed in order to explain why linguistic intent is crucial for the determination of what genuinely counts as being racist, sexist or otherwise offensive discourse. In the end, there are a variety of reasons for thinking that there is no moral right to not be offended correlated with a moral duty of others to not offend in higher educational contexts and that the law and public policy ought to track this fact. Without a right to not be offended, those who seek to curtail higher educational academic freedom rights by way of censorship stand on unreasonable ethical grounds to do so, though the law seems to permit private institutions to delimit offensive expressions. Offensiphobia ought to be rejected as it is unsupported by the balance of reason. (shrink)

This paper seeks to provide a philosophical analysis of the features of an excellent professor, but a well-balanced one, professionally speaking. What makes for excellence in research, teaching and service is explored in some detail, with attention paid to the contexts of four-year colleges and comprehensive universities in the united states.

This chapter contains sections titled: Historical Background Superbia (Pride) Invidia (Envy) Ira (Wrath) Acedia (Sloth) Avaritia (Avarice) Gula (Gluttony) Luxuria (Lust) The Antidote: Righteous Love The Bridge to Salvation.

This book places Machiavelli in historical context but argues that his understanding of moral conflicts is well ahead of his time. Instead of arguing for the autonomy of politics, as is commonly supposed, Machiavelli grapples with the special problems of role-differentiated morality, where the duties of public office often conflict with the demands of conventional morality.

This chapter contains sections titled: Purgatory in a Nutshell The Journey Continues Ante‐Purgatory: Late Repentants Gate of Purgatory The First Three Terraces: Misdirected Love The Fourth Terrace: Deficient Love of the Good The Final Three Terraces: Excessive Love of Secondary Goods Dante's Existential Lessons in Purgatory.

This book is an interdisciplinary work that weaves literary interpretation, legal theory, and philosophical doctrine about sex and love into a coherent mosaic in the context of two of Shakespeare’s plays: The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure. In the process, the work advances literary interpretations of the plays including character studies of some of the main protagonists. The aim is partly theoretical but mostly practical: to demonstrate what we can learn about living a robustly meaningful and significant human (...) life by taking Shakespeare’s work seriously from contemporary philosophical and legal vantage points. Shakespeare does not reveal a tightly defined moral system that he is trying to urge upon his audience. Instead, Shakespeare challenges his audience to struggle with moral complexity as they confront conflicting elements surrounding legal and moral issues presented in his work and within the souls of his characters. His issues and their conflicts are also ours. Much of Shakespeare’s work consists of raising weighty questions inextricably connected to the human condition and inviting his audience to ponder possible answers. The philosophical lessons about living our lives meaningfully and significantly that we can derive from Shakespeare are simple yet powerful. (shrink)

Ted Williams breathes life into Camus' Sisyphus; Billy Martin's competitiveness recalls Niccolo Machiavelli's take on politics; Satchel Paige echoes wisdom Marcus Aurelius; and DiMaggio's personality cry out for resolution that Nietzsche's doctrine of perspectivism might have given. The book offers a very practical application of Western philosophy by examining these icons of American sport and culture"--Provided by publisher.

Nei suoi diversi stadi evolutivi la vita biologica sul nostro pianeta ha mostrato due principali “adattamenti” al tempo: in primo luogo, imprimendo nel codice genetico elementi che facilitassero la variabilità periodica ai cambiamenti ambientali (luce, temperatura, precipitazioni), fenomeni tipici del nostro pianeta e del suo satellite rispetto al sole; in secondo luogo, dotando il sistema nervoso animale di strutture che garantissero, oltre l’equilibrio, le attività sensoriali e motorie rego...

Nei suoi diversi stadi evolutivi la vita biologica sul nostro pianeta ha mostrato due principali “adattamenti” al tempo: in primo luogo, imprimendo nel codice genetico elementi che facilitassero la variabilità periodica ai cambiamenti ambientali (luce, temperatura, precipitazioni), fenomeni tipici del nostro pianeta e del suo satellite rispetto al sole; in secondo luogo, dotando il sistema nervoso animale di strutture che garantissero, oltre l’equilibrio, le attività sensoriali e motorie rego...

This paper examines the recent actions by the United States in Iraq in the light of just war principles, and sets forth a program for holding accountable those most responsible for war crimes in Iraq.

About 35 years ago Wheeler introduced the motto “law without law” to highlight the possibility that Physics may be understood only following regularity principles and few relevant facts, rather than relying on a treatment in terms of fundamental theories. Such a proposal can be seen as part of a more general attempt summarized by the slogan “it from bit”, which privileges the information as the basic ingredient. Apparently it seems that it is possible to obtain, without the use of physical (...) laws, some important results in an easy way, for instance, the probability distribution of the canonical ensemble. In this paper we will present a general discussion on those ideas of Wheeler’s that originated the motto “law without law”. In particular we will show how the claimed simplicity is only apparent and it is rather easy to produce wrong results. We will show that it is possible to obtain some of the results treated by Wheeler in the realm of the statistical mechanics, using precise assumptions and nontrivial results of probability theory, mainly concerning ergodicity and limit theorems. (shrink)

This paper seeks to provide some of the roles of philosophy in the field of academic ethics.

This paper explicates and challenges John Rawl's argument concerning a rule-utilitarian theory of punishment. In so doing, it argues in favour of a retributivist theory of punishment, one that seeks to justify, not only particular forms of punishment, but the institution of punishment itself. Some crucial objections to retributivism are then considered: one regarding the adverse effects of punishment on the innocent, another concerning proportional punishment, a third pertaining to vengeance and retribution, a Marxian concern with retributive punishment, and a (...) concern with the concept of desert. Each objection is deflected in order to ward-off what seem to be the most serious criticisms of a retributivist view of punishment and to clarify the depth of the retributivist position. (shrink)

This paper challenges Professor Myles Brand’s position on the role and value of intercollegiate athletics in U.S. colleges and universities on the ground that it fails to account for considerations of deep fiscal responsibility. It presents both a philosophical and ethical criticism of his position that broadens the discussion beyond athletics to include a particular kind of higher educational institution more generally.

In his famous essay, "A Puzzle About Belief," Saul Kripke poses a puzzle regarding belief. In this paper I shall first describe Kripke's puzzle. Second, I shall introduce and examine five positions one might take in attempting to solve Kripke's Puzzle. In so doing, I shall show why each of these attempts fails to solve Kripke's Puzzle. The significance of this analysis is that if Kripke's Puzzle remains unresolved, then (as Kripke himself claims) the normal apparatus for belief ascription needs (...) rethinking. (shrink)

This paper contains a philosophical explication of some of the essentials of a Marxist approach to business ethics. A Marxist approach is construed as a moral critique of capitalism. This paper hopes to lay the groundwork for a more detailed analysis of Karl Marx's critique of capitalist economies.

El presente trabajo se propone exponer el carácter problemático de la base sistemática de la estética hegeliana desarrollada en la Enciclopedia a partir del análisis de algunas de sus temáticas centrales y de las modificaciones que sufren en las tres ediciones de esta obra. Primero se examina la definición enciclopédica del ideal y la noción de obra de arte contenida en ella. Luego se aborda la disputada cuestión de la autonomización del arte respecto de la religión. Finalmente, se analiza la (...) intuición como medio propio del arte y las consiguientes determinaciones del mismo, a saber: la inmediatez y la finitud. (shrink)

Conhecido como Debate Hart-Dworkin, o entrechoque de opiniões entre esses dois autores gerou intensa discussão acerca do positivismo jurídico e das teorias que buscam refutar suas teses fundamentais. Neste contexto, Ronald Dworkin se empenha em repreender a doutrina positivista demonstrando que as noções elementares dessa teoria não são capazes de produzir uma doutrina eficaz sobre a natureza do direito. No presente artigo, pretendo analisar as críticas lançadas por Dworkin ao positivismo jurídico e às conceituações de Herbert Hart, com específica atenção (...) para o conceito de discricionariedade que Dworkin imputa ao positivismo. A partir de uma discussão teórica envolvendo as principais obras desses autores, procuro confirmar a hipótese de que a teoria positivista moderna não está comprometida com o sentido atribuído por Dworkin à noção de discricionariedade, prejudicando assim o fundamento da crítica de Dworkin acerca da interpretação no positivismo jurídico. Ao final, irei considerar também a gravidade desta vicissitude para a teoria dworkiniana como um todo, avaliando se as críticas de Dworkin restam comprometidas ou resistem a este empecilho. (shrink)

El orden geométrico consiste en partir de definiciones y axiomas evidentes por sí mismos. El paralelismo entre ambos órdenes en el sistema de Spinoza, el ordo cognoscendi y el ordo essendi, hace posible postular la intensidad total de lo real, implicando necesariamente una semejanza entre el entendimiento finito, en cuanto productor del primer orden, y el entendimiento infinito, en cuanto productor del segundo orden, ausente en el cartesianismo. Martial Gueroult afirma el método como geométrico en Descartes porque obedece estrictamente a (...) la regla que asegura a la Geometría todo su rigor; mientras que en Spinoza lo es porque, como Geometría, construye los conceptos de los objetos. (shrink)

This paper examines philosophically the nature and possible moral justification of racial profiling in terms of color profiling. Precisely what is such profiling, and can it ever be morally justified? If so, under what conditions is it morally justified?

One might presume that elite educational environments, including colleges and universities, have been the exclusive venues for rhetorical theory. Rhetorical theory typically takes the form of published treatises, monographs, and essays. Thus, the status of theorist would have been denied to, among others, African Americans during the nineteenth century because they were not afforded opportunities to become literate or, even if literate, not admitted into realms of elite literacy. But there are the seeds of a competing story, particularly regarding the (...) narratives written by Frederick Douglass. Henry Louis Gates Jr., for example, has stated that Douglass used... (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo foi compreender como o Estado se apropriou de dispositivos legais para legitimar as suas ações punitivas e jurídicas contra a oposição política, em especial, os militantes do Partido Comunista Brasileiro no Paraná em 1975, quando foram presos e indiciados pelo Inquérito Policial-Militar 745, que apurou o envolvimento dos comunistas na suposta reorganização do partido no Estado. Além do IPM, também utilizamos como fonte de pesquisa o Relatório Especial de Informações 1/75 que destacou a importância dos trabalhos (...) da polícia política efetuados no Estado, a fim de conter o avanço do comunismo. (shrink)

In this study, we explored the time and space relationship according to two different spatial codings, namely, the left/right extension and the reachability of stimulus along a near/far dimension. Four experiments were carried out in which healthy participants performed the time and spatial bisection tasks in near/far space, before and after short or long tool-use training. Stimuli were prebisected horizontal lines of different temporal durations in which the midpoint was manipulated according to the Muller-Lyer illusion. The perceptual illusory effects emerged (...) in spatial but not temporal judgments. We revealed that temporal and spatial representations dynamically change according to the action potentialities of an individual: temporal duration was perceived as shorter and the perceived line’s midpoint was shifted to the left in far than in near space. Crucially, this dissociation disappeared following a long but not short tool-use training. Finally, we observed age-related differences in spatial attention which may be crucial in building the memory temporal standard to categorize durations. (shrink)

I set forth and defend an analysis of corporate moral responsibility (retrospective moral liability), which, I argue, ought to serve as the foundation for corporate legal responsibility, punishment, and compensation for environmental damage caused by corporations.

This essay argues that Alvin I. Goldman's truth-linked theory of group knowledge (veritism) omits individual components of social cognition, that all group based theories of knowledge lead to scepticism, and that if any sense is to be made of social knowledge, it must be done on individualist lines. I argue that Goldman's veritism can be reconstructed by adopting a reliabilist theory,social reliabilism. And I argue that Goldman's objections to a particular sort of consensualism are not telling. So there are now (...) two plausible and competing theories of social knowledge-social reliabilism and consensualism. (shrink)

This paper describes and assesses the arguments offered both \nagainst closed borders and in favor of a more open borders approach to U.S. \nimmigration reform as those arguments are set forth in R. Pevnick’s book, \nImmigration and the Constraints of Justice. We find numerous problems \nwith Pevnick’s reasoning on both counts.