L’inégalité est une thématique sociale, abordée de façon récurrente dans les médias. Appliquant une approche de « sémantique discursive », nous examinerons l’usage d’inégalité dans le discours de presse en circonscrivant les principales dimensions sémantiques du nom à travers ses fonctionnements préférentiels en cotexte, étroit ou élargi. Après quelques questionnements sémantico-référentiels autour du mot, l’étude du corpus – constitué d’articles issus des journaux Le Monde, Libération et Le Figaro – montrera qu’inégalité fonctionne, à la fois, comme un lieu d’observation, d’évaluation (...) et de revendication. L’analyse conduit également à penser que l’usage partagé et consensuel du segment lutte contre les inégalités dans le corpus fait apparaître une forme de « langue de bois ». (shrink)

RESUME Dans cet article, on aborde le champ de la vulgarisation scientifique en mettant l'accent sur les différentes sphères d'activité langagière qui s'y croisent. On rappelle d'abord le modèle classique et linéaire de la diffusion scientifique avant de montrer le déplacement qui s'est ensuite produit avec l'intervention des médias traditionnels, qui, notamment lors d'événements scientifiques, ont fait dialoguer différentes communautés langagières. On aborde enfin les changements apportés par les nouveaux outils technologiques dans des formes de participation et de prise de (...) parole qu'autorise l'internet.ABSTRACT This paper deals with the field of popular science with a focus on the different linguistic spheres that intersect it. It starts by reviewing the classical linear model of scientific dissemination. The authors then show the displacement that took place with the involvement of traditional media that established a dialogue between different language communities, in particular for scientific events. Finally, the changes to forms of participation and speech resulting from new technological tools and made possible by the Internet are presented.RESUMO O presente artigo aborda o campo da divulgação científica através das diferentes esferas de atividade linguageira que nele se cruzam. Evocaremos incialmente o modelo clássico e linear da divulgação científica, antes de apresentarmos o deslocamento produzido, em seguida, pela mídia tradicional, que possibilitou o diálogo entre diferentes comunidades linguageiras, especialmente em acontecimentos científicos. Mostraremos finalmente as modificações trazidas pelas novas ferramentas tecnológicas nas formas de participação e de tomada da palavra proporcionadas pela Internet. (shrink)

in this article, we experience the exercise of a screen ethnocartography in agency with the film Beasts of the southern wild by the director Benh Zeitlin. We tested a film experimentation that led to a renewed writing ways of life. We bet on cinema and childhood as possibilities for creating cracks and a stutter of language for the creation of new worlds and ways of living. In cinema images less as a representation, and more as art that proposes incompleteness, fissure, (...) a hole in appearances. In childhood as an exercise of differentiation and resistance to dominant narratives in a given context. In childhood as a limiting experience of/in language, tirelessly exposing the human condition in front of the world. Thus, accompanying the main character of the plot, little Hushpuppy — a six-year-old resident of the “Charles Doucet Island”, experienced as “the Bathtub” —, we are shaken by the forms of life there, considered bestial and not recognized by city humans. Hushpuppy, his father and friends resist attempts to destroy their existence by the forms of the state that try to domesticate them, imbued with the logic that primitives must come to civilization, just as children must become adults. (shrink)

Em Agonia do Eros, o filósofo sul coreano, Byung Chul-Han, autor dos ensaios: sociedade do cansaço, sociedade da transparência, topologia da violência, no enxame, busca analisar as relações afetivas na contemporaneidade. A erotização desfalece frente ao igual, sendo que Eros procura aquele que difere do que somos, porém na atualidade, afirma o autor, o diferente perde para o inferno do igual. Para explicar sua tese o autor faz sua análise no rastro de pensadores como: Michel Foucault, Jean Baudrillard, Emmanuel Levinas, (...) George Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, dentre outros. (shrink)

Esse artigo busca apresentar o conceito de problematização, tal qual elaborado pelo filósofo francês Michel Foucault, bem como pensar seu potencial interesse para os pesquisadores do campo educacional. Valendo-nos das leituras empreendidas por James Marshall sobre tal noção, argumentamos que tal conceito possibilitaria fomentar uma espécie de revitalização das pesquisas desenvolvidas na área, mormente aquelas filiadas ao diapasão teórico foucaultiano. Não se trata apenas de empreender uma discussão conceitual, mas de retomar uma atitude investigativa foucaultiana passível de ser sintetizada no (...) dito: “tornar difíceis os gestos fáceis demais”. (shrink)

O artigo apresenta o resultado da pesquisa que abordou a investigação sobre as rupturas epistemológicas e o discurso sobre Deus na obra As palavras e as coisas , de Michel Foucault. Intitulada como "Deus, as palavras e as coisas", a pesquisa parcialmente apresentada aqui pretende ser uma colaboração para a análise do que se tem identificado como fenômeno do neo-ateísmo, um tema de grande relevância para a Filosofia da Religião nos dias atuais. Para compreendê-lo, apresentam-se, seguindo a perspectiva foucaultiana, os (...) distintos matizes epistemológicos que sustentam a concepção sobre Deus. Em seus três momentos, o texto apresenta a episteme renascentista e o discurso de Deus, a episteme clássica e a idéia sobre Deus e, por fim, a episteme moderna, a morte de Deus e a morte do homem. Acredita-se que aquilo que se decide na contemporaneidade não seja necessariamente o acabamento do tempo da morte de Deus e a consequente morte do homem, fruto do modo moderno de compreender e tematizar o divino, o infinito, o absoluto ou o verdadeiro, mas uma clara disputa entre variadas perspectivas epistemológicas em suas concretizações científica, política, cultural e religiosa. Palavras-chaves: Michel Foucault, Filosofia da Religião, Epistemologia, Deus, Ateísmo.The article presents the results of research that investigate on epistemological ruptures and speaking about God in The Order of Things writhed by Michel Foucault. Entitled as "God, words and things," this research partially presented here is intended as collaboration for the analysis of what has been identified as phenomenon of neo-atheism, a topic very important for the Philosophy of Religion today. To understand it, we present, following the Foucaultian perspective, the different epistemological nuances underpinning conception of God. In her three moments, the text presents the Renaissance episteme and the God's discourse, the classical episteme and the idea of God and, finally, the modern episteme , the death of God and man's death. It is believed that what is decided in the contemporary is not necessarily the finish time of the death of God and the consequent man's death, the fruit of modern way of understanding and themes on the divine, the infinite, the absolute or true, but a clear dispute between different epistemological perspectives in their political, cultural and religious diversity achievements. Key words: Michel Foucault; Philosophy of Religion;Epistemology; God; Atheism. (shrink)

Resumo: O presente estudo consiste em um exame da produção acadêmica brasileira, veiculada em 71 periódicos da área educacional, que se valeu da noção de cuidado de si, tal como abordada por Michel Foucault. Trata-se de 51 artigos produzidos no intervalo dos últimos 18 anos, a partir da publicação no Brasil do curso A hermenêutica do sujeito, em 2004. À moda da composição de um hupomnema, o tratamento do material obedeceu ao procedimento da listagem dos enunciados ali em circulação, com (...) vistas à perspectivação das apropriações da temática. O resultado é um panorama da proliferação de efeitos da referida noção, a sustentar tanto a novidade quanto a permanência em seu emprego pela pesquisa educacional. Ao final, advoga-se em favor da desnaturalização da ideia de sujeito e seus derivados, com vistas a potencializar o cuidado de si como ocasião de interpelação e, quiçá, de dissolução da forma sujeito. Palavras-chave: cuidado de si; Michel Foucault; pesquisa educacional; periódicos educacionais. The care of the self in Brazilian educational research: a problem notion Abstract: This study consists of an examination of the Brazilian academic production, published in 71 journals in the field of education, which made use of the notion of care of the self, as discussed by Michel Foucault. It consists of 51 articles produced in the last 18 years, since the publication in Brazil of the lectures The hermeneutics of the subject, in 2004. In the manner of the composition of a hupomnema, the treatment of the material followed the procedure of listing the statements in circulation, in order to put into perspective the appropriations of the theme. The result is a panorama of the proliferating effects of this notion, supporting both the novelty and the permanence of its use in educational research. In the end, we advocate the denaturalization of the idea of subject and its derivatives, in order to enhance the care of the self as an occasion for interpellation and, perhaps, for the dissolution of the subject form. Keywords: care of the self; Michel Foucault; educational research; educational journals. El cuidado de sí en la investigación educativa brasileña: una noción-problema Resumen: Este estudio consiste en un examen de la producción académica brasileña, publicada en 71 revistas del área educativa, que utilizó la noción de cuidado de sí, tal como la discute Michel Foucault. Se trata de 51 artículos publicados en los últimos 18 años, a partir de la publicación en Brasil del curso La hermenéutica del sujeto, em 2004. A la manera de composición de un hupomnema, el tratamiento del material siguió el procedimiento de enumerar los enunciados en circulación, con vistas a poner en perspectiva las apropiaciones del tema. El resultado es un panorama de los efectos proliferantes de dicha noción, sosteniendo tanto la novedad como la permanencia en su uso por parte de la investigación educativa. Al fin, se aboga por la desnaturalización de la idea de sujeto y sus derivados, con el fin de potenciar el cuidado de sí como ocasión de interpelación y, tal vez, de disolución de la forma sujeto. Palabras clave: cuidado de sí; Michel Foucault; investigación educativa; publicaciones periódicas educativas. Data de registro: 03/07/2022 Data de aceite: 26/10/2022. (shrink)

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo principal a compreensão e análise da noção de “sociedade civil” abordada pelo filósofo francês Michel Foucault no curso Nascimento da biopolítica: Curso no Collége de France (1978-1979), onde Foucault se propõe à análise dos princípios teóricos do liberalismo. Dando ênfase especificamente às suas últimas aulas do curso Nascimento da biopolítica, que traz a análise da ideia de “Homo oeconomicus”, como “sujeito de interesse” distinto do “sujeito de direito”, e da noção de sociedade civil, correlativa (...) da tecnologia liberal de governo. Como ideias contrapostas no pensamento liberal clássico, a sociedade civil aparecerá em oposição ao Estado, como a natureza ao artifício, ou o espontâneo ao forçado. (shrink)

Brian C. Ribeiro’s _Sextus, Montaigne, Hume: Pyrrhonizers_ invites us to view the Pyrrhonist tradition as involving all those who share a commitment to the activity of Pyrrhonizing and develops fresh, provocative readings of Sextus, Montaigne, and Hume as radical Pyrrhonizing skeptics.

Em A última razão dos reis, Renato Janine Ribeiro se volta para a sociedade e a política do Antigo Regime, buscando entender em que condições algo de novo se pode gerar na aventura humana. Trata-se, aqui, de estudar o passado para verificar o quanto ele nos serve e, inversamente, até que ponto continua a nos governar. Por que uma ética aristocrática é a que melhor convém à fortuna? Por que, no mito de D. Juan, o tema do ateísmo veio (...) a ser posteriormente recalcado, restando apenas o do sedutor? Como e quando teve início a moderna análise de texto? O que existe em comum entre o discurso de um filósofo contemporâneo, Michel Foucault, e o dos moralistas franceses do século XVII? Qual a relação entre uma concepção da história centrada na idéia de novidade e as diversas vertentes da doutrina da soberania surgidas nos séculos XVII e XVIII? O que distingue a revolução socialista da burguesa no Dezoito Brumário de Marx? Questões que o autor analisa neste livro unindo clareza de estilo e erudição, e que interessam às mais variadas áreas, da filosofia à literatura, passando, evidentemente, pela política e pela história. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Montaigne on Witches and the Authority of Religion in the Public SphereBrian RibeiroThe pleasure in reading Michel de Montaigne, the French Counter-Reformer and fideistic skeptic, is due in no small part to the ways in which he so frequently defeats our expectations. The surprises occur at several levels, beginning with the very titles of his essays, which frequently have little to do with the topics he actually discusses. Who, (...) for example, would expect an essay titled "Of Three Good Women" (II.35) to praise the three women for their variously successful attempts at committing suicide—and little else? Or who would expect an essay with the innocent title "On Some Verses of Virgil" (II.5) to be richly confessional, as well as very explicitly sexual? Or, as one final example, who would expect an essay "Of Cripples" (II.11) to either (a) discuss the witch trials or (b) discuss cripples principally in terms of whether the lame make better sexual partners?The surprises are not confined to the formal features of Montaigne's text, but also appear in the views he articulates. We would not expect an early modern Frenchman to write so sympathetically and even admiringly about the cannibals of the New World (I.31). Nor would we expect an early modern French Catholic to write in opposition to the witch trials. Montaigne does both—with incredible finesse. But despite the attractively progressive attitude seemingly manifested in these two stances, Montaigne's overall view is in fact far more conservative and quietistic than we might expect, were we judging based only on these few cases. And so he surprises us yet again: We are surprised to find him opposing the witch trials, and we are surprised a second time to find that his opposition does not signal any deeper tendency toward progressive or politically liberal views. In short, there is good reason [End Page 235] to see Montaigne's general stance as firmly traditional. While he sometimes expresses apparently progressive views, he does so in a way that has no stable basis in his overall conceptual scheme, as I will argue. Of course, merely observing this tension in Montaigne's work is nothing new. Hugo Friedrich, writing in 1949, and discussing II.11, claimed that "Montaigne bravely takes a position against the delusion of the masses and against clerical fanaticism."1 But in the same passage (and elsewhere) Friedrich shows himself to be well-aware that this apparent radicalism is balanced by Montaigne's conservatism.2 That tension—in a nutshell—encapsulates the debate.3 However, "Of Cripples" presents this tension in its most perplexing form, making a detailed analysis of II.11 our best hope of making progress on the debate.4To support these claims I propose to offer a careful textual analysis of Montaigne's discussion of the witch trials in "Of Cripples."5 After considering several philosophical interpretations of his key Augustinian principle, I will argue that Montaigne's critique of the witch trials is primarily driven by problems internal to the religious perspective, and so does not represent an attempt to circumscribe the authority of religion in the public sphere more generally.6 Such a position, then, is both traditional and quietistic—another of Montaigne's surprises for his readers. If this is correct, then one of the principal texts used for promoting a "liberal" Montaigne—namely, II.11—can be be reappropriated by the defenders of a "quietistic" Montaigne. Nonetheless, even on my reading, there remain some incompletely resolved tensions. That, perhaps, is no less than we should expect from history's only self-proclaimed "accidental philosopher."7IMontaigne opens "Of Cripples" by discussing the Gregorian reform of the calendar, which had been adopted in France in 1582. Yet as odd as this opening is, it serves to quickly introduce a familiar theme in the Essays: Even so basic a matter as the calendar is subject to "[s] o much uncertainty"—just like everything else—that "we are every day in doubt" about how to "keep a record of past events" (F, pp. 784–85). These thoughts are then quickly transformed into a skeptical reflection on human reason itself... (shrink)

A partir do estudo sobre o processo histórico de ressignificação da relação entre subjetividade e verdade, realizado por Michel Foucault no curso “A Hermenêutica do Sujeito”, o presente artigo analisa as possíveis implicações dessa ressignificação no processo de institucionalização da filosofia, problematizando, por conseguinte, a temática do ensino de Filosofia na Educação Básica.

Este trabalho tem o intuito de discutir a relação entre capitalismo e subjetividade na atualidade. Assim, a proposta é realizar um percurso marcado por dois grandes momentos do capitalismo observando a relação retroalimentar que este teceu com os processos de subjetivação. De início, caberia explorar as análises de Michel Foucault no que diz respeito ao momento de consolidação do capitalismo, isto é, sua necessidade de se constituir como uma “sociedade disciplinar” e de funcionar hegemonicamente a partir de uma nova tecnologia (...) de poder designada como “biopoder”. Num segundo momento, acreditamos ser importante analisar a mutação sofrida pelo capitalismo. Com esse objetivo, recorreremos às considerações do filósofo Gilles Deleuze quando este marca a passagem das sociedades disciplinares diagnosticadas por Foucault para as “sociedades de controle” que cada vez mais estariam se consolidando. Nesse novo momento, constituinte de nossa atualidade, o capitalismo se apresentaria, escrevem Deleuze e Guattari em Mil platôs, como uma espécie de “empresa mundial de subjetivação” que estabelece dois regimes coexistentes de funcionamento na relação entre capitalismo e processos de subjetivação: “servidão maquínica” e “sujeição social”. São estas questões que gostaríamos de apresentar, desenvolver e discutir neste trabalho. (shrink)

O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de compreender como o pensador francês Michel Foucault expande argumentativamente sua prática metodológica, à medida que acresce uns aos outros, e ao passo em que os descobre, métodos para pesquisas históricas. Tencionando alcançar tal intento, efetua-se estudo acerca: do modo como seus métodos se estruturam no bojo; dos objetos de estudo para os quais esses métodos se voltam ; das conclusões a que chega o autor em suas pesquisas históricas, sob a mediação dos métodos (...) utilizados. Com a explicitação destes eixos, demonstra-se que arqueologia do saber e genealogia do poder não são estritamente operações de pesquisas, organizadas em material impresso sob forma de livros. Tratam-se também, sobretudo, de instrumentos os quais contém finalidade política bem definida, qual seja: a de denunciar ou mesmo expor enquanto político clamor o caráter arbitrário que se esconde por detrás dos discursos científicos legitimados, demonstrando que o que conduz a tal legitimação é a supressão imanente, a sujeição, de distintos discursos – operação que se decorre através das relações de saber/poder as quais permeiam instituições, bem como se estendem em alcance à estrutura interna do espaço social na sua totalidade. (shrink)

Discute-se aqui as aproximações e distanciamentos sobre o cuidado via as contribuições do pensamento de Heidegger e de Foucault. Interessa-nos saber sobre as ideias de autocuidado articuladas por Martin Heidegger e de cuidado de sí, conforme Michel Foucault, analisando as convergências e as divergências. Lançou-se mão da sistematização contrastiva de modo a ressaltar os encontros e desencontros entre os pensadores. Há aproximações no que se refere a importância dada a questão do cuidar como algo constituidor do ser humano, mas os (...) distanciamentos se dão pelo modo como os sentidos de cuidado são concebidos. As aproximações e distanciamentos quanto a autocuidado e cuidado de si pensados por Heidegger e Michel Foucault nos lança a refletir que cada pensador fora atravessado por singularidades, processos históricos, sociais e culturais, desdobrando em compreensões específicas em torno do cuidado. (shrink)

Brian Ribeiro’s slim volume presents a comparative study of three of the most important figures in the history of skepticism: Sextus Empiricus, Michel de Montaigne, and David Hume. Ribeiro’s rich text, like most of his work, is written in a colloquial, easy style that nearly masks the considerable erudition informing his thought. This text, in fact, gathers, synthesizes, and expands on the substantial work with which Ribeiro has been engaged for decades. Drawing from that precedent research, (...) class='Hi'>Ribeiro’s focus here is the possible scope of skepticism, the implications of that scope for rationality, and the value skeptical philosophy promises. (Ribeiro makes clear that his objective is not to establish his reading as... (shrink)

Leandra Medine indicates that she wants the Man Repeller multi-author blog to ‘serve as an open forum for women to draw their own conclusions’ instead of making ‘any sort of feministic statement’. Medine renders feminism as amorphous and an individual choice but she has been widely lauded for offering a feminist engagement in fashion. Her practices and position, as I argue throughout this article, allow her to fashion feminism, including associating feminism with the man repeller style and replacing aspects of (...) second wave and rights-based feminisms with the purportedly more equitable and liberating website ethos of choice and equality feminism. Yet in replacing ‘feministic’ critiques with promises of stylish cultural change and clothing that reportedly repels men, Medine and other Man Repeller authors elide how systemic oppression functions. This ambivalent relationship to feminism, and dearth of intersectional advocacy, prompted a backlash in 2020. Critics interrogated Medine's facile statement about #BlackLivesMatter, the company's lack of diversity and the unsuccessful restructuring of the blog. As a means of analysing Man Repeller, I employ textual analysis, feminist and queer literature and media theory. I define fashioning feminism as a collaborative and ongoing process of producing feminist positions and thinking, including the negation of certain forms of feminism. I assert that attending to the fashioning of feminism can foreground central and developing feminist theories; the appeal, unstylishness and effacement of feminism; and the connection between style and politics. This includes readers’ interrogations of Man Repeller's politics, which are occurring along with contemporary examinations of racism. Since fashioning feminism is a collaborative and ongoing process of producing feminist positions and thought, engaging with its concepts and debates can further the critical study of feminism, nurture feminist conversations and advocate for social change. (shrink)

The Body–Object Interaction (BOI) variable measures how easily a human body can physically interact with a word's referent (Siakaluk, Pexman, Aguilera, Owen, & Sears, ). A facilitory BOI effect has been observed with adults in language tasks, with faster and more accurate responses for high BOI words (e.g., mask) than for low BOI words (e.g., ship; Wellsby, Siakaluk, Owen, & Pexman, ). We examined the development of this effect in children. Fifty children (aged 6–9 years) and a group of 21 (...) adults completed a word naming task with high and low BOI words. Younger children (aged 6–7 years) did not show a BOI effect, but older children (aged 8–9 years) showed a significant facilitory BOI effect, as did adults. Magnitude of children's BOI effect was related to age as well as reading skills. These results suggest that bodily experience (as measured by the BOI variable) begins to influence visual word recognition behavior by about 8 years of age. (shrink)

Most guidelines and proposalsfor Internet research ethics are based onregulations for human subjects research. In therelated research, Internet material is viewedas animate and described as people. Humanitiesresearchers have rarely been a part of thedebate about Internet research ethics and thepractices of these scholars have not been takeninto consideration when drafting most of theguidelines. This threatens to limit the kindsof Internet research that can be performed – critical strategies are particularlydiscouraged – and the ways that researchers andother users understand the Internet.Researchers (...) who use human subjects models havenot fully acknowledged computer mediation, theconstructed aspects of Internetrepresentations, and the screen. If we viewInternet material as cultural production thenthe models for Internet research would be ArtHistory and Visual Culture, English andLiterary Studies, Film and Media Studies, Musicand Sound Studies, and Theatre and PerformanceStudies. A more complete integration of theseapproaches into Internet Studies – either as asole investigatory strategy or in tandem withother forms of inquiry – would changeresearchers' ethical questions. It would alsoshow instances in which human subjectsguidelines do not apply to complex Internetmaterial. It is imperative to demonstrate thatInternet material is not people because thisconception makes highly constructed words andimages seem natural and stereotypedrepresentations appear to be real. (shrink)

Science and philosophy still lack an overarching theory of consciousness. We suggest that a further step toward it requires going beyond the view of the brain as input-output machine and focusing on its intrinsic activity, which may express itself in two distinct modalities, i.e. aware and unaware. We specifically investigate the predisposition of the brain to evaluate and to model the world. These intrinsic activities of the brain retain a deep relation with consciousness. In fact the ability of the brain (...) to evaluate and model the world can develop in two modalities, implicit or explicit, that correspond to what we usually refer to as the unconscious and consciousness, and both are multilevel configurations of the brain along a continuous and dynamic line. Starting from an empirical understanding of the brain as intrinsically active and plastic, we here distinguish between higher cognitive functions and basic phenomenal consciousness, suggesting that the latter might characterize the brain’s intrinsic activity as such, even if at a very basic level. We proceed to explore possible impacts of the notion of intrinsic cerebral phenomenality on our understanding of consciousness and its disorders, particularly on the diagnosis and management of patients with disorders of consciousness. (shrink)

:In this article, we begin by identifying three main neuroethical approaches: neurobioethics, empirical neuroethics, and conceptual neuroethics. Our focus is on conceptual approaches that generally emphasize the need to develop and use a methodological modus operandi for effectively linking scientific and philosophical interpretations. We explain and assess the value of conceptual neuroethics approaches and explain and defend one such approach that we propose as being particularly fruitful for addressing the various issues raised by neuroscience: fundamental neuroethics.

__Neurotechnology and Direct Brain Communication__ focuses on recent neuroscientific investigations of infant brains and of patients with disorders of consciousness, both of which are at the forefront of contemporary neuroscience. The prospective use of neurotechnology to access mental states in these subjects, including neuroimaging, brain simulation and brain computer interfaces, offers new opportunities for clinicians and researchers, but has also received specific attention from philosophical, scientific, ethical and legal points of view. This book offers the first systematic assessment of these (...) issues, investigating the tools neurotechnology offers to care for verbally non-communicative subjects and suggesting a multidisciplinary approach to the ethical and legal implications of ordinary and experimental practices. The book is divided into three parts: the first and second focus on the scientific and clinical implications of neurological tools for DOC patient and infant care. With reference to these developments, the third and final part presents the case for re-evaluating classical ethical and legal concepts, such as authority, informed consent and privacy. Neurotechnology and Direct Brain Communication will appeal to researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of cognitive science, medical ethics, medical technology, and the philosophy of the mind. With implications for patient care, it will also be a useful resource for clinicians, medical centres and health practitioners. (shrink)

Permissivism is the view that, sometimes, there is more than one doxastic attitude that is perfectly rationalised by the evidence. Impermissivism is the denial of Permissivism. Several philosophers, with the aim to defend either Impermissivism or Permissivism, have recently discussed the value of (im)permissive rationality. This paper focuses on one kind of value-conferring considerations, stemming from the so-called “truth-connection” enjoyed by rational doxastic attitudes. The paper vindicates the truth-connected value of permissive rationality by pursuing a novel strategy which rests on (...) two main planks: first, there is a distinction between a fine-grained and a coarse-grained type-individuation of belief-forming methods. Secondly, different kinds of decision-theoretic reasoning, i.e. expected-accuracy reasoning and accuracy-domination reasoning, must be paired with a fine-grained and a coarse-grained type-individuation of methods, respectively. I argue that while the first pair is wholly irrelevant to the question of the truth-connection, the second affords the means to a permissivist explanation of the truth-connected value of rationality. (shrink)

This article presents a fairness principle for evaluating decision-making based on predictions: a decision rule is unfair when the individuals directly impacted by the decisions who are equal with respect to the features that justify inequalities in outcomes do not have the same statistical prospects of being benefited or harmed by them, irrespective of their socially salient morally arbitrary traits. The principle can be used to evaluate prediction-based decision-making from the point of view of a wide range of antecedently specified (...) substantive views about justice in outcome distributions. (shrink)

The article investigates the significance of the so-called phenomenon of apparent faultless disagreement for debates about the semantics of taste discourse. Two kinds of description of the phenomenon are proposed. The first ensures that faultless disagreement raises a distinctive philosophical challenge; yet, it is argued that Contextualist, Realist and Relativist semantic theories do not account for this description. The second, by contrast, makes the phenomenon irrelevant for the problem of what the right semantics of taste discourse should be. Lastly, the (...) following dilemma is assessed: either faultless disagreement provides strong evidence against semantic theories; or its significance should be considerably downplayed. (shrink)

In contrast to most literature on cosmopolitanism, which focuses on its elite forms, this article analyzes how ordinary people bridge racial boundaries in everyday life. It is based on interviews with 150 non-college-educated white and black workers in the United States and white and North African workers in France. The comparison of the four groups shows how differences in cultural repertoires across national context and structural location shape distinct anti-racist rhetorics. Market-based arguments are salient among American workers, while arguments based (...) on solidarity and egalitarianism are used by French, but not by American, workers. Minority workers in both countries employ a more extensive toolkit of anti-racist rhetoric as compared to whites. The interviewed men privilege evidence grounded in everyday experience, and their claims of human equality are articulated in terms of universal human nature and, in the case of blacks and North Africans, universal morality. Workers' conceptual frameworks have little in common with multiculturalism that occupies a central place in the literature on cosmopolitanism. We argue that for the discussion and practice of cosmopolitanism to move forward we should shift our attention to the study of multiple ordinary cosmopolitanisms. (shrink)

In contrast to most literature on cosmopolitanism, which focuses on its elite forms, this article analyzes how ordinary people bridge racial boundaries in everyday life. It is based on interviews with 150 non-college-educated white and black workers in the United States and white and North African workers in France. The comparison of the four groups shows how differences in cultural repertoires across national context and structural location shape distinct anti-racist rhetorics. Market-based arguments are salient among American workers, while arguments based (...) on solidarity and egalitarianism are used by French, but not by American, workers. Minority workers in both countries employ a more extensive toolkit of anti-racist rhetoric as compared to whites. The interviewed men privilege evidence grounded in everyday experience, and their claims of human equality are articulated in terms of universal human nature and, in the case of blacks and North Africans, universal morality. Workers' conceptual frameworks have little in common with multiculturalism that occupies a central place in the literature on cosmopolitanism. We argue that for the discussion and practice of cosmopolitanism to move forward we should shift our attention to the study of multiple ordinary cosmopolitanisms. (shrink)

The paper proposes an account of the rational response to higher-order evidence whose key claim is that whenever we acquire such evidence we ought to engage in the inquiring activity of double-checking. Combined with a principle that establishes a connection between rational inquiry and rational belief retention, the account offers a novel explanation of the alleged impermissibility of retaining one’s belief in the face of higher-order evidence. It is argued that this explanation is superior to the main competitor view which (...) appeals to the notion of defeat. (shrink)

While it seems hard to deny the epistemic significance of a disagreement with our acknowledged epistemic peers, there are certain disagreements, such as philosophical disagreements, which appear to be permissibly sustainable. These two claims, each independently plausible, are jointly puzzling. This paper argues for a solution to this puzzle. The main tenets of the solution are two. First, the peers ought to engage in a deliberative activity of discovering more about their epistemic position vis-à-vis the issue at stake. Secondly, the (...) peers are permitted to do so while entertaining a sui generis doxastic attitude of hypothesis. (shrink)

In 2003, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Regina McKnight, an African American woman who was convicted at the age of twenty‐two for committing “homicide by child abuse.” She became the first woman in the United States to be arrested, prosecuted, and convicted for experiencing a stillbirth. Rather than an outlier case in the annals of American jurisprudence that stretched law beyond reason while restraining compassion and justice, McKnight's conviction inspired similar prosecutions of other poor black women (...) and then of other women. More than one‐third of states consider pregnant women's illicit drug use a form of child abuse, resulting in unprecedented forms of criminal and civil punishment. Laws previously understood to protect pregnant women from domestic violence during pregnancy, such as fetal protection laws, now serve as the vehicles for prosecuting pregnant women. What these prosecutions and laws expose are the multitudinous ways in which the criminalization of poor pregnant women—and normalization of that criminalization, such that even doctors and nurses are expected to participate in it—serve to humiliate women, interfere with their reproductive health, and ultimately rob women of reproductive autonomy. (shrink)

Tradition has it that first-person thought is somehow special. It is also commonplace to maintain that the first-person concept obeys a rule of reference to the effect that any token first-person thought is about the thinker of that thought. Following Annalisa Coliva and, more recently, Santiago Echeverri, I take the specialness claim to be the claim that thinking a first-person thought comes with a certain guarantee of its pattern of reference. Echeverri maintains that such a guarantee is explained by a (...) fairly flatfooted interpretation of the thinker-reflexive rule. I argue, however, that the explanatory aspirations of the thinker-reflexive rule are fulfilled only if we accept an epistemically loaded gloss on the notion of a thinker of a thought featuring the rule. That gloss is unpacked in terms of the subject’s ability to be acquainted with the phenomenal character of their thoughts. (shrink)

Modelling and simulations have gained a leading position in contemporary attempts to describe, explain, and quantitatively predict the human brain's operations. Computer models are highly sophisticated tools developed to achieve an integrated knowledge of the brain with the aim of overcoming the actual fragmentation resulting from different neuroscientific approaches. In this paper we investigate plausibility of simulation technologies for emulation of consciousness and the potential clinical impact of large-scale brain simulation on the assessment and care of disorders of consciousness, e.g. (...) Coma, Vegetative State/Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome, Minimally Conscious State.Notwithstanding their technical limitations, we suggest that simulation technologies may offer new solutions to old practical problems, particularly in clinical contexts. We take DOCs as an illustrative case, arguing that the simulation of neural correlates of consciousness is potentially useful for improving treatments of patients with DOCs. (shrink)

This paper addresses a largely neglected question in ongoing debates over disagreement: what is the relation, if any, between disagreements involving credences and disagreements involving outright beliefs? The first part of the paper offers some desiderata for an adequate account of credal and full disagreement. The second part of the paper argues that both phenomena can be subsumed under a schematic definition which goes as follows: A and B disagree if and only if the accuracy conditions of A's doxastic attitude (...) are such that, if they were fulfilled, this would ipso facto make B's doxastic attitude inaccurate, or vice-versa. (shrink)

In this paper we argue that transparency of machine learning algorithms, just as explanation, can be defined at different levels of abstraction. We criticize recent attempts to identify the explanation of black box algorithms with making their decisions (post-hoc) interpretable, focusing our discussion on counterfactual explanations. These approaches to explanation simplify the real nature of the black boxes and risk misleading the public about the normative features of a model. We propose a new form of algorithmic transparency, that consists in (...) explaining algorithms as an intentional product, that serves a particular goal, or multiple goals (Daniel Dennet’s design stance) in a given domain of applicability, and that provides a measure of the extent to which such a goal is achieved, and evidence about the way that measure has been reached. We call such idea of algorithmic transparency “design publicity.” We argue that design publicity can be more easily linked with the justification of the use and of the design of the algorithm, and of each individual decision following from it. In comparison to post-hoc explanations of individual algorithmic decisions, design publicity meets a different demand (the demand for impersonal justification) of the explainee. Finally, we argue that when models that pursue justifiable goals (which may include fairness as avoidance of bias towards specific groups) to a justifiable degree are used consistently, the resulting decisions are all justified even if some of them are (unavoidably) based on incorrect predictions. For this argument, we rely on John Rawls’s idea of procedural justice applied to algorithms conceived as institutions. (shrink)

The pluralist sheds the more traditional ideas of truth and ontology. This is dangerous, because it threatens instability of the theory. To lend stability to his philosophy, the pluralist trades truth and ontology for rigour and other ‘fixtures’. Fixtures are the steady goal posts. They are the parts of a theory that stay fixed across a pair of theories, and allow us to make translations and comparisons. They can ultimately be moved, but we tend to keep them fixed temporarily. Apart (...) from considering rigour of proof as a fixture, I discuss fixed models, invariant notions and fixed information about objects across theories. There are other fixtures, but it is enough to start with these. (shrink)

In this study, we explore the role of Chief Executive Officers’ incentives, split between monetary and non-monetary, in relation to corporate social responsibility. We base our analysis on a sample of 597 US firms over the period 2005–2009. We find that both monetary and non-monetary incentives have an effect on CSR decisions. Specifically, monetary incentives designed to align the CEO’s and shareholders’ interests have a negative effect on CSR and non-monetary incentives have a positive effect on CSR. The study has (...) important implications for the design of executive remuneration plans, as we show that there are many levers that can affect the CEO’s decisions with regard to CSR. Our evidence also confirms the prominent role of the CEO in relation to CSR decisions, while also recognizing the complexity of factors affecting CSR. Finally, we propose a research design that takes into account endogeneity issues arising when examining compensation variables. (shrink)

I discuss Steinhart’s argument against Benacerraf’s famous multiple-reductions argument to the effect that numbers cannot be sets. Steinhart offers a mathematical argument according to which there is only one series of sets to which the natural numbers can be reduced, and thus attacks Benacerraf’s assumption that there are multiple reductions of numbers to sets. I will argue that Steinhart’s argument is problematic and should not be accepted.

In this paper I aim to illuminate the significance of thought insertion for debates about the first-person concept. My starting point is the often-voiced contention that thought insertion might challenge the thesis that introspection-based self-ascriptions of psychological properties are immune to error through misidentification relative to the first-person concept. In the first part of the paper I explain what a thought insertion-based counterexample to this immunity thesis should be like. I then argue that various thought insertion-involving scenarios do not give (...) rise to successful counterexamples to the immunity of the target class of self-ascriptions. In the second part of the paper I turn to defend a Metasemantic Explanation of why the immunity thesis holds. The Metasemantic Explanation rests on a reference-fixing story about the mental ‘I’ whose key contention is that introspective impressions play an essential role in fixing its reference. It is part of my argument in favour of the proposed reference-fixing story, as well as of the Metasemantic Explanation, that they respect the paradigmatic features of self-ascriptions of inserted thoughts. (shrink)

The validity of psychological measurement is crucially connected to a peculiar form of epistemic circularity. This circularity can be a threat when there are no independent ways to assess whether a certain procedure is actually measuring the intended target of measurement. This paper focuses on how Gustav Theodor Fechner addressed the measurement circularity that emerged in his psychophysical research. First, I show that Fechner's approach to the problem of circular measurement involved a core idealizing assumption of a shared human physiology. (...) Second, I assess Fechner's approach to this issue against the backdrop of his own epistemology of measurement and the measurement context of his time. Third, I claim that, from a coherentist and historicallysituated perspective, Fechner's quantification can be regarded as a first successful step of a longer-term quantification process. To conclude, I draw from these insights some general epistemological reflections that are relevant to current quantitative psychology. (shrink)

We argue that in extensive decision problems (extensive games with a single player) with imperfect recall care must be taken in interpreting information sets and strategies. Alternative interpretations allow for different kinds of analysis. We address the following issues: 1. randomization at information sets; 2. consistent beliefs; 3. time consistency of optimal plans; 4. the multiselves approach to decision making. We illustrate our discussion through an example that we call the ‘‘paradox of the absentminded driver.’’ Journal of Economic Literature Classification (...) Numbers: C7, D0. 1997 Academic Press. (shrink)