In this paper we give new criterions for left distributive posets to have neatest representations. We also illustrate a construction that would embed left distributive posets into representable semilattices.

The concepts of pleasure and good, both separately and in their relation to one another, have for centuries been a favourite and fruitful subject of philosophical discussion. The contrasting concepts of pain and evil, however, though by no means entirely neglected, have been, and still are, less popular among philosophers. The reason for this disparity is not altogether clear. The title of a recent autobiography, “Philosophers lead sheltered lives,” might support the explanation that philosophers are reluctant to write on matters (...) of which they have little or no first-hand knowledge. Pleasure and good, it may be said, form part of their own personal experience: but their academic seclusion has little place for either pain or evil. A more serious reason is the assumption, often made but rarely defended, that, since pain and pleasure, evil and good, are in some sense pairs of “opposites,” a full discussion of all four concepts is unnecessary. The nature of pain, it is thought, can easily be inferred from the nature of pleasure, and that of evil from that of good. But even if this were true, it ought not to be taken for granted; the belief that these concepts are symmetrically disposed opposites ought to be held only after an investigation into all of them. And in fact the belief is not true. It does not need profound insight or observation to see that we cannot construct a simple hedonic scale on which pleasure appears as a plus, and pain as a minus quantity. Contemporary hedonists have often paid more attention to the psychological complexities involved in this problem than did their classical predecessors. A. L. Hilliard, for example, distinguishes carefully between pain and unpleasantness. Pain he describes as a sensitivity, “correlated with the excitation of specific receptors in the nervous system”: unpleasantness is an affectivity to which physiological correlates, though they must be assumed to exist, have not yet been discovered. (shrink)

O presente artigo busca refletir sobre a especificidade da crítica literária desenvolvida por Georg Lukács. A literatura sempre foi um objeto privilegiado em toda sua trajetória intelectual. No entanto, há diferenças consideráveis no modo como ele a aborda, diferenças que respondem, em larga medida, a injunções políticas e históricas. Partimos de considerações mais gerais sobre a relação de Lukács com a literatura, em que se coloca o problema a respeito do papel da história como história literária e como reconciliação entre (...) as necessidades artísticas e aquelas do desenvolvimento histórico. Em seguida, apresentamos mais detidamente alguns aspectos da “estética comunista” de Lukács. Nesse ponto, esse artigo focará na controvérsia contra o sociologismo vulgar, que marcou o desenvolvimento do pensamento estético soviético e teve um papel fundamental na constituição da crítica literária de Lukács. Alguns traços da maneira como Lukács se coloca como historiador e crítico literário aparecem claramente na sua intervenção no debate sobre o romance, um dos episódios do enfrentamento do sociologismo vulgar, que será comentado ao final. (shrink)

In this study, we investigated endorsement of two types of prescriptive views of aging, namely active aging and altruistic disengagement. The study comprised a large international sample of middle-aged and older adults, covering the age range from 40 to 90 years. Participants rated their personal endorsement of prescriptive views of active aging and altruistic disengagement targeting older adults in general. Findings showed that endorsement was higher for prescriptions for active aging than for prescriptions for altruistic disengagement. Age groups in the (...) sample differed regarding their endorsement of both prescriptive views of active aging and altruistic disengagement with older adults showing higher endorsement than middle-aged adults did. Prescriptive views of active aging and altruistic disengagement related positively to each other and to the superordinate social belief that older adults should not become a burden, which attests to their functional similarity. In contrast, prescriptive views of active aging and altruistic disengagement were associated with psychological adjustment in opposite ways, with endorsement of active aging being related to better adjustment outcomes such as life satisfaction and subjective health. Our findings highlight the internalization of prescriptive views of aging in older people and their implications for their development and well-being. (shrink)

Does trust play a significant role in the appreciation of art? If so, how does it operate? We argue that it does, and that the mechanics of trust operate both at a general and a particular level. After outlining the general notion of ‘art-trust’—the notion sketched is consistent with most notions of trust on the market—and considering certain objections to the model proposed, we consider specific examples to show in some detail that the experience of works of art, and the (...) attribution of art-relevant properties or characterisations to works of art, very often involves the notion of trust; in such cases—perhaps most or even, implicitly, all—the question ‘Do I trust the artist (or art-maker)?’, is inescapable. (shrink)

In a now classic paper, Karen Carr argues that Kierkegaard is a religious “anti-rationalist”: He holds that reason and religious truth exist in necessary tension with one another. Carr maintains that this antagonism is not a matter of the logical incoherence of Christianity, but rather the fact that genuine submission to Christ precludes approaching him through demonstration. In this essay, we argue that while Kierkegaard is in fact an anti-rationalist, the literature has failed to appreciate the full strength of his (...) position. It is not just that reason and obedience are in tension; rather, Kierkegaard holds the stronger view that reason is actively offended by Christianity’s primary claims. Not only is reason incapable of generating any positive evidence for the truth of Christianity, more radically, it provides evidence against it. In order to make this case, we offer a close reading of Practice in Christianity, developing a typology of Kierkegaard’s account of Christ’s “offense.” Finally, having motivated Kierkegaard’s strong anti-rationalism, we consider why, on his account, anyone would want to be a Christian. (shrink)

This paper analyzes the ergodic hypothesis in the context of Boltzmann’s late work in statistical mechanics, where Boltzmann lays the foundations for what is today known as the typicality account. I argue that, based on the concepts of stationarity (of the measure) and typicality (of the equilibrium state), the ergodic hypothesis, as an idealization, is a consequence rather than an assumption of Boltzmann’s account. More precisely, it can be shown that every system with a stationary measure and an equilibrium state (...) (be it a typical state with respect to the phase space or the time average) behaves essentially as if it were ergodic. I claim that Boltzmann was aware of this fact as it grounds both his notion of equilibrium, relating it to the thermodynamic notion of equilibrium, and his estimate of the fluctuation rates. (shrink)

Xenotransplantation is often deemed morally objectionable because of the costs it imposes on the organ donor and the risks it imposes on the recipient. For some, involving human–pig chimeras as donors makes the practice more objectionable or even abhorrent from the start. For others, by contrast, using such chimeras weakens recipient-based objections because it reduces the risk of organ rejection and malfunctioning, and cancels donor-based objections because the practice does not harm chimeras but instead gives them valuable lives they would (...) not otherwise have. The paper examines and eventually rejects the latter defense. It also discusses the additional risks of chimeric xenotourism in countries with less demanding procedural guidelines and reflects on two very different futures for humanity that may emerge from supporting or rejecting chimeric xenotransplantation. (shrink)

In the future, it is likely that we will form strong bonds of attachment and even develop love for social robots. Some of these loving relations will be, from the human’s perspective, as significant as a loving relationship that they might have had with another human. This means that, from the perspective of the loving human, the mindless destruction of their robot partner could be as devastating as the murder of another’s human partner. Yet, the loving partner of a robot (...) has no recourse to legal action beyond the destruction of property and can see no way to prevent future people suffering the same devastating loss. On this basis, some have argued that such a scenario must surely motivate legal protection for social robots. In this paper, I argue that despite the devastating loss that would come from the destruction of one’s robot partner, love cannot itself be a reason for granting robot rights. However, although I argue against beloved robots having protective rights, I argue that the loss of a robot partner must be socially recognised as a form of bereavement if further secondary harms are to be avoided, and that, if certain conditions obtain, the destruction of a beloved robot could be criminalised as a hate crime. (shrink)

Philosophical theories of memory rarely distinguish between importantly different sorts of memory: procedural, semantic and episodic. I argue for a temporal representation theory to explain the unique characteristic of episodic memory as the only form of conscious memory. A careful distinction between implicit and explicit representation shows how the past figures in memory. In procedural and semantic memory, the influence of the past is implicit by which I mean that the past experience is used but not represented in the skill (...) or knowledge. Episodic memory, in contrast, depends on representing a past experience as past. On a temporal representation theory of consciousness, a conscious state represents the present moment, and in the case of episodic memory, it includes a representation of past experience. The embedded account of the ‘feeling of pastness’ takes past experience to be part of the explicit content of a conscious state. An episodic memory is a representation of the present that includes a representation of the past. Whereas a higher-order theory of consciousness can give no reason why only episodic memories are conscious, a temporal theory explains why episodic memories are both higher-order and conscious. Finally, I consider the essential role of episodic memory in the formation of a temporally extended self. The demands of a social environment motivate development of an ability to track the mental states of others and oneself over time. By incorporating past experience (and future experience) into the present, episodic memory extends experience in time to form the sense of self. Through a careful examination of the function of temporal representation, we can see why the past is not consciously represented in procedural and semantic memory and the value of consciously representing the past in episodic memory. (shrink)

The animal entertainment industry includes different practices. Some consist in torturing an animal to death, as in bullfighting and countless other popular traditions, while others involve watching an animal in captivity, which can be another form of torture. Perhaps the most profitable practice is forcing very intelligent animals to perform the same routine several times daily in zoos and aquariums containing marine mammals, or in circuses containing terrestrial mammals. These businesses then present the animals in whatever way that makes the (...) practice appear less immoral, claim to have education and conservation as their mission, and present their entertainment businesses as altruistic charities. Disseminating their misleading discourse is unethical. (shrink)

We examine the concept of personhood in relation to people living with dementia and implications for the humanity of care, drawing on a body of ethnographic work. Much debate has searched for an adequate account of the person for these purposes. Broad contrasts can be made between accounts focusing on cognition and mental faculties, and accounts focusing on embodied and relational aspects of the person. Some have suggested the concept of the person is critical for good care; others suggest the (...) vexed debates mean that the concept should be abandoned. We argue instead that the competing accounts illuminate the very tensions in personhood which are manifest for all of us, but especially for people living with dementia, and argue that our account has explanatory power in shedding light on how precisely dehumanisation and constraints on agency may arise for people living with dementia, and for staff, within an institutional context. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem por pretensão central discutir alguns aspectos fundamentais da crítica de Nietzsche à metafísica, já nas suas primeiras reflexões filosóficas. Para tanto, serão mobilizados alguns de seus principais argumentos contra o estabelecimento da vontade como coisa em si no pensamento de Arthur Schopenhauer, e, por conseguinte, contra o próprio estatuto da metafísica nesta filosofia, de tal modo que se possa demonstrar as soluções encontradas pelo próprio autor a favor da possibilidade da metafísica. O artigo conta ainda, desse (...) modo, poder contribuir para as discussões em torno da relação entre reflexões privadas e textos publicados do filósofo alemão, na medida em que defende a tese de que a partir de uma análise da crítica à metafísica em suas anotações pessoais se pode compreender os germes da mudança de postura em relação à mesma em seus textos publicados. (shrink)

In this study, we investigated explicit and implicit endorsement of prescriptive age stereotypes. To achieve that, we captured endorsement of a wide range of prescriptive expectations targeting both younger and older people. Younger and older adults participated in the study. We assessed implicit endorsement of prescriptive age stereotypes with the Propositional Evaluation Paradigm and used a direct measure to assess explicit endorsement. In general, we found strong support for age-specificity in both explicit and implicit endorsement of prescriptive age stereotypes: Sentences (...) ascribing expectations for young/old to the respective age group were endorsed much more strongly than sentences in which expectations for young/old were ascribed to the other age group. Age group differences in the endorsement of prescriptive age stereotypes were found. Compared to younger participants, older participants showed stronger endorsement for prescriptive beliefs targeting both younger and older targets. Explicit and implicit endorsement of prescriptive age stereotypes did not correlate with one another, thus revealing they might assess independent belief systems with different predictive potential. (shrink)

According to the authors of Populism and Civil Society, ‘populism is situated within the democratic imaginary’ but its logic is authoritarian. This article agrees with the first but challenges the second argument by focussing on the question of representation. In the case of ‘populism as government’ the tensions between bottom-up and top-down articulations seem to be more or less resolved by the repression of bottom-up organization, but in so doing, so the argument of this article, populism is mutating into something (...) else. Furthermore, ‘populist dictatorship’ seems to be closer to a dictatorship strategically using populist tools than to an intrinsic populist logic. While I agree with the authors on the authoritarian cases of populism in government, my argument diverges from the book when it comes to populism as government and introduces a discussion about the nature of populism. To this purpose, I first propose a complex definition of populism which understands populism not as the essence, but as one component of hybrid authoritarian formations, thus enabling the disentanglement of populism, authoritarianism, and totalitarianism. Second, I examine two components of populism that Arato and Cohen lay out in the book: the specific representation pars pro toto and embodiment. Building on Lefort, I argue that these components are not populist but totalitarian and that the empirical manifestations of populism are always hybrid, mixing populist and authoritarian or even totalitarian components. (shrink)

We extend meet-combination of logics for capturing the consequences that are common to both logics. With this purpose in mind we define meet-combination of consequence systems. This notion has the advantage of accommodating different ways of presenting the semantics and the deductive calculi. We consider consequence systems generated by a matrix semantics and consequence systems generated by Hilbert calculi. The meet-combination of consequence systems generated by matrix semantics is the consequence system generated by their product. On the other hand, the (...) meet-combination of consequence systems generated by Hilbert calculi is the consequence system generated by their interconnection. We investigate preservation of several properties. Capitalizing on these results we show that interconnection provides an axiomatization for the product. Illustrations are given for intuitionistic and modal logics, Łukasiewicz logic and some paraconsistent logics. (shrink)

In this paper I make a case for differentiating the process of decolonization in education from the process of dismantling the values of the empire and their continuing, subliminal role in our thought and practice (the gaze of the empire). I argue that ignoring the empire within (particularly the word ‘empire’ itself) is what sustains the colonial gaze and what constitutes decolonization’s greatest obstacle. I employ a poststructuralist framework (Foucault, 1980), which helps me explore notions of power and knowledge through (...) language and the gaze. To illuminate discussions, I make use of some of the historical context necessary to understand the spirit and the tragedy of empire, with its language as principal instrument, as well as some of the literary aspects (Magical Realism and poetry) that have been used to gaze at the colonized and redeem the conqueror. (shrink)

Suppose that the basic structures of two societies conform to Rawls’s principles of justice. One of these societies, however, includes—in addition to a just basic structure—an egalitarian ethos that further reduces inequalities that do not benefit the least advantaged. G. A. Cohen and others have argued that the second society is more just, thus rejecting any restriction of Rawls’s principles of justice to the basic structure. Andrew Williams has revived the basic structure restriction in the form of a publicity requirement. (...) This paper highlights various problems with this attempt. In addition, it shows that an egalitarian ethos admits various plausible reformulations that could meet Williams’s publicity requirements. This only amounts to a partial victory for Cohen, however. In fact, the Rawlsian position could come out of this discussion strengthened, not because it can resist the egalitarian critique, but because it can incorporate its essence in the form of a set of more precise and specific public rules. (shrink)

La figura de la bruxa, desde su origen histórico como depositaria de saberes y prácticas tradicionales hasta su revitalización en el movimiento neorrural contemporáneo, representa un enclave de gran significación cultural y un ejemplo paradigmático de la feminidad. Este artículo analiza la tríada cíclica y transformativa tierra-vida-muerte como punto interseccional en el que se sitúa la bruxa en la ruralidad. A través de entrevistas con mujeres (neor)rurales que se identifican con esta figura, desvelamos su importante labor social y el legado (...) que deja en las comunidades campesinas como agente de cambio político, ecologista y feminista. La bruxa renace, pues, como una identidad rebelde y reivindicativa, desafiante del discurso hegemónico y luchadora por la diversidad y la simbiosis con la naturaleza. Este estudio propone (re)consideraciones que invitan a no estigmatizar los márgenes ni a sus habitantes, a deconstruir los discursos normativos y a redefinir los marcos de sentido y significado en los que clasificamos el conocimiento y a sus sujetos. En definitiva, la bruxa y su contexto rural se erigen como símbolos de diversidad, pluralidad y (trans)diferencia, fundamentales en la búsqueda de una sociedad más inclusiva y justa. (shrink)

O presente artigo possui duas divisões básicas. Na primeira, almeja-se avaliar algumas das teses de Jacobi presentes na obra Proposições preliminares sobre a dependência e a liberdade do homem. Na segunda parte, o intuito é investigar a influência de Jacobi no pensamento de Kierkegaard, especialmente por meio de uma leitura selecionada de trechos dos Diários e das obras Migalhas filosóficas e Pós-escrito às migalhas filosóficas. Por fim, à guisa de conclusão, pretendemos ressaltar a importância de algumas das teses de Jacobi (...) na obra do autor dinamarquês. (shrink)

Forty years on, G. A. Cohen’s reconstruction and defence of Marx’s theory of history is still widely, and justifiably, considered the best of its kind, and it remains unsurpassed in clarity, argumentation and textual support. This article presents an under-explored critique of the theory that arises once we recognize that it is meant to apply to the circumstances of women as well as men. The article argues that, when extended to women, the reconstructed theory’s predictions fail to materialize, its characterizations (...) of historical stages fall apart, and its functional explanations appear implausible. In addition, although the theory claims to be able to explain the emergence and diffusion of different ideologies by their effects on productive development, it cannot plausibly explain the presence of sexist ideologies despite their pervasive and profound impact across history. The article concludes by showing that these flaws highlight the many respects in which Cohen’s orthodox version of Marxism is a conservative ideology, and one that egalitarians in particular should view with suspicion. Once we analyse the different components of the theory, the idea of a right-wing Marxism no longer seems as odd as it sounds. (shrink)

The need to use green taxes to protect the environment is urgent, particularly because of climate change, and can be justified via sound deontological and consequence-based arguments. One very influential criticism of such taxes, however, claims that they disproportionately burden relatively poor individuals who tend to contribute to environmental problems far less than wealthier persons. Critics can also object that because of the link between economic inequality and environmental destruction it is preferable to adopt environmental measures that impede rather than (...) accelerate the growth of inequality. Defusing these criticisms, the article argues that various types of green fiscal reform can both avoid disproportionally burdening those who pollute least and reduce the economic inequalities that income taxes leave behind, and slow down the collectively self-defeating consumption arms race that currently besets so many affluent societies. Global progressive environmental taxation is also a possibility, and even easier to justify. (shrink)

A profound problem in viewing operant learning as selection appears to be the identification of replicators. Given the lack of consensus on what constitutes the appropriate unit of analysis for behavior, there may be multiple levels at which the metaphor of selection may be usefully applied. A final difficulty: The elements of selection in the evolution of species are objects. In behavior, they are events.

Evolution would favor organisms that can make recurrent decisions in accordance with classical probability (CP) theory, because such choices would be optimal in the long run. This is illustrated by the base-rate fallacy and probability matching, where nonhumans choose optimally but humans do not. Quantum probability (QP) theory may be able to account for these species differences in terms of orthogonal versus nonorthogonal representations.

The predictive validity of the ultimatum game (UG) for cross-cultural differences in real-world behavior has not yet been established. We discuss results of a recent meta-analysis (Oosterbeek et al 2004), which examined UG behavior across large-scale societies and found that the mean percent offers rejected was positively correlated with social expenditure.

Este artigo aborda o combate que empreendeu Gustavo Corção à juventude católica brasileira nas páginas do Diário de Notícias e d’ O Globo entre as décadas de 1950 e de 1960. No caso em tela, interessa-nos entender as reações de Gustavo Corção às mudanças na sociedade e na Igreja Católica entre 1957 e 1964. A hipótese é que as críticas de Corção explicitam o conflito entre duas gerações de católicos: uma conservadora; a dele; e outra progressista, a das organizações de (...) jovens católicos, mais especificamente, a da Juventude Universitária Católica (JUC). Apresentaremos a disputa a partir do exame da seguinte questão: o papel que a juventude brasileira deveria desempenhar naqueles anos. O objetivo é mostrar que suas críticas à opção de ação temporal assumida pelas organizações de juventude católica devem ser lidas pela chave do conflito geracional que marcou o campo católico brasileiro. Palavras-chave : Catolicismo. Gerações. Gustavo Corção. Juventude católica.: This paper discusses the fight of Brazilian Catholic Youth Gustavo Corção in the newspapers Diário de Notícias and O Globo in the 1950s and 1960s. In case we are interested in understanding the reactions of Gustavo Corção to changes in society and the Catholic Church between 1957 and 1964. The hypothesis is that the criticism of Corção explains the conflict between two generations of Catholics: a conservative and other progressive, represented by the Catholic youth organizations, more specifically, the Youth Catholic University. We are going to examine the question: the role that Brazilian youth should play in those years. Therefore, the aim is to show that his criticism of the political action undertaken by the young catholic organizations should be read by the key of generation conflict which has marked the Brazilian Catholic field. Key words: Catholicism. Generations. Gustavo Corção. Catholic youth organizations. (shrink)

This article aim to show the aesthetics and ethics values whose relation traces could be found in theological text studies. We use bibliographic review as methodology to this research. Considering these elements and how it was found we ask: how can we validate such elements to understand the theological text? When we are analyzing ethics behaviors can we consider the found results as intrinsic values in such discoveries and can it be compared in different times, in other words, it is (...) available if we bring it out to our time without prejudice considering criteria. We know values and beliefs can change according different times, but the main question that translates our doubt is: how can we consider the ethical and aesthetical values described in different times avoiding damage then to be impartial in the research? In spite of lots of doubts rose, what can support on our research reading are historic and current images we can validate as support line to comparative analysis considering ethics and aesthetics values found. This text will be presented as communication in this event.Key Words: Methodology. Ethics and research. Aesthetics and research. Theological methodology. (shrink)