Affirming the consequent is a fallacious form of reasoning in formal logic that occurs when the minor premise of a propositional syllogism affirms the consequent of a conditional statement. A conditional statement is an “if‐then” sentence that expresses a link between the antecedent (the part after the “if”) and the consequent (the part after the “then”). A conditional statement does not assert either the antecedent or the consequent. It simply claims that if the antecedent is true, then the consequent is (...) also true. Although affirming the consequent is an invalid argument form and sometimes mistaken for, the valid argument form modus ponens. Modus ponens is a valid argument form in Western philosophy because the truth of the premises guarantees the truth of the conclusion; however, affirming the consequent is an invalid argument form because the truth of the premises does not guarantee the truth of the conclusion. (shrink)

American distance running legend Steve Prefontaine – ‘Pre’ – claimed that he was an artist and that his races were works of art. In this article, I examine and defend Pre’s claims. Using Robert Stecker’s definition of art as a guide, I argue that a race can be a work of art – specifically, performance art. I then argue that Pre’s 3,000 m American record race at the 1972 Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway, and his 5,000 m final at the (...) 1972 Munich Olympics illustrate his view of himself as an artist and are works of art in Stecker’s sense of achieving excellence in fulfilling an artistic function. (shrink)

In “Descartes’s Theodicy of Error,” Michael J. Latzer argues that the Fourth Meditation has “general significance for the project of theodicy” and offers “asolution to the problem of evil as complete, in its own succinct way, as Leibniz’s is on a grander scale.” I do not think that anyone has accurately understood the complex theodicy offered there, however. Commentators disagree about the argument(s) and have not carefully explained exactly what Descartes says that applies to the problem of evil. The purpose (...) of my paper is three-fold. I (1) explain the theodicy that Descartes offers to explain philosophical error in the Fourth Meditation; (2) argue that although we are justified in understanding this theodicy as concerning the problem of evil, the advice Descartes offers for avoiding philosophical error does not apply to avoiding sin (an example of evil); and (3) argue that the theodicy may actually be no theodicy at all. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung. Im Wandel vom paternalistischen zum partnerschaftlichen Arzt-Patient-Verhältnis werden auch Konfliktsituationen am Ende des Lebens aus einem anderen Blickwinkel gesehen. Der Fortschritt der Intensivmedizin und die zunehmende Zahl chronisch Kranker schaffen hier neue ethische Probleme. Am Fall eines Patienten, der an einer Amyotrophen Lateralsklerose litt, wird der Autonomiekonflikt zwischen Selbst- und Fremdbestimmung verdeutlicht. Juristische, medizinische und ethische Argumente werden fallbezogen dargestellt und der Stellenwert von Patientenverfügungen und das derzeitige deutsche Betreuungsrecht diskutiert.

Der erste Andronikos erwies sich unter jenen Kaisern, welchen auf dem Thron des byzantinischen Reiches nur eine kurze Zeitspanne beschieden war, als besonderer Liebling der Nymphe Echo. Geboren um 1120, tritt dieser kaiserliche Neffe und Ziehbruder eines Kaisers als eine im wahren Wortsinn changierende Gestalt des 12. Jahrhunderts vor unsere Augen. Zeitlebens war er der vornehmste Opponent seines Vetters, des Kaisers Manuel Komnenos (reg. 1143–1180); er verbrachte neun Jahre im Kerker (1154/55–Herbst 1164) und lebte nach abenteuerlicher Flucht für weitere fünfzehn (...) Jahre in Verbannung (1164/65, 1166–1180). Als er spät im Jahr 1183 schließlich zum Basileus der Rhomäer avancierte, schreckte er vor dem Meuchelmord an seinem Neffen, dem jungen Kaiser Alexios, nicht zurück – um seinerseits kaum zwei Jahre später von Hand des konstantinopolitanischen Pöbels das wohl grausamste Ende zu finden, das jemals einem byzantinischen Autokrator zuteil wurde (September 1185): Das prophezeite AIMA der Komnenoi hatte sich erfüllt. Andronikos' kurze Tyrannis ist eingerahmt von den blutigen Ausschreitungen der Konstantinopolitaner wider die Lateiner (April 1182) und deren Nemesis, der normannischen Eroberung und Plünderung Thessalonikes (August 1185). Einige beherzte Maßnahmen seinerseits, groben Mißständen Abhilfe zu leisten, wurden bereits von den Zeitgenossen mit Lob bedacht. Die folgenden Glossen richten den Fokus allerdings vor allem auf jene Jahre, in denen odysseusgleiche Irrfahrten Andronikos bis hinauf in die Lande der Rus' (1164/65) und schließlich von Jerusalem über Damaskus und Bagdad nach Georgien führten (zwischen 1167 und 1180), ehe er in der Herrschaft der Saltuḳ-oġullari im nordöstlichen Winkel Kleinasiens, bei Koloneia (türk. Şebinkarahisar), Zuflucht fand. (shrink)

Although philosophy courses are not known for hands-on learning activities in which students use, manipulate, or touch objects with their hands, there are simple hands-on activities that teachers can use to liven up their classrooms and foster active learning. In this paper I describe four activities I developed to attempt to improve student learning: GoldiLocke and the Three Buckets, The Argument From Disagreement Box, The Trolley Problem Reenactment, and The Lego Man of Theseus. I argue that such activities are effective (...) for two main reasons: they are fun; and they involve embodied learning. Finally, I offer some advice for developing hands-on learning activities for philosophy courses and share some of the ideas generated by session participants when I presented this material at the American Association of Philosophy Teachers Twentieth Biennial Workshop/Conference. (shrink)

This chapter focuses on one of the common fallacies in Western philosophy, 'denying the antecedent'. Like affirming the consequent, denying the antecedent is also a fallacious form of reasoning in formal logic. This time the problem occurs when the minor premise of a propositional syllogism denies the antecedent of a conditional statement. Denying the antecedent makes the mistake of assuming that if the antecedent is denied, then the consequent must also be denied. Like modus ponens, modus tollens is a valid (...) argument form because the truth of the premises guarantees the truth of the conclusion; however, like affirming the consequent, denying the antecedent is an invalid argument form because the truth of the premises does not guarantee the truth of the conclusion. The invalidity of denying the antecedent is confirmed by a truth table presented in the chapter. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: Descartes' Cogito Augustine's “Si fallor, sum” Argument (If I Am Mistaken, I Exist).

Given its non-invasive nature, there is increasing interest in the use of transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation across basic, translational and clinical research. Contemporaneously, tVNS can be achieved by stimulating either the auricular branch or the cervical bundle of the vagus nerve, referred to as transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation and transcutaneous cervical VNS, respectively. In order to advance the field in a systematic manner, studies using these technologies need to adequately report sufficient methodological detail to enable comparison of results between (...) studies, replication of studies, as well as enhancing study participant safety. We systematically reviewed the existing tVNS literature to evaluate current reporting practices. Based on this review, and consensus among participating authors, we propose a set of minimal reporting items to guide future tVNS studies. The suggested items address specific technical aspects of the device and stimulation parameters. We also cover general recommendations including inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants, outcome parameters and the detailed reporting of side effects. Furthermore, we review strategies used to identify the optimal stimulation parameters for a given research setting and summarize ongoing developments in animal research with potential implications for the application of tVNS in humans. Finally, we discuss the potential of tVNS in future research as well as the associated challenges across several disciplines in research and clinical practice. (shrink)

In 21 CE, a series of localized movements broke out in Gallia Comata due to heavy debts among provincials according to Tacitus. Modern scholars have long argued that the indebtedness occurred because of rising interest rates, resulting from dwindling currency in circulation after decades of free-spending following Augustus’ victory at Actium, and that Gallic communities were subjected to an additional tribute to support the wars of Germanicus (14–16 CE), which continued unabated after the wars and pushed Gauls beyond their (...) means. These claims are misguided, however, in that there is no certain evidence of a special tax to support Germanicus’ wars and that the argument for a dwindling circulation of currency in Gaul falters under closer inspection. Rather, the pressing statal and military needs imposed on communities in Gallia Comata after 9 CE on top of routine exactions could significantly increase burden levels levied on provincial populations, thus contributing to rising debts. Through examining how Roman logistics and conscription operated in this period, it is possible to trace how populations were impacted by such demands and which communities were most heavily affected by them, too. Individually, the impact of each factor is unlikely to have been burdensome enough to have caused large-scale resistance, it is only the cumulative effect that these explanations had on top of routine Roman extraction schemes that could create the conditions for this revolt. This paper argues that in extraordinary circumstances, such as the period after the Varian Disaster for Gallia Comata, the costs of supporting military campaigns places real short-term strains on local economies, which creates the conditions for revolt. The benefit of this approach is that it may explain other episodes of anti-fiscal resistance that broke out during or within a decade of wars in neighboring regions. (shrink)

St. Amand could count among his many feats the extraordinary achievement of social equilibrium. “The way he was in the midst of the rich and the poor,” his hagiographer marveled, “the poor saw him as a poor man, and the rich treated him as their better.” On a résumé of miracles performed and peoples converted, this accomplishment was no less impressive. Bishops in the post-Roman kingdoms of Gaul/Francia maintained an ongoing balancing act between seeking social and political distinction, on the (...) one hand, and fulfilling their obligation to defend the poor, on the other. Their authority increasingly depended upon both, even as it engendered a tension between elitism and inclusivity. To study bishops' choice of company is therefore to highlight the difficulty inherent in an ambitious pastoral and political positioning. Linked to the subject of the episcopal entourage, and to the issue of episcopal authority and its representation more generally, was a change in the culture of Merovingian government, for bishops were becoming more and more valuable to a monarchy that confronted new standards of responsibility toward its subjects. (shrink)

Scholarly discussions of the live burials of Gauls and Greeks in the Forum Boarium in the mid- and late Republic replay the debate on Roman imperialism; those supporting the theory of “defensive” imperialism connect religious fears with military ones, while other scholars separate this ritual and the “enemy nations” involved in it from the actual enemies of current warfare in order to corroborate a more aggressive sense of Roman imperialism. After reviewing earlier interpretations and the problems of ancient evidence (...) for these Roman instances of “human sacrifice,” I propose a new reading based on a ritual parallel, a slightly earlier Greek oracle related to purification from avenging spirits. As burials of symbolic former enemies haunting Rome, the ritual suggests an insight into the experience of constant warfare and close-contact killing by citizen-soldiers in an aggressively imperialistic state. Especially with the disappearance of captive killings in the symbolic context of aristocratic burials and the emergence of Hellenistic epic to address elite glory, the live burials could have been critical in providing psychological closure to the once-soldiers back in Rome. Remarkably, the ritual offered an outlet in the religious realm for sentiments unwelcome in the Roman army: in the larger dynamic of the military and religious spheres, the strict world of military discipline was complemented by a religious realm that was much more open to external influence and innovation. (shrink)

Gauz revient dans cet entretien sur son dernier roman, Camarade Papa, lequel a reçu le Grand Prix Littéraire d’Afrique Noire en 2018. Il nous ouvre des chemins pour mieux le lire. Celui de raconter une histoire de l’Histoire, à hauteur d’hommes, adultes ou enfants, pleine de beauté, d’idéaux et de liberté. Celui de sortir de la couleur pour retrouver la capacité de ravissement et défendre les façons de parler comme cultures et armes politiques. Celui de nommer la beauté de l’espoir (...) des migrants, qui sont des « super espérants ». (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Klio Jahrgang: 99 Heft: 2 Seiten: 753-757.

Julius Caesar was remembered in later times for the unprecedented scale of his military activity. He was also remembered for writing copiously while on campaign. Focusing on the period of Rome's war with Gaul , this paper argues that the two activities were interrelated: writing helped to facilitate the Roman conquest of the Gallic peoples. It allowed Caesar to send messages within his own theater of operations, sometimes with distinctive advantages; it helped him stay in touch with Rome, from where (...) he obtained ever more resources; and it helped him, in his Gallic War above all, to turn the story of his scattered campaigns into a coherent narrative of the subjection of a vast territory henceforward to be called “Gaul.” The place of epistolography in late Republican politics receives new analysis in the paper, with detailed discussion of the evidence of Cicero. (shrink)

It may be affirmed with some confidence that on this topic no generally accepted solution will be found in default of new evidence, for which we can only faintly hope. Against certainty on the matter it would seem that the Everlasting has fixed his canon: quis iustius induit arma scire nefas. Dogmatism is out of place; we must be content with whatever theory is least difficult to reconcile with the texts and with a reasonable interpretation of the course of events (...) at the time and the comments on them of contemporary observers. The thesis advanced in this paper is that there are strong reasons for supposing that the Lex Pompeia Licinia contained a date by which Caesar's command ended, that this date was not the end of February of the year 50 or the year 49 or the end of December of the year 50, that it did not contain a clause forbidding the discussion of a successor to Caesar before March 1, 50, and that if the date ending his command lies between the end of February and the end of December of the year 50, it may have been in fact the Ides of November in that year. (shrink)