This essay explores the thought of Heidegger and Sartre concerning whether existentialism is conducive to a certain ethics conceived of as a theory of moral conduct. In the Letter on Humanism, Heidegger stresses the importance of a return to the idea of “ethos” as a replacement for the metaphysically conceived “ethics.” Sartre, conversely, in his essay Existentialism is a Humanism outlines an ethics that draws heavily from the philosophical tradition. This paper’s guiding question is whether the study of human existence, (...) given the views of these thinkers, leads to a particular ethics, or whether it suggests something like Heidegger’s return to the ancient Greek notion of “ethos,” that is, morality conceived of as a manner of being. The paper outlines the basic conceptions of human being held by these two thinkers, and shows how their individual conceptions of ethics unfold from these. I explicate and bring these thinkers’ conceptions of ethics into contrast in order to approach an answer to the question of whether existentialism is conducive to an ethics. (shrink)

A mass problem is a set of functions$\omega \to \omega $. For mass problems${\mathcal {C}}, {\mathcal {D}}$, one says that${\mathcal {C}}$is Muchnik reducible to${\mathcal {D}}$if each function in${\mathcal {C}}$is computed by a function in${\mathcal {D}}$. In this paper we study some highness properties of Turing oracles, which we view as mass problems. We compare them with respect to Muchnik reducibility and its uniform strengthening, Medvedev reducibility.For$p \in [0,1]$let${\mathcal {D}}(p)$be the mass problem of infinite bit sequencesy(i.e.,$\{0,1\}$-valued functions) such that for each (...) computable bit sequencex, the bit sequence$ x {\,\leftrightarrow\,} y$has asymptotic lower density at mostp(where$x {\,\leftrightarrow\,} y$has a$1$in positionniff$x(n) = y(n)$). We show that all members of this family of mass problems parameterized by a realpwith$0 p$for each computable setx. We prove that the Medvedev (and hence Muchnik) complexity of the mass problems${\mathcal {B}}(p)$is the same for all$p \in (0, 1/2)$, by showing that they are Medvedev equivalent to the mass problem of functions bounded by${2^{2}}^{n}$that are almost everywhere different from each computable function.Next, together with Joseph Miller, we obtain a proper hierarchy of the mass problems of type$\text {IOE}$: we show that for any order functiongthere exists a faster growing order function$h $such that$\text {IOE}(h)$is strictly above$\text {IOE}(g)$in the sense of Muchnik reducibility.We study cardinal characteristics in the sense of set theory that are analogous to the highness properties above. For instance,${\mathfrak {d}} (p)$is the least size of a setGof bit sequences such that for each bit sequencexthere is a bit sequenceyinGso that$\underline \rho (x {\,\leftrightarrow\,} y)>p$. We prove within ZFC all the coincidences of cardinal characteristics that are the analogs of the results above. (shrink)

Gabriela Cursaru, Benoît Castelnérac, Yvon Lafrance, Catherine Collobert, Daniel Larose, Francisco Gonzalez, Sara Magrin, George Englebretsen, David Konstan, Margaret R. Graver, Bulletin de philosophie ancienne, Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, No. 3, Empédocle. Les Dieux, le sacrifice et la grâce (JUILLET-SEPTEMBRE 2012), pp. 403-454.

More and more organisations formulate a code of conduct in order to stimulate responsible behaviour among their members. Much time and energy is usually spent fixing the content of the code but many organisations get stuck in the challenge of implementing and maintaining the code. The code then turns into nothing else than the notorious "paper in the drawer", without achieving its aims. The challenge of implementation is to utilize the dynamics which have emerged from the formulation of the code. (...) This will support a continuous process of reflection on the central values and standards contained in the code. This paper presents an assessment method, based on the EFQM model, which intends to support this implementation process. (shrink)

There is an important class of conditionals whose assertibility conditions are not given by the Ramsey test but by an inductive extension of that test. Such inductive Ramsey conditionals fail to satisfy some of the core properties of plain conditionals. Associated principles of nonmonotonic inference should not be assumed to hold generally if interpretations in terms of induction or appeals to total evidence are not to be ruled out.

Recent research indicates that angry facial expressions are preferentially processed and may facilitate automatic avoidance response, especially in socially anxious individuals. However, few studies have examined whether this bias also expresses itself in more complex cognitive processes and behavior such as decision making. We recently introduced a variation of the Iowa Gambling Task which allowed us to document the influence of task-irrelevant emotional cues on rational decision making. The present study used a modified gambling task to investigate the impact of (...) angry facial expressions on decision making in 38 individuals with a wide range of social anxiety. Participants were to find out which choices were (dis-) advantageous to maximize overall gain. To create a decision conflict between approach of reward and avoidance of fear-relevant angry faces, advantageous choices were associated with angry facial expressions, whereas disadvantageous choices were associated with happy facial expressions. Results indicated that higher social avoidance predicted less advantageous decisions in the beginning of the task, i.e., when contingencies were still uncertain. Interactions with specific skin conductance responses further clarified that this initial avoidance only occurred in combination with elevated responses before choosing an angry facial expressions. In addition, an interaction between high trait anxiety and elevated responses to early losses predicted faster learning of an advantageous strategy. These effects were independent of intelligence, general risky decision-making, self-reported state anxiety, and depression. Thus, socially avoidant individuals who respond emotionally to angry facial expressions are more likely to show avoidance of these faces under uncertainty. This novel laboratory paradigm may be an appropriate analog for central features of social anxiety. (shrink)

The general and deep dissatisfaction with the present-day status of health care is of such intensity that one speaks of a health care crisis. What is most disturbing to the physicians is that society directs its accusation mainly at the health care professional for being responsible for this crisis. If we want to abolish the crisis we must try to get a renewed look at its source, i.e., to answer the questions where did health care go wrong primarily? and with (...) whom lies the ultimate responsibility for health care?. In the following discourse these questions are discussed. Based on the assumption that every human being is a free rational agent the ultimate health care responsibility is assigned to the citizen. Of course, whether such an approach will in fact solve the problems inherent in present-day health systems cannot be predicted. (shrink)

Experiences of absence are common in everyday life, but have received little philosophical attention until recently, when two positions regarding the nature of such experiences surfaced in the literature. According to the Perceptual View, experiences of absence are perceptual in nature. This is denied by the Surprise-Based View, according to which experiences of absence belong together with cases of surprise. In this paper, I show that there is a kind of experience of absence—which I call frustrating absences—that has been overlooked (...) by the Perceptual View and by the Surprise Based-View and that cannot be adequately explained by them. I offer an alternative account to deal with frustrating absences, one according to which experiencing frustrating absences is a matter of subjects having desires for something to be present frustrated by the world. Finally, I argue that there may well be different kinds of experiences of absence. (shrink)

Inleiding tot de westerse ideeëngeschiedenis.

RESUMO O presente artigo pretende sistematizar os principais elementos do conceito de "cena", termo fundamental para a conexão entre teoria e método no pensamento do filósofo francês Jacques Rancière. O "método da igualdade" empregado por Rancière pretende, entre outras coisas, delimitar os diferentes momentos de conflito entre regimes de verdade e atos de tomada da palavra - independentemente de classificações feitas a priori como dados para se investigar um objeto de estudo - por meio do conceito de "literalidade", que demonstra (...) duas lógicas distintas de circulação das palavras: de um lado, uma lógica "policial"; de outro, uma lógica "política". Desta maneira, o conceito de "cena" é um elemento central em uma significativa mudança da relação teoria-metodologia-objeto defendida por boa parte do meio acadêmico, inclusive na área de história, nos dias atuais, uma vez que toma a própria noção de historicidade como descontínua e considera amplamente a racionalidade das palavras em vez da minuciosa articulação dos fatos. ABSTRACT This article intends to systematize the main elements of the concept of 'scene', a fundamental term for the connection between theory and method in the thought of the French philosopher Jacques Rancière. Rancière's 'method of equality' aims, among other things, to delineate the different moments of conflict between regimes of truth and acts of taking the word - regardless of classifications made a priori as data to investigate an object of study - through of the concept of 'literality', which demonstrates two distinct logics of word circulation: on the one hand, a 'police' logic; on the other, a 'political' logic. In this way, the concept of 'scene' is a central element in a significant change in the theory-methodology-object relation defended by a fair amount of the academic world, including in history field, nowadays, since it takes the very notion of historicity as discontinuous and broadly considers the rationality of words rather than the detailed articulation of facts. (shrink)

It is held by many philosophers that it is a consequence of epistemic contextualism that speakers are typically semantically blind, that is, typically unaware of the propositions semantically expressed by knowledge attributions. In his ?Contextualism, Invariantism and Semantic Blindness? (this journal, 2009), Martin Montminy argues that semantic blindness is widespread in language, and not restricted to knowledge attributions, so it should not be considered problematic. I will argue that Montminy might be right about this, but that contextualists still face a (...) serious and related problem: that it is a consequence of epistemic contextualism that subjects are typically unaware of contents conveyed by knowledge attributions, independently of whether these are semantic or non-semantic contents. Even if semantic blindness is widespread in language, it does not seem that content unawareness of this sort is. (shrink)

Today, the linguistic approach offers us an irreplaceable method for the direct study of the constitutive processes of social phenomena (A. Delobelle, 1981). In fact, each social phenomenon is basically inhabited or interpreted by language. It is language processes that give its ramifications to the social and form disstinct sub-groups in it. This is why, when these processes are observed in their formal dynamics, outside their vehiculated “contents,” it is as though we find ourselves faced with the very functioning of (...) the social: as though we have in it a typically experimental terrain for the direct study of social phenomena. (shrink)

Burns proposes an intriguing hypothesis by suggesting that the “schizophrenia genes” might not be regulatory genes themselves, but rather closely associated with regulatory genes directly involved in the proper growth of the social brain. We point out that this account would benefit from incorporating the effects of localized lesions and aberrant hemispheric asymmetry on cortical connectivity underlying the social brain. In addition, we argue that the evolutionary framework is superfluous.

In this paper I argue that Seneca’s philosophy is a form of therapy and that one of its main concerns is the transformation of one’s life through time control. Aristotelian tradition lies in the idea that philosophy is, in its highest aspect, an abstract form of knowledge. Seneca, on the other hand, is an inheritor of a long tradition that takes philosophy as mind or soul therapy and bases its structure in a practical approach. Epicurus, for instance, goes as far (...) as to declare that “empty is the word of the philosopher by whom no human suffering is treated”. Even if Seneca doesn’t despise the theoretical principles that support the construction of a philosophical system, he builds, in his Letters to Lucilius, a strong therapeutic praxis whose purpose is to heal one’s mind and life. The upmost and fundamental step is providing the pupil with different ways of earning back time deprivation. Time seems to be, in a certain sense, the essential matter of Seneca’s philosophy. Time control, for him, is a kind of self-control that would make it possible to match a simple existence and a meaningful life. Therefore, Seneca’s opening letter to Lucile aims exclusively to identify how one loses time and why it’s essential to take control of it. (shrink)

Joel Feinberg, Offense to Others New York: Oxford University Press, 1985, xix + 328 pp.

Zusammenfassung Die Sport- und Fitnessbranche ist in den vergangenen Jahren zunehmend verberuflicht worden. Dazu haben sich zunächst auf empirischem Wege Erwerbsberufe entwickelt. Im Jahre 2001 wurde ein erster dualer Ausbildungsberuf für diesen Markt geschaffen, 2007 ein zweiter. Die Entwicklungen der beiden Ausbildungsberufe gehen jedoch stark auseinander. Während der Beruf „Sport- und Fitnesskaufmann/-kauffrau“ als stark nachgefragter Ausbildungsberuf mit überdurchschnittlich großen Versorgungsproblemen gelten kann, ist der jüngere Ausbildungsberuf „Sportfachmann/sportfachfrau“ lediglich ein Splitterberuf mit weiter sinkenden Auszubildendenzahlen. In dem Beitrag werden diese Phänomene behandelt. (...) Dabei zeigt sich, dass die Branche gerade für die Berufs- und die Berufsbildungsforschung enorm interessant, bislang aber von ihr kaum betrachtet worden ist. (shrink)

ResumenEl artículo presenta una sucinta exposición de las principales aportaciones sobre Filosofía Biológica realizadas por diversos autores al desarrollo del pensamiento evolucionista, durante el período histórico transcurrido entre el medievo y la articulación de la teoría darwinista. En particular, expone las contribuciones de diversa índole realizadas por Andrés Vesalio, Andrew Battell, Jacobo Bondt, Nicolás Tulp, Edward Tyson, John Ray, Benoit de Maillet, Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, Karl von Linneo, Georges Louis Leclerc, Félix de Azara y Jean Baptiste Lamarck.Palabras (...) claveHistoria de la ciencia, historia de la filosofía biológica, evolucionismo predarwinista, orígenes de la primatologíaAbstractThis paper presents a brief exposition of the main contributions about Philosophy of Biology provided by several authors for the development of evolutionist thought, during the historical period elapsed from the Middle Ages to the beginning of Darwinian theory. It particularly presents different kinds of contributions made by Andreas Vesalius, Andrew Battell, Jacob Bondt, Nicolaes Tulp, Edward Tyson, John Ray, Benoit de Maillet, Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, Karl von Linneo, Georges Louis Leclerc, Félix de Azara and Jean Baptiste Lamarck.KeywordsHistory of science, history of philosophy of biology, predarwinian evolutionary theory, origins of primatology. (shrink)

We describe a strongly minimal theory S in an effective language such that, in the chain of countable models of S, only the second model has a computable presentation. Thus there is a spectrum of an -categorical theory which is neither upward nor downward closed. We also give an upper bound on the complexity of spectra.

Orthomodular logic is a weakening of quantum logic in the sense of Birkhoff and von Neumann. Orthomodular logic is shown to be a nonlinear noncommutative logic. Sequents are given a physically motivated semantics that is consistent with exactly one semantics for propositional formulas that use negation, conjunction, and implication. In particular, implication must be interpreted as the Sasaki arrow, which satisfies the deduction theorem in this logic. As an application, this deductive system is extended to two systems of predicate logic: (...) the first is sound for Takeuti’s quantum set theory, and the second is sound for a variant of Weaver’s quantum logic. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialtheorie und Philosophie Jahrgang: 5 Heft: 2 Seiten: 216-238.

Si le marché est manifestement une réalité avec laquelle tout État doit compter, il n’est pas pour autant sûr que l’on puisse en faire le seul objet de régulation sociale comme certains le souhaitent. L’auteur le démontre en utilisant la proposition mise en avant par Amartya Sen dans Standard of Living pour faire apparaître que toute tentative d’en faire un mécanisme de régulation sociale suppose l’ajout d’un concept susceptible d’assurer la coopération entre les membres d’une communauté. Ce qui modifie la (...) logique marchande et rend caduc l’appareil conceptuel dudit marché désormais incapable de fonder à lui seul la régulation sociale. (shrink)