This book provides a thoroughly worked out and systematic presentation of an interpretivist position in the philosophy of mind, of the view that having mental properties is a matter of interpretation. Bruno Mölder elaborates and defends a particular version of interpretivism, the ascription theory, which explicates the possession of mental states with contents in terms of their canonical ascribability, and shows how it can withstand various philosophical challenges. Apart from a defence of the ascription theory from the objections commonly (...) directed against interpretivism, the book provides a critical analysis of major alternative accounts of mental state possession as well as the interpretivist ideas originating from Donald Davidson and Daniel Dennett. The viability of the approach is demonstrated by showing how one can treat mental causation as well as the faculties closely connected with consciousness -- perception and the awareness of one’s own mental states -- in the interpretivist framework. (shrink)

Esse artigo é um resumo de uma tese de doutorado iniciada em 2017 que tem como objetivo analisar onze filmes do gênero documentário que abordam a liderança política de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ao longo de sua trajetória no cenário nacional. Discuto, entendendo os documentários como fontes narrativas, o tipo de liderança política de Lula nos momentos específicos de suas produções, analisando esteticamente como ele foi representado pelos diversos diretores. Como objetivo específico, busco identificar traços do fenômeno político discutido (...) academicamente intitulado como “Lulismo” presentes nos filmes selecionados. Além da revisão bibliográfica necessária para confecção desse trabalho, utilizei a análise fílmica proposta por Vera Chaia e a Hermenêutica de Profundidade, utilizada por John Thompson em “Ideologia e Cultura Moderna”. (shrink)

The Prince and the Wolf contains the transcript of a debate which took place on February 5, 2008 at the London School of Economics (LSE) between the prominent French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher Bruno Latour and the Cairo-based American philosopher Graham Harman.

When formulating the concept of the impulse-image, Deleuze never tires of asserting that these images are saturated with death and obsessed by degradation. They stand at a curious intersection in the taxonomy of images, a constitutively in-between space: they are formally inserted between affection-image and action-image in The Movement-Image, but produce a direct passage to the time-image. However, they do not reach the time-image due to obsession by the negative effects of time. This article introduces the concept of the impulse-image (...) in Deleuze's work on the impulse and death instinct, in his fundamental texts of the 1960s and 1970s, including his collaboration with Félix Guattari. The death instinct in the late 1960s was a transcendental principle that acquired the form of the groundless or crack-up essential for the production of difference. It is at this time that Deleuze publishes Zola and the Crack-up, an embryonic essay for what would later become the impulse-image. In the 1970s, Deleuze, along with Guattari, fought the need to include a groundless force in the mould of the death instinct. Speaking of cinema in the 1980s, which is when he returns to the impulse theme, one finds characteristics of both preceding periods, especially the structure conceived in the 1960s, associated with the criticism of the 1970s. However, Deleuze now stands apart, recognising a naturalistic image and admiring a practice of symptomatology, but pointing out that his own understanding of the world does not lie in it. With the impulse-images, Deleuze also plays a relevant role in studies of film naturalism, shaping a powerful concept for studies of contemporary naturalistic symptomatologies that emerge in situations of misery of civilisation. (shrink)

La mission du juge est de trancher les litiges. Or, avant de d’appliquer une règle juridique, il est nécessaire de connaître précisément les faits de la cause. « Da mihi factum, dabo tibi jus ». L’expert est le spécialiste de l’analyse des faits dont le juge a besoin. Dans le domaine de la santé, l’expert est incontournable tant pour étudier la santé corporelle que la santé mentale. On note toutefois une évolution considérable qui tend à demander à l’expert, non plus (...) seulement d’observer une situation passée ou présente mais de prévenir l’avenir. (shrink)

Can one expect religious minorities to be committed to a liberal democratic state? Can a democratic, Western, liberal state be open and safe for all – both ultra-orthodox and secular alike – and count on the allegiance of all? Does this require that religious minorities ‘hide’ their religious identity and conform to prevailing laws and customs and express their religious views and practices only in the privacy of their own homes? Or should minorities request that they receive public recognition? Ought (...) such minorities tolerate opposing views and practices on matters that are central to their faith, or should they request that these are not expressed in public? In this paper, I discuss and evaluate four possible responses to these questions. (shrink)

In 1876 the Italian physicist and physical chemist Adolfo Bartoli discussed a thought experiment in which he connected the second law of thermodynamics with the hypothetical pressure of radiation. Bartoli's work, published in Italian, exerted some influence on the subsequent development of black-body theory and light pressure research. This influence was mainly due to Boltzmann, who came to the Stefan-Boltzmann radiation law via a reworking of Bartoli's thought experiment. However, contrary to what is usually assumed, Bartoli was himself reluctant to (...) admit the existence of light pressure and soon rejected the hypothesis. Bartoli's work is discussed and related to other work in the areas of radiometer research and thermodynamics. (shrink)

Bringing together a range of specialists in their respective fields, the book provides a combination of original research with fundamental questions about why states stay together, and above all why sometimes they fall apart. When and under what conditions is the separation of one part of a state from another justified? Written in an accessible and informed manner, the authors seek to answer this question on the basis of ten case studies and a general review of the literature and theories (...) of the question. (shrink)

SummaryMutations in human genes encoding transcription factors are often dominant because one active allele cannot ensure a normal phenotype (haploinsufficiency). In other instances, heterozygous mutations of two genes are required for a phenotype to appear (combined haploinsufficiency). Here, we explore with models (i) the basis of haploinsufficiency and combined haploinsufficiency owing to mutations in transcription activators, and (ii) how the effects of such mutations can be amplified or buffered by subsequent steps in a transcription cascade. We propose that the non‐linear (...) (sigmoidal) response of transcription to the concentration of activators can explain haploinsufficiency. We further show that the sigmoidal character of the output of a cascade increases with the number of steps involved, the settings of which will determine the buffering or enhancement of the effects of a decreased concentration of an upstream activator. This exploration provides insights into the bases of compensatory mutations and on interloci interactions underlying oligogenic inheritance patterns. (shrink)

The economic crisis happening across the world over the last few years describes a range of interdependencies and interactions,and has highlighted the fundamentalf laws of neoclassical economic theory: its unedifying focus on prediction and, above all, its inability to explain how the economy really works. As such, it is increasingly recognised that economic phenomena cannot be exclusively investigated as being derived from deterministic, predictable and mechanistic dynamics. Instead, a new approach is required by which history-dependence, organic and ever-evolving processes are (...) also accounted for. As this view implies new challenges and opportunities for policy, we will focus our attention on innovative components of Complexity Theory for the study of economics and the evaluation of public policies. (shrink)

The French and German political economies have been significantly reconfigured over the past two decades. Although the changes have often been more piecemeal than revolutionary, their cumulative effects are profound. The authors characterize the changes that have taken place as involving the institutionalization of new forms of dualism and argue that what gives contemporary developments a different character from the past is that dualism is now explicitly underwritten by state policy. They see this outcome as the culmination of a sequence (...) of developments, beginning in the field of industrial relations, moving into labor market dynamics, and finally finding institutional expression in welfare state reforms. Contrary to theoretical accounts that suggest that institutional complementarities support stability and institutional reproduction, the authors argue that the linkages across these realms have helped to translate employer strategies that originated in the realm of industrial relations into a stable, new, and less egalitarian model with state support. (shrink)

Taking up Alain Badiou's project of systematizing the invariant traits of antiphilosophy as based on a radical "act" capable of discrediting and outstripping the philosopher's relation to truth, the author discusses the cases of Nietzsche's archi-political act of "breaking the history of the world into two halves" and Wittgenstein's archi-aesthetic act of "showing" that which one cannot speak of but which alone matters for the sense of the world. The difference between the antiphilosophical "act" and the philosophical treatment of an (...) "event" is best understood in terms of "suture" and "disaster," two concepts which in the process must be thoroughly revised. Finally, the author discusses the extent to which Badiou's own philosophy falls prey to, and even thrives on, an irresistible antiphilosophical element of its own. (shrink)

An Irishman’s heart is nothing but his imagination.G.B. Shaw, John Bull’s other Island 1. Il primo principio della conoscenza e la riflessione estetica Secondo il primo principio della conoscenza, esse est percipi, l’essere delle cose è il loro essere percepite. Anche quando nessun soggetto percepisce l’oggetto, questo continua a esistere perché Dio, causa unica della realtà, percependo tutte le idee, dalla creazione in poi, le mantiene in essere. In questo modo il processo percettivo si stru...

The problem of unconceived alternatives (or the New Induction) states that, since scientists have recurrently failed to conceive relevant theoretical alternatives for some domains of science, current scientists are probably also failing to do so. Therefore, there may be theories which still exceed the grasp of scientists’ imagination, and one should not endorse a realist stance towards current science. In this paper, I raise a conceptual worry for the formulation of this problem: what does it mean to say that scientists (...) failed to conceive a relevant theory? What aggravates the problem is that no simple notion of relevance makes the New Induction as strong as it initially seems. I consider the three more obvious interpretations of relevance: relevance as objective probability; relevance as epistemic probability assessed by current scientists; and relevance as epistemic probability assessed by past scientists. I argue that assuming any of these three notions implies difficulties for the New Induction, hence their proponents shouldn’t take the notion of relevance for granted. A more precise definition of relevance is essential to understand what are the difficulties surrounding the problem of unconceived alternatives as an epistemic worry. Until now, such notion is missing. KeyWords: Scientific realism, unconceived alternatives, Kyle Stanford, New Induction, Pessimistic Induction. (shrink)

Dès 1983, à l’occasion du colloque Une histoire des femmes est-elle possible? qui allait marquer le véritable départ de l’histoire des femmes en France, Alain Corbin soulignait la nécessité de se pencher aussi sur les « mentalités masculines », afin que puisse émerger une « histoire sexuée qui couple ses analyses ». L’auteur des Filles de noce resta longtemps peu entendu. Cette dernière décennie a pourtant vu une nette évolution s’amorcer, les masculinités françaises devenant peu à peu un ch...

In a letter addressed to Mercator in 1558, John Dee made an odd announcement, describing the Portuguese mathematician and cosmographer Pedro Nunes as the ‘most learned and grave man who is the sole relic and ornament and prop of the mathematical arts among us’, and appointing him his intellectual executor. This episode shows that Dee considered Nunes one of his most distinguished contemporaries, and also that some connection existed between the two men. Unfortunately not much is known about this connection, (...) and even such basic questions such as ‘What could John Dee know about this Portuguese cosmographer’s scientific work?’ or ‘When, why and where did this interest come about?’ still lack proper answers. In this paper I address this connection and examine Nunes’ influence on Dee’s mathematical work. I argue that Dee was interested in Nunes’ work as early as 1552 . I also claim that Dee was aware of Nunes’ programme for the use of mathematics in studying physical phenomena and that this may have influenced his own views on the subject. (shrink)