O presente artigo visa apresentar algumas das regras normativas do código monástico budista relacionadas ao ato de esmolar alimentos pelos renunciantes de ambos os sexos das comunidades budistas, Saṃgha. O ato de esmolar alimentos, assim como todo o conjunto de características comportamentais e morais relacionado aos praticantes monásticos, se tornou um importante elemento que proporcionou identidade para as Saṃghas do Buda, uma vez que benfeitores – que moravam nas cidades e vilas ao entorno das comunidades – acabavam por reconhecer monges, (...) bhikṣus e monjas, bhikṣunīs distinguindo das demais religiosidades e comunidades da Índia Antiga. Essas regras instituídas pelo Buda histórico, e preservadas pelas comunidades, evidenciam o grande cuidado no tocante à nutrição dos praticantes, especialmente em relação ao como e o que se alimentar, a higiene pessoal, bem como o comportamento dos bhikṣus e das bhikṣunīs com todo esse processo. O objetivo da atenção à alimentação não era outro que proporcionar condições adequadas para o desenvolvimento dos praticantes em relação aos estudos e à meditação. (shrink)

The objective of this study is to compare the quantity of citations that retracted and nonretracted articles received in engineering based on articles indexed in the Web of Science database and published between 1945 and 2015. For data analysis, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used along with the Kolmogorov–Smirnov, Mann–Whitney, Tukey–Kramer tests and descriptive statistics. The data set included 238 retracted and 236 nonretracted articles, with the retracted articles cited 2,348 times and nonretracted articles cited 2,957 times. (...) The results highlight that retraction does not end citation, thus threatening scientific credibility. (shrink)

This study assesses the retractions of scientific articles in engineering journals indexed on the Web of Science from 1945 to 2015. The data set was built based on documents containing the keywords retracted, retraction, withdrawal, or redress. We used database exploration techniques, including Structured Query Language and analysis of variance, for data analysis. We analyzed 238 retractions published by 117 journals. The most common reason for retraction was unethical research, and higher impact factors journals tended to publish more retractions. In (...) conclusion, most of the analyzed retractions were the result of unethical research and were retracted by editors. (shrink)

Educators advocate that science education can help the development of more responsible worldviews when students learn not only scientific concepts, but also about science, or “nature of science”. Cosmology can help the formation of worldviews because this topic is embedded in socio-cultural and religious issues. Indeed, during the Cold War period, the cosmological controversy between Big Bang and Steady State theory was tied up with political and religious arguments. The present paper discusses a didactic sequence developed for and applied in (...) a pre-service science teacher-training course on history of science. After studying the historical case, pre-service science teachers discussed how to deal with possible conflicts between scientific views and students’ personal worldviews related to religion. The course focused on the study of primary and secondary sources about cosmology and religion written by cosmologists such as Georges Lemaître, Fred Hoyle and the Pope Pius XII. We used didactic strategies such as short seminars given by groups of pre-service teachers, videos, computer simulations, role-play, debates and preparation of written essays. Along the course, most pre-service teachers emphasized differences between science and religion and pointed out that they do not feel prepared to conduct classroom discussions about this topic. Discussing the relations between science and religion using the history of cosmology turned into an effective way to teach not only science concepts but also to stimulate reflections about nature of science. This topic may contribute to increasing students’ critical stance on controversial issues, without the need to explicitly defend certain positions, or disapprove students’ cultural traditions. Moreover, pre-service teachers practiced didactic strategies to deal with this kind of unusual content. (shrink)

A coherent account of the connections and contrasts between the principles of complementarity and uncertainty is developed starting from a survey of the various formalizations of these principles. The conceptual analysis is illustrated by means of a set of experimental schemes based on Mach-Zehnder interferometry. In particular, path detection via entanglement with a probe system and (quantitative) quantum erasure are exhibited to constitute instances of joint unsharp measurements of complementary pairs of physical quantities, path and interference observables. The analysis uses (...) the representation of observables as positive-operator-valued measures (POVMs). The reconciliation of complementary experimental options in the sense of simultaneous unsharp preparations and measurements is expressed in terms of uncertainty relations of different kinds. The feature of complementarity, manifest in the present examples in the mutual exclusivity of path detection and interference observation, is recovered as a limit case from the appropriate uncertainty relation. It is noted that the complementarity and uncertainty principles are neither completely logically independent nor logical consequences of one another. Since entanglement is an instance of the uncertainty of quantum properties (of compound systems), it is moot to play out uncertainty and entanglement against each other as possible mechanisms enforcing complementarity. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine the period that immediately followed the invention of the Leiden jar. Historians of science have developed narrations that emphasize the role of grounding during the process of charging the jar. In this respect, this episode shows significant aspects that can be used to characterize science, scientific knowledge production, and the nature of science. From our own experimentation, we learned that grounding was not necessary in order to produce the effect. These experiences inspired us to go (...) back to primary sources. In doing so, we came to a new understanding of the early period after Kleist’s and Musschenbroek’s initial creation of the effect. From our analysis, we conclude that it is not the grounding which was perceived as a major innovation (as well as a challenge) during this early period of the discussion but the concept of an electrical circuit. This understanding was fundamental in characterizing the Leiden jar as a new device challenging the then current knowledge of experimental practices in the field of electricity. (shrink)

RESUMO Este artigo apresenta e discute alguns resultados de uma pesquisa sobre um manuscrito sânscrito budista contendo o Guṇakāraṇḍavyūhasūtra, que foi investigado por meio de uma abordagem interdisciplinar com vistas a compreender as estratégias sociorreligiosas que permearam sua gênese narrativa em um novo milieu. Os resultados apontam para uma monumentalização narrativa do texto Mahāyāna original indiano - o Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra - durante sua transposição para o contexto do budismo esotérico no Nepal. Por meio de um número crescente de molduras concêntricas, a (...) retórica cronológica e soteriológica do sūtra adquiriu uma transcendência discursiva que o transformou num maṇḍala textual, i.e., ele possui uma dimensão estrutural diretamente associada aos cosmogramas sagrados que permeiam os diferentes contextos dessa região. ABSTRACT This paper presents and discusses some results from a research conducted on a Buddhist Sanskrit manuscript containing the Guṇakāraṇḍavyūhasūtra, which was investigated by means of an interdisciplinary approach to understand the social and religious strategies, which permeated its narrative genesis in the new milieu. Results point to a narrative monumentalization of the original Indian Mahāyāna text - the Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra - while it's being transposed into the Buddhist esoteric context in Nepal. Through an increasing number of framing devices, the chronological and soteriological rhetoric of the sūtra has acquired a discursive transcendence which transformed it into a textual maṇḍala, i.e., it presents a structural dimension directly associated with the sacred cosmograms which pervade different contexts of this region. (shrink)

Journal Name: Semiotica Issue: Ahead of print.

This is an entry to the Compendium of Quantum Physics, edited by F Weinert, K Hentschel and D Greenberger, to be published by Springer-Verlag.

Dado o crescente aumento da ocorrência e da gravidade dos conflitos em ambientes escolares, o presente estudo dedica-se a observar como tem sido conduzida a iniciativa das Comissões Internas de Prevenção de Acidentes e Violências Escolares, tendo por cenário as escolas da rede pública estadual de Viamão, Rio Grande do Sul. A observação do aumento e do agravamento dos conflitos não se restringe aos ambientes escolares. De forma generalizada, é possível verificar que a sociedade tem sofrido crescentemente com situações de (...) conflito, o que se pode verificar com o volume cada vez maior de processos judiciais e com a escalada da violência e da criminalidade, por exemplo. No Município de Viamão, essas questões são bastante evidentes. Na condução das análises, a questão norteadora para a elaboração do problema de pesquisa busca investigar, como instrumental de gerenciamento de conflitos e violências em ambiente escolar, quais são os principais limites e potencialidades das CIPAVEs segundo a percepção dos integrantes das equipes gestoras das escolas investigadas. Para responder a essa questão, foram analisadas ocorrências registradas durante os anos de 2016, 2017 e 2018 pelas escolas da Rede Pública Estadual de Ensino do Município de Viamão, Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, na base de dados Mapeamento CIPAVE, política pública de iniciativa estadual voltada ao manejo de conflitos escolares. Também foram investigadas as percepções manifestadas por integrantes das respectivas equipes gestoras acerca do gerenciamento das ocorrências referidas. A estratégia metodológica desenhada para o estudo é descritiva, exploratório-sequencial, combinando as abordagens quantitativa e qualitativa. Inicialmente, a moldura teórica da pesquisa é delineada a partir de revisão bibliográfica acerca da gestão de conflitos escolares, subsidiando a análise dos dados registrados na base da CIPAVE, compondo um panorama interdisciplinar para instrumentalizar o exame dos casos que se destacaram, empreendendo visitações nas escolas e entrevistas com os gestores. (shrink)

In a series of papers in the early 1970s and in his important book _Abortion and the Sanctity of Human Life_ (1975), Baruch Brody offered what remains to this day one of the most philosophically rigorous contributions to the debate concerning the morality of abortion and the ethics of homicide more generally. In this paper I would like to critically examine Brody’s argument that abortion is sometimes justifiable in some cases even when (1) one cannot claim self-defense, or (2) diminished (...) responsibility, and (3) the abortion is a ‘killing’ rather than a ‘not saving.’ This justification, I argue, is limited to certain cases in which the life of the mother is at stake. The cautious principle which he finally formulates merits serious attention and consideration. While I find a great deal of value in Brody’s discussion, I will argue that there are several difficulties with the principle of justifiable homicide he constructs. Accordingly, I will further amend and supplement his final version by offering my own alternative principle. (shrink)

First, we investigate the pertinence of Deleuze-Guattari's criticisms to the philosophy of the flesh, in Merleau-Ponty, particularly this criticism of introducing the image of the transcendent in the immanence of the experience. Finally, we outline the possibility of the affection concept in Deleuze-Guattari be a way of addressing the ontological issue that Merleau-Ponty faced, overcoming the boundaries of the flesh concept, particularly the one of the supposed ambiguity still present in the pair "flesh of the world" and my flesh, according (...) to the criticism of Renaud Barbaras. (shrink)

resumo O texto aborda algumas noções centrais nos estudos que Merleau-Ponty realizava através de seus cursos nos Collège de Fra nce ent re os anos de 1954 e 1960. Trata da passagem da anima l idade ao corpo hu mano, e tão importante quanto marcar sua diferença, procura mostrar seu Ineinander, um no outro ou pertença comum. A seguir, dá destaque às noções de instituição e de inc o ns c ie nte: com a prime i ra, o filósofo pretende (...) superar os limites da noção de cons c i ê ncia, com a segunda, marca distânc ia da noção em Lévi-Strauss e intensifica o debate com o freudismo. palavras-chaves Fenomenologia; Merleau-Ponty; natureza; corporeidade; inconsciente. (shrink)

Este artigo procura pensar qual a importância da noção de “liberdade” para o conceito de história em Rousseau e Voltaire. Em ambas as perspectivas de abordagem, a história moderna segue uma norma teleológica ou há um espaço para a ação política?

Enhanced indispensability arguments claim that Scientific Realists are committed to the existence of mathematical entities due to their reliance on Inference to the best explanation. Our central question concerns this purported parity of reasoning: do people who defend the EIA make an appropriate use of the resources of Scientific Realism to achieve platonism? We argue that just because a variety of different inferential strategies can be employed by Scientific Realists does not mean that ontological conclusions concerning which things we should (...) be Scientific Realists about are arrived at by any inferential route which eschews causes, and nor is there any direct pressure for Scientific Realists to change their inferential methods. We suggest that in order to maintain inferential parity with Scientific Realism, proponents of EIA need to give details about how and in what way the presence of mathematical entities directly contribute to explanations. (shrink)

In his 1903 Syllabus, Charles S. Peirce makes a distinction between icons and iconic signs, or hypoicons, and briefly introduces a division of the latter into images, diagrams, and metaphors. Peirce scholars have tried to make better sense of those concepts by understanding iconic signs in the context of the ten classes of signs described in the same Syllabus. We will argue, however, that the three kinds of hypoicons can better be understood in the context of Peirce's sixty-six classes of (...) signs. We analyze examples of hypoicons taken from the field of information design, describing them in the framework of the sixty-six classes, and discuss the consequences of those descriptions to the debate about the order of determination of the 10 trichotomies that form those classes. (shrink)

In semiotics, final causation can be related to the process of determination (PAPE, 1993). From Peirce’s point of view, determination is not a causal determinism, but a delimitation of a range of possibilities. One starts from objects towards interpretants, in a process mediated by the sign, in which the dynamic object works as a force that constrains interpretants to correspond to their objects. The correspondence between object and interpretant is important because it is through a generated interpretant that the object (...) of a sign can be known. Even though this process of determination coincides with the idea of final causation, there is a certain indeterminacy in it. For Peirce (EP 2:353, 1905), vagueness and generality are two types of indeterminacy. In the terms of the phenomenological categories, vagueness is an indeterminacy of the order of firstness, generality an indeterminacy of the order of thirdness, and both, to some extent, are opposed to that which is defined, which belongs to secondness. Each aspect of the sign may vary according to the three phenomenological categories. Consequently, degrees of imprecision are added to the semiotic process, which is a determination process. Peirce asserts that the perfect precision of thought is theoretically unattainable (SS 11, 1903). Every sign is vague or general at least to some degree. In this paper, we seek to perceive degrees of indetermination and causality from an analysis of the kinds of objects and interpretants proposed by Peirce in the system of 28 sign classes. (shrink)

Uncertainty relations and complementarity of canonically conjugate position and momentum observables in quantum theory are discussed with respect to some general coupling properties of a function and its Fourier transform. The question of joint localization of a particle on bounded position and momentum value sets and the relevance of this question to the interpretation of position-momentum uncertainty relations is surveyed. In particular, it is argued that the Heisenberg interpretation of the uncertainty relations can consistently be carried through in a natural (...) extension of the usual Hilbert space frame of the quantum theory. (shrink)

This study aimed to outline the profile of retractions of scientific articles on COVID-19 published in journals indexed in the Scopus database between 2020 and 2021. To analyze the data, we used a bibliometric technique, with the Bibliometrix package in the R-Studio software, and descriptive statistics. Twenty-nine retractions were analyzed, and we found that the most common reasons for retraction were related to ethical issues and that 68.97% of authors have previously retracted articles. We concluded that there appears to have (...) been a change in the publication policies of journals, which resulted in an increase in scientific retractions related to COVID-19 during the study period. (shrink)

Abstract: Laudan (1984) distinguishes between two senses of success for scientific theories: (i) that a particular theory is successful, and (ii) that the methods for picking out approximately true theories are successful. These two senses of success are reflected in two different ways that the no miracles argument for scientific realism (NMA) may be set out. First, I set out a (traditional) version of NMA that considers the success of particular theories. I then consider a more recent formulation of NMA (...) (Psillos, 1999). This version of NMA is aimed at making us believe that our methods for picking out approximately true theories are reliable. I shall argue that the success of the latter argument is dependent on the success of the first. Therefore, even though Psillos presents a new formulation of NMA, the evidential support for it is no stronger than the evidential support for the original version. (shrink)

This article presents some results of a research on computational strategies for the visualization of sign classification structures and sign processes. The focus of this research is the various classifications of signs described by Peirce. Two models are presented. One of them concerns specifically the 10-fold classification as described in the 1903 Syllabus (MS 540, EP 2: 289–299), while the other deals with the deep structure of Peirce’s various trichotomic classifications. The first is 10cubes, an interactive 3-D model of Peirce’s (...) 10-fold classification, as described in the Syllabus. The second is 3N3, a computer program that builds equivalent diagrams for any n-trichotomic classification of signs. We are specially interested in how a graphic design methodology, associated with computer graphic resources and techniques, can contribute to the construction of interactive models that serve as tools for the investigation of C. S. Peirce’s theory of signs. (shrink)

This article discusses the textual sources used for understanding the built environment and interactions between Greek eastern colonies and other societies in the Bactro-Gandharan region.

In the passage of time from the 1960s to the 1970s, the Brazilian artist Waldemar Cordeiro developed his first works in computer art by applying the mathematical concept of “derivative function.” Around the same time, he organized and took part in exhibitions, and composed a series of essays envisaging that the use of digital resources would become an inevitable process for the future of information reception and artistic communication. A closer look at Waldemar Cordeiro's production, both artistic and theoretical, after (...) almost 50 years of his first forays into the field of art and technology, is an excellent opportunity not only to revisit his trajectory, but to rewrite the history of digital art and our conception of it, locating Brazil and Latin America as situated centrally, not peripherally, in relation to the European and North American narratives. Drawing from theorists in the field of informational esthetics as well as scholars in the field of media such as Arlindo Machado and Vilém Flusser, this article seeks to demonstrate, through the analysis of Waldemar Cordeiro's theoretical–artistic productions, the relationship between his work, the field of cybernetics, and his utopian and social vision of artistic production. (shrink)

This is an entry to the Compendium of Quantum Physics, edited by F Weinert, K Hentschel and D Greenberg, to be published by Springer-Verlag.

This is an entry to the Compendium of Quantum Physics, edited by F Weinert, K Hentschel and D Greenberger, to be published by Springer-Verlag.

Abstract As Paul B. Thompson suggests in his recent seminal paper, “‘There’s an App for That’: Technical Standards and Commodification by Technological Means,” technical standards restructure property (and other social) relations. He concludes with the claim that the development of technical standards of commodification can serve purposes with bad effects such as “the rise of the factory system and the deskilling of work” or progressive effects such as how “technical standards for animal welfare… discipline the unwanted consequences of market forces.” (...) In this reply, we want to append several points to his argument and suggest that he rightly points out that standards can promote various goods; however, there are peculiar powers wielded by standardization processes that might profitably be unpacked more systematically than Thompson's article seems to suggest. First, the concealment of the technopolitics around standards is largely due to their peculiar ontological status as recipes for reality. Second, technical standards can and do commit violence against persons, but such violence is often suffered not in the formation of class consciousness, as Marx might have put it, but as a failure to conform to the laws of nature . Content Type Journal Article Category Commentary Pages 1-6 DOI 10.1007/s13347-011-0048-1 Authors Lawrence Busch, Department of Sociology, Michigan State University, 429A Berkey Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA Kyle Powys Whyte, Department of Philosophy, Michigan State University, 503 S. Kedzie Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA Journal Philosophy & Technology Online ISSN 2210-5441 Print ISSN 2210-5433. (shrink)

As cidades brasileiras contemporâneas possuem espaços que ora privilegiam a realização de negócios e ora a construção de cidadania. Para compreender como são ocupados destes modos se faz necessário analisar as cidades; desde sua definição, passando pelo contexto político e econômico, para então compreender seu aspecto social. Assim, este artigo busca compreender se e em que medida as características dos espaços públicos impactam no processo de construção de cidadania. Analisando por meio de observação flutuante dois espaços públicos que são duas (...) praças urbanas centrais, localizadas em duas cidades no mesmo contexto metropolitanos. Perpassa-se pelo debate regional com o intuito de evidenciar que os conflitos são equivalentes nas diversas escalas; contudo a demonstração do contexto da Região Metropolitana do Vale do Paraíba e Litoral Norte/SP, objetiva tornar evidente que as estruturas físicas locais, dos espaços públicos urbanos centrais não direcionam as relações sociais e suas disputas, mas são um meio e resultado dessas. (shrink)

Alan Donagan, in The Theory of Morality, famously claims that the principles of “common morality” (i.e., the morality of the Judeo-Christian tradition) form a consistent system that can be derived from a single fundamental principle: It is impermissible not to respect every human being, oneself or any other, as a rational creature. In particular, I want to show that the prohibition contained in the fundamental principle is interpreted by appeal to prior convictions about particular sorts of cases, whether they involve (...) the violation of “respect” or not, and that this has unfavorable consequences for Donagan’s claim that the principles of common morality form a truly deductive system of morality. (shrink)