Feminist literature sometimes posits that competition and cooperation are opposites. This dichotomy is important in that it is often invoked in order to explain why mainstream economics has focused on market activity to the exclusion of non-market activity, and why this fascination or focus is sexist. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the competition/cooperation dichotomy is false. Once the dichotomy is dissolved, those activities which are seen as competitive (masculine) and those which are seen as cooperative (feminine) (...) are no longer mutually exclusive but are, in fact, dependent upon one another. It is shown that the outcome of competition (more and better knowledge) enhances, and in some cases makes possible, cooperation. The function of battle is destruction; of competition, construction. Ludwig von Mises. (shrink)

The fan effect says that “activation” spreading from a concept is divided among the concepts it spreads to. Because this activation is not a physical entity, but an abstraction of unknown lower‐level processes, the spreading activation model has predictive but not explanatory power. We provide one explanation of the fan effect by showing that distributed neuronal memory networks (specifically, Hopfield networks) reproduce four qualitative aspects of the fan effect: faster recognition of sentences containing lower‐fan words, faster recognition of sentences when (...) more cues are provided, faster acceptance of studied sentences than rejection of probes, and faster recognition of sentences studied more frequently. These are all a natural result of the dynamics of distributed associative memory. (shrink)

With the rapidly expanding catalogue of scientific publications, especially within the Biomedical Sciences field, it is becoming increasingly difficult for researchers to search for, read or even interpret emerging scientific findings. PubMed, just one of the current biomedical data repositories, comprises over 33 million citations for biomedical research, and over 2500 publications are added each day. To further strengthen the impact biomedical research, we suggest that there should be more synergy between publications and machines. By bringing machines into the realm (...) of research and publication, we can greatly augment the assessment, investigation and cataloging of the biomedical literary corpus. The effective application of machine-based manuscript assessment and interpretation is now crucial, and potentially stands as the most effective way for researchers to comprehend and process the tsunami of biomedical data and literature. Many biomedical manuscripts are currently published online in poorly searchable document types, with figures and data presented in formats that are partially inaccessible to machine-based approaches. The structure and format of biomedical manuscripts should be adapted to facilitate machine-assisted interrogation of this important literary corpus. In this context, it is important to embrace the concept that biomedical scientists should also write manuscripts that can be read by machines. It is likely that an enhanced human–machine synergy in reading biomedical publications will greatly enhance biomedical data retrieval and reveal novel insights into complex datasets. (shrink)

A intenção deste artigo é tematizar o pensamento de Benjamin sobre o passado, mostrando não somente como este é o verdadeiro centro propulsor das Teses, mas também como é somente através deste que um novo conceito de história se torna possível. De fato, o passado não somente não é algo concluído, mas é também revolucionário na medida em que permite vingar milhares de oprimidos em seu encontro com o presente. Um passado que contrasta com a versão oficial e com a (...) tradição do continuum, um passado aberto, mas não de fácil leitura, implicado em sinais criptografados para descriptografar, sonhos para interpretar e instantes para segurar. Podemos definir o passado benjaminiano como um “passado próximo” apenas no sentido em que, no entanto, essa proximidade não indica uma adjacência temporal específica, mas apenas sua relevância e urgência sempre explosiva. (shrink)

Rare copy number variants have a prominent role in the aetiology of schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Substantial risk for schizophrenia is conferred by large CNVs at several loci, including microdeletions at 1q21.1, 3q29, 15q13.3 and 22q11.2 and microduplication at 16p11.2. However, these CNVs collectively account for a small fraction of cases, and the relevant genes and neurobiological mechanisms are not well understood. Here we performed a large two-stage genome-wide scan of rare CNVs and report the significant association of copy (...) number gains at chromosome 7q36.3 with schizophrenia. Microduplications with variable breakpoints occurred within a 362-kilobase region and were detected in 29 of 8,290 patients versus 2 of 7,431 controls in the combined sample. All duplications overlapped or were located within 89 kilobases upstream of the vasoactive intestinal peptide receptor gene VIPR2. VIPR2 transcription and cyclic-AMP signalling were significantly increased in cultured lymphocytes from patients with microduplications of 7q36.3. These findings implicate altered vasoactive intestinal peptide signalling in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and indicate the VPAC2 receptor as a potential target for the development of new antipsychotic drugs. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. (shrink)

Cet article interroge la manière dont la guerre devient le lieu, de part et d’autre des deux Guerres mondiales, depuis lequel se déploie une double scène de la violence, entre exposition et profondeur : d’une part un monde de plus en plus à découvert, où tout semble exposé à la violence, et où celle-ci s’allie à des exigences de luminosité continue et illimitée ; de l’autre, la guerre ne va pas cesser d’être réinvestie par de nouveaux appels des profondeurs, de (...) nouvelles requêtes d’intériorité. L’article propose de chercher chez Walter Benjamin, dont les écrits des années trente sont hantés par la nécessité d’extraire la pensée de l’horizon de la guerre, une prise qui permet de résister à ces deux gestes et à leurs dialectiques infernales. Nous construisons cette prise à partir de ce que Benjamin nomme la pauvreté de l’expérience, et notamment la manière dont celle-ci convoque un matériau particulier : le verre et les nouveaux espaces qu’il rend pensables. L’évocation du verre est toute entière imbriquée dans des images de la violence : elle permet de fictionner des manières d’y résister, mais en partant de sa proximité avec elles, et non en rêvant leur dépassement. (shrink)

»In vino metaphora« pomeni delno slavljenje Nietzschejevega preseganja nihi-lizma. Za afirmacijo življenja v voljo do moči kot izvoru vse dejavnosti, ki ustvarja vrednote se izkaže, da presega nihilizem, ki ga Nietzscheju pogosto očitajo njegovi kritiki. Ena od pomembnejših oblik volje do moči v tem smislu je intoksikacija ali dionizicno. V Nietzschejevem zgodnjem opusu je bilo dionizicno metafizično in umetniško načelo. Njegov kasnejši opus kontrastira dionizicno intoksikacijo z drugimi oblikami in dionizicno postane tako psihološki kot fiziološki pojav. Članek tudi primerja Nietzschejeve (...) poglede o intoksikaciji s pogledi Walter j a Benjamina ter ju obravnava v zvezi s pojavi kakršna sta rock glasba in severnoameriško izkustvo šestdesetih let. (shrink)

Given remote warfare technology, a diagnosis is often made: modern warfare would lead to a derealization and even a loss of war experience. This paper takes the unease that this diagnosis triggers as its starting point, insofar as it reveals certain attachments to war that have been nurtured throughout modern times. From trenches to drones, the act of lamenting the loss of war experience marks the history of modern warfare. This paper looks at the eminently-modern, active expectations, that haunt this (...) act: the anticipation of an experience heightened by war, linked to the quest for life that is more intense. By following in Walter Benjamin’s footsteps, it seeks to decipher the way in which these expectations are linked to the emergence of new feelings, passions and obsessions that touch on the experience of modernity. (shrink)

There are two necessary conditions for effective learning. First, learning must occur within a context. Second, a learner must be genuinely interested in the subject matter (that is, motivated to learn it). In the case of critical thinking, studying problems in a textbook fails to meet both of these conditions. This paper presents a strategy for supplying context and motivation to critical thinking students: a semester-long investigation of the Kennedy assassination. After reviewing the perils of traditional, non-contextual teaching methods, the (...) author argues that this strategy captures students’ attention as an engaging “whodunit” of great historical importance. Moreover, the prodigious amount of evidence associated with the assassination provides students with ample opportunity to learn and practice critical thinking skills. Sifting through forensic reports, eye- and earwitness testimony, expert opinions, autopsy findings, and the Zapruder film teaches students the basics of informal and formal logic (e.g. evaluating appeals to authority, finding inconsistencies and contradictions, identifying false cause fallacies, and recognizing good and bad inductive and deductive arguments). After reviewing the course materials and requirements, the author concludes by offering several alternate themes for a critical thinking class which are capable of accomplishing the same pedagogical goals. (shrink)

In the wake of the non-ideal theory turn in political philosophy, few have paused to ask: Is non-ideal theory a form of ideology? And perhaps even fewer have paused to ask: Is the debate between ideal/non-ideal theorists itself a form of ideology? To the first question, I argue that non-ideal theory is ideological in virtue of the fact that it rules out more utopian ways of theorizing by methodological fiat, and in so doing, risks entrenching an unjust status quo. To (...) the second question, I argue that the debate between ideal/non-ideal theorists is itself a form of ideology, one which serves to reinforce the status quo by convincing political philosophers/theorists that the most pressing problems are problems about what we should think about what we are doing. But this is false. An upshot of my argument is that we ought to abandon the ideal/non-ideal theory debate and address the pressing problems of political philosophy head-on in pluralist fashion, oscillating back and forth between these two modes of theorizing without a decision procedure to tell us when we should take up one perspective or the other. (shrink)

: In 1998, researchers discovered that embryonic stem cells could be derived from early human embryos. This discovery has raised a series of ethical and public-policy questions that are now being confronted by multiple international organizations, nations, cultures, and religious traditions. This essay surveys policies for human embryonic stem cell research in four regions of the world, reports on the recent debate at the United Nations about one type of such research, and reviews the positions that various religious traditions have (...) adopted regarding this novel type of research. In several instances the religious traditions seem to have influenced the public-policy debates. (shrink)

It is often thought that the numerous contradictory perspectives in Margaret Cavendish's writings demonstrate her inability to reconcile her feminism with her conservative, royalist politics. In this book Lisa Walters challenges this view and demonstrates that Cavendish's ideas more closely resemble republican thought, and that her methodology is the foundation for subversive political, scientific and gender theories. With an interdisciplinary focus Walters closely examines Cavendish's work and its context, providing the reader with an enriched understanding of women's contribution (...) to early modern scientific theory, political philosophy, culture and folklore. Considering also Cavendish's ideas in relation to Hobbes and Paracelsus, this volume is of great interest to scholars and students of literature, philosophy, history of ideas, political theory, gender studies and history of science. (shrink)

ABSTRACT A growth mixture modeling (GMM) analysis of neutralization scores in 1,830 youth across six waves of data revealed evidence of a three-class model in which moral neutralization either increased (low accelerating), decreased (high decelerating), or remained the same (moderate stable) over time. Controlling for age, sex, race, group assignment, and Wave 1 delinquency, an analysis of covariance revealed a significantly greater increase in Wave 6 delinquency in the moderate stable group than in the low accelerating group. When the average (...) neutralization score was added as a control variable, the low accelerating group was highest, the moderate stable group next highest, and the high decelerating group lowest on Wave 6 delinquency. These results indicate that change in the pattern of neutralization scores (accelerating, stable, decelerating) may be as important as the level of moral neutralization at any particular point in time in determining the effect of neutralization on future delinquency. (shrink)

Are demands for equality motivated by envy? Nietzsche, Freud, Hayek, and Nozick all thought so. Call this the Envy Objection. For egalitarians, the Envy Objection is meant to sting. Many egalitarians have tried to evade the Envy Objection.. But should egalitarians be worried about envy? In this paper, I argue that egalitarians should stop worrying and learn to love envy. I argue that the persistent unwillingness to embrace the Envy Objection is rooted in a common misunderstanding of the nature of (...) the charge, what it reveals, and what can be said in response to it. I develop what Bernard Williams might call a vindicatory genealogy of envy, thereby allowing us to see that envy, rather than undermining egalitarian intuitions, can in fact play a distinct justificatory role (when it is fitting), which undermines the Envy Objection. (shrink)

How might we historicize the idea of border control? If state borders can be understood as institutional sites of governance, what forms of governance do they enact? This article asks what insights Foucauldian political sociology might offer these questions. Drawing on Deleuze's analytic of ‘control’, the article seeks to bring new meaning to the idea of border control. Under standing control as a particular technology of power, special attention to the changing topography of border control as well as the changing (...) subjectivities presupposed by this form of power is paid. (shrink)

Is A & C sufficient for the truth of ‘if A were the case, C would be the case’? Jonathan Bennett thinks not, although the counterexample he gives is inconsistent with his own account of counterfactuals. In any case, I argue that anyone who accepts the case of Morgenbesser's coin, as Bennett does, should reject Bennett’s counterexample. Moreover, I show that the principle underlying his counterexample is unmotivated and indeed false. More generally, I argue that Morgenbesser’s coin commits us to (...) the sufficiency of A & C for the truth of the corresponding counterfactual. (shrink)

I sketch here an intuitive picture of repeatable artworks as created types, which are individuated in part by historical paths (re)production. Although attractive, this view has been rejected by a number of authors on the basis of general claims about abstract objects. On consideration, however, these general claims are overgeneralizations, which whilst true of some abstracta, are not true of all abstract objects, and in particular, are not true of created types. The intuitive picture of repeatable artworks as created types (...) is, then, left in place. (shrink)

Are a material object, such as a statue, and its constituting matter, the clay, parts of one another? One wouldn't have thought so, and yet a number of philosophers have argued that they are. I review the arguments for this surprising claim showing how they all fail. I then consider two arguments against the view concluding that there are both pre-theoretical and theoretical considerations for denying that the statue and the clay are mutual parts.

When does a person qualify for protected and continuing life? At a time when technology can sustain marginal life, it is ever more important to understand what constitutes a person.

In the common law world, Albert Venn Dicey is known as the high priest of orthodox constitutional theory, as an ideological and nationalistic positivist. In his analytical coldness, his celebration of sovereign power, and his incessant drive to organize and codify legal rules separate from moral values or political realities, Dicey is an uncanny figure. This book challenges this received view of Dicey. Through a re-examination of his life and his 1885 book Law of the Constitution, the high priest Dicey (...) is defrocked and a more human Dicey steps forward to offer alternative ways of reading his canonical text, who struggled to appreciate law as a form of reasoned discourse that integrates values of legality and authority through methods of ordinary legal interpretation. The result is a unique common law constitutional discourse through which assertions of sovereign power are conditioned by moral aspirations associated with the rule of law. (shrink)

Locke argued that religious belief ought to be compatible with reason, that no king, prince or magistrate rules legitimately without the consent of the people, and that government has no right to impose religious beliefs or styles of worship on the public. Locke’s defense of religious tolerance and freedom of thought was revolutionary in its time. Even today, his letter poses a challenge to religious intolerance, whether state-sponsored or originating from religious dogmatists. Based on both Locke’s original Latin and the (...) seventeenth-century English translation of William Popple, this edition offers a reader-friendly version that remains loyal to the original text. In addition to a forty-page introduction that situates the _Letter_ in its historical and philosophical contexts, this edition includes excerpts from writings on religious toleration by William Penn, Baruch Spinoza, Pierre Bayle, and Samuel von Pufendorf, as well as generous selections from the famous Locke-Proast debates on religious toleration. (shrink)

I reply to Ahmed’s rejection (2011) of my argument (Walters 2009) that all counterfactuals with true antecedents and consequents are themselves true.

Moti Mizrahi (2013) presents some novel counterexamples to Hypothetical Syllogism (HS) for indicative conditionals. I show that they are not compelling as they neglect the complicated ways in which conditionals and modals interact. I then briefly outline why HS should nevertheless be rejected.

Are counterfactuals with true antecedents and consequents automatically true? That is, is Conjunction Conditionalization: if (X & Y), then (X > Y) valid? Stalnaker and Lewis think so, but many others disagree. We note here that the extant arguments for Conjunction Conditionalization are unpersuasive, before presenting a family of more compelling arguments. These arguments rely on some standard theorems of the logic of counterfactuals as well as a plausible and popular semantic claim about certain semifactuals. Denying Conjunction Conditionalization, then, requires (...) rejecting other aspects of the standard logic of counterfactuals, or else our intuitive picture of semifactuals. (shrink)

The standard semantics for counterfactuals ensures that any counterfactual with a true antecedent and true consequent is itself true. There have been many recent attempts to amend the standard semantics to avoid this result. I show that these proposals invalidate a number of further principles of the standard logic of counterfactuals. The case against the automatic truth of counterfactuals with true components does not extend to these further principles, however, so it is not clear that rejecting the latter should be (...) a consequence of rejecting the former. Instead I consider how one might defuse putative counterexamples to the truth of true-true counterfactuals. (shrink)