In 1991 Larry Laudan and Jarret Leplin proposed a solution for the problem of empirical equivalence and the empirical underdetermination that is often thought to result from it. In this paper we argue that, even though Laudan and Leplin’s reasoning is essentially correct, their solution should be accurately assessed in order to appreciate its nature and scope. Indeed, Laudan and Leplin’s analysis does not succeed in completely removing the problem or, as they put it, in refuting the thesis of underdetermination (...) as a consequence of empirical equivalence. Instead, what they show is merely that science possesses tools that may eventually lead out of an underdetermination impasse. We apply their argument to a real case of two empirically equivalent theories: Lorentz’s ether theory and Einstein’s special relativity. This example illustrates the validity of Laudan and Leplin’s reasoning, but also shows the importance of the reassessment we argue for. (shrink)

Modifying a contrast introduced by Dixon, Stephen Mumford distinguishes between ‘partisan’ and ‘purist’ ways of watching sport. Recognising that the extreme partisan and extreme purist positions do not explain the nature of sports spectatorship, Mumford follows Dixon in adopting the idea of moderate partisanship. He outlines three theories of spectatorship designed to address the issue of the relationship between the partisan and the purist ways of viewing sport. The true perception theory regards the moderate fan as able to see the (...) event as it really is, rather than concentrating on an aspect. The mixture theory is the view that ‘the moderate partisan has both partisan and purist perceptions of sport in some mixed way’. The oscillation theory, which Mumford favours, holds that the moderate sports fan switches or oscillates between competitive and aesthetic ways of watching sport... (shrink)

The difficulties with formalizing the intensional notions necessity, knowability and omniscience, and rational belief are well-known. If these notions are formalized as predicates applying to (codes of) sentences, then from apparently weak and uncontroversial logical principles governing these notions, outright contradictions can be derived. Tense logic is one of the best understood and most extensively developed branches of intensional logic. In tense logic, the temporal notions future and past are formalized as sentential operators rather than as predicates. The question therefore (...) arises whether the notions that are investigated in tense logic can be consistently formalized as predicates. In this paper it is shown that the answer to this question is negative. The logical treatment of the notions of future and past as predicates gives rise to paradoxes due the specific interplay between both notions. For this reason, the tense paradoxes that will be presented are not identical to the paradoxes referred to above. (shrink)

In this paper I examine Chalmers and Jackson’s defence of the a priori entailment thesis, that is, the claim that microphysical truths a priori entail ordinary non-phenomenal truths such as ‘water covers 60% of the Earth surface’, which they use as a premise for an argument against the possibility of a reductive explanation of consciousness. Their argument relies on a certain view about the possession conditions of macroscopic concepts such as WATER, known as ascriptivism. In the paper I distinguish two (...) versions of ascriptivism: reductive versus non-reductive ascriptivism. According to reductive ascriptivism, competent users of a concept have the ability to infer truths involving such concept from lower-level truths, whereas according to non-reductive ascriptivism, all that is required in order to be a competent user of a concept is to be able to infer truths involving that concept from other truths, which need not be lower-level truths. I argue, first, that the a priori entailment thesis is committed to reductive ascriptivism, and secondly, that reductive ascriptivism is problematic because it trivializes the notion of a priori knowledge. Therefore, I conclude that Chalmers and Jackson have not presented a convincing case for the claim that microphysical truths entail ordinary non-phenomenal truths a priori, especially when we understand this claim in the sense that is relevant for their argument against the possibility of a reductive explanation of consciousness. (shrink)

A growing number of people are relying on technologies like Google Maps not only to navigate and locate themselves in cartographic space but also to search, discover and evaluate urban places. While the spatial data that underlies such technology frequently appears as a combination of Google-created maps and locational information passively collected from mobile (GPS-enabled) devices, in this article we argue that for such systems to function as both useful tools for exploration for users and sources of revenue, users must (...) actively produce massive quantities of granular spatial data that would otherwise be significantly more difficult and expensive to collect. The production of this qualitative information about places constitutes significant unremunerated affective labour. In this article, we build on the tradition of feminist geographies, especially feminist and critical Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to examine how the labour done by gendered, raced and often classed members of a local community is alienated by Google (i.e. Alphabet, Inc.) to produce commodified spatial data/media in the Local Guides platform. We analyse how Google’s presentation of the platform hails women as care labourers—sharing their thoughts, feelings and knowledge of place for free in the name of supporting and caring for a community, however vaguely it may be constituted. At the same time, we argue that digital labour that produces the Local Guides platform draws from and reproduces specific gendering of spaces. We draw on a case study of a commercial corridor in the US city of Worcester, Massachusetts to show how the dialectic between affective digital labour and urban space has material effects on the production of raced, classed and gendered spaces and places. The article concludes with a call to maintain critical, feminist engagements with these types of platforms in order to further develop forms of digital praxis towards more just cities. (shrink)

Inner Experience and Neuroscience: Merging Both Perspectives. . ???aop.label???. doi: 10.1080/09515089.2013.811575.

Cette traduction d'un fragment du livre de L. Brunschvicg, expert et critique reconnu de la philosophie de Descartes, et de sa part un tentative de créer une synthèse de la pensée carthésienne si complexe et si conflictuelle intérieurement. Descartes y est présenté comme savant, mathématician et philosophe dont la contribution a l'évolution de la pensée philosophique européenne de la crise (qui s'est traduit par la confrontation entre l'aristotélisme et la naturalisme modern) est devenue aujourd’hui l'héritage de tout l'humanité. Brunschvicg décrit (...) l'etendue et les conséquences de cette revolution mathématique et philosophique après une étude approfondie de toutes les plus grandes œuvres de Descartes et sa correspondence. (shrink)

A combinação de tópicas retóricas é referida à constituição das doutrinas de artes. Os topoi centrais da Antiguidade e do Renascimento apresentam-se como seleções no campo prévio da inventio; os discursos de arte dos séculos XIX e XX são considerados eufóricos e não-críticos, dirigidos pelo futuro, pois desejantes.

La correspondance entre Descartes et Huygens, quoique maintenant absorbée dans le corpus général des lettres de Descartes, garde son intérêt et son importance propre. A part son caractère unique, comme série complète de lettres échangées entre deux hommes d’une distinction si différente, elle nous montre avec quelle précaution il nous faut accepter le texte des lettres de Clerselier et le récit de Baillet sur la vie de Descartes en Hollande. Et comme toutes les vies de Descartes reposent finalement sur Clerselier (...) et Baillet, notre Correspondance nous montre qu’il est nécessaire d’examiner à nouveau tout le problème. (shrink)

Feng Youlan , auteur d’une célèbre Histoire de la philosophie chinoise , a voulu refonder le néoconfucianisme de Zhu Xi en l’accordant à la philosophie analytique. Son Traité de l’Homme est une phénoménologie de la conscience individuelle, décrite dans chacune des quatre étapes de son ascension vers la sainteté : la conscience naturelle, forme originelle de l’être-au-monde, immédiatement présent au réel sans conscience de soi ; la conscience intéressée, qui se distancie du réel par un calcul de conduite en vue (...) d’un bonheur égoïste ; la conscience morale, naissant d’une prise de conscience de soi comme être-avec-autrui, qui cultive l’altruisme ; la conscience cosmique, celle du Saint qui a compris les raisons de toute chose et communie à la Voie du Ciel . L’un des penseurs chinois les plus subtils du siècle dernier, Feng Youlan a été décrédibilisé par sa tonitruante conversion au maoïsme en 1949.Feng Youlan is the author of a famous History of Chinese Philosophy translated by Derk Bodde in 1937 and 1953 . He attempted to breathe new life into the Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi by bringing it into harmony with analytic philosophy. His Essay on Man is a phenomenology of individual consciousness as it rises to saintliness through four stages : natural consciousness, the primary form of existence in which the mind is immediately aware of the objective world, but without self-consciousness ; selfish consciousness, rising above the objective world by calculation, following the quest of self-happiness ; moral consciousness, born from the consciousness of oneself as a social being and developing altruism ; cosmic consciousness, reaching saintliness through the understanding of the truth of everything and uniting oneself with the Way of Heaven . Feng Youlan was one of the most outstanding Chinese philosophers of the last century who, however, lost credibility after his well-publicized conversion to Maoism in 1949. (shrink)

A criterion is given for characterizing quantum mechanical joint distributions that have the same covariance of position and momentum.

Članek prinaša štiri poglede na hermenevtiko glasbe, ki so osredotočeni na 1) vzpostavljanje hermenevtičnega obzorja, 2) zgodovinske umestitve hermenevtike glasbe, 3) teoretsko razmejitev glasbene povednosti v muzikologiji in 4) spoznavoslovne razmejitve glasbene povednosti. Osrednja pozornost pri vseh štirih pogledih je naravnana k vprašanju: katere epistemološke ravni kaže upoštevati, ko govorimo o hermenevtiki glasbe kot muzikološkem pojmu v najširšem smislu?Različne fasete, ki tvorijo hermenevtiko glasbe, zato narekujejo za glavni cilj prispevka: očrtati meje med hermenevtiko kot teoretskim sistemom, ki temelji na metodah (...) vzporejanja glasbenega stavka z "zunajglasbenimi" pojavi, in hermenevtiko kot "kulturno institucijo" ali pragmatičnim pristopom, ki poleg spoznavoslovnih prednosti prinaša tudi vrsto pasti.Four different sketches of musical hermeneutics are given, focused respectively on 1) the formation of the hermeneutical horizon, 2) historical framings of the musical hermeneutics, 3) theoretical division of the musical meaning within musicology, and 4) epistemological layering of the musical narrativity. The main focus of the four sketches is to discuss single issues arising from the following question: which levels of epistemology should be considered to define hermeneutics of music as a musicological term.Because of the various facets involved, the main aim of this article is to sketch the boundaries between hermeneutics as a theoretical system founded on comparative methods and hermeneutics as the "cultural institution", or a pragmatic approach, bringing about not only epistemological advantages but also a number of issues. (shrink)