The emergence of the global administrative sector and its new forms of knowledge production, expert rationality, and standardization, remains an understudied topic in science studies. Using a coproductionist theoretical framework, we argue tha the mutual construction of epistemic and legal authority across international organizations has been critical for constituting and stabilizing a global regime for the regulation of food safety. The authors demonstrate how this process has also given rise to an authoritative framework for risk analysis touted as ‘‘scientifically rigorous’’ (...) but embodying particular value choices regarding health, environment, and the dispensation of regulatory power. Finally, the authors trace how enrollment of the Codex Alimentarius in World Trade Law has heightened institutional dilemmas around legitimacy and credibility in science advice at the global level. Taken together, the case illustrates the importance of attending to the iterative construction of law and science in the constitution of new global administrative regimes. (shrink)

This study is about what matters in survival--about what relation to a future individual gives you a reason for prudential concern for that individual. For common sense there is such a relation and it is identity, but according to Parfit common sense is wrong in this respect. Identity is not what matters in survival. In What Matters in Survival, Douglas Ehring argues that this Parfitian thesis does not go far enough. The result is the highly radical view "Survival Nihilism," (...) according to which nothing matters in survival. Although we generally have motivating reasons to have prudential concern, and perhaps even indirect normative reasons for such concerns there is no relation that gives you a basic, foundational normative reason for prudential concern. This view goes beyond what Parfit calls the Extreme View. It is the More Extreme View and is in effect something like an error theory about prudential reason as a special kind of normative reason. (shrink)

This article concerns a recent methodological debate in American sociology that generated widespread attention in the United States. It was a debate that spanned at least four journals: American Journal of Sociology, Sociological Methods & Research, Qualitative Sociology and American Journal of Cultural Sociology. As the debate was not just about methods per se but about the ‘theory of reality’ underlying each method and its ‘social ontology’, critical realism has much to say about it. Although at the end everyone comes (...) around to critical realism's position of methodological pluralism, what makes the debate interesting is the reasoning, the ontological assumptions, and the surprising directions of attack. Above all this article will take issue with the assumption common to all disputants that people tend ‘to give self-contradictory and inadequate accounts of their actions and motives’. (shrink)

A growing interest in and concern about the adequacy and fairness of modern peer-review practices in publication and funding are apparent across a wide range of scientific disciplines. Although questions about reliability, accountability, reviewer bias, and competence have been raised, there has been very little direct research on these variables.The present investigation was an attempt to study the peer-review process directly, in the natural setting of actual journal referee evaluations of submitted manuscripts. As test materials we selected 12 already published (...) research articles by investigators from prestigious and highly productive American psychology departments, one article from each of 12 highly regarded and widely read American psychology journals with high rejection rates (80%) and nonblind refereeing practices.With fictitious names and institutions substituted for the original ones (e.g., Tri-Valley Center for Human Potential), the altered manuscripts were formally resubmitted to the journals that had originally refereed and published them 18 to 32 months earlier. Of the sample of 38 editors and reviewers, only three (8%) detected the resubmissions. This result allowed nine of the 12 articles to continue through the review process to receive an actual evaluation: eight of the nine were rejected. Sixteen of the 18 referees (89%) recommended against publication and the editors concurred. The grounds for rejection were in many cases described as “serious methodological flaws.” A number of possible interpretations of these data are reviewed and evaluated. (shrink)

Constructive mathematics – mathematics in which ‘there exists’ always means ‘we can construct’ – is enjoying a renaissance. Fifty years on from Bishop’s groundbreaking account of constructive analysis, constructive mathematics has spread out to touch almost all areas of mathematics and to have profound influence in theoretical computer science. This handbook gives the most complete overview of modern constructive mathematics, with contributions from leading specialists surveying the subject’s myriad aspects. Major themes include: constructive algebra and geometry, constructive analysis, constructive topology, (...) constructive logic and foundations of mathematics, and computational aspects of constructive mathematics. A series of introductory chapters provides graduate students and other newcomers to the subject with foundations for the surveys that follow. Edited by four of the most eminent experts in the field, this is an indispensable reference for constructive mathematicians and a fascinating vista of modern constructivism for the increasing number of researchers interested in constructive approaches. (shrink)

Abstract: Plato’s theory of recollection is classically treated as an account of “concept-acquisition” or “concept-possession,” explaining how the mind is able to employ general concepts, despite the senses only perceiving particulars. Against this, recent scholars (esp. Dominic Scott) have argued that recollection is not necessary for ordinary reasoning. Recollection is not about ordinary concepts that humans use; rather, recollection is a rare, prototypically philosophic affair that is satisfied by becoming aware of Forms or principles associated with them, which most people (...) never experience. On this view, most people do not recollect. A third position accepts both views: there are two types of recollection in Plato, one concerned with ordinary cognition, and one concerned with philosophical awareness of the Forms. This paper argues for the narrow reading, focusing on the Phaedrus. (shrink)

One of Parfit’s arguments for the thesis that identity never matters involves generalizing from “divergence” cases in which identity arguably does not matter. The primary divergence case for Parfit is fission. According to Parfit’s assessment, it is not true that the fissioner gets what matters with respect to either fissionee by way of being identical to each fissionee but does so by way of the M-relation, psychological continuity with its normal cause, the persistence of enough of the brain. The same (...) is true in all other divergence cases by Parfit’s accounting. Parfit generalizes. From (E) Whenever M and identity diverged, it would be M that mattered, not identity. Parfit infers (F) Whenever M and identity diverge and even when these relations coincide, it is M that matters, not identity. In this paper, I challenge the inference from (E) to (F). (shrink)

Anthropocentric and individualistic foundations result in forest management policy based on linear, single?dimensional, marginal analysis detrimental to the well?being of the forest ecosystem. Recent theories from the fields of ethics, economics, and policy analysis find that nonlinear, multidimensional analysis is possible, provided one can divorce oneself from anthropocentric and individualistic tendencies. Deep policy is introduced as a policy perspective that encourages questioning the fundamental values upon which policy decisions are made, just as deep ecology encourages a similar questioning of ecological (...) values. An experiment is proposed for forest management in the Pacific Northwest, in which a self?realizing Forest Board demonstrates punctuated equilibrium in forest management policy. (shrink)

Consideration of the adaptive problems faced by our ancestors suggests functional reasons why people exhibit some biases in social judgment more than others. We present a taxonomy consisting of six domains of central social challenges. Each is associated with somewhat different motivations, and consequently different decision-rules. These decision-rules, in turn, make some biases inherently more likely to emerge than others.

Testosterone's connection to sex differences and key evolutionary processes arouses controversy. Effects on humans and other species, though, are not robotically deterministic but are parts of complex interactions. We discuss the societal implications of these findings and consider how the naturalistic fallacy and the person–situation dichotomy contribute to misunderstandings here.

In diesem Essay wird der Versuch unternommen, auf der Grundlage der trinitarischen Theologie Colin Guntons die Implikationen der Trinitätslehre für die Versöhnungslehre neu zu bestimmen. Dazu wird der Vorschlag entwickelt, die beiden soteriologischen Grundkonzepte der Satisfaktion und des Opfers im Rahmen der Ökonomie der Beziehung des dreieinigen Gottes zu seinem erwählten Volk zu entfalten. In dieser Perspektive erscheinen sie nicht mehr als Metaphern, sondern als zusammenhängende Aspekte der ökonomischen Vermittlung des in seinem trinitarischen Wesen begründeten Willen Gottes zur Gemeinschaft mit (...) seinem Volk. (shrink)

In the informal setting of Bishop-style constructive reverse mathematics we discuss the connection between the antithesis of Specker’s theorem, Ishihara’s principle BD-N, and various types of equicontinuity. In particular, we prove that the implication from pointwise equicontinuity to uniform sequential equicontinuity is equivalent to the antithesis of Specker’s theorem; and that, for a family of functions on a separable metric space, the implication from uniform sequential equicontinuity to uniform equicontinuity is equivalent to BD-N.

This book will be published in the second half of 2025. It has eight chapters: 1. privacy; 2. the attention economy; 3. nudging; 4. echo chambers and polarization; 5. misinformation; 6. cancel culture: online shaming and caring; 7. friendship; and 8. the duty to quit. Each chapter has several cases to prompt discussion and reflection, as well as a glossary of key terms and an annotated bibliography.

Este texto contém um recorte da pesquisa de mestrado do primeiro autor, sob a orientação da segunda. Nele, temos como objetivo apresentar e analisar as formas com que a ideologia da certeza se manifesta em livros didáticos de Matemática brasileiros, em particular, nos capítulos de Geometria. Apesar de ser uma discussão antiga no campo da Educação Matemática, a ideologia da certeza se caracteriza, principalmente, pela compreensão do discurso matemático como puro, generalizador e rico em aplicações, o que vemos como uma (...) discussão ainda atual. Escolhemos analisar a Geometria presente nos livros didáticos por se tratar de um tema de interesse do nosso grupo de pesquisa, e ainda porque na revisão de literatura empregada na pesquisa de mestrado, nenhuma investigação semelhante a essa foi encontrada. Partindo de uma análise documental, investigamos os capítulos de Geometria de duas coleções de livros didáticos destinados ao Ensino Médio brasileiro, buscando estudar todo o seu conteúdo. Nesses livros há tanto o conteúdo destinado aos estudantes, com os conceitos, os exemplos, os exercícios, entre outros, quanto as orientações didáticas para os professores, que abarcam aspectos sobre a utilização do material, textos informativos, respostas dos exercícios etc. Ao interpretar os dados, identificamos que a ideologia da certeza se manifesta nos capítulos escolhidos por meio da estrutura elaborada por seus autores, em que a partir da exposição de um conceito geométrico, exemplos de aplicação são inseridos, sendo seguidos por exercícios. Esse padrão ‘conceito, exemplo e exercício’, em nossa visão, encontra respaldo na construção do próprio conhecimento geométrico. Também identificamos que a partir de contradições entre o que se espera do estudante e o que é apresentado ao professor, o desenvolvimento do discurso dado pela ideologia da certeza é ainda mais reforçado. Entendemos que questionar e enfraquecer a ideologia da certeza torna-se um desafio que não fica limitado ao exposto pelos livros didáticos, mas deve fazer parte da agenda política, social e cultural da Educação Matemática. Desse modo, críticas e reflexões para com o conhecimento matemático discutido em sala de aula carecem de considerar de que maneiras a ideologia da certeza se manifesta e de que formas ela pode ser enfrentada. (shrink)

The distribution of organisms in morphologic space is clumpy. Cats are like felids, dogs are like canids and snails are (mostly) like gastropods. But cats are not like dogs and snails are not like clams. This clumpy distribution of morphology has long posed one of the greatest challenges to evolutionary biologists. Does it represent the extinction and disappearance of a oncecontinuous distribution of morphologies, clades perched on the summits of persistent selective peaks ala Sewell Wright, or a primary signature of (...) the evolutionary processes? And if the latter, what processes are responsible for generating it? Although often couched in discussions of the origin of higher taxa, such taxa are but proxies for this clumpy distribution, and ultimately the latter is the critical issue for macroevolution and for Stephen Jay Gould’s opus. Underneath all the controversies over whether species constitute individuals, whether speciation serves to divide intra-specific adaptation driven by natural selection from a set of inter- and supra-specific evolutionary processes, and over the impact of catastrophic mass extinctions on evolutionary trends, the fundamental issue is simply one of clumpiness (or, if you prefer, the inhomogeneous distribution of morphologies). Iurii Filipchenko, a Russian geneticist and the mentor of Theodosius Dobzhansky, introduced the term macroevolution in 1927 because he believed that the origin of the characters associated with higher taxa (those beyond the species level) required a different process of evolution. Filipchenko believed macroevolution was driven by cytoplasmic inheritance, but his general argument was consistent with other saltationists and macro-mutationists of the time, including the paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborne and the geneticist Richard Goldschmidt. These evolutionary biologists shared the.. (shrink)

This article examines some of the links between the nineteenth century Tractarian leader Edward Pusey and the Romantic poets, particularly Samuel Taylor Coleridge, in relation to eucharistic theology, especially Pusey's 1836 ‘Lectures on Types and Prophecies of the Old Testament’. Pusey's sacramental theology was affected by the Romantic poets in the expression of moderate realism which also played an important part in the Oxford Movement. Like the Romantic poets, Pusey saw nature as pointing to and conveying the presence of God (...) and this had clear connections for Pusey to a moderate realist sacramental theology where the presence of the divine was known through the material: things like bread and wine and water. (shrink)

The exhibition Off Beat: Jeff Nuttall and the International Underground showcases the archive of Jeff Nuttall, a painter, poet, editor, actor and novelist. As the exhibition illustrates, Nuttall was a central figure in the International Underground during the 1960s through to the early 1970s. During this time he collaborated with a vast network of avant-garde writers from across the globe, as well as editing the influential publication My Own Mag between 1963 and 1967.

Memory theories of personal identity are subject to the difficulty that distinct simultaneous person stages may both stand in the memory relation to an earlier person stage. Apparently, Such theories entail that these two duplicate person stages are stages of the same person, A claim argued to be "obviously false". In this paper, I argue that the characteristics of these duplication cases usually cited to support this claim do not provide adequate evidence to make it cogent.