The role of reasoning in our moral lives has been increasingly called into question by moral psychology. Not only are intuitions guiding many of our moral judgments and decisions, with reasoning only finding post-hoc rationalizations, but reasoning can sometimes play a negative role, by finding excuses for our moral violations. The observations fit well with the argumentative theory of reasoning (Mercier H, Sperber D, Behav Brain Sci, in press-b), which claims that reasoning evolved to find and evaluate arguments in dialogic (...) contexts. This theory explains the strong confirmation bias that reasoning displays when it produces arguments, which in turn explains its tendency to rationalize our decisions. But this theory also predicts that people should be able to evaluate arguments felicitously and that, as a result, people should reason better in groups, when they are confronted with other people’s arguments. Groups are able to converge on better moral judgments. It is argued that reasoning and argumentation play an important role in our everyday moral lives, and a defense of the value of reasoning for moral change is offered. (shrink)

Many fields of study have shown that group discussion generally improves reasoning performance for a wide range of tasks. This article shows that most of the population, including specialists, does not expect group discussion to be as beneficial as it is. Six studies asked participants to solve a standard reasoning problem—the Wason selection task—and to estimate the performance of individuals working alone and in groups. We tested samples of U.S., Indian, and Japanese participants, European managers, and psychologists of reasoning. Every (...) sample underestimated the improvement yielded by group discussion. They did so even after they had been explained the correct answer, or after they had had to solve the problem in groups. These mistaken intuitions could prevent individuals from making the best of institutions that rely on group discussion, from collaborative learning and work teams to deliberative assemblies. (shrink)

The ethics of physical restraint in the Emergency Department has always been an emotive and controversial issue. Recently a vanguard of advocacy groups and regulatory agencies have...

The three main Chinese teachings can all be used to develop a framework for corporate governance in China. Recently, the Confucian classic the Dizi gui has emerged as a matter of academic and social interest in Mainland China. Some entrepreneurs have decided to revert to the moral rules set out in this book to decide on complex moral dilemma. Our research aims to explore an actual case in which a business leader from Beijing succeeded in transforming his moral aspiration into (...) a viable business model. Willing to break out from a deteriorated business environment in which he was competing, he used the Dizi gui to develop a set of moral principles, out of which he articulated his decision-making strategy. (shrink)

This paper discusses the state-of-the-art dispute over the ontological question of rock music: what is the work of art, or the central work-kind, of rock music, if any? And, is the work of rock music ontologically distinct from the work of classical music, which is the only musical tradition whose ontology is vastly studied? First, I distinguish between two levels of inquiry in musical ontology: the fundamental level and the higher-order level, in which comparative ontology – the project in which (...) someone engages by considering that there is ontological variety among works of distinct musical traditions – falls. After addressing two general questions about rock music, I turn to Theodore Gracyk’s ontological account of rock music, according to which the primary focus of critical attention in rock music are recordings, or recorded tracks. This view has the consequence that ‘recordings’ is a fundamental concept of philosophy of music, necessary for us to understand rock music. Stephen Davies objected that Gracyk’s account fails to assign appropriate value to a valuable practice with which rock audiences are committed, live performance, and argued that the works of rock music are of the ontological kind for studio performance. Finally, Andrew Kania synthetized both views: rock recorded tracks are at the centre of rock as an art form, thus being the rock works. For, different reasons, none of these views is deemed satisfactory. (shrink)

An ancient Greek proverb declares: ‘beautiful things are difficult’. One obvious difficulty arises from their almost limitless variety: sights, sounds, people, natural phenomena, man-made objects and abstract ideas may all bebeautiful, but what do these things have in common? It is not just beauty's breadth of application, then, that makes it difficult, but the way in which its meaning varies depending on context. The beauty of a child may mean something quite different from the beauty of an old and wizened (...) face, let alone the beauty of a supermodel. In common parlance,beautifulmay be used as a general term of approbation alongside others likelovelyorfine, while in academic discourse, the wordbeautyhas a life of its own: since the emergence of aesthetics as an independent discipline in the mid eighteenth century, beauty has been constantly theorized and responded to in different ways that have laden the term with its own peculiar historical baggage. And although some of these philosophical reflections on beauty may have trickled into the common cultural consciousness, in general they seem a far cry from beauty's most ubiquitous incarnation in modern Western society, in the cosmetics industry; to put it another way, if you go into a beauty salon in search of a Kantian ideal of disinterested contemplation, I suspect you will be disappointed. (shrink)

De acordo com as interpretações mais conhecidas (por exemplo, Hofmann, Strauss, Löwith ou Kuhn), o pensamento jurídico e político de Carl Schmitt mantém distância de Aristóteles. Este artigo tem a intenção de mostrar que a concepção de direito de Schmitt, apesar de ser desenvolvida em um contexto diferente, contém semelhanças significativas com o entendimento de direito em Aristóteles. Para mostrar essa proximidade, considera-se especialmente a noção de totalidade presente no conceito aristotélico de polis, que implica que a unidade política é (...) o principal modo de se realizar o direito. According to mostly known interpretations (e.g.: Hofman, Strauss, Löwith or Kuhn), the legal and political thought of Carl Schmitt keeps distance from Aristotle's. This article intends to show that Schmitt's concept of law, despite developed in a different context, holds significant likelihood with Aristotle's comprehension of law. With the Purpose of building this proximity, the notion of entirety present in the Aristotelic concept of polis implies that political unit is the main way to accomplish law. (shrink)

En este artículo se analiza el comentario de Maimon al intento kantiano de vincular sensibilidad y entendimiento. En la Crítica de la razón pura, Kant distingue dos facultades de conocimiento, que deben ser unidas para que el conocimiento objetivo sea posible. Maimon cuestiona que la vinculación sea realizable. Luego de exponer el punto de partida kantiano, se analizan los argumentos maimonianos, planteando dificultades sistemáticas que afectarían al intento de vinculación kantiano.

Bd. 1. Philosophie als Erkennen.--Bd. 2. Philosophie des Wertens.--Bd. 3. Die praktische Philosophie als Ergebnis der theoretischen.

L’article tente de montrer que l’accès au plus haut niveau de la pratique footballistique est lié de manière indissociable à un ensemble de réussites à court terme pendant que, dans le même temps, l’investissement extrêmement exigeant dans un quotidien de sportif de haut niveau ne peut être supporté sans la projection au long cours dans une carrière professionnelle. Mais la compréhension, l’acceptation et l’insertion dans ce chevauchement des temporalités ne se construit que lentement et par étapes chez les apprentis footballeurs. (...) Pour certains, il ne se construira même jamais. Dès lors, le travail de l’encadrement technique, soucieux d’établir la valeur sportive et économique des futurs joueurs, va consister, à partir d’un jeu autour des procédures d’évaluation et des contrats de formation disponibles, à s’approprier les cadres temporels prescrits par la Fédération Française de Football pour sélectionner et former les individus jugés les plus aptes à entrer sur le marché des footballeurs professionnels. (shrink)

RESUMENLa eliminación de instituciones y concepciones premodernas es considerada generalmente como imprescindible y positiva para acelerar la evolución histórica y alcanzar el anhelado objetivo del progreso material. La tradicionalidad ha sido desde entonces vista como algo fundamentalmente negativo. El proceso de modernización engloba, sin embargo, factores destructivos, que recién ahora empiezan a ser percibidos de forma realista. Algunos elementos premodernos merecen una mejor suerte en la consciencia intelectual, como la religión en cuanto fuente de sentido y consuelo. Aun es posible (...) rescatar las tradiciones razonables, y combinarlas con lo positivo de la modernidad. Esfuerzos sincretistas similares en otros campos constituyen gran parte de la historia universal.PALABRAS CLAVESELEMENTOS RESCATABLES, MODERNIDAD, ORDEN PREMODERNO, RELIGIÓN, TRADICIÓNABSTRACTThe elimination of premodern institutions and values has been generally considered as unavoidable and therefore as positive for the purposes of accelerating the historical evolution of any society. The traditional order has been supposed to be something basically negative. Modernization embraces, however, destructive factors, which now are increasingly perceived in a more realistic manner. Some premodern aspects deserve a better destiny in collective conscience. An example of that is religion as a source of sense and comfort. It is still possible to rescue some factors of premodern societies and to blend them with the positive aspects of modernity. Similar syncretizing efforts in other fields constitute a fair portion of the history of mankind.KEYWORDSMODERNITY, PREMODERN SOCIETY, PRESERVABLE ASPECTS, RELIGION, TRADITION. (shrink)

TO BE A THEIST, THE AUTHOR ARGUES, IS TO CONSTRUE THE WORLD AS A WHOLE ON THE MODEL OF A RATIONAL AGENT’S ACTIVITIES. CHRISTIAN THEISM IS CHARACTERISED BY PARTICULAR CLAIMS AS TO MATTERS OF FACT: GOD IS (A) THAT WHICH IS SAID TO MAKE ALL THINGS, (B) THE OBJECT OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE, (C) THAT WHICH WILL ULTIMATELY BRING ABOUT A STATE OF JUSTICE, (D) THAT WHICH BROUGHT IT ABOUT THAT JESUS LIVED, DIED AND ROSE FROM THE DEAD. MEYNELL CONTENDS THAT (...) THIS IS A LOGICALLY COHERENT IDEA AND SHOWS WITH REFERENCE TO THE DEPENDENT CONCEPTS OF GRACE, EVIL, PRAYER, PROVIDENCE, MIRACLE AND THE AFTER-LIFE THAT THE CHRISTIAN FAITH HAS ESCHATOLOGICAL TRUTH-CONDITIONS. (BP). (shrink)