Freedom and security are often portrayed as things that have to be traded off against one another, but this view does not capture the full complexity of the freedom-security relationship. Rather, there seem to be four different ways in which freedom and security connect to each other: freedom can come at the cost of security, security can come at the cost of freedom, freedom can work to the benefit of security, and security can work to the benefit of freedom. This (...) paper analyses each of these connections in turn. It shows that particular understandings of freedom can help us to see particular connections between freedom and security. The practical examples used to illustrate these connections are drawn from the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be suggested that, in the face of challenges such as this one, taking into account all four connections between freedom and security can ultimately help decision-makers in upholding both. (shrink)

The Stoic theory of knowledge was founded by Zeno on a perceptual and crudely materialistic base, but subsequently developed into an elaborate theory involving λεκτ which has proved difficult to reconstruct. The evolution of the school, influenced not only by internal differences but also by interaction with the Platonic Academy, certainly contributed to this development. Hence any adequate reconstruction of the Stoic theory of knowledge must take account of the differences among the positions of the different representatives of the school (...) with respect to the criticism put foward by the Academics. I propose here to clarify Zeno's position, showing how Arcesilaus' criticism helped to expose certain lacunae and thus to bring about changes in doctrine on the part both of Zeno himself and of his immediate successors. (shrink)

Semantyka teoriomonogościowa dla wielowartościowych rachunków pozycyjnych Celem artykułu jest zdefiniowanie adekwatnych semantyk teoriomonogościowych dla rachunków pozycyjnych.

In many applications we have a set of objects together with their properties. Since the available information is usually incomplete and/or imprecise, the true knowledge about subsets of objects can be determined approximately only. In this paper, we discuss a fuzzy generalisation of two pairs of relation-based operators suitable for fuzzy set approximations, which have been recently investigated by Düntsch and Gediga. Double residuated lattices, introduced by Orlowska and Radzikowska, are taken as basic algebraic structures. Main properties of these operators (...) are presented. (shrink)

Enjoying great popularity in decision theory, epistemology, and philosophy of science, Bayesianism as understood here is fundamentally concerned with epistemically ideal rationality. It assumes a tight connection between evidential probability and ideally rational credence, and usually interprets evidential probability in terms of such credence. Timothy Williamson challenges Bayesianism by arguing that evidential probabilities cannot be adequately interpreted as the credences of an ideal agent. From this and his assumption that evidential probabilities cannot be interpreted as the actual credences of human (...) agents either, he concludes that no interpretation of evidential probabilities in terms of credence is adequate. I argue to the contrary. My overarching aim is to show on behalf of Bayesians how one can still interpret evidential probabilities in terms of ideally rational credence and how one can maintain a tight connection between evidential probabilities and ideally rational credence even if the former cannot be interpreted in terms of the latter. By achieving this aim I illuminate the limits and prospects of Bayesianism. (shrink)

Bien qu’il tende à interpréter l’ἐποχή comme une position personnelle d’Arcésilas, Thomas Bénatouïl admet cependant que cette interprétation n’est pas pleinement justifiée par nos sources, lesquelles, loin d’être unanimes, font également état d’une interprétation exclusivement dialectique de l’ἐποχή περὶ πάντων. Mais s’il en est ainsi, il est également difficile de soutenir qu’Arcésilas utilise un vocabulaire qui lui est propre pour exposer son point de vue ; en conséquence de quoi le mot ἄδη...

En contra de Sartre, el paralelismo que Merleau-Ponty establece entre literatura y pintura en su escrito El lenguaje indirecto y las voces del silencio es una manifestación de su ontología indirecta. Este texto, que puede ser leído como una reconsideración de la frase horaciana ut pictura poesis ―la pintura es como la poesía―, pretende entonces poner en claro cómo es posible la relación interartística entre la literatura ―arte cuyo material es el lenguaje― y la pintura ―arte que se sirve de (...) formas y colores―. Para el filósofo francés la literatura y la pintura comparten el hecho de ser expresiones de una realidad pre-objetiva. Ahora bien, puesto que la obra de Merleau-Ponty es un intento incesante por incluir esa realidad, el arte, como expresión privilegiada de la misma, adquiere un papel fundamental en el pensamiento filosófico. (shrink)

Previous studies have reported a significant positive association between ability emotional intelligence and attachment security. However, these studies may, to some extent, be misleading because they relied on self-report measures of attachment security. Furthermore, to our knowledge, no study has yet investigated the relationship between ability EI and mentalization, operazionalized as reflective functioning, although EI and RF were assumed to be “conceptual cousins.” In an attempt to overcome some of the limitations of the previous research, the current study investigated the (...) relationships between ability EI, attachment security, and mentalization measured via the Adult Attachment Interview. Ninety-three volunteer participants from an Italian community population, aged from 27 to 55 years, took part in the study. Significant positive correlations were found between ability EI, attachment security, and RF. The results shed some light on the relationship between different attachment strategies and ability EI. Hyperactivating attachment strategies correlated negatively with ability EI, while the correlation between ability EI and attachment deactivating strategies depend on which defensive strategy is used: avoiding the painful emotional contact with the memory of unpleasant childhood attachment experiences positively correlated with experiential EI, whilst the resort to derogation of the attachment needs correlated with impairment in EI. Findings from the current study suggest that future studies in developmental psychology are needed to investigate the development of the ability EI in relation to the quality of the attachment models more in-depth. (shrink)

This book explores the question of whether the ideal right to science and culture exists. It proposes that the human right to science and culture is of a utopian character and argues for the necessity of the existence of such a right by developing a philosophical project situated in postmodernity, based on the assumption of ‘thinking in terms of excendence’. The book offers a new way of thinking about access to knowledge in the postanalogue, postmodern society, and is inspired by (...) twentieth-century critical theorists such as Levinas, Gadamer, Bauman and Habermas. (shrink)

A number of tasks have been developed to measure the affective theory of mind (ToM), nevertheless, recent studies found that different affective ToM tasks do not correlate with each other, suggesting that further studies on affective ToM and its measurement are needed. More in-depth knowledge of the tools that are available to assess affective ToM is needed to decide which should be used in research and in clinical practice, and how to interpret results. The current study focuses on the Reading (...) the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET) primarily to investigate in a sample of 112 children the currently unexplored relationships in middle childhood between performance on the RMET and fluid intelligence. Relationships with receptive vocabulary, age, and sex were also investigated. Moreover, because studying the family's influence on children mentalization could have important implications in developing prevention and treatment interventions, this study offers a novel contribution to the field by exploring the family's influence on children's RMET performance. Although significant positive correlations were found among RMET-C performance, fluid intelligence, and receptive language, regression analysis revealed that fluid intelligence was the only predictor. No family influence was found on children's RMET performance. On the whole, results from the current study offer some support to the hypothesis that RMET-C is not a “pure” ToM task, specifically the effect of fluid intelligence on RMET performance should be taken into account when RMET is used both in research and in the clinical setting. (shrink)

This article presents a general overview of the contacts between Polish Socinians and Dutch Remonstrants during the seventeenth century. Many contemporaries regarded Socinianism and Remonstrantism as similar or related confessions and some worked to forge ties between them. At the same time however the Remonstrant leadership opposed such moves for fear that they would confirm a link that was already being exploited by the Remonstrants’ opponents to smear their reputation. In the circumstances the Remonstrants as a group saw no alternative (...) than to copy the widely prevailing intolerant attitude towards Socinianism. By the mid-seventeenth century fears of an influx of Socinian immigrants and ideas led to calls for measures against Socinian immigration and actual ban on Socinian printing in the Dutch Republic. Nevertheless some immigration took place and Amsterdam and Rotterdam became important centres of Socinian printing for some time. (shrink)

This entry provides an opinionated overview of key epistemological debates regarding experts. To comprehend, justify, and enhance our practices of trusting, utilising, and depending on experts' judgments, it is crucial to clarify the characteristics of experts and the means of identifying those who exemplify them. Consequently, this entry examines and evaluates accounts of the main characteristics of experts. Furthermore, it discusses indicators of experts that help recognise experts and considers to what extent they are accessible to other experts and laypersons.

Der Begriff Leiden ist in der Medizin und in der Bioethik bisher kaum reflektiert und dahingehend in normativer Hinsicht wenig bestimmt. Dennoch bildet das Leiden an einer Unfruchtbarkeit den Ausgangspunkt für die medizintechnischen Interventionen der assistierten reproduktionsmedizinischen Behandlung. Dabei wird implizit angenommen, dass der unerfüllte Kinderwunsch ein Leiden ist. Ob der unerfüllte Kinderwunsch allerdings ein Leiden darstellt, ist bisher nicht eindeutig geklärt worden.Ziel dieses Beitrages ist es, die Annahme, dass es sich beim unerfüllten Kinderwunsch um ein Leiden handelt, zu überprüfen. (...) Anhand der Darstellung einiger gängiger Leidenskonzeptionen werden Merkmale von Leiden herausgearbeitet, die als treffende Grundannahmen für eine Leidensbestimmung gelten können. Es wird sich zeigen, dass der unerfüllte Kinderwunsch, entsprechend der Leidenskonzeptionen, als ein Leiden angesehen werden sollte, und ihm somit ein normativer Stellenwert zukommt. In einem weiteren Schritt ist zu klären, ob das Leiden an einem unerfüllten Kinderwunsch als ein Rechtfertigungsgrund für reproduktionsmedizinische Interventionen gelten kann. Dafür wird zum einen der Stellenwert von Leiden, als eine anthropologische Grundbedingung, im Zusammenhang mit dem Leidenslinderungsauftrag der Medizin diskutiert. Zum anderen werden die Risiken der reproduktionsmedizinischen Therapien sowie deren Bedeutung als Gesundheitsressourcen erörtert. Dabei wird deutlich, dass Leiden an einem unerfüllten Kinderwunsch immer ein psychosomatischer Komplex ist. Nur unter Berücksichtigung der psychoexistenziellen Dimension des Leidens ergibt sich eine Legitimation für eine angemessene somatische Intervention. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Even if Lotman’s theory has often been presented as a semiotic theory based on categories of space, temporal categories are crucial as well. And as we can speak of polyglotism as one of the main features of culture, we should speak of polychronism as well. In each state of culture, in fact, we find many temporal codes, and the internal dialogue is not only based on codes coming from different spaces (in the normal sense of polyglotism), but also as (...) coming from different times (in the sense of a sort of polychronism). Lotman’s reflections about this aspect of culture could be very useful in order to understand some aspects of our society, where we find a form of presentism, the temporal dimension corresponding to localism within the spatial dimension, which globalization has produced. (shrink)

The aim of my contribution is to analyse the role that common sense has played in Umberto Eco’s work. After making clear the distinction between good sense and common sense, and highlighting a number of differences with the Scottish philosophy of common sense, I will consider the uses and functions that common sense assumes in Eco’s philosophy: namely, a phenomenological function, a regulatory function and a communicative function. I will demonstrate how the characterisation of common sense in Eco emphasises the (...) importance of the historical dimension of Sens, the importance of the public and social dimension of semiosis, and how common sense plays a fundamental, pragmatic role in the disposition to act, whilst revealing the importance of the Peircian lesson and Eco’s consonance with Peirce’s positions. (shrink)