Research has suggested a fundamental connection between fairness and well-being at the individual, relational, and societal levels. Mattering is a multidimensional construct consisting of feeling valued by, and adding value to, self and others. Prior studies have attempted to connect mattering to both fairness and a variety of well-being outcomes. Based on these findings, we hypothesize that mattering acts as a mediator between fairness and well-being. This hypothesis was tested through Covariance-Based Structural Equation Modeling using multidimensional measures of fairness, mattering, (...) and well-being. Results from a Latent Path Analysis conducted on a representative sample of 1,051U.S. adults provide support to our hypothesis by revealing a strong direct predictive effect of mattering onto well-being and a strong indirect effect of fairness onto well-being through mattering. Results also show that mattering is likely to fully mediate the relationship between fairness and multiple domains of well-being, except in one case, namely, economic well-being. These findings illustrate the value of a focus on mattering to understand the relationship between fairness and well-being and to provide future directions for theory, research, and practice. Theoretical implications for the experience of citizenship and participation, along with cross-cultural considerations, are also discussed. (shrink)

Rips et al. claim that the principles underlying the structure of natural numbers cannot be inferred from interactions with the physical world. However, in their target article they failed to consider an important source of interaction: finger counting. Here, we show that finger counting satisfies all the conditions required for allowing the concept of numbers to emerge from sensorimotor experience through a bottom-up process.

As Macnamara (1978) once asked, how can we talk about what we see? We report on a study manipulating realistic dynamic scenes and sentences aiming to understand the interaction between linguistic and visual representations in real-world situations. Specifically, we monitored participants’ eye movements as they watched video clips of everyday scenes while listening to sentences describing these scenes. We manipulated two main variables. The first was the semantic class of the verb in the sentence and the second was the action/motion (...) of the agent in the unfolding event. The sentences employed two verb classes—causatives (e.g., break) and perception/psychological (e.g., notice)—which impose different constraints on the nouns that serve as their grammatical complements. The scenes depicted events in which agents either moved towards a target object (always the referent of the verb-complement noun), away from it, or remained neutral performing a given activity (such as cooking). Scenes and sentences were synchronized such that the verb onset corresponded to the first video frame of the agent motion towards or away from the object. Results show effects of agent motion but weak verb-semantic restrictions: causatives draw more attention to potential referents of their grammatical complements than perception verbs only when the agent moves towards the target object. Crucially, we found no anticipatory verb-driven eye movements toward the target object, contrary to studies using non-naturalistic and static scenes. We propose a model in which linguistic and visual computations in real-world situations occur largely independent of each other during the early moments of perceptual input, but rapidly interact at a central, conceptual system using a common, propositional code. Implications for language use in real world contexts are discussed. (shrink)

With his massive redeployment hypothesis (MRH), Anderson claims that novel cognitive functions are likely to rely on pre-existing circuits already possessing suitable resources. Here, we put forward recent findings from studies in numerical cognition in order to show that the role of sensorimotor experience in the ontogenetical development of a new function has been largely underestimated in Anderson's proposal.

Dis/Abling Practices: Rethinking Disability The paper discusses how ordinary acts of everyday life make up the complex and contingent scenarios of disabilities that create enabling and disabling (dis/abling) practices. Drawing on qualitative empirical data the societal visibility and relevance of dis/abling practices are analyzed by connecting disability studies and sociological ideas with insights from Science and Technology Studies (STS). The essay explores how (visual) dis/ability is the outcome of human and non-human configurations and suggests that dis/ability can be understood neither (...) as an individual bodily impairment nor as a socially attributed disability. Rather, dis/ability refers to complex sets of heterogeneous practices that (re-)associate bodies, material objects, and technologies with sensory practices. These practices, the paper concludes, draw attention to the multiple processes that (re-) concatenate the conduct of human affairs. (shrink)

Némésius, évêque d’Émèse en Syrie (aujourd’hui Homs) vers la fin du ive et le début du ve siècle après J.-C., ne nous a laissé qu’un seul ouvrage, le De natura hominis. Parfois salué comme le « premier traité d’anthropologie chrétienne », ce livre occupe une place à part dans la tradition patristique. En effet, au lieu de tenter de réfuter les théories « païennes », c’est-à-dire relevant de la philosophie grecque, concernant la nature de l’homme, l’auteur y récupère très largement (...) une tendanc... (shrink)

I defend the argument that if embryo loss in stem cell research is morally problematic, then embryo loss in in vivo conception is similarly morally problematic. According to a recent challenge to this argument, we can distinguish between in vivo embryo loss and the in vitro embryo loss of stem cell research by appealing to the doctrine of double effect. I argue that this challenge fails to show that in vivo embryo loss is a mere unintended side effect while in (...) vitro embryo loss is an intended means and that, even if we refine the challenge by appealing to Michael Bratman's three roles of intention, the distinction is still unwarranted. (shrink)

This paper builds on prior critical scholarship on Agriculture 4.0—an umbrella term to reference the utilization of robotics and automation, AI, remote sensing, big data, and the like in agriculture—especially the literature focusing on issues relating to equity and social sustainability. Critical agrifood scholarship has spent considerable energy interrogating who gets what, how decisions get made, and who counts as a “stakeholder” in the context of decision making, questions relating to distributive justice, procedural justice, and representative justice, respectively. Less attention, (...) however, has been paid in this literature to the subject of recognition justice. Recognition justice asks the question, “Who are subjects of justice?” That query, however, is easily to oversimplify. As subjectivity is neither monolithic nor fixed, implied in these discussions are deeper questions having to do with the characteristics of one’s subjectivity that deserve moral recognition. This act of translation, from justice-in-theory to justice-in-practice, also complicates the evaluation of whether Agriculture 4.0 platforms are just, or not. These recognition justice tensions are explored by leveraging qualitative data collected through forty-two face-to-face interviews with individuals on farms located in the US states of Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming who utilize these platforms. The study design intentionally oversampled for persons with disabilities, which highlights another distinguishing characteristic of the paper relative to critical Agriculture 4.0 scholarship. In addition to exposing certain ableist assumptions in these discussions, the sampling technique proved invaluable for interrogating how we think about labor, work, and leisure in agriculture. The paper specifically discusses how Agriculture 4.0, for example, shapes conceptions of what it means to be “able to work,” “willing to work,” “hard working,” etc. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to argue that, for Spinoza, causation is a more fundamental relation than conceptual connection, and that, in fact, it explains conceptual connection. I will firstly offer a criticism of Michael Della Rocca's 2008 claims that, for Spinoza, causal relations are identical to relations of conceptual dependence and that existence is identical to conceivability. Secondly, I will argue that, for Spinoza, causation is more fundamental than conceptual dependence, offering textual evidence from both Treatise on (...) the Emendation of the Intellect and Ethics. In particular, I will offer an interpretation of the attributes as first and foremost causal activities, or powers: this interpretation has the advantage to clarify the role of 1D6 as a “genetic definition.”. (shrink)

During my first year of philosophy study at a German university I shared the prejudice of my colleagues that positivist texts are tedious if not boring, at least compared to Schopenhauer or Nietzsche, to Sartre or other French philosophers. Here is a book that shows the opposite and succeeds in keeping the esprit of an essay over 233 pages. Parrini’s use of the word ‘essay’ alludes to Hume’s Essays, more generally to the English tradition rather than to those contemporaries to (...) whom philosophy is nothing but an essay. Unfortunately, Parrini pays an unnecessary high price for this form when the book’s only footnote informs us that “Reasons of expressive form after all have led me not to burden the text with the usual references to authors and works used. I apologize to the reader. ”1 The expert will easier accept this excuse and, perhaps, enjoy the unencumbered reading, although, as a matter of fact, some footnote-like hints to other authors or even Parrini’s own works are entirely useless without any reference. But, the omittance partly spoils one great merit of the book. As large parts of it are self-contained and Parrini succeeds in making most technical points quite transparent, the essay appears to me very readable for students. To him or her, hardly reading footnotes when going through it first, it becomes almost impossible to penetrate further into ‘positive philosophy’. It would have been much more profitable to the freshmen to supplement the book by a two-page bibliography containing the basic references. The English translation to appear soon will contain references and bibliography in the standard fashion. It is a pity, that unlike the Italian original only few students will be able to afford this fascinating book due to its high price. (shrink)

Excerpt: In this essay I explore the nature of the necessity of historical development in Nietzsche’s genealogy of Judeo-Christian moral values. I argue that the progression of moral stages in Nietzsche’s study is ordered in such a way that the failure of each stage is logically and structurally necessary, that each failure structures the resultant system or paradigm, but that the historical manifestation of moral paradigms coinciding with predicted or projected theoretical structures is contingent upon a multitude of other historical (...) factors. Therefore, the systematic internal failures of moral stages allow for, but do not cause, successive events. (shrink)

This essay argues that an alternative conception of time to that underlying the ideology of productivism and growth is not only possible, but desirable. The creation of this time requires what I refer to as the practice of refusal via taking time: the self-determined arrangement of the nexus of time, action and utility that begins with the a-synchronous insertion of unproductive time into the synchronous horizontal time of productivism. The essay is divided into three sections. The first offers the reader (...) a discussion of Jacques Rancière’s notion of time as a social and political medium that partitions and distributes actions and utility. The subsequent section of the essay elaborates in aesthetic terms an account of unproductive time that is indifferent to the time of productivism. In the final section, I discuss examples that show how taking time to do ‘nothing’ can elicit an emancipatory politics that seeks to liberate us from the hegemony of productivism. I conclude that political theory should attend to time as a political medium and to the possibilities of its occupation, and that picturing the taking of time in terms of stopping the force of productivism’s normalized horizontal time by entering the unproductive time of reverie and aesthetic experience, provides a promising perspective from which to apprehend a time for thriftless refusals, deliberate dis-identifications, and the forging of cooperation among people(s) and with nature. (shrink)

In recent years, a number of theorists have developed approaches to social cognition that highlight the centrality of social interaction as opposed to mindreading (e.g. Gallagher and Zahavi 2008 ; Gallagher 2001 , 2007 , 2008 ; Hobson 2002 ; Reddy 2008 ; Hutto 2004 ; De Jaegher 2009 ; De Jaegher and Di Paolo 2007 ; Fuchs and De Jaegher 2009 ; De Jaegher et al. 2010 ). There are important differences among these approaches, as I will discuss, but (...) they are united by their commitment to the claim that various embodied and extended processes sustain social understanding and interaction in the absence of mindreading and thus make mindreading superfluous. In this paper, I consider various ways of articulating and defending this claim. I will argue that the options that have been offered either fail to present an alternative to mindreading or commit one to a radical enactivist position that I will give reasons for being skeptical about. I will then present an alternative and moderate version of interactionism, according to which the embodied and extended processes that interactionists emphasize actually complement mindreading and may even contribute as an input to mindreading. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:27 Franciscan Studies 63 (2005) FRANCISCAN INSTITUTE MEDAL HONOREES The Franciscan Institute Medal for 2005 was awarded to two scholars of international renown in the world of Franciscan studies: David Flood, OFM and David Burr. Both honorees are known throughout the world particularly for their scholarly work on Peter John Olivi – a friar of the late 13th century whose critical importance for Franciscan history has now come to (...) be appreciated largely thanks to the work of these two scholars. The Medals were conferred at an Academic Convocation in connection with the Feast of St. Bonaventure in July 2005. David Flood, OFM is the 17th recipient of the Franciscan Institute Medal. David Burr is the 18th recipient of the Franciscan Institute Medal. MICHAEL BLASTIC 28 DAVID E. FLOOD, OFM 17th Recipient of the Franciscan Institute Medal Official Citation It is both an honor and a joy for me to celebrate and recount some of the significant contributions of Brother David Flood, OFM, to Franciscan studies and life. Brother David has been a member of the St. Joseph Province of the Friars Minor in Montreal, Canada, since 1950. He received a B.A. in philosophy from Laval University, Quebec City, studied theology at the Friars Convent in Montreal, and was ordained in May, 1958. He also received a M.A. in English and Literature from the University of Montreal in 1959. From 1958 until 1961 he taught English Literature at St. Francis College in Biddeford, Maine, and while teaching he published studies on English topics including Keats and Beckett. Between 1961 and 1965 while residing in Cologne, Germany, he studied with Kajetan Esser, OFM, at Mönchengladbach, while reading philosophy and history at the University of Cologne. He received his doctorate from that university in 1965 with the dissertation Die Regula non Bullata der Minderbrüder (published in 1967 by Dietrich Coelde Verlag). Returning to Canada, he taught church history in Montreal from 1965-1966. In 1967-1968 he held a fellowship at the Institute for European History in Mainz, working on a critical edition of Peter Olivi’s Rule Commentary (published by Franz Steiner Verlag, 1972). During the 1970’s and 1980’s, David worked with various Franciscan groups, especially the Franciscan Federation, in North America while residing in Chicago, Illinois. From time to time during that period he returned to Mönchengladbach for Franciscan research and writing. After returning to Montreal in 1991, he began working with Gedeon Gál, OFM, in 1994, and visited the Franciscan Institute regularly as they worked together on the Chronicle of Nicholas Minorita (The Franciscan Institute, 1996). He also worked on the exegetical works of Peter Olivi with Gedeon, publish- FRANCISCAN MEDAL 29 ing a critical edition of Olivi’s Principles of Sacred Scripture, and Postilla ’s on Isaiah and 1 Corinthians (The Franciscan Institute, 1997). He became a permanent member of the Franciscan Institute in January, 1998, and continued working on editions of Olivi’s exegetical works, completing the Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (The Franciscan Institute, 2001). David is presently completing work on the edition of Olivi’s Commentary on the Book of Genesis which he hopes to complete within a year. In addition to his work on textual editions and scholarly papers, David has lectured widely in North America and Europe, as well as in Africa. He just recently returned from a semester in Rome where he taught a course on the Regula non Bullata at the Scuola Superiore di Studi Medievali at the Antonianum. The bibliography of David’s publications number more than fifty entries and includes a significant number of critical text editions, each of which is recognized as a quality example of medieval text editing. In addition to his edition of the Early Rule and Olivi’s Rule Commentary, David also has published editions of the Rule commentaries of Hugh of Digne (1980), David of Augsburg (1993), and John of Wales (2002). In addition to the exegetical texts and the Rule Commentary of Olivi, David edited Olivi’s Quaestio de Mendicitate, and together with David Burr, his fellow honoree this evening, he published an edition of Olivi’s Sixteenth Question on Evangelical Perfection dealing with poverty... (shrink)

English version of: "Il personale e politico? Il confine fra pubblico e privato nella sfera della giustizia distributiva." --- Italian text published in Carter, Ian, Otsuka, Michael and Trincia, Francesco Saverio Discussione su "If You're an Egalitarian, How Come You're So Rich?" di G.A. Cohen. Iride, XIV. pp. 609-634. ISSN 1122-7893.

While theorists of cultural pluralism have generally supported tribal sovereignty to protect threatened Native cultures, they fail to address adequately cultural conflicts between Native and non-Native communities, especially when tribal sovereignty facilitates illiberal or undemocratic practices. In response, I draw on Jürgen Habermas' conceptions of dis-course and the public sphere to develop a universalist approach to cultural pluralism, called the 'intercultural public sphere', which analyzes how cultures can engage in mutual learning and mutual criticism under fair conditions. This framework accommodates (...) cultural diversity within formally universalistic parameters while avoiding four common criticisms of universalist approaches to cultural pluralism. But this framework differs from that of Habermas in two ways. First, it includes 'subaltern' publics, open only to members of cultural subgroups, in order to counter relations of 'cultural power'. Second, it admits 'strong' publics, democratic institutions with decision-making powers. Finally, I show how the subaltern, strong institutions of tribal sovereignty contribute to the fair discursive conditions required for mutual learning and mutual critique in an intercultural public sphere. Key Words: Habermas • Kymlicka • Native peoples • sovereignty • tribal. (shrink)

We explore the social context of mathematical knowledge: Even though, the community of mathematicians may look homogeneous from the outside, it is actually structured into various sub-communities that differ in preferred notations, the choice of basic assumptions, or e.g. in the choice of motivating examples. We contend that we cannot manage mathematical knowledge for human recipients if we do not take these factors into account. As a basis for a future extension of MKM systems, we analyze the social context of (...) information in terms of Communities of Practice (CoP; a concept from learning theory) and present a concrete extensional model for CoPs in mathematics. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper explores two emancipatory ways that the struggle over recognition can take under conditions of social invisibility and hyper-visibility: that of social visibilization, and that of a dialectical interplay between invisibility and visibility. The theories of recognition of Honneth and Rancière acknowledge that recognition is based on socially mediated perceptual processes that enable or prevent recognition: whether and how subjects become socially visible or remain invisible. For Honneth, social invisibility is a marker of misrecognition and consists of deliberate (...) inattention and ignorance of others, so that struggles over recognition must take place, in part, through making previously invisible subjects visible. I argue here that Honneth’s account of social (in)visibility and his corresponding view of recognition in terms of properly formed visibilization, while valuable, prove insufficient when considering how racialized societies are underpinned by the power dynamics of invisibility and hyper-visibility. I turn to the works of Fanon, Ellison, and Rancière to illustrate these dynamics and to offer an account of how struggles over recognition requires practices of dis-identification from these dynamics that involve attempts to create interstices within dominant orders of (in)visibility where subjects might appear on their own terms. (shrink)

Avec le Volontaire et l’involontaire, « j’envisageais, non sans naïveté, de donner une contrepartie, dans l’ordre pratique, à la Phénoménologie de la perception ». Une confrontation entre la pensée de Maurice Merleau-Ponty et celle de Paul Ricoeur ne peut faire l’économie de cette caractérisation par le second de son entrée dans le travail philosophique. Cette remarque présente toutefois l’avantage de fixer les termes d’une relation marquée par la proximité méthodologique et la distance thématique. La première semble à première vue l’emporter (...) sur la seconde. Le privilège accordé par Ricoeur à « l’ordre pratique » consonne, certes, avec l’image d’un philosophe essentiellement occupé par le phénomène de l’action. Selon ses propres dires, l’anthropologie de « l’homme capable » constitue le fil conducteur à partir duquel il devient possible de reconstituer l’unité de son oeuvre. Il reste que Merleau-Ponty n’est nullement indifférent à l’« ordre pratique » : pour ne rien dire des textes qu’il consacre expressément au politique, il suffit de rappeler que la Phénoménologie de la perception s’achève sur un chapitre consacré à la liberté. Plus profondément, les deux philosophes se retrouveront pour accorder une place centrale à la phénoménologie du « Je peux ». Pour autant, la distance thématique entre les deux auteurs n’est pas sans importance. Il s’agit moins de savoir comment Ricoeur apporte une « contrepartie » à la Phénoménologie de la perception dans l’ordre pratique, que de comprendre pourquoi son oeuvre n’a accordé qu’un intérêt somme toute secondaire à la perception. Le principal accord entre les deux auteurs réside dans le refus de toute « pensée de survol ». Non moins que Ricoeur, Merleau-Ponty renonce à « l’idéal d’un spectateur absolu » parce que cet idéal implique nécessairement de transformer la position de l’interprète en principe d’erreur. Il reste que les deux philosophes diffèrent dans la caractérisation de ce point de vue.With The Voluntary and the Involuntary, “I envisaged, not without some naïveté, to give a counterbalance, in practical order, to the Phenomenology of Perception.” A confrontation between the thought of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and that of Paul Ricoeur cannot do without this characterization by Ricoeur in his entrance into philosophical work. All the same, this remark highlights the advantage of fixing the terms of a relation marked by its methodological proximity and its thematic distance. The former, at first glance, seems to trump the latter. The privilege accorded by Ricoeur to the “practical order” resonates, certainly, with a philosophy essentially concerned with the phenomenon of action. According to its own discourse, the anthropology of the “capable human being” constitutes the guiding thread from which it becomes possible to reconstitute the unity of his oeuvre. It is clear that Merleau-Ponty is in no way indifferent to the “practical order.” Without even mentioning the texts he specifically dedicates to the political, it suffices to remember that the Phenomenology of Perception concludes in a chapter devoted to freedom. More profoundly, the two philosophers will come together in according a central place to the phenomenology of the “I can.” For all this, the thematic distance between the two philosophers is not without importance. It concerns less knowing how Ricoeur brings a “counterbalance” to the Phenomenology of Perception in the practical order than to understand why in his work he accorded ultimately only a secondary interest to perception. The principal agreement between the two philosophers resides in their refusal of all “surveying thought.” Not any less than Ricoeur, Merleau-Ponty renounces the “ideal of the absolute spectator” because this ideal necessarily implies the transformation of the position of the interpreter into a principle of error. Nevertheless, the two philosophers differ in the characterization of this point of view.Con Le Volontaire et l’involontaire, scrive Ricoeur, “intendevo, non senza ingenuità, offrire una contropartita d’ordine pratico alla Fenomenologia della percezione”. Un confronto tra il pensiero di Maurice Merleau-Ponty e il pensiero di Paul Ricoeur non può evitare di misurarsi col modo in cui Ricoeur caratterizza, nei termini che abbiamo appena richiamato, il proprio esordio di filosofo. L’osservazione ricoeuriana ha il vantaggio di fissare i termini della loro relazione affermandone la prossimità metodologica e la distanza tematica. La prima dimensione sembra a prima vista prevalere sulla seconda. Il privilegio accordato da Ricoeur all’“ordine pratico” risulta certo consonante con l’immagine di un filosofo essenzialmente occupato dal tema dell’azione. A suo dire, l’antropologia dell’“uomo capace” costituisce il filo conduttore intorno a cui ripensare l’unità della sua intera opera. Resta il fatto che Merleau-Ponty non è in alcun modo indifferente all’“ordine pratico”: per tacere dei testi espressamente incentrati sulla questione del politico, potremmo ricordare che Fenomenologia della percezione si conclude con un capitolo dedicato alla libertà. Più in profondità, i due pensatori si ritrovano ad accordare un funzione decisiva alla fenomenologia dell’“Io posso”. D’altra parte, neppure la distanza tematica tra i due autori va sottovalutata. Non si tratta tanto di capire in che modo Ricoeur arrivi a proporre una “contropartita pratica” alla Fenomenologia della percezione, ma in che modo Ricoeur arrivi ad accordare un interesse tutto sommato secondario alla percezione. Il principale motivo di accordo tra i due autori risiede nel rifiuto di ogni “pensiero di sorvolo”. Non meno di Ricoeur, Merleau-Ponty rinuncia “all’ideale di uno spettatore assoluto”, nella misura in cui questo ideale porterebbe inevitabilmente a trasformare la posizione dell’interprete in un principio di errore. Ma anche sul modo di intendere questo punto di due filosofi prendono strade differenti. (shrink)

Excerpt from Cultures and Institutions of Natural History: Essays in the History and Philosophy of Science This volume consists mainly of papers delivered at two meetings cosponsored by the Museo Civico di Storia Naturale in Milan and the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The first, on the Culture of Natural History, was held in Milan, November l4-l 6, I996. The second, on Institutions of Natural History, was held in San Francisco, October 5 - 7, 1998. They followed two (...) earlier conferences on Biology as History (pinna and Ghiselin I996; Ghiselin and Pinna I996) likewise held in Milan and San Francisco. We intend to continue the series of meetings and have publications based on them in commemoration of the Academy's sesquicentennial in 2003. The emphasis here is mainly upon natural history museums and the kind of science that goes on in them. Although the essays were originally written to stand by themselves, when arranged in chronological order they suggest a common theme. To paraphrase Darwin, the culture and institutions of natural history have been, and are being, evolved. They have adapted to local circumstances, diversified, and sometimes even progressed. We may hope that the future holds more than just retrogression and extinction in store. Read as case studies the essays provide valuable insights into not just how, but why, the institutions have come into being and subsequently been transformed. Previous generations had quite different ideas than we do about how a collection of naturalia is supposed to function and how it should be organized. And there were con icting goals and serious disputes about policy, much as there are today. Often, though not always, the institutions turn out to be very different from what had been envisioned by their founders. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.". (shrink)

Spreadsheets are heavily employed in administration, financial forecasting, education, and science because of their intuitive, flexible, and direct approach to computation. They represent examples for “active documents” which are considered very worthwhile in the field of Knowledge Management. But these activity traits also lead to usability and maintenance problems, as spreadsheet-based applications grow evermore complex and longlived. We argue that these difficulties come from a fundamental bias of spreadsheets towards computational aspects of the conceptual models underlying the applications, i.e., a (...) semantic bias. Concretely, we present the software architecture of the SACHS project geared towards a semantic enhancement of MS Excel spreadsheets that aims at compensating this semantic bias. (shrink)

In recent years, several philosophers have recommended to moral realists that they adopt a hybrid cognitivist–expressivist moral semantics. Adopting a hybrid semantics enables the realist to account for the action-guiding character of moral discourse, and to account for the possibility of moral (dis)agreement between speakers whose moral sentences express different cognitive contents. I argue that realists should resist the temptation to embrace a hybrid moral semantics. In granting that moral judgments are partly constituted by conative attitudes, the realist concedes too (...) much to her anti-realist opponents: she concedes that, at its most fundamental level, moral disagreement is disagreement in attitude, and the resolution of deep moral disagreement is best guided by non-epistemic norms of inquiry. Furthermore, on a hybrid semantics, moral thought and truth ascriptions turn out to be more responsive to the conative contents of moral judgments than to the supposed propositional contents. Finally, a hybrid semantics makes it difficult to preserve the realist’s claim that moral truths are in a certain sense independent of appraisers’ attitudes. (shrink)

Il saggio discute della legge dell’amicizia di Jacques Derrida. Dal momento che anche la filosofia cade sotto la giurisdizione dell’amore, soprattutto se ripercorriamo la sua storia a partire dal Simposio e se consideriamo seriamente la sua epistemologia, scopriamo che è nella sua essenza la conversazione tra amici che sono eguali. Perciò è necessario considerare la legge dell’amicizia seriamente ed esaminare altrettanto seriamente le sue conseguenze.

Both Wilfrid Sellars and John McDowell reject Kant’s conclusion that the world is fundamentally unknowable, and on similar grounds: each invokes conceptual change, what I call the diachronic instability of a conceptual scheme. The similarities end there, though. It is important to Sellars that the world is only knowable at “the end of inquiry” – he rejects a commonsense realism like McDowell’s for its inability to fully appreciate diachronic instability. To evaluate this disagreement, I consider Timothy Williamson’s argument that the (...) knowability thesis, as it rules out “elusive objects”, is problematically idealistic. I argue that McDowell’s insistence on diachronic instability suffices to address Williamson’s worry, and as such that his reply ought to be available to Sellars too. That Sellars would instead invoke the end of inquiry suggests it is he who underestimates the ineliminability of conceptual change. (shrink)

Inhalt: Michael Albrecht: Zum Wortgebrauch von 'Aufklarung' bei Johann Joachim Spalding. Mit einer Bibliographie der Schriften und zwei ungedruckten Voten Spaldings - Bruno Bianco: Schulbegriff und Weltbegriff der Philosophie in der Wiener Logik. Ein Beitrag zum Verstandnis von Kants Philosophie- und Wissenschaftsbegriff - Luigi Cataldi Madonna: Theorie und Kritik der Vernunft bei Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz - Claudio Cesa: Reformation statt Aufklarung. Hegel uber Friedrich den Grossen - George di Giovanni: Rehberg, Reinhold und C. C. E. Schmid uber Kant und (...) die moralische Freiheit - Jean Ecole: Christian Wolffs Metaphysik und die Scholastik - Gunter Gawlick: Theodizee fur den Alltag. Bemerkungen zur Rezeption von A. A. Sarasas Ars semper gaudendi in der deutschen Aufklarung - Volker Gerhardt: Prolegomena zum Begriff der Individualitat - Hansmichael Hohenegger: Der Weg der Wissenschaft und die Arbeitsteilung in der Philosophie. Zur Rolle der Teleologie in Kants Philosophieauffassung - Gerd Irrlitz: Antinomik bei Kant und was er von deren Aufklarung erwartete - Fumiyasu Ishikawa: Die 'ungesellige Geselligkeit' der Vernunftkritik. Kant als Polemiker - Soo Bae Kim: Ethik als Kasuistik. Kants Antwort auf die Garvesche Kritik - Lothar Kreimendahl: Hat Hume William Kings 'De origine mali' gelesen? Die Notizen zur Theodizee in den 'Early Memoranda' und ihre Quelle - Silvestro Marcucci: Kant, Gustav von Starck und die 'pythagorischen Ternen' - Pietro Pimpinella: 'Cognitio intuitiva' bei Wolff und Baumgarten - Horst Schropfer: Ludwig Martin Trager - ein fruher Anhanger der philosophischen Ideen und Bestrebungen Immanuel Kants - Clemens Schwaiger: Vollkommenheit als Moralprinzip bei Wolff, Baumgarten und Kant - Rainer Specht: John Lockes Lehre vom Allgemeinen - Katrin Tenenbaum: 'Was ist der Mensch?' Mannliche Universalitat und weibliche Partikularitat in der Anthropologie Kants - Robert Theis: Gottes Spur in der Welt? Kant uber den Optimismus um die Mitte der 1750er Jahre - Maria Jesus Vazquez Lobeiras: Kants Logik zwischen Tradition und Innovation - Verzeichnis der Schriften Norbert Hinskes. (shrink)

Leibniz’s work on language left a lasting impression on 18th-century philosophical thinking about language. His two major works that discussed natural language were both published in the 18th century and in these works Leibniz focused on the sound symbolism, phonology, and etymology of language, topics that played a major role for 18th-century philosophers of language. These topics belonged to what Leibniz considered the material aspects of language and were tied to the expressive powers of language. Herder acknowledged Leibniz’s influence and (...) developed these ideas in his account of language as a forceful expression of human feeling. However, Herder ignored the formal components of language. The philosopher who developed the synthesis of the material and the formal features of language was Wilhelm von Humboldt, who drew from 18th-century thinkers that saw natural language as a unity of force and form, for example Sulzer and Harris. Humboldt was especially influenced by his tutor, Johann Jakob Engel, whose lectures drew on Leibniz as well as works in the Leibniz-Wolff tradition. (shrink)

Cette contribution explore la production dramatique de Louis-Ferdinand Céline, constituée de deux pièces écrites en 1927 (L’Église et Progrès). En particulier, l’étude enquête la fonction du théâtre pour l’écrivain, à travers une analyse littéraire des deux pièces. Cette production est une première tentative de dénonciation sociale, une critique que les lecteurs connaissent depuis la parution de Voyage. Dans la première pièce l’auteur condamne les actions de l’administration coloniale dans les territoires africains et il introduit son idéologie antisémite en décrivant les (...) représentants de la Société des Nations. Avec Progrès, Céline déploie une satire de la société bourgeoise qui lui est contemporaine, caractérisée par une morale déchue. L’article explore ensuite les possibles influences qui ont mené Céline à écrire pour le théâtre; la lecture de sa correspondance nous permet de découvrir que Céline était un véritable amateur du théâtre français et notamment celui de Molière. Il en découle une réflexion qui nous permet d’associer sa production à celle du Théâtre classique du XVIIe siècle. Céline aurait sans doute été inspiré par les comédies-ballets du célèbre dramaturge, en rendant jeunesse aux classiques nationaux français sur la scène contemporaine. (shrink)

The origins of landscape are usually explained in two complementary ways: on the one hand, landscape is initially related to the artistic genre of the same name, i.e. to the painted landscape; on the other hand, and much more recently, it corresponds to landscape experienced by someone, to the mental representa-tion of a piece of nature. This article is based on a third hypothesis: according to him landscape is, at least partly, the result of a series of modern technologies. The (...) modern window, cartography, central perspective and various other human inventions have made it possible to forge a landscape image of the world. Fram-ing a glimpse of nature through the gaze is a cultural fact, mediated by scopic devices, and not a capacity that human beings possess a priori. (shrink)

In this essay, I examine Arthur C. Danto s highly influential thesis that Andy Warhols Brillo Box ends art by obviating the need for art object to differ sensually from ordinary object. Coining the term Co-aesthesis, I demonstrate that it is only by improperly applying Extensionalism that anyone is able to make the claim that the Brillo Box is substantively equivalent to a Brillo Box in the first place: if we just work harder to coordinate the various visual, tactile and (...) contextual data striking our sensorium, we can arrive at a very different spot than the place from which we witness art ending — especially when we consider the revelations about multi-dimensionality in the realm of physics. To help make my point, I use Italian philosopher Tiziana Andina’s recent book Arthur Danto: Philosopher of Pop and her interpretation that, after Danto, a sensual Aesthetics parts company from a conceptual and sensually inert Philosophy of Art. (shrink)

Epikurs Lehre erfreut sich wachsender Aufmerksamkeit. Doch verdient auch die Geschichte des Epikureismus, insbesondere der Kaiserzeit, Interesse. Keineswegs verschwindet die diesseits orientierte Lehre Epikurs trotz wachsendem Streben der Philosophie nach Transzendenz in der Spatantike. Eine Analyse paganer wie auch christlicher Autoren zeigt, dass insbesondere Epikurs Ethik und ihr Angebot praktischer Lebenshilfe als Teil einer "praeparatio philosophica" uberlebt, ins Mittelalter vermittelt wurde und in der Renaissance Auferstehung feierte. Die Vortrage dieses Bandes begeben sich deshalb auf Spurensuche. Unter verschiedenen Gesichtspunkten gehen sie (...) der Tradition des Epikureismus in der spaten Republik und der Kaiserzeit nach und folgen ihnen bis zur Renaissance. Inhalt: Einleitung Graziano Arrighetti: Filodemo fra poesia, mito e storia Marcello Gigante: Seneca, ein Nachfolger Philodems? Dieter Timpe: Der Epikureismus in der romischen Gesellschaft der Kaiserzeit Martin F. Smith: Digging up Diogenes: New Epicurean texts from Oinoanda in Lycia Diskin Clay: Diogenes and his gods Matthias Baltes: Epikureische Theologie Mauro Tulli: L'epitome die Epicuro e la trasmissione del sapere nel Medioplatonismo Carlos Levy: Philon d'Alexandrie et l'epicurisme Tiziano Dorandi: Plotina, Adriano e gli Epicurei di Atene Franco Ferrari: La falsita delle asserzioni relative al futuro: un argomento epicureo contro la mantica in Plut. Pyth. orac. 10 Keimpe A. Algra: The Treatise of Cleomedes and its Critique of Epicurean Cosmology Christoph Markschies: Epikureismus bei Origenes und in der origenistischen Tradition Jose Kany-Turpin: Lactance, un critique mesestime de l'epicurisme Therese Fuhrer: Zwischen Skeptizismus und Platonismus: Augustins Auseinandersetzung mit der epikureischen Lehre in conf. 6 Dominic O'Meara: Epikur bei Simplikios Clemens Zintzen: Epikur in der Renaissance Michael Erler: Epikur in Raffaels "Schule von Athen"? Register. (shrink)

Epikurs Lehre erfreut sich wachsender Aufmerksamkeit. Doch verdient auch die Geschichte des Epikureismus, insbesondere der Kaiserzeit, Interesse. Keineswegs verschwindet die diesseits orientierte Lehre Epikurs trotz wachsendem Streben der Philosophie nach Transzendenz in der Spatantike. Eine Analyse paganer wie auch christlicher Autoren zeigt, dass insbesondere Epikurs Ethik und ihr Angebot praktischer Lebenshilfe als Teil einer "praeparatio philosophica" uberlebt, ins Mittelalter vermittelt wurde und in der Renaissance Auferstehung feierte. Die Vortrage dieses Bandes begeben sich deshalb auf Spurensuche. Unter verschiedenen Gesichtspunkten gehen sie (...) der Tradition des Epikureismus in der spaten Republik und der Kaiserzeit nach und folgen ihnen bis zur Renaissance. Inhalt: Einleitung Graziano Arrighetti: Filodemo fra poesia, mito e storia Marcello Gigante: Seneca, ein Nachfolger Philodems? Dieter Timpe: Der Epikureismus in der romischen Gesellschaft der Kaiserzeit Martin F. Smith: Digging up Diogenes: New Epicurean texts from Oinoanda in Lycia Diskin Clay: Diogenes and his gods Matthias Baltes: Epikureische Theologie Mauro Tulli: L'epitome die Epicuro e la trasmissione del sapere nel Medioplatonismo Carlos Levy: Philon d'Alexandrie et l'epicurisme Tiziano Dorandi: Plotina, Adriano e gli Epicurei di Atene Franco Ferrari: La falsita delle asserzioni relative al futuro: un argomento epicureo contro la mantica in Plut. Pyth. orac. 10 Keimpe A. Algra: The Treatise of Cleomedes and its Critique of Epicurean Cosmology Christoph Markschies: Epikureismus bei Origenes und in der origenistischen Tradition Jose Kany-Turpin: Lactance, un critique mesestime de l'epicurisme Therese Fuhrer: Zwischen Skeptizismus und Platonismus: Augustins Auseinandersetzung mit der epikureischen Lehre in conf. 6 Dominic O'Meara: Epikur bei Simplikios Clemens Zintzen: Epikur in der Renaissance Michael Erler: Epikur in Raffaels "Schule von Athen"? Register. (shrink)

St. Thomas Aquinas preaches in his sermon Puer Iesus, "Just as your father begot you bodily, your teacher begot you spiritually." St. Thomas himself has been blessed with prodigious fecundity through the centuries for his teaching in the Holy Spirit. Always, he leads us to think of the Blessed Trinity and all things from God's own view. With new insights into St. Thomas's spiritual teaching in its sources, context, breadth, wisdom, and influences, Thomas Aquinas as Spiritual Teacher presents chapters inspired (...) by an international conference cosponsored by the Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal at Ave Maria University and the Thomistic Institute of the Dominican House of Studies. The volume, like its conference, honors Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, OP, adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, for his dedication to the spiritual teaching of St. Thomas in several decades of service to the Church and the academy. Luis F. Cardinal Ladaria, SJ, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, contributed the volume's foreword. Contributors to this book include: Serge-Thomas Bonino, OP; Romanus Cessario, OP; Therese Scarpelli Cory; Michael A. Dauphinais; Archbishop J. Augustine Di Noia, OP; Bishop Daniel E. Flores; Wojciech Giertych, OP; Andrew Hofer, OP; Luis F. Cardinal Ladaria, SJ; Dominic Legge, OP; Steven A. Long; Roger W. Nutt; Michael Root; Daria Spezzano; Thomas Weinandy, OFM, Cap.; and Thomas Joseph White, OP-- Provided by publisher. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:BOOK REVIEWS 181 reason that it provides the best arguments available to date against nuclear deterrence, but ultimately the arguments fail because the author takes as an apodictic premise what is actually a prudential judgment that no nuclear weapons could ever be used in a moral and ethical way. Professor Kenny is not only an Absolutist, but also a Determinist. The present reviewers are neither. University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign-Urbana, (...) Illinois Public Affairs Officer ROBERT BARRY, O.P. MATTHEW M. MURPHY United States At·ms Control and Disarmament Agency Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages. By UMBERTO Eco. Translated by Hugh Bredin. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986. Pp. 131. $12.95. This is not a new work. As Umberto Eco himself states in the Preface of this book, the text was written in 1958 and published in 1959 as a single chapter of a four volume handbook on the history of aesthetics, written by various authors (Momenti e problemi di storia dell' estetica, Milano, Marzorati, 1959, vol. 1: 'Dall'antichita classica al barocco, pp. 115-230). No doubt it was due to the recent popularity in Europe and America of Mr. Eco's novel, The Name of the Rose (which subsequently inspired the film of the same title) that Yale University Press saw fit to translate and reissue this seminal work of the author. He wrote it when he was 26 years old and serving in the Italian army. Hugh Bredin, a senior lecturer in scholastic philosophy at Queen's University, Belfast, has simplified in the translation what the author claims was the "tortured syntax" of his impressionable youth. Nevertheless, one suspects that the style and context of this slim volume will appeal primarily to philosophers and not art historians, despite its ubiquitous presence in art bookstores and museum giftshops. The scope of Mr. Eco's work enables the reader to gain an overview of aesthetic problems which developed in Europe in the period between the sixth to the :fifteenth centuries, when the classical tradition inherited by the medieval world no longer provided adequate solutions. A thousand years of artistic and philosophical history are barely penetrated in so few pages, but Mr. Eco forthrightly proceeds to catalogue ideas and thinkers in chapters devoted to such topics as Transcendental Beauty, Symbol and Allegory, and the Aesthetics of Proportion and Light. As 18~ BOOK REVIEWS was evident in The Name of the Rose, the author has an encyclopedic knowledge of both classical and medieval sources (he gently chides Maritain for his ignorance of one of Bonaventure's definitions of beauty, p. 24). As professor of semiotics his understanding of words and images is impressive (he takes a whole page to explain the visual applications of Vitruvius's use of the word euritmia, pp. 65-66). But after repeated eitings of relevant quotations from various medieval works-some in outright conflict with one another-the reader has no satisfying sense of what was the "medieval " view of art and beauty. Rather a mosaic of interesting and diverse facts emerges in the thematic structure of the book which cuts across chronological, geographical, and cultural boundaries. Thus, for instance, one learns in the chapter on the Aesthetics of Light that St. Augustine preferred equilateral to scalene triangles, Hugh of St. Victor considered green to be the most beautiful of colors, the Limbourg brothers in painting miniatures had no use for sfiirnatura just as Chretien de Troyes had no use for it in literature, and the Christian image of God as Light traced its pedigree to the Semitic Baal and the Egyptian Ra with heavy doses of Plato and Arab pantheism thrown in as contributing influences. This dizzying effect of so much intelligent trivia, forcibly pieced together in an effort to arrive at a persuasive conclusion, backfires and ultimately works ag:iinst Art and Beaiity in the Middle Ages in much the same way that the plot in The Name of the Rose suffered from a surfeit of scholastic argumentation. Mr. Eco, in an attempt to bedazzle his readers with facts, merely blinds them to the point. Other authors have written about art in the Middle Ages, and they were successful... (shrink)

Enrique Dussel telah lama dikenal secara luas sebagai seorang filsuf dari Amerika Latin, yang memperkenalkan “filsafat pembebasan”. Buku Ethics of Liberation ini merupakan elaborasi gagasan sentralnya “pembebasan”. Dussel saat ini menjadi profesor filsafat di Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa dan di Universidad Nacional Autóma de México di Mexico City. Dalam karya ini ia mencoba mengatasi berbagai sistem etika yang berlatar belakang filsafat kontinental, yang ia sebut sebagai filsafat yang berbasis filsafat Yunani atau disebut juga “hellenosentrisme” atau “eropasentrisme. Filsafat dan sistem etika (...) ini tidak memadai lagi untuk mendorong pembebasan korban peminggiran oleh globalisasi dan kapitalisme neo-liberal. Dussel mengawali bukunya sepanjang 715 halaman ini dengan menyajikan uraian mengenai sistem etika dalam sejarah dunia, yang dipandang sebagai filsafat yang datang dari pinggiran, periferi. Dari sinilah Dussel mengembangkan etika dari perspektif korban yang tereksklusi. Pada Bagian I Dussel membahas “Fondasi Etika” (h. 53-186) yang terdiri dari tiga komponen. Pertama, etika material atau isi dari etika, yaitu reproduksi dan pengembangan kehidupan secara sadar. Dussel memulai uraiannya dengan pandangan antropologisnya, dimana digambarkan tingkat-tingkat kesatuan hidup manusia. Ia mengaitkan padangannya mengenai manusia dengan “neuroscience. Kemudian dibahas beberapa aliran dalam etikla material;, seperti utilitarianisme dan komunitarianisme (A. MacEntyre, Charles Tay;or, M. Walzer), konsep eudaimonis dari Aristoteles, Sittlichkeit dari Hegel, etika matrial dari Max Scheler, gagasan Xavier Zubiri.. Dari uraian yang sifatnya deskriptif itu, Dussel beranjak kepada perumusan universal, yang merupakan komponen kedua. Yang memberi pembenaran atas norma yang telah dirumuskan. Rumusan universal itu dicapai melalui suatu diskursus dari partisipan yang setara, dalam suatu komunitas komunikasi. Itulah syarat tercapainya kesahihan antarsubjektif. Yang dibahas Dussel adalah sistem etika Kant. John Rawls, Karel Otto-Apel dan J. Habermas. Tahap ketiga dibahas komponen kelayakan berhadapan dengan berbagai kendala.............. Buku Ethics of Liberation memuat uraian yang sangat kaya akan berbagai sistem etika, terutama sistem etika yang diajukan oleh berbagai filsuf kontemporer. Sistem itu tidak ditolak, tetapi harus dilengkap dengan sistem etika-kritis, yeng mendorong mereka yang menjadi korban untuk membebaskan diri. Untuk memperdalam analisisnya Dussel banyak mengacu kepada Marx, Sekolah Frankurt, Nietzsche dan Freud. Pandangan Freire mengenai dialog dan “raising consciousness” melengkap apa yang disebut “konsensus” dalam sistem etrika Habermasian. Dialog menjadi penting untuk membangun komunikasi dalam masyarakat yang asimetris. Ini diperkaya dengan pengalaman tumbuhnya kesadaran sebagaimana diuraikan oleh Rigoberto Menchú Sistem etika Emmanuel Levinas memberikan perspektif baru mengenai keharusan “pengakuan” (recognition) dan tanggung jawab terhadap yang lain. Buku Dussel ini akan memperkaya pandangan para dosen etika, yang pada umumnya terpaku pada sistem etika “Eropasentris.” (M. Sastrapratedja, Program Pascasarjana, Sekolah Tinggi Filsafat Driyarkara, Jakarta). (shrink)

This paper shows that Russell’s theory of descriptions gives the wrong se-mantics for definite descriptions occurring in questions and imperatives. Depending on how that theory is applied, it either assigns nonsense to per-fectly meaningful questions and assertions or it assigns meanings that di-verge from the actual semantics of such sentences, even after all pragmatic and contextual variables are allowed for. Given that Russell’s theory is wrong for questions and assertions, it must be wrong for assertoric state-ments; for the semantics of (...) ‘the phi’ obviously doesn’t vary depending on whether it occurs in a question or an assertion or a command. (shrink)

Punk Pedagogies: Music, Culture and Learning brings together a collection of international authors to explore the possibilities, practices and implications that emerge from the union of punk and pedagogy. The punk ethos--a notoriously evasive and multifaceted beast--offers unique applications in music education and beyond, and this volume presents a breadth of interdisciplinary perspectives to challenge current thinking on how, why and where the subculture influences teaching and learning. As (punk) educators and artists, contributing authors grapple with punk's historicity, its pervasiveness, (...) its (dis)functionality and its messiness, making Punk Pedagogies relevant and motivating to both instructors and students with proven pedagogical practices. (shrink)

This article examines Karl Polanyi’s “double-movement thesis” and, in particular, his claim that modern economies are characterized by a dis-embedding of the economy from society. I examine two significant lines of criticism of this thesis: first, that the concept of “embeddedness” is incoherent in that it implies that economies both can and cannot become “dis-embedded” from society; second, that, though conceptually coherent, the concept does not supply adequate normative guidance for those seeking to address the economic and social problems that (...) emerge from a “dis-embedded” economy. I argue that re-articulating the double-movement thesis in the terms of Reformational social philosophy can show how these problems can be resolved. (shrink)

INDICE -/- Note biografiche Introduzione, di Riccardo Faucci -/- Parte I - Da Verri a Toniolo 1. Jeremy Bentham: Contemporary Interpretations, di M.D.A. Freeman 2. Su Helvétius, Beccaria e Bentham, di Letizia Gianformaggio 3. L'etica utilitaristica di Pietro Veti, di Vincenzo Polignano 4. ll liberismo interventista di Vincenzo Emanuele Sergio, di Anna Li Donni 5. Il concetto di " felicità pubblica, nella << Genesi del diritto penale » di Romagnosi, e il rapporto Romagnosi-Bentham, di Robertino Ghiringhelli 6. « La più (...) grande felicità per il maggior numero » all'Accademia dei Georgofili ( 18)0-1850), di Gabriella Gioli 7. Una nota su Manzoni critico dell'utilitarismo, di Maurizio Mori 8. Sul concetto di utile in Francesco Ferrara e in Maffeo Pantaleoni, di Daniela Parisi Acquaviva 9. Sul pensiero sociale cristiano di fronte all'edonismo, di Luciano Avagliano 10. Giuseppe Toniolo e il recupero cattolico dell'utile e del valore, di Anna Camaiti -/- Parte II Aspetti di storia del pensiero economico nell’età classica -/- 1. La filosofia economica di Thomas Hobbes, di Marco Bertozzi 2. Ordinamento del sapere, modelli metodologici ed economia politica in Adam Smith, di Sergio Cremaschi 3. Elementi classici nel pensiero di Adam Smith: giurisprudenza romana e morale stoica, di Gloria Vivenza 4. Il “lusso” negli economisti italiani del Settecento, di Cosimo Perrotta 5. Prezzi naturali, prezzi di mercato e legge degli sbocchi nel dibattito fra Malthus e Ricardo, di Lilia Costabile 6. Marx e la moneta, di Roberto Petrini -/- . (shrink)

Riassunto: Il presente studio indaga il modo in cui gli scienziati percepiscono la dimensione estetica nella propria attività e nei propri oggetti di studio, al punto da essere un criterio che orienta il loro lavoro; si cercherà pertanto di enucleare le proprietà che caratterizzano il tipo di bellezza da loro riscontrato, facendo riferimento agli scritti di Michael Polanyi. L’autore offre importanti spunti per chiarire il problema della validità di tale uso della bellezza scientifica. La questione è ancor più interessante (...) perché, se la bellezza è legittimamente un criterio scientifico, ne risulta un legame tra scienza e persona (infatti il senso estetico è proprio della persona). Tale bellezza ha caratteristiche specifiche: è intellettuale, strettamente dipendente dall’ordine, dall’intero e dalle relazioni. Inoltre, essa è il termine di una delle cosiddette passioni scientifiche o intellettuali degli scienziati: il ricercatore desidera la bellezza intellettuale e ne è (momentaneamente) appagato. Per Polanyi, la bellezza intellettuale è essenziale alla verità scientifica e ha il potere di rivelare la verità sul mondo naturale. Allo stesso tempo, però, tale standard di bellezza è sempre posto da noi e per noi stessi. Emergono così le tensioni polanyiane a riguardo del realismo. L’articolo propone una soluzione, a favore del criterio di bellezza, che può risultare utile anche per il progresso della ricerca scientifica. (shrink)

The slime mould Physarum polycephalum has been used in developing unconventional computing devices for in which the slime mould played a role of a sensing, actuating, and computing device. These devices treated the slime mould as an active living substrate, yet it is a self-consistent living creature which evolved over millions of years and occupied most parts of the world, but in any case, that living entity did not own true cognition, just automated biochemical mechanisms. To “rehabilitate” slime mould from (...) the rank of a purely living electronics element to a “creature of thoughts” we are analyzing the cognitive potential of P. polycephalum. We base our theory of minimal cognition of the slime mould on a bottom-up approach, from the biological and biophysical nature of the slime mould and its regulatory systems using frameworks such as Lyon’s biogenic cognition, Muller, di Primio-Lengelerś modifiable pathways, Bateson's “patterns that connect” framework, Maturana's autopoietic network, or proto-consciousness and Morgan's Canon. (shrink)

This paper examines a series of Schelling-like models of residential segregation, in which agents prefer to be in the minority. We demon- strate that as long as agents care about the characteristics of their wider community, they tend to end up in a segregated state. We then investigate the process that causes this, and conclude that the result hinges on the similarity of informational states amongst agents of the same type. This is quite di erent from Schelling-like behavior, and sug- (...) gests (in his terms) that segregation is an instance of macro behavior which can arise from a wide variety of micro motives. (shrink)

In order to achieve genuine web intelligence, building some kind of large general machine-readable conceptual scheme (i.e. ontology) seems inescapable. Yet the past 20 years have shown that manual ontology-building is not practicable. The recent explosion of free user-supplied knowledge on the Web has led to great strides in automatic ontology building, but quality-control is still a major issue. Ideally one should automatically build onto an already intelligent base. We suggest that the long-running Cyc project is able to assist here. (...) We describe methods used to add 35K new concepts mined from Wikipedia to collections in ResearchCyc entirely automatically. Evaluation with 22 human subjects shows high precision both for the new concepts’ categorization, and their assignment as individuals or collections. Most importantly we show how Cyc itself can be leveraged for ontological quality control by ‘feeding’ it assertions one by one, enabling it to reject those that contradict its other knowledge. (shrink)

The paper focuses on an online business ethics course that three professors (Painter-Morland, Fontrodona and Hoffman) taught together, and in which the fourth author (Rowe) participated as a student, from their respective locations on three continents. The course was conducted using Centra software, which allowed for synchronous online interaction. The class included students from Europe, South Africa and the United States. In order to assess the value of synchronous online teaching for ethics training, the paper identifies certain knowledge, skills and (...) capacities that are crucial to the moral development process within individuals. The paper argues that the online teaching method succeeds in creating an environment within which important ethical knowledge and skills might be developed. It provides an in-depth reflection on the advantages and dis-advantages of online teaching and proposes improvements on the way forward. One of the major advantages relates to its ability to facilitate cross-cultural discussion and debate on ethical issues and foster insight into contextual influences on ethics management within an international arena. (shrink)