In an attempt to trace the historical origins of Malebranche's reputation as an opponent of imagination, mainly in connection with style and eloquence, the author of this paper maintains that most of the arguments subsequently used against Malebranche may already be found in Bernard Lamy's La Rhétorique ou l'art de parler. Although Lamy might have been influenced by Malebranche, his approach to the use of passions and imagination relies rather on a theory of language and communication than on Malebranche's account (...) of the physiological effects of imagination. Therefore, the opposing views of Malebranche and Lamy on this question could be seen as premises for the French debates on the right and wrong use of the imaginative faculty that emerged at the turn of the 17th century. (shrink)

Although the Internet is frequently referred to as a global public resource, its functioning remains predominantly controlled by private actors. The Internet brought about significant shifts in the way we conceptualize governance. In particular, the handling of “big data” by private intermediaries has a direct impact on routine practices and personal lives. The implementation of the “right to be forgotten” following the May 2014 decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union against Google blurs the boundaries between the (...) public and the private, and extends the responsibilities of the latter to court-style decision making. This article analyzes the regulatory developments in this area and the implications of outsourcing of important governance practices to private intermediaries. It looks at the decision-making process for the “right to be forgotten” to illustrate the extent to which the hybridization of such procedures results in new arrangements between public and private ordering in Internet governance. (shrink)

In this original and provocative book, Bogdan proposes that the ability to interpret others' mental states should be viewed as an evolutionary adaptation.

The contributors to this volume examine recent controversies about the importance of common sense psychology for our understanding of the human mind. Common sense provides a familiar and friendly psychological scheme by which to talk about the mind. Its categories tend to portray the mind as quite different from the rest of nature, and thus irreducible to physical matters and its laws. In this volume a variety of positions on common sense psychology from critical to supportive, from exegetical to speculative, (...) are represented. Among the questions posed are: Is common sense psychology an empirical theory, a body of analytic knowledge, a practice or a strategy? If it is a legitimate enterprise can it be naturalized or not? If it is not legitimate can it be eliminated? Is its fate tied to our understanding of consciousness? Should we approach its concepts and generalizations from the standpoint of conceptual analysis or from the philosophy of science? (shrink)

Leading invasion biologists sometimes dismiss critics and criticisms of their field by invoking “the straw man” fallacy. Critics of invasion biology are also labelled as a small group of “naysayers” or “contrarians”, who are sometimes engaging in “science denialism”. Such unfortunate labels can be seen as a way to possibly suppress legitimate debates and dismiss or minimize reasonable concerns about some aspects of invasion biology, including the uncertainties about the geographic origins and complex environmental impacts of species, and the control (...) programs against species perceived as “invasive”. In assessing the quality of the debate in this area, we examine the validity of the use of various strategies, including the “straw man” concept, and explore a range of potential logical fallacies present in some recent prominent discussions about invasion biology and so-called “invasive” species. The goal is to add some clarity to the concepts involved, point out some problematic issues, and improve the quality of the debates as the discussions move forward. (shrink)

Hölder’s review of Robert Graßmann’s Theory of Number provides the first statement of Hölder’s most significant tenets concerning the distinction between the genetic and axiomatic presentation of mathematics, the mature expression of which is found in Hölder’s book The Mathematical Method of 1924. By translating Hölder’s review into English, I hope to make this unique document known to a wider public. In my introductory note I provide some context to Hölder’s paper and a few other remarks concerning the translation work.

An argument that in response to sociocultural pressures, human minds develop self-consciousness by activating a complex machinery of self-regulation.

Cyber risk has become one of the greatest threats to firms in recent years. Accordingly, boards of directors must be continually vigilant about this danger. They have a duty to ensure that the companies adopt appropriate cybersecurity measures to manage the risk of cyber fraud. Boards should also ensure that the firm disclose material cyber risk and breaches. We examine how the board’s gender composition can influence the extent of such disclosure, based on a sample of the companies listed on (...) the S&P/TSX 60 Index over the period 2014–2018. Results show evidence of a positive association between the presence and level of cybersecurity disclosure and board gender diversity. However, the board must boast a critical mass of at least three women before this positive impact can be observed. Our findings contribute to the debate on the importance of gender diversity by adding the concept of the positive influence of heterogeneity on cyber disclosure. We also augment the literature on the critical mass of women in boardrooms by providing empirical evidence that three or more women constitute the threshold for better governance. Our study has important implications for investors, stakeholders and regulators. If investors wish to increase cybersecurity disclosure, they should ask for more diversified boards. Our findings support regulators in their efforts to increase women’s representation on boards by providing empirical evidence of better outcomes with this type of board composition. (shrink)

An exploration of why and how the human competence for predication came to be.

The evolving dynamics of the marketplace, coupled with concerns regarding the finite capacity to meet increasing demands, have led to the emergence of new phenomena and practices. These developments, while heralding significant changes in the perception and selection of products and services, also elicit substantial concerns. Greenwashing is defined as the strategic practice by which corporations create a misleading impression of their environmental initiatives. This paper examines the theoretical foundations and multifaceted nature of greenwashing, identifying key deceptive strategies such as (...) hidden trade-offs, lack of verifiable evidence, vagueness, irrelevance, and false labels. It explores the motivations behind greenwashing, which often stem from the pressure to appear environmentally responsible without incurring the costs associated with genuine sustainability. The analysis underscores the broader implications of greenwashing, including its impact on consumer trust, corporate governance, and environmental policy. Additionally, the paper addresses the emerging issue of "machinewashing," wherein companies make exaggerated claims about the ethical aspects of their AI technologies. Furthermore, the concept of environmental vices is explored, illustrating how greenwashing perpetuates unethical behaviors and undermines authentic sustainability efforts. To address these practices, the study advocates for a comprehensive approach that includes stricter regulations, increased transparency, and greater engagement from civil society. By promoting genuine sustainability and holding corporations accountable, it is possible to restore consumer trust and support authentic environmental initiatives, thereby fostering a more sustainable and ethical commerce. (shrink)

Communication by shared meaning, themastery of word semantics,metarepresentation and metamentation aremental abilities, uniquely human, that share a sense ofintentionality or reference. The latteris developed by a naive psychology or interpretation – acompetence dedicated to representingintentional relations between conspecifics and the world. Theidea that interpretation builds new mentalabilities around a sense of reference is based on three linesof analysis – conceptual, psychological andevolutionary. The conceptual analysis reveals that a senseof reference is at the heart of the abilitiesin question. Psychological data track (...) tight developmentalcorrelations between interpretation and theabilities it designs. Finally, an evolutionary hypothesislooks at why interpretation designed thosenew abilities around a sense of reference. (shrink)

The deposit insurance makes the value of deposits independent from the behavior of other depositors or from the value of bank assets. Its existence induces a moral hazard which might threaten the stability of the banking system. The efficiency of the DI depends on the control of moral hazard, which means the agents’ responsibilisation, depositors included. There is a conflict between the DI principles and the present propositions improving this mechanism.The possible solutions in order to solve this paradox are the (...) restriction of the insurance coverage only for the demand deposits and the implementation of the double liability for the bank shareholders.The demand deposits insurance eliminates the incentive to bank runs caused by the fear of lack of liquidity, whereas the term deposits are exposed to losses which reduce the moral hazard induced by the demand deposit insurance.The double liability forces the shareholders of the defaulting banks to make supplementary payments limited to the nominal value of the owned shares. This combines the advantages of the limited liability and the unlimited liability.The efficiency of both propositions implies the enforcement of a closure rule of the banks whose net worth is close to zero.La garantie des dépôts rend la valeur des dépôts indépendante du comportement des autres déposa- nts ou de la valeur des actifs bancaires. Son instauration induit un aléa moral qui peut menacer la stabilité du système bancaire. L’efficacité de ce mécanisme dépend de la maîtrise de l’aléa moral. Cela suppose, entre autres, la responsabilisation des agents, y compris des déposants. Par conséquent, il existe un conflit entre le principe de la garantie des dépôts et les propositions courantes d’amélioration de ce dispositif.Les solutions envisagées dans cet article pour résoudre ce paradoxe sont la limitation de la garantie aux seuls dépôts à vue et l’instauration de la double responsabilité pour les actionnaires des banques.La garantie des dépôts à vue élimine l’incitation à la ruée due à la crainte de manque de liquidité, tandis que les dépôts à terme sont assortis d’une clause permettant à la banque de refuser tout retrait anticipé. Les titulaires des dépôts à terme s’exposent à des pertes, ce qui réduit l’aléa moral induit par la garantie des dépôts à vue.La double responsabilité oblige les actionnaires des banques défaillantes à effectuer des versements supplémentaires dans la limite de la valeur nominale des actions détenues. Cela réunit les avantages de la responsabilité limitée et de la responsabilité illimitée.L’efficacité des deux propositions suppose l’application d’une règle de fermeture des banques dont l’actif net avoisine zéro. (shrink)

An important part of responsible business practices is compliance with the law. This article details what actually happens when the laws of the host country fail to ensure adequate protection. The focus here is on land dispossession and loss of livelihood in relation to a gold mine project in central Ghana. How is it that a well‐known international company—Newmont—with its own corporate social responsibility (CSR) statements sets up a project in the year 2003 that displaces subsistence farmers from their land (...) without compensating in cash or with replacement land? The analysis identifies the factors that lead the company to not compensate farmers for their lost land: cost‐cutting, strict adherence to the law, CSR commitment that was new and not internalized, complexities of the Ghanaian land tenure system, peer pressure to preserve the status quo, selection of an “old‐school” CSR manager, and the inadequacy of Ghanaian mining law to account for relatively novel, “open‐pit” mining techniques. However, the specter of famine raised by civil society activism, the involvement of the International Financial Corporation, and a better qualified CSR team constitute another set of factors that lead to a comprehensive package of livelihood improvement measures. There is a contrast between the complexity, long‐term, and advanced type of assistance Newmont currently envisages and the backward, short‐term, formalism, and brutality of denying compensation for land back in 2003. This research is based on the extensive documentation Newmont makes available on its web site, interviews conducted in Ghana, and literature research. (shrink)

Eliminativism assumes that commonsense psychology describes and explains the mind in terms of the internal design and operation of the mind. If this assumption is invalidated, so is eliminativism. The same conditional is true of intentional realism. Elsewhere (Bogdan 1991) I have argued against this 'folk- theory-theory' assumption by showing that commonsense psychology is not an empirical prototheory of the mind but a biosocially motivated practice of coding, utilizing, and sharing information from and about conspecifics. Here, without presupposing a specific (...) analysis of commonsense psychology, I want to challenge a key implication of the 'folk-theory-theory' assumption to the effect that commonsense psychology is committed to a definite architecture of the mind. (shrink)

The article presents the preliminary results of the author’s study of the unedited homily De transfiguratione et eleemosyna, ascribed to John Chrysostom. The question of the manuscript tradition is first discussed. The article shows that Maurice Sachot is right when he indicates only the manuscript Romanus Angelicus gr. 125 as a manuscript witness of this homily and that the other two witnesses indicated by Pinakes are erroneous. Then, the descriptions of the folios that preserve the homily are analysed in the (...) light of a new examination of them. This re-examination shows that hitherto several sources that inspired the compiler have gone unnoticed. This is followed by a brief summary of the contents of the homily and an analysis of the passages in which almsgiving is mentioned.Contribution: The article offers a re-examination of the folios 353v–361 from the manuscript Romanus Angelicus gr. 125, the first presentation of the content of the homily De transfiguratione et eleemosyna, and tries to shed light on the association of the theme of the Transfiguration with almsgiving. (shrink)

This is how guidance of behavior to goal grounds and explains cognition and the main forms in which it manages information.

Drawing on recent theories and debates concerning the everydayness of non-artistic and even private aesthetic experiences, this article aims at differentiating new ways of dealing with revulsion at the intersection of negative and everyday aesthetics, as another manner of extending or transcending the scope of traditional art-oriented aesthetics. The paradigms that I will trace in the history of negative aesthetics are not mere occurrences of disgust or repulsiveness in art and in everyday life, but ways of addressing the repulsive in (...) relation to the culturally variable scope of art and aesthetics. Besides the classical paradigm that associates repugnant subjects with their pleasure-inducing imitations in art, and the transgressions of modern and contemporary art that increasingly shocked their audience, revulsion can also be regarded as a form of displeasure linked to the quotidian, yet aesthetically relevant forms of life. By virtue of this ordinary nature, which is not unfamiliar to other (non-Western) cultures, revulsion could be placed at the core of everyday aesthetics, since it confirms both the transition from contemplation to action in recent aesthetics, that is, the practical preoccupation with the aesthetic quality of living, and the broader redefinition of aesthetics in terms of sensory reactions. (shrink)

Cet article porte sur les images créées à l’aide des intelligences artificielles génératives sur des plateformes telles que DALL-E, Midjourney ou Stable Diffusion à partir de mots saisis en langage naturel. L’article ne s’occupe pas de savoir si les images générées peuvent être considérées comme des œuvres d’art en termes de qualité esthétique, de paternité ou d’originalité artistique. Il s’occupe de savoir si l’intelligence artificielle générative peut créer dans les mêmes conditions que celles qui étaient autrefois prescrites à l’art, notamment (...) la capacité à représenter les choses non seulement telles qu’elles sont, mais aussi (ou surtout) telles qu’elles pourraient et devraient être. Mais l’exploration des possibilités par l’art ou par l’intelligence artificielle peut être comprise de multiples façons : la création selon le critère de la vraisemblance, la capacité à idéaliser la réalité ou à élargir nos concepts, ou encore la capacité à libérer l’imagination afin de produire le fantastique ou le surréel. Bien qu’une intelligence artificielle ait tendance à reproduire les stéréotypes esthétiques ou sociaux qui prévalent dans les bases de données, elle fait néanmoins preuve d’une certaine capacité à produire de la nouveauté au sens onto-logique (et non pas esthétique) du mot, en nous permettant de visualiser des nouveaux exemplaires des notions que nous ne pouvons pas définir autrement, telles que le style d’un artiste ou les concepts vagues aux frontières fluides et aux propriétés probables. (shrink)

This study is considered as a proposal to identify some metaphysical support of the self-care for a patient suffering from a chronic disease, as an extension of the bio-psycho-social paradigm. The methodology is dominated by a phenomenological perspective, supported by a hermeneutic conceptual analysis of the care of the self in Michel Foucault, focused on the Socratico-Platonic period and pervaded by the intention of having a translation and application to self-care. Foucault pleads for an aesthetics of the self, called subjectivity, (...) in which the subject is self-constituted through the so-called technologies of the self. The care of the self comes from the resignification of the philosophy as a way of life in which the subject is objectified. The translation and the applicability of the care of the self at the idea level to self-care are identified precisely in the acquisition of some important principles of the philosophy of care of the self from the Greek Antiquity: the role of awakener of consciousness of the one who is concerned about oneself as the first moment of the metaphor of awakening from the sleep, the ēthos as a way of being, a way of behaving and a life model. The pair self-knowledge – care of oneself justifies informing the former by the latter, in which being concerned about oneself means knowing oneself. Nevertheless, knowledge means care of the self where the self is synonymous with the soul and moreover, with the divine element in man. (shrink)

If we are serious about concepts, we must begin by addressing two questions: What are concepts for, what is their job? And what means are available in an organism for concepts to do their job? One is a question of raison d'.

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} In order to see whether there is a common European model that gives a place to religion in the public sphere two issues have to be taken into account: first, if there is a theory of secularization that accurately describes the current situation of European societies and second (...) if, there is a European model on Church – State relationship. The first part is dedicated to the different accounts on secularization that may be applied to European countries: the classical Weber theory that view secularization as an “iron law” of any society, the institutional secularization, secularization as the decline and adequacy of religious practice, the continuation of the classical theory in the 60’s and beyond, the criticism of this theory and the particular argument of the increase of fundamentalist religious movements. The attempts to formulate new theories on secularization based on other assumptions than the classical one are also presented. The increased presence of religion in private life does not mean a decrease of religion in the public space but rather a new definition of it. Despite the different intensity of belief in national terms, some trends like “believing without belonging” are common, meaning that secularization could have a single meaning in Europe, apart from other continents. The second part starts with presenting the three types of Church - State relationship at the national level. All these have in common the fact that the state is neutral towards religious subjects, a religious subsection is singled out within the public sphere and the state has the right to intervene in this area only as an arbiter. There is already a European law on religion and this statement is supported by examples from the Lisbon Treaty, The Charter of Fundamental Rights, different Directives and decisions of the European Court of Justice. Common rules on religion agreed at the European level helps better to understand why there is a common European model on religions, different from the national models. After taking into account the two aspects described above, a common European model on religion in the public sphere emerges as a necessary conclusion. (shrink)

”The Barometer of Flaubert or Literature and Reality”. Discussing the relationship between literature and reality, this study focuses on the analysis of the“reality effect” (effet de réel) which is applied to the narrative technique in Gogol’s novel Dead Souls by revisiting it through a Nabokovian perspective.

The initial online publication incorrectly contained Supplementary Information.

In this article, I will describe the evolution of capital punishment and the influence that ideology had during the founding years of Romania’s communist regime, until 1958, when the legislation and application of capital punishment reached its highest peak. Starting with the punishment of war criminals and fascists, I will then describe how the death penalty was used for political motives in a period when the regime had to consolidate, legitimate and fight different enemies. With ups and downs like The (...) Death Penalty Law of 1949 and the abolitionist attempt in 1956, it reached its climax in 1958-1959 after the enactment of Decree no. 318/1958. (shrink)

The theme of this essay is rather simple, though its demonstration is not. It is that humans think reflexively or metamentally because -- and often in the forms in which -- they interpret each other. In this essay ‘metamental’ means ‘about mental’ and ‘reflexive mind’ means ‘a mind thinking about its own thoughts.’ To think reflexively or metamentally is to think about thoughts deliberately and explicitly, as in thinking that my current thoughts about metamentation are right. Thinking about thoughts requires (...) understanding thoughts as thoughts, as mental structures that represent; it also requires an ability to relate thoughts to other thoughts and to recognize such inter-thought relations. Since metamentation is essential to and uniquely distinctive of human minds, the idea that it originates in interpreting other minds can be encapsulated in the slogan that minds are minded because minds mind minds. This word play translates as: minds evolve into reflexive minds because they mind other minds -- where ‘minding other minds’ means interacting and bonding with other minds, being concerned or curious about them, representing their relations to the world, manipulating and using these relations for some purpose, and the like. All of this amounts (in my terminology) to interpreting other minds in social contexts of cooperation, communication, education, politics, and so on. It follows that intermental relations among individuals, handled by a distinct competence for interpretation, are essential to the evolution of abilities to represent intramental relations among thoughts, typical of a reflexive mind. I take ‘interpretation’ to be a convenient, short, and grammatically flexible label for what is known in philosophy as commonsense or folk psychology and in psychology as theory of mind, mindreading, or naive psychology. Interpretation is a cognitive rapport between an interpreter (she, in this book) and a subject (he), whereby she represents his mind-world relations, from the simplest, such as seeing.... (shrink)

JUSTIFICATION and knowledge are thought to be closed under known implication..1 This widely shared assumption is embodied in the following principles of epistemic closure.

I have a confession to make. In general, I do not like discussions concerning folk psychology. I have never quite understood what the fuss was about. Radu Bogdan has changed my mind. His recent book, Interpreting Minds, explains why folk psychology is important and how we should understand it and does so in a plausible way. For these two reasons, philosophy should welcome his monograph wholeheartedly.

Images under Attack: Soup on Paintings and the Decline of Aesthetic Contemplation. In 2022, two cans of tomato soup were thrown over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery in London by two climate activists. The aim of this paper is not to explain the motives behind the protest in terms of environmental activism, but to address the implications of this phenomenon for the status of artistic images in our time. The protest in question is one of the many symptoms (...) of the fact that images associated with a pure state of gaze have become morally dubious due to a certain moralistic turn in contemporary discourses on art. Consequently, what seems to be lost in today’s movements of moralizing aesthetics, whether in art or in environmental activism, is not only the “aura” of an artwork, but also the idea that the contemplation of beauty in and for itself would provide a foundation for humans’ moral vocation. In a gaseous state of art (Y. Michaud) in which the transient effects of things are more important than their essence, the moralistic tendencies combined with the lack of moral foundations can no longer conceive of the ethical effects of images without explicit moral content, thus calling for a new form of heteronomy in art. (shrink)

Some of the topics presented in this volume of original essays on contemporary approaches to belief include the problem of misrepresentation and false belief, conscious versus unconscious belief, explicit versus tacit belief, and the durable versus ephemeral question of the nature of belief. The contributors, Fred Dretske, Keith Lehrer, William Lycan, Stephen Schiffer, Stephen P. Stich, and the editor, Radu Bogdan, focus on the mental realization of belief, its cognitive and behavioral aspects, and the semantic aspects of its content. (...) This interdisciplinary study takes advantage of many new theories in what has become an important area of research. (shrink)

This chapter provides the teleological foundations for our analysis of guidance to goal. Its objective is to ground goal-directedness genetically. The basic suggestion is this. Organisms are small things, with few energy resources and puny physical means, battling a ruthless physical and biological nature. How do they manage to survive and multiply? CLEVERLY, BY ORGANIZING.

Many philosophers and a few psychologists think that we understand our own minds before we understand those of others. Most developmental psychologists think that children understand their own minds at about the same time they understand other minds, by using the same cognitive abilities. I disagree with both views. I think that children understand other minds before they understand their own. Their self-understanding depends on some cognitive abilities that develop later than, and independently of, the abilities involved in understanding other (...) minds. This is the general theme of this chapter. (shrink)

Through the efforts of the Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes (IRHT), a list of manuscripts is available that preserves homilies on the healing of the paralytic. Included in this list is the codex Athonensis, Lauras A 112 (Eustratiadis 112), which, according to those who provided its second description, preserves in the last four folios ‘a homily on the paralytic by John Chrysostom’. After a brief presentation of what is known about this codex, this article offers a detailed examination (...) of the codex’s last four folios, revealing that the description of them by Spyridon Lauriotis and Sophronios Eustratiadis is inaccurate. Contribution: This article provides the first thorough examination of the last four folios of the codex Athonensis, Lauras A 112 (Eustratiadis 112), demonstrating that they do not contain ‘a homily on the paralytic by John Chrysostom’ but rather several fragments of homilies on Thomas, Mid-Pentecost and the Ascension. Thus, the article contributes to the description of the codex and to the identification of a previously unknown manuscript witness to several homilies. (shrink)

In spite of of its name, cognitive science is not yet a fully coherent and integrated science but rather a fairly loose coalition of largely independent disciplines, some descriptive and empirical (cognitive psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, cognitive anthropology), some speculative and foundational (philosophy), others both speculative and applied (artificial intelligence). What brought these disciplines together and still sustains their interdisciplinary cooperation is the dedication to explain, simulate and technically reproduce the workings of the human mind according to a distinct and rather (...) well defined research program. This program has been so far the animating spirit and the integrative force in the formation and development of cognitive science. I will call it the 'core program.' Around the core program there is a much looser and less coherent outer paradigm, or set of paradigms, which historically has prepared the ground for the core program, to which the participating disciplines have contributed their insights, results and methods, and still do, and from which challenges to the core program have emerged and are likely to do so in the future. (shrink)