Selections from the writings of Ernest Renan, a leading French writer and thinker of the 19th century.

When one addresses boycotts, the efforts of the Montgomery bus boycotts to end segregation likely come to mind. However, the moral merits of a boycott are not always so clearly determined and how a company reacts to a boycott can have long lasting repercussions for its public image. In this article, I will examine a number of boycotts including boycotts by the American Family Association of both Ford and Proctor & Gamble based on their advertising venue choices. In a politically (...) and morally charged atmosphere, it can be difficult for companies to determine where their moral obligations lie while at the same time being mindful of the bottom line. I suggest a number of guidelines to aid in corporate moral decision making when faced with a boycott. (shrink)

Schiller’s essays on tragedy attempt to argue that tragic experience is ethically valuable by forging a connection with Kant’s conception of autonomy. Standard interpretations hold that the connection lies in the fact that tragedies depict characters (primarily the hero) exercising autonomy. This paper argues that Schiller also views the experience prompted by tragedy as itself involving autonomy. Drawing on Kant’s discussion of aesthetic “symbols”, Schiller holds that the audience members’ experience at the tragedy is isomorphic with the autonomous exercise of (...) practical reason. Only in this way, I argue, can we make sense of Schiller’s contention that tragedy actively cultivates freedom in its viewers. Additionally, the interpretation shows how Schiller can hold that tragedy yields a kind of cognition of transcendental freedom while maintaining Kantian strictures on noumenal knowledge. (shrink)

This study focuses on retraction notices from two major Latin American/Caribbean indexing databases: SciELO and LILACS. SciELO includes open scientific journals published mostly in Latin America/the Caribbean, from which 10 % are also indexed by Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge Journal of Citation Reports. LILACS has a similar geographical coverage and includes dissertations and conference/symposia proceedings, but it is limited to publications in the health sciences. A search for retraction notices was performed in these two databases using the keywords “retracted”, (...) “retraction” “withdrawal”, “withdrawn”, “removed” and “redress”. Documents were manually checked to identify those that actually referred to retractions, which were then analyzed and categorized according to the reasons alleged in the notices. Dates of publication/retraction and time to retraction were also recorded. Searching procedures were performed between June and December 2014. Thirty-one retraction notices were identified, fifteen of which were in JCR-indexed journals. “Plagiarism” was alleged in six retractions of this group. Among the non-JCR journals, retraction reasons were alleged in fourteen cases, twelve of which were attributed to “plagiarism”. The proportion of retracted articles for the SciELO database was approximately 0.005 %. The reasons alleged in retraction notices may be used as signposts to inform discussions in Latin America on plagiarism and research integrity. At the international level, these results suggest that the correction of the literature is becoming global and is not limited to mainstream international publications. (shrink)

This paper offers a new interpretation of Nietzsche’s conception of scientific explanation that promises to resolve the apparent tension between his insistence on the veracity of such explanations, and his frequent attempts to impugn their cognitive reach. Nietzsche follows earlier nineteenth-century critiques of science in claiming that science yields only factual or “descriptive” knowledge, not understanding. The paper concludes that the conception of descriptive knowledge is robust and compatible with Nietzsche’s commitment to the truth and rigor of scientific theories. The (...) interpretation also sheds new light on Nietzsche’s oft-voiced claims that certain concepts “falsify” the world. (shrink)

A key contention of Nietzsche's philosophy is that art helps us affirm life. A common reading holds that it does so by paving over, concealing, or beautifying life's undesirable features. This interpretation is unsatisfactory for two main reasons: Nietzsche suggests that art should foreground what is ‘ugly’ about existence, and he sees thoroughgoing honesty about life's character as a requirement on genuine affirmation. The paper presents an alternative reading. According to this reading, artworks depicting something terrible give us a feeling (...) of fearlessness or courage by enabling an extraordinary state of affective distance from their content. The value of art lies in the fact that the aesthetic state resembles and invites us to pursue a psychic condition Nietzsche valorises. In making this case, the paper reveals a surprising continuity between an important strand in nineteenth-century aesthetic thought and contemporary distance theories of aesthetic engagement. It also casts new light on Nietzsche's famous criticisms of Kant's notion of disinterested aesthetic appreciation. (shrink)

A central problem in the cognitive sciences is identifying the link between consciousness and neural computation. The key features of consciousness—including the emergence of representative information content and the initiation of volitional action—are correlated with neural activity in the cerebral cortex, but not computational processes in spinal reflex circuits or classical computing architecture. To take a new approach toward considering the problem of consciousness, it may be worth re‐examining some outstanding puzzles in neuroscience, focusing on differences between the cerebral cortex (...) and spinal reflex circuits. First, the mammalian cerebral cortex exhibits exascale computational power, a feature that is not strictly correlated with the number of binary computational units; second, individual computational units engage in noisy coding, allowing random electrical events to gate signaling outcomes; third, this noisy coding results in the synchronous firing of statistically random populations of cells across the neural network, at a range of nested frequencies; fourth, the system grows into a more ordered state over time, as it encodes the predictive value gained through observation; and finally, the cerebral cortex is extraordinarily energy efficient, with very little free energy lost to entropy during the work of information processing. Here, I argue that each of these five key features suggest the mammalian brain engages in probabilistic computation. Indeed, by modeling the physical mechanisms of probabilistic computation, we may find a better way to explain the unique emergent features arising from cortical neural networks. (shrink)

Nietzsche consistently valorizes artistic falsehoods. On standard interpretations, this is because art provides deceptive yet salutary fictions that help us affirm life. This reading conflicts, however, with Nietzsche’s insistence that life-affirmation requires untrammeled honesty. I present an alternative interpretation which navigates the interpretive impasse. With special attention to the influence of Friedrich Schiller, the paper argues for three claims: (1) Nietzsche does not hold that art is false because it “beautifies,” but because it produces mere semblances of, its objects; (2) (...) these semblances are essentially non-deceptive; (3) he values artistic illusions because they dispose us positively to illusion more generally. Such ‘evaluative reorientation,’ I argue, is not merely consistent with, but integral to, achieving Nietzsche’s ideal of honesty. (shrink)

The management of obesity in childhood may be more difficult than in adulthood, since the child is subject to the influence of the lifestyle of his relatives. Those with incorrect eating habits tend to become obese in adolescence and adulthood. Therefore, the prevention of obesity and other health problems should occur from the fetal period and soon after birth, continuing for the rest of life. Therefore, it is important that adequate pedagogical proposals become effective in schools to minimize the barrier (...) between theory and practice, as well as to develop teaching-learning activites about healthy eating. Teaching children the importance of healthy nutrition and giving them subsidies for them to practice is the best way to train adults with good eating habits. Thus, the objective of this study was to analyze the contributions of feeding and nutritional education activities in the prevention and fight against obesity in schoolchildren, by means of an integrative review of the literature. (shrink)

O presente artigo defende a hipótese de que Blanchot e Foucault, ao se alinharem à ideia que Mallarmé e Proust haviam semeado no final do século XIX e início do século XX (“a indiferença por quem fala ou escreve”), trazem um movimento de resistência, em dois níveis: no primeiro, às reduções da obra por uma psicologia do autor e, consequentemente, às teorias do gênio romântico; no outro, ao se distanciarem das análises psicopatológicas, encontraram na arte uma aliada para seus próprios (...) pensamentos. Foucault e Blanchot não fazem mais tratados estéticos, como tradicionalmente encontramos em Baumgarten, Kant ou Hegel, mas encontram na arte e na literatura saberes irredutíveis a todo saber, possibilidades de pensamento que permitem escapar das categorias tradicionais. Vendo a arte e a literatura como aliadas, eles retiram delas toda a carga psicológica que, desde a institucionalização da autoria, oportunizou sua apreensão pela psiquiatria. (shrink)

O artigo busca compreender o artista moderno depois do nascimento da sociedade mercantil e da afirmação hegeliana de que “a arte é e permanecerá para nós, do ponto de vista de sua destinação suprema, como algo do passado”. Para isso, iremos percorrer os pensamentos de Baudelaire e Nietzsche e a forma que ambos entenderam a importância do artista e da arte no século XIX, principalmente através do riso. Nossa hipótese é que o artista, uma vez marginalizado tanto do ponto de (...) vista social quanto da racionalidade filosófica, viveu no entre-lugar, estabelecendo uma existência perigosa em que revela o homem em sua dimensão humana, viciosa, corporal, através do riso. Devido a essa existência perigosa manifestada pelo riso, não tardou para a racionalidade, principalmente através da psiquiatria, em assimilar o artista à loucura, para poder capturá-lo dentro do discurso científico. (shrink)

Texto leído en octubre de 2011 en la Universidad EAFIT como Lección inaugural de la Maestría en Estudios Humanísticos. Una nueva lectura corregida del presente texto se ofreció en el marco de los Coloquios del Departamento de Historia de la Universidad de los Andes en marzo de 2012. Para la versión final hemos introducido una serie de pies de páginas bibliográficas y algunos comentarios, sin recargar en exceso el texto, amparándome abusivamente detrás de Pierre Bourdieu para dar una forma legítima (...) a lo que son reflexiones por las que solamente yo respondo. El epígrafe del texto está tomado de “Los Cuadernos de Notas” a las Memorias de Adriano de Marguerite Yourcenar. (shrink)

Traditional American schooling is in constant crisis because it is based on two poor models for children's learning: the school as a factory and the child as a blank slate. School reforms repeatedly fail by not penetrating these models. One hundred years ago, Maria Montessori, the first female physician in Italy, devised a very different method of educating children, based on her observations of how they naturally learn. Does Montessori education provide a viable alternative to traditional schooling? Do Dr. Montessori's (...) theories and practices stand up to the scrutiny of modern-day developmental psychology? Can developmental psychology tell us anything about how and why Montessori methods work? In Montessori, the author shows that science has finally caught up with Maria Montessori: Current scientific research provides astounding support for her major insights. She presents the research concerning eight insights that are foundational to Montessori education and describes how each of these insights is applied in the Montessori classroom. In reading this book, parents and teachers alike will develop a clear understanding of what happens in a Montessori classroom and, more important, why it happens and why it works. Montessori however, does much more than explain the scientific basis for Montessori's system. Amid the clamor for evidence-based education, this book presents the studies that show how children learn best, makes clear why many traditional practices come up short, and describes an ingenious alternative that works. Everyone interested in education, at all levels and in all forms, will take from this book a wealth of insights on how to improve teaching effectiveness. Montessori is indispensable reading for anyone interested in what psychologists know about human learning and development. (shrink)

Race and Gender in the Classroom explores the paradoxes of education, race, and gender, as Laurie Cooper Stoll follows eighteen teachers carrying out their roles as educators in an era of “post-racial” and “post-gendered” politics.

There is a longstanding discussion whether wide-scope indefinites denote choice functions that are existentially bound or remain free. Data from Ga, an under-researched language spoken in Ghana, show that there are wide-scope indefinites denoting existentially bound skolemized choice functions whose parameter is bound by a higher quantificational NP, free skolemized choice functions with the speaker or a higher quantificational NP as a parameter, and narrow scope quantificational indefinites. Thus the data show that both existentially bound and free skolemized choice functions (...) are attested in natural language shedding new light on the semantics of indefinites. (shrink)

A quantitative analysis of a trans-generational, conversational corpus of Chintang (Tibeto-Burman) speakers with community-wide bilingualism in Nepali (Indo-European) reveals that children show more code-switching into Nepali than older speakers. This confirms earlier proposals in the literature that code-switching in bilingual children decreases when they gain proficiency in their dominant language, especially in vocabulary. Contradicting expectations from other studies, our corpus data also reveal that for adults, multi-word insertions of Nepali into Chintang are just as likely to undergo full syntactic integration (...) as single-word insertions. Speakers of younger generations show less syntactic integration. We propose that this reflects a change between generations, from strongly asymmetrical, Chintang-dominated bilingualism in older generations to more balanced bilingualism where Chintang and Nepali operate as clearly separate systems in younger generations. This change is likely to have been triggered by the increase of Nepali presence over the past few decades. (shrink)

This study investigates the child‐directed speech (CDS) of four Russian‐, six German, and six English‐speaking mothers to their 2‐year‐old children. Typologically Russian has considerably less restricted word order than either German or English, with German showing more word‐order variants than English. This could lead to the prediction that the lexical restrictiveness previously found in the initial strings of English CDS by Cameron‐Faulkner, Lieven, and Tomasello (2003) would not be found in Russian or German CDS. However, despite differences between the three (...) corpora that clearly derive from typological differences between the languages, the most significant finding of this study is a high degree of lexical restrictiveness at the beginnings of CDS utterances in all three languages. (shrink)

Companies that contribute to charitable organizations rightly hope that their philanthropic work will also be good for the bottom line. Marketers of good corporate conduct must be especially careful, however, to market such conduct in a morally acceptable fashion. Although marketers typically engage in mild deception or take artistic license when marketing goods and services, these sorts of practices are far more morally troublesome when used to market good corporate conduct. I argue that although mild deception is not substantially worrisome (...) with respect to the marketing of most goods and services, it is a far greater moral blunder to use such methods in the marketing of good corporate character. These erode trust and demonstrate alack of adequate respect for the moral good. In light of these concerns, I suggest that such practices must be re-examined when applied to the marketing of corporate character and good conduct. Finally, I develop a revised set of ethical guidelines that are needed in order to address the problems peculiar to the marketing of morally praiseworthy behavior. (shrink)

O presente trabalho tem como intuito estabelecer um diálogo entre as críticas traçadas por Gottlob Frege e Charles Sanders Peirce ao psicologismo. Trata-se de um estudo que visa contribuir para a compreensão de temas caros para a filosofia da linguagem, como a natureza do pensamento e a construção do significado. Para tanto, apresentaremos, de maneira geral, o conceito de psicologismo e alguns argumentos levantados a seu favor. Feito isso, elencaremos duas críticas ditas antipsicologistas: começaremos, na segunda seção, com o posicionamento (...) de Frege tomado no todo de sua obra no intuito de pensar seus reflexos no texto Sobre o sentido e a referência. Na terceira seção, abordaremos, na filosofia de Peirce, como o antipsicologismo está pressuposto desde seus escritos iniciais até o desenvolvimento de sua semiótica. (shrink)

Trata-se da tradução de uma peça teatral, em estilo Nô, do autor japonês Yukio Mishima (1925-1970).Originalmente publicada sob o título Yoroboshi, o texto ganha sua primeira versão em português brasileiro.

Este texto trata de apresentar a posição intelectual de Fernando Do Ó, militar, advogado e espírita que atuou em Santa Maria nas décadas de 1930 a 1960, sobre espiritismo. Essas discussões foram sustentadas na análise do Pierre Bourdieu sobre as disputas percebidas do campo religioso. Destacamos suas posições a partir do que foi publicado no jornal Diário do Interior de 1930 a 1937, assim, propomos uma reflexão, da escrita na imprensa local no sentido de demarcar identidade espírita diante da pluralidade (...) de práticas mediúnicas. (shrink)

En el transcurso de estas páginas nos referiremos a la obra siempre por su título en francés, pues es difícil encontrar un equivalente preciso. ¿Hacer ciencias sociales? ¿Producir ciencias sociales? ¿Investigar en ciencias sociales? ¿Dedicarse a las ciencias sociales?, no me parecen títulos ni exactos ni atractivos, aunque todas son formas que recogen en parte la idea y espíritu de la obra. Por otra parte, hay que advertir desde ahora al lector que aunque se mencionan varias obras de Ciencias sociales (...) e Historia –en general todas conocidas para un lector sin mayor especialización–, el texto no constituye un ensayo bibliográfico, y solo se ofrecen las referencias bibliográficas precisas en los casos en que así debe hacer por necesidades argumentales y de demostración. (shrink)

El título principal sintetiza el propósito de este texto, que enuncia un problema de alcance general en la investigación histórica, pero lo hace con el examen de algunas proposiciones concretas que formuló el historiador colombiano Germán Colmenares (1938-1990) con relación al uso de la teoría neoclásica en las investigaciones de historia económica de la sociedad colonial, proposiciones cuya validez parece mantenerse. Se trata de un análisis de perspectiva historiográfica que se detiene, ante todo, en los usos concretos de los conceptos (...) puestos en juego en el análisis, en el marco de un esquema que piensa la disciplina histórica como inseparable de las demás ciencias sociales. (shrink)

The leading ethical problem in medical practice for the coming decade is likely to be how to select patients for priority. Criteria for such decision-making in the case of cancer patients are discussed. Clinicians, ethicists and others need to agree guidelines on giving priority to one patient over another when resources are limited, and such criteria need to be approved by society at large. The public must accept that in a non-explicit rationing system, each individual competes with every other. In (...) the case of even more difficult ethical choices, a multidisciplinary national committee is required to advise on decision-making, and its views need to be debated by the general public. (shrink)

As the efficiency and reach of global fishing has grown, overfishing has unwittingly undermined the industry’s future while at the same time depriving poor people of a dietary staple. Several problems that most concern the critics of globalization come into play: undermining the power of governments to protect their environments and citizens, an economic system that robs the poor and future generations of basic necessities, and market developments that undercut long term economic and environmental stability. I examine how creative institutional (...) measures could avert total collapse of ocean ecosystems despite the complexity of enacting marine ethics in a globalized economy. I look at companies that work with the Marine Stewardship Council’s criteria as well as more creative measures including revamped marketing and changes in how members of the industry work together in order to encourage long term environmental and economic sustainability. (shrink)

Contemporary trends in politics and historical interpretation have raised the specter of the end of philosophy. In the post-philosophical era, every attempt to explain or make sense of the world would be considered no more than a particular myth or worldview, possessing relative rather than universal validity. Arguing that philosophy fails to transcend the relativity of worldviews entails rejecting Hegel’s attempt to complete, or comprehend absolutely, the sense of history via his logical interpretation of Christ. The post-Hegelian loss of faith (...) in the human ability to achieve an absolutely reasonable or objective understanding of our world can be seen as requiring a turn to Christianity to correct the deficiencies of objective understanding. However, the Hegelian logical interpretation of Christ may be needed to protect Christian faith against the same historicism that is so corrosive of faith in philosophy. Does the middle or mediating ground between Christianity and its critics disintegrate, leaving the vacuum of nihil absolutum, if it is not held together by the Hegelian science of logic? Such a vacuum would be filled by a will to the power of world making, which some people call divine and others insist is purely human. But giving up Hegel might mean giving up the possibility of a reasoned mediation of this dispute. Without reason, or on faith, one could leap in countless different directions and embrace countless different worldviews—until one simply wearied of the effort and resigned to the credo of nothingness. (shrink)

This book traces the emergence of abstract philosophical thought from the concrete concerns of everyday speech. Studies of Plato and Hegel illustrate the fruits of reflection as well as the perils of alienation that are attached to abstract thought. The book's central concern is the future of philosophy, or what one ought to do to pursue wisdom. Unlike many books which share the same concern, this book returns to the roots of philosophy in search of clues to how to go (...) on. Written in a straightforward style, minimizing the need for technical jargon, this book should be of interest to anyone perplexed about the nature and aims of the philosophical vocation. (shrink)

The article analyzes the influence of German thought on Baron Friedrich von Hügel’s philosophy of religion. The activities of the British scholar in the networks of Catholic modernism are placed within the broader framework of the international discussion on religion around 1900. His religious universalism was shaped to a great extent by the encounter of German intellectuals from a liberal Protestant background, most notably by Rudolf Eucken, Ernst Troeltsch and Friedrich Naumann. This encounter, started during the 1890s, focussed on the (...) concepts of historical individuality and historical development. It took a new direction with the public role adopted by German intellectuals in the propaganda of the World War. Von Hügel’s often ignored treatise The German Soul reacted to the fusion of liberal religious thought with German nationalism as observed in Troeltsch and Naumann. His criticism of a lack of „international morality“ of German thought and his approach to identify the reason for this deficit in the Lutheran and idealistic tradition shed light on the ongoing discussions of a „Sonderweg“ of German thought. Von Hügel’s late attempts to promote Christianity as an anti-nationalist force remind of other more theological rejections of nationalism after the war. However, these attempts are not based on a strict theological or confessional rationale but try to continue the interconfessional and interdisciplinary discussion of the beginning of the century. This is revealed best by von Hügel’s close but not uncritical relationship to Troeltsch in the early 1920s. (shrink)

In the wake of Citizens United v. the Federal Elections Commission, more companies are spending heavily on political speech, but the moral implications of doing so are not clear. Few business ethicists have directly addressed the moral legitimacy of corporate political speech and the conditions under which it may be morally permissible. My goal here is to outline the moral hazards associated with engaging in corporate political speech. I argue that whether one takes a narrow Friedman-style shareholder primacy view of (...) managerial duty, a broader stakeholder view, or an even more wide-ranging political corporate social responsibility view of the moral duties of business, various moral hazards must be taken into account in determining the moral legitimacy of corporate political speech. I discuss a number of moral hazards endemic to corporate political speech and suggest ways in which business practitioners might avoid those moral hazards. (shrink)

When the Federal Communications Commission considered revamping its policies, many political activists argued that media conglomerates had failed to meet their duties to protect freedom of speech. Moveon's dispute with CBS over its proposed Superbowl advertisement and Michael Moore's quarrel over distribution of his documentary, Fahrenheit 911, are cases in point. In matters of pure entertainment, the public expect companies to avoid offensive programming. The press, on the other hand, may well be forced to offend some audience members in order (...) to create a viable forum for political dissent. As journalism and entertainment are increasingly inter-linked, an in depth moral analysis of the media corporation and its obligations becomes increasingly important. I explore Kantian, Utilitarian, and Rawlsian analyses of corporate obligation in the aforementioned cases. I then examine whether or not these results suggest anything more generally about the sorts of mission statements and ethical policies that ought to be endorsed by media conglomerates and whether non-business institutions also require changes. Ultimately, I suggest that at a minimum, media institutions should view the duty to promote the representation of diverse views in a democracy as an imperfect moral and civic duty rather than making programming decisions solely by reference to profit. Ideally, greater access to media access should not be increased for the most powerful unless doing so at the same time increases free speech opportunities for those who currently have the least access. (shrink)

. Although the courts have ruled that companies are legal persons, they have not yet made clear the extent to which political free speech for corporations is limited by the strictures legitimately placed upon corporate commercial speech. I explore the question of whether or not companies can properly be said to have the right to civil free speech or whether corporate speech is always de facto commercial speech not subject to the same sorts of legal protections as is the right (...) to civil free speech. In the absence of clearly defined legal precedent, I emphasize moral reasons for determining the appropriate limits of corporate civil free speech. Appealing to arguments typically used to justify individual rights to civil free speech, I examine the extent to which this sort of justification may or may not be legitimately extended to corporations. I conclude that corporate rights to civil free speech must be restricted because granting rights of free speech to institutions may, in practice, undermine the moral rationale and practical feasibility of guaranteeing rights of civil free speech to individuals. Furthermore, I argue that granting corporations full rights to civil free speech will undercut attempts to develop good moral character in corporate institutions by undermining the efforts of watchdog organizations. (shrink)