It has been argued that belief in free will is socially consequential and psychologically universal. In this paper we look at the folk concept of free will and its critical assessment in the context of recent psychological research. Is there a widespread consensus about the conceptual content of free will? We compared English “free will” with its lexical equivalents in Lithuanian, Hindi, Chinese and Mongolian languages and found that unlike Lithuanian, Chinese, Hindi and Mongolian lexical expressions of “free will” do (...) not refer to the same concept free will. What kind people have been studied so far? A review of papers indicate that, overall, 91% of participants in studies on belief in free will were WEIRD. Thus, given that free will has no cross-culturally universal conceptual content and that most of the reviewed studies were based on WEIRD samples, belief in free will is not a psychological universal. (shrink)

We frequently hear that we live in an age of anxiety, from 'therapy culture', the Atkins diet and child anti-depressants to gun culture and weapons of mass destruction. While Hollywood regularly cashes in on teenage anxiety through its Scream franchise, pharmaceutical companies churn out new drugs such as Paxil to combat newly diagnosed anxieties. On Anxiety takes a fascinating, psychological plunge behind the scenes of our panic stricken culture and into anxious minds, asking who and what is responsible. Putting anxiety (...) on the couch, Renata Salecl asks some much-needed questions: Is anxiety about the absence of authority or too much of it? Do the media report anxiety or create it? Are drugs a cure for anxiety or its cause? Is anxiety about being yourself or someone else, and is anxiety really the ultimate obstacle to happiness? Drawing on vivid examples from films such as the X Files and Cyrano de Bergerac , drugs used on soldiers to combat anxiety, the anxieties of love and motherhood, and fake Holocaust memoirs, Renata Salecl argues that what really produces anxiety is the attempt to get rid of it. Erudite and compelling, On Anxiety is essential reading for anyone interested in philosophy, psychology and the cultural phenomenon of anxiety today. (shrink)

Nichols and Bruno claim that the folk judge that psychological continuity is necessary for personal identity. In this article, we evaluate this claim. First, we argue that it is likely that in thinking about hypothetical cases of transformations, the folk do not use a unitary concept of personal identity, but instead rely on different concepts of ‘person’, ‘identity’, and ‘individual’. Identity can be ascribed even when post-transformation individuals are no longer categorized as persons. Second, we provide new empirical evidence suggesting (...) that the folk do not consider psychological continuity to be necessary for an individual to be categorized as a person or for ascribing identity over time and through transformations. In this, we assume, along with Nichols and Bruno, that folk judgments about identity can be read off the use of proper names. Furthermore, we raise some doubts about the ability of current experimental designs to adequately distinguish between qualitative and numerical identity jud.. (shrink)

In the current study, we examine the changes in disclosure practices on compliance and the fight against corruption at Siemens AG, a large German multinational corporation, over the period 2000–2011 during which a major corruption scandal was revealed. More specifically, we conduct a content analysis of the company’s annual reports and sustainability reports during that period to investigate the changes of Siemens’ corruption and compliance disclosure using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Through the lens of legitimacy theory, stakeholder analysis, and (...) organizational façades, we find evidence that Siemens changed its compliance and corruption disclosure practices to repair its legitimacy in the wake of the 2006 corruption scandal. We analyze these strategies more closely by using the rational, progressive, and reputation façades framework. Our primary findings suggest that the annual reports show peaks of disclosure amounts on corruption and compliance disclosures earlier than sustainability reports, which can be partly explained by analyzing the disclosures made about—and to—the different stakeholder groups. We find that the annual report focuses more on internal stakeholders such as employees, while the sustainability report focuses more on external stakeholders such as suppliers. We also find that the company uses the façades differently depending on which report is being analyzed. (shrink)

In this paper we report a study conducted in Mongolia on the scope of morality, that is, the extent to which people moralize different social domains. Following Turiel’s moral-conventional task, we characterized moral transgressions (in contrast to conventional transgressions) in terms of two dimensions: authority independence and generality of scope. Different moral domains are then defined by grouping such moral transgressions in terms of their content (following Haidt’s classification of morally relevant domains). There are four main results of the study. (...) First, since all five Haidtian domains were moralized by the Mongolian participants, the study provides evidence in favour of pluralism about moral domains. However, the study also suggests that the domain of harm can be reduced to the fairness domain. Furthermore, although the strong claim about reduction of all moral domains to the domain of fairness does not seem to hold a significant number of participants did indicate considerations of fairness across domains. Finally, a significant amount of participants moralized conventional transgressions a la Turiel, but it did not reach a statistical significance. (shrink)

A análise epistemológica das práticas das ciências da saúde vem se tornando mais presente no debate filosófico nas últimas décadas, e se torna premente diante do contexto dramático da pandemia em que atualmente vivemos. Para contribuir com a essa análise, o presente artigo apresenta uma introdução às temáticas da filosofia da medicina e da filosofia da epidemiologia, especialmente o exame do papel da causalidade, conceito fundamental para a compreensão da relação entre saúde e doença. A noção de causa INUS, formulada (...) pelo filósofo J. L. Mackie e adaptada para a epidemiologia por Kenneth Rothman, permite retratar com precisão as interações multicausais que cooperam para a alteração de um estado de saúde. Contudo, o modelo visual de Rothman não contempla conceitos importantes da epidemiologia, imprecisão que busco sanar com uma proposta de representação temporal do conjunto multicausal que, dentre outras coisas, facilita o planejamento de intervenções pontuais que visem a impedir a instalação de uma doença. A delimitação do conjunto causal também é posta em questão, uma vez que a perspectiva multicausal não delimita intrinsecamente qualquer critério acerca de onde finalizar a seleção de fatores causais. Aponto para a manipulabilidade como a abordagem própria das ciências da saúde para a seleção dos fatores nos quais intervir, e que o reconhecimento dessa perspectiva é importante para a própria compreensão filosófica da causalidade. (shrink)

A partir da descrição das noções de reflexo artístico e de mundanidade na estética de maturidade de Georg Lukács, este estudo pretende apresentar algumas questões preliminares acerca do que vem a ser a obra de arte, suas particularidades e seus pressupostos na “Estética” (1963), com o intuito de ressaltar, por fim, o caráter absolutamente humanista dessa obra lukacsiana.

Two concepts of the internal should be distinguished in the current epistemic internalism/externalism debate: (1) the internal in an introspective sense as what is accessible by introspection and (2) the internal in a biological sense as what is inside the organism's nervous system. When "internal" is meant in the introspective sense, Goldman's process reliabilism is externalist, but when "internal" is taken in the biological sense, Goldman's process reliabilism is internalist. Goldman as a naturalist prefers "internal" in the biological sense, but (...) the concept is unsuitable for presenting the current epistemic internalism/externalism controversy. If one understands "internal" in the introspective sense, Goldman's reliabilism is strongly externalist. (shrink)

The AGM theory of belief revision provides a formal framework to represent the dynamics of epistemic states. In this framework, the beliefs of the agent are usually represented as logical formulas while the change operations are constrained by rationality postulates. In the original proposal, the logic underlying the reasoning was supposed to be supraclassical, among other properties. In this paper, we present some of the existing work in adapting the AGM theory for non-classical logics and discuss their interconnections and what (...) is still missing for each approach. (shrink)

The AGM paradigm for belief revision provides a very elegant and powerful framework for reasoning about idealized agents. The paradigm assumes that the modeled agent is a perfect reasoner with infinite memory. In this paper we propose a framework to reason about non-ideal agents that generalizes the AGM paradigm. We first introduce a structure to represent an agent's belief states that distinguishes different status of beliefs according to whether or not they are explicitly represented, whether they are currently active and (...) whether they are fully accepted or provisional. Then we define a set of basic operations that change the status of beliefs and show how these operations can be used to model agents with different capacities. We also show how different operations of belief change described in the literature can be seen as special cases of our theory. (shrink)

Skepticism described by Sextus Empiricus faces the persistent charge that it is an inconsistent, self-refuting view. However, recently its consistency hasbeen defended in three important ways: it is a thesis with weak assertion, it is a practice without any assertion, and it is a process developing over time.The first option is not well supported by Sextus’ texts, where even a weak assertion is not allowed. The second option cannot explain the rationality of skeptical arguments. The third option reveals two levels (...) of Sextan skepticism; however, the developing skeptic has to accept the self-refutation charge, and the mature skeptic takes flight from the charge without any rational answer. I claim that Sextus embraces the self-refutation charge. The mature skeptic’s speech acts are pragmatically inconsistent: their content cannot be asserted without contradiction. As a result, the charge of inconsistency is not answered. (shrink)

“Morality” is a Western term that brings to mind all sorts of associations. In contemporary Western moral psychology it is a commonplace to assume that people (presumably across all cultures and languages) will typically associate the term “moral” with actions that involve considerations of harm and/or fairness. But is it cross-culturally a valid claim? The current work provides some preliminary evidence from Mongolia to address this question. The word combination of yos surtakhuun is a Mongolian translation of the Western term (...) “moral”. However, freelisting data indicates that Mongolians do not typically associate the term yos surtakhuun with actions that involve considerations of harm and/or fairness. Instead, the most cognitively salient category is respect (khündlekh). The lack of convergence between moral and yos surtakhuun suggests that the term “moral” does not refer to universal “moral” cognition that specifically deals with harm and/or fairness. On the contrary, I would argue that the term “moral” brings to mind exclusively WEIRD associations, and yos surtakhuun brings to mind specifically Mongolian associations. Thus, pointing to different historically shaped cultural models of “moral” behavior. (shrink)

The standard theory of belief revision was developed to describe how a rational agent should change his beliefs in the presence of new information. Many interesting tools were created, but the concept of rationality was usually assumed to be related to classical logics. In this paper, we explore the fact that the logical tools used can be extended to other sorts of logics, as proved in (Hansson and Wassermann, 2002), to describe models that are closer to the rationality of a (...) real agent. (shrink)

O objetivo desse trabalho é apresentar a proposta do filósofo Nelson Goodman para adeterminação da relação de confirmação válida entre hipóteses e enunciados de prova a partir dotratamento de David Hume para seu problema da indução. Goodman reconhece, no que ele chama de“velho” problema de Hume, uma possibilidade de se superar um grande desafio enfrentado pela filosofiada ciência: o de distinguir as inferências indutivas válidas das inválidas. Com a indicação do hábitocomo o responsável pela nossa confiança em certas inferências indutivas, (...) Hume abria passagem para aformulação, por parte de Goodman, de uma justificativa circular para a determinação da validadeindutiva. Como Goodman reconhece essa validade, e sob quais condições ela poderá ser determinada, éo que discutiremos ao longo desse artigo. (shrink)

The article presents the issue of anti-Semitism outlined by Grynberg in his prose and poetry. In the first part of the work I show roots of hatred for the Jews noticed by the contemporary writer. In the second part I discuss the signs of anti-Semitism and I reinforce them with the concrete examples from Grynberg’s works. Subsequently, I show the reader that hostility to the Jews accompanied the Poles immediately after the war and many years later. I present the circumstances (...) in which the writer left Poland and emigrated to the USA where he has lived to the present day. Next, I endeavour to convince the reader that Grynberg present a varied and true picture of anti-Semitism. In his works there is a lot of subjectivity but there is also a belief that evil does not appear as typical of the Poles. I conclude my work with the suggestion that Grynberg is a writer who aims for revealing the truth and improvement between the Poles and the Jews. That is why it is his words that should be reflected in our thoughts and deeds. (shrink)

Este artículo propone una lectura de la crítica de Gilles Deleuze a la dialéctica hegeliana, con especial foco en los problemas de la negatividad y las “pasiones tristes”. A partir de allí, se evaluará si acaso existe en el pensamiento deleuziano una cierta tendencia felicista que resulta en una reducción de la diferencia, de signo inverso pero en lo demás simétrica a la que Deleuze critica en Hegel. El artículo busca mostrar que hay, en estas cuestiones, una tensión interna en (...) el pensamiento deleuziano que no puede resolverse sino por medio de una elección en la lectura. (shrink)

I present the notion of epistemic injustice coined by Miranda Fricker and apply it to the situation of people with intersex traits, especially intersex children who are the subjects of “normalizing” surgery. Several studies from Polish hospitals show that both early “normalizing” surgery and the decision to postpone such surgery can result in harm to an intersex child. For this reason, I claim that “normalizing” surgery is only an expression of the epistemic hermeneutical injustice existing before the surgery and that (...) its source is the lack of an empirically adequate notion of sex characteristics. The binary notion is too simple to grasp intersex traits, and this epistemic dysfunction turns into practical harm. In contrast to Morgan Carpenter, I defend the nonbinary gender category as being important to limiting “normalizing” surgery. (shrink)

An agent can usually hold a very large number of beliefs. However, only a small part of these beliefs is used at a time. Efficient operations for belief change should affect the beliefs of the agent locally, that is, the changes should be performed only in the relevant part of the belief state. In this paper we define a local consequence operator that only considers the relevant part of a belief base. This operator is used to define local versions of (...) the operations for belief change. Representation theorems are given for the local operators. (shrink)

The face serves as a fascinating focal point for exploring different perspectives and attitudes on human nature, including their identity, boundaries, culture, roles, the function of looks, beauty, religion, imagination, memory and more. In this paper, I will explore the analysis of facial beauty in the framework of contemporary interdisciplinary research, particularly the realms of contemporary cognitive science, neuropsychology, and evolutionary biology. Why do we prefer some faces and not others? What mechanisms underlie the evaluation of some faces as more (...) attractive than others? What is the role of evolution in our perception of facial beauty? (shrink)

This study intends to contribute to the delimitation of selected offensive language categories based on an analysis of a corpus of contributions to discussion forums in Czech online national newspapers and news platforms called Czech Corpus of Offensive Language (CCOL). It endeavours to study three problematic areas (1) delimitation between the speech acts performed, (ii) lexical realisation of specific properties of the target and (iii) identification and categorisation of implicit offence (e.g. figurative semantic shifts) by exploring contextual cues for the (...) speech act identification, the keywords indicating the properties of the target and the types of semantic shifts in implicit expressions of offence. The findings indicate that annotation systems that do not use context information for the detection of offensive language may face problems with adequate interpretation of the language means under investigation. (shrink)

The rise of nationalist, racist and anti-feminist ideologies is one of the most frightening repercussions of the collapse of socialism. Using psychoanalytic theories of fantasy to investigate why such extremist ideologies have taken hold, Renata Salecl argues that the major social and political changes in post-communist Eastern Europe require a radical re-evaluation of notions of liberal theories of democracy. In doing so she offers a new approach to human rights and feminism grounded in her own active partipation in the (...) struggles, first against communism and now against nationalism and anti-feminism. (shrink)

A relação entre o sublime e a arte, a princípio, soa natural e certa, mas ao longo do século XVIII algumas teorias afastaram essa categoria da produção artística. Foram décadas notadamente frutíferas nas questões sobre o sublime, período em que não só o sublime recebe seu título de categoria estética como destacadamente participa das questões epistemológicas da recém cunhada disciplina Estética. Nesse cenário, alguns pensadores se voltam exclusivamente para o sublime natural. Esse artigo procurará mostrar o caminho percorrido por esse (...) conceito a partir da recepção pelos ingleses, em 1689, do tratado sobre retórica do século I d.C. intitulado Peri Hypsos, traduzido por Boileu-Despréaux como Sobre o Sublime e atribuído ao crítico grego Cassius Longinus. Visitaremos as teorias de pensadores como Joseph Addison, Edmund Burke e Immanuel Kant, que apontam para o sublime exclusivamente como contemplação da natureza, e encerraremos essa jornada na reinserção do drama trágico na categoria sublime por Friedrich Schiller. Fecha-se, dessa forma, o que chamamos aqui de “ciclo do sublime natural”, que se inicia na leitura característica dos britânicos empiristas, encontra sua mais bem acabada teoria na terceira Crítica kantiana e se encerra no trabalho teórico e literário do poeta de Weimar. (shrink)

Le statut juridique des femmes et de leurs biens introduit des différences par rapport à celui des hommes, différences qui sont tantôt défendues tantôt dénoncées par les femmes elles-mêmes, selon qu’elles visent à mettre leurs biens à l’abri des prétentions des créanciers ou, au contraire, qu’elles manifestent leur volonté de tester le plus librement possible. Mais, en préalable à la différence entre hommes et femmes, se trouve le problème de la définition du droit de propriété en tant que tel. De (...) nombreux témoignages montrent en effet que celui-ci est souvent déduit d’un état de fait, plutôt que de la production d’un titre légitime. Et, à la différence de la propriété, la possession ne se décline pas selon le genre. (shrink)

One of the motivations for the researches leaded by the members of Vienna Circle with regard to the foundations of scientific language is found on Wittgenstein’s “Tractatus Logico-Philophicus”. Even though there are divergences about the legitimacy of this influence, thebook was, in effect, taken as a theoretical motivation for the structuring of scientific language, developed by logical empiricists. This paper will present the theories developed by members of Vienna Circle emphasizing the elements presents in Tractatusthat were taken, largely, as influence (...) over the “criterion of meaning” of a philosophical proposition adopted by logical empiricists in an attempt to set a foundation for knowledge. (shrink)

One of the motivations for the researches leaded by the members of Vienna Circle with regard to the foundations of scientific language is found on Wittgenstein’s “ Tractatus Logico-Philophicus ”. Even though there are divergences about the legitimacy of this influence, thebook was, in effect, taken as a theoretical motivation for the structuring of scientific language, developed by logical empiricists. This paper will present the theories developed by members of Vienna Circle emphasizing the elements presents in Tractatus that were taken, (...) largely, as influence over the “criterion of meaning” of a philosophical proposition adopted by logical empiricists in an attempt to set a foundation for knowledge. (shrink)