The problem of phenomenal unity consists in providing a phenomenological characterization of the difference between phenomenally unified and disunified conscious experiences. Potential solutions to PPU are faced with an important challenge. I show that this challenge can be conceived as a phenomenological dual to what is known as Bradley’s regress. This perspective facilitates progress on PPU by finding duals to possible solutions to Bradley’s regress and makes it intelligible why many characterize phenomenal unity in terms of the existence of a (...) single global conscious state. I call this latter view the “single state conception”. SSC is superficially attractive, because it seems to provide a solution to the phenomenological dual to Bradley’s regress, but should still be rejected, because it does not solve PPU; instead, it creates more problems; these problems can be avoided by alternative conceptions of phenomenal unity. (shrink)

BackgroundAthletes will increase their state anxiety under stress situations, which will lead to the decline of sports performance. The improvement of anxiety by probiotics has been reported, but there is a lack of research in the athlete population. The purpose of the current study is to explore the effectiveness of probiotics in improving athletes’ state anxiety and sports performance under stress situations.MethodsWe conducted this single-arm study in Chongqing Institute of Sports Technology. In the 8-week study, 21 Chongqing (...) young divers were given probiotic Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BB-12 daily. The state anxiety and sports performance of athletes were measured before, during, and after the intervention, and the gut microbiota of athletes was measured before and after the intervention.ResultsThe intervention results showed that cognitive state anxiety, somatic state anxiety, and anxiety emotion were improved. In terms of gut microbiota, the intervention did not change the gut microbial composition but increased the abundance of Bifidobacteriaceae. At the 8th week, the performance of athletes under stress was significantly improved.LimitationsFirst of all, due to the restriction of the number of subjects in this study, there was no control group. Secondly, although the athletes’ diet was recorded in this study, the influence of this factor on gut microbiota was not eliminated. Finally, the anxiety level of the athletes in this study was obtained through a self-report, lacking physiological data in state anxiety.ConclusionThe results show that probiotics intervention can improve the state anxiety of athletes under stress situation and improve the performance of athletes under stress situation. (shrink)

A popular view has it that the mental representations underlying human pretense are not beliefs, but are “belief-like” in important ways. This view typically posits a distinctive cognitive attitude (a “DCA”) called “imagination” that is taken toward the propositions entertained during pretense, along with correspondingly distinct elements of cognitive architecture. This paper argues that the characteristics of pretense motivating such views of imagination can be explained without positing a DCA, or other cognitive architectural features beyond those regulating normal belief and (...) desire. On the present “Single Attitude” account of imagination, propositional imagining just is a form of believing. The Single Attitude account is also distinguished from “metarepresentational” accounts of pretense, which hold that both pretending and recognizing pretense in others require one to have concepts of mental states. It is argued, to the contrary, that pretending and recognizing pretense require neither a DCA nor possession of mental state concepts. (shrink)

The crucial phase of speciation is argued to be the evolution of mating cross-incompatibility (prezygotic incompatibility) between the genotypes distinguishing the prospective species populations. Based on this idea, a single-locus model of speciation is presented, which is shown to be biologically plausible and may help to settle the controversy as to the biological significance of single-locus modes of speciation. The model involves three alleles, two of which characterize in homozygous state the prospective species populations and in heterozygous (...) state their hybrids. The third allele represents a mutant which is equivalent to one of the first two alleles with the exception that it inhibits mating with carriers of the third allele. This third allele is fixed in one population and immigrates into a second population which contains the mutant inhibiting matings with members of the former population. Migration in the reverse direction does not occur. Proceeding from a widely applicable concept of fitness and mating preference it is shown that postzygotic incompatibility (hybrid or heterozygote disadvantage) alone suffices to trigger evolutionary replacement of the extant mating relations in the population receiving immigrants by any arbitrary degree of prezygotic incompatibility. This corroborates Wallace's hypothesis and emphasizes the potential biological relevance of speciation by reinforcement (parapatric speciation) at single gene loci. (shrink)

Concept empiricists are committed to the claim that the vehicles of thought are re-activated perceptual representations. Evidence for empiricism comes from a range of neuroscientific studies showing that perceptual regions of the brain are employed during cognitive tasks such as categorization and inference. I examine the extant neuroscientific evidence and argue that it falls short of establishing this core empiricist claim. During conceptual tasks, the causal structure of the brain produces widespread activity in both perceptual and non-perceptual systems. I lay (...) out several conditions on what is required for a neural state to be a realizer of the functional role played by concepts, and argue that no subset of this activity can be singled out as the unique neural vehicle of conceptual thought. Finally, I suggest that, while the strongest form of empiricism is probably false, the evidence is consistent with several weaker forms of empiricism. (shrink)

In this paper, we investigate the use of event models for automated planning. Event models are the action defining structures used to define a semantics for dynamic epistemic logic. Using event models, two issues in planning can be addressed: Partial observability of the environment and knowledge. In planning, partial observability gives rise to an uncertainty about the world. For single-agent domains, this uncertainty can come from incomplete knowledge of the starting situation and from the nondeterminism of actions. In multi-agent (...) domains, an additional uncertainty arises from the fact that other agents can act in the world, causing changes that are not instigated by the agent itself. For an agent to successfully construct and execute plans in an uncertain environment, the most widely used formalism in the literature on automated planning is “belief states”: sets of different alternatives for the current state of the world. Epistemic logic is a significantly more expressive and theoretically better founded method for representing knowledge and ignorance about the world. Further, epistemic logic allows for planning according to the knowledge (and iterated knowledge) of other agents, allowing the specification of a more complex class of planning domains, than those simply concerned with simple facts about the world. We show how to model multi-agent planning problems using Kripke-models for representing world states, and event models for representing actions. Our mechanism makes use of slight modifications to these concepts, in order to model the internal view of agents, rather than that of an external observer. We define a type of planning domain called epistemic planning domains, a generalisation of classical planning domains, and show how epistemic planning can successfully deal with partial observability, nondeterminism, knowledge and multiple agents. Finally, we show epistemic planning to be decidable in the single-agent case, but only semi-decidable in the multi-agent case. (shrink)

Recent literature on intrinsic value contains a number of disputes about the nature of the concept. On the one hand, there are those who think states of affairs, such as states of pleasure or desire satisfaction, are the bearers of intrinsic value (“Mooreans”); on the other hand, there are those who think concrete objects, like people, are intrinsically valuable (“Kantians”). The contention of this paper is that there is not a single concept of intrinsic value about which Mooreans and (...) Kantians have disagreed, but rather two distinct concepts. I state a number of principles about intrinsic value that have typically (though not universally) been held by Mooreans, all of which are typically denied by Kantians. I show that there are distinct theoretical roles for a concept of intrinsic value to play in a moral framework. When we notice these distinct theoretical roles, we should realize that there is room for two distinct concepts of intrinsic value within a single moral framework: one that accords with some or all of the Moorean principles, and one that does not. (shrink)

The concept of an isolated system, and Frauchiger and Renner’s extended ‘Wigner’s friend’ scenario are discussed. It is argued that: (i) it is questionable whether the approximation of the isolated system is valid when measurement-like processes are involved; (ii) one may infer, from Frauchiger and Renner’s thought-experiment, and similar thought-experiments, that any interpretation of quantum theory involving subjective collapse fails; (iii) this does not distinguish single-world from many-world (relative-state) interpretations of quantum theory; (iv) reasoning from observations has to (...) take into account the possible quantum-erasure of those observations if it is to be valid reasoning; (v) a single-world interpretation is valid if certain kinds of outcome are not quantum-erased in the future. (shrink)

Today, Louis Althusser’s work knows a singular destiny. Relatively unknown until the 1992 publication of his autobiography, The Future Lasts Forever, his work has since been enriched by several volumes of previously unpublished texts, and the re-edition of works that have long been unavailable. All the conditions therefore, as suggested by the numerous works, articles and conferences dedicated to Althusser, seem to be in place for a critical reexamination of his thought. For many reasons, however, this has not been the (...) result at all. Beyond the slightly sterile polemics concerning the respective status of the “legitimate work” and the posthumous work, beyond the particularly sensitive question of the relation between biography and theory, beyond the quarrels of inheritance and the resentment towards both the man and the master, beyond the detours of a psychiatric commentary as little indifferent to the reality of the texts as of the “case,” we must admit a well-established fact: today, the field of Althusserian studies has not yet been constituted. Within the field of French philosophy, one cannot find a single profound study on the place of Althusser in the history of Marxism, the history of philosophy or epistemology. This is because this type of study more or less implicitly supposes a certain global evaluation of the kind that the work of Althusser seems particularly designed to discourage. How do we evaluate works that have not ceased to destroy themselves? How do we evaluate works so heterogeneous, in which flashes of brilliance inhabit the same space as shocking theoretical indignities? How do we bring together texts as stimulating as the celebrated, “Ideology and the Ideological Apparatus of the State,” with the rather unsettling, “On the Reproduction of the Relations of Production,” of which it is in certain details but a fragment? If the form of academic commentary seems impossible from the start, perhaps one can say the same of the project of separating the wheat from the chaff, of distinguishing “what is living and what is dead” in the work of Louis Althusser. Difficult to inscribe within the continuity of history, Althusser’s work is, in fact, irremediably enigmatic. All that passes this way, behind such fiercely proclaimed revelations, has itself formed a profoundly aporetic structure marked by the general uncertainty of any attempt at reading. For Althusser progressively destroys the theories that he could have advanced. Already troubling by itself, this phenomenon hides another even more disturbing one: there is without a doubt not a single Althusserian concept that, in its foundation, is not immediately affected by its opposite. Here we seek to show, through several limited examples, that such is the fundamental gesture of Althusser, and that it is in principle indistinguishable from his grandeur and misery. (shrink)

In the shift from the balance of nature to the flux of nature paradigm, the concept of resilience has gained great traction in ecology. While it has been suggested that the concept of resilience does not imply a genuine departure from the balance of nature paradigm, I shall argue against this stance. To do so, I first show that the balance of nature paradigm and the related conception of a single-state equilibrium relies on what Eliot Sober has (...) named the “Natural State Model (NSM)”, suggesting that the NSM has instead been dismissed in the flux of nature paradigm. I then focus on resilience as the main explanatory concept of the flux paradigm. After distinguishing between two main different understandings of “resilience”, namely engineering resilience and ecological resilience, I argue that the former is close to the concept of balance or stability and still part of the NSM, while the latter is not. Finally, I claim that ecological resilience is inconsistent with the NSM, concluding that this concept–being incompatible with the NSM–is not part of the balance of nature paradigm but rather a genuinely new explanatory tool. (shrink)

This is a survey paper of approaches to the concept of logical implication. Roughly stated the main motivation of these approaches is to provide a necessary and sufficient condition for a set of propositions to logically imply a single proposition. In regard to their affinities these approaches are grouped into two: the transformational conception and the informational conception. Some approaches in each conception are philosophical and some are mathematical in character, their common assumption being that they (...) reflect a previous intuition – in some cases – already at work in classical mathematics. The first part of the paper is devoted to approaches within the transformational conception of logical implication emphasizing the contributions of Bolzano, Russell, Tarski, Quine and current model – theory. The second part of the paper discusses approaches within the informational conception of logical implication. Carnap and Bar Hillel’s extrinsic approach and Corcoran’s intrinsic approach developed in his information-theoretic logic are respectively compared and some of their philosophical underpinnings are brought to light. The paper concludes with some final remarks concerning the ontic question of the nature of logical implication and the epistemic question of the human access to this relation in both conceptions of logical implication. The article also attempts to connect the views of these representative thinkers with the current philosophical debate on the nature of logical consequence and the role of set-theoretic model theory in philosophy of logic. (shrink)

The stated purpose of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is to classify mental disorders. However, no tenable operational definition of mental disorder is offered in the manual. This leaves the possibility open that the behaviors labeled as disordered in the DSM are not members of a valid category. Attempts to define mental illness fall into the category of essentialist or relativist based, respectively, on the acceptance or denial of the existence of a defining biological attribute that all (...) mental disorders possess. However, the disorders in the DSM cannot be accounted for by either of these approaches making it unlikely that they represent a single valid concept. Simultaneous inclusion of brain illnesses and normal behaviors in the DSM are a likely explanation for the disparate nature of DSM disorders. (shrink)

Initially Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen (EPR) and later Bell shed light on the non-local properties exhibited by subsystems in quantum mechanics. Separately, Kochen and Specker analyzed sets of measurements of compatible observables and found that a consistent coexistence of these results is impossible, i.e., quantum indefiniteness of measurement results. As a consequence, quantum contextuality, a more general concept compared to non-locality, leads to striking phenomena predicted by quantum theory. Here, we report neutron interferometric experiments which investigate entangled states in a (...) single-particle system: entanglement is, in this case, achieved not between particles, but between degrees of freedom i.e., between spin, path, and energy degrees of freedom. Appropriate combinations of the spin analysis and the position of the phase shifter in the interferometer allow an experimental verification of the violation of a Bell-like inequality. In addition, state tomography, tomographic analysis of the density matrix of a quantum system, and Kochen-Specker-like phenomena are presented to characterize neutrons’ entangled states and their peculiarity. Furthermore, a coherent energy manipulation scheme is accomplished with a radio-frequency (RF) spin-flipper. This scheme allows the (total) energy degree of freedom to be entangled: the remarkable behavior of a triply entangled GHZ-like state is demonstrated. (shrink)

We propose a theory for modeling concepts that uses the state-context-property theory (SCOP), a generalization of the quantum formalism, whose basic notions are states, contexts and properties. This theory enables us to incorporate context into the mathematical structure used to describe a concept, and thereby model how context influences the typicality of a single exemplar and the applicability of a single property of a concept. We introduce the notion `state of a concept' to account for this (...) contextual influence, and show that the structure of the set of contexts and of the set of properties of a concept is a complete orthocomplemented lattice. The structural study in this article is a preparation for a numerical mathematical theory of concepts in the Hilbert space of quantum mechanics that allows the description of the combination of concepts. (shrink)

Adam Smith’s account of sympathy or ‘fellow feeling’ has recently become exceedingly popular. It has been used as an antecedent of the concept of simulation: understanding, or attributing mental states to, other people by means of simulating them. It has also been singled out as the first correct account of empathy. Finally, to make things even more complicated, some of Smith’s examples for sympathy or ‘fellow feeling’ have been used as the earliest expression of emotional contagion. The aim of the (...) paper is to suggest a new interpretation of Smith’s concept of sympathy and point out that on this interpretation some of the contemporary uses of this concept, as a precursor of simulation and empathy, are misleading. My main claim is that Smith's concept of sympathy, unlike simulation and empathy, does not imply any correspondence between the mental states of the sympathizer and of the person she is sympathizing with. (shrink)

The article describes two approaches to modeling the concept system of science – the thematic and paradigm ones. The re­search represents a case study of the two corpuses of abstracts: abstracts of projects supported by the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Russian Federal Property Fund in lin­guistics, as well abstracts of articles by authors (and their co-au­thors) who have received multiple support from this foundation. Thematic modeling was carried out within the frameworks of two approaches: сcorpus based (...) approach (modeling the system of concepts as a holistic entity of term fields network), and single text approach (singling out compositions of term fields steadily present in the texts of projects which can be treated as separate branches of linguistics). The method of semantic graph modeling realized in the “Semograph” Information system (corpus based approach) and the K-means clustering method (single text based approach) were applied. Arrays of keywords (those that occurred in the abstracts of projects supported by the Foundation) grouped into term fields served as operational units. Paradigmatic model­ing was based on the analysis of network interaction of research­ers (created on the basis of the information on joint publications). After the hypergraph of researchers (2,108 state points) had been created, it was divided into subgraphs (network communities) by means of the modularity method (analogue of cluster analysis). Each cluster can be considered as a model of a scientific commu­nity that actualize a certain scientific paradigm; a set of clusters represents a model of the concept system of a certain subject domain from the point of view of representation and interrela­tion of several paradigms. The synthesis of thematic and paradig­matic models appears to be the direction for future research that involves modeling the concept system of science. The considered models can be applied as an effective means of monitoring, fore­casting and managing scientific research, i.e. as an instrument of state and/or department policy. (shrink)

It is suggested that if Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is to fulfil its potential as an approach to cultural and historical science in general, then an interdisciplinary concept of activity is needed. Such a concept of activity would provide a common foundation for all the human sciences, underpinning concepts of, for example, state and social movement equally as, for example, learning and personality. For this is needed a clear conception of the ‘unit of analysis’ of activity, i.e., of (...) what constitutes ‘ an activity’, and a clear distinction between the unit of analysis and the substance , i.e., ultimate reality underlying all the human sciences: artifact-mediated joint activity. It is claimed that the concept of ‘project collaboration’ – the interaction between two or more persons in pursuit of a common objective – forms such a unit of activity, the single ‘molecule’ in terms of which both sociological and psychological phenomena can be theorised. It is suggested that such a clarification of the notion of activity allows us to see how individual actions and societal activities mutually constitute one another and are each construed in the light of the other. (shrink)

This book brings together contributors from the different member states of the European Union in order to understand the different degrees of subscription to the concept of Europe and the role education plays in such a process. This second edition includes the new countries which have become part of the union and also considers recent developments in policy and practice. Countries covered are: Austria; Belgium; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Ireland; Italy; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Portugal; Spain; Sweden and the UK. All (...) sectors of education are dealt with in each case and the central theme of the European dimension is examined throughout. (shrink)

§1 The Disjunctive Conception of Experience Descartes was surely right that while normal waking experience, dreams and hallucinations are characteristically distinguished at a purely phenomenological level, — by contrasts of spatial perspective, coherence, clarity of image, etc., — it is not essential that they be so.1 What is it like for someone who dreams that he is sitting, clothed in his dressing gown, in front of his fire can in principle be subjectively indistinguishable from what it is like to (...) perceive that one is doing so, fully conscious and awake. The same holds for multi-sense hallucination and, it is assumed, would hold of the experience of an envatted brain in the usual postulated scenario. This thought — that normal perceptual experience allows in principle of perfect phenomenological counterfeit — is, to the best of my knowledge, nowhere seriously challenged in John McDowell's writings.2 What he rejects is an idea that builds upon and would be potentially explanatory of it: the Lockean idea that, as far as the states enjoyed by the experiencing subject are concerned, there is actually no generic distinction between dream, hallucination, and wakeful perception: — that one and the same type of state of consciousness is involved in all three cases, and that which (if any) of the three a particular occurrence of the type falls under is a matter of how it is caused. On this model, the distinction between Descartes' notional fully lucid dream and the corresponding raft of perceptions of his dressing-gowned, sedentary state is like that between a certain kind of sunburn and nettle rash. For Disjunctivism, however, the Lockean — as McDowell likes to say, “Highest Common Factor” — conception of perceptual experience and its potential counterfeits is a conceptual error. There is no single type of state of consciousness present in each of dreaming, perceiving and hallucinating, whose instances fall under one or other of those characterisations purely by virtue of their aetiology.. (shrink)

What clearly emerges from Hegel's writings is that "Geist" refers to some sort of general consciousness, a single "mind" common to all men. The entire sweep of the Phenomenology of Spirit is away from the "disharmonious" conceptions of men as individuals to the "absolute" conception of all men as one. In the Phenomenology, we are first concerned with the inadequacy of conceptions of oneself as an individual in opposition to others and in opposition to God. This opposition is (...) first resolved in ethics, in the conception of oneself as a member of a family, of a community, of Kant's "Kingdom of Ends," as a citizen of the state, and then in religion, in which one conceives of oneself as "part" of God and a religious community. Absolute consciousness is the explicit recognition of one's identity as universal Spirit. The concept of "Geist" is the hallmark of a theory of self identity--a theory in which I am something other than a person. (shrink)

Infertile couples have come to take assisted reproductive technologies (ART) for granted. An increasing number of single women and lesbian couples also desire to have children and turn to ART, especially donor insemination, to fulfill this desire. While most married couples find that access to ART is limited primarily by the ability to pay, for single women and lesbian couples, the story may be much different. In the United States, they may find that doctors and infertility clinics view (...) their desires as immoral and refuse to accept them as patients, although other doctors and clinics readily accept them. In most other countries, however, it is against the law for single women and lesbian couples to make use of ART, including donor insemination. In this paper I will argue that marital status and sexual orientation should not serve as a barrier to accessing the world of reproductive medicine. I will base this conclusion on two arguments. First, that justice requires that we treat like cases alike. Just as we would not accept or reject patients for cardiac rehabilitation programs based on factors such as a history of poor eating habits, so too we should not look at nonmedical factors such as marital status when deciding whether to treat infertility. For the second justification for the conclusion of equal access to ART, I will examine the concept of the family. I will argue that it is morally acceptable for single women and lesbian couples to have children and to head families. (shrink)

Many scholars of early China agree that the fourth century bce witnessed a surge in intellectual interest in concepts that have been dubbed the self, “subjectivity,” the private realm, and the body. As such a sphere came into greater focus in intellectual circles, so did a new discourse that evaluated what it meant to benefit or deprive the self and its related parts. The famous statement purportedly by Yang Zhu 楊朱 (or Yangzi 楊子) that claims he was not willing to (...) pluck out a single hair in order to benefit the world reminds us of such a discourse.2 Around the same time, there also emerged discussions that polarized various ideas of self and the private sphere (si 私), on the one hand, ver- sus the state and the public sphere (gong 公), on the other, especially in circles that concerned themselves with public policy and statecraft, but also more generally. These discussions formed a forceful counterpoint to the discourses involving human subjectivity and the body. Indeed, their open dislike of the influence of private, individual, and personal realms in politics strongly suggests that the statecraft writers were re- acting to and in dialog with those intellectuals who engaged discussion of subjectivity, the self, and its agencies. (shrink)

Infertile couples have come to take assisted reproductive technologies (ART) for granted. An increasing number of single women and lesbian couples also desire to have children and turn to ART, especially donor insemination, to fulfill this desire. While most married couples find that access to ART is limited primarily by the ability to pay, for single women and lesbian couples, the story may be much different. In the United States, they may find that doctors and infertility clinics view (...) their desires as immoral and refuse to accept them as patients, although other doctors and clinics readily accept them. In most other countries, however, it is against the law for single women and lesbian couples to make use of ART, including donor insemination.In this paper I will argue that marital status and sexual orientation should not serve as a barrier to accessing the world of reproductive medicine. I will base this conclusion on two arguments. First, that justice requires that we treat like cases alike. Just as we would not accept or reject patients for cardiac rehabilitation programs based on factors such as a history of poor eating habits, so too we should not look at nonmedical factors such as marital status when deciding whether to treat infertility. For the second justification for the conclusion of equal access to ART, I will examine the concept of the family. I will argue that it is morally acceptable for single women and lesbian couples to have children and to head families. (shrink)

When Did I Begin? investigates the theoretical, moral, and biological issues surrounding the debate over the beginning of human life. With the continuing controversy over the use of in vitro fertilization techniques and experimentation with human embryos, these issues have been forced into the arena of public debate. Following a detailed analysis of the history of the question, Reverend Ford argues that a human individual could not begin before definitive individuation occurs with the appearance of the primitive streak about two (...) weeks after fertilization. This, he argues, is when it becomes finally known whether one or more human individuals are to form from a single egg. Thus, he questions the idea that the fertilized egg itself could be regarded as the beginning of the development of the human individual. The author also differs sharply, however, from those who would delay the beginning of the human person until the brain is formed, or until birth or the onset of conscious states. (shrink)

Introduction. On the territory of the Chelyabinsk region there are 16 single-industry towns, the labor market and employment of which depend on the socio-economic situation of the single-industry enterprise. This state of matters results in the growth of unemployment, decrease in the level of human capital, the population’s life quality, and the loss of scientific and production potential. According to the authors, developing the theoretical foundations of the labor market and employment digital transformation in a single-industry (...) town will make it possible to find alternative ways of employing the population in order to improve regional policy on the labor and employment market. The purpose of the study is to develop the theoretical foundations of the labor market and employment digital transformation in a monotown. Methods. The authors use the following scientific methods: system analysis, comparison, description, generalization, systematization, formalization, analysis of sources, etc. The scientific novelty of the research consists in defining the concepts «digital transformation of the labor market of a monotown», «digital platform of the labor market»; in determining changes in the elements of a monotown labor market structure in the processes of digital transformation; in determining the subjects, objects of the labor market digital transformation; in developing a comparative characteristic of the traditional labor market and the labor market of Industry 4.0 monocity; in developing recommendations for the digital transformation of the labor market of a monotown in order to improve the regional employment policy. Results and conclusions. As a result of analyzing the structure of the population’s employment in single-industry towns of the Chelyabinsk region, the authors determine quantitative transformations in the number of the residing population, the average number of employees towards its reduction; the authors characterize the average monthly salary of workers in organizations of single-industry towns as unstable. The analysis of unemployment shows that there is a tendency for the number of youth among the unemployed to grow, at the same time, hidden unemployment is decreasing; in general, the unemployment rate in single-industry towns is higher than in the Chelyabinsk region for the entire study period. The analysis shows that it is necessary to search for alternative ways of employing the population, of decreasing the unemployment rate, which made it possible to develop theoretical foundations for transforming the labor market and employment of a single-industry town. (shrink)

Michel Janssen and Harvey Brown have driven a prominent recent debate concerning the direction of an alleged arrow of explanation between Minkowski spacetime and Lorentz invariance of dynamical laws in special relativity. In this article, I critically assess this controversy with the aim of clarifying the explanatory foundations of the theory. First, I show that two assumptions shared by the parties—that the dispute is independent of issues concerning spacetime ontology, and that there is an urgent need for a constructive interpretation (...) of special relativity—are problematic and negatively affect the debate. Second, I argue that the whole discussion relies on a misleading conception of the link between Minkowski spacetime structure and Lorentz invari-ance, a misconception that in turn sheds more shadows than light on our understand-ing of the explanatory nature and power of Einstein’s theory. I state that the arrow connecting Lorentz invariance and Minkowski spacetime is not explanatory and uni-directional, but analytic and bidirectional, and that this analytic arrow grounds the chronogeometric explanations of physical phenomena that special relativity offers. (shrink)

The concept of a “chemical speciation”, as defined by in the year 2000, is grounded in an empiricist semantics. It is a static concept, as it is associated with the ontological category of the chemical state of the distribution of chemical species in a system and is further restricted to chemical species of a single element as it excludes chemical species with more complex chemical systemic subunits, such as molecular species, crystals, or nanoparticles. In this work, we propose (...) a new definition of “chemical speciation” based on a semantics of meaning, applying Mario Bunge’s philosophical system. Chemical speciation is the distribution of chemical systemic subunits amongst defined chemical species in a system. Additionally, we propose two dynamic concepts associated with chemical speciation: chemical species transformation and chemical species evolution. These concepts aim to account for the chemical changes that explain both the diversity of chemical species sharing common systemic subunits and the historical emergence of new modes of chemical speciation. These modes, in turn, explain the appearance of new systemic chemical subunits and novel substantial properties. Our definitions have the advantage of being consistent with general theories of the evolution of matter, such Assembly Theory. Additionally, at the chemical level, this approach encompasses broader systemic chemical subunits beyond elemental particles, allowing for the chemical speciation of families of molecules, crystals, nanoparticles, etc. Finally, our proposal offers the advantage of overcoming the issue of arbitrariness in choosing the reference systemic chemical subunit by linking this choice to the concepts of substantial property, and function. (shrink)

The study examines a problematic hypothesis of possible approaches to identifying the quantum physical foundations of the functioning of consciousness. The authors proceed from the fact that in modern conditions, not a single science, nor all sciences taken together, gives a final answer to the question of the “mechanism” of the origin of thought. However, this does not mean at all that research in this direction needs to be stopped. The authors express confidence that modern and subsequent research into (...) the “quantum concept of consciousness” will lead to the identification of previously unknown patterns, opening the way to the formation of new principles and approaches. As an example, the corresponding Penrose - Hameroff concept is considered. Quantum mechanics complements the tools of neurobiology and other branches of neuroscience, which together form an interdisciplinary field of knowledge that is dynamically growing and developing. The authors are not apologists for the omnipotence of quantum physics. Quantum correlates of consciousness actually mean that it is not today’s quantum mechanics itself that explains the emergence of mental states, but the fact that in the birth of these states it is essential that in the very process of the formation of neurodynamic impulses in the neurons of the cerebral cortex that generate mental states, there are processes of quantum nature. It should also be recognized that the quantum-molecular level (nanolevel) of processes in the neurons of the brain really exists and it is this that is the source of proto-consciousness. Science strives to move forward, new research programs are emerging within the framework of quantum biology, quantum psychology, quantum information science, which in turn can shed light on the hypothesis of the “quantum concept of consciousness.”. (shrink)

For decades, physicians, philosophers, theologians, lawyers, and the public considered brain death a settled issue. However, a series of recent cases in which individuals were declared brain dead yet physiologically maintained for prolonged periods of time has challenged the status quo. This signals a need for deeper reflection and reexamination of the underlying philosophical, scientific, and clinical issues at stake in defining death. In this paper, I consider four levels of philosophical inquiry regarding death: the ontological basis, actual states of (...) affairs, epistemological standards, and clinical criteria for brain death. I outline several candidates for the states of affairs that may constitute death, arguing that we should strive for a single, unified ontological definition of death as a loss of integrated functioning as a unified organism, while acknowledging that two states of affairs may satisfy this concept. I argue that the clinical criteria for determining whole-brain death should be bolstered to meet the epistemic demand of sufficient certainty in defining death by adding indicators of cerebro-somatic dis-integration to the traditional triad of loss of consciousness, loss of brainstem function, and absence of confounding explanations. (shrink)

Imagine advanced computers that could, by virtue merely of being programmed in the right ways, act, react, communicate, and otherwise behave like humans. Might such computers be capable of understanding, thinking, believing, and the like? The framework developed in this paper for tackling challenging questions of concept application (in any realm of discourse) answers in the affirmative, contrary to Searle’s famous ‘Chinese Room’ thought experiment, which purports to prove that ascribing such mental processes to computers like these would be necessarily (...) incorrect. The paper begins by arguing that the core issue concerns language, specifically the discourse-community-guided mapping of phenomena onto linguistic categories. It then offers a model of how people adapt language to deal with novel states of affairs and thereby lend generality to their words, employing processes of assimilation, lexemic creation, and accommodation (in intersense and intrasense varieties). Attributions of understanding to some computers lie in the middle range on a spectrum of acceptability and are thus reasonable. Possible objections deriving from Searle’s writings require supplementing the model with distinctions between present and future acceptability, and between contemplated and uncontemplated word uses, as well as a literal-figurative distinction that is more sensitive than Searle’s to actual linguistic practice and the multiplicity of subsenses possible within a single literal sense. The paper then critiques two misleading rhetorical features of Searle’s Chinese Room presentation, and addresses a contemporary defense of Searle that seems to confront the sociolinguistic issue, but fails to allow for intrasense accommodation. It concludes with a brief consideration of the proper course for productive future discussion. (shrink)

What chemists take as molecular structure is a theoretical construct based on the concepts of chemical bond, atoms in molecules, etc. and hence it should be distinguished from tangible structures around us. The practical adequacy of it has been demonstrated by the established method of retro-synthetic analysis, for instance. But it is not derived a priori from quantum mechanical treatments of the molecule and criticized for being irrelevant to the reality of the molecule. There is persistent skepticism about it. The (...) present study aims to overcome this skepticism by having recourse to the concepts of affordance and phenomenal field. The basic idea of our approach is suggested by the following statement of Niels Bohr: ‘evidence obtained under different experimental conditions cannot be comprehended within a single picture but must be regarded as complementary in the sense that only the totality of the phenomena exhausts the possible information about the objects’. This implies that we should take account of a context in which the cognition of a fact arises when we think about human activities including science. This can be realized by invoking affordances of a complex such as {agent, devices, methods, substances, surroundings}. That is to say, affordances are context-relative dispositional attributes of {agent-material world} complexes as is asserted by Harré and Llored. The phenomenal field is a conceptual device which schematizes the contextual aspect of affordance and, more importantly, serves as a link between the concept of affordance and Kant’s theory of knowledge, by which alone affordances are realized as the dispositional properties of {agent-material world} complexes. Because affordances become actualized in various phenomenal fields, affordances of one and the same object may well be distinct from one another. In conclusion we can take that molecular structure is the affordance of a complex that includes a chemist who is engaged in organic synthesis, whereas a quantum mechanical picture of the molecule may be one of the possible affordances of a complex that includes a quantum chemist who cares about electronic states of the molecule. (shrink)

B a c k g r o u n d. In the history of early American philosophy, the movement of American transcendentalism occupies a special place. Its peculiarity was that it combined great literature, idealistic philosophy and an irrational worldview. Exploring the phenomenon of nature in their philosophical reflections, American transcendentalists turn to the cosmic levels, endowing the universe with mind and soul. M e t h o d s. The article uses the method of historical-philosophical reconstruction to reproduce the (...) context of the emergence of American transcendentalism, the hermeneutic method for the interpretation of philosophical texts, with the aim of revealing the ideas of the universe, micro- and macrocosm, as well as consciousness, which are conveyed through symbols and metaphors. For a comprehensive consideration of various aspects of the philosophy of American Transcendentalism as a whole system, a comparative method and a systemic analysis integrating ideas about the cosmos, consciousness and metaphysical principles were involved. R e s u l t s. The image of the "transparent eye-ball" of R. W. Emerson, described in the essay Nature (1836), symbolizes the state of complete fusion of man with nature, when the personal "I" disappears, giving way to the perception of the universe. The eye of the American transcendentalist is directed towards the cosmos, it passes through all reality, emphasizing the deep connection between man and the cosmos. On the other hand, the unity with nature is thoroughly researched and tested in the solitude experiment of H. D. Thoreau. In his work Walden (1854), H. D. Thoreau describes the desire for unity with nature, separating himself from society and immersing himself in life alone with nature. His experiment demonstrates how a simple, contemplative life can lead to a deeper understanding of oneself and the Universe. In addition, the space poetry of W. Whitman, especially the collection Leaves of Grass (1855), is full of tropes of the cosmos, where space and time are perceived as a single whole, and the images of the Earth and heavenly bodies are interconnected with the human soul, creating a symbolic picture of the unity of humanity with the boundless universe. C o n c l u s i o n s. American transcendentalism was not only a literary movement, but also a powerful philosophical trend that contributed to a deeper understanding of the relationship between man and nature in particular, and the cosmos and spiritual forces in general. Transcendentalist philosophers, such as R. W. Emerson, H. D. Thoreau, and W. Whitman, interpreted the cosmos not only as a physical space, but also as a symbol of a higher truth that man can approach through the harmony of consciousness with nature. American Transcendentalists emphasized inner knowledge, intuition, and spirituality, which remain relevant today, as do calls for living in harmony with majestic nature. (shrink)

Using the example of air pollution, I criticize a restricted utilitarian view of environmental risks. It is likely that damage to health due to environmental pollution in Western countries is relatively modest in quantitative terms (especially when considering cancer and comparing such damage to the effects of some life-style exposures). However, a strictly quantitative approach, which ranks priorities according to the burden of disease attributable to single causes, is questionable because it does not consider such aspects as inequalities in (...) the distribution of risks. Secondly, the ability of epidemiological research to identify some health effects is limited. Third, the environment has symbolic and aesthetic components that overcome a strict evaluation of damage based on the impairment of human health. It is not acceptable that priorities be set just balancing the burden of disease caused by pollution in the environment against economic constraints. As an example of a computation that inherently includes economic analysis, I refer to the proposal of an estimator of mortality in coal mining, i.e., a rate which puts deaths in the numerator and tons of coal extracted in the denominator. According to this estimator, mortality due to accidents decreased from 1.15 to 0.42 in the period 1950–1970 in the United States, for each million tons of coal extracted. However, considering the steep decline in the workforce in the same period, the traditional mortality rate (deaths over persons-time) actually increased. The proposal of a measure of mortality based on the amount of coal extracted is just one example of the attempts to influence decisions by including an economic element (productivity) in risk assessment. This paper has three purposes: One, to describe empirical research concerning the health effects of environmental pollutants; two, to discuss the scientific principles and methods used in the identification of environmental hazards; and three, to critically discuss some of the ethical principles which are applied in medicine and in the assessment and management of risk. (shrink)

Beyond Rawls engages one of the most provocative and influential developments in contemporary political philosophy. Focusing on the idea- as opposed to a single conception- of purely 'political' liberalism, Shaun Young examines the work of a number of prominent political liberals, and concludes that as it presently manifests itself, the concept of political liberalism cannot achieve its stated goals.

This book is the sixth volume in the series of Collected Papers on Advancing Uncertain Combinatorics through Graphization, Hyperization, and Uncertainization: Fuzzy, Neutrosophic, Soft, Rough, and Beyond. Building upon the foundational contributions of previous volumes, this edition focuses on the exploration and development of Various New Uncertain Concepts, further enriching the study of uncertainty and complexity through innovative theoretical advancements and practical applications. The volume is meticulously organized into 15 chapters, each presenting unique perspectives and contributions to the field. From (...) theoretical explorations to real-world applications, these chapters provide a cohesive and comprehensive overview of the state of the art in uncertain combinatorics, emphasizing the versatility and power of the newly introduced concepts and methodologies. The first chapter (SuperHypertree-depth – Structural Analysis in SuperHyperGraphs) explores the concept of SuperHypertree-depth, an extension of the classical graph parameter Tree-depth and its hypergraph counterpart Hypertree-depth. By introducing hierarchical nesting within SuperHyperGraphs, where both vertices and edges can represent recursive subsets, this study investigates the mathematical properties and structural implications of these extended parameters. The findings highlight the relationships between SuperHypertree-depth and its traditional graph-theoretic equivalents, providing a deeper understanding of their applicability to hierarchical and complex systems. The second chapter (Obstructions for Hypertree-width and SuperHypertree-width) examines the role of ultrafilters as obstructions in determining Hypertree-width and extends the concept to SuperHypertree-width. Building on hypergraph theory, which abstracts traditional graph frameworks into more complex domains, the study investigates how recursive structures within SuperHyperGraphs redefine the computational and structural properties of these parameters. Ultrafilters, with their broad mathematical significance, serve as critical tools for understanding the limitations and potentials of these advanced graph metrics. The third chapter (SuperHypertree-Length and SuperHypertree-Breadth in SuperHyperGraphs) investigates the extension of the graph-theoretic parameters Tree-length and Tree-breadth to the realms of hypergraphs and SuperHyperGraphs. By leveraging the hierarchical nesting of SuperHyperGraphs, the study explores how these parameters adapt to increasingly complex and multi-level structures. Comparative analyses between these extended parameters and their classical counterparts reveal new insights into their relevance and utility in advanced graph and hypergraph theory. Plithogenic Sets, which generalize Fuzzy and Neutrosophic Sets, are extended in the fourth chapter (Extended HyperPlithogenic Sets and Generalized Plithogenic Graphs) to Extended Plithogenic Sets, HyperPlithogenic Sets, and SuperHyperPlithogenic Sets. This study further investigates their application to graph theory through the concepts of Extended Plithogenic Graphs and Generalized Extended Plithogenic Graphs. The chapter provides a concise exploration of these frameworks, offering insights into their potential for addressing uncertainty and complexity in graph structures. Soft Sets provide an effective framework for decision-making by mapping parameters to subsets of a universal set, addressing uncertainty and vagueness. The fifth chapter (Double-Framed Superhypersoft Set and Double-Framed Treesoft Set) introduces the Double-Framed SuperHypersoft Set and the Double-Framed Treesoft Set as extensions of traditional and advanced soft set frameworks, such as Hypersoft and SuperHypersoft Sets. The chapter explores their relationships with existing concepts, offering new tools to handle complex decision-making scenarios with enhanced structural flexibility. The sixth paper (HyperPlithogenic Cubic Set and SuperHyperPlithogenic Cubic Set) introduces the concepts of the HyperPlithogenic Cubic Set and SuperHyperPlithogenic Cubic Set, which extend the Plithogenic Cubic Set by integrating both interval-valued and single-valued fuzzy memberships. These sets leverage multi-attribute aggregation techniques inherent to plithogenic structures, allowing for nuanced representations of uncertainty. Additionally, related constructs such as the HyperPlithogenic Fuzzy Cubic Set, HyperPlithogenic Intuitionistic Fuzzy Cubic Set, and HyperPlithogenic Neutrosophic Cubic Set are explored, further enriching the theoretical and practical applications of this framework. The seventh chapter (L-Neutrosophic Sets and Nonstationary Neutrosophic Sets) extends the foundational concepts of fuzzy sets by integrating Neutrosophic and Plithogenic frameworks. By introducing L-Neutrosophic Sets and Nonstationary Neutrosophic Sets, the study enhances the representation of uncertainty through independent membership components: truth, indeterminacy, and falsity. These advanced constructs also incorporate multi-dimensional and contradictory attributes, providing a robust means of modeling complex decision-making and uncertain data. Plithogenic and Rough Sets, known for generalizing uncertainty modeling and classification, are extended in the eight chapter (Forest HyperPlithogenic and Forest HyperRough Sets) to Forest HyperPlithogenic Sets, Forest SuperHyperPlithogenic Sets, Forest HyperRough Sets, and Forest SuperHyperRough Sets. These frameworks incorporate hierarchical and recursive structures to advance existing set-theoretic paradigms. The chapter explores their applications in multi-level data analysis and uncertainty classification, demonstrating their adaptability to complex systems. Building on Fuzzy, Neutrosophic, and Plithogenic Sets, the tenth chapter (Symbolic HyperPlithogenic Sets) introduces Symbolic HyperPlithogenic Sets and Symbolic n-SuperHyperPlithogenic Sets. These sets incorporate symbolic components and algebraic coefficients, enabling flexible operations within a defined prevalence order. By extending symbolic representation into hyperplithogenic and superhyperplithogenic domains, the chapter opens new pathways for addressing uncertainty and hierarchical complexity in mathematical modeling. Soft Sets, designed to manage uncertainty and imprecision, have evolved through various extensions like Hypersoft Sets and SuperHypersoft Sets. The eleventh chapter (N-SuperHypersoft and Bijective SuperHypersoft Sets) introduces N-SuperHypersoft Sets, N-Treesoft Sets, Bijective SuperHypersoft Sets, and Bijective Treesoft Sets. These new constructs enhance decision-making frameworks by incorporating advanced hierarchical and bijective relationships, building on existing theories and expanding their applications. Plithogenic Sets, known for integrating multi-valued attributes and contradictions, and Rough Sets, which partition data into definable approximations, are combined in the twelfth chapter (Plithogenic Rough Sets) to form Plithogenic Rough Sets. This fusion provides a powerful framework for addressing uncertainty in dynamic and complex decision-making scenarios, offering a novel approach to uncertainty modeling. Expanding on Neutrosophic Sets, which represent truth, indeterminacy, and falsehood, this chapter introduces Plithogenic Duplets and Plithogenic Triplets. These constructs leverage the Plithogenic framework to incorporate attributes, values, and contradiction measures. The thirteenth chapter (Plithogenic Duplets and Triplets) examines their relationships with Neutrosophic Duplets and Triplets, offering new tools for multi-dimensional data representation and decision-making. Building on foundational concepts like Rough Sets and Vague Sets, the fourteenth chapter (SuperRough and SuperVague Sets) introduces SuperRough Sets and SuperVague Sets. These generalized frameworks extend uncertainty modeling by incorporating hierarchical structures. The study also demonstrates that SuperRough Sets can evolve into SuperHyperRough Sets, providing further generalizations for advanced data classification and analysis. The fifteenth chapter (Neutrosophic TreeSoft Expert and ForestSoft Sets) revisits the Neutrosophic TreeSoft Set, which combines the hierarchical structure of TreeSoft Sets with the Neutrosophic framework for uncertainty representation. Additionally, it introduces the Neutrosophic TreeSoft Expert Set, incorporating expert knowledge into the model. The chapter also explores the ForestSoft Set and its extension, the Neutrosophic ForestSoft Set, to provide multi-level, tree-structured approaches for complex data representation and analysis. (shrink)

The non-discrimination principle is one of the essential principles in the area of European public and private law too. The importance of this principle also takes a great place in field of company law, especially in the area of “freedom of establishment of the companies” in the European Single Market. Freedom of establishment of companies is closely related to the general concept of “free movement of people, capital, goods and services,” in ESM. In fact, freedom of establishment is a (...) substantive part of the process of creation the internal market in EU. The freedom of establishment is based on the Treaty of the functioning of EU. According to article 49 from TFEU, restrictions on the freedom of establishment of nationals of a Member State in the territory of another Member State shall be prohibited. This prohibition also applies to restrictions on setting-up of agencies, branches or subsidiaries by nationals of any Member State established in the territory of any Member State. In-depth exploration of this issue is conditioned by the interpretation of the Court of justice of European Union, which embodies the real legal regime of freedom of establishment. Freedom of establishment of companies is closely related to the principles of healthy and fair competition and equal access of the companies too. This article seeks to elaborate fundamental theoretical aspects of this issue, considering certain case - study analyze of CJEU judgements. The main focus is on the non-discrimination principle, legal effects of the CJEU judgments, free market and competitiveness, and finally, determination of the concept of primary and secondary establishment of companies in EU. (shrink)

The conceptual dilemma that species entail has divided, since its formulation, biologists and philosophers in two spheres: those who believe in the existence of a unified category of species and those who defend the unyielding plurality of equally legitimate concepts. The aim of this paper is to comprise the analysis of the problems that revolve around the species category with the only purpose being to determine the existence of only one univocal and unrestricted definition of species. For this reason, the (...) paper will be divided into two sections. The first section will analyse the extent to which essentialism amounts to an antithetical theory to the modern biological theory. In the second section a detailed critique will be carried out on existing attempts to devise a definition of species. Two conclusions can be drawn from the previous statements. First and due to the fall of essentialism, that there is not only one single category of species but an uncompromising plurality of concepts. Secondly and following previous assertion, it can be stated that the most consistent viewpoint in the evolutionary theory is the one in which an ontological pluralism is embraced and, consequently, a taxonomical pluralism. (shrink)

There are two senses of the word “people”, first as an ethnic group and second as the collection of citizens of a state. How do they relate to one another and to the state? I show that in his political philosophy Kant insists that “people” in this second sense is constituted only in terms of being subject to a single state, while in his social philosophy he allows for an ethnic conception of peoples that share (...) a language and culture and have distinct characters. In his philosophy of history he insists that the general historical correspondence between ethnic peoples and states is both natural and positive for development toward peace, both because linguistic and religious differences deter the formation of a single world-encompassing state and because their competition through war eventually leads to perpetual peace. Nevertheless I argue that Kant’s insistence on the a priori basis of right combined with the mature development of state and international institutions give reasons that states should not correspond to ethnic peoples. (shrink)

An algebraic block-diagonalization of the Dirac Hamiltonian in a time-independent external field reveals a charge-index conservation law which forbids the physical phenomena of the Klein paradox type and guarantees a single-particle nature of the Dirac equation in strong external fields. Simultaneously, the method defines simpler quantum-mechanical objects—paulions and antipaulions, whose 2-component wave functions determine the Dirac electron states through exact operator relations. Based on algebraic symmetry, the presented theory leads to a new understanding of the Dirac equation physics, including (...) new insight into the Dirac measurements and a consistent scheme of relativistic quantum mechanics of electron in the paulion representation. Along with analysis of the mathematical anatomy of the Klein paradox falsity, a complete set of paradox-free eigenfunctions for the Klein problem is obtained and investigated via stationary solutions of the Pauli-like equations with respective paulion Hamiltonians. It is shown that the physically correct Dirac states in the Klein zone are characterized by the total particle reflection from the potential step and satisfy the fundamental charge-index conservation law. (shrink)

Kant's brief ‘Postscript of a Friend’ serves as a peculiar coda to his life work. The last of Kant's writing to be published during his lifetime, it is both a friendly endorsement of Christian Gottlieb Mielcke's newly competed Lithuanian–German and German–Lithuanian Dictionary and a plea in Kant's own name for the preservation of minority languages, Lithuanian in particular. This support for minority languages has no visible precedent in his earlier writings, in which national, civic and linguistic identities and associated loyalties (...) tend to overlap. Indeed, Kant's understanding of the commonwealth as nation-state seems predicated on the fact or myth of ethnic and linguistic unity and homogeneity. The same apparent lack of precedent also applies to the Nachschrift's singling out as a people of peculiar civic merit of the Lithuanians, who are not otherwise mentioned in any of Kant's published or unpublished writings. The work thus raises an obvious question: why does Kant devote his last published work to a topic and cause in which he does not seem to have taken much earlier interest? (shrink)

The author offers his own vision of the unification of four fundamental interactions through a philosophical analysis of the categories of time and space. Time and space are coexisting self-sufficient phenomena. Time connects three global spaces (inert, living and intelligent substances) into a single hierarchy of the universe. The unification of space and time took place at the first stage of the modern world structure, during the formation of the first global space-time. The cosmological singularity was determined by two (...) main parameters: substance (state of matter) and the energy embedded in it. The author comes to the conclusion that strong, weak and electromagnetic interactions are forces that determine different spaces (geometric constructions). All geometric constructions of fundamental particles are determined by 3 forces (energies). Gravitational force is time, "time-energy", relative to which and "in which" geometric constructions take place. (shrink)

There is a single unified conception of religious faith in Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and Concluding Unscientific Postscript: existential faith is absolute trust in an eschatological promise, i.e. a miraculous realization of ethical ideals that is beyond all human power to accomplish or even predict. Faith in this sense has the precondition of "infinite resignation," which is a purified state of ethical willing in which the agent accepts her/his own inability to actualize the ethical, outwardly or inwardly. (...) This condition is explored extensively by Climacus in this discussion of "existential pathos," which shows why the resigned agent has to trust in an absolute source of eschatological possibilities to guarantee the ultimate meaningfulness of his/her ethical striving. The distinction between Religiousness A and B, along with different senses of "the absurd" and "the absolute paradox" can all be explained in terms of different kinds of eschatological possibility. /// Segundo o autor do artigo, há uma única concepção do religioso presente nas obras Temor e Tremor e Postscript Conclusivo e Não-Científico de Søren Kierkegaard, concepção essa fundada na ideia de que a fé existencial consiste numa confiança absoluta na promessa escatológica, ou seja, numa realização miraculosa de ideais éticos que estão para além de todo e qualquer poder humano de os realizar ou mesmo sequer de os antecipar. Neste sentido, a fé tem como condição prévia a "resignação infinita", a qual consiste num estado purificado de vontade ética em que o agente aceita a sua própria incapacidade de actualizar o ético, seja isso de forma exterior ou interior. Esta condição é extensivamente explorada por Climacus na sua discussão do "pathos existencial", o qual mostra precisamente por que razão o agente resignado tem que confiar numa fonte absoluta de possibilidades escatológicas em ordem a poder fazer face ao mais radical sem-sentido inerente ao seu processo de actualização do ético. Assim, o artigo pretende mostrar até que ponto a distinção kierkegaardiana entre Religiosidade A e B, bem como os diferentes sentidos do "absurdo" e do "paradoxo absolute" podem ser explicados em termos dos diferentes tipos de possibilidade escatológica que o pensamento pode identificar. (shrink)

For a long time philosophers have struggled to reach a definition of knowledge that is fully satisfactory from an intuitive standard. However, what could be so fuzzy about the concept of knowledge that it makes our intuitions to not obviously support a single analysis? One particular approach from a naturalistic perspective treats this question from the point of view of the psychology of concepts. According to it, this failure is explained by the structure of our folk concept of knowledge, (...) which organizes its constitutive information in a much looser way than we assume when we rely on intuitive knowledge ascriptions. I will adopt the same starting point here, but argue against the proposed answer and defend the view that this difficulty is explained not by something related to the specific structure of our concept of knowledge but, on the contrary, by its lack of structure. I claim that our folk concept of knowledge should be understood as a primitive mental state concept. (shrink)

Moral and legal responsibility is diminished in neuropsychiatric patients who lack the capacity to use reasoning to determine morally appropriate behavior. Patients with behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), however, develop immoral behaviors as a result of their disease despite the ability to explicitly state that their behavior is wrong. In order to determine whether bvFTD patients should be held responsible for their immoral behavior, we begin by discussing the philosophical concepts of free will, determinism, and responsibility. Those who believe in (...) both determinism and free will are called compatibilists. We argue that reason-responsiveness, a specific type of compatibilism, cannot fully determine responsibility in bvFTD patients if reason-responsiveness is considered to be a single, unified concept. Instead, we argue that several different neuropsychological capacities, including many that are impaired in bvFTD patients, contribute to a patient's ability to respond to certain reasons in specific situations. Finally, we propose a new framework for understanding reason-responsiveness, using case examples to illustrate how this model can be used to determine responsibility in neuropsychiatric patients. (shrink)

Many find it plausible that for a given beneficiary, Y, benefactor, R, and action, ϕ, Y’s being grateful to R for ϕ-ing implies Y’s being grateful that R ϕ-ed. According to some philosophers who hold this view, all instances of gratitude to, or “prepositional gratitude,” are also instances of gratitude that, or “propositional gratitude.” These philosophers believe there is a single unified concept of gratitude, a phenomenon that is essentially gratitude that, and whose manifestations sometimes have additional features that (...) make them instances of gratitude to as well. In this article, I show that view to be mistaken. I base my argument on two hypothetical cases, in each of which a beneficiary, Y, is grateful to a benefactor, R, for ϕ-ing, but not grateful that R ϕ-ed. Generalizing from those cases and other cases of gratitude, I argue that prepositional gratitude is the proper response to benevolence-motivated action and propositional gratitude consists in a beneficiary’s judging a state of affairs to be valuable for himself and welcoming that state of affairs. Because not every instance of a benefactor’s acting benevolently toward a beneficiary is something that beneficiary finds valuable for himself and welcomes, it is possible to be grateful to a benefactor for ϕ-ing but not grateful that she ϕ-ed. Prepositional gratitude and propositional gratitude can each occur without the other and are thus two distinct phenomena. I conclude by explaining the importance of accurately understanding the relationship between prepositional gratitude and propositional gratitude. (shrink)

Cosmopolitanism is widely understood as justified by or an expression of a particular normative moral or political theory, but this paper argues for a new conception of cosmopolitanism that sees it simply as a personal perspective or stance toward other cultures and people. Cosmopolitan guests are committed to ethical pluralism and so they deny that there is any single, universal conception of the good, but they are also motivated by the prospect of learning new, inspiring, and ultimately (...) satisfying ideas about what it is to be a human being that they might adopt or perhaps come to advocate. In these respects, cosmopolitan guests are like people who dedicate themselves to developing the attitudes, skills, and tastes needed to become oenophiles, gourmands, or lovers or music or fine art. In such cases too, there is no grand, overarching normative moral or political theory justifying their pursuits; they are motivated and become committed to such a life by being inspired, uplifted, and satisfied by the lives such endeavors offer for consideration. Committed cosmopolitan guests advocate for the adoption of their chosen ideal in the institutions and societies in which they live but, given their commitment to ethical pluralism, they are not in favor of the state mandating any particular form or style of life. -/- . (shrink)

Why has the Islamic economy, as a model of socioeconomic development, gained traction as a viable option? The existing literature suggests that the Islamic economy has been popularized by a combination of factors, including anticolonial movements, a global renewal of religiosity, and the activities of new social strata who merge piety with capitalist orientations. These approaches, however, tend to homogenize social actors, subsuming them under the overarching label of Islamism. In contrast, this article employs the lens of “intra-hegemonic struggles” to (...) identify three competing orientations of Islamism and their manifestation in the economy. Drawing on eighteen months of fieldwork in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, it argues that this contestation motivates diverse segments of the society to create and engage in the Islamic economy, rather than any single state-driven or identity-based movement. The article synthesizes three otherwise isolated bodies of work: the political sociology of articulation, new theories of Islamism, and the concept of imaginaries from economic sociology. (shrink)

In the article, the author analyzes the views of the leading ideologues of the concept of pan-Slavism in the Russian Empire, who, according to Ivan Mirchuk, had a decisive influence on the formation of the modern ideological mythologeme of the hegemony of the Russian state on a planetary scale and contributed to the deepening of ideological differences between Western and Eastern civilizations. Using the example of the arguments of representatives of the Slavophile stream of Russian Pan-Slavism regarding its messianic (...) role in the history of the Slavic peoples, the researcher proves the absurdity of the very idea of the superiority of one nation over another. At the same time, intelligence focuses the reader’s attention on those dangerous tendencies of the spread of this theory, which in the future may lead to global world conflicts with catastrophic consequences.Following the further development of the ideology of pan-Slavism during the second half of the 20th century, the researcher reveals the process of transformation of Moscow messianism into the leading role of the now Soviet (Soviet) people in world history, which received its theoretical embodiment in the concept of pan-Sovietism. It was she who contributed to the final consolidation of the lawless position of the Slavic peoples within the framework of a single state entity on the territory of Eastern Europe, and the emergence of a new socio-cultural generation with an ideologically shaped rejection of values contrary to communist ideals and a negative attitude towards the entire surrounding world.The research methodology is based on the philosophical-anthropological and psychological analysis of the key ideas of the concept of pan-Slavism and pan-Sovietism in the historical-philosophical studies of I. Mirchuk. In particular, we used formal-logical, critical and hermeneutic methods of research to reveal the process of transformation of the pan-Slavism mythology in modern Russia and its influence on the socio-political life of other Slavic peoples. Among the general scientific methods, the methods of deduction and comparison came in handy, which helped to analyze the views of individual representatives of various pan-Slavic currents on the problem of uniting the Slavic peoples into a single ethnic substratum in different historical time periods. And the principles of objectivity and systematicity helped us dispel the myth of Russian messianism among other Slavic peoples.Conclusion. Thus, the main mythologeme of the ideology of Pan-Slavism in the studies of the Slavic scholar I. Mirchuk was reduced to the messianic role of Russia and its people, as the leader among the entire Slavic world, in relation to all other, primarily European nations. Neglecting the historical and spiritual contribution to the development of the world culture of other nations and peoples, the Moscow Empire to this day continues to call itself the only center of true Christian traditions, which strives to lead the planet to a better future. Declaring itself the successor of the Roman Empire as the “Third Rome”, Muscovy, and later the Soviet Union, completely usurped the right of other Slavic peoples of the continent to independently choose their own path of state formation and social development.The transformational processes experienced by pan-Slavism at the beginning of the 20th century brought only the change of the name of the ideology to pan-Sovietism, fully preserving the essence of the imperial unity principle in all spheres of social and political life of the communist era. According to the leading communist ideologues, all the best that the world had could be found only in the Soviet Union, or rather in its capital. Other Slavic peoples got the desired equality only in the negative attitude of the center towards any manifestations of their own spiritual identity and economic initiatives, which were instantly punished by brutal repression and physical destruction under the slogans of finding non-existent enemies of the people and invented counter-revolutionary activities. The theoretically attractive idea of the special purpose of the Slavic peoples in the international arena has in practice turned into an imperial totalitarian dictatorship of one country, which wanted only one thing – world domination. (shrink)

This essay combines information on the recent ISUD Sixth World Congress Humanity at the Turning Point: Rethinking Nature, Culture, and Freedom and some reflections inspired by presentations and discussions at the congress. It is focused on the presentation of one of the keynote speakers, Karl-Otto Apel, entitled “Discourse Ethics, Democracy, and International Law: Toward a Globalization of Practical Reason”. Apel argued that the transcendental-pragmatic foundation of morality serves as the ultimate basis for the universal conception of law, e.g., of (...) human rights. It establishes the transcendental basis of the idea of democracy, and at the same time establishes a regulative principle for a possible critique of the democratic states. Apel discussed the question of a political order of law able to represent the idea of human rights. In his approach to it, he referred to Kant’s idea of “a federation of free states” (as opposite to a “world state”) in the solution of the problem of a cosmopolitan system He noticed the tension between two orientations of international law: one towards “human rights” and hence a cosmopolitan law of single citizens and the other towards the sovereignty of single states. He asserted that the universal conception of law cannot be reduced to the legislative autonomy of any state. Consequently, the universal conception of human rights cannot be adequately realized either by particular democratic states or by a world state as a despotic superpower. Apel concluded that an adequate institution for the current debate regarding the issues of global peace and security can only be a federation of nations like the UN, the meta-institution of global discourse and the political representation of international law. At the heart of the essay is Kant’s cosmopolitan ideal and its relevance for today’s discussions about peace and security. Attention is paid to the attempts to rethink Kant by Karl-Otto Apel, Jürgen Habermas, Jaques Derrida, Martha Nussbaum, and David Held, among others. Some of the authors indicate the tension between the sovereignty ofstates and the universality of human rights. Other authors criticize cosmopolitanism as overly unifying in contrast to the socio-cultural diversity of societies. The essay draws a contrast between two tendencies concerning international relations. One is the current neoconservative course toward American domination throughout the world. An alternative to this is the philosophers’ call for “the cosmopolitan model of democracy” and strengthening the network of transnational grass-roots movements and international institutions, including the UN. (shrink)