In his recent book, Killing in War, Jeff McMahan sets out a number of conditions for a person to be liable to attack, provided the attack is used to avert an objectively unjust threat: (1) The threat, if realized, will wrongfully harm another; (2) the person is responsible for creating the threat; (3) killing the person is necessary to avert the threat, and (4) killing the person is a proportionate response to the threat. The present article focuses on McMahan's second (...) condition, which links liability with responsibility. McMahan's use of the responsibility criterion, the article contends, is too restrictive as an account of liability in general and an account of liability to be killed in particular. In order to defend this claim, the article disambiguates the concept of liability and explores its role in the philosophical analysis of the permission to cause harm to others. (shrink)

Experimental research in moral psychology can be used to generate debunking arguments in ethics. Specifically, research can indicate that we draw a moral distinction on the basis of a morally irrelevant difference. We develop this naturalistic approach by examining a recent debate between Joshua Greene and Selim Berker. We argue that Greene's research, if accurate, undermines attempts to reconcile opposing judgments about trolley cases, but that his attempt to debunk deontology fails. We then draw some general lessons about the possibility (...) of empirical debunking arguments in ethics. (shrink)

Can subjects genuinely possess concepts they do not understand fully? A simple argument can show that, on the assumption that possession conditions are taken to fully individuate concepts, this question must be answered in the negative. In this paper, I examine this negative answer as possibly articulated within Christopher Peacocke’s seminal theory. I then discuss four central lines of attack to the view that possession of concepts requires full understanding. I conclude that theorists should acknowledge the existence of indefinitely many (...) cases of genuine concept possession for partially understood concepts and therefore face the determination challenge, namely, the challenge of fully determining concept individuation from concept possession conditions of partially understood concepts. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to clarify why propositional logic is Post complete and its weak completeness was almost unnoticed by Hilbert and Bernays, while first-order logic is Post incomplete and its weak completeness was seen as an open problem by Hilbert and Ackermman. Thus, I will compare propositional and first-order logic in the Prinzipien der Mathematik, Bernays’s second Habilitationsschrift and the Grundzüge der Theoretischen Logik. The so called “arithmetical interpretation”, the conjunctive and disjunctive normal forms and the soundness (...) of the propositional rules of inference deserve special emphasis. (shrink)

This book explores three worlds shared by the humans in their collective experiences. It identifies and explores the world of commonsense, the world of religion, and the world of science as three essential dimensions of human experience. The book helps understand that humans can gain comfort and pleasure in commonsense, achieve meaning and purpose from religion, and attain truth and rationality through science. It actively applies theories to and develops theoretical explanations from different domains or situations of human existence. This (...) book is of interest to theorists, researchers, instructors, and students across major academic disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. (shrink)

I've tried to make an asset from social sciences to recognize somo philosophycal porpuses in teh relation betwee theory and practice in ethnographic context of southern Europe.

This paper explores the thinking of some Salamancan theologians regarding the notion of pure nature. In particular, I address Suárez’s thinking on this subject and locate it within the context of the debate over whether human beings have a desire for the beatific vision. Insofar as a number of Thomists and Suárez think that there is no natural desire for a supernatural end, human beings are, by nature, left only with a desire for natural beatitude. The theoretical possibility of a (...) human nature created without any order to a supernatural end and also falling outside the economy of grace becomes a subject of speculation that serves to illuminate something about created nature itself. (shrink)

The writings of John Paul II are rich in meanings and analogies that enrich our understanding of human person and God. According to the tradition, what is specific to human person is reason, which means the ability to assume responsibility. Nevertheless, such responsibility is paradoxical, because it is only realized in relationship with events that depend on circumstances - which are manifested especially in relationships with others, specifically through love. Now, it is properly the paradox of such personal responsibility that (...) can give an analogical understanding of the mystery of God, one and triune. (shrink)

En 1885, Nietzsche decide volver a publicar sus antiguos libros para los cuales escribirá prólogos. En ellos, Nietzsche desarrolla una terapéutica del presente, esto es una escritura que realiza un diagnóstico del presente, en donde lee síntomas de su época. Posteriormente, en 1888, Nietzsche escribirá un texto muy particular, Ecce homo, en el cual, mediante la escritura terapéutica, se elabora como filósofo del futuro que intenta superar su época. Así, Nietzsche nos relata cómo ha llegado a ser el que es, (...) esto es, cómo se ha constituido en un tipo capaz de enfrentarse al tipo cristiano. (shrink)

O presente artigo é uma discussão sobre a noção heideggeriana de Überwindung. Seu objetivo é duplo: por um lado, [1] mostrar a perspectiva que tal termo deve ser compreendido; por outro, [2] aprofundar esta perspectiva à luz de comentários ao aforismo I do texto Überwindung der Metaphysik. Para tanto, duas questões são postas: em que perspectiva e que questões estão implícitas quando Heidegger propõe o projeto da Überwindung der Metaphysik?; e por que uma Überwindung contém em si tantos problemas? De (...) modo a discutir e comentar tais questões, o artigo percorre dois caminhos: [1] faz-se uma análise da própria indicação heideggeriana da perspectiva de compreensão da Überwindung der Metaphysik, qual seja, revisitar, a partir de um olhar determinado, a construção da noção de história do ser. Esta, por sua vez, tem sua gênese antes mesmo da própria Kehre. Mais especificadamente, na reinterpretação que o próprio Heidegger faz de seu texto Vom Wesen der Wahrheit. A partir desta reconsideração feita por Heidegger e inserida em seu próprio texto, é possível detectar quatro teses fulcrais que traçam essencialmente a metafísica e que justificam a sua superação. São elas: [a] o fato de o ser, originariamente, se velar e provocar, historialmente, o seu esquecimento; [b] a relação entre a verdade do ser e a história, que se desenvolve como história do ser; [c] a ideia de que pertence ao ser um caráter originário de retração de si mesmo e que essa retração é um destino que pertence à história do pensamento metafísico e se configura na própria essência da metafísica; [d] afirmar que a certeza da manifestação da essência coincide com o seu fim. [2] Adentra-se, mediante uma aproximação pari passu, no aforismo I do texto Überwindung der Metaphysik, com intuito de comentar a problematicidade do termo Überwindung quando usado para repensar a metafísica à luz da perspectiva da história do ser. (shrink)

Vigorous Fodorian criticism may make it seem impossible for Inferential Role Semantics (IRS) to accommodate compositionality. In this paper, first, I introduce a neo-Fregean version of IRS that appeals centrally to the notion of rationality. Second, I show how such a theory can respect compositionality by means of semantic rules. Third, I argue that, even if we consider top-down compositional derivability: a) the Fodorian is not justified in claiming that it involves so-called reverse compositionality; and b) a defender of IRS (...) can still offer a satisfactory account in terms of the inferential capacities of rational thinkers. (shrink)

Monica A. Coleman achieves remarkable rigor in bringing together in one volume her long-standing interests in process philosophy and theology, womanist theology and ethics, African diaspora studies, West African religions, and African American women’s literature. Making a way out of No Way (2008) is a tour de force in contemporary African American constructive theology and especially in womanist discourse on the religious experience(s) of African American women. Coleman insists on understanding black women’s religious experience through the lens of their complex (...) subjectivity, which is irreducible to singularity or totality. As typically found in academic womanist theology, Coleman does not begin her theology with .. (shrink)

This study measures the importance of finalizing university higher education in the income of Peruvian workers. Thus, information from the National Household Survey of Peru is analyzed, estimating three regression models based on who finished university studies and who did not. Our results show that completing university presents higher private returns than not doing it, and that the gap in returns by sex is shortened in those who finish their studies. In addition, there are higher returns in urban areas, capital (...) cities, quality universities, and in those who do not study an education career. (shrink)

This article examines the possibility of establishing a Department of Peace (DOP) as a Department of the Government of Canada. The topic has been introduced in Parliament twice, as Bill C-447 in 2009 and as Bill C-373 in 2011, without any further actions beyond the formal First Reading. The introduction of the bills could only happen on the basis of significant support among Canadians. At present efforts to introduce the DOP continue, although in somewhat muted form. Based largely on oral (...) interviews, this article assesses the potential for establishing a DOP in the context of the Canadian peace tradition as well as global developments. It concludes that a DOP has great potential to move the peace agenda forward but that, in view of the priorities of the current government and the general mood in Canadian society, it is not realistic to expect a DOP to be implemented at present. (shrink)

In the third volume of On What Matters, Derek Parfit argued that the distinction between imposing a newly created threat on someone and making what threatens some people instead threaten someone else has no genuine moral significance. This article's central thesis is that although there is much to learn from Parfit's arguments, they are ultimately unsuccessful at establishing that the redirected versus newly created threats distinction is morally irrelevant. In particular, I show that my Causal Sequences Principle specifies this distinction (...) in such a way that it is immune to Parfit's objections against the Redirection Principle. It follows that any moral theory that can provide a sound rationale for the Causal Sequences Principle can solve the trolley problem. (shrink)

Stone and Dung, Oil and Spit: Jewish Daily Life in the Time of Jesus. By Jodi Magness. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2011. Pp. xv + 335, illus. $25.

Human sortiledge and fadeaway, int the terms of a ethnographic point of view.

Evolutionary stasis is discussed in light of the idea that the common output of every successful evolution is the creation of the entities that are increasingly resistant to further change. The moving force of evolution is entropy. This general aspiration for chaos is a cause of the mortality of organisms and extinction of species. However, being a prerequisite for any motion, entropy generates (by chance) novelties, which may happen to be (by chance) more resistant to further decay and thus survive. (...) The entities that change rapidly disappear. All existing entities are endowed with an ability to resist further change. In simple organisms, the stasis is primarily achieved by means of the high fidelity of DNA reproduction. In organisms with a large genome and complex development, the achievable fidelity of genome reproduction fails to guarantee homeorhetic reproduction: there is more mutation than reproduction. Such species must be capable of surviving and remain phenotypically unchanged at continuous changes of their genes. This capability (canalization or robustness) reflects a global degeneracy of the link structure-function: there are more genotypes than phenotypes. Hence, function (i.e. meaning), not structure, is selected. The selection for successful ontogenesis in a varying environment creates developmental robustness to mutational and environmental perturbations and, consequently, to the halt of evolution. Evolution is resistance to entropy, the adaptation to environment being only one of the means of this resistance. Everything essential in biology is determined not by physical causality but by semantic rules and goal-directed programs. This principal operates on various levels of biological organization. (shrink)