In the last two decades modal logic has undergone an explosive growth, to thepointthatacompletebibliographyofthisbranchoflogic,supposingthat someone were capable to compile it, would?ll itself a ponderous volume. What is impressive in the growth of modal logic has not been so much the quick accumulation of results but the richness of its thematic dev- opments. In the 1960s, when Kripke semantics gave new credibility to the logic of modalities? which was already known and appreciated in the Ancient and Medieval times? no one could (...) have foreseen that in a short time modal logic would become a lively source of ideas and methods for analytical philosophers,historians of philosophy,linguists, epistemologists and computer scientists. The aim which oriented the composition of this book was not to write a new manual of modal logic buttoo?ertoeveryreader,evenwithnospeci?cbackground in logic, a conceptually linear path in the labyrinth of the current panorama of modal logic. The notion which in our opinion looked suitable to work as a compass in this enterprise was the notion of multimodality, or, more speci?cally, the basic idea of grounding systems on languages admitting more than one primitive modal operator. (shrink)

(2001). Disability and Bioethics: Removing Barriers to Understanding and Setting the Agenda for a New Conversation. The American Journal of Bioethics: Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 64-65.

How can Africans escape the control of the complex power relationships established during Colonization and successfully achieve self-development? More importantly, and the primary concern of this book, can African female characters ever hope to arrive at such individuation given the dual challenges of the power structures defined and enforced by European colonizers and the patriarchal structures that contort issues related to gender? Tracing Personal Expansion reads late 20th Century works by African female novelists Buchi Emecheta, Tsitsi Dangarembga, and Calixthe Beyala (...) as modern Bildungsromane, novels of self-development, to reveal the dynamics, complexities, and challenges the characters and authors experience. By exploring the possibility of self-development in African female protagonists, this engrossing work augments existing feminist critiques that have analyzed the possibilities and potentials for the individuation of mostly Western, mostly European female characters. (shrink)

Depuis l'exil, le philosophe W. Benjamin recompose, dans une sA(c)rie de brA]ves vignettes, ses souvenirs d'enfance A Berlin. Loin de l'anecdote, il s'agit d'une vA(c)ritable plongA(c)e dans l'enfance et dans l'histoire, oA se retrouvent les thA]mes essentiels de la philosophie benjaminienne. Ce texte restA(c) inA(c)dit du vivant de l'auteur, est dA(c)sormais connu en plusieurs variantes, dont celle-ci est la derniA]re A laquelle il ait mis la main. Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) est un philosophe, historien de l'art, critique littA(c)raire, critique d'art (...) et traducteur (notamment de Balzac, Baudelaire et Proust) allemand de la premiA]re moitiA(c) du XXe siA]cle, rattachA(c) A l'A(c)cole de Francfort. Traduction et prA(c)face de Pierre Rusch Postscriptum de Patricia Lavelle. (shrink)

Neurostimulation to restore cognitive and physical functions is an innovative and promising technique for treating patients with severe brain injury that has resulted in a minimally conscious state (MCS). The technique may involve electrical stimulation of the central thalamus, which has extensive projections to the cerebral cortex. Yet it is unclear whether an improvement in neurological functions would result in a net benefit for these patients. Quality-of-life measurements would be necessary to determine whether any benefit of neurostimulation outweighed any harm (...) in their response to different degrees of cognitive and physical disability. These measures could also indicate whether the technique could be ethically justified and whether surrogates could give proxy consent to its use on brain-injured patients. (shrink)

This essay examines Michael Polanyi’s notion of tacit knowing and seeks to clarify and elaborate upon its claims. Tacit knowing, which is conscious although inarticulate, must be distinguished from tacit processes, which are largely unconscious. Schematization is explored as a primary tacit process that humans share with all animals. This tacit process organizes and secures, in long-term memory, information of interest provided by receptors and those learned skifls conducive to survival. Human empirical knowing integrates schematized subsidiaries info articulate explicitness through (...) culturally-embedded symbols evoked in terms of felt fittingness. (shrink)

This essay critically discusses books not previously reviewed in Tradition and Discovery yet making significant use of Michael Polanyi’s thought. These works suggest Polanyi’s thought continues to play an importanf, if limited, role in contemporary scholarship.

We consider the decision problem for cases of first-order temporal logic with function symbols and without equality. The monadic monodic fragment with flexible functions can be decided with EXPSPACE-complete complexity. A single rigid function is sufficient to make the logic not recursively enumerable. However, the monadic monodic fragment with rigid functions, where no two distinct terms have variables bound by the same quantifier, is decidable and EXPSPACE-complete.

This paper focused on the role of a multicultural professor in teaching a multicultural class in Family Studies. Specifically the author illustrates the Japanese American internment camp experience in numerous aspects of his teaching. The article makes the connection between this social, political and historical experience of Japanese Americans to other ethnic groups suffrage. The article also incorporates a variety of methods and strategies to illustrate the internment camp issue and how that could potentially influence multicultural education in the United (...) States. (shrink)

Gran parte de la filosofía más interesante y original los escolásticos la hacían en la teología. Un buen ejemplo es el dilema en el Siglo de Oro sobre el libre albedrío: ¿cómo podemos actuar libremente si Dios causa y conoce nuestros actos? La discusión incluye varios temas fundamentales como la antinomia entre la libertad y la determinación, la semántica modal, la lógica temporal y la lógica de los estados de cosas contrafácticos. Los jesuitas mexicanos Matías Blanco y Antonio Peralta escribieron (...) libros sobre la cuestión. Se describirá aquí la solución “disyuntiva” que Blanco propuso en su Funiculus triplex, publicado póstumamente en México en 1746. Cuando alguien ha de eligir entre las alternativas B y C, barrunta Blanco, Dios no actualiza ni B ni C, sino su disyunción B-o-C. Blanco propone una tregua en la “guerra” entre las escuelas contrincantes para que consideren su solución– pues cree podría ser aceptable para todos. (shrink)

Some argue that at least some non-liberal, non-democratic societies deserve fiill and good standing in the international community. These arguments imply that some divergence in understanding the role of the press is also justified and should be tolerated. But what are the limits of diversity here? I begin to find these limits by considering John Rawls's "decent" societies in the context of Amartya Sen's work on famine. Sen claims that a free press plays an important role in famine prevention. After (...) giving an account of press rights, I argue that a partially free press can play the role Sen attributes to the free press. I then argue that decent societies could and should accommodate such partially free presses. (shrink)