Metaphors for describing the introduction, impacts, and management of non-native species are numerous and often quite outspoken. Policy-makers have adopted increasingly disputed metaphorical terms from scientific discourse. We performed a critical analysis of the use of strong metaphors in reporting scientific findings to policy-makers. Our analysis shows that perceptions of harm, invasiveness or nativeness are dynamic and inevitably display multiple narratives in science, policy or management. Improving our awareness of multiple expert and stakeholder narratives that exist in the context of (...) non-native species management, as well as metaphorical alternatives, is critical. (shrink)

Volume 25, Issue 2, February 2025, Page 153-156.

Avicenna's logic has gathered much interest in recent decades. However, one significant point that has hitherto been frequently neglected is what logic means to Avicenna in the first place. Considering this issue, the main aim of this paper is to investigate Avicenna's account of logic. This is done by focusing on the logical sections of five of his comprehensive works, namely, the Kitāb al-Madkhal (of the Kitāb al-Shifāʾ, the Cure), al-Najāt (the Salvation), Dānishnāmi-yi ʿAlāʾ ī (Philosophy for ʿAlāʾ-ad-Dawla), al-Mashriqiyyūn (the (...) Easterners) and al-Ishārāt wa-t-tanbīhāt (the Pointers and Reminders). The reason for choosing these five works is fourfold, namely, logico-philosophical, linguistic, chronological and diversity of intended audience. Each work is analyzed based on the three fundamental elements which Avicenna links to the notion of logic, i.e. its definition, its status and its goal. The results of this analysis are then compared. Overall, Avicenna seems to have held a very stable account of logic across these works. (shrink)

As a member of the British Oxford Group, psychologist Richard Ryder marked the beginning of the modern animal rights and animal welfare movement in the seventies. By introducing the concept “speciesism.” Ryder contributed importantly to the expansion of this movement. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to Ryder’s moral theory, “painism”, that aims to resolve the conflict between the two predominant rival theories in animal ethics, the deontological of Tom Regan and the utilitarian of Peter Singer. First, this paper examines (...) the kernel and historical sources of Ryder’s painist theory, linking it to the work of John Rawls and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Second, it examines Ryder’s critique of utilitarianism. It is argued that his critique of Singer’s use of the word “sentience” is unconvincing and that his critique of utilitarian aggregation as not taking a full account of the metaphysical separateness of persons, has already been countered and dealt with. Finally this paper looks at some of the counterintuitive implications of Ryder’s theory and argues that utilitarianism might have more resources for dealing with its own alleged counterintuitive implications than Ryder acknowledges. (shrink)