In this chapter, I critically examine issues relevant to the construction and reality of social categories, focusing on issues concerning conceptual schemes and conventionalism. Conceptual schemes (‘paradigms,’ ‘linguistic frameworks,’ ‘forms of life’) are systems of concepts that organize and give (intersubjective) meaning to empirical experience. In discussions about the construction of social categories, a common assumption is that social categories and kinds (e.g., ‘money,’ ‘marriage,’ ‘liberal’) require the presupposition of a conceptual scheme that gives meaning to those terms. One prominent (...) position in social ontology (Lewis, 1969, Gilbert 1989, 2014, Searle 1995) holds that the reality of social categories is grounded in a conventionalist conceptual scheme: social categories are conventionally accepted categories that reflect explicit or implicit agreements within a community. According to this view, the reality of social categories and kinds is established (and maintained) by contingent and arbitrary conventional decisions about social categories (e.g., laws about legal tender, marriage laws, the one-drop rule). Conventions can be understood as social customs (e.g., rules governing traffic, marriage laws, institutionalized rules about sex and gender) that serve some human purpose or interest. They are important for the establishment and maintenance of social norms (see Bicchieri 2006, 2017). -/- The chapter proceeds as follows. In section 2, I examine the general idea of conceptual schemes, focusing on Kuhn’s influential theory of paradigms. While Kuhn’s position implies a conceptual relativity and anti-realism (or instrumentalism) about scientific concepts, Davidson and Popper challenge the Kuhnian orthodoxy that the presence of conceptual schemes implies conceptual relativity or ‘incommensurability’ of competing conceptual schemes. I argue that a key difference between scientific and social conceptual schemes is that the former are oriented towards describing nature, whereas the latter are oriented towards social utility or usefulness. In section 3, I examine some foundational works in social ontology—focusing on the accounts of Lewis, Gilbert, and Searle—that hold that social categories are grounded by a conventionalist conceptual scheme. These accounts of social categories imply that the reality of social categories is constituted by (or grounded in) social conventions, which ultimately reflect (or are anchored by) explicit or implicit community-level agreements. In section 4, I survey some prominent accounts of social human categories, focusing on the views of Hacking, Khalidi, Mallon, Haslanger, and Ásta. A common tendency in these accounts is the portrayal of social categories as social to the extent that they are conventionally determined. This suggests that the proper contrast class for social categories is natural categories (as opposed to individual categories or innate categories). (shrink)

Considerations of realism and pluralism pervade Feyerabend’s later works as they do in his earlier corpus. However, Conquest of Abundance and surrounding papers mark Feyerabend’s first sustained foray into metaphysics. Specifically, he hypothesizes a pluralist realism which incorporates Kantian and constructivist elements (Oberheim 2006; Tambolo 2014; Brown 2016; Chang 2021). This work was composed when the ‘metaphysical disunity’ hypothesis was fashionable among members of the ‘Stanford School.’ After building on previous explorations of Feyerabend’s later metaphysics (‘abundance realism’), we compare Feyerabend’s (...) later works to prominent formulations of metaphysical pluralism in the Stanford School. Here, we point to overlaps and divergences between Feyerabend’s later metaphysical pluralism and the formulations in the Stanford School. Despite significant intellectual overlap, the historical connections between Feyerabend’s later work and the Stanford School remain minimal. We argue that this is largely due to Feyerabend’s self-isolation from academic philosophy in the 1980s and his radical anti-scientism. Moreover, we argue that Feyerabend’s metaphysics naturally extends from his attempts to situate science in diverse, democratic societies with hints of his later metaphysics in earlier writings, suggesting that Feyerabend’s “metaphysical turn” represents a shift in emphasis rather than a substantive change of position. (shrink)

Several defences, viewed in this study as specifications or 'offspring' of the 'parent' greater-good defence, have been formulated in response to the charge that Christianity is untenable because God's existence is incompatible with evil's existence. In this first book-length study of the parent defence, Stewart begins with careful definitions of the omni-attributes central to the dispute: omnipotence, omniscience, omnibenevolence. The parent defence is traced to tenets of theism and variant accounts of the defence considered. Plantinga's modal free-will defence and Hick's (...) and Yandell's soul-growth specifications are carefully analyzed and several difficulties resolved. An original formulation of a redemption specification and an original account of the origin of moral evil are offered. Stewart argues that the defences are rightly viewed as a family of defences falling under the greater-good heading, and that they comprise a complementary apologetic complex that refutes the claim of inconsistency. (shrink)

The Alu sequence is a SINE (Short INterspersed Element) that is abundant in the human genome. A new analysis(1) reveals an unexpected conservation of some bases in the DNA sequence of the element. The bases involved include those forming an RNA polymerase III promoter. An unresolved question is whether this conservation results from selection for transposability. This, in turn, is related to the larger question of the evolutionary relationship between members of the Alu sequence family.

The first philosophers of the Frankfurt School famously turned to the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud to supplement their Marxist analyses of ideological subjectification. Since the collapse of their proposed "marriage of Marx and Freud," psychology and social theory have grown apart to the impoverishment of both. Returning to this union, Benjamin Y. Fong reconstructs the psychoanalytic "foundation stone" of critical theory in an effort to once again think together the possibility of psychic and social transformation. Drawing on the work (...) of Hans Loewald and Jacques Lacan, Fong complicates the famous antagonism between Eros and the death drive in reference to a third term: the woefully undertheorized drive to mastery. Rejuvenating Freudian metapsychology through the lens of this pivotal concept, he then provides fresh perspective on Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Herbert Marcuse's critiques of psychic life under the influence of modern cultural and technological change. The result is a novel vision of critical theory that rearticulates the nature of subjection in late capitalism and renews an old project of resistance. (shrink)

Violence metaphors for cancer can have undesirable implications. The metaphorical expression “She lost her battle with cancer,” for instance, is deemed inappropriate by some because of the implicit...

Bai, Tongdong 白彤東, New Mission of an Old State: Classical Confucian Political Philosophy in a Contemporary and Comparative Context 舊邦新命: 古今中西參考下的古典儒家政治哲學 Content Type Journal Article DOI 10.1007/s11712-010-9183-0 Authors Ellen Y. Zhang, Department of Religion and Philosophy, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Kowloon, Hong Kong Journal Dao Online ISSN 1569-7274 Print ISSN 1540-3009 Journal Volume Volume 9 Journal Issue Volume 9, Number 4.

Corporate social responsibility positively impacts relationships between firms and customers. Previous research construes this as an outcome of customers’ warm glow that results from supporting firms’ benevolence. The current research demonstrates that beyond warm glow, CSR positively impacts firms’ sales through mitigating their customers’ perceptions of purchase risk. We demonstrate this effect across three conditions in which customers’ perceived risk of purchase is heightened, using both secondary data and two lab experiments. Under conditions of greater purchase risk, CSR positively impacts (...) both sales and customer purchase intentions to a greater extent than in conditions of lower purchase risk. In addition to measuring purchase risk as the mediating process behind these effects, we demonstrate that the effect of CSR on sales is stronger for those CSR activities that signal a stakeholder orientation. (shrink)

While interest in doing business continues to rise steadily, information concerning the evolving social ethics of Chinese managers is sparse. This study reports the findings obtained from intensive interviews with thirty-nine Chinese advertising executives. In general, there appears to be developing a cautious optimism about the role of advertising in the Chinese economy. Findings are compared with earlier studies of American and Hong Kong managers and it is suggested that further research and observation is needed to track the development of (...) business ethics in this largest of the world's developing nations. (shrink)

Journal Name: Semiotica Issue: Ahead of print.

This chapter examines the structure and role of ambiguity in the Japanese Organ Transplant Law by looking at the Chinese Huayen Buddhist doctrine of dharmadhatu-pratityasamutpada or universal dependent “coarising”, a major interpretation of the Buddha's pratityasamutpada, dependent-coarising or interdependence. Specifically, it will examine the nature of ambiguity through the zhuban yuanming jude men or “the attribute of the complete accommodation of principal and secondary dharmas” that Fazang formulated. The interdependent and evolving Buddhist vision of reality causes ambiguity in decision making (...) and action. (shrink)

The thirteenth-century Blachernitissa of Barghoun, symbolizing the Incarnation and the Church, has often been interpreted as a privileged mediator and, by extension, as Ecclesia interceding in behalf of the people. The image could have both devotional and cultural dimensions, or even liturgical implications, as well as other functions. The standing Virgin with the medallion of the Child on her maphorion making a gesture of prayer seems to have a liturgical meaning. The exegetical, liturgical, and hymnographic traditions give Mary a liturgical (...) dimension, in which she is seen as representing the celebrating priest, the altar, or sacred objects. Dominating the high altar, the Virgin's praying gesture could evoke the gesture of the officiating priest presenting the great mystery. Moreover, the medallion of the Child seems to evoke the host. In numerous examples, deacon-angels incense the medallion just as they do the Eucharistic Species placed on the altar or held between the Virgin's hands in a gesture similar to that of the priest exposing the sacred Species. In these examples, the figure of the Virgin appears as an image of the altar or of the priest exposing the host during the consecration. At Barghoun, the gestures and postures of the angels approaching the Virgin recall those of the Communion, as prescribed by the Fathers. The angels seem to be preparing to take the Child-host as deacons of the Virgin altar-priest. (shrink)

La preparación para la defensa en los estudiantes de Ciencias Médicas reviste particular importancia al dotarlos de conocimientos y habilidades que garanticen el desempeño de sus responsabilidades en la esfera de la defensa, en el campo de su profesión y como ciudadanos. El objetivo de este trabajo fue caracterizar el vínculo sociedad-universidad a través del programa de la disciplina Preparación para la Defensa, teniendo en cuenta los aspectos pertinencia, calidad e internacionalización. Este programa responde al modelo pedagógico basado en las (...) posibilidades del sistema educativo en el contexto de la universalización de la educación médica mediante el aprovechamiento de la infraestructura creada en el país y las diferentes asignaturas que imparte. Preparing the medical sciences students for the defense has particular importance to give them knowledge and abilities that guarantee their performance and responsibilities in the sphere of the defense in their professional field and as citizens. The objective of this paper is to characterize the society-university link through the program of the discipline Defense Preparation taking into account pertinence, quality and internalization. This program responds to the pedagogical model based on the possibilities of the educative system in the context of universalization in the medicine education taking advantage of the infrastructure created in the country and the different subjects that are taught. (shrink)

Base pair mismatches in DNA arise from errors in DNA replication, recombination, and biochemical modification of bases. Mismatches are inherently transient. They are resolved passively by DNA replication, or actively by enzymatic removal and resynthesis of one of the bases. The first step in removal is recognition of strand discontinuity by one of the MutS proteins. Mismatches arising from errors in DNA replication are repaired in favor of the base on the template strand, but other mismatches trigger base excision or (...) nucleotide excision repair (NER), or non‐repair pathways such as hypermutation, cell cycle arrest, or apoptosis. We argue that MutL homologues play a key role in determining biologic outcome by recruiting and/or activating effector proteins in response to lesion recognition by MutS. We suggest that the process is regulated by conformational changes in MutL caused by cycles of ATP binding and hydrolysis, and by physiologic changes which influence effector availability. (shrink)

Job Jindo applies recent studies in cognitive science and explores how we can view metaphor as the very essence of poetic prophecy—namely, metaphor as an indispensable mode to communicate prophetic insight.

Individual health savings accounts are an important part of the current basic medical insurance system for urban workers in China. Since 1998 when the system of personal medical insurance accounts was first implemented, there has been considerable controversy over its function and significance within different social communities. This paper analyzes the main problems in the practical implementation of individual medical insurance accounts and discusses the social and cultural foundations for the establishment of family health savings accounts from the perspective of (...) Chinese Confucian familism. Accordingly, it addresses the direction of the reform and the development of the current system of individual health insurance accounts in China. (shrink)