Political ecologists--the theorists of the Green movement--assert that if we do not fundamentally change the way in which our society makes use of nature, then we will destroy the physical basis of our social existence within the foreseeable future. In the light of this insight, this book is concerned to unearth the foundations of our cultural attitudes towards nature and to start the process of building philosophical foundations that could provide the basis of a sustainable relationship between society and the (...) environment. The objective is to provide a critique and reorientation of social theory at the level of epistemology and to question the nature of rationality; the role of ideology and assumptions about human nature which underpin conventional academic social theory. The heart of the analysis comprises a critique of the core values of the Enlightenment that have shaped modern Western thought: Science; Progress and Individualism. To political ecology these represent fundamental problem concepts and the intention of this book is to broaden and deepen our understanding of existing social processes particularly those identified as the 'post-modern' condition of aimless consumerism in relation to environmental issues. The analysis includes sketches of concepts and practices with which political ecology might transcend these values and shows how transformed attitudes can contribute towards solving environmental problems. This is a challenging and original synthesis of philosophy and theory directed towards the greatest issue of our time. It will be essential reading for everyone concerned with the future of the planet. (shrink)

Changes in the understanding of the relationship between business and society have led to increased interest in and discussion of the notion of corporate social responsibility.This paper offers an empirical analysis of the perceptions of top executives in the West Midlands, U.K., and in Delhi, District Ghaziabad, India, of the notion of corporate social responsibility. Organisational changes and involvement in social action programmes, and problems of implementing and monitoring Social Responsibility in two cultures, India and Britain, were explored.

There is growing interest in tissue procurement for cancer research through autopsy. Establishing an autopsy/tissue donation programme for breast cancer research within an academic medical centre i...

A. W. Moore argues in this bold, unusual, and ambitious book that it is possible to think about the world from no point of view. His argument involves discussion of a very wide range of fundamental philosophical issues, including the nature of persons, the subject-matter of mathematics, realism and anti-realism, value, the inexpressible, and God. The result is a powerful critique of our own finitude.

According to the No-Luck-Thesis knowledge possession is incompatible with luck – one cannot know that p if the truth of one’s belief that p is a matter of luck. Recently, this widespread opinion was challenged by Peter Baumann, who argues that in certain situations agents do possess knowledge even though their beliefs are true by luck. This paper aims at providing empirical data for evaluating Baumann’s hypothesis. The experiment was designed to compare non-philosophers’ judgments concerning knowledge and luck in one (...) case that Baumann takes to be in favor of his claim and other cases where, according to him, absence of knowledge coincides with luck. The results show that the cases do not differ in a significant way between each other with respect to verdicts regarding knowledge and luck. In all cases subjects were more reluctant to judge that the ‘Gettierized’ belief is knowledge and more likely to judge that it is true by luck in comparison to a belief that is an uncontroversial instance of knowledge. However, the negative relationship between knowledge and luck ascriptions predicted by the No-Luck-Thesis was almost absent. The data raise some doubts about the No-Luck-Thesis, but the reasons for doubt are different than what Baumann expected. (shrink)

When someone thanks someone for something, or advises him against something, or refuses something from him, his action is directed not merely at but to the other. He addresses the other. But is it only actions that exemplify this mode of directedness? This essay argues that it is not.

Before COVID-19, dementia singing groups and choirs flourished, providing activity, cognitive stimulation, and social support for thousands of people with dementia in the UK. Interactive music provides one of the most effective psychosocial interventions for people with dementia; it can allay agitation and promote wellbeing. Since COVID-19 has halted the delivery of in-person musical activities, it is important for the welfare of people with dementia and their carers to investigate what alternatives to live music making exist, how these alternatives are (...) delivered and how their accessibility can be expanded. This community case study examines recent practice in online music-making in response to COVID-19 restrictions for people with dementia and their supporters, focusing on a UK context. It documents current opportunities for digital music making, and assesses the barriers and facilitators to their delivery and accessibility. Online searches of video streaming sites and social media documented what music activities were available. Expert practitioners and providers collaborated on this study and supplied input about the sessions they had been delivering, the technological challenges and solutions they had found, and the responses of the participants. Recommendations for best practice were developed and refined in consultation with these collaborators. Over 50 examples of online music activities were identified. In addition to the challenges of digital inclusion and accessibility for some older people, delivering live music online has unique challenges due to audio latency and sound quality. It is necessary to adapt the session to the technology's limitations rather than expect to overcome these challenges. The recommendations highlight the importance of accessibility, digital safety and wellbeing of participants. They also suggest ways to optimize the quality of their musical experience. The pandemic has prompted innovative approaches to deliver activities and interventions in a digital format, and people with dementia and their carers have adapted rapidly. While online music is meeting a clear current need for social connection and cognitive stimulation, it also offers some advantages which remain relevant after COVID-19 restrictions are relaxed. The recommendations of this study are intended to be useful to musicians, dementia care practitioners, and researchers during the pandemic and beyond. (shrink)

The recent literature on Nāgārjuna’s catuṣkoṭi centres around Jay Garfield’s and Graham Priest’s interpretation. It is an open discussion to what extent their interpretation is an adequate model of the logic for the catuskoti, and the Mūla-madhyamaka-kārikā. Priest and Garfield try to make sense of the contradictions within the catuskoti by appeal to a series of lattices – orderings of truth-values, supposed to model the path to enlightenment. They use Anderson & Belnaps's framework of First Degree Entailment. Cotnoir has argued (...) that the lattices of Priest and Garfield cannot ground the logic of the catuskoti. The concern is simple: on the one hand, FDE brings with it the failure of classical principles such as modus ponens. On the other hand, we frequently encounter Nāgārjuna using classical principles in other arguments in the MMK. There is a problem of validity. If FDE is Nāgārjuna’s logic of choice, he is facing what is commonly called the classical recapture problem: how to make sense of cases where classical principles like modus pones are valid? One cannot just add principles like modus pones as assumptions, because in the background paraconsistent logic this does not rule out their negations. In this essay, I shall explore and critically evaluate Cotnoir’s proposal. In detail, I shall reveal that his framework suffers collapse of the kotis. Taking Cotnoir’s concerns seriously, I shall suggest a formulation of the catuskoti in classical Boolean Algebra, extended by the notion of an external negation as an illocutionary act. I will focus on purely formal considerations, leaving doctrinal matters to the scholarly discourse – as far as this is possible. (shrink)

In attempting to explain the properties and behavior of an evolved artefact with the breathtaking complexity of the human brain, dissociating conventional causes and effects is like pulling apart an autosarcophagic snake. To paint a representative picture, we need a palette of explanatory languages capable of portraying the multifarious interactions within a complex system at suitable levels of abstraction. In particular, in addition to conventional causal explanations, the philosophy of science offers a framework of so-called constitutive explanations. Here, we motivate, (...) describe, differentiate and discuss the use of causal and constitutive explanations in the field of computational psychiatry. (shrink)

Pierre Bourdieu was the most influential sociologist of the later 20th Century. The framework he developed continues to inspire countless researchers across the globe and provokes intense debates long after his death. Novel concepts, innovative applications and countless elaborations spring up every day, bulking out and shaping a distinct, if not always entirely consistent, body of work that might be characterised as a recognisable tradition. For those coming to Bourdieu for the first time, therefore, and interested in using his ideas (...) in their own research, it no longer makes sense to confine oneself to the ideas of the man himself. An overview of the varied ways his concepts and arguments have been deepened and updated to make sense of new times or to fill certain gaps, and how insights on seemingly disconnected topics weave together into a bigger picture, is not just desirable but essential. Bourdieu and After aims to provide exactly this overview. Working closely with Bourdieu's own writings, but also covering a wide range of research and literature inspired by him, it aims to guide the reader through the key principles, the major and minor concepts and the concrete findings of Bourdieusian sociology as clearly and comprehensively as possible. It explains the difficult and often overlooked philosophical foundations, walks through the logic of famous terms like 'field', 'habitus' and 'capital' and demonstrates how they have been or can be used to provide powerful accounts of colonialism, the emergence of nation states and the rise of global social relations. It covers topics that Bourdieu was famous for analysing, like class and educational inequality, yet also traverses subjects that he said little on but which others influenced by him have tackled in depth, such as ethnicity, sexuality and family. Along the way Atkinson seeks to undermine some of the common criticisms levelled at Bourdieu while identifying remaining gaps and limitations. Rather than simply recognise the problems, however, Atkinson proposes possible solutions too - solutions that are facilitated, he argues, by characterising Bourdieusian sociology as what he calls 'relational phenomenology'. (shrink)

Negative self-views have proved to be a consistent marker of vulnerability for depression. However, recent research has shown that a particular kind of cognitive conflict, implicative dilemma, is highly prevalent in depression. In this study the relevance of these conflicts is assessed as compared to the cognitive model of depression of a negative view of the self. In so doing, 161 patients with major depression and 110 controls were assessed to explore negative self-construing (self-ideal discrepancy) and conflicts (implicative dilemmas), as (...) well as severity of symptoms. Results showed specificity for the clinical group indicating a pattern of mixed positive and negative self-descriptions with a high rate of conflict. Regression analysis lent support to the conflict hypothesis in relation to clinically relevant indicators such as symptom severity, global functioning. However, self-ideal discrepancy was a stronger predictor of group membership. The findings showed the relevance of cognitive conflicts to compliment the well-consolidated theory of negative self-views. Clinical implications for designing interventions are discussed. (shrink)

This article examines Nietzsche’s engagement with romanticism. It contrasts his early romantic period, and the influence of Goethe, Hölderlin, and Richard Wagner, with his later attempts to “cure himself” of all romanticism. It considers the extent to which Nietzsche shared Goethe’s famous equation of the classical with health and the romantic with sickness—which Nietzsche most often calls decadence. It argues that there are deep programmatic and even textual affinities between Nietzsche’s Zarathustra and Hölderlin’s Hyperion. It was fundamentally through his engagement (...) with Wagner that Nietzsche first came to realize that romanticism actually embodied a life-denying repudiation of this world rather than a genuine path to cultural renewal. (shrink)

The aim of this book is to consider what reasonably follows from the hypothesis that the _Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus_ can be interpreted from a mystical point of view. Atkinson intends to elucidate Wittgenstein’s thoughts on the mystical in his early writings as they pertain to a number of topics such as, God, the meaning of life, reality, the eternal and the solipsistic self.

Basándome en una metodología etnográfica de tipo multisituado, en este artículo analizo, desde la antropología social, diversas temporalidades socialmente construidas en el marco de una crisis hídrica en Sierras Chicas, Provincia de Córdoba, Argentina. Comienzo dando cuenta de la importancia social del agua como valor, en términos del trabajo acumulado (expresado por ejemplo en la infraestructura para su provisión y distribución), para luego analizar los diferentes contextos en los que se moldean creativamente diversas temporalidades que dan sentido a la relación (...) entre la sociedad y el entorno. Concluyo que estas temporalidades, basadas algunas en la experiencia cotidiana de la escasez de agua, otras en los conflictos entre el desarrollismo y la planificación espacial a largo plazo, y otras en ciertas miradas utópicas, tienen en común el operar como formas de lidiar con la incertidumbre sobre el futuro, en un presente de profundos cambios socioambientales. (shrink)

Through doing so, this book radically re-conceptualizes the role of Buddhism in the world today by linking Buddhist practice with acts of discursive ...

El objetivo de este artículo es mostrar que existen motivos para pensar que las críticas que Diderot dirige a Rousseau en uno de sus últimos trabajos, Essai sur les règnes de Claude et de Néron, et sur les moeurs et les écrits de Sénèque, ocupan en la estructura de la obra un lugar de mayor relevancia que el que a menudo se les ha otorgado. Esto permite, por otra parte, poner de relieve algunas marcas autobiográficas del texto que acercan llamativamente (...) a los frères ennemis en sus últimos escritos. El trabajo muestra, asimismo, ciertas debilidades de los cuestionamientos de Diderot a Rousseau y de su propia autodefensa. (shrink)

En este trabajo critico la interpretación moralizada de la obligación política en Hobbes que defiende Luciano Venezia. Exploro una lectura diferente que evita una dicotomía tajante entre las razones prudenciales y las razones morales y subraya en cambio la discontinuidad entre la normatividad subjetiva de la ley natural y la normatividad objetiva de la ley positiva. Sostengo que el contrato de sujeción política establece obligaciones objetivas recién cuando el soberano exige el cumplimiento de los contratos. La obligación política es entonces (...) una forma de obligación jurídica. Además, enfatizo que la comunidad moral de Hobbes solo es posible dentro del Estado. In this paper, I criticize Luciano Venezia's moralized interpretation of the Hobbesian concept of political obligation. I explore a different reading that avoids a clear-cut dichotomy between prudential and moral reasons and underscores instead the discontinuity between natural law's subjective normativity and civil law's objective normativity. I contend that the pact of political subjection establishes objective obligations only when the sovereign requires the fulfillment of contracts. Political obligation is then a form of legal obligation. In addition, I emphasize that Hobbes's moral community is only possible within the State. (shrink)

El objetivo de este trabajo es demostrar que el lugar que ocupa la figura de Sócrates en la obra de Diderot es problemático, ambivalente. Ciertas actitudes y escritos de Diderot llevaron a sus coetáneos a trazar un paralelismo entre éste y el filósofo ateniense, sin embargo este artículo revela que el editor de la Encyclopédie se alejó de la figura de Sócrates en diferentes ocasiones. Esto arroja algunas luces, por otra parte, acerca de la posición que Diderot mantuvo en sus (...) trabajos de madurez con respecto a la relación entre el filósofo o el sabio y la sociedad. (shrink)

Los especialistas suelen atribuir a Diderot una concepción pesimista de la historia. Si bien de las obras de madurez del editor de la Encyclopédie se desprende una oscura imagen del porvenir, producto entre otras cosas de su encuentro con Catalina II y de la influencia de Galiani, ese pesimismo parece no agotar sus reflexiones acerca de la historia. De los trabajos de la época anterior a su viaje a Rusia se desprende otra concepción de la historia, la cual, no obstante, (...) no se confunde con las Cándidas especulaciones acerca del futuro del marqués de Condorcet. (shrink)

RESUMENEl objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar el alcance del programa de Voltaire para acercar la historia a la nueva ciencia, presentado en sus Nouvelles considerations sur l’histoire. A la luz de las críticas que Larcher le dirige a propósito de su Philosophie de l’histoire y su respuesta en La défense de mon oncle, se demuestra que existen diferentes criterios epistemológicos en los trabajos históricos e historiográficos de Voltaire y que la articulación entre los mismos es problemática. Esto pone de (...) relieve los límites de su proyecto historiográfico.PALABRAS CLAVE HISTORIA–CIENCIA–ILUSTRACIÓN–VOLTAIRE–LARCHERABSTRACTThe aim of this paper is to examine the extent of Voltaire’s program, in order to bring the history to the new science, presented in his Nouvelles considerations sur l´histoire. In the light of the critiques that Larcher gives to him about his Philosophie de l´histoire and its response in La défense de mon oncle, it is shown that there are different epistemological criteria in historical and historiographical works of Voltaire and that the joint between them is problematic. This highlights the boundaries of his historiographical project.KEYWORDSHISTORY–SCIENCE–ENLIGHTENMENT–VOLTAIRE–LARCHER. (shrink)

La Mettrie parece rechazar completamente la filosofía de Séneca en su _Anti_-_Sénèque. _El objetivo de este artículo es demostrar que una lectura más atenta del texto muestra que su posición es menos simple de lo que puede parecer en un primer momento. En otras palabras, se intenta exponer los límites de los cuestionamientos que el médico de Saint-Malo dirige a la filosofía y la imagen del filósofo romano. El trabajo, por otra parte, pone de relieve ciertas tensiones que atraviesan el (...) escrito y amenazan el propósito que La Mettrie se había propuesto, a saber, mejorar la vida de los hombres. (shrink)

Entre 1760 y 1770, Voltaire desarrolló una serie de actividades en defensa de la idea de “tolerancia”. El objetivo de este artículo es evaluar, a la luz de las críticas que el filósofo dirige a Jean-Jacques Rousseau en el Sentiment des citoyens (1764), el alcance de dicho concepto en sus escritos durante esa década. Se demuestra que su posición con respecto al tema está atravesada por tensiones y que, en todo caso, de sus textos se desprende una idea de tolerancia (...) limitada, que resulta difícil articular con la imagen que lo presenta como el “apóstol de la tolerancia”, una figura forjada en el mismo siglo XVIII, que se convirtió en un lugar común con el paso del tiempo. (shrink)

La Histoire de Charles XII, roi de Suède es un texto a menudo desvalorizado por los especialistas en los trabajos históricos e historiográficos de Voltaire, en la medida en que ven en él una obra menor, que se encontraría más cerca de la Henriade, el poema épico que el filósofo había publicado en 1728 en honor a Enrique IV, que de sus grandes trabajos históricos, el Siècle de Louis XIV y el Essai sur les mœurs et l’esprit des nations. El (...) objetivo de este trabajo es demostrar que la Histoire de Charles XII anticipa, a pesar de ser uno de los primeros escritos históricos de Voltaire, el método que utilizaría a partir de los años 40 en sus obras mayores. Además, el texto pone de relieve la existencia de cierta distancia entre el programa que el filósofo se propone ejecutar en el escrito y su materialización. Por otra parte, el artículo arroja algunas luces sobre el papel de los “grandes hombres” en la filosofía de la historia de Voltaire. (shrink)

Es un lugar común considerar a Voltaire como un crítico de Castel de Saint‒Pierre y uno de los principales responsables de la recepción de su imagen como la de un promotor de ideas impracticables, en particular su proyecto de paz permanente entre las naciones. El objetivo de este artículo es mostrar que, en cualquier caso, la interpretación que hace de los escritos del abate es menos simple de lo que se puede pensar en un primer momento. El trabajo busca poner (...) de relieve los desplazamientos y torsiones que la figura de éste sufre en los escritos del filósofo francés, especialmente a partir de los años 50’, momento en el que revaloriza algunos aspectos de su obra. Por otra parte, el texto arroja algunas luces acerca de lo que podría considerarse el proyecto de paz del propio Voltaire. (shrink)

Strategically pursuing the time-honoured notion of tactical essentialism I explore some of the unworked themes from my old porno-theories concerning the sexual as a site of reflection, the literal deferral of jouissance in favour of a moment of insight. In order to do this I locate my argument in pages from the diaries of an old friend and bar colleague in Paris, J, which extend over three decades of gay life and contain innumerable scenes of sexual abandonment, written in a (...) lucidly quotidian prose. I work from a series of Thursdays, which contain descriptions of J's weekly visits to the Keller Bar and in which, from the early 1990s, I figure from time to time. The unfolding of queer theory from early Butler onwards will thus be exposed to the light of ‘witness’ or ‘oral experience’, rethinking this old contradiction of people's history and cultural studies and taking some measure of theory's adequacy to make abstractions of such material. J was a founder member of Act Up-Paris and of the Sex Grenades, friend of Guillaume Dustan and others, so his accounts are anyway charged with an environment whose figuring in queer theory is essential to its ongoing development. (shrink)

La lógica, tal como sostienen algunos autores, es una disciplina normativa. Nos dice qué está bien y qué está mal a la hora de inferir, e influye en nuestras prácticas inferenciales. Por otro lado, el problema de la adopción de Kripke y Padró propone que la idea de adoptar principios lógicos no tiene sentido o no es posible. Mediante una comparación con distintas interpretaciones de la idea de normatividad en la lógica, analizaré la compatibilidad entre ambas posturas. La aparente desconexión (...) entre lo que es correcto y las prácticas de los agentes, sumada a la impotencia de las normas para influir en las prácticas inferenciales, llevarán a una conclusión poco alentadora para quienes quieran sostener ambas posturas: si aceptamos que el problema de la adopción es un problema real, entonces hay que borrar todo rastro de normatividad de nuestra concepción de la lógica. (shrink)

In this article, we present a proposal to enable agents to discuss the suitability of plans based on an argumentation scheme and associated critical questions. Agents coordinate their beliefs, intentions and preferences using a dialogue game based on this argumentation scheme and its critical questions. The detail encompassed by the argumentation scheme means that there is a large number of critical questions, and so dialogues may in principle be very lengthy. To improve the efficiency of dialogues, we present two strategies (...) for selecting questions. We have implemented the system and, here, presented results showing how both strategies are effective in reducing the number of questions required to reach agreement, although their relative effectiveness is dependent on characteristics of the problem domain. (shrink)

Este artículo estudia la estructura lógico-matemática ligada a la mereo-topología de la teoría de conjuntos (MTTC), en cuanto esta estructura es el núcleo gnoseológico del neoliberalismo. En este contexto, analizamos los componentes lógico-matemáticos de tal estructura, a saber, la mereología, la topología y la teoría de conjuntos en oposición a la noción dialéctica de totalidad, como un medio para superar las consecuencias políticas y gnoseológicas derivadas de la asunción de tal aparato lógico-matemático. Asimismo, establecemos una relación entre la MTTC y (...) la fenomenología, lo cual permite analizar algunas inconsistencias relacionadas no solo con la estructura lógico-matemática de la MTTC, sino también con la implementación de la intencionalidad fenomenológica y la subsecuente ley eidética de dependencia. (shrink)