Ganghof’s Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarianism advances three main claims: an innovative typology of comparative government, introducing the category of semi-parliamentarianism; an explication of two conceptions of majority rule, simple majoritarianism and complex majoritarianism; and a demonstration that there are viable systems of government embodying the political equality associated with each majoritarian conception. This paper explains these claims and identifies issues discussed in this symposium.

In this paper, we show how to construct for a given consistent theory U a $$\varSigma ^0_1$$ Σ 1 0 -predicate that both satisfies the Löb Conditions and the Kreisel Condition—even if U is unsound. We do this in such a way that U itself can verify satisfaction of an internal version of the Kreisel Condition.

Scientism, Enough of That In this paper I argue that it is not a good idea to employ the notion of scientism in public debates concerning issues like free will. Moreover, I claim that, also in philosophy proper, thinking through the notion of scientism is not an urgent task. It is better to reflect directly on notions like justification, evidence, authority of science and the like.

This report is about ethical thinking in the field of health and health care. But it is no abstract philosophical tract. It is designed to be of practical help to those struggling with the complex questions of allocating resources in health care and to encourage a wider involvement at all levels in health debates. The questions it raises stimulate new thinking about today's institutional structures. As we proceeded with our work, we became aware that it is easier to state problems (...) than to solve them. However, we were also aware of the opposite danger of oversimplification implicit in the view that there was a moral calculus to which decisionmakers could turn when they were confronted by an ethical problem in the allocation of resources, and which would yield mechanical solutions to human problems. (shrink)

The study examines the argumentative competencies of people with Asperger syndrome (AS) and compares this with those of normal – or what are called neurotypical (NT) – subjects. To investigate how people with AS recognise, evaluate and engage in argumentation, we have adapted and applied the empirical instrument developed by van Eemeren, Garssen and Meuffels to study the conventional validity of the pragma-dialectical freedom rule (van Eemeren, Gars- sen & Meuffels 2003a; 2003b; 2005a; 2005b; van Eemeren & Meuffels, 2002). Our (...) paper begins with some background information on Asperger syndrome and how it impacts upon communication and argumentation; then it addresses the research questions and methods used; thirdly, it presents some initial findings; finally, it will conclude with some im- plications for those people with AS, for those they come into contact with and for the pragma-dialectic model in general. (shrink)

Situé au carrefour des études culturelles et visuelles (cultural and visual studies), de l’histoire matérielle (material history), de l’histoire du livre et de l’édition, et de la littérature, l’ouvrage publié sous la direction de Ann R. Hawkins et Maura Ives (toutes deux dix-neuvièmistes, spécialistes à la fois de la bibliographie et des women’s studies) regroupe douze études savantes qui brossent un large panorama de la situation littéraire, sociale et symbolique des écrivaines de langue an...

This paper considers critical rationalism under an institutional perspective. It argues that a methodology must be incentive compatible in order to prevail in scientific competition. As shown by a formal game-theoretic model of scientific competition, incentive compatibility requires quality standards that are hereditary: using high-quality research as an input must increase a researcher’s chances to produce high-quality output. Critical rationalism is incentive compatible because of the way it deals with the Duhem-Quine problem. An example from experimental economics illustrates the relevance (...) of the arguments. (shrink)

The essays in this Special Section are about the ethics of Commercialism in Medicine. They are written, for the most part, by bioethicists, with the support of several prominent physicians and a health policy lawyer. This journal is, of course, devoted to ethics. Thus, our intent is to subject the question of commercialism in medicine to ethical scrutiny. Much has been written about commercialism in healthcare but very little about the ethics of commercialism in healthcare. One of our authors, Dr. (...) Jerome Kassirer, has encouraged a national dialogue about these issues. We hope to start that dialogue in the bioethical community and, through that community, into the nation. (shrink)

_This untraditional text is a series of parables, allegories, and prose poems that reflect on the problem of the fragment. Studying the fragment lays the theoretical ground for the basic question of where a text begins and ends._.

Alors que le concept de genre est désormais adopté en France dans presque toutes les disciplines, les premiers ouvrages de synthèse commencent à voir le jour, en sociologie par exemple ou bien en histoire avec ce travail collectif sous la direction de Michèle Riot-Sarcey. Sans être un véritable manuel qui aurait l’ambition d’initier des étudiants aux différents travaux existants, l’ouvrage se révèle néanmoins une très bonne introduction à la puissance heuristique du concept appliqué à l’histo...

Brazilian society has frequently been described as polarized during the country’s recent political and economic crisis. In 2018, a wave of opposition to the centre-left Workers’ Party culminated in the election of Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist who portrays the political left as a malevolent force in Brazilian society. In this paper I explore this polarization through drawing on ethnographic research with the Homeless Workers’ Movement (Movimento de Trablhadores Sem-Teto, MTST), a large urban social movement that develops settlements on underutilized (...) land in the city, and a prominent civil society opponent of Bolsonaro. More specifically, I examine a key site of socio-spatial tension in São Paulo, Paulista Avenue, as a new political right came to predominate on the city’s main thoroughfare during the campaign to impeach the Workers’ Party President, Dilma Rousseff. I show how the perceived intolerance of the mobilized right helped to establish new normative codes that regulated the political symbolism which could be displayed in public spaces. Lastly, I consider how the vilification of the MTST in particular and the political left in general by the new right is embedded in broader structures of stigmatization. (shrink)

In this note we compare propositional logics for closed substitutions and propositional logics for open substitutions in constructive arithmetical theories. We provide a strong example where these logics diverge in an essential way. We prove that for Markov's Arithmetic, that is, Heyting's Arithmetic plus Markov's principle plus Extended Church's Thesis, the logic of closed and the logic of open substitutions are the same.

In this contribution the socalled Meno-Problem will be discussed. With respect to theories the problem is the following question: Why is it epistemologically more valuable to know a true theory than to simply believe it? A classical answer in reabilist accounts to this problem refers to the value of the operation which is used for gathering knowledge. But there is a gap in the argumentation as far as one is not allowed to derive from this assumption the conclusion that also (...) the result of the operation is valuable. We are going to show a difference between true theories which are just believed and theories which are also known to be true. This difference seems to allow one to close the mentioned gap. (shrink)

In this comment to Kehrer (2014) the relevance of atheistic argumentation in the domain of ethics as an important part of religion is sketched.

In this commentary, I review diverse lines of research conducted at both the macrosocial and microbehavioral level that dispute the view that cruelty is inherently gratifying. Expressions of pain and suffering typically inhibit rather than reinforce cruel conduct in humans. With regard to functional value, cruelty has diverse personal and social effects, not just the alluring benefits attributed to it.