Examining the costs and motivations of warfare is key to conundrums concerning the relevance of this troubling phenomenon to the evolution of social attachment and cooperation, particularly during adolescence and young adulthood—the developmental time period during which many participants are first recruited for warfare. The study focuses on Samburu, a pastoralist society of approximately 200,000 people occupying northern Kenya’s semi-arid and arid lands, asking what role the emotionally sensitized, peer-driven adolescent life stage may have played in the cultural and genetic (...) coevolution of coalitional lethal aggression. Research in small-scale societies provides unparalleled opportunities for sharply defined variables, particularly in age generation societies in which all young men are initiated into “warriorhood.” Proposing an epigenetic and component behavior approach, we examine whether raiding activities such as number of raids, killing, and sparing enemy lives associate with DNA methylation in two candidate genes: MAOA, linked to mood and arousal, and NR3C1, linked to stress and immune response. We report statistically significant associations between the epigenetic variables and the combat variables of overall raiding activity and reportedly showing mercy to enemies. In contrast, epigenetic variables did not associate with post-traumatic stress disorder symptom scores, and the only combat variable associated with PTSD was losing one’s own livestock in a raid. These findings raise important questions concerning the mechanisms driving warfare’s paradoxical mix of violent and altruistic behaviors. (shrink)

Based on the findings about the importance of social support network in the success of treatment and long term recovery, this article will provide an insight of the successful elements in addiction individual and group counseling interaction through which addicts manage to overcome the denial of addiction, to accept the recovery program, to go through the stages of recovery, and to identify appropriate research methods for understanding the phenomenon of interaction in recovery from addictions. This exploratory study will attempt to (...) identify an innovative perspective of the aspects pertaining to the recovery from addiction which are susceptible to be disclosed primarily by using methods inspired by the analysis of interactions. The method used in research is qualitative focus group with addictions counsellors and people in recovery, working in a counseling center. Using the application of ELAN software to annotate and transcribe interactions from the video and audio recordings, it will situate the research on addiction and recovery from addiction in the larger field of investigations on communication processes in human interactions in various cultural, social and professional contexts. (shrink)

This article is concerned with the dynamic of social change in the domain of food consumption and seeks to understand the role played by social representations in the transformation of daily food practices. It rests on a model of change that hinges on the processes of cultivation and naturalization of new components of practices. Social representation theory is used to enhance the understanding of the ways that representations contribute to these processes of cultivation and naturalization. Using a visual and multimodal (...) framework for analyzing online environments, the research looked at 984 Instagram posts published by 34 actors who have an interest in promoting alternative proteins in the Canadian context. Results show an emergent subfield of food consumption defined by representations of alternative proteins actively and fluidly intertwined with those of their meat and dairy counterparts. This interplay emerges as being confrontational in the cultivation phase of the model for changing practices –where alternative proteins are presented as being better than meat and dairy – but becomes much more conciliatory during its naturalization phase, in which alternative proteins are presented as being as good as meat and dairy. (shrink)

The Region Connection Calculus (RCC) is a qualitative spatial reasoning formalism, developed in knowledge representation and geographical information systems. We argue that RCC can be viewed as a more fine-grained approach to the use of Euler diagrams to visualize categorical statements like ‘all A are B’. We present RCC using the syntax of first-order modal logic and a topological semantics. We compare the Gergonne relations (a well-known set of 5 jointly exhaustive and pairwise disjoint relations between two non-empty sets, visualized (...) using Euler-type diagrams) with RCC8 (a similar set of 8 relations for regions). (shrink)

A Deleuzian incursion into Kantian Criticism. About the Doctrine of the Faculties from the Perspective of their Interest. Deleuze describes the doctrine of the faculties as a complete system of permutations. These faculties are analyzed in part according to their own interest: speculative or practical. Each faculty has a superior form through which it is realized. Deleuze’s question is to what extent a faculty becomes able to achieve its own interest and bear the legislative burden for another. Reflective judgment generally (...) makes it possible to move from the faculty of knowledge to that of desire, from speculative to practical. These are also questions concerning the free agreement of our faculties with the contingency of Nature’s own accord with them. (shrink)

Addressing studying as a distinct educational concept and phenomenon in its own right, the essays in this volume consider study and studying from a range of perspectives. Countering dominant educational discourses, which place a heavy emphasis on learning and instruction, the contributors explore questions such as: What does it mean to study something? How is studying something different from being taught about it, or learning something about it? What does the difficulty demanded by study mean for the one who studies (...) and for the teacher? What mode of existence does study induce? The book highlights the significance of study not only, or even primarily, for its educational outcome, but as a human activity. (shrink)

In recent years the French philosopher Jacques Rancière has addressed the predicament of artists and curators who, in their eagerness to convey a critical message or engage their viewers in an emancipatory process, end up predetermining the outcomes of the experience, hence blocking its critical or emancipatory potential. In this essay I consider Rancière’s writing on this topic and draw out the parallels with the predicament of teachers and curriculum designers who have critical and emancipatory objectives. The risk of education (...) that strives for emancipation is that it can become so directive in steering students to the “right” outcomes that it does not leave these students any intellectual room. Rancière’s work is helpful in reminding us that teachers and curricula with explicitly critical, political, emancipatory objectives can defeat their own purposes and become stultifying if they do not leave the student room to use her or his own intelligence. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to evaluate which context determines the illocutionary force of written or recorded utterances—those involved in written texts, films and images, conceived as recordings that can be seen or heard in different occasions. More precisely, my paper deals with the “metaphysical” or constitutive role of context—as opposed to its epistemic or evidential role: my goal is to determine which context is semantically relevant in order to fix the illocutionary force of a speech act, as distinct (...) from the information the addressee uses to ascertain the semantically relevant context. In particular I will try to assess two different perspectives on this problem, a Conventionalist Perspective and an Intentionalist Perspective. Drawing on the literature on indexicals in written texts and recorded messages, I will argue in favor of the Intentionalist Perspective: the relevant context is the one intended by the speaker. Bringing intentions into the picture, however, requires qualification; in particular, I will distinguish my Weak Intentionalist proposal from a Strong Intentionalist one. I will show that the Weak Intentionalist Perspective is flexible enough to deal with cases of delayed communication, but not so unrestricted as to yield counter-intuitive consequences. (shrink)

Is it true that utilitarianism can accommodate the modern belief that human beings have certain moral rights against everybody ‘just in virtue of their human nature?’ I should have thought the most a utilitarian could grant was that we had rights just in virtue of the utility of respecting such rights, not just in virtue of our human nature. In fact, that is more like the view Professor Brandt actually supports. What he argues is that there is not the a (...) priori difficulty with the idea of utilitarian moral rights that some philosophers have thought there was. However, I think the possibility of utilitarian moral rights is not the same as the view that we all have human rights against everybody just in virtue of our human nature. As I hear it, ‘just in virtue of our human nature’ is an alternative to a utilitarian basis for rights. I'll return to that. (shrink)

This book is dedicated to the life and work of the mathematician Joachim Lambek. The editors gather together noted experts to discuss the state of the art of various of Lambek’s works in logic, category theory, and linguistics and to celebrate his contributions to those areas over the course of his multifaceted career. After early work in combinatorics and elementary number theory, Lambek became a distinguished algebraist. In the 1960s, he began to work in category theory, categorical algebra, logic, proof (...) theory, and foundations of computability. In a parallel development, beginning in the late 1950s and for the rest of his career, Lambek also worked extensively in mathematical linguistics and computational approaches to natural languages. He and his collaborators perfected production and type grammars for numerous natural languages. Lambek grammars form an early noncommutative precursor to Girard’s linear logic. In a surprising development, he introduced a novel and deeper algebraic framework for analyzing natural language, along with algebraic, higher category, and proof-theoretic semantics. This book is of interest to mathematicians, logicians, linguists, and computer scientists. (shrink)

Guala contests the validity of strong reciprocity as a key element in shaping social behavior by contrasting evidence from experimental games to that of natural and historic data. He suggests that in order to understand the evolution of social behavior researchers should focus on natural data and weak reciprocity. We disagree with Guala's proposal to shift the focus of the study from one extreme of the spectrum (strong reciprocity) to the other extreme (weak reciprocity). We argue that the study of (...) the evolution of social behavior must be comparative in nature, and we point out experimental evidence that shows that social behavior is not cooperation determined by a set of fixed factors. We argue for a model that sees social behavior as a dynamic interaction of genetic and environmental factors. (shrink)

Global concerns over environmental and social issues in agrifood value chains have increased and are reflected in a number of voluntary sustainability standards and regulatory initiatives. However, these initiatives are often based on poor knowledge of production realities, creating a disconnect between producing and consuming countries. Through narrative analysis, this paper reveals asymmetries in the responsibilities of the various actors participating in Ecuadorian banana value chains, providing clear problem- and solution-framings. Despite the broad range of actors interviewed, our analysis reveals (...) convergence in two main narratives that reflect asymmetries amongst local actors in terms of their ability to participate, ability to maintain participation, and adaptation strategies in view of changing external factors. One narrative relates to sustainability adaptations, the cost of which is not shared among all value chain actors. This is combined with a downward trend in the price of bananas and the lack of a differentiated price to account for losses and costs arising from increasing sustainability standards. Another narrative reflects a value chain structure that threatens small-farm survival. It highlights the urgency of protecting small-farm activity by enforcing national regulation and developing new market segments/models that understand small-scale producer reality. Study results show that the multitude of standards is not seen as beneficial and that downstream actors rather wish for common minimum standards to reduce business costs. Compatibility between standards and local realities should be a priority for global sustainability standards adoption. Building on the problems and solution-framings of local value chain links, we give voice to local actors, and link their perceptions to existing literature and discursive politics while contributing to social transparency and addressing the democratic deficit in agrifood value chains. (shrink)

Steffen Ganghof’s Beyond Presidentialism and Parliamentarism can improve existing typologies in comparative government and has great potential for discussions about democratic innovation and reform. So far, democratic innovations like deliberative mini-publics have remained mostly additive, leaving the underlying decision-making logics of representative political systems unchanged. Ganghof’s ideas can move debates about how deliberative democracy is to be institutionalized forward. Semi-parliamentary government constitutes an intriguing option to meet both demands for legislative flexibility and responsiveness to citizens’ concerns and demands for stability (...) and accountability. At the same time, I identify a limitation of the book in the fact that Ganghof’s normative theory of democracy remains thin. To appeal to citizens in constitutional reform processes, proposals for semi-parliamentary reform need to do more than reconcile conflicting visions of majority rule. They need to speak to democracy’s central promises of equal autonomy and rationality. (shrink)

Propósito: la adecuación del esfuerzo terapéutico es una decisión clínica basada en la evidencia que pretende evitar la futilidad médica. Se han señalado diferentes factores que pueden influir en esta toma de decisiones los cuales se relacionan con el paciente, el profesional médico que toma de las decisiones, barreras del sistema, cultura y economía, entre otros. El presente estudio pretende identificar aquellos factores que influyen en los médicos especialistas que laboran en la institución referente del cáncer en Colombia, a fin (...) de planear acciones que mejoren el abordaje de la toma de decisiones con respecto a la adecuación del esfuerzo terapéutico en pacientes con cáncer. Metodología: diseño cualitativo basado en 13 entrevistas en profundidad a médicos especialistas del Instituto Nacional de Cancerología de Colombia. Resultados: participaron 3 mujeres y 10 hombres, con un promedio de edad de 36 años, 7 pertenecientes a la especialidad de oncología de adultos, 2 a oncohematología pediátrica, 1 a cuidados intensivos de adultos y 3 a cuidados intensivos pediátricos. Los factores hallados se agruparon en cuatro categorías: 1) conocimiento, 2) aspectos relacionados con la toma de decisiones, 3) quién decide, 4) tipo de decisión que se toma; a su vez, estas categorías se agruparon en temas que hacen alusión a los factores que influyen en la toma de decisiones de los especialistas para adecuar los esfuerzos terapéuticos. Conclusión: la adecuación de los esfuerzos terapéuticos es importante para evitar procedimientos médicos fútiles que prolonguen el sufrimiento. Se evidenciaron algunos factores que influyen en la toma de decisiones de los especialistas: falta de preparación de los profesionales de salud en el tema de toma de decisiones al final de la vida, uso reducido de escalas que permitan mejorar la información del pronóstico y desconocimiento sobre voluntades anticipadas; estos son algunos de aquellos factores que deben fortalecerse para generar acciones que mejoren el abordaje de esta temática. (shrink)

How can we radically change the inhuman conditions existing in the world today? In this paper, I answer this question by explaining the how, when, and who of radical socio-political transformation. We need both critical theorizing and transformative practice to explain how we can change the world. We must theorize the moment of the limit in the objective domain of power to answer when the transformative agency becomes possible. I introduce the idea of the “political subject-in-outline” that moves within the (...) tension of minimal closure and permanent openness to theorize a who, which remains inclusive and has the strength to transform the status quo. Marx’s and Adorno’s thought remains central to theorize socio-political transformation today. (shrink)

ZUSAMMENFASSUNGDas Thema des vorliegenden Artikels ist das Gewissen als Instanz der Selbsterschließung. Der Artikel wird durch drei Fragen strukturiert: Erstens, wer oder was ist die erschließende Instanz? Zweitens, wie geht die Erschließung vor sich? Und drittens, was wird über das Selbstsein erschlossen? Diese Fragen werden am Beispiel der Beiträge von Martin Luther, Søren Kierkegaard und Martin Heidegger untersucht. Deren Texte stehen in einem Rezeptionszusammenhang und haben Implikationen, die theologisch und anthropologisch relevant sind. Um den Manifestationen des Gewissens in der menschlichen (...) Erfahrung auf die Spur zu kommen, wird den drei genannten Leitfragen entsprechend bei allen drei Autoren erstens der Ursprung der im Gewissen vorgehenden Selbsterschließung, zweitens die Art und Weise der Selbsterschließung und drittens der erschlossene Inhalt eruiert. Dies geschieht in drei Schritten: Zunächst in textnahen Einzeldarstellungen , dann im kritischen Vergleich und schließlich in der Diskussion kontroverser Punkte . Zur Diskussion gestellt wird 1. der methodische Zugang zu Fragen der Selbsterschließung, 2. die Bestimmung und Bewertung der durch das Gewissen erschlossenen ›Schuld‹ und 3. das Verständnis der Freiheit oder Unfreiheit des Menschen.SUMMARYThe article focuses on conscience as an instance of self-disclosure. The article is structured by three questions: First, who or what is performing the disclosure? Second, in what ways is the self-disclosure enacted? And third, what is disclosed about selfhood? These questions are examined with respect to the contributions by Martin Luther, Søren Kierkegaard, and Martin Heidegger. Their works stand in a line of reception and have implications that are theologically and anthropologically relevant. In order to find out how conscience manifests itself in human experience, the texts will be analyzed with regard to the origin and/or subject of disclosing, the mode of disclosure, and the disclosed content. The investigation proceeds in the following steps: Part I is dedicated to the differing descriptions of conscience and introduces the texts of the individual authors. Part II offers a brief comparison of their approaches. Part III is an attempt to formulate and discuss the controversial points. The issues to be discussed are, first, the methodological approach to questions of self-disclosure; second, the definition and evaluation of the ›guilt‹ disclosed by conscience; and, third, the understanding of human freedom or unfreedom. (shrink)

Digitality is increasingly central to individuals’ existence, which has political implications. The article maps the political implications of digitalisation, focusing on African political thought. The latter is marked by Afro-communitarianism ideas, which foster solidarity, relationality, and communalism as foundational values of the polity. However, African communitarianism has granted little attention to contemporary phenomena such as digitalisation. Also, political theory discussions on digitality have looked mainly at (neo)liberal contexts. How the digital age is reshaping the tenets of communitarian political theories represents (...) an underdiscussed issue. This article outlines a research agenda on digitality and African political thought. New digitality-enabled relational modes change human and political interactions. The issue at stake is how these new modes challenge or strengthen the Afro-communitarian political outlook. This article recognises digital-humanism, political community, relations of power as central matters of inquiry. The analysis relies on bibliographic sources from African philosophy and comparative political theory. (shrink)

Jacob Böhme (1575-1624) is one of the most important German thinkers. His writings have influenced literature, philosophy, religion and art beyond national borders from his time up to the present. One hundred years after the beginning of the Protestant Reformation - on the eve of the Thirty Years' War - Böhme wanted to give voice to the need for a deep spiritual and philosophical renewal. In a series of exhibitions - in Dresden, Coventry, Amsterdam, and Wrocław - the Dresden State (...) Art Collections recall this unconventional thinker, whose ideas about the relationship between science and belief, humanity and nature, woman and man are today more current than ever. Exhibition: Coventry Cathedral, UK (30.04. - 05.07.2019)"-- Back cover. (shrink)

A reputation for being a "badass" in this context is a source of self‐esteem and of others' respect. But self‐esteem and respect, unqualified, are thought to be goods. Immanuel Kant analyzes human moral psychology, first, in terms of three predispositions, all basically good, which he calls the predispositions to animality, to humanity, and to personality. Animality is a predisposition to be motivated by "physical or merely mechanical self‐love", for self‐preservation, propagation of the species, and even for "community with other human (...) beings". There is a kind of self‐interest more basic than the prudence that Kant usually has in mind when he refers to self‐interest or self‐love. Christine Korsgaard develops a Kantian view of the sources of normativity that locates their roots in one's self‐conception. Interpersonal psychology lends support and amplification to Korsgaard's view that normativity is rooted in one's self‐concept. (shrink)

Nos atraviesa una realidad dotada con una gran riqueza gracias a la diversidad que presenta, realidad que no es ajena a las instituciones escolares y que, por momentos, parece no ser entendida y aceptada por una parte de las sociedades consideradas posmodernas. Este artículo plantea una reflexión sobre el desempeño docente que más allá de ser un transmisor del saber, actúa como formador de ciudadanos. Se postula que la escuela es un espacio donde cohabita la pluralidad quedando a la luz (...) la escasez de equidad social y, por lo tanto, de inequidad educativa. (shrink)

En este ensayo me propongo estudiar cómo Óscar Liera, en su texto dramático Las fábulas perversas, echa mano de los recursos de la farsa para construir una visión profundamente crítica de un episodio relevante de la historia de México. El dramaturgo recrea la figura de Fray Servando Teresa de Mier y lo convierte, mediante los tonos de la risa, en un referente y un símbolo de libertad, que se opone a los abusos del poder al tiempo que desenmascara sus fábulas (...) perversas. (shrink)

Examining to what extent physicians are, or ought to be, defined by the profession when giving advice to patients, this commentary seeks to offer a better understanding of the potential conflicts that the American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) “Opinion 1.1.7, Physician Exercise of Conscience,” addresses. This commentary conceptualizes the professions as knowledge communities, and situates the physician-patient relationship within this larger conceptual framework. So doing, it sheds light on how and when specialized knowledge is operationalized in professional advicegiving. Physicians communicate the (...) knowledge community’s insights to the patient. Thus, departures from professional knowledge as a matter of the professional’s personal conscience are appropriately circumscribed by the knowledge community. (shrink)

Drawing on examples by Gottfried Keller, Gottfried Semper, Walter Benjamin, Paul Scheerbart and Bruno Taut, the paper pursues the subcutaneous impacts of Goethe’s Faust II in modern aesthetics. Recurring to morphology and the theory of colour, these aesthetics connect Faust with the categories of color and volubility, thus establishing an alternative relation be- tween tradition and modernity.

O presente texto procura refletir sobre as atuais propostas de reforma educacional elaboradas para a educação brasileira. Na tentativa de (re)pensar a educação, tanto do ponto de vista teórico quanto prático, aborda questões que abrangem este processo de elaboração. Busca enfatizar a influência exercida pelos órgãos internacionais e as conseqüências que os mesmos podem refletir na estrutura da sociedade brasileira.

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion.

El Sofista es una obra actualmente perdida de Aristóteles de la que se conservan escasos fragmentos. En tres de ellos, 1a, 1b y 1c, el Estagirita le adjudica a Zenón la invención de la dialéctica, pese a que las estrategias argumentativas que esta técnica supone son rastreables en diversas obras pertenecientes a diversos ámbitos: la literatura, la historia, la filosofía, la medicina, etc., incluso con anterioridad al desarrollo del pensamiento de este último filósofo. Esto nos lleva a preguntarnos sobre el (...) sentido de esta caracterización y cuáles son los motivos por los cuales Aristóteles la realiza. En este trabajo nos proponemos analizar esta cuestión. Para ello, previamente examinaremos los usos de ciertas prácticas, consideradas posteriormente como dialécticas, por pensadores y escritores que antecedieron o fueron contemporáneos a Zenón. Tras hacer eso, nos centraremos en la reconstrucción de los fragmentos 1a-c del Sofista a la luz de otros textos del corpus, como, por ejemplo, Metafísica III 4 y Física VI 9. (shrink)