Student relativism is a widespread phenomenon in philosophy classes. While the exact nature of student relativism is controversially discussed, many authors agree on two points: First, it is widely agreed that SR is a rather problematic phenomenon, because it potentially undermines the very purpose of doing philosophy—if there is no objective truth, arguing seems to be pointless. Second, it is widely agreed that there will be some close connection between SR and a tolerant attitude towards conflicting opinions. In this paper, (...) I will argue that if these two assumptions are true, then discussing some basic philosophical insights about the concept of tolerance with students will be a promising new strategy of dealing with SR. (shrink)

We review some 30 years of academic research on corporate philanthropy, taking stock of the current state of research about this rising practice and identifying gaps and puzzles that deserve further investigation. To do so, we examine a total of 162 academic papers in the fields of management, economics, sociology, and public policy, and analyze their content in a systematic fashion. We distinguish four main lines of inquiry within the literature: the essence of corporate philanthropy, its different drivers, the way (...) it is organized, and its likely outcomes. After reviewing the main findings of the literature, we build on several research gaps to highlight directions for future research on corporate philanthropy with an interest in strengthening our understanding of this fascinating phenomenon at the crossroads of business and society. (shrink)

This study illuminates how a cross-sector social partnership legitimizes itself toward multiple internal and external stakeholders. Within a single-case study design, we collected retrospective and real time data on the partnership between Deutsche Post DHL and The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Within this partnership, Deutsche Post DHL provides corporate volunteers that support disaster response after natural disasters on a pro bono basis. The main objects that needed legitimacy as well as the audiences from which legitimacy (...) was mainly sought changed over time. In addition, we identified legitimation work as occurring across objects, audiences, and time. Thus, we introduce legitimation work as the purposeful effort of the legitimacy seeker to avoid certain issues while ensuring other issues that are of importance to the conferrer of legitimacy. These findings contribute to micro-level considerations within institutional theory which view legitimacy as socially constructed between legitimacy seeker and conferrer. Hence, we add another perspective on legitimation to the previously existing conceptualizations of legitimacy as a deterministic consequence of institutionalization. (shrink)

Many different approaches to describing the players’ knowledge and beliefs can be found in the literature on the epistemic foundations of game theory. We focus here on non-probabilistic approaches. The two most prominent are the so-called Kripkeor Aumann- structures and knowledge structures (non-probabilistic variants of Harsanyi type spaces). Much of the recent work on Kripke structures has focused on dynamic extensions and simple ways of incorporating these. We argue that many of these ideas can be applied to knowledge structures as (...) well. Our main result characterizes precisely when one type can be transformed into another type by a specific type of information update. Our work in this paper suggest that it would be interesting to pursue a theory of “information dynamics” for knowledge structures (and eventually Harsanyi type spaces). (shrink)

Dans la Politique, Aristote s’attache à distinguer, pour les articuler et les hiérarchiser, la sphère économique et la sphère politique. Tout en reconnaissant l’autonomie propre des activités économiques, il s’attache à exposer les motifs qui légitiment la limitation de celles-ci par le pouvoir politique. En consacrant l’éminence de la politique par rapport à la sphère marchande, Aristote manifeste l’impérieuse nécessité de subordonner la recherche et l’acquisition des biens et des richesses matérielles – légitimes dans leur ordre – aux activités les (...) plus hautes de l’homme qui, seules, sont susceptibles de lui procurer le bonheur véritable. Recherchées pour elles-mêmes, celles-ci sont l’expression d’une sortie par l’homme d’une logique de l’utilité et témoignent d’une forme authentique de liberté dans laquelle se déploient sa vertu et son excellence. C’est in fine uniquement une éducation à la vie de loisir qui fait advenir, dans la communauté, des individus susceptibles d’assumer la destination morale et politique à laquelle la cité est appelée. Classification JEL : B11. (shrink)

La référence à l'ordinaire, dans l'ordre du discours, dans les pratiques politiques, ou dans le domaine des sciences sociales, est moins fréquente que celle au " commun ", au " populaire ", ou au " quotidien ". La notion d'ordinaire est pourtant à la fois plus immédiate, et plus centrale. Elle s'oppose à la fois au " savant ", au " théorique ", à l' " historique " et au " tragique ". Mais l'ordinaire est-il si aisé à connaître et (...) à comprendre? Les analyses rassemblées dans ce volume partent, non d'une évidence partagée de l'ordinaire, mais d'une difficulté à penser l'ordinaire. Elles proposent, dans une démarche exploratoire, de clarifier l'idée d'une " politique de l'ordinaire ", et de confronter à cet effet des points de vue issus de plusieurs disciplines : philosophie, science politique, sociologie, anthropologie. Ce travail collectif rejoint des préoccupations récemment apparues pour le commun comme concept des sciences sociales. Sur le plan politique, la revendication de l'ordinaire et du commun permet de considérer autrement les problèmes de la démocratie, de la communauté, de l'égalité, et d'examiner à nouveaux frais les termes du débat qui opposent, depuis longtemps, libertariens et communautariens. Sur le plan éthique, l'examen attentif des pratiques sociales communes, de nos conversations et gestes ordinaires, de l'ordre des interactions publiques ou privées, permet de réorienter le questionnement moral. (shrink)

The efficient coding hypothesis posits that sensory systems are tuned to the regularities of their natural input. The statistics of natural image databases have been the topic of many studies, which have revealed biases in the distribution of orientations that are related to neural representations as well as behavior in psychophysical tasks. However, commonly used natural image databases contain images taken with a camera with a planar image sensor and limited field of view. Thus, these images do not incorporate the (...) physical properties of the visual system and its active use reflecting body and eye movements. Here, we investigate quantitatively, whether the active use of the visual system influences image statistics across the visual field by simulating visual behaviors in an avatar in a naturalistic virtual environment. Images with a field of view of 120° were generated during exploration of a virtual forest environment both for a human and cat avatar. The physical properties of the visual system were taken into account by projecting the images onto idealized retinas according to models of the eyes' geometrical optics. Crucially, different active gaze behaviors were simulated to obtain image ensembles that allow investigating the consequences of active visual behaviors on the statistics of the input to the visual system. In the central visual field, the statistics of the virtual images matched photographic images regarding their power spectra and a bias in edge orientations toward cardinal directions. At larger eccentricities, the cardinal bias was superimposed with a gradually increasing radial bias. The strength of this effect depends on the active visual behavior and the physical properties of the eye. There were also significant differences between the upper and lower visual field, which became stronger depending on how the environment was actively sampled. Taken together, the results show that quantitatively relating natural image statistics to neural representations and psychophysical behavior requires not only to take the structure of the environment into account, but also the physical properties of the visual system, and its active use in behavior. (shrink)

In this article, it will be argued that tolerance is not necessarily a political or ethical, but rather an abstract attitude that can be applied to many different dimensions of normative evaluation. More specifically, it will be argued that there are genuinely intellectual forms of tolerance that are epistemically motivated and that need to be assessed on purely epistemic grounds. To establish this claim, an abstract characterization of tolerance will be applied to the epistemic phenomenon of disagreement in order to (...) develop a specific conception of tolerance that picks out a genuinely intellectual attitude towards recognized disagreement. Since the attitude that is picked out by this conception is very popular and widespread, an epistemology of tolerance would be of great significance to our intellectual practice. (shrink)

Like many philosophers in the scholastic tradition, Suárez claims that we cannot cognize anything unless we use a cognitive device, a so-called intelligible species. But how can we produce such a device? And what kind of cognition does it make possible? This chapter examines these questions, paying particular attention to Suárez’s rejection of traditional theories that explained the production of intelligible species by referring to efficient causation. On his view, there can only be a relation of occasional causation: the existence (...) of sensory images is simply an occasion for the intellect to produce intelligible species. This chapter first analyzes this type of causation and then looks at the function of the species. It argues that species are inner representations that make particular things cognitively present. In presenting this view, Suárez breaks with a long tradition that took species to be the product of a process of assimilation of universal forms and paves the way for early modern theories of representation. (shrink)

Nous proposons dans ce volume une approche pluridisciplinaire du sens commun. Fruit d'un travail collectif organisé au CURAPP et dans le cadre du programme scientifique ASC, les articles ici présentés, par la diversité de leurs orientations théoriques et disciplinaires, contribuent à faire un état des lieux de la question. L'idée de sens commun est fréquemment utilisée et citée en sociologie, philosophie, linguistique, psychologie, sans qu'il en soit toujours proposé de définition ou d'analyse critique. Elle demandait un travail de définition et (...) de requalification historique et théorique, et de mise en rapport à des corrélats : la norme, le sens moral, le sens social, le sens critique. L'ouvrage vise donc la description, aussi précise que possible des formes et des normes du sens commun en tant qu'elles enveloppent des dimensions cognitives, perceptives, linguistiques, sociales et morales. Il apparaît vite que cette notion résiste à la simple analyse et que seule la superposition de différents points de vue permet d'en percevoir quelques contours. On ne sera pas étonné de la diversité des figures convoquées et de la variété des objets à partir desquels elle est manifestée et interprétée. L'intérêt du sens commun comme objet d'investigation philosophique est alors d'apparaître comme ce qui permet de reprendre de manière oblique certains questionnements classiques qu'il déplace. Ainsi de la question topique des formes affectives, linguistiques et sociales d'expression du sentiment, de l'ancrage de la moralité dans une nature humaine et dans une sensibilité partagée ou encore de la manière dont le sens commun permet de réinterpréter, dans l'histoire des sciences sociales, la question des liens entre action et critique. (shrink)

This book presents fresh insights into analogue quantum simulation. It argues that these simulations are a new instrument of science. They require a bespoke philosophical analysis, sensitive to both the similarities to and the differences with conventional scientific practices such as analogical argument, experimentation, and classical simulation. -/- The analysis situates the various forms of analogue quantum simulation on the methodological map of modern science. In doing so, it clarifies the functions that analogue quantum simulation serves in scientific practice. To (...) this end, the authors introduce a number of important terminological distinctions. They establish that analogue quantum ‘computation' and ‘emulation' are distinct scientific practices and lead to distinct forms of scientific understanding. The authors also demonstrate the normative value of the computation vs. emulation distinction at both an epistemic and a pragmatic level. -/- The volume features a range of detailed case studies focusing on: i) cold atom computation of many-body localisation and the Higgs mode; ii) photonic emulation of quantum effects in biological systems; and iii) emulation of Hawking radiation in dispersive optical media. Overall, readers will discover a normative framework to isolate and support the goals of scientists undertaking analogue quantum simulation and emulation. This framework will prove useful to both working scientists and philosophers of science interested in cutting-edge scientific practice. (shrink)

The influence of Latin texts on Greek literature of the Imperial period remains somewhat understudied. However, there are some Greek texts that seem to depend from a Latin pretext, from works of Vergil in particular. This article discusses an epigram by Apollonides (Anth. Gr. 6.239), in which an old beekeeper named Kleiton is presented in much the same way as the old Corycian in Vergil’s “Georgics” (4.116-148). Vergil’s famous digression might therefore be a pretext for Apollonides’ poem. Moreover, Apollonides apparently (...) alludes to an epigram by Leonidas of Tarentum (Anth. Gr. 6.226) which features another old farmer named Kleiton. Apollonides’ poem could thus serve as an ‘appendix’ to Leonidas’ epigram based on the model of Vergil’s senex Corycius. (shrink)

The practice of early modern natural history depended on the collective collecting activities of a great variety of people. Among them, artisans played a major role in acquiring and distributing knowledge about the natural world and they contributed significantly to the scholarly labour in natural history. This distributed labour was both acknowledged by contemporaries as well as hidden from sight, reflecting the period′s dominant norms for class and gender. By combining an interpretation of the visual representation of labour in European (...) insect studies with an examination of written sources about natural history practices from about 1680 to 1810, this article decodes the often‐codified frontispieces and other more symbolic illustrations to offer new insights into the labour of natural history. Those who identified as scholars and artisans (or both) conceptualised their own intellectual and practical engagement with natural history within the semantic field of work. Some seemed to have even envisioned a new social role for academics as well as artisans. This article analyses the diversity of the “productive forces” in insect studies as they changed over time and it reconstructs what I will call the social imaginaries of participation. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that there are significant instances of educational injustice in the context of philosophy teaching that can be effectively reduced by an increased implementation of digital technologies. More specifically, I show that there are good reasons to believe that testimonial injustices constitute serious instances of educational injustice that will frequently occur in philosophy classes. Using digital tools to anonymize student contributions opens up a promising way of dealing with these injustices. If convincing, my arguments give reason (...) to perceive epistemic injustices in educational settings as a serious threat to educational justice and to reconsider the implications of increased digitalization for issues of educational justice. (shrink)

Perler, D. Essentialism and Direct Realism: Some Late Medieval Perspectives. Topoi 19, 111–122 (2000).

It has often been said that we should enter into a dialogue with thinkers of the past because they discussed they same problems we still have today and presented sophisticated solutions to them. I argue that this “dialogue model” ignores the specific context in which many problems were created and defined. A closer look at various contexts enables us to see that philosophical problems are not as natural as they might seem. When we contextualize them, we experience a healthy alienation (...) effect: we realise that problems discussed in the past depend on assumptions that are far from being self-evident. When we then compare these assumptions to our own, we reflect on our own theoretical framework that is not self-evident either. This leads to a denaturalisation of philosophical problems – in the past as well as in the present. I argue for this thesis by examining late medieval discussions on mental language. (shrink)

This paper examines the epistemic value of other-regarding epistemic virtues, challenging the common view that these virtues are primarily moral in nature. To this end, it proposes a new framework to explain the role of epistemic virtues: the Epistemic Social Environment (ESE). It is argued that the value of an epistemic virtue stems from its contribution to a healthy ESE. This approach enables a broader and unified theory of epistemic virtues, emphasising their role in the communal production of knowledge. Ultimately, (...) the paper aims to reconcile virtue epistemology with insights from social epistemology, offering a comprehensive account of the epistemic value of sharing knowledge. (shrink)

What kind of entities are faculties? How are they related to the soul and to the entire living being? How can they be classified? And in what sense are they responsible for a large variety of activities? This chapter examines these questions, which were extensively discussed by scholastic authors, and focuses on the metaphysical models established by William of Auvergne, Thomas Aquinas, William of Ockham, and Francisco Suárez. It argues that there was no unified scholastic doctrine. While some authors (e.g. (...) Ockham) took the faculties to be mere ways of acting of the soul, others (e.g. Suárez) conceived of them as distinct entities with their own power. The latter theory gave rise to a new model of the soul—a model that presented it as a complex entity with many distinct causes. (shrink)

Cet article interroge le statut du magique chez le premier Sartre à la fois comme héritage d'un dialogue avec la psychologie et l'anthropologie françaises et comme le lieu de la coupure phénoménologique par laquelle se développe une philosophie de l'existence originale. L'A. retrace l'apparition de la conscience magique, pour laquelle la spontanéité persiste d'une manière spécifique là où elle semblait mise en défaut, notamment dans les pathologies de l'imagination et dans l'émotion. Aussi la catégorie du magique permet-elle de penser l'autonomie (...) de la conscience irréfléchie en dotant ses différentes attitudes d'une signification selon une approche synthétique de la réalité-humaine. En un autre point névralgique chez Sartre, la conscience absolue s'emprisonne dans le monde selon un phénomène de dégradation grâce auquel apparaît le psychique : cette existence mixte entre pour-soi et en-soi est irréductiblement magique. Or, le fait psychique est le lieu des relations concrètes avec autrui et l'A. montre, qu'en dernière instance, le magique reparaît dans l'ontologie phénoménologique à travers le schème de la possession – possession d'autrui et possession des choses – mettant la transcendance au compte d'une sorcellerie originelle. (shrink)

Cet article interroge le statut du magique chez le premier Sartre à la fois comme héritage d'un dialogue avec la psychologie et l'anthropologie françaises et comme le lieu de la coupure phénoménologique par laquelle se développe une philosophie de l'existence originale. L'A. retrace l'apparition de la conscience magique, pour laquelle la spontanéité persiste d'une manière spécifique là où elle semblait mise en défaut, notamment dans les pathologies de l'imagination et dans l'émotion. Aussi la catégorie du magique permet-elle de penser l'autonomie (...) de la conscience irréfléchie en dotant ses différentes attitudes d'une signification selon une approche synthétique de la réalité-humaine. En un autre point névralgique chez Sartre, la conscience absolue s'emprisonne dans le monde selon un phénomène de dégradation grâce auquel apparaît le psychique : cette existence mixte entre pour-soi et en-soi est irréductiblement magique. Or, le fait psychique est le lieu des relations concrètes avec autrui et l'A. montre, qu'en dernière instance, le magique reparaît dans l'ontologie phénoménologique à travers le schème de la possession – possession d'autrui et possession des choses – mettant la transcendance au compte d'une sorcellerie originelle. (shrink)

In light of heated recent debates about neutrality and scientificity in social sciences, this issue seizes the opportunity to reconsider the terms of epistemological and political arguments concerning the relationships between critique and social sciences.

Comment la critique de Q. Skinner adressée aux historiens essentialistes et contextualistes de la pensée politique lui permet-elle de justifier, à partir d’une certaine lecture de J. L. Austin, le recours à ce qu’il appelle l’« intention illocutoire » de l’auteur. La mise au jour d’une telle intention devant permettre de décrire positivement l’ensemble des relations existant entre un texte et son contexte. De quel contexte s’agit-il? Le critère de l’intention permet-il, valablement, de se substituer au critère de la convention (...) chez Austin? (shrink)

The journal publishes exceptional articles in all areas of Western philosophy from antiquity up to contemporary philosophy. The Archiv articles are distinguished by precise argumentation and lucid prose.

Satz, Seele und Sachverhalt. Der propositionale Wahrheitsbegriff im Spätmittelalter.

In this paper, I discuss the effects of using thought experiments for the purpose of conceptual clarification on students’ hermeneutical abilities. On the one hand, by providing opportunities to explore the scope of normatively loaded concepts, thought experiments can effectively help students to interpret their social and moral reality more adequately, which in some cases might even help to reduce existing hermeneutical injustices. On the other hand, given their notorious susceptibility to distorting factors that are philosophically irrelevant, they can also (...) push students into accepting idiosyncratic intuitions that they don’t really share and thereby further impair their hermeneutical abilities. After setting out this dilemma in more detail, I will propose various strategies for facilitating the safe use of thought experiments that instructors can use to effectively exploit the empowering potential of thought experiments. (shrink)

High levels of trust have been linked to a variety of benefits including the well-functioning of markets and political institutions or the ability of societies to solve public goods problems endogenously. While there is extensive literature on the macro-level determinants of trust, the micro-level processes underlying the emergence and stability of trust are not yet sufficiently understood. We address this lacuna by means of a computer model. In this paper, conditions under which trust is likely to emerge and be sustained (...) are identified. We focus our analysis mainly on the individual characteristics of agents: their social or geographical mobility, their attitude towards others or their general uncertainty about the environment. Contrary to predictions from previous literature, we show that immobile agents are detrimental to both, the emergence and robustness of trust. Additionally, we identify a hidden link between trusting others and being trustworthy. (shrink)

This paper discusses a scenario borrowed from Williamson (2000) and repurposes it to argue for the possibility of conflict between two _prima facie_ categorical norms of epistemic rationality: the norm to respect one’s evidence and the norm to be coherent. It is argued, _pace_ Williamson, that in the conflict defining the scenario, the evidence norm overrides the coherence norm; that a rational agent with our evidence would lack evidence about some of their own credences; and that for agents whose evidence (...) is limited in this way, incoherence fails to entail irrationality. The above possibility claim has also been defended by Worsnip (2018), albeit on a quite different premise set and in conjunction with a coherence-centered account of epistemic rationality that issues predictions incompatible with those licensed by the evidence-centered account recommended here, as illustrated towards the end of the paper. (shrink)

This volume analyses ancient and medieval theories of intentionality in various contexts: perception, imagination, and intellectual thinking.

Many have claimed that epistemic rationality sometimes requires us to have imprecise credal states (i.e. credal states representable only by sets of credence functions) rather than precise ones (i.e. credal states representable by single credence functions). Some writers have recently argued that this claim conflicts with accuracy-centered epistemology, i.e., the project of justifying epistemic norms by appealing solely to the overall accuracy of the doxastic states they recommend. But these arguments are far from decisive. In this essay, we prove some (...) new results, which show that there is little hope for reconciling the rationality of credal imprecision with accuracy-centered epistemology. (shrink)

The present article develops a new approach to intellectual history and sociology of knowledge. Its point of departure is to investigate the conditions under which social thinkers assume the iconic reputation. What does it take to become ‘a founding father’ of a humanistic discipline? How do social thinkers achieve the status of a trans-disciplinary star? Why some intellectuals attract tremendous attention and ‘go down in history’ despite personal and professional failures, while others enjoy only limited recognition or simply sink into (...) oblivion, even if they have met all the standards of their day? Quite a few sociologists have tackled this elusive issue. Pierre Bourdieu, Michele Lamont and Randall Collins are among those who fleshed out strong explanatory frameworks. This project adds to this body of knowledge by emphasizing cultural factors that these authors downplayed in their seminal accounts, despite being aware of their significance. By showing why these underdeveloped aspects of their works need to be incorporated into the debate and how this can be achieved, this article introduces a new theorization of the iconic, lasting intellectual reputation substantiated by evidence from the lifeworks of Bronisław Malinowski and Michel Foucault. As such, it aims, minimally, to make sociology of knowledge decisively ‘cultural’. Maximally, it seeks to demonstrate that the iconic success of intellectual intervention in social theory depends on carefully performed and contingently mediated engagement with the binary systems of symbolic classification. (shrink)

The aim of the series Studies in the History of Philosophy of Mind is to foster historical research into the nature of thinking and the workings of the mind. The volumes address topics of intellectual history that would nowadays fall into different disciplines like philosophy of mind, philosophical psychology, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, etc. The monographs and collections of articles in the series are historically reliable as well as congenial to the contemporary reader. They provide original insights into central contemporary (...) problems by looking at them in historical contexts, addressing issues like consciousness, representation and intentionality, mind and body, the self and the emotions. In this way, the books open up new perspectives for research on these topics. (shrink)

Gautier, Mary L It is exciting to be witness to the twenty-first century in American Catholicism. Much has changed over the course of the twentieth century and I will discuss some key trends in American Catholicism that likely will be shaping American parishes in the twenty-first. In particular, changes in Catholic population during the twentieth century have influenced the number of American parishes, their location, and their size, as well as the composition of parishioners and of the leaders who (...) staff those parishes. Other changes in American Catholic attitudes and behaviours have influenced parish life in the twenty-first century, affecting parish participation, sacramental practice, and attachment to the faith. At the same time, the aspects of the faith that people find attractive and the markers that people say are essential to their Catholic identity remain virtually unchanged as we head into the twenty-first century. How do we keep Catholic identity strong, engage new generations in parish life, and grow vital parishes in the twenty-first century? Those are the challenges we will explore. In this article, I will discuss three of the primary challenges to parish life that we hear about on a near daily basis from media calls: Why are parishes closing? Why are there so many former Catholics? Will Millennial Catholics keep the faith? (shrink)

Political realists exercise ideology critique to emancipate citizens from problematic beliefs concerning the legitimacy of their social order. They seek to unveil hidden conflict within apparent harmony. However, realists have so far neglected the opposite case in which erroneous beliefs delegitimise a social order, thus contributing to unrest and resentment. As a prototypical case for delegitimation, I will discuss the ‘big lie’ narrative that surrounds the 2020 presidential election in the United States. As I will argue, realist ideology critique is (...) currently underequipped to deal with these cases. To address this shortcoming, I propose a modification to the critical realist methodology. I will argue that realists should focus on unveiling self-serving, rather than merely self-justifying, political narratives. In line with a more practice-oriented approach to ideology critique, I will further sketch some implications for liberal democratic institutions that follow from taking delegitimation seriously. (shrink)

The contributions in this volume examine these questions on the basis of key texts, thus shedding new light on the problematic relationship between logic and theology.