Resumo: Por intermédio da análise dos gêneros carta e conto escritos por Machado de Assis, procuramos oferecer uma resposta à questão do horizonte ético e moral que opera nos textos do autor. Trabalhamos numa perspectiva interdisciplinar, pois dialogamos com filósofos, historiadores e críticos literários procurando, num primeiro momento, demonstrar que a noção de cuidado de si se mostra na correspondência machadiana a partir da perspectiva de cura de si, isto é, um tipo de sabedoria dos antigos gregos e romanos que (...) o autor lança mão para realizar e organizar o pensamento literário, seu e de seus pares, na direção das publicações e conquistas no âmbito da literatura. Num segundo momento, demonstramos que o cuidado de si terá outro sentido nos textos de ficção, pois se volta para um cuidado da alma no sentido do desenvolvimento do pensamento crítico do sujeito em relação ao eu e ao outro, ao indivíduo e ao mundo social. Palavras-chave: Machado de Assis; Cuidado de Si; Cartas; Literatura. The care of the self as an ethical perspective in Machado de Assis Abstract : Through the analysis of the genres letter and short story written by Machado de Assis, we try to offer an answer to the question of the ethical and moral horizon that operates in the author's texts. We work in an interdisciplinary perspective, as we dialogue with philosophers, historians and literary critics, trying, in a first moment, to demonstrate that the notion of self-care is shown in Machado's correspondence from the perspective of self-cure, that is, a kind of wisdom from the ancient Greeks and Romans that the author uses to accomplish and organize the literary thought, his own and his peers', in the direction of publications and achievements in the field of literature. In a second moment, we demonstrate that the care of the self will have another meaning in fiction texts, since it turns to a care of the soul in the sense of the development of the subject's critical thought in relation to the self and to the other, to the individual and to the social world. Keywords: Machado De Assis; Self-Care; Letters; Literature. Le souci de soi comme perspective éthique chez Machado de Assis Résumé : A travers l'analyse des genres lettre et nouvelle écrits par Machado de Assis, nous essayons d'offrir une réponse à la question de l'horizon éthique et moral qui opère dans les textes de l'auteur. Nous travaillons dans une perspective interdisciplinaire, car nous dialoguons avec des philosophes, des historiens et des critiques littéraires en essayant, dans un premier temps, de démontrer que la notion d'auto-soin apparaît dans la correspondance de Machado dans la perspective de l'auto-cure, c'est-à-dire une sorte de sagesse des anciens Grecs et Romains que l'auteur utilise pour accomplir et organiser la pensée littéraire, la sienne et celle de ses pairs, vers des publications et des conquêtes dans le domaine de la littérature. Dans un deuxième temps, nous démontrons que le souci de soi aura un autre sens dans les textes de fiction, car il se transforme en soin de l'âme au sens du développement de la pensée critique du sujet par rapport au moi et à l'autre, à l'individu et au monde social. Mots-Clés: Machado De Assis; Soins Personnels; Letres; Littérature. Data de registro: 22/11/2022 Data de aceite: 24/04/2023. (shrink)

Este trabalho pretende entender como John Searle compreende a mente enquanto propriedade do cérebro. A partir da obra A Redescoberta da mente, consideramos, em primeiro lugar, alguns sentidos que parecem caracterizar a investigação de Searle em vista de um redescobrimento da mente. Ora, são visíveis na obra dois sentidos entrelaçados: o científico e o filosófico. Por sentido científico, poder-se-ia denominar esse que aparece desde a introdução e se estende por toda a obra, pois visa estabelecer um estatuto biológico da mente. (...) Já o sentido filosófico é aquele que propõe não reduzir a esfera do mental ao olhar objetivo do mundo, o que configura, talvez, sua postura filosófica, sobretudo quando diz que pretende “não decretar ou predizer o futuro da pesquisa, seja em filosofia, ciência ou outras disciplinas”.2 Essas são as razões pelas quais seria necessário caracterizar este sentido como pesquisa, que num aspecto forte pode ser denominado de procura pelo estatuto da mente. O sentido científico, em contraponto, é o fim último da pesquisa, que significa encontrar a solução adequada para o problema sobre a mente, ou, pelo menos, dar um passo correto para a solução; tornando o caminho plano para o redescobrimento da mente. Além disso, estudamos em Searle em que medida a mente exerce relações com o cérebro, e, nessa perspectiva, como seria possível redescobri-la nas interações biológicas com o corpo. (shrink)

A título de reflexão inicial, consideramos que a difusão de conhecimentos novos ou tradicionais dos campos da educação, em específico, da educação nas ciências humanas e sociais, são espacializados e ordenados por dimensões e fatores de natureza geográfica, filosófica e político-pedagógica. Geográfica porque obedece ao contexto de mudanças territoriais que os espaços de construção do saber, como escolas e universidades, perpassam ao longo de sua trajetória como instituições onde o ensinar, formar e aprender se modificam ao longo da história educacional. (...) Filosófica ao serem representados por teorias e noções acerca da formação intelectual, estética e moral do indivíduo, isto é, saberes inerentes ao processo de constituição laboral e discursiva dos profissionais da educação e seus aprendizes. E político-pedagógica porque comportamentos, identidades e aprendizagens são pautados em projetos e objetivos críticos e mobilizadores de sociedade e educação, principalmente em elementos dinâmicos como concepções de cidadania, juventude, ciência e cultura. Pensando deste modo, pretendemos discutir como pode ocorrer a difusão do campo educação geográfica na perspectiva da teoria da ação comunicativa. Consoante a isso, as discussões das obras de Habermas serão de natureza interpretativa e produzidas mediante leitura de seus principais conceitos e categorias. Por conseguinte, formularemos, em cinco tópicos, orientações de caráter técnico-conceitual sobre como os preceitos dos estudos em educação geográfica poderão ser aludidos na forma e conteúdo da filosofia de Habermas. Logo, entender e territorializar comunicativamente o conhecimento educacional da Geografia significa empreender modificações nos sistemas de produção pedagógica e científica da própria Geografia, em específico, nos seus respectivos agentes e saberes didáticos e curriculares. (shrink)

Na história educacional, em particular nos PCNS (1997), a ética adquire o status de tema transversal para uma educação básica de qualidade, quando são inseridos os conceitos de justiça, dialogo, afetos e emoções, reciprocidade, diálogo e racionalidade enquanto conteúdos comuns para as práticas pedagógicas e para os conhecimentos específicos das disciplinas. Na BNCC, a referência exata a esse conceito se faz nas competências gerais 6, 7, 9 e 10, como também, na menção do termo formação que está presente na introdução (...) dos tópicos que propõe bases para o pensar educativo das ciências humanas e sociais. Desta forma, a intenção é propor, pela filosofia de Jürgen Habermas, uma nova abordagem conceitual sobre ética presente na BNCC. A pesquisa se constitui por uma análise bibliográfica e interpretativa da Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC), das obras de Jürgen Habermas e de artigos referentes à educação e agir comunicativo. Logo, no campo educacional, o conceito de ética, na BNCC, pode ter uma estruturação com indicações racionais e comunicativas, conteúdos possibilitados pelo filosofar brasileiro, e mobilização de conhecimentos a partir de princípios e lógicas de ordem geográfica e simbólica. Esta ordem tem como base procedimentos, conceitos e entendimentos intersubjetivos, dimensões que são conduzidas através de aprendizagens construídas pelo discurso, tanto em sua forma multidimensional como concordante entre os atores sociais. (shrink)

Much forensic inference based upon DNA evidence is made assuming Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE) for the genetic loci being used. Several statistical tests to detect and measure deviation from HWE have been devised, and their limitations become more obvious when testing for deviation within multiallelic DNA loci. The most popular methods-Chi-square and Likelihood-ratio tests-are based on asymptotic results and cannot guarantee a good performance in the presence of low frequency genotypes. Since the parameter space dimension increases at a quadratic rate on (...) the number of alleles, some authors suggest applying sequential methods, where the multiallelic case is reformulated as a sequence of “biallelic” tests. However, in this approach it is not obvious how to assess the general evidence of the original hypothesis; nor is it clear how to establish the significance level for its acceptance/rejection. In this work, we introduce a straightforward method for the multiallelic HWE test, which overcomes the aforementioned issues of sequential methods. The core theory for the proposed method is given by the Full Bayesian Significance Test (FBST), an intuitive Bayesian approach which does not assign positive probabilities to zero measure sets when testing sharp hypotheses. We compare FBST performance to Chi-square, Likelihood-ratio and Markov chain tests, in three numerical experiments. The results suggest that FBST is a robust and high performance method for the HWE test, even in the presence of several alleles and small sample sizes. (shrink)

Intentional sampling methods are non-probabilistic procedures that select a group of individuals for a sample with the purpose of meeting specific prescribed criteria. Intentional sampling methods are intended for exploratory research or pilot studies where tight budget constraints preclude the use of traditional randomized representative sampling. The possibility of subsequently generalize statistically from such deterministic samples to the general population has been the issue of long standing arguments and debates. Nevertheless, the intentional sampling techniques developed in this paper explore pragmatic (...) strategies for overcoming some of the real or perceived shortcomings and limitations of intentional sampling in practical applications. (shrink)

This article presents a two level hierarchical forecasting model developed in a consulting project for a Brazilian magazine publishing company. The first level uses a VARMA model and considers econometric variables. The second level takes into account qualitative aspects of each publication issue, and is based on polynomial networks generated by Genetic Programming (GP).

Clearing algorithms are at the core of modern payment systems, facilitating the settling of multilateral credit messages with (near) minimum transfers of currency. Traditional clearing procedures use batch processing based on MILP - mixed-integer linear programming algorithms. The MILP approach demands intensive computational resources; moreover, it is also vulnerable to operational risks generated by possible defaults during the inter-batch period. This paper presents TORC3 - the Token-Ring Clearing Algorithm for Currency Circulation. In contrast to the MILP approach, TORC3 is a (...) real time heuristic procedure, demanding modest computational resources, and able to completely shield the clearing operation against the participating agents’ risk of default. (shrink)

This paper presents REAL, a Real-Valued Attribute Classification Tree Learning Algorithm. Several of the algorithm's unique features are explained by úe users' demands for a decision support tool to be used for evaluating financial operations strategies. Compared to competing algorithms, in our applications, REAL presents maj or advantages : (1) The REAL classification trees usually have smaller error rates. (2) A single conviction (or trust) measure at each leaf is more convenient than the traditional (probability, confidence-level) pair. (3) No need (...) for an external pruning criterion. (shrink)

Statistical tests that detect and measure deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) have been devised but are limited when testing for deviation at multiallelic DNA loci is attempted. Here we present the full Bayesian significance test (FBST) for the HWE. This test depends neither on asymptotic results nor on the number of possible alleles for the particular locus being evaluated. The FBST is based on the computation of an evidence index in favor of the HWE hypothesis. A great deal of (...) forensic inference based on DNA evidence assumes that the HWE is valid for the genetic loci being used. We applied the FBST to genotypes obtained at several multiallelic short tandem repeat loci during routine parentage testing; the locus Penta E exemplifies those clearly in HWE while others such as D10S1214 and D19S253 do not appear to show this. (shrink)

Physiological responses in futsal have not been studied together with temporal information about the players’ stay on the court. The aim of this study was to compare heart rate and blood lactate concentration responses between 1-H and 2-H considering the time of permanency of the players on the court at each substitution in a futsal match. HR was recorded during entire match and [La−] was analyzed after each substitution of seven players. %HRmean and [La−] mean did not differ between 1-H (...) and 2-H. Time in intensity zones of 50–100 %HRmax differed only in 60–70 %HRmax. HR coefficient of variation throughout the match was low and among the four outfield players on the court. Substitutions, time of permanence on the court, ratio between time in- and out-ratio on the court also were similar between 1-H and 2-H. Balancing the number of substitutions, and the In:Outcourt ratio of players in both halves of the match, playing lower time at 1-H, ~8 min for each participation in the match, made it possible to maintain intensity of the match in 2-H similar to the 1H. These results are a good guidance to coaches and for application in future studies. (shrink)

Esta pesquisa discute a aplicação da tecnologia da informação nos processos de representação da informação de obras artístico-pictóricas e teve por objetivo geral apresentar uma relação possível entre os softwares de mineração de textos e a sistematização de termos nas práticas de representação da informação a partir da documentação gerada pela análise de obras artístico-pictóricas pelo viés da Ciência da Informação. Para isso, a pesquisa consistiu de estudo de caso, utilizando o software online Sobek para processar uma amostra da documentação (...) gerada pelas análises de obras artístico-pictóricas de Medeiros (2017), com a realização de três etapas: a) organização textual do conteúdo documental; b) inserção do conteúdo textual organizado no software Sobek e geração do grafo e; c) análise do grafo gerado pelo software Sobek. Os resultados indicaram que a utilização do Sobek demonstra indícios da viabilidade de uso da mineração de texto como auxílio aos processos de representação da informação de obras artístico-pictóricas, não obstante apontaram a necessidade de aprofundamento da questão para realização de futuras propostas metodológicas e de aperfeiçoamento do software a este fim documentário. (shrink)

Resumo: O ensaio parte da consideração de que a obra de Fernand Deligny (1913-1996) é uma intersecção entre diversas áreas do saber, como a filosofia, a educação, a psicologia, a antropologia e a etologia. Assim, busca formular um Deligny Contemporâneo, uma figura que se constitui a partir do debate público estabelecido em torno das pessoas diagnosticadas com o autismo na contemporaneidade. A partir de uma revisão bibliográfica narrativa, o texto propõe dois caminhos gerais de compreensão sobre a obra do autor, (...) que ainda é bastante desconhecida em território brasileiro: (1) o problema do poder pedagógico-psiquiátrico e de seu efeito sobre a maneira como o autismo passa a ser compreendido; e (2) o problema do topos, das formas de convívio possíveis entre modos de ser verbais e não verbais, que se desdobram em uma discussão sobre o lugar social do autismo. Palavras-chave: Autismo; Neurodiversidade; Educação; Poder Psiquiátrico; Fernand Deligny Contemporary Fernand Deligny: cartographing between education and psychiatric power Abstract: The essay starts from the consideration that the work of Fernand Deligny (1913-1996) is an intersection between different areas of knowledge, such as philosophy, education, psychology, anthropology, and ethology. Thus, it seeks to formulate a Contemporary Deligny, a figure that is constituted from the public debate established around people diagnosed with Autism in contemporary times. Based on a narrative bibliographic review, the text proposes two general ways of understanding the author's work, which is still largely unknown in Brazilian territory: (1) the problem of pedagogical-psychiatric power and its effect on the way in which autism becomes understood; and (2) the problem of topos, of the forms of possible coexistence between verbal and non-verbal ways of being, which unfold in a discussion about the social place of autism. Keywords: Autism; Neurodiversity; Education; Psychiatric Power; Fernand Deligny Contemporâneo Fernand Deligny: cartografía entre educación y poder psiquiátrico Resumen: El ensayo parte de la consideración de que la obra de Fernand Deligny (1913-1996) es una intersección entre diferentes áreas del conocimiento, como la filosofía, la educación, la psicología, la antropología y la etología. Se busca así formular un Deligny Contemporáneo, un personaje que se constituye a partir del debate público establecido en torno a las personas diagnosticadas con Autismo en la época contemporánea. A partir de una revisión bibliográfica narrativa, el texto propone dos caminos generales para comprender la obra del autor, aún en gran medida desconocida en el territorio brasileño: (1) el problema del poder pedagógico-psiquiátrico y su efecto en la forma en que se llega a entender el autismo; y (2) el problema del topos, de las formas de coexistencia posible entre modos de ser verbales y no verbales, que se despliegan en una discusión sobre el lugar social del autismo. Palabras-clave: Autismo; Neurodiversidad; Educación; Poder Psiquiátrico; Fernand Deligny Data de registro: 04/02/2024 Data de aceite: 25/09/2024. (shrink)

In a recent article, P. Roger Turner and Justin Capes argue that no one is, or ever was, even partly morally responsible for certain world-indexed truths. Here we present our reasons for thinking that their argument is unsound: It depends on the premise that possible worlds are maximally consistent states of affairs, which is, under plausible assumptions concerning states of affairs, demonstrably false. Our argument to show this is based on Bertrand Russell’s original ‘paradox of propositions’. We should then opt (...) for a different approach to explain world-indexed truths whose upshot is that we may be morally responsible for some of them. The result to the effect that there are no maximally consistent states of affairs is independently interesting though, since this notion motivates an account of the nature of possible worlds in the metaphysics of modality. We also register in this article, independently of our response to Turner and Capes, and in the spirit of Russell’s aforementioned paradox and many other versions thereof, a proof of the claim that there is no set of all true propositions one can render false. (shrink)

Research teams have used extra-uterine systems to support premature fetal lambs and to bring them to maturation in a way not previously possible. The researchers have called attention to possible implications of these systems for sustaining premature human fetuses in a similar way. Some commentators have pointed out that perfecting these systems for human fetuses might alter a standard expectation in abortion practices: that the termination of a pregnancy also entails the death of the fetus. With Biobags, it might be (...) possible, some argue, that no woman has the right to expect that outcome if the technology is able to sustain fetal lifeafteran abortion. In order to protect the expectation that the termination of a pregnancy always entails the death of the fetus, Elizabeth Romanis has argued that fetuses sustained in Biobags have a status different than otherwise ‘born’ children. In support of that view, she argues that these ‘gestatelings’ are incapable of independent life. This argument involves a misunderstanding of the gestational support involved, as well as a misapprehension of neonatology practice. Here, we argue that any human fetus sustained in a Biobag would be as ‘independent’ as any other premature infant, and just as ‘born’. Neonatologists would seem to have certain presumptive moral responsibilities toward any human fetus gestating in a Biobag. It remains a separate question whether the perfection and widespread application of Biobags for premature human beings would or should alter the expectation that ending a pregnancy also entails fetal death. (shrink)

Appellate Court Modifications Extraction consists of, given an Appellate Court decision, identifying the proposed modifications by the upper Court of the lower Court judge’s decision. In this work, we propose a system to extract Appellate Court Modifications for Portuguese. Information extraction for legal texts has been previously addressed using different techniques and for several languages. Our proposal differs from previous work in two ways: our corpus is composed of Brazilian Appellate Court decisions, in which we look for a set of (...) modifications provided by the Court; and to automatically extract the modifications, we use a traditional Machine Learning approach and a Deep Learning approach, both as alternative solutions and as a combined solution. We tackle the Appellate Court Modifications Extraction task, experimenting with a wide variety of methods. In order to train and evaluate the system, we have built the KauaneJunior corpus, using public data disclosed by the Appellate State Court of Rio de Janeiro jurisprudence database. Our best method, which is a Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory network combined with Conditional Random Fields, obtained an \ score of 94.79%. (shrink)

One of the major challenges in the philosophy of religion is theological fatalism—roughly, the claim that divine omniscience is incompatible with free will. In this article, I present new reasons to be skeptical of what I consider to be the strongest argument for theological fatalism. First, I argue that divine foreknowledge is not necessary for an argument against free will if we take into account divine knowledge of contingent a priori truths. Second, I show that this argument can be generalized (...) so that ordinary human knowledge of contingent a priori truths also leads to an argument against free will. This, I believe, results in an absurd conclusion that is unacceptable to both theists and non-theists. But if there is something wrong with this argument, there is something wrong, too, with the argument for theological fatalism. Although there is a range of possible responses, I suggest that the core issue in all cases is a closure principle—specifically, the principle that ‘no choice about’ is closed under entailment (or strict implication). (shrink)

ArgumentThis article is the sequel to an article published in the previous issue ofScience in Contextthat dealt with homeomeric lines (Acerbi 2010). The present article deals with foundational issues in Greek mathematics. It considers two key characters in the study of mathematical homeomery, namely, Apollonius and Geminus, and analyzes in detail their approaches to foundational themes as they are attested in ancient sources. The main historiographical result of this paper is to show thatthere wasa well-establishedmathematicalfield of discourse in “foundations of (...) mathematics,” a fact that is by no means obvious. The paper argues that the authors involved in this field of discourse set up a variety of philosophical, scholarly, and mathematical tools that they used in developing their investigations. (shrink)

We review the definition of the Full Bayesian Significance Test (FBST), and summarize its main statistical and epistemological characteristics. We review also the Abstract Belief Calculus (ABC) of Darwiche and Ginsberg, and use it to analyze the FBST’s value of evidence. This analysis helps us understand the FBST properties and interpretation. The definition of value of evidence against a sharp hypothesis, in the FBST setup, was motivated by applications of Bayesian statistical reasoning to legal matters where the sharp hypotheses were (...) defendants statements, to be judged according to the Onus Probandi juridical principle. (shrink)

The ubiquity of technology in our lives and its culmination in artificial intelligence raises questions about its role in our moral considerations. In this paper, we address a moral concern in relation to technological systems given their deep integration in our lives. Coeckelbergh develops a social-relational account, suggesting that it can point us toward a dynamic, historicised evaluation of moral concern. While agreeing with Coeckelbergh’s move away from grounding moral concern in the ontological properties of entities, we suggest that it (...) problematically upholds moral relativism. We suggest that the role of power, as described by Arendt and Foucault, is significant in social relations and as curating moral possibilities. This produces a clearer picture of the relations at hand and opens up the possibility that relations may be deemed violent. Violence as such gives us some way of evaluating the morality of a social relation, moving away from Coeckelbergh’s seeming relativism while retaining his emphasis on social–historical moral precedent. (shrink)

Causes always seem to come prior to their effects. What might explain this asymmetry? Causation's temporal asymmetry isn't straightforwardly due to a temporal asymmetry in the laws of nature—the laws are, by and large, temporally symmetric. Nor does the asymmetry appear due to an asymmetry in time itself. This Element examines recent empirical attempts to explain the temporal asymmetry of causation: statistical mechanical accounts, agency accounts and fork asymmetry accounts. None of these accounts are complete yet and a full explanation (...) of the temporal asymmetry of causation will likely require contributions from all three programs. (shrink)

David Chalmers argued against the claim that for all p, or even for all entertainable p, it is knowable a priori that p iff actually p. Instead of criticizing Chalmers’s argument, I suggest that it can be generalized, in a sense, and in interesting ways, concerning other principles about contingent a priori truths. In particular, I will argue that the puzzle presented by Chalmers runs parallel to others that do not turn on ‘actually’. Furthermore, stronger arguments can be presented that (...) do not turn on apriority either, though they do entail the conclusion of Chalmers’s argument. All such puzzles involve interactions between rigidifying sentence-forming devices with factive operators. (shrink)

Optimization and Stochastic Processes Applied to Economy and Finance. Textbook for the BM&F-USP (Brazilian Mercantile and Futures Exchange - University of Sao Paulo) Master's degree program in Finance.

that wilfrid sellars was a more subtle and sophisticated philosopher than his father, Roy Wood Sellars, is, I believe, a rather uncontroversial assessment, one which, with fatherly pride, Roy1 would most probably have endorsed. Even considering the radical shift in philosophical methods and attitude which took place in the United States in the decades of Wilfrid's philosophically formative years, Wilfrid's unrelenting philosophical acumen and imagination, his unflinching resolve to doggedly pursue a problem on a variety of fronts at once (arguably (...) the cause of his... (shrink)

This book presents a conceptual mapping of supererogation in the analytic moral philosophical tradition. It first asks whether supererogation can be conceptualised in the absence of obligation or duty and then makes the case that it can be. It does so by enlisting the resources of the continental tradition, specifically using the work of Emmanuel Levinas and his notion of infinite responsibility. In so doing the book contributes to the ongoing efforts to create a common ethical terminology between the analytic (...) and continental traditions within moral philosophy. Supererogatory actions are praiseworthy actions that go ‘beyond duty’, and yet are not blameworthy when not performed. In responding to this paradox, moral philosophy either brackets or attempts a reductionism of supererogation. Supererogation is epitomised in the paradigmatic figures of the saint and hero. Yet, most would agree that emulating these figures is too morally demanding. We rightly ask: where does moral obligation end? Is it even possible, or desirable to demarcate such a boundary? Besides the important theoretical issues these questions raise, they also speak to practical ethical dilemmas in the contemporary milieu, as they concern the global wealthy’s responsibility to the poor and the challenges of development aid work. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The article deals with the early career of the literary critic Alberto Asor Rosa, one of the founders of the operaismo movement, a Marxist tendency advocating the management of factories by workers through bottom-up councils. It outlines the role he assigned to literature and culture, investigating his criticism first against the non-revolutionary cultural politics of the Italian Communist Party, notoriously through his book Scrittori e popolo and his writings for the periodical classe operaia, then identifying a transition from a (...) destructive approach against any culture based on values to the use of cultural disciplines purely as techniques. The article posits that this instrumental understanding of culture depended on Asor Rosa’s political choice to take the perspective of the working class, in order to use culture itself for social analysis. In the second half of the decade, contributing to the periodicals Angelus novus and Contropiano, he still considered culture ineffective as a way towards revolution, but he began to value the great works of ʻbourgeois’ literature for their ability to penetrate the middle-class spirit and undermine capitalist society. The article concludes that, despite his changing idea of culture, Asor Rosa’s opinions on the intellectual’s task fit the traditional concept of it. (shrink)

Karl Pearson is the leading figure of XX century statistics. He and his co-workers crafted the core of the theory, methods and language of frequentist or classical statistics – the prevalent inductive logic of contemporary science. However, before working in statistics, K. Pearson had other interests in life, namely, in this order, philosophy, physics, and biological heredity. Key concepts of his philosophical and epistemological system of anti-Spinozism (a form of transcendental idealism) are carried over to his subsequent works on the (...) logic of scientific discovery. This article’s main goal is to analyze K. Pearson early philosophical and theological ideas and to investigate how the same ideas came to influence contemporary science, either directly or indirectly – by the use of variant theories, methods and dialects of statistics, corresponding to variant statistical inference procedures and their specific belief calculi. (shrink)

This research aims to identify the ethical issues perceived by intensive care nurses in their everyday practice. It also aims to understand why these situations were considered an ethical issue and what interventions/strategies have been or are expected to be developed so as to minimize them. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview with 15 nurses working at polyvalent intensive care units in 4 Portuguese hospitals, who were selected by the homogenization of multiple samples. The qualitative content analysis identified end-of-life (...) decisions, privacy, interaction, team work, and health-care access as emerging ethical issues. Personal, team, and institutional aspects emerge as reasons behind the experience of these issues. Personal and team resources are used in and for solving these issues. Moral development and training are the most significant strategies. (shrink)

This paper expands on the theory of event structures put forward in previous work by further investigating the subtle connections between time and events. Specifically, in the first part we generalize the notion of an event structure to that of a refinement structure, where various degrees of temporal granularity are accommodated. In the second part we investigate how these structures can account for the context-dependence of temporal structures in natural language semantics.

The FactsIt has recently come to light that an article published on this journal in 2007, “On the illuminationist approach to imaginal power: outline of a perspective”, by Mahmoud Khatami, Topoi, 26, 221–229, extensively plagiarized parts of Mikel Dufrenne’s book The phenomenology of aesthetic experience . Entire passages from Sect. 4 of Khatami’s article turned out to be copied from chapter 11 of Dufrenne’s monograph, which was not even included in the list of references. This case of plagiarism first surfaced (...) in early November 2014 on a widely read philosophy blog, Daily Nous, in a thread of comments to a post denouncing similar alleged academic misconducts by the same author . I was first alerted of the matter a few days later, on November 15, 2014, by a fellow scholar who drew my .. (shrink)

The Fully Bayesian Significance Test (FBST) is a coherent Bayesian significance test for sharp hypotheses. This paper proposes the FBST as a model selection tool for general mixture models, and compares its performance with Mclust, a model-based clustering software. The FBST robust performance strongly encourages further developments and investigations.

The data analyzed in this paper are part of the results described in Bueno et al. (2000). Three cytogenetics endpoints were analyzed in three populations of a species of wild rodent – Akodon montensis – living in an industrial, an agricultural, and a preservation area at the Itajaí Valley, State of Santa Catarina, Brazil. The polychromatic/normochromatic ratio, the mitotic index, and the frequency of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocites were used in an attempt to establish a genotoxic profile of each area. It (...) was assumed that the three populations were in the same conditions with respect to the influence of confounding factors such as animal age, health, nutrition status, presence of pathogens, and intra- and inter-populational genetic variability. Therefore, any differences found in the endpoints analyzed could be attributed to the external agents present in each area. The statistical models used in this paper are mixtures of negative-binomials and Poisson variables. The Poisson variables are used as approximations of binomials for rare events. The mixing distributions are beta densities. The statistical analyzes are under the bayesian perspective, as opposed to the frequentist ones often considered in the literature, as for instance in Bueno et al. (2000). (shrink)