Anthropology of Consciousness, Volume 33, Issue 1, Page 38-62, Spring 2022.

In the Peruvian Amazon, tobacco (Nicotiana rustica) is considered a master plant and is the main curing tool of local healers. Among its several medicinal uses, we find drinking tobacco juice with the purpose of purging in order to heal on a physical, mental, and spiritual level. This specific practice is part of the addiction treatment protocol developed at Takiwasi Center. The goal of this investigation was to focus on the effects of the tobacco purge as reported by therapists at (...) Takiwasi and to elaborate its relevance within the context of addiction treatment. In order to obtain information on this topic, we performed research fieldwork based on a participant-observation approach, and retrospective data analysis on information from interviews conducted by psychotherapists with patients. As alleged effects of the tobacco purge, therapists reported that patients experienced feelings of mental clarity with the greatest frequency (n = 80), followed by noteworthy physical effects including discomfort and intoxication (n = 63). An effect on sleep and dreams was also common (n = 36) and many found the experience directly related to addiction treatment and the desire to consume substances (n = 20). (shrink)

This article proposes a cost-benefit analysis of argumentation, with the aim of highlighting the strategic considerations that govern the agent's decision to argue or not. In spite of its paramount importance, the topic of argumentative decision-making has not received substantial attention in argumentation theories so far. We offer an explanation for this lack of consideration and propose a tripartite taxonomy and detailed description of the strategic reasons considered by arguers in their decision-making: benefits, costs, and dangers. We insist that the (...) implications of acknowledging the strategic dimension of arguing are far-reaching, including promising insights on how to develop better argumentation technologies. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to show that if one adopts conditional probabilities as the primitive concept of probability, one must deal with the fact that even in very ordinary circumstances at least some probability values may be imprecise, and that some probability questions may fail to have numerically precise answers.

The article reviews some analyses of temporal language in logical approaches to natural language semantics. It considers some asymmetries between past and future, manifested in language, which motivate the “standard view” of the non-reversibility of time and the persistence of the past. It concludes with a puzzle about the changing past which challenges the standard view.

The scope and mission of the history of science have been constant objects of reflection and debate within the profession. Recently, Lorraine Daston has called for a shift of focus: from the history of science to the history of knowledge. Such a move is an attempt at broadening the field and ridding it of the contradictions deriving from its modernist myth of origin and principle of demarcation. Taking the move from a pluralistic concept of medicine, the present paper explores the (...) actual and possible contributions that a history of knowledge can offer to the history of medicine in particular. As we will argue, the history of medicine has always been a history of knowledge, but for good reasons has always stuck to the concept of medicine as its object and problem throughout the ages, including the modern, scientific one. We argue that, in the history of medicine, the demarcation between scientific and non‐scientific represents an accident, but is not foundational as in the case of natural science. Furthermore, the history of medicine programmatically played a role in at least two academic domains (history proper and medical education), adjusting historical narratives of medical knowledge to its audience. Accordingly, we underscore that the history of both science and medicine, as traditionally defined, already provides room for almost the whole spectrum of approaches to history. Moreover, their different myths of origin can, and indeed must, be included in the reflexivity of the historical gaze. We argue that the position towards a history of science, medicine, or knowledge is not a question of narrative or theory, rather, it is a question of relevance and awareness of extant contexts. (shrink)

According to the actualist view, what is essential to the truth conditions of a future-tensed sentence ‘it will be the case that ϕ’ is reference to the unique course of events that will become actual. On the other hand, the modal view has it that the truth conditions of such a sentence require that the truth of ϕ be already “settled” at the time of utterance, where “being settled at time t” is defined by universal quantification over a domain of (...) courses of events, the futures compatible with what has happened up to time t. On the proposal we discuss in this paper, the actualist view and the modal view are seen as two related attitudes that speakers can have when they evaluate future-tensed sentences, and the corresponding interpretations undergo a unified semantic treatment based on a contextual notion of settledness. A central feature of our approach is a dynamic view of contexts of utterance, whereby the world of the utterance is not fixed once and for all, as different worlds, by the passing of time, can play this role in turn. Finally, one major goal of the paper is to show how the unified analysis we propose accounts for a particularly interesting interpretation of future-tensed sentences, often referred to as ‘epistemic reading’. (shrink)

This article explores the construction of offences as ‘accidental’ in police-suspect interactions. The data comprise audio-recorded investigative interviews, which were analysed using conversation analysis. In these interviews, suspects often do not explicitly state the nature of their defence when answering police officers’ questions; instead, suspects’ defensive practices or techniques are embedded in the narrative accounts they give of what happened, thus exhibiting rather claiming their ‘innocence’. My focus here is on a particular type of defence, namely, one in which suspects (...) portray an event as having been ‘accidental’. I show that this defence of ‘accident’ is associated with several discourse features including: building a plausible and trivial context in which the untoward incident occurred, describing the untoward action or series of actions, using impersonal or agentless constructions, and representing the disproportionality between the putative victim’s reaction and the aggressor’s untoward conduct. The accountability of these descriptions, however, does not rely on one unique feature, but rather on suspects’ ability to combine these features in such a way that each establishes the grounds for others. (shrink)

It characterizes studies in Brazilian Information Science that connect gender and/or women and the Knowledge Organization (KO). The study is characterized as exploratory, descriptive, presenting bibliographical research as a data collection procedure. The bibliographic research was carried out in the Information Science Database (BRAPCI) and in the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD). 42 scientific works were analyzed, including articles, dissertations, and theses. The first publication on the subject in the literature analyzed is from 2010, highlighting its incipience, (...) considering that 58% of publications are from 2017 to the present. Considering their objectives, the research was categorized into the three dimensions of ISKO-Brazil: epistemological, applied, political, and social. 22% of the research was categorized into the epistemological dimension, 39% into the applied dimension, and 39% into the political and social dimension. The epistemological dimension of KO concerning gender presents significant challenges, but also opportunities for theoretical and methodological advances that can contribute to a fairer and more inclusive representation of knowledge. Critical analysis of the work shows that, although there is progress, it is still incipient to ensure that KO is truly inclusive and representative of diverse gender identities. (shrink)

Friendship is commonly assumed to reduce strategic uncertainty and enhance tacit coordination. However, this assumption has never been tested across two opposite poles of coordination involving either strategic complementarity or substitutability. We had participants interact with friends or strangers in two classic coordination games: the stag-hunt game, which exhibits strategic complementarity and may foster “cooperation”, and the entry game, which exhibits strategic substitutability and may foster “competition”. Both games capture a frequent trade-off between a potentially high paying but uncertain option (...) and a low paying but safe alternative. We find that, relative to strangers, friends are more likely to choose options involving uncertainty in stag-hunt games, but the opposite is true in entry games. Furthermore, in stag-hunt games, friends “tremble” less between options, coordinate better and earn more, but these advantages are largely decreased or lost in entry games. We further investigate how these effects are modulated by risk attitudes, friendship qualities, and interpersonal similarities. (shrink)

Alejandro Tomasini ha indicado, muy lúcidamente, la necesidad de pensar los problemas filosóficos en lengua castellana. Más aún, ha sugerido que es posible tratar los problemas propios de la filosofía analítica por medio de la lengua castellana y que, por otra parte, es necesario en nuestro continente pensar los problemas y enfrentarlos analíticamente. Independientemente de su alcance teórico, el mérito del libro que presentamos, Lecturas analíticas: una introducción a temas y problemas de la filosofía analítica, apunta a esa dirección.

The passage has been an object of scholarly debate: the lack of independent sources on the mathematical construction described by Aristotle, the terseness of the formulation and the resulting syntactical ambiguities make the exact interpretation of the text quite difficult, as already noted by Philoponus. What does it mean that the gnomons are ‘placed round the one and without’ (περὶ τὸ ἓν καὶ χωρίς)? And in what sense is this an indication of the even being ‘cut off, enclosed (ἐναπολαμβανόμενον), and (...) limited (περαινόμενον) by the odd’? The aim of the present paper is to discuss the available interpretations of the passage and to propose a new one. (shrink)

There is growing interest in whether and how sunk-cost effects for purely behavioral investments occur. In this article, we further discuss Cunha and Caldieraro’s (2009) Behavioral Investment Sunk Cost (BISC) model and reconcile Otto’s (2010) results with the BISC model predictions. We also report new data from two unpublished experiments that are consistent with the BISC model, and we discuss the conditions under which purely behavioral sunk-cost effects are likely to be observed.

A famosa filosofia materialista e ateísta de Holbach é menos conhecida por sua dimensão política. Ainda assim, o autor propôs uma teoria original do contrato social em suas obras da década de 1770. Este artigo detalha as principais características de seu pensamento político e de sua ideia de contrato social, destacando sua proposta de uma “Etocracia”, que se fundamenta na utilidade e na justiça. Essa Etocracia abre caminho para um republicanismo pluralista com traços originais na história das ideias. Holbach era (...) leitor de Hobbes e Locke, conhecido de Rousseau e propôs várias críticas aos escritos políticos desses autores. Por meio de cinco críticas principais, este artigo mostra ainda o valor da teoria positiva de Holbach em conceitos-chave como estado de natureza, sociabilidade, propriedade, vontade geral e igualdade. Por último, a potencial contribuição de Holbach para a teoria política é destacada, mostrando como esse autor, em grande medida esquecido, merece a nossa atenção nos dias de hoje. (shrink)

O objetivo do artigo é compreender como as metamorfoses econômicas e sociais vivenciadas e experienciadas nas comunidades quilombolas do território Terra da Liberdade, situadas no Baixo Tocantins, estado do Pará, produzem dizeres e linguagem, e, assim, formas de uma comunicação de resistência. Parte-se da reflexão de Heidegger (2001) sobre a relação entre existência e lugar para compreender o processo de construção dialogada do Protocolo de Consultas do território. A metodologia utilizada foi a observação participante com entrevistas abertas e semiestruturadas, num (...) diálogo entre etnografia e fenomenologia. Observamos que o direito de "se dizer" é um conjunto de lutas comunicacionais. Compreendendo comunicação como dizer coletivo e social, o artigo reflete sobre lutas por reconhecimento da identidade, dos direitos, do território. (shrink)

O presente artigo propõe uma análise dos riscos de degeneração da democracia contemporânea em três pontos. No primeiro ponto, retomamos o tema da possibilidade de degeneração da democracia segundo a perspectiva de Platão e Aristóteles com o objetivo de apresentar os seus traços elementares. No segundo ponto, fazemos uma análise do pensamento de Alexis de Tocqueville, particularmente do modo como ele tratou as ameaças à democracia no quadro do liberalismo político do século XIX. Procuramos mostrar, em um terceiro ponto, que (...) o cenário contemporâneo exige que se coloquem em relevo os efeitos produzidos pelas novas mídias e pelo retorno de um discurso totalitário. Utilizamos, para tanto, alguns textos escolhidos de Baudrillard e Rancière, na tentativa de melhor explicitar o modo como as ameaças atuais à democracia se entrelaçam à sociedade de consumo, às novas mídias e ao retorno de um discurso totalitário. Palavras-chave: Democracia. Tirania. Atomização social. Totalitarismo. (shrink)

Fábio Alves dos Santos (1954-2013) cursou Pedagogia, Ciências Sociais e Teologia, era Especialista em Filosofia da Religião (PUC Minas), Advogado (PUC Minas) e Mestre em Direito Constitucional (UFMG). Lecionou na PUC Minas como professor de Cultura Religiosa e depois como professor no Curso de Direito, atuando principalmente no Serviço de Assistência Judiciária – SAJ, especialmente cuidado de causas populares como as da ASMARE (Associação dos Catadores de Papel, Papelão e Material Reaproveitável de Belo Horizonte), da Pastoral de Rua, da Pastoral (...) Carcerária, de movimentos de “Sem Casa”, de ocupações e tantos outros grupos. Fábio sofria de grave problema de visão há mais de 15 anos. Quase ficou cego depois de diversas cirurgias de miopia. Isso, porém, não o impedia de seguir seu constante compromisso com as lutas populares. Na última entrevista que concedeu, menos de um mês antes de sua morte (19 de outubro de 2013), depois de duro sofrimento de quase dois anos, no tratamento de um câncer no pâncreas, conta um pouco de sua vida, sua luta e sua percepção de várias realidades, especialmente da Igreja e da pastoral. Militante formado na Teologia da Libertação, de profunda espiritualidade, marcada por traços da religiosidade popular nordestina e comprometida com a libertação, Fábio Alves também buscou em sua vida abrir-se à teologia do pluralismo religioso, especialmente com o Santo Daime, em cuja tradição religiosa chegou a ser “fardado”, mantendo uma profunda atitude espiritual aberta ao diálogo inter-religioso. Sua primeira publicação foi “Começo de mundo novo: sofrimento, luta e vitória dos posseiros de Santana dos Frades”, Sergipe, numa versão popular em 1981 e outra pela Editora Vozes (1990). Fruto de sua dissertação de mestrado, publicou o livro “Direito Agrário: política fundiária no Brasil (1995). Em 2001 saiu seu último livro, uma coletânea de artigos publicados em diversos jornais: “Em defesa da vida”. Num artigo em Horizonte (2004), juntamente com o advogado, amigo e colega Prof. Cristiano de Melo Bastos, discutiu “A prática jurídica na missão da PUC Minas”. Palavras-chave : Teologia da Libertação. Militância. Igreja Católica. Pastoral. Lutas populares. (shrink)

This essay critically discusses the rising interest in process philosophy in recent years. I argue that the appeal of process philosophy lies in its ability to circumnavigate the binary dichotomies pervasive in European philosophy and defend an interpretation of process philosophy in terms of relationality, difference, and change. After outlining the central tenets of process philosophy, Graham Harman’s critique of a relational account of process philosophy is examined, particularly his assertion that this type of philosophy cannot fully explain genuine change. (...) Despite the merits of Harman’s critique, I will show that his object-oriented ontology faces similar limitations. Turning to Graham Priest’s dialethism I suggest that philosophy, instead of striving for a consistent representation of fundamental metaphysics, must embrace paradox to some extent. This leads the philosophical discipline to understand itself as a transformative process. This essay critically discusses the rising interest in process philosophy in recent years. I argue that the appeal of process philosophy lies in its ability to circumnavigate the binary dichotomies pervasive in European philosophy and defend an interpretation of process philosophy in terms of relationality, difference, and change. After outlining the central tenets of process philosophy, Graham Harman’s critique of a relational account of process philosophy is examined, particularly his assertion that this type of philosophy cannot fully explain genuine change. Despite the merits of Harman’s critique, I will show that his object-oriented ontology faces similar limitations. Turning to Graham Priest’s dialethism I suggest that philosophy, instead of striving for a consistent representation of fundamental metaphysics, must embrace paradox to some extent. This leads the philosophical discipline to understand itself as a transformative process. (shrink)

This paper evaluates Pierre Hadot’s concept of ‘philosophy as a way of life’ (PWL) as a tool to critique academic philosophy. Firstly, I will provide a concise overview of Hadot’s critique through a discussion of two lesser-known texts. I will go on to submit that PWL, contrary to what its name might imply, does not primarily distinguish between philosophical theory and practice. Instead, through an exploration of relevant secondary sources, I will emphasize PWL’s focus on the spiritual dimension of philosophy, (...) or rather the lack thereof in the modern research university. A return to philosophy as a way of life, then, does not imply emancipation from the university as such, but rather from contemporary academia’s research practices and standards. Only then can philosophy rekindle its true essence, namely transforming the lives and worlds of many. (shrink)

Popular sovereignty requires that citizens perceive themselves as being able to act and implement decisions, and that they are de facto causally connected to mechanisms of decision making. I argue that the two most common understandings of the exercise of popular sovereignty—which center on direct decision making by the people as a whole and the indirect exercise of democratic agency by elected representatives, respectively—are inadequate in this respect, and go on to suggest a complementary account that stresses the central role (...) of internally democratic and participatory political parties in actualising popular sovereignty, drawing on the democratic theory of Hans Kelsen. (shrink)

Na primeira parte do artigo, apresento a infame teoria humeana da identidade pessoal. Infame porque seu próprio autor a rejeitou no Apêndice à sua obra máxima, o Tratado da Natureza Humana. Na segunda parte, apresento o Apêndice. A pergunta fundamental é: por que Hume rejeitou sua teoria inicial? Os comentadores dividem-se entre aqueles que vêem um problema menor, técnico, na explicação da crença na identidade pessoal e aqueles que vêem um problema maior, filosófico, que afetaria não só a seção “Da (...) identidade pessoal” como todo o projeto empirista desenvolvido no Tratato da Natureza Humana. Na terceira parte, exponho alguns dos problemas que podem ter levado à insatisfação apresentada pelo Apêndice. Na quarta parte do artigo, exponho a interpretação ontológica, que vê no Apêndice a emergência de um problema filosófico, e tento mostrar sua implausibilidade. (shrink)

Populism is widely thought to be in tension with liberal democracy. This article clarifies what exactly is problematic about populism from a liberal–democratic point of view and goes on to develop...

This paper emphasizes the value of śūnyatā, through the lens of Japanese philosopher Nishitani Keiji, in fostering global philosophical dialogue. First, we highlight how Nishitani interprets śūnyatā, or ‘emptiness’, as a fundamental relationality, distinct from substantiality. The second section situates Nishitani’s thought within the rising paradigm of relational thinking, now influential in philosophy, feminism, social sciences, and interdisciplinary studies. We note that these discourses have been largely shaped by Anglo-European thinkers, overlooking contributions from philosophers like Nishitani. In the final section (...) of this paper, we illustrate how Nishitani’s concept of ‘emptiness’ could form the foundation for an intercultural philosophical method that allows for a global dialogue moving beyond the critique of existing discourses. This ultimately implies an understanding of philosophy as pedagogical practice. (shrink)

Este libro ofrece una introducción al análisis de la historia del pensamiento conservador y derechista en América Latina y en la Península Ibérica a través de estudios enfocados en diversas épocas, regiones y temas. Describe cómo este pensamiento se desarrolló desde los comienzos del siglo XIX hasta finales del siglo XX, y cómo legitimaba las acciones y el poder de los conservadores y de la derecha. Asimismo subraya la ambigüedad y heterogeneidad del pensamiento conservador y derechista, a la vez que (...) examina las múltiples conexiones, relaciones y similitudes entre sus diferentes corrientes. (shrink)

Argumentation theorists often disagree about which scheme best represents a given type of argument. Unfortunately, authors sometimes become involved in fruitless pseudo-agreement because they fail to perceive that their supposedly competing schemes are means for achieving different practical or theoretical goals. This paper explains some of the different purposes that an argument scheme may serve, and it indicates how the relevant type of pseudo-disagreement may be avoided.

Anglo-American authors have paid little attention to a subtle distinction that has important jurisprudential implications. It is the distinction between sources of law and the legal norms which can be derived from sources by means of interpretation. The distinction might also be rendered as a threefold one, separating sources of law from legal norms and both of these from that which mediates their relation, namely, methods of legal interpretation. This paper intends to state the “source-norm” distinction clearly and to give (...) examples of jurisprudential insights that are missed, and mistakes that may be made if the distinction is not given its due. (shrink)

Focused on city-scale automation, and using self-driving cars (SDCs) as a case study, this article reflects on the role of AI—and in particular, computer vision systems used for mapping and navigation—as a catalyst for urban transformation. Urban research commonly presents AI and cities as having a one-way cause-and-effect relationship, giving undue weight to AI’s impact on cities and overlooking the role of cities in shaping AI. Working at the intersection of data science and social research, this paper aims to counter (...) this trend by exploring the reverse perspective: how do cities affect the development, and expose the present limits, of SDCs? The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, by comparing urban and nonurban environments and thoroughly examining the relationship between computer vision and city-specific sociality and form, it defines machine autonomy/automation as a function of the sociotechnical milieu in which an AI system operates. Second, and related, the paper problematizes the notion of SDCs as autonomous technologies and the role it plays in envisioning contending policy arrangements and technical solutions for achieving full driving automation. Finally, the article offers insight into a materialist and spatialized understanding of AI—namely, not as an abstract quality susceptible to replication within discrete machines, but rather as a distributed property emerging through embodied interactions among a multiplicity of agents (human, non-human, and technological) within/with their environments. (shrink)

In a recent paper, Pruss proves the validity of the rule beta-2 relative to Lewis’s semantics for counterfactuals, which is a significant step forward in the debate about the consequence argument. Yet, we believe there remain intuitive counter-examples to beta-2 formulated with the actuality operator and rigidified descriptions. We offer a novel and two-dimensional formulation of the Lewisian semantics for counterfactuals and prove the validity of a new transfer rule according to which a new version of the consequence argument can (...) be formulated. This new transfer rule is immune to the counter-examples involving the actuality operator and rigidified descriptions. However, we show that counter-examples to this new rule can also be generated, demanding that the Lewisian semantics be generalized for higher dimensions where counter-examples can always be generated. (shrink)

This book offers a systematic and thorough philosophical analysis of the ways in which driving automation crosses path with ethical values. Upon introducing the different forms of driving automation and examining their relation to human autonomy, it provides readers with in-depth reflections on safety, privacy, moral judgment, control, responsibility, sustainability, and other ethical issues. Driving is undoubtedly a moral activity as a human act. Transferring it to artificial agents such as connected and automated vehicles necessarily raises many philosophical questions. When (...) driving is automated, what happens to its ethical dimensions? Could artificial agents accomplish ethical objectives on our behalf, take moral decisions in our place, and drive us into a more ethical transportation future? In doing so, would they be “moral” as we are or in a way that is similar to, but also remarkably different from, our own? And what role is yet to be played by human responsibility and commitment? The book addresses these questions with the aim of stimulating an interdisciplinary dialogue between different stakeholders. They include automotive engineers, computer scientists, and moral philosophers, as well as industry representatives, policymakers, regulators, transportation experts, and the general public. Indeed, connected and automated vehicles will not take the high road for us . We must drive them there. (shrink)