L’objectif de cette introduction est double : elle présente les articles rassembles dans ce volume et offre une synthèse des développements récents de l’épistemologie des modalités.The role of this introduction is twofold: it presents the papers collected in this volume and offers a synthesis of recent developments of the epistemology of modality.

Among other virtues, Mental Files Theory provides a straightforward explanation of de jure coreference, i.e. identity of referent guaranteed by meaning alone: de jure coreference holds between terms when these are associated with the same mental file from which they inherit their reference. In this paper, I discuss an objection that Angel Pinillos raises against Mental Files Theory and other similar theories: the theory predicts that de jure coreference should be transitive, just like identity. Yet there are cases, involving ‘slash-terms’, (...) in which transitivity fails, or so it seems. In his book Mental Files, Recanati replies that the mental files theorist can accommodate Pinillos’ exceptions by offering a refined model of merging files, the ‘partial merging’ model. While agreeing with Recanati on the need for such a model, I contend that, pace Recanati and Pinillos, de jure coreference is transitive even in the presence of slash-terms. I will first show that paradoxical consequences ensue if slash-terms are said to de jure corefer with several basic terms at once. Then, building on two different accounts Recanati gives of referential confusion, I will show that on both views, de jure coreference cannot hold because of the behaviour of confused slash-terms. I will conclude that, in Mental Files Theory, a slash-term can, at most, de jure corefer with only one basic term per context. (shrink)

Les termes d’espèce naturelle font débat : s’agit-il de termes descriptifs qui exprimeraient des caractéristiques des objets tombant dans leur extension, ou fonctionnent-ils plutôt comme des noms qui désigneraient directement leur espèce, sans l’intermédiaire d’une description? Selon la théorie causale de la référence (TCR), un terme comme « Tigre » nomme directement l’espèce du Tigre grâce à l’ostension d’un échantillon de tigres individuels qui constitue l’étalon de référence pour les usages ultérieurs du terme. Je me propose ici de confronter la (...) TCR à la pratique des noms de taxons telle qu’elle est réglée par le Code International de Nomenclature Zoologique. Je tâcherai de montrer qu’en dépit de contre-exemples avancés récemment, les prédictions de la TCR sont vérifiées par les noms scientifiques d’espèces et de sous-espèces. (shrink)

Mon but ici est de réconcilier deux conceptions relativement populaires dans leurs domaines respectifs : d’une part, la théorie des contreparties (TC) de David Lewis, en métaphysique modale, d’autre part, la thèse de la rigidité mise en avant par Saul Kripke en sémantique. De prime abord, le concept de rigidité ne semble pas pouvoir s’appliquer dans TC : un terme rigide est censé désigner le même objet au travers des mondes possibles, tandis que TC formule les conditions de vérité des (...) énoncés modaux de re en termes non pas d’identité transmonde mais de similarité comparative. Je soutiens néanmoins qu’il peut y avoir de la rigidité au travers des ressemblances. Partant d’une suggestion de Lewis, je montre qu’on peut définir un concept de rigidité, la rigidité lewisienne (rigiditéL), qui est adapté à TC. Malheureusement, la thèse de la rigiditéL ainsi reformulée bute sur un obstacle de taille : l’extrême prodigalité de la relation de ressemblance qui prévaut dans TC entraîne une prolifération des relations de contrepartie, ce qui a pour effet de trivialiser la thèse de la rigiditéL, en faisant de tous les termes singuliers, sans discrimination, noms propres aussi bien que descriptions définies, des désignateurs rigidesL. Suivant une piste d’Allan Gibbard et de Lewis, je propose alors de relativiser la rigiditéL à un aspect de similarité variable selon le contexte conversationnel. De là, je forge un concept plus contraignant, celui d’hyper-rigiditéL, à l’aune duquel le contrepartiste peut enfin capturer la différence entre noms propres et descriptions définies. (shrink)

The common wisdom, among philosophers of language and metaphysicians of analytic tradition, is that though only actual things exist, ‘being actual’ and its cognates do not ascribe a special feature...

Filipe Drapeau Vieira Contim,Pascal Ludwig | : La plupart des théoriciens de l’identité des types souscrivent à un physicalisme a posteriori à l’égard des propriétés phénoménales. Selon cette conception, les énoncés d’identité esprit/cerveau peuvent être justifiés par une inférence à la meilleure explication (IME) partant du fait empirique des corrélations esprit/cerveau. Nous soutenons que la théorie de l’identité ne peut pas s’appuyer sur cette méthodologie abductive. Nous montrons tout d’abord que l’on ne peut pas justifier les (...) énoncés d’identité esprit/cerveau au moyen d’une IME partant des corrélations esprit/cerveau car cette stratégie conduit à un dilemme : ou bien les corrélations ne sont pas des explananda, ou bien les identités esprit/cerveau doivent être admises comme des faits bruts au même titre que les lois dualistes. Nous montrons ensuite que ces énoncés d’identité peuvent être néanmoins justifiés par une IME partant du pouvoir causal des états phénoménaux. Cette seconde stratégie n’est toutefois d’aucune aide pour la forme a posteriori de théorie de l’identité ici discutée dans la mesure où elle débouche sur un physicalisme de type a priori. | : Most type identity theorists endorse a posteriori physicalism about phenomenal properties. On such a view, mind/brain identity statements can be justified by an inference to the best explanation (IBE) starting from the empirical premise of mind/brain correlations. We contend that Identity Theory cannot be based on such an abductive methodology. First, we argue that mind/brain identity statements cannot be justified by an IBE from correlations as it leads to the following dilemma : either correlations are trivial facts that cannot pretend to the status of explananda, or mind/brain identities must be admitted as brute facts, just like dualist laws. Second, we show that these identity statements can still be justified by an IBE starting from the premise of mental causation. However, this strategy is of no help for the a posteriori brand of Identity Theory here challenged since the same premise forces one to embrace a priori physicalism. (shrink)

This article re-examines current definitions of populism, which portray it as either a powerful corrective to or the nemesis of liberal democracy. It does so by exploring a crucial but often neglected dimension of populism: its redemptive character. Populism is here understood to function according to the logic of resentment, which involves both socio-political indignation at injustice and envy or ressentiment. Populism promises redemption through regaining possession: of a lower status, a wounded identity, a diminished or lost control. Highly moralized (...) images of the past – historical or archetypal – are mobilized by populist leaders to castigate the present and accelerate the urgency of change in it. The argument is illustrated with Caesar’s Column, a futuristic novel written by the Minnesota populist leader Ignatius Donnelly. The complex and ambivalent structure of this dystopian novel – a textual source for the Populist Party manifesto in the 1890s, which stands in contrast with agrarian populism as everyday utopia – enables us to move beyond the polarized positions dominating the current debate. Reading Caesar’s Column ultimately shows that populism can be both a corrective and a danger to democracy, but not for the reasons usually stated in the literature. (shrink)

This article discusses the concept of ‘insubmission’. This concept is the cornerstone of Amílcar Cabral’s critical theory. Introduced in his early agronomic writings, it refers to the human species’ refusal to submit to the nature of which we are always a part. The context is the anticolonial critique of traditional European humanism. Insubmission is Cabral’s response to the dehumanizing effects of colonialism and the environmental impact of anthropocentric extractivism that accompanies it. As a linchpin in Cabral’s theoretical framework, insubmission serves (...) to structure and impart meaning to other concepts. Notably, it provides fresh insights into the multifaceted concept of ‘resistance’. Cabral underscores the imperative of combating dehumanization through physical fortitude (physical and armed resistance), intellectual resilience (cultural resistance), and institutional strength (political resistance). Additionally, it emphasizes the necessity of averting environmental catastrophes through a socio-economic development model (economic resistance) underpinned by a resolute ethical commitment to responsible soil conservation practices. (shrink)

This article offers a new understanding of populism. The argument unfolds as follows: first, the populist literature is reviewed and two main approaches are identified: ontic and logic-oriented, the more important of which is the Schmitt-Laclau logic of enmity. While the authors broadly agree with Laclau’s criticism of ontic approaches, they endorse neither his ontological understanding of enmity, nor his claim that populism is politics, and enmity is the logic of populism. Next, the origins of populism are located in a (...) paradox at the heart of democracy. Democracy defines itself as a community of inclusion, yet exclusion is constitutive of inclusion, including therefore democratic inclusion. Then is discussed what the authors believe to be the true logic of populism: resentment. Unlike enmity, which functions in Laclau’s populist theory as an ontology of non-identity, resentment operates within a rivalrous framework, which presupposes identification between the parts and refers to a set of normative commitments. Finally, the article concludes by presenting an understanding of populism as a specific logic of political action. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem por objetivo examinar a alienação que envolve a atividade do professor coordenador, relacionando esse profissional às expectativas do ideário neoliberal, reproduzido pela escola burguesa e comparar as atribuições destinadas a esse profissional com o seu fazer efetivo. O universo da pesquisa engloba a escola pública do Estado de São Paulo e a atividade do professor coordenador, especialmente as de Ciclo II. O referencial usado é o materialismo histórico dialético, e a categoria de análise é a teoria (...) da alienação, formulada por Marx e estudada por Mészáros. (shrink)

A proposta desse artigo é analisar as diferentes apropriações e entendimentos das Trovas de Bandarra no século XVII, a partir das tópicas do "sonhar" e "ver", que estruturam o poema profético. Identificando algumas estrofes recorrentes nos comentários seiscentistas, pretende-se discutir as polêmicas surgidas em torno dos "Sonhos" do sapateiro de Trancoso e como estas permitem identificar posições frente ao problema do sonho profético e de seu uso nas leituras do destino e futuro português. A estrutura do texto é dada pelo (...) passo das polêmicas em torno dos comentários às passagens selecionadas, com especial destaque para a figura do jesuíta Antonio Vieira e as disputas envolvendo seus textos na segunda metade do século XVII. (shrink)

The history of the influences and interactions between pragmatism and the social sciences is as rich as it has been neglected as a field of research. This volume – the first of a series of two – tries to explore both historically and theoretically some of these multiple relationships, building upon the assumption that pragmatism has been one of the philosophical traditions that have taken most seriously the study of the social. In fact, since its origins classical American pragmatism has (...) been... (shrink)

O objetivo geral deste trabalho é abordar a tese pessimista encontrada na filosofia de Arthur Schopenhauer a partir da noção de postura. Nesta abordagem exponho os traços característicos de sua metafísica da Vontade e a implicação para a avaliação deste mundo como o “pior dos mundos possíveis”. Em seguida pretendo abordar a ligação entre filosofia e temperamento, a partir de alguns vieses identificados em alterações afetivas, bem como avaliar como ocorre essa ligação na filosofia pessimista de Schopenhauer. Após essa análise (...) será possível avaliar o pessimismo schopenhaueriano a partir da tese metafilosófica de que o temperamento é parte constitutiva de posturas filosóficas, as quais devem ser levadas em consideração na análise do alcance de teses filosóficas gerais. (shrink)

Perception of the external world is an essential part of the animal (including human) life, both as a source of knowledge and as a way to survive. Medieval authors accepted this view, and despite general concerns about the reliability of the senses in the acquisition of certain and objective knowledge, they thought that for the most part our perceptual system gets things right when it comes to the perceptual features of things—but not always. Our article focuses on thirteenth- and fourteenth-century (...) philosophical discussions of illusions and other types of perceptual errors. Reception of incorrect information, misjudgments concerning perceptual objects, the binding problem, and similar cases that explain perceptual errors will be analyzed. We discuss what might be called medieval Aristotelian/Avicennian theories of perception and the internal senses (drawing mainly from Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas), as well as the so-called perspectivist accounts of perception, especially that by Alhacen. Finally, we take up a debate between Peter Auriol and his critics, which contains elements that can be seen as precursors of later skeptical worries. The concern here is that, just like in contemporary discussions leading to disjunctivism, the absence of a secure way to distinguish between veridical and non-veridical perception leads to a general worry about the reliability of our experience of the world. (shrink)

Resumo: A educação, a superior em particular, tem sido uma questão central nas políticas do Estado em Angola. E como compromisso, o Estado angolano tem-na definida como bem-público, o que implica uma série de medidas relacionadas ao seu acesso, seus processos de gestão e também os mecanismos de financiamento. Como resultado das disputas ideológicas na esfera do Estado, e também a emergência da economia de mercado em Angola, a condição de bem-público da educação é capturada pelos agentes do mercado que (...) adentram a esfera da educação. A emergência dos empresários da educação, bem como as demandas do mercado de trabalho e as políticas de carreiras transformaram a educação numa questão que supera as agendas públicas dos governos. Neste texto, vamos relatar a realidade proporcionada pelas políticas da educação superior na esfera do Estado. Compreendemos que o Estado é colocado diante do desafio de salvaguardar a condição de bem público através da regulação do sector e seus processos, por outro lado, é impelido pelas dinâmicas dos grupos hegemónicos nas esferas políticas e económicas, a condescender com a privatização da educação. Palavras-chave: Educação Superior; Bem-Público; Ideologia; Mercado. Higher Education in Angola: education as public good and the market challenges Abstract: Education, higher education in particular, has been at the core of the Angolan State policies. As a state commitment, education is defined as public good, which implies a set of measures related to its access, management processes, and financing mechanisms. Due to the ideological disputes within the state, as well as the emergence of the market, the ideal of education as public good is captured by the market agents who entered the education sphere. The emerge of the education entrepreneurship, also the labor market demands, and job career policies turned education into an issue beyond the government agenda. In this text, we relate the reality set up by the government education policies. It is our understanding that the state faces the challenge of safeguarding the public-good by regulating the sector, on the other hand, is impelled by the hegemonic groups to consent the privatization of education. Key-Words: Higher Education; Commoonweal; Public Good; Ideology; Market. L´ Enseignement supérieur angolais : l'éducation en tant que bien public face aux défis du marché Résumé : L'éducation, l'enseignement supérieur en particulier, a longtemps été au cœur des politiques de l'État angolais. En tant qu'engagement, l'État angolais définit l´éducation comme un bien public, ce qui implique la mise en place d´un ensemble de mesures liées à son accès, à ses processus de gestion ainsi qu´à ses mécanismes de financement. En raison des conflits idéologiques au sein de l'État ainsi que de l'émergence de l´économie de marché en Angola, l'idéal de l'éducation en tant que bien public est pris en compte par les agents du marché qui investissent dans le domaine. L'émergence de l'entrepreneuriat dans l'éducation, ainsi que les exigences du marché du travail et les politiques de carrière professionnelle ont fait de l'éducation une question qui va au-delà de l'agenda du gouvernement. Dans ce texte, nous présenterons la réalité proporcionnée par les politiques éducatives gouvernementales puisque, nous comprenons que l'État est confronté au défi de sauvegarder le bien public en réglementant le secteur d´une part et de l'autre, il est poussé par les groupes hégémoniques appartenant à la sphère politique et économique à consentir à la privatisation de l'éducation. Mots-clés: Enseignement Supérieur; Bien Public; Idéologie; Marché. Data de registro: 29/05/2023 Data de aceite: 26/10/2023. (shrink)

Mead and Modernity is one of the most detailed and ambitiously conceived studies of G. H. Mead's work to appear in years. Filipe Carreira da Silva addresses the basic questions "How should we read Mead?" and "Why should we read Mead today?" by showing that the history of ideas and theory-building are closely related endeavors. Mead and Modernity is a methodological innovation with sweeping theoretical implications.

In the call from papers from childhood & philosophy we hear an invitation to philosophize. But what does such an invitation mean? In what ways does an invitation or invitation to philosophize encourage us to suspension our accepted meanings and empower us to sustain this challenge? These are the questions of two teachers who have, first, accepted the prior invitation to philosophize with children, and have now accepted the invitation to think and write together about that experience. This essay was (...) prompted by two questions posed by the children with whom we philosophize: In writing it, we have experienced other ways of thinking and living educational practice, and, through our encounters with our students, find ourselves challenged to live in more inventive and therefore more childlike ways within the framework of the public school, here understood in the sense of scholé. In order to reflect on the two questions, we set off from the concept of consummation, and we engage in dialogue with both a pedagogy of the question, and the concept of equality of intelligence, in order to open a pathway of thought that addresses them. (shrink)

The concept of bodily doubt has been proposed as a model for describing the experience of illness. According to this model, bodily doubt determines any experience of illness, whether somatic or mental. However, the phenomenology of mental disorders presents a series of experiential disturbances beyond doubt at the bodily level. The hypothesis to be investigated in this article concerns the formulation of an adequate concept of doubt from the point of view of these disorders. Often, psychiatric patients experience their condition (...) of suffering primarily in terms of a doubt about the totality of their experiences, and not just in relation to the bodily aspect. On the other hand, cognitive, affective and behavioural elements also play a fundamental role in determining mental disorders. In order to identify the peculiarities of the notion of doubt in this context, this paper sets out to reconstruct and analyze the phenomenological literature on somatic and mental illness, as well as non-reductionist approaches to cognition (4EA) and its disorders. (shrink)

Fílon de Alexandria é mencionado frequentemente como exemplo de exegeta que adotava o método da interpretação alegórica. Por vezes, entende-se, de modo pré-concebido, que sua hermenêutica é imaginativa, descuidada e pouco responsável. Neste artigo, a partir de uma pesquisa bibliográfica abrangente e estudo de fontes primárias em suas línguas originais, apresento o alexandrino como um exegeta inserido em seu tempo, dotado de recursos, que observava parâmetros. Além de uma apresentação inicial, abordo detidamente um caso específico: a identificação que Fílon faz (...) entre Noé e Deucalião em Sobre Penas e Recompensas 23. Meu objetivo é compreender como esse procedimento, que é incomum, uma vez que o alexandrino evita recorrer à mitologia comparada, se insere no corpus filoninano. Demonstro que é razoável que não se trate de uma intencional associação entre mitos, mas entre personagens históricos. O trecho não deixa de ser atípico, especialmente quando visto de nossa perspectiva, mas é coerente com a estratégia do exegeta de Alexandria, quando visto a partir da perspectiva dele. (shrink)

RESUMO A série Black Mirror, transmitida entre 2011 e 2023 pela Netflix, tornou-se um fenômeno de mídia e seus episódios mostraram formas de interação homem-máquina (terminologia também referida como humano-computador). O nome da série se refere ao fato de que, quando uma tela é desligada, ela se torna um espelho negro que reflete a imagem do usuário. Este artigo1 tem como objetivo analisar os efeitos da interação homem-máquina nas organizações produtivas apresentadas em Black Mirror. Esta pesquisa utilizou a análise do (...) discurso, principalmente a partir das contribuições de Mikhail Bakhtin. O método consistiu em três etapas que contaram com a colaboração de estudantes de graduação e pós-graduação em Engenharia de Produção, integrando ensino e pesquisa e desenvolvendo o senso crítico dos pesquisadores-iniciantes. Os resultados indicam que, nas organizações apresentadas na série Black Mirror, há uma transição do conceito de fatores humanos para fatores ciborgues, bem como o uso da interação homem-máquina para promover o controle social. (shrink)

This article discusses the theories of perception of Robert Kilwardby and Peter of John Olivi. Our aim is to show how in challenging certain assumptions of medieval Aristotelian theories of perception they drew on Augustine and argued for the active nature of the soul in sense perception. For both Kilwardby and Olivi, the soul is not passive with respect to perceived objects; rather, it causes its own cognitive acts with respect to external objects and thus allows the subject to perceive (...) them. We also show that Kilwardby and Olivi differ substantially regarding where the activity of the soul is directed to and the role of the sensible species in the process, and we demonstrate that there are similarities between their ideas of intentionality and the attention of the soul towards the corporeal world. (shrink)

This article proposes to identify risk factors for moral distress from the literature, validate them through expert analysis and provide the basis for a new tool to assess the risk of moral distress among nurses. Moral distress is related to the psychological, emotional and physiological aspects of nursing. It arises from constraints caused by various circumstances and can lead to significant negative consequences. A scoping review and validation through expert analysis were used. The research question guiding this study was as (...) follows: What is known about risk factors for moral distress in nursing? The research was conducted using multiple sources including electronic databases and lists of references from relevant literature. The final sample consisted of 38 studies. A validation analysis was conducted by experts during December 2014 and June 2015. To exclude a risk factor item, at least 80% of the experts had to agree with the exclusion. In total, 53 risk factors for moral distress were identified, reviewed by the experts and grouped to form a new instrument that may help to identify risk for moral distress and to address its consequences. (shrink)

The long-standing tradition of phenomenological psychopathology has been historically concerned with the nature of mental disorders, with a special focus on their basic experiential core. In the same way, much of the recent phenomenologically-inspired work in psychopathology consists in providing precise and refined tools for diagnosis, classification, and nosology of mental disorders. What is striking, however, is the lack of therapeutic proposals in this tradition. Although a number of phenomenological approaches refer positively to psychotherapeutic practices, psychopharmacological intervention has been mostly (...) neglected as a relevant field of attention. This work aims to fill this gap. We maintain that the convergence of phenomenological psychopathology and psychopharmacology exhibit a rich potential for mutual enlightenment, which unfolds into a more adequate psychopharmacological practice. Initially, after discussing Joanna Moncrieff’s drug-centered model of drug action we review some of the major findings in phenomenological literature regarding psychopharmacological treatment. Next, we suggest that Moncrieff’s drug-centered model can be seen as an important tool for improving clinical decision-making, by elucidating its inherent epistemic advantage when compared to mainstream models of drug action. As a result, the drug-centered model proves to be also patient-centered, by focusing on experiential alterations and helping to improve treatment outcomes. (shrink)

But never let it be doubted that depression, in its extreme form, is madness. (Styron, 1990, p. 62)There is nothing wrong with our biology or our intelligence; sometimes we are just stuck. (Cvetkov...

Business Ethics: A European Review, EarlyView.

Robert Kilwardby on the Human Soul examines Kilwardby’s role in conciliating Aristotelian and Augustinian views on the soul, soul-body relation, and cognition.

Robert Kilwardby is a central figure in late medieval philosophy and theology, but key areas of his thought still remain unexamined in a systematic way. This book offers a comprehensive overview of his works, ranging from topics in logic to theology, done in a way that is accessible to non-specialists and to anyone interested in medieval thought.

Around the world, many schools were closed as one of the measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. School closure brought about important challenges to the students' learning process. This context requires strong self-regulatory competences and agency for autonomous learning. Moreover, online remote learning was the main alternative response to classroom learning, which increased the inequalities between students with and without access to technological resources or for those with low digital literacy. All considered, to level the playing field (...) for students without digital resources, there is an urgent need to promote self-regulatory competences through offline intervention solutions. The current paper describes a project with this purpose, using radio broadcasting and letters to reach elementary students without digital resources. Moreover, potential reach and participants' perspectives of the project implementation are presented and discussed. The project draws on a prior evidence-based story-tool intervention grounded on a self-regulated learning framework. The original intervention was set previous to the COVID-19 pandemic and was implemented in the classroom context (N= 1,103 students). Once the schools had been closed down, the mode of intervention was adapted with the collaboration of the community. Alternative solutions were developed as follows: (i) story chapters were read on the radio and students received to their homes a printed script, prompting reflection, and suggesting related activities; (ii) students were provided with the story-tool to read autonomously and received letters from the main characters of the story which included, for example, suggestions for activities and reflection. These two alternative modes of intervention delivery potentially reached 394 elementary students, including students with digital resources. Interviews conducted with a group of students were provided information about the positive aspects of these two modes of intervention delivery, perceived learning (e.g., planning), constraints, and suggestions to improve the project. The current work is likely to merit attention from researchers and educational practitioners, given the need to use offline alternatives to provide support for students without digital resources to engage in autonomous learning during the pandemic period. This project may also be used as an alternative or a complementary solution to online modality. (shrink)

The question concerning the meaning of life is important, but it immediately confronts the present authors with insurmountable obstacles from a philosophical standpoint, as it would require us to define not only what we hold to be life, but what we hold to be meaning in addition, requiring us to do both in a properly researched context. We unconditionally surrender to that challenge. Instead, we offer a vernacular, armchair approach to life’s origin and meaning, with some layman’s thoughts on the (...) meaning of origins as viewed from the biologist’s standpoint. One can observe that biologists generally approach the concept of biological meaning in the context of evolution. This is the basis for the broad resonance behind Dobzhansky’s appraisal that “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”. Biologists try to understand living things in the historical context of how they arose, without giving much thought to the definition of what life or living things are, which for a biologist is usually not an interesting question in the practical context of daily dealings with organisms. Do humans generally understand life’s meaning in the context of history? If we consider the problem of life’s origin, the question of what constitutes a living thing becomes somewhat more acute for the biologist, though not more answerable, because it is inescapable that there was a time when there were no organisms on Earth, followed by a time when there were, the latter time having persisted in continuity to the present. This raises the question of where, in that transition, chemicals on Earth became alive, requiring, in turn, a set of premises for how life arose in order to conceptualize the problem in relation to organisms we know today, including ourselves, which brings us to the point of this paper: In the same way that cultural narratives for origins always start with a setting, scientific narratives for origins also always start with a setting, a place on Earth or elsewhere where we can imagine what happened for the sake of structuring both the problem and the narrative for its solution. This raises the question of whether scientific origins settings convey meaning to humans in that they suggest to us from what kind of place and what kinds of chemicals we are descended, that is, to which inanimate things we are most closely related. (shrink)

***Revisitando o Conhecimento a partir de Falsidade***Os defensores da teoria do Conhecimento a partir de Falsidade nos apresentam exemplos putativos de conhecimento inferencial nos quais um sujeito S, supostamente, adquire conhecimento através de uma inferência competente realizada a partir de uma falsidade. Se eles estiverem certos, teremos que enfrentar alguns problemas importantes para a epistemologia do raciocínio. No entanto, neste artigo, argumentarei que não há conhecimento a partir de falsidades, os casos apresentados pelos defensores de KFF não constituem casos de (...) conhecimento inferencial genuíno e a reação intuitiva de atribuir conhecimento ao sujeito em tais casos não tem nenhuma relação com a falsidade. Eu irei direcionar a minha oposição à KFF através de duas objeções que ofereço à explicação apresentada por Peter Klein em seu artigo "Useful False Beliefs". Em particular, mostro que a explicação de Klein falha porque ela é incapaz de demonstrar como uma falsidade pode fornecer um status epistêmico positivo à crença inferida para torná-la conhecimento; e ela é incompatível com uma noção tácita e amplamente aceita de inferência. (shrink)

As understood today, political correctness aims at preventing social discrimination by curtailing offensive speech and behaviour towards underprivileged groups of individuals. The core proponents of political correctness often draw on post-modernism and critical theory and are notorious for their scepticism about objective truth and scientific rationality. Conversely, the critics of post-modern political correctness uphold Enlightenment liberal principles of scientific reasoning, rational truth-seeking and open discourse against claims of relativism and oppression. Yet, both the post-modern proponents and their Enlightenment liberal critics (...) make up two sides of the same phenomenon of political correctness. Both sides intend to protect a liberal value system from illiberal truth-claims, which is the function of politically correct regulation. While post-modern advocates attempt to promote liberating tolerance, Enlightenment liberals place liberal values above the open-ended search for truth. Despite appearances to the contrary, this socio-academic debate is not about two sides favouring and opposing political correctness. In fact, it is a debate about the type of politically correct regulation that can better guard liberal values. (shrink)

Morality can be adaptive or maladaptive. From this fact come polarizing disputes on the meta-ethical status of moral adaptation. The realist tracking account of morality claims that it is possible to track objective moral truths and that these truths correspond to moral rules that are adaptive. In contrast, evolutionary anti-realism rejects the existence of moral objectivity and thus asserts that adaptive moral rules cannot represent objective moral truths, since those truths do not exist. This article develops a novel evolutionary view (...) of natural law to defend the realist tracking account. It argues that we can identify objective moral truths through cultural group selection and that adaptive moral rules are likely to reflect such truths. (shrink)

The political and financial investments in the implementation of forensic DNA databases and the ethical issues related to their use and expansion justify inquiries into their performance and general utility. The main function of a forensic DNA database is to produce matches between individuals and crime scene stains, which requires a constant input of individual profiles and crime scene stains. This is conditioned, among other factors, by the legislation, namely the criteria for inclusion of profiles and the periods of time (...) and conditions for their retention and/or deletion. This article aims to provide an overview of the different legislative models for DNA databasing in Europe and ponder if wider inclusion criteria – and, consequently, database size – translates into more matches between profiles of crime scene stains and included individuals. The legislation governing forensic DNA databases in 22 countries in the European Union was analysed in order to propose a typology of two major groups of legislative criteria for inclusion/retention of profiles that can be classified as having either expansive effects or restrictive effects. We argue that expansive criteria for inclusion and retention of profiles do not necessarily translate into significant gains in output performance. (shrink)