Epistemic reliabilism holds that a belief is justified if and only if it is produced by a reliable or truth-conducive process. I argue that reliabilism offers an epistemology for bounded rationality. This latter concept refers to normative and descriptive accounts of real-world reasoning instead of some ideal reasoning. However, as initially formulated, reliabilism involves an absolute, context-independent assessment of rationality that does not do justice to the fact that several processes are reliable in some reasoning environments but not in others, (...) as is widely reported in the cognitive sciences literature. I consider possible solutions to this problem. Resorting to ‘normality reliabilism’, a variant of the theory, is one; but I find it insufficient. Therefore, in addition, I propose to relativise the reliability assessment to reasoning environments. This novel version of reliabilism fits bounded rationality better than the original one does. (shrink)

How can we better understand and treat those suffering from schizophrenia and manic-depressive illnesses? This important new book takes us into the world of those suffering from such disorders. Using self descriptions, its emphasis is not on how mental health professionals view sufferers, but on how the patients themselves experience their disorder. A new volume in the International Perspectives in Philosophy and Psychiatry series, this book will be of great interest to all those working with sufferers from such disorders - (...) helping them to better understand their mental lives, and providing important insights into how best to treat them. (shrink)

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online.

L'auteur résume dans cet article le contenu du commentaire du Phèdre qui doit paraître en mai 1998. Le Phèdre constitue un véritable « manifeste » qui présente un programme dans lequel Platon, alors âgé de soixante à soixante-cinq ans environ, prend position sur la question de l'écriture, à un moment où celle-ci était en train de se substituer à l'oralité pour constituer un instrument de communication privilégié. Dans le Phèdre, Platon veut montrer que, au moment même où il écrit, il (...) est le plus grand écrivain de la Grèce. Il démontre ce point en deux étapes: il entame tout d'abord une « joute oratoire » avec Lysias, alors considéré comme le meilleur écrivain de son temps, où il fait montre de sa supériorité sur les rhéteurs tant sur la forme que sur le contenu; il propose ensuite une théorie de l'art d'écrire dont le caractère adéquat se fonde sur la méthode dialectique. Il énonce de surcroît les trois critères fondamentaux qui doivent gouverner tous les discours, que ceux-ci soient écrits ou oraux: 1 / il faut connaître l'essence de la chose dont on parle; 2 / il faut connaître la nature des âmes auxquelles on s'adresse; 3 / il faut adapter les contenus des messages que l'on veut communiquer aux capacités de réception des âmes auxquelles on s'adresse. Toutefois, les messages du philosophe ne peuvent être transmis par la seule écriture: les choses les plus précieuses, le philosophe les écrit dans les âmes des hommes, autrement dit, il les communique dans le registre de l' « oralité dialectique ». Les discours écrits n'ont aucune autonomie, puisqu'ils ont, de fait, besoin du « secours » de l'auteur. Pour comprendre les discours écrits, fussent-ils les meilleurs, une connaissance préalable des choses dont ils traitent est nécessaire, connaissance qui ne peut être obtenue que par des voies différentes de celles que fournissent les discours écrits. The author summarizes in this article the content of his Phaedrus' commentary which will appear in May of 1998. The Phaedrus constitutes a true « manifesto ». It presents a programme in which Plato (who was then aged sixty or sixty-five), defends a position on the question of writing at a time when writing was being substituted for orality as the primary instrument of communication. In the Phaedrus, Plato wants to show, while he is writing it, that he is the greatest writer in Greece. He demonstrates this point in two stages: first, he initiates an « oratorical contest » with Lysias who was then considered the best writer of this time, where he shows his superiority over the orators both in form and in content; then, he proposes a theory of the art of writing the appropriate character of which is based on the dialectical method. Moreover, Plato states the three primary criteria which must govern any discourse whether oral or written: 1 / knowledge of the essence of what one speaks; 2 / knowledge of the nature of the souls to be addressed; 3 / knowledge of the content of the messages that one addressed. However, the messages of the philosopher cannot be transmitted only by writing. The most precious things are written by the philosopher in the souls of men, in other words, he communicates them in the register of dialectical orality. Written discourses have no autonomy since they need the « help » of the author. To understand written discourse, including the best, a preliminary knowledge of the things with which they deal is necessary, knowledge which can only be obtained through paths different from those which are provided by written discourse. (shrink)

This paper argues that what is currently the most popular version of temporal Fragmentalism—‘unstructured’ temporal Fragmentalism, as I shall call it—faces a problem of Tensed Belief Explosion. Four possible solutions to this problem are reviewed and shown to be wanting; two more promising ones risk fostering scepticism about the existence of tensed facts—hence, about Fragmentalism itself. The tentative moral is that unstructured versions of Fragmentalism are at best unmotivated and at worst seriously flawed.

The core of this article is a comparative analysis of the double movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century with the double movement of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. In both periods the movement toward allegedly self-regulating markets called forth a countermovement of protection. Nevertheless, important differences exist due, first, to differences in the nature of the hegemonic state and, second, to the greater role of subordinate forces in constraining the movement toward self-regulating markets in the (...) late twentieth century. (shrink)

Introduction to The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenological Psychopathology.

In this paper I propose to read and understand gestures as logical tools within a synthetic paradigm of knowledge. This interpretation of gesture is drawn from a new pragmatist reading of reasoning in general, and synthetic reasoning in particular. Complete gestures are actions with a beginning and an end that bear a meaning. It is our regular way to embody vague ideas into singular actions with general meaning. The tool is forged by a dense blending of icons, indices, and symbols (...) and by a complexity of phenomenological characteristics as feelings, actual actions, general concepts and habits. The paper illustrates this new way to look at gestures and different kinds of complete and incomplete gestures. (shrink)

This work presents elements for an alternative operationalization of monitoring and diagnosis of multi-agent systems, developed in the context of compliance checking. In contrast to traditional accounts of model-based diagnosis, and most proposals concerning non-compliance, our method does not consider any commitment towards the individual unit of agency. Identity is considered to be mostly an attribute to assign responsibility, and not as the only referent to a source of intentionality. The proposed method requires as input a set of prototypical agent-roles (...) known to be relevant for the domain, and an observation, i.e. evidence collected by a monitor agent. We elaborate on a concrete example concerning tax frauds in real-estate transactions. (shrink)

El artículo se pregunta qué sentido tiene la práctica de conferir o reconocer derechos y sostiene que son sus consecuencias lo que nos interesa y lo que hace sensata la práctica relacionada con ellos. La virtud de esta tesis es que permite aterrizar el vocabulario aéreo de los derechos y que invita a determinar sus contenidos específicos con la mayor precisión posible. Se trata de una tesis realista y pragmatista respecto de los derechos. Realista, porque busca comprender en qué consiste (...) realmente ser titular de derechos; pragmatista, en la medida en que, para hacerlo, se interesa por las consecuencias de su titularidad. El artículo busca también mostrar el modo en que una tesis pragmatista sobre los derechos puede dar cuenta de los derechos fundamentales. (shrink)

The article addresses three theses on judgment in general and legal judgment in particular, starting from Peirce’s and Dewey’s claims about them. The first thesis, ontological, concerns the content of an act of judgment and says that judgment is about an object instantiating a property (not about a property instantiated by an object). The second, alethic, concerns the relation between judgment and truth and says that judgment is the attribution of a truth value to a proposition. The third, genetic, deals (...) with the moments of judgment claiming it is a process susceptible of being articulated in such moments. Its fundamental moments are 1) hypothesis, 2) inquiry, 3) result. The article claims that the three theses interconnect and hold for both judgment in general and legal judgment, given that the latter is a model of the former; so a complex conception of judgment is articulated, discussing also its relations with assertion and inference. (shrink)

The formal analysis of normative systems has traditionally focused on their deontic dimension rather than on their potestative dimension; yet, a growing amount of works aims at shedding light on the notion of power, its norm changing potential and its general interactions with deontic concepts. The present article contributes to this line of inquiry by adopting the following perspective: a normative system can be metaphorically seen as an agent that allocates abilities (powers) in order to promote the fulfillment of certain (...) desires (deontic directives), and in doing so regulates its behavioural domain. Our analysis emphasizes the instrumental nature of power, while clarifying the distinction between ‘being allowed’ and ‘being enabled’ and unveiling new patterns of interaction between deontic and potestative concepts. Operationally, we formulate this framework in terms of conditional rules, and provide a corresponding logic programming (ASP) implementation. (shrink)

A radical reform of the agri-food biotech regulation in the EU is considered in many quarters as a pressing necessity. Indeed, two important decisions on the legal status of the so-called New Breeding Techniques are expected shortly. In order to clarify some basic aspects of the complex scenario, after a brief introduction regarding the “GMO” fallacy, we offer our point of view on the following facets: A faulty approach is frequent in the discussion of the agri-food regulation; NBTs, genome editing (...) may lead to the disappearance of the “GMO” meme; Beyond health and safety issues: socio-economic considerations; Sustainability: the comprehensive, meaningful starting point of a positive reform; The theoretical and legal basis for the reform are already contained in the EU’s general guidelines to legislation. (shrink)

This paper presents a lengthy unpublished passage by Russell on the attempts by Pythagoras and subsequent mathematicians to deal with continuity and the logical paradoxes, recently discovered in the manuscript of the _History of Western Philosophy_. In the first part, I provide a short introduction to the new material. In the second, I analyze its philosophical content. In the third, I develop some considerations, mainly in the attempt to solve the following problems: can we determine when and for what purpose (...) Russell wrote these leaves? why were they never published? where do we find similar subjects expounded in the History? where does the significance of the discovery really lie? (shrink)

Cette biographie du savant de la Renaissance s'attache à écrire son parcours. Né en 1548 à Nola (province de Naples), Giordano Bruno est ordonné prêtre et docteur en théologie en 1575. A Genève, il étudie à l'université, puis il en est chassé. A Oxford, il rédige les deux trilogies de dialogues italiens, ainsi que "L'infini", l'"Univers et les mondes", "L'expulsion de la bête triomphante.".

O presente artigo apresenta um estudo detalhado sobre a dimensão performativa implícita na redução fenomenológica a partir de uma análise das obras de Edmund Husserl e da sua reinterpretação nas contribuições de Eugen Fink. Atribuindo à função do espectador transcendental a estrutura de janela, estrutura esta previamente desenvolvida nas pesquisas sobre os atos das presentificações em geral e sobre a consciência de imagem em particular, Fink consegue demonstrar a medialidade característica da redução, verdadeiro centro operativo da fenomenologia. Essa função medial (...) — situada, como uma janela, entre o âmbito mundano e a esfera transcendental — será um elemento fundamental tanto para o desenvolvimento da fenomenologia constitutiva de Husserl e suas análises sobre a história transcendental, quanto para a teoria transcendental do método e sua tematização pelo pensamento fenomenológico in fieri, bem como para a declinação meôntica da fenomenologia proposta por Fink. Neste sentido, a operação da redução será radicalizada numa performance que pretende “fissurar” a “superfície da vida transcendental”, criando aí uma abertura ao transcendental. A partir deste topos medial, o espectador transcendental se torna, portanto, uma espécie de panopticum “não envolvido” e “imparcial” do jogo da constituição, o qual ele pode enxergar através da janela aberta pela redução entre o âmbito natural e o transcendental como um imenso espetáculo. O espetáculo da “ontogênese” transcendental — anteriormente escondida uma latência anônima, sepultada na profundidade de um esquecimento “antigo como o mundo” — apresenta-se entre a subjetividade constituinte transcendental e seu produto final: a finitude, a correlação experiencial constituída entre ser humano e mundo. Finalmente, retomando as sugestões implicadas no fenômeno da imagem, as conclusões traçam um paralelismo com os famosos Cortes de Luciano Fontana, obras de arte performativa que, substituindo a represented spatiality por uma acted spatiality, rompem com o espaço “natural” e tradicional da imagem para adentrar, através da criação de uma cesura, de um corte na superfície da imagem, o infinito. (shrink)