This article compares two different bodies of theories concerning the role of the genome in life processes. The first group of theories can be indicated as referring to the gene-centric paradigm. Dominated by an informational myth and a mechanistic Cartesian body/mind and form/substance dualism, this considers the genome as an ensemble of discrete units of information governing human body and behavior, and remains hegemonic in life sciences and in the public imagination. The second body of theories employs the principle of (...) the extraordinary plasticity of the (body-)organism and emphasizes the value of the (body-)organism-environment mutual interchange, known as ‘the epigenetic approach’. This approach is outlined, showing a gradual, paradigmatic shift from the genecentric towards an epigenetic approach can be observed in the ‘scientific landscape’ over the last 20 years. The article concludes by formulating the argument that this ‘epigenetic turn’ in life sciences has some important implication for renewing epistemological basis of social sciences. (shrink)

Inspired by the thinking of authors such as Andrew Feenberg, Tim Ingold and Richard Sennett, this article sets forth substantial criticism of the ‘social uprooting of technology’ paradigm, which deterministically considers modern technology an autonomous entity, independent and indifferent to the social world (practices, skills, experiences, cultures, etc.). In particular, the authors’ focus on demonstrating that the philosophy,methodology and experience linked to open source technological development represent an emblematic case of re-encapsulation of the technical code within social relations (reskilling practices). (...) Open source is discussed as a practice, albeit not unique, of community empowerment aimed at the participated and shared rehabilitation of technological production ex-ante. Furthermore, the article discusses the application of open source processes in the agro-biotechnological field, showing how they may support a more democratic endogenous development, capable of binding technological innovation to the objectives of social (reducing inequalities) and environmental sustainability to a greater degree. (shrink)

Offering a solution to the skeptical puzzle is a central aim of Nozick's sensitivity account of knowledge. It is well-known that this account faces serious problems. However, because of its simplicity and its explanatory power, the sensitivity principle has remained attractive and has been subject to numerous modifications, leading to a of sensitivity accounts. I will object to these accounts, arguing that sensitivity accounts of knowledge face two problems. First, they deliver a far too heterogeneous picture of higher-level beliefs about (...) the truth or falsity of one's own beliefs. Second, this problem carries over to bootstrapping and Moorean reasoning. Some beliefs formed via bootstrapping or Moorean reasoning are insensitive, but some closely related beliefs in even stronger propositions are sensitive. These heterogeneous results regarding sensitivity do not fit with our intuitions about bootstrapping and Moorean reasoning. Thus, neither Nozick's sensitivity account of knowledge nor any of its modified versions can provide the basis for an argument that bootstrapping and Moorean reasoning are flawed or for an explanation why they seem to be flawed. (shrink)

In this paper we propose an extension of Defeasible Logic to represent and compute different concepts of defeasible permission. In particular, we discuss some types of explicit permissive norms that work as exceptions to opposite obligations or encode permissive rights. Moreover, we show how strong permissions can be represented both with, and without introducing a new consequence relation for inferring conclusions from explicit permissive norms. Finally, we illustrate how a preference operator applicable to contrary-to-duty obligations can be combined with a (...) new operator representing ordered sequences of strong permissions. The logical system is studied from a computational standpoint and is shown to have linear computational complexity. (shrink)

In this paper we show that the Hilbert system of agency and ability presented by Dag Elgesem is incomplete with respect to the intended semantics. We argue that completeness result may be easily regained. Finally, we shortly discuss some issues related to the philosophical intuition behind his approach. This is done by examining Elgesem's modal logic of agency and ability using semantics with different flavours.

Business and Society Review, Volume 127, Issue 1, Page 23-48, Spring 2022.

Decision making often takes place in social environments where other actors influence individuals' decisions. The present article examines how advice affects individual learning. Five social learning models combining advice and individual learning‐four based on reinforcement learning and one on Bayesian learning‐and one individual learning model are tested against each other. In two experiments, some participants received good or bad advice prior to a repeated multioption choice task. Receivers of advice adhered to the advice, so that good advice improved performance. The (...) social learning models described the observed learning processes better than the individual learning model. Of the models tested, the best social learning model assumes that outcomes from recommended options are more positively evaluated than outcomes from nonrecommended options. This model correctly predicted that receivers first adhere to advice, then explore other options, and finally return to the recommended option. The model also predicted accurately that good advice has a stronger impact on learning than bad advice. One‐time advice can have a long‐lasting influence on learning by changing the subjective evaluation of outcomes of recommended options. (shrink)

This paper provides a computational framework, based on defeasible logic, to capture some aspects of institutional agency. Our background is Kanger-Lindahl-Pörn account of organised interaction, which describes this interaction within a multi-modal logical setting. This work focuses in particular on the notions of counts-as link and on those of attempt and of personal and direct action to realise states of affairs. We show how standard defeasible logic (DL) can be extended to represent these concepts: the resulting system preserves some basic (...) properties commonly attributed to them. In addition, the framework enjoys nice computational properties, as it turns out that the extension of any theory can be computed in time linear to the size of the theory itself. (shrink)

One of the near-to-invariant hallmarks of early apoptosis (programmed cell death) is mitochondrial membrane permeabilization (MMP). It appears that mitochondria fulfill a dual role during the apoptotic process. On the one hand, they integrate multiple different pro-apoptotic signal transducing cascades into a common pathway initiated by MMP. On the other hand, they coordinate the catabolic reactions accompanying late apoptosis by releasing soluble proteins that are normally sequestered within the intermembrane space. In a recent study,(1) Li et al. described a nuclear (...) transcription factor (Nur77/TR1/NGFI-B) that can translocate to mitochondrial membranes to induce MMP. Moreover, two groups(2,3) identified a novel intermembrane protein (Smac/DIABLO) that specifically neutralizes the inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) proteins, thereby facilitating the activation of caspases, a class of proteases activated during apoptosis. These findings refine our knowledge how MMP connects to the cellular suicide machinery. BioEssays 23:111–115, 2001. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (shrink)

Eumenides 517–25 contains a centrepiece of Aeschylean ideology—the role of punishment and fear in the ruling of the city. However, the text is vexed by serious issues at lines 522–5. This paper reassesses the main problems, reviews the most influential emendations, and puts forward a new hypothesis. It argues in favour of circumscribing the corruption, offering a new interpretation that permits retention of parts of the text that most editors have deemed impossible to restore.

Since the early Medieval Time people contested theological legitimation and rational discursive discours on authority as well as retreated to refuges to escape from any secular or ecclesiastical authority. Modern attempts formulated rational legitimation of authority in several ways: pragmatic authority by Monteigne, Bodin and Hobbes, or the contract authority of Locke and Rousseou. However, Enlightened Anarchism, first formulated in 1793 by the English philosopher William Godwin fulminated against all rational restrictions of human freedom and self-determination. However, we do not (...) analyze anarchism by the ‘what’ and the ‘why’, but by looking for the best actual approach of Anarchist’s ‘Promised Land’. Furthermore, we follow the footsteps of Thoreau’s Walden Pond experiment considered as a place of salvation and prototype of 19th century romantic’s extreme individualism towards Leopold’s ethics of the land. Indeed, Thoreau’s and later Muir’s concepts of refuges are tightly connected to territorial and temporal bio-regional constraints and imply an internally organized public area based on mutualism and Hannah Arendt’s agape. From these ideas of refuges, Aldo Leopold formulated his Land-ethics that claimed integrity and autonomy of the ‘Land’. His foundation is a prototype of the eco-centric free space version of eco-anarchism as formulated by Bookchin. In order to formulate a philosophical foundation of eco-anarchism we reject Newtonian homogeneous space-temporal conception, preceding the whole Modern discours about authority and state. On the contrary, we adopt the pluralistic Leibnizian space-time from which thinking-humans do not dissociate themselves, but participate as part of the rational infrastructure of eco-refuges. In eco-refuges, citizen belong to the civil society that stays in equilibrium with the landscape and all forms of biological life. Space is the boundary condition of human activity and determines how borders, environmental organization and institutes are sustained. Space has its proper essence of sustainability, unity and integrity. The individual feelings of security are embedded in a timelike tradition and evolution of the free space, while individual particular conceptions of space and time integrate into the social processes of identification with the refuge. Therefore, the creation of eco-refuges transforms the actual world of national authorities into a world of anarchistic democratic eco-regional homelands. (shrink)

This is the first of two papers reviewing and analysing the approach to locality and to mind-body dualism proposed in Everett interpreta- tions of quantum mechanics. The planned companion paper will focus on the contemporary decoherence-based approaches to Everett. This paper instead treats the explicitly mentalistic Many Minds Interpreta- tion proposed by David Albert and Barry Loewer (Albert and Loewer 1988). In particular, we investigate what kind of supervenience of the mind on the body is implied by Albert and Loewer’s (...) Many Minds In- terpretation, and how the interpretation of the related ‘mindless hulks’ problem affects the issue of locality within this interpretation. (shrink)

In a recently published study combining transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroencephalography (TMS-EEG), an early component of TMS-evoked potentials (TEPs), i.e., M1-P15, was proposed as a measure of transcallosal inhibition between motor cortices. Given that early TEPs are known to be highly variable, further evidence is needed before M1-P15 can be considered a reliable index of effective connectivity. Here, we conceived a new preregistered TMS-EEG study with two aims. The first aim was validating the M1-P15 as a cortical index of transcallosal (...) inhibition by replicating previous findings on its relationship with the ipsilateral silent period (iSP) and with performance in bimanual coordination. The second aim was inducing a task-dependent modulation of transcallosal inhibition. A new sample of 32 healthy right-handed participants underwent behavioral motor tasks and TMS-EEG recording, in which left and right M1 were stimulated both during bimanual tasks and during an iSP paradigm. Hypotheses and methods were preregistered before data collection. Results show a replication of our previous findings on the positive relationship between M1-P15 amplitude and the iSP normalized area. Differently, the relationship between M1-P15 latency and bimanual coordination was not confirmed. Finally, M1-P15 amplitude was modulated by the characteristics of the bimanual task the participants were performing, and not by the contralateral hand activity during the iSP paradigm. In sum, the present results corroborate our previous findings in validating the M1-P15 as a cortical marker of transcallosal inhibition and provide novel evidence of its task-dependent modulation. Importantly, we demonstrate the feasibility of preregistration in the TMS-EEG field to increase methodological rigor and transparency. (shrink)

After a brief reconstruction of the principle of precaution’s juridical rising, I will discuss in short the question of the juridical nature of the same principle and then examine some of its extra-juridical implications, showing how the intrinsic logic of the principle of precaution implies a strict connection with the needs and proper forms of a conception of democracy as participative.

While the legal concept of a subject of rights is eminently an abstraction, Ricoeur’s philosophical challenge seeks to rethink its identity within the philosophy of action, in correlation with the ideas of capacity, attestation, and recognition. The terminology Ricoeur employs presents some significant marks of this theoretical stance, as he speaks of a “veritable” or a “real” subject of rights as distinguished from the purely formal one. I argue that Ricoeur’s approach to the legal subject attains its highest meaning in (...) connection with the renewal of the semantics of responsibility in a prospective sense. In particular, I contend that Ricoeur’s idea of a “veritable” subject of rights deploys its full theoretical potential in relation to a prospective idea of responsibility in contrast to the “static” perspective of the ascription of rights and duties. Reciprocally, a prospective idea of responsibility deploys its full meaning in relation to a subject of rights not reduced to a legal abstraction since, as far as narrative identity is implied, this subject is and has to be an embodied one. I shall show that the thesis advocating a projection of responsibility towards the future may have some significant theoretical implications, in particular in relation to the effect of techno-scientific development in areas such as Artificial Intelligence. (shrink)

Cette contribution entend examiner la place que la référence au droit, et plus largement au phénomène juridique, occupe dans la dernière phase de la réflexion de Ricœur autour du sujet capable. Le droit joue en effet un rôle d’une importance croissante dans l’articulation de l’anthropologie capacitaire définie dans la “petite éthique” à travers une reconfiguration profonde de ses catégories fondamentales, notamment celle de sujet de droit et celle de responsabilité. Les implications d’un tel renouveau théorique seront prises en compte, tant (...) pour l’articulation interne de la pensée du dernier Ricœur que pour leurs potentielles retombées dans la théorie du droit contemporaine. (shrink)

Most of the theories on formalising intention interpret it as a unary modal operator in Kripkean semantics, which gives it a monotonic look. We argue that policy-based intentions exhibit non-monotonic behaviour which could be captured through a non-monotonic system like defeasible logic. To this end we outline a defeasible logic of intention. The proposed technique alleviates most of the problems related to logical omniscience. The proof theory given shows how our approach helps in the maintenance of intention-consistency in agent systems (...) like BDI. (shrink)

The question of the moral acceptability of infertility treatment to HIV positive persons raises a number of interesting ethical points regarding the responsibility of the infertility specialist for the outcome of his or her actions. The analysis of the physician’s responsibility is conducted within the framework of accomplice liability. The physician is a collaborator in the parental project of the principals—that is, the intentional parents. Both causal contribution and intention are considered as elements of complicity. It is concluded that a (...) two per cent risk of vertical transmission when the woman is HIV positive is insufficient to blame the infertility specialist who helps her to conceive. Helping an infertile HIV positive infertile couple to have a child does not constitute reckless behaviour. When the couple is fertile, infertility treatment is directed at risk reduction and falls under the physician’s obligation to act in the best interests of his patients. (shrink)

The essays collected in this volume explore the fundamental issues of philosophical realism, including metaphysical realism. Do things exist and have properties independently of being objects of thought or perception? epistemological realism: Is it possible to know any part of reality in and of itself? and ontological realism: Are there universals?

Resumo: Este artigo tem como objetivo mostrar como Nietzsche modela o conceito de “bom Europeu” em estreita referência ao seu conceito de síntese. Para entender o processo de síntese, devemos estudar o funcionamento do corpo como sistema de conflitos e de domínio. Os bons europeus de Nietzsche são homens capazes de uma síntese superior. Supranacionalistas e supraeuropeus são defensores do desenvolvimento da civilização após a libertação completa da moral cristã.The article studies the way through which Nietzsche models the concept of (...) “good European” in strict relationship with his concept of synthesis. To understand the process of synthesis, the body has to be studied as a system of conflict and domination. Nietzsche's “good Europeans” are men capable of a superior synthesis. They are supra-nationalists and supra-Europeans, promoters of the development of civilization resulting from the complete liberation from Christian morality. (shrink)

In this paper we address the problem of defining social roles in multi-agent systems. Social roles provide the basic structure of social institutions and organizations. We start from the properties attributed to roles both in the multi-agent systems and the Object Oriented community, and we use them in an ontological analysis of the notion of social role. We identify three main properties of social roles. First, they are definitionally dependent on the institution they belong to, i.e. the definition of a (...) role is given inside the definition of the institution. Second, they attribute powers to the agents playing them, like creating commitments for the institutions and the other roles. Third, they allow roles to play roles, in the same way as agents do. Using Input/Output logics, we propose a formalization of roles in multi-agent systems satisfying the three properties we identified. (shrink)

Enactivism was born as an epistemological theory of cognition grounded in biology, phenomenology and cognitive science. Assuredly, back in 1991 when the theory was first put forth, a possible application of enactivism to aesthetics would have sounded a bit strange to its creators Francisco Varela, Eleanor Rosch and Evan Thompson, and perhaps far from their original intentions. But today, when various forms of naturalism are taking place in contemporary aesthetics, it is clear, for updated rea...