VVe argue in this essay that the real violence in schools is a result of the structural violence of oppresive social conditions that force students, especially low-income African American and Latino males, tofeel vulnerable, angry, and resistant to the normative expectations of “police-like” school environments. Instead of making attempts to transform these oppressive conditions and explore alternatives outsideof these frameworks, schools utilize the ideological state apparatuses (ISA’s) to justify the construction of certain students (e.g., African American and Latino males) as (...) “violent/deviant/disabled” therebymaking it an individual rather than a social problem. On the other hand, we contend, a political economic analysis of educational contexts makes critical linkages between race, class, and disabilityand in doing so offers an alternative way of re-theorizing identity. Additionally this argument will aIso demonstrate how a political economic analysis exposes and re-orients one towards a collective (global) struggle for social transfornlation in critical multicultural contexts. (shrink)

Frege's account of indirect proof has been thought to be problematic. This thought seems to rest on the supposition that some notion of logical consequence ? which Frege did not have ? is indispensable for a satisfactory account of indirect proof. It is not so. Frege's account is no less workable than the account predominant today. Indeed, Frege's account may be best understood as a restatement of the latter, although from a higher order point of view. I argue that this (...) ascent is motivated by Frege's conception of logic. (shrink)

With its emphasis on analytical dualism and its detailed account of the concepts and methods necessary for its application, Margaret Archer's morphogenetic approach seems to provide significant potential for empirical research. Over a decade after its publication, however, the potential of the approach remains largely unrealised. This paper seeks to begin to address this situation by reporting on and assessing the application of the morphogenetic approach to a longitudinal case study of information systems development and organisational change in British local (...) government. This assessment confirms Archer's claims for the approach's value as an instrument for the production of non-conflationary practical social theory. In addition, certain features of the methodology moved the analysis of IS and organisational change beyond that of more mainstream approaches used for this type of research. However, a range of issues are identified which demonstrate that the complexity and resulting resource intensity of the approach may well work against its more widespread adoption for empirical research. (shrink)

El propósito de este trabajo es indagar la crítica foucaultiana del neoliberalismo desarrollada en las conferencias que Michel Foucault dictó en el Collège de France en 1979. En dicho curso, el filósofo francés propuso un abordaje crítico de la economía política al que denominó crítica política del saber. Por lo tanto, el foco de este artículo es la crítica política del saber económico que despliega en el curso mencionado. Investigación arqueo-genealógica en la que el neoliberalismo no es estudiado ni como (...) una ideología ni como una teoría económica, sino como una racionalidad gubernamental. (shrink)

During the 1980s Illich added another dimension to his thought through the study of Medieval history. In the current volume he aims to demonstrate the extent to which the groundwork for the institutions that characterize our world today was laid in the twelfth century.

Orthomodular posets form an algebraic formalization of the logic of quantum mechanics. A central question is how to introduce implication in such a logic. We give a positive answer whenever the orthomodular poset in question is of finite height. The crucial advantage of our solution is that the corresponding algebra, called implication orthomodular poset, i.e. a poset equipped with a binary operator of implication, corresponds to the original orthomodular poset and that its implication operator is everywhere defined. We present here (...) a complete list of axioms for implication orthomodular posets. This enables us to derive an axiomatization in Gentzen style for the algebraizable logic of orthomodular posets of finite height. (shrink)

Stewart Shapiro has objected to the epistemicist theory of vagueness on grounds that it gives counterintuitive predictions about cases involving conditional obligation. This paper details a response on the epistemicist’s behalf. I first argue that Shapiro’s own presentation of the objection is unsuccessful as an argument against epistemicism. I then reconstruct and offer two alternative arguments inspired by Shapiro’s considerations, and argue that these fail too, given the information-sensitive nature of conditional obligations.

Is self-deception something that just happens to us, or is it an intentional action of an agent? This paper discusses intentionalism, a theory claiming that self-deception is intentional behavior that aims to produce a belief that the agent does not share. The agent is motivated by his belief that p (e.g. he is bald) and his desire that not-p (e.g. not to be bald), and if self-deceiving is successful, the agent will end up believing not-p. Opponents of intentionalism raise two (...) different objections: it seems that self-deceiver should then simultaneously hold two incompatible beliefs (namely, that p and not-p), as well as simultaneously intend the deception and be unaware of it. This paper reviews possible answers to anti-intentionalist objections (temporal partitioning, psychological partitioning, and the attentional strategy account) and offers guidelines to strengthen intentionalist claims. (shrink)

Este artículo se ubica en el ámbito de la formación jurídica y expone tres macro estrategias del aprendizaje, que bien pueden, como aquí se afirma, interactuar y complementarse entre sí. En primer lugar, se representa el modelo educativo centrado en la transmisión de conceptos, sin duda el más arraigado y tradicional en el contexto europeo-continental. En segundo lugar, se procede examinando el paradigma formativo por problemas, enfocado en el desarrollo de la capacidad analítica. En tercer lugar, se ilustra el método (...) educativo que entrena el discernimiento, impulsando la capacidad de elección, entre una multitud de opciones posibles, y empoderando la toma de decisiones racionalmente motivadas. En conclusión, se presenta una teoría formativa unitaria que pone en valor la relación funcional, potencialmente existente, entre estas diferentes metodologías formativas. (shrink)

As Classical Propositional Logic finds its algebraic counterpart in Boolean algebras, the logic of Quantum Mechanics, as outlined within G. Birkhoff and J. von Neumann’s approach to Quantum Theory (Birkhoff and von Neumann in Ann Math 37:823–843, 1936) [see also (Husimi in I Proc Phys-Math Soc Japan 19:766–789, 1937)] finds its algebraic alter ego in orthomodular lattices. However, this logic does not incorporate time dimension although it is apparent that the propositions occurring in the logic of Quantum Mechanics are depending (...) on time. The aim of the present paper is to show that tense operators can be introduced in every logic based on a complete lattice, in particular in the logic of quantum mechanics based on a complete orthomodular lattice. If the time set is given together with a preference relation, we introduce tense operators in a purely algebraic way. We derive several important properties of such operators, in particular we show that they form dynamic pairs and, altogether, a dynamic algebra. We investigate connections of these operators with logical connectives conjunction and implication derived from Sasaki projections in an orthomodular lattice. Then we solve the converse problem, namely to find for given time set and given tense operators a time preference relation in order that the resulting time frame induces the given operators. We show that the given operators can be obtained as restrictions of operators induced by a suitable extended time frame. (shrink)

This paper discusses the epistemic value of political parties and other partisan associations from the standpoint of epistemic democracy. It examines whether political parties contribute to the quality of democratic deliberation, thus increasing the epistemic value of democratic decision-making procedures, or represent a threat that polarizes the society and impedes and distorts the public deliberation. The paper introduces several arguments that support the epistemic value of partisanship. Partisan associations empower otherwise marginalized social groups or groups that have disproportionally small political (...) influence by facilitating political education or by connecting citizens and experts who share the same values. Partisan associations also help us resist the epistemically damaging effects of hermeneutical (epistemic) injustice by enabling marginalized citizens to construct alternative discourses. However, though partisanship might facilitate the transmission of knowledge, this deliberative tool will only be used in a group of like-minded citizens (i.e. within a political party), thus increasing the polarization between the parties and citizens alike, and decreasing the epistemic value of such collective decision-making procedures. The paper analyses some epistemic strategies (like red-teaming or building a critical thinking culture) that can help us avoid or (at least) reduce the epistemically damaging effects of polarization. However, internal action (from within a deliberative group) might not be enough. Making the deliberation on political issues public and spreading it through different forms of citizens’ organizations will ensure that political deliberation is not closed within a single homogenous deliberating group (i.e. the party). These practices should significantly reduce the damaging effects of group polarization. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Neurath’s scientific utopianism is the proposal that the social sciences should engage in the elaboration, development, and comparison of counterfactual scenarios, the ‘utopias’. Such scenarios can be understood as centerpieces of scientific thought experiments, that is, in exercises of imagination that not only promote conceptual revision, but also stimulate creativity to deal with experienced problems, as utopias are efforts to imagine what the future could look like. Moreover, utopian thought experiments can offer scientific knowledge to inform political debates and (...) decisions, contributing to the shaping of society. This essay reconstructs a historical event as an example of Neurath’s utopianist methodology. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a scientific and political commission appointed by the Western German Parliament devised and compared four scenarios for future energetic-economic policies. Conclusions of the commission informed political decisions that put Western (later reunified) Germany in a route towards becoming a green industrial power. A fundamental part of the commission’s work involved an appeal to imagination, allowing for the characterization under Neurath’s methodology. (shrink)

A lo largo del presente artículo se pretende analizar la problematización foucaulteana de las ciencias humanas elaborada en el contexto de sus trabajos sobre biopolítica y gubernamentalidad. En ese sentido, la biopolítica y la gubernamentalidad en cuanto tales no constituyen el objeto de nuestra indagación, sino que más bien es a través del abordaje foucaulteano de dichas problemáticas que buscaremos revisar su lectura respecto de los saberes acerca de “lo humano”.

Este trabajo se centra en la creciente interacción entre la neurociencia y el derecho, delineando cuestiones de responsabilidad penal y en el marco más amplio de las interacciones epistemológicas entre diferentes campos del conocimiento. Ilustra la oportunidad de mantener un “debate” o diálogo peculiar entre las ramas de la ciencia consideradas y en el ámbito particular del neuroderecho. A continuación, el artículo presenta el método socrático como un enfoque dialéctico específico para orientar racionalmente estas conexiones epistemológicas, favorecer la comparación crítica (...) de perspectivas heterogéneas y, por tanto, poner de manifiesto espacios comunes fértiles en los que es posible alcanzar nuevos conocimientos interdisciplinarios. Por último, el artículo considera posturas significativas en el debate sobre el neuroderecho para mostrar que, en la medida en que se basan en la dialéctica y la refutación, pueden considerarse como fuertes manifestaciones de un diálogo socrático. Por lo tanto, aprovechando esta práctica, incluso en los sistemasjurídicos hay espacio para las pruebas y las aportaciones neurocientíficas, aunque esto conlleve una pizca de “neuromodestia”, pensamiento crítico y una defensa del método socrático. (shrink)

This article examines the contributions made towards eugenic thought in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by Havelock Ellis . Ellis was a significant social reformer who worked on the problems of sexuality from a scientific–naturalist secular perspective. In the later phases of his work, after he had completed much of his writing on sexuality, Ellis concentrated on issues of feminism and eugenics—problems he thought were interlinked. In this paper, I integrate his ideas about these subjects, and consider the (...) ways in which Ellis and other liberal social reformers created a ‘eugenic subject’ in order to frame their arguments about social problems. (shrink)

After unsuccessful attempts to form Liberal-Socialist and tripartite cabinets, another center-left cabinet was made. It was the first cabinet headed by Flemish Christian-Democratjean-Luc Dehaene. Not commanding a two-thirds majority in Parliament, the constitutional reform agenda was referred to a community-to-community dialogue which resulted in an overall constitutional reform agreement concluded in the fall.Not much action was taken on the budget deficit, and the cabinet's reliance on new taxes led to tension inside the coalition, with the CVP insisting on additional spending (...) cuts. Labor and management reached agreement on a 1993-94 national inter-industry accord for the private sector.The cabinet decided to abolish conscription, and the armed farces were involved in UN-sponsored peacekeeping missions in ex-Yugoslavia and Somalia.In Parliament, there was a large majority in favor of the Maastricht Treaty. (shrink)

Whereas the Belgian politica! world had planned a calm transitional political year leading to the January 1992 general elections, 1991 was a year of political turmoil resulting in the resignation of the cabinet and genera! elections. The Martens VIII cabinet had planned to implement the third and final phase of its constitutional reform package. However, in the fall tension rapidly rose inside the cabinet. White the majority parties were positioning themselves for the next elections, a row over arms sale licences (...) caused the fall of the cabinet. First the Volksunie left, but only a few days later Prime Minister Martens had to submit the resignation of bis cabinet. In the ensuing genera! electiOns, all the traditional parties lost ground except PW and the losses were particularly severe for the Flemish Christian Democrats and the Flemish Socialists. Winners were the ultra-right Vlaams Blok in Flanders and the ecologists in Francophone Belgium. (shrink)

Otto Neurath and John Dewey share the understanding that science must have a prominent role in democratic social reform. This is a common aim that brought logical empiricism and pragmatism together in the first half of the 20th century, but there are differences between the two stances. On the one hand, Neurath sees a limitation of scientific knowledge, considering that it cannot determine decisions to be taken in the course of social reform. Such decisions, in the logical empiricist view, are (...) a matter of politics. On the other hand, Dewey sees a continuity among all forms of inquiry and, therefore, the conclusions of valuational inquiry are analogous in their epistemic claims to the conclusions in factual (natural or social inquiry). This paper investigates the divergence and concludes that pragmatist continuity of inquiry is set in a psychological context that disregards a difference in objectivity between factual and valuational inquiry. (shrink)

El propósito de este trabajo es revisar la manera en que la imbricación entre lo epistemológico y lo político vertebra la grilla foucaultiana de la gubernamentalidad. Particularmente, nos proponemos analizar dicha grilla como herramienta crítica frente a la fobia al Estado alentada por la racionalidad política neoliberal.

What can we learn from Louis Dumont? -- A contrarian's most contrarian notion : Dumont on hierarchy -- Our individualism and its religious origins -- The comparative risks of comparison : on not remaining caged within our own frame of reference -- Conclusion: Dumont's morality and social cosmology.

The essays in this volume form part of the revival of interest in Durkheim and bring to light his intellectual inquiry into political theory, comparative ethnology, social reconstruction and questions of civil society, as well as his articulation of an updated individualism in conversation with Marx, Hegel, Spencer and others. The anthology includes work by authors such as Robert N. Bellah, Edward Tiryakian, Henri Berr and Alfred Loisy.

If we take a bird’s-eye view of the history of philosophical ideas and try to assess the place the problems of modality hold in it, it is likely that we will gain the impression that they are not among the priorities of philosophical thinking of the essence of human being. A closer look at some classical theses, however, can provide us with different answers. In § 76 of Critique of Judgement, which is actually “just” a comment on the basic text, (...) Kant explains that “For human reason it is of absolute necessity to distinguish between the possibility and reality of things”. Kant helps us to include modality in the very metaphysical definition of the human being. That is why we can say: human being is a modal being before being “a rational being”, “a social animal” or “homo faber”. In my opinion that “before” should be understood in a strictly metaphysical sense and it should help us to discover a non-trivial basis and principle of philosophical anthropology. It is my thesis that philosophical anthropology should place modality in the very definition of human nature and consider human being as a possibilia entis. We could illustrate the fundamental character of modality by demonstrating that modality is at the basis of constituting time as temporality. In view of this position only the modal being has a time in the sense of temporality. Or, to put it in a different way, we can see in nature only changes, but not temporal phenomena in the strict sense of the concept of time perceived as temporality. (shrink)

Heidegger, first of all, perceives modern thinking to be a source of technology in its partly threatening dimension, though this source was inherited fromGreek thinkers. However, technology and threat, which arises from it, are not some kind of inevitable fate, but are the destiny of Being, which should be calmly awaited in its mysteriousness. For where there are threat and danger, there also is a prospect of salvation – in this way Heidegger adopts Hölderlin’s restrained optimism. Furthermore, salvation presupposes constant (...) inquiry as an expression of the piety of thought. If it does not fall to its proper place, then the forgotness of Being, the abandonment of Being, war and triumph of different modern technologies, which have created a lot of trouble in the technological age, can take root. Therefore, it seems that only enlightened thinking, which is revealed in its inquisitive piety, can offer some way out. (shrink)