Emery, Lucilius A. Concerning Justice. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1914. vii, 170 pp. Reprinted 2002 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. ISBN 1-58477-234-4. Cloth. $60. * This volume reprints the Storrs lectures delivered by Emery [1840-1920] at Yale University in 1914. Emery's profound knowledge of constitutional law and keen interest in philosophy and history are clearly evident here. Beginning with conceptions of justice in Antiquity and in the Judeo-Christian tradition, Emery develops a general theory of (...) rights, and uses it as a basis for his definition of justice. His other lectures deal with the securing of justice. Influenced perhaps by the outbreak of hostilities in Europe, Emery asserts that the United States has created the finest system yet for its preservation. "It is most emphatically a book which, once read, is kept on hand for a re-reading." H.W.C. Yale L.J. 24: 263 as cited in Marke, A Catalogue of the Law Collection at New York University (1953) 191. Dictionary of American Biography 144-145. (shrink)

Writings, including articles, letters, and unpublished work, by one of the twentieth century's most influential figures in mathematical logic and philosophy. Alonzo Church's long and distinguished career in mathematics and philosophy can be traced through his influential and wide-ranging writings. Church published his first article as an undergraduate at Princeton in 1924 and his last shortly before his death in 1995. This volume collects all of his published articles, many of his reviews, his monograph The Calculi of Lambda-Conversion, the (...) introduction to his important and authoritative textbook Introduction to Mathematical Logic, a substantial amount of previously unpublished work (including chapters for the unfinished second volume of Introduction to Mathematical Logic), and a selection of letters to such correspondents as Rudolf Carnap and W. V. O. Quine. With the exception of the reviews, letters, and unpublished work, these appear in chronological order, for the most part in the format in which they were originally published. Church's work in calculability, especially the monograph on the lambda-calculus, helped lay the foundation for theoretical computer science; it attracted the interest of Alan Turing, who later completed his PhD under Church's supervision. (Church coined the term “Turing machine” in a review.) Church's influential textbook, still in print, defined the field of mathematical logic for a generation of logicians. In addition, his close connection with the Association for Symbolic Logic and his many years as review editor for the Journal of Symbolic Logic are documented in the reviews included here. (shrink)

I argue that there are such things as nomological probabilities—probabilities that play a certain explanatory role with respect to stable, long-run relative frequencies. Indeed, I argue, we should be willing to accept nomological probabilities even if they turn out to be metaphysically weird or even wholly sui generis entities. I then give an example of one way in which this argument should shape future work on the metaphysics of chance by describing a challenge to a common group of analyses of (...) objective probability—Humean analyses— understood as analyses of nomological probability. (shrink)

This volume collects essays which are thematically connected through the work of Kent Emery Jr., to whom the volume is dedicated. A main focus lies on the attempts to bridge the gap between mysticism and a systematic approach to medieval philosophical thought.

Enjoyment of negative emotions in music is seen by many as a paradox. This paper argues that the paradox exists because it is difficult to view the process that generates enjoyment as being part of the the same system that also generates the subjective negative feeling. Compensation theories explain the paradox as the compensation of a negative emotion by the concomitant presence of one or more positive emotions. But compensation brings us no closer to explaining the paradox because it does (...) not explain how experiencing sadness itself is enjoyed. The solution proposed is that an emotion is determined by two critical processes—labelled motivational action tendency (MAT) and subjective feeling (SF). For many emotions the two processes are coupled in valence. For example, happiness has positive MAT and positive SF, annoyance has negative MAT and negative SF. However, in an aesthetic context, such as listening to music, emotion processes can become decoupled. Sadness retains its negative SF but the aversive, negative MAT is inhibited, leaving sadness to still be experienced as a negative valanced emotion, while contributing to the overall positive MAT. Individual differences, mood and previous experiences mediate the degree to which the aversive aspects of MAT are inhibited. The reason for hesitancy in considering or testing this parallel processes hypothesis, as well as the preponderance of research on sadness at the exclusion of other negative emotions, are discussed. (shrink)

Philosophers and scientists both ask questions about what the world is like. How do these fields interact with one another? How should they? Naturalism Beyond the Limits of Science investigates an approach to these questions called methodological naturalism. According to methodological naturalism, when coming up with theories about what the world is like, philosophers should, whenever possible, make use of the same methodology that is deployed by scientists. Although many contemporary philosophers have implicit commitments that lead straightforwardly to methodological naturalism, (...) few have a clear understanding of how widespread and disruptive methodological naturalism promises to be for the field. By way of a series of case studies involving laws of nature, composition, time and modality, and drawing on historical and contemporary scientific developments including the discovery of the neutrino, the introduction of dark energy, and the advent of relativity theory, this book demonstrates the ways in which scientists rely on extra-empirical reasoning and how that very same extra-empirical reasoning can yield surprising results when applied to philosophical debates. Along the way, Nina Emery's investigation illuminates the complex relationship between philosophy and the sciences, and makes the case that philosophers and scientists alike would benefit from a greater understanding of the connections between the two fields. (shrink)

Opening salvo -- Who are we, anyway? -- Dictators -- International & domestic terrorism -- America's changing demographics -- Anger & the loss of civility -- Whatever happened to common sense? -- Racism in America -- Guns in America -- Our world's deteriorating environment -- The 2020 pandemic -- Black Lives Matter -- The 2020 election -- January 6, 2021 -- Conspiracy theories & misinformation -- Technology & social media -- Our government -- The constitution & American democracy -- Closing (...) salvo -- Lessons I learned. (shrink)

The objective of this work is to analyze the relation between active life, nobility and liberty in Thomas More s Utopia. In Quentin Skinners interpretation, Moro argues that the true nobility should not be understood as abundance of wealth, but as willingness to provide good services for the commonwealth. In first place, this paper will show some classical interpretations in favor and against of active and contemplative life. Second, it will contrast the propositions of two strands of Humanism found in (...) The Utopia; one closer to Plato and Greek philosophy, the other inspired in Roman civic philosophy. Third, I will show the relation between active life and nobilitas in Mores Utopia. Finally, I will try to link these concepts with the notion of liberty developed by Skinner and More. O objetivo deste trabalho é re-analisar, a partir da interpretação de Quentin Skinner, a relação entre vida ativa, nobreza e liberdade em A Utopia de Tomás Moro. Para o pensante inglês, o conceito de nobilitas de Moro não se entende como a abundância de riquezas, mas como a disposição a sacrificar-se pelo bem comum. Em primeiro lugar, se mostrarão diversas interpretações a favor e contra da vida contemplativa e a vida ativa na tradição política clássica. Em segundo lugar, se mostrará como são contrastadas duas correntes humanistas dentro do contexto de A Utopia; uma de tendencia platónica e outra relacionada com o humanismo cívico de inspiração romana. Terceiro, se tratará de mostrar o vínculo entre vida ativa e nobilitas em A Utopia de Moro. Por último, se buscará a relação entre esta noção de nobreza com a concepção de liberdade que propõem Skinner e Moro. El objetivo de este trabajo es reanalizar, a partir de la interpretación de Quentin Skinner, la relación entre vida activa, nobleza y libertad en La Utopía de Tomás Moro. Para el pensador inglés, el concepto de nobilitas de Moro no se entiende como la abundancia de riquezas, sino como la disposición a sacrificarse por el bien común. En primer lugar, se mostrarán diversas interpretaciones a favor y en contra de la vida contemplativa y la vida activa en la tradición política clásica. En segundo lugar, se verá como son contrastadas dos corrientes del humanismo dentro del contexto de La Utopía. Una de corte platónico y otra relacionada con el humanismo cívico de inspiración romana. Tercero, se tratará de mostrar el vínculo entre vida activa y nobilitas. Por último, se buscará la relación entre esta noción de nobleza con la concepción de libertad que proponen Skinner y Moro. (shrink)

Resumen: Entre el pensamiento de José Gaos y el de Eduardo Nicol se cierne una diferencia sustancial en torno al concepto de la filosofía. Para el primero, ésta es una suerte de confesión personal; mientras que para Nicol la filosofía debe ser producto de una hazaña dialógica y el conocimiento tiene que ser objetivo.: José Gaos’s and Eduardo Nicol’s concepts of philosophy differ substantially. For the former, philosophy is a sort of personal confession, whereas for the later it must be (...) the outcome of dialogical achievement, and as for knowledge, this has to be objective. (shrink)

The objective of this works in to analyze the conditions of transference of sovereignty and the concept of natural liberty in William of Ockham. Firstly, I briefly explain some antecedents of the conflict of ‘investidures’. Secondly, I will show that Ockham advanced the existence of a set of natural rights hold by the community. This permitted to argue against the Papal interference in the secular sphere, but also to set limits to the emperor himself and grant the individual with natural (...) rights. Thirdly, I explain the differences between ius fori and ius poli and I suggest that Ockham did not provide point of contact between these laws, excepting in the case of liberty. Finally, I revise briefly Ockham’s term translation imperii. (shrink)

Jon Elster's notion of 'local justice systems' helps recon ceive sustainable development in several fresh ways. Keeping options open for the future use of resources turns out to be a justice/injustice cycle: the more sustainable development becomes a global phenom enon, the more locally unjust its uniform application would necess arily be. The more uniform the application, the greater the local pressure for suitably varied alternatives. But the more varied the applications, the greater the chance of global injustice arising from (...) the decentralization and lack of coordination on the ground. In this way, sustainable development must be seen as not ending when unjust global systems become more just, but rather as continuing through a set of iterations whose moments include a rejection of an overly globalized sustainable development. Key Words: Jon Elster • local justice systems • sustainable development. (shrink)

The ability to imagine hypothetical events in one’s personal future is thought to involve a number of constituent cognitive processes. We investigated the extent to which individual differences in working memory capacity contribute to facets of episodic future thought. College students completed simple and complex measures of working memory and were cued to recall autobiographical memories and imagine future autobiographical events consisting of varying levels of specificity . Consistent with previous findings, future thought was related to analogous measures of autobiographical (...) memory, likely reflecting overlapping cognitive factors supporting both past and future thought. Additionally, after controlling for autobiographical memory, residual working memory variance independently predicted future episodic specificity. We suggest that when imagining future events, working memory contributes to the construction of a single, coherent, future event depiction, but not to the retrieval or elaboration of event details. (shrink)