In this paper, I argue that the distinction between standard and non-standard pragmatic implications, originally used to differentiate among types of conversational implicatures, applies to the family of contents—traditionally referred to as ‘presuppositions’—that exhibit projective behaviour. Following the scholars working within the Question Under Discussion model of communication, I distinguish between two types of projective implications: suppositions and presuppositions narrowly construed. Next, I identify two rules of appropriateness that govern the use of, respectively, supposition-triggering and presupposition-triggering expressions. Finally, I argue (...) that the ostentatious violation of the rules in question gives rise to non-standard projective implications, whereas their observance results in standard suppositions and presuppositions; I also use the idea of discourse coherence to develop a sketchy account of the mechanisms underlying the functioning of non-standard projective implications. (shrink)

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10516-021-09562-7.

The starting point of this paper is Andrej Ule’s book Osnovna filozofska vprašanja sodobne logike [Basic Philosophical Questions of Contemporary Logic] from 1982. Specifically, I focus on his assessment of Frege, Russell and Wittgenstein’s views on the ontological status of logic and its apriority. Ule claims that all three thinkers failed because they did not take into account the role a human being plays in this as the creator of language. In this assessment, I recognize the rejection of metaphysics and (...) the linguistic approach to philosophical issues that were characteristic of analytic philosophy in the past. I shortly describe this position and the role that the discussed authors played in its development. I conclude with my own assessment of the proposed views based on the contemporary, metaphysics-friendly position. (shrink)

SAŽETAK: Empiristi su tvrdili da se medicinsko znanje u cjelini može steći na temelju iskustva i da za njegovo formiranje i primjenu nije potrebna nikakva teorija. Ključni dio toga stava sastoji se u odbacivanju istraživanja uzroka bolesti. Medicinsko se znanje sastoji od teorema koji su generalizacije izvedene na temelju iskustva. Ranije analize generalizacija kojima se služi medicina, kao i rasprave o stručnom znanju općenito, pokazuju da je među grčkim liječnicima i filozofima bio prihvaćen stav da ispravne generalizacije koje nekoj djelatnosti (...) jamče status umijeća jesu eksplanatorne generalizacije – takve koje uključuju poznavanje uzroka. U članku istražujem na temelju čega empiristi mogu za neeksplanatorne generalizacije zahtijevati isti status i nastojim pokazati da je njihov argument u osnovi taj da statistički kriterij formulacije takvih generalizacija jamči njihovo podudaranje s događajima koje opisuju, što eksplanatornegeneralizacije ne mogu osigurati.The Empiricists argued that medical knowledge is a matter of experience, and that no theory is required either for its formation or application. The central part of their position was rejecting the possibility of the discovery of causal connections by the use of reason. The theorems that make up medical knowledge are empirical generalizations that do not include the specification of the cause. However, the Greek authors outside Empiricism, both medical and philosophical, made a strong case for the claim that a generalization must be explanatory to be scientific or artistic. In this paper I discuss how non-explanatory generalizations, being statements of frequency of joint occurrences which are statistically accurate, can be taken by the Empiricists as scientific. (shrink)

Filozofowie umysłu zaczynają odgrywać istotną rolę w debacie na temat statusu moralnego zwierząt. Współczesne, obiecujące koncepcje świadomości każą uznać, że zwierzęta nie są zdolne do cierpienia w ludzkim sensie, co budzi sprzeciw wielu badaczy troszczących się o los zwierząt. Ponadto, etycy uznający zdolność do cierpienia za podstawowe kryterium przyznawania statusu moralnego, są w kłopocie, gdyż wyniki nauk kognitywnych wydają się kłócić z ich intuicjami. Proponuję usunąć ten problem przez odrzucenie poglądu uznającego konieczny związek między posiadaniem statusu moralnego a zdolnością do (...) cierpienia. Przedstawiam również projekt, jak bronić zasadności przynajmniej niektórych intuicji opartych na empatii i korzystać z nich w debacie na temat statusu moralnego zwierząt. (shrink)

In this article, I discuss Hawthorne'€™s contextualist solution to Benacerraf'€™s dilemma. He wants to find a satisfactory epistemology to go with realist ontology, namely with causally inaccessible mathematical and modal entities. I claim that he is unsuccessful. The contextualist theories of knowledge attributions were primarily developed as a response to the skeptical argument based on the deductive closure principle. Hawthorne uses the same strategy in his attempt to solve the epistemologist puzzle facing the proponents of mathematical and modal realism, but (...) this problem is of a different nature than the skeptical one. The contextualist theory of knowledge attributions cannot help us with the question about the nature of mathematical and modal reality and how they can be known. I further argue that Hawthorne'€™s account does not say anything about a priori status of mathematical and modal knowledge. Later, Hawthorne adds to his account an implausible claim that in some contexts a gettierized belief counts as knowledge. (shrink)

The paper is based on the New Institutional Economic Theory, which emphasizes institutions as a vital component in the creation of wealth and economic growth. It is widely accepted that formal institutions change rapidly through political and legislative decisions. Informal institutions are deeply embedded in customs, tradition and inherited behavioral norms. Thus, change comes at a very slow pace. This research is focused on the business ethics segment of informal institutions.The paper is based on the effects of institutional changes on (...) the position and the slope of demand curve for ethical business behavior. Business people faced with opportunity costs that influenced their behavior. Additional statistical analyses provide evidence of business ethics perception, which is more expressed in the group of managers than in the administration group. Behavior of the middle-aged population differs significantly in comparison to other groups when deciding on ethical dilemmas in real business situations.Cet article s’inspire de la Nouvelle Economie Institutionnelle qui met l’accent sur les institutions en tant que composante fondamentale du processus de création de richesses et de la croissance économique, Il est généralement reconnu que les institutions formelles se modifient rapidement sous l’impulsion de décisions politiques et législatives. Les institutions informelles, quant à elles, sont profondément ancrées dans les coutumes, les traditions, et les normes de comportement héritées d’anciennes générations. Ainsi, dans le cas de ces institutions, le changement est beaucoup plus lent. Cet article met l’accent sur l’éthique des affaires en tant qu’une des composantes des institutions formelles.Une des idées qui sous-tend l’article est l’analyse des effets des changements institutionnels sur la position et la pente de la courbe de demande pour des comportements éthiques dans les affaires. Les hommes d’affaires font face à des coûts d’opportunité qui influencent leur comportement. Des analyses statistiques supplémentaires donnent la preuve de la perception de l’éthique des affaires, perception qui est plus aiguë parmi les managers que parmi les administratifs. Le comportement de la population d’âge intermédiaire diffère de manière significative de celui des autres groupes face à des dilemmes éthiques que suscitent certaines situations concrètes du monde des affaires. (shrink)

In the psychological literature, love is often seen as a construct inseparable from that of close, interpersonal relationships. As a result, it has been often assumed that the same motivational factors underlie both phenomena. This often leads researchers to propose that love does not exist in itself—that it is an emotion which stems solely from a need for attachment, fulfillment of reproductive aims, or for social exchange. The popular cultural imagination, however, perceives love as a unique, mysterious, altruistic, ever-lasting bond (...) between two people—a vision of love which is at odds with its supposed psychological origins. We propose that an ideal of love and its enactment in our culture is a result of two intertwining factors. Within the last few centuries, interpersonal relationships and love have replaced religion as islands of existential comfort. Toward this end, lovers project illusory meaning on their partners. The laborious and turbulent process of withdrawing these projections can lead to what many thinkers think “love” is: bestowal of value on another, and consequent respect for, and care for that person, unmotivated by one's own needs, within the context of a real relationship. (shrink)

There are ethical dilemmas faced by clinicians when responding to using unregistered medical devices, such as innovative internet technologies for managing type 1 diabetes mellitus. This chronic disease significantly impacts patients' health, requiring intensive daily activities like blood glucose monitoring, insulin injections, and specific dietary recommendations. Recent technological advances, including continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps, have been shown to improve glycemic control. Di-it Yourself Artificial Pancreas Systems are emerging open-source automated delivery methods initiated by the diabetes community, although they (...) are not clinically evaluated and present a liability challenge for healthcare providers. To use them or not? Should parents and healthcare providers use such technology that helps, but is not proven? Having all of that in mind, we argue that the World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of health is outdated, advocating for the “Extended Health Hypothesis”. This hypothesis claims that health extends beyond traditional biological boundaries to include essential functional structures like diabetes-related technology, making technology a part of a patient's health. This view aligns with the “Extended Mind Hypothesis,” suggesting that health should include elements beyond organic material if they are vital to a patient's functions. In the commentary, we highlight that both naturalist and normative conceptions of health support the extended health hypothesis, emphasizing that human health is not confined to organic material. This perspective raises critical questions about whether devices like insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors are integral to a patient's health and whether their malfunction constitutes a form of disease. Devices are considered integral to health, there is no ethical dilemma in using unregistered medical devices for managing type 1 diabetes. Finally, we call for reevaluating the definitions of health and patients, particularly for children with type 1 diabetes using advanced technologies. It asserts that the optimal use of such devices represents a new form of health, creating a health-device symbiosis that should be evaluated with the child's best interests in mind. (shrink)

On the 70th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the world remains marked by violent conflict and the possibility of nuclear war. This seems an apt moment to ask whether the bombings have left a trace in our thinking. This article thus explores how particular articulations of their memory or, alternatively, failures to articulate such a memory, conjure up our world: how they represent and account for violence and how, if at all, they assign specific significance to nuclear (...) weapons. Reading two very different texts, Jacques Derrida’s ‘No Apocalypse, Not Now’ and Kamila Shamsie’s Burnt Shadows, alongside each other, the article shows how remembering finds itself at the impossible limit between the conceptual and the particular, in the space of politics. It argues that the violence that continues to form an everyday part of our world can only be challenged or even understood by thinking at this (impossible) limit where no answer can be generated in the abstract and decisions are necessary. (shrink)

This book examines the tension inherent in the waging of ethical war, and argues that war and its relationship to ethics need to be rethought fundamentally.

When reasoning about causes of sustainability problems and possible solutions, sustainability scientists rely on disciplinary-based understanding of cause–effect relations. These disciplinary assumptions enable and constrain how causal knowledge is generated, yet they are rarely made explicit. In a multidisciplinary field like sustainability science, lack of understanding differences in causal reasoning impedes our ability to address complex sustainability problems. To support navigating the diversity of causal reasoning, we articulate when and how during a research process researchers engage in causal reasoning and (...) discuss four common ideas about causation that direct it. This articulation provides guidance for researchers to make their own assumptions and choices transparent and to interpret other researchers’ approaches. Understanding how causal claims are made and justified enables sustainability researchers to evaluate the diversity of causal claims, to build collaborations across disciplines, and to assess whether proposed solutions are suitable for a given problem. (shrink)

Machine learning systems have shown great potential for performing or supporting inferential reasoning through analyzing large data sets, thereby potentially facilitating more informed decision-making. However, a hindrance to such use of ML systems is that the predictive models created through ML are often complex, opaque, and poorly understood, even if the programs “learning” the models are simple, transparent, and well understood. ML models become difficult to trust, since lay-people, specialists, and even researchers have difficulties gauging the reasonableness, correctness, and reliability (...) of the inferences performed. In this article, we argue that bridging this gap in the understanding of ML models and their reasonableness requires a focus on developing an improved methodology for their creation. This process has been likened to “alchemy” and criticized for involving a large degree of “black art,” owing to its reliance on poorly understood “best practices”. We soften this critique and argue that the seeming arbitrariness often is the result of a lack of explicit hypothesizing stemming from an empiricist and myopic focus on optimizing for predictive performance rather than from an occult or mystical process. We present some of the problems resulting from the excessive focus on optimizing generalization performance at the cost of hypothesizing about the selection of data and biases. We suggest embedding ML in a general logic of scientific discovery similar to the one presented by Charles Sanders Peirce, and present a recontextualized version of Peirce’s scientific hypothesis adjusted to ML. (shrink)

Istraživanjima vezanim uz vrednovanje znanstvenog rada u području filozofije na svjetskoj razini bavilo se vrlo malo autora. Zbog specifičnosti ove discipline, scientometrijski istraživati filozofiju unutar humanistike može biti komparativno interesantno, ali ona u ovim istraživanjima svakako zaslužuje posebno mjesto. U ovom radu pokušali smo dobiti uvid u potencijalnu vidljivost hrvatskih filozofskih časopisa indeksiranošću u bazi podataka The Philosopher’s Index i mjerenjem odjeka članaka kroz citiranost u Social Science Citation Index i Arts & Humanities Citation Index . Citatnom analizom nastojali smo (...) dobiti uvid u komunikacijske odnose hrvatskih filozofskih časopisa. Jedan od osnovnih zaključaka je da u vrednovanju znanstvenog rada u filozofiji, ISI-jeve citatne baze nemaju isti značaj kao za područje prirodnih znanosti ili biomedicine. Očekuje se da će znatno relevantniji instrumentarij u vrednovanju znanstvenog rada u području filozofije biti baza podataka ERIH .Few authors worldwide have conducted some research on the evaluation of scientific work in the field of philosophy. Due to specificity of this discipline, scientometric research of philosophy inside the humanities can be comparatively interesting, but philosophy should have a special position in this research. In this paper we have tried to get an insight into the potential visibility of Croatian philosophy journals indexed by The Philosopher’s Index, and by measuring their impact through citations by Social Science Citation Index and Arts & Humanities Citation Index . Using citation analysis, we have tried to establish the communication relationship between Croatian and other philosophy journals worldwide and to determine significance of Croatian philosophy journals. One of our main conclusions is that the evaluation of scientific work in philosophy by ISI citation databases does not have the same importance as it has in the field of science or biomedicine. Furtheremore, database ERIH is expected to become more relevant instrument in the evaluation of scientific work in the field of philosophy. (shrink)

The article considers Cassirer’s philosophy of mathematics in opposition to empiricist theories, Frege’s logicism, and its realism, Hilbert’s formalism and its nominalism, and Brouwer’s intuitionism grounding mathematics in the intuition of time. For Cassirer mathematical objects are purely relational structures and not abstractions of certain characteristics, as is the case with empiricists and Frege. In opposition to logicists, Cassirer argues for the synthetic nature of mathematics. Contrary to Brouwer, he does not ground this in intuition but ascribes to mathematics a (...) purely logical nature and relates it to the purely rational faculty of the spirit. He thus turns away from Hilbert, who takes sensuous objects to be the object of mathematics; he also cannot agree with his formalism, which reduces all progress in mathematics to a mere combination of signs, thus stripping it of all meaning. The article considers these differences in view of the opposition between the cardinal and ordinal theories of number and the introduction of ideal elements. (shrink)

The article deals with the problem of death and certainty as reflected in Daoism and Japanese Buddhist philosophy. In the Buddhist context, the Japanese Pure Land theory is discussed. The Buddhist theories are illustrated with the quotations of Daoist philosophers, Zhuang Zi and Lao Zi {Dan dejing), which illuminate the problem of certainty related to the theory of body and its transformations through the mental and physical techniques used in visualizations that were used on the Buddhist path to truth and (...) certainty. (shrink)

Članek obravnava Leibnizov odnos do kitajske filozofije, ki ga je oblikoval na poznavanju Yijinga in neokonfucijanske filozofije. Njegov glavni vir so bila dela figuristov, jezuitov zgodnjega osemnajstega stoletja, ki so gradila na prepričanju o skupnem izvoru človeštva. Leibnizova teorija monad ima mnogo skupnega s kitajsko korelativistično filozofijo, poleg tega pa je tudi v analizi trigramov klasičnega kitajskega filozofskega dela Yijing odkril potrditev za svoj binarni sistem. Dejstvo, da so Kitajci že vsaj pred 4500 leti imeli matematični sistem in gojili disciplino (...) racionalnosti in logike, je Leibniza pripeljalo tudi do teze, da bi naj že stari Kitajci imeli naravno religijo, ki jo je Leibnizov učenec Christian Wolff razumel kot ateizem. Z Leibnizom in Wolffom se je v zgodovini evropske filozofije za dve stoletji prekinil odprt in sprejemljiv odnos do neevropskih filozofskih tradicij, in končalo se je kratko obdobje srečanja evropskih filozofov s kitajskimi filozofskimi deli. V Evropi pa se je filozofija vzpostavila kot »zahodna« filozofska tradicija. (shrink)

Revision of the author's thesis (doctoral) originally presented unter the title: Metaphysik, Logik und Methode Kants--Universitèat Paderborn, 2016.

«Existenzunsicherheit», «Unüberschaubarkeit», «säkularisierte Weltsicht», «neue Spiritualität», «Verlust der Normen»... Das sind Begriffe, die wir im Vorwort zu diesem Sammelband finden. Es sind Begriffe, die das Collegium generale dazu bewogen haben, in den kulturhistorischen Vorlesungen 1987/88 bestimmte Tatbestände unserer sozialen Wirklichkeit auszuleuchten sowie einige Modelle und Konzepte aus den Erfahrungsbereichen aller Fakultäten darzulegen. Den zwölf Vorträgen lag die Absicht zugrunde, dem Verständnis für das Menschsein und für unsere Mitwelt den Weg etwas zu ebnen und Ansätze zu einem unserer Zeit angemessenen Menschenbild (...) aufzuspüren. (shrink)

Boganmeldelse af Sofie Lene Baks ”Racismeparagraffen” (Århus: Århus Universitetsforlag, 2021).

In 2007 a social scientist and a designer created a spatial installation to communicate social science research about the regulation of emerging science and technology. The rationale behind the experiment was to improve scientific knowledge production by making the researcher sensitive to new forms of reactions and objections. Based on an account of the conceptual background to the installation and the way it was designed, the paper discusses the nature of the engagement enacted through the experiment. It is argued that (...) experimentation is a crucial way of making social science about science communication and engagement more robust. (shrink)

Individuals unvaccinated against COVID-19 (C19) experienced prejudice and blame for the pandemic. Because people vastly overestimate C19 risks, we examined whether these negative judgements could be partially understood as a form of scapegoating (ie, blaming a group unfairly for an undesirable outcome) and whether political ideology (previously shown to shape risk perceptions in the USA) moderates scapegoating of the unvaccinated. We grounded our analyses in scapegoating literature and risk perception during C19. We obtained support for our speculations through two vignette-based (...) studies conducted in the USA in early 2022. We varied the risk profiles (age, prior infection, comorbidities) and vaccination statuses of vignette characters (eg, vaccinated, vaccinated without recent boosters, unvaccinated, unvaccinated-recovered), while keeping all other information constant. We observed that people hold the unvaccinated (vs vaccinated) more responsible for negative pandemic outcomes and that political ideology moderated these effects: liberals (vs conservatives) were more likely to scapegoat the unvaccinated (vs vaccinated), even when presented with information challenging the culpability of the unvaccinated known at the time of data collection (eg, natural immunity, availability of vaccines, time since last vaccination). These findings support a scapegoating explanation for a specific group-based prejudice that emerged during the C19 pandemic. We encourage medical ethicists to examine the negative consequences of significant C19 risk overestimation among the public. The public needs accurate information about health issues. That may involve combating misinformation that overestimates and underestimates disease risk with similar vigilance to error. (shrink)

In Describing Inner Experience, Hurlburt and Schwitzgebel explore the proper limits of scepticism about consciousness and the prospect of a scientific investigation of consciousness. Their debate with each other focuses on the question about whether we can trust people's reports about their inner experiences and on Hurlburt's introspective method, DES. I point out that their discussion leaves unclear the crucial question of the aims and objectives of DES. This makes it difficult genuinely to assess DES's merits and the problems for (...) theorizing that might be created by inaccuracy in the introspective data. I then provide a taxonomy of different introspective methods, depending on different roles played by introspective data and on the kinds of questions that are being asked. I suggest that introspective methods tasked to answer a certain group of questions -- certain philosophical questions about experience -- are more vulnerable to the possibility of introspective error than others. (shrink)

In this article, Herrie and Sørensen examine the mediation of typing indicators (“…”) in online messaging. Their point of departure is a scene from the contemporary novel _Exciting Times_ by Naoise Dolan (2020), in which the ‘dots’ play a prominent role. Their analysis shows how typing indicators, as interface design, mediate the complex communication situation in which they take part: from being mere signals, they have slipped into our emotional lives. From a semiotic perspective (Charles S. Peirce), the authors define (...) typing indicators as _uncertain indices_ which through unknowability and suspense establish an attentional presence. In continuation hereof, the authors argue that the acts of writing and waiting in contemporary attentional ecologies (Yves Citton) through the mediation of typing indicators as indicators of attentional presence, could be considered a mode of caring (Bernard Stiegler). (shrink)

This paper focuses on the theoretical philosophy of Bukharin as developed in his book Filosofskie arabeski. I analyze three concepts—perception, being, and dialectics—and show that and how they deviate from the meaning that they commonly have among other Russian Marxists. In this work, Bukharin drafts a theory that can be interpreted as a “relational ontology,” since it focuses on the relations between entities and since these relations are considered to be more fundamental than the entities themselves and provide epistemic access (...) to reality. My examination of Bukharin’s theoretical views shows that he continues Lenin’s tradition of materialist and dialectical thought. That is why, in spite of his innovative approach to some key problems of theoretical philosophy, Bukharin did not go far enough in his studies. His theoretical position appears to be an integral part of his political engagement. (shrink)