Singular terms without referents are called empty or vacuous terms. But not all of them are equally empty. In particular, not all proper names that fail to name an existing object fail in the same way: although they are all empty, they are not all equally vacuous. “Vulcan,” “Jacob Horn,” “Odysseus,” and “Sherlock Holmes,” for instance, are all empty. They have no referents. But they are not entirely vacuous or useless. Sometimes they are used in statements that are true or (...) false. We are basically referentialists about proper names. The ordinary semantic function of a proper name is to refer to an object, and to do it directly, that is, without semantically providing any identifying condition that the object should meet to be the referent. To put it differently, we agree that statements containing proper names express singular propositions, i.e., that their truth-conditions involve the referent of the proper name, if it exists, and not any identifying condition of it. Now, since empty names lack a referent, and therefore would not express such a singular proposition, how do we explain that many, if not all, statements containing them have a truth-value? Answering this question for the case of fictional names, in particular, is the aim of this paper. (shrink)

In this paper, we focus on some misconceptions about Critical Pragmatics, what it is, what it assumes and what it proposes. Doubtless, some of these misconceptions are due to clumsy writing on our part; perhaps others are due to inattentive reading. And some may be due to an effort to shield us from the apparent implausibility of what we said—and in fact meant. It does not matter much. We focus on those misunderstandings that most matter to us, either because, by (...) repetition, they have ended up being annoying, even if they are not, perhaps, that important; or because they are substantial enough to represent a distortion of the basic picture of Critical Pragmatics and its theoretical foundations, namely, Critical Referentialism—also known as the Reflexive-referential Theory—and, more generally, Perry’s fundamental views on meaning and content(s). (shrink)

In §8 of hisBegriffsschrift(1879), Gottlob Frege discusses issues related to identity. Frege begins his most famous essay,“On Sense and Denotation”(1892),published 13 years later, by criticizing the view advocated in §8. He returns to theseissues in the concluding paragraph. Controversies continue over these importantpassages. We offer an interpretation and discuss some alternatives. We defend thatin theBegriffsschrift,Frege does not hold that identity is a relation between signs.§8 of theBegriffsschriftis motivated by the conflict between two differentcriteria for sameness of conceptual content of sentences. (...) To resolve that conflict,Frege introduces‘≡’in §8 and, thus, circumstances with names as constituents. Tothe same end, in“On Sense and Denotation,”Frege introduces senses andThoughts and abandons both ‘≡’ and circumstances. He solves what we call theCo-instantiation problem, and disregards, but does not solve, the Name problem. (shrink)

In these short comments, I concentrate mostly on the discussion about belief retention, about Frege’s dilemma concerning sentences containing temporal indexical expressions and about the problems of cognitive significance it raises. I argue that Bozickovic’s interpretation of Perry’s proposals (both of the 70’s proposal and of its later developments) is not accurate. I offer an account of these problems that I take to be congenial with Perry’s own explanation and which I think might complement Bozickovic’s own proposal.

Proponemos una interpretación novedosa de la(s) teoría(s) de Frege en Begriffsschrift (1879/2016) y “Über Sinn und Bedeutung” (1892a/2016). Prestamos especial atención al papel de las circunstancias como contenido conceptual de las oraciones en Begriffsschrift y argumentamos que ninguna razón de las que ofrece Frege en “Über Sinn und Bedeutung” para establecer los valores de verdad como referencia de las oraciones justifica su eliminación. Este artículo no es tanto de carácter histórico como de reconstrucción conceptual. Buscamos en Frege las raíces de (...) una concepción pluralista del contenido de la oración (Perry, 2001/2012; Korta & Perry, 2011). (shrink)

This paper presents an approach to the belief system based on a computational framework in three levels: first, the logic level with the definition of binary local rules, second, the arithmetic level with the definition of recursive functions and finally the behavioural level with the definition of a recursive construction pattern. Social communication is achieved when different beliefs are expressed, modified, propagated and shared through social nets. This approach is useful to mimic the belief system because the defined functions provide (...) different ways to process the same incoming information as well as a means to propagate it. Our model also provides a means to cross different beliefs so, any incoming information can be processed many times by the same or different functions as it occurs is social nets. (shrink)

Prior's approach to time has been neglected by semanticists for several reasons. The main one, we believe, is the inability of Priorean tense logic to refer to times. The second one, is the inability to account for some important features of natural language such as temporal anaphora and the role of temporal constructions in discourse. Priorean tense logic has, however, one important advantage over other accounts: the internal perspective of time (due to its modal nature). This paper examines extensions of (...) Priorean tense logic in which reference to times is possible, focusing on the so-called hybrid temporal logic. We will outline some of its main features and analyze some of its philosophical implications. (shrink)

To address the topic of children’s online aggression, this article explores a subsample from the EU Kids Online dataset of 1404 children, aged 9–16, who reported having engaged in aggressive acts online in the previous year. Through a cluster analysis, respondents were classified into three groups. Findings emphasize the risk factors for aggression and how they relate to age-specific developmental tasks. Boys predominate, but the gender gap is not as wide as in offline contexts. For almost half of the children, (...) aggression goes hand in hand with victimization. All the clusters share high levels of emotional deprivation. A sense of lacking social support, from both adults and peers, becomes more relevant among those children with high and more problematic engagement in online aggression. Results confirm that online aggression must be considered within the complex and fluid offline–online continuum cutting across the social contexts in which children grow. (shrink)

In §8 of his Begriffsschrift (1879), Gottlob Frege discusses issues related to identity. Frege begins his most famous essay, “On Sense and Denotation” (1892), published 13 years later, by criticizing the view advocated in §8. He returns to these issues in the concluding paragraph. Controversies continue over these important passages. We offer an interpretation and discuss some alternatives. We defend that in the Begriffsschrift, Frege does not hold that identity is a relation between signs. §8 of the Begriffsschrift is motivated (...) by the conflict between two different criteria for sameness of conceptual content of sentences. To resolve that conflict, Frege introduces ‘≡’ in §8 and, thus, circumstances with names as constituents. To the same end, in “On Sense and Denotation,” Frege introduces senses and Thoughts and abandons both ‘≡’ and circumstances. He solves what we call the Co-instantiation problem, and disregards, but does not solve, the Name problem. (shrink)

This paper presents an approach to the belief system based on a computational framework in three levels: first, the logic level with the definition of binary local rules, second, the arithmetic level with the definition of recursive functions and finally the behavioural level with the definition of a recursive construction pattern. Social communication is achieved when different beliefs are expressed, modified, propagated and shared through social nets. This approach is useful to mimic the belief system because the defined functions provide (...) different ways to process the same incoming information as well as a means to propagate it. Our model also provides a means to cross different beliefs so, any incoming information can be processed many times by the same or different functions as it occurs is social nets. (shrink)

Alguns humanos possuem um excêntrico modo de existência e não guardam para si aquilo que sabem; anunciam e entregam para o outro o que aprenderam, o que trazem consigo; são uma espécie de ponte ancestral entre sucessivas gerações; parecem ter herdado de Hermes, Mercúrio, Agni, um espírito que lhes impulsionam a conceder àqueles com quem convivem sabedoria, aprendizado. Uns assumem-no como missão, outros convertem isso em ofício e se transformam em educadores e professores. Rosilene Maria Alves Pereira assumiu (...) o ofício de ser professora universitária ainda muito jovem, e, algumas gerações de alunos do curso de Licenciatura em filosofia da Universidade Federal do Piauí, testemunham esse legado de forma substantiva desde 1993. (shrink)

Nas últimas décadas, a desconstrução do paradigma antropocêntrico colocou questões como a exploração animal no centro dos debates éticos e meta-éticos modernos. Este tema tem sido o foco de atenção também no âmbito dos estudos Kantianos. À luz das diferenças fundamentais entre seres humanos e animais e da impossibilidade posta pela teoria de Kant de atribuir deveres diretos aos animais, tornar sua filosofia prática útil para a defesa do bem-estar animal parece uma tarefa impossível. A esta dificuldade soma-se a crítica (...) de que uma teoria baseada em princípios universais e deveres individuais pode ser inadequada para lidar com o bem-estar animal sob considerações culturais e situacionais. Ao abordar estes desafios, pretendo mostrar que a filosofia prática de Kant fornece recursos valiosos para a defesa do bem-estar animal. Neste espírito, eu sustento que, embora limitado, o tratamento de Kant acerca do auto-engano é uma forma promissora de fazer a ponte entre o bem-estar animal e o ethos da sua teoria moral. (shrink)

CICLO DE CONFERÊNCIAS Encontramos aqui uma panorâmica simultaneamente vasta e profunda sobre a relação entre Filosofia e Literatura, es elecendo diversas pontes de diálogo entre estas duas margens que, em geral, não comunicam ou comunicam pouco, decerto muito menos do que seria desejável Pontes de diálogo que passam pela recordação da Filosofia Antiga ou, mais especificamente, da tradição neoplatónica, e que se projectam em autores contemporâneos como, entre outros, Paul Ricoeur, Jean-Paul Sartre, Clarice Lispector, Hilda Hist, Leonardo Coimbra, Teixeira de (...) Pascoaes, Fernando Pessoa, Vergílio Ferreira, Jorge de Sena e Gonçalo M Tavares. (shrink)

This paper analyses the successive waves of penetration of oriental goddesses, assimilated to Aphrodite, by Greeks coming from the Near East (Syria, Phoenicia) to the Greek colonies on the Black Sea. The first stage, that of the cuit of Syrian Aphrodite, is assigned to the 6th c. BC in the Greek towns of Olbia, Berezan and perhaps Istros. In the 4th c. a second wave arrived, chiefly in the Kingdom of the Bosphorus, which introduced the cuit of Aphrodite Ourania. The (...) analysis is based on ancient texts, graffiti, inscriptions, reliefs and terracottas. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In this review, I try to present and discuss the main elements of each chapter of the book as briefly and instructively as possible. The first group of chapters deals with various issues about language, and the second group focuses on thought.

La discussione generale sulla filosofia della scienza contemporanea è complicata dal numero e dall’eterogeneità delle scienze, mentre lo studio di temi specifici porta inevitabilmente a dissertazioni specialistiche che mancano nel dare ragione della trama di senso sottostante. Questo Piccolo trattato di epistemologia intende occupare uno spazio vuoto, proponendo alcuni temi chiave per la comprensione dei meccanismi alla base della conoscenza scientifica: i rapporti tra filosofia e scienze, siano esse naturali o umane; la complessa relazione tra fatti e valori; la distinzione (...) tra scoperta e giustificazione; la necessità di un discorso etico sulla ricerca, che chiami in causa categorie come fiducia, empatia, altruismo ed egoismo. Con un approccio chiaro e rigoroso, il volume intende rivolgersi a quell’ampia fascia di pubblico interessata alle tematiche centrali dell’epistemologia, della filosofia e delle scienze. (shrink)

Razón, poesía, historia.--La cuestión del estoicismo español.--El querer.

The proliferation of for-profit enterprises offering stem cell storage services for personal use illustrates one of the ways health is increasingly governed through uncertainty and speculative notions of risk. Without any firm guarantee of therapeutic utility, commercial stem cell banks offer to store a range of bodily tissues, signalling the further transformation of the living body into an accumulation strategy within biotechnology capitalism’s ‘tissue economies’. This article makes two related claims: first, it suggests that specifically gendered forms of identification with (...) the leading edge of the bioeconomy are embedded in the speculative practices of commercial stem cell banking and are particularly visible in the recent creation of a banking service for endometrial tissue marketed directly to women. Second, the article offers a novel analytic through which to explore the commercial banking of one’s own bodily tissues (or ‘autologous’ banking) through Marx’s discussion of money hoarding. The aim of the article is to thus further the conceptual claims linking emergent forms of economic and biomedical subjectivity to transformations in biotechnology capital. (shrink)

Introdução Nos dias 4 e 5 de novembro de 2019 realizou-se, na Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, um “Encontro Regional da Residência Pedagógica em Filosofia”, sobre o tema dos “lugares da Filosofia”. A primeira parte da minha fala no evento foi dedicada à discussão de aspectos particulares do currículo local, em especial a questão dos critérios de decisão que levamos em conta nas reformas curriculares. Fiz uma breve revisão da história do Curso de Licenciatura em Filosofia da UFSM, que (...) tem mais de cinquenta anos de funcionamento. Fiz também uma avaliação da conjuntura que vivemos no ensino de filosofia. Retomei o tema das dificuldades de caracterização da filosofia para sua apresentação didática e pedagógica. Na medida em que as decisões sobre o desenho curricular em nossa área são bastante amparadas nas intuições e preferências docentes, amplia-se a possibilidade de que elas sejam vistas como de ordem subjetiva. Eu tenho procurado identificar algumas dificuldades do que chamo de “decisionismo curricular”, mas também tenho feito sugestões no sentido de que a exploração conceitual das diferenças entre três eixos no ensino da filosofia, como produto, como problema e como processo, pode ser o ponto de partida para novos esforços de caracterização da disciplina, a partir de seu eixo de procedimentos. O problema torna-se ainda mais premente no quadro político e social que estamos vivendo. Somam-se às dificuldades institucionais a necessidade de darmos conta de uma caracterização da filosofia que faça justiça não apenas a temas emergentes, mas ao processo de redesenho de suas próprias fronteiras. Nesta versão eu suprimi a abordagem da situação curricular da UFSM em benefício de uma expansão da segunda parte. Incluí algumas discussões que não apresentei naquele dia, em especial uma apresentação sobre A paixão segundo G. H., de Clarice Lispector, que me serviu, no presente texto, para fazer uma ponte entre certos temas. Incluí também uma abordagem de A Vida do Espírito, de Hannah Arendt, que me pareceu essencial para o mosaico que tento desenhar, faz anos. O resultado está longe de ser satisfatório. O fracasso, como diz Clarice, dá muito trabalho, pois para cair é preciso subir um pouco e “é inútil procurar encurtar caminho, a trajetória não é apenas um modo de ir, a trajetória somos nós mesmos”. (shrink)

The passage of time seems to be a fundamental aspect of experience. However, most descriptions of the passage of time itself are incompatible with the four-dimensional block universe model of space and time, in which time is extended like space, and all states of affairs exist equally and eternally in this varied tapestry of space and time. The tension between temporal passage and the block universe seems to leave one with the option of either abandoning the block universe in favor (...) of a metaphysics that can accommodate our experience, or holding that this experience of passage is illusory. I argue for a third option: that we have certain dynamic experiences, which lend themselves to the view that time passes, those dynamic experiences can be accounted for within the block universe model without any additional mechanism, and those dynamic experiences are not illusory, but veridical. (shrink)

In this conceptual article, we argue that defining corporate social responsibility and corporate social irresponsibility as opposite constructs produces a lack of clarity between responsible and irresponsible acts. Furthermore, we contend that the treatment of the CSR and CSI concepts as opposites de-emphasizes the value of CSI as a stand-alone construct. Thus, we reorient the CSI discussion to include multiple aspects that current conceptualizations have not adequately accommodated. We provide an in-depth exploration of how researchers define CSI and both identify (...) and analyze three important gray zones between CSR and CSI: the role of harm and benefit, the role of the actor and intentionality, and the role of rectification. We offer these gray zones as factors contributing to the present lack of conceptual clarity of the term CSI, as a concept in its own right, leading to difficulties that researchers and managers experience in categorizing CSI acts as distinct from CSR. (shrink)

'Ethics' was not developed as a separate branch of philosophy in Buddhist traditions until the modern period, though Buddhist philosophers have always been concerned with the moral significance of thoughts, emotions, intentions, actions, virtues, and precepts. Their most penetrating forms of moral reflection have been developed within disciplines of practice aimed at achieving freedom and peace. This Element first offers a brief overview of Buddhist thought and modern scholarly approaches to its diverse forms of moral reflection. It then explores two (...) of the most prominent philosophers from the main strands of the Indian Buddhist tradition – Buddhaghosa and Śāntideva – in a comparative fashion. (shrink)

In this paper, we analyze the role of science and technology studies journal editors in organizing and maintaining the peer review economy. We specifically conceptualize peer review as a gift economy running on perpetually renewed experiences of mutual indebtedness among members of an intellectual community. While the peer review system is conventionally presented as self-regulating, we draw attention to its vulnerabilities and to the essential curating function of editors. Aside from inherent complexities, there are various shifts in the broader political–economic (...) and sociotechnical organization of scholarly publishing that have recently made it more difficult for editors to organize robust cycles of gift exchange. This includes the increasing importance of journal metrics and associated changes in authorship practices; the growth and differentiation of the STS journal landscape; and changes in publishing funding models and the structure of the publishing market through which interactions among authors, editors, and reviewers are reconfigured. To maintain a functioning peer review economy in the face of numerous pressures, editors must balance contradictory imperatives: the need to triage intellectual production and rely on established cycles of gift exchange for efficiency, and the need to expand cycles of gift exchange to ensure the sustainability and diversity of the peer review economy. (shrink)

In the face of causal complexity, scientists reconstitute phenomena in order to arrive at a more simplified and partial picture that ignores most of the 'bigger picture.' This paper will distinguish between two modes of reconstituting phenomena: one moving down to a level of greater decomposition (toward organizational parts of the original phenomenon), and one moving up to a level of greater abstraction (toward different differences regarding the phenomenon). The first aim of the paper is to illustrate that phenomena are (...) moving targets, i.e., they are not fixed once and for all, but are adapted, if necessary, on the basis of the preferred perspective adopted for pragmatic reasons. The second aim is to analyze in detail the second mode of reconstituting phenomena. This includes an exposition of the kind of pragmatic-pluralistic picture resulting from the fact that phenomena are reconstituted by a move up to a level of greater abstraction. (shrink)

Human nature is a concept that transgresses the boundary between science and society and between fact and value. It is as much a political concept as it is a scientific one. This chapter will cover the politics of human nature by using evidence from history, anthropology and social psychology. The aim is to show that an important political function of the vernacular concept of human nature is social demarcation (inclusion/exclusion): it is involved in regulating who is ‘us’ and who is (...) ‘them.’ It is a folk concept that is used for dehumanization, for denying (a) membership in humankind or (b) full humanness to certain people in order to include or exclude them from various forms of politically relevant aspects of human life, such as rights, power, etc. (shrink)

This work proposes an analysis of the cognitive and motivational components of hope, its basic properties, and the affective dispositions and behaviors it is likely to induce. In our view current treatments of hope do not fully account for its specificity, by making hope overlap with positive expectation or some specification of positive expectation. In contrast, we attempt to highlight the distinctive features of hope, pointing to its differences from positive expectation, as well as from a sense of successful agency, (...) optimism, trust, and faith. Fear and anxiety are also addressed, and the latter is analyzed as a state of mind implying both fear and hope. Finally, the relationship between hope and motivation is explored, and “active” hope is compared with “passive” hope. Some concluding remarks summarize the results of our analysis, and stress the role of hope in fostering the individual’s well-being. (shrink)

In this paper I analyze Kant’s ideas about eating and drinking. First, I show that gluttony and drunkenness are considered ways to oppose to the duty to oneself as an animal being. Second, I claim that for Kant there is a healthy way of having meals, which consists in eating together with friends. Then I indicate that Kant accepts that one can drink at dinner parties but has to avoid drinks that lead to drunkenness and unsocial behavior. In this sense, (...) he draws a classification of the various kinds of alcoholic drinks, according to their potential harm. Afterwards, I illustrate how Kant’s own intimate life was a daily practice of his thoughts on dietetic conceptions and on what is better for digestion and health. To conclude, I mention the idea of a philosopher’s medicine of the body and why a strict diet should be avoided. (shrink)

Os mitos antigos não estão mortos. A partir desta afirmação fundamentada nas obras de autores como Warburg, Jean Seznec, Erwin Panofsky e Fritz Saxl, este trabalho pretende apontar os caminhos históricos que legitimaram a sobrevivência do mito das sibilas no mundo cristão, em sua estreita relação com a astrologia. O paganismo não renasceu após o medievo, mas esteve sempre presente no cristianismo, não só como símbolos, mas como efetiva influência essencial sobre os homens e as suas vidas. Alguns momentos históricos (...) em particular são privilegiados neste caminho, desde os padres apologistas do cristianismo primitivo até o nascimento da ciência moderna. Sibilas e astrologia, como testemunhos “de fora” são presença constante seja na teologia cristã, seja na literatura e na música, ou nas representações plásticas do mundo cristão, que aqui privilegiamos. A sua sobrevivência ou pós-vida é ora afirmada também pela legitimação de grandes nomes da patrística e da escolástica, e ainda por meio da influência de Albumasar, teólogo muçulmano nascido no século VIII e que faz o elo entre sibilas, astrologia e a Virgem Maria. O que fazem as sibilas nos tetos das igrejas católicas? É esta a pergunta que o presente trabalho pretende, em grande medida, responder. (shrink)