We compared the ability of three different contextual models of lexical semantic memory and of a simple associative model to predict the properties of semantic networks derived from word association norms. None of the semantic models were able to accurately predict all of the network properties. All three contextual models over-predicted clustering in the norms, whereas the associative model under-predicted clustering. Only a hybrid model that assumed that some of the responses were based on a contextual model and others on (...) an associative network successfully predicted all of the network properties and predicted a word's top five associates as well as or better than the better of the two constituent models. The results suggest that participants switch between a contextual representation and an associative network when generating free associations. We discuss the role that each of these representations may play in lexical semantic memory. Concordant with recent multicomponent theories of semantic memory, the associative network may encode coordinate relations between concepts, and contextual representations may be used to process information about more abstract concepts. (shrink)

When searching for concepts in memory—as in the verbal fluency task of naming all the animals one can think of—people appear to explore internal mental representations in much the same way that animals forage in physical space: searching locally within patches of information before transitioning globally between patches. However, the definition of the patches being searched in mental space is not well specified. Do we search by activating explicit predefined categories and recall items from within that category, or do we (...) activate and recall a connected sequence of individual items without using categorical information, with each item recalled leading to the retrieval of an associated item in a stream, or both? Using semantic representations in a search of associative memory framework and data from the animal fluency task, we tested competing hypotheses based on associative and categorical search models. Associative, but not categorical, patch transitions took longer to make than position-matched productions, suggesting that categorical transitions were not true transitions. There was also clear evidence of associative search even within categorical patch boundaries. Furthermore, most individuals' behavior was best explained by an associative search model without the addition of categorical information. Thus, our results support a search process that does not use categorical information, but for which patch boundaries shift with each recall and local search is well described by a random walk in semantic space, with switches to new regions of the semantic space when the current region is depleted. (shrink)

In this article Christian ethicist Michael S. Jones introduces the work of Princeton University ethicist Thomas Pogge on the areas of global poverty and global justice. He then applies Pogge’s ideas to an ethical issue of continuing importance: racism. He discusses the history of racism in the United States and Romania, pointing out numerous parallels both historical and contemporary. He discusses the appropriate attitude for Christians to adopt on the issue, arguing that while Christian sources are not (...) univocal on the subject, there is an egalitarianism at the heart of Christianity that rules out racism as a Christian attitude. He concludes that Christians can contribute significantly to overcoming racism in the U.S. and Romania by addressing the underlying attitudinal problem from the podium and the pulpit, with the pen, and through their daily interactions with each other. (shrink)

This collection of original essays explores the connections between the philosophies of Alfred North Whitehead and the classical American pragmatists.

Introduction: thinking about globalization -- Systemic thinking: Immanuel Wallerstein -- Conceptual thinking: Anthony Giddens -- Sociological thinking: Manuel Castells -- Transformational thinking: David Held and Anthony McGrew -- Sceptical thinking: Paul Hirst and Grahame Thompson -- Spatial thinking: Peter Dicken and Saskia Sassen -- Positive thinking: Thomas Friedman and Martin Wolf -- Reformist thinking: Joseph Stiglitz -- Radical thinking: Naomi Klein, George Monbiot and Subcommandante Marcos -- Revolutinary thinking: Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri -- Cultural thinking: Arjun Appadurai (...) -- Conclusion: rethinking globalization again. (shrink)

Preface 9 PART I: RELIGIOUS, SCIENTIFIC, AND PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND Introduction to Part I 19 1. The Bible 27 2. Natural Theology 33 William Paley 3. On the Origin of Species 38 Charles Darwin 4. Objections to Mr. Darwin’s Theory of the Origin of Species 65 Adam Sedgwick 5. The Origin of Species 73 Thomas H. Huxley 6. What Is Darwinism? 82 Charles Hodge 7. Darwinism as a Metaphysical Research Program 105 Karl Popper 8. Karl Popper’s Philosophy of Biology 116 (...) Michael Ruse 9. Human Nature: One Evolutionist’s View 136 Francisco Ayala 10. Universal Darwinism 158 Richard Dawkins PART II: CREATION SCIENCE AND THE McLEAN CASE Introduction to Part II 187 11. The Creationists 192 Ronald L. Numbers 12. Creation, Evolution, and the Historical Evidence 231 Duane T. Gish 13. Witness Testimony Sheet: McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education 253 Michael Ruse 14. United States District Court Opinion: McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education 279 Judge William R. Overton 15. The Demise of the Demarcation Problem 312 Larry Laudan 16. Science at the BarùCauses for Concern 331 Larry Laudan 17. Pro Judice 337 Michael Ruse 18. More on Creationism 345 Larry Laudan 19. Commentary: Philosophers at the BarùSome Reasons for Restraint 350 Barry R. Gross PART III: INTELLIGENT DESIGN CREATIONISM AND THE KITZMILLER CASE Introduction to Part III 369 20. But Isn’t It Creationism? The Beginnings of "Intelligent Design" in the Midst of the Arkansas and Louisiana Litigation 377 Nick Matzke 21. What Is Darwinism? 414 Phillip E. Johnson 22. Is It Science Yet? Intelligent Design, Creationism, and the Constitution 426 Matthew Brauer, Barbara Forrest, and Steven G. Gey 23. Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District Expert Witness Testimony 434 Michael Behe 24. Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District Expert Report 456 Robert T. Pennock 25. A Step toward the Legalization of Science Studies 485 Steve Fuller 26. What Is Wrong with Intelligent Design? 495 Elliott Sober 27. United States District Court Memorandum Opinion: Kitzmiller, et al. v. Dover Area School District, et al. 506 Judge John E. Jones II 28. Can’t Philosophers Tell the Difference between Science and Religion? Demarcation Revisited 536 Robert T. Pennock. (shrink)

Trying, in his Soliloquia, to prove the immortality of the soul from the imperishability of truth, Augustine apparently commits a fallacia aequivocationis. Truth is imperishable insofar as it subsists independently. Immortality follows from this only insofar as truth is constituted by mental acts and is thus inseparable from the soul; for dualistically inspired scepticism, truth is given as being immanent to consciousness through methodologically correct procedures establishing coherence. This fallacy is avoidable only by presupposing a Platonic two-world-dualism: The soul, as (...) well as truth, belongs to the subsisting intelligible and therefore essentially has knowledge. Ignorance can be understood, according to recollection theory, as partial forgetting allowing for distinguishing between true and false, and remarkably also between true ideas and deceiving sensory imaginations. Such a faculty encompassing the intelligible as well as the sensible, however, undermines dualism. (shrink)

This book examines the negative power that child maltreatment has on individuals and society ethically and politically, while analyzing the positive power that parental love and healthy families have. To address how best to confront the problem of child maltreatment, it examines several policy options, ultimately defending a policy of licensing parents, while carefully examining the tension between child and adult rights and duties.

Dasselbe Tun qua physische Wirksamkeit kann unter einer Beschreibung absichtlich, unter einer anderen dagegen unbeabsichtigt sein. Wer dies von einer Handlung behauptet, macht sie zu etwas bloß Naturalem, weil das Mentale, die Absicht, so eine rein gedankliche Bestimmung und kein reales Moment der Handlung ist. Eine antinaturalistische, aber nicht dualistische Position ist möglich, wenn man hylemorphistisch die Absicht als Form auffaßt, die eine Körperbewegung zu einer bestimmten Handlung als einer zugleich physischen und mentalen Wirklichkeit macht. Dies erlaubt nicht-willkürlich abzugrenzen: Eine (...) meist kontingente naturkausale Wirkung meines unmittelbaren Tuns ist, sofern sie beabsichtigt war, ein integrierender Bestandteil der Handlung, ja definiert als Ergebnis und Ziel sogar ihre Art, während unbeabsichtigte Momente als Handlungsfolgen außerhalb ihrer liegen. (shrink)

The Laozi (Daodejing) and the Zhuangzi have long been familiar to Western readers and have served as basic sources of knowledge about early Chinese Daoism. Modern translations and studies of these works have encouraged a perception of Daoism as a mystical philosophy heavy with political implications that advises kings to become one with the Dao. Breaking with this standard approach, The Pristine Dao argues that the Laozi and the Zhuangzi participated in a much wider tradition of metaphysical discourse that included (...) a larger corpus of early Chinese writings. This book demonstrates that early Daoist discourse possessed a distinct, textually constituted coherence and a religious sensibility that starkly differed from the intellectual background of all other traditions of early China, including Confucianism. The author argues that this discourse is best analyzed through its emergence from the mythological imagination of early China, and that it was unified by a set of notions about the Dao that was shared by all of its participants. The author introduces certain categories from the Western religious and philosophical traditions in order to bring out the distinctive qualities constituting this discourse and to encourage its comparison with other religious and philosophical traditions. (shrink)

While many theories exist to explain the complexity of environmental behaviour, the role of individuals’ relationship with nature has not yet been fully clarified. This paper attempts to operationalise human-nature relationships. It expands upon a scale assessed by an iterative process of mixed methods in the US and Europe. This scale is then used to assess individuals’ relationship with nature, and whether such relationships correlate with environmental behaviour. The value scale of Schwartz's Theory of Basic Values is used to validate (...) the results. The results verify that people hold multiple human-nature relationships, confirm strong correlations between human-nature relationships and values, and reveal that individuals’ behaviour is connected to the relationship they have with nature. (shrink)

Da mittelalterliche Denker Gottes Wissen der Welt vorwiegend als ein praktisches, auf Fürsorge gründendes Wissen begriffen, können die freien künftigen menschlichen Taten nicht als prinzipiell unwißbar ausgeschlossen werden. Gottes praktisches Wissen des kontingenten Zukünftigen gründet für Duns Scotus auf seinem faktisch unwandelbaren Willensentschluß und ist daher nur insofern kontingent, als es kontrafaktisch anders hätte sein können. Ockham verwirft solche irrealen Alternativen gleichzeitig zum Faktischen, da die Eigenart willentlicher Verursachung auch ohne solche hohen "ontologischen Kosten" erklärbar sei: Anders als eine Naturursache (...) könne die freie Ursache ohne gewandelte Bedingungen im nächsten Augenblick anderes wirken. Innerhalb allein der wirklichen Welt ergeben echte Gegenwartsaussagen angesichts der Irreversibilität des Geschehenen hinfort notwendige Vergangenheitsaussagen. Aussagen über göttliches Vorauswissen seien hingegen nur oberflächengrammatisch Gegenwartsaussagen, sachlich jedoch kontingent, da ihre Geltung von einem kontingenten Zukünftigen abhänge, wenngleich unwandelbar, weil jede Zukunftsaussage, falls wahr, unveränderlich wahr sei . Bei Unwandelbarkeit aber läßt sich Kontingenz kaum anders als mit der Skotischen Konzeption gleichzeitiger irrealer Möglichkeiten erklären: Gott hätte das faktisch stets Gewußte niemals zu wissen brauchen. (shrink)

Kripkes These soll widersprochen werden, die modalen Begriffe,notwendig' bzw.,kontingent' (Metaphysik) seien auch extensional von den epistemischen,a priori' bzw.,a posteriori' (Erkenntnistheorie) verschieden. Nur auf Aussagengehalte als ihr Subjekt bezogen, werden beide Begriffspaare vergleichbar. Geht es aber nicht um die notwendigen (wesentlichen) oder kontingenten Eigenschaften einer Sache (die essentialistische modalitas de re, z.B. die Identität einesIndividuums mit sich), sondem um die notwendige oder kontingente Geltung eines Aussagegehaltes (modalitas de dicto), dann ist bedeutsam, wie eine Aussage über einen solchen Sachverhalt begründbar und erkennbar (...) ist. So ist auch die Referenz nie ohne Kenntnis eines Allgemeinbegriffs möglich. (shrink)

According to the Principle of Sufficient Reason every event is determined down to the smallest detail. This principle entails a global determinism which is connected with the claim of uniformity: All things are basically one and differ only by degrees. Accordingly, Leibniz tries to explain the traditional distinction of necessity and contingency by the difference between a definite demonstration and an open, never ending analysis, that is a quantitative difference between the finite and infinite. It is controversial whether contingency can (...) be saved by this conception in the face of the thesis: Every predicate which can be truly attributed to a subject is included in the complete notion of this individual substance. The difficulties of the Lucky Proof can only be avoided by supposing: The infinity of analysis cannot be based on the fact that the complete notion is a simple conjunction of innumerable predicates which are not conceptually connected to each other. Then every predicate could be deduced from it in a finite number of steps; therefore, it would have been demonstrated and would consequently be necessary. The infinity of analysis cannot be either based on the fact that it is infinitely complex to prove that the subject is not contradictory. Conceptions like this or a superessentialism are not adequate, because they fail to distinguish between necessary and contingent statements about an individual within a single possible world. The complete notion and, therefore, the analysis of a contingent truth comprises an infinitely complex content, because the predicates of an individual are connected by infinitely complex relations. This corresponds to the idea that the perceptions of an individual mirror the infinitely complex connections by which the world is determined. (shrink)

Die rationalen Vermögen sind bewusst im Hinblick auf den Begriff des zu bewirkenden Zustands oder Gegenstands erworben. Dank dieses Logos oder Wissens um die Definition des zu bewirkenden Ziels können sie nicht bloß wie die angeborenen naturalen Vermögen angewandt werden oder nicht, sondern sind für inhaltlich gegensätzliche Resultate offen. Bei den rationalen Vermögen im engeren Sinne, den Kunstfertigkeiten, erwerben wir durch Einübung wertneutrale operative Fähigkeiten, so dass erst eine hinzukommende Entscheidung eine eindeutige Verwirklichung erlaubt. Bei den Tugenden üben wir uns (...) in ein Vermögen ein, dem eine sittliche Ausrichtung der Entscheidungen integriert ist, das dennoch prinzipiell offen bleibt. Um in einer Situation die Handlung herauszufinden, die äußerlich die Merkmale einer Tugend hat, muss die Naturanlage zum rationalen Vermögen entfaltet sein. Dieses ist in der Tugend zur Disposition weiterentwickelt, sich für diese Handlungsweise stets und um ihrer selbst willen zu entscheiden.Unlike innate natural potencies, acquired rational potencies by virtue of the logos of the goal to be realised not only can be exercised or not, but even are open to results of opposite contents. In the case of rational potencies in the narrower sense , we acquire, by habituation, operational abilities which are morally neutral so that a decision is required for an unequivocal result to be achieved. In the case of virtues, the acquired potency has a moral orientation for our decisions integrated in itself and nevertheless remains, in principle, open. In order to find out in a certain situation which action has the external characteristics of a virtue, the natural faculty must be developed to be a rational potency. In the virtue, the latter is further developed to be the disposition to choose this type of action always and for its own sake. - This new systematic reconstruction is meant to explore in how far Aristotelian virtues may be regarded as rational potencies. (shrink)

_Challenges standard views of the origins of the _Daodejing_, revealing the work’s roots in a tradition of physical cultivation._.

Abstract:Daoist thought often takes nothingness as a foundational source of generation that can also be harnessed to good government. This study re-interprets the Daodejing's original discourse on nothingness in terms of an original condition, which it connects to the variety of philosophically significant wu-compounds found throughout the text. It examines two early articulations of this discourse by drawing a contrast between the thought of Laozi and the thought of Heshang Gong.

This study presents an important theory regarding early developments in the Daoist philosophy of time. It does so from the perspective of an understudied but quite influential masterwork of Chinese philosophy, Heshang Gong Zhangju 河上公章句 (Chapters and Verses of the Master on the Upper River), which is Heshang Gong’s 河上公 commentary to the Daodejing 道德經. The first sections of this study identify Heshang Gong’s text of the Daodejing and his appended commentary with Huang-Lao 黃老 Daoism and situates it in relation (...) to Laozi’s 老子 version of the earlier text. The following sections introduce the Daoist concepts of form and formlessness as appropriate methodological tools with which to understand Heshang Gong’s philosophy of time, with the intent to open new pathways into Daoist philosophy. Lastly, by engaging a range of Chinese research, this study assists in bridging the often-gaping division between Chinese language and English language scholarship. (shrink)

This study presents an important theory regarding early developments in the Daoist philosophy of time. It does so from the perspective of an understudied but quite influential masterwork of Chinese philosophy, _Heshang Gong Zhangju_ 河上公章句 (_Chapters and Verses of the Master on the Upper River_), which is Heshang Gong’s 河上公 commentary to the _Daodejing_ 道德經. The first sections of this study identify Heshang Gong’s text of the _Daodejing_ and his appended commentary with Huang-Lao 黃老 Daoism and situates it in relation (...) to Laozi’s 老子 version of the earlier text. The following sections introduce the Daoist concepts of form and formlessness as appropriate methodological tools with which to understand Heshang Gong’s philosophy of time, with the intent to open new pathways into Daoist philosophy. Lastly, by engaging a range of Chinese research, this study assists in bridging the often-gaping division between Chinese language and English language scholarship. (shrink)