This article examines whether people share the Gettier intuition (viz. that someone who has a true justified belief that p may nonetheless fail to know that p) in 24 sites, located in 23 countries (counting Hong Kong as a distinct country) and across 17 languages. We also consider the possible influence of gender and personality on this intuition with a very large sample size. Finally, we examine whether the Gettier intuition varies across people as a function of their disposition to (...) engage in “reflective” thinking. (shrink)

A growing body of research suggests that students achieve learning outcomes at higher rates when instructors use active-learning methods rather than standard modes of instruction. To investigate how one such method might be used to teach philosophy, we observed two classes that employed Reacting to the Past, an educational role-immersion game. We chose to investigate Reacting because role-immersion games are considered a particularly effective active-learning strategy. Professors who have used Reacting to teach history, interdisciplinary humanities, and political theory agree that (...) it engages students and teaches general skills like collaboration and communication. We investigated whether it can be effective for teaching philosophical content and skills like analyzing, evaluating, crafting, and communicating arguments in addition to bringing the more general benefits of active learning to philosophy classrooms. Overall, we find Reacting to be a useful tool for achieving these ends. While we do not argue that Reacting is uniquely useful for teaching philosophy, we conclude that it is worthy of consideration by philosophers interested in creative active-learning strategies, especially given that it offers a prepackaged set of flexible, user-friendly tools for motivating and engaging students. (shrink)

Los derechos de la infancia son de formulación reciente, y hasta el siglo XX no surgen los primeros intentos de reconocerlos y regularlos. Además de revisar los textos jurídicos que formulan y protegen esos derechos a nivel mundial, este estudio promueve una lectura filosófica de los derechos de la infancia y del papel de las familias con respecto a esos derechos. La ética del cuidado proporciona un marco de reflexión muy oportuno para plantear la responsabilidad ética que las familias, y (...) la sociedad en general, tienen hacia los niños y niñas, que son los miembros más vulnerables de la sociedad y los que padecen con mayor crudeza las consecuencias de la pobreza, la migración o los desastres naturales. Este estudio lleva a cabo una revisión crítica sobre los derechos de la infancia y los principales intentos de reconocer y garantizar jurídicamente esos derechos a nivel internacional. Explora también la situación actual de la infancia a nivel mundial, enfatizando las consecuencias negativas de la pandemia de COVID-19 en ese sector vulnerable de la población. Por último, se adopta la perspectiva de la ética del cuidado para analizar las responsabilidades de las familias y el papel de las instituciones y de la sociedad en general hacia la protección de la infancia. (shrink)

La literatura especializada sobre Unamuno ha prestado poca atención a la dimensión del cuidado latente en la obra de este filósofo. El presente estudio ofrece una aportación en ese sentido, para ello parte de los planteamientos éticos contemporáneos relacionados con el cuidado y analiza varios textos de Unamuno a la luz de ese marco teórico. El resultado es una lectura novedosa de su obra donde se identifica la presencia de aspectos vinculados a la eticidad del ser-para-otro, se plasma el ejercicio (...) del cuidado ejercido a través del lenguaje y del tacto, y se profundiza en el alcance ético de la actitud maternal omnipresente en los relatos del bilbaíno. (shrink)

El peritaje es un medio de prueba. Desde la historiografía, se ha estudiado como referente de la monopolización que la mirada médica ejerció desde aproximadamente 1930 en el proceso judicial. Desde entonces, el peritaje se ha concebido como medicalizado. Si bien esto explica el proceso mediante el cual el conocimiento médico se inserta en los procesos penales, no agota la comprensión del peritaje, puesto que deja por fuera la reflexión sobre otros conocimientos que se involucran en el informe pericial. Para (...) explicar qué es el peritaje y qué tipo de conocimientos se involucran en él, a partir de una investigación de corte documental, este artículo realiza una lectura del peritaje desde la codificación como una expresión relacional de la experticia. Para hacerlo, propone un análisis de la codificación penal y procesal colombiana desde el año de 1873 hasta el año de 1980, con el fin de evidenciar que sus articulados traducen una visión del legislador donde el perito se muestra como una figura relacional en medio de conocimientos, partes, actuaciones procesales y decisiones del juez. Todo esto con el fin de demostrar que la concepción del peritaje debe entenderse en relación con la experticia y con la capacidad que tiene el perito de relacionar y validar su conocimiento en el proceso judicial. (shrink)

In discussing whether legal systems are necessarily coercive, legal philosophers usually appeal to thought experiments involving angels or other morally driven beings who need no coercion to organise their social lives. Such appeals have invited criticism. Critics have not only challenged the relevance of such thought experiments to our understanding of legal systems; they have also argued that, contrary to the intuitions of most legal philosophers, the ‘man on the Clapham Omnibus’ would not hold that there is law in a (...) society of angels because the view that law is necessarily coercive ‘enjoys widespread support among laypersons’. This is obviously an empirical claim. Critics, however, never systematically polled the ‘man on the Clapham Omnibus’. We boarded that bus. This article discusses findings from five empirical studies on the relationship between law and coercion. (shrink)

Este trabajo parte de la noción filosófica de alteridad, que se puede complementar con las aportaciones de la teoría feminista y su reflexión sobre la diferencia sexual. Hay, al menos, tres aspectos del pensamiento feminista que interesa destacar a propósito de la alteridad: en primer lugar, la crítica a la construcción de lo femenino como alteridad con respecto a lo masculino; en segundo lugar, y de la mano del feminismo de la diferencia, es interesante reflexionar sobre las experiencias físicas y (...) simbólicas de la maternidad, que proporcionan un nuevo modelo de ‘alteridad irreductible’ y nuevos contenidos para una ética del cuidado; en tercer lugar, y partiendo de las consideraciones de Ricoeur sobre la dialéctica entre identidad y mismidad, la alteridad sexual puede ser reformulada como una construcción dinámica articulada a partir de la tensión entre las dimensiones discursivas y performativas. (shrink)

Noel Carroll, film scholar and philosopher, offers the first serious look at the aesthetics of horror. In this book he discusses the nature and narrative structures of the genre, dealing with horror as a "transmedia" phenomenon. A fan and serious student of the horror genre, Carroll brings to bear his comprehensive knowledge of obscure and forgotten works, as well as of the horror masterpieces. Working from a philosophical perspective, he tries to account for how people can find pleasure in (...) having their wits scared out of them. What, after all, are those "paradoxes of the heart" that make us want to be horrified? (shrink)

The present paper seeks to expose the recent problematic disclosed by some authors like Gerardo Aboy Carlés and Soledad Montero, among others, about Ernesto Laclau’s work, which has traced a new analytical path whose goal is to study with accuracy what kind of political identity-logic is the populist one. With a broader discourse perspective and understanding populism as an identity management, we consider the use of the concept of populism relevant in order to revise historical cases such as the one (...) leaded by Jorge Eliécer Gaitán in Colombia in the middle of the 20th century. In this text we contrast the populist identity with others more related to the use of force and the physical elimination of the adversary, suggesting to study gaitanist identity as one that configures ítself in an ambivalent game which oscillates between the call to radical belligerency and the privileged use of expressions pertaining to the democratic tradition which moderated the totalitarian elements of Gaitan’s speech. In this vein, we open to discussion the mostly obliterated relationship between violence and populism, with the hope to contribute to a more accurate characterization of the populist phenomenon in Latin America. (shrink)

BackgroundSelf-prescribing and prescribing to personal contacts is explicitly discouraged by General Medical Council guidelines.AimsThis study examines how widespread the practice of self-prescribing and prescribing to personal contacts is.MethodsA 16-item questionnaire was distributed via an online forum comprising 4445 young medical doctors (representing 20% of all Irish registered doctors), which asked respondents about previous prescribing to themselves, their families, friends and colleagues, including the class of medication prescribed. Demographic details were collected including medical grade and specialty.ResultsA total of 729 responses were (...) obtained, the majority of which were from young non-consultant hospital doctors from a range of specialties. Two-thirds of respondents had self-prescribed, over 70% had prescribed to family, and nearly 60% had prescribed to a friend or colleague. Older doctors were more likely to self-prescribe (χ2=17.51, p<0.001). Interns being less likely to self-prescribe was not unexpected (χ2=69.55, p<0.001), while general practitioners (GPs) and paediatricians were more likely to self-prescribe (χ2=13.33, p<0.001;χ2=11.35, p<0.001). GPs, paediatricians and hospital medicine specialties were more likely to prescribe to family (χ2=5.19, p<0.05;χ2=8.38, p<0.05;χ2=6.17, p<0.05) and surgeons were more likely to prescribe to friends (χ2=15.87, p<0.001). Some 3% to 7% who had self-prescribed had prescribed an opiate, benzodiazepine or psychotropic medication. Male doctors, anaesthetists and surgeons were more likely to self-prescribe opioids (χ2=7.82, p<0.01;χ2=7.31, p<0.01;χ2=4.91, p<0.05), while those in hospital medicine were more likely to self-prescribe psychotropic medications (χ2=5.47, p<0.05).ConclusionPrescribing outside the traditional doctor-patient relationship is widespread despite clear professional guidance advising against it. (shrink)

Noel Malcolm, one of the world's leading experts on Thomas Hobbes, presents a set of extended essays on a wide variety of aspects of the life and work of this giant of early modern thought. Malcolm offers a succinct introduction to Hobbes's life and thought, as a foundation for his discussion of such topics as his political philosophy, his theory of international relations, the development of his mechanistic world-view, and his subversive Biblical criticism. Several of the essays pay special (...) attention to the European dimensions of Hobbes's life, his sources and his influence; the longest surveys the entire European reception of his work from the 1640s to the 1750s. All the essays are based on a deep knowledge of primary sources, and many present striking new discoveries about Hobbes's life, his manuscripts, and the printing history of his works. Aspects of Hobbes will be essential reading not only for Hobbes specialists, but also for all those interested in seventeenth-century intellectual history more generally, both British and European. (shrink)

Childcare robots are being manufactured and developed with the long term aim of creating surrogate carers. While total childcare is not yet being promoted, there are indications that it is ‘on the cards’. We examine recent research and developments in childcare robots and speculate on progress over the coming years by extrapolating from other ongoing robotics work. Our main aim is to raise ethical questions about the part or full-time replacement of primary carers. The questions are about human rights, privacy, (...) robot use of restraint, deception of children and accountability. But the most pressing ethical issues throughout the paper concern the consequences for the psychological and emotional wellbeing of children. We set these in the context of the child development literature on the pathology and causes of attachment disorders. We then consider the adequacy of current legislation and international ethical guidelines on the protection of children from the overuse of robot care. (shrink)

Higher courts sometimes assess the constitutionality of law by working through a concrete case, other times by reasoning about the underlying question in a more abstract way. Prior research has found that the degree of concreteness or abstraction with which an issue is formulated can influence people's prescriptive views: For instance, people often endorse punishment for concrete misdeeds that they would oppose if the circumstances were described abstractly. We sought to understand whether the so-called ‘abstract/concrete paradox’ also jeopardizes the consistency (...) of judicial reasoning. In a series of experiments, both lay and professional judges sometimes reached opposite conclusions when reasoning about concrete cases versus the underlying issues formulated in abstract terms. This effect emerged whether participants reasoned with broad principles, such as human dignity, or narrow rules, and was largest among individuals high in trait empathy. Finally, to understand whether people reflectively endorse the discrepancy between abstract and concrete resolutions, we examined their reactions when evaluating both, either simultaneously or sequentially. These approaches revealed no single pattern across lay and expert populations, or exploratory and confirmatory studies. Taken together, our studies suggest that empathic concern plays a greater role in guiding the judicial resolution of concrete cases than in illuminating judges' professed standards—which may result in concrete decisions in violation of their own abstract principles. (shrink)

Connolly, Noel Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium defines the church as a 'community of missionary disciples'. We have to be missionary to be called disciples. He dreams of 'a missionary option' that will transform everything. For Francis, mission is clearly essential to the church. He is continuing a movement that began with Ad Gentes, the missionary document of Vatican II. The fathers at the council insisted, 'The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature. For it is from the (...) mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she takes her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father'. This was reiterated by Paul VI in Evangelii Nuntiandi: 'Evangelizing is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize'; and by John Paul II in Redemptoris Missio: 'the Church is missionary by her very nature'. (shrink)

This article reflects on transhumanism and its promise to achieve bodies which will be forever young, healthy, and highly useful. From a critical approach mainly based on feminist theory, it recalls different points against this promise, as they can work as criteria for exclusion and could end up in a denial of the body and its main features. The paper starts with some reflections on the application of biotechnologies in order to enhance human bodies. It also recalls the discussion on (...) virtual realities and their promises to erase the limits of the body and cancel materiality. Posthuman discourses end up in a proposal to leave behind the ‘burden’ of the body. Some feminist scholars have claimed against these arguments, and have asked for a ‘return to the body’ instead, as its denial can harm the vindications of equality, freedom and abolition of sexual discrimination. (shrink)

Understanding Ethics introduces the frameworks of moral philosophy to analyse contemporary moral issues and perennial human dilemmas.While the early chapters ...

The principles that AN INSTANCE OF A CLASS IS THE CLASS and A CLASS IS AN INSTANCE OF ITSELF allow for the so called LAWS OF THOUGHTIDENTITY - WHAT IS, IS.CONTRADICTION - NOTHING BOTH IS and IS NOT.EXCLUDED MIDDLE - EVERYTHING IS or IS NOT.and allow us to adopt a bivalent system. Everything essential for primary logic is provided.Though this is not the place to discuss it, it should be noted that the development of general logic with its current theories (...) of class, identity and natural numbers could take a very different course from the one it currently pursues.Human thought would have had to evolve to a high level of development before any systematic attempt to analyse it could have been made. It seems it was in the floruit of the Greek civilisation that this attempt was first made. The issues in this paper were of prime concern to those ancient thinkers and their achievements were considerable. Since those times further developments have occurred, many of which they would not have dreamed, but to this day there are still great issues that have not been resolved. The state of the art leaves much to be desired and it is my hope that this paper will contribute to its progress.If the ideas in this paper are true, then it seems we have come across the very origins of human rationality. (shrink)

Dr Noel Semple, Professor Russell Pearce and Professor Renee Knake combine to compare legal profession regulation in the US with that of the countries closest to it institutionally and culturally: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Ireland. This enables them to develop an illuminating taxonomy of legal professional regulation, and to describe the assumptions and objectives underlying the different approaches to regulation. The US and Canada provide a 'professionalist-independent framework' that centres on 'a unified, hegemonic occupation of (...) lawyer' which promotes self-regulation, and the exclusion of non-lawyers from partnership and investment in law practices. By contrast, in other countries that they examine, 'consumerist-competitive approaches' predominate, opening up the profession to co-regulation with executive government and allowing for different forms of legal occupations and non-lawyer influence and investment in law practices. Of course, as they show, in some countries there are combinations and hybrids of these two approaches. Unlike Rhode, who endorses England and Wales' consumerist-competitive approach to regulation in the Legal Services Act 2007, Semple, Pearce and Knake consciously avoid stating a preference for one approach over the other. (shrink)

The articles in this volume focus upon Boethius's extant works: his De arithmetica and a fragmentary De musica, his translations and commentaries on logic, his five theological texts, and, of course, his Consolation of Philosophy.

Offers an introduction to the political philosophy of Hobbes and Spinoza. It analyses Hobbes's theory of natural law and natural rights, and argues that he operated with two different concepts of rights—which have been confused by his commentators and may to some extent have been confused by Hobbes himself. It then discusses the adaptation of Hobbes's theories by Dutch writers such as the brothers de la Court, whose writings influenced Spinoza, before summarizing the political theory of Spinoza himself, and commenting (...) on the relationship between his ideas and those of Hobbes. (shrink)

Christian philosophers have always been interested in clarifying the relationship between God and ethics. The theories presented on this topic can be divided into two kinds: “divine command” and “other.” In this paper I evaluate two interesting but ultimately incompatible versions of the “other” variety: one by George Mavrodes and one by Søren Kierkegaard. In the course of my analysis I argue that anyone who reads Kierkegaard’s Works of Love as presenting a divine command theory is mistaken.

A major obstacle facing interpreters of quantum field theory is a proliferation of different theoretical frameworks. This article surveys three of the main available options—Lagrangian, Wightman, and algebraic QFT—and examines how they are related. Although each framework emphasizes different aspects of QFT, leading to distinct strengths and weaknesses, there is less tension between them than commonly assumed. Given the limitations of our current knowledge and the need for creative new ideas, I urge philosophers to explore puzzles, tools, and techniques from (...) all three approaches. (shrink)

Prescriptive rules guide human behavior across various domains of community life, including law, morality, and etiquette. What, specifically, are rules in the eyes of their subjects, i.e., those who are expected to abide by them? Over the last sixty years, theorists in the philosophy of law have offered a useful framework with which to consider this question. Some, following H. L. A. Hart, argue that a rule’s text at least sometimes suffices to determine whether the rule itself covers a case. (...) Others, in the spirit of Lon Fuller, believe that there is no way to understand a rule without invoking its purpose — the benevolent ends which it is meant to advance. In this paper we ask whether people associate rules with their textual formulation or their underlying purpose. We find that both text and purpose guide people’s reasoning about the scope of a rule. Overall, a rule’s text more strongly contributed to rule infraction decisions than did its purpose. The balance of these considerations, however, varied across experimental conditions: In conditions favoring a spontaneous judgment, rule interpretation was affected by moral purposes, whereas analytic conditions resulted in a greater adherence to textual interpretations. In sum, our findings suggest that the philosophical debate between textualism and purposivism partly reflects two broader approaches to normative reasoning that vary within and across individuals. Keywords: , the concept of law, rules, legal psychology, Hart, Fuller. (shrink)

The article sets out to develop the concept of attention as a key aspect to building the possible therapeutics that Bernard Stiegler’s recent works have pointed to (The Automatic Society, 2016, The Neganthropocene, 2018 and Qu’appelle-t-on Panser, 2018). The therapeutic aspect of pharmacology takes place through processes that are neganthropic; therefore, which attempt to counteract the entropic nature of digital technologies where there is flattening out to the measurable and the calculable of Big Data. The most obvious examples of this (...) flattening out can be seen in relation to the use of natural language processing technologies for text interpretation and the use of text analytics alongside student analytics. However, the process of exosomatisation of knowledge takes place in forms of hypomnesic tertiary retentions or digital technologies. The loss of knowledge is inherent to these processes of exteriorisation, this loss of knowledge takes place through a process proletarianisation which Marx had pointed to in the Grundisse (1939). The therapeutic gesture is, therefore, an intrinsically educational one, where the loss of knowledge of the pharmacological nature of digital technologies is counteracted by other forms of knowledge construction that can be enabled by digital technologies. Hence, there is a profound educational gesture necessary to enable the re-harnessing of technology to enable the therapeutics. This paper will argue that the positive re-harnessing, the therapeutics, can take place through the development of new forms of neganthropic gestures which can be afforded by the development of specific forms of digital technologies. These also enable a contributive research process whereby the rationalisation of the production of knowledge within the university can be challenged by collaborative, interpretative processes of knowledge production. (shrink)

As I will use the term, an object is a mereological sum of some things just in case those things compose it simply in virtue of existing. In the first half of this paper, I argue that there are no sums. The key premise for this conclusion relies on a constraint on what, in certain cases, it takes for something to ground, or metaphysically explain, something else. In the second half, I argue that in light of my argument against sums, (...) Universalism, which is perhaps the most widely accepted answer to the Special Composition Question, is false. (shrink)

Jill North argues that Hamiltonian mechanics provides the most spare -- and hence most accurate -- account of the structure of a classical world. We point out some difficulties for her argument, and raise some general points about attempts to minimize structural commitments.