The paper discusses recent proposals by Carroll and Chen, as well as Barbour, Koslowski, and Mercati to explain the arrow of time without a Past Hypothesis, i.e. the assumption of a special initial state of the universe. After discussing the role of the Past Hypothesis and the controversy about its status, we explain why Carroll's model - which establishes an arrow of time as typical - can ground sensible predictions and retrodictions without assuming something akin to a Past Hypothesis. We (...) then propose a definition of a Boltzmann entropy for a classical N-particle system with gravity, suggesting that a Newtonian gravitating universe might provide a relevant example of Carroll's entropy model. This invites comparison with the work of Barbour, Koslowski, and Mercati that identifies typical arrows of time in a relational formulation of classical gravity on shape space. We clarify the difference between this gravitational arrow in terms of shape complexity and the entropic arrow in absolute spacetime, and work out the key advantages of the relationalist theory. We end by pointing out why the entropy concept relies on absolute scales and is thus not relational. (shrink)

Four experiments examined how accurately participants can report the times of their own decisions. Within an auditory reaction time task, participants reported the time at which the tone was presented, they decided on the response, or the response key was pressed. Decision time reports were checked for plausibility against the actual RTs, and we compared the effects of experimental manipulations on these two measures to see whether the reported decision times showed appropriate effects. In addition, we estimated the amount of (...) error associated with individual decision time reports by checking how often participants’ decision time reports were implausibly early or late , and by using several quantitative models. Overall, the results suggest that decision time reports are not very accurate but they may be usable for some purposes. (shrink)

En su artículo “Towards a Genealogy of Thomas Kuhn’s Semantics” (2023), Pablo Melogno aborda, junto a Leandro Giri, la tarea de reconstruir el camino recorrido por Thomas Kuhn en el desarrollo de una semántica capaz de dar cuenta del cambio científico. En particular, los autores examinan las conexiones existentes entre las Conferencias Lowell de 1951 y las Conferencias Notre Dame de 1980, afirmando que ambas responden a un mismo programa de inquietudes semánticas que permite realizar una lectura continuista del pensamiento (...) kuhniano en lo referente a cuestiones de tipo semántico. El presente artículo pretende extender este análisis a La Estructura de las Revoluciones Científicas (1962), resaltando los paralelismos que pueden establecerse entre esta obra y las Conferencias Lowell en lo que respecta a determinados aspectos lingüísticos que forman parte del cambio científico, mediante el análisis de las partes concernientes a esta temática presentes en ambos escritos. (shrink)

Across languages, we find epistemic indefinites, i.e. existential determiners that can convey information about the speaker’s epistemic state.1 One such indefinite is Spanish alg´un, which marks ignorance on the part of the speaker. By using alg´un in (1a) the speaker signals that he is unable (or unwilling) to identify the doctor that Mar´ıa married. Hence, it would be odd for him to add a namely continuation that explicitly identifies the doctor in question, as in (1b). From now on, we will (...) refer to the marking of the speaker’s lack of knowledge as an ‘epistemic effect.’ (Alonso-Ovalle and Men´endez-Benito, 2003). (shrink)

Neste artigo apresentamos uma perspectiva de compreensão da história da filosofia, na qual é possível acessar outros modos de como essa história pode ser interpretada. Nesta perspectiva ocorre a desconstrução epistêmica eurocentrada de legitimação da ideia de um “milagre” grego que permite o surgimento da filosofia nessa região em detrimento a outros lugares. O pressuposto indicado é o da pluriversalidade de Mogobe Ramose (2011) que apresenta a ideia de pensamento reflexivo e crítico como condição humana, independente de local. Em relação (...) ao continente africano trazemos a crítica de que a escravidão moderna promovida pela Europa desumanizou africanos e indígenas e, com isso, lhes nega a capacidade de pensamento. Após essa análise, apresentamos a filosofia afro-brasileira como um desdobramento da filosofia africana em seu deslocamento do continente africano para as Américas no período da escravidão e colonização. Apresentamos as bases epistêmicas dessa filosofia mantidas nas culturas afro-brasileiras. Destacamos, também, os seus subsídios corporais, salientando a sua dimensão ética e estética ao propor outros modos de se relacionar em que o coletivo é a alternativa ao individualismo, no qual se destaca uma ética comunitária e solidária. As narrativas constituídas no processo colonizador da modernidade são revistas em seus pressupostos de supremacia para dar lugar a uma filosofia que alcance o outro, que se estabeleça na alteridade. Tal proposta nos parece relevante para o ensino formal de filosofia, pois dialoga diretamente com a realidade de mundo existencial formativa do país, e aponta outras possibilidades de organização da vida em distintos aspectos, mas todos eles perpassados pela educação, neste caso, uma educação para ser e estar com o outro, o que solicita a revisão curricular na grade da filosofia, tanto na formação de professores quanto na disciplina destinada ao ensino médio. (shrink)

Este trabajo se propone analizar el concepto de das Ausdruckslose (lo carente de expresión) como categoría central del arte y del lenguaje en el pensamiento de Walter Benjamin. Dicha noción es estudiada principalmente en los escritos del período 1916-1923 y como parte de la metodología benjaminiana de interpretación que involucra la crítica, la traducción y la cita. A partir de una recuperación y discusión con los estudios críticos sobre el tema, se interpreta el concepto de das Ausdruckslose como inciso dialéctico (...) entre el orden profano y el orden mesiánico que opera en el ámbito de la obra de arte, la historia y el lenguaje. (shrink)

En las últimas décadas, se han incrementado los estudios críticos acerca del vínculo entre el pensamiento de Martin Heidegger y de Walter Benjamin. Este trabajo intenta contribuir a este debate desde la perspectiva de la teología, problematizando su relación con la filosofía, su rol metodológico y sus derivas en la subjetividad en los escritos de la década del veinte de Heidegger y Benjamin. Este punto problemático al nivel de sus consideraciones teológicas permite conducir el análisis hacia la cuestión de la (...) temporalidad. Las lecciones tituladas Introducción a la fenomenología de la religión [Einleitung in die Phänomenologie der Religion], impartidas por Heidegger en el período 1920-1921, habilitan la introducción de nuevas líneas de discusión en torno a la teología y el tiempo -vinculadas a las tradiciones del cristianismo y el judaísmo- que permiten nuevos contrastes entre el pensamiento heideggeriano y el benjaminiano. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper intends to analyze Walter Benjamin’s critique of Heidegger’s habilitation thesis Duns Scotus’s Doctrine of Categories and Meaning. This objective will be carried out from a contrast between Heidegger’s thesis and the essay that Benjamin writes at the same time entitled On Language as Such and on the Language of Man. Likewise, the reasons that lead Benjamin to critically comment on Heidegger’s thesis will be studied from two perspectives: the problem of translation and the Heideggerian recovery of Neo-Kantianism. (...) Considering the rehabilitation of scholasticism and phenomenology at the beginning of the 20th century, an attempt will be made to reconstruct an implicit debate between the authors around 1916 to account for the distance between Heidegger’s logical conception of language and Benjamin’s theological conception of language. (shrink)

Buscamos demonstrar que a ação política, na visão de Hannah Arendt, não é meio para atingir qualquer fim, sendo sinônimo de liberdade, o que faz com que a autora problematize a tradicional identificação da política com violência, a partir de uma crítica ao equacionamento, que remonta aos primórdios do pensamento filosófico sobre o tema, de liberdade e vontade, fazer o que se deseja, o que leva a pensadora em questão a trabalhar as duas dimensões da ação política, isto é, a (...) dimensão agonística e a consensualista, significando esta última uma liberdade mutuamente garantida. (shrink)

En este trabajo critico la interpretación moralizada de la obligación política en Hobbes que defiende Luciano Venezia. Exploro una lectura diferente que evita una dicotomía tajante entre las razones prudenciales y las razones morales y subraya en cambio la discontinuidad entre la normatividad subjetiva de la ley natural y la normatividad objetiva de la ley positiva. Sostengo que el contrato de sujeción política establece obligaciones objetivas recién cuando el soberano exige el cumplimiento de los contratos. La obligación política es entonces (...) una forma de obligación jurídica. Además, enfatizo que la comunidad moral de Hobbes solo es posible dentro del Estado. In this paper, I criticize Luciano Venezia's moralized interpretation of the Hobbesian concept of political obligation. I explore a different reading that avoids a clear-cut dichotomy between prudential and moral reasons and underscores instead the discontinuity between natural law's subjective normativity and civil law's objective normativity. I contend that the pact of political subjection establishes objective obligations only when the sovereign requires the fulfillment of contracts. Political obligation is then a form of legal obligation. In addition, I emphasize that Hobbes's moral community is only possible within the State. (shrink)

Faculty learning communities are collaborative collegial groups of faculty and other teaching staff who are interested in and committed to the improvement of their teaching to accommodate a diverse student population through group discourse, reflection and goal setting. In this article, we describe our FLC experiences that were supported by a federal grant to ensure accessible learning environments on our campus. The project, Ensuring Access through Collaboration and Technology , sought to introduce faculty at a medium‐sized state university to a (...) pedagogical framework to provide universal access to the curriculum for all students and to encourage faculty to adopt accessible technologies. We describe the recruitment process, the FLC meeting structure, our intended outcomes and the challenges we faced in meeting them. (shrink)

BackgroundSince the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and its social restriction measures, online therapy is a life-saving possibility for patients with acute stress. Wiring Affect with ReAttach is a brief psychological intervention aiming to decrease negative affect, that can be offered online.MethodsWe assessed the effect of remote W.A.R.A. on negative affect in 37 patients. Consequently, we compared the effect of remote W.A.R.A. versus face-to-face W.A.R.A on negative affect in a cross-sectional design.ResultsW.A.R.A. remote therapy provoked a significant reduction of negative affect (...) with a large effect size. However, the reduction on negative affect was smaller than with W.A.R.A. face-to-face. We found a substantial difference between W.A.R.A. remote therapy and W.A.R.A. face-to-face in decrease of negative affect.LimitationsThe major limitation of the pilot-study is the sample size of 37 patients. Besides, we designed a numeric rating scale for evaluating negative affect. We investigated the impact on negative affect by assessing “unpleasant feelings.” This conceptualization of negative affect might still be a point of discussion.ConclusionThe study’s findings indicated that W.A.R.A. remote therapy significantly reduced negative affect, but to a lesser extent than W.A.R.A. face-to-face. Nevertheless, W.A.R.A. remote therapy might offer a fast relief, especially when personal contact is difficult. (shrink)

This article investigates the impact of the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on the comparability, quality, and efficiency of financial reporting, both in public administration and in emerging markets. Through a quantitative approach, data from various public institutions and emerging market companies that have adopted IFRS in recent years were analyzed. The results indicate a significant improvement in the comparability and quality of financial reports, although accounting efficiency varies depending on the degree of implementation and administrative modernization in (...) the countries. It is concluded that the adoption of IFRS has an overall positive effect, but its total impact depends on the institutional capacity of countries. (shrink)

We argue that the phases identified in the novelty-seeking model can be clarified by considering an updated version of the optimal-level of arousal model, which incorporates the “arousal” and “mood changing” potentials of stimuli and contexts. Such a model provides valuable insights into what determines one's state of mind, inter-individual differences, and the rewarding effects of curiosity and creativity.

The intensification of farm animal welfare debate has led to an increasing number of certification schemes covering this issue; however, there are concerns about the contribution of these schemes in improving welfare. The aims of this study were to identify certification schemes for broiler chicken welfare at farm level in Brazil, to investigate the extent of nutritional, environmental, health and behavioral indicators within the schemes and to analyze the content of scheme and the capacity to promote continuous improvement on certified (...) farms. GLOBALG.A.P.® and Certified Humane® were the only schemes observed, corresponding to 2.1 % of broiler chicken farms in Brazil. Environmental and health indicators were in greater number, and the requirements classified as behavioral indicator were commonly related to the resolution of low levels of animal welfare. Both schemes were in accordance with the European Food Safety Authority recommendations for farmer training, birds and buildings inspection, temperature control, air and litter quality, stocking density and lighting. The selection of breeds and the use of animal-based indicators needs to be improved, as well the inclusion animal welfare objectives and management review as part of continuous improvement. Welfare certification is a potential market to be developed in Brazil. Overall, assessed schemes may potentially enhance animal welfare at farm level by including new concepts and practices. It is desirable to increase the number of certified farms in Brazil and that certification schemes be critically analyzed on a regular basis regarding their content to meet new demands and to include updates from scientific research. (shrink)

In this article, Lauren Gatti and Paula McAvoy explain the interdisciplinary methods that they used for developing a theory of professional judgment for teachers that they call the Ethical Long View. In developing the theory, they engaged in empirical inquiry through the solicitation of dilemmas from practicing teachers using an online survey (N = 127) and follow-up interviews with a subset of survey participants (N = 11). The interviews were developed into qualitative normative cases, which are richly described vignettes (...) of a teacher's dilemma and thinking. In between analyzing the survey data and developing the cases was a philosophically oriented recursive process that was both iterative and interdisciplinary. The qualitative work helped the authors develop the conceptual framework for the Ethical Long View and, at the same time, positioned participants as co-constructors of the ethical theory. This research draws on the tools of both applied philosophy and social science, but it belongs exclusively to neither. (shrink)

El artículo parte de la discusión actual sobre si la proliferación de los así denominados populismos de derecha invalida o no la tesis de Laclau de que el populismo es un tipo de articulación que puede dar un sentido emancipatorio a la iniciativa política. Dicho debate que se ha presentado fundamentalmente bajo la oposición binaria populismos de derechas frente a populismos de izquierda tiene a dos voces contrapuestas, las de Fassin y Mouffe, que el texto se propone revisar, desde una (...) perspectiva laclausiana, a partir de dos preguntas que se desprenden de las posiciones políticas de los autores: ¿es posible, como desearía Fassin, eludir o eliminar el populismo? ¿Es posible distinguir entre un populismo de derechas y uno de izquierdas, como propone Mouffe?The article takes as a point of departure the current discussion about the proliferation of the so called right-wing populisms that put into question Laclau’s thesis that populism is a sort of articulation that may bring about emancipatory directions to politics. This debate, that has recently taken the format of an opposition between right-wing populism vs. leftwing populisms, has two main competing voices —Fassin and Mouffe— that the text reviews from a Laclausian perspective. The two questions addressed, that rise from the political position of each author, are the following: is it possible to eliminate populism as Fassin would prefer? Is it possible to establish a differentiation between right-wing and left-wing populism as Mouffe affirms? (shrink)

O livro “A Técnica e os Riscos da Modernidade” apresenta-se subdividido em cinco capítulos, no primeiro tem-se o título “Liberdade e risco”, onde o autor disserta acerca do desejo e da necessidade humana de transcender as situações cotidianas, isso desde seus primórdios. Nele o autor mostra o quanto a necessidade de ir além das condições imediatas de existência está indissoluvelmente associada ao seu anseio por liberdade. Sendo esta identificada com uma liberdade política, visto que o homem, por sua natureza social, (...) é um ser essencialmente político. Então a questão que aqui se coloca é justamente o que fazer dessa capacidade de ser livre? Ou seja, como bem utilizá-la sem cair nas armadilhas que levam a um mau uso da liberdade? Responder a contento a esse ponto é um dos maiores desafios do homem e um dos que mais lhe provoca aflição, pois, segundo esse entendimento, não se conta com critérios precisos e infalíveis nas avaliações cotidianas, conta-se apenas com incertezas e com a busca por uma conduta moral. (shrink)

This book has its philosophical starting point in the idea that group-based social movements have positive implications for peace politics. It explores ways of imagining community, nation, and international systems through a political lens that is attentive to diversity and different lived experiences. Contributors suggest how groups might work toward new nonviolent conceptions and experiences of diverse communities and global stability.

This article intends to analyze the implications of a hypothesis that extends Foucault's analysis of neoliberalism from its effects on modern democracy. For this purpose, Wendy Brown's recent work examines how neoliberal rationality affects democracy, transforms its imaginary and even its main subject, namely the demos. Brown points to two problems of the "neoliberalism's stealth revolution," namely that the neoliberal rationality transforms and undoes democracy by directly affecting its fundamental principle of popular sovereignty. Such transformation is made from the change (...) produced in the democratic imaginary and, mainly, from the transformation of the economic subject from a subject of interest to human capital, as well as the political subject, relegated to the background. From this first problem, we examine how they happen and what are the consequences of changing the democratic imaginary and its central political subject. The second problem pointed out by Brown deals with the interference of neoliberal reason in sovereign autonomy. The second part of this article seeks, therefore, to analyze the relationship between the sovereignty of the nation-state and the notion of popular sovereignty from the problem of the expansion of capital and the vulnerability of the frontiers and territory where citizenship is exercised. (shrink)

From a doctoral research based on the theoretical and methodological construction of the Feminist Sociology of Religion, the referent text presents a discussion about power and domination of gender in the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. The study adopts the religion as a sociological problem in order to raise some discussion points from the construction process and articulation of the relationship between power and gender resistance in religion. The doctoral thesis researched three major Pentecostal churches and found that (...) in all of them the official discourse reproduces the view that the physical skills of becoming pregnant makes women physically unable to take positions and power activities in the church than men. This judgment strengthens the association between male domination and religious power because it reinforces the community's own complicity and thus continue tolerating that men benefit from this argument to legitimize their positions of power in the church. From the notion of "innate fragility of women" the church keeps women on the margins of competition for religious status. The founding elements of the "feminine nature ideology" show that men do not want to lose the attention and personal services that are still accustomed to receive from their mothers, wives or sisters. So, weaken this ideology would open the possibility of losing this style of women, because this empowerment process would allow women conquer spaces and rights usually enjoyed only by men. Therefore, this text aims to present some daily practices of resistance and insubordination to social relationships that insist on keeping the Pentecostal women to domestic and family sphere, in other words, distant from the pulpit and church spheres of power. (shrink)

Review of the book "Platão", que é uma tradução feita a partir do original: “A Companion do Plato”, publicado pela Blackwell e organizado Hugh H. Benson.

Recognizing that the presence of the Religious School Teaching discipline in public elementary schools in Brazil is a complex and controversial subject, it is of fundamental importance that alternatives be sought so that its offer takes place in such a way as to enable the emergence of conscious and participatory people in the process of transforming society. It was in pursuit of this objective that the authors of this article found in the category of conscientização, proposed by Paulo Freire, a (...) possible way for teachers of the Religious Education discipline of Brazilian public schools to contribute to the formation of autonomous citizens, with a critical conscience, capable of making their own choices, with full freedom. Methodologically, the article was organized using the See, Judge and Act method. This method of analysis allows us to look at the socioeconomic, political and cultural reality in which people are inserted, to confront a specific theoretical instrument, with the aim of proposing possible ways and alternatives for the promotion of a liberating education. Thus, in the first section analyzes two theoretical categories related to education, namely: banking education and liberating education. In the second section, an attempt was made to weave an approach around the category of conscientização, proposed by Paulo Freire. In the third section, the authors present possible paths of action for a liberating education based on the teaching of Religious Education. (shrink)

Morphophonological alternations, such as the voicing alternation that arises in a morphological paradigm due to final-devoicing in Dutch, are notoriously difficult for children to acquire. This has previously been attributed to their unpredictability. In fact, the presence or absence of a voicing alternation is partly predictable if the phonological context of the word is taken into account, and adults have been shown to use this information ( Ernestus and Baayen, 2003 ). This study investigates whether voicing alternations are predictable from (...) the child’s input, and whether children can make use of this information. A corpus study of child-directed speech establishes that the likelihood of a stem-final obstruent alternating is somewhat predictable on the basis of the phonological properties of the stem. In Experiment 1 Dutch 3-year-olds’ production accuracy in a plural-elicitation task is shown to be sensitive to the distributional statistics. However, distributional properties do not play a role in children’s sensitivity to mispronunciations of voicing in a Preferential Looking Task in Experiment 2. (shrink)

Entre los diversos temas que permean la Educación en Ciencias (EC), se enfatizan los modos de enseñanza y aprendizaje con foco en los aspectos conceptuales y cognitivos. Este ensayo tiene como objetivo presentar una Filosofía de la Educación en Ciencias (FEC) basada en la Hermenéutica Filosófica (HF) de Hans-Georg Gadamer con el fin de promover un camino ontológico para la EC que pueda sortear el énfasis mencionado. La FEC está constituida por la intersección de tres campos académicos: Filosofía, Filosofía de (...) la Educación y Filosofía de la Ciencia. En Filosofía, el movimiento de comprender entender de manera ontológica explorado por Gadamer permite ver la Hermenéutica más allá de un carácter metodológico. En la Filosofía de la Educación, la HF se extiende a la apropiación del conocimiento, agregando una formación personal en la que hay exposición a la duda, valoración del diálogo, escucha del otro y búsqueda de la comprensión del mundo, pero también de uno mismo. En la Filosofía de la Ciencia, la perspectiva gadameriana permite una visión del trabajo científico en una racionalidad que se entrelaza con aspectos históricos, filosóficos y culturales a través de una aproximación entre la Hermenéutica y las Ciencias Naturales. Señalamos que una EC en la articulación entre estos campos con sesgo gadameriano promueve cambios en la dinámica escolar, en la disposición del alumno y del docente, en la forma de entenderse a sí mismo, al mundo y al lenguaje científico. (shrink)

The At Home/Chez Soi project is a pragmatic trial that is intended to test the effectiveness of providing persons who are homeless and mentally ill with housing and support for their mental illnesses. Research undertaken in academic journals and the gray literature about the ethics of conducting pragmatic housing studies with persons who are mentally ill revealed the lack of published knowledge in this area of research ethics. Thus, the At Home/Chez Soi project had to tailor traditional research ethics thinking (...) and tools to best protect its stakeholders. In this article, we outline two of the modifications we made. First, we evaluate the ethical challenges present when participants want to withdraw from a housing study. And second, we describe how adverse events are addressed in our pragmatic trial, and how a specially convened safety committee protects participants and stakeholders. (shrink)

Gerbera hybrida is a member of the large sunflower family (Asteraceae). Typical of Asteraceae, Gerbera bears different types of flowers in its inflorescence. The showy marginal flowers comprise elongate, ligulate corollas that are female, whereas the central and inconspicuous disc flowers are complete, with both male and female organs. As such, Gerbera offers great potential for comparative developmental research within a single genotype. Moreover, different Gerbera varieties show an impressive spectrum of color patterns, directly displaying responses to developmental cues at (...) all important morphological levels (flower type, flower organ and within organs). Further, Gerbera harbors an arsenal of Asteraceae‐type secondary metabolites, not present in other model plants. With powerful reverse genetics methods, a large collection of EST sequences and a new cDNA microarray, Gerbera has become a model plant of the sunflower family. BioEssays 28: 756–767, 2006. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

My purpose in this essay is to make some remarks about the Digression of the Theaetetus. I shall argue that one central aim of the Digression is to show that there is a conflict between two ways of life: the life of the philosopher and the life of people get involved in politics. In the first part of this paper I make some considerations on the relationship between the Prologue and the trial of Socrates. In the second part I examine (...) the moral of the Digression from the perspective of Socrates‟ account of Protagoras‟ epistemology. (shrink)

This paper examines one aspect of professional practice for bioethicists: managing conflicts of interest. Drawing from our qualitative study and descriptive analysis of the experiences of conflicts of interest and/or conflicting interests (COI) of 13 Canadian clinical bioethicists (Frolic and Chidwick 2010), this paper examines how bioethicists define their roles, the nature of COIs in their roles, how their COIs relate to conventional definitions of conflicts of interest, and how COIs can be most effectively managed.

Antonio Gramsci is one of the major social and political theorists of the 20th century whose work has had an enormous influence on several fields, including educational theory and practice. Gramsci and Education demonstrates the relevance of Antonio Gramsci's thought for contemporary educational debates. The essays are written by scholars located in different parts of the world, a number of whom are well known internationally for their contributions to Gramscian scholarship and/or educational research. The collection deals with a broad range (...) of topics, including schooling, adult education in general, popular education, workers' education, cultural studies, critical pedagogy, multicultural education, and the role of intellectuals in contemporary society. (shrink)

Revision de tesis ¿La escritura de Dios o el autor disuelto? Hacia una crítica de la antropología posmoderna para pensar el pasado reciente por P. D. Franco Häntzsch.