This book offers a unique synthesis of past and current work on the structure, meaning, and use of negation and negative expressions, a topic that has engaged thinkers from Aristotle and the Buddha to Freud and Chomsky. Horn's masterful study melds a review of scholarship in philosophy, psychology, and linguistics with original research, providing a full picture of negation in natural language and thought; this new edition adds a comprehensive preface and bibliography, surveying research since the book's original publication.

Many contemporary philosophers consider justice to be the crucial normative concept of ethics and political philosophy. This view goes back to J. S. MillÏs Utilitarianism (ch. 5), and to J. RawlsÏ A Theory of Justice. In this paper, I challenge this view. As I take it, justice is not the core of our normative convictions for many normative convictions do not concern questions of justice. I aim to show that our idea of justice has a very specific content and function.

Background: The Parkinsonian [i.e., Parkinson's disease ] gait disorder represents a therapeutical challenge with residual symptoms despite the use of deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus and medical and rehabilitative strategies. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of different DBS modes as combined stimulation of the STN and substantia nigra and environmental rehabilitative factors as footwear on gait kinematics.Methods: This single-center, randomized, double-blind, crossover clinical trial assessed shod and unshod gait in patients with PD with (...) medication in different DBS conditions during different gait tasks and compared gait characteristics to healthy controls. Notably, 15 patients participated in the study, and 11 patients were analyzed after a dropout of four patients due to DBS-induced side effects.Results: Gait was modulated by both factors, namely, footwear and DBS mode, in patients with PD. Footwear impacted gait characteristics in patients with PD similarly to controls with longer step length, lower cadence, and shorter single-support time. Interestingly, DBS exerted specific effects depending on gait tasks with increased cognitive load. STN+SN DBS was the most efficient DBS mode compared to STIM OFF and STN DBS with intense effects as step length increment during dual task.Conclusion: The PD gait disorder is a multifactorial symptom, impacted by environmental factors as footwear and modulated by DBS. DBS effects on gait were specific depending on the gait task, with the most obvious effects with STN+SN DBS during gait with increased cognitive load. (shrink)

In the modern age, the political secret has acquired a bad reputation. With modern democracy’s ideal of transparency, political secrecy is identified with political crime or corruption. The article argues that this repression of secrecy in modern democracies falls short of a substantial understanding of the structure and workings of political secrecy. By outlining a genealogy of political secrecy, it elucidates the logic as well as the blind spots of a current culture of secrecy. It focuses on two fundamental logics (...) of secrecy, deduced from the Latin terms ‘ arcanum’ and ‘ secretum’. Whereas the logic of arcanum regards secrecy as a legitimate dimension of government, a modern logic of secretum is marked by an inextricable dialectics between the withdrawal and communication of knowledge, between secrecy and publicity. Here, the secret is not so much a piece of withheld knowledge as a ‘secrecy effect’ that binds the realm of secrecy to the public sphere by a dialectics of permanent suspicion and scandal. Instead of falling into the trap of this ‘secrecy effect’ it is worth taking a closer look at the tradition of thought on the arcana imperii, from Tacitus to early modern doctrines of raison d’état to Carl Schmitt. What this tradition deals with is the functionality of secrecy and its complicated relation to the law. The arcana tradition elaborates the crucial point of secrecy: its potential, but also its profound ambivalence. Secrecy opens up a discretionary space of action exempt from the rule of law, and, according to Carl Schmitt, ignores the law so as to allow it to become effective. Secrecy serves to protect and stabilize the state, but at the same time it opens a space of exception from the rule of law that breeds violence, corruption and oppression. Instead of seeing secrecy as the opposite of a political culture of transparency, it is more productive to regard secrecy as transparency's complement – a counterpart, however, that is marked by the profound paradox of being both a consolidation of and a threat to democracy. (shrink)

What kind of evidence will lead people to revise their moral beliefs? Moral beliefs are often strongly held convictions, and existing research has shown that morality is rooted in emotion and socialization rather than deliberative reasoning. In addition, more general issues—such as confirmation bias—further impede coherent belief revision. Here, we explored a unique means for inducing belief revision. In two experiments, participants considered a moral dilemma in which an overwhelming majority of people judged that it was inappropriate to take action (...) to maximize utility. Their judgments contradicted a utilitarian principle they otherwise strongly endorsed. Exposure to this scenario led participants to revise their belief in the utilitarian principle, and this revision persisted over several hours. This method provides a new avenue for inducing belief revision. (shrink)

Between 1960 and 1999, it was quite common for philosophers to rely almost completely on a priori methods to advance their arguments ; in a recent study by Knobe, the majority of papers sampled from this period used strictly a priori methods. In contrast, in the last decade and a half, many philosophers' strategy for making progress on philosophical questions has changed. Philosophers are now relying more heavily on empirical data—including running their own observational and experimental studies—in order to support (...) their arguments. Without a doubt, part of this shift was due to the rise of experimental philosophy – roughly a methodological approach to addressing philosophical questions wherein the researcher uses psychological methods to investigate the parameters that affect the deployment of philosophically significant concepts. This dissertation raises methodological problems with work in experimental philosophy and then proposes solutions to these problems. My focus in this dissertation is on two subfields in philosophy – epistemology and moral psychology – both of which have witnessed increased uses of psychological methods to investigate philosophical questions. (shrink)

The objective of this paper is to understand from a sociological perspective how the moral question of euthanasia, framed as the “right to die”, emerges and is dealt with in society. It takes France and Germany as case studies, two countries in which euthanasia is prohibited and which have similar legislation on the issue. I presuppose that, and explore how, each society has its own specificities in terms of practical, social and political norms that affect the ways in which they (...) deal with these issues. The paper thus seeks to understand how requests for the “right to die” emerge in each society, through both the debate (analysis of daily newspapers, medical and philosophical literature, legal texts) and the practices (ethnographic work in three French and two German hospitals) that elucidate the phenomenon. It does so, however, without attempting to solve the moral question of euthanasia. In spite of the differences observed between these two countries, the central issue at stake in their respective debates is the question of the individual’s autonomy to choose the conditions in which he or she wishes to die; these conditions depend, amongst others, on the doctor-patient relationship, the organisation of end-of-life care in hospital settings, and more generally, on the way autonomy is defined and handled in the public debate. (shrink)

With their biblically grounded understanding of human nature, Christians are well prepared to engage political science. Horne presents a Christian framework, showing how this academic discipline can be studied faithfully.

1. Implicature: some basic oppositions IMPLICATURE is a component of speaker meaning that constitutes an aspect of what is meant in a speaker’s utterance without being part of what is said. What a speaker intends to communicate is characteristically far richer than what she directly expresses; linguistic meaning radically underdetermines the message conveyed and understood. Speaker S tacitly exploits pragmatic principles to bridge this gap and counts on hearer H to invoke the same principles for the purposes of utterance interpretation. (...) The contrast between the said and the meant, and derivatively between the said and the implicated (the meant-but-unsaid), dates back to the fourth century rhetoricians Servius and Donatus, who characterized litotes—the figure of pragmatic understatement—as a figure in which we say less but mean more (“minus dicimus et plus significamus”; see Hoffmann 1987 and Horn 1991a for discussion). In the classical Gricean model, the bridge from what is said (the literal content of the uttered sentence, computed directly from its grammatical structure with the reference of indexicals resolved) to what is communicated is constructed through implicature. As an aspect of speaker meaning, implicatures are by definition distinct from the non-logical inferences that the hearer draws; it is a category mistake to attribute implicatures either to hearers or to sentences (e.g. P and Q) and subsentential expressions (e.g. some). But we can systematically (at least for generalized implicatures; see below) correlate the speaker’s intention to implicate q (in uttering p in context C), the expression p that carries the implicature in C, and the inference of q induced by the speaker’s utterance of p in C. (shrink)

When handling the concept “meaning of life,” it is necessary to differentiate between meaning of life in a strict sense and meaning in life. While the meaning of life refers to human life in general and out of a super subjective perspective, the meaning in life considers the meaning in an individual life out of a subjective perspective. However, in both versions, a problem arises as to whether the question of a meaningful life could be answered objectively or subjectively. A (...) possible though controversial solution is a unity between the happiness from the subjective perspective and the meaningfulness from the objective. Further, the conflict between meaning of life and morality favors an objectivist approach in the attribution of meaning. (shrink)

Resumo: O presente artigo visa apresentar, sistematizar e analisar, à luz da teoria social crítica, as ações desenvolvidas pelo NESEF (Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre o Ensino de Filosofia) ao longo de duas décadas de existência na Universidade Federal do Paraná - UFPR. Procura situar e referenciar as diferentes atividades desenvolvidas coletivamente no campo da pesquisa e da extensão. Parte do entendimento que a Filosofia só é Filosofia à medida que ela se nega e, por conseguinte, se realiza; e (...) ela só se realiza na prática social, cultural e política na e através da ação coletiva. Pretende mostrar o conjunto de ações desenvolvidas (em rede) pelo NESEF que, com o passar do tempo, assume a condição de “intelectual orgânico-coletivo”. Por se tratar de uma descrição de atividades estreitamente ligadas à atuação do autor, o texto revelará sua trajetória profissional entrelaçada ao seu “jeito de caminhar” diante dos embates teórico-práticos do campo acadêmico formando, assim, um contínuo movimento de ondas tensas (laços e nós) que encontraram na ação conjunta – na práxis coletiva – um terreno fértil. Palavras-chave: NESEF; Intelectual Orgânico; Educação Filosófica The NESEF as an organic-collective intellectual: from head to toe Abstract: This article aims to present, systematize and analyze, in the light of critical social theory, the actions developed by NESEF (Center for Studies and Research on Philosophy Teaching) over two decades at the Federal University of Paraná – UFPR. It seeks to point out and reference the different activities developed collectively in the field of research and extension. It is considered that Philosophy is Philosophy only insofar as it negates itself and, consequently, realizes itself; and it is only realized in social, cultural and political practice in and through collective action. It is intended to show the set of actions developed (in a network) by the NESEF which, over time, assumes the condition of “organic-collective intellectual”. As it is a description of activities closely linked to the author's work, the text reveals his professional trajectory intertwined with his "way of walking" in the face of theoretical-practical clashes in the academic field, thus forming a continuous movement of tense waves (ties and knots) that found fertile ground in joint action – in collective praxis. Key words: NESEF; Organic Intellectual; Philosophical Education Le NESEF comme intellectuel organique-collectif : de la tête aux pieds Résumé: Cet article vise à présenter, systématiser et analyser, à la lumière de la théorie sociale critique, les actions développées par le NESEF (Centre d'Études et de Recherche sur l'Enseignement de la Philosophie) pendant deux décennies à l'Université Fédérale du Paraná – UFPR. Il cherche à situer et référencer les différentes activités développées collectivement dans le domaine de la recherche et de l'extension. Il est entendu que la Philosophie n'est la Philosophie qu'en tant qu'elle se nie elle-même et, par conséquent, se réalise; et elle ne se réalise que dans la pratique sociale, culturelle et politique dans et par l'action collective. Il vise à montrer l'ensemble des actions développées (en réseau) par la NESEF qui, au fil du temps, assume la condition d'« intellectuel organique-collectif ». Comme il s'agit d'une description d'activités étroitement liées au cours de travail de l'auteur, le texte révèle sa trajectoire professionnelle entrelacé à sa "façon de marcher" face aux affrontements théoriques-pratiques du champ académique, formant ainsi un mouvement continu d'ondes tendues (liens et nœuds) qui ont trouvé un terreau fertile dans l'action commune – c'est à dire, dans la praxis collective. Mots clés: NESEF; Intellectuel Organique; Éducation Philosophique Data de registro: 23/01/2023 Data de aceite: 18/10/2023. (shrink)

Solidarity has for a long time been referred to as the core value underpinning European health and welfare systems. But there has been debate in recent years about whether solidarity, with its alleged communitarian content, can be reconciled with the emphasis on individual freedom and personal autonomy. One may wonder whether there is still a place for solidarity, and whether the concept of justice should be embraced to analyse the moral issues regarding access to health care. In this article, I (...) will answer this question by analysing the normative foundations of the concept of justice, followed by a deeper examination of the concept of solidarity in continental philosophy. More specifically, I will compare the philosophical traditions rooted in Kant to approaches rooted in Hegel. In addition, I will present the work of Avishai Margalit on the decent society to criticize a predominantly liberal approach to access to health care. The importance of solidarity lies particularly in its emphasis on relational aspects and the role of recognition in care practices, which are usually ignored in liberal approaches to justice. However, the article will argue that solidarity is not an alternative to a rights-based concept of justice, but must be considered as a necessary complement to it. (shrink)

For over four decades feminist linguists and philosophers of language have addressed the semantic, cognitive, and political factors associated with gender asymmetries in nominal and pronominal choice. The sociolinguistic spotlight has focused on the history, extent, and implications of the prescriptively sanctioned use of man and he for sex-neutral reference—he/man language in Martyna ’s term. Bare singular and simple indefinite man in exemplify this use, while the bare singulars in yield the male-specific meaning exhibited by the man or that man.

CITATION: Horn, L. M. 2015. Promoting responsible research conduct in a developing world academic context. South African Journal of Bioethics and Law, 6:21-24, doi:10.7196/SAJBL.256.

ABSTRACTThe concept of ‘vulnerability’ is well established within the realm of research ethics and most ethical guidelines include a section on ‘vulnerable populations’. However, the term ‘vulnerability’, used within a human research context, has received a lot of negative publicity recently and has been described as being simultaneously ‘too broad’ and ‘too narrow’.1 The aim of the paper is to explore the concept of research vulnerability by using a detailed case study – that of mineworkers in post‐apartheid South Africa. In (...) particular, the usefulness of Kipnis’s taxonomy of research vulnerability will be examined.2In recent years the volume of clinical research on human subjects in South Africa has increased significantly. The HIV and TB pandemics have contributed to this increase. These epidemics have impacted negatively on the mining industry; and mining companies have become increasingly interested in research initiatives that address these problems. This case study explores the potential research vulnerability of mineworkers in the context of the South African mining industry and examines measures that can reduce this vulnerability. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Kant-Studien Jahrgang: 107 Heft: 1 Seiten: 89-110.

A growing body of scholarship argues that by disentangling gestation from the body, artificial wombs will alter the relationship between men, women, and fetuses such that reproduction is effectively ‘degendered’. Scholars have claimed that this purported ‘degendering’ of gestation will subsequently create greater equity between men and women. I argue that, contrary to the assumptions made in this literature, it is law, not biology, that acts as a primary barrier to the ‘degendering’ of gestation. With reference to contemporary case law (...) involving disputes over frozen embryos, I demonstrate that though reproductive technologies have already made it possible for gendered progenitors to have an ‘equal’ say in gestation, law mires the possibilities of these technologies in traditional stories of gendered parenthood. Looking to the way binary assumptions about gender limit the self-determination of trans men and nonbinary and genderqueer people who are gestational parents, I argue the ‘degendering’ of gestation will come not with artificial wombs but with the end of limited legal paradigms for gendered gestational parenthood. (shrink)

Background In the UK, the solidaristic character of the NHS makes it one of the most trusted public institutions. In recent years, the introduction of data-driven technologies in healthcare has opened up the space for collaborations with private digital companies seeking access to patient data. However, these collaborations appear to challenge the public’s trust in the. Main text In this paper we explore how the opening of the healthcare sector to private digital companies challenges the existing social contract and the (...) NHS’s solidaristic character, and impacts on public trust. We start by critically discussing different examples of partnerships between the NHS and private companies that collect and use data. We then analyse the relationship between trust and solidarity, and investigate how this relationship changes in the context of digital companies entering the healthcare system. Finally, we show ways for the NHS to maintain public trust by putting in place a solidarity grounded partnership model with companies seeking to access patient data. Such a model would need to serve collective interests through, for example, securing preferential access to goods and services, providing health benefits, and monitoring data access. Conclusion A solidarity grounded partnership model will help establish a social contract or licence that responds to the public’s expectations and to principles of a solidaristic healthcare system. (shrink)