Utría National Park is a remote biodiversity hotspot in Colombia. It encompasses ancestral territories of the Embera indigenous peoples and borders territories of Afro-descendant communities in El Valle. We explore environmental value conflicts regarding the use of the park, describing them as a Wicked Problem that has no clear solution. Juxtaposing how the territory is perceived by different communities, we employ Faber et al.'s heuristic of the three tele of living nature to search for deficiency in the third telos, service, (...) which we take to be symptomatic of Wicked Problems. Based on field data encoded using the three-tele heuristic, concerning how the respective communities would like to use the park area, we identify deficiencies in the third telos and develop recommendations regarding how these might be addressed. (shrink)

Emotions are the focus of intense debate both in contemporary philosophy and psychology, and increasingly also in the history of ideas. Simo Knuuttila presents a comprehensive survey of philosophical theories of emotion from Plato to Renaissance times, combining rigorous philosophical analysis with careful historical reconstruction. The first part of the book covers the conceptions of Plato and Aristotle and later ancient views from Stoicism to Neoplatonism and, in addition, their reception and transformation by early Christian thinkers from Clement and (...) Origen to Augustine and Cassian. Knuuttila then proceeds to a discussion of ancient themes in medieval thought, and of new medieval conceptions, codified in the so-called faculty psychology from Avicenna to Aquinas, in thirteenth century taxonomies, and in the voluntarist approach of Duns Scotus, William Ockham, and their followers. Philosophers, classicists, historians of philosophy, historians of psychology, and anyone interested in emotion will find much to stimulate them in this fascinating book. (shrink)

This paper discusses the issues of deciding to have a child with mental retardation, and of terminating a pregnancy when the future child is known to have the same disability. I discuss these problems by criticizing a utilitarian argument, namely, that one should act in a way that results in less suffering and less limited opportunity in the world. My argument is that future parents ought to assume a strong responsibility towards the well-being of their prospective children when they decide (...) to reproduce. The moral point in cases in which our acts affect the well-being of future children should be expressed strictly in terms of parents' culpability. Future children thus do not have current moral standing but presently living persons have current obligations to consider the presumable effects of their actions on future people. I will also argue that there are morally significant differences between 'selective contraception' and selective abortion. (shrink)

In this review I provide a brief analysis of the main features of the collective volume Shifting Concepts (Oxford University Press, 2020), edited by Teresa Marques and Åsa Wikforss. The volume addresses several related topics, and it contains contributions from psychologists and philosophers. It deals with the topic of concept variation understood in a broad sense, for it tackles diachronic, contextual, interpersonal and even intrapersonal variation; besides, the second part of the book is devoted to the topic of concept revision (...) and amelioration. I provide a brief description of the book and then I critically assess each of the contributions. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest pokazanie możliwości zastosowania J.M. Bocheńskiego koncepcji zabobonu filozoficznego (pogląd fałszywy stwarzający pozory prawdziwości) w analizie etycznych ocen i argumentacji. Dla osiągnięcia tego celu koncepcja Bocheńskiego jest najpierw omówiona, następnie wskazane są cechy myślenia etycznego sprzyjające jego podatności na zabobony filozoficzne oraz podjęty jest problem możliwości rozpoznawania i ograniczania zabobonów w refleksji nad moralnością.

My purpose is to analyze the peculiar thinking of Weil, according to the categories of reasoning, as a choice to avoid violence. In his definition of man, Weil recovers the notion of realization, with which man is redefined in terms of what he must be and not merely for what he is. There-to, man is ..

Krizu moderne kao krizu politickog, autor vidi, pre svega kao krizu "mere" kriterija politickog odlucivanja i delovanja. Ta kriza se u prvom redu shvata kao kriza samosaznanja i prakse obicajnosti. Ovaj problem prvi je pokusao je da resi Makijaveli uvodeci pojam virtus, koji je postao temeljni princip moderne politicke filozofije. Medjutim, mnogi moderni i savremeni tumaci Makijavelijevog ucenja cesto zanemaruju socijalni i politicki konteksta u kojem je nastalo politicko ucenje Firentinskog mislioca. Naime, Makijavelijevo nastojanje da pronadje autenticnu formu politickog cina (...) kojim bi bila omogucena harmonizacija i stabilizacija tadasnjih dramaticnih politickih prilika koje su vladale u italijanskim gradovima, zahtevala je pouzdanu dijagnozu i adekvatna sredstva za uspesnu terapiju obolelog organizma zajednice. Epohalni novum u Makijavelijevoj politickoj teoriji predstavlja prelazak sa anticke teoretizacije vrline na njenu modernu operacionalizaciju. Medjutim, ova promena cesto se tumaci kao radikalno suprotstavljanje grckog pojma arete i rimske virtus, koja se grubo svodi samo na srcanosot i snagu koje su neophodne za osvajanje i ocuvanje politicke vlasti. Vazan deo puta u svojoj filozofiji politike Hegel - vise nesvesno nego svesno - ide s Makijavelijem i Selingom - posebno kad je u pitanju shvatanje neophodnosti snage i srcanosti u procesu operacionalizacije duha slobode u istoriji posredstvom "negacije" kao "moci zla". Posredovanje subjektivnosti i supstancijaliteta zbiva se, po Hegelu, u drzavi surovim krocenjem svetskog duha u kojem on zrtvuje ne samo pojedinca, vec i citave narode - prema slobodi, odnosno njenom ostvarenju u obicajnosnoj zajednici. "Nevolja vremena" posledica je razdvajanja ja i sveta (Entzweiung), i proistice iz redukovanog politickog uma koji za politicko delovanje i odlucivanje nema kriterijuma obicajnosnog totaliteta. Ovaj se um rutinizira razdvajanjem obicajnosti koja redukuje politicko delanje na ogoljenu tehniku osvajanja i zadrzavanja politicke moci. Autor na kraju razmatra krizu politickog odlucivanja i ukazuje u cemu je njen globalni i supstancijalni smisao za povesnu stvarnost na kraju XX veka. (shrink)

In this paper I defend two claims regarding complex demonstratives. On the one hand I argue that, when one of these expressions misdescribes the referred object, the right semantic analysis is to treat the expression as uninterpretable. On the other, I claim that the uninterpretability thesis finds itself in trouble when it comes to dealing with non-deictic uses of complex demonstratives, i.e., uses of “that F” in which the speaker has no acquaintance or direct perception of any object that could (...) satisfy the predicative material. In order to make these two claims compatible, I set out to modify the way the uninterpretability thesis has been traditionally formulated. (shrink)

This paper discusses whether prospectiveparents ought to find out about their geneticconstitution for reproductive reasons. It isargued that ignoring genetic information can bein line with responsible parenthood or perhapseven recommendable. This is because parenthoodis essentially an unconditional project inwhich parents ought to commit themselves tonurturing any kind of child. Besides, thetraditional reasons offered for theunfortunateness of impairments and the tragicfate of families with disabled children are notconvincing. Other morally problematic outcomesof genetics, such as discrimination againstindividuals with impairments, and limiting freeparental (...) decision making, are alsoconsidered. (shrink)

Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie i analiza poglądów F.A. von Hayeka na temat moralności (zebranych z różnych jego dzieł) oraz wskazanie na ich znaczenie dla współczesnych dyskusji w filozofii politycznej, jak również w etyce. Warto podjąć ten temat z uwagi na potrzebę opracowania myśli aksjologicznej Hayeka, wybitnego myśliciela o poglądach mocno skrystalizowanych, spójnych i oryginalnych. Jego refleksje mają potencjał, aby wiele wnieść w debaty na temat wartości, są one jednak mało znane lub niesłusznie pomijane. W pierwszej części rozważań wyjaśniam, w jaki (...) sposób według Hayeka moralność wspiera wolność indywidualną, a więc wartość centralną w jego aksjologii: społeczeństwo jest wyposażone w moralność (obok prawa stanowionego) w celu zachowania porządku przy minimum stosowania przymusu (istota ładu wolnościowego). Rozdział drugi poświęcam omówieniu wyróżnionych przez Hayeka rodzajów moralności, wskazuję, w jaki sposób, wzajemnie się uzupełniając, konstytuują one tradycję moralną. Chodzi o zespoły zasad fundujących z jednej strony ład naturalny (jego normy odpowiadają instynktownym postawom słusznie dochodzącym do głosu w małych wspólnotach), z drugiej strony – tzw. ład rozszerzony (związane z nim normy nie są zgodne z instynktami, regulują współistnienie obcych sobie ludzi wchodzących w anonimowe relacje w obrębie dużych społeczności ludzkich). W rozdziale trzecim przedstawiam Hayeka poglądy w kwestii możliwości uzasadnienia norm tradycyjnej moralności. Chodzi zwłaszcza o rozwinięcie poglądu, że uznawanie zasad moralności jest kluczowe dla społeczeństwa wolnościowego, i to niezależnie od tego, czy mamy dla nich zadowalające racjonalne uzasadnienie. W końcowej części rozważań zasygnalizowane jest znaczenie Hayeka koncepcji moralności w zakresie nurtów myśli politycznej, z którymi Hayek jest wiązany (indywidualizm, liberalizm, konserwatyzm), jak również dla metaetyki (próba odtworzenia zasad konstytutywnych dla cywilizacji; głos w dyskusji między perspektywą bezstronną i stronniczą w etyce). (shrink)

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar la visión popperiana de la discusión crítica que, en última instancia, es responsable por la creación de conjeturas osadas, tanto en el campo epistemológico, como en el campo político y social. Presentaremos el presupuesto falibilista de nuestras aleg..

Semanticists often restrict their theories by imposing constraints on the parameters that can be employed for interpreting the expressions of a language. Such constraints are based on non-logical features of actual contexts of utterance, but they often have important effects on issues that do pertain to logic, like analyticity or entailment. For example, Kaplan’s restriction to so-called “proper contexts” was required in order to count “I am here now” as valid. In this paper I argue that constraints of this kind (...) are often posited in an arbitrary and non-consistent way, and that they yield the intended results only at the price of imposing ad hoc principles whose justification could in turn justify further, often undesirable restrictions into the theory. I also introduce a criterion for telling whether such constraints are imposed in a legitimate manner. (shrink)

This article analyses a New Year’s revue from 1929 by Helsinki-born Jac Weinstein and the image of the Jewish merchant. Many stereotypes concerning ethnicity and gender are at play in the revue and the line between humour, Jewish self-deprecation and antisemitic depiction of the Jew becomes blurred. The questionable business ethics of Jewish merchants is one of the core themes of the revue.The article asks what role ethnic stereotypes played in Jewish humour before the height of National Socialist racial antisemitism, (...) and what purpose such performances served. It examines the various stereotypes found in the couplets, sketches and one-act plays in Weinstein’s kleynkunst performance against the background of transnational Jewish performing arts and current research on Jewish entrepreneurship and antisemitism in Finland. (shrink)

This article presents, first, the theoretical framework about democratic schools based on a three-year research project “Demoskole: Democracy, Participation and Inclusive education in schools” funded by Spanish Government. Secondly, it analyses some democratic educational practices and, finally, it communicates some implications of what is supposed to improve the democratic quality of schools increasing the participation of pupils.

In Neither Physics Nor Chemistry, Kostas Gavroglu and Ana Simoes examine the evolution of quantum chemistry into an autonomous discipline, tracing its development from the publication of early papers in the 1920s to the dramatic changes ...

Activities protesting against major polluters who cause climate change may cause damage to private property in the process. This paper investigates the case for a more international general basis of moral justification for such protests. Specific reference is made to the Kingsnorth case, which involved a protest by Greenpeace against coal-powered electricity generation in the UK. An appeal is made to Rawlsian fairness arguments, traditionally employed to support the obligation of citizens to their national governments as opposed to their international (...) duties. The argument made here, however, is that there seem to be sufficient reasons for holding that a stable climate is one of the first truly global public goods that is indispensable to acceptable standards of living everywhere. This would suffice to justify international and intergenerational ‘atmospheric’ political obligations, which in turn may justify protests – even those causing some damage to private property – against the laws and policies that violate the fair terms of cooperation in providing a stable climate. The fairness argument aims also to provide a ground from which Green political theory could integrate accounts of radical forms of citizenship into appeals to state political authority. This leads to justifying acts of civil disobedience on the basis of novel understandings of ‘atmospheric’ citizenship obligations. (shrink)

This book not only articulates a tradition-specific Pentecostal rationality of Biblical Pragmatism, but also provides the first intellectual history of a major British classical Pentecostal denomination. Pentecostal theologians increasingly acknowledge that their theological methodology should be informed by a Pentecostal rationality, epistemology and theological hermeneutics. Simo Frestadius offers such a Pentecostal rationality from a Foursquare perspective. Frestadius first analyses and evaluates some of the main contemporary Pentecostal rationalities and epistemologies to date, with a particular emphasis on the works of (...) Amos Yong and James K.A. Smith and L. William Oliverio Jr., before proposing that Alasdair MacIntyre's tradition-focused and historically-minded narrative approach is conducive in providing a more tradition-constituted Pentecostal rationality. Utilising the methodological insights of MacIntyre, the book then provides a philosophically informed historical narrative of a major British Pentecostal tradition, namely, the Elim Foursquare Gospel Alliance, by exploring its underlying context and roots as a classical Pentecostal movement, its emergence as a religious tradition, and its two major 'epistemological crises'. Based on this historical narration and analysis, it is argued that Elim's tacit Pentecostal rationality is best defined as Pentecostal Biblical Pragmatism in a Foursquare Gospel framework. This form of rationality is then developed vis-à-vis Elim's Pentecostal concept of truth, biblical hermeneutics, and pragmatic epistemic justification in dialogue with William P. Alston. In doing the above, the book not only articulates a tradition-specific Pentecostal rationality of Biblical Pragmatism but also provides the first intellectual history of a major British classical Pentecostal denomination. (shrink)

Taking the regime established by the Convention on Biological Diversity as a foundation, the purpose of this article is twofold. First, it examines how the international biodiversity regime integrates the private property paradigm into its toolbox for conservation and sustainability and then critically evaluates the shortcomings of the intellectual property mechanism. Second, it argues that the increasing ubiquity of open access emerging technologies should lead the international community to carefully assess the benefits for conservation research of reverting to a framework (...) that places biodiversity within the global commons. The impasse between global commons advocates and the intellectual property status quo obscures the underlying problematic of the “commodity fiction” of biodiversity and increasing use of digital sequence information likely exacerbates power asymmetries. One remedy explored here is an alternative to these two approaches that dislodges rather than discards the concept of private property. Drawing inspiration from Polanyi and building on May (2010), the article shows how a hybrid approach bridging a public and private conception of genetic resources and traditional knowledge could more effectively and equitably distribute benefits to countries and communities providing resources of value to industry. (shrink)

Originally published in 1993, Modalities in Medieval Philosophy looks at the idea of modality as multiplicity of reference with respect to alternative domains. The book examines how this emerged in early medieval discussions and addresses how it was originally influenced by the theological conception of God acting by choice. After a discussion of ancient modal paradigms, the author traces the interplay of old and new modal views in medieval logic and semantics, philosophy and theology. A detailed account is given of (...) late medieval discussions of the new modal logic, epistemic logic, and the logic norms. These theories show striking similarities to some basic tenets of contemporary approaches to modal matters. This work will be of considerable interest to historians of philosophy and ideas and philosophers of logic and metaphysics. (shrink)