"The pursuit of science by professional scientists every day bears less and less resemblance to the perception of science by the general public. It is not the rule-based, methodical system for accumulating facts that dominates the public view. Rather it is the idiosyncratic, often bumbling search for understanding in mostly uncharted places. It is full of wrong turns, cul-de-sacs, mistaken identities, false findings, errors of fact and judgment-and the occasional remarkable success. The widespread but distorted view of science as infallible (...) originates in an education system that teaches nothing but facts using very large, very frightening textbooks, and is spread by media that report on discoveries but almost never on process. It is further reinforced by politicians who pay for it and want to use it to determine policy and therefore want it right and, worst of all, sometimes by scientists who learn early on that talking too much about failures and not enough about successes can harm their careers. Failure, then, is a book that seeks to make science more appealing by exposing its faults. In this sequel to Ignorance, Stuart Firestein shows us that scientific enterprise is riddled with failures, and that this is not only necessary but good. Failure reveals how science got its start, when humans began to use a process-trial and error-as a kind of recipe that includes a hefty dose of failure. It gives the non-scientifically trained public an insider's view of how science is actually done, with the aim of making it accessible, comprehensible, and entertaining."--Publisher description. (shrink)

Stuart Hampshire, one of the most eminent British philosophers of the twentieth century, will be perhaps best remembered for his work on the seventeenth-century philosopher Spinoza, all of which is gathered now in this volume. Among the great thinkers of modern times, only Spinoza created a complete system of philosophy that rivals Plato's, with crucial contributions to every major philosophical topic. Hampshire's classic 1951 book Spinoza remains the best introduction to this thinker, and it is reprinted here. But what (...) gives particular interest to this new volume is the first publication of Hampshire's last work 'Spinoza and Spinozism', an extended presentation of a Spinozist philosophical worldview. Hampshire's influential 1962 essay 'Spinoza and the Idea of Freedom' is also included. Spinoza and Spinozism is thus an ideal companion to the study and interpretation of this great philosopher. (shrink)

Neste artigo, busca-se articular a noção de juventude romântica como ideal de formação no pensamento do estudante Benjamin. Nos primeiros ensaios dedicados a temas pedagógicos, o filósofo propôs um novo modelo de educação apoiado no romantismo, partindo de uma crítica às instituições de sua época que cindiram a totalidade e a unidade da vida do jovem. Em seus escritos enquanto era estudante, Benjamin recupera, com sua crítica, a necessidade de olhar a arte, a literatura, a educação, em suma, toda a (...) cultura humana, como um conjunto reunido de vivências históricas. O romantismo, no pensamento de Benjamin, será, portanto, basilar às discussões pedagógicas. A juventude, vista como comunidade, tem o dever de ser criadora, de se transformar em uma convenção de gênios do tempo presente, em seus espaços de atuação, ou seja, nas instituições de formação. De modo geral, só é possível perceber e adquirir o saber específico de uma profissão se as instituições acadêmicas perceberem que devem visar à formação universal, pelo modelo de criação do gênio, pois a juventude é entendida como aquela que garante a produção de valores novos, opostos aos da experiência - sinônimo de rigidez dos conhecimentos - que não estabelecem vínculo com a vida. Para encontrar essa verdade da vida, é necessário um ato de coragem e de sentido para se estar, assim, diante de espíritos livres. A juventude, dessa forma, traduz-se como um conceito ou categoria humana dependente de um despertar da consciência de si mesma. Diante disso, conseguirá promover mudanças dentro do âmbito institucional-escolar e acadêmico, mas, ao mesmo tempo, esse despertar da consciência histórica do jovem definirá um modo específico de se lidar com a cultura humana. Portanto, neste artigo, sob à luz dos aspectos românticos, procurou-se mostrar a juventude como categoria humana, com faixa etária determinada, cercada de preocupações acerca da realidade escolar e acadêmica e, também, do ponto de vista universal, isto é, filosófico-pedagógico, como uma categoria do pensamento que significa a vanguarda, tudo aquilo que não está determinado e fixado, criando novos preceitos e formas de vida. Palavras-chave: Juventude. Gênio. Romanticismo. Formação. Walter Benjamin. (shrink)

The Collected Works of John Stuart Mill took thirty years to complete and is acknowledged as the definitive edition of J.S. Mill and as one of the finest works editions ever completed. Mill's contributions to philosophy, economics, and history, and in the roles of scholar, politician and journalist can hardly be overstated and this edition remains the only reliable version of the full range of Mill's writings. Each volume contains extensive notes, a new introduction and an index. Many of (...) the volumes have been unavailable for some time, but the Works are now again available, both as a complete set and as individual volumes. (shrink)

In seiner 1861 zunächst in Frazer's Magazine publizierten und zu seinen Lebzeiten in weiteren vier Auflagen vorgelegten Schrift "Utilitarianism" verteidigt John Stuart Mill das Nützlichkeitsprinzip als das grundlegende Kriterium für die Beurteilung der Moralität aller Handlungen, sei es der freien Handlungen der Individuen, sei es der Einschränkungen dieser Freiheit durch von Gesellschaft und Staat vorgegebene Regeln.Dabei geht es ihm vor allem darum, den Utilitarismus vor dem Einwand zu retten, er gebe dem hedonistischen Eigennutz Vorrang vor der ethischen Maxime einer (...) gerechten Verteilung der Güter. So glaubt er, aus dem Prinzip des "größten Glücks der größten Zahl" ein Modell der Verteilungsgerechtigkeit ableiten zu können, das das Nützlichkeitsprinzip als das erste Prinzip der Moral erweist.Die hier in neuer deutscher Übersetzung vorgelegte Schrift gilt als das Hauptwerk der klassischen utilitaristischen Ethik. (shrink)

Moran, Stuart With the solemnity of the Ascension the Year A lectionary returns momentarily to the Gospel according to Matthew and, in fact, to the very end of that Gospel. We might note in the first place that Matthew makes no attempt to describe the mysterious reality that the tradition has come to call the Ascension.

BackgroundMany discretionary foods contribute both to individual health risks and to global issues, in particular through high carbon footprints and water scarcity. Snacking is influenced by the presence of snacking cues such as food availability, observing others eating, and negative affect. However, less is known about the mechanisms underlying the effects of negative affect. This study examines whether the individual odds of consuming high-calorie snacks as a consequence to being exposed to known snacking cues were moderated by experiencing higher or (...) lower total negative affect per day or higher or lower negative affect variability per day.MethodsSecondary analysis of an ecological momentary assessment study of 60 participants over 14 days with food logs and randomly timed assessments of known snacking cues. High total daily negative affect levels and negative affect variability were examined as moderators to predict high-calorie snacking in three-level hierarchical random effects logistic regressions.ResultsConsistent with previous studies, the odds of snacking increased when food was available, when others were eating, and when participants experienced more negative affect. Associations for food availability and others eating were significantly moderated by negative affect variability such that associations between cues and high-calorie snacking were weaker on days with higher negative affect variability, but not negative affect levels.ConclusionThe relationship between cues to high-calorie snacking and snacking behavior varies with variability in negative affect, suggesting a complex relationship between affect and high-calorie snacking. Clearer conceptualizations on the relation between affect and eating are needed. (shrink)

Thoughts on poetry and its vbarieties.--Bentham.--Coleridge.--On liberty.--Utilitarianism.--Inaugural address at Saint Andrews.

L’Europe connaît une triple crise : bancaire, des dettes souveraines, et de l’investissement. Laisser les États-nations gérer ces crises ne peut que creuser les inégalités territoriales et aller vers la désagrégation de l’Europe. Celle-ci dispose pourtant d’institutions bancaires et financières qui lui permettent d’intervenir dans le respect des souverainetés nationales, tout en dessinant une voie de progrès européenne. L’article détaille la feuille de route proposée à ces institutions.

Regulatory processes governing healthcare research have been very controversial within the academic and health sectors. We assume that it is generally accepted that there need to be institutional structures and systems to ensure researchers pursue ethical research in healthcare and that the chosen site can feasibly support the project in question. Having said that the efficiency and proportionality of ethics and research governance processes have frequently been called into question. This paper will examine some of the attempts made by the (...) National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to streamline ethics approval as well as research and development processes. It will consider the extent to which the changes made by the NIHR have been successful, and then briefly consider the future direction of governance within healthcare research. (shrink)

This paper traces missing links in the history of economic thought. In outlining Hume's concept of 'the reflexive mind' it shows that this opened frontiers between philosophy and psychology which Bertrand Russell denied and which logical positivism in philosophy and positive economics displaced. It relates this to Hume's influence not only on Smith, but also on Schopenhauer and the later Wittgenstein, with parallels in Gestalt psychology and recent findings from neural research and cognitive psychology. It critiques Kant's reaction to Hume's (...) claim that one may assume but cannot prove cause and effect and how Samuelson's Foundations of Economic Analysis has been Kantian but wrong in claims for axioms that are universal truths. It illustrates how Samuelson's presumption that language and mathematics are 'identical' was as mistaken as the logical atomism of Russell and the early Wittgenstein, relates this to Kleinian splitting, denial and projective identification and suggests that recovery of greater realism in economics needs to regain links with such philosophy and psychology. (shrink)

The current study examined whether Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits, a core component of psychopathy, modulate neural responses of participants engaged in a social exchange game. In this task, participants were offered an allocation of money and then given the chance to punish the offerer. Twenty youth participated and responses to both offers and the participant’s punishment (or not) of these offers were examined. Increasingly unfair offers were associated with increased dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) activity but this responsiveness was not modulated (...) by CU traits. Increasing punishment of unfair offers was associated with increased dACC and anterior insula activity and this activity was modulated by CU traits. Higher CU trait participants showed a weaker association between activity and punishment level. These data suggest that CU traits are associated with appropriate expectations of other individual’s normative behavior but weaker representations of such information when guiding behavior of the self. (shrink)

During vertebrate limb development, various genes of the Hox family, the products of which influence skeletal element identity, are expressed in specific spatiotemporal patterns in the limb bud mesenchyme. At the same time, the cells also exhibit ‘self‐organizing’ behavior – interacting with each other via extracellular matrix and cell‐cell adhesive molecules to form the arrays of mesenchymal condensations that lead to the cartilaginous skeletal primordia. A recent study by Yokouchi et al.(1) establishes a connection between these phenomena. They misexpressed the (...) product of the Hoxa‐13 gene in chick limb buds and demonstrated both skeletal pattern perturbations and changes in cell‐cell adhesivity in mesenchyme aberrantly expressing this protein. (shrink)

This study investigates the link between female board directors and company financial performance and agency costs in Sri Lanka's publicly listed companies. In order to investigate the impact of board gender diversity on firm financial performance, a dynamic panel generalised method of moment estimation is applied. Three variables are used as proxies for gender diversity of the board of directors, namely the percentage of women on the board, a dichotomous dummy and the Blau index. A Tobit model with endogenous regressors (...) is used to investigate the impact of female board members on agency cost, using growth opportunities as a measure of agency cost. After controlling for size, industry and other corporate governance measures, this study finds a significant negative relationship between the proportion of women on boards and firm value along with an increase in company agency cost. This evidence provides insights for governments and academic institutions in their efforts to provide resources that will help enhance women's leadership skills. (shrink)

Thomas & Karmiloff- Smith ’ argument that the Residual Normality assumption is not valid for developmental disorders has implications for models of cognition in schizophrenia, a disorder that may involve a neurodevelopmental pathogenesis. A limiting factor for such theories is the lack of understanding about the nature of the cognitive system. Moreover, it is unclear how the proposal that modularization emerges from developmental processes would change that fundamental question.

Context: Seventeen years ago Francisco Varela introduced neurophenomenology. He proposed the integration of phenomenological approaches to first-person experience – in the tradition of Husserl, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty – with a neuro-dynamical, scientific approach to the study of the situated brain and body. Problem: It is time for a re-appraisal of this field. Has neurophenomenology already contributed to the sciences of the mind? If so, how? How should it best do so in future? Additionally, can neurophenomenology really help to resolve or (...) dissolve the “hard problem” of the relation between mind and body, as Varela claimed? Method: The papers in this special issue arose out of a conference organised by the Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society in Bristol, UK, in September 2012. We have invited a representative sample of the speakers at that conference to present their work here. Results: Various papers argue that the first-person methods of phenomenology are distinct from, and more robust than, the failed “introspectionist” methods of early modern psychology. The “elicitation interview” emerges as a successful and widely adopted method to have emerged from this field. Phenomenological techniques are already being successfully applied to neuroscientific problems. Various specific proposals for new techniques and applications are made. Implications: It is time to take neurophenomenology seriously. It has proven its worth, and it is ripe with the potential for further immediate, successful applications. Constructivist content: Varela’s key aim was to develop a non-dualising approach to the science of consciousness. The papers in this special issue look at the philosophical and practical details of successfully putting such an approach into practice. (shrink)

In debates about human cloning, a distinction is frequently drawn between therapeutic and reproductive uses of the technology. Naturally enough, this distinction influences the way that the law is framed. The general consensus is that therapeutic cloning is less morally problematic than reproductive cloning — one can hold this position while holding that both are morally unacceptable — and the law frequently leaves the way open for some cloning for the sake of research into new therapeutic techniques while banning it (...) for reproductive purposes. We claim that the position adopted by the law has things the wrong way around: if we accept a moral distinction between therapeutic and reproductive cloning, there are actually more reasons to be morally worried about therapeutic cloning than about reproductive cloning. If cloning is the proper object of legal scrutiny, then, we ought to make sure that we are scrutinising the right kind of clone. (shrink)