Fractal structure is a ubiquitous property found in nature and biology, and has been observed in processes at different levels of organization, including rhythmic behavior and musical structure. A temporal process is characterized as fractal when serial long-term correlations and statistical self-similarity (scaling) are present. Previous studies of sensorimotor synchronization using isochronous (non-fractal) stimuli show that participants' errors exhibit persistent structure (positive long-term correlations), while their inter-tap intervals (ITIs) exhibit anti-persistent structure (negative long-term correlations). Auditory-motor synchronization has not been investigated (...) with anti-persistent stimuli. In the current study, we systematically investigated whether the fractal structure of auditory rhythms was reflected in the responses of participants who were asked to coordinate their taps with each event. We asked musicians and non-musicians to tap with 12 different rhythms that ranged from anti-persistent to persistent. The scaling exponents of the ITIs were strongly correlated with the scaling exponents of the stimuli, showing that the long-term structure of the participants' taps scaled with the long-term structure of the stimuli. Surprisingly, the performance of the musicians was not significantly better than that of the non-musicians. Our results imply that humans are able to readily adapt (rather than simply react) to the overall statistical structure of temporally fluctuating stimuli, regardless of musical skill. (shrink)

Due to growing consumer demand for mission-driven businesses, new corporate forms have emerged over the past decade in the United States. The Benefit Corporation is the fastest-growing of these new forms. Benefit Corporations are for-profit, but allow the firm to declare a “social purpose/benefit” in its articles of incorporation and permit the firm to pursue the benefit in tandem with increasing shareholder value. This paper first attempts to evaluate how effectively states have implemented this legislation. This paper extrapolates potential problems (...) in the irregularities of visibility and record-keeping across the various states through the analysis of data accessibility and legislative differences. Irregularities in the public rollout of this legislation affect the transparency of Benefit Corporations and, as a result, the ability for stakeholders to hold the firm accountable. Complicating these issues is the fact that Benefit Corporation advocacy is largely centralized in a few third party organizations. This paper examines some of the downfalls of such conflated public/private involvement in implementing successful innovative business structures. (shrink)

The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 11, Issue 8, Page 2-5, August 2011.

Les études modernes sur les jeux de hasard et d’argent dans le monde romain se concentrent principalement sur les joueurs masculins de l’élite, mais les sources écrites et iconographiques fournissent de nombreuses preuves de la présence de joueuses de tous horizons. Cette contribution rassemble les témoignages textuels et iconographiques qui, jusqu’à présent, ont été largement négligés quant aux informations qu’ils peuvent fournir sur les femmes et le jeu dans l’Antiquité romaine. Elle explore la relation entre le jeu et le féminin, (...) des déesses aux grands-mères, et met en lumière les implications sociales du jeu et des paris pour les joueuses. Le jeu féminin était très répandu et pouvait prendre des formes différentes dans des contextes variés. En analysant ces textes ensemble pour la première fois, nous pouvons saisir de manière plus riche et nuancée l’importance du jeu au féminin à Rome en révisant les modèles existants trop dépendants de quelques textes célèbres. (shrink)

Robert S. Summers is a distinguished legal theorist whose work has had significant influence in Europe as well as the United States. The study of form and substance in law, the theme of this collection, marks many of his most distinctive contributions to law and legal philosophy over four decades.

Research suggests that the explicit reasoning we offer to ourselves and to others is often rationalization, that we act instead on instincts, inclinations, stereotypes, emotions, neurobiology, habits, reactions, evolutionary pressures, unexamined principles, or justifications other than the ones we think we’re acting on, then we tell a post hoc story to justify our actions. I consider two benefits of rationalization, once we realize that rationalization is sincere. It allows us to work out, under practical pressure of rational consistency, which are (...) good reasons to act on. Rationalization also prompts us to establish meaningful patterns out of merely permissible options. (shrink)

Various theorists contend that we may live in a computer simulation. David Chalmers in turn argues that the simulation hypothesis is a metaphysical hypothesis about the nature of our reality, rather than a sceptical scenario. We use recent work on consciousness to motivate new doubts about both sets of arguments. First, we argue that if either panpsychism or panqualityism is true, then the only way to live in a simulation may be as brains-in-vats, in which case it is unlikely that (...) we live in a simulation. We then argue that if panpsychism or panqualityism is true, then viable simulation hypotheses are substantially sceptical scenarios. We conclude that the nature of consciousness has wide-ranging implications for simulation arguments. (shrink)

Bacterial plasmids are ubiquitous ‘minichromosomes’ that have major importance in clinical microbiology, as agents of pathogenicity and as carriers of antibiotic resistance, and in molecular genetics, through their role as vectors in gene manipulation. Plasmids carry a wide range of dispensable, transiently useful and often bizarre functions.1 Naturally occurring plasmids, in addition to modifying the host cell phenotype, carry genes involved in the control of their own vegetative replication, plasmid copy number2 and stable inheritance. They may also carry determinants for (...) the conjugal transfer of DNA between bacteria.3 Whereas low‐copy‐number plasmids must be partitioned by some active process during cell division, the evidence suggests that multicopy plasmids are distributed randomly between daughter cells. Two independent determinants are necessary for the stable inheritance of multicopy plasmids, and both of these appear to act by maximizing the number of independent plasmid molecules. (shrink)

The question ‘ What is addiction?’ seems to ask for a clinical or biological answer. The research on addiction has progressed much faster in biology and neuroscience than our philosophical understanding of that research.1 Therefore, it can be tempting to look to the relevant psychology or neuroscience to answer our philosophical questions, which ends up treating addiction entirely as a psychological or neurological matter. However, many of our questions about addiction are not fundamentally biological or neurological questions. Here, I suggest (...) that an answer to one question about addiction, the question of what addiction is, turns on the decidedly more philosophical. (shrink)

Notes on Criticism in Legal Philosophy ROBERT S. SUMMERS I. INTRODUCTION Legal philosophers criticize and evaluate as well as originate and expound. ...

Agricultural-technology (ag-tech) and agroecology both promise a better farming future. Ag-tech seeks to improve the food system through the development of high-tech tools such as sensors, digital platforms, and robotic harvesters, with many ag-tech start-ups promising to deliver increased agricultural productivity while also enhancing food system sustainability. Agroecology incorporates diverse cropping systems, low external resource inputs, indigenous and farmer knowledge, and is increasingly associated with political calls for a more just food system. Recently, demand has grown for the potentially groundbreaking (...) benefits of their convergence, with the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) attempting just such a union. Building on its combined expertise in engineering and agroecology, as well as a longstanding reputation as a socially progressive institution, university administrators believe that UCSC could produce a unique, socially just form of ag-tech designed for small, low-resource farmers—a rare contribution given ag-tech’s tendency to cater primarily to large-scale agribusiness. This paper examines the complexities of uniting agroecology and ag-tech through interviews with agroecologists, engineers, and social scientists involved in UCSC’s ag-tech initiative. Within the setting of a historically radical yet neoliberalizing university, I find that significant epistemic and structural barriers exist for agroecology and ag-tech to come together on an even playing field. This case study contributes to broader discussions of the future of food and farming by focusing on the contours and challenges of a widely called-for agricultural collaboration, highlighting its difficulty but also areas of possibility in a particularly rich, contested context. (shrink)

The physical and relational structure of the biologic continuum (both internal and external to the organism) creates the information signature that is the basis for the origination of meaning in the living system. A meaning metric can be grounded in the significance of that information to the stability of the system during the process of adaptive reconciliation of divergences from the steady state condition. From this perspective, an information-theoretic formulation of the process for translating incident information into adaptive action is (...) proposed that can be practically used in defining and quantifying the meaning of that information for the living system. (shrink)

'ith the rise of naturalism in the art of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance there developed an extensive and diverse literature about art which helped to explain, justify, and shape its new aims. In this book, David Summers provides an original investigation of the philosophical and psychological notions invoked in this new theory and criticism. From a thorough examination of the sources, he shows how the medieval language of mental discourse derived from an understanding of classical thought. 'Some (...) of the most striking observations in this impressive book involve stepping outside the history of ideas to ground these theories in a more general social history.' -- British Journal of Aesthetics 'This brilliant, stimulating study in the history of ideas should become indispensible for renaissance art historians, and for philosophers interested in the history of the philosophy of mind and in what might be called thepre-history' of aesthetics.' -- ChoiceWith the rise of naturalism in the art of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance there developed an extensive and diverse literature about art which helped to explain. (shrink)

Can one explain both the resilience of the status quo and the possibility for resistance from a subordinate position? This paper aims to resolve these seemingly incompatible perspectives. By extending Randall Collins's interaction ritual theory, and synthesizing it with Norbert Wiley's model of the self, this paper suggests how the emotional dynamics between people and within the self can explain social inertia as well as the possibility for resistance and change. Diverging from literature on the sociology of emotions that has (...) been concerned with individual emotional processes, this paper considers the collective level in order to explore how movement action is motivated. The emotional dynamics of subordinate positioning that limit women's options in face-to-face interactions are examined, as are the social processes of developing feminist consciousness and a willingness to participate in resistance work. Pointing toward empirical applications, I conclude by suggesting conditions where resistance is likely. (shrink)

Research suggests that the explicit reasoning we offer to ourselves and to others is often rationalization, that we act instead on instincts, inclinations, stereotypes, emotions, neurobiology, habits, reactions, evolutionary pressures, unexamined principles, or justifications other than the ones we think we’re acting on, then we tell a post hoc story to justify our actions. This is troubling for views of moral progress according to which moral progress proceeds from our engagement with our own and others’ reasons. I consider an account (...) of rationalization, based on Robert Audi’s, to make clear that rationalization, unlike simple lying, can be sincere. Because it can be sincere, and because we also have a desire to be consistent with ourselves, I argue that rationalization sets us up for becoming better people over time, and that a similar case can be made to explain how moral progress among groups of people can proceed via rationalization. (shrink)

Drawing on a ritual approach to microsociology, I explain how and why aesthetic and moral practices inform each other and evolve as they do. I continue to develop a theory of aesthetic engagement, specifying how it generates the emotional sensibilities that inform moral practices. Examining aesthetic engagement and emotional sensibilities focuses our theoretical attention on our capacity to find our moral bearings, even in unfamiliar or challenging conditions. To develop this perspective, I draw on Bargheer’s Moral Entanglements and a volume (...) on bird watching’s therapeutic value, Bird Therapy. These two works provide insight into the micro-emotional dynamics through which nature-based practices generate aesthetic power. I conclude by discussing the implications of aesthetic and moral practices for theorizing cognition and culture. In particular, I argue that an aesthetic practice approach to perceiving and knowing about the world does not fit neatly into the dual processing frameworks currently popular in Cultural Sociology. (shrink)

It is said that the major significant role is played by women in the development of society. However they suffer from numerous problems in our society. To solve these problems, there is no systematic strategy, by which the woman's problems can be solved. Some acts of violence against women or laws have been passed but unfortunately are not emphasized on implementing these rules while numerous welfare organizations are playing an important role in our society but despite this, the act of (...) violence is increasing day by day because of which deterioration is created in society. Violence in any type causes serious and negative input on women's lives. Women's life does not only socially disturb and dissatisfy but also mental stress become a cause of various mental illnesses. Furthermore many women are facing persecution in a society. They tolerate worse circumstances due to future of their offspring as they are economically dependent on husband, therefore, they have to compromise their difficulties and troubles. Many women isolate the conjugal life due to violence by the husband or by the in-laws. Even then, these women are the victims of violence but they tolerate different complications and troubles in social life and they also bear the financial problems. Children are equally disturbed and in order to bring a change in their life mother has to financially struggle for the progeny. A mother must also be educated in these circumstances, as things can get worse if she’s not educated and the result is that she is dependent on others. (shrink)

Why characterize addiction at all? George Graham reasonably points out that a good understanding of addiction should exchange “surface resemblances…[for] real facts about explanatory forces”. Understanding causes and cures of addiction will indeed help addicts’ lives more than the best characterization could. But we should beware the false dichotomy. Determining “real facts about explanatory forces” is valuable, and so is characterizing “surface resemblances.”Philosophers’ déformation professionnelle often inclines us to look for essential features of natural phenomena, leading to broad definitions that (...) capture disparate phenomena. But, instead of characterizing addiction in general, why not. (shrink)

The essays in this book treat important aspects of most of the major themes in contemporary philosophy of law and legal theory. All reveal the distinctive authenticity of the author's work, for he is not only a reputable legal theorist but an internationally known scholar of private law, and for many years chair of the Bielefelder Kreis, an international group of legal theorists who have jointly authored major works comparing methodologies of statutory interpretation and precedent.

En la medida en que se hace cada vez más evidente que la generalización de la lectura y la escritura en las sociedades de la información, la construcción mediática de identidades y la acción automática de los algoritmos de búsqueda como elementos restrictivos de la imagen del mundo constituyen elementos que afectan al desarrollo moral de individuos y comunidades, entendemos que las concepciones rectoras tanto de las acciones como de la comprensión que de sí tienen los individuos remiten a un (...) pensamiento acerca del sujeto, del lenguaje y del ser que difieren con respecto al funcionamiento real de nuestra cultura, aunque parecen resultar indispensables como señuelos que lo hacen posible. El propósito de este texto es apuntar algunas líneas de lectura que expliciten cómo el asunto del cuidado de sí dispone un conjunto de prácticas orientadas a la construcción de la individualidad que suponen una concepción del signo y de la enunciación que conducen a una alternativa con respecto al modo habitual en el que la subjetividad es comprendida en nuestra época. (shrink)