In the recent years, the conception of giftedness in children has garnered a lot of attention from educationists and psychologists in India. Children marked as gifted are said to display above average abilities as compared with their peers. In this paper, I attempt to show that despite multiple notions and theories of giftedness, displaying exceptional abilities in mathematics and science seem to be the dominant focus and trend. In support of this claim, I list out the various Gifted and Talented (...) Programmes of Giftedness in India. By exploring the various landscapes of excellence across diverse schooling environment, I draw from my doctoral research to highlight the ways in which giftedness is socially circulating and the factors that produce, and the processes that enable and sustain it. Through this study, I hope to contribute to the sociology of education in terms of understanding middle class / elite aspirations with regard to education of their children, elite parenting practices, conceptions of giftedness and how ‘cultural capital’ is transmitted from one generation to the next. (shrink)

This paper is framed around a close reading and discussion of the juridical category of "caste atrocity," a form of postcolonial legislation instituted by the Indian state in 1955 to protect Dalits, or ex-untouchables, from the threat of upper-caste violence. The paper addresses the problematic permeability between humanity and violence assumed by such protective laws, and argues that rather than protecting Dalits from harm, laws to prevent violence have instead succeeded in making caste violence visible, and a new site of (...) political activism: spectacular and everyday practices of violence confirm the partial or uncertain humanity of historically stigmatized subjects, but it is also the case that violence functions as a form of public communication that enables new formations of caste politics. The paper ends by suggesting that attention to the biopolitics of caste can help produce a global accounting of how the violated subject has come to be constituted as a "body of the state.". (shrink)

Study, with text of the Yogasūtra of Patañjali, text on Yoga philosophy.

Recent global efforts of the United States and England to withdraw from international institutions, along with recent challenges to human rights courts from Poland and Hungary, have been described as part of a growing global populist backlash against the liberal international order. Several scholars have even identified the recent threat of mass withdrawal of African states from the International Criminal Court (ICC) as part of this global populist backlash. Are the African challenges to the ICC part of a global populist (...) movement developing in Africa? More fundamentally, how are the African challenges to the ICC examples of populism, if at all? In this paper, I show that, while there is considerable overlap between the strategies used by particular African leaders to challenge the ICC and those typically considered populist, as well as a discernible thin populist ideology to sustain them, there is insufficient evidence of a larger anti-ICC populist movement in Africa. Although Africa is not as united against the ICC as the populist narrative suggests, the recent challenges to the Court from Africa pose a significant challenge to the Court, as the institution is still in the early stages of building its legitimacy. (shrink)

In this article, I contribute to the debate between two philosophical traditions—the Kantian and the Aristotelian—on the requirements of criminal responsibility and the grounds for excuse by taking this debate to a new context: international criminal law. After laying out broadly Kantian and Aristotelian conceptions of criminal responsibility, I defend a quasi-Aristotelian conception, which affords a central role to moral development, and especially to the development of moral perception, for international criminal law. I show than an implication of this view (...) is that persons who are substantially and non-culpably limited in their capacity for ordinary moral perception warrant an excuse for engaging in unlawful conduct. I identify a particular set of conditions that trigger this excuse, and then I systematically examine it as applied to the controversial case of former-child-soldier-turned leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Dominic Ongwen, who is currently at trial at the International Criminal Court. (shrink)

This paper examines whether American parents legally violate their children’s privacy rights when they share embarrassing images of their children on social media without their children’s consent. My inquiry is motivated by recent reports that French authorities have warned French parents that they could face fines and imprisonment for such conduct, if their children sue them once their children turn 18. Where French privacy law is grounded in respect for dignity, thereby explaining the French concerns for parental “over-sharing,” I show (...) that there are three major legal roadblocks for such a case to succeed in US law. First, US privacy tort law largely only protects a person’s image where the person has a commercial interest in his or her image. Secondly, privacy tort laws are subject to constitutional constraints respecting the freedom of speech and press. Third, American courts are reluctant to erode parental authority, except in cases where extraordinary threats to children’s welfare exist. I argue that while existing privacy law in the US is inadequate to offer children legal remedy if their parents share their embarrassing images of them without their consent, the dignity-based concerns of the French should not be neglected. I consider a recent proposal to protect children’s privacy by extending to them the “right to be forgotten” online, but I identify problems in this proposal, and argue it is not a panacea to the over-sharing problem. I conclude by emphasizing our shared social responsibilities to protect children by teaching them about the importance of respecting one another’s privacy and dignity in the online context, and by setting examples as responsible users of internet technologies. (shrink)

This paper critically examines different formulations of the view that the crime of using child soldiers is less serious than other international crimes. The first formulation presents a sociological argument toward this conclusion and the second a deontological argument. After arguing that the second formulation is stronger, because it is grounded in a coherent ethical framework, I then construct a deontological argument to counter it, which construes the wrong of child soldiering as an attack on the developing child's right to (...) dignity, where dignity is understood through a Kantian lens as a person's moral agency. (shrink)

The study examines the attitudes among physicians regarding acceptance of gifts, sponsorships, and drug samples in response to marketing efforts of pharmaceutical companies in India. The research also attempts to study physicians’ perceptions of the Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines on the code of conduct for pharmaceutical marketing practices and the influence of these guidelines on physicians’ actions. A structured questionnaire was developed for collecting primary data regarding exposure of physicians to promotional tools and physicians’ attitudes and practices with (...) regard to various professional ethical issues. One thousand physicians from private and government hospitals located in a metropolitan area were approached personally or through email for getting the questionnaire filled. A total of 189 completed and usable questionnaires could be obtained which is a response rate of approximately 20 %. Respondents in the study indicate being offered samples, sponsorship, and gifts by pharmaceutical companies with a frequency of at least once a month. Thus, many pharmaceutical firms are not following the code of conduct issued by the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Govt. of India. Further, though almost all physicians report being aware of the guidelines issued by the MCI, yet as many as 69 % of the sample admitted to be accepting gifts and sponsorships offered by the pharmaceutical firms. Educational programs were found to be influencing physician prescription behavior to a greater extent when compared with gifts. Frequency of offers made for gifts and sponsorships were found to be dependent upon physicians’ practice (number of prescriptions written) and the type of hospital they are associated with (private or government). The study focuses on sensitive yet critical ethical issues related to the promotional practices of pharmaceutical firms in India and physicians’ responses with regard to these promotional practices in the context of the guidelines of the Medical Council of India and the Department of Pharmaceuticals. (shrink)

Platão, em seus diálogos de juventude, apresenta Sócrates recorrendo a uma prática de perguntas e respostas direcionada aos seus interlocutores que visa o teste das pretensões de conhecimento e de sabedoria dos membros da pólis. Essa prática é a refutação socrática, frequentemente associada ao termo grego élenkhos e seus cognatos. Embora se utilize dessa prática de forma frequente, nenhum diálogo a trata como elemento central. Entretanto, podemos encontrar comentários de Platão ao longo de sua obra que nos remetem essa reflexão (...) de cunho mais metodológico. Por conta disso, comentamos reflexões que Platão apresenta em um sentido metadialético acerca do élenkhos e refletimos sobre a refutação socrática a partir desses comentários. Palavras-chave: refutação socrática; élenkhos; Platão. (shrink)

The main aim of this paper is to articulate Politics of Development, constituted from the work of the Brazilian philosophers Álvaro Vieira Pinto and Roland Corbisier, with Politics of Liberation, as proposed by the Argentinean philosopher Enrique Dussel. The first step is the recompilation of the political theory related to Politics of Development, present in the work of the Brazilians, arguing favourably on the possibility of the conception of a Politics of Development as a branch of Philosophy of Development as (...) an autonomous philosophical discipline. Our main thesis is that Politics of Development has as one of its essential notes the nationalism with a liberating nature. Lastly, this subdiscipline is historically and geoepistemically situated in light of Politics of Liberation. As the concluding remarks of the paper, we highlight the new lines of research open by this investigation and the implications of the conception of this philosophical discipline as autonomous to the isebian studies. (shrink)

In a recent opinion paper, it was argued that individuals with multiple retractions or a record of academic misconduct should not serve as editors, including as editors-in-chief, on the editorial boards of scholarly or academic journals. As a first step towards appreciating how such a policy could be applied in practice, the presence of 30 individuals listed on the Retraction Watch Leaderboard on editorial boards was screened. Six cases are highlighted to gain an appreciation of the potential reputational risks that (...) journals and publishers might incur by including individuals with a tainted academic record on editorial boards. Given the reputational, legal and other risks associated with this type of assessment and decision, more formal positioning and guidance are needed by global ethics policy-related bodies such as COPE, the ICMJE, and the CSE, even more so in journals that claim to follow these organizations’ ethical guidelines. (shrink)

The main objective of the article is to understand the notion of power in Foucault as an action on action in a relationship of forces. In principle, the power of sovereignty and biopower in classical times are investigated. Where it is perceived that the former has negative and repressive connotations, while this one has positive and productive connotations of facts, happenings. Then, an analysis of Foucault's power is analyzed, where it is possible to verify that there is no construction of (...) a Theory of Power in Foucault, but only an ascending analysis of power, thus departing from specificity for general aspects. Finally, we will analyze the power relationship, seen as an action over action, in this action-reaction movement, there is its need, its becoming, its truth, which is the exercise of power, functioning. Thus, from the molecular to the complex composition, from the invisible to the visible, from the body to the population, power is understood, that is, power relations in the Foucaultian web. (shrink)

The fascination with the process inherent to understanding has always been something that has disturbed Philosophy with its question: what makes understanding possible? On the contrary, little attention has been paid to the use we make of this term. This took it out of its context and investigated it as related to a mental process, situated in the subject. This approach generated some questions, among them: if understanding and the processes involved in it take place in the mind, how can (...) one have access to them? How do you know what’s on the other’s mind? This text intends to present the role played, both by the verb meinen (to mean), in its disconnection with mental processes, in terms of its grammar, and by the expression lebensform (form of life), in Philosophical Investigations, as a condition in which, both the meinen has its most authentic use, as well as the background that makes it possible to understand the Investigations as a whole. (shrink)

Bottom of the Pyramid organizations are the ones that develop a set of capabilities that contribute to create short- and long-term sustainability values inside and outside the boundaries of BoP ecosystems. Capabilities have an important role in BoP organizations’ strategies that aim to solve BoP issues. Notwithstanding its developments, BoP research still lacks theoretical contributions for the analysis of organizations. We suggest special attention to the need of advancing knowledge on capabilities of BoP organizations because this field is scattered and (...) fragmented, misinterpreted, and still underdeveloped in the literature. We oriented our research formulating and seeking answers to our main question on what are the capabilities needed to enable organizations to create sustainability values in BoP ecosystems? We conducted an integrative review of BoP research for the period from 1998 to 2019, and we found 22 key capabilities of BoP organizations. We organized the capabilities into four major categories including BoP Responsible Consumption, BoP Responsible Business Model, BoP Responsible Management, and BoP Responsible Innovation. We advanced propositions and discussions regarding the capabilities and major categories’ popularity, interdependence and combination, short- and long-term temporal functions, sustainability roles, and effectiveness to address BoP issues. Our article organizes the field of capabilities of BoP organizations; advances contributions and implications for management, organizations, and policymaking; and opens fruitful avenues for future research. (shrink)

The purpose of the present paper is to consider the traditional interpretive problems of quantum mechanics from the viewpoint of a modal ontology of properties. In particular, we will try to delineate a quantum ontology that (i) is modal, because describes the structure of the realm of possibility, and (ii) lacks the ontological category of individual. The final goal is to supply an adequate account of quantum non-individuality on the basis of this ontology.

Desde o ano de 1643, Descartes (1596-1650) e a princesa Elizabeth (1618-1680) já trocavam cartas a respeito da geometria, da metafísica e até da física cartesiana. Todavia, no ano de 1645, por conta de um grave estado melancólico da princesa, houve uma intensa correspondência entre ambos. À princípio, o debate se mantinha em torno das condições especificas da princesa. O tema central girava em torno de questões fisiológicas e morais (ou psicofisiológicas). À medida, porém, em que a troca de correspondência (...) se intensificava, o debate ia tornando-se cada vez mais teórico, passando pela discussão da Vida Beata, de Sêneca, até forçar Descartes a apresentar os primeiros esboços de sua própria concepção moral. Dessa troca de correspondência, escolhemos duas cartas de setembro de 1645: uma do filósofo a Elizabeth (carta CDIII) e outra da princesa a Descartes carta (CDVI). (shrink)

Busca-se neste artigo problematizar a manifestação da colonialidade nas práticas pedagógicas de uma instituição de educação infantil situada em contexto periférico a partir da percepção de professoras e famílias. A argumentação e análise teórica adotada partem dos estudos da infância e teoria decolonial/contracolonial. Serão analisadas as conversas estabelecidas com adultos participantes da pesquisa, sendo quatro entrevistas realizadas com professoras e mães de crianças de uma instituição de educação infantil de contexto periférico e negro, localizada no município de Betim – MG. (...) A partir dos sujeitos da pesquisa são apresentadas denúncias que configuram o que chamamos de colonialidade da educação infantil. A alimentação das crianças foi destacada, pelas professoras e mães, como um dos momentos da rotina pedagógica que gerava grande incômodo devido a práticas de violência com as crianças. Esta violência compõe o que se denomina como adultocentrismo, que existe para posicionar as crianças às margens do projeto civilizatório ocidental, sendo que nestes termos o adultocentrismo pode ser também compreendido como a peste branca produzida pela matriz eurocêntrica e colonial. Atuar contra a colonialidade e contra o adultocentrismo é defender uma experiência concreta e histórica para a educação infantil e não apenas teórica. Cada vez mais é preciso avançar na formação das professoras de forma conscientizadora quanto a emergência da contracolonização da educação infantil em articulação com o projeto de sociedade emancipatória para todos e todas. (shrink)

We cannot simply observe that Emile Durkheim, Claude Lévi-Strauss, and Pierre Bourdieu all received philosophical training and subsequently asserted, in surprisingly similar terms, that escaping from philosophy or breaking away from philosophical modes of thought was a necessary condition for any research in the human and social sciences, without considering whether there might be a direct relationship between the sociological ethos and a particular attitude towards philosophy. The "rupture" with philosophyis never complete: the sociologists' conception of sociology is, on the (...) contrary, heavily influenced by the negative image they have of philosophy, which they always invoke as something to be avoided or a specter that must be exorcised. The sociological perception of philosophy thus constitutes a system of oppositions, a set of likes and dislikes deeply ingrained in the minds of practitioners in the human and social sciences, and which, so to speak, form the very foundation of the discipline and its definition of its identity. By reconstructing it, this article proposes a sociological analysis of the genesis, structure, and function of the sociological unconscious. (shrink)

O artigo em questão se detém nas implicações epistemológicas da revolução copernicana de Immanuel Kant, cuja perspectiva, emergindo das fronteiras que inter-relacionam o racionalismo de Leibniz, o empirismo de Hume e a ciência positiva físico-matemática de Newton, instaura o horizonte do idealismo transcendental, estabelecendo a correlação fundamental envolvendo o sujeito e o objeto do conhecimento.

This paper explores that the topic of ethics dumping, its causes and potential remedies. In ED, the weaknesses or gaps in ethics policies and systems of lower income countries are intentionally exploited for intellectual or financial gains through research and publishing by higher income countries with a more stringent or complex ethical infrastructure in which such research and publishing practices would not be permitted. Several examples are provided. Possible ED needs to be evaluated before research takes place, and detected prior (...) to publication as an academic paper, because it might lead to a collaborative effort between a wealthier country with restrictive ethical policies and a less wealthy country with more permissive policies. Consequently, if that collaboration ultimately results in an academic paper, there are ethical ramifications of ED to scholarly communication. Institutional review board approval is central to avoid ED-based collaborations. Blind trust and goodwill alone cannot eliminate the exploitation of indigenous or “vulnerable” populations’ intellect and resources. Combining community-based participatory research using clear codes of research conduct and a simple but robust verification system in academic publishing may reduce the risks of ED-based research from being published. (shrink)

Detendo-se na investigação dos dois grandes modelos que caracterizam o pensamento político, a saber, o modelo clássico e o modelo jusnaturalista, o artigo em questão, distinguindo no âmbito daquele as teorias idealistas e realistas, empreende uma abordagem que nas fronteiras deste último sublinha desde a questão que envolve Como nasceu o Estado?, proposta pela perspectiva historicista, que traz como fundamento o homem como animal político, até a leitura racionalista, que acena com o problema Por que existe o Estado?, identificando o (...) homem como um ser naturalmente antissocial, salientando que se o bem comum determina a visão platônico-aristotélica, a leitura hobbesiana instaura uma lógica que emerge através do contrato social e assinala a tendência natural da autopreservação como fundamento da ação humana, consistindo, em suma, na transição da ordem mecânica da matéria à ordem final da vontade. (shrink)

Le recueil d'études Contempler l'infini invite le lecteur à étudier la fonction de l'acte contemplatif dans son rapport à l'espace et au temps, en s'interrogeant notamment sur la valeur et la portée épistémiques de cet acte (d'un point de vue mathématique, philosophique, phénoménologique, esthétique, artistique, linguistique et poétique) lorsqu'il se détermine en relation à une réalité représentée comme "infinie" (Dieu, âme, cosmos, etc.). Ce livre est conçu dans un contexte éminemment interdisciplinaire, l'objectif étant de comprendre comment cette articulation subtile des (...) deux concepts peut être abordée selon des méthodologies et des lexiques très différents mais bien souvent complémentaires sur le plan épistémologique. Le recueil regroupe les études et les réflexions des chercheurs français et hongrois de différentes spécialités (mathématiques, philosophie, esthétique. phénoménologie, théologie, linguistique et littérature). (shrink)

As part of a continuous process to explore the factors that might weaken or corrupt traditional peer review, in this paper, we query the ethics, fairness and validity of the request, by editors, of authors to suggest peer reviewers during the submission process. One of the reasons for the current crisis in science pertains to a loss in trust as a result of a flawed peer review which is by nature biased unless it is open peer review. As we indicate, (...) the fact that some editors and journals rely on authors’ suggestions in terms of who should peer review their paper already instills a potential way to abuse the trust of the submission and publishing system. An author-suggested peer reviewer choice might also tempt authors to seek reviewers who might be more receptive or sympathetic to the authors’ message or results, and thus favor the outcome of that paper. Authors should thus not be placed in such a potentially ethically compromising situation, especially as a mandatory condition for submission. However, the fact that they do not have an opt-out choice during the submission process—especially when using an online submission system that makes such a suggestion compulsory—may constitute a violation of authors’ rights. (shrink)

Da Costa and French explore the consequences of adopting a 'pragmatic' notion of truth in the philosophy of science. Their framework sheds new light on issues to do with belief, theory acceptance, and the realism-antirealism debate, as well as the nature of scientific models and their heuristic development.

Objectives Older adults are considered one of the most vulnerable groups to COVID-19. However, previous studies on emotion and aging have found that older adults report better well-being than younger adults in global survey and daily report. To better understand older adults’ well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak, we examined age differences in daily affective experiences in this study. Method Two hundred and thirty-one participants from mainland China aged 18 to 85 were recruited to participate in the 14-day daily diary study, (...) after a pretest. Their trait affect and demographic information were measured in the pretest. Their daily affect and stress levels were measured in the daily assessments. Results We found that older adults reported lower perceived stress related to COVID-19 in daily life, compared to younger adults. The negative relationship between daily perceived stress and high arousal positive affect and the positive relationship between daily perceived stress and high arousal negative affect was weaker in older than younger adults. Discussion These results provide initial evidence of daily affective well-being across different age groups in adulthood during the COVID-19 outbreak. Such information is important for developing interventions to promote better well-being during the COVID-19 outbreak. (shrink)

Retractions of COVID-19 literature in both preprints and the peer-reviewed literature serve as a reminder that there are still challenging issues underlying the integrity of the biomedical literature. The risks to academia become larger when such retractions take place in high-ranking biomedical journals. In some cases, retractions result from unreliable or nonexistent data, an issue that could easily be avoided by having open data policies, but there have also been retractions due to oversight in peer review and editorial verification. As (...) COVID-19 continues to affect academics and societies around the world, failures in peer review might also constitute a public health risk. The effectiveness by which COVID-19 literature is corrected, including through retractions, depends on the stringency of measures in place to detect errors and to correct erroneous literature. It also relies on the stringent implementation of open data policies. (shrink)