ZusammenfassungIn diesem Aufsatz vertrete ich die These, dass Poppers Konversion zum naiven Realismus seine eigene Theorie der Falsifikation aushöhlt. Tarskis Definition der Wahrheit ist eine semantische; wir dürfen sie nicht so interpretieren, als ob sie uns ein erkenntnistheoretisches Kriterium fur die Wahrheit lieferte. Poppers Wahrheitsbegriff hat keine semantische Funktion und bietet uns kein brauchbares Kriterium für die Beurteilung von Theorien. Seine Einführung markiert meines Erachtens nur einen Rückzug in die Metaphysik.SummaryIn this paper I have tried to show that Popper's conversion (...) to naive realism undermines his own idea of falsification. Tarski's definition of truth is a semantical notion and therefore should not be interpreted as having something to do with the epistemological question regarding the criteria of truth. Since Poppers notion of truth has no semantical function and does not provide us with a criterion for judging the truth of theories, I think it fosters a retreat into metaphysics.RésuméJ'ai essayé de montrer, dans cet article, que la conversion de Popper au réalisme naïf vide de sa substance sa propre théorie de la falsification. La définition tarskienne de la vérité est une définition sémantique; on ne peut pas ľinterpréter comme fournissant un critère épistémologique de vérité Le concept de vérité de Popper n'a pas de fonction sémantique et n'apporte pas de critère utilisable pour juger les théories. Son introduction ne représente, à mon avis, qu'une régression vers la métaphysique. (shrink)

SummaryInstead of telling us why one should or should not derive an ‘ought’ from an ‘is’, most philosophers try to see whether this can or cannot be done. Since there are no clearly stated rules of inference for the ordinary language, the is‐ought dichotomy is re‐examined within the context of the deontic logic. This paper shows that rules like ‐AB ÓOB enables us to adopt the theorems of the propositional logic normatively, because logical standards for exactness, truth, completeness, etc. are (...) all values and conventions accepted by the deontic logicians right from the beginning.RésuméLa plupart des philosophes reste attachée à une manière incorrecte de poser la question de la dichotomie entre ce qui est et ce qui devrait être. Au lieu de se demander, avec Hume, si nous avons de bonnes raisons ?on;autoriser ou ?on;interdire des raisonnements qui concluent de ľêtre au devoir être, des philosophes tels que Searle se demandent si de tels raisonnements sont possibles dans une langue naturelle. Comme, dans une telle langue, nous n'avons pas de règie univoque pour la déduction logique, j'examine la règie de la logique déontique AB OAOB selon la formalisation de Azizah al‐Hibri. Je montre que la règie ne viole pas du tout ľinterdiction de conclure ?on;énonces de faits à des énoncés normatifs. Car dans la logique déontique, les règies et les théorèmes de la logique des propositions sont utilisés dans un sens normatif.ZusammenfassungIn bezug auf die ‘Sein‐Sollen‐Dichotomie’ scheinen die meisten Philosophen bis jetzt auf einer falschen Fragestellung zu beharren. Anstatt wie Hume zu fragen, ob wir gute Gründe haben, Schlüsse von Sein und Sollen zuzulassen oder zu verbieten, versuchen Philosophen wie etwa Searle festzustellen, ob wir dies im Rahmen der natürlichen Sprache tun konnen. Da wir in der natürlichen Sprache keine eindeutige Regel für logische Schlüsse haben, wird die Regel der deontischen Logik nach der Formalisierung von Azizah al‐Hibri untersucht. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Regel keineswegs das Verbot, von 1st‐Sätzen auf Soll‐Sätze zu schliessen, verletzt. Denn in der deontischen Logik werden die Regeln und Theoreme der Satzlogik in einem norrnativen Sinn gebraucht. (shrink)

E. Machery, R. Mallon, S. Nichols and S. Stich, have argued that there is empirical evidence against Kripke’s claim that names are not descriptive. Their argument is based on an experiment that compares the intuitions about proper name use of a group of English speakers in Hong Kong with those of a group of non-Chinese American students. The results of the experiment suggest that in some cultures speakers use names descriptively. I argue that such a conclusion is incorrect, for the (...) experiment does not prove what it is purported to prove. (shrink)

Føllesdal (1966 and 1969) claims that modal distinctions collapse, that is that p and Necessarily p are equivalent, in any system of modal logic that incorporates a standard theory of definite descriptions, like the one proposed by Carnap in M&N. I argue that his argument fails.

According to Donnellan the characteristic mark of a referential use of a definite description is the fact that it can be used to pick out an individual that does not satisfy the attributes in the description. Friends and foes of the referential/attributive distinction have equally dismissed that point as obviously wrong or as a sign that Donnellan's distinction lacks semantic import. I will argue that, on a strict semantic conception of what it is for an expression to be a genuine (...) referential device, Donnellan is right: if a use of a definite description is referential, it must be possible for it to refer to an object independently of any attributes associated with the description, including those that constitute its conventional meaning. (shrink)

This study examines whether character strengths predict resilience (operationalized as stable or higher mental health and subjective well-being despite an adverse event) over a period of approximately one month during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Spain. Using a longitudinal design, participants (N = 348 adults) completed online measures of sociodemographic data, information regarding their situation in relation to the COVID-19, character strengths, general mental health, life satisfaction, positive affect and negative affect. All variables were measured at Time 1 and Time (...) 2, except for sociodemographic and most COVID-related information (Time 1 only). Time 1 data collection was conducted between March 21, 2020 and April 2, 2020, i.e., approximately the second week of lockdown in Spain. Time 2 data collection was conducted between April 24, 2020 and May 18, 2020, after the Spanish government announced ita intention to progressively release the lockdown. A principal component analysis of character strengths was conducted. Five character strength factors were extracted: fortitude, goodness, intellectual, interpersonal, and restraint. Factor structures at Times 1 and 2 were highly consistent. All character strength factors at Time 1 correlated positively with life satisfaction and positive affect, and negatively with negative affect and mental health at T2 (higher scores in the mental health measure indicate poorer mental health). Fortitude strengths showed the highest correlations. We conducted a series of regression analyses with strength factors at Time 1 as predictors, and mental health, life satisfaction, and positive and negative affect as dependent variables, controlling for their baseline levels. To test the directionality of the relationship between strengths and the dependent variables, all analyses were reversed. All character strength factors predicted an increase in mental health. They also predicted positive affect, with the exception of strengths of restraint. Fortitude, intellectual and interpersonal strengths predicted an increase in life satisfaction. Finally, fortitude strengths, interpersonal strengths, and strengths of restraint, predicted a decrease in negative affect. None of the reversed analyses yielded significant effects. Limitations, implications, and possible character strengths-based interventions aimed at promoting mental health in the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed. (shrink)

We defend the view that defines the rigidity of general terms as sameness of designated universal across possible worlds from the objection that such a characterization is incapable of distinguishing rigid from non-rigid readings of general terms and, thus, that it trivializes the notion of rigidity. We also argue that previous attempts to offer a solution to the trivialization problem do no succeed.

I argue that the debate on the division of labor between grammar and pragmatics, at least as it pertains to pragmatic free enrichment, needs to be better grounded empirically. Often, only a reduced set of facts from English is used to substantiate claims regarding pragmatic free enrichment. But considering a reduced set of facts from a single language can only afford limited (and, sometimes, wrong) results, because we can merely see whatever this one language chooses to express. Two cases studies (...) are presented: adjectival fragments, and implicit indefinite objects. A grammatical analysis is defended for them. (shrink)

This chapter contains sections titled: European Positivism Latin American Positivism Martí Rodó Vaz Ferreira Ingenieros References Further Reading.

The following Principle of Substitutivity holds for the former, but not for the latter sentence: (PS) The truth value of (the proposition expressed by) a sentence that contains an occurrence of t1 remains constant when t2 is substituted for t1, provided that t1 and t2 are codesignative singular terms. It is an undeniable fact that different sentences behave differently when it comes to which substitutions preserve their truth value. What is curious is that this fact has been presented by the (...) philosophical tradition as a puzzle. To be more precise, what is supposed to be puzzling is the breakdown of PS in some sentences. Meanwhile, it is assumed that everything is as it should be, that nothing needs to be explained when we observe that the substitution of 'the number of planets' for 'nine' in 'nine is greater than seven' guarantees the preservation of truth value, in spite of the fact that the subject matter of the former sentence and the subject matter of 'the number of planets is greater than seven' are radically different. The former sentence expresses a claim about numbers and their relationships, whereas the latter sentence makes an assertion about our solar system. (shrink)

Drawing on political, legal, national, post-national, as well as American and European perspectives, this collection of essays offers a diverse and balanced discussion of the current arguments concerning deliberative democracy. The essays consider the thr.

John Hawthorne and David Manley (The Reference Book, OUP 2012) endorse a unified treatment of the semantics of four kinds of expressions that can be said to have referential uses: specific indefinite descriptions, definite descriptions, demonstratives and proper names. The semantic theory the authors propose treats all these expressions as having a quantificational structure that achieves uniqueness of application via the presence of covert material contributing to the restriction of the domain of quantification. I argue that there are reasons to (...) postulate disunity; reasons to set apart a class of purely referential expressions that do not just apply uniquely to an object via overt or covert restrictors, but that refer to it. (shrink)

Editor's introduction to a section devoted to Ruth Barcan Marcus (1921-2012).

In this paper we introduce a game semantics for System P, one of the most studied axiomatic systems for non-monotonic reasoning, conditional logic and belief revision. We prove soundness and completeness of the game semantics with respect to the rules of System P, and show that an inference is valid with respect to the game semantics if and only if it is valid with respect to the standard order semantics of System P. Combining these two results leads to a new (...) completeness proof for System P with respect to its order semantics. Our approach allows us to construct for every inference either a concrete proof of the inference from the rules in System P or a countermodel in the order semantics. Our results rely on the notion of a witnessing set for an inference, whose existence is a concise, necessary and sufficient condition for validity of an inferences in System P. We also introduce an infinitary variant of System P and use the game semantics to show its completeness for the restricted class of well-founded orders. (shrink)

It took a very long time before I encountered the systematic study of religious processes and dynamics as a distinctive and expansive area of scholarship. Using an autobiographical account, I trace the development of my scholarship in the social scientific study of religion. I have now experienced a great diversity of approaches to the study of religion. Driven by insatiable curiosity and knowing that no one can capture religion comprehensively, I now am committed to stimulating imaginative, rigorous, and wide-ranging developments (...) in religious scholarship. We require new, inventive, and even incompatible approaches to our study of religion if we ever hope to try adequately grasping the richness of religion. (shrink)

We prove completeness of preferential conditional logic with respect to convexity over finite sets of points in the Euclidean plane. A conditional is defined to be true in a finite set of points if all extreme points of the set interpreting the antecedent satisfy the consequent. Equivalently, a conditional is true if the antecedent is contained in the convex hull of the points that satisfy both the antecedent and consequent. Our result is then that every consistent formula without nested conditionals (...) is satisfiable in a model based on a finite set of points in the plane. The proof relies on a result by Richter and Rogers showing that every finite abstract convex geometry can be represented by convex polygons in the plane. (shrink)

The starting premise of this paper is that business models can transform social reality—sometimes to an extreme. Then, building on the concept of “grand challenges,” we argue that such transformations can be either positive or negative in nature —even in the case of business models designed to improve value not only economically but environmentally and socially as well. To further our understanding of the negative aspects, we introduced two conceptual categories of business model: those for oppression or depletion and exclusionary (...) ones. We further argue that bringing the notion of grand challenges center-stage highlights four elements that can contribute to emerging research and inform practice on transformational business models. These elements are: participatory forms of architecture; multivocal inscriptions; scaffolding; and proximity. They are central components of what we name transformational business models. (shrink)

Few studies have examined the relationship between personality traits and social networking sites (SNSs) with a dominant concentration on the personality alterations under SNSs influence. The relationship between personality and privacy control was less focused and discussed. In order to figure out the internal mechanism of such link among youth SNSs users, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was extended by including Five-Factor Model of Personality to explore how personality traits interact with privacy control behavior on SNSs. The investigation using (...) the theoretical method mentioned led to several hypotheses which were later assessed by an online study conducted within randomly chosen college students (N = 201) from two randomly chosen universities in China. This sampling strategy was designed to mimic the situation of targeted research population in the most reasonable way. The results suggested neuroticism and openness predicted SNSs privacy. Neuroticism and openness predicted “networked privacy” was also found. Theoretical implications of these findings were addressed. (shrink)

This book debates the values and ideals of Confucian politics—harmony, virtue, freedom, justice, order—and what these ideals mean for Confucian political philosophy today. The authors deliberate these eminent topics in five debates centering on recent innovative and influential publications in the field. Challenging and building on those works, the dialogues consider the roles of benevolence, family determination, public reason, distributive justice, and social stability in Confucian political philosophy. In response, the authors defend their views and evaluate their critics in turn. (...) Taking up a broad range of crucial issues—autonomy, liberty, democracy, political legitimacy, human welfare—these author-meets-critic debates will appeal to scholars interested in political, comparative, and East Asian philosophy. Their interlaced themes weave a portrait of what is at stake in discussing Confucian values and theory. Most importantly, they engage and develop the state of the field of Confucian political philosophy today. (shrink)

Firms worldwide are increasingly required to disclose their carbon emissions due to the environmental damage associated with climate change. Because there has been no previous literature focusing on the determinants of corporate carbon disclosure integrating environmental legitimacy and green innovation, the present study attempted to develop an original framework to fill the research gap. This study explored the influence of environmental legitimacy on corporate carbon disclosure, and investigated the role of green innovation as a mediator. With the samples of Carbon (...) Disclosure Project in China from 2008 to 2012, the results demonstrate that environmental legitimacy significantly negatively influences the likelihood of corporate carbon disclosure, and that green process innovation mediates the relationship, while green product innovation has no significant mediating effect. It means that environmental legitimacy not only directly affects the likelihood of corporate carbon disclosure, but also indirectly affects it via green process innovation. Hence, companies must increase both informal and formal mechanisms, i.e., external environmental legitimacy and internal green process innovation, to engage in carbon information disclosure and ensure sustainability. (shrink)

In this paper I provide a decompositional analysis of three kinds of plural indefinites in two related languages, European Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. The three indefinites studied are bare plurals, the unos (Spanish)/uns (Portuguese) type, and the algunos (Spanish)/alguns (Portuguese) type. The paper concentrates on four properties: semantic plurality, positive polarity, partitivity, and event distribution. The logic underlying the analysis is that of compositionality, applied at the subword level: as items become bigger in form (with the addition of morphemes), they (...) also acquire more semantic properties. The paper proposes the “indefinite hierarchy", which establishes a set of components for languages to build their indefinites with, in a particular order. (shrink)

Significant research has been conducted on the influence of entrepreneurial intention on entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurship practice. Similarly, this study aims to explore how creativity plays a mediating role in the influence of personality traits on entrepreneurial intention. As many as 674 valid questionnaires were collected from college students in China, allowing the relationship between personality traits, creativity, and entrepreneurial intention to be analyzed in detail. The following results are found through a series of explorations. First, neuroticism in personality traits (...) has a significant negative impact on entrepreneurial intention, while conscientiousness, openness, and extraversion have a significant positive impact. Second, neuroticism has a significant negative impact on creativity, while conscientiousness, openness, and extraversion have a significant positive impact. Third, creativity has a significant positive impact on entrepreneurial intention, it has a partial mediating role between neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion, and entrepreneurial intention along with a complete mediating role between openness and entrepreneurial intention. The research results further provide a reference value for the improvement and optimization of entrepreneurial practice. (shrink)