L’article trace quelques évolutions de l’institution du « vœu » (neder) dans la littérature biblique et rabbinique (période de l’antiquité et l’antiquité tardive). Du point de vue du système politique patriarcal imaginé par les auteurs bibliques et rabbinique, cette institution est risquée : elle permet aussi à la femme de transformer sa parole en une loi, et mettre ainsi en question la domination masculine. Ce n’est donc pas un hasard si la plus grande partie et du discours biblique et rabbinique (...) sur le neder est consacrée aux femmes et à la question de savoir comment on peut maîtriser et manipuler leurs vœux. (shrink)

L’article trace quelques évolutions de l’institution du « vœu » (neder) dans la littérature biblique et rabbinique (période de l’antiquité et l’antiquité tardive). Du point de vue du système politique patriarcal imaginé par les auteurs bibliques et rabbinique, cette institution est risquée : elle permet aussi à la femme de transformer sa parole en une loi, et mettre ainsi en question la domination masculine. Ce n’est donc pas un hasard si la plus grande partie et du discours biblique et rabbinique (...) sur le neder est consacrée aux femmes et à la question de savoir comment on peut maîtriser et manipuler leurs vœux. (shrink)

Pourquoi Sextus Empiricus, au chapitre 34 du livre I des Esquisses Pyrrhoniennes, refuse-t-il d’identifier la méthode des médecins empiriques à la « voie sceptique » qu’il tente de définir au livre I du même ouvrage – ce qui le distingue en particulier de Galien, qui ne semble pas mettre en doute la nature sceptique de la médecine empirique? L’examen de cette question nous donnera l’occasion de faire le point sur les procédures logiques utilisées par ces mêmes médecins empiriques, en particulier (...) sur l’épilogisme, ainsi que sur les conceptions étiologiques de l’école empirique, que nous opposerons à ce que l’on peut connaître des principes méthodologiques et physiologiques de la médecine méthodiste. (shrink)

Montaigne’s writings on medicine and the body have always been seen as part of a larger project about knowing ourselves. Responding to medical developments that seemed to privilege the anatomical body over the mind or the emotions, Montaigne defended the humoral link between mind and body. His essays make use of word play, puns, and anecdotes based on his own experience and reports from antiquity to counter what he perceived to be an increasingly one-sided approach to medicine. The result is (...) a witty but nuanced argument for a more balanced outlook to what is now known as psychosomatic medicine. (shrink)

"J’étais morte, mais pas enterrée, et c’est la philosophie qui m’a ramenée à la vie. Comme une mère, elle m’a non seulement donné la vie en me donnant accès à ma vie intérieure par l’élargissement de ma conscience, mais elle m’a également appris à vivre, c’est-à-dire comment agir au mieux dans la vie quotidienne. Tout au long de ses réflexions et de son témoignage, l’auteure affirme haut et fort que la philosophie peut sauver des vies, car elle rend possibles la (...) conversion du regard et la prise en charge de sa propre liberté."--Résumé de l'éditeur. (shrink)

Dans cet ouvrage, Philippe Danino part d’un constat qui fut à l’origine de son questionnement : « Jamais, dans son œuvre, on ne voit Spinoza véritablement exposer ce qu’est la philosophie. Cette idée donne lieu, chez lui, à une réflexivité très rare, ne constituant quasiment jamais un objet visé pour lui-même. Aucune véritable définition, en particulier, n’en est livrée ou travaillée » (p. 9). Là où nous pourrions y lire une constante de la pensée spinoziste – il n’y a ainsi (...) pas plus de défin... (shrink)

Nous proposons dans cette contribution une lecture spinoziste de la recommandation de bonne pratique « Voir la personne derrière la pathologie ». Il nous a semblé intéressant, en effet, de nous poser la question suivante : lorsqu’on recommande de prendre soin de la personne qu’est le patient derrière l’organe malade, qu’est-ce que cela implique, d’un point de vue anthropologique et psychologique, pour la personne qu’est le soignant? Est-ce que cela ne risque pas d’être vécu comme une mise en danger personnelle, (...) pour celui qui est au contact de situations dramatiques au quotidien de sa pratique professionnelle? Ces questionnements nous invitent à suivre deux pistes réflexives. Premièrement, penser une nouvelle anthropologie éthique de la relation de soins, par-delà les grands principes désincarnés de la bioéthique. Deuxièmement, redonner une place au corps organique et affectif du soignant dans la relation de soins, ainsi qu’à ce que ce dernier sent de la situation au-delà ou aux côtés de l’imagerie et des analyses médicales. Ces pistes réflexives ont elles-mêmes donné lieu à des expérimentations pratiques : proposer aux soignants de faire l’expérience d’autres manières d’être affectés, et leur proposer de contribuer activement à une réflexion éthique participative sur leur pratique. Cela implique en retour de sortir de l’immédiateté des effets attendus, et d’inscrire l’éthique en santé dans une temporalité longue, dans un devenir sans cesse réalimenté. (shrink)

Au regard de l'analyse de discours, le déclin économique de la France n'existe pas. L'analyse des controverses médiatiques qui ont suivi la parution en 2003 de l'essai de Nicolas Baverez, La France qui tombe, montre en effet que ni l'histoire, ni la statistique, ni la comparaison géographique ne mènent à la conclusion définitive du déclin et qu'autour de celles-ci s'opposent « déclinophiles » et «déclinophobes». L'analyse de discours révèle la multiplicité des histoires ou des récits économiques autour du déclin, relativisant (...) ainsi l'apparente neutralité des discours sur le déclin économique de la France.In view of discourse analysis, the economic decline of France does not exist. The analysis of media controversies that followed the publication in 2003 of trying to Nicolas Baverez, France falls, shows that neither history nor the statistical or geographical comparisons lead to the conclusion of the final decline and that around them oppose "déclinophiles" and "déclinophobes". The discourse analysis reveals the multiple stories or stories about economic decline, thus relativizing the apparent neutrality of discourse on the economic decline of France. (shrink)

L'importance de l'analyse psychologique dans ce que l'on pourrait appeler, à la suite de George Briscoe Kerferd, « le mouvement sophistique », n'est pas en soi une découverte. De nombreuses études se sont en effet attachées à en souligner la portée, notamment dans ses rapports avec l'art rhétorique et son application pratique dans le cadre de la πόλις athénienne du Ve siècle où la parole — sous forme d'ἀγών, de débat contradictoire à l'assemblée ou au tribunal — prévalait sur tous (...) les autres instruments de pouvoir, violence et contrainte physique notamment. Dans un monde où « l’art politique, pour l'essentiel, maniement du langage », selon les mots de Jean-Pierre Vernant, analyser les mécanismes du logos, en connaître les règles, permettait de se rendre maître en persuasion, de posséder un instrument privilégié de victoire. Néanmoins, en marge de cet intérêt manifeste pour l'analyse du pouvoir du λόγος dans le corpus sophistique, on ne trouve, de manière assez paradoxale, qu'un nombre très limité de travaux s'attachant à questionner le sens, le statut et, in fine, la légitimité d'une « psychologie » au sens plein du terme. Et pourtant, la question se pose : peut-on parler d'une psychologie sophistique ou faut-il considérer que pour ces penseurs la ψυχή se donnait comme un état de fait dont il suffisait de connaître empiriquement le mécanisme? Y a-t-il quelque chose en-deçà de la psychagogie chez les sophistes? Dans cet article, nous tenterons de montrer qu’il est possible de voir en Alcidamas, disciple de Gorgias et auteur du Sur ceux qui composent des discours par écrit ou Sur les Sophistes, un éloge paradoxal, puisqu’écrit, de l’improvisation, un penseur de la ψυχή et non plus seulement de la potentialité psychagogique du λόγος. En effet, le développement d'une réflexion riche et complexe sur l’organisation logique et syntactique du discours d’une part, et sur l'âme et ses opérateurs d’autre part – réflexion qui conduit Alcidamas à réévaluer les modalités de relation entre l'orateur et son auditoire — permet de mettre en évidence une redéfinition (bien qu'en filigrane) de l'art rhétorique qui, ne pouvant plus dès lors reposer sur une revendication du pouvoir de la persuasion a maxima, devra accorder à la notion de vraisemblance une place centrale. (shrink)

Dans cet ouvrage, Philippe Danino part d’un constat qui fut à l’origine de son questionnement : « Jamais, dans son œuvre, on ne voit Spinoza véritablement exposer ce qu’est la philosophie. Cette idée donne lieu, chez lui, à une réflexivité très rare, ne constituant quasiment jamais un objet visé pour lui-même. Aucune véritable définition, en particulier, n’en est livrée ou travaillée ». Là où nous pourrions y lire une constante de la pensée spinoziste – il n’y a ainsi pas plus (...) de défin... (shrink)

Dans ses Quaestiones super Metaphysicam, Geoffroy d’Aspall s’interroge sur la possibilité d’une nomination propre des individus substantiels en l’absence de forme et d’intellection singulières. Il offre une réponse noétique, fondée sur l’idée d’une connaissance intellectuelle indirecte du singulier par retour sur les phantasmes. Sur le plan sémantique, il défend l’existence de noms propres aux individus, mais reconnaît qu’ils ne sont pas proprement des noms, car leur imposition se fait directement à l’individu, sans la médiation d’une forme signifiée, de sorte qu’il (...) y a identité de l’appelé et du signifié. (shrink)

L'empirisme transcendantal élaboré par Gilles Deleuze n'est pas le fruit du hasard : il résulte de lectures critiques et d'un véritable remaniement de concepts, notamment dans ses monographies des années cinquante et soixante. Or on lit généralement les œuvres de maturité de Deleuze sans trop s'attarder sur ces premiers écrits. De même, la question de la subjectivité dans son œuvre est souvent laissée au second plan, et l'on constate dans la littérature secondaire des opinions diamétralement opposées quant au statut du (...) sujet chez Deleuze. Le présent ouvrage reconstruit la notion deleuzienne de subjectivité à partir des premières monographies que le philosophe a consacrées à Hume, Kant, Nietzsche et Bergson. Il confronte les œuvres de ces auteurs aux monographies de Deleuze, et réarticule les concepts de la période de 'Différence et répétition' (singularités, habitudes, champ transcendantal, etc.) autour des questions sur la genèse et le statut de la subjectivité."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

Dans cet article, nous nous concentrons sur les réflexions qu’Antoine Arnauld et Pierre Nicole consacrent au concept de « pensées imperceptibles », en soulignant à quel point ces réflexions sont liées à leur doctrine de la grâce et de la condition postlapsaire. Nous montrons à cet égard combien les débats métaphysiques de la première modernité sont inséparables d’un certain nombre d’engagements éthiques et politiques. En particulier, les préjugés de nos penseurs sur les capacités intellectuelles des non-Européens ne sont pas extérieurs (...) à ce débat mais en sont, au contraire, le moteur. (shrink)

Jusqu’à une date récente, la voiture reposait sur des principes bien établis de mécanique et de thermodynamique, elle doit maintenant intégrer les technologies numériques. Tiraillé entre l’appel du progrès et les peurs qui y sont associées, le législateur a un rôle clé à jouer dans les nombreux domaines qui seront touchés par la montée en puissance de l’intelligence artificielle. Sous le chapitre des véhicules autonomes tout particulièrement, accepter de confier sa sécurité à une intelligence artificielle est un pas essentiel, mais (...) délicat, dans le processus du développement. C’est pourquoi on peut se demander si le principe de précaution pourrait protéger efficacement contre les appréhensions légitimes liées à ces innovations. (shrink)

Par son rôle déterminant dans la réussite scolaire et professionnelle, ainsi que dans l’insertion sociale, l’apprentissage de l’orthographe lexicale représente un défi majeur pour les élèves du primaire. Dans ce contexte, nombreux sont les enseignants, orthophonistes et chercheurs à s’intéresser à la question des outils utiles à son enseignement et à son apprentissage, et à avoir recours notamment à des bases de données lexicales. Bien qu’elles constituent un apport considérable pour le domaine, les ressources existantes souffrent de plusieurs insuffisances. D’une (...) part, elles s’appuient sur des corpus de référence peu représentatifs du lexique scolaire auquel les élèves sont exposés au primaire, et d’autre part, elles ne permettent pas aux utilisateurs de déterminer la façon dont se développe l’acquisition de l’orthographe lexicale. À la lumière de ces constats, nous avons élaboré une ressource lexicale hybride, rendant compte à la fois de la fréquence et des caractéristiques linguistiques du lexique scolaire présent dans les manuels du primaire au Québec et, pour une partie des mots de ce lexique, de la capacité des élèves à les orthographier à chaque niveau du primaire. Dans cet article, nous revenons dans un premier temps sur la méthodologie d’élaboration de cette nouvelle base de données - nommée ÉQOL - dotée d’une Échelle Québécoise d’acquisition de l’Orthographe Lexicale, à l’origine de la création de la base de données. Dans un deuxième temps, nous évaluons l’apport de cet outil. La comparaison de notre base de données (Stanké, Royle, Rezzonico, Moreau, Dumais & Le Mené 2018) à des outils existants (trois bases de données et une échelle d’acquisition lexicale) témoigne de la pertinence de la création d’un outil propre au lexique scolaire adressé aux élèves du primaire et de la nécessité d’utiliser une nouvelle échelle d’acquisition de l’orthographe lexicale, spécifique aux compétences orthographiques des élèves québécois. (shrink)

無我や輪廻とも関わる、行動とその潜在的な影響力を意味する業の思想について、パーリ聖典を中心に明らかにする画期的な論考。.

Ron Mallon explores how thinking and talking about kinds of person can bring those kinds into being. He considers what normative implications this social constructionism has for our understanding of our practices of representing human kinds, like race, gender, and sexual orientation, and for our own agency.

In this book Ron Amundson examines two hundred years of scientific views on the evolution-development relationship from the perspective of evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo). This perspective challenges several popular views about the history of evolutionary thought by claiming that many earlier authors had made history come out right for the Evolutionary Synthesis. The book starts with a revised history of nineteenth-century evolutionary thought. It then investigates how development became irrelevant with the Evolutionary Synthesis. It concludes with an examination of the (...) contrasts that persist between mainstream evolutionary theory and evo-devo. This book will appeal to students and professionals in the philosophy and history of science, and biology. (shrink)

De dicto moral motivation is typically characterized by the agent’s conceiving of her goal in thin normative terms such as to do what is right. I argue that lacking an effective de dicto moral motivation would put the agent in a bad position for responding in the morally-best manner in a certain type of situations. Two central features of the relevant type of situations are the appropriateness of the agent’s uncertainty concerning her underived moral values, and the practical, moral importance (...) of resolving this uncertainty. I argue that in some situations that are marked by these two features the most virtuous response is deciding to conduct a deep moral inquiry for a de dicto moral purpose. In such situations lacking an effective de dicto moral motivation would amount to a moral shortcoming. I show the implications for Michael Smith’s argument against Motivational Judgment Externalism and for Brian Weatherson’s argument against avoiding moral recklessness: both arguments rely on a depreciating view of de dicto moral motivation, and both fail; or so I argue. (shrink)

In this book Ron Amundson examines two hundred years of scientific views on the evolution-development relationship from the perspective of evolutionary developmental biology. This perspective challenges several popular views about the history of evolutionary thought by claiming that many earlier authors had made history come out right for the Evolutionary Synthesis. The book starts with a revised history of nineteenth-century evolutionary thought. It then investigates how development became irrelevant with the Evolutionary Synthesis. It concludes with an examination of the contrasts (...) that persist between mainstream evolutionary theory and evo-devo. This book will appeal to students and professionals in the philosophy and history of science, and biology. (shrink)

An important volume connecting classical studies with feminism, Feminism and Ancient Philosophy provides an even-handed assessment of the ancient philosophers' discussions of women and explains which ancient views can be fruitful for feminist theorizing today. The papers in this anthology range from classical Greek philosophy through the Hellenistic period, with the predominance of essays focusing on topics such as the relation of reason and the emotions, the nature of emotions and desire, and related issues in moral psychology. The volume contains (...) some new, ground-breaking essays on Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics, as well as previously published pieces by established scholars like Martha Nussbaum and Julia Annas. It promises to be of interest to an interdisciplinary audience including those working in classics, ancient philosophy, and feminist theory. (shrink)

This is an overview of Davidson's theory of anomalous monism. Objections and replies are also detailed.

How should deontological theories that prohibit actions of type K — such as intentionally killing an innocent person — deal with cases of uncertainty as to whether a particular action is of type K? Frank Jackson and Michael Smith, who raise this problem in their paper "Absolutist Moral Theories and Uncertainty" (2006), focus on a case where a skier is about to cause the death of ten innocent people — we don’t know for sure whether on purpose or not — (...) by causing an avalanche; and we can only save the people by shooting the skier. One possible deontological attitude towards such uncertainty is what Jackson and Smith call the threshold view, according to which whether or not the deontological constraint applies depends on our degree of (justified) certainty meets a given threshold. Jackson and Smith argue against the threshold view that it leads to implausible paradoxical moral dilemmas in a special kind of case. In this response, we show that the threshold view can avoid these implausible moral dilemmas, as long as the relevant deontological constraint is grounded in individualistic patient-based considerations, such as what an individual person is entitled to object to. (shrink)

In this paper, I examine a heretofore ignored critic of Descartes on the heterogeneity problem: Anton Wilhelm Amo. Looking at Amo’s critique of Descartes reveals a very clear case of a thinker who attempts to offer a causal system that is not a solution to the mind-body problem, but rather that transcends it. The focus of my discussion is Amo’s 1734 dissertation: The Apathy [ἀπάθεια] of the Human Mind or The Absence of Sensation and the Faculty of Sense in the (...) Human Mind and their Presence in our Organic and Living Body. Amo’s discussion of the interaction, or lack thereof, of the mind and body hinges on the essential feature he identifies for the human mind—apathy, that is, impassivity. In this work, Amo engages explicitly with Descartes’s writing, which allows us to more precisely see the nature of his agreement and disagreement with the Cartesian metaphysics of mind. I proceed by treating Amo’s five stated criteria for spirit-hood which, in turn, reveal the kinds of causal connections that are possible for embodied spirits on his view. My aim is threefold: To lay out what I take to be Amo’s view of and arguments for the five criteria he takes to be required for a substance to be spirit. To locate Amo’s agreement and disagreement with Descartes. To suggest that Amo’s view on mind-body interaction involves a kind of occasional causation. (shrink)

Recent work by Joshua Knobe has established that people are far more likely to describe bad but foreseen side effects as intentionally performed than good but foreseen side effects (this is sometimes called the 'Knobe effect' or the 'side-effect effect.' Edouard Machery has proposed a novel explanation for this asymmetry: it results from construing the bad side effect as a cost that must be incurred to receive a benefit. In this paper, I argue that Machery's 'trade-off hypothesis' is wrong. I (...) do this by reproducing the asymmetry between judgments about good and bad side effects in cases that cannot plausibly be construed as trade-offs. (shrink)

Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Volume 115, Issue 3pt3, Page 307-314, December 2015.

Recent work by Joshua Knobe has established that people are more likely to describe bad but foreseen side‐effects as intentionally performed than good but foreseen side‐effects (this is sometimes called the ‘Knobe effect’ or the ‘side‐effect effect’. Edouard Machery has proposed a novel explanation for this asymmetry: it results from construing the bad side‐effect as a cost that must be incurred to receive a benefit. In this paper, I argue that Machery’s ‘trade‐off hypothesis’ is wrong. I do this by reproducing (...) the asymmetry between judgments about good and bad side‐effects in cases that cannot plausibly be construed as trade‐offs. (shrink)

"The book is divided into 8-10 chapters that are each only 2 or 3 pages long... this feels like a nice feature of the book, since you can dip in and just read a short bite before moving on. The author clearly has some interesting ideas and at times I found his writing to be quite engaging." MAA Review "I did enjoy reading (and re-reading) this book very much. Reading it deserves a warm recommendation not only for mathematicians but for (...) anybody... this book makes you think about how and what you think you are thinking." European Mathematical Society "Circularity" is the story of a Janus-faced conceptual structure, that on the one hand led to deep scientific discoveries, and on the other hand is used to trick the mind into believing the impossible. Alongside mathematical revolutions that eventually led to the invention of the computer, the book describes ancient paradoxes that arise from circular thinking. Another aspect of circularity, its ability to entertain, leads to a surprising insight on the time old question "What is humor." The book presents the ubiquity of circularity in many fields, and its power to confuse and to instruct. (shrink)

It is common in various quarters of philosophy to derive philosophically significant conclusions from theories of reference. In this paper, we argue that philosophers should give up on such 'arguments from reference.' Intuitions play a central role in establishing theories of reference, and recent cross-cultural work suggests that intuitions about reference vary across cultures and between individuals within a culture (Machery et al. 2004). We argue that accommodating this variation within a theory of reference undermines arguments from reference.

This article discusses what is involved in having full moral status, as opposed to a lesser degree of moral status and surveys different views of the grounds of moral status as well as the arguments for attributing a particular degree of moral status on the basis of those grounds.

Jennifer Rose Carr’s (2020) article “Normative Uncertainty Without Theories” proposes a method to maximize expected value under normative uncertainty without Intertheoretic Value Comparison (hereafter IVC). Carr argues that this method avoids IVC because it avoids theories: the agent’s credence is distributed among normative hypotheses of a particular type, which don’t constitute theories. However, I argue that Carr’s method doesn’t avoid or help to solve what I consider as the justificatory problem of IVC, which isn’t specific to comparing theories as such. (...) This threatens the implementability of Carr’s method. Fortunately, I also show how Carr’s method can nevertheless be implemented. I identify a type of epistemic states where the justificatory problem of IVC is not a necessary obstacle to maximizing expected value. In such states, the uncertainty stems from indecisive normative intuitions, and the agent justifiably constructs each normative hypothesis on the basis of a consistent subset of her intuitions by reference to the same unit of value. This part of my argument complements not only Carr’s (2020) argument, but also some moderate defenses of IVC. The combination of Carr’s paper and mine helps to illuminate the conditions for maximizing expected value under normative uncertainty without unjustified value comparison. (shrink)

In recent years, there has been a flurry of work on the metaphysics of race. While it is now widely accepted that races do not share robust, bio-behavioral essences, opinions differ over what, if anything, race is. Recent work has been divided between three apparently quite different answers. A variety of theorists argue for racial skepticism, the view that races do not exist at all.[iv] A second group defends racial constructionism, holding that races are in some way socially constructed.[v],[vi] And (...) a third group maintains racial population naturalism, the view that races may exist as biologically salient populations albeit ones that do not have the biologically determined social significance once imputed to them.[vii] The three groups thus seem to disagree fundamentally upon the metaphysical character of race. (shrink)

Critiques of Neoclassical Economics extend, unsurprisingly, to its mathematical structure. The discussion has largely focused on General Equilibrium Theory (GET), a formalism developed by Leon Walras over a century ago. Internally consistent, but highly unrealistic, GET lacks predictive power, and has been a historical failure. As an alternative, this article proposes a methodology largely developed by Grabner et al. (2019), in which Agent-Based Models (ABMs) are linked with existing Equation-Based Models (EBMs) as a means of developing a more powerful formalism. (...) The approach is illustrated by application to the Arrow- Debreu (AD) model of Neoclassical theory, and the Kuznets Curve of Developmental Economics. Broader implications for the social and natural sciences are briefly considered. (shrink)

Economics is currently experiencing a climate of uncertainty regarding the soundness of its theoretical framework and even its status as a science. Much of the criticism is within the discipline, and emphasises the alleged failure of the neoclassical viewpoint. This article proposes the deployment of partial modelling, utilising Boolean networks (BNs), as an inductive discovery procedure for the development of economic theory. The method is presented in detail and then linked to the Semantic View of Theories (SVT), closely identified with (...) Bas van Fraassen and Patrick Suppes, in which models are construed as mediators creatively negotiating between theory and reality. It is suggested that this approach may be appropriate for economics and, by implication, for any science in which there is no consensus theory, and a wide range of viewpoints compete for acceptance. (shrink)

This exploratory study examines how managers and professionals regard the ethical and social responsibility reputations of 60 well-known Australian and International companies, and how this in turn influences their attitudes and behaviour towards these organisations. More than 350 MBA, other postgraduate business students, and participants in Australian Institute of Management (Western Australia) management education programmes were surveyed to evaluate how ethical and socially responsible they believed the 60 organisations to be. The survey sought to determine what these participants considered ‘ethical’ (...) and ‘socially responsible’ behaviour in organisations to be. The survey also examined how the participants’ beliefs influenced their attitudes and intended behaviours towards these organisations. The results of this survey indicate that many managers and professionals have clear views about the ethical and social responsibility reputations of companies. This affects their attitudes towards these organisations which in turn has an impact on their intended behaviour towards them. These findings support the view in other research studies that well-educated managers and professionals are, to some extent, taking into account the ethical and social responsibility reputations of companies when deciding whether to work for them, use their services or buy shares in their companies. (shrink)

Since the publication of Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue in 1981, tensions inherent to the relationship between morally educative practices and the institutions that house them have been widely noted. We propose a taxonomy of the ways in which the pursuit of external goods by institutions undermines the pursuit of the internal goods of practices. These comprise substitution, where the institution replaces the pursuit of one type of good by another; frustration, where opportunities for practitioners to discover goods or develop new (...) standards of excellence are frustrated by institutional priorities and resource allocation; and injustice, which undermines the integrity of relationships within the organization and/or with partners. These threats, though analytically distinct, are often mutually reinforcing. This conceptual contribution is illustrated both by the extant literature and by a novel context, the three-ring circus. (shrink)

This exploratory study examines how managers and professionals regard the ethical and social responsibility reputations of 60 well-known Australian and International companies, and how this in turn influences their attitudes and behaviour towards these organisations. More than 350 MBA, other postgraduate business students, and participants in Australian Institute of Management management education programmes were surveyed to evaluate how ethical and socially responsible they believed the 60 organisations to be. The survey sought to determine what these participants considered 'ethical' and 'socially (...) responsible' behaviour in organisations to be. The survey also examined how the participants' beliefs influenced their attitudes and intended behaviours towards these organisations. The results of this survey indicate that many managers and professionals have clear views about the ethical and social responsibility reputations of companies. This affects their attitudes towards these organisations which in turn has an impact on their intended behaviour towards them. These findings support the view in other research studies that well-educated managers and professionals are, to some extent, taking into account the ethical and social responsibility reputations of companies when deciding whether to work for them, use their services or buy shares in their companies. (shrink)

This paper briefly summarizes current thinking in engineering ethics education, argues that much of that ethical instruction runs the risk of being only superficially effective, and explores some of the underlying systemic barriers within academia that contribute to this result. This is not to criticize or discourage efforts to improve ethics instruction. Rather it is to point to some more fundamental problems that still must be addressed in order to realize the full potential of enhanced ethics instruction. Issues discussed will (...) include: intellectual engagement versus emotional engagement; the gravitational pull of curricular structures; the nature of engineering faculty; and the “engineer-ization” of ethics. (shrink)

Epistemic contextualism is the thesis that the standards that must be met by a knowledge claimant vary with contexts of utterance. Thus construed, EC may concern only knowledge claims, or else the knowledge relation itself. Herein, my concern is with “Substantive EC.” Let’s call the claim that the sorts of linguistic evidence commonly cited in support of Semantic EC also imply or support Substantive EC the “Implication Thesis”. IP is a view about which some epistemologists have equivocated. Keith DeRose is (...) a case in point. Herein I argue that IP is false, and that it is false for interesting reasons. To this end, I consider two other terms which DeRose investigates, “free will” and “potency” in his efforts to demonstrate the alleged inability of distinctly philosophical or skeptical doubts to infect ordinary epistemic discourse. I describe how and why these two examples speak against, rather than for, DeRose’s recommendation of Substantive EC. (shrink)

The article first addresses the importance of cognitive modeling, in terms of its value to cognitive science (as well as other social and behavioral sciences). In particular, it emphasizes the use of cognitive architectures in this undertaking. Based on this approach, the article addresses, in detail, the idea of a multi-level approach that ranges from social to neural levels. In physical sciences, a rigorous set of theories is a hierarchy of descriptions/explanations, in which causal relationships among entities at a high (...) level can be reduced to causal relationships among simpler entities at a more detailed level. We argue that a similar hierarchy makes possible an equally productive approach toward cognitive modeling. The levels of models that we conceive in relation to cognition include, at the highest level, sociological/anthropological models of collective human behavior, behavioral models of individual performance, cognitive models involving detailed mechanisms, representations, and processes, as well as biological/physiological models of neural circuits, brain regions, and other detailed biological processes. (shrink)

Epistemic Contextualism is generally treated as a semantic thesis that may or may not have epistemological consequences. It is sometimes taken to concern only knowledge claims (as the assertion that the word “know” means different things in different contexts of use). Still, at other times it is taken to regard the knowledge relation itself (as the assertion that knowledge itself has no single univocal nature). Call the former view Semantic EC, the latter view Substantive EC, and the idea that the (...) plausibility of Semantic EC presupposes that of Substantive EC, the “Presupposition Thesis.” Numerous authors argue against the Presupposition Thesis on the grounds that an understanding of the nature of knowledge is no more required to understand the meaning of knowledge assertions than an understanding of the self, for instance, is needed to understand the meaning of sentences containing “I.” These authors then offer additional arguments for the same conclusion, using further comparisons between “know” and other indexicals, as well as between “know” and quantifiers, gradable and modal adjectives. Herein, I defend the Presupposition Thesis by arguing against these authors’ claims (based as they are on these types of comparisons) that Semantic EC is plausible without the supposition of Substantive EC. (shrink)