(This insularity was further promoted by the guileless duplicity of scholars in other fields, who were all too prepared to bequeath "the problem of ...

Temkin's book is a very original and deeply unsettling work of skeptical philosophy that mounts an important new challenge to contemporary ethics.

INTRODUCTION The appeal to teleological principles of explanation within the body of natural science has had an unfortunate history. ...

Laudan constructs a fresh approach to a longtime problem for the philosopher of science: how to explain the simultaneous and widespread presence of both agreement and disagreement in science. Laudan critiques the logical empiricists and the post-positivists as he stresses the need for centrality and values and the interdependence of values, methods, and facts as prerequisites to solving the problems of consensus and dissent in science.

This essay contains a partial exploration of some key concepts associated with the epistemology of realist philosophies of science. It shows that neither reference nor approximate truth will do the explanatory jobs that realists expect of them. Equally, several widely-held realist theses about the nature of inter-theoretic relations and scientific progress are scrutinized and found wanting. Finally, it is argued that the history of science, far from confirming scientific realism, decisively confutes several extant versions of avowedly 'naturalistic' forms of scientific (...) realism. (shrink)

En el presente artículo proponemos abordar el problema de la pobreza desde dos perspectivas ético-filosóficas: En primer lugar, la pobreza como problema que debe solucionarse desde la caridad; En segundo lugar, la pobreza como problema de justicia. En definitiva queremos hacer una apología de los pobres, marginados y excluidos en el mundo y, en particular, en las democracias occidentales que se abrogan y llevan a gala el título de democracias incluyentes, que ayude a estas personas a tener una nueva oportunidad (...) que les saque de la pobreza. (shrink)

En el presente artículo nos proponemos realizar una comparación de la posición de D’Agostino con la de otro de los representantes del convencionalismo: William Morgan. A D’Agostino nos referiremos en el primer apartado y a Morgan en el segundo. Nos preguntaremos si Morgan, además de inscribir sus tesis dentro del convencionalismo, participa al mismo tiempo de la concepción internalista del deporte. Aunque uno y otro autor son convencionalistas, existen matices muy distintos entre sus posiciones que caben ser resaltadas, a fin (...) de clarificar su proximidad con otras teorías filosófico-deportivas. In this paper we propose a comparison of the position of D’Agostino with other rpresentatives of convention: Wilüam Morgan. We refer to D’Agostino’s position in the first section and in the second section to Morgan ’s. We ask whether Morgan, moreover of register his thesis within the Conventionalism, participaos also of the internaüst conception of sport. Although both authors are conventionalists, there are many different shades that fit between their positions be highüghted, in order to clarify its proximity to other phihsophical theories of port. (shrink)

En este artículo presento de forma crítica la propuesta de ética del deporte como «bolsa de virtudes» que elaboran tres autores estadounidenses que son Lumpkin, Stoll y Beller. Dicha propuesta debe entenderse como una manifestación de sustancialismo neoaristotélico en deporte, con una clara influencia de MacIntyre. Mi objetivo es mostrar cómo dicho sustancialismo no es suficiente para una propuesta ética del deporte, por lo que abogo por incorporar algunos de los presupuestos del procedimentalismo ético aplicado al deporte. In this article (...) the author presents critically the proposed sports ethics as «bag of virtues» that Americans made three authors are Lumpkin, Stoll and Beller. This proposal should be seen as a manifestation of substantialism neoaristhotelic in sport, with a clear influence of MacIntyre. My aim is to show how such substantialism not enough for a sports ethics proposal therefore advocate incorporate some of the ethical proceduralism budgets applied to sport. (shrink)

En el presente texto proponemos una reflexión sobre uso de tecnologías genéticas que aumentan el rendimiento deportivo como futuro campo de investigación de una Neuroética social. Este problema, que se ha dado en llamar “dopaje genético”, congrega a su alrededor un debate entre los partidarios del Bioconservadurismo y del Transhumanismo. Expondremos la concepción de dos importantes representantes del Transhumanismo y de dos conocidos partidarios del Bioconservadurismo, a fin de subrayar la importancia de este debate y las futuras implicaciones en la (...) mejora del rendimiento físico, cognitivo y educacional a las que se deberá hacer frente desde el nivel socio-cultural de la Neuroética. (shrink)

In this book Larry Temkin examines the concepts of equality and inequality, and addresses one particular question in depth: how can we judge between different sorts of inequality? When is one inequality worse than another? Temkin shows that there are many different factors underlying and influencing our egalitarian judgments and that the notion of inequality is surprisingly complex. He looks at inequality as applied to individuals and to groups, and at the standard measures of inequality employed by economists and (...) others, and considers whether inequality matters more in a poor society than a rich one. The arguments of non-egalitarians are also examined. Temkin's book presents a new way of thinking about equality and inequality which challenges the assumptions of philosophers, welfare economists, and others concerned with these notions on a practical as well as a theoretical level. (shrink)

Unethical conduct has reached crisis proportions in business :A1–A10, 2011) and on today’s college campuses :58–65, 2007). Despite the evidence that suggests that more than half of business students admit to dishonest practices, only about 5 % of business school deans surveyed believe that dishonesty is a problem at their schools :299–308, 2010). In addition, the AACSB which establishes standards for accredited business schools has resisted the urging of deans and business experts to require business schools to teach an ethics (...) class, and fewer than one-third of businesses schools now teach a business ethics course at the graduate or undergraduate levels. In this paper we briefly introduce the status of business ethics education and report the results of a survey of business students, deans of the top business schools, and business ethics subject matter experts about ten ethical outcomes. We then offer five specific recommendations to encourage business ethics faculty and decision makers to improve the teaching of business ethics. (shrink)

This short but highly ambitious book asks us to rethink the evolution of the ideas on which modern states are built. Larry Siedentop argues that the core of what is now our system of beliefs, liberalism, emerged much earlier than generally recognised, established not in the Renaissance but by the arguments of lawyers and philosophers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. There are large parts of the world--fundamentalist Islam; quasi-capitalist China--where other belief systems flourish. Faced with these challenges, understanding (...) our own ideas' origins is more than ever an important part of knowing who we are."--Publisher's Web site. (shrink)

Temkin presents a new way of thinking about equality and inequality that challenges the assumptions of philosophers, welfare economists, and others, and has significant implications on both a practical and theoretical level.

How should the well-off respond to the world's needy? Renowned ethicist Larry S. Temkin challenges common beliefs about philanthropy and Effective Altruism, exploring the complex ways that global aid may do more harm than good, and considers the alternatives available when neglecting the needy is morally impermissible.

This collection of quotes demonstrates the elegant simplicity of Ai Weiwei's thoughts on key aspects of his art, politics, and life. A master at communicating powerful ideas in astonishingly few words, Ai Weiwei is known for his innovative use of social media to disseminate his views. The short quotations presented here have been carefully selected from articles, tweets, and interviews given by this acclaimed Chinese artist and activist. The book is organized into six categories: freedom of expression; art and activism; (...) government, power, and moral choices; the digital world; history, the historical moment, and the future; and personal reflections. Together, these quotes span some of the most revealing moments of Ai Weiwei's eventful career--from his risky investigation into student deaths in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake to his arbitrary arrest in 2011--providing a window into the mind of one of the world's most electrifying and courageous contemporary artists. (shrink)

We present evidence of a potentially serious source of error intrinsic to all spotted cDNA microarrays that use IMAGE clones of expressed sequence tags (ESTs). We found that a high proportion of these EST sequences contain 5V-end poly(dT) sequences that are remnants from the oligo(dT)-primed reverse transcription of polyadenylated mRNA templates used to generate EST cDNA for sequence clone libraries. Analysis of expression data from two single-dye cDNA microarray experiments showed that ESTs whose sequences contain repeats of consecutive 5V- end (...) dT residues appeared to be strongly coexpressed, while expression data of all other sequences exhibited no such pattern. Our analysis suggests that expression data from sequences containing 5V poly(dT) tracts are more likely to be due to systematic cross-hybridization of these poly(dT) tracts than to true mRNA coexpression. This indicates that existing data generated by cDNA microarrays containing IMAGE clone ESTs should be filtered to remove expression data containing significant 5V poly(dT) tracts. D 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (shrink)

Corpus linguistics is becoming a respected method of statutory and constitutional interpretation in the United States over the past decade, yet it has also generated a backlash from a group of scholars that engage in empirical work. This essay attempts to demonstrate both the contributions and the risks of using linguistic corpora as a primary tool in legal interpretation. Its legitimacy stems from the fact that courts routinely state that statutory terms, when not defined as a matter of law, are (...) to be given their ordinary meaning. Judges have responded to this challenge, with the assistance of the linguistics community, by using corpora to determine which meanings are ordinary. However, legal analysts have not determined exactly what makes one meaning ordinary and another not ordinary. This gap has led to a level of disagreement in the field. Moreover, while linguists who engage in corpus linguistic analysis typically emphasize the importance of context, the legal application is peculiarly context-free, in keeping with legal philosophies that eschew reliance on reference to a law’s purpose and the intent of the legislature that enacted it. This move adds a political dimension to corpus analysis as a means of legal interpretation. Yet, the article concludes that by relying on a blend of general and specialized corpora, the legal system can substantially reduce the problem of contextualization, as some linguists and practitioners have already recognized. (shrink)

In "Futurc Generations: Further Problems,"‘ and Part Four of Reasons and Persons} Derek Pariit raises many perplexing questions. Although some think his ingenious arguments little more than delightful puzzles, I believe they challenge some of our deepest beliefs. In this article, I examine some of Pariit’s arguments, focusing mainly on "The Mere Addition Paradox." If my analysis is correct, Parfit’s arguments have extremely interesting and important implications that not even Pariit rcalized. In Part I, I present ParHt’s argument for the (...) Merc Addition Paradox, and show that given Pa.rHt’s assumptions, a radical conclusion seems t0 follow; the notion of "bctter th2m"—indced, even the notion of "aH things.. (shrink)

This article reconsiders Hannah Arendt’s account of “totalitarianism” in light of the climate catastrophe and the apparent inability of our political-economic system to respond to it adequately. In the last two chapters of The Origins of Totalitarianism, Arendt focuses on the “ideology” of totalitarian regimes: a pathological denial of reality, a privileging of the ideological system over empirical evidence, and a simultaneous feeling of total impotence and total omnipotence—an analysis that maps remarkably well onto the climate zeitgeist. Thus, while Arendt (...) used the concept of “totalitarianism” to foreclose alternatives to liberal capitalist democracy, the climate impasse suggests that the totalitarian label more properly belongs to the prevailing system itself. (shrink)

1. Implicature: some basic oppositions IMPLICATURE is a component of speaker meaning that constitutes an aspect of what is meant in a speaker’s utterance without being part of what is said. What a speaker intends to communicate is characteristically far richer than what she directly expresses; linguistic meaning radically underdetermines the message conveyed and understood. Speaker S tacitly exploits pragmatic principles to bridge this gap and counts on hearer H to invoke the same principles for the purposes of utterance interpretation. (...) The contrast between the said and the meant, and derivatively between the said and the implicated (the meant-but-unsaid), dates back to the fourth century rhetoricians Servius and Donatus, who characterized litotes—the figure of pragmatic understatement—as a figure in which we say less but mean more (“minus dicimus et plus significamus”; see Hoffmann 1987 and Horn 1991a for discussion). In the classical Gricean model, the bridge from what is said (the literal content of the uttered sentence, computed directly from its grammatical structure with the reference of indexicals resolved) to what is communicated is constructed through implicature. As an aspect of speaker meaning, implicatures are by definition distinct from the non-logical inferences that the hearer draws; it is a category mistake to attribute implicatures either to hearers or to sentences (e.g. P and Q) and subsentential expressions (e.g. some). But we can systematically (at least for generalized implicatures; see below) correlate the speaker’s intention to implicate q (in uttering p in context C), the expression p that carries the implicature in C, and the inference of q induced by the speaker’s utterance of p in C. (shrink)

El presente artículo defiende que en _ Gorgias _ 521d Sócrates se atribuye a sí mismo una forma genuina de saber político. Para ello, se abordan los problemas planteados por la crítica reciente en lo que respecta a la aparente incompatibilidad de dicha atribución con (1) el reconocimiento explícito en _ Gorgias _ de no poseer un saber referido a lo justo, y (2) la aparente invalidez de la actividad desarrollada por Sócrates para contar, bajo los criterios que él mismo (...) establece en el _ Gorgias _, como efectivamente política. El trabajo responde a estas dificultades realizando un análisis del tipo de naturaleza que Sócrates atribuye a su propio saber en esta obra, así como de los efectos que su actividad dialógica demuestra ser capaz de producir sobre Calicles. De este modo, el artículo permite aclarar en qué sentido Sócrates es presentado en el _ Gorgias _ como el verdadero político. El presente artículo defiende que en _ Gorgias _ 521d Sócrates se atribuye a sí mismo una forma genuina de saber político. Para ello, se abordan los problemas planteados por la crítica reciente en lo que respecta a la aparente incompatibilidad de dicha atribución con (1) el reconocimiento explícito en _ Gorgias _ de no poseer un saber referido a lo justo, y (2) la aparente invalidez de la actividad desarrollada por Sócrates para contar, bajo los criterios que él mismo establece en el _ Gorgias _, como efectivamente política. El trabajo responde a estas dificultades realizando un análisis del tipo de naturaleza que Sócrates atribuye a su propio saber en esta obra, así como de los efectos que su actividad dialógica demuestra ser capaz de producir sobre Calicles. De este modo, el artículo permite aclarar en qué sentido Sócrates es presentado en el _ Gorgias _ como el verdadero político. (shrink)

This article responds to four critics of Democracy in Spite of the Demos and reiterates its central thesis. Christopher Holman and Théophile Pénigaud attempt to maintain the critical value of democracy by invoking different elements of the deliberative tradition, while Benjamin Schupmann answers my charges by appealing to a strong liberal constitutionalism. I argue that these attempts repeat the ambivalence described and criticized in the book: democracy is taken as an end in itself, but with asterisks that introduce conditions and (...) qualifications. As long as democracy is only desirable given certain caveats, the critical weight is placed on these caveats and not on the figure of democracy. Andrew Norris takes a different approach, interrogating the book’s use of ideology critique and the concept of “socially necessary delusion.” This intervention presents difficulties to the concluding suggestion of the book, but I maintain that that these difficulties can be productive and generative rather than limiting or prohibitive. (shrink)

In "Equality, Priority, and Compassion," Roger Crisp rejects both egalitarianism and prioritarianism. Crisp contends that our concern for those who are badly off is best accounted for by appealing to "a sufficiency principle" based -- indirectly, via the notion of an impartial spectator -- on compassion for those who are badly off" (p. 745). A key example of Crisp's is the Beverly Hills case (discussed below). This example is directed against prioritarianism, but it also threatens egalitarianism. In this article, I (...) respond to the Beverly Hills case. I also challenge the wide person-affecting principle and Crisp's welfarist restriction, which some believe underlie the Levelling Down Objection against egalitarianism. My aim in this article is to defend egalitarianism by illuminating both its nature and appeal. (shrink)