Resumo: Para Paul Auster, um quarto é, em essência, “a própria substância da solidão”, uma solidão espacialmente definida. Nesse sentido, o fenômeno transcendeu suas limitações físicas e assumiu significado existencial e filosófico. Em seus escritos, uma sala é, antes de tudo, um espaço arquitetônico que um escritor solitário ocupa; além disso, é metaforizado como a mente que é a sala - um espaço construído intelectualmente; e, por fim, é um lugar narrado em suas histórias, onde seus personagens meditam e compõem, (...) um espaço que existe em palavras. O artigo realiza estudos sobre os escritos da vida de Auster e uma de suas ficções, Homem no Escuro, para apresentar a complexidade das três formas de quartos solitários e sua mútua inclusão na solidão intersubjetiva. (shrink)

The debate between Uniqueness and Permissivism concerns whether a body of evidence sometimes allows multiple doxastic attitudes towards a proposition. An important motivation for Uniqueness is the so-called ‘arbitrariness argument,’ which says that Permissivism leads to some unacceptable arbitrariness with regard to one's beliefs. An influential response to the argument says that the arbitrariness in beliefs can be avoided by invoking epistemic standards. In this paper, I argue that such a response to the arbitrariness argument is unsuccessful. Then I defend (...) a new response: contrary to common conception, the arbitrariness resulted by Permissivism is acceptable. The basic idea is that the arbitrariness resulted by Permissivism is analogous to the arbitrariness in permissive actions and the latter arbitrariness is intuitively acceptable. I answer three possible objections against this analogy, which are all motivated by the thought that beliefs aim at the truth. In addressing the last objection, I draw inspiration from the recent debate on transformative experience. (shrink)

Impurism says that practical factors encroach on knowledge. An important version of impurism is called ‘Threshold-Impurism,’ which says that practical factors encroach on the threshold that rational credence must pass in order for one to have knowledge. A prominent kind of argument for Threshold-Impurism is the so-called ‘principle-based argument,’ which relies on a principle of fallibilism and a knowledge-action principle. This paper offers a new challenge against Threshold-Impur- ism. I attempt to show that the two principles Threshold-Impurists are committed to—KJ (...) and Fallibilism—are jointly in tension with a widely-held principle of credence that’s called ‘Truth-Directedness,’ in the sense that the former two principles cannot both apply to those who know the third. This tension constitutes a serious challenge to Threshold-Impurists, because it leaves them two options, both of which are undesirable: denying Truth-Directedness, or accepting Truth-Directedness and accepting that whether KJ and Fallibilism apply to a person depends on whether she knows Truth-Directedness. (shrink)

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, EarlyView.

Why should we act morally? What justification is to be found in moral demands? This lucid, pithy, and eminently readable book examines the arguments in favor of the claims of moral demands to be found in contemporary ethical theory, arguments deriving from Kant's attempt to provide a foundation for morality.

ABSTRACTAccording to the Dogmatism Puzzle presented by Gilbert Harman, knowledge induces dogmatism because, if one knows that p, one knows that any evidence against p is misleading and therefore one can ignore it when gaining the evidence in the future. I try to offer a new solution to the puzzle by explaining why the principle is false that evidence known to be misleading can be ignored. I argue that knowing that some evidence is misleading doesn't always damage the credential of (...) the evidence, and therefore it doesn't always entitle one to ignore it. I also explain in what kind of cases and to what degree such knowledge allows one to ignore evidence. Hopefully, through the discussion, we can not only understand better where the dogmatism puzzle goes wrong, but also understand better in what sense rational believers should rely on their evidence and when they can ignore it. (shrink)

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, EarlyView.

It’s widely accepted that higher-order defeaters, i.e., evidence that one’s belief is formed in an epistemically defective way, can defeat doxastic justification. However, it’s yet unclear how exactly such kind of defeat happens. Given that many theories of doxastic justification can be understood as fitting the schema of proper basing on propositional justifiers, we might attempt to explain the defeat either by arguing that a higher-order defeater defeats propositional justification or by arguing that it defeats proper basing. It has been (...) argued that the first attempt is unpromising because a variety of prominent theories of propositional justification don’t imply that we lose propositional justification when gaining higher-order defeaters. This leads some scholars to take the second attempt. In this paper, I criticize this second attempt, and I defend the first attempt by arguing that a theory of propositional justification that requires intellectual responsibility can nicely account for higher-order defeat. My proposal is that we lose doxastic justification when we gain higher-order defeaters because there is no intellectually responsible way for us to maintain our original beliefs due to the defeaters. (shrink)

Impurism says that practical factors encroach on knowledge. An important version of impurism is called ‘Threshold-Impurism,’ which says that practical factors encroach on the threshold that rational credence must pass in order for one to have knowledge. A prominent kind of argument for Threshold-Impurism is the so-called ‘principle-based argument,’ which relies on a principle of fallibilism and a knowledge-action principle. This paper offers a new challenge against Threshold-Impurism. I attempt to show that the two principles Threshold-Impurists are committed to—KJ and (...) Fallibilism—are jointly in tension with a widely-held principle of credence that’s called ‘Truth-Directedness,’ in the sense that the former two principles cannot both apply to those who know the third. This tension constitutes a serious challenge to Threshold-Impurists, because it leaves them two options, both of which are undesirable: denying Truth-Directedness, or accepting Truth-Directedness and accepting that whether KJ and Fallibilism apply to a person depends on whether she knows Truth-Directedness. (shrink)

Richard Foley has presented a puzzle purporting to show that all attempts in trying to find a sufficient condition of rationality are doomed. The puzzle rests on two plausible assumptions. The first is a level-connecting principle: if one rationally believes that one's belief that p is irrational, then one's belief that p is irrational. The second is a claim about a structural feature shared by all promising sufficient conditions of rationality: for any such condition, it is possible that one's belief (...) satisfies it and yet one rationally believes that it doesn’t. With the two assumptions, Foley argues that a sufficient condition of rationality is impossible. I explain how exactly the puzzle goes and I try to offer a solution. If my solution works, all theorists of rationality who accept certain level-connecting principles need to add an extra condition to their favourite rationality-making condition. (shrink)

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, EarlyView.

Wir leben in der Bundesrepublik begrifflich über unsere Verhältnisse. Wir stützen uns auf eine politische Selbstinterpretation, die sich schon als Theorie nicht halten lässt – das ist der Verdacht, der dieses Buch antreibt. Um ihn zu prüfen, untersucht der Philosoph Rüdiger Bittner fünf Begriffe, die für dies Selbstverständnis grundlegend sind, nämlich Freiheit, Menschenwürde, Menschenrechte, Gerechtigkeit und Demokratie. Dabei erweist sich der Verdacht als berechtigt: Unsere politische Existenz in der Bundesrepublik lässt sich unter diese Begriffe gar nicht oder nur unter radikal (...) zurückgeschnittene Versionen von ihnen fassen. Die Kritik zielt nicht darauf, dass die politische Praxis anders aussieht als die Theorie. Die Kritik ist, dass die Theorie, die sich auf die genannten Begriffe stützt, selbst nicht trägt. Demgemäß entwickelt das Buch nun in Grundzügen ein neues Selbstverständnis des politischen Lebens in diesem Staat, ein Selbstverständnis ohne die frommen Legenden der herrschenden politischen Philosophie. Beide, Kritik und neues Verständnis, wenden sich an alle, die sich über ihre politische Existenz in diesem Staat Rechenschaft geben wollen. (shrink)

I will assess earlier approaches to the morphology of the G-stem imperative in Semitic and mount a reconstruction that supports a specific set of disyllabic patterns for the imperative of the basic stem in Proto-Semitic, i.e., qutul, qitil, and qital. The most common process envisioned for the formation of the imperative is clipping from the prefix conjugation, but the most recent full treatment of the topic is Elitzur Bar-Asher Siegal’s revision and expansion of a century-old proposal that qatul, qatil, and (...) qital are the patterns of the imperative in Proto-Semitic. I refute both the clipping approach and Bar-Asher’s patterns in favor of qutul, qitil, and qital, which are the most economical and precise reconstruction in accounting for the realizations of the imperative in the various branches of Semitic. (shrink)

Definition of the problem: Concerning the debate on euthanasia, a widely held position is that it should be accepted in its so-called passive and indirect form, while so-called active euthanasia should be rejected. The problem, now, is that at least some of the usual arguments to defend this view are invalid. Arguments: Three kinds of failures are examinded: First, if taken seriously, some of the arguments against active euthanasia undermine the accepted passive and indirect forms, too. For example, this is (...) the case concerning the claim that the patient's decision can be manipulated. Second, the rejection of active euthanasia partly rests on empirical data unsuited for this task. Euthanasia in The Netherlands as evidence for the so-called slippery slopes is presented as an example. Third, some of the objections against active euthanasia rest on assumptions that contradict our empirical knowledge, e.g. in the field of motives of patients asking for euthanasia. Conclusion: Those who want to defend the view mentioned above have to present more conclusive arguments. (shrink)

Zusammenfassung. In der Debatte um die Sterbehilfe wird oftmals eine Position vertreten, in der die sogenannte passive und indirekte Sterbehilfe akzeptiert werden, während zugleich die aktive Form zurückgewiesen wird. Das Problem besteht nun darin, dass zumindest einige der gängigen Argumente, die zur Verteidigung einer solchen Haltung vorgebracht werden, nicht schlüssig sind. Drei Typen von Fehlern werden untersucht. Erstens: Einige der Argumente, die gegen die aktive Sterbehilfe vorgebracht werden, untergraben, wenn sie ernst genommen werden, auch die befürwortete passive und indirekte Sterbehilfe. (...) Dies gilt etwa hinsichtlich der behaupteten Manipulierbarkeit des Patientenwillens. Zweitens: Die Ablehnung der aktiven Sterbehilfe beruht z.T. auf empirischen Daten, die zu diesem Zweck nicht geeinget sind. Der Verweis auf die Euthanasiepraxis in den Niederlanden zur Erhärtung sogenannter Dammbruchargumente wäre ein Beispiel. Drittens: Einige der Einwände gegen die aktive Sterbehilfe fußen auf Annahmen, die unserem empirischen Wissen widersprechen, etwa im Bereich der Motive von Patienten für die Bitte um Sterbehilfe. Wer also die oben genannte Sichtweise verteidigen will, muss haltbarere Argumente vorlegen. (shrink)

r esumo: Minha proposta é perguntar-me em que sentido a Enciclopédia é um dicionário racional das ciências, artes e ofícios. Se foram estudados, sobretudo, os dezessete volumes do texto da Enciclopédia para conhecer o estado do conhecimento no século XVIII, as ilustrações constituem um terreno de estudos muito mais abandonado e suscitam principalmente um interesse estético. Ainda, essas ilustrações tiveram um papel de primordial importância na realização da Enciclopédia. Elas tiveram um papel essencial, como tentarei mostrá-lo através do exemplo do (...) ofício de tecelagem de meias, na transmissão das técnicas. Para começar, gostaria de lembrar a história tumultuosa da edição da Enciclopédia e a maneira que Diderot se serviu das ilustrações para bem conduzir a empreitada enciclopédica. Depois procurarei pensar a Enciclopédia inteira colocando em relação o discurso e as ilustrações, através do exemplo do tratamento em imagem e em texto de um ofício: a tecelagem de meias. a bstract: My purpose is to question in what sense the Encyclopédie is a reasoned dictionary of sciences, arts and trades. The seventeen texts’ tomes of the Encyclopédie have been the object of several researches for understanding the state of knowledge in the seventeenth century, but the eleven plates’ tomes have not been so studied and have been seen more as an object of esthetical fascination than as an object of researches. Nevertheless, the plates played a great role in the making of the Encyclopédie. The plates were an essential medium to hand down technical knowledge. To begin with, I am going to tell the story of the tumultuous edition of the Encyclopédie and the way Diderot used the plates in order to manage well the encyclopaedic enterprise. Then I shall give an example to show how the text and the plates can be connected: the stockings weaving. (shrink)

Translated from the author's unpublished manuscript. Includes bibliographical references and index.

BackgroundLeft-behind children in China have aroused widespread concern in society and the academic field because they have a high risk of psychological problems. For left-behind children, depression is the most serious problem. Bullying victimization has been evidenced as one of the most common causes of children’s depression. However, less is known about its longitudinal association and the process for how bullying victimization influences depression among left-behind children. Thus, the presentation aims to explore the mechanisms underlying by considering the roles of (...) left-behind children’s negative thoughts and self-compassion.MethodsThe 3-wave longitudinal data were collected from a sample of 605 aged 8–11 from central China. We used the Olweus bully and victimization questionnaire, the children’s automatic thoughts scale, the depression scale, and the self-compassion scale.ResultsBullying victimization positively predicted the depression level of left-behind children. Negative thoughts and self-compassion mediate the relationship between bullying victimization and depression. In the mechanism of bullying victimization on depression exists gender differences among left-behind children.ConclusionThe present study suggested the association between bullying victimization and left-behind children’s depression and revealed the internal mechanism of negative thoughts and self-compassion. These findings provide a new perspective for left-behind children’s mental health education and intervention. (shrink)

L’œuvre de Bachelard se partage en une philosophie des sciences qui a fait date par son engagement rationaliste, et en une « métaphysique de l’imagination », expression qu’utilise Bachelard lui-même dans L’Air et les songes pour désigner le but avoué de l’ensemble des textes de poétique qu’il a produits. Notre propos est de mettre en évidence le caractère double de son œuvre, non pas dans une visée simplement descriptive, mais véritablement problématique : nous voudrions montrer que cette caractéristique s’explique par (...) le principe du double qui travaille la réflexion de Bachelard à la racine à la fois dans son œuvre épistémologique et dans son œuvre de poétique. (shrink)

L’œuvre de Bachelard se partage en une philosophie des sciences qui a fait date par son engagement rationaliste, et en une « métaphysique de l’imagination », expression qu’utilise Bachelard lui-même dans L’Air et les songes pour désigner le but avoué de l’ensemble des textes de poétique qu’il a produits. Notre propos est de mettre en évidence le caractère double de son œuvre, non pas dans une visée simplement descriptive, mais véritablement problématique : nous voudrions montrer que cette caractéristique s’explique par (...) le principe du double qui travaille la réflexion de Bachelard à la racine à la fois dans son œuvre épistémologique et dans son œuvre de poétique. (shrink)

De 1686 à 1758, soit pendant plus de soixante ans, les savants les plus éminents de l’époque, dont la Marquise Du Châtelet, participent au débat sur les forces vives ; faut-il mesurer la force par le produit de la masse et de la vitesse ( m.v, qu’on appelle aujourd’hui la quantité de mouvement) ou par le produit de la masse et du carré de la vitesse ( m.v 2 )? Or il est intéressant de souligner que, loin d’être une simple (...) dispute de mots, ce à quoi cherche à la réduire D’Alembert, cette querelle est avant tout une discussion sur les premiers principes et les principes dérivés : quels sont les principes fondateurs, quels sont les principes seconds? Notre propos est de montrer que D’Alembert, dans la position qu’il prend pour mettre fin au débat, a été fortement influencé et formé par les réflexions sur la physique que développe Émilie Du Châtelet (1706-1749), dans les Institutions de Physique parues en 1740. (shrink)

Nous voudrions mettre en question une vision réductrice des encyclopédistes : contrairement à une représentation convenue émanant d ’ une lecture biaisée de l ’Encyclopédie due à la lunette déformante des positivistes et des scientistes du XIX e siècle, les encyclopédistes sont loin d ’ être des chantres du progrès mais développent plutôt, notamment dans le Discours préliminaire de l'Encyclopédie et les articles épistémologiques et scientifiques, une conception sceptique de l ’ esprit humain et de sa capacité à connaître l (...) ’ Univers. Ajoutons que cette lecture biaisée a été reprise haut et fort au XX e siècle par l ’ École de Francfort qui n ’ a pas hésité à forcer le trait du prétendu optimisme rationaliste des philosophes des Lumières jusqu ’ à en faire les initiateurs des formes contemporaines de totalitarisme. C ’ est contre cette lecture que le présent article s ’ inscrit. (shrink)

Meu intuito é tecer algumas considerações sobre a descoberta e relação de Voltaire com o newtonianismo, e a partir daí refletir de maneira mais geral sobre as possibilidades da aproximação entre filosofia e ciência.

What exactly are the reasons we do things, and how are they related to the resulting actions? Bittner explores this question and proposes an answer: a reason is a response to that state of affairs. Elegantly written, this work is a substantial contribution to the fields of rationality, ethics, and action theory.

1 Grasping Properties I will present an argument for property dualism. The argument employs a distinction between having a concept of a property and grasping a property via a concept. If you grasp a property P via a concept C, then C is a concept of P. But the reverse does not hold: you may have a concept of a property without grasping that property via any concept. If you grasp a property, then your cognitive relation to that property is (...) more intimate then if you just have some concept or other of that property. To grasp a property is to understand what having that property essentially consists in. (shrink)

Inhalt Einfuhrung - Staat im Wandel. Rudiger Voigt zum 65. Geburtstag I. Konzeptualisierung und Systematisierung von Staatswandel Ralf Walkenhaus: Entwicklungslinien moderner Staatlichkeit.

Der Staat hat die politische Moderne wie keine andere Institution und Ordnungsidee gepragt. Als eine Herrschaftsformation, die sich standig an die Umweltbedingungen anpasst, ist ihm die Funktionalitat des Wandels quasi institutionell in die Wiege gelegt. Dennoch ist der Nationalstaat im Prozess der Globalisierung und Europaisierung als Entgrenzung von Herrschaftsraumen der groae Verlierer geworden: Legitimations-, Souveranitats- und Steuerungsprobleme sind die Folge. Der Band erfasst den Staatswandel auf politik- und verwaltungswissenschaftlicher, geschichtswissenschaftlicher, soziologischer und offentlich-rechtlicher Ebene. Dabei behandeln die Beitrage exemplarisch Politikfelder wie (...) Soziales, Wirtschaft, Umwelt, Bildung, Wissenschaft und Verwaltung und bieten so ein breites Forum interdisziplinarer Staatsforschung. Inhalt Einfuehrung - Staat im Wandel. Ruediger Voigt zum 65. Geburtstag I. Konzeptualisierung und Systematisierung von Staatswandel Ralf Walkenhaus: Entwicklungslinien moderner Staatlichkeit. Konzeptualisierungsprobleme des Staatswandels Peter Nahamowitz: Themenkonjunkturen der Politikwissenschaft als Indikatoren fuer nachhaltige Veranderungen der Staatlichkeit in Deutschland? Zugleich ein Nachruf auf die okonomische Globalisierung II. Staatliche Steuerung in einzelnen Politikfeldern Nicolai Dose: Der informierende Staat: Information als Instrument staatlicher Steuerung Lutz R. Reuter: Zum Wandel des staatlichen Handelns im Bildungswesen Helmuth Schulze-Fielitz: Staatliche Wissenschaftssteuerung als organisations- und verfahrensrechtliche Aufgabe Dietrich Fuerst: Der Beitrag der Regionalplanung zur nachhaltigen Entwicklung. Eine steuerungstheoretische Perspektive Erhard Treutner: Staat und nachhaltige Entwicklung. Zur Bedeutung staatlicher Steuerung fuer Prozesse nachhaltiger Entwicklung III. Einzelaspekte Emanual Richter: Zur Rekonstruktion der Kategorie aNachhaltigkeito Stefan Machura: Der Einfluss der Parteien auf die dritte Gewalt Axel Gorlitz / Oliver Sigrist: Des Staates neue Kleider. Demokratie- und Rechtsstaatsdefizite der Verwaltungsreformkonzepte Peter Nitschke: Die Reterritorialisierung Europas auf subnationaler Identitatsebene. Uberlegungen zu einer Rekonstruktion der Theorie des apolitischen Raumeso Klaus A. Ziegert: Weltgesellschaft und Nationalstaat im 21. Jahrhundert. Eine rechtssoziologische Analyse Michael Staack: Multilateralismus, Unilateralismus und das Volkerrecht. Deutschland und die aBush-Revolutiono IV. Historische Bezuege Otwin Massing: Der (europaische) Praambelgott. Fetisch, sakralisierende Uberhohung oder Skandalon? Uber den Atavismus politischer Symbolsprache in amoderneno Staaten Rainer S. Elkar: Die Meister des Staates. Vom Scheitern und von der Aktualitat des Korporatismus Walter Demel: Verwaltung in China und Japan aus der Sicht des fruehneuzeitlichen Europa Georg-Christoph von Unruh: Widerstandsrecht und Widerstandspflicht Verzeichnis der Publikationen von Ruediger Voigt Verzeichnis der Doktoranden und Habilitanden von Ruediger Voigt Verzeichnis der Autoren. (shrink)