The article argues that it is important to offer children ideals. Ideals are defined as imagined excellences, which are so desirable that people will try to actualise them. These characteristics show the importance of ideals for people: ideals give direction and meaning to their lives. The motivating power of ideals can, however, also lead to fanaticism. Education should therefore involve several worthy ideals that children can commit themselves to as well as critical reflection on the ways in which people are (...) committed to and try to actualise them. (shrink)

I put forward four these concerning phenomenologically clarifying criteria to characterise social entities. The first thesis maintains that social entities have a sui generis ontological status: unlike natural and ideal entities, social entities depend existentially on individuals’ intentionality and are specifically normative entities. The second thesis claims that social entities existentially depend on heterotropic intentionality – i.e. on intentionality that involves at least two individuals –, and not on solitary intentionality. The third thesis identifies at least three different types of (...) heterotropic intentionality: collective, social and intersubjective intentionality. The fourth thesis states that all three types of heterotropic intentionality are effective: they create social entities, even if each of them creates social entities of different kinds. (shrink)

A review of the chemical education research literature suggests that the term constructivism is used in two ways: experience-based constructivism and discipline-based constructivism. These two perspectives are examined as an epistemology in relation to the teaching and learning of the concept of idealization in chemistry. It is claimed that experience-based constructivism is powerless to inform the origin of such concepts in chemistry and while discipline-based constructivism can admit such theoretical concepts as idealization it does not offer any unique (...) perspectives that cannot be obtained from other models. Chemical education researchers do not consistently appeal to constructivism as an epistemology or as a teaching/learning perspective and it is shown that, while it draws attention to worthwhile teaching/learning strategies, it cannot be considered as foundational to chemical education research and tends to be used more as an educational label than as an undergirding theory. (shrink)

Public debate on acceptable farm animal husbandry suffers from a confusion of tongues. To clarify positions of various stakeholder groups in their joint search for acceptable solutions, the concept of animal welfare was split up into three notions: no suffering, respect for intrinsic value, and non-appalling appearance of animals. This strategy was based on the hypothesis that multi-stakeholder solutions should be based on shared values rather than on compromises. The usefulness of such an artificial value distinction strategy was tested in (...) a small series of experiments. The results demonstrate that the chosen concept to distinguish between values is effective in a stakeholder context. Farmers’ views on doing good to animals appeared to be largely based on their value to prevent suffering and predominantly focused on the provision of regular care. Their priority for this value is clearly shared with other stakeholders, providing a basis for joint solutions. The concept of intrinsic value does not play a discernable role in farmers’ considerations. Based on the varying views on welfare, it can be inferred that there is a gradual rather than a principal difference between government legislation and farmers’ values, whereas public perception and acceptance of farm practices remains complicated. Distinction between value groups and focusing on a selected notion (such as no suffering) proved to be effective in bringing representatives of stakeholder groups together, but is unlikely to bridge the emotional gap between commercial farm practices and public ideals. (shrink)

A review of the chemical education research literature suggests that the term constructivism is used in two ways: experience-based constructivism and discipline-based constructivism. These two perspectives are examined as an epistemology in relation to the teaching and learning of the concept of idealization in chemistry. It is claimed that experience-based constructivism is powerless to inform the origin of such concepts in chemistry and while discipline-based constructivism can admit such theoretical concepts as idealization it does not offer any unique (...) perspectives that cannot be obtained from other models. Chemical education researchers do not consistently appeal to constructivism as an epistemology or as a teaching/learning perspective and it is shown that, while it draws attention to worthwhile teaching/learning strategies, it cannot be considered as foundational to chemical education research and tends to be used more as an educational label than as an undergirding theory. (shrink)

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's spiritual masterpiece, The Divine Milieu, in a newly-revised translation by Siôn Cowell, is addressed to those who have lost faith in conventional religion but who still have a sense of the divine at the heart of the cosmos. "The heavens declare the glory of God," sings the Psalmist. Teilhard would agree. "We are surrounded," he says, "by a certain sort of pessimist who tells us continually that our world is foundering in atheism. But should we not (...) say rather that what it is suffering from is unsatisfied theism?" He sees a universe in movement where progress is the spiritualisation of matter and its opposite is the materialisation of spirit. Teilhard opts for progress. The Divine Milieu is both the divine centre and the divine circle, the divine heart and the divine sphere. The Divine Milieu is an essay on the notion of grace. It is written for those who listen primarily to the voices of the Earth: its purpose is to provide a link to traditional Christianity (as expressed in Baptism, Cross and Eucharist) in order to demonstrate that the fears prevalent in contemporary world society as it abuses its very foundation - Mother Earth - may be better understood by the Gospel path. Teilhard's primary purpose is to show a way forward which he sees as the "Christian religious ideal". (shrink)

The argument from inductive risk has been embraced by many as a successful account of the role of values in science that challenges the value-free ideal. We argue that it is not obvious that the argument from inductive risk actually undermines the value-free ideal. This is because the inductive risk argument endorses an assumption held by proponents of the value-free ideal: that contextual values never play an appropriate role in determining evidence. We show that challenging the value-free ideal ultimately requires (...) rejecting this assumption. (shrink)

This chapter describes how philosophical theorizing about justice can be connected with empirical research in the social sciences. We begin by drawing on some received distinctions between ideal and non-ideal approaches to theorizing justice along several different dimensions, showing how non-ideal approaches are needed to address normative aspects of real-world problems and to provide practical guidance. We argue that there are advantages to a transitional approach to justice focusing on manifest injustices, including the fact that it enables us to set (...) aside some reasonable disagreements about justice. The ‘bottom-up’ approach we advocate, for which we borrow Wolff’s term ‘real-world political philosophy’, is an empirically-informed normative analysis that attends to specific, identifiable injustices, and thus is partial, though not isolationist. We illustrate our approach by considering how different models of the nature of disability suggest different kinds of remedy for injustices faced by persons living with disabilities. We reflect on the nature and significance of vulnerabilities, and we assess the role of public opinion in normative theorizing, suggesting a particular significance for the opinions and experiences of marginalized groups. We finally reflect on the relevance of European legal and institutional frameworks for theorizing justice in Europe. (shrink)

Examples are presented of Aristotle’s use of non-idealized mathematics. Distinctions Husserl makes in Crisis help to delineate the features of this empiricalmathematics, which include the non-persistence of mathematical aspects of things and the selective application of mathematical traits and proper accidents. In antiquity, non-abstracted mathematics was involved with practical sciences that treat motion. The suggestion is made that these sciences were incorporated by Aristotle into natural philosophy without first being abstracted as pure mathematics—a state of affairs not envisioned by Husserl, (...) for whom science recast natural ontology by means of the idealization of pure mathematics. The relation of empirical mathematics to life-world ontology is considered. (shrink)

In this article we aim to open a new line of debate about religion in public schools by focusing on religious ideals. We begin with an elucidation of the concept ‘religious ideals’ and an explanation of the notion of reasonable pluralism, in order to be able to explore the dangers and positive contributions of religious ideals and their pursuit on a liberal democratic society. We draw our examples of religious ideals from Christianity and Islam, because these religions have most adherents (...) in Western liberal democracies that are the focus of this article. The fifth and most important section ‘‘Reasonable pluralism and the inclusion of religious ideals in public secondary schools’’ provides three arguments for our claim that public schools should include religious ideals, namely that they are important to religious people, that they are conducive for the development of pupils into citizens of a liberal democracy, and that the flourishing of pupils as adults is advanced by encountering religious ideals. We also offer a more practical reason: religious ideals can more easily be included within public education than religious dogmas and rules. (shrink)

In this paper we present a new framework of idealization in biology. We characterize idealizations as a network of counterfactual and hypothetical conditionals that can exhibit different “degrees of contingency”. We use this idea to say that, in departing more or less from the actual world, idealizations can serve numerous epistemic, methodological or heuristic purposes within scientific research. We defend that, in part, this structure explains why idealizations, despite being deformations of reality, are so successful in scientific practice. For (...) illustrative purposes, we provide an example from population genetics, the Wright-Fisher Model. (shrink)

Latin American religious political thought includes colonial Spanish and Portuguese ideologies that preceded independence but have survived into the post-independence era, authoritarian ideologies supportive of military governments in the twentieth century, and progressive liberation theologies. In this article, I present a distinct tradition: a version of classical liberal thought. This tradition is skeptical of big government, opposed to caste systems, supportive of a high degree of federalism, uneasy with militarism, and supportive of democratic institutions while affirming religious social norms. This (...) ideology was developed in northeastern Brazil in the early nineteenth century by a Carmelite activist named Frei Caneca (Brother Mug), who published a newspaper titled the Typhis Pernambucano (Tiphys of the State of Pernambuco). (shrink)

Las siguientes páginas versan sobre la idea de democracia en la obra de José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955), mostrando el giro que se produce en su pensamiento. De ideal ético o imperativo moral, la democracia pasa a ser considerada por el filósofo español un “ideal” político en su obra de madurez intelectual. En su mocedad, un Ortega Moderno concibe la democracia en un sentido ilustrado, es decir, como ideal, como labor de cultura y como imperativo moral, mostrando su deuda con (...) la filosofía práctica de Kant, y vinculando aquella a la idea de comunidad (gemeinschaft), afirmando en 1909 lo siguiente: socialización de la cultura, comunidad del trabajo, resurrección de la moral: esto significa para mí democracia. En un segundo momento, y toda vez que Ortega ha perdido su fe viva en la Modernidad y en el ideal ético de mocedad, comenzará a dialogar con la tradición del pensamiento político liberal occidental, concibiendo la democracia principalmente como una norma de derecho político, así como alertando de sus posibles excesos o desvaríos. (shrink)

In this paper we present a new framework of idealization in biology. We characterize idealizations as a network of counterfactual and hypothetical conditionals that can exhibit different "degrees of contingency". We use this idea to say that, in departing more or less from the actual world, idealizations can serve numerous epistemic, methodological or heuristic purposes within scientific research. We defend that, in part, this structure explains why idealizations, despite being deformations of reality, are so successful in scientific practice. For (...) illustrative purposes, we provide an example from population genetics, the Wright-Fisher Model. (shrink)

A partir do pensamento filosófico, podemos ver o homem apregoando juízos de valores a determinadas formas de conduta dentro da sociedade, ou seja, julgar se determinada coisa é boa, ruim, agradável, desagradável, bonito, feio, etc. E entre esses vários juízos de valores podemos distinguir o juízo moral e o estético. Como nosso trabalho está baseado no juízo estético, falaremos do ideal de beleza na arte grega e das demonstrações de preocupação com a modalidade corporal e com as percepções sobre os (...) detalhes do corpo que os artistas gregos tinham, reveladas através de uma estética da beleza que deveria ser refletida nas obras escultóricas. (shrink)

En su exposición Marcelo Boeri aborda el problema de la “utopía” política de Platón a partir de una reconstrucción argumentativa según la cual el significado del “ser posible” de la “ciudad ideal” descrita en la República puede ser comprendido a partir del recurso a la relación entre el paradigma y su copia. Sin embargo, la siguiente consideración, no se centrará en una evaluación de esta estrategia hermenéutica, sino, más bien, en ciertas suposiciones y afirmaciones que resultan difícilmente aceptables o, al (...) menos, muy discutibles. Esto es importante, puesto que, en cierto modo, el enfoque total del problema pierde claridad. (shrink)

The content and boundaries of moral education the state may require schools to offer is a matter of contention. This article investigates whether the state may obligate schools to promote the pursuit of moral ideals. Moral ideals refer to (a cluster of) characteristics of a person as well as to situations or states that are believed to be morally excellent or perfect and that are not yet realised. Having an ideal typically means that the person is dedicated to realising the (...) type of situation or person to which the ideal refers. Therefore generating student enthusiasm for moral ideals may be an effective way to realise a morally excellent society. This article defends the position that schools may be required to promote the recognition of ideals that all reasonable citizens endorse. Reasonable citizens will not, however, accept that the state obligates schools to promote the pursuit of moral ideals. (shrink)

What role do nurses play in euthanasia? How do they experience this role and what should be their ideal role? These are the questions of a study undertaken to gain insight into the role of nurses in euthanasia. Answers to these questions were derived from 20 semistructured in-depth interviews with nurses employed in a Dutch hospital. To make clear the role of nurses in euthanasia, the issue was split up into four phases: observation of a request for euthanasia; decision making; (...) carrying out of the request; and after-care. This article is a brief report on the most important results regarding these four phases. Special attention will be paid to nurses who have conscientious objections. To evaluate the study results, an unambiguous interpretation of the concept of ‘euthanasia’ is of most importance. For that reason, Dutch laws and other regulations concerning euthanasia will be explained. (shrink)

In this article, we offer a detailed study of two important episodes in the early history of high-energy physics, namely the development of the Chew and the Nambu-Jona-Lasinio models. Our study reveals that both models resulted from the combination of an old Hamiltonian, which had been introduced by earlier researchers, and two new approximation methods developed by Chew and by Nambu and Jona-Lasinio. These new approximation methods, furthermore, were the key component behind the models’ success. We take this historical investigation (...) to support two philosophical theses about the manner in which scientific modelling operates in high-energy physics. Both of these theses run counter to a view that is commonly accepted among philosophers of science: the view that all approximations can be embedded within an equivalent idealized system, and that whatever role the former might play in scientific modelling is therefore parasitic on the much more substantial work performed by the latter. Our first thesis, which we call “Distinctness,” states that approximation methods constitute an independent category of theoretical output from idealized systems. We thus believe that approximations and idealized systems constitute two independent types of objects, both of which are essential to the practice of modelling. Our second, more radical thesis is called “Content Determination.” Our claim here is that approximation methods can in fact be essential to assigning determinate physical content to the idealized systems with which they jointly operate. As we show, this is due to the fact that quantum field theory allows for a very thin characterization of idealized systems only, making the use of approximations necessary to supply additional content. We conclude the paper with a few reflections about the manner in which our two theses can be used to articulate David Kaiser’s views on the “vanishing of scientific theory” in physics after WWII. (shrink)

It is often claimed—especially by scientific realists—that science provides understanding of the world only if its theories are (at least approximately) true descriptions of reality, in its observable as well as unobservable aspects. This paper critically examines this ‘realist thesis’ concerning understanding. A crucial problem for the realist thesis is that (as study of the history and practice of science reveals) understanding is frequently obtained via theories and models that appear to be highly unrealistic or even completely fictional. So we (...) face the dilemma of either giving up the realist thesis that understanding requires truth, or allowing for the possibility that in many if not all practical cases we do not have scientific understanding. I will argue that the first horn is preferable: the link between understanding and truth can be severed. This becomes a live option if we abandon the traditional view that scientific understanding is a special type of knowledge. While this view implies that understanding must be factive, I avoid this implication by identifying understanding with a skill rather than with knowledge. I will develop the idea that understanding phenomena consists in the ability to use a theory to generate predictions of the target system’s behavior. This implies that the crucial condition for understanding is not truth but intelligibility of the theory, where intelligibility is defined as the value that scientists attribute to the theoretical virtues that facilitate the construction of models of the phenomena. I will show, first, that my account accords with the way practicing scientists conceive of understanding, and second, that it allows for the use of idealized or fictional models and theories in achieving understanding. (shrink)

Grecia y nosotros.--Ideales de la vida humana en la antigua Grecia.--El guerrero tirteico.--Héroe griego y santo cristiano.

O artigo defende a tese da necessidade de uma base normativa nacional no Brasil acerca das normas de conduta ético-social do pesquisador objetivando regulamentar, prevenir e punir os desvios na execução de produções acadêmicas e comportamentos antiéticos de docentes e discentes. O ideal é que a base normativa não permaneça dependente dos Fundos de Amparo à Pesquisa apenas dos entes federativos ou de instituições isoladas.

Este trabajo de investigación versa sobre la ética de la virtud en la obra de José Ortega y Gasset, mostrando su contribución a una tradición con dos grandes momentos: el kantiano y el aristotélico. En sus inicios, Ortega refiere las virtudes al campo de la ciencia y de la moral —la moral como ciencia dirá Ortega en referencia a Kant—, aunque también al campo de la política rescatando la idea aristotélica de comunidad. En un segundo periodo de su pensamiento, su (...) idea de virtud ya no responderá a ningún ideal científico o deber ser moral y político, así como tampoco la referirá Ortega al ámbito de la comunidad de la misma manera en que lo hacía en su mocedad, sino a un orden ético vital y estimativo donde prevalece la posición del individuo. (shrink)

Throughout more than two millennia philosophers adhered massively to ideal standards of scientific rationality going back ultimately to Aristotle’s Analytica posteriora . These standards got progressively shaped by and adapted to new scientific needs and tendencies. Nevertheless, a core of conditions capturing the fundamentals of what a proper science should look like remained remarkably constant all along. Call this cluster of conditions the Classical Model of Science . In this paper we will do two things. First of all, we will (...) propose a general and systematized account of the Classical Model of Science. Secondly, we will offer an analysis of the philosophical significance of this model at different historical junctures by giving an overview of the connections it has had with a number of important topics. The latter include the analytic-synthetic distinction, the axiomatic method, the hierarchical order of sciences and the status of logic as a science. Our claim is that particularly fruitful insights are gained by seeing themes such as these against the background of the Classical Model of Science. In an appendix we deal with the historiographical background of this model by considering the systematizations of Aristotle’s theory of science offered by Heinrich Scholz, and in his footsteps by Evert W. Beth. (shrink)

Philosophy of science has undergone a naturalistic turn, moving away from traditional idealized concerns with the logical structure of scientific theories and toward focusing on real-world scientific practice, especially in domains such as modeling and experimentation. As part of this shift, recent work has explored how the project of philosophically understanding science as a natural phenomenon can be enriched by drawing from different fields and disciplines, including niche construction theory in evolutionary biology, on the one hand, and ecological and enactive (...) views in embodied cognitive science, on the other. But these insights have so far been explored in separation from each other, without clear indication of whether they can work together. Moreover, the focus on particular practices, however insightful, has tended to lack consideration of potential further implications for a naturalized understanding of science as a whole (i.e., above and beyond those particular practices). Motivated by these developments, here we sketch a broad-ranging view of science, scientific practice and scientific knowledge in terms of ecological-enactive co-construction. The view we propose situates science in the biological, evolutionary context of human embodied cognitive activity aimed at addressing the demands of life. This motivates reframing theory as practice, and reconceptualizing scientific knowledge in ecological terms, as relational and world-involving. Our view also brings to the forefront of attention the fundamental link between ideas about the nature of mind, of science and of nature itself, which we explore by outlining how our proposal differs from more conservative, and narrower, conceptions of “cognitive niche construction.”. (shrink)

Por que a teoria política normativa voltada para questões de justiça social e política deveria se ocupar de princípios no âmbito daquilo que John Rawls denominou “teoria ideal”, em contraste com a “teoria não ideal” da justiça? Será que necessitamos desenvolver e refinar uma teoria ideal da justiça para determinar o que a justiça requer nas condições não ideais com as quais no defrontamos? Será que a “teoria ideal” da justiça é capaz de orientar a ação – decisões políticas e (...) escolhas institucionais – em condições não ideais? Se a resposta para essas duas perguntas for “não”, então deveríamos acima de tudo nos empenhar em desenvolver uma teoria não ideal da justiça. Nas versões mais fortes dessa objeção, como a de Amartya Sen em The Ideia of Justice, podemos dispensar inteiramente a teoria ideal da justiça. Contra essa linha de objeção, que também é sustentada, de formas distintas, por autores como Onora O’Neill, Colin Farrelly e Charles Mills, este artigo desenvolve uma argumentação em duas etapas. Em primeiro lugar, sustenta-se que há razões para valorizar a teorização ideal que são independentes da relação que possa ter com a teoria não ideal. Em uma segunda etapa, sustenta-se que a teoria ideal da justiça, embora deixe enorme quantidade de trabalho (empírico e normativo) a ser feito, é imprescindível para determinar o que a justiça requer de nós aqui e agora. (shrink)

El papel de filosofía y humanidades en forjar un “ideal de humanidad” se refiere no sólo a las difíciles relaciones que éstas tradicionalmente han tenido con los poderes mundanos, sino, sobre todo, a su papel protagónico como guías de un ideal de humanidad y valores espirituales en tiempos de crisis. Kant defendió el papel de los ideales racionales de la “facultad de filosofía” a fines del s. XVIII, ante la teología, el derecho y la medicina. La reflexión de Fichte cuando (...) la nación alemana luchaba por su existencia luego de su derrota por los ejércitos napoleónicos a inicios del s. XIX, da un impulso decisivo a los valores del idealismo alemán. Un siglo después, ante la misma nación alemana, nuevamente derrotada en la primera guerra mundial y sin hallar respuestas a su aflicción en las ciencias exactas ni en su cultura determinada por la técnica, Husserl ve en “el ideal de Humanidad de Fichte” la respuesta a aquello que puede darle su ultima satisfacción: la producción teleológica de un mundo humano, en el que pueda realizarse un orden mundial moral, único fin, fundamento y valor absoluto de la humanidad. Hoy nos hallamos en otro momento de peligro: no sólo el del positivismo naturalista desplazando desde el s. XIX a la formación humanística. El mayor de los peligros es ahora la alianza de ese naturalismo con el mundo globalizado del presente, bajo el imperio de la estan-darización burocrática y corporativa al servicio de la producción desenfrenada de dinero.The role of philosophy and the human sciences in forging an “ideal of humanity” concerns not only the tensions that they traditionally have had with worldly powers. It mostly deals with their primal role as guides of an ideal of humanity and spiritual values in times of crisis. Kant defended the central role of the “Faculty of Philosophy”’s rational ideals by the end of the 18th century, as opposed to Theology, Jurisprudence and Medicine. Fichte’s reflection when the German nation was fighting for its survival after its defeat by the Napoleonic armies at the beginning of the 19th century, gives a decisive impulse to the values brandished by German Idealism. A century later, facing the same German nation newly defeated at World War I, and without any answers to its affliction either in exact sciences nor in its culture determined by technology, Husserl finds in “Fichte’s Ideal of Humanity“ the answer to that which can give it its lasting satisfaction: the teleological production of a human world, in which a world moral order may arise, as humanity’s sole goal, foundation, and absolute value. Today we find ourselves in another moment of danger: not only that of a naturalistic positivism displacing a humanistic education. The greatest of all dangers is currently the alliance of this naturalism with the Golden calf installed in the globalized world of today, under the empire of the bureaucratic and corporative standardization at the service of the frenzied production of money. (shrink)

Este trabajo intenta analizar las tensiones e interrelaciones entre el paradigma del reconocimiento y el paradigma de la redistribución. En concreto se analiza críticamente la obra de Nancy Frazer. En este sentido, se propone el paradigma de la inclusión, para un tercer ámbito, el de la política. Este paradigma se basaría en el ideal de la igual dignidad y la tricotomía inclusión/exclusión/participación. También se plantean reservas a la noción de paridad participativa, que según Fraser, hace conmensurables todas las demandas de (...) justicia. La conclusión es que redistribución y reconocimiento son irreductibles, están interrelacionados y en tensión. Para los casos de soluciones contrapuestas, se propone la noción de inconmensurabilidad que sostienen los defensores del pluralismo de valores -Berlin,Gray-. En casos de conflicto, redistribución y reconocimiento abocarían a una respuesta similar a cómo se debería resolver un dilema. (shrink)

Investigar a los buenos profesores es complejo porque se corre el riesgo de generalizar trivializando sus características, por lo mismo, es fundamental no caer en la tentación de pensar que son ideales, puesto que son seres humanos que viven su existencia al igual que cada uno de nosotros, sólo que con compromiso y amor por lo que hacen. Gracias a las historias de vida pudimos entender el proceso de la profesionalización docente, develar sus principales complejidades y señalar tendencias válidas para (...) cualquier profesor que pueden ajustarse con flexibilidad a esos patrones. La construcción analítica nos aportó luces para entender y explicar qué es lo que hace a un profesor un Buen Profesor. Esto es, la valoración del sentido común, la improvisación, la conciencia del cambio, la reflexión y la acción pedagógica. Sus características pueden ser intencionalmente promovidas en las distintas etapas de formación profesional porque tienen la cualidad de generar entusiasmo, contagio con un compromiso pedagógico, social y político por el trabajo bien hecho. (shrink)

This paper analyses the phenomenology and epistemology of chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard. The computational architecture underpinning these chatbots are large language models (LLMs), which are generative AI (Artificial Intelligence) systems trained on a massive dataset of text extracted from the Web. We conceptualise these LLMs as multifunctional computational cognitive artifacts, used for various cognitive tasks such as translating, summarizing, answering questions, information-seeking, and much more. Phenomenologically, LLMs can be experienced as a “quasi-other”; when that happens, users anthropomorphise them. (...) For most users, current LLMs are black boxes, i.e., for the most part, they lack data transparency and algorithmic transparency. They can, however, be phenomenologically and informationally transparent, in which case there is an interactional flow. Anthropomorphising and interactional flow can, in some users, create an attitude of (unwarranted) trust towards the output LLMs generate. We conclude this paper by drawing on the epistemology of trust and testimony to examine the epistemic implications of these dimensions. Whilst LLMs generally generate accurate responses, we observe two epistemic pitfalls. Ideally, users should be able to match the level of trust that they place in LLMs to the degree that LLMs are trustworthy. However, both their data and algorithmic opacity and their phenomenological and informational transparency can make it difficult for users to calibrate their trust correctly. The effects of these limitations are twofold: users may adopt unwarranted attitudes of trust towards the outputs of LLMs (which is particularly problematic when LLMs hallucinate), and the trustworthiness of LLMs may be undermined. (shrink)

Human flourishing is the topic of an increasing number of books and articles in educational philosophy. Flourishing should be regarded as an ideal aim of education. If this is defended, the first step should be to elucidate what is meant by flourishing, and what exactly the concept entails. Listing formal criteria can facilitate reflection on the ideal of flourishing as an aim of education. We took Aristotelian eudaimonia as a prototype to construct two criteria for the concept of human flourishing: (...) human flourishing is regarded as intrinsically worthwhile and flourishing means ‘actualisation of human potential’. The second criterion has three sub-criteria: flourishing is about a whole life, it is a ‘dynamic state’ and flourishing presupposes there being objective goods. (shrink)

Empowerment is a prominent ideal in health promotion. However, the exact meaning of this ideal is often not made explicit. In this paper, we outline an account of empowerment grounded in the human capacity to adapt and adjust to environmental and societal norms without being completely determined by those norms. Our account reveals a tension at the heart of empowerment between (a) the ability of self-governance and (b) the need to adapt and adjust to environmental and societal norms. We address (...) this tension by drawing from the work of Freud, Canguilhem, and Lacan. First, we clarify through a discussion of Freud’s notion of sublimation that it is difficult to assess empowerment independent of any social valuations, but also that it is no less problematic to make it dependent on social valuations alone. Second, we draw from the work of Canguilhem to show how empowerment can be understood in terms of the individual’s capacity to tolerate the aggressions of a multiplicity of environments. Third, using Lacan, we show how empowerment requires incorporation of social and symbolic norms, without necessarily rendering ourselves a mere product of these norms. Finally, we demonstrate how the views of these authors can complement one another, resulting in a more sophisticated understanding of empowerment. (shrink)

In this paper we present a new framework of idealization in biology. We characterize idealizations as a network of counterfactual conditionals that can exhibit different degrees of contingency. We use the idea of possible worlds to say that, in departing more or less from the actual world, idealizations can serve numerous epistemic, methodological or heuristic purposes within scientific research. We defend that, in part, it is this structure what helps explain why idealizations, despite being deformations of reality, are so (...) successful in scientific practice. (shrink)

© © Cambridge University Press 2015. Long-term immigrants often have the option but not the obligation to acquire citizenship in their state of residence. Contrary to the received wisdom, this article defends the idea of mandatory citizenship for immigrants. It suggests that the current asymmetry in the distribution of political obligations between native-born citizens and immigrants is unfair. It also argues that mandatory citizenship is required by the principle that those who persistently affect others should share a democratic setting. Finally, (...) it claims that mandatory citizenship is more compatible with the ideal of democratic equality and more conducive to a stable society. (shrink)

Part of being a good professional is, so we contend, to have ideals. Ideals essentially complement the deontic considerations that are usually taken as the main components of professional moral deliberation. Yet the notion of professional ideals is problematic. As professional ideals they refer to a profession collectively, while as professional ideals they are first of all strong personal commitments of individual professionals. As collective aspirations, professional ideals have a kind of external normative thrust on individual professionals, but people cannot (...) be forced to identify with ideals on demand. Endorsing ideals can only come from within. On the basis of an analysis of ?professional ideals? and ?professional identity?, we conclude that professional ideals are necessary constituents of the personal identity of professionals. This explains the dual character of professional ideals: they are pursued by a collective and constitute the group professional identity but they also need to be endorsed by individual professionals in order to be able to say that the ideals are their own. We end with a short and tentative description of some practical implications for the fostering and education of professional ideals. (shrink)

A partial ordering in the class of observables (∼ positive operator-valued measures, introduced by Davies and by Ludwig) is explored. The ordering is interpreted as a form of nonideality, and it allows one to compare ideal and nonideal versions of the same observable. Optimality is defined as maximality in the sense of the ordering. The framework gives a generalization of the usual (implicit) definition of self-adjoint operators as optimal observables (von Neumann), but it can, in contrast to this latter definition, (...) be justified operationally. The nonideality notion is compared to other quantum estimation theoretic methods. Measures for the amount of nonideality are derived from information theory. (shrink)

Il peut sembler de mauvaise méthode et même de mauvais augure pour la recherche en général de voir un article de plus limiter son propos à la justification du choix, heureux ou malheureux, de son titre. Au risque de décevoir et de perdre les premiers lecteurs, ce pourrait bien être le cas ici : sont mis en relation et même dans une relation privilégiée, celle de types-idéaux distincts de la réalité empirique fluctuante, les concepts de passivité et d?inconscient (en tous (...) les cas de raisonnement inconscient, soit une place très particulière accordée à l?inconscient, comme on va le voir). Or, s?il est sûr que ces concepts ne se recouvrent pas, il n?est pas du tout certain qu?ils se recoupent même a priori. Les lignes qui suivent seront donc consacrées à la jonction possible d?un concept de passivité et d?un concept d?inconscient, jonction qui trouve peut-être sa meilleure occasion dans la psychophysiologie de Wilhelm Wundt. Mais pour qui s?est penché un peu sur ces questions, l?entreprise semble plutôt désespérée. Le premier obstacle, de taille, est le suivant : si l?on entend par passivi­té l?ensemble des activités pré-réflexives de la conscience, il se pourrait fort que la catégorie de la passivité telle qu?elle est élaborée en site empiriste au xix e siècle ne recoupe a priori aucun concept d?inconscient, pour la simple raison qu?elle apparaîtrait dans le cadre de psychologies génétiques qui. (shrink)

Como sabemos, a República de Platão tem como um dos pontos cardinais a busca pela Justiça. Os temas abordados ao longo do diálogo convergem para o desejo do ateniense de construir uma cidade calcada no modelo que ele considera justo. Platão encontra inspiração para seu conteúdo político na Cosntituição de Esparta, formulada pelo legendário legislador Licurgo no século IX a.C.. As semelhanças entre a obra platônica e o conjunto de leis espartanas tornam-se inevitáveis se cotejarmos ambos os textos. A reforma (...) militarista, estabelecida por Licurgo após uma consulta feita ao Oráculo de Delfos, e o pensamento revelado pelo filósofo de Atenas, quatro séculos mais tarde, guardam muitas analogias. (shrink)

RESUMEN La mecánica de Newton fue considerada durante siglos y de manera virtualmente universal como el modelo absoluto del conocimiento científico. Sin embargo, durante el siglo XX, los desarrollos en física suscitaron la necesidad de ampliar el marco conceptual y teórico en torno a aspectos fundamentales como el poder predictivo de los modelos científicos o el rol del observador en la descripción de los fenómenos físicos; esto, a su vez, revitalizó el antiguo debate entre el determinismo y el indeterminismo. En (...) la actualidad, la discusión disciplinaria, lejos de alcanzar un consenso, ha dado lugar a nuevos tipos de preguntas que reflejan un cambio en lo que Cassirer llama el ideal de conocimiento. A partir de una síntesis histórica del debate de las últimas décadas, el presente artículo busca señalar algunas perspectivas contemporáneas del indeterminismo en ciencia. ABSTRACT Newtonian mechanics was for centuries virtually universally regarded as the absolute model of scientific knowledge. However, during the 20th century, developments in physics prompted the need to broaden the conceptual and theoretical framework around fundamental issues such as the predictive power of scientific models or the role of the observer in the description of physical phenomena; this in turn revitalised the long-standing debate between determinism and indeterminism. Today, the disciplinary discussion, far from reaching a consensus, has given rise to new kinds of questions that reflect a change in what Cassirer calls the ideal of knowledge. From a historical synthesis of the debate of the last decades, the present article seeks to point out some contemporary perspectives on indeterminism in science. (shrink)

What is life, and where does it come from? The question is very old, but it reemerged in the seventeenth century with the crisis of the Aristotelian-Galenic paradigm. Matter was now stripped of any impulse and capacity for self-organization; therefore, it was necessary to find something that would take into account the strength and information that it seemed to hold, especially in what were considered vital phenomena. Georg Ernst Stahl and Friedrich Hoffmann, both professors in Halle and responsible for two (...) of the most famous medical systems of the first half of the eighteenth century, offered solutions to the problem that only appear to be very different. The first invoked the soul as an ideal place of production of the energy that allowed the human body to fight the putrefactive forces in the natural world; the second referred to the concept of ether, to which he attributed modes of action basically similar to those that tradition attributed to vegetative and sensitive souls. This paper highlights the positions of the two physicians, setting them in the climate of the revisitation of ancient certainties that characterized natural philosophy in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. (shrink)

In this article Doret J. de Ruyter and Anders Schinkel argue that parents' ideals can enhance children's autonomy, but that they may also have a detrimental effect on the development of children's autonomy. After describing the concept of ideals and elucidating a systems theoretical conception of autonomy, de Ruyter and Schinkel explore the ways in which the ideals of parents may play a role in the development of their children's autonomy. They show that abstract and complex ideals of parents (be (...) it ideals for their children, ideals with regard to their parenthood, or their personal ideals) are most likely to enhance their children's autonomy. They also explain that an authoritative parenting style is most conducive to autonomy, although whether or not it does benefit children's autonomy also depends on the types of ideals pursued by parents. (shrink)

Las siguientes páginas versan sobre la idea de democracia en la obra de José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955), mostrando el _giro_ que se produce en su pensamiento. De ideal ético o imperativo moral, la democracia pasa a ser considerada por el filósofo español un “ideal” político en su obra de madurez intelectual. En su mocedad, un Ortega _Moderno _concibe la democracia en un sentido ilustrado, es decir, como ideal, como labor de cultura y como imperativo moral, mostrando su deuda con (...) la filosofía práctica de Kant, y vinculando aquella a la idea de comunidad (_gemeinschaft_), afirmando en 1909 lo siguiente: _socialización de la cultura, comunidad del trabajo, resurrección de la moral: esto significa para mí democracia._ En un segundo momento, y toda vez que Ortega ha perdido su _fe viva _en la _Modernidad_ y en el ideal ético de mocedad, comenzará a dialogar con la tradición del pensamiento político liberal occidental, concibiendo la democracia principalmente como una norma de derecho político, así como alertando de sus posibles excesos o desvaríos. (shrink)

Hume follows Newton in replacing the mechanical philosophy’s demonstrative ideal of science by the Principia’s ideal of inductive proof ; in this respect, Hume differs sharply from Locke. Hume is also guided by Newton’s own criticisms of the mechanical philosophers’ hypotheses. The first stage of Hume’s skeptical argument concerning causation targets central tenets of the mechanical philosophers’ conception of causation, all of which rely on the a priori postulation of a hidden configuration of primary qualities. The skeptical argument concerning the (...) causal inductive inference then raises doubts about what Hume himself regards as our very best inductive method. Hume’s own “Rules” further substantiate his reliance on Newton. Finally, Locke’s distinction between “Knowledge” and “Probability” does not leave room for Hume’s Newtonian notion of inductive proof. (shrink)

In this article we defend a moral conception of cosmopolitanism and its relevance for moral education. Our moral conception of cosmopolitanism presumes that persons possess an inherent dignity in the Kantian sense and therefore they should be recognised as ends‐in‐themselves. We argue that cosmopolitan ideals can inspire moral educators to awaken and cultivate in their pupils an orientation and inclination to struggle against injustice. Moral cosmopolitanism, in other words, should more explicitly inform the work that moral educators do. Real‐world constraints (...) on moral action and the need to prioritise one’s sometimes conflicting responsibilities will often qualify cosmopolitan justice as supererogatory. This fact does not absolve persons from aspiring to see themselves as having the moral obligation to help others in need, while recognising that their factual obligations are more modest in being bound by what they are actually able to do. (shrink)

This contribution sheds light on the role of infinite idealization in structural analysis, by exploring how infinite elements and finite element methods are combined in civil engineering models. This combination, I claim, should be read in terms of a ‘complementarity function’ through which the representational ideal of completeness is reached in engineering model-building. Taking a cue from Weisberg’s definition of multiple-model idealization, I highlight how infinite idealizations are primarily meant to contribute to the prediction of structural behavior in (...) Multiphysics approaches. (shrink)

The rise of modern natural sciences was based on the belief that knowledge about nature would increase steadily and that sooner or later it would prove useful for people and society. How these expectations shaped the self-image and the development of the natural sciences is the subject of this book. It turns out that expectations have repeatedly changed: from the universal ideal of utility of the 17th and 18th centuries to the promise of technical progress that is decisive today. The (...) unshakable belief in the usefulness of the natural sciences has always been accompanied by the insight that progress in knowledge can only be guaranteed if research is not based solely on short-term needs. In her story of the modern understanding of science, Désirée Schauz draws a bow from early modern natural research to the natural sciences of the 20th century. With its long-term perspective and its conceptual historical instruments, this book not only makes an important contribution to the modern history of science, but also provides a historically sound basis for current debates on science and innovation policy."-- publisher's website. (shrink)

The Immersive Experience of Art: Deception or Emancipation? The immersive experience plays an increasingly important role in the contemporary experience of art. Digital and multimedia technologies are used to make works of art accessible to a broad and diverse audience. In popular discourse, this evolution is often framed in a narrative of democratization and social emancipation through the participation in art. In the background of that narrative resounds the Schillerian ideal of aesthetic Bildung, which regards the experience of beauty as (...) a necessary condition for achieving individual and political freedom. The question, however, is whether the contemporary immersive art experience is not fundamentally different from the pre-digital aesthetic experience, and what the repercussions of this would be for its emancipatory potential. This contribution examines the aesthetic characteristics of the immersive experience, including a case study of the work Sleep by the post-classical composer Max Richter, in order to assess the extent to which the contemporary immersive art experience can be understood as a continuation or, on the contrary, a departure from the Schillerian vision of art. (shrink)