RESUMO O objetivo deste artigo é ressaltar o impacto das manifestações dos sans-culottes nas ruas de Paris entre 1792 e 1794 e da politização do debate público sobre a ideologização de Rousseau. De fato, no teatro da Revolução Francesa a mobilização do povo parisiense representa a referência “real” das discussões e polêmicas que se desenvolvem acerca da soberania e expressão da vontade popular. A este respeito, as divergências na teoria e na publicística lidam basicamente com a questão da legitimidade, da (...) oportunidade e dos efeitos possíveis da ação desse povo - que ocupa as ruas de Paris - sobre os destinos das nações e as formas constitucionais dos Estados europeus. Assim, estes debates desenvolvem-se produzindo confrontações, fraturas e cisões, inclusive no interior da sociedade jacobina, marcando sua radicalização em nome de “Jean-Jacques”. O eco desta identificação reverbera até hoje. Sendo assim, esta experiência continua influenciando nosso imaginário da política, sobretudo em momentos de crise. ABSTRACT This paper aims to analyze the effects of sans-culottes movement and that of politicization of the public sphere during the French Revolution on Rousseau ideologization. Thus, the mobilization of Parisian people represented the real material reference for all discussions on popular sovereignty and expression of popular will. The front line was produced by different interpretations on the legitimacy, opportunity, and possible effects of such mobilization on European Nations’ destinies and their constitutional assets. The development of such debates produced confrontations and scissions within the Jacobinist movement. Jacobinism radicalization was conceived and developed “in the name of Jean-Jacques”. The echo of Jacobinist identification with Rousseau still reverberates in our imaginary. Thus, this experience is still influencing our way of thinking politics. That is the reason why Rousseau comes back on public discussion in times of crisis. (shrink)

This paper aims at criticizing a dominant approach adopted in order to studying the relationship between Fichte and Rousseau. It concerns the tendency to reduce their relationship to the critic that Fichte delivered to Rousseau in the famous fifth lesson of Vocation of the scholar in 1794, and to transform it into its key of exhaustive reading. In our opinion, this hermeneutic approach produces some significant effects of misunderstanding of this problem, for instance the tendency to underline the features of (...) Fichte’s break with the philosophy of the 18th century. The main goal of this contribution is then to understand that critics by the presentation of the strategic challenges of this conference, and thus to show the complexity of Rousseau’s influence on Fichte for the elaboration of his own philosophy in particular for the Vocation of the scholar in 1794.Le but de cet article est de problématiser une approche dominante dans la façon de traiter le rapport entre Fichte et Rousseau. Il s’agit de la tendance à réduire ce rapport à la critique que Fichte livre à Rousseau dans la cinquième conférence de la Destination du savant de 1794 en le transformant en sa clé de lecture exhaustive. De cette approche herméneutique découlent à notre avis des effets significatifs de mésentente, parmi lesquels une emphatisation des traits de rupture de la philosophie de Fichte avec la philosophie du 18ème siècle. Proposant de lire la critique de Rousseau à partir des enjeux stratégiques de cette conférence cet article veut relativiser la portée scientifique de cette critique afin de dégager la richesse et la complexité de l’influence exercée par les différents écrits de Rousseau sur Fichte dans l’élaboration de sa propre philosophie et en particulier en 1794. (shrink)

Resumo: Este artigo pretende pontuar a relevância da presencia de Rousseau no pensamento de Fichte contra a imagem estereotipada da relação entre os dois pensadores. Trata-se, então, de desconstruir a crítica que Fichte dirige a Rousseau na última conferência do ciclo sobre a Vocação do sábio de 1794 a partir dos efeitos que Fichte pretende produzir na audiência. Pois, cabe ressaltar como o objeto dessa critica é um Rousseau caricatural, difundida na audiência alemã pelos trabalhos de Reimarius e Wieland sobre (...) os primeiros dois Discursos e os escritos autobiográficos do autor genebrino. O objetivo principal do trabalho é o de mostrar como por meio dessa diferenciação permite a Fichte integrar subterraneamente motivos rousseauanos destinados a marcar de maneira relevante sua filosofia prática. This article aims at highlighting the relevance of the presence of Rousseau in Fichte’s though against the stereotyped image of their relationship. We deconstruct Fichte’s critics against Rousseau during his last lecture of his Vocation of scholar in 1794. That deconstruction is lead by the effects Fichte aimed to produce on his audience. His goal was to defend himself by the accusation of being a Jacobinist. Then, it has to be showed how the object of his critic is a caricatural image of Rousseau, created and diffused by Wieland and Reimarius by their receptions of Rousseau’s first two Discourses and autobiographic works. The main goal of this work is then to show how Fichte’s differentiation from that caricatural image of Rousseau permits him to integrate Rousseau’s themes aimed to deeply mark his own philosophy. (shrink)

Clanak je proistekao iz studije koja je izvedena u okviru Grupe za materijalisticka istrazivanja, i za cilj ima kritiku neokolonijalne ideoloske matrice koja stoji iza slavnog i kontroverznog govora koji je Nikola Sarkozi odrzao u Dakaru 2007. Stavovi bivseg predsednika Republike Francuske odmah su povezani sa kolonijalnim stereotipima pozvao na ponovno ispitivanje ove stranice istorije. Taj poziv nije toliko upucen francuskoj desnici koliko francuskim i zapadnim elitama uopste. Iako priznaje da je veliki deo africkih politicara ucestvovao u stvaranju haosa na (...) svom kontinentu, u njegovom rasparcavanju i u ratovima koji ga unistavaju, on zeli da se Sarkozijevom govoru suprotstavi recima trojice najznacajnijih predstavnika panafrikanizma: Kvamea Nkrumaha, Patrisa Lumumbe i Tomasa Sankara. Ova tri politicara cvrsto su se suprotstavili neokolonijalnim ekonomskim interesima koji stoje na putu istinske africke nezavisnosti. Povrh toga, treba istaci da su zaboravljanje i potiskivanje patnji koje je donela kolonizacija, a sto je na delu u zapadnim zemljama, znak da je vecina njihovih stanovnistava prihvata stanje stvari u Africi kao nesto sto je na neki nacin prirodno. To precutno prihvatanje predstavlja osnovni uslov svakodnevne reprodukcije pacifikatorskog diskursa nadmocnog zapada. Africke nevolje, otud, svoj uzrok nemaju toliko u stavu africkog coveka, koliko u sistemu ekonomske i ideoloske dominacije koji osiguravaju medjunarodne ustanove poput Ujedinjenih nacija, Svetske banke ili MMF-a. (shrink)

O presente ensaio tem por objetivo contribuir com o debate sobre o valor e universalidade da democracia para a emancipação humana. Propõe pensar a compreensão da universalidade da democracia no enfoque abrangente da cultura argumentativa, a partir de Amartya Sen e Jürgen Habermas. Entende que as abordagens metodológicas, pragmática de um e pragmática formal do outro dos autores são complementares. Nesta perspectiva procura demonstrar que a democracia, além de suas raízes institucionais modernas, vincula-se também a expressões culturais da Índia, África (...) e América pré-colombiana. Portanto não é mera expressão de domínio cultural e político ocidental, mas desenvolvimento de uma tendência profunda de governo mediante a discussão e razão pública. O que permite recepcionar de um ponto de vista mais amplo a contribuição do pensamento de Habermas que explicita o nexo interno entre Justiça, Direitos Humanos e Democracia, na perspectiva procedimental de uma esfera pública crítica com uma racionalidade pública que inclui a todos. Apresenta o desenvolvimento das capacidades políticas e sociais, bem como o papel instrumental da democracia, na construção da compreensão dos direitos e da cultura que permitem o aprendizado, a emancipação e o desenvolvimento da própria identidade. (shrink)

Inhaltsverzeichnis Siglenverzeichnis Christoph Binkelmann: Einleitung Hartmut Traub: J. G. Fichte: Eine Philosophen-Identität zwischen Politik und Wissenschaft Nationale Identität Peter L. Oesterreich: ¿Deutscher Ernst¿. Zu Fichtes rhetorischer Erfindung nationaler Identität Tilman Reitz: Die Nation als geistiger Wirkungsraum der Philosophie. Fichtes kulturpolitische Wende Cristiana Senigaglia: Der Begriff der Nation am Scheideweg: Fichtes ¿Reden¿ und ihre Bedeutung Marco Rampazzo Bazzan: Unter der Konjunktur denken: Fichtes Auseinandersetzung mit Machiavelli Jean-Christophe Goddard: Fichte oder der ständige Aufstand der Ureinwohner Soziale Identität Roberta Picardi: (...) Geschichte und europäische Identität bei Fichte Diogo Ferrer: Fichtes transzendentale Modelle der Geschichte Quentin Landenne: Die Bildungsgesellschaft als Integrationsdynamik der sozialen Perspektiven bei Fichte Cristiana Senigaglia: Freiheitsvollzug und Anerkennungsanspruch. Fichte, Charles Taylor und die heutige Fragestellung Individuelle Identität Christoph Asmuth: Die Unfreiheit einer Stahlfeder. Fichtes Sittenlehre von 1798 Christoph Binkelmann: Das Mehr in mir. Die Willkür in der Identitätsbildung nach Fichte Franziskus v. Heereman: »Als diese Ich sind wir alle Nichts«? Zur Person beim letzten Fichte Rocco Porcheddu: Praktisches Selbstbewusstsein und Autonomie bei Fichte, Frankfurt und Kant Rezensionen Tagungsbericht. (shrink)

InhaltVorwort SiglenverzeichnisWerner Beierwaltes: Zum Tode von Reinhard Lauth am 23. August 2007 Marco Ivaldo: Nachruf auf Reinhard Lauth Wilhelm Lütterfelds: »Ich allein aber verstehe es recht.« Fichtes idealistischer Verstehensbegriff und seine Paradoxie Jean-François Goubet: Über die akademische Freiheit. Analyse eines sittlich, rechtlich und philosophisch grundlegenden Begriffs in Bezug auf Fichtes Antrittsrede zum Rektorenamt im Jahre 1811 Marco Rampazzo Bazzan: Idee und Gesicht in den Fünf Vorlesungen über die Bestimmung des Gelehrten Nina W. Gromyko: Das Transzendieren als (...) grundlegende anthropologische Konstruktion in Fichtes Vorlesungen über die Bestimmung des Gelehrten Valérie Kokoszka: L’Affektenlehre dans la dernière philosophie de Fichte Kaoru Hoshiba: Das Problem der Sprache bei Fichte Martin Siegel: Die Einforderung eines lebendigen Sprachvollzugs als Kennzeichen der späten Wissenschaftslehren FichtesRainer Adolphi: Die Tatsachen der Tathandlung. Über Fichtes implizite Auseinandersetzung mit den Anfängen einer ›anthropologischen‹ Depotenzierung der Vernunft Marina Bykova: Fichte’s Doctrine of the Self-Positing Subject Alexander Kudrjaschew: Die Entfaltung des Fichteschen Erfahrungsgrundes Peter L. Oesterreich: Fichte und die Kunst des PhilosophierensGiorgia Cecchinato: Fichtes Ästhetik. Eigene Reflexionen über Kunst und WissenschaftslehreManuel Jiménez Redondo: Die unzeitgemäße Aktualität Fichtes, aufgezeigt am Beispiel der Beziehung der theoretischen und praktischen Philosophie in seinem SpätwerkFranck Fischbach: De l’acte à l’être: la dernière philosophie de Fichte Marco Ivaldo: Sittlicher »Begriff« als wirklichkeitsbildendes Prinzip in der späten Sittenlehre Katja V. Taver: Interpersonalität. Von den Wolfskindern zu den Thatsachen des Bewusstseyns von 1810/11Ulrich Fritz Wodarzik: Prinzip Liebe – zwischen Natur und Freiheit beim späten FichteAlois K. Soller: Keine moralische Selbstbestimmung im Spätwerk Fichtes. Zur Genese eines VernunftdeterminismusJean-Marie Vaysse: Fichte, penseur de l’actualité. (shrink)

Neste artigo, propõe-se uma leitura das categorias no tratado aristotélico homônimo como um primeiro esboço de uma ontologia regional, centrada nas substâncias sensíveis. Tendo por foco substância, quantidade, qualidade, relativo, agir e sofrer, este trabalho busca expor as duas estratégias principais que Aristóteles parece empregar para chegar a uma lista das categorias: (a) características básicas, cuja satisfação ou não satisfação de cada uma determina a natureza categorial de cada item e (b) a propriedade única que caracteriza cada categoria em contraste (...) com todas as outras. São, então, feitas considerações para vincular esse primeiro esboço ontológico a temas discutidos nos livros Lambda e Zeta da Metafísica, de modo a sugerir as direções principais que a sua ontologia nova (e geral) seguirá ao evoluir para uma teoria unificada da substância. (shrink)

Two of the most well-known belief contraction operators are partial meet contractions (PMCs) and kernel contractions (KCs). In this paper we propose two new classes of contraction operators, namely the class of generalized partial meet contractions (GPMC) and the class of generalized kernel contractions (GKC), which strictly contain the classes of PMCs and of KCs, respectively. We identify some extra conditions that can be added to the definitions of GPMCs and of GKCs, which give rise to some interesting subclasses of (...) those classes of functions, namely the classes of extensional and of uniform GPMCs/GKCs. In the context of contractions on belief sets the classes of partial meet contractions, uniform GPMCs and extensional GPMCs are all identical. Nevertheless, when considered as operations on belief bases, the class of uniform GPMCs coincides with the class of partial meet contractions, but the extensional GPMCs constitute a new kind of belief base contraction functions whose characterizing postulate of irrelevance of syntax is extensionality—the same postulate of irrelevance of syntax which occurs in the classical axiomatic characterization of partial meet contractions for belief sets—rather than the postulate of uniformity—which is the irrelevance of syntax postulate used in the axiomatic characterization for partial meet contractions on belief bases. Analogous results are obtained regarding the classes of extensional and of uniform GKCs. We present the interrelations in the sense of inclusion among all the new classes of operators presented in this paper and several well known classes of PMCs and of KCs. (shrink)

This essay will discuss how the Theory of Communicative Action incorporates the systemic complexification process and the Systems and Life World duality. Part of this process will be carried out with the discussion of communicative action, as a space for dialogue between people seeking understanding. The process of new forms of understanding and construction of knowledge is possible through the integrative structure of the lifeworld, such as semantic dimension, social space, and historical time. However, there is the other side, the (...) Systems, where the manifestations of crisis and disturbances, the pathologies of society, which in cultural reproduction appear as a loss of meaning of culture, loss of legitimacy of society and in personality, there is a crisis of belonging. (shrink)

Why are mistaken beliefs about COVID-19 so prevalent? Political identity, education and other demographic variables explain only part of the differences between people in their susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation. This paper focuses on another explanation: epistemic vice. Epistemic vices are character traits that interfere with acquiring, maintaining, and transmitting knowledge. If the basic assumption of vice epistemology is right, then people with epistemic vices such as indifference to the truth or rigidity in their belief structures will tend to be more (...) susceptible to believing COVID-19 misinformation. We carried out an observational study (US adult sample, n = 998) in which we measured the level of epistemic vice of participants using a novel Epistemic Vice Scale that captures features of the current competing analyses of epistemic vice in the literature. We also asked participants questions eliciting the extent to which they subscribe to myths and misinformation about COVID-19. We find overwhelming evidence to the effect that epistemic vice is associated with susceptibility to COVID-19 misinformation. In fact, the association turns out to be stronger than with political identity, educational attainment, scores on the Cognitive Reflection Test, personality, dogmatism, and need for closure. We conclude that this offers evidence in favor of the empirical presuppositions of vice epistemology. (shrink)

The Oscar Wilde trials (1895) have usually been interpreted either as a historical document which gives insight into the regulation of sexuality in the late nineteenth century, or as literary biography explicating the playwright's life and works. Taking its cue from recent scholarship in ‘law and literature’, and also from Wilde's own conception of the relationship between art and life, this article proposes a reading of the trials which blurs the distinction between legal history and literary criticism by considering them (...) as a form of literature. It argues that the trial transcripts enact and reflect Wilde's vision of what literature is and how it should be read, and as such should be given a place amongst his literary works, alongside such aesthetic manifestos as ‘The Decay of Lying’ and ‘The Critic as Artist’. (shrink)

This article gives a practice-based overview of the implementation aspects of Corporate Responsibility. After discussing the success factors for implementing Corporate Responsibility, the article describes a model for implementing Corporate Responsibility. Special attention is given to the success factors in the subsequent phases of implementation (sensitivity to the organizational environment, awareness of core values and clear leadership), to ensure that the most optimal results attainable for the organization can be reached. The implementation-model is clarified by looking at experiences in implementing (...) Corporate Responsibility at Chiquita. (shrink)

A spatial logic is a formal language interpreted over any class of structures featuring geometrical entities and relations, broadly construed. In the past decade, spatial logics have attracted much attention in response to developments in such diverse fields as Artificial Intelligence, Database Theory, Physics, and Philosophy. The aim of this handbook is to create, for the first time, a systematic account of the field of spatial logic. The book comprises a general introduction, followed by fourteen chapters by invited authors. Each (...) chapter provides a self-contained overview of its topic, describing the principal results obtained to date, explaining the methods used to obtain them, and listing the most important open problems. Jointly, these contributions constitute a comprehensive survey of this rapidly expanding subject. (shrink)

This article gives a practice-based overview of the implementation aspects of Corporate Responsibility. After discussing the success factors for implementing Corporate Responsibility, the article describes a model for implementing Corporate Responsibility. Special attention is given to the success factors in the subsequent phases of implementation (sensitivity to the organizational environment, awareness of core values and clear leadership), to ensure that the most optimal results attainable for the organization can be reached. The implementation-model is clarified by looking at experiences in implementing (...) Corporate Responsibility at Chiquita. (shrink)

We prove that the category of Nachbin’s compact ordered spaces and order-preserving continuous maps between them is dually equivalent to a variety of algebras, with operations of at most countable arity. Furthermore, we observe that the countable bound on the arity is the best possible: the category of compact ordered spaces is not dually equivalent to any variety of finitary algebras. Indeed, the following stronger results hold: the category of compact ordered spaces is not dually equivalent to any finitely accessible (...) category, any first-order definable class of structures, and any class of finitary algebras closed under products and subalgebras. An explicit equational axiomatisation of the dual of the category of compact ordered spaces is obtained; in fact, we provide a finite one, meaning that our description uses only finitely many function symbols and finitely many equational axioms. In preparation for the latter result, we establish a generalisation of a celebrated theorem by Mundici: our result—whose proof is independent of Mundici’s theorem—asserts that the category of unital commutative distributive lattice-ordered monoids is equivalent to the category of what we call MV-monoidal algebras.Abstract taken directly from the thesis.E-mail: marco[email protected]: https://air.unimi.it/retrieve/handle/2434/812809/1698986/phd_unimi_R11882.pdf. (shrink)

Debates on the moral status of human embryos have been highly and continuously controversial. For many, these controversies have turned into a fruitless scholastical endeavor. However, recent developments and insights in cellular biology have cast further doubt on one of the core points of dissent: the argument from potentiality. In this article we want to show in a nonscholastical way why this argument cannot possibly survive. Getting once more into the intricacies of status debates is a must in our eyes. (...) Not merely intellectual coherence but the standing and self-understanding of current stem cell research might profit from finally taking leave of the argument from potentiality. (shrink)

This paper discusses how to define logics as deductive limits of sequences of other logics. The case of da Costa's hierarchy of increasingly weaker paraconsistent calculi, known as $ \mathcal {C}$n, 1 $ \leq$ n $ \leq$ $ \omega$, is carefully studied. The calculus $ \mathcal {C}$$\scriptstyle \omega$, in particular, constitutes no more than a lower deductive bound to this hierarchy and differs considerably from its companions. A long standing problem in the literature (open for more than 35 years) is (...) to define the deductive limit to this hierarchy, that is, its greatest lower deductive bound. The calculus $ \mathcal {C}$min, stronger than $ \mathcal {C}$$\scriptstyle \omega$, is first presented as a step toward this limit. As an alternative to the bivaluation semantics of $ \mathcal {C}$min presented thereupon, possible-translations semantics are then introduced and suggested as the standard technique both to give this calculus a more reasonable semantics and to derive some interesting properties about it. Possible-translations semantics are then used to provide both a semantics and a decision procedure for $ \mathcal {C}$Lim, the real deductive limit of da Costa's hierarchy. Possible-translations semantics also make it possible to characterize a precise sense of duality: as an example, $ \mathcal {D}$min is proposed as the dual to $ \mathcal {C}$min. (shrink)

Interest in _dream_ and _madness_, conceived as the loss of a world shared with others, and the individual’s entry into a private world governed by a personal logic unrelated to the waking state and to common feeling, recurs in at least three of Kant’s works: _Essay on the Diseases of the Head,_ (1764), _Dreams of a Spirit-Seer_ (1766), and _Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View_ (1798). Hegel too, from an early age, showed a strong fascination and a precocious interest (...) in psychopathological matters (states of altered consciousness, prophetic dreams, somnambulism, catalepsy, witchcraft etc.) to which he devoted intriguing reflections in various works from different periods: from the Berne Ms _Philosophy of Subjective Spirit_ (1794/95) to the _Phenomenology _(1807), from the _Philosophical __Propaedeutics_ (1808ff.) to the _Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences_ (1830 3 ). Starting from the remarks of the two philosophers, this paper aims to underline the conceptual links between their thought and that of some renowned psychologists and psychiatrists of the 1800s-1900s (Pinel, Janet, Adler, James, Binswanger, Freud et al.). On the other hand, the paper also seeks to show – within the framework of an idea of _reason_ dating back to Heraclitus (about 544/483 B.C.) – some murky motifs, not always adequately emphasized in the past, found in the figurative and literary works of the late 1700s (e.g. Fuseli’s_ The Nightmare_, Coleridge’s _The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner_, and, in particular, plate Nr. 43 of the _Caprichos _by Goya, _El sueño de la razón produce monstruos_), where there emerges a «dark side» of psychic activity emblematically described as the cryptic relationship between _dream_ and_ madness._. (shrink)

Heterogeneity of Being goes beyond the standard interpretations of Octavio Paz as a thinker of national identity and proposes a radical rethinking of the relationship between literature and philosophy. Dorfsman analyzes how Paz’s “tradition of rupture” properly displays a continuity between self and other, identity and difference, time and space.

From the early 1840s on, Jeremy Bentham’s utilitarian doctrine aroused the joint interest of Marx and Engels, who saw the English philosopher as one of the forerunners of socialism. Later, however, in the various editions (German, French, English) of Book 1 of Capital (1867/90), Bentham would be sarcastically branded by Marx as a “genius of bourgeois stupidity”. In their youth, both Engels and Marx had independently become interested in Bentham’s ideas, admiring some social-ethical themes, seen as heralding interesting developments for (...) the cause of the proletariat. On Engels’s suggestion, Marx included Bentham’s name, alongside those of the major 18th–19th century English and French exponents of protosocialism, in a planned Library of the most outstanding foreign socialist writers (1845), which however remained only a draft. From his first stay in England (1842/44), the young Engels had embraced in particular the famous utilitarian principle of “the greatest happiness of the greatest number” advocated by Bentham. Marx, on the other hand, after initially praising Bentham’s work, which he had read in a French translation during his exile in Paris (1844), harshly criticized the ambiguous implications of this principle. In fact, he believed thatbehind a misleading progressive façade, it constituted the philosophical equivalent of the later economic theory of labour productivity propounded by D. Ricardo in opposition to the theory of its mere quantitative extension put forward by A. Smith. In the London Manuscripts (1861/63) Marx will reveal the affinity betweenBentham’s principle of the happpiness of the greatest number of people, and Ricardo’s assumption of the ineliminable misery of the minority condemned to productive labour. Based on the collection of Marx’s and Engels’s texts (letters, drafts, notebooks, manuscripts, printed works), made available today thanks to the critical edition by MEGA1, this paper sets out to re-examine, im großen und ganzen, the main moments in their critique of Bentham’s Utilitarianism. (shrink)

This novel contributed volume advances the current debate on free will by bridging the divide between analytic and historically oriented approaches to the problem. With thirteen chapters by leading academics in the field, the volume is divided into three parts: free will and determinism, free will and indeterminism, and free will and moral responsibility. The contributors aim to initiate a philosophical discourse that profits from a combination of the two approaches. On the one hand, the analytic tools familiar from the (...) debate – arguments, concepts, and distinctions – can be used to sharpen our understanding of classical philosophical positions. On the other hand, the rich philosophical tradition can be reconstructed so as to inspire new solutions. In recent years, the problem of free will has received special attention in the analytic arena. This is the first anthology to combine historical and analytic perspectives, significantly furthering the debate, and providing a crucial resource to academics and advanced students alike. (shrink)

In this paper, I try to show that Kripke’s proposed solution to the problem of negative existentials fails. I try to show that Kripke’s proposal fails because it entails that anybody who has good reasons to believe that there are no propositions has also good reasons to believe that he or she does not exist. However, there were philosophers who had good reasons to believe that there are no propositions even though they didn’t have good reasons to believe that they (...) do not exist. I conclude that Kripke’s proposed solution to the problem of negative existentials fails. (shrink)

Abstract. This paper argues that the “Argument from Moral Peer Disagreement” fails to make a case for widespread moral skepticism. The main reason for this is that the argument rests on a too strong assumption about the normative significance of peer disagreement (and higher-order evidence more generally). In order to demonstrate this, I distinguish two competing ways in which one might explain higher-order defeat. According to what I call the “Objective Defeat Explanation” it is the mere possession of higher-order evidence (...) that explains defeat. I argue that this type of explanation is problematic and that it at best collapses into another explanation I call the “Subjective Defeat Explanation”. According to this explanation, it is coming to believe that one’s belief fails to be rational that explains defeat. Then I go on to argue that the Subjective Defeat Explanation is able to provide a straightforward explanation of higher-order defeat but that it entails that peer disagreement (and higher-order evidence more generally) only contingently gives rise to defeat, and importantly, that the condition it is contingent upon is very often not satisfied when it comes to moral peer disagreement specifically. As a result, it appears that moral knowledge is seldom threatened by moral peer disagreement. (shrink)

In Husserlian scholarship it is common to characterize Husserl’s early analyses in the Philosophy of Arithmetic as an epistemology without a subject. The article questions this reading. First, I introduce the method used by Husserl in his analyses of the concept of number in the Philosophy of Arithmetic. Second, I outline Husserl’s critique of Kant’s conception of synthesis and contrast it with its phenomenological alternative, namely relation theory. Finally, I focus on the product of synthesis, that is, the number, and (...) argue that even if Husserl’s early analyses of the concept of number contains a reference to the subject of synthesis, his theory cannot be regarded as psychologistic. (shrink)

Recent work has formally linked the traditional axiomatisation of incomplete preferences à la Anscombe-Aumann with the theory of desirability developed in the context of imprecise probability, by showing in particular that they are the very same theory. The equivalence has been established under the constraint that the set of possible prizes is finite. In this paper, we relax such a constraint, thus de facto creating one of the most general theories of rationality and decision making available today. We provide the (...) theory with a sound interpretation and with basic notions, and results, for the separation of beliefs and values, and for the case of complete preferences. Moreover, we discuss the role of conglomerability for the presented theory, arguing that it should be a rationality requirement under very broad conditions. (shrink)