In the past decade, experimental philosophy---the attempt at making progress on philosophical problems using empirical methods---has thrived in a wide range of domains. However, only in recent years has aesthetics succeeded in drawing the attention of experimental philosophers. The present paper constitutes the first survey of these works and of the nascent field of 'experimental philosophy of aesthetics'. We present both recent experimental works by philosophers on topics such as the ontology of aesthetics, aesthetic epistemology, aesthetic concepts, and imagination, as (...) well as research from other disciplines that not only are relevant to philosophy of aesthetics but also open new avenues of research for experimental philosophy of aesthetics. Overall, we conclude that the birth of an experimental philosophy of aesthetics is good news not only for aesthetics but also for experimental philosophy itself, as it contributes to broaden the scope of experimental philosophy. (shrink)

Será que o conhecimento pode ser transmitido de forma representacional, por meio de uma explicação, sem que aquele que aprende faça uma experiência por si só daquilo que aprende? Este artigo, amparando-se no pensamento de Hume, Deleuze, Rancière e Gallo, pretende mostrar que somente a experiência com o objeto pode promover a aprendizagem efetiva, violentando o pensamento para que este busque por si só seu sentido e forme sua própria apreensão.

La temática de este artículo se centra en la importancia, tanto ontológica como política, de un concepto esencial en el pensamiento de Gilles Deleuze: el «Porvenir». El porvenir deleuzeano no consiste estrictamente en el futuro ya que si este último concepto apela a una temporalidad cronológica, el de porvenir hace intervenir el devenir inmanente y una coexistencia con el presente que es necesaria también en política y en arte en orden a plantear el concepto, también deleuzeano, de «un pueblo por (...) venir». (shrink)

En este artículo se abordará una problemática doble e íntimamente relacionada. Por un lado, encontramos en la academia, y en muchos de los planes gubernamentales de investigación, una llamada a la interdisciplinariedad pero, paradójicamente, ésta queda sancionada negativamente múltiples veces como podemos notar, por ejemplo y en la actualidad, en la cuestión del bioarte. La filosofía padece esta sanción también pues en una de sus zonas ya es multidisciplinar y parece carecer de función propia a la vez que, en otra (...) de sus facetas, se encierra en un papel de exceso de purismo. En ambos casos, y rastreando el pensamiento de Gilles Deleuze y Félix Guattari, notamos que la filosofía se sitúa, dentro del mapa de la academia y los saberes en general en un lugar declinante por las dos razones: en una de sus actividades porque es flexible y articulada y, en otra de ellas, debido a su “tono de distinción” el cual la lleva a pretenderse muchas veces como tribunal bajo el paradigma del sabio y no como un saber activo y productivo. Al hilo de este diagnóstico esbozaremos la importancia de renombrar la categoría de “contaminación” con los pensamientos de Deleuze, Guattari y Michel Serres, llevándola a un terreno de mixturas entre saberes como modo de combatir activamente los problemas aludidos o, al menos, para desentramar las aporías que cruzan la relación entre las disciplinas y de la academia en general con su entorno. (shrink)

Contrary to the emotions we feel in everyday contexts, the emotions we feel for fictional characters do not seem to require a belief in the existence of their object. This observation has given birth to a famous philosophical paradox (the ‘paradox of fiction’), and has led some philosophers to claim that the emotions we feel for fictional characters are not genuine emotions but rather “quasi-emotions”. Since then, the existence of quasi-emotions has been a hotly debated issue. Recently, philosophers and psychologists (...) have proposed to solve this debate by using empirical methods and experimentally studying differences between ‘real’ and ‘fictional’ emotions. In this paper, our goal is to assess the success of these attempts. We begin by surveying the existing empirical literature and stressing the methodological problems that plague most studies that might seem relevant to the debate, before focusing on recent studies that avoid this pitfall. We then argue that, due to conceptual problems, these studies fail to be relevant to the philosophical debate and emphasize new directions for future empirical research on the topic. (shrink)

Why is it that most fictions present one and only one ending, rather than multiple ones? Fictions presenting multiple endings are possible, because a few exist; but they are very rare, and this calls for an explanation. We argue that such an explanation is likely to shed light on our engagement with fictions, for fictions having one and only one ending seem to be ubiquitous. After dismissing the most obvious explanations for this phenomenon, we compare the scarcity of multiple endings (...) in traditional kinds of fiction to their profusion in the case of interactive fictions. This contrast poses a challenge to accounts of our engagement with fictions in terms of games of make-believe. We conclude that solving this puzzle is likely to improve our philosophical understanding of fictions. (shrink)

Coupledom and notions of intimacy and family formation with one committed partner are hallmarks of family and relationship science. Recent national surveys in the United States and Canada have found that consensually non-monogamous relationships are common, though prevalence of specific types of consensual non-monogamy are unknown. The present research draws on a United States Census based quota sample of single adults to estimate the prevalence of desire for, familiarity with, and engagement in polyamory—a distinct type of consensually non-monogamous relationship where (...) people typically engage in romantic love and sexual intimacy with multiple partners. Results show that 1 out of 6 people desire to engage in polyamory, and 1 out of 9 people have engaged in polyamory at some point during their life. Approximately 1 out of 15 people reported that they knew someone who has been or is currently engaged in polyamory. Among participants who were not personally interested in polyamory, 1 out of 7 indicated that they respect people who engage in polyamory. Few sociodemographic correlates emerged; no differences in prevalence were found based on political affiliation, income, religion, geographic region, or race/ethnicity. Sexual minorities, men, and younger adults reported greater desire to engage in polyamory. Men and people with lower education backgrounds were more likely to have previously engaged in polyamory. Given that emotional and sexual intimacy is an important part of most people’s lives, understanding the varied ways in which people navigate their intimate lives is critical for the fields of relationship, sexuality, and family science. (shrink)

el presente artículo propone un discurso indirecto libre entre el pensamiento de G. Deleuze y los de Schelling y Hölderlin a través de las síntesis del tiempo deleuzeanas. Desde el criticismo contemporáneo notamos que la filosofía de Deleuze es heredera del idealismo de Schelling o, más bien, de su grieta. Sin embargo, mostramos cómo sin Hölderlin no es posible ni la grieta del sistema de Schelling ni la apertura al por-venir. Por-venir es como llama Deleuze a la tercera síntesis del (...) tiempo o al espacio del virtual; posibilidad de que haya algo nuevo: el acontecimiento. (shrink)

A educação brasileira está estruturada a partir da colonialidade do saber (QUIJANO, 2005) que permeia a história do nosso território, determinando uma monocultura da mente (SHIVA, 2003) na forma como entendemos o mundo. No entanto, uma educação que tem em seu cerne currículos monoculturais e silencia de diferentes maneiras o pensamento próprio e local, leva a uma relação subalterna com o conhecimento. Diante de enormes desafios que o mundo contemporâneo em crise tem imposto, é necessário que repensemos os currículos escolares (...) a fim de promover uma educação mais significativa para o mundo que está por vir. Com este artigo, temos como objetivo apontar caminhos para lidar com as diferenças no contexto escolar, ressignificando o que de fato é “daninho” para o mundo de hoje. Analisaremos a relação entre a monocultura da mente e do solo e a colonialidade do saber, apontando o potencial dos saberes não hegemônicos para resistir à colonialidade e suas consequências. Traremos como proposta uma filosofia erva-daninha que procura aprender com aquilo que foi descartado e considerado “daninho” pelo saber hegemônico, e que apresenta saberes e estratégias que nos permitem resistir aos desafios contemporâneos de maneira humanizada. Palavras-chave: Colonialidade; Diferenças; pluralidade; Direitos Humanos; Monocultura. The weed philosophy as a proposal for the decolonization of knowledge in education and resistance to contemporary challenges Abstract: Brazilian education is structured based on the coloniality of knowledge (QUIJANO, 2005) that permeates the history of our territory, determining a monoculture of the mind (SHIVA, 2003) in the way we understand the world. However, an education that has monocultural curricula at its core silences own and local thinking in different ways, leads to a subordinate relationship with knowledge. In view of the enormous challenges that the contemporary world in crisis has imposed, it is necessary that we rethink school curricula in order to promote a more meaningful education for the world to come. With this article, we aim to point out ways to deal with differences in the school context, redefining what is in fact “harmful” for today's world. We will analyze the relationship between the monoculture of mind and soil and the coloniality of knowledge, pointing out the potential of non-hegemonic knowledge to resist coloniality and its consequences. We will bring as a proposal a weed philosophy that seeks to learn from what was discarded and considered "harmful" by hegemonic knowledge, and that presents knowledge and strategies that allow us to resist contemporary challenges in a humanized way. Keywords: Coloniality; Differences; Plurality; Human Rights; Monoculture. La filosofía de la maleza como propuesta de descolonización del saber en educación y resistencia a los desafíos contemporáneos Resumen: La educación brasileña está estructurada en base a la colonialidad del saber (QUIJANO, 2005) que impregna la historia de nuestro territorio, determinando un monocultivo de la mente (SHIVA, 2003) en la forma en que entendemos el mundo. Sin embargo, una educación que tiene currículos monoculturales en su núcleo y silencia de diferentes maneras el pensamiento proprio e local, conduce a una relación subordinada com el conocimiento. Frente a los enormes desafíos que el mundo contemporáneo en crisis ha impuesto, necesitamos repensar los planes de estudio escolares para promover una educación más significativa para el mundo venidero. Con este artículo, nuestro objetivo es señalar formas de lidiar con las diferencias en el contexto escolar, volviendo a significar lo que de hecho es "perjudicial" para el mundo de hoy. Analizaremos la relación entre el monocultivo de la mente y el suelo y la colonialidad del saber, señalando el potencial del saber no hegemónico para resistir la colonialidad y sus consecuencias. Traeremos como propuesta una filosofía de la maleza que busca aprender de lo descartado y considerado “nocivo” por los saberes hegemónicos, y que presenta saberes y estrategias que nos permiten resistir los desafíos contemporáneos de forma humanizada. Palabras clave: Colonialidad; Diferencias; Pluralidad; Derechos Humanos; Monocultivo. (shrink)

La temática de este artículo se centra en la importancia, tanto ontológica como política, de un concepto esencial en el pensamiento de Gilles Deleuze: el «Porvenir». El porvenir deleuzeano no consiste estrictamente en el futuro ya que si este último concepto apela a una temporalidad cronológica, el de porvenir hace intervenir el devenir inmanente y una coexistencia con el presente que es necesaria también en política y en arte en orden a plantear el concepto, también deleuzeano, de «un pueblo por (...) venir». (shrink)

In this article I investigate the necessarily interdisciplinary nature of our contemporaneity, from the perspective of works by Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Bruno Latour and Michel Serres. While we often find that academia, society and governments push us towards interdisciplinarity, it is also true that those same institutions and powers, distance us from that purpose. Opposing this aporetic situation we come up against the Deleuzian concept of ‘contamination’, or the well-known ‘science of Venus’ concept of Michel Serres. In doing so, (...) we attempt ‘to put the tracing back on the map’, as Deleuze and Guattari suggest, and try to see the epistemological becomings that we find in contemporary culture. The main indicators which we use to study these contaminations and hybridisations are cinema and Bio Art. In both cases we observe that the real creative production is closer to ‘contamination’ than to the ‘purification’ and deletion of metabolic and hybrid processes criticised by Bruno Latour. (shrink)

A questão que procuramos desenvolver neste artigo pode ser enunciada do seguinte modo: será que o conhecimento pode ser transmitido de forma representacional, por meio de uma explicação, sem que aquele que aprende faça uma experiência por si só daquilo que aprende? Amparado-se no pensamento de Hume, Deleuze, Rancière e Gallo, pretende-se mostrar que somente a experiência com o objeto pode promover a aprendizagem efetiva, violentando o pensamento para que este busque por si só seu sentido e forme sua própria (...) apreensão, e não a mera repetição de conteúdos partilhados e tidos como importantes, como temos encontrado nas escolas.The question that we develop in this study can be proposed as follows: can knowledge be transmitted in a representational way through an explanation in such a way that the one who is learning does not have an experience itself of what he is learning? Grounded on Hume, Deleuze, Rancière and Gallo, we aim to show that only the experience with the object can promote effective learning, for violating the thought to search by itself for its meaning and for its own understanding, and not for the mere repetition of contents that have been shared and taken as important, as we have seen in schools. (shrink)

Neste artigo investigamos a relação entre a Filosofia e a prática de escrita de textos de maneira a tratar do seguinte problema: Existem formas alternativas de expressão e desenvolvimento da Filosofia além daquelas relacionadas a recursos da linguagem verbal? Como parece haver, na tradição filosófica Ocidental, uma vinculação necessária entre a Filosofia e a linguagem verbal, temos como objetivo repensar as práticas filosóficas dentro da universidade e analisar a potencialidade de pensamentos existente em diversos formatos de pensar. Inicialmente apresentamos as (...) contribuições de uma abordagem inter/multidisciplinar para a Filosofia, de modo a apontar o paradigma da complexidade como um recurso apropriado para investigar problemas filosóficos da contemporaneidade. Entendemos que o paradigma da complexidade tem se delineado de forma a proporcionar uma virada na Filosofia que extrapola o domínio da linguagem verbal. Como um estudo de caso, discutimos características centrais da Filosofia brasileira no contexto da universidade pública. A partir da caracterização da Filosofia na universidade brasileira, analisamos os limites da linguagem verbal como forma de expressão de pensamentos. Por fim, discutimos o potencial de formas não verbais na reflexão filosófica, analisando suas contribuições e limites para o desenvolvimento de um filosofar genuíno. (shrink)

Resumo: O objetivo deste artigo é problematizar algumas das principais práticas da filosofia universitária brasileira, de forma a denunciar seus pressupostos colonizadores e apontar seus limites na elaboração de um pensamento filosófico capaz de se relacionar, efetivamente, com os problemas do território brasileiro. Analisa-se como a estratégia de leitura e explicação dos textos europeus e estadunidenses, considerados predominantemente as referências clássicas à filosofia, faz funcionar as relações de saber e dominação existentes do Norte global sobre os povos do Sul por (...) eles colonizados. Utiliza-se a experiência constitutiva do curso de filosofia da Universidade de São Paulo como exemplo das práticas e dos pressupostos de colonialidade pelos quais nossa filosofia acadêmica é modelada. A partir das contribuições de Lélia Gonzalez, Ailton Krenak, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui e Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, serão questionados essas práticas e pressupostos, demonstrando como tais autores desafiam não só a alterar o habitual referencial teórico naturalizado na filosofia brasileira, mas, principalmente, a operar uma mudança ética e política nas relações que se estabelecem, usualmente, com a filosofia.: The goal of this article is to problematize some of the main practices of Brazilian university philosophy, in order to denounce its colonizing assumptions and point out its limits to elaborate a philosophical thought capable of relating, effectively, with the problems that affect us in the Brazilian territory. We will analyze how the strategy of reading and explaining European and unitedstatian texts, predominantly considered the classic references to philosophy, operate the relations of knowledge and domination that exist between the global North under the peoples of the South that they colonized. We will use the constitutive experience of the degree in philosophy at the University of São Paulo as an example of the practices and assumptions of coloniality by which our academic philosophy is modeled. From the contributions of Lélia Gonzalez, Ailton Krenak, Silvia Rivera Cusicanqui and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, we will question those practices and assumptions, demonstrating how these authors challenge us not only to change the usual theoretical framework naturalized in Brazilian philosophy, but, above all, to operate an ethical and political change in the relationships that we usually establish with philosophy. (shrink)

Esta obra se concentra en cuatro temas cruciales de la formación de docentes, tanto antes como durante el servicio y en la enseñanza en diferentes áreas y niveles educativos. En primer lugar, se aborda el asunto de las creencias que los docentes tienen sobre el proceso educativo, las cuales parecen influir en la práctica profesional que estos desarrollan y, por lo tanto, deberían recibir la atención explícita de los procesos de formación de docentes que deseen promover prácticas específicas. El segundo (...) tema de la obra es la relación entre la formación de docentes y la política pública que la rige. En particular, se analizan las reformas curriculares implementadas por varias licenciaturas en universidades privadas colombianas, en respuesta a reformas a la normatividad sobre las condiciones de calidad que a las que deben ajustarse todas las licenciaturas del país. El tercer tema analizado es en qué medida los docentes en educación superior van más allá del dominio de su saber disciplinar atribuyendo importancia a la pedagogía, la didáctica y la práctica reflexiva en su propia práctica docente. Finalmente, se discuten aspectos de la formación de docentes relacionados con los procesos vividos y los retos encontrados por los docentes al entrar en la profesión, su socialización en la comunidad docente, sus identidades como maestros y su motivación para ser docentes. Vale la pena señalar que las contribuciones a este libro comparten el uso de metodologías cualitativas y presentan los resultados de historias de vida, entrevistas, observaciones, y análisis documentales, entre otros. (shrink)

In this paper, we aim to show that the framework of embedded, distributed, or extended cognition offers new perspectives on social cognition by applying it to one specific domain: the psychology of memory. In making our case, first we specify some key social dimensions of cognitive distribution and some basic distinctions between memory cases, and then describe stronger and weaker versions of distributed remembering in the general distributed cognition framework. Next, we examine studies of social influences on memory in cognitive (...) psychology, and identify the valuable concepts and methods to be extended and embedded in our framework; we focus in particular on three related paradigms: transactive memory, collaborative recall, and social contagion. Finally, we sketch our own early studies of individual and group memory developed within our framework of distributed cognition, on social contagion of autobiographical memories, collaborative flashbulb memories, and memories of high school at a high school reunion. We see two reciprocal benefits of this conceptual and empirical framework to social memory phenomena: that ideas about distributed cognition can be honed against and tested with the help of sophisticated methods in the social cognitive psychology of memory; and conversely, that a range of social memory phenomena that are as yet poorly understood can be approached afresh with theoretically motivated extensions of existing empirical paradigms. (shrink)

As the cognitive revolution was slow to come to the study of animal behavior, the vast majority of what we know about primate cognition has been discovered in the last 30 years. Building on the recognition that the physical and social worlds of humans and their living primate relatives pose many of the same evolutionary challenges, programs of research have established that the most basic cognitive skills and mental representations that humans use to navigate those worlds are already possessed by (...) other primates. There may be differences between humans and other primates, however, in more complex cognitive skills, such as reasoning about relations, causality, time, and other minds. Of special importance, the human primate seems to possess a species-unique set of adaptations for “cultural intelligence,” which are broad reaching in their effects on human cognition. (shrink)

It is possible that the world contains infinitely many agents that have positive and negative levels of well-being. Theories have been developed to ethically rank such worlds based on the well-being levels of the agents in those worlds or other qualitative properties of the worlds in question, such as the distribution of agents across spacetime. In this thesis I argue that such ethical rankings ought to be consistent with the Pareto principle, which says that if two worlds contain the same (...) agents and some agents are better off in the first world than they are in the second and no agents are worse off than they are in the second, then the first world is better than the second. I show that if we accept four axioms – the Pareto principle, transitivity, an axiom stating that populations of worlds can be permuted, and the claim that if the ‘at least as good as’ relation holds between two worlds then it holds between qualitative duplicates of this world pair – then we must conclude that there is ubiquitous incomparability between infinite worlds. I show that this is true even if the populations of infinite worlds are disjoint or overlapping, and that we cannot use any qualitative properties of world pairs to rank these worlds. Finally, I argue that this incomparability result generates puzzles for both consequentialist and non-consequentialist theories of objective and subjective permissibility. (shrink)

This article considers conversations in and about education. To focus the discussion, it uses the scenario of a conversation between a trainee teacher and her mentor reflecting together on a lesson that the trainee has just taught. I begin by outlining the notion of reflective practice as popularised by Donald Schön, and show how, in the scenario, the reflective practice conversation leads to talk characterised by recourse to particular dominant discourses within education, and how this in turn can lead to (...) a certain voicelessness. I then consider what the possibilities for the reflective practice conversation might be, looking first at the Greek notion of parrhēsia and how this has been discussed in the work of Michel Foucault in contrast to other forms of talk such as rhetoric or chattering. I argue that, whilst the parrhēsiastic conversation may allow for the exploration of the relationships (between the mentor and the trainee, each participant and their words and a relationship of care for the self), such possibilities are fraught with difficulty. I then move to consider how such relationships might be developed through recognising the expressive aspects of language emphasised in Stanley Cavell's notion of passionate utterance. I first trace the development of Cavell's thought through John Austin's contrast in language between the constative and the performative. I then illustrate the idea of passionate utterance from the films Cavell describes as the ‘Hollywood comedies of remarriage’, and argue that the passionate utterance opens up opportunities for the kind of conversation in education that is itself educative. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:The Truth in WritingAmandaAn excerpt from my journal during a dark period in my life reads:I am a survivor of sexual mutilation, of coerced gender roles, and of perpetual lies all in the name of normalization. Sometimes I have a hard time even thinking about the true extent of what all happened. It’s like my mind doesn’t have that type of scope, like when I think about the word (...) “eternity.”I wrote this after combing through old medical records, reading comments like “her introitus has healed nicely and looks normal, but my exam suggests that her vagina is shortened,” and “reduction clitoroplasty... removal of testes.” The records go on to say that my “external genitalia is quite satisfactory,” and “on perineal exam, her neovaginal orifice is quite compliant and easily accepts my second and third digits.”My journal continues:I chose this fake hole when I was a teenager because I didn’t know there was another option. I was told from day one to be a female, to be heteronormative, to act like all the other girls, and the only way I could fully accomplish this is by looking the part. A fake hole would be necessary, I thought, to go along with the rest of the lies. Sometimes I think about how the doctors told me to lie about my surgeries and my scars. Sometimes I wonder what my parents would have told the world if I had died during one of surgeries. Maybe they would have said “we were just trying to make her fuckable.”My strength is growing from the stories and experiences I write and share. My journal started about four years ago, when I was in my early 20s, near the beginning of medical school. My initial purpose in writing the journal was to help sort through my feelings and experiences related to a newly discovered sexuality and a changing gender identity. Medical school was thousands of miles away from my previous life, my family, and my friends. Away from my old social network, I was free to self–discover on my own terms. In the first journal entry, I lay out reasons why I decided to get in contact with a therapist, something I had not done previously. Some of the reasons were fairly standard reasons one seeks out a therapist, such as moving away from home. But the fundamental reasons I sought out a therapist, and why I chose to journal, had to do with exploring feelings after my first sexual encounter with a woman, and then [End Page 98] accepting my intersexuality. My relationship with that therapist did not last, but the journaling did.In the beginning of the journal, I write:I am from a small, religious, white, non–diverse, family oriented suburb of Milwaukee. I was raised to be the picture–perfect daughter in a household that did not talk about feelings, sex, cultural or religious differences, etc. My brother and I also never talked about personal issues (and still don’t), which is quite remarkable since we are twins, and have grown up doing most everything together, from sharing birthday parties, to being locker buddies... [When my mother told me about having Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS)] knowing this little fact about my body kept me wanting to become as perfectly female in all ways possible.Growing up without being able to talk about having AIS was stifling to say the least. Closing communication implied great shame, and with the shame came even greater repression. My skate-boarding, baseball card collecting, and model car building interests disappeared after learning about my AIS, which I believe was when I was 12 years old, but I cannot remember exactly. Granted, it’s tough to say whether my interests just changed as I grew older, but I do remember having a fear of portraying any masculine tendencies that other girls in my town weren’t displaying (for example, playing soccer was okay, but I had to shave my legs). I also had crafted some pretty good covers for my AIS, including stories about when I first had my (fake) period, or how I acted fearful about a... (shrink)

This paper aims to better motivate the naturalization of metaphysics by identifying and criticizing a class of theories I call ’free range metaphysics’. I argue that free range metaphysics is epistemically inadequate because the constraints on its content—consistency, simplicity, intuitive plausibility, and explanatory power—are insufficiently robust and justificatory. However, since free range metaphysics yields clarity-conducive techniques, incubates science, and produces conceptual and formal tools useful for scientifically engaged philosophy, I do not recommend its discontinuation. I do recommend, however, ending the (...) discipline’s bad faith. That is, I urge that free range metaphysics not be taken to have fully satisfactory epistemic credentials over and above its pragmatic ones. (shrink)

The Australian government's response to the Millennium Drought (1997–2010) has been met with praise and contestation. While proponents saw the response as timely and crucial, critics claimed it was characterized by government overreach and mismanagement. Five months of field research in farm communities in the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) identified two dominant discourses: administrative rationalism and a local community-based discourse I have termed community-centrism. Administrative rationalism reflects the value of scientific inquiry in service to the state and is the dominant (...) research-based problem-solving model used by water and natural resource agencies (Dryzek in The politics of the earth: environmental discourses, Oxford University Press, 2013; Colloff and Pittock in Aust J Water Resour, 23(2):88–98, 2019). Community-centrism was identified through discussions with farmers and represents a bottom-up approach to environmental planning and management that seeks to incorporate local knowledge, planning, and direct participation. This investigation reveals how discourses define problems and policy choices. While market-based government interventions were likely necessary to address the crisis in the MDB, community-centred responses could have enhanced the government’s capacity to respond to problems. This paper argues that the long-term sustainability of water management in the Basin will require a reorientation on the part of farmers, academics, and governments to develop a community-centred approach to water policies impacting agriculture. (shrink)

Amanda Fulford, Áine Mahon; The University as Sanctuary: Home and Unhomeliness, Journal of Philosophy of Education,, qhae037, https://doi.org/10.1093/jope.

Many real-world agents recognise that they impose harms by choosing to emit carbon, e.g., by flying. Yet many do so anyway, and then attempt to make things right by offsetting those harms. Such offsetters typically believe that, by offsetting, they change the deontic status of their behaviour, making an otherwise impermissible action permissible. Do they succeed in practice? Some philosophers have argued that they do, since their offsets appear to reverse the adverse effects of their emissions. But we show that (...) they do not. In practice, standard carbon offsetting does not reverse the harms of the original action, nor does it even benefit the same group as was harmed. Standard moral theories hence deny that such offsetting succeeds. Indeed, we show that any moral theory that allows offsetting in this setting faces a dilemma between allowing any wrong to be offset, no matter how grievous, and recognising an implausibly sharp discontinuity between offsettable actions and non-offsettable actions. The most plausible response is to accept that carbon offsetting fails to right our climate wrongs. (shrink)

How do the ways we argue represent a practical philosophy or a way of life? Are concepts of character and ethos pertinent to our understanding of academic debate? In this book, Amanda Anderson analyzes arguments in literary, cultural, and political theory, with special attention to the ways in which theorists understand ideals of critical distance, forms of subjective experience, and the determinants of belief and practice. Drawing on the resources of the liberal and rationalist tradition, Anderson interrogates the limits (...) of identity politics and poststructuralism while holding to the importance of theory as a form of life. Considering high-profile trends as well as less noted patterns of argument, The Way We Argue Now addresses work in feminism, new historicism, queer theory, postcolonialism, cosmopolitanism, pragmatism, and proceduralism. The essays brought together here--lucid, precise, rigorously argued--combine pointed critique with an appreciative assessment of the productive internal contests and creative developments across these influential bodies of thought. Ultimately, The Way We Argue Now promotes a revitalized culture of argument through a richer understanding of the ways critical reason is practiced at the individual, collective, and institutional levels. Bringing to the fore the complexities of academic debate while shifting the terms by which we assess the continued influence of theory, it will appeal to readers interested in political theory, literary studies, cultural studies, gender studies, and the place of academic culture in society and politics. (shrink)

This chapter considers the assumptions required to make scientisms of different forms genuinely threatening to philosophers, where a genuine threat would consist of a concrete risk to their statuses, the value of their teaching and research, their livelihoods, their preferred research methods, or the health of the discipline. I will find that strong and weak forms of scientism alike require substantive assumptions to make them threatening in those regards. In particular, they require sometimes heavy-handed circumscriptions of philosophy and science, as (...) well as their epistemic credentials and achievements, methods, and subject matters. They also require restrictive pronouncements upon the epistemic and non-epistemic goods that are valuable, worth promoting in academic contexts, and relevant to disciplinary health. My aim in this chapter will not to be defeat those assumptions but rather to make them explicit and to emphasize their frequent strength and contentiousness. (shrink)

This chapter considers potential applications of grounding to the formulation of physicalism. I begin with an overview of competing conceptions of the physical and of physicalism. I then consider whether grounding physicalism overcomes well-known and seemingly fatal problems with supervenience physicalism. I conclude that while grounding physicalism improves upon supervenience physicalism in certain respects, it arguably falls victim to some of the same difficulties.

The growing proportion of elderly people in society, together with recent advances in robotics, makes the use of robots in elder care increasingly likely. We outline developments in the areas of robot applications for assisting the elderly and their carers, for monitoring their health and safety, and for providing them with companionship. Despite the possible benefits, we raise and discuss six main ethical concerns associated with: (1) the potential reduction in the amount of human contact; (2) an increase in the (...) feelings of objectification and loss of control; (3) a loss of privacy; (4) a loss of personal liberty; (5) deception and infantilisation; (6) the circumstances in which elderly people should be allowed to control robots. We conclude by balancing the care benefits against the ethical costs. If introduced with foresight and careful guidelines, robots and robotic technology could improve the lives of the elderly, reducing their dependence, and creating more opportunities for social interaction. (shrink)

The truth of a statement depends on the world in two ways: what the statement says is true if the world is as the statement says it is; on the other hand, what the expressions in the statement mean depends on what the world is like (for instance, on what conventions are in place). Each of these two kinds of dependence of truth on the world corresponds to one of the dimensions on the two-dimensional semantic framework, developed in the 1970’ (...) in the work of Evans, Kaplan, Kripke and Stalnaker. The introduction provides a systematic overview of the framework, the ideas of its earlier originators, recent developments and criticism. Finally, it gives a brief overview over the contributions to the volume. (shrink)

This paper surveys some of the grounding literature searching for points of contact between theories of ground and science. I find that there are some places where a would-be naturalistic grounding theorist can draw inspiration. I synthesize a list of recommendations for how science may be put to use in theories of ground. I conclude that the prospects for naturalizing the metaphysics of ground are bright.

Generic statements express generalizations about categories and present a unique semantic profile that is distinct from quantified statements. This paper reports two studies examining the development of children's intuitions about the semantics of generics and how they differ from statements quantified by all, most, and some. Results reveal that, like adults, preschoolers recognize that generics have flexible truth conditions and are capable of representing a wide range of prevalence levels; and interpret novel generics as having near-universal prevalence implications. Results further (...) show that by age 4, children are beginning to differentiate the meaning of generics and quantified statements; however, even 7- to 11-year-olds are not adultlike in their intuitions about the meaning of most-quantified statements. Overall, these studies suggest that by preschool, children interpret generics in much the same way that adults do; however, mastery of the semantics of quantified statements follows a more protracted course. (shrink)

Quarantine and spatial distancing measures associated with COVID-19 resulted in substantial changes to individuals’ everyday lives. Prominent among these lifestyle changes was the way in which people interacted with media—including music listening. In this repeated assessment study, we assessed Australian university students’ media use throughout early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, and determined whether media use was related to changes in life satisfaction. Participants were asked to complete six online questionnaires, capturing pre- and during-pandemic experiences. The results indicated (...) that media use varied substantially throughout the study period, and at the within-person level, life satisfaction was positively associated with music listening and negatively associated with watching TV/videos/movies. The findings highlight the potential benefits of music listening during COVID-19 and other periods of social isolation. (shrink)

The word ‘naturalism’ has a bewildering array of uses in philosophy. Roughly speaking, it connotes pro-scientific attitudes and approaches. This article introduces the subject of naturalism by sketching a history of pro-scientific attitudes and approaches in philosophy, from their origins in the early modern period through to the present day. It then distinguishes a number of distinct families of naturalism: metaphysical, logico-linguistic, epistemological, and methodological. The resulting taxonomy encompasses a plurality of loosely related views rather than a number of variations (...) on a single clear and unified theme. (shrink)

This paper explores the relationship between dignity and robot care for older people. It highlights the disquiet that is often expressed about failures to maintain the dignity of vulnerable older people, but points out some of the contradictory uses of the word ‘dignity’. Certain authors have resolved these contradictions by identifying different senses of dignity; contrasting the inviolable dignity inherent in human life to other forms of dignity which can be present to varying degrees. The Capability Approach (CA) is introduced (...) as a different but tangible account of what it means to live a life worthy of human dignity. It is used here as a framework for the assessment of the possible effects of eldercare robots on human dignity. The CA enables the identification of circumstances in which robots could enhance dignity by expanding the set of capabilities that are accessible to frail older people. At the same time, it is also possible within its framework to identify ways in which robots could have a negative impact, by impeding the access of older people to essential capabilities. It is concluded that the CA has some advantages over other accounts of dignity, but that further work and empirical study is needed in order to adapt it to the particular circumstances and concerns of those in the latter part of their lives. (shrink)

This is a preprint draft. Please cite published version (DOI: 10.1111/mila.12385). The aim of this paper is to provide a novel analysis of anorexia nervosa (AN) in the context of the sense of agency literature. I first show that two accounts of anorexia nervosa that we ought to take seriously— i.e., the first personal reports of those who have experienced it firsthand as well as the research that seeks to explain anorexic behavior from an empirical perspective— appear to be thoroughly (...) in tension with one another in their descriptions of anorexic actions. Rather than proceeding at this point by way of disregarding anorexic testimony as meaningless or insincere, I instead offer a positive account of the sense of agency in anorexia nervosa that renders these two depictions compatible. The resultant picture of anorexic behavior is one that accommodates current empirical findings while also providing valuable insight into how it is that anorexics can sincerely report feeling fully in control over their food restriction. (shrink)