Cicero once stressed as the first law of history that “the historian must not dare to tell any falsehood.” This precept entails a minimal ethical requirement that remains unscathed by the whirlpools of epistemic relativism that have called many other aspects of professional historians’ practice into question in the last century or so. No commendable scholar seems willing to invalidate Cicero’s first law, and dependable scholarship—whether relying on objectivity-friendly or objectivity-hostile theoretical assumptions—follows shared standards of integrity and accuracy with which (...) someone from Cicero’s time, for instance, would never be able to comply. In this essay, I suggest that those two circumstances should dispose us more favorably toward a refreshed notion of historical objectivity pointing not only to epistemology but also to professional ethics. I address the condemnation of lying and, more generally, historians’ commitment to sincerity as a way to highlight the ethical dimension of history writing. By focusing on the deep but underexplored moral roots of objectivity, I argue that this concept is still very useful as both an analytical tool and a normative ideal. Objectivity, in the sense I underline here, does not stand in opposition to subjectivity—on the contrary, it is actually tied up with subjective dispositions, virtues, and skills that help shape responsible historiography. (shrink)

A scholar of Hellenistic and Prussian history, Droysen developed a historical theory that at the time was unprecedented in range and depth, and which remains to the present day a valuable key for understanding history as both an idea and a professional practice. Arthur Alfaix Assis interprets Droysen’s theoretical project as an attempt to redefine the function of historiography within the context of a rising criticism of exemplar theories of history, and focuses on Droysen’s claim that the (...) goal underlying historical writing and reading should be the development of the subjective capacity to think historically. In addition, Assis examines the connections and disconnections between Droysen’s theory of historical thinking, his practice of historical thought, and his political activism. Ultimately, Assis not only shows how Droysen helped reinvent the relationship between historical knowledge and human agency, but also traces some of the contradictions and limitations inherent to that project. (shrink)

At the end of the 19th century, most professional historians – wherever they existed – deemed history to be a form of knowledge ruled by a method that bears no resemblance with those most commonly traceable in the natural sciences. The bulk of the historian’s task was then frequently regarded as being the application of procedures frequently referred to as ‘historical method’. In the context of such an emerging interest on historical methods and methodology, at least three textbooks stand out: (...) Johann Gustav Droysen’s Grundriss der Historik (Outline of the Theory of History), Ernst Bernheim’s Lehrbuch der historischen Methode (Handbook of Historical Method), and Charles Langlois and Charles Seignobos’s Introduction aux études historiques (Introduction to the Study of History). These books were quite influential in Germany, France, and elsewhere, and they very much helped promote a general idea of historical method that would become relatively consensual among historians of many nationalities by the early 20th century. Such a relative agreement on historical method sponsored both the communication and the development of a sense of disciplinary identity among historians trained within different and sometimes conflicting national traditions. It was then partially extended, partially challenged, and surely made more complex when, from the 1920s on, social and economic historians became a good part of the historiographical establishment in many countries. -/- The three books by Droysen, Bernheim, and Langlois and Seignobos were already pieced together by Rolf Torstendahl, who studied them as a group of texts that, despite their differences, contributed to shape the developments outlined above. However, Torstendahl’s primary aim was to show how Droysen, Bernheim, and Seignobos all resorted to ‘method’ as a way to circumvent skepticism against the possibility of historical knowledge, rather than investigate the internal interrelationships between the three texts. In this chapter I follow precisely this latter, not yet taken, road, focusing on crucial cross-references between the Grundriss, the Lehrbuch, and the Introduction. I intend to show that, at a general level, the schemes of historical method found in these texts are largely convergent, and that this convergence is due to Bernheim’s reading of Droysen and to Langlois and Seignobos’s reading of Bernheim. I will attempt to do it through a regressive approach that starts with an analysis of the Introduction. Aspects of the editorial history and circulation of the three texts will also be briefly addressed, as a way to illustrate their special importance within the framework of early 20th century historical theory. Because my argument calls for a focus on the most general lines of Droysen’s, Bernheim’s, and Langlois and Seignobos’s schemes of historical method, I will, for the sake of consistency, refrain from analysing in-depth the complex epistemological and ontological arguments in which those schemes are nested. (shrink)

Trata-se de um trabalho de natureza didática cujo propósito é introduzir o leitor à teoria da história de Jörn Rüsen. O texto inicia-se com uma introdução que situa este autor no contexto do desenvolvimento histórico da disciplina “teoria da história. Está dividido em três capítulos, nos quais os cinco componentes da sua “matriz disciplinar da ciência histórica são apresentados e discutidos, a saber (1) as carências de orientação e funções orientativas; (2) perspectivas diretoras da interpretação histórica e métodos de pesquisa (...) empírica; e (3) as formas de apresentação histórica. O trabalho finaliza-se com uma lista bibliográfica, da qual constam os títulos mais importantes de Rüsen, bem como uma série de comentários à sua teoria da história. (shrink)

Contemporary health care often lacks generosity of spirit, even when treatment is most efficient. Too many patients are left unhappy with how they are treated, and too many medical professionals feel estranged from the calling that drew them to medicine. Arthur W. Frank tells the stories of ill people, doctors, and nurses who are restoring generosity to medicine--generosity toward others and to themselves. The Renewal of Generosity evokes medicine as the face-to-face encounter that comes before and after diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, (...) and surgeries. Frank calls upon the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin to reflect on stories of ill people, doctors, and nurses who transform demoralized medicine into caring relationships. He presents their stories as a source of consolation for both ill and professional alike and as an impetus to changing medical systems. Frank shows how generosity is being renewed through dialogue that is more than the exchange of information. Dialogue is an ethic and an ideal for people on both sides of the medical encounter who want to offer more to those they meet and who want their own lives enriched in the process. The Renewal of Generosity views illness and medical work with grace and compassion, making an invaluable contribution to expanding our vision of suffering and healing. (shrink)

In At the Will of the Body , Arthur Frank told the story of his own illnesses, heart attack and cancer. That book ended by describing the existence of a "remission society," whose members all live with some form of illness or disability. The Wounded Storyteller is their collective portrait. Ill people are more than victims of disease or patients of medicine they are wounded storytellers. People tell stories to make sense of their suffering when they turn their diseases (...) into stories, they find healing. Drawing on the work of authors such as Oliver Sacks, Anatole Broyard, Norman Cousins, and Audre Lorde, as well as from people he met during the years he spent among different illness groups, Frank recounts a stirring collection of illness stories, ranging from the well-known--Gilda Radner's battle with ovarian cancer--to the private testimonials of people with cancer, chronic fatigue syndrome, and disabilties. Their stories are more than accounts of personal suffering: they abound with moral choices and point to a social ethic. Frank identifies three basic narratives of illness in restitution, chaos, and quest. Restitution narratives anticipate getting well again and give prominence to the technology of cure. In chaos narratives, illness seems to stretch on forever, with no respite or redeeming insights. Quest narratives are about finding that insight as illness is transformed into a means for the ill person to become someone new. (shrink)

This is the text of The Lindley Lecture for 1962, given by Arthur N. Prior (1914-1969).

I am grateful to Donald Ainslie, Lisa Austin, Michael Blake, Abraham Drassinower, David Dyzenhaus, George Fletcher, Robert Gibbs, Louis-Philippe Hodgson, Sari Kisilevsky, Dennis Klimchuk, Christopher Morris, Scott Shapiro, Horacio Spector, Sergio Tenenbaum, Malcolm Thorburn, Ernest Weinrib, Karen Weisman, and the Editors of Philosophy & Public Affairs for comments, and audiences in the UCLA Philosophy Department and Columbia Law School for their questions.

In this acclaimed work, first published in 1986, world-renowned scholar Arthur C. Danto explored the inextricably linked but often misunderstood relationship between art and philosophy. In light of the book's impact--especially the essay "The End of Art," which dramatically announced that art ended in the 1960s--this enhanced edition includes a foreword by Jonathan Gilmore that discusses how scholarship has changed in response to it. Complete with a new bibliography of work on and influenced by Danto's ideas, _The Philosophical Disenfranchisement (...) of Art_ continues to be of interest to anyone who thinks seriously about art, as well as to philosophers, aestheticians, and art historians. (shrink)

Our study considers the governance, ethics and operational challenges associated with the acquisition, manipulation and commodification of ‘big data’ in the financial services sector. To the best of our knowledge, there are no published studies describing empirical research undertaken within companies in this sector to understand how they are responding to such challenges: our field-based research is a significant initial contribution in this respect. We describe the results of a micro-ethnographic study undertaken in a small-to-medium-sized company developing disruptive, technology-related platforms (...) and services in the banking and retail sectors based on big data and associated analytics: these are used to derive commercially valuable insights from personal customer data in exchange for cash back and targeted rewards. The company was found to employ a multi-level innovation governance approach, underpinned by an ethical strategy based on a principle of mutual benefit. Opt-in and informed consent for using data for specific purposes was supported by principles of data minimisation and anonymisation, with unrestricted use of secondary, anonymised and aggregated data to develop insights. Governance, which included contextual data protection legislation, payment-card industry data usage standards and internal corporate controls, presented as bespoke organisational practices relating to data security and privacy. These in total set the governance and ethics frame for big data innovation at the company within which it has had to be both adaptive and responsive under conditions of normative and regulatory uncertainty. (shrink)

Schopenhauer argues, in uniquely powerful prose, that self-consciousness gives the illusion of freedom and that human actions are determined, but that we rightly feel guilt because our actions issue from our essential individual character. He locates moral value in the virtues of loving kindness and voluntary justice that spring from the fundamental incentive of compassion. Morality's basis is ultimately metaphysical, resting on an intuitive identification of the self with all other striving and suffering beings. The Introduction by leading Schopenhauer scholar (...) Christopher Janaway gives a clear summary of the argument of the essays in the context of Schopenhauer's life and works and the history of ethics in the modern period. --from publisher description. (shrink)

This paper consists in an exposition of a proof Newton gave in 1666 of the parallelogram law for compounding velocities, and an examination of its implications for understanding his treatment of motion resulting from a continuously acting force in the Principia. I argue that the “moments” invoked in the fluxional proof of the vector resolution and composition of velocities are “virtual times”, a device allowing Newton to represent motions by the linear displacements produced in such a time; the ratio of (...) velocities at an instant can then be represented by assuming the velocities continue for such a virtual time. By the Method of First and Ultimate Ratios, the first ratio of the velocities is then given by the ratio of such lines, under the presupposition that in the limit they will shrink to zero magnitude. I then argue that the same device is implicit in Newton’s appeal to “moments” or “particles of time” in his proof of Kepler’s Area Law in the “Locke Paper” and in Proposition 1 of Book 1 of the Principia, and that the limiting process involved there is therefore the same as that implicit in the Method of First and Ultimate Ratios. (shrink)

But Findlay's remark, like so much that has been written on the subject of time in the present century, was provoked in the first place by McTaggart's ...

O par Fortuna-Virtù é discutido nas diversas análises críticas do pensamento de Machiavelli e, embora tais termos possuam origens e tradições bem determinadas ao longo do pensamento latino, principalmente específicas considerações antigas e medievais em algumas recepções durante o humanismo cívico, suas características elusivas ao longo das argumentações de Machiavelli são mantidas, possibilitando inúmeros debates acadêmicos. Diante da ambivalência e da ambiguidade da ideia de Virtù perante relevantes e variadas tradições, contínuas buscas por clarificação são feitas ao longo do corpus (...) do secretário florentino, associando o termo a outras importantes e centrais reflexões, e.g., desiderio, stato, forza. A instabilidade política, as forças além do controle humano, a imponderabilidade das ações civis são temas recorrentes nas concepções sobre a Fortuna em variadas argumentações desse autor. Em aberto diálogo com os humanistas cívicos que enfatizam maior participação política e social, mesclando embasamento racional, consideração moral e as discussões sobre as formas dos regimes políticos, esse escritor apresenta uma concepção historiográfica, a revigorar tradições do mundo antigo, na criação de uma ordem civil mediante a Virtù, a qual demanda comprometimento pessoal e público na exaltação das potencialidades e dos limites humanos. Reinserir a relevância da paridade entre Fortuna e Virtù em Machiavelli é um passo relevante no combate a leituras anacrônicas. Assim, analisar-se-ão os exemplos mais significativos dos fundadores e dos sustentadores da ordem civil destacados nos textos discursivos do florentino, e.g., Romulo, Numa, Moisés, Cesare Bórgia, Castruccio Castracani. Ao estudar as imagens da Fortuna, em face das concepções políticas e antropológicas do autor, discutir-se-á a centralidade da díade Virtù-Fortuna no desenvolvimento argumentativo de algumas ideias principais desse famoso pensador político. (shrink)

A temática propaganda eleitoral na internet traz consigo uma extensa gama de questionamentos. Enquanto, por um lado, proporciona uma maior aproximação do eleitor com as informações sobre o processo político, por outro, potencializa a disseminação de notícias falsas, responsáveis, em grande parte, por manipular a intenção de votos de uma nação. Essa problemática vai além da discussão sobre desinformação, não é apenas sobre notícias falsas versus verdadeiras. Com o objetivo de analisar a relação entre o acesso à informação e os (...) aspectos éticos da informação, a presente pesquisa, exploratória e qualitativa, tem como foco a constituição de um estudo bibliográfico que vai se consolidando em torno das campanhas eleitorais no meio digital. Trata-se de refletir criticamente sobre as formas de legitimação da desinformação capazes de influenciar a sociedade, em uma realidade em que uma mentira contada várias vezes pode tornar-se uma verdade para quem a escuta, e é neste ponto que se enxerga um risco real ao processo democrático. (shrink)

A adequação dinâmica dos bons exemplos, conformando-os às necessidades impostas pelas circunstâncias, insere Maquiavel nos variados usos da _imitatio_ antiga e renascentista. A _imitação_ deve reavivar as práticas civis e as atitudes de _Virtù_, fornecendo ânimo para a realização das ações políticas e das práticas pedagógicas, conforme a atuação como secretário de Florença e seus escritos políticos, históricos e literários salientam. Desse modo, ao revisar a noção de _imitatio_, especificamente na antiguidade e na renascença, contextualizam-se os argumentos de Maquiavel sobre (...) a possibilidade dos humanos alcançarem a _Virtù_ pela imitação das ações adequadas nos _Discorsi_, no _Príncipe_, nas _Histórias Florentinas_ e na _Arte da Guerra_. Ao propor investigações e análises do passado que produzam utilidade e deleite, realçando _o sabor das ações humanas_, os escritos Maquiavelianos realçam a impossibilidade de uma definição pré-determinada sobre quais opções devam ser usadas e sustentam a possibilidade de duas perspectivas, aparentemente antagônicas, serem escolhidas simultaneamente. (shrink)

Few philosophers are as widely read or as widely misunderstood as Friedrich Nietzsche. When Danto's classic study was first published in 1965, many regarded Nietzsche as a brilliant but somewhat erratic thinker. Danto, however, presented a radically different picture, arguing that Nietzsche offered a systematic and coherent philosophy that anticipated many of the questions that define contemporary philosophy. Danto's clear and insightful commentaries helped canonize Nietzsche as a philosopher and continue to illuminate subtleties in Nietzsche's work as well as his (...) immense contributions to the philosophies of science, language, and logic. This new edition, which includes five additional essays, not only further enhances our understanding of Nietzsche's philosophy; it responds to the misunderstandings that continue to muddy his intellectual reputation. Even today, Nietzsche is seen as everything from a precursor of feminism and deconstruction to a prophetic writer and spokesperson for disgruntled teenage boys. As Danto points out in his preface, Nietzsche's writings have purportedly inspired recent acts of violence and school shootings. Danto counters these misreadings by elaborating an anti-Nietzschian philosophy from within Nietzsche's own philosophy "in the hope of disarming the rabid Nietzsche and neutralizing the vivid frightening images that have inspired sociopaths for over a century." The essays also consider specific works by Nietzsche, including _Human, All Too Human_ and _The Genealogy of Morals_, as well as the philosopher's artistic metaphysics and semantical nihilism. (shrink)

Surveys and extens work that has been done in the past two years on 'tense logic' and is a sequel to the author's book, Time and Modality.

A Expressão Questão maquiavélica foi popularizada por Isaiah Berlin ao ponderar sobre a fortuna crítica do pensamento político do secretário florentino. Há divergências entre as interpretações monocráticas e republicanas das obras de Machiavelli, as quais centram-se, especialmente, nas possíveis discrepâncias existentes entre Il Principe e os Discorsi. Diversos contextos históricos permitem múltiplas apropriações das ideias presentes nesses e outros textos desse autor: um pensador amoral na ausência das premissas religiosas; um republicano a lutar pela liberdade popular aos moldes dos pensamentos (...) iluministas e posteriormente românticos; um patriota a almejar a libertação e a unificação da Itália no Risorgimento; um nacionalista a compreender os limites dos interesses populares na ascensão do Fascismo; e tantas outras possibilidades receptivas. Todavia, na leitura dos textos de Machiavelli, destaca-se a criação de uma civilità, uma Ordem civil virtuosa a promover união entre os cidadãos, amor à Pátria e incentivo à defesa da Liberdade, a agir de acordo com necessidades específicas, evitando a Tirania, as facções e os privilégios de cidadãos particulares. Desse modo, em uma leitura do Discorso Reformare Stato di Firenze, em paralelos com temas e passagens específicas nos Discorsi e em Il Principe, constatam-se posições políticas plurais assumidas por Machiavelli de acordo com a necessidade e com a Ocasião, essas que corroboram a variedade na recepção de suas ideias e devem ser compreendidas em sua complementaridade em seus contextos iniciais. (shrink)

Richard Rorty propõe uma concepção de conhecimento que abandone a pretensão de objetividade entendida como uma representação fiel do mundo em nossa mente ou na linguagem. Para ele, se o mundo não torna nossas crenças verdadeiras ou falsas e sim que elas são justificadas socialmente, o conhecimento não pode ser uma questão de adequação com a realidade, e sim de concordância entre os membros de determinada comunidade. Com isso, Rorty abandona a pretensão de uma epistemologia de caráter universal e propõe (...) uma concepção de conhecimento que só pode ser justificada localmente, abrindo alas dessa forma para o seu etnocentrismo, assim como para sua defesa da ideia do conhecimento como solidariedade e da razão como conversação. Este artigo pretende apontar alguns limites da proposta neopragmática de Rorty. (shrink)

Através da leitura que Heidegger faz de Aletheia, Arendt vincula a noção de verdade à de aparência ao custo de desmantelar a conhecida dicotomia entre o ser verdadeiro e a mera aparência, deslocando a verdade do domínio dos noumena ao dos phenomena enquanto reino da visibilidade, o domínio doxástico da ação política. Doxa como desvelamento não mais nos conduz à adequação cognitiva do self interno, mas antes à dimensão arendtiana cognitiva interpessoal de seres humanos no mundo: quem nós somos no (...) espaço público. Será mostrado que não há nenhuma contradição entre dialética e persuasão, na medida em que Arendt desloca o registro positivo da doxa em direção a suas considerações sobre a faculdade de julgar, reforçando a primazia da comunicabilidade, pluralidade e diversidade de pontos de vista na construção da doxa quando alguém constitui sua visão particular e única no mundo. Finalmente, mostrar-se-á que a amizade deve ser tomada como o tipo de insight político por excelência, enquanto praxis de ver o mundo a partir da perspectiva do outro. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Amizade espaço público. Comunicabilidade. Doxa, praxis. ABSTRACT Through Heidegger’s reading of Aletheia, Arendt links the notion of truth to appearance at the expense of dismantling the well-known dichotomy between true being and mere appearance, displacing truth from the domain of noumena to the realm of phenomena which is the realm of visibility, the doxastic domain of political action. Doxa as uncovering no longer leads to the cognitive adequation of the inner self, but rather to Arendt’s main interpersonal dimension of men into the appearing world: who we are in the public space. Thus, it will be asserted that there is by no means sheer contradiction between the dialectics and persuasion. It will also be claimed that Arendt displaces the positive account of doxa toward her considerations on the faculty of judging, reinforcing the primacy of communicability, plurality and diversity of viewpoints in building up someone’s doxa, in how one constitutes ones particular view and uniqueness, into the world. Finally, friendship is claimed to hold the political kind of insight par excellence, as the praxis of seeing the world from the other’s viewpoint. KEY WORDS – Communicability. Doxa. Friendship. Praxis. Public space. (shrink)

Através da leitura que Heidegger faz de Aletheia, Arendt vincula a noção de verdade à de aparência ao custo de desmantelar a conhecida dicotomia entre o ser verdadeiro e a mera aparência, deslocando a verdade do domínio dos noumena ao dos phenomena enquanto reino da visibilidade, o domínio doxástico da ação política. Doxa como desvelamento não mais nos conduz à adequação cognitiva do self interno, mas antes à dimensão arendtiana cognitiva interpessoal de seres humanos no mundo: quem nós somos no (...) espaço público. Será mostrado que não há nenhuma contradição entre dialética e persuasão, na medida em que Arendt desloca o registro positivo da doxa em direção a suas considerações sobre a faculdade de julgar, reforçando a primazia da comunicabilidade, pluralidade e diversidade de pontos de vista na construção da doxa quando alguém constitui sua visão particular e única no mundo. Finalmente, mostrar-se-á que a amizade deve ser tomada como o tipo de insight político por excelência, enquanto praxis de ver o mundo a partir da perspectiva do outro. PALAVRAS-CHAVE – Amizade espaço público. Comunicabilidade. Doxa, praxis. ABSTRACT Through Heidegger’s reading of Aletheia, Arendt links the notion of truth to appearance at the expense of dismantling the well-known dichotomy between true being and mere appearance, displacing truth from the domain of noumena to the realm of phenomena which is the realm of visibility, the doxastic domain of political action. Doxa as uncovering no longer leads to the cognitive adequation of the inner self, but rather to Arendt’s main interpersonal dimension of men into the appearing world: who we are in the public space. Thus, it will be asserted that there is by no means sheer contradiction between the dialectics and persuasion. It will also be claimed that Arendt displaces the positive account of doxa toward her considerations on the faculty of judging, reinforcing the primacy of communicability, plurality and diversity of viewpoints in building up someone’s doxa, in how one constitutes ones particular view and uniqueness, into the world. Finally, friendship is claimed to hold the political kind of insight par excellence, as the praxis of seeing the world from the other’s viewpoint. KEY WORDS – Communicability. Doxa. Friendship. Praxis. Public space. (shrink)

A hipótese da existência de transições na obra deKelsen tornou-se um dos grandes temas entre os especialistas da sua filosofia e teoria jurídica, especialmente no que se refere ao processo decisório. Dois campos antagônicos formaram-se a partir dessa ideia de ruptura e transição entre suas obras: o normativista (focado nos primeiros trabalhos do autor) versus o realista (fundamentado a partir da segunda edição da Teoria pura do direito e da Teoria geral das normas). Perluigi Chiassoni defende, entretanto, uma leitura realista-normativista (...) no sentido de contrapor essa ideia de ruptura, complexificando a obra de Kelsen não através de uma teoria mista, mas considerando a possibilidade da previsibilidade normativa sem, contudo, abandonar a forte distinção Kelseniana entre normas jurídicas e normas lógicas. (shrink)

A pauta musical foi o primeiro gráfico da Europa”, afirma o autor à página 144 de seu “A Medida da Realidade. Essa é, de fato, a primeira afirmação pretensamente original do livro, já passados quase dois terço da leitura.

In this work we analyze the case of resistive conductor plates carrying constant currents, utilizing surface charge distributions. We obtain the electric potential in the plates and in the space surrounding them. We obtain a non-vanishing electric field outside the conductors. We compare the theoretical results with experimental data present in the literature.

Taxa and homologues can in our view be construed both as kinds and as individuals. However, the conceptualization of taxa as natural kinds in the sense of homeostatic property cluster kinds has been criticized by some systematists, as it seems that even such kinds cannot evolve due to their being homeostatic. We reply by arguing that the treatment of transformational and taxic homologies, respectively, as dynamic and static aspects of the same homeostatic property cluster kind represents a good perspective for (...) supporting the conceptualization of taxa as kinds. The focus on a phenomenon of homology based on causal processes (e.g., connectivity, activity-function, genetics, inheritance, and modularity) and implying relationship with modification yields a notion of natural kinds conforming to the phylogenetic-evolutionary framework. Nevertheless, homeostatic property cluster kinds in taxonomic and evolutionary practice must be rooted in the primacy of epistemological classification (homology as observational properties) over metaphysical generalization (series of transformation and common ancestry as unobservational processes). The perspective of individuating characters exclusively by historical-transformational independence instead of their developmental, structural, and functional independence fails to yield a sufficient practical interplay between theory and observation. Purely ontological and ostensional perspectives in evolution and phylogeny (e.g., an ideographic character concept and PhyloCode’s ‘individualism’ of clades) may be pragmatically contested in the case of urgent issues in biodiversity research, conservation, and systematics. (shrink)

Divided into two parts, the first concentrates on the logical properties of propositions, their relation to facts and sentences, and the parallel objects of commands and questions. The second part examines theories of intentionality and discusses the relationship between different theories of naming and different accounts of belief.

Written in 1839 and chosen as the winning entry in a competition held by the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences, Schopenhauer's Prize Essay on the Freedom of the Will marked the beginning of its author's public recognition and is widely regarded as one of the most brilliant and elegant treatments of free will and determinism. Schopenhauer distinguishes the freedom of acting from the freedom of willing, affirming the former while denying the latter. He portrays human action as thoroughly determined but (...) also argues that the freedom which cannot be established in the sphere of human action is preserved at the level of our innermost being as individuated will, whose reality transcends all dependency on outside factors. This volume offers the text in a previously unpublished translation by Eric F. J. Payne, the leading twentieth-century translator of Schopenhauer into English, together with a historical and philosophical introduction by Günter Zöller. (shrink)

The central theme of the present study is the importance of "Peace" in Norberto Bobbio's thematic trilogy, namely: Democracy, Human Rights, and Peace, as interconnected and necessary elements for historical and social progress. The objective is to explore the interaction between Democracy, Human Rights, and Peace, advocated by Bobbio, and its significance for the construction of a just and peaceful society. The relationship between Democracy, Human Rights, and Peace as essential components of a historical movement towards social progress will be (...) discussed; the doctrines justifying war will be analyzed, and their validity in the atomic age will be questioned; the necessary conditions to achieve Peace, including non-aggression pacts and the establishment of rules for the peaceful resolution of conflicts, will be highlighted; the lack of authority of the United Nations (UN) and the need for an "effective international power" to guarantee global peace will be examined. The study of Bobbio's thematic trilogy is relevant to understanding the importance of the interaction between Democracy, Human Rights, and Peace in the pursuit of a just and peaceful society. Moreover, the analysis of doctrines justifying war and the necessary conditions to achieve Peace contributes to a critical reflection on contemporary challenges related to global security and Human Rights. The study is based on the analysis of Norberto Bobbio's writings on Democracy, Human Rights, and Peace, examining his ideas and arguments throughout his extensive body of work. The research involves a theoretical and critical approach, interpreting Bobbio's major contributions on these topics. The results highlight the interdependence between Democracy, Human Rights, and Peace, emphasizing their relevance for social and historical progress. Furthermore, the research underscores the need to rethink doctrines justifying war in the atomic age and the importance of establishing an effective international authority to promote global peace. (shrink)

" The essays also consider specific works by Nietzsche, including Human, All Too Humanand The Genealogy of Morals, as well as the philosopher's artistic metaphysics and semantical nihilism.

The relationship between formal logic and general philosophy is discussed under headings such as A Re-examination of Our Tense-Logical Postulates, Modal Logic in the Style of Frege, and Intentional Logic and Indeterminism.

1. Bd. Vier Bücher, nebst einem Anhange, der die Kritik der kantischen Philosophie enthält -- 2. Bd. Welcher die Ergänzungen zu die den vier Büchern des ersten Bandes enthält.

In Danto's view, Andy Warhol's Brillo Box was not only a radical attack on traditional definitions of the art work; it brought the history of Western art to a close. In this collection of interconnected essays, he grapples with this and many more of the most challenging issues in art today, from the problems of contemporary pluralism to the dilemmas of censorship and state support for artists.

Persuasive and humane, this classic of philosophy offers Schopenhauer's fullest examination of ethical themes, articulating a descriptive form of ethics that contradicts the rationally based prescriptive theories. Starting with his polemic against Kant's ethics of duty, Schopenhauer argues that compassion forms the basis of morality, and he outlines a perspective on ethics in which passion and desire correspond to different moral characters, behaviors, and worldviews. He further defines his metaphysics of morals, employing Kant’s transcendental idealism to illustrate both the interconnectiveness (...) of being and the affinity of his ethics to Eastern thought. (shrink)

This is a revised and expanded edition of a seminal work in the logic and philosophy of time, originally published in 1968. Arthur N. Prior (1914-1969) was the founding father of temporal logic, and his book offers an excellent introduction to the fundamental questions in the field. Several important papers have been added to the original selection, as well as a comprehensive bibliography of Prior's work and an illuminating interview with his widow, Mary Prior. In addition, the Polish logic (...) which made Prior's writings difficult for many readers has been replaced by standard logical notation. This new edition will secure the classic status of the book. (shrink)

There is an old and persistent tendency in the human mind to conceive of the causal relation as rationally explanatory, and therefore to assimilate it, vaguely or explicitly, to the logical relations of inclusion, implication, or equivalence. That ‘ there cannot be more in the effect than there is in the cause’ is one of the propositions that men have been readiest to accept as axiomatic; a cause, it has been supposed, does not ‘ account for ‘ its effect, unless (...) the effect is a thing which the eye of reason could somehow discern in the cause, upon a sufficiently thorough analysis. This antipathy to the notion of an absolute epigenesis has left its effect, unless the effect is a thing which the eye of reason could somehow discern in the cause, upon a sufficiently thorough analysis. This antipathy to the notion of an absolute epigenesis has left its mark deep and wide upon the history of thought; it appears, indeed, at the very outset of Western speculation in the struggles of the physiologers with the supposed difficulty of admitting qualitative change. Two of the later phases of what may be named the preformationist assumption about causality may pertinently be remembered here. (shrink)

Crito is a dialogue by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. It depicts a conversation between Socrates and his wealthy friend Crito regarding justice, injustice, and the appropriate response to injustice. Socrates thinks that injustice may not be answered with injustice, and refuses Crito's offer to finance his escape from prison. The dialogue contains an ancient statement of the social contract theory of government.

Few philosophers are as widely read or as widely misunderstood as Friedrich Nietzsche. When Danto's classic study was first published in 1965, many regarded Nietzsche as a brilliant but somewhat erratic thinker. Danto, however, presented a radically different picture, arguing that Nietzsche offered a systematic and coherent philosophy that anticipated many of the questions that define contemporary philosophy. Danto's clear and insightful commentaries helped canonize Nietzsche as a philosopher and continue to illuminate subtleties in Nietzsche's work as well as his (...) immense contributions to the philosophies of science, language, and logic. This new edition, which includes five additional essays, not only further enhances our understanding of Nietzsche's philosophy; it responds to the misunderstandings that continue to muddy his intellectual reputation. Even today, Nietzsche is seen as everything from a precursor of feminism and deconstruction to a prophetic writer and spokesperson for disgruntled teenage boys. As Danto points out in his preface, Nietzsche's writings have purportedly inspired recent acts of violence and school shootings. Danto counters these misreadings by elaborating an anti-Nietzschian philosophy from within Nietzsche's own philosophy "in the hope of disarming the rabid Nietzsche and neutralizing the vivid frightening images that have inspired sociopaths for over a century." The essays also consider specific works by Nietzsche, including _Human, All Too Human_ and _The Genealogy of Morals_, as well as the philosopher's artistic metaphysics and semantical nihilism. (shrink)