The RNA-binding protein, UPF1, is best known for its central role in the nonsense-mediated RNA decay pathway. Feng et al. now report a new function for UPF1—it is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that specifically promotes the decay of a key pro-muscle transcription factor: MYOD. UPF1 achieves this through its RING-like domain, which confers ubiquitin E3 ligase activity. Feng et al. provide evidence that the ability of UPF1 to destabilize MYOD represses myogenesis. In the future, it will be important to define (...) other protein substrates of UPF1-driven ubiquitination and to determine whether this biochemical activity is responsible for some of UPF1's previously defined biological functions, including in development and stress responses. The exciting findings presented by Feng et al. open up the possibility that protein turnover and RNA turnover are coupled processes. The RNA-binding protein, UPF1, is best known for its central role in the nonsense-mediated RNA decay pathway. Here we discuss a new role for UPF1—it is directly involved in protein decay. This hidden talent raises the possibility that protein turnover and RNA turnover are coupled processes. (shrink)

Parenting requires mothers to read social cues and understand their children. It is particularly important that they recognise their child’s emotions to react appropriately, for example, with compassion to sadness or compersion to happiness. Despite this importance, it is unclear how motherhood affects women’s ability to recognise emotions associated with facial expressions in children. Using videos of an emotionally neutral face continually and gradually taking on a facial expression associated with an emotion, we quantified the amount of information needed to (...) match the emotion with the facial expression. Mothers needed more information than non-mothers to match the emotions with the facial expressions. Both mothers and non-mothers performed equally on a control task identifying animals instead of emotions, and both groups needed less information when recognising the emotions associated with facial expressions in adolescents than pre-schoolers. These results indicate that mothers need more information for to correctly recognise typically associated emotions in child facial expressions but not for similar tasks not involving emotions. A possible explanation is that child facial expressions associated with emotions may have a greater emotional impact on mothers than non-mothers leading to task interference but possibly also to increased compassion and compersion. (shrink)

The RNA-binding protein, UPF1, is best known for its central role in the nonsense-mediated RNA decay pathway. Feng et al. now report a new function for UPF1—it is an E3 ubiquitin ligase that specifically promotes the decay of a key pro-muscle transcription factor: MYOD. UPF1 achieves this through its RING-like domain, which confers ubiquitin E3 ligase activity. Feng et al. provide evidence that the ability of UPF1 to destabilize MYOD represses myogenesis. In the future, it will be important to define (...) other protein substrates of UPF1-driven ubiquitination and to determine whether this biochemical activity is responsible for some of UPF1's previously defined biological functions, including in development and stress responses. The exciting findings presented by Feng et al. open up the possibility that protein turnover and RNA turnover are coupled processes. The RNA-binding protein, UPF1, is best known for its central role in the nonsense-mediated RNA decay pathway. Here we discuss a new role for UPF1—it is directly involved in protein decay. This hidden talent raises the possibility that protein turnover and RNA turnover are coupled processes. (shrink)

In a 1617 letter, the Bolognese artist, Ludovico Carraci described the young painter, Guercino, as a “miracle who stupefies those who see his works.”1 Interestingly then, those who view Guercino’s altarpiece “St. Francis in Ecstasy with St. Benedict,”2 will perhaps find their own stupefication to be a dynamic echo of the mystical transformation of the pictured saints themselves, an echo repeated in various tropes of transformation that engage notions of angelic presence, musical response, the lives of St. Francis and St. (...) Benedict, and the actions of the altar graced by the painting itself.Guercino’s altarpiece depicts an angel violinist at the apex of a triangle with the two.. (shrink)

The primary purpose of this study was to assess the ethics of purchasing management professionals. A multidimensional scale of ethics was used to measure their predispositions to act morally. The ethics measure from this scale was correlated to a series of ethical vignettes specific to the purchasing function to further assess the value of the scale. In addition, the consistency of values as rationale for decision making was also examined. The findings of the study indicate that purchasing professionals appear to (...) be more ethical than indicated in previous studies as measured by both the multidimensional scale of ethics and their responses to ethical situations similar to those faced in their day-to-day work experiences. The utility of a multidimensional scale of ethics is further validated, and some preliminary assessments of the nature of values impacting on ethical decision making are also evaluated. (shrink)

The planetary boundaries concept has profoundly changed the vocabulary and representation of global environmental issues. The article starts by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of planetary boundaries from a social science perspective. It is argued that the growth imperative of capitalist economies, as well as other particular characteristics detailed below, are the main drivers of the ecological crisis and exacerbated trends already underway. Further, the planetary boundaries framework can support interpretations that do not solely emphasize technocratic operational approaches and costs, (...) but also assume that these alone can be the solution. (shrink)

The notion of societal boundaries aims to enhance the debate on planetary boundaries. The focus is on capitalist societies as a heuristic for discussing the expansionary dynamics, power relations, and lock-ins of modern societies that impel highly unsustainable societal relations with nature. While formulating societal boundaries implies a controversial process – based on normative judgments, ethical concerns, and socio-political struggles – it has the potential to offer guidelines for a just, social-ecological transformation.

Despite Kant's explicit statement that every murderer must suffer death, there are at least four situations to be found in Kant's work in which the killing of a human being should not lead to the death penalty: when too many murderers are involved; when a mother kills her illegitimate child; when one duellist kills the other; when one person pushes another off a plank in order to save his life. This paper discusses these situation and concentrates on the last (...) situation - Kant's interpretation of the plank of Carneades – with an eye to what they learn us about Kant understanding of the law. Does Kant acknowledge a legal vacuum? In order to come to a conclusion, Kant's 'solution' of the plank is compared with those suggested by other authors, such as Cicero, Pufendorf and Lon Fuller in his famous 'speluncean explorers' case. (shrink)

In the middle of the ninth century, Isho‘dad of Merv, the East Syrian bishop of Haditha wrote extensive commentaries on all of the books of the Old and the New Testament, using a variety of sources, not only exegetical ones. This article offers the first (partial) reconstruction of Isho‘dad’s Syriac chronographic source, on the basis of a comparison of material in his commentaries on the Old Testament with two Syrian Orthodox chronicles (Michael the Syrian and the Anonymous Chronicle of 1234) (...) and one Arabic Melkite chronicle (Agapius of Mabbug). It will be argued that this Syriac chronicle was written between the middle of the sixth century and the middle of the ninth century and was influenced by a variety of sources, most notably the Syriac Chronicle of Andronicus and the Chronicle Epitome of John Malalas. (shrink)

Vorliegende Studie behandelt die philosophiehistorische Bedeutung und den systematischen Gehalt, den zur Zeit seiner Konstruktion, d. h. in der Epoche des Hellenismus, jener Fall zweier Schiffbrüchiger besitzt, denen zur Rettung nur eine Planke, die nur einen von beiden tragen kann, zur Verfügung steht, welcher als "Brett des Karneades" in die abendländische Geschichte des Rechts wie der Rechtsphilosophie eingegangen ist und als Paradigma der europäischen Notrechtslehre ausgezeichnet werden kann. Im ersten Teil der Untersuchung wird anhand einer philosophiegeschichtlichen Auswertung der Quellen des (...) Falles, Ciceros De officiis und Laktanz' Institutiones Divinae, und ihrer historischen Kontexte die Plausibilität der Zuschreibung der Autorschaft an dem Fall an den akademischen Skeptiker Karneades erwiesen. Im zweiten Teil werden die verschiedenen Varianten des Falles und ihre Lösungen, die sich in den Quellen finden, ausführlich auf ihre philosophischen Prämissen hin analysiert, woraus ihre letztliche Fundierung in dem auf einer empiristischen Erkenntnistheorie gegründeten Begriff des Naturrechts der Alten und Mittleren Stoa hervorgeht. Der abschließende dritte Teil erörtert das kritische Potential des Beispieles, indem er seine zersetzende Wirkung auf alle zu seiner Lösung in Anschlag gebrachten Lehrstücke des stoischen Philosophie aufzeigt und so vor Augen führt, daß mit dem Brett des Karneades wenigstens eine empirische Begründung einer möglichen Naturrechtslehre schon aus epistemologischen Gründen zum Scheitern verurteilt ist. The "Plank of Carneades" is the name that has gone down in the Occidental history of law and legal philosophy to characterize the case of two shipwrecked persons who have one plank that can rescue only one of them. The case can be characterized as the paradigm of the European theory of necessity. This study considers the philosophically historical meaning and systemic content this case had at the time of its construction, namely during the Hellenistic epoch. The first part of the study is based on a philosophically historical evaluation of the sources of this case, Cicero's De officiis and Laktanz' Institutiones Divinae, and their historical context. It shows the plausibility of imputing authorship of this case to the academic skeptic Carneades. The second part exhaustively analyzes the various case constellations and the solutions these sources proffer to them. It considers the philosophical premises underlying these solutions and indicates that their ultimate foundation lies in the concept of natural law as based on the empirical epistemology of the ancient and middle-aged Stoics. The third and final part considers the case's critical potential by demonstrating its undermining effect on all of the teachings of Stoic philosophy proffered to solve it. The study thus shows that for the Plank of Carneades any empirical foundation of a possible theory of natural law is condemned to failure for epistemological reasons. (shrink)

Despite Kant's explicit statement that every murderer must suffer death, there are at least four situations to be found in Kant's work in which the killing of a human being should not lead to the death penalty: when too many murderers are involved; when a mother kills her illegitimate child; when one duellist kills the other; when one person pushes another off a plank in order to save his life. This paper discusses these situation and concentrates on the last (...) situation - Kant's interpretation of the plank of Carneades – with an eye to what they learn us about Kant understanding of the law. Does Kant acknowledge a legal vacuum? In order to come to a conclusion, Kant's 'solution' of the plank is compared with those suggested by other authors, such as Cicero, Pufendorf and Lon Fuller in his famous 'speluncean explorers' case. (shrink)

An ancient argument attributed to the philosopher Carneades is presented that raises critical questions about the concept of an all-virtuous Divine being. The argument is based on the premises that virtue involves overcoming pains and dangers, and that only a being that can suffer or be destroyed is one for whom there are pains and dangers. The conclusion is that an all-virtuous Divine (perfect) being cannot exist. After presenting this argument, reconstructed from sources in Sextus Empiricus and Cicero, this (...) paper goes on to model it as a deductively valid sequence of reasoning. The paper also discusses whet her the premises are true. Questions about the possibility and value of proving and disproving the existence of God by logical reasoning are raised, as well as ethical questions about how the cardinal ethical virtues should be defined. (shrink)

Dans son article de 1985, « Une morale est-elle compatible avec le scepticisme? », Jules Vuillemin brosse un portrait du philosophe néo-académicien Carnéade en sceptique utilitariste. L’article s’attache à analyser cette lecture en confrontant l’interprétation de Jules Vuillemin avec les sources que nous avons de Carnéade. Il montre que malgré l’anachronisme assumé de son approche, cette interprétation permet de faire apparaître la particularité du scepticisme de Carnéade, notamment la nature rationnelle de la règle d’action selon le probable, grâce à une (...) comparaison avec les théories de la décision. (shrink)

We present a formal, mathematical model of argument structure and evaluation, taking seriously the procedural and dialogical aspects of argumentation. The model applies proof standards to determine the acceptability of statements on an issue-by-issue basis. The model uses different types of premises (ordinary premises, assumptions and exceptions) and information about the dialectical status of statements (stated, questioned, accepted or rejected) to allow the burden of proof to be allocated to the proponent or the respondent, as appropriate, for each premise separately. (...) Our approach allows the burden of proof for a premise to be assigned to a different party than the one who has the burden of proving the conclusion of the argument, and also to change the burden of proof or applicable proof standard as the dialogue progresses from stage to stage. Useful for modeling legal dialogues, the burden of production and burden of persuasion can be handled separately, with a different responsible party and applicable proof standard for each. Carneades enables critical questions of argumentation schemes to be modeled as additional premises, using premise types to capture the varying effect on the burden of proof of different kinds of questions. (shrink)

Academic skepticism is usually interpreted as a type of discourse without an assertion (a dialectical interpretation). I argue against this interpretation. One can interpret Carneades’ notion of approval as our notion of weak assertion and thereby ascribe to him his own views (a non-dialectical interpretation). In Academica Cicero reports the debate about the status of approval as a kind of assent among Carneades’ followers, especially the views of Clitomachus and Philo of Larissa. According to Clitomachus, approving impressions implies (...) acting on them without taking them as true, while according to Philo of Larissa, approval is taking something as true without certainty. In more modern terms, we can say that Philo refers to the notion of weak assertion, and Clitomachus to non-assertion. Thus Clitomachus’ reading correlates with a dialectical reading, and Philo’s reading correlates with a non-dialectical reading. Philo’s reading leads to the interpretation of Carneades as a quasi-fallibilist. It is difficult to establish the precise position of the historical Carneades because he was hesitant in his oral teaching. Still, there is some basis in Carneades’ theory for interpreting approval as weak assertion (comprising three degrees of persuasiveness involving rational consideration of what seems to be truth). My aim in this essay is thus to argue that a quasi-fallibilist and non-dialectical reading is applicable to the historical Carneades. (shrink)

Carneades is an open source argument mapping application and a programming library for building argumentation support tools. In this paper, Carneades’ support for argument reconstruction, evaluation and visualization is illustrated by modeling most of the factual and legal arguments in Popov v Hayashi.

Although the so-called "pragmatic" test of truth--the idea that the truth of a statement is a function of its predictive value--is usually credited to william james, we possess a version of this truth-test from the third-century b c in the philosophy of carneades of cyrene, the head of the skeptical "middle academy". like james, carneades denied the existence of absolute truth, in the sense of a truth which no further experience could change, offering instead a criterion of probability, (...) the highest form of which is "the probable and tested". (shrink)

Argument invention is a method that can be used to help an arguer find arguments that could be used to prove a claim he needs to defend. The aim of this paper is to show how argumentation systems recently developed in artificial intelligence can be applied to the task of argument invention. One such system called Carneades is featured. Carneades can be used to analyze arguments, evaluate arguments, to make an argument diagram, and to construct arguments from a (...) database. Using some simple examples, the paper explains how Carneades works as a system of argument invention. (shrink)

Argument invention is a method that can be used to help an arguer find arguments that could be used to prove a claim he needs to defend. The aim of this paper is to show how argumentation systems recently developed in artificial intelligence can be applied to the task of argument invention. One such system called Carneades is featured. Carneades can be used to analyze arguments, evaluate arguments, to make an argument diagram, and to construct arguments from a (...) database. Using some simple examples, the paper explains how Carneades works as a system of argument invention. (shrink)

with Thomas F. Gordon and Henry Prakken. Artificial Intelligence, forthcoming. [Preprint posted.].

According to Otto Neurath, the practice of science consists in a large undertaking of setting up and maintaining systems of statements: In unified science we try ... to create a consistent system of protocol statements and nonprotocol statements . When a new statement is presented to us we compare it with the system at our disposal and check whether the new statement is in contradiction with the system or not. If the new statement is in contradiction with the system, we (...) can discard this statement as unusable , for example, the statement: ‘In Africa lions sing only in major chords’ ; however, one can also ‘accept’ the statement and change the system accordingly so that it remains consistent if this statement is added. The statement may then be called ‘true’. (shrink)

According to Otto Neurath, the practice of science consists in a large undertaking of setting up and maintaining systems of statements: In unified science we try... to create a consistent system of protocol statements and nonprotocol statements. When a new statement is presented to us we compare it with the system at our disposal and check whether the new statement is in contradiction with the system or not. If the new statement is in contradiction with the system, we can discard (...) this statement as unusable, for example, the statement: ‘In Africa lions sing only in major chords’ ; however, one can also ‘accept’ the statement and change the system accordingly so that it remains consistent if this statement is added. The statement may then be called ‘true’. (shrink)

Carneades is a recently proposed formalism for structured argumentation with varying proof standards, inspired by legal reasoning, but more generally applicable. Its distinctive feature is that each statement can be given its own proof standard, which is claimed to allow a more natural account of reasoning under burden of proof than existing formalisms for structured argumentation, in which proof standards are defined globally. In this article, the two formalisms are formally related by translating Carneades into the ASPIC+ framework (...) for structured argumentation. Since ASPIC+ is defined to generate Dung-style abstract argumentation frameworks, this in effect translates Carneades graphs into abstract argumentation frameworks. For this translation, we prove a formal correspondence and show that certain rationality postulates hold. It is furthermore proved that Carneades always induces a unique Dung extension, which is the same in all of Dung's semantics, allowing us to generalise Carneades to cycle-containing structures. (shrink)

The paper offers a critical analysis of the research program for formalizing informal logic proposed by Douglas Walton and Thomas Gordon. Since their proposal is based on employing the Carneades Argumentation System, this paper aims at answering two questions: what are main benefits of applying CAS as means for formalizing informal logic, and what are possible extensions of Walton and Gordon’s research program and modifications in employing CAS?

The best-known fact about the interaction of the Republican Roman poet Gaius Lucilius (c.180–103/102b.c.e.), the inventor of the genre of Roman verse satire, with the doctrine of Scepticism is probably a statement of Cicero: that Clitomachus the Academician dedicated a treatise to the poet (Cic.Luc. 102). Diogenes Laertius makes much of that writer's, Clitomachus’, industry (τὸ φιλόπονον, 4.67), with the comment: ‘to such lengths did his diligence (ἐπιμελείας) go that he composed more than four hundred treatises’. This phraseology surely reminds (...) those interested in Lucilius’ influence on later Latin poetry of Horace's disparaging comment,in hora saepe ducentos, | ut magnum, uersus dictabat(‘as a bravura display, he would often dictate two hundred verses in an hour’,Sat.1.4.9–10); moreover, Horace shortly afterwards calls his predecessorgarrulus atque piger scribendi ferre laborem(‘talkative and too lazy to bear the work of writing’, 1.4.12). Yet, a sceptical view of Horace's critique might have to think of Lucilius as hard-working, like his putative friend the Academic philosopher, Clitomachus. (shrink)

Ancient sceptics, unlike their modern counterparts, claim to live their scepticism. Nowadays scepticism, whether epistemological, moral, or of any other variety, is seen as a purely theoretical position, with no direct bearing on the actual living of one’s life; this is because philosophical theories and everyday attitudes are taken to be in some way “insulated” from one another. Serious questions may be raised about the character of this alleged “insulation,” but these are not my present concern; the fact is that (...) no such split between “the philosophical” and “the ordinary” was entertained in the ancient world. It follows that the viability of scepticism as a way of life is a crucial issue for ancient sceptics. It is no accident that one of the most enduring objections to ancient scepticism is to the effect that the sceptical attitude—that is, the posture of universal suspension of judgement—is incompatible with any kind of normal human action; this was known in antiquity as the charge of apraxia, “inaction.” The sceptics for their part, were just as persistent in arguing that suspension of judgement had no such damaging consequences. In as much as the assessment of actual or imaginable types of human life is the province of ethics, I take this debate between ancient sceptics and their detractors to be, in a broad sense, an ethical debate. (shrink)

This paper is a historical study of stage hypnotism from the early nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries. The hypnotists' stage performances over this period reveal cultural tensions related to modernization. Public responses to these shows also indicate the shifting dynamics of reform. When mesmerists first toured the U.S. in the early nineteenth century, the hypnotic trance confirmed popular belief in the ultimate perfectibility of the individual and society. By the late nineteenth century, however, hypnotic shows seemed more a model (...) for human enslavement than liberation. Medical experts also began to express concern at the possible health damage hypnotism might inflict. Despite stage hypnotists' efforts to defend their art, hypnotism became increasingly marginalized as the growth of the middle class and of mass culture dictated an increasingly sanitized popular culture. (shrink)

The centrepiece of Cicero's De re publica is a discussion of justice. This discussion, which evokes the theme of the Platonic dialogue after which it was named, consists of a set of three speeches. It begins with a speech opposing justice, placed in the mouth of L. Furius Philus and alleged by him to be modelled on the second of a pair of speeches for and against justice delivered in Rome in 155 B.C. by the Greek Academic philosopher Carneades. (...) Philus' speech lays the dialectical foundation for the two subsequent speeches, a defence of justice as the prerequisite for government by C. Laelius, and an explanation of its role in various forms of government by Scipio Aemilianus. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that Carneades' pithanon should be understood as what is probably, though not certainly, true. In this, I oppose, e.g., Burnyeat and Frede, who argue that the pithanon should be understood as the persuasive, and not tied to notions of evidential support. There is a free pdf of this paper available on the OSAP website; see the link below.

Plum Shadows and Plank Bridge: Two Memoirs about Courtesans. Translated and edited by Wai-yee Li. New York: Columbia University Press, 2020. Pp. 328. $60, $20.

Harald Thorsrud - Cicero on his Academic Predecessors: the Fallibilism of Arcesilaus and Carneades - Journal of the History of Philosophy 40:1 Journal of the History of Philosophy 40.1 1-18 Cicero on his Academic Predecessors: the Fallibilism of Arcesilaus and Carneades Harald Thorsrud IN AN IMPORTANT PAPER, Couissin argued for what has come to be called the dialectical interpretation of Academic skepticism. On this interpretation, Arcesilaus and Carneades practiced the same, purely dialectical method -- they would elicit (...) assent to premises characteristic of their interlocutor's position and then derive unacceptable consequences exclusively on the basis of those premises. This method allowed them to remain uncommitted to the premises as well as the conclusions of their arguments. They would simply draw logical consequences from their opponents' own premises for the sake of refutation. This is in keeping with the current consensus that an ancient skeptic is one who has no beliefs, or at least no beliefs of a problematically dogmatic sort. Consequently, the methods of ancient skeptics, including Academic skeptics, are thought to be strictly negative, seeking only the elimination of belief. So when we come to Cicero's Philonian version of Academic methodology and find that it explicitly includes provisions for the acquisition of fallible beliefs, it is no surprise that commentators who are sympathetic to the dialectical interpretation tend to view.. (shrink)

In 155 B.C. Athens sent an embassy to Rome to mediate in the matters raised by the Athenian intervention in the city of Oropos. Although the senate not long before has expelled philosphers and rhetors, they decided to entrust negotiations to the academic Carneades, the stoic Diogenes and the peripatetic Critolao. We know nothing of the role played by the latter two, who in the testimonials that we have either do not appear or are merely mentioned in passing, perhaps (...) because only that which is scandalous tends to be remembered o perhaps because they were not fortunate enough to have Cicero notice them. We are also fortunate that Lactantius conserves parts of the Ciceronian text that otherwise would have been lost. The present paper addresses the relations and interrelations among these three levels of readings: the discourses of Carneades in favor of justice and injustice, the recreation of the discourse on injustice that Cicero puts in the mouth of Philo, and the fragments of Lactantius that allows us to complete the prior two discourses. (shrink)

Cet article propose une interprétation de la philosophie de la Nouvelle Académie différente de celle qui a été défendue par J. Annas. Il nous semble que la prise en compte de l'ensemble des témoignages concernant cette école suggère une réalité plus complexe que celle que recouvre le concept de scepticisme, au moins dans sa version néopyrrhonienne. Nous croyons qu'Arcésilas et Carnéade n'ont pas délimité un Platon sceptique, mais qu'ils ont accepté à leur manière l'ensemble de l'héritage platonicien. La force de (...) la tradition apparaît donc plus forte dans l'histoire de l'Académie que ne l'admettent généralement les interprètes. The purpose of this article is to give an interpretation of the New Academy's philosophy quite different from the one defended by J. Annas. In our opinion the reading of the whole testimonies relating to this school suggests a greater complexity than what is embraced by the concept of skepticism, at least in its neopyrrhonian version. We believe that Arcesilas and Carneades, instead of confining Plato whithin the limits of skepticism, have accepted - in their own way - the whole Platonician legacy. Thus the burden of tradition seems more important in the history of the Academy than it is generally admitted. (shrink)

Spectres of False Divinity presents a historical and critical interpretation of Hume's rejection of the existence of a deity with moral attributes. In Hume's view, no first cause or designer responsible for the ordered universe could possibly have moral attributes; nor could the existence of such a being have any real implications for human practice or conduct. Hume's case for this 'moral atheism' is a central plank of both his naturalistic agenda in metaphysics and his secularizing program in moral (...) theory. It complements his wider critique of traditional theism, and threatens to rule out any religion that would make claims on moral practice. Thomas Holden situates Hume's commitment to moral atheism in its historical and philosophical context, offers a systematic interpretation of his case for divine amorality, and shows how Hume can endorse moral atheism while maintaining his skeptical attitude toward traditional forms of cosmological and theological speculation. (shrink)