Honorable Mention, 2007 Book Prize competition sponsored by the Canadian Philosophical Association.In Onflow, Ralph Pred supplies an account of the nature of ...

This book is a festschrift for Torsten Hagerstrand. "Through your work on migration, innovation diffusion, and time-geography you have helped demonstrate that geography's most profound insights are to be gained from the study of process rather than form.".

The paper offers a comparison between the legal theory of normative facts on the one hand, and Bruno Celano’s theory of pre-conventions on the other, suggesting two ways that the latter may be of use to well-meaning jurists.

In his article on pre-conventions, Celano presents, what the author calls, the Ontological Commitment Thesis and the Normative Bite Thesis. In this short comment, the author argues that the two theses are together both incompatible with the idea that pre-conventions are facts which have causal powers in human behaviour; also, if the ontological thesis is abandoned, normative determination could not be obtained. In other terms, the author argues that either pre-conventions are part of our causal explanation of human behaviour or (...) pre-conventions are abstract entities able to determine human behaviour normatively. In the first case, pre-conventions lack normative meaning, while in the second pre-conventions cannot integrate our causal explanation of human actions. Tertium non datur. (shrink)

In this comment to Celano’s “Pre-Conventions. A Fragment of the Background”, the author introduces the following question: What kind of explanation fits better with behaviours that could be categorised as pre-conventions? Some possible answers to the question are explored, as well as some possible implications for Celano’s proposal.

In “Pre-conventions: A fragment of the Background”, Bruno Celano argues for the existence and philosophical significance of what he calls “pre-conventions” – a type of convention distinct from those hitherto discussed in the literature, and which transcends a number of orthodox philosophical distinctions. In these comments, I suggest that Celano may have shown that there is a distinct type of convention governing judgments of style or taste. If so, we may learn some important lessons by examining this new type of (...) convention. However, I express doubts about whether the broader ambitions of Celano’s paper are fulfilled. I contend that pre-conventions are not as common as he suggests, and are not present in some of the other examples he gives. I also express doubts about whether he is right to suggest that there is a distinct type of convention that renders possible the development of conventions of the sort which David Lewis was interested in. (shrink)

V članku so proučene odločitve Meddržavnega sodišča v Haagu, kjer je imela Srbija položaj stranke v postopku, in sicer je nastopala tako v vlogi tožeče kakor tožene stranke. V obravnavanih zadevah je bila pravdna sposobnost Srbije večkrat izpodbijana, odgovori Sodišča pa so sprožili številne polemike. Avtor se s strnjeno predstavitvijo sodb loti razčlembe sodniškega razlogovanja in tako poskuša razumeti, kako je Sodišče za obdobje med letoma 1992 in 2000 lahko prišlo do nasprotujočih si rešitev glede vprašanja dostopa Srbije do Sodišča. (...) Članek je nastal v okviru konference Centra za raziskave temeljnih pravic in razvoj prava in je bil predstavljen 27. maja 2010 na Univerzi v Caen-u. Avtor se zahvaljuje Marie Rota za njene nasvete. (shrink)

Danes, v procesu razkroja marksizma in oblikovanja »post-marksizma«, imamo opraviti s tremi prevladujočimi pojmovanji subjekta, od katerih vsako hkrati implicira določeno etično držo: Habermasov subjekt jezikovne refleksije, zavezan idealu brezprisilne komunikacije; »post-strukturalistični« pluralizem subjektnih pozicij, ki pri Foucaultu implicira etiko invencije, samoizgradnje jaza; Althusserjev subjekt kot učinek imaginarnega sprevida, ki implicira etiko subjektivne destitucije. Lacanova psihoanalitična teorija pa vsebuje četrto paradigmo, nezvedljivo na prve tri: že pred procesom subjektivacije oziroma interpelacije je subjekt navzoč kot praznina, ne-možnost simbolne strukture, kot (...) korelat realnemu jedru, ki se upira simbolizaciji. Temu ustreza etika realnega, etika, ki vztraja na razmiku med travmo realnega in poskusi njene simbolizad je. Delo Laclaua in Mouffove Hegemonija in socialistična strategija je prvi poskus, razdelati teorijo družbenega, ki bi ustrezala lacanovskemu polju: družba je nemožna totalnost, zgrajena okoli travmatičnega jedra. Kritičen pretres pojma antagonizma nam pokaže, da je subjekt, ki ustreza Laclau/Mouffovi teoriji družbenega, prav lacanovski sujet barré. (shrink)

Keď sa ľudia nachádzajú medzi inými, správajú sa viac prosociálne, morálne a štedro. Čo však môže ovplyvniť ich správanie v momente, keď sú sami? Aby sa správali ako medzi inými? Jedna z možností môže byť vyvolať pocit, že sa niekto pozerá. Tento účel môže splniť aj obyčajné zrkadlo. Naše výskumy podporujú vplyv zrkadla na dodržiavanie pravidla na súboroch dospelých a detí. V obidvoch experimentoch prítomnosť zrkadla zvyšovala šancu na dodržiavanie stanoveného pravidla. Ako však niečo tak jednoduché ako zrkadlo môže ovplyvniť (...) správanie? Jeden z prístupov tvrdí, že vizuálny stimul spustí automatickú percepciu „niekto sa pozerá“, aj napriek tomu, že je to iba odraz v zrkadle. Ďalší možný prístup vychádza z predpokladu, že na seba upriamená pozornosť vyvoláva sebauvedomovanie, pričom sa zviditeľňuje prípadný rozpor medzi konaním a štandardom. Porušenie pravidla v takom momente by mohlo ohroziť sebaúctu. V treťom prístupe autori vychádzajú z princípu negatívnej spätnej väzby. Nakoniec by sme radi spomenuli naše experimenty a navrhli ďalšie možnosti skúmania v tejto oblasti. (shrink)

Keď sa ľudia nachádzajú medzi inými, správajú sa viac prosociálne, morálne a štedro. Čo však môže ovplyvniť ich správanie v momente, keď sú sami? Aby sa správali ako medzi inými? Jedna z možností môže byť vyvolať pocit, že sa niekto pozerá. Tento účel môže splniť aj obyčajné zrkadlo. Naše výskumy podporujú vplyv zrkadla na dodržiavanie pravidla na súboroch dospelých a detí. V obidvoch experimentoch prítomnosť zrkadla zvyšovala šancu na dodržiavanie stanoveného pravidla. Ako však niečo tak jednoduché ako zrkadlo môže ovplyvniť (...) správanie? Jeden z prístupov tvrdí, že vizuálny stimul spustí automatickú percepciu „niekto sa pozerá“, aj napriek tomu, že je to iba odraz v zrkadle. Ďalší možný prístup vychádza z predpokladu, že na seba upriamená pozornosť vyvoláva sebauvedomovanie, pričom sa zviditeľňuje prípadný rozpor medzi konaním a štandardom. Porušenie pravidla v takom momente by mohlo ohroziť sebaúctu. V treťom prístupe autori vychádzajú z princípu negatívnej spätnej väzby. Nakoniec by sme radi spomenuli naše experimenty a navrhli ďalšie možnosti skúmania v tejto oblasti. (shrink)

At the time of his death in May of 2012, Ralph Pred was working on a critical social theory inspired by process philosophy. In the book manuscript he left unfinished, Syntax and Solidarity, he develops a “radically empirical” sociology that enables him to identify and critically evaluate the different forms that social solidarity has taken in the history of civilization. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the importance of his unfinished project. The executors of (...) class='Hi'>Pred’s literary estate would be happy to see his project, with due acknowledgment, publicized and continued. Keywords: Active Voice Bias, Concrescence, Middle Voice, Sociogeny, Solidarity, Substance. (shrink)

In these examples, the initial XP (smart woman in (1a)) is a predicate and the second XP (your mother in (1a)) is a DP that is interpreted as the subject of this predicate. For ease of reference, we will refer to the two parts as the predicate and the subject, and we will call this class of examples Pred NP (following Shopen 1972). Pred NP utterances have not received much attention in the literature, aside from some initial observations (...) in Shopen (1972) and a brief discussion in Culicover and Jackendoff (2005) (see Vinet 1991 for an analysis of similar data in French). Looking at these examples, we are interested in their syntactic structure because on the surface they appear to be smaller than a sentence. In particular, we would like to determine whether or not they are sentences, either syntactically or semantically. That is, are they a projection of T? Are they interpreted as something of Montagovian type ? This paper first explores the nature of Pred NP examples, such as the restrictions on the predicate and the subject, intonation and information structure. In section 3, we posit four possible analyses and evaluate them with respect to the characteristics noted in section 2. Although an analysis involving right dislocation and ellipsis fares the best, none of the proposed solutions accounts for all the properties of these examples. Section 4 concludes. (shrink)

This study of Ralph Pred’s Onflow (MIT Press, 2005) expands on Pred’s arguments and raises doubts about the viability of phenomenology. Showing that Pred’s method is indeed phenomenological, I validate his interpretations of William James as phenomenologist and his critique of John Searle in light of James, which documents the extent to which the role of habit in the constitution of experience is neglected by philosophers. In explaining habit, however, Pred himself reverts to non-phenomenological models drawn (...) from James’ postulate of psycho-physical parallelism. Habit, like causation, poses an unmet challenge to phenomenological methods. In his critique of Gerald Edelman, Pred notes that Edelman falls prey to a metaphysical bias inherent in modern Indo-European languages. But Pred’s acuity in exposing a latent linguistic bias in phenomenological data is a two-edged sword. Revealing an invisible dependence of appearance on language, it casts doubt on the project of getting beyond language to "appearances-in-themselves.". (shrink)

Článek mapuje vliv Wittgensteinovy filosofie na poválečnou etiku v Británii, a to přes ústřední etické problémy morálního pravidla a jednání na základě tohoto pravidla. Důležitý zlom způsobila masívní kritika novověkého „právního“ pojetí etiky soustředěného na úzký pojem morální povinnosti, v němž je morální jednání modelováno jako vedení určitým objektivně daným zákonem, který zvnějšku donucuje vůli. Důraz na věrohodnou psychologii jednání a nedůvěra k morální nutnosti, s níž takový obrázek pracuje, vedly velkou část autorů k příklonu k antickému etickému paradigmatu. To (...) – na rozdíl od novověkého, jež se úzce zaměřuje na epizodické jednání – vychází od zkoumání dobrého života, k jehož uskutečnění je zapotřebí dobrého charakteru. Morální jednání je tak vysvětlováno na pozadí ctnostného charakteru, který tak poskytuje i příslušnou morální motivaci.Po představení určité zjednodušené představy, jak lze tuto motivaci modelovat, přejdeme ke koncepcím, které na tuto představu kriticky reagují z wittgensteinovských pozic. Ústřední terč této kritiky tvoří nedostatečné pojetí vnímání situace, které je v praktickém kontextu třeba chápat již strukturovaně jako něco, co obsahuje hodnocení a reakci. Typické pro wittgensteinovské pozice je proto popření nezávislosti motivační a kognitivní složky v analýze jednání, a tedy popření vlivné, tzv. „humovské“ teorie motivace. Představíme dvě větve této kritiky: První rozpracovává aristotelskou ctnost „rozumnost“, tedy hlavní rozumovou ctnost, druhá navazuje na platónskou tezi o jednotné ctnosti. V závěru bude naznačen způsob analýzy morálního principu v duchu této školy. (shrink)

Procesi globalizacije događali su se mnogo puta u povijesti, daleko prije pojave riječi ‘globalizacija’ u drugoj polovici 20. st. Suvremena globalizacija podrazumijeva društvene, gospodarske i političke procese usmjerene na prelaženje državnih granica i stvaranje globalnog svjetskog poretka. No ona se ne smije svesti samo na to, budući da njeni procesi pogađaju sva područja ljudskog života i djelovanja: medije i komunikacije, gospodarstvo, politiku, pravo, kulturu, ekologiju, etiku, religije i crkve. Posljedice globalizacije jesu nova iskustva na društvenoj, političkoj i gospodarskoj razini – (...) povezivanje i umrežavanje kroz procese internacionalizacije i transnacionalizacije, kroz skupove poput G7 i Međunarodnog gospodarskog foruma u Davosu, ali i brojni društveni lomovi i gospodarska recesija. Globalizacija potiče religije na približavanje, na jačanje suradnje i na zauzimanje zajedničkog stava. Religije to i čine kroz postojeće zajedničke institucije, poput Svjetskog parlamenta religija i Svjetske konferencije religija za mir , tražeći nove oblike približavanja, dijaloga, solidarnosti, suživota, suradnje i ostvarenja etičkog konsenzusa, vodeći računa o zaštiti vlastitog identiteta u vremenu pluralizma i multikulturalnosti. Religije su svjesne da je etičko pitanje postalo pitanje planetarne odgovornosti koje zahtijeva globalnu etiku oko koje se trebaju složiti svi subjekti na svjetskoj razini, a u kojoj će čovjek biti aktivni subjekt. Kršćanske crkve uzimaju u obzir određene pozitivne zakonitosti procesa globalizacije tako da možemo govoriti o »kršćanskoj globalizaciji«. Kršćanstvo je od svojih početaka bilo usmjereno na određenu vrstu globalizacijskih procesa – daleko prije nego li se pojavio naziv ‘globalizacija’. Crkve su svjesne svoje zadaće zajednički braniti u vremenu globalizacije dostojanstvo svakog čovjeka, svake tradicije i kulture. One to čine preko brojnih postojećih međucrkvenih institucija na svjetskoj razini kao što su Ekumensko vijeće crkava , Ekumensko vijeće mladih u Europi . Katolička Crkva je od početka bila globalna i iz te je perspektive kroz stoljeća misijski djelovala. Nakon II. vatikanskog sabora to će djelovanje pojačati osnivanjem Papinskog vijeća za jedinstvo kršćana koje je nastalo iz Tajništva za jedinstvo kršćana , zatim Svjetskog dana mladih i Caritasa internationalisa.Processes of globalization have been happening numerous times through history, long prior to the appearance of the word ‘globalization’ in the second half of 20th century. Modern globalization includes the social, economic and political processes headed to crossing national boundaries and creating a global world order. However, globalization cannot be attributed simply to that issue, for its processes deal with all dimensions of human life and activity: media and communications, economy, politics, law, culture, ecology, ethics, religions, and churches. The consequences of globalization are new experiences related to social, political and economical sphere – interconnection and networking through processes of internationalization and transnationalization, through the meetings of the members of G7 and International Economic Forum in Davos, and also the numerous social breaks and economic recession. Globalization inspires religions to aim at the approaching, the stronger cooperation and the intercession for the common attitude. For realization of this purpose religions act through the existing common institutions like The World Parliament of Religions and World conference of religions for peace , asking for a new way of approaching, dialogue, solidarity, coexistence, cooperation and realization of ethic consensus, taking into account the protection of its own identity in time of pluralism and multiculture. Religions are aware of how ethic question has become the question of world’s responsibility. That issue requires global ethical principles around which all subjects on the world scale are to agree with. In that global ethic the human being will be respected as an active subject. The Christian Churches take into consideration the certain positive lawfulness of globalization process, thus we can speak of “Christian globalization”. Christianity has been headed to globalization process from the earliest days of the faith – prior to the process has emerged known as globalization. The Churches became aware of its responsibility in order to protect in the time of globalization the dignity of every person, every tradition, and culture. The Churches respond to this phenomenon through numerous existing interchurch institutions on world domain such as The World Council of Churches , Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe . The Catholic Church from the beginning has been global and based on this perspective the Catholic Church through centuries has been carrying out its missionary work. After the Second Vatican Council the Catholic Church has strengthened its activity by establishing Pontifical Council for Christian Unity , which has emerged from Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity , World Youth Day and Caritas internationalis. (shrink)

This study of Ralph Pred’s Onflow (MIT Press, 2005) expands on Pred’s arguments and raises doubts about the viability of phenomenology. Showing that Pred’s method is indeed phenomenological, I validate his interpretations of William James as phenomenologist and his critique of John Searle in light of James, which documents the extent to which the role of habit in the constitution of experience is neglected by philosophers. In explaining habit, however, Pred himself reverts to non-phenomenological models drawn (...) from James’ postulate of psycho-physical parallelism. Habit, like causation, poses an unmet challenge to phenomenological methods. In his critique of Gerald Edelman, Pred notes that Edelman falls prey to a metaphysical bias inherent in modern Indo-European languages. But Pred’s acuity in exposing a latent linguistic bias in phenomenological data is a two-edged sword. Revealing an invisible dependence of appearance on language, it casts doubt on the project of getting beyond language to "appearances-in-themselves.". (shrink)