"A collection of essays on the early modern English writer, proto-feminist, and rhetorician Mary Astell. Includes discussions on human nature, equality, rationality, power, freedom, friendship, marriage, and education"--Provided by publisher.

This book analyses Kant’s assumptions about happiness and the implications they have for his moral, political, and legal thought. It provides a “map” of the different areas in which the concept of happiness appears in his practical philosophy and examines how it relates to the main themes of his practical philosophy.

Name der Zeitschrift: Cognitive Linguistics Jahrgang: 27 Heft: 4 Seiten: 493-505.

This paper aims to introduce a robust framework for forecasting demand, including data preprocessing, data transformation and standardization, feature selection, cross-validation, and regression ensemble framework. Bagging ), boosting and extreme gradient boosting regression ), and stacking are employed as ensemble models. Different machine learning approaches, including support vector regression, extreme learning machine, and multilayer perceptron neural network, are adopted as reference models. In order to maximize the determination coefficient value and reduce the root mean square error, hyperparameters are set using (...) the grid search method. Using a steel industry dataset, all tests are carried out under identical experimental conditions. In this context, STACK1 and STACK2 models provided better performance than other models. The highest accuracies of R2 of 0.97 and 0.97 are obtained using STACK1 and STACK2, respectively. Moreover, the rank according to performances is STACK1, STACK2, XGBR, GBR, RFR, MLP, ELM, and SVR. As it improves the performance of models and reduces the risk of decision-making, the ensemble method can be used to forecast the demand in a steel industry one month ahead. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has had, and still has, the risk to have an enormous impact on how people socially interact with each other due to possible lockdowns, quarantine and isolation measures to reduce infection rates. Consequently, these measures hold great implications for those medical disciplines that inherently rely on social interaction, such as psychiatry. In their article, ‘Can you hear me?’— Communication, Relationship and Ethics in Video-based Telepsychiatric Consultations’, Frittgen and Haltaufderheide1 show that videoconferencing holds potential to ensure that this (...) social interaction is guaranteed, be it in a technology mediated manner. In this sense, videoconferencing needs to be conceived as a pharmakon, a medicine, having both curative and toxifying elements, depending on why and how it is used.2 For example, videoconferencing allows continuity of care when physical proximity is impossible. At the same time, it allows the patient to interrupt the therapy by muting the therapist or ending the call at his/her convenience. To guarantee the curative side of videoconferencing, and as such avoid the toxifying elements, an ethical prescription needs to be developed and used. Despite the fact that videoconferencing seems to have a similar clinical effectiveness as face-to-face interaction, Frittgen and Haltaufderheide rightly point out that there are ethical impacts to be addressed to avoid …. (shrink)

The method chosen here draws on concepts borrowed from sociology and anthropology. This double conceptual approach is necessary for a society divided between values inherited from medieval Christianity and precapitalist practices. Seventeenth-century France did not think of itself as a class society but as a society of orders. Since sociology is a system of knowledge whose concepts are taken from an imaginary construct, it is thus more suited to analyzing bourgeois society than societies in transition.6 In trying to measure the (...) past with the aid of tools forged in and for contemporary societies, the sociologist runs the risk of only measuring an artifact, produced by his theories in the field of history. Hence the need for the anthropological concepts, including the notion of exchange, among others, whether material , symbolic , or sexual .This approach will bring to light the contradictions underlying the society of the ancient régime. Whereas an ordinary sociohistorical approach views the reign of Louis XIV as unified under a dogmatic classicism, the socioanthropological approach stresses the tensions and oppositions running through this society. Classicism appears then as a façade covering up the change that it cannot imagine. This “spectacle”7 makes it possible to unite contradictory social practices, both those produced by consumption and which originate in the medieval economy and those belonging to the early accumulation of capital which sketch future bourgeois economic practices. 6. See Cornelius Catoriadis, The Imaginary Institution of Society, trans. Kathleen Blamey .7. See Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle, rev. English ed. . Jean-Marie Apostolidès is professor of French literature at Stanford University. His publications include Le roi-machine, Les metamorphoses de Tintin, and Le prince sacrifié. Alice Musick McLean, a Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago, is specializing in medieval narrative and the literature of the fantastic. (shrink)

Nietzsche is usually presumed to be an atheist because of his proclaimation that God is dead. This dissertation argues, however, that the death of God is not atheistic but theistic, for Nietzsche's concept of Dionysus, Will to Power itself, entails an implicit commitment to theism. ;Chapter One indicates the enigmatic and nuanced quality of Nietzsche's style. Nietzsche wears masks. In order to decipher these masks with respect to the problem of God, six criteria of the traditional theistic understanding of God (...) are established. These six criteria are: Dionysus is eternal. He is the creative source of the world and man. The world and man exemplify the presence of Dionysus and yet they are not exhaustive of Him. Therefore Dionysus, as more than the world, can be spoken of as "other" than man and the world. This "otherness" entails a relationship between Dionysus and man/world. This relationship is not determinative of Dionysus. Man and world are an experiment on Dionysus' behalf; one that may "terminate," although Dionysus himself will not. ;Chapter Two sets out to formulate and expound upon the first four criteria of theism. This sets down the basic ontology. ;Chapter Three sets forth the problem of nihilism. Nihilism is the result of the death of God. ;Chapter Four discusses the relation of nihilism to morality. For Nietzsche, the moralization of life, and in particular the moralization of God, has led to God's death. Thus this chapter indicates the fifth criterion of theism, i.e., man's relation to God. ;Chapter Five sets out to decode hermeneutically the various masks that Nietzsche wears in reference to the problem of atheism. This chapter demonstrates how Nietzsche's own overt atheistic statements are proclaimations of iconotrophy, not godlessness. ;Chapter Six explicates Nietzsche's positive philosophy of God. This philosophy of God is formulated in terms of The Text of the Divine, God as Non-evaluatable, God and Eschatology, God and the Problem of Causality. Accordingly, this chapter deliniates the sixth criterion of theism, i.e., God's relationship to man. (shrink)

Meaning is made out of the world by our actions in certain situations. But there are so many different things we can do, few of which actually create meaning. Not only do we utter linguistic expressions, but we move, gesture, point; we plan our actions to satisfy particular goals, we form beliefs, presumptions and prejudices, as well as ascribe intentions to other actors. In this paper three ways of acting are singled out for their function in making meaning out of (...) the world: demonstrations, indications and experiments. The paper develops some Wittgensteinean themes, such as the priority of demonstration, the nature of pictorial representations and the relation between interpretation and calculation, in the terms and concepts of Situation Theory. It attempts to weave some important elements of Wittgenstein’s thought in with an account of situated meaning and interpretation, without embarking on any archeological adventure. The paper is intended as a contribution to the philosophical foundations of Situation Theory and a critical commentary to some of its published accounts. Although Situation Theory has been developed with a sharp awareness of its antecedents in Bertrand Russell’s work, as well as its immediate heritage of central aspects of David Kaplan’s account of demonstrative reference, to my knowledge its Wittgensteinean roots have not been traced. The account of demonstrations, indications and experiments advocated here shows not only that important philosophical concerns of Situation Theory have their precursors in Wittgenstein’s work, but also that some of his insights could profitably be absorbed into its new foundations for a theory of meaning. (shrink)

“What is appreciation?” is a basic question in the philosophy of art, and the analogy between appreciating a work of art and getting a joke can help us answer it. We first propose a subjective account of aesthetic appreciation (I). Then we consider jokes (II). The difference between getting a joke and not, or what it is to get it right, can often be objectively articulated. Such explanations cannot substitute for the joke itself, and indeed may undermine the very power (...) of the joke to evoke an appropriate response. Sometimes the discourse of art critics can have a similar effect. We therefore explore the analogy between getting jokes and appreciating works of art (III), and find it unexpectedly strong. Finally (IV), we consider Wittgensteinian grounds for thinking as we do, considering the language game of joke-telling, the relevance of seeing aspects, and giving reasons. (shrink)

A recuperação da memória histórica em escritos biográficos e autobiográficos já não está mais restrita a um campo de pesquisa exclusivo. Autores como Georges Bataille, John Hersey e Beatriz Sarlo perscrutaram as correlações entre História e memória na literatura, avaliando questões éticas e de natureza social. A partir de tais estudos, este artigo comenta alguns excertos de Assombrações do Recife Velho, do sociólogo Gilberto Freyre e Baú de ossos, do memorialista Pedro Nava. O objetivo é expor como elementos ficcionais e (...) históricos se articulam nessas duas obras. Palavras-chave: literatura, ficção, memória, história. (shrink)

Le concept de " care ", qui désigne tout à la fois une attitude morale - l'attention à l'autre, la sollicitude à son égard - et un ensemble de pratiques destinées à prendre soin des autres, a fait une entrée remarquée dans le débat public au printemps 2010. Tandis que certains y ont vu le pivot d'un projet de société alternatif, d'autres ont immédiatement répliqué que le care ne présentait aucun intérêt politique, voire constituait un concept écran masquant sous une (...) rhétorique en vogue un ensemble de problèmes politiques sérieux, tels que l'accroissement des inégalités ou la permanence des rapports de domination. Face à la polarisation du débat, comme aux malentendus concernant le care auxquels il a donné lieu, cet ouvrage collectif voudrait poser une double question : les théories du care sont-elles dotées d'une portée politique? Et si tel est le cas, en quoi consiste cette dernière? En réunissant les contributions de sociologues et de philosophes qui pensent les pratiques sociales par le biais du concept de care et des théories du care, cet ouvrage souhaite ainsi interroger ce que le care fait au politique et à nos manières de le concevoir, ou autrement dit, comment la prise en compte des activités de care et de l'éthique sociale qui leur est immanente peut faire surgir de nouvelles questions comme de nouvelles perspectives dans notre manière de définir ce que serait une société juste ou décente. (shrink)

Drawing on two long-term ethnographic fieldworks with social entrepreneurs, this article starts to uncover the multilayered nature of the motivations underlying the creation of social enterprises. We investigate the following research question: what types of self-oriented motivations might drive social entrepreneurs? Departing from previous research and popular opinion, which foregrounds the primacy of prosocial intentions, we show the critical role played by self-oriented motives. To explain this finding, we advance three analytical categories of self-oriented motives—entrepreneurial lifestyle, repurposing expertise, and solving (...) a social or environmental puzzle. We then illuminate these categories through the illustrative examples of six social entrepreneurs. Based on our findings, we contend that creating a social enterprise can also be the unintended consequence of adopting entrepreneurial behavior, leading to the creation of a venture guided by these three types of self-oriented motivations. Finally, we consider the implications of this study for the field of social entrepreneurship. (shrink)

A collection of first-person case studies that detail serious ethical problems in medical practice and research.

Este presente artigo visa buscar os pressupostos da dupla reflexão de Climacus para melhor compreender a sua crítica ao pensamento dialético-especulativo. É tendo em mente que a dupla reflexão retoma os conceitos do trágico e do cômico, da seriedade e do gracejo – ainda que sobre uma nova perspectiva– que compreenderemos a importância dessa comunicação para a linguagem indireta, que tem por objetivo comunicar uma contradição absoluta.

À partir d’une lecture de Kant et d’une analyse de quelques expériences de nos interactions avec la réalité matérielle, cet article développe une pensée de l’ aisthesis qui précise la nature de la différence entre les perceptions qui nous viennent à travers des médiations techniques (aujourd’hui numériques) et les perceptions que nous avons des formes qui constituent notre environnement présentiel. Sans aucune technophobie, il aide à comprendre en quoi l’autoréférentialité de la représentation ne cesse de croître en même temps que (...) nos perceptions sont de plus en plus filtrées par des médiations numériques. (shrink)