The metaphor of the food system,dominant in current research approaches to sustainableagriculture, mirrors the productionist paradigm, whichreduces our relationship to land and food to theproduction and consumption of commodities. Theenactment of the familiar values of nourishment andhospitality is what the goal of sustainableagriculture would amount to in terms of our day to daylived experience. The metaphor of an ’’earthen bowl‘‘ asa theory of food and agriculture can ’’embody‘‘ thesevalues such that broader change might be achievedthrough embracing the idea and practice (...) of theories asnourishing and theorizing as hospitable. (shrink)

The criticism that voluntary codes of conduct are ineffective can be met by giving greater centrality to human rights in such codes. Provided the human rights obligations of multinational corporations are interpreted as moral obligations specifically tailored to the situation of multinational corporations, this could serve to bring powerful moral force to bear on MNCs and could provide a legitimating basis for NGO monitoring and persuasion. Approached in this way the human rights obligations of MNCs can be taken to include (...) support for political as well as economic rights. This will go some way towards filling the regulatory gap created by the difficulty of controlling the activities of corporations operating globally. However, such a proposal will require a measure of ‘meta-regulation’ whereby the operations of MNCs are legally required to be sufficiently transparent to create the conditions for effective external moral scrutiny. (shrink)

Science and the originality of life -- Christian facticity -- Grasping life as a topic -- Ruinance -- The retrieval of history -- Facticity and ontology -- Factical speaking -- Rhetoric -- Sophistry.

William James has long been recognized as a central figure in the American philosophic tradition, and his ideas continue to play a significant role in contemporary thinking. Yet there has never been a comprehensive exploration of the thought of this seminal philosopher and psychologist. In Experiencing William James, renowned scholar James Campbell provides the fuller and more complete analysis that James scholarship has long needed. Commentators typically address only pieces of James's thought or aspects of his vision, often in (...) an attempt to make the task of understanding James seem easier than it is or else to dismiss him as a philosophically unprepared if well-meaning amateur. The isolated nature of these examinations, too often divorced from the original contexts, badly hinders and even distorts their conclusions. Focusing on James's own ideas rather than his critiques of others, and drawing from a wealth of scholarship that includes the completed editions of his writings and correspondence, Experiencing William James provides an invaluable, comprehensive view of James as he participates in and advances the pragmatic spirit that is at the core of American philosophy. Taking the whole of the man's thinking into account, this book offers the richest perspective so far on this great but not fully comprehended intellectual. (shrink)

Medieval Integration Challenge for Intellection (MICI) in Albert the Great, Siger of Brabant, and Radulphus Brito.

The philosopher John J. McDermott comes out of the long American tradition that takes the aim of philosophical inquiry to be interpretation of the open meanings of experience, so that we might all live fuller and richer lives. Here, the authors of these nine essays explore his highly original interpretations of philosophy's various questions about our shared existence. How are we to understand the nature of American culture and to carry forward its important contributions? What is the personal importance of (...) embodiment, of living in the realization of death? How does our physical and personal environment nourish bodies and spirits? What does the deliberate pursuit of a morality offer us? How can we carry forward the fundamental tasks of education to enable those who follow us to use our shared past to address their civic and spiritual problems? What are the possibilities for community? Together, these essays offer a clear, multi-layered understanding of the compelling vision that McDermott has presented over the years. In an Afterword, McDermott responds to the authors' queries and concerns, offering a restatement of his understanding of the American philosopher's task. These essays indicate, and McDermott's response confirms, that for him philosophy is not a purely cerebral activity. Philosophy is, rather, an intellectual means of exploring the fullness of human experience, and it functions best when it operates in the context of the broad sweep of the humanities. Similarly, for McDermott the self is no given substantial entity. On the contrary, it is relational, rooted geographically and socially in its place and its fellows, and damaged when these life-giving processes fail. Further, McDermott does not accept any ultimate canopy of meaning. The human journey is a personal project within which provisional meanings must be created to sustain our advance. (shrink)

Ethical descriptivism is the view that all ethical properties are descriptive properties. Frank Jackson has proposed an argument for this view which begins with the premise that the ethical supervenes on the descriptive, any worlds that differ ethically must differ also descriptively. This paper observes that Jackson's argument has a curious structure, taking a linguistic detour between metaphysical starting and ending points, and raises some worries stemming from this. It then proposes an improved version of the argument, which avoids these (...) worries, and responds to some potential objections to this version of the argument. (shrink)

The Second World War put an end to America's historical isolationism. Three American thinkers -- Reinhold Niebuhr, Hans Morgenthau, and Kenneth Waltz -- developed a modern strategic framework that sought to introduce Americans to the harsher realities of international politics. Yet even as the United States began to embrace this new Realism, atomic weaponry threatened to make it absurd. This engrossing story of how the three chief architects of a powerful ideology struggled with the implications of their own creation offers (...) crucial context for contemporary debates about the resort to war and weapons of mass destruction. (shrink)

Según varios filósofos del lenguaje contemporáneos, el argumento Frege-Geach plantea una objeción genuina para el expresivismo semántico. En el presente texto se sostiene que una manera eficaz de enfrentar y superar este argumento es modificando la concepción expresivista clásica. Se examinan el expresivismo clásico y el expresivismo mínimo y se propone una versión de este último que, a la vez que supera la objeción derivada del argumento Frege-Geach, tiene la ventaja de incluir dentro del espectro del expresivismo teorías que claramente (...) tienen este “espíritu” pero que la caracterización clásica deja fuera. (shrink)

In Better Never to Have Been, David Benatar argues that existence is always a harm. His argument, in brief, is that this follows from a theory of personal good which we ought to accept because it best explains several ‘asymmetries’. I shall argue here that Benatar's theory suffers from a defect which was already widely known to afflict similar theories, and that the main asymmetry he discusses is better explained in a way which allows that existence is often not a (...) harm. (shrink)

Taking a fundamentally critical approach to the subject of business ethics, this book deals with the traditional material of ethics in business, as well as introducing and surveying some of the most interesting developments in critical ethical theory which have not yet been introduced to the mainstream. Including chapters on different philosophical approaches to ethics, this is a highly structured and clearly written textbook, the first book of its kind on this often neglected aspect of business.

Este trabajo tiene como objetivo mostrar lo que es una sana laicidad en la sociedad actual pluralista, multicultural, democrática y diversa. En primer lugar se presentan dos tentaciones de la iglesia hoy: refugiarse en el ghetto y cerrarse al mundo dando razón a los fundamentalistas laicos que la consideran como algo privado, o salir a la cruzada a imponer sus creencias y su mensaje. Luego se analiza el proceso histórico de formación del pluralismo, de la laicidad y de la libertad (...) religiosa con énfasis en los modelos norteamericano y francés. Se concluye con una visión de lo que es la laicidad en la doctrina de la iglesia católica hoy y una propuesta de lo que debe ser el verdadero pluralismo y la sana laicidad hoy. This article has as aim show what is a healthy secularism in the current pluralist, multicultural, democratic and diverse society. First, it presents two temptations of the church today: to shelter in the ghetto and to be closed to the world giving reason to the lay fundamentalists who consider faith to be something private, or to go out to the crusade to impose Christian beliefs and message. Then there is analyzed the historical process of formation of the pluralism, of the secularism and of the religious freedom emphatically in the models North American and French. The article concludes with a vision of what is the secularism in the doctrine of the catholic church today and a proposal of what must be the real pluralism and the healthy secularism today. (shrink)

“Descartes on Spontaneity, Indifference, and Alternatives” This essay argues for a “two‐way” compatibilist reading of Descartes on the topic of free will, i.e., Descartes holds that free will is compatible with determinism, and yet also thinks that free will requires a two‐way power to pursue or avoid, and affirm or deny.

Ever since the publication of 'Truth' in 1959 Sir Michael Dummett has been acknowledged as one of the most profoundly creative and influential of contemporary philosophers. His contributions to the philosophy of thought and language, logic, the philosophy of mathematics, and metaphysics have set the terms of some of most fruitful discussions in philosophy. His work on Frege stands unparalleled, both as landmark in the history of philosophy and as a deep reflection on the defining commitments of the analytic school. (...) This volume of specially composed essays on Dummett's philosophy presents a new perspective on his achievements, and provides a focus for further research fully informed by the Dummett's most recent publications. Collectively the essays in philosophy of mathematics provide the most sustained discussion to date of the role of Dummett's diagnosis of the root of the logico-mathematical paradoxes in his case for an intuitionist revision of classical mathematics. The themes of other essays include a fundamental challenge to Dummett's Fregean understanding of predication, and a criticism of his case for logical revision outside of mathematics. (shrink)

This text slightly modified, became the first chapter of our M.A. thesis - The Tropical Phoenix: a critical note about dualism and the theory of dependency, presented to the "Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas" of the University of São Paulo. The main themes of this thesis are: I - "Philosophy of History", Marxism and "objectivity"; II - Brazilian social thinking: the theories of/about development and the apologetic Marxism: 1.º Werner Baer: conservative "objectivity" against the reformist "passions"; 2.º Carlos (...) Lessa: Industrialization as "decision"; 3.º ISEB: reformist objectivity against socialist passions; 4.º Political maturity against socialist adventures; III - Common presuppositions.Este texto veio a constituir, modificado, o primeiro capítulo de nossa tese de mestrado - A Fênix tropical: nota crítica sobre o dualismo e a teoria da dependência, Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, Universidade de São Paulo. Trata dos seguintes temas: I - A "filosofia da história", o marxismo e a "objetividade"; II - O pensamento social brasileiro: as teorias do/sobre o desenvolvimento e o marxismo apologético: 1.º Werner Baer: a "objetividade" conservadora contra as "paixões" reformistas; 2.º Carlos Lessa: Industrialização como "decisão"; 3.º ISEB: objetividade reformista contra paixões socialistas; 4.º Maturidade política contra aventuras socialistas; III - Os pressupostos comuns. (shrink)

Nota sobre publicações recentes que revelam aspectos pouco conhecidos da biblioteca de Newton – os numerosos textos religiosos, místicos e herméticos. Os biógrafos de Newton resistiram muito até admitir que os escritos esotéricos fossem genuíno interesse do sábio e que tivessem importância para entender sua trajetória intelectual. As publicações aqui indicadas afirmam o contrário, seguindo trilha aberta por ensaio pioneiro de J. M. Keynes (1946).

The present text constitutes a summary of a talk given by the author at the III Conferência Brasileira de Educação. It is here claimed that there is a need to discuss the roots of the idea of rights of the individual and of its link, in Locke's founding thought, with property and, moreover, with the freedom and autonomy of the human person. Furthermore, a discussion is made of the liberal-rationalist assumption of the optimum allocation of social resources through the clash (...) and combination of private interests. A twofold crisis of our times: crisis of the view of a self-regulated Laplacean universe and the crisis of the belief in the optimum allocation via market. The idea of the intervention of the State in the economy does not mean a destruction of private property nor of the value law and of profit. It only attests to its survival and seeks to ensure its implementation. Can't the idea of education be analogously thought of as a social right guaranteed and allocated by the State; as an investment in "human capital"? What is the meaning of the expression "educational policy"?O presente texto constitui síntese de comunicação do autor à III Conferência Brasileira de Educação. Afirma-se a necessidade de discutir as raízes da idéia de direitos do indivíduo e seu vínculo, no pensamento fundador de Locke, com a propriedade e, mais ainda, a liberdade e autonomia da pessoa humana. Discute-se ainda o suposto liberal-racionalista de alocação ótima dos recursos sociais através do choque e combinação de interesses privados. Uma dupla crise de nossos tempos: crise da concepção de universo auto-regulado laplaceano e a crise da crença na alocação ótima via mercado. A idéia de intervenção do Estado na economia não significa a destruição da propriedade privada, da lei do valor e do lucro. Apenas atesta a sua sobrevivência e procura garantir seu desenvolvimento. Não se pode pensar analogamente a idéia de educação como direito social garantido e alocado pelo Estado, como investimento no "capital humano"? Qual o sentido da expressão - uma "política educacional"? (shrink)

This article was written in August 83, initially as a lecture at Jornada de Filosofia da UNESP. We begin with an approximation between Hegel and Marx and then we discuss the idea of work's force reproduction understood as a part of the capital. The latter is viewed as a kind of social relationship. This approach is attempeted on the basis of certain passages of Marx's The Capital and The Grundrisse as well. Finally, we interpret some nowdays developments under the point (...) of view of this "cynical anatomy".Este artigo foi escrito em agosto/83, para conferência-debate na Jornada de Filosofia da UNESP. Partindo de aproximações Marx/Hegel sobre o tema da "fatalidade histórica", passamos a discutir a reprodução da força de trabalho como parte do capital, entendido este último, por sua vez, como relação social. Este exame é feito na esteira de algumas passagens de O Capital e dos Grundrisse. A seguir, procedemos à leitura de alguns fatos contemporâneos à luz dessa "anatomia cínica". (shrink)

The author exposes some stages judged necessary for the examination of the modern theories about the economic, social and cultural changes of brazilian history. On the other hand, this movement would have in view to search the epistemological grounds of such "Brazil's explanations". This text, it must be remembered, presents it self only as a work plan.O autor expõe etapas que julga necessárias para o exame de modernas teorias a respeito das transformações econômicas, sociais e culturais da história brasileira. Por (...) outro lado, esse movimento visaria investigar os fundamentos epistemológicos de tais "explicações do Brasil". O texto corresponde, insiste-se, a um plano de trabalho. (shrink)

Considerando que a fundação do Middle Group é uma dissidência teórica do pensamento psicanalítico clássico, destaco as idéias centrais dos teóricos britânicos das relações de objeto, mostrando os pontos de divergência entre eles e Klein, autora que, apesar de pioneira no desenvolvimento do conceito de relações objetais, apresentava-se como principal representante do pensamento tradicional. Em seguida, analiso a noção winnicottiana de constituição de um si-mesmo e de conquista do concernimento como os fundamentos teóricos que marcam a originalidade de Winnicott no (...) que diz respeito ao desenvolvimento da teoria psicanalítica e ao Middle Group. Isso é feito com base na idéia de que, para Winnicott, a constituição de um si-mesmo pessoal é a condição primordial para a conquista da capacidade de relacionar-se com e a conquista do concernimento, a condição para que capacidades como ter confiança em, ter liberdade pessoal e interpessoal, ser responsável por sejam alcançadas.Based on the concept that the foundation of the Middle Group of British is a theoretical dissidence of the classic psychoanalytic propositions, I emphasizes the central ideas of the British theorists of the object relations theory, showing their disagreements with Klein, author who, although was a pioneer in the development of the object relations concept, was the main defender of the traditional thinking. After that, I analyze the winnicottian notions of self constitution and achievement of concern as well as the theoretical pillars which distinguish Winnicott originality with regard to the development of the psychoanalytic theory and in respect to the Middle Group. I do that based on the idea that, for Winnicott, the constitution of a sense of self is the main condition to the achievement of the ability to enter in relationship with and the achievement of concern, a condition necessary for the acquisition of abilities such as to trust in, to have personal and interpersonal freedom, to be responsible for. (shrink)

Este trabajo tiene como objetivo mostrar lo que es una sana laicidad en la sociedad actual pluralista, multicultural, democrática y diversa. En primer lugar se presentan dos tentaciones de la iglesia hoy: refugiarse en el ghetto y cerrarse al mundo dando razón a los fundamentalistas laicos que la consideran como algo privado, o salir a la cruzada a imponer sus creencias y su mensaje. Luego se analiza el proceso histórico de formación del pluralismo, de la laicidad y de la libertad (...) religiosa con énfasis en los modelos norteamericano y francés. Se concluye con una visión de lo que es la laicidad en la doctrina de la iglesia católica hoy y una propuesta de lo que debe ser el verdadero pluralismo y la sana laicidad hoy. (shrink)

Campbell Brown is one of the most recent additions to our faculty. We thought we’d welcome him to the Department with some questions.

Tradução do artigo “Jean-Jacques Rousseau et sa politique”, de Eric Weil.

This article is concerned with Extreme Case Formulations in multiple-party TV programmes in two different languages: Spanish and English. I examine the role of ECFs in Spanish pre-electoral debates and in English panel interviews. English data is 77 minutes and 58 seconds long and comprises nine different panel interviews of political, socio-political and social issues and Spanish data is 78 minutes long and includes four political pre-electoral debates. The results will disclose that the number of ECFs found in the Spanish (...) and in the English corpora differs considerably. And in relation to the type of recording, the data will reveal that interviewers and interviewees deployed many more ECFs in political recordings than in socio-political or social recordings ; and politicians used more ECFs than any other type of interviewees. (shrink)

Savulescu and Cameron supported selectively locking down the elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic on two grounds: first, that preserving total lockdown would entail levelling down and, second, that levelling down is wrong. Their first assumption has been thoroughly addressed, but more can be said about their wider antiegalitarian point that levelling down is simply wrong. Egalitarians are not defenceless against the levelling-down objection. Even though some consider it the most serious challenge to supporters of equality, egalitarianism possesses sound reasons to (...) assert, not only that something valuable is preserved when we level down, but also that preserving it may be, in certain circumstances, preferable to pursuing other fundamental moral goals. Although troublesome from a well-being maximising standpoint, levelling down ensures that healthcare policy reflects a commitment with the idea that people are equal in moral worth. That commitment is important enough to trump certain improvements in individual well-being. In the case of pandemic lockdowns, not all the interests protected by free movement are as fundamental as to pursue them at the cost of equality. Savulescu and Cameron’s framework is so reliant on the view that levelling down is wrong that it fails to account for the valuable loss that having the elderly suffer alone represents. (shrink)

Despite tendencies to compete for a prime place in moral theory, neither virtue ethics nor the four principles approach should claim to be superior to, or logically prior to, the other. Together they provide a more adequate account of the moral life than either can offer on its own. The virtues of principlism are clarity, simplicity and (to some extent) universality. These are well illustrated by Ranaan Gillon’s masterly analysis of the cases he has provided. But the vices of this (...) approach are the converse of its virtues: neglect of emotional and personal factors, oversimplification of the issues, and excessive claims to universality. Virtue ethics offers a complementary approach, providing insights into moral character, offering a blend of reason and emotion, and paying attention to the context of decisions. The cases provided can be more adequately understood if we combine the approaches. Both should foster the virtues of humility and magnanimity. (shrink)

Este trabajo tiene como objetivo mostrar lo que es una sana laicidad en la sociedad actual pluralista, multicultural, democrática y diversa. En primer lugar se presentan dos tentaciones de la iglesia hoy: refugiarse en el ghetto y cerrarse al mundo dando razón a los fundamentalistas laicos que la consideran como algo privado, o salir a la cruzada a imponer sus creencias y su mensaje. Luego se analiza el proceso histórico de formación del pluralismo, de la laicidad y de la libertad (...) religiosa con énfasis en los modelos norteamericano y francés. Se concluye con una visión de lo que es la laicidad en la doctrina de la iglesia católica hoy y una propuesta de lo que debe ser el verdadero pluralismo y la sana laicidad hoy. This article has as aim show what is a healthy secularism in the current pluralist, multicultural, democratic and diverse society. First, it presents two temptations of the church today: to shelter in the ghetto and to be closed to the world giving reason to the lay fundamentalists who consider faith to be something private, or to go out to the crusade to impose Christian beliefs and message. Then there is analyzed the historical process of formation of the pluralism, of the secularism and of the religious freedom emphatically in the models North American and French. The article concludes with a vision of what is the secularism in the doctrine of the catholic church today and a proposal of what must be the real pluralism and the healthy secularism today. (shrink)

Humans are moral creatures. Among all life on Earth, we alone experience rich moral emotions, follow complex rules governing how we treat one another, and engage in moral dialogue. But how did human morality evolve? And can humans become morally evolved? -/- In A Better Ape, Victor Kumar and Richmond Campbell draw on the latest research in the biological and social sciences to explain the key role that morality has played in human evolution. They explore the moral traits that (...) humans share with chimpanzees; how a more complex moral mind enabled Homo sapiens to arise and out-compete other human species; and the place of morality alongside historic revolutions in technology and social organization. Throughout the book, Kumar and Campbell argue that morality co-evolved with intelligence and complex sociality. Morality prevents societal collapse and enables complex knowledge. -/- After unearthing the ancient origins of human morality, Kumar and Campbell use evolutionary theory to deliver profound insights about how to advance moral progress and resist moral regress, such as reducing animal suffering on industrial farms; capitalizing on the recent revolution in gay rights to foster a nascent revolution in transgender rights; opposing intersectional inequality that impacts women and people of color in lower socioeconomic classes; and addressing major problems of global inequality, especially impending crises of injustice caused by anthropogenic climate change. Understanding how we evolved--and how we continue to evolve--can help us become a better ape. (shrink)

The ‘No Ought From Is’ principle (or ‘NOFI’) states that a valid argument cannot have both an ethical conclusion and non-ethical premises. Arthur Prior proposed several well-known counterexamples, including the following: Tea-drinking is common in England; therefore, either tea-drinking is common in England or all New Zealanders ought to be shot. My aim in this paper is to defend NOFI against Prior’s counterexamples. I propose two novel interpretations of NOFI and prove that both are true.

In this book, Richard Campbell reformulates Anselm’s proof to show that factual evidence confirmed by modern cosmology validly implies that God exists. Anselm’s proof, which was never the “ontological argument” attributed to him, emerges as engaging with current philosophical issues concerning existence and scientific explanation.