Carolina Sartorio argues that only the actual causes of our behaviour matter to our freedom. The key, she claims, lies in a correct understanding of the role played by causation in a view of that kind. Causation has some important features that make it a responsibility-grounding relation, and this contributes to the success of the view. Also, when agents act freely, the actual causes are richer than they appear to be at first sight; in particular, they reflect the agents' (...) sensitivity to reasons, where this includes both the existence of actual reasons and the absence of other reasons. So acting freely requires more causes and quite complex causes, as opposed to fewer causes and simpler causes, and is compatible with those causes being deterministic. The book connects two different debates, the one on causation and the one on the problem of free will, in new and illuminating ways. (shrink)

The contextual contributions to meaning are at the core of the debate about the semantics/pragmatics distinction, one of the liveliest topics in current philosophy of language and linguistics. The controversy between semantic minimalists and contextualists regarding context and semantic content is a conspicuous example of the debate's relevance. This collection of essays, written by leading philosophers as well as talented young researchers, offers new approaches to the ongoing discussion about the status of lexical meaning and the role of context dependence (...) in linguistic theorizing. It covers a broad range of issues in semantics and pragmatics such as presuppositions, reference, lexical meaning, discourse relations and information structure, negation, and metaphors. The book is an essential reading for philosophers, linguists, and graduate students of philosophy of language and linguistics. (shrink)

Quem introduzir num motor de busca da Internet o nome de Pinheiro dos Santos encontrará referências em estudos académicos e científicos da Oceânia à Europa, da América do Sul à do Norte, nas mais variadas áreas disciplinares Todos referirão o autor da filosofia da Ritmanálise E quase todos repetirão o erro de que era brasileiro, aquele professor do quadro da primeira Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, desde 1919 até à sua dissolução em 1927, cuja obra principal só conhecemos (...) através de fontes indirectas, em particular do francês Gaston Bachelard, vindo daí o epíteto de fantasma E quem se der ao trabalho de investigar o nome de Lúcio dos Santos encontrará pistas de um personagem singular de combatividade cívico-política, desde a greve académica de 1907, passando pelo 5 de Outubro de 1910, até ao exílio político brasileiro que vai de 1927 a 1950, data do seu falecimento, testemunho significativo e interventivo de mais de metade da história portuguesa do Século XX Em ambos os casos temos uma e só pessoa, o bracarense Lúcio Alberto Pinheiro dos Santos E um personagem conhecido em todo o mundo e quase inteiramente desconhecido entre nós Uma realidade a que já nos temos vindo a habituar Mas que não é uma fatalidade como se demonstra por este trabalho arqueológico de reconstrução de uma personalidade multímoda cujos textos, há muito perdidos pelos acervos e outros inteiramente inéditos entre nós, vêem agora a luz do dia colocando-se à disposição da comunidade científica e do público em geral, em particular das novas gerações Em qualquer dos casos, quer numa vertente quer noutra, esta obra de Pedro Baptista desvela os contornos de um fantasma e fixa mais um nome incontornável na história do pensamento português, filosófico e político, do Século XX. (shrink)

Animals are frequently utilized as a teaching-learning tool in multiple educational settings. It is, therefore, important to understand what students think about this topic, in particular medical and veterinary students as “life caregivers” and competent people for a dynamic and responsible social intervention. In this context, this research aims to characterize and disseminate a set of issues related to animal welfare/wellbeing in higher education in the North of Portugal, particularly as regards the teaching of students of the Integrated Master in (...) Medicine (MIM) and Veterinary Medicine (MIMV). After ethical approval, a survey was delivered on paper to 180 undergraduate MIM (n = 100) and MIMV (n = 80) students. After collecting 139 questionnaires partially or fully completed, with varying response rates for each question, it was concluded that most of the students consider that animal experimentation is ethically acceptable when the benefits balance the harms and assuming that refinement of animal procedures is warranted; they also agree to the establishment, maintenance and performance of animal procedures solely for educational purposes as a way of ensuring optimal acquisition of theoretical knowledge, attitudes and behaviors and technical skills. Nevertheless, it is the responsibility of teachers to explore and implement pedagogical methodologies thar are equally effective but more humane and compassionate towards sentient living beings. (shrink)

In this paper, we argue that there are epistemic norms on evidence-gathering and consider consequences for how to understand epistemic normativity. Though the view that there are such norms seems intuitive, it has found surprisingly little defense. Rather, many philosophers have argued that norms on evidence-gathering can only be practical or moral. On a prominent evidentialist version of this position, epistemic norms only apply to responding to the evidence one already has. Here we challenge the orthodoxy. First, we argue that (...) there is no significant normative difference between responding to evidence you have and gathering more evidence. Second, we argue that our practices of epistemically criticizing agents for their poor evidence-gathering indicate the existence of epistemic norms on evidence-gathering. Finally, we show that our thesis has important implications for recent debates about the relationship between epistemic norms and inquiry. (shrink)

This essay explores some possibilities brought by the question about philosophy’s utility for science. We point to some arguments in favor of the importance of philosophy for science in general and Behavior Analysis in particular. We argue that philosophy is the consciousness of science. Without philosophical consciousness, science incurs epistemological naiveties; it uncritically defends scientific neutrality; it risks turning into a mere technique in the service of ideologies that endangers science’s existence. As the philosophy of Behavior Analysis, Radical Behaviorism can (...) play the role of conscience of that science. (shrink)

Em tempos em que os sistemas humanos aceleram as esferas de descuido, de caos, faz-se necessário buscar novos princípios que fundamentem as bases essenciais da existência e das relações humanas. Nesse viés, a reflexão sobre o caminho da pessoa que busca entender-se como ser de Cuidado torna-se cada vez mais urgente, haja vista que pode promover uma compreensão profunda sobre as próprias atitudes e ações em relação ao todo da vida existente. Dessa forma, toda ação humana para ser boa deve (...) adotar os princípios de Cuidado, e sua reflexão em nível de essência religiosa tem como base a narrativa da Criação na busca de encontrar fundamentos para uma ética necessária e essencial, e que seja norma de conduta responsável, visto que só pela moral do Cuidado com a terra a pessoa manifesta a sua realidade e assume o seu ser em imagem e semelhança ao Criador. (shrink)

A epistemologia cartesiana se insere num ousado projeto de superar as teorias do conhecimento antigo-medievais. As _Medições Metafísicas,_ obra de Descartes, escrita em 1641, é o principal marco teórico da radical e inovadora ruptura filosófica empreendida neste período que tem grandes reflexos nos séculos seguintes. Quais os principais desafios teóricos enfrentados pelo cartesianismo, para solidificar e consolidar a Modernidade filosófica em bases científicas, por meio dos critérios da clareza e da distinção? Essa questão guia o presente artigo que, por meio (...) de uma revisão bibliográfica, seguindo o método de análise crítico-investigativo, via releituras e interpretações de renomados comentaristas busca pôr em evidência os principais pontos para a fundamentação metafísica cartesiana da ciência. Os textos cartesianos concernentes à temática em tela de juízo crítico são escrutinados e revistos, buscando-se salientar seu ineditismo na história da filosofia Ocidental ao contrapô-los com as teorias da epistemologia e da teologia herdadas da tradição. O ideal de ciência cartesiano funda-se na indubitabilidade como critério último de certeza e supera as formas de ceticismo anteriores da história com impactos em todos os campos do saber humano. Conclui-se, cientes dos limites da presente investigação, que o pensamento cartesiano centra-se na primazia do pensamento e das ideias sobre os dados de origem sensível, para fundamentar sua visão de mundo e sua justificação da verdade, tendo, ainda, o conhecimento certo e verdadeiro da ideia de Deus como sustentáculo epistemológico das verdades, contudo, não mais o Deus da metafísica antigo-medieval. (shrink)

En este artículo se analiza un conjunto de obras sobre ríos y represas que pertenece a la serie titulada Represa /Represión (2012-) de la artista colombiana Carolina Caycedo. La pregunta de la que se ocupa esta investigación es ¿cómo las estrategias estéticas de estas obras identifican los problemas socio-ecológicos generados por las represas y contribuyen a articular imaginarios políticos de sostenibilidad? El argumento principal es que las obras de Caycedo sobre el río Yuma o Magdalena contribuyen con la construcción (...) de una memoria histórica ambiental, a partir de saberes populares, campesinos y cosmovisiones indígenas. Con este fin, este texto caracteriza el problema de las represas a partir de los conceptos de ‘extractivismo’, de Macarena Gómez-Barris, y ‘desterritorialización’, de Rob Nixon, para luego realizar un recorrido por las obras de la artista, de cuyo análisis se va construyendo una caracterización de la memoria histórica ambiental de un segmento del río Yuma. El marco conceptual del trabajo incluye las nociones de ‘seres-tierra’, de Marisol de la Cadena y ‘territorio’, de Arturo Escobar, así como ‘memoria de los ríos’, de Kristina Lyons. La metodología se basa en el análisis conceptual y técnico de las piezas de Caycedo en el marco interdisciplinar de las humanidades ambientales. El análisis concluye que las obras de Caycedo generan espacios de memoria histórica ambiental desde perspectivas trasnacionales y, en estos espacios de encuentro que constituyen las obras, se relacionan y rearticulan los extremos de falsos antagonismos como naturaleza/cultura, humano/no humano y ciencia/arte. (shrink)

Corporeidade tem sido usada em situações diferentes, considerando que este termo se apresenta como um processo de totalidade do ser humano para além do corpo entendido como componente biológico. Assim, o objetivo geral é analisar as concepções epistemológicas deste conceito. Para isso, realizou-se uma revisão narrativa a partir de livros e artigos, com textos publicados a partir de 2000, os quais fundamentaram este ensaio. Os resultados apresentam que o conceito de corporeidade possui análises provenientes da fenomenologia, do materialismo dialético e (...) do movimento pós-moderno, sendo a primeira, a mais recorrente. (shrink)

The orthodox view in epistemology is that belief is constitutively evidence-responsive. I offer a novel argument for a version of this view, one that appeals to capacities to rationally respond to evidence. I do so by developing the Sellarsian idea that the concept of belief functions to mark the space of reasons in a non-intellectualist and naturalistic direction. The resulting view does justice to the role of belief in social interactions, joint deliberation, and rational persuasion, while including evidence-resistant beliefs and (...) animal beliefs as genuine beliefs. It has a range of further benefits: it helps us account for epistemic normativity, paves the way for better psychological models of belief revision, distinguishes beliefs from imaginings and mere acceptances, and helps us avoid noxious simplistic takes on human irrationality. (shrink)

The state of debates around the topic of `populism' has made clear the difficulties that exist to provide a coherent definition of the concept. There is much to be argued from historical, epistemological, comparative and sociological perspectives that may provide clarity to the uses of the term. As the world meets new scenarios of uncommon styles of doing politics and the themes of ideological polarization and social segregation take hold, the question about the value of `populism' as a theoretical tool (...) needs to be met with an affirmative stance that delineates its principal characteristics. The present text introduces the reader to four new perspectives that serve such a purpose and locates them among the relevant contemporary literature. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo analisar a problemática inserida no discurso coaching alinhada à lógica neoliberal, o impacto deste pensamento na trajetória dos jovens em formação pelo Programa de Trabalho Protegido na Adolescência (PTPA) e de que modo esse discurso remodela os aspectos da subjetividade do sujeito em desenvolvimento. Para tanto contou-se com material de fonte primária obtido em atividade de pesquisa-ação denominada “Oficina dos Sonhos”, que contou com presença e participação direta dos adolescentes do PTPA que tiveram a (...) tarefa de pensar no local onde residem, como vivem e a perspectiva da transformação de modo lúdico e participativo. Assim, a oficina foi realizada pelo Observatório de Políticas Públicas para Adolescência, projeto de extensão da UERJ, e tornou-se relevante para compreender como a visão social e cultural do adolescente em diferentes contextos pode moldar a realidade dos sujeitos. Este estudo propõe, portanto, analisar a realidade do adolescente inserido na contradição do Estado capitalista, compreender limites, desafios e possibilidades de acesso ao primeiro emprego com condições dignas e tendo seus direitos garantidos, bem como a garantia à construção e continuação de projetos de vida. (shrink)

MASTHEAD Horizonte, Belo Horizonte, vol. 15, no. 48, Oct./Dec. 2017.

Em sua obra República, Platão define a cidade ideal e, portanto, justa, como aquela construída de acordo com as diferentes características naturais de seus cidadãos. Na Callipolis, os seres humanos estariam divididos em categorias de acordo com suas características naturais e deveriam ocupar na polis diferentes postos, de acordo com tais categorias. A desigualdade natural é o paradigma da análise política, desde a Grécia clássica, permanecendo durante toda a Idade Média, até a modernidade, que introduz, sobretudo no pensamento contratualista/iluminista dos (...) séculos XVII e XVIII, a premissa de que todos os seres humanos devem ser, por natureza, considerados livres e iguais. Analisaremos a questão da justiça no pensamento político moderno, tendo em vista, sobretudo, os fundamentos dos princípios da igualdade e da liberdade. (shrink)

Beliefs can be resistant to evidence. Nonetheless, the orthodox view in epistemology analyzes beliefs as evidence-responsive attitudes. I address this tension by deploying analytical tools on capacities and masking to show that the cognitive science of evidence-resistance supports rather than undermines the orthodox view. In doing so, I argue for the claim that belief requires the capacity for evidence-responsiveness. More precisely, if a subject believes that p, then they have the capacity to rationally respond to evidence bearing on p. Because (...) capacities for evidence-responsiveness are fallible and may be masked, beliefs can be held in the face of counter-evidence. Indeed, I will argue that our best science of belief supports the claim that evidence-resistant beliefs result from masks on evidence-responsiveness capacities. This account of belief not only allows for resistance to evidence, but provides us with a framework for describing and explaining actual cases of evidence-resistance. (shrink)

What is the relationship between moral responsibility and causation? Plainly, we are not morally responsible for everything that we cause. For we cause a multitude of things, including things that we couldn't possibly foresee we would cause and with respect to which we cannot be assessed morally. Thus, it is clear that causing something does not entail being morally responsible for it. But, does the converse entailment hold? Does moral responsibility require causation? Intuitively, it does: intuitively, we can only be (...) morally responsible for things that we cause. (shrink)

A presença do componente curricular Ensino Religioso – ER na escola, de modo especial na escola pública, é marcada pela controvérsia. O Brasil viveu sob o manto da confessionalidade, mesmo depois do decreto n. 119A, e a separação legislativo-jurídica entre Igreja e Estado não pôs fim ao problema. A partir dessa perspectiva, o objetivo deste artigo é refletir sobre a configuração atual do Ensino Religioso na escola pública, a partir de breve referência inicial aos antecedentes históricos e aos aspectos filosóficos (...) deste processo, que permitiram essa situação, desde a implantação do regime republicano no país. Quer considerar o problema de o Ensino Religioso estar sempre marcado por um discurso conflitivo entre os pressupostos da laicidade e da confessionalidade. O itinerário foi norteado pela seguinte questão: como analisar as mudanças e alterações que fizeram com que este componente curricular passasse da área eclesiástica para a esfera pública? Será que o Ensino Religioso é um problema para a laicidade? A metodologia utilizada é a pesquisa bibliográfica, qualitativa e documental, através da análise de documentos constitucionais, leis de diretrizes e bases da educação, pareceres e resoluções que envolveram esse componente curricular, bem como discursos de juristas em diversas épocas. Ao se investigar este tema, percebe-se que a discussão sobre o Ensino Religioso, bem como a compreensão de sua presença na escola pública, envolve uma complexa discussão, que não pode desconhecer os aspectos históricos, filosóficos e jurídicos. (shrink)

In this article I examine the relation between causation and moral responsibility. I distinguish four possible views about that relation. One is the standard view: the view that an agent's moral responsibility for an outcome requires, and is grounded in, the agent's causal responsibility for it. I discuss several challenges to the standard view, which motivate the three remaining views. The final view – the view I argue for – is that causation is the vehicle of transmission of moral responsibility. (...) According to this view, although moral responsibility does not require causation, causation still grounds moral responsibility. (shrink)

A natureza do ceticismo cartesiano é um dos pontos mais controversos e desafiadores na interpretação das Meditações Metafísicas. O objetivo do presente trabalho é mostrar que as dúvidas apresentadas e desenvolvidas pelo filósofo do século XVII tem um cunho de natureza epistemológica, por meio da seguinte questão norteadora investigativa: qual o papel e a função de expor a possibilidade de que todo o conhecimento pode ser, definitivamente, duvidoso, através da hipótese da dúvida dos sonhos ou da existência do gênio maligno? (...) Para tanto, seguir-se-á o método crítico-analítico de investigação, via revisão bibliográfica de alguns dos principais comentaristas que tratam sobre a presente questão, ademais serão escrutinadas as hipóteses céticas apresentadas por Descartes na sua principal obra, como em excertos significativos de sua vida teórica, nas quais abordou e confrontou tal temática. Nossos achados teóricos conclusivos põem evidenciam em tela que o ceticismo exerce um papel central na fundamentação do conceito de ciência no sistema cartesiana com impactos na teoria causal da percepção antigo-medieval, dado que a certeza como critério último da verdade, defendida por Descartes, origina-se de uma atitude de dúvida sobre a verdade das crenças sobre a existência dos corpos exteriores e mesmo de suas essências; passando, agora, a residir na certeza da verdade de ideias como a de Deus, e a do “eu sou, eu existo”. (AT, VII, 27; IX-1, 21). (shrink)

Does a person's liability to attack during a war depend on the nature of their individual causal contribution to the (unjust) threat posed? If so, how? The recent literature on the ethics of war has become increasingly focused on questions of this kind. According to some views on these matters, your liability hinges on the extent of your causal contribution: the larger your contribution to an unjust threat, the larger the amount of harm that we can impose on you in (...) order to avert the threat. Some philosophers have suggested that we can ground a quite general principle of civilian immunity on this basis. But, do causal contributions really come in degrees? Can we make sense of a graded notion of causal contribution that can be relevant to debates about liability in war? I argue there is good reason to be sceptical. The appearance that causal contributions come in degrees is just an illusion that can be explained away. (shrink)

The standard notion of formal theory, in logic, is in general biased exclusively towards assertion: it commonly refers only to collections of assertions that any agent who accepts the generating axioms of the theory should also be committed to accept. In reviewing the main abstract approaches to the study of logical consequence, we point out why this notion of theory is unsatisfactory at multiple levels, and introduce a novel notion of theory that attacks the shortcomings of the received notion by (...) allowing one to take both assertions and denials on a par. This novel notion of theory is based on a bilateralist approach to consequence operators, which we hereby introduce, and whose main properties we investigate in the present paper. (shrink)

Sophocles' Antigone, written around 441-440 B.C. is the most studied and interpreted tragedy in the history of classical theater. There are diverse interpretive angles and analysis that at 2500 BCE challenge exegetes and scholars from the various fields of human knowledge. The way the play is, interpretatively, received varies according to the interests of the time in which it is studied and staged. The objective of this work, by means of a hermeneutic-dialectic analysis of literature review, is to present possible (...) impacts that the non-compliance with the civil law that prevented the young princess Antigone from giving a dignified burial to her brother, Polynices, has on the formation of an educational and emancipating ethos of citizens who seek, in their praxis, full social justice in the face of laws woven by the excluding logic of a state power that aims only to perpetuate itself in power. The main characters are analyzed and contextualized in the light of the understanding of a formative ethos that prioritizes the logic of justice over the cold logic of legal law. We conclude that Creon's interdict is still alive in our times, and education is one of the main instruments to transform the status quo that unjustly victimizes many people in the name of a state reason divorced from ethical and moral principles. (shrink)

O objetivo do filósofo Descartes (1596-1650), com as duas provas da existência de Deus na Terceira Meditação, é provar o conhecimento da certeza da verdade da existência de Deus por meio, unicamente, da razão como causalidade. Ao se valer de duas provas, surge entre outros problemas de interpretação o seguinte questionamento: a nova prova da existência de Deus apresenta novidades em termos metafísicos ou é apenas mais uma explicação da primeira prova? O presente artigo visa mostrar que a segunda prova, (...) que apresenta Deus como causa sui, implica em novos e importantes desdobramentos à filosofia cartesiana e influencia os filósofos da Modernidade que conceitualizaram o infinito ou Deus de uma forma dinâmica e inserida dentro da história. O método seguido, para o presente escopo, é o analítico-crítico, por meio do qual se busca evidenciar os principais argumentos cartesianos via interpretação dos seus escritos e de alguns textos dos clássicos comentaristas e exegetas de seu pensamento. Conclui-se, sem esgotar a temática, que a segunda prova da existência de Deus reconfigura a necessidade estática de uma essência numa relação dinâmica de causalidade. Ademais, tal certeza está inscrita dentro da mente do ser finito como a marca impressa que um artesão deixa em sua obra. (shrink)

Based on the hypothesis that modified human beings will have successful life projects, the biopolitical presuppositions of genetic manipulation in modern society are reflected. Considering the theories presented by Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, Michael J. Sandel, Hans Jonas and Achille Mbembe, a genetic Africanization of the economically disadvantaged population is identified. In this scenario, concepts of class and race are confused and social prejudice increases. Faced with the new technologies of genetic engineering, gene manipulation presents itself as a new face (...) of biopower, since science now has the power to give life from the selection of characteristics considered superior. It is argued that the criticism surrounding the process of genetic manipulation is necessary as it opens the possibility of debating mutual recognition as a condition of life, above the identification of race or class, geographic location or other characteristics of the individuals that make up society. (shrink)

A Quinta das Meditações Metafísicas desafia, ainda hoje, seus intérpretes, dado que nesta parte de sua obra-prima, Descartes discute as implicações do conhecimento das essências dentro de seu projeto fundacionista do conhecimento em bases metafísicas. O objetivo de nosso trabalho é mostrar algumas tensões dentro do argumento cartesiano, sobremaneira, as originadas pela apresentação de uma nova prova da existência de Deus - o argumento ontológico, que teve grandes defensores, mutatis mutandis - na história da filosofia: São Boaventura, Duns Scott, Descartes, (...) Leibniz e Hegel. Através do método de revisão bibliográfica, dialogar-se-á com alguns dos principais comentaristas que abordaram esta temática, mostrando que o argumento cartesiano pode ter limitações, contudo as objeções advindas de matrizes tomistas, como as de Caterus, ou da filosofia transcendental como a de Kant demonstram mais uma incompreensão do novo conceito de existência, enquanto ideia, do que uma verdadeira crítica ao argumento ontológico de Descartes. (shrink)

TOMITA, Luiza E.; BARROS, Marcelo; VIGIL, José Maria (Org.). Pluralismo e libertação. Por uma teologia latino-americana pluralista a partir da fé cristã DAMEN, Franz et al. Pelos muitos caminhos de Deus . Desafios do pluralismo religioso à Teologia da Libertação. Paulo Agostinho Nogueira Baptista KOSCHORKE, Klaus (Hg.). Transkontinentale beziehungen in der geschichte des außereuropäischen christentums/transcontinental links in the History of non-western christianity. Vinicius Mariano de Carvalho.

This theoretical paper proposes a new perspective to understand the moral distress of nurses more fully, using virtue ethics. Moral distress is a widely studied subject, especially with respect to the determination of its causes and manifestations. Increasing the theoretical depth of previous work using ethical theory, however, can create new possibilities for moral distress to be explored and analyzed. Drawing on more recent work in this field, we explicate the conceptual framework of the process of moral distress in nurses, (...) proposed by Ramos et al., using MacIntyrean virtue ethics. Our analysis considers the experience of moral distress in the context of a practice, enabling the adaptation of this framework using virtue ethics. The adoption of virtue ethics as an ethical perspective broadens the understanding of the complexity of nurses’ experiences of moral distress, since it is impossible to create a ready model that can cover all possibilities. Specifically, we describe how identity, social context, beliefs, and tradition shape moral discomfort, uncertainty, and sensitivity and how virtues inform moral judgments. Individuals, such as nurses, who are involved in a practice have a narrative history and a purpose ( telos) that guide them in every step of the process, especially in moral judgment. It is worth emphasizing that the process described is supported by the formation of moral competence that, if blocked, can lead to moral distress and deprofessionalization. It is expected that nurses seek to achieve the internal good of their practice, which legitimizes their professional practice and supports them in moral decision-making, preventing moral distress. (shrink)

Commentary on Pablo Hubacher Haerle’s paper “Is OCD Epistemically Irrational?”. I argue for expanding our assessment of rationality in OCD by considering a wider range of epistemic parameters and how they fit together.

Midwest Studies In Philosophy, EarlyView.

ABSTRACT Frankfurt’s ‘Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility’ broke with the tradition of understanding the kind of freedom required for responsibility in terms of alternative possibilities. At the same time, it inspired and motivated a new family of views in its place: views that focus exclusively on actual sequences or the actual causes of behaviour. But, what exactly does that ‘exclusiveness’ claim amount to? At first sight, it may seem natural to interpret it as the claim that the only facts that (...) are relevant to an agent’s freedom are certain facts about actual causes. This would imply that any non-actual facts are simply irrelevant to the freedom of agents. This paper argues that this interpretation is mistaken, and proposes a better one. It also discusses the related but more general question of the type of project that we are invested in when giving a theory of freedom: Are we interested in the bottom-level grounding facts, or are we interested in some higher-level facts? (shrink)

There is an initial presumption against disjunctive causes. First of all, for some people causation is a relation between events. But, arguably, there are no disjunctive events, since events are particulars and thus they have spatiotemporal locations, while it is unclear what the spatiotemporal location of a disjunctive event could be.1 More importantly, even if one believes that entities like facts can enter in causal relations, and even if there are disjunctive facts, it is still hard to see how disjunctive (...) facts could be causes. Imagine, for instance, the following scenario. I have a gun filled with red paint and another gun filled with blue paint, and I fire both guns at my neighbor’s white wall. A moment later, there is a graffiti on the wall and my neighbor notifies the police. He would have done so regardless of the graffiti’s color, since all he cares about is the existence of a graffiti on his wall. Is it plausible to claim that a disjunctive fact is a cause of his notifying the police? In particular, is it plausible to claim that he notified the police because I fired the red-paint gun or the blue-paint gun (the thought being that my firing paint of either color would have sufficed)? It seems not. The police was notified because of the actual graffiti on the wall, and the actual graffiti on the wall is made of a certain pattern of colored patches. Imagine, that, as it turns out, there are patches of both colors on the wall. Then it seems that both my firing the red-paint gun and my firing the blue-paint gun were causes of my neighbor’s notifying the police. In other words, my firing the red-paint gun and my firing the blue-paint gun jointly caused the outcome: each of them was a contributory cause of the outcome’s occurrence. On the other hand, imagine that there are only patches of one color on the wall. Then it seems that my firing only one of the guns was a cause. Either way, the disjunction fails to be a cause: either my firing the red-paint gun was a cause, or my firing the blue-paint gun was a cause, or they were both causes, but their disjunction was not.. (shrink)

Starting from the notions of q-entailment and p-entailment, a two-dimensional notion of entailment is developed with respect to certain generalized q-matrices referred to as B-matrices. After showing that every purely monotonic singleconclusion consequence relation is characterized by a class of B-matrices with respect to q-entailment as well as with respect to p-entailment, it is observed that, as a result, every such consequence relation has an inferentially four-valued characterization. Next, the canonical form of B-entailment, a two-dimensional multiple-conclusion notion of entailment based (...) on B-matrices, is introduced, providing a uniform framework for studying several different notions of entailment based on designation, antidesignation, and their complements. Moreover, the two-dimensional concept of a B-consequence relation is defined, and an abstract characterization of such relations by classes of B-matrices is obtained. Finally, a contribution to the study of inferential many-valuedness is made by generalizing Suszko’s Thesis and the corresponding reduction to show that any B-consequence relation is, in general, inferentially four-valued. (shrink)

Delusions are standardly defined as attitudes that are not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. But what evidence do people with delusion have for and against it? Do delusions really go against their total evidence? How are the answers affected by different conceptions of evidence? -/- This chapter focuses on how delusions relate to evidence. I consider what delusions-relevant evidence people with delusions have. I give some reasons to think that people typically have evidence for their delusions, and (...) that the evidence they have against them is often overstated. I draw on this discussion to consider whether delusions are evidentially supported and epistemically rational. Finally, I discuss implications for the nature of delusion, responsibility, and treatment and suggest directions for future research. Throughout, the discussion is sensitive to different conceptions of evidence and rationality in epistemology. -/- A central upshot is that what we should say about the epistemic standing of delusions depends substantively on our positions in epistemology, in particular, on the debate between internalists and externalists about evidence. If we want clarity on the epistemic standing of delusions, we need to incorporate more sophisticated tools from epistemology. (shrink)

In 1992, as part of a larger charitable campaign, the Prince of Wales (Prince Charles, Queen Elizabeth’s older son and heir) launched a line of organic food products called “Prince’s Duchy Originals”.1 The first product that went on sale was an oat cookie: “the oaten biscuit.” Since then the oaten biscuit has been joined by hundreds of other products and Duchy Originals has become one of the leading organic food brands in the UK. Presumably, the Prince of Wales is very (...) proud of his Duchy Originals products, and of the oaten biscuits in particular. Let’s imagine that he is so proud of the oaten biscuits that he eats them regularly. Also, let’s imagine that one day Queen Elizabeth asks the Prince to water the plant in her room. As she explains to him, she’ll be gone for the day and the plant needs to be watered every afternoon. But the Prince decides not to water the plant. Instead of watering the plant, he spends his afternoon savoring some oaten biscuits, and the Queen’s plant dies. (shrink)

The aim of this work is to analyze the role that Agnes Heller gives to utopia in the frame work of the the ory of history. To accomplish this, there lation she establishes between future-utopia, change-utopia and progress-utopia will be analyzed. After the analysis and explanation of these conce..

Some philosophers have claimed that causally determined agents are not morally responsible because they cannot make a difference in the world. A recent response by philosophers who defend the compatibility of determinism and responsibility has been to concede that causally determined agents are incapable of making a difference, but to argue that responsibility is not grounded in difference making. These compatibilists have rested such a claim on Frankfurt cases—cases where agents are intuitively responsible for acts that they couldn’t have failed (...) to perform. This essay argues, first, that the intuitive plausibility of the idea that responsibility is grounded in difference making is not completely put to rest by Frankfurt cases, even if those cases successfully show that responsibility is not grounded in difference making in the sense of access to alternative possibilities of action. It then goes on to develop a different compatibilist strategy, one according to which responsibility is grounded in difference making, but the type of difference making it is grounded in does not require access to alternative possibilities. Indeed, it is a form of difference making that is clearly compatible with determinism. (shrink)

RESUMO O presente artigo apresenta uma semântica baseada nas atitudes cognitivas de aceitação e rejeição por uma sociedade de agentes para lógicas inspiradas no First Degree Entailment de Dunn e Belnap. Diferente das situações epistêmicas originalmente usadas em E, as atitudes cognitivas não coincidem com valores-de-verdade e parecem mais adequadas para as lógicas que pretendem considerar o conteúdo informacional de proposições “ditas verdadeiras” tanto quanto as proposições “ditas falsas” como determinantes da noção de validade das inferências. Após analisar algumas lógicas (...) associadas à semântica proposta, introduzimos a lógica E B cuja relação de consequência semântica subjacente - o B-entailment - é capaz de expressar diversos tipos de raciocínio em relação às atitudes cognitivas de aceitação e rejeição. Apresentamos também um cálculo de sequentes correto e completo para E B.ABSTRACT In the present work I introduce a semantics based on the cognitive attitudes of acceptation and rejection entertained by a given society of agents for logics inspired on Dunn and Belnap’s ‘First Degree Entailment’. Distinctly from the original epistemic situation of E, the cognitive attitudes do not coincide with truth-values and it seems more suitable for logics that intend to consider the informational content of propositions “said to be true” as well as propositions “said to be false” as determinants of the notion of logical validity. After analyzing some logics associated with the proposed semantics, we introduce the logic E B, whose underlying semantic entailment relation - the B-entailment - is able to express several kinds of reasoning towards the cognitive attitudes of acceptance and rejection. Acorrect and complete sequent calculus for E B is also presented. (shrink)