ABSTRACT A factor that may account for the largely unanticipated victory of Brexit in 2016 is the difference in engagement, mobilization, and, ultimately, turnout between those for whom the question of Brexit was a valence issue and those for whom it was a positional issue. The declining appeal of valence politics may reveal a phenomenon that goes beyond Brexit and Britain: a change in the nature and character of contemporary electoral competition that may help to explain the newly resurgent populism (...) characteristic of Western liberal democracies. (shrink)

Weakness of the Will gives an excellent historical survey of philosophers' puzzles about the possibility of deliberately taking the worse course. Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, a selection of medieval philosophers, and more contemporary philosophers are explored to illustrate why and how they avoid discussing the problem.

Is thinking necessarily linguistic? Do we _think with words_, to use Bermudez’s phrase? Or does thinking occur in some other, yet to be determined, representational format? Or again do we think in various formats, switching from one to the other as tasks demand? In virtue perhaps of the ambiguous na- ture of first-person introspective data on the matter, philosophers have tradition- ally disagreed on this question, some thinking that thought had to be pictorial, other insisting that it could not be (...) but linguistic. When any problem divides a community of otherwise intelligent rational thinkers, one suspects some deep conceptual confusion is at play. Indeed, we believe that the conceptual cate- gories used to frame these and related questions are so hopelessly muddled that one could honestly answer “both simultaneously”, or “neither”, depending one what is meant by the alternatives. But let’s get our priorities straight. This paper first and foremost aims at defending what we believe to be a step in that direc- tion of the proper view of thinking, a view we call the spatial -motor view. In order to do so, however, we have found it essential to start by addressing the conceptual confusion just alluded to. Accordingly, the paper proceeds in two steps. First a conceptual step, in which we reconsider some of the traditional categories brought into play when thinking about thinking. Then an empirical step, in which we offer empirical evidence for one of the views conceptually isolated during the first part of the work. Future version of this collaborative work will include a speculative step in which we spin out an evolutionary and developmental scenario whose function it is justify the spatial -motor view by showing how it fits into current evolutionary and developmental theories. (shrink)

This essay examines Newman’s life-long campaign against the errors of liberal religion, particularly its “anti-holiness” principle that rejects the Christian commitment to the pursuit of sanctity. In both his Anglican and Roman Catholic writings, Newman attacked the “anti-holiness” principle’s underlying presuppositions, particularly (1) its naturalistic anthropology, (2) its “anthropocentric horizon of discourse,” (3) its rejection of ascetic discipline in religious formation, and (4) its tendency to accept uncritically what is intellectually novel.

This paper understands Hodgson’s Hegel and Christian Theology not only to represent the definitive expression of a distinguished Hegel scholar’s theological interpretation, but also to mark a threshold between where Hegel studies have been on the topic of the relation between religion and philosophy in Hegel’s thought and where they are going. On the threshold, Hodgson’s text faces three essential challenges with respect to its bona fides. The first challenge is whether, even if the privileged status of the Lectures on (...) the Philosophy of Religion is granted, anything like consensus has been achieved concerning the importance of narrative and Trinity, on the one hand, and its claim to truth, on the other. The second challenge concerns method, and more specifically whether the teleological model deployed by Hodgson to underwrite the importance of the Lectures is sufficiently reflective to resist the rising authority of archeological accounts which privilege Hegel’s Phenomenology and pre-Phenomenology writings. The third challenge concerns the stability of Hodgson’s interpretation which tends to mediate between the religious and the political, on the one hand, and the non-logical and the logical, on the other. This is by far the most serious concern since it pertains to Hodgson’s act of synthesis. Here it is open to question whether Hodgson has succeeded here anymore than Fackenheim a generation earlier. (shrink)

BackgroundExisting research on perceptions of plagiarism and cultural influences mainly focuses on comparisons between the Western World and the Eastern World. However, possible differences within the Western World have hardly been assessed, especially among biomedical academics. The authors compared perceptions of plagiarism among European biomedical researchers who participated in an online survey.MethodsThe present work is based on the data collected in a previous online survey done in 2018 among biomedical researchers working in leading European and Chinese universities. Respondents based in (...) Europe were grouped into three geographical regions and their responses were analyzed using logistic regression analysis with adjustments for demographic factors.ResultsData were available from 810 respondents. In addition to their generally similar responses, different perceptions of plagiarism were observed among respondents in the three European regions. In summary, among the three European regions, Nordic respondents identified the most types of practices as plagiarism. Compared to the southern respondents, Nordic and northwestern respondents were more likely to consider less evident practices as plagiarism, such as Rephrasing another person’s work without crediting the source [aORN|S 1.99, aORS|NW 0.50 ] and With permission from the original author, using another’s text without crediting the source [aORN|S 3.16, aORS|NW 0.26 ]. In contrast, the southern respondents were the most inclined to recognize recycling of one’s previously rejected research proposal as plagiarism.ConclusionsIn spite of a generally similar response pattern, the present study indicates different perceptions of plagiarism among European biomedical researchers. These intra-European differences should be considered when addressing plagiarism. (shrink)

If lay theories associate moral intuitions with deeply held values, people should feel uncomfortable relying on deliberative thinking when judging violations of personal taboos. In two preliminary studies, participants with siblings of the opposite sex were particularly troubled when evaluating a sibling incest scenario under instructions to think slowly and rationally, or when the scenario was presented in a hard-to-read font forcing them to employ deliberative processing. This suggests that we may be intuitive intuitionists, and opens the door for investigations (...) of people’s preferred modes of moral judgment. (shrink)

Leicht verständliche Einführung in Fragestellungen und Probleme der Ethik und Metaethik von dem Antipoden Wittgensteins in dessen Cambridger Zeit. – Ewings Buch erfuhr im englischen Original zehn Auflagen und erscheint hier zum ersten Mal auf Deutsch. - Wenn ein Philosoph (wie in Cambridge in den 1940er-Jahren geschehen) öffentlich bezweifelt, dass sein Universitätskollege überhaupt »einen Geist besitze« und dessen ethische Theoreme mit einer »aus drei Stücken Matsch« geformten Kugel vergleicht, sein Gegner hingegen vor Studenten bekennt, dass er kein Wort von dem (...) verstehe, was der andere vertrete, und dessen Anhänger in eine Reihe mit marxistischen und römisch-katholischen Glaubenseiferern stellt, muss mehr dahinterstecken als eine sorgsam gepflegte Feindschaft. In der Tat grenzte sich Letzterer, der englische Philosoph A.?C. Ewing, scharf von der Position des Ersteren, des zehn Jahre älteren Ludwig Wittgenstein, ab. Ewing, der seine Position selbst als eine Art analytischen Idealismus bezeichnete, führte seine Kritik des Logischen Positivismus und des sprachanalytischen Konventionalismus damals in die akademische Isolation, während Wittgensteins Denken enormen Einfluss gewann. Heute hingegen werden viele Überzeugungen Ewings wieder wie selbstverständlich diskutiert. Ewings Ethik steht in einer über G.?E. Moore und W.?D. Ross bis zu Henry Sidgwick zurückreichenden Tradition britischer Moralphilosophie. Für diese sind moralische Urteile von ganz eigener Art und können objektiv wahr sein. Ihre Rechtfertigung beruht zuletzt auf intuitiver Erkenntnis; unsere normativen Begriffe lassen sich auf wenige Grundbegriffe zurückführen. »Ethik. Eine Einführung« behandelt zahlreiche Grundprobleme der normativen Ethik und Metaethik wie den Konflikt zwischen Konsequentialismus und Deontologie, den Stellenwert moralischer Intuitionen, das Wesen und die Objektivität moralischer Urteile, die Definierbarkeit von »gut« und »sollen«. Als Einführung in die Ethik konzipiert und glänzend geschrieben, erfuhr der Band zahlreiche Auflagen und liegt hier zum ersten Mal in deutscher Übersetzung vor. (shrink)

This volume presents three of the Epistles of the Brethren of Purity, a monumental work of medieval Islamic learning. Epistle 49 explores the hierarchy of existence; Epistle 50 describes the proper attitudes towards body and soul; Epistle 51 considers the arrangement of the world on numerical principles.

In human groups performing oscillatory tasks, it has been observed that the frequency of participants' oscillations reduces when compared to that acquired in solo. This experimental observation is not captured by the standard Kuramoto oscillators, often employed to model human synchronization. In this work, we aim at capturing this observed phenomenon by proposing three alternative modifications of the standard Kuramoto model that are based on three different biologically-relevant hypotheses underlying group synchronization. The three models are tuned, validated and compared against (...) experiments on a group synchronization task, which is a multi-agent extension of the so-called mirror game. (shrink)

Written by four recognized experts with senior experience in research and government, this text is the first comprehensive survival kit for students and practitioners of economic policy. It is set to become an indispensable resource for everyone involved or interested in modern economic policy. Academic scholars willing to engage in policy discussions and students at graduate or advanced undergraduate levels will find it an essential bridge to the policy world. What makes the book unique is that it combines like no (...) other, facts-based analysis, state-of-the art theories and models, and insights from first-hand policy experience at national and international levels. The book has grown out of ten years of experience teaching economic policy at the graduate level. It provides an intellectually coherent framework to understand the potentialities and limits of economic policy. It addresses positive dimensions, normative dimensions and political-economy constraints. It fills an important gap by reconciling in each major policy area stylized facts of recent economic history, key questions faced by contemporary policymakers, and essential lessons from theory which are captured and explained in a clear, concise, and self-contained way. All major areas of domestic and international policymaking are covered: fiscal policy, monetary policy, international finance and exchange-rate policy, tax policy, and long-term growth policies. The book concludes with a special chapter on the lessons of the financial crisis. The authors are intellectually non-partisan and they draw examples from various countries and experiences; from emerging markets to developing economies, shedding light when necessary on local specificities such as European Union rules and instruments. Economic Policy: Theory and Practice is the essential guide to economic policy in the new post-crisis context. (shrink)

We present a conjecture in Diophantine geometry concerning the construction of line bundles over smooth projective varieties over ${\overline {\mathbb {Q}}}$. This conjecture, closely related to the Grothendieck period conjecture for cycles of codimension $1$, is also motivated by classical algebraization results in analytic and formal geometry and in transcendence theory. Its formulation involves the consideration of $D$-group schemes attached to abelian schemes over algebraic curves over ${\overline {\mathbb {Q}}}$. We also derive the Grothendieck period conjecture for cycles of codimension (...) $1$ in abelian varieties over ${\overline {\mathbb {Q}}}$ from a classical transcendence theorem à la Schneider–Lang. (shrink)

Les travaux rassemblés dans cet ouvrage concernent évidemment l'étude de ces thèmes dans l'œuvre de Bachelard, au niveau systématique comme au niveau historique, dans l'analyse comme dans la critique.

This essay focuses on the way Williams elaborates, defends, and recommends Hegel’s revision of Christianity, which makes possible a Christianity free from the defects of its pre-modern form without collapsing into atheism and humanism. The essay begins by examining the development of Williams’s case in Hegel on the Proofs and Personhood of God and in Tragedy, Recognition, and the Death of God. This examination shows that Williams uses Hegel’s critique of pre-modern Christianity to demonstrate that modernity, in which discourse, practices, (...) and forms of life are regulated by freedom and reason, means the end of orthodox theology, and uses Hegel’s logic of relations and reciprocal determination to interpret the God-world relation and the internal constitution of the divinity so that it preserves divine transcendence and independence. The second section of the essay challenges Williams’s position by showing how reciprocal determination does not just revise and qualify the asymmetrical dependence that is the lynchpin of classical theism, it completely disqualifies it, how the analysis of the Trinity involves the divinity in a complete emptying of itself into the world and its being as the world, so that Williams’s God cannot preserve even a hair’s breadth of the transcendence required for qualifying as a form of Christianity. The essay concludes from this that Williams’s appropriation of Hegel’s revised Christianity is infected with an element that destabilizes its ability to mediate between pre-modern insistence on God’s transcendence and independence and modernity’s insistence on human freedom and the universal status of its rational subjectivity, with a decisive leaning towards the humanistic posture. (shrink)

The grand duchy of Luxembourg is a showcase example for the constructed nature of national identities. This book explores this construction process from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century, focusing on representations of the past, space and language.

I do not propose to attempt in this article to make any exact or exhaustive definition of religion, but rather to call attention to one of its outstanding psychological characteristics. At the outset, then, I take it for granted that religion is primarily a feeling experience. We make use of the term ‘religion,’ it is true, for many things in addition to immediate feeling experiences, and it is inevitable that we should do so. But it will be well to bear (...) in mind that when we describe Buddhism or Christianity as ‘a religion’ we are using the term in a secondary fashion. A man may accept the tenets, and to some extent practise the commandments, of a religion in this sense without being religious. (shrink)