Nowadays global inequalities in access to vaccines seem to be a growing problem. Intellectual Property Rights have been playing an important role both in causing and worsening them. Firstly,...

The origins and development of the problem of mental causation are outlined. The underlying presuppositions which give rise to the problem are identified. Possible strategies for solving, or dissolving the problem are examined.

What accounts for the apocalyptic angst that is now so clearly present among Americans who do not subscribe to any religious orthodoxy? Why do so many popular television shows, films, and music nourish themselves on this very angst? And why do so many artists—from Coldplay to Tori Amos to Tom Wolfe—feel compelled to give it expression? It is tempting to say that America’s fears and anxieties are understandable in the light of 9/11, the ongoing War on Terror, nuclear proliferation, and (...) the seemingly limitless capacity of science to continually challenge our conceptions of the universe and ourselves. Perhaps, too, American culture remains so permeated by Protestant Christianity that even avowed skeptics cannot pry themselves from its grip. In _A Consumer’s Guide to the Apocalypse,_ Eduardo Velásquez argues that these answers are too pat. Velásquez’s astonishing thesis is that when we peer into contemporary artists’ creative depiction of our sensibilities we discover that the antagonisms that fuel the current cultural wars stem from the same source. Enthusiastic religions and dogmatic science, the flourishing of scientific reason and the fascination with mystical darkness, cultural triumphalists and multicultural ideologues are all sustained by the same thing: a willful commitment to the basic tenets of the Enlightenment. Velásquez makes his point with insightful readings of the music of Coldplay, Tori Amos, and Dave Matthews and the fiction of Michael Frayn’s _Copenhagen,_ Chuck Palahniuk’s _Fight Club,_ and Tom Wolfe’s _I Am Charlotte Simmons._ Written with grace and humor, and directed toward the lay reader, _A Consumer’s Guide to the Apocalypse_ is a tour de force of cultural analysis. (shrink)

The main idea that we want to defend in this paper is that the question of what a logic is should be addressed differently when structural properties enter the game. In particular, we want to support the idea according to which it is not enough to identify the set of valid inferences to characterize a logic. In other words, we will argue that two logical theories could identify the same set of validities, but not be the same logic.

From a scientific standpoint, the world is more prepared than ever to respond to infectious disease outbreaks; paradoxically, globalization and air travel, antimicrobial resistance, the threat of bioterrorism, and newly emerging pathogens driven by ecological, socioeconomic, and environmental factors, have increased the risk of global epidemics.1,2,3 Following the 2002–2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), global efforts to build global emergency response capabilities to contain infectious disease outbreaks were put in place.4,5,6 But the recent H1N1, Ebola, and Zika global epidemics have (...) shown unnecessary delays and insufficient coordination in response efforts.7,8,9,10 In a thoughtful and compelling essay,11 Thana C. de Campos argues that greater clarity in the definition of pandemics would probably result in more timely effective emergency responses, and pandemic preparedness. In her view, a central problem is that the definition of pandemics is based solely on disease transmission across several countries, and not on spread and severity together, which conflates two very different situations: emergency and nonemergency disease outbreaks. A greater emphasis on severity, such that pandemics are defined as severe and rapidly spreading infectious disease outbreaks, would make them “true global health emergencies,” allowing for priority resource allocation and effective collective actions in emergency response efforts. Sympathetic to the position taken by de Campos, here I highlight some of the challenges in the definition of severity during an infectious disease outbreak. (shrink)

The global economy’s centre of gravity is shifting. Emerging and developing countries have been contributing over 50% of the global GDP since the onset of the 21st century, which is unprecedented since the Industrial Revolution. This article offers the first analysis of the creeping convergence of the BRIC world (ie Brazil, Russia, India and China) with global legal standards in a key area of International Law: the International Tax Regime (ITR). The ITR is a legal technology fundamentally designed by the (...) League of Nations in the 1920s, when the BRICs played no relevant role. This article proposes a theory that aims to illuminate the core driving forces of the on-going trend towards global convergence in this area of International Law from both the static and dynamic dimensions. It is grounded on the logic of two-sided platforms. (shrink)

The facultative intracellular pathogen Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium faces multiple environments during infection, including different cell types as well as extracellular fluids. We propose that Salmonella ascertains its cellular location by assessing the Mg2+ concentration of its milieu. A signal transduction system, PhoP/PhoQ, signals Salmonella its presence in a intracellular (low Mg2+) or extracellular (high Mg2+) environment, thereby promoting transcription of genes required for survival within or entry into host cells. The PhoP/PhoQ system is high in a regulatory hierarchy that (...) controls other signal transduction systems that respond to different host cues, enabling the microorganism to determine its precise tissue and cellular location. BioEssays 20:96–101, 1998. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (shrink)

Horizontal gene transfer advances bacterial evolution. To benefit from horizontally acquired genes, enteric bacteria must overcome silencing caused when the widespread heat‐stable nucleoid structuring (H‐NS) protein binds to AT‐rich horizontally acquired genes. This ability had previously been ascribed to both anti‐silencing proteins outcompeting H‐NS for binding to AT‐rich DNA and RNA polymerase initiating transcription from alternative promoters. However, we now know that pathogenic Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and commensal Escherichia coli break down H‐NS when this silencer is not bound to (...) DNA. Curiously, both species use the same protease – Lon – to destroy H‐NS in distinct environments. Anti‐silencing proteins promote the expression of horizontally acquired genes without binding to them by displacing H‐NS from AT‐rich DNA, thus leaving H‐NS susceptible to proteolysis and decreasing H‐NS amounts overall. Conserved amino acid sequences in the Lon protease and H‐NS cleavage site suggest that diverse bacteria degrade H‐NS to exploit horizontally acquired genes. (shrink)

Esta sección temática constituye la segunda discusión sobre el desafío de la adopción de reglas lógicas publicado en Análisis Filosófico. Al igual que la primera, esta colección de artículos puede verse como el resultado de la colaboración internacional que durante más de dos décadas hemos mantenido entre el Saul Kripke Center (SKC) y el IIF-SADAF-CONICET. Y más precisamente, entre Saul, Romina y el grupo de lógica de Buenos Aires (BA-Logic). Visitas, seminarios, workshops, proyectos internacionales, y fundamentalmente mucho afecto y pasión (...) por los problemas filosóficos fundamentales han marcado este proceso. Tanto Romina como Saul han apoyado sistemáticamente los esfuerzos desde Argentina para producir conocimiento en el área de lógica. Ambos han estado involucrados no solo institucionalmente en el apoyo al desarrollo de nuestro grupo, sino también a nivel personal. Fueron muchos los momentos que compartimos juntos. Muchos recuerdos e historias. Es importante destacar, solo para mencionar un simple aspecto de nuestras historias comunes, que Saul participó activamente en el proceso de elaboración de la propuesta de ambos números, en la lectura de gran parte del material, e incluso como réferi de algunos trabajos. Saul y Romina asistieron por Zoom a varias reuniones en el marco de los seminarios que generaron parte del material aquí publicado. Recuerdo la alegría de Saul, sus comentarios y la sorpresa de muchos de los participantes de ver aparecer en sus pantallas al filósofo más importante del mundo y uno de los más importantes de la historia. Para ellos quizás era Kripke, para mi ya era Saul. Nos hubiera gustado celebrar juntos. Podría haber sido en Buenos Aires o en Nueva York. Lamentablemente, ya no podrá ser. Aunque también es cierto que esta sección temática es una manera de volver a reunirnos y de expresar el profundo agradecimiento que todos los integrantes del BA-Logic tenemos por Saul. Te vamos a extrañar… Ya te estamos extrañando…. (shrink)

In this article I study Kant's doctrine of the power of judgement. I focus on its main function of rendering possible the transition from the lawfulness of nature to the realization of practical ends. In order to do so, I analyze the concept of “spontaneity” and the principle of “purposiveness of nature”, understood as a “principle of contingency”, according to Kant's explanation in the Critique of the Power of Judgement.

Me propongo elucidar los sentidos que algunos filósofos de la mente dan a la expresión «naturalismo» cuando se autocalifican de naturalistas. Mi atención no está dirigida a los programas de naturalización, sino a la adopción de «metafilosofías» naturalistas. Después de describir la posición de los filósofos canónicos de la mente, de explicar qué entiendo por «canon tradicional» y de caracterizar el naturalismo, paso revista a textos de Block, Fodor, Dennett, Wittgenstein y Cummins que, entiendo, exponen distintas maneras de ser naturalista (...) en la filosofía de la mente. En y intento formular un balance y fijar mi posición. (shrink)

In this article I analyze the class- and cultural-based exclusion produced by the Chilean neoliberal educational reform, carried out during the period from 1990 to 2010. This educational reform follows the same neoliberal model applied to the economy of the country. Although some indicators improved in relation to coverage and public spending in education, the performance gap among social groups increased. In addition, at a cultural level, the reform promoted the value of individual productivity negatively affecting some of the cultural (...) behaviors developed by low-income groups as a consequence of and as reaction to the exclusion they suffer. Namely, by stressing the notions of human capital and quality education, the reform has tended to reinforce these students? fatalism, and limit the scope of the organizations they form to improve their academic and social opportunities. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es evaluar la importancia de los líderes africanos en la política exterior de sus países. A partir de una revisión comprehensiva de literatura especializada, se evidencia la intrascendencia en África de los marcos teóricos tradicionales del análisis de política exterior, los cuales se basan principalmente en la experiencia diplomática de las grandes potencias. En el contexto de los países africanos, por el contrario, la unidad decisoria final no está institucionalizada, por lo cual la visión de (...) mundo de los líderes se transforma en prácticamente la única referencia para la fijación de la estrategia internacional y el interés nacional. (shrink)

In this paper I criticize Comesaña's point of view on Putnam's model-theoretic argument. I claim that there is an interesting point made by the argument that Comesaña has not taken into account: if we want our semantic assertions to be at ali justified, the externalist claim according to which justification requires the God 's Eye View has to be given up.

In his article “The Status of Content”, Boghossian defends what has been called “trascendentalism about content”. According to him, the thesis that there is nothing in the world that corresponds to our thoughts “is not merely implausible but incoherent”. In other words, he thinks that the thesis in question is not simply false on empirical basis but rather self-refuting or pragmatically incoherent. My purpose in this article is to show that Boghossian´s argument for his point of view is not valid. (...) My main thesis is that there is no contradiction in applying the notion of truth to both semantical and psychological sentences and, at the same time, holding that there are neither semantic nor mental contents. (shrink)

Music reduces pain in fibromyalgia (FM), a chronic pain disease, but the functional neural correlates of music-induced analgesia (MIA) are still largely unknown. We recruited FM patients ( n = 22) who listened to their preferred relaxing music and an auditory control (pink noise) for 5 min without external noise from fMRI image acquisition. Resting state fMRI was then acquired before and after the music and control conditions. A significant increase in the amplitude of low frequency fluctuations of the BOLD (...) signal was evident in the left angular gyrus (lAnG) after listening to music, which in turn, correlated to the analgesia reports. The post-hoc seed-based functional connectivity analysis of the lAnG showed found higher connectivity after listening to music with right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rdlPFC), the left caudate (lCau), and decreased connectivity with right anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), right supplementary motor area (rSMA), precuneus and right precentral gyrus (rPreG). Pain intensity (PI) analgesia was correlated ( r = 0.61) to the connectivity of the lAnG with the rPreG. Our results show that MIA in FM is related to top-down regulation of the pain modulatory network by the default mode network (DMN). (shrink)

¿Podemos adoptar una regla de inferencia como si fuera una hipótesis e inferir algo en virtud de esa regla? ¿Podemos revisar nuestras reglas y principios lógicos en virtud de la evidencia disponible? El antiexcepcionalismo lógico desafía la idea de que la lógica es excepcional y la vincula con el resto de las teorías científicas. Sin embargo, el desafío de la adopción planteado por Kripke y Padró imponen límites a esta concepción. En esta sección, se exploran distintos aspectos vinculados a la (...) imposibilidad de adoptar reglas, el antiexcepcionalismo, la revisión y la normatividad de la lógica. (shrink)

¿Seguimos reglas de inferencia al razonar? Por más intuitiva que resulte la respuesta positiva a esta pregunta, hay una serie de dificultades para vincular reglas lógicas y prácticas inferenciales. El Problema de la Adopción de Reglas de Inferencia constituye un desafío para todo aquel que proponga que podemos seguir nuevos patrones inferenciales a partir del reconocimiento de reglas. En esta sección temática se exploran diversos asuntos conectados a si podemos seguir un nuevo patrón inferencial en virtud de una regla.

Feedback loops have been identified in a variety of regulatory systems and organisms. While feedback loops of the same type (negative or positive) tend to have properties in common, they can play distinctively diverse roles in different regulatory systems, where they can affect virulence in a pathogenic bacterium, maturation patterns of vertebrate oocytes and transitions through cell cycle phases in eukaryotic cells. This review focuses on the properties and functions of positive feedback in biological systems, including bistability, hysteresis and activation (...) surges. BioEssays 30:542–555, 2008. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

This book is a collection of secondary essays on America's most important philosophic thinkers—statesmen, judges, writers, educators, and activists—from the colonial period to the present. Each essay is a comprehensive introduction to the thought of a noted American on the fundamental meaning of the American regime.

This paper examines ethics in organizations in relation to the subjectivity of managers. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault we seek to theorize ethics in terms of the meaning of being a manager who is an active ethical subject. Such a manager is so in relation to the organizational structures and norms that govern the conduct of ethics. Our approach locates ethics in the relation between individual morality and organizationally prescribed principles assumed to guide personal action. In this way (...) we see ethics as a practice that is powerfully intertwined in an individual’s freedom to make choices about what to do and who to be, and the organizational context in which those choices are situated, framed and governed. (shrink)

The present work is motivated by recent experiments aimed to measure the propagation velocity of bound electromagnetic field that reveal no retardation in the absence of EM radiation. We show how these findings can be incorporated into the mathematical structure of special relativity theory that allows us to reconsider some selected problems of classical and quantum electrodynamics. In particular, we come to the conclusion that the total four-momentum for a classical system “particles plus fields” ought to be a present state (...) function of moving charges if EM radiation is negligible. In quantum domain, we analyze novel definition of the momentum operator recently suggested in the study of quantum phase effects. It implies that bound EM field energy and momentum are to be present state functions, too. Being in agreement with reported experiments, these conclusions suggest the necessity to carry out more precise experimental verifications for additional and independent determination of propagation properties of bound EM fields. A scheme of a possible experiment on this subject is also proposed. (shrink)

This paper examines ethics in organizations in relation to the subjectivity of managers. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault we seek to theorize ethics in terms of the meaning of being a manager who is an active ethical subject. Such a manager is so in relation to the organizational structures and norms that govern the conduct of ethics. Our approach locates ethics in the relation between individual morality and organizationally prescribed principles assumed to guide personal action. In this way (...) we see ethics as a practice that is powerfully intertwined in an individual’s freedom to make choices about what to do and who to be, and the organizational context in which those choices are situated, framed and governed. (shrink)

Clinical delusions are widely characterized as being pathological beliefs in both the clinical literature and in common sense. Recently, a philosophical debate has emerged between defenders of the commonsense position (doxasticists) and their opponents, who have the burden of pointing toward alternative characterizations (anti-doxasticists). In this chapter, I argue that both doxasticism and anti- doxasticism fail to characterize the functional role of delusions while at the same time being unable to play a role in the explanation of these phenomena. I (...) also argue that though a more nuanced view of belief in which mental states are more or less belief-like instills a healthy skepticism towards the precision of folk-psychological concepts, such a stance fails to be of use in building a theory of delusion that will be able to bridge different levels of explanation, such as the phenomenology and neurobiology of delusion. Thus, I advocate moving past the question ‘Are delusions beliefs?’ and their description as propositional attitudes toward the description of the processes that generate delusion, with a view toward explaining, rather than explaining away, the personal-level aspects of the phenomenon that have been made inscrutable by investing in doxastic terminology. (shrink)