In this paper I present a qualified defense of the KK principle. In section one I introduce two popular arguments against the KK principle, along with an example in which these arguments seem to prove too much. In section two I provide a simple formal model of knowledge in which KK holds, and which I argue provides an attractive analysis of the example from section one. I go on argue that when this model is combined with contextualism, we can retain (...) our attractive analysis of the example, while also explaining away the appeal of the aforementioned arguments against KK. I use the same maneuver contextualists have used to defend epistemic closure principles--I argue that KK holds within contexts, but can fail across contexts. (shrink)

While recent discussions of contextualism have mostly focused on other issues, some influential early statements of the view emphasized the possibility of its providing an alternative to both coherentism and traditional versions of foundationalism. In this essay, I will pick up on this strand of contextualist thought, and argue that contextualist versions of foundationalism promise to solve some problems that their non-contextualist cousins cannot. In particular, I will argue that adopting contextualist versions of foundationalism can let us reconcile Bayesian accounts (...) of belief updating with a version of the holist claim that all beliefs are defeasible. (shrink)

En este estudio se analiza el cambio de clase de palabras en el mapudungun a través del procedimiento de derivación, desde la perspectiva tipológica de la formación de palabra (Aikhenvald, 2007). Las palabras, en la lengua mapuche, usan ciertos procesos morfológicos y sintácticos que posibilitan el cambio de clase de palabra, ya sea por la intervención de algún sufijo derivacional, por la propiedad polisémica de los mismos, o por el cambio de posición de la palabra respecto a una palabra principal. (...) Los procesos más productivos de formación de palabras suelen ser la composición y la derivación, no obstante, por razones de extensión, este artículo solo se concentra en la derivación y en el análisis de los sufijos -tu, -küle/-le, -meke, y -nge. This study analyzes word classes changes process in Mapudungun through derivation, from the typological perspective of word class formation (Aikhenvald, 2007). Words, in the Mapuche language, use certain morphological and syntactic processes that make possible word class changes, in either of three ways: the intervention of a derivational suffix, by the polysemic property of derivational suffixes, or by changing the position of the word with respect to a principal word. While the most productive processes of word formation often are composition and derivation, due to length reasons this article will focus on the derivation process and analysis of only the suffixes -tu, -küle/-le,-meke, and -nge. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to investigate Nishida Kitarō’s way of philosophizing in the light of the concept of “transition” in order to deepen our understanding of both Nishida’s philosophy and our thinking about and in transitions, using the concept of “boundary” or “border” (Grenze) as a catalyst. For that purpose, we focus on Nishida’s essay “Place” (「場所」), passing through different parts of the text as if through successive gates on a path of transition between one place and the (...) next, until we reach the final place of “absolute nothingness.” Dwelling on this place, we turn our attention to its internal structure and try to depict it along the outlines of a boundary, following the movements taking place in Nishida’s essay. The second part proposes an interpretation of the place of nothingness as an interminable practice of boundary-crossing that doesn’t come to a halt in a final, all-encompassing place, but dynamically situates itself on countless intersecting planes. After a more or less abstract analysis of the concept of “boundary,” we will apply and concretize this approach by using the example of the skin. To this end, we expose five main features of the skin as boundary: permeability, enclosure, excessiveness, interstitiality and reciprocal self-formation. (shrink)

Debates about new technologies, such as crop and food genetic modification, raise pressing questions about the ways ‘experts’ and ‘ nonexperts’ communicate. These debates are dynamic, characterized by many voices contesting numerous storylines. The discoursal features, including language choices and communication strategies, of the GM debate are in some ways taken for granted and in others actively manipulated by participants. Although there are many voices, some have more influence than others. This study makes use of 50 hours of in-depth interviews (...) with GM scientists, nonexperts, and other stakeholders in the GM debate to examine this phenomenon. We uncover rhetorical devices used by scientists to characterize and ultimately undermine participation by non-experts in areas including rationality, knowledge, understanding and objectivity. Scientists engage with ‘the public’ from their own linguistic and social domain, without reflexive confirmation of their own status as part of the public and the citizenry. This raises a number of interesting ironies and contradictions, which are explored in the article. As such, it provides valuable insights into an increasingly important type of discourse. (shrink)

_ Source: _Volume 8, Issue 1, pp 51 - 61 _Epistemic Angst: Radical Skepticism and the Groundlessness of our Believing_. By Duncan Pritchard. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2016. Pp. xv + 239. ISBN 978-0-691-16723-7.

Global food security challenges demand an understanding of farmers’ gendered practices and perspectives. This research draws on data from a quantitative survey and qualitative methods to explore gender differences related to farmers’ practices, perceptions, and knowledge of pesticides and other pest management practices in tomato growing regions of Ghana and Mali. A pathways approach based on participatory mapping integrates findings and reveals gender differences in labor and knowledge at different stages of tomato production. Farmers in both countries are heavily reliant (...) on pesticides, but there are also differences in pest management knowledge and practices between them. In Mali, farmers are more familiar with Integrated Pest Management practices, but less aware of potential health risks of pesticides and more likely to engage in dangerous agro-chemical practices. In both countries, women are significantly less aware of pesticide dangers and IPM techniques than men and exposed to pesticides though a variety of pathways. We argue that the gender division of labor and differences in access to resources, information, and power between the two sites leads to gendered pesticide exposure pathways that are often unseen by the biological scientists who tend to focus on the field. Gender inequalities in knowledge and unsafe practices were particularly apparent in Mali compared to Ghana, possibly due to the lower literacy rates and decision making power of women and their narrower range of involvement in tomato production. The article concludes with gender sensitive recommendations to improve IPM research methods, trainings, and technology diffusion. (shrink)

Neste artigo discute-se as induções e tensionamentos gerados pelo Sistema de avaliação e fomento da CAPES nos processos de produção do conhecimento dos Programas de Pós-graduação em Teologia. Problematiza-se a influência dos critérios de avaliação da CAPES na produção/veiculação do conhecimento no campo epistemológico da Teologia, tendo como aporte teórico o conceito de “campo” de Bourdieu. Constata-se que o campo de conhecimento teológico - que na sua origem e essência trata da fé e do mundo transcendente - gradativamente assume um (...) lugar no campo científico, na busca do reconhecimento/credenciamento e do protagonismo no ranking dos Programas de Pós-graduação com notas máximas na avaliação da CAPES. Para a análise, realizou-se pesquisa junto aos seis PPGT do país existentes em 2011 e um estudo de caso múltiplo em três desses Programas com conceitos iguais ou superiores a cinco e com cursos de mestrado e doutorado reconhecidos pelas suas igrejas – católica ou protestante –, em período anterior à inserção na CAPES. A coleta de dados teve como base os seguintes documentos: fichas de avaliação dos Programas emitidas pela Capes, proposta dos PPGT em análise, produção docente e discente veiculada nos currículos lattes, análise das publicações nas revistas científicas dos Programas pesquisados, além de entrevistas com 22 professores dos PPGTs, que analisam os ganhos, perdas e embates decorrentes desse processo de reconhecimento. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam que a inserção no Sistema de avaliação e fomento exigiu dos Programas mudanças, estruturais e epistemológicas, tais como: alterações nas linhas de pesquisa, nas temáticas das teses e dissertações, bem como transformações nos tempos e meios de veiculação da produção docente. Palavras-chave: Programas de Pós-Graduação em Teologia. Campo de conhecimento. Capes. Avaliação stricto sensu. (shrink)

This piece makes a comment on the usefulness of allegory as a mode of reading, by way of an examination of the representation of nationalism in Jameson and in Antonio Candido.

Spiders have always fascinated humankind as whilst they are often reviled, their product, the web and its silk, are commonly viewed in awe. As such, silks’ material properties and the fear and fascination surrounding the animals that spin it are seen to play an important role in the development of many cultures and societies. More recently this is even more so with the formalization of this inspiration in scientific and technical communities through biomimetics. The aim of this work is to (...) reflect on the beginnings of our relationship with silk and discuss concepts associated with spider silks and webs in ancient Greek and Roman times whilst comparing this with our current understanding of the field. In this way, ancient texts, namely Greek and Latin ones, are found to intersect with modern advanced disciplines, ranging from architecture to medicine to physics. This allows us not only to understand how natural observation has evolved from antiquity to today, but also how such a highly interdisciplinary research network has been spun by some shared conceptual threads. (shrink)

The piece is a review of Roberto Schwarz’s ‘Two Girls’ and Other Essays, edited by Francis Mulhern, and published by Verso. It gives the reader an overview of Roberto Schwarz’s intellectual project and formation. It comments on the essays and tries to substantiate the claim that Schwarz is ‘the finest dialectical critic since Adorno’. This is done mainly through a discussion of one the key categories that organise his thought, objective form, and also by a discussion of his practice of (...) spatial dialectics. (shrink)