Examinaremos como surge, na Kritik der Urteilskraft, a discussão acerca do belo como símbolo do bem moral, a saber: na Dialética da faculdade de julgar estética, na segunda divisão da Crítica da faculdade de julgar estética. Traçaremos paralelo entre a antinomia do gosto e sua resolução com a antinomia da razão prática, tal como apresentada na Kritik der praktischen Vernunft. Pretendemos mostrar como ambas fazem recurso à distinção entre fenômenos e coisas em si como fonte de sua resolução. Discutiremos, em (...) seguida, como Kant apresenta a necessidade de sensibilização de ideias estéticas, e como o simbolismo permite tal feito. Além disso, vincularemos tais passos da argumentação de Kant à defesa do idealismo da finalidade. (shrink)

A finalidade explícita na arquitetura e ênfase na utilidade, no aspecto de uma aplicação prática, intrigou filósofos alemães como Immanuel Kant e August Schlegel. O entrelaçamento entre beleza e finalidade na arquitetura fora notado cedo por Marco Vitrúvio Polião, que aponta utilidade, solidez e beleza como características fundamentais da obra arquitetônica. Segundo Guyer, a partir de Kant, o pensamento filosófico sobre a arquitetura começa a apresentar um distanciamento em relação a Vitrúvio, de modo que, mesmo sem total renúncia à tríade (...) vitruviana no pensamento de Kant, este defende ser a característica principal da arquitetura representar ideias estéticas. A tese de Guyer aponta o desenvolvimento desse ponto de Kant em Schelling, Hegel e Schopenhauer, todavia com uma lacuna: August Schlegel, fundador do primeiro sistema de belas artes com sua Kunstlehre. Buscaremos aprofundar como a tese de Guyer não só é válida, mas ganha mais solidez no caso de August Schlegel e do papel que este confere à imaginação na arquitetura. Após a indicação de elementos vitruvianos e pós-vitruvianos em Kant e Schlegel, indicaremos as divergências entre ambos na apreciação da arquitetura, a partir de suas articulações entre arquitetura e finalidade. (shrink)

A Crítica da faculdade de julgar foi recebida com entusiasmo pelos filósofos do idealismo alemão. No caso de Friedrich Schelling, as duas partes da obra foram influentes, de modo que não só a estética kantiana, mas também a teleologia foi marcante em sua trajetória filosófica. Observaremos como o filósofo de Leonberg acolhe, na Introdução às Ideias para uma filosofia da natureza, a noção kantiana de organismo como dotado de autocausalidade, mas pensa-a nos quadros de uma filosofia pós-kantiana, buscando prescindir das (...) noções de juízo reflexionante e também da ideia de “natureza como arte” para se pensar o organismo. Como Schelling vincula essa noção com a proposta de se pensar a unidade entre natureza e espírito a partir do próprio sujeito, e não de algo exterior a ele? Como Kant reagiria a tal proposta? The Critique of Judgment was enthusiastically received by the German Idealists. In the case of Friedrich Schelling, both divisions of the work were influent, thus resulting that not only Kantian aesthetics, but also the teleology was a landmark in his philosophical itinerary. We attempt to observe how the philosopher of Leonberg receives, in the Introduction to the Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature, the Kantian conception of organism as endowed with self-causality, but at the same time thinks it within the frame of a post-Kantian philosophy, leaving aside the reflective judgment and also the idea of nature as a product of art in order to think the organism. How does Schelling connect this notion with the proposal to think the unity between nature and spirit based on the own subject, and not on something external to it? How would Kant react to such a proposal? (shrink)

Dos textos originais, que possibilitaram as traduções que se seguem, o primeiro compõe o volume 3, número 2, da revista Archiv Für Rechts- Und Wirtschaftsphilosophie, abreviada por ARWP6, publicado em dezembro de 1909. O segundo, por sua vez, é fruto de uma conferência de abertura ministrada por Fritz Berolzheimer na ocasião do III Kongress der Internationalen Vereinigung für Rechts- und Wirtschaftsphilosophie, realizado entre os dias 02 e 05 de junho de 1914 na Akademie für Sozial- und Handelswissenschaften em Frankfurt am (...) Main. A abertura do congresso realizada por Berolzheimer, assim como outras conferências proferidas ao longo do mesmo, foi publicada em Stuttgart pela Franz Steiner Verlag no mês seguinte à realização do congresso, isto é, em julho de 1914 no volume 7, número 4, da ARWP. (shrink)

The objective of the text is to propose an interpretation of Hume's works that allows another way of refusing contractualism, different from the "official" refusal, and which is based (the new one) on the concept of artifice, which is extremely different from the artifice created by the contractualists, whose opposition the tradition of commentators of Humean political philosophy, generally, do not refer to, when it is the case of refusing contractualism.

Starting from the analysis of a phenomenological reading of the parable of the Good Samaritan and arriving at the idea of the World Person in Chiara Lubich, this article will discuss two topics: union in difference and the model of the neighbor in the Gospel. For Christians this is the confirmation that the meeting with the stranger is possible. Christ founded a community that co-exists with the stranger. It is within this path that the intuition the figure of the World (...) Person in Chiara Lubich arises. In the tension between interpretation and Truth, Lubich puts the question: was there anyone that went through the trial of doubt about the Truth, but has been able to create a new world? She says that was Jesus Forsaken, who opens up the possibility of differentiation without exclusion. (shrink)

O objetivo do presente artigo é discutir os vínculos existentes entre a teoria humeana e o Utilitarismo. Nesse contexto, mencionando a divergência existente entre os comentadores de Hume a respeito de seu lugar diante do Utilitarismo, conclui-se que, embora o caráter descritivo de fato predomine na teoria humeana, ela não é inteiramente desprovida de pretensão prescritiva. Será ainda necessário discutir em que consiste essa pretensão, isto é, o que ela busca prescrever.

This paper puts forward an interpretation of Hume's work which suggests a new means of refuting contractualism. This interpretation differs from the 'official' refutation, in that it is based on a concept of artifice which is significantly different from the concept of artifice propounded by the contractualists. This difference is not generally noticed in traditional commentary on Humean political philosophy when it deals with the refutation of contractualism.

Trata-se de uma tradução do texto Künstler und Psychoanalyse de Hermann Hesse, incluso no Almanach der Psychoanalyse, que foi publicado pela Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag de Wien em 1926.

BackgroundThe outbreak of novel coronavirus disease 2019 has caused a global panic and public concern due to its mortality ratio and lack of treatments/vaccines. Reduced levels of physical activity have been reported during the outbreak, affecting the normal daily pattern.ObjectiveTo investigate the relationship of physical activity level with sleep quality and the effects of reduction physical activity levels on sleep quality.MethodsA Google form was used to address personal information, COVID-19 personal care, physical activity, and mental health of 1,907 adult volunteers. (...) Binary logistic regression was used to verify the association of physical activity parameters and sleep quality.ResultsInsufficient physical activity levels were a risk factor to have disturbed sleep pattern [OR: 1.28, 95% CI ]; however, when the BMI was added to the analysis, there was no more statistical difference [OR: 1.23, 95% CI ]. On the other hand, we found that the reduction of physical activity levels was associated with negative changes in sleep quality [OR: 1.73, 95% CI ], regardless all the confounders [OR: 1.30, 95% CI ], unless when feeling of depression was added in Model 6 [OR: 1.28, 95% CI ].ConclusionDisruption in daily physical activity routine, rather than physical activity level, negatively influences sleep quality during the COVID-19 quarantine. (shrink)

Este artigo discute aspectos da vida religiosa feminina medieval, comparando a Vita Sancti Frutuosi, redigida em latim no século VII, e a versão deste texto em português arcaico, contida no Flos Sanctorum da UNB, transmitido por um único manuscrito datado do século XIV. Nosso objetivo é, a partir da análise dos trechos que relatam a relação de Frutuoso com a monja Benedita, identificar e discutir as semelhanças e particularidades entre as narrativas. A despeito de apresentarem a mesma trama, a VSF (...) tem como objetivo sublinhar a superioridade do cristianismo e legitimar a vida monástica, enquanto a versão do FS ganha contornos de caráter organizador da vida religiosa feminina. (shrink)

Bd. 1. A-B -- Bd. 2. C-F -- Bd. 3. G-Inn -- Bd. 4. Ins-Loc.

How much bacterial evolution occurs in our intestines and which factors control it are currently burning questions. The formation of new ecotypes, some of which capable of coexisting for long periods of time, is highly likely in our guts. Horizontal gene transfer driven by temperate phages that can perform lysogeny is also widespread in mammalian intestines. Yet, the roles of mutation and especially lysogeny as key drivers of gut bacterial adaptation remain poorly understood. The mammalian gut contains hundreds of bacterial (...) species, each with many strains and ecotypes, whose abundance varies along the lifetime of a host. A continuous high input of mutations and horizontal gene transfer events mediated by temperate phages drives that diversity. Future experiments to study the interaction between mutations that cause adaptation in microbiomes and lysogenic events with different costs and benefits will be key to understand the dynamic microbiomes of mammals. Also see the video abstract here: https://youtu.be/Zjqsiyb5Pk0. (shrink)

Esta pesquisa fundamenta-se nos debates sobre o papel da escola na atualidade e dos professores em temos de formação, atuação e práticas pedagógicas, dando prioridade nesta abordagem aos novos tempos vivenciados por essa classe de profissionais, pondo em questão as instituições escolares enquanto ambientes formadores e os professores como atores que, muitas vezes, tem papel decisivo para o processo ensino-aprendizagem, papel esse que tem estado em maior evidência por conta das diversas mutações ocorridas na sociedade, caracterizadas pelo mundo contemporâneo. Este (...) estudo está sendo realizado por meio de levantamento bibliográfico. O foco desta investigação determina-se em proporcionar, uma contribuição favorável para discussão sobre a atuação da escola e da prática exercida pelos professores, frente aos novos tempos e aos novos desafios trazidos pela contemporaneidade. (shrink)

O trabalho investiga a revista O Clarim, produzida pelos alunos de uma escola, em Porto Alegre/RS, entre os anos de 1945 e 1965. A história de O Clarim constitui-se em uma rica documentação de história da educação, pois revela um pouco das representações da cultura juvenil daquele tempo. Aqui interessam os significados da difusão dos discursos difundidos pelo periódico, nos processos de subjetivação provocados pelos textos e suas possíveis influências na construção das identidades daqueles jovens. A pesquisa identifica-se com os (...) pressupostos teóricos da História Cultural e se inscreve no campo das práticas de leitura e escrita e de memórias juvenis, tendo como referenciais as concepções de cultura escrita como uma produção discursiva de um determinado tempo e lugar. (shrink)

On the basis of arguments showing that none of the most influential analyses of Moore's paradox yields a successful resolution of the problem, a new analysis of it is offered. It is argued that, in attempting to render verdicts of either inconsistency or self-contradiction or self-refutation, those analyses have all failed to satisfactorily explain why a Moore-paradoxical proposition is such that it cannot be rationally believed. According to the proposed solution put forward here, a Moore-paradoxical proposition is one for which (...) the believer can have no non-overridden evidence. The arguments for this claim make use of some of Peter Klein's views on epistemic defeasibility. It is further suggested that this proposal may have important meta-epistemological implications. (shrink)

A questão da magia sempre despertou a atenção das pessoas pela suposta possibilidade que teria de interferir no seu “destino”. Na literatura, muitos autores já trouxeram para o debate reflexões acerca da possibilidade do acesso dos seres humanos às chamadas “forças ocultas”. Horácio e Machado de Assis são dois desses importantes autores. Alguns de seus textos, principalmente aqueles de conteúdo satírico, suscitam interpretações críticas sobre a forma como se tem tentado manipular, de diversas maneiras, para proveito pessoal, o campo metafísico. (...) Busca-se, nesse artigo, pôr em diálogo o Epodo V, de Horácio, e o conto A cartomante, de Machado de Assis, para refletir acerca da problemática da magia, com seus mistérios e/ou engodos e as diferenças inerentes ao tratamento literário dado à sátira por parte de Horácio e Machado de Assis. (shrink)

Public reason liberalism is defined by the idea that laws and policies should be justifiable to each person who is subject to them. But what does it mean for reasons to be public or, in other words, suitable for this process of justification? In response to this question, Kevin Vallier has recently developed the traditional distinction between consensus and convergence public reason into a classification distinguishing three main approaches: shareability, accessibility and intelligibility. The goal of this paper is to defend (...) the accessibility approach by demonstrating its ability to strike an appealing middle course in terms of inclusivity between shareability and intelligibility. We first argue against Vallier that accessibility can exclude religious reasons from public justification. Second, we use scientific reasons as a case study to show that accessibility excludes considerably fewer reasons than shareability. Throughout the paper, we connect our discussion of accessibility to John Rawls’s model of public reason, so as to give substance to the accessibility approach and to further our understanding of Rawls’s influential model. (shrink)

This important collection of lectures and essays was regarded by Gabriel Marcel as the best introduction to his thought.

Successful accounts of analogy in law have two burdens to discharge. First, they must reflect the fact that the conclusion of an argument by analogy is a normative claim about how to decide a certain case. Second, they must not fail to accord relevance to the fact that the source case was authoritatively decided in a certain way. We argue in the first half of this paper that the common view of the structure of analogical arguments in law cannot overcome (...) these hurdles. In the second half we develop an original account that aims to succeed where others failed. (shrink)

This paper examines undergraduate business students' perception of corporate social responsibility in cases in which they have not attended any specific course either dealing with CSR or providing training in ethics. A survey was conducted of 535 Spanish business students as future managers. The results show that the stakeholders' perspective deserves a huge attention for those students considering what the keys of business success are. Significant differences in perception were nevertheless identified when a multifactorial analysis was undertaken. Female students are (...) more concerned about CSR issues. The maximization of value for shareholders is less valued by second- and third-year students than by first-year ones. The findings point to a number of important orientations for the future development of university curriculum. (shrink)

There has been considerable debate in legal philosophy about how to attribute purposes to rules. Separately, within cognitive science, there has been a growing body of research concerned with questions about how people ordinarily attribute purposes. Here, we argue that these two separate fields might be connected by experimental jurisprudence. Across four studies, we find evidence for the claim that people use the same criteria to attribute purposes to physical objects and to rules. In both cases, purpose attributions appear to (...) be governed not so much by original intention or by moral value as by current practice. We argue that these findings in the cognitive science of purpose attribution have implications for jurisprudential questions involving purposivist legal interpretation. (shrink)

The 'Gettier Problem' has been central to epistemology since 1963, when Edmund Gettier presented a powerful challenge to the standard analysis of knowledge. Now twenty-six leading philosophers examine the issues that arise from Gettier's challenge, setting the agenda for future work on the central problem of epistemology.

It is argued, on the basis of new counterexamples, that neither knowledge nor epistemic justification (or epistemic rationality ) can reasonably be thought to be closed under logical implication. The argument includes an attempt to reconcile the fundamental intuitions of the opposing parties in the debate.

This paper discusses the first incarnation of what came to be known as the “Frege-Geach” point. The point was made by Peter Geach in his 1960 essay “Ascriptivism”, and developed in “Assertion”, a 1965 piece. Geach’s articles launch a wholesale attack on theories of non-descriptive performances advanced by “some Oxford philosophers” whom he accuses of ignoring “the distinction between calling a thing ‘P’ and predicating ‘P’ of a thing”. One view that Geach specifically targets is H. L. A. Hart’s claim (...) that sentences of the form “X φ-ed” are not primarily descriptive but ascriptive of responsibility for actions. Hart explicitly accepted Geach’s criticism, and disowned his essay. I argue that he was wrong to do so. Perhaps the essay was worth retracting, but not because of Geach’s objections. I begin by restating and refining Geach’s arguments, in order to bring out the flaw he claimed to have detected in the “pattern of philosophising” that he took Hart’s essay to exemplify. I go on to argue that Geach’s original point poses no obstacle either to non-descriptivism in general, or to Hart’s sui generis non-descriptivist claim in particular. (shrink)

O N Concilio de Latrão, realizado em 1215, foi para a Igreja Ocidental o mais importante do período medieval. Seus 70 cânones apresentam uma síntese do projeto de reforma eclesial liderado pelo Papado, em vias de implantação desde meados do século XI, e que visava, dentre outros pontos, a moralização do clero. Contudo, qual foi o impacto destas regulamentações canônicas nas diversas regiões da Cristandade? Como tentativa de resposta parcial a tais questões, optamos por um estudo de caso: o da (...) Igreja Castelana, tão resistente às imposições romanas no século XI. Para o estudo da questão, optamos pela análise da obra literária Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos, de. Gonzalo de Berceo, clérigo secular e primeiro autor culto a escrever em castelhano do qual possuímos notícias históricas. Objetivamos, através do estudo comparativo desta obra literária e os cânones do Concilio de 1215, o impacto e penetração no início do século XIII, em Castela, do projeto de reformulação da moral eclesiástica promovido pelo papado. (shrink)

This article develops a conceptual framework for regulating Artificial Intelligence (AI) that encompasses all stages of modern public policy-making, from the basics to a sustainable governance. Based on a vast systematic review of the literature on Artificial Intelligence Regulation (AIR) published between 2010 and 2020, a dispersed body of knowledge loosely centred around the “framework” concept was organised, described, and pictured for better understanding. The resulting integrative framework encapsulates 21 prior depictions of the policy-making process, aiming to achieve gold-standard societal (...) values, such as fairness, freedom and long-term sustainability. This challenge of integrating the AIR literature was matched by the identification of a structural common ground among different approaches. The AIR framework results from an effort to identify and later analytically deduce synthetic, and generic tool for a country-specific, stakeholder-aware analysis of AIR matters. Theories and principles as diverse as Agile and Ethics were combined in the “AIR framework”, which provides a conceptual lens for societies to think collectively and make informed policy decisions related to what, when, and how the uses and applications of AI should be regulated. Moreover, the AIR framework serves as a theoretically sound starting point for endeavours related to AI regulation, from legislation to research and development. As we know, the (potential) impacts of AI on society are immense, and therefore the discourses, social negotiations, and applications of this technology should be guided by common grounds based on contemporary governance techniques, and social values legitimated via dialogue and scientific research. (shrink)

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar as diferentes posturas didático-pedagógicas dos professores pré-serviço de língua inglesa, quando tiveram que criar tarefas utilizando diferentes artefatos de ensino (tecnologias). A necessidade de se usar a tecnologia como recurso para o processo de ensino-aprendizagem de língua estrangeira, vem proporcionando a realização de trabalhos invest-igativos concernentes a observação de formas apropriadas para utilizá-la na educação. Warschauer e Healey (1998) e Nardi (1996) defendem que a inserção dos computadores e da internet no processo de ensino-aprendizagem (...) de línguas estrangeiras está proporcionando melhor condição de trabalho, bem como, uma formação adequada aos sujeitos envolvidos com a educação. Desta forma, pesquisar sobre a inserção do computador e da internet, como recurso de material didático (apoio) tendo como base os preceitos da Teoria da Atividade (Engestrom, 1987), nos permite compreender as alterações no sistema de atividade a partir dos diferentes artefatos utilizados. Tendo como contexto de pesquisa o curso de letras de uma universidade federal, os dados foram coletados por meio de observações das aulas de metodologia. A análise dos dados mostrou que na tentativa de se criar tarefas pedagógicas, utilizando diferentes artefatos de ensino, o professor pré-serviço desenvolveu práticas diferentes. (shrink)

El pensamiento metafísico es factor de equilibrio ontológico para el hombre, pues él busca, dentro de sí mismo, un ser absoluto que sea su causa, así como también causa de todos los seres. La “muerte” de la metafísica de la causalidad, con Kant, propició la transferencia de este Absoluto a una obligación moral, cuya legisladora sería una buena voluntad subjetiva, introduciendo el relativismo en el pensamiento humano y generando, a lo largo del tiempo, una crisis ético antropológica y la pérdida (...) de la auténtica trascendencia. ¿Sería el rescate de la metafísica una respuesta transcendental a la crisis del hombre contemporáneo? (shrink)

Higher courts sometimes assess the constitutionality of law by working through a concrete case, other times by reasoning about the underlying question in a more abstract way. Prior research has found that the degree of concreteness or abstraction with which an issue is formulated can influence people's prescriptive views: For instance, people often endorse punishment for concrete misdeeds that they would oppose if the circumstances were described abstractly. We sought to understand whether the so-called ‘abstract/concrete paradox’ also jeopardizes the consistency (...) of judicial reasoning. In a series of experiments, both lay and professional judges sometimes reached opposite conclusions when reasoning about concrete cases versus the underlying issues formulated in abstract terms. This effect emerged whether participants reasoned with broad principles, such as human dignity, or narrow rules, and was largest among individuals high in trait empathy. Finally, to understand whether people reflectively endorse the discrepancy between abstract and concrete resolutions, we examined their reactions when evaluating both, either simultaneously or sequentially. These approaches revealed no single pattern across lay and expert populations, or exploratory and confirmatory studies. Taken together, our studies suggest that empathic concern plays a greater role in guiding the judicial resolution of concrete cases than in illuminating judges' professed standards—which may result in concrete decisions in violation of their own abstract principles. (shrink)

Can there be a non-reductivist, source-based explanation of the use of normative language in statements describing the law and legal situations? This problem was formulated by Joseph Raz, who also claimed to have solved it. According to his well-known doctrine of ‘detached’ statements, normative legal statements can be informatively made by speakers who merely adopt, without necessarily sharing, the point of view of someone who accepts that legal norms are justified and ought to be followed. In this paper I defend (...) two theses. I argue, first, that the notion of a detached statement cannot be made to work, and that Raz’s problem is thus not thereby solved. But the problem itself, I also suggest, is a false one. (shrink)

I propose and defend a proof-based account of legal exceptions. The basic thought is that the characteristic behaviour of exceptions is to be explained in terms of the distinction, relative to some given decision-type C in some decision-making context, between two classes of relevant facts: those that may, and those that may not, remain uncertain if a token decision C is to count as correctly made. The former is the class of exceptions. A fact F is an exception relative to (...) some decision-type C, I claim, if (i) the ascertainment of F is sufficient for a token decision C not to count as correctly made, and (ii) the ascertainment of the negation of F is not necessary for a token decision C to count as correctly made. I also recuperate, reconstruct and discuss some of HLA Hart’s early views on defeasible judicial decisions. These two projects are closely connected: the latter is a vehicle for the former. (shrink)

On the basis of arguments showing that none of the most influential analyses of Moore’s paradox yields a successful resolution of the problem, a new analysis of it is offered. It is argued that, in attempting to render verdicts of either inconsistency or self-contradiction or self-refutation, those analyses have all failed to satisfactorily explain why a Moore-paradoxical proposition is such that it cannot be rationally believed. According to the proposed solution put forward here, a Moore-paradoxical proposition is one for which (...) the believer can have no non-overridden evidence. The arguments for this claim make use of some of Peter Klein’s views on epistemic defeasibility. It is further suggested that this proposal may have important meta-epistemological implications. (shrink)

Recent epidemiological research on the social determinants of health has been used to attack an important framework, associated with Norman Daniels, that depicts healthcare as special. My aim is to rescue the idea that healthcare has special importance in society, although specialness will turn out to be mainly limited to clinical care. I build upon the link between Daniels's theory and the work of John Rawls to develop a conception of public justification liberalism that is suitable to the field of (...) justice and health. I argue that, from the perspective of public justification liberalism, (clinical) healthcare deserves special status. (shrink)

In this paper, I distinguish three general approaches to public trust in science, which I call the individual approach, the semi-social approach, and the social approach, and critically examine their proposed solutions to what I call the problem of harmful distrust. I argue that, despite their differences, the individual and the semi-social approaches see the solution to the problem of harmful distrust as consisting primarily in trying to persuade individual citizens to trust science and that both approaches face two general (...) problems, which I call the problem of overidealizing science and the problem of overburdening citizens. I then argue that in order to avoid these problems we need to embrace a (thoroughly) social approach to public trust in science, which emphasizes the social dimensions of the reception, transmission, and uptake of scientific knowledge in society and the ways in which social forces influence both positively and negatively the trustworthiness of science. (shrink)

In this paper, I develop Mauricio Suárez’s distinction between denotation, epistemic representation, and faithful epistemic representation. I then outline an interpretational account of epistemic representation, according to which a vehicle represents a target for a certain user if and only if the user adopts an interpretation of the vehicle in terms of the target, which would allow them to perform valid (but not necessarily sound) surrogative inferences from the model to the system. The main difference between the interpretational conception I (...) defend here and Suárez’s inferential conception is that the interpretational account is a substantial account—interpretation is not just a “symptom” of representation; it is what makes something an epistemic representation of a something else. (shrink)

Carnap’s seminal ‘Empiricism, Semantics and Ontology’ makes important use of the notion of a framework and the related distinction between internal and external questions. But what exactly is a framework? And what role does the internal/external distinction play in Carnap’s metaontology? In an influential series of papers, Matti Eklund has recently defended a bracingly straightforward interpretation: A Carnapian framework, Eklund says, is just a natural language. To ask an internal question, then, is just to ask a question in, say, English. (...) To try to ask an external question is to try, absurdly, to ask a question in no language at all. Finding that so trivial an I/e distinction can’t help to explain Carnap’s deflationary metaontology, Eklund is led to attribute to Carnap a view he calls ontological pluralism. In this paper, I show that Eklund misreads Carnap, and I argue that this misreading obscures fundamental features of Carnap’s philosophy. I then defend an account of frameworks as what Carnap called semantical systems, and I place this account in the context of Carnap’s philosophical program of explication. Finally, I discuss the role that frameworks and the I/e distinction play in ESO, showing that ESO provides no reason to attribute the doctrine of ontological pluralism to Carnap. (shrink)

For some of us, the defeasibility theory of knowledge remains the most plausible approach to the Gettier Problem. Epistemological fashion and faded memories notwithstanding, persuasive objections to the theory are very hard to find. The most impressive of those objections to the theory that have hitherto gone unanswered are examined and rejected here. These are objections put forward by Richard Feldman, Richard Foley, and John Turri. While these are all interesting, the objection recently put forward by Turri is, we think, (...) by far, the most serious threat to the theory that we have seen in a long time. A successful reply to it requires a surprising amount of care, as it turns out. If tenable, Turri's objection deals a devastating blow to the theory developed by Roderick Chisholm, Keith Lehrer, Peter Klein, Marshall Swain, Risto Hilpinen, John Pollock, and Paul Moser, among others. Under scrutiny, however, the threat proves illusory. It results from inattention to a crucial, but relatively subtle, aspect of.. (shrink)