Why is American punishment so cruel? While in continental Europe great efforts are made to guarantee that prisoners are treated humanely, in America sentences have gotten longer and rehabilitation programs have fallen by the wayside. Western Europe attempts to prepare its criminals for life after prison, whereas many American prisons today leave their inhabitants reduced and debased. In the last quarter of a century, Europe has worked to ensure that the baser human inclination toward vengeance is not reflected by state (...) policy, yet America has shown a systemic drive toward ever increasing levels of harshness in its criminal policies. Why is America so short on mercy? In this deeply researched, comparative work, James Q. Whitman reaches back to the 17th and 18th centuries to trace how and why American and European practices came to diverge. Eschewing the usual historical imprisonment narratives, Whitman focuses instead on intriguing differences in the development of punishment in the age of Western democracy. European traditions of social hierarchy and state power, so consciously rejected by the American colonies, nevertheless supported a more merciful and dignified treatment of offenders. The hierarchical class system on the continent kept alive a tradition of less-degrading "high-status" punishments that eventually became applied across the board in Europe. The distinctly American, draconian regime, on the other hand, grows, Whitman argues, out of America's longstanding distrust of state power and its peculiar, broad-brush sense of egalitarianism. Low-status punishments were evenly meted out to all offenders, regardless of class or standing. America's unrelentingly harsh treatment of trangressors--this "equal opportunity degradation"-- is, in a very real sense, the dark side of the nation's much vaunted individualism. A sobering look at the growing rift between the United States and Europe, Harsh Justice exposes the deep cultural roots of America's degrading punishment practices. (shrink)

We live in an age of massive efforts to transplant Western institutions. Some of those efforts have involved the so-called "Washington Consensus"; some have involved International Human Rights; but all of them have brought the West to the rest of the world, and all of them reflect a kind of missionary drive. What are the historical sources of this legal missionizing? This Article argues that those sources long predate the twentieth century, and indeed long predate the colonial adventures that began (...) in the sixteenth century. Western law was already culturally predisposed to spread well before Iberian ships reached the Americas. In particular, Western law began, in antiquity, as city-state law, and only gradually penetrated the countryside. This colonization of the countryside by the cities took place partly under the influence of Christianity. It also reflected a centrally important event in the development of Western law: the great northward shift of the center of gravity of Western culture from the Mediterranean to trans-alpine Europe, which we can roughly date to 700-1000 C.E. The long, slow internal colonization of the countryside in the West set much of the pattern for the external colonization of the non-Western world that eventually commenced in the sixteenth century. (shrink)

Why battles matter -- Accepting the wager of battle -- Laying just claim to the profits of war -- The monarchical monopolization of military violence -- Were there really rules? -- The death of pitched battle.

American criminal justice has undergone a sad odyssey over the last 175 years. In the early nineteenth_century, when Alexis de Tocqueville arrived to study American prisons, American criminal punishment was regarded as a model for the civilized world. Today, by contrast, America is widely regarded with horror. What happened? This Article focuses on some Tocquevillean themes. The roots of the harsh criminal punishment regime of the contemporary United States have to do with some of the aspects of "Democracy in America" (...) that Tocqueville found most entrancing. These include traditions of popular sovereignty, religious freedom and social equality. It may be painful for Americans to acknowledge the possibility that some of their most cherished ideals may have ugly consequences for criminal punishment, but they must do so. (shrink)

These essays argue that to have good character one needs to have at least developed a sense of empathy and self control.

In The Market Experience, Robert Lane restates the central criticism of economic views of human satisfaction?namely, that they define welfare as utility and, in practice if not in theory, use money as the measure of utility, while in reality utility (or welfare) ought to be defined as happiness. In exploring the implications of this noneconomic definition for our assessment of markets, Lane summarizes the evidence about how people assess their own happiness more successfully than he clarifies the meaning of that (...) word. Since increases in income above a certain minimum do not increase happiness, work must be made more meaningful. (shrink)

Several novel approaches have been proposed to resolve the problem of time by relating it to change. We argue using quantum information theory that the Hamiltonian constraint in quantum gravity cannot probe change, so it cannot be used to obtain a meaningful notion of time. This is due to the absence of quantum Fisher information with respect to the quantum Hamiltonian of a time-reparametization invariant system. We also observe that the inability of this Hamiltonian to probe change can be related (...) to its inability to discriminate between states of such a system. However, if the time-reparametization symmetry is spontaneously broken due to the formation of quantum cosmological time crystals, these problems can be resolved, and it is possible for time to emerge in quantum gravity. (shrink)

Donald A. Wittman's Myth of Democratic Failure attempts to show that government is more rational than is often believed. For instance, Wittman argues that voters are tolerably well informed and that politicians are responsive to the voters’ will. Unfortunately, Wittman's argument proceeds at the level of economic theory, which is often contradicted by empirical reality (and by non‐economic theories that take account of political reality). It is no better to defend democracy on a priori grounds, as Wittman does, than to (...) attack it on those grounds, as other economists who turn to the analysis of politics tend to do. (shrink)

In the present research, we qualitatively document the process by which spiritual leader and leadership emerge in religion-based organizations. Data from 26 participants in three religion-based organizations revealed three cardinal themes that depict the development of spiritual leader and spiritual leadership, the process of developing a spiritual leader and spiritual leadership, and outcomes of spiritual leader and leadership development. Based on the results, we propose a model that depicts the phases involved in the development of spiritual leader/leadership in the religion-based (...) workplace. These phases are proposed to impact the outcomes for the leader, followers, and the organization. The implications of our results are discussed. (shrink)

The field of emotion regulation has developed rapidly, and a number of emotion regulatory strategies have been identified. To date, empirical attention has focused on contrasting specific regulatio...

Il concetto, le declinazioni e le implicazioni delle possibili idee di futuro, nel campo dell’architettura -tanto in quello pratico quanto in quello speculativo- sono da molto tempo fertile oggetto di dibattito per l’architetto, rappresentando un tassello importante per la costruzione teorica disciplinare. Oltre ad essere direttamente coinvolti per mezzo dell’oggetto plasmato dal progetto e osservati mediante la lente teoretica degli scritti, l’interpretazione e l’uso dell’idea di futuro sono strumenti ineludibili nell’esercizio dell’architettura, sia essa disegnata o costruita. Quali aspetti di questa (...) idea, e quanto coscientemente sono stati praticati e posti sotto indagine dall’individualità e sensibilità dell’architetto?Partendo dalle categorie (quattro possibili ‘posizioni’ del progetto d’architettura rispetto al futuro) proposte nel testo Teoria del progetto architettonico di Armando e Durbiano, il contributo tenta una ricognizione -attraverso le parole piuttosto che mediante i progetti - di quattro estratti che esprimono i punti di vista di altrettanti architetti. I temi toccati dai contributi hanno guidato la selezione e l’individuazione degli estratti chiamati a prestare testimonianza diretta, al contempo corale e autonoma. Ciò che ne risulta è un panorama che, seppur parziale, restituisce uno tra i tanti possibili orizzonti complessi capaci di coinvolgere tanto posizioni individuali quanto tendenze collettive. (shrink)

En este ensayo intentaremos realizar una pequeña aproximación al pensamiento de Gilbert Simondon, filósofo francés cuya obra podría resumirse en sus dos tesis doctorales defendidas en 1958, una de las cuales no fue publicada de forma completa sino póstumamente. No obstante, lo dicho, tras el creciente interés en su pensamiento comenzaron a publicarse ya nacido este milenio, en particular en Argentina, sus cursos sobre percepción, imaginación, invención, información, comunicación y tecnología. A pesar de su escueta obra, Simondon es un filósofo (...) de sistema, que a partir de su teoría de la individuación intentó fundar un monismo ontogenético en el cual puedan entrar en comunicación todas las disciplinas humanas; y para ello buscó explotar todos los recursos conceptuales que brindaron las revoluciones científicas de su época. En este ensayo, sin embargo, abordaremos tan sólo el tipo de realidad o estatus ontológico que Simondon atribuía a los objetos técnicos. Para ello desarrollaremos 4 apartados y un bis. En el primero, haremos un esbozo de lo que es el método filosófico propuesto por Simondon, el cual describimos como un paradigmatismo analógico. En el segundo, desarrollaremos algunas críticas a cierto paradigmatismo particular que, según Simondon, subyace en gran parte del pensamiento occidental y que nos impide, entre otras cosas, comprender la realidad propia de los OT, a saber: el hilemorfismo. En tercer lugar, analizaremos en qué medida podemos salvar la realidad de los OT de ser reducida a mero constructo social. En cuarto lugar; analizaremos algunas analogías y disparidades entre los OT y los seres vivientes. Por último, a modo de apéndice, expondremos sucintamente un artículo de Esperanza García y Villegas Jaraleño, presentado en el último volumen de Scientia in verba, en el cual se plantea la pregunta sobre el estatus ontológico de los artefactos biotecnológicos desde una perspectiva bungeana; así como pequeñas críticas y aportes que pudiésemos hacerle desde el pensamiento simondoniano. (shrink)

Historian James H. Jones published the first edition of Bad Blood, the definitive history of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, in 1981. Its clear-eyed examination of that research and its implications remains a bioethics classic, and the 30-year anniversary of its publication served as the impetus for the reexamination of research ethics that this symposium presents. Recent revelations about the United States Public Health Service study that infected mental patients and prisoners in Guatemala with syphilis in the late 1940s in (...) order to determine the efficacy of treatment represent only one of the many attestations to the persistence of ongoing, critical, and underaddressed issues in research ethics that Bad Blood first explored. Those issues include, but are not limited to: the complex and contested matters of the value of a given research question, the validity of the clinical trial designed to address it, and the priorities of science. (shrink)

En este artículo, me enfoco en las tres cuestiones de la teoría de Suárez del alma separada: el estatus del alma separada como persona, el conocimiento de sí por parte del alma separada, y la cuestión de la naturaleza del alma tanto como forma del cuerpo y como existiendo fuera del cuerpo. Sitúo su discusión en diálogo con Santo Tomás de Aquino y Cayetano y expongo los aspectos en que Suárez se diferencia de esos dos pensadores. Finalmente, demuestro cómo su (...) presentación de estos problemas da lugar a una versión filosóficamente probable de la resurrección del cuerpo. (shrink)

Traduzione italiana a cura di Enrico Fongaro, Carlo Saviani e Tiziano Tosolini. Il volume presenta il pensiero delle tre principali figure della cosiddetta “scuola di Kyoto”, Nishida Kitaro, Tanabe Hajime e Nishitani Keiji, mostrando come questa originale corrente del pensiero giapponese del Novecento costituisca per la filosofia tradizionale una sfida ad oltrepassare i suoi confini occidentali.

En este texto, se explora la historia temprana del republicanismo en América Latina por el medio de los escritos de Francisco Bilbao, uno de los intelectuales radicales chilenos más importantes del siglo XIX. El pensamiento de Bilbao sobre la cuestión del cambio revolucionario fue fuertemente influenciado por su comprensión de la tradición revolucionaria republicana francesa. Examinamos las relaciones transatlánticas que dieron forma al pensamiento de Bilbao, el desarrollo del republicanismo chileno en las secuelas de la independencia política, y las Revoluciones (...) Francesas de 1789 y 1848. Sostenemos que la “regeneración” de la república chilena se convirtió en una especie de misión histórica para Bilbao y su generación de estudiantes universitarios y jóvenes profesionales. Para llevar a cabo esta misión histórica, ellos se hicieron intermediarios entre la vanguardia del pensamiento político en el mundo Atlántico y las realidades sociales obstinadas de un Chile postcolonial. Además, mostramos cómo el radicalismo de Bilbao inspiraba un contraataque feroz por las autoridades eclesiásticas conservadores, indicando cómo la Iglesia Católica respondería a los desafíos futuros * Traducido del inglés por: José A. Bravo de Rueda, Profesor de Español Facultad de Estudios Liberales, Universidad Agrícola y Técnica del Estado de Carolina del Norte, EEUU. El presente artículo es una traducción, con cambios menores en el texto, de James A. Wood, «The republic regenerated: French and Chilean revolutions in the imagination of Francisco Bilbao, 1842-1851». En Atlantic Studies Volume 3, Issue 1, April 2006. pp. 7-23. (shrink)

Estudio preliminar, por L. M. Ravagnán--Compendio de psicología--Problemas de la filosofía.--Ensayo sobre empirismo radical.--La voluntad de creer.--El pragmatismo.--Fases del sentimiento religioso.--Los ideales de la vida.--Cuadro cronológico.--Bibliografía (p. 116-118).

This article explores the meanings of manhood as articulated by Afro-American men. Conceptualization and Q-sort methods are used to examine men's construction of manhood and men's ratings of the importance of selected attributes to being a man. Manhood emerged as a multidimensional construct with four major domains and 15 distinct clusters of ideas. The cluster of attributes rated as most important to being a man paralleled the conceptualization of manhood derived from the open-ended interviews for both professional and nonprofessional men. (...) Men's ratings of attributes in the areas of ownership, manliness, spiritual and religious, and power varied by occupational status. (shrink)

A review of Etica, Politica, Storia universale. Atti del Congresso Internazionale (Urbino, 24–27 ottobre 2018), edited by Giacomo Cerretani and Giacomo Rinaldi.

Mi propósito en este texto es hacer una reflexión de la lectura que Martin Heidegger propone del eterno retorno basándome en la obra que le dedica al autor de dicho pensamiento: Nietzsche. Señalaré los modos de llegar a las interpretaciones cosmológica y antropológica que Heidegger propone, mostrando, a la vez, sus problemas. De esta última interpretación mostraré dos vertientes. Así pues, intentaré depurar el camino entre las diversas interpretaciones del eterno retorno propuestas por Heidegger hasta llegar a una interpretación más (...) clara y coherente. Es decir, intentaré encontrar una respuesta a la pregunta por el fundamento del eterno retorno y a la pregunta por la particular relación que tiene el eterno retorno con el tiempo y la voluntad de poder, relaciones que explicarían de un mejor modo la vinculación del lugar del eterno retorno en la obra de Nietzsche, a partir del pensamiento de Heidegger. (shrink)

Fallibilism is typically taken to face a problem from the apparent infelicity of concessive knowledge attributions. CKAs are of the form: “S knows that p, but it’s possible that q,” where q obviously entails not-p. CKAs sound to the ears of many philosophers as contradictory or infelicitous. But CKAs look to be overt statements of fallibilism, since if S fallibly knows that p, then she can’t properly rule out some possibility in which not-p. Do fallibilists, then, have some way of (...) explaining the seeming infelicity of CKAs that doesn’t impugn the truth of fallibilism? Fallibilists think so. In this connection, there are two well-known responses to the problem: Patrick Rysiew’s pragmatic strategy and Jason Stanley’s semantic strategy. While both strategies have real virtues, there are aspects of each strategy that face certain complications. In this paper, I’ll outline those complications and I’ll develop some remedies to them. The aim of this paper will be to show that the challenge posed by CKAs isn’t a grave problem at all. In particular, I’ll argue that if the semantic strategy fails because CKAs really are overt statements of fallibilism, then there’s good reason to think that the pragmatic strategy succeeds, but if the pragmatic strategy fails because CKAs are obviously false or aren’t overt statements of fallibilism, then the semantic strategy succeeds. Thus, I’ll conclude that the problem for fallibilism posed by CKAs isn’t a grave problem at all. (shrink)