The dominant way to define physical entities is by appeal to ideal physics (as opposed to current physics). However, it has been worried that physicalism understood in terms of ideal physics would be too liberal to rule out “psychism”, the view that mentality exists at the fundamental metaphysical level. In this article, I argue that whereas physicalism is incompatible with some psychist cases, such as the case of “phenomenalism” in which ideal physics adopts mental concepts to denote fundamental entities, physicalism (...) should accommodate a certain type of psychist case in which fundamental mental entities are denoted by non-mental concepts in ideal physics. In so doing, I propose a distinctive account of physical entities, which asserts that physical entities are entities denoted by non-mental natural concepts in ideal physics. Physicalism thus understood is expected to be neither too liberal nor too demanding. (shrink)

Although the history of adopting the Western Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) concept in China spans less than 20 years, the core principles of CSR are not new and can be legitimately interpreted within traditional Chinese culture. We find that the Western CSR concepts do not adapt well to the Chinese market, because they have rarely defined the primary reason for CSR well, and the etic approach to CSR concepts does not take the Chinese reality and culture into consideration. This article (...) resolves these problems and contributes a new definition of CSR, called here – the Harmony Approach to CSR. Simply, the Chinese harmony approach to CSR means 'respecting nature and loving people'. It is the first time CSR has been defined in relation to Confucian interpersonal harmony and Taoist harmony between man and nature. Conceptually, this definition will broaden our understanding and will fit the characteristics of the Chinese market better. The idea of incorporating cultural contexts into CSR concepts could also contribute to future CSR studies. In business practice, it will help corporations to adopt CSR on their own initiative. The proposed virtues of traditional Chinese wisdom, in particular, will guide corporations to a new way of improving their CSR performance. (shrink)

本书着重从五个方面,即信仰,常道,常名,贵生与为政,阐述老子的思想,并且通过阐述老子思想进一步阐释中国传统文化,在阐述中以孔子释老子,以老子印证孔子,从而使儒道在源头上达至统一.

Elicited imitation has gained popularity with recent interests in the quest for efficient and flexible measures of second language proficiency. Despite the surge of interests, questions remain as to what specific linguistic knowledge, skills, and strategies EI measures. To contribute to this line of inquiry, this study explored the nature of strategy use and its effect on EI performance to elucidate the constructs of EI. Twenty-four L2 learners and eight native speakers of Chinese completed an EI test of Chinese and (...) a strategy use questionnaire after the test. Qualitative analyses of the questionnaire responses revealed that participants mainly employed five types of strategies, including approach strategies, cognitive strategies, metacognitive strategies, communication strategies, and test-wiseness strategies. While native speakers reported the least number of strategies, higher-proficiency L2 learners reported more strategies than lower-proficiency L2 learners. We further subjected strategy use, along with participant proficiency level, item length, and item complexity level, to linear mixed-effects regression analyses. The results showed that participant proficiency level, item length, and item complexity level explained the largest test score variance; in contrast, strategy use of different types only accounted for a smaller proportion. The total number of cognitive strategies had a significant, positive effect on EI performance whereas the total number of metacognitive strategies had a significant, negative effect. These findings offer some insights into the nature of speech comprehension and production on EI and provide validity evidence for the use of EI as a language proficiency measure. (shrink)

The New Curriculum Standards for teaching English introduced major changes in the culture of teaching and learning English in the Peoples Republic of China. Changes have been linked to changing goals for English instruction and a revision of Confucian values in schooling. In this article, we argue that this English curriculum proposes a new role, with new demands, for English-as-foreign-language teachers in the PRC. In order to implement the curriculum reform successfully, teachers involved in the reform are required to have (...) a shared understanding of its nature, purposes and scope. However, little is known about to what extent EFL teachers understand and engage with their new roles. This study examines teachers’ understandings of the new curriculum and of the new, demanding role of teachers implied by the curriculum. This is a mixed methods study involving an analysis of the curriculum document, a survey of EFL teachers and semi-structured interviews with a sample of teachers in the cohort. The findings suggest that many teachers know the content of the curriculum document, but expressed uncertainty about the implications of changes, uncertainty about what a shift to student-centered teaching and learning means and confusion about new professional development demands. The findings of this study have wider implications for EFL teachers, teacher educators, researchers and policy makers in the PRC and similar national contexts. This article highlights that, from an international perspective, introducing new ideas and practices should consider teachers’ existing understanding and experiences of the curriculum as well as the way in which they understand the purposes of the changes, and should promote a shared understanding of policy intentions. (shrink)

The debate between the dynamical and the statistical interpretations of natural selection is centred on the question of whether all explanations that employ the concepts of natural selection and drift are reducible to causal explanations. The proponents of the statistical interpretation answer negatively, but insist on the fact that selection/drift arguments are explanatory. However, they remain unclear on where the explanatory power comes from. The proponents of the dynamical interpretation answer positively and try to reduce selection/drift arguments to (...) some of the most prominent accounts of causal explanation. In turn, they face the criticism raised by statisticalists that current accounts of causation have to be violated in some of their core conditions or otherwise used in a very loose manner in order to account for selection/drift explanations. We propose a reconciliation of both interpretations by conveying evolutionary explanations within the unificationist model of scientific explanation. Therefore, we argue that the explanatory power in natural selection arguments is a result of successful unification of individual- and population-level facts. A short case study based on research on sympatric speciation will be presented as an example of how population- and individual-level facts are unified to explain the morphological mosaic of bill shape in island scrub jays. (shrink)

With the advancement of human microbiome research, it is inevitable that a growing number of biobanks will include a collection of microbiota specimens to characterize the microbial communities that inhabit the human body and explore the relationships between the microbiota and their human hosts. Biobanks of human microbiota and their associated genetic information may become a valuable health resource. But, this area of research also presents ethical and social problems, some of which are distinct from those faced by biobanks that (...) store human tissue samples. This paper examines four core issues which are considered highly relevant to microbiome biobanking: the nature of human microbiome samples and how different understandings have an impact on benefit/risk evaluation, privacy, informed consent, and returning the result to participants. We argue that these issues should be addressed early on in microbiome research projects and also call for adjusting or developing new governance mechanism to better accommodate these changes. (shrink)

Many philosophers insist that moral facts or properties play no role in explaining (non-normative) natural phenomena. The problem of moral explanation has raised metaphysical, semantic and epistemic challenges to contemporary moral realism. In my dissertation, I attempt to vindicate the explanatory efficacy of moral properties, while at the same time respecting the autonomy and normativity of morality. In doing so, I will advocate a sort of non-reductive ethical naturalism, according to which moral properties are natural properties (in the (...) sense that they are open to empirical investigation), and yet remain irreducible to non-normative natural properties, such as psychological, biological, and sociological properties. More specifically, I develop a form of moral functionalism to vindicate moral explanation. Moral functionalism understands moral properties as second-order, functional properties, the natures of which are characterized in terms of functional roles. My version of moral functionalism has two particular features. First, it is a form of a posteriori moral functionalism. The moral theory used to characterize the functional roles of moral properties can only be discovered by appeal to empirical investigation (for this reason, my a posteriori version of moral functionalism is a sort of ethical naturalism). Second, it is a holistic version of moral functionalism. The functional role of a moral property cannot be identified solely in terms of non-normative properties; rather, it essentially involves a network of connections to both non-normative and normative properties (for this reason, my holistic version of moral functionalism is a sort of ethical anti-reductionism). It is important to note that the question of whether moral properties have explanatory power bears on the question of what explanation or explanatoriness is. In my dissertation, I attempt to show that my vindication of moral explanation presupposes a plausible account of explanation. Obviously I cannot discuss all theories of explanation; my dissertation will rather focus on two influential accounts of explanation: the causalist model and the unificationist model. Then I argue that moral properties understood as functional properties of the kind I have described can do causal-explanatory work and play a distinctive unifying role. (shrink)

We have synthesized a 582,970-base pair Mycoplasma genitalium genome. This synthetic genome, named M. genitalium JCVI-1.0, contains all the genes of wild-type M. genitalium G37 except MG408, which was disrupted by an antibiotic marker to block pathogenicity and to allow for selection. To identify the genome as synthetic, we inserted "watermarks" at intergenic sites known to tolerate transposon insertions. Overlapping "cassettes" of 5 to 7 kilobases (kb), assembled from chemically synthesized oligonucleotides, were joined by in vitro recombination to produce intermediate (...) assemblies of approximately 24 kb, 72 kb ("1/8 genome"), and 144 kb ("1/4 genome"), which were all cloned as bacterial artificial chromosomes in Escherichia coli. Most of these intermediate clones were sequenced, and clones of all four 1/4 genomes with the correct sequence were identified. The complete synthetic genome was assembled by transformation-associated recombination cloning in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, then isolated and sequenced. A clone with the correct sequence was identified. The methods described here will be generally useful for constructing large DNA molecules from chemically synthesized pieces and also from combinations of natural and synthetic DNA segments. 10.1126/science.1151721. (shrink)

An experiment explored the acquisition of conscious and unconscious knowledge of semantic prosody in a second language under incidental and intentional learning conditions. Semantic prosody is the conotational coloring of the semantics of a word, largely uncaptured by dictionary definitions. Contrary to some claims in the literature, we revealed that both conscious and unconscious knowledge were involved in the acquisition of semantic prosody. Intentional learning resulted in similar unconscious but more conscious knowledge than incidental learning. The results are discussed in (...) terms of second language learning and the nature of unconscious knowledge. (shrink)

We investigated the implicit learning of a linguistically relevant variable in a natural language context . Trial by trial subjective measures indicated that exposure to a form–animacy regularity led to unconscious knowledge of that regularity. Under the same conditions, people did not learn about another form–meaning regularity when a linguistically arbitrary variable was used instead of animacy . Implicit learning is constrained to acquire unconscious knowledge about features with high prior probabilities of being relevant in that domain.

Various cell types cooperate to create a highly organized and dynamic micro-environmental niche in the bone marrow. Over the past several years, the field has increasingly recognized the critical roles of the interplay between bone marrow environment and hematopoietic cells in normal and deranged hematopoiesis. These advances rely on several new technologies that have allowed us to characterize the identity and roles of these niches in great detail. Here, we review the progress of the last several years, list some of (...) the outstanding questions in the field and propose ways to target the diseased environment to better treat hematologic diseases. Understanding the extrinsic regulation by the niche will help boost hematopoiesis for regenerative medicine. Based on natural development of hematologic malignancies, we propose that combinatory targeting the niche and hematopoietic intrinsic mechanisms in early stages of hematopoietic malignancies may help eliminate minimal residual disease and have the highest efficacy. The bone marrow is the home for blood-forming hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Normal generation of blood and immune cells depends on highly regulated interactions between these stem and progenitor cells with their surrounding environment. Emerging evidence suggests that therapeutic interventions directed at these cellular interdependencies can help boost hematopoiesis and eradicate malignant hematopoietic cells. (shrink)

Previous studies have demonstrated that orientation-specific deprivation in early life can lead to neural deficits of spatial vision in certain space, and can even result in meridional amblyopia. Individuals with astigmatism are the optimal and natural models for exploring this asymmetric development of spatial vision in the human visual system. This study aims to assess the contrast sensitivity function and EEG signals along two principal meridians in participants with regular astigmatism when being optimal optical corrected. Twelve participants with astigmatism (...) and thirteen participants with were recruited in the current study. CSFs and spatial sweep visual evoked potentials were measured with vertical and horizontal sinewave gratings along two principal meridians monocularly. Area under log CSF, spatial frequency threshold corresponding to 80% contrast gratings, and CSF acuity were calculated from CSF test. In addition, sVEP amplitudes and thresholds were calculated with the recursive least square method. Participants with astigmatism exhibited marked vertical-horizontal resolution disparities even after they were corrected with optimal optical corrections. CSF tests showed that AULCSF along weak meridian was lower than that along strong meridian in both groups. Significant meridional disparity of CSF acuity was also found in both groups. In addition, the MA group showed larger meridional disparity compared to the AST group. Spatial sVEP thresholds also supported the existence of marked meridional disparity. Our results suggest that meridian-specific partial deprivation in early life might lead to monocularly asymmetric development of spatial vision in the human visual system. In terms of application, we tested the feasibility and reliability of adopting psychophysical and EEG scalings to investigate the asymmetric development of spatial vision related to astigmatism. These paradigms are potentially applicable to reduce and even eliminate the meridional disparity in the primary visual cortex by adopting perceptual learning or other vision-related interventions. (shrink)

Drawing from the dual process model of morality and life history theory, the present research examined the role of cognitive and emotional processes as bridges between basic environmental challenges and other-centered moral orientation. In two survey studies, cognitive and emotional processes represented by future-oriented planning and emotional attachment, respectively, or by perspective taking and empathic concern, respectively, positively predicted other-centeredness in prosocial moral reasoning and moral judgment dilemmas based on rationality or intuition. Cognitive processes were more closely related to rational (...) aspects of other-centeredness, whereas the emotional processes were more closely related to the intuitive aspects of other-centeredness. Finally, the cognitive and emotional processes also mediated negative effects of unpredictability, as well as positive effects of individual-level, contest competition on other-centeredness. Overall, these findings support the view that cognitive and emotional processes do not necessarily contradict each other. Rather, they might work in concert to promote other-centeredness in various circumstances and might be attributed to humans’ developmental flexibility in the face of environmental challenges. (shrink)

Recent advances in neuroscience indicate that analysis of bio-signals such as rest state electroencephalogram and eye-tracking data can provide more reliable evaluation of children autism spectrum disorder than traditional methods of behavior measurement relying on scales do. However, the effectiveness of the new approaches still lags behind the increasing requirement in clinical or educational practices as the “bio-marker” information carried by the bio-signal of a single-modality is likely insufficient or distorted. This study proposes an approach to joint analysis of EEG (...) and eye-tracking for children ASD evaluation. The approach focuses on deep fusion of the features in two modalities as no explicit correlations between the original bio-signals are available, which also limits the performance of existing methods along this direction. First, the synchronization measures, information entropy, and time-frequency features of the multi-channel EEG are derived. Then a random forest applies to the eye-tracking recordings of the same subjects to single out the most significant features. A graph convolutional network model then naturally fuses the two group of features to differentiate the children with ASD from the typically developed subjects. Experiments have been carried out on the two types of the bio-signals collected from 42 children. The results indicate that the proposed approach can achieve an accuracy of 95% in ASD detection, and strong correlations exist between the two bio-signals collected even asynchronously, in particular the EEG synchronization against the face related/joint attentions in terms of covariance. (shrink)

Este texto tem dois objetivos principais: apresentar o conceito de “lei natural” e aquilo que seria a sua expressão como “lei escrita” e, depois, reinterpretar este conceito a partir de uma perspectiva nietzschiana. Para alcançar este duplo objetivo urge, pois, em primeiro lugar, traçar, nas suas grandes linhas, as vicissitudes que atravessou a teoria da “lei natural” ao longo da tradição #losó#ca até a sua culminância naquelas correntes do direito natural, típicas dos tempos modernos. Convém também assinalar (...) que este conceito encerra no seu bojo, como derivações, as noções de necessidade, de #nalidade e providência. Eis por que, para interpretá-lo e criticá-lo, são utilizadas algumas intui- ções e análises de Nietzsche que, ao longo de sua obra, não cessa de se referir, direta ou indiretamente, a estas questões e, também, àquela de acaso. Não se trata, portanto, de simplesmente apresentar uma crítica de Nietzsche aos conceitos de “lei natural” e “lei escrita”, mas, principalmente, de examiná-los à luz de seu pensamento. (shrink)

Este texto tem dois objetivos principais: apresentar o conceito de “lei natural” e aquilo que seria a sua expressão como “lei escrita” e, depois, reinterpretar este conceito a partir de uma perspectiva nietzschiana. Para alcançar este duplo objetivo urge, pois, em primeiro lugar, traçar, nas suas grandes linhas, as vicissitudes que atravessou a teoria da “lei natural” ao longo da tradição #losó#ca até a sua culminância naquelas correntes do direito natural, típicas dos tempos modernos. Convém também assinalar (...) que este conceito encerra no seu bojo, como derivações, as noções de necessidade, de #nalidade e providência. Eis por que, para interpretá-lo e criticá-lo, são utilizadas algumas intui- ções e análises de Nietzsche que, ao longo de sua obra, não cessa de se referir, direta ou indiretamente, a estas questões e, também, àquela de acaso. Não se trata, portanto, de simplesmente apresentar uma crítica de Nietzsche aos conceitos de “lei natural” e “lei escrita”, mas, principalmente, de examiná-los à luz de seu pensamento. (shrink)

Análise da relação entre lei natural e natureza humana em Tomás de Aquino, a partir da Summa theologiae (STh. Ia-IIae, q. 94, a. 2 ad 2). O texto pretende destacar alguns problemas relacionados à noção clássica de natureza humana e como ela pode ser vinculada à lei moral natural. A noção de bem transcendental é vista como fundamento dos primeiros princípios da razão prática. Essa perspectiva transcendental deve nos conduzir a uma visão normativa sobre o papel das inclinações (...) naturais na concepção de lei natural. (shrink)

Liberdade e poder são dois temas que se correlacionam ao longo da história da filosofia política moderna. Nos textos de Hobbes, a ideia da liberdade como ausência de impedimentos às ações ajuda-nos a pensar o dever de obediência ao poder soberano e as relações entre política e direito. Uma situação de vácuo jurídico, em que tudo é permitido, faz-se, contudo, impossível, de modo que a solução de Hobbes consiste em sustentar a ideia do direito natural como direito originário individual (...) vinculado à preservação da vida. Suas ideias do direito natural e da lei natural, que servem de fundamento ao dever de obediência ao soberano, amparam-se em princípios jurídicos, teológicos e biológicos. Tais princípios, entretanto, não dão conta da questão da extensão do poder soberano. Hobbes recorre à análise da linguagem. Sua teoria contratual afirma o princípio de preservação da vida na base da política e sustenta a ideia da criação e da manutenção do poder soberano no ato de linguagem implicado na estrutura representativa do pacto político. (shrink)

The present investigation strives to show Nietzsche's considerations about natural law. Since the German philosopher bases his thinking on an organicist conception, in principle one is led to think of a welcome and even a positive emphasis on natural law. However, in several passages of his writings Nietzsche is hostile towards natural law, mainly because it acts as a framework, measurement and calculation of the movement of nature. Natural law, for this reason, consists in falsifying nature. (...) For, the legal mechanisms are imposed on the free action of nature, depriving it of its organic singularity to fit it in an artificial rationality. The free action of nature cannot be captured by rational framing mechanisms dictated by natural law. However, Nietzsche recognizes in the will to power a kind of natural law that acts on natural phenomena without constraining them, but leads them to the highest peaks of force. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo reconstruir argumentos centrais desenvolvidos por Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Contra Samuel Pufendorf, Rousseau defende que a justiça não é natural. Ele recusa todo compromisso com a lei natural tradicional para voltar à posição de Thomas Hobbes. Ora, no estado originário de natureza, os princípios racionais da lei natural que expõe Pufendorf não podem ser conhecidos, e, por conseguinte, quando puderem ser conhecidos, não serão aplicados por natureza.

Os Essays on the Law of Nature relançaram o debate em torno das relações entre a epistemologia e a filosofia política de Locke. O artigo aborda dois aspectos desta obra em que essas relações são particularmente visíveis: a definição lockiana da lei natural e a questão da sua cognoscibilidade. A comparação com as passagens paralelas de Tomás de Aquino, a que Locke alude, permite destacar a singularidade da posição de Locke, pondo em evidência o seu voluntarismo. Mencionam-se alguns aspectos (...) desta concepção da lei natural, que tem o seu fundamento último num certo modo de entender a razão humana e o seu alcance, e enunciam-se algumas das suas consequências. (shrink)

RESUMO:O objetivo deste artigo é discutir sobre os conceitos de obrigação e lei natural, tendo como referência o polêmico debate moderno envolvendo intelectualismo e voluntarismo. Em um primeiro momento, destacaremos a rejeição de Wolff ao voluntarismo de Pufendorf e sua orientação em direção ao intelectualismo de Leibniz. Conforme essa nova orientação, uma teoria da lei natural não deve basear seu conceito de obrigação na autoridade das leis e em seu poder coercitivo, mas, por outro lado, unicamente na ideia (...) de necessidade moral, interpretada como expressão da ligação natural universal dos seres racionais com o dever. Em um segundo momento, apresentaremos os efeitos dessa discussão no pensamento inicial de Kant, que, se posicionando diante mesmo de Wolff e Baumgarten, vai empreender a superação de seus predecessores, através de uma revisão conceitual do problema, a qual culminará nos pressupostos de sua doutrina ética madura. -/- ABSTRACT:This paper highlights the debate around the concepts of obligationand natural law, with reference to the controversial modern discussion involving intellectualism and voluntarism. Firstly, we highlight Wolff’s rejection of the voluntarism of Pufendorf and Wolff’s orientation toward the intellectualism of Leibniz. For intellectualism, a theory of natural law should not ground the concept of obligation in the authority of laws and in their coercive power, but in the idea of moral necessity, understood as an expression of the universal natural connection of rational beings with duty. We then present the effects of this discussion on Kant’s early thought. Kant undertook to go beyond Wolff and Baumgarten through a conceptual review of the problem, which culminated in the assumptions of his mature ethics -/- This paper highlights the debate around the concepts of obligation and natural law , with reference to the controversial modern discussion involving intellectualism and voluntarism. Firstly, we highlight Wolff’s rejection of the voluntarism of Pufendorf and Wolff’s orientation toward the intellectualism of Leibniz. For intellectualism, a theory of natural law should not ground the concept of obligation in the authority of laws (established as an arbitrary decree of God) and in their coercive power (interpreted as fear of punishment), but in the idea of moral necessity, understood as an expression of the universal natural connection of rational beings with duty. We then present the effects of this discussion on Kant’s early thought. Kant undertook to go beyond Wolff and Baumgarten through a conceptual review of the problem, which culminated in the assumptions of his mature ethics. (shrink)

Trata-se de urn exame do conceito de lei natural na obra de Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) através, principalmente, de considerações acerca da história das noções de lei , natureza e lei natural que, auxiliando a compreender sua ambientaçáo no pensamento renascentista, apoiam a análise simultânea de seu sentido nos Ensaios.  .

Pretende-se aqui articular os elementos da crítica de Rousseau à doutirna do direito natural, tal como ela aparece em Hobbes e na tradição jusnaturalista.

Este artigo visa examinar os limites da liberdade de ação do homem, isto é, de seu direito natural, levando-se em consideração a finalidade última desse direito nos Elementos da lei natural e política de Hobbes. Essa finalidade seria a auto-preservação do homem. Entretanto, para que esse direito seja efetivamente respeitado, Hobbes alega ser necessário a constituição de um poder soberano. Não basta assim uma simples convenção entre os homens para garantir a paz. Ou seja, se faz necessário a (...) existência de uma ordem política regida por um poder soberano absoluto para que a preservação da vida tenha efeito jurídico. Hobbes entende que somente o estado civil é o único capaz de estabelecer as condições efetivas para que esse objetivo seja atingido. (shrink)

This book deals with an internal theme of metaphysics, which is the metaphysics of the laws of nature. The author presents traditional contemporary theories, as well as his own original theory, and evaluates each one at a time. He also addresses the problem of the modality of the laws of nature and makes some criticism of the standard view of necessity as truth in all possible worlds, and shows an application of his discussion to the metaphysics of physics. / Este (...) livro trata de um tema interno à metafísica, que é a metafísica das leis da natureza. O autor apresenta as teorias tradicionais contemporâneas, tal como também a sua própria teoria original, e avalia cada uma delas por vez. Ele também aborda o problema da modalidade das leis da natureza e apresenta uma certa crítica à visão padrão da necessidade como verdade em todos os mundos possíveis, e mostra uma aplicação da sua discussão à metafísica da Física. (shrink)

A partir de um exame de textos escritos por Du Pont de Nemours, Le Mercier de la Rivière, Victor Riquetti de Mirabeau e François Quesnay, e tendo em vista a unidade da teoria política formada e desenvolvida pela fisiocracia, buscaremos examinar como a análise econômica dessa doutrina encontra suas condições de emergência a partir de uma elaboração política que lhe é precedente: o jusnaturalismo. Assim, destacaremos a importância desse retorno filosófico para a compreensão de conceitos como produto líquido ou mesmo (...) para a ênfase dada à agricultura. Essa abordagem nos permitirá melhor avaliarmos de que forma o estudo das riquezas não se emancipa de uma teoria social e política que viceja, no final das contas, no tradicional terreno do direito natural. (shrink)

The purposes of this paper are: (1) to present four theories of the nature of natural laws, (2) to show that only one of them is capable of adequately answering to Tooley’s Cases, and (3) indicate why these cases are relevant for our ontology. These purposes are important since the concept of “natural law” is used in many (if not all) realms of natural science and in many branches of philosophy; if Tooley’s cases are possible, they represent (...) situations that must be adequately described. If there is only one theory that can adequately describe such cases, there are strong reasons to prefer this theory over the other ones. (shrink)

The purposes of this paper are: (1) to present four theories of the nature of natural laws, (2) to show that only one of them is capable of adequately answering to Tooley's Cases, and (3) indicate why these cases are relevant for our ontology. These purposes are important since the concept of "natural law" is used in many (if not all) realms of natural science and in many branches of philosophy; if Tooley's cases are possible, they represent (...) situations that must be adequately described. If there is only one theory that can adequately describe such cases, there are strong reasons to prefer this theory over the other ones. (shrink)

The main intent of this thesis is to defend that the laws of nature are better thought as transcendent universals, such as platonic governism suggests, and that they are metaphysically necessary in a strong way, such as the heterodox version of such platonism defends. With this intention, we sustain that physical symmetries are essential consequences of the laws of nature – what solves the challenge of symmetries – thus being metaphysically necessary, without being governist's necessitation laws. First, we will show (...) what laws of nature are and the reasons to reject other metaphysical theories and to accept platonic governism. Soon after, we will present the challenge of symmetries and the reasons to prefer the platonic governist answer over dispositionalist, regularist, aristotelic (governism), counterfatualist and primitivist ones. At last, we will define what is the metaphysical necessity, argue for the strong metaphysical necessity of laws and their consequences, and show why the reasons for the contingency or weak necessity of laws are bad theoretical paths. (shrink)

Este texto procura apontar na ontologia das leis naturais de George Berkeley elementos teóricos afeitos à Semiótica e ao Pragmatismo clássico de Charles S. Peirce, tendo por base a possível identidade de propósitos entre os idealismos subjetivo berkeleyano e o de teor objetivo peirciano, ambos comungando a refutação de um dualismo mente-matéria de extração cartesiana. Por outro lado, reflete-se, também, sobre o papel da experiência nestes autores, em que a percepção em Berkeley, fundamental para sua epistemologia encontraria sua condição homóloga (...) em Peirce, a saber, a necessária cognoscibilidade de todo objeto fenomênico. (shrink)

Antes de começarmos a falar sobre as leis da natureza, creio que vale a pena explicar algumas coisas sobre o título dessa conferência. Nele, digo que farei uma introdução à metafísica das leis da natureza. Uma introdução, em filosofia, consiste da apresentação de um problema filosófico, indicando as razões pelas quais tal problema é um problema, e das principais posições que tentam resolvê-lo, com suas respectivas dificuldades mais aparentes. Uma introdução não deve dar respostas definitivas sobre qual posição devemos aceitar, (...) nem argumentar decisivamente contra ou a favor de uma posição qualquer frente a outras; mas deve fornecer um quadro geral, para que os filósofos que não conhecem o tema possam começar a sua própria investigação. Dessa forma, o que pretendemos fazer aqui é uma introdução. (shrink)

We intend at this article to show some reasons to think the laws of nature as metaphysically necessary: to distinguish the metaphysical modality from the epistemical modality, and to have an absolute modality to face the relative physical and logical modalities. Lately, we indicate what does it mean to talk about metaphysically necessary laws, distinguishing two kinds of metaphysical modalities, and we account for the question about if the laws of nature are metaphysically necessary. The conclusion we get is that (...) the laws, whichever they are, are metaphysically necessary. (shrink)

The goal of this thesis to defend the philosophical view of the new ante rem substantivism against its supposed alternatives. To achieve such goal, we will present four views about the nature of laws, two kinds of realism and two kinds of anti-realism, and evaluate them critically. The disadvantages from those theories are going to be presented for us to show that they are insufficient to provide a metaphysics that is able to explain the world's counterfactuality, universality, and regularity, and (...) that just one form of realism, the new ante rem substantivism, can. This goal is important because the concept of laws of nature is widely used in many areas of science and philosophy, and because according to the view we accept, the laws may fulfill some theoretical roles, and not others. We intent to show that the new ante rem substantivism's laws are able to fulfill the roles that scientists would hope the natural laws to fulfill. (shrink)

After the question “how could Hobbes write the natural law, if it is nowritten law?” I’ll try to approach the relationship between natural and civil law after the instauration of the commonwealth. In this sense, I’ll pay attention to the hobbesian distinction among “written law” and “written register” of law and a few consequences after this distinction. For example, if, how Hobbes says, the correct interpretation of natural law doesn’t depend on philosophers, but only on the authority (...) of commonwealth, would include itself the legitimation of the formulation of the natural laws? The paradox of the first question seems to be important, however, negligenced from hobbesian critical literature. Its intent is to investigate this negligence into better understanding his philosophical postulate, that includes important points like the “silence of law”, the right of self-defense, foro interno and foro externo, State and government. (shrink)

O artigo relaciona os elementos curriculares propostos por Hobbes no capítulo XXX do Leviatã com as leis naturais descritas nos capítulos XIV e XV. Metodologicamente, o trabalho conduz-se em 4 etapas: 1) listar os conteúdos educacionais explicitados no capítulo XXX; 2) buscar potenciais equivalentes de cada um dos conteúdos listados com aspectos das leis naturais presentes nos capítulos XIV e XV; 3) comparar os argumentos e questões teóricas pertinentes a essas equivalências potenciais; 4) destacar possíveis ampliações interpretativas oriundas da análise (...) comparativa realizada. Dada essa escolha metodológica, justifica-se a ausência de outras referências bibliográficas que não o Leviatã. Dentre os achados, sublinha-se que todos elementos curriculares presentes no capítulo XXX puderam ser articulados com, pelo menos, uma lei natural, merecendo destaque a maior ocorrência de vinculações com a terceira lei de natureza. (shrink)

State of art paper on the topic laws of nature, around the problem of identification what is to be a law of nature. The most prominent theories of contemporary philosophical literature are discussed and analysed, such as: the simple regularity theory, from Hume; the Mill-Ramsey-Lewis best systems theory; the Dretske-Tooley-Armstrong theory of laws as relations among universals; Ellis’s essentialist theory; Cartwright’s theory of laws as ceteris paribus laws; the anti-reductionist theories of Lange, Maudlin and Carroll, the anti-realist theories of Mumford, (...) van Fraassen and Giere; etc. (shrink)

本书内容分5部分:哲学理论基础,哲学自身问题,哲学的发展,马克思主义哲学的总体问题,附录。对马克思主义哲学的基本问题提出了一些新的理解和解释。.

In the 5th century BC, in Athens, Antiphon reflects on the relationship between physis and nómos in a way quite different from most sophists. Indeed, one of the particularities of sophist thought is to minimize physis so that thinking focus itself on nómos, on what man can, through thinking and debate, establish in regard to the common good and justice in the pólis. However, Antiphon takes up this relationship between nature and law to direct it to another path. In an (...) unusual way for a sophist, we see physis being emphasized at the expense of nómos. The comparison between the two concepts also serves as a backdrop for harsh criticisms of justice and laws. The objective of this article is, through the criticisms Antiphon makes to the system of the laws of the pólis, to think about the relationship established by the sophist between physis and nómos in order to find out if there is a new understanding of these concepts and to reflect the reason that led Antiphon to revisit them. (shrink)

My aim in this dissertation is to challenge Chad Hansen's mereological interpretation of ancient Chinese philosophy by providing my own interpretation based on theories of lei. Hansen's mereological interpretation is composed of two radical claims: One is to say that since ancient Chinese philosophy is dominated by nominalism, we do not have to introduce any abstract entities in interpreting ancient Chinese philosophy. The other is to say that Chinese nominalism is mereological. ;Against Hansen's first claim, I argue that since nominalism (...) does not always go along with the non-committment of abstract entities and ancient Chinese philosophy show the committment to abstract entities despite its nominalistic trend, we need to introduce abstract entities in our interpretation of ancient Chinese philosophy. Against Hansen's second claim, I argue that Chinese nominalism is based on theories of lei instead of mereology. Chinese lei-based nominalism is more like traditional forms of Western nominalism in that it is the scheme of individuals/similarities-among-individuals and that it emphasizes the conventional characteristics of determining similarity. Nevertheless, this dissertation prefers the Chinese term "lei" instead of the Western term "similarity" because the former better discloses Chinese contexts without unnecessary Western imposition. ;My lei-based interpretation is suggested with regard to three realms. These realms are linguistic features of Classical Chinese, theories of language in ancient China, and philosophical doctrines in ancient China. ;A close examination on linguistic features of Classical Chinese shows that these features simply disclose the conventional characteristics of Chinese characters, the pragmatics--priority conception of language, and individual/similarity semantical scheme, not the mereological scheme. In my discussion of theories of language in ancient China, I claim that besides Hansen's four Chinese assumptions about language , we also should emphasize the relativity of language, the articulatory nature of language, and the semantic role of lei as typical Chinese assumptions about language. All of these Chinese assumptions show why lei came to play a central role in Chinese theories of language. Lastly, I examine not only Hansen's favorite example which he uses to support his interpretation: Gongsun Long's white horse paradox, but also Mencian theory of human nature and Neo-Mohist theory of disputation, in order to show that lei was a theory of classification extensively discussed among ancient Chinese philosophers. (shrink)