Inserido na colecção Temas de História de Portugal, cujo objectivo, balizado pelos seus coordenadores, Isabel Cluny e Nuno Gonçalo Monteiro, é “colocar à disposição dos leitores interessados textos sintéticos, mas actualizados, sobre grandes temas da História de Portugal”, A Cultura das Luzes em Portugal, Temas e Problemas é um ensaio-síntese da autoria de Ana Cristina Araújo e pretende gizar uma análise interpretativa da permeabilidade do espaço cultural português às novas correntes filosófi...

This article has two tasks: to investigate the notions of space, time and causality in Schopenhauer’s theory of knowledge and, subsequently, to carry out a comparative study of the results obtained with the epistemological considerations between the first and second phase of Nietzsche’s thought. It is understood that conclusions concerning the world as representation had an echo in the first digressions of the author of The Birth of Tragedy on the conceptions of space, time and causality. However, the departures begin (...) to be perceived still in the first years of the 1870s. It is chosen to call the reflections on knowledge until On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense, considering, besides the unsystematicity of the Nietzschean approaches, the maturation of the epistemological investigations in Human, All Too Human. It is discussed how the naturalistic aspects of the second phase of Nietzsche’s intellectual activity find implications in his conceptions of space, time and, above all, causality. It is emphasized, however, that it is not the intention of this work to argue that Nietzsche’s epistemology is originally derived from Schopenhauer or that it depends exclusively on the notions studied here. (shrink)

This book symposium comprises a précis of Nuno Venturinha’s Description of Situations: An Essay in Contextualist Epistemology together with four critical commentaries on different aspects of the book by Marcelo Carvalho, João Vergílio Gallerani Cuter, Marcos Silva and Darlei Dall’Agnol, and the author’s replies.

Nosso objetivo é o de realizar uma interpretação para o enigmático “Fragmento teológico-político” (1920/21) à luz das noções de felicidade e de justiça contidas em diferentes escritos, igualmente fragmentários, elaborados por Walter Benjamin no contexto de seu plano de escrever uma obra sobre as relações entre política e vida.Nossa defesa é a de que o referido fragmento somente pode ser plenamente compreendido tendo em vista os estudos do pensador sobre o chamado “problema psicofísico” e, por sua vez, considerando as reflexões (...) do filósofo sobre as relações entre mito, natureza e história. (shrink)

A actual igreja paroquial de Santa Catarina, do antigo convento da congregação de São Paulo da Serra d’Ossa, é sem dúvida uma das mais ricas de Lisboa, e essa opulência, para além do seu recheio decorativo, passa também pela riqueza do seu programa iconográfico. Sendo originalmente igreja conventual de uma congregação eremítica, dedicada ao Santíssimo Sacramento, esta circunstância reflecte-se naturalmente no seu programa decorativo. Assim, é precisamente esta dupla vertente (a eucarística e a eremítica) que marca o seu complexo programa (...) iconográfico, que mantém, ainda hoje, a sua grandeza e plena integridade. (shrink)

Résumé Dans cet article, je discute de la manière dont le réalisme critique en économie peut contribuer à l’élaboration d’une théorie économique et sociale alternative. Les contributions de la tradition de Cambridge en économie, qui a également influencé le réalisme critique en économie, se révèleront précieuses dans ce contexte. Je ferai valoir que, même si une reprise précoce de l’économie politique classique dans la tradition de Cambridge se concentre sur la reproduction des structures économiques, le réalisme critique en l’économie s’est (...) intéressé, quant à lui, à la reproduction des structures sociales. Ce dernier permet ainsi la reprise d’un cadre qui existait au sein de l’économie politique classique, et qui fut porté à son stade le plus avancé par Marx. Ce cadre est axé sur la reproduction économique d’un surplus, et sur sa distribution (institutionnelle) à travers les différentes classes sociales sous une structure sociale. L’ontologie sociale du réalisme critique nous permet de comprendre pourquoi l’étude de la reproduction d’un système (relationnel) est le meilleur point de départ pour le développement de la théorie économique et sociale. (shrink)

Este artigo discute o projeto de desenvolvimento presente na constituição da política federalde educação profissional e tecnológica Brasileira inscrita na lei de criação dos InstitutosFederais de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia. A hipótese central era a de que odesenvolvimento regional se tornou a coluna vertebral daquela política pública, que destacoua importância dos arranjos produtivos, sociais e culturais locais no processo de expansão einteriorização da educação profissional. A partir de pesquisa documental sobre os processoslegislativos, o estudo mapeou a construção do projeto de (...) desenvolvimento durante o processode formulação, de tomada de decisão e de implementação da política pública. Com o uso detécnicas associadas à análise de conteúdo e o cruzamento de dados referentes à população dosmunicípios sede dos novos campi, confirmou a hipótese inicial ao reunir evidências sobre oenfoque comunitário e sustentável alinhado ao desenvolvimento regional endógeno inerenteao projeto que deu origem aos Institutos Federais. Concluiu que, por um lado, aintersetorialidade da política driblou a cultura bacharelesca e o desprestígio que a educaçãoprofissional ocupa no país. Também ampliou a capilaridade para os pequenos municípios,sendo que 58,8% dos 483 novos campi foram instalados em localidades com menos de 100mil habitantes. Por outro lado, a cultura organizacional pré-existente e a carência de espaçosinstitucionais de governança resultaram em baixa interação dos campi com o território,estabelecendo um frágil e descontínuo elo com o desenvolvimento regional. (shrink)

Cette étude met M. Henry en confrontation avec Freud, sur la question de l’inconscient et du refoulement. M. Henry dénonce la tentation idéologique des lectures de la théorie freudienne qui viendraient cacher précisément l’originalité de la pensée de Freud – tentation qui est elle-même liée aux présupposés scientistes de ce dernier –, mais il ne cesse d’affirmer que la psychanalyse « propose une nouvelle conception de la phénoménologie », en ceci qu’elle prône le caractère subjectif et immanent de la vie (...) à l’encontre de l’extériorité du monde. Nuno Miguel Proença situe ainsi d’emblée le lecteur dans ce rapport complexe de M. Henry à Freud. (shrink)

Robert Jervis's System Effects was published just as systems thinking began to decline among political scientists, who were adopting increasingly strict standards of causal identification, privileging experimental and large-N studies. Many politically consequential system effects are not amenable to research designs that meet these standards, yet they must nonetheless be studied if the most important questions of international politics are to be answered. For example, if nuclear weapons are considered in light of their effect on the international system as a (...) whole, it becomes clear that they have obviated the need for a global balance of power by allowing states to counterbalance threats by acquiring nuclear weapons rather than investing in massive conventional balancing efforts. Similarly, systems thinking should inform our understanding of the impact of a “unipolar power” such as the United States, which has enjoyed an overwhelming preponderance of conventional military power since the fall of the Berlin Wall. A unipolar power is likely to become involved in frequent conflicts because it is not restrained by the presence of a peer competitor. (shrink)

In the field of cybernetic systems and more specifically in robotics, one of the fundamental objectives is the detection of anomalies in order to minimize loss of time. Following this idea, this paper proposes the implementation of a Hybrid Intelligent System in four steps to impute the missing values, by combining clustering and regression techniques, followed by balancing and classification tasks. This system applies regression models to each one of the clusters built on the instances of data set. Subsequently, a (...) variety of balancing techniques are applied to improve the classifier’s ability to discern whether it is in an error or a normal state. These techniques support to obtain better classification ratios in which a robot is close to error and allow us to bring the behavior back to a normal state. The experimentation is performed using a modern and public data set, which has been extracted from a component-based robotic system, in which different anomalies are induced by software in their components. (shrink)

As it is well known, mobile phones have become a basic gadget for any individual that usually stores sensitive information. This mainly motivates the increase in the number of attacks aimed at jeopardizing smartphones, being an extreme concern above all on Android OS, which is the most popular platform in the market. Consequently, a strong effort has been devoted for mitigating mentioned incidents in recent years, even though few researchers have addressed the application of visualization techniques for the analysis of (...) malware. Within this field, the present work proposes the extension of a new technique called Hybrid Unsupervised Exploratory Plots to visualize Android malware datasets. More precisely, the novel Beta-Hebbian Learning (BHL) method is applied for the first time and validated under the frame of Hybrid Unsupervised Exploratory Plots, in conjunction with clustering methods. The informative visualization achieved provides a picture of the structure of the malware families, allowing subsequent analysis of their organization. To validate the Hybrid Unsupervised Exploratory Plot extension and its tuning, the popular Android Malware Genome dataset has been used in the experimental setting. Promising results have been obtained, suggesting that BHL applied in combination with clustering techniques in Hybrid Unsupervised Exploratory Plots are a viable resource for the visualization of malware families. (shrink)

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Warming up prior to competition is a widely accepted strategy to increase players’ readiness and achieve high performances. However, pre-match routines are commonly based on empirical knowledge and strongly influenced by models emerging from elite team practices. The aim of the present study was to identify and analyze current pre-match warm-up practices in elite futsal. Forty-three elite players were analyzed during their pre-match warm-up routines during the Portuguese Futsal Cup Final 8. Warm-up tasks were classified according to duration, type of (...) activity, sequence, and structure. External load variables included the total distance covered, total distance covered per minute, running distance per minute, sprinting distance per minute, number of accelerations per minute, and number of decelerations per minute. Results highlighted that warm-up routines lasted for 27.5 ± 9.2 min and included nine major different tasks. Open-skill activities were prioritized by coaches; competitive and non-competitive futsal-specific tasks were included in 90% of the total warm-up routines, with higher focus on non-competitive tasks. The intensity progressively increased during warm-ups, mainly because of the higher number of accelerations and decelerations per minute. Pre-match warm-up routines strongly endorse futsal-specific and representative tasks in order to establish pre-match settings able to prepare players for the upcoming game. When designing pre-match warm-up routines, coaches should be aware that duration, sequence, and type of tasks may affect players’ acute performance and readiness. (shrink)

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_ Source: _Page Count 21 A historical sequence is said to be hyperfactual whenever it contains facts that have been proved to exist twice, that is, they exist under two alternative courses of events: the factual and the counterfactual. In such cases, we may verify whether multiple courses of action lead to the same outcome. Drawing upon an idea from Nelson Goodman, each section of this article highlights a different type of hyperfactual sequence: those resulting from the turbulence of historical (...) turning points; those resulting from long term historical sequences; and those resulting from competing courses of action. The final section conveys how hyperfactuals represent the resistance of the multiple layers of history to the formalism of subjunctive conditionals. (shrink)

A cidade nas práticas artísticas [The city in artistic practices] is the result of the work developed, of the presentations and the debates held within the cycle of seminars “The experience of the city between art and philosophy”, held between 3 March 2020 and 16 June 2021 (calendar dramatically compromised by the challenges of the COVID 19 pandemic), one of the main activities of the OBRA project — Fragmentation and Reconfiguration: experiencing the city between art and philosophy, based at IFILNOVA (...) — Philosophy Institute of NOVA, in Lisbon. The book is divided into five parts, relating to each of the artistic disciplines to which the seminars were dedicated – cinema, photography, sound arts, literature and architecture —, which are edited by the organizers responsible for each of them — respectively, Susana Viegas, Humberto Brito, Nuno Fonseca João Oliveira Duarte and Susana Ventura — and composed of the respective narrated accounts of each seminar and of short essays, some merely textual, others graphical or even photographic, which are either in-depth versions of the reflections and positions that were presented and debated by the participants and guests, or works that motivated and inspired the work of the seminars. The seminar cycle and the book now presented here intend to reflect on the role of artistic practices in the representation and reconfiguration of urban experience, trying to understand their different attempts to apprehend and express the fragmentation of aesthetic experience in modern and contemporary cities, as well as to evaluate their contribution to an eventual symbolic and imaginative reconfiguration of that experience. Each section tries, in its own way, to answer questions such as: How do these arts think and reinvent the city? What do they make us feel? And what is their social and political role? For reasons that are easy to understand, Lisbon was the starting point, but other cities were also part of the journey. (shrink)

O presente trabalho pretende inserir a História da Psicologia dentro de um debate mais alargado, em torno das Histórias da Filosofia e das Ciências. Para isso, o objeto de análise é a célebre frase de Ebbinghaus, 'A Psicologia tem um longo passado, mas uma curta história', e toda a tradição de livros e textbooks decorrente dela, muito popular nos séculos XX e XXI. O trabalho analisará o texto de Ebbinghaus e seus compromissos decorrentes. Então realizará uma crítica a essa tradição, (...) em três frentes: primeiramente, trazendo à tona estudos mais recentes sobre Gustav Fechner, encarado como figura central na constituição da Psicologia como ciência, mas não obstante ignorado por seus compromissos 'especulativos'; em segundo lugar, confrontando tais questões com as perspectivas do século XX, especialmente a história epistemológica das ciências; finalmente, abrindo o 'longo passado' a uma história mais alargada, a partir de analistas mais contemporâneos que começaram a perscrutar o próprio termo 'Psicologia'. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ This paper intends to insert the History of Psychology in a wider debate along with the History of Philosophy and History of Science. In order to do that, the object of analysis is Hermann Ebbinghaus’s famous phrase, ‘Psychology has an old past, but a short history’, and all the tradition of books and textbooks due to it, very popular on the 20th and 21st centuries. The paper is going to analyse Ebbinghaus’s text and its historical commitments and consequences. Then will perform a critics of this tradition, in 3 fronts of arguments: firstly, bringing up some more recent studies on Gustav Fechner, seen as a central character on the making of Psychology as a science, but nevertheless ignored for its ‘speculative’ commitments. Secondly, the paper will confront such questions with the historical perspectives of 20th century, specially the epistemological history of science. Finally, the paper will open the argument of ‘old past’ to a more wide ‘history’, showing contemporary analysts who started to scan the historical meaning of the word ‘Psychology’. (shrink)

This book approaches classic epistemological problems from a contextualist perspective. The author takes as his point of departure the fact that we are situated beings, more specifically that every single moment in our lives is already given within the framework of a specific context in the midst of which we understand ourselves and what surrounds us. In the process of his investigation, the author explores, in a fresh way, the works of key thinkers in epistemology. These include Bernard Bolzano, René (...) Descartes, Gottlob Frege, Edmund Husserl, Immanuel Kant and Ludwig Wittgenstein, but also contemporary authors such as Stewart Cohen, Keith DeRose, David Lewis, Duncan Pritchard, Ernest Sosa and Charles Travis. Some of the topics covered are attributions of knowledge, the correspondence theory of truth, objectivity and subjectivity, possible worlds, primary and secondary evidence, scepticism, transcendentalism and relativism. The book also introduces a new contextualist thought-experiment for dealing with moral questions. Contextualism has received a great deal of attention in contemporary epistemology. It has the potential to resolve a number of issues that traditional epistemological approaches cannot address. In particular, a contextualist view opens the way to an understanding of those cognitive processes that require situational information to be fully grasped. However, contextualism poses serious difficulties in regard to epistemic invariance. This book offers readers an innovative approach to some fundamental questions in this field. (shrink)

The close relationship that thinking bears to doing is perhaps the foundational idea in the plilosophy of education. This idea makes its first systematic appearance in the thought of Charles S. Peirce. In order to appreciate Peirce’s discovery, we cannot interpret hirn through the eyes of Richard Rorty, who obscures Peirce’s insight by making distinctions Peirce would have resisted. thought and action coincide most essentially in Peirce’s concept of the “scientific” method for fixing beliefs. This method is the most reliable (...) guide for justifying thought because it requires humans to act upon the world. Only such action helps reveal a steadily friendlier and more dependable environment. Rorty misses this idea of Peirce’s in so far as he clings to a radically romantic conception of creativity. (shrink)

In this book, leading philosophers in the field explore the rich and variable tangles that characterise Wittgensteins Nachlass, as well as their relations to his conception of philosophy"--Provided by publisher.

This article intends to research the passive/ active process of constitution in a way that shows the essential structures of passivity in consciousness (static phenomenology) and the active constitution through Ego’s acts (genetic phenomenology). However, as Husserl intends, according to Anthony Steinbock, this analysis will conduct to leading clues of constitution of meaning in a generative perspective, mainly in his future works. Although one is conscious of this static/genetic/generative phenomenology, I shall mainly concentrate on whether a true judgment is possible. (...) Henceforth, this work will pose some questions: Despite the fact that in passivity the essential structures of constitution face some modalization, whereby the livedexperience of otherwise springs forth, what kind of guarantee does it give for one’s judgments? And, if the Ego has its own way of givenness, in which it can actively intervene or be enticed somehow, how is it possibly a judicative certainty? These questions will be answered through the process of constitution itself. Therefore, this work will analyze the passive/ active structure of onstitution of meaning in experience, and how such experiences influence the judgment itself. The analysis will concentrate on the writings of Husserl from the 1920s and Husserliana XI, which were gathered in a single work by Anthony Steinbock. (shrink)

RESUMO: O presente texto põe algumas questões referentes à “história” dos fundamentos da Psicologia entre os séculos XIX e XX, mostrando como ocorrem ainda, em História da Psicologia, certos fatores controversos, muitos deles tributários de postulados filosóficos do século XIX, especialmente em torno do positivismo. O artigo concentra-se em mostrar, preliminarmente, de que forma a ruptura da Filosofia Natural e a ascensão da figura do “cientista” no século XIX ensejaram novos motivos de análise, dentre eles certo cientificismo que se impôs (...) inclusive como chave de interpretação histórica. Após uma exposição inicial do problema – chamando a atenção também às consequências institucionais, da formação à profissão –, o artigo faz três breves estudos de caso – em torno de Fechner, Helmholtz e Wundt – e termina por defender perspectivas que abram a História da Psicologia a histórias mais alargadas, tais como a História da Filosofia e as Histórias das Ciências._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ABSTRACT: The present work poses several questions concerning the history of Psychological’s foundations between 19th and 20th centuries, showing how there are still today certain controversial factors derived from 19th century philosophical postulates acting on the ways of describing psychology’s history, notably around positivism. The article concentrates in showing, in a preliminary way, how the rupture of Natural Philosophy of 18th century and the rise of the figure of the scientist in the 19th century gave rise to new analytical patterns, as well as a certain Scientism that tried to impose itself as the keystone to historical interpretation. The work begins with an initial exposition of the problem – calling into attention the institutional consequences as well, from the psychological common sense to professional issues -, and then analyzes three case studies - Gustav Fechner, Hermann von Helmholtz and Wilhelm Wundt – ending with the defense of perspectives that open the History of Psychology into another historical procedures, such as History of Philosophy and History of Sciences. (shrink)

The connections between Adam Smith and Catholic Social Teaching raise several questions. The principle of subsidiarity adopted in CST, according to which higher associations should not replace subordinate organizations on what the latter can do, seems to be in line with the idea that governmental intervention in the market sphere should be restricted to the minimum required, in line with what is typically seen as Smith’s view. But the principle of the common good would also recommend intervention from political authorities (...) in order to ensure that the common good is achieved. Here I shall argue that this question must be addressed taking into account another principle of CST, the principle of solidarity, and also the basic principle of CST, regarding human dignity. To do so, it is necessary to understand how the various principles of CST spring from the notion of imago Dei in CST, which is behind the notion of human dignity. This leads to a relational conception of human beings which can be fruitfully articulated with Smith’s moral philosophy and political economy. (shrink)

This text examines the distinction and relation between legal philosophy and legal theory in the book Law and Democracy by Jürgen Habermas. To that end, I seek at first to reflect on the concepts of law sociology and philosophy of justice from the dialogue that opposes Habermas to Dworkin and Rawls, on the philosophical basis of equality and distribution. Subsequently, we analyse the arguments about the social integrative function of law that Habermas develops from the works of Parsons and Weber, (...) in order to see what Habermas meant by integrative function of law as well as the contribution of that category for a reconstructive theory of the society. The conclusion points to the link between his philosophy of right to a sociological theory, when, through the concept of communicative reason, he eschews metaphysical discussions of the absolute and seeks to develop a concept of society capable of resisting the dimensions of the life world and system. (shrink)

In this paper we deal with a not so slight misunderstanding about Heidegger’s conception of science(s). We try to show that instead of a so-called «anti-scientism» we find rather a critical thought on the part of Heidegger. Critical in two senses: one that implies a questioning and an explicitation of the pre-scientific, non-scientific foundations (or conditions) of science and the analysis of the relation between sciences as «regional ontologies» and philosophy as «fundamental ontology»; another that suggests the «need of another (...) thinking», an alternative (certainly discussible) to the predominant calculative thinking of «the era of science». (shrink)

O presente texto tem por objetivo contribuir com a discussão sobre a avaliação de políticas publicas educacionais no Brasil. Toma como referencia o Programa Universidade para Todos – PROUNI enquanto uma política pública de assistência aos estudantes oriundos de famílias de baixa renda. Expõe o processo de criação e implantação do programa, bem como, seus objetivos e propósitos. Conceitua políticas publicas segundo autores como Saravia , Simon , Lindblon e Easton . Apresenta sucintamente, com base em autores como Carol Weiss, (...) Guba e Lincoln , a constituição da área de estudos chamada avaliação de políticas públicas e seu desenvolvimento no contexto das reformas dos Estados Nacionais na América Latina a partir da Década de 1980. Apresenta modelos de avaliação de políticas públicas e, utilizando o modelo baseado em objetivos, faz a análise dos números alcançados pelo PROUNI e publicados pelo Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira – INEP. Com base no modelo de subvenção implantado no Chile discute semelhanças e diferenças com o PROUNI e deixa evidente a necessidade de uma avaliação de âmbito nacional sobre os resultados atingidos. (shrink)

O presente capítulo compõe a obra organizada por Giovana Temple, "Subjetividade no Pensamento do Século XX - uma introdução". Como tal, o capítulo sobre Foucault se reúne com outros de demais autores importantes sobre a questão da "subjetividade" no século XX. No capítulo em questão, aborda-se a questão do "sujeito", sob panorama geral, desde os escritos dos anos 50 até o fim da obra. A respeito dos textos dos anos 50, busca-se uma breve dedução de como os textos de 1954 (...) e 1957, bem como o resultado dos cursos de Foucault em Lille e na ENS, conduzem aos problemas explicitamente enunciados em História da Loucura e na Tese Complementar. Então o panorama sobre o "sujeito" explora as linhas gerais da "arqueologia" de Foucault, passando depois aos temas caros à "genealogia do poder" e, finalmente, às problemáticas do "cuidado" e das "técnicas" de si, características dos anos 80. Em suma: busca-se uma dedução da questão do "sujeito" desde os compromissos dos anos 50, explorando também suas rupturas e continuidades entre os textos dos anos 1960-1980. (shrink)

This article seeks to analyze how the phenomenon of dance presents itself in philosophy, especially from the reflections of the German philosopher F. Nietzsche. To enhance our hypotheses, we will resort to the literary work The Steppenwolf by the German writer Hermann Hesse. We know that dance as a metaphor for thought is presented both throughout Nietzsche's work and in the aforementioned book by Hermann Hesse. Therefore, our analysis seeks to demonstrate how dance involves a situation of surrender and acceptance (...) of Life. It is about dance as a thought of overcoming oneself. This overcoming takes place in the instant. The instant when we understand Life as a movement towards its infinite possibilities. Based on the philosophical investigation, in this work, we will start by presenting the concept of dance in Nietzsche's philosophy, then we will exemplify this concept in the work of Hesse and, finally, we will demonstrate the relationship between dance, thought and affirmation of life. (shrink)

Background: Psychedelics are known for their powerful mental effects due to the activation of 5HT-2A receptors in the brain. During the 1950s and 1960s, research was conducted on these molecules until their criminalization. However, their clinical investigation as therapeutic tools for psychiatric disorders has revived the deontological ethics surrounding this subject. Questions arise as research on their therapeutic outcome becomes a reality. We aim to explore deontological ethics to understand the implications of psychedelics for the clinician, patient, and society. Results: (...) A total of 42 articles were considered for this review. Methods: A methodological search of psychedelic studies from 2017 to 2022 was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, EBSCOhost, and ScienceDirect to address the deontological ethics of clinical psychedelic use. Conclusion: Psychedelics need to be culturally contextualized, epistemic harm minimized and represented to ensure informed consent. Open data and commissions are needed to ensure safe and equal distribution. (shrink)

In this article I draw upon the social ontologies developed by John Searle, Roy Bhaskar, Margaret Archer and Tony Lawson in order to distinguish between power and leadership. To do so, I distinguish the different organizing principles behind natural phenomena, collective phenomena and institutional phenomena, and argue that an understanding of those different organizing principles is essential to a clearer conceptualization of power and leadership. Natural power and cultural power, as I argue, depend upon the organizing principles of natural phenomena, (...) and differ depending on whether those organizing principles have been transformed by humans, in which case it becomes cultural power, or not, in which case it simply is natural power. Leadership emerges with the ability of making other humans share mental states through collective intentionality. Institutional power, in contrast, is connected to the creation of a deontology of rights and obligations that provide what Searle calls desire-independent reasons for action. (shrink)

Criticisms of the “container” model of pregnancy picturing female and embryo as separate entities multiply in various philosophical and scientific contexts during the last decades. In this paper, we examine how this model underlies received views of pregnancy in evolutionary biology, in the characterization of the transition from oviparity to viviparity in mammals and in the selectionist explanations of pregnancy as an evolutionary strategy. In contrast, recent evo-devo studies on eutherian reproduction, including the role of inflammation and new maternal cell (...) types, gather evidence in favor of considering pregnancy as an evolved relational novelty. Our thesis is that from this perspective we can identify the emergence of a newhistoricalindividual in evolution. In evo-devo, historical units are conceptualized as evolved entities which fulfill two main criteria, their continuous persistence and their non-exchangeability. As pregnancy can be individuated in this way, we contend that pregnant females are historical individuals. We argue that historical individuality differs from, and coexists with, other views of biological individuality as applied to pregnancy (the physiological, the evolutionary and the ecological one), but brings forward an important new insight which might help dissolve misguided conceptions. (shrink)