Niche construction refers to the activities of organisms that bring about changes in their environments, many of which are evolutionarily and ecologically consequential. Advocates of niche construction theory (NCT) believe that standard evolutionary theory fails to recognize the full importance of niche construction, and consequently propose a novel view of evolution, in which niche construction and its legacy over time (ecological inheritance) are described as evolutionary processes, equivalent in importance to natural selection. Here, we subject NCT to critical evaluation, in (...) the form of a collaboration between one prominent advocate of NCT, and a team of skeptics. We discuss whether niche construction is an evolutionary process, whether NCT obscures or clarifies how natural selection leads to organismal adaptation, and whether niche construction and natural selection are of equivalent explanatory importance. We also consider whether the literature that promotes NCT overstates the significance of niche construction, whether it is internally coherent, and whether it accurately portrays standard evolutionary theory. Our disagreements reflect a wider dispute within evolutionary theory over whether the neo-Darwinian synthesis is in need of reformulation, as well as different usages of some key terms (e.g., evolutionary process). (shrink)

Measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) has been fundamental to our understanding of how language is encoded in the brain. One particular ERP response, the N400 response, has been especially influential as an index of lexical and semantic processing. However, there remains a lack of consensus on the interpretation of this component. Resolving this issue has important consequences for neural models of language comprehension. Here we show that evidence bearing on where the N400 response is generated provides key insights into what it (...) reflects. A neuroanatomical model of semantic processing is used as a guide to interpret the pattern of activated regions in functional MRI, magnetoencephalography and intracranial recordings that are associated with contextual semantic manipulations that lead to N400 effects. (shrink)

Great advances have been made of late years in the understanding of ancient artillery, but the difference between the παλíντινιν and the εθτινιν seems to remain a riddle still inviting solution. In tentatively accepting the invitation, we are met at the outset by a certain amount of fog due to the fact that ancient guns were classed by two methods which produce a cross division. It will pay us to dispel this fog, or at any rate to find our bearings (...) in it as exactly as may be, before going further. (shrink)

David Lindsay Roberts. Republic of Numbers: Unexpected Stories of Mathematical Americans through History. ix + 244 pp., bibl., index. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019. $29.95 (cloth); ISBN 9781421433080. E-book available. Julian Havil. Curves for the Mathematically Curious: An Anthology of the Unpredictable, Historical, Beautiful, and Romantic. xx + 259 pp., apps., refs., index. Princeton, N.J./Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2019. $29.95 (cloth); ISBN 9780691180052. E-book available. David S. Richeson. Tales of Impossibility: The Two-Thousand-Year Quest to Solve the Mathematical Problems of (...) Antiquity. xii + 436 pp., notes, refs., index. Princeton, N.J./Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2019. $29.95 (cloth); ISBN 9780691192963. E-book availabl. (shrink)

A theory of syllogistic reasoning is proposed, derived from the medieval doctrine of 'distribution of terms'. This doctrine may or may not furnish an adequate ground for the logic of the syllogism but does appear to illuminate the psychological processes involved. Syllogistic thinking is shown to have its origins in the approach and avoidance behaviour of pre-verbal organisms and, in verbal (human) organisms, to bridge the gap between the intuitive grasp shown by most of us of the validity of simple (...) logical arguments and the failure of intuition in more complex arguments that require resort to calculation. Some difficulties are considered affecting the use of syllogisms as experimental material. These include failure on the part of the investigator to take account of the fact that a syllogism is always part of a continuing argument in which the topic of the argument is known to all parties and the possibility that subjects may find ways of appearing to solve syllogisms without actually doing so. (shrink)

This second edition has been revised to provide additional coherence to the themes examined and introduces sections on topical issues, for example the chapter on Utilitarianism now includes a discussion on law and economics.

In this article, it is argued that an appropriate starting point for an analysis of ethical issues in health care is the consideration of the role obligation of health care professionals. These obligations have customary, legal, and moral elements. By appreciating the different kinds of health care roles and their purposes, one can begin to understand some of the role conflicts which arise in the health care community. Moreover, one can see that some criticisms of health care professionals are mistaken. (...) Nonetheless, there are internal conflicts with the roles of persons engaged in health care and historically some role obligations have violated fundamental universal norms. Whereas the latter inadequacy of health care role obligations can be eliminated, the former will, to at least some extent, always be with us. In short, it may be argued that some of the so-called "moral dilemmas" in health care can be resolved by taking the perspective of role morality. As will be shown, this does not suggest that there are no limitations of role morality. CiteULike Connotea Del.icio.us What's this? (shrink)

The essay replies to comments by Finnis, Gardner and Endicott, on my book, Law as a Moral Idea. It is questioned whether Finnis is right to suggest that governance by law is a requirement of justice. It is suggested that Hart's positivism may have rested upon an unduly private conception of morality. Gardner's suggestion that Law as a Moral Idea falsely manufactures disagreement with Hart is rejected, principally by pointing out that Gardner focuses upon only one issue, where the book (...) already acknowledges that Hart might conceivably agree, and ignores other issues where the disagreement with Hart seems indisputable. In response to Endicott, it is acknowledged that 'politics' could be understood as a moral idea comparable to the idea of 'law', but denied that this robs either thesis of interest. The nature of doctrinal reasoning and law's justificatory force is then discussed. (shrink)