The Counterfactual Comparative Account of Harm says that an event is overall harmful for someone if and only if it makes her worse off than she otherwise would have been. I defend this account from two common objections.

According to “debunking arguments,” our moral beliefs are explained by evolutionary and cultural processes that do not track objective, mind-independent moral truth. Therefore (the debunkers say) we ought to be skeptics about moral realism. Huemer counters that “moral progress”—the cross-cultural convergence on liberalism—cannot be explained by debunking arguments. According to him, the best explanation for this phenomenon is that people have come to recognize the objective correctness of liberalism. Although Huemer may be the first philosopher to make this explicit empirical (...) argument for moral realism, the idea that societies will eventually converge on the same moral beliefs is a notable theme in realist thinking. Antirealists, on the other hand, often point to seemingly intractable cross-cultural moral disagreement as evidence against realism (the “argument from disagreement”). This paper argues that the trend toward liberalism is susceptible to a debunking explanation, being driven by two related non-truth-tracking processes. First, large numbers of people gravitate to liberal values for reasons of self-interest. Second, as societies become more prosperous and advanced, they become more effective at suppressing violence, and they create conditions where people are more likely to empathize with others, which encourages liberalism. The latter process is not truth tracking (or so this paper argues) because empathy-based moral beliefs are themselves susceptible to an evolutionary debunking argument. Cross-cultural convergence on liberalism per se does not support either realism or antirealism. (shrink)

In a very short time, it is likely that we will identify many of the genetic variants underlying individual differences in intelligence. We should be prepared for the possibility that these variants are not distributed identically among all geographic populations, and that this explains some of the phenotypic differences in measured intelligence among groups. However, some philosophers and scientists believe that we should refrain from conducting research that might demonstrate the (partly) genetic origin of group differences in IQ. Many scholars (...) view academic interest in this topic as inherently morally suspect or even racist. The majority of philosophers and social scientists take it for granted that all population differences in intelligence are due to environmental factors. The present paper argues that the widespread practice of ignoring or rejecting research on intelligence differences can have unintended negative consequences. Social policies predicated on environmentalist theories of group differences may fail to achieve their aims. Large swaths of academic work in both the humanities and social sciences assume the truth of environmentalism and are vulnerable to being undermined. We have failed to work through the moral implications of group differences to prepare for the possibility that they will be shown to exist. (shrink)

Some prominent scientists and philosophers have stated openly that moral and political considerations should influence whether we accept or promulgate scientific theories. This widespread view has significantly influenced the development, and public perception, of intelligence research. Theories related to group differences in intelligence are often rejected a priori on explicitly moral grounds. Thus the idea, frequently expressed by commentators on science, that science is “self-correcting”—that hypotheses are simply abandoned when they are undermined by empirical evidence—may not be correct in all (...) contexts. In this paper, documentation spanning from the early 1970s to the present is collected, which reveals the influence of scientists’ moral and political commitments on the study of intelligence. It is suggested that misrepresenting findings in science to achieve desirable social goals will ultimately harm both science and society. (shrink)

MacDonald argues that a suite of genetic and cultural adaptations among Jews constitutes a “group evolutionary strategy.” Their supposed genetic adaptations include, most notably, high intelligence, conscientiousness, and ethnocentrism. According to this thesis, several major intellectual and political movements, such as Boasian anthropology, Freudian psychoanalysis, and multiculturalism, were consciously or unconsciously designed by Jews to promote collectivism and group continuity among themselves in Israel and the diaspora and undermine the cohesion of gentile populations, thus increasing the competitive advantage of Jews (...) and weakening organized gentile resistance. By developing and promoting these movements, Jews supposedly played a necessary role in the ascendancy of liberalism and multiculturalism in the West. While not achieving widespread acceptance among evolutionary scientists, this theory has been enormously influential in the burgeoning political movement known as the “alt-right.” Examination of MacDonald’s argument suggests that he relies on systematically misrepresented sources and cherry-picked facts. It is argued here that the evidence favors what is termed the “default hypothesis”: Because of their above-average intelligence and concentration in influential urban areas, Jews in recent history have been overrepresented in all major intellectual and political movements, including conservative movements, that were not overtly anti-Semitic. (shrink)

Many philosophers think that an agent punishes a subject only if the agent aims to harm the subject. Bill Wringe has recently argued against this claim. I show that his arguments fail.

This paper compares and contrasts the philosophical positions of Hobbes and Rousseau from the standpoint of interpersonal communication theory. Although both men argued from the state of nature, they differed fundamentally on the nature of humankind and the purpose of relationships. These differences should be of concern for interpersonal scholars insofar as they reflect differing sets of axioms from which to begin theorizing. The second part of the paper establishes a link between Hobbes' philosophy and the social exchange tradition: The (...) Hobbes-social exchange tradition begins with the assumption that individuals form relationships to maximize rewards and minimize costs; a Rousseauist position must begin with the assumption that individuals form relationships in pursuit of some common goal. Thus, relational continuity and quality are not a function of cost-benefit ratios, but of how well partners work together toward their common good. (shrink)

When the environment in which an organism lives deviates in some essential way from that to which it is adapted, this is described as “evolutionary mismatch,” or “evolutionary novelty.” The notion of mismatch plays an important role, explicitly or implicitly, in evolution-informed cognitive psychology, clinical psychology, and medicine. The evolutionary novelty of our contemporary environment is thought to have significant implications for our health and well-being. However, scientists have generally been working without a clear definition of mismatch. This paper defines (...) mismatch as deviations in the environment that render biological traits unable, or impaired in their ability, to produce their selected effects. The machinery developed by Millikan in connection with her account of proper function, and with her related teleosemantic account of representation, is used to identify four major types, and several subtypes, of evolutionary mismatch. While the taxonomy offered here does not in itself resolve any scientific debates, the hope is that it can be used to better formulate empirical hypotheses concerning the effects of mismatch. To illustrate, it is used to show that the controversial hypothesis that general intelligence evolved as an adaptation to handle evolutionary novelty can, contra some critics, be formulated in a conceptually coherent way. (shrink)

This paper is on Descartes’ account of modality and, in particular, his account of the necessity of the laws of nature. He famously argues that the necessity of the “eternal truths” of logic and mathematics depends on God’s will. Here I suggest he has the same view about the necessity of the laws of nature. Further, I argue, this is a plausible theory of laws. For philosophers often talk about something being nomologically or physically necessary because of the laws of (...) nature, but this necessity is thought to be metaphysically contingent. However, they struggle to explain how the laws could be genuinely necessary while being metaphysically contingent. The chief advantage of Descartes view, I argue, is that God’s will can plausibly explain both the necessity of the laws and the contingency of the laws. So, Descartes’ theistic account of laws provides a plausible explanation, perhaps the best explanation, of the contingent-necessity of laws of nature. (shrink)

Many philosophers think that, when someone deserves something, it’s intrinsically good that she get it or there’s a non-instrumental reason to give it to her. Retributivists who try to justify punishment by appealing to claims about what people deserve typically assume this view or views that entail it. In this paper, I present evidence that many people have intuitions that are inconsistent with this view. And I argue that this poses a serious challenge to retributivist arguments that appeal to desert.

In 1965, Konrad Lorenz grounded the innate–acquired distinction in what he believed were the only two possible sources of information that can underlie adaptedness: phylogenetic and individual experience. Phylogenetic experience accumulates in the genome by the process of natural selection. Individual experience is acquired ontogenetically through interacting with the environment during the organism’s lifetime. According to Lorenz, the adaptive information underlying innate traits is stored in the genome. Lorenz erred in arguing that genetic adaptation is the only means of accumulating (...) information in phylogenetic experience. Cultural adaptation also occurs over a phylogenetic time scale, and cultural tradition is a third source from which adaptive information can be extracted. This paper argues that genetic adaptation can be distinguished from individual and cultural adaptation in a species like Homo sapiens, in which even adaptations with a genetic component require cultural inputs and scaffolding to develop and be expressed. Examination of the way in which innateness is used in science suggests that scientists use the term, as Lorenz suggested, to designate genetic adaptations. The search for innate traits plays an essential role in generating hypotheses in ethology and psychology. In addition, designating a trait as innate establishes important facts that apply at the information-processing level of description. (shrink)

Peter van Inwagen proposes a criterion of philosophical success. He takes it to support an extremely pessimistic view about philosophy. He thinks that all philosophical arguments for substantive conclusions fail, including the argument from evil. I’m more optimistic on both counts. I’ll identify problems with van Inwagen’s criterion and propose an alternative. I’ll then explore the differing implications of our criteria. On my view, philosophical arguments can succeed and the argument from evil isn’t obviously a failure.

This paper continues a debate about the following claim: an agent punishes someone only if she aims to harm him. In a series of papers, Bill Wringe argues that this claim is false, I criticize his arguments, and he replies. Here, I argue that his reply fails.

The scope and severity of the opioid epidemic in the United States has prompted significant legislative intrusion into the patient-physician relationship. These proscriptive regulatory regimes mirror earlier legislation in other politically-charged domains like abortion and gun regulation. We draw on lessons from those contexts to argue that states should consider integrating their responses to the epidemic with existing medical regulatory structures, making physicians partners rather than adversaries in addressing this public health crisis.

This case study examines the circumstance of a patient who has clearly articulated non-treatment preferences and who then later becomes incapacitated. The patient's wife as well as a consulting physician both expressed a preference for full treatment at the time of this incapacity. The analysis of this circumstance is pertinent given misinformed beliefs by health care providers that once a patient is incapacitated, the family is free to override prior values and preferences. The analysis discusses the autonomy, beneficence, and virtue-based (...) considerations as to why a formerly capacitated patient who has not recanted his non-treatment preferences should be obeyed. (shrink)

According to cultural evolutionary theory in the tradition of Boyd and Richerson, cultural evolution is driven by individuals' learning biases, natural selection, and random forces. Learning biases lead people to preferentially acquire cultural variants with certain contents or in certain contexts. Natural selection favors individuals or groups with fitness-promoting variants. Durham (1991) argued that Boyd and Richerson's approach is based on a "radical individualism" that fails to recognize that cultural variants are often "imposed" on people regardless of their individual decisions. (...) Fracchia and Lewontin (2005) raised a similar challenge, suggesting that the success of a variant is often determined by the degree of power backing it. With power, a ruler can impose beliefs or practices on a whole population by diktat, rendering all of the forces represented in cultural evolutionary models irrelevant. It is argued here, based on work by Boehm (1999, 2012), that, from at least the time of the early Middle Paleolithic, human bands were controlled by powerful coalitions of the majority that deliberately guided the development of moral norms to promote the common good. Cultural evolutionary models of the evolution of morality have been based on false premises. However, Durham (1991) and Fracchia and Lewontin's (2005) challenge does not undermine cultural evolutionary modeling in nonmoral domains. (shrink)

Parto de uma conceitualização geral de como o problema do mal fora abordado ao longo da tradição filosófica e religiosa, enquanto problema ontológico e relativo, no mais das vezes, a uma teodiceia que busca explicar a existência do mal no mundo. Em seguida, abordo uma nova forma de se pensar o problema do mal através do pensamento idealista de Immanuel Kant, que movimentou a problemática em uma direção outra àquela anterior, ou seja, afirmando que o mal não era um problema (...) localizado na realidade, mas no sujeito enquanto ser dotado de moralidade, residindo na dimensão mais radical da natureza humana. Em Arendt, o mal deixa o plano do sujeito singular e passa a ser compreendido enquanto um fenômeno político. Para a autora, o mal não deve ser um fenômeno político, todavia com a ascensão dos movimentos totalitários e outros fenômenos de ruptura com o fio da tradição, esse problema passa a ocupar a dimensão da vida pública. Desta forma, o objetivo da autora é tentar compreender as condições para se pensar o mal enquanto fenômeno político, assim como aquilo que lhe fundamenta e garante legitimidade. O fio condutor deste artigo são as obras Origens do Totalitarismo (ARENDT, 2018) e o conjunto de ensaios publicados no período de 1930-54 (ARENDT, 2008). O produto da presente análise refere-se à experiência humana da solidão enquanto fundamento do mal na esfera política. (shrink)

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ influential position statement on vegetarianism, meat and seafood can be replaced with milk, soy/legumes, and eggs without any negative effects in children. The United States Department of Agriculture endorses a similar view. The present paper argues that the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics ignores or gives short shrift to direct and indirect evidence that vegetarianism may be associated with serious risks for brain and body development in fetuses and children. Regular supplementation with (...) iron, zinc, and B12 will not mitigate all of these risks. Consequently, we cannot say decisively that vegetarianism or veganism is safe for children. (shrink)

This volume offers two complementary works, unabridged, in modernized, annotated texts--the only available edition priced for classroom use. Grant and Tarcov provide a concise introduction, a note on the texts, and a select bibliography.

Em 1912, um conjunto de fragmentos de crânio, mandíbula e dentes foi apresentado na Inglaterra como pertencente a um ancestral do Homo sapiens. A nova espécie, batizada de Eoanthropus dawsoni – o “Homem de Piltdown” –, foi tratada como uma das descobertas mais extraordinárias da antropologia até então: finalmente, um hominídeo havia sido encontrado em solo inglês, e seu status era ainda maior por ser uma espécie da qual a nossa teria supostamente se originado. Quatro décadas depois, no entanto, a (...) fraude foi exposta: os vestígios do Homem de Piltdown haviam sido montados a partir de um crânio humano com mandíbula e dentes de orangotangos. As razões para a aceitação imediata da espécie entre os ingleses foram, provavelmente, as expectativas e os desejos de cientistas em ter o seu país como o berço da humanidade, e também o fato de que o espécime de Piltdown corroborava ideias aceitas na época a respeito da evolução humana. Apesar disso, como, então, sabemos hoje que o Homem de Piltdown é uma fraude? Argumentamos que a resposta a essa questão está no conceito de ceticismo organizado. O ceticismo organizado é um dos componentes do ethos científico propostos pelo sociólogo Robert Merton, um elemento institucional que envolve procedimentos de avaliação e revisão da prática e das ideias científicas feitas a partir de uma comunidade de investigação. No presente artigo, examinamos como o trabalho de uma comunidade de investigação foi fundamental para o desnudamento da farsa do Homem de Piltdown e, em um segundo momento, discutimos o que o ceticismo organizado pode nos ensinar a respeito da natureza da ciência e de nossos próprios processos de raciocínio cotidianos. Palavras-chave: Ceticismo organizado. Natureza da Ciência. Fraude científica. (shrink)

In their article, Crutchfield and Redinger (2024) outline the conditions that they have identified as situations in which it is ethically permissible to use chemical restraints, defined as medicati...

Cross-cultural comparisons face several methodological challenges. In an attempt at resolving some such challenges, Nathan Sivin has developed the framework of “cultural manifolds.” This framework includes all the pertinent dimensions of a complex phenomenon and the interactions that make all of these aspects into a single whole. In engaging with this framework, Anna Akasoy illustrates that the phenomena used in comparative approaches to cultural and intellectual history need to be subjected to a continuous change of perspectives. Writing about comparative (...) history, Warwick Anderson directs attention to an articulation between synchronic and diachronic modes of inquiry. In addition, he asks: If comparative studies require a number of collaborators, how does one coordinate the various contributors? And how does one ensure that the comparison is between separate entities, without mutual historical entanglement? Finally, how does comparative history stack up against more dynamic approaches, such as connected, transnational, and postcolonial histories? Gérard Colas, for his part, claims that comparisons cannot allow one to move away from the dominant Euroamerican conceptual framework. Should this indeed be the case, we should search for better ways of facilitating a “mutual pollination” between philosophies. Finally, Edmond Eh first asserts that Sivin fails to recognize the difference between comparisons within cultures and comparisons between cultures. He then argues that the application of generalism is limited to comparisons of historical nature. (shrink)

This paper is broadly concerned with Deleuze’s distinction between ‚la loi et les lois’ on the one hand, and jurisprudence on the other. Jurisprudence is the␣creative action of legal practice, the process by which it is forced to think constructively and anew. In such circumstances legal thought is akin to Deleuze’s concept of the event. I explore the distinction between law and jurisprudence by way of Deleuze’s comments on control societies, arguing that, under control, law ceases to be a juridical (...) hierarchy conforming to disciplinary modes to become a regulatory practice of interminable modulation. In order to begin to explore the relations and connections between law/jurisprudence and control, the paper will look to the semiotics of C.S. Peirce (who influenced Deleuze’s work on cinema). In particular it will argue that control operates predominantly through icons. As a consequence I argue that the proper ground of the sign, the event, is co-opted and, following from this, that control functions through the confusing of sense and meaning. (shrink)

According to the Standard Model account of religion, religious concepts tend to conform to “minimally counterintuitive” schemas. Laypeople may, to varying degrees, verbally endorse the abstract doctrines taught by professional theologians. But, outside the Sunday school exam room, the implicit representations that tend to guide people’s everyday thinking, feeling, and behavior are about minimally counterintuitive entities. According to the Standard Model, these implicit representations are the essential thing to be explained by the cognitive science of religion. It is argued here (...) that this theoretical orientation of mainstream CSR misses a whole dimension of religiosity—the acceptance of certain religious authorities, that is, the acceptance of other people’s superior expertise. Average believers tend to accept the authority of religious experts who espouse highly counterintuitive ideas that they understand in a distorted form, if at all.... (shrink)

Both early analytic philosophy and the branch of mathematics now known as topology were gestated and born in the early part of the 20th century. It is not well recognized that there was early interaction between the communities practicing and developing these fields. We trace the history of how topological ideas entered into analytic philosophy through two migrations, an earlier one conceiving of topology geometrically and a later one conceiving of topology algebraically. This allows us to reassess the influence and (...) significance of topological methods for philosophy, including the possible fruitfulness of a third conception of topology as a structure determining similarity. (shrink)

O cerne desse artigo remete à instauração de um dispositivo de acolhimento e escuta de orientação psicanalítica numa instituição educacional pública de nível superior. Sustentamos a práxis em uma experiência político-clínica de acolhimento na Universidade, salientando sua função terapêutica como forma de resistência coletiva a um modus operandi absolutamente individualista. Cada investida neoliberal em nossa sociedade é capaz de produzir engendramentos subjetivos da pulsão de morte, resultando em sofrimento e adoecimento na medida em que o sujeito é abandonado à própria (...) sorte, desamparado, num tecido social que se esgarça. Para fazer face a tamanho desalento, recorremos a um projeto de extensão, delineado enquanto um dispositivo de escuta psicanalítica gratuita, no seio da Universidade Pública, oferecido à comunidade acadêmica, a educadores e, principalmente, a jovens estudantes em estado de intenso sofrimento psíquico. (shrink)

This book focuses on the increasingly popular phenomenon of veganism, a way of living that attempts to exclude all animal products on ethical grounds. Using data from biographical interviews with vegans, the author untangles the complex topic of veganism to understand vegan identity from a critical and biographical perspective. Shaped by the participants' biographical narratives, the study considers the diverse topics of family, faith, sexuality, gender, music, culture, embodiment and activism and how these influence the lives and identities of vegans. (...) It also highlights the hostility vegans face, and how this hostility functions in the everyday, and intersects with other aspects of their identity and biography, exemplified through 'coming out' and 'queer' narratives of veganism. Understanding Veganism will be of particular interest to those engaged in the fields of biographical research, critical animal studies or more broadly with an interest in animal advocacy. (shrink)

This chapter is concerned with two distinct but related questions: (a) does Deleuzian philosophy offer an account of moral norms (i.e., a theory of normativity)? (b) does Deleuzian philosophy offer an account of moral values (i.e., a theory of the good)? These are important questions for at least two reasons. First, the moral- and value-theoretical aspects of Deleuzian philosophy have tended to be ignored, dismissed, overlooked, or otherwise overshadowed in the literature by the ontological, historical, and political aspects. Second, Deleuze (...) – along with other alleged “postmodernists” such as Foucault and Derrida – has occasionally been accused of moral relativism, skepticism, and even nihilism. The aim of what follows is to demonstrate the value and importance of Deleuze's (and Guattari's) contributions to ethics and to defend Deleuzian philosophy from the charges just mentioned. (shrink)

A escola: problema filosófico é uma coletânea oriunda do III Congresso da Sociedade Brasileira de Filosofia da Educação, realizado em 2018 na Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas. Organizado por Samuel Mendonça e Silvio Gallo, o livro foi publicado em 2020 pela Parábola Editorial (São Paulo). Junto à obra A escola: uma questão pública – publicada no mesmo ano e pela mesma Editora –, forma um díptico que interroga, com o instrumental teórico próprio da Filosofia da Educação, a instituição escolar.

Interessamo-nos, neste trabalho, em refletir acerca de uma aproximação entre estética e ecologia por meio do conceito de unidade, tal como anteriormente indicada por Freitas (2005). Diante de um contexto contemporâneo de crise ambiental, propomos lançar um olhar para o campo da arquitetura e do urbanismo, em que observamos uma crescente busca por modelos estéticos e epistemológicos que se caracterizem como ecológicos. Tomamos como referencial teórico a filosofia pragmatista de Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), considerando, em especial, a afinidade apontada por (...) Nöth (1996; 1998; 2001) entre esse pensamento e a ecologia. Partindo daí, organizamos o trabalho em dois momentos distintos: um primeiro, conceitual; e um segundo, voltado para a relação entre conceito e prática. Iniciamos por identificar e selecionar, em escritos de Peirce e de seus estudiosos, alguns entre os usos do termo unidade, buscando compreender o modo como está relacionado a conceitos próprios de sua filosofia, percorrendo a fenomenologia, as ciências normativas e a metafísica, com passagem pelo pragmatismo, pressupondo evidenciar uma compreensão de unidade que fundamenta aquela aproximação inicial. Com base nisso, refletimos, em seguida, acerca dessa concepção com relação à arquitetura e ao urbanismo, a partir do trabalho de Toyo Ito, que se interessou pela transição de uma estética da máquina para uma estética de fluxos e cujo diálogo profissional entre a teoria e a prática nos conduz a considerações mais amplas acerca do conhecimento em arquitetura, com consequências para a formação de novas condutas nesse campo. (shrink)

A intenção deste ensaio é promover uma reflexão, sob o olhar das principais contribuições de ByungChul Han no empreendimento dialógico da Filosofia com o método desenvolvido pelos filósofos na modernidade, denominado de pornográfico. Para efetivarmos este objetivo o texto reflete sobre a liberdade de escolha e o processo de desenvolvimento na modernidade, buscando responder as seguintes indagações: Ao entregar aos indivíduos a responsabilidade por suas escolhas, seja ela racional ou social, não estaríamos produzindo uma nova forma de coerção, mas eficiente (...) e duradoura, uma estratégia psicopolítica do liberalismo contemporâneo? Não estaríamos sendo introduzidos em uma servidão absoluta e voluntária? Se na dialética do senhor e do escravo, ser senhor significava apenas gozar e nunca desempenhar, agora surge uma nova era, onde o gozo somente é possível no ato de exercício deste desempenho e para isto precisamos estar sempre capacitados, incluído. Afinal, explorar o outro sem sua própria vontade não é tão eficiente quanto explorá-lo por sua própria escolha. A liberdade de escolha não seria uma astúcia da razão liberal? (shrink)

Thaler and Sunstein advocate 'libertarian paternalism'. A libertarian paternalist changes the conditions under which people act so that their cognitive biases lead them to choose what is best for themselves. Although libertarian paternalism manipulates people, Thaler and Sunstein say that it respects their autonomy by preserving the possibility of choice. Conly argues that libertarian paternalism does not go far enough, since there is no compelling reason why we should allow people the opportunity to choose to bring disaster upon themselves if (...) sometimes they will make the wrong decision. She defends 'coercive paternalism'. The present paper argues that errors in reasoning are not due only to cognitive biases. People also make errors because they have an insufficient level of general intelligence. Intelligence is distributed on a continuum. Those who fall on higher levels of the continuum have greater abilities, in certain contexts, to reason about both their own and others' interests. Coercive paternalism may sometimes be appropriate to prevent less intelligent people from engaging in self-destructive behavior due to errors of reasoning. (shrink)

O presente trabalho busca analisar a hermenêutica no Caso do Ex-Deputado Daniel da Silveira, do inquérito n° 4.781 até a sentença da Ação Penal n° 1.044, porém que a Ação Penal n° 937 também foi convocada para o cotejo, abordando decisões e fundamentos durante o trâmite, bem como jurisprudências pretéritas comparadas com as concebidas no caso do parlamentar aqui abordado. A problemática em questão, ademais, é se a referida hermenêutica está de acordo com os métodos próprios desta ciência e quais (...) métodos foram utilizados, bem como as escolásticas e fontes do direito que se podem atribuir, pois que o evento foi duramente criticado, devendo ser analisada tal questão sob óculos técnicos quanto a interpretação da Corte Maior e pelo que pese uma reflexão substancial sobre o porte do Supremo Tribunal Federal no caso acima trazido, em pronta hipótese têm-se que a hermenêutica utilizada foi demasiadamente extensiva e tendendo mais ao método Cientifico-Espiritual em certos momentos, porém em outros mais afeito a Tópica-Problemática, foi utilizada, nesta pesquisa, método bibliográfico e qualitativo. (shrink)

This book is the first to explore the varied ways in which invented languages can be used to teach languages and linguistics in university courses. Renowned scholars and junior researchers show how using invented languages can appeal to a wider range of students, and can help those students to develop the fundamental skills of linguistic analysis.

In causal inference, a variety of causal effect estimands have been studied, including the sample, uncensored, target, conditional, optimal subpopulation, and optimal weighted average treatment effects. Ad hoc methods have been developed for each estimand based on inverse probability weighting and on outcome regression modeling, but these may be sensitive to model misspecification, practical violations of positivity, or both. The contribution of this article is twofold. First, we formulate the generalized average treatment effect to unify these causal estimands as well (...) as their IPW estimates. Second, we develop a method based on Kernel optimal matching to optimally estimate GATE and to find the GATE most easily estimable by KOM, which we term the Kernel optimal weighted average treatment effect. KOM provides uniform control on the conditional mean squared error of a weighted estimator over a class of models while simultaneously controlling for precision. We study its theoretical properties and evaluate its comparative performance in a simulation study. We illustrate the use of KOM for GATE estimation in two case studies: comparing spine surgical interventions and studying the effect of peer support on people living with HIV. (shrink)

O artigo explora as fontes históricas da lenda O riso de Demócrito e o pranto de Heráclito, com destaque para a antiguidade greco-romana e para a modernidade renascentista. É realizado um estudo genealógico da referida lenda, seguido da análise de três obras: as Cartas do Pseudo-Hipócrates (c. século I d.C.) e os discursos oratórios de Antônio Vieira (Le lacrime d'Eraclito) e de Girolamo Cattaneo (Il riso di Democrito) (1674). Diante da tirania da felicidade que se impõe nas sociedades contemporâneas, o (...) resgate desse construto cultural milenar serve como locus de reflexão sobre prudencialidade ética e condição humana. (shrink)

Les marxismes de Chine sont très peu pris en considération en France. Cet article expose quelques hypothèses expliquant cet état de fait et rappelle l’importance de la référence marxiste en Chine à tous les niveaux, des plus hautes instances de l’État à des intellectuels plus ou moins isolés. L’article suggère également quelques pistes pour une analyse marxiste des réalités chinoises aujourd’hui, multiformes, qui empêchent de dresser un état des lieux schématique de l’évolution contemporaine du pays (Chine « capitaliste » ou (...) « socialiste », etc.). Il suggère, au-delà du présent dossier, de poursuivre des recherches sur ces multiples dimensions. (shrink)

Estudo bibliográfico, teórico-exploratório sobre memória institucional e sua complexa relação com a memória histórica nacional. Teve por objetivo geral contribuir para a reflexão acerca do modo como a biblioteca do Tribunal de Justiça Militar do Rio Grande do Sul poderia analisar documentos sensíveis para organizar, preservar e disseminar as informações contidas nos processos judiciais históricos atinentes a fatos ocorridos de 1964 a 1985 de forma a torná-las disponíveis para pesquisas futuras. Apresenta breve reflexão sobre memória institucional e sua tensão frente (...) à memória/história. Mostra, como exemplos de processos judiciais sensíveis relevantes, os que foram instaurados durante o regime de exceção de 1964, e alcançaram os chamados grupos “Os Onze da Brigada”, utilizando a metáfora dos “homens infames” de Michel Foucault. Por fim, postula a pertinência de manutenção deste tipo de processo para evitar o apagamento das informações e proporcionar futuras pesquisas. Reconhece lacunas não respondidas acerca da organização propriamente dita deste acervo, motivadas pelo período de fechamento das instituições no contexto da COVID-19, pandemia mundial, e aponta para a conveniência de prosseguimento da pesquisa ou novas pesquisas no rico acervo. (shrink)

The study of bioethics has always been conducted by multiple disciplines. However the interaction between these disciplines has sometimes been marked by division, discord and disagreement, especially so between philosophically and sociologically minded contributors. This has been particularly true in recent years, and post the ‘empirical turn’ in bioethics. In our introduction we trace these disagreements and then take a wider look at the nature of disciplines and of interdisciplinary relations. These considerations are then brought back to the disciplines that (...) contribute work to bioethics as an explanation of why relationships within the field are difficult, and how we can start to address these divides. (shrink)