Our study explores how climate risk affects the tax behavior of governments and local firms, subsequently affecting corporate pollution emissions. Using data on Chinese non-state-owned industrial enterprises from 1998 to 2014, we empirically investigate the impact of natural disasters on corporate tax avoidance. The results indicate that companies in earthquake-damaged areas are less likely to avoid taxes than those in unaffected areas. Furthermore, companies that pay more taxes after a disaster can secure favorable government environmental policies, as indicated by a (...) rise in pollution emissions. Moreover, this effect is more pronounced for less polluting firms and firms with higher financial constraints. Our study contributes to the literature on taxation and ESG from the perspective of favor-exchange in government–firm relationships. (shrink)

Silva-Rui_Ceteris-paribus-laws-and-the-human-sciences.

di 1 juan. Qian shen shou--shen shou shi dai -- di 2 juan. She ji shou shi dai -- di 3 juan. Zhu zi shi dai.

ABSTRACT This study focuses on the notions of ‘ruins’, ‘savage knowledge’, and ‘American race’ in the works of the German naturalist Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794–1868). A somewhat neglected figure in the history of anthropology and of natural history, Martius was regarded by scholars from Europe and the Americas as a leading figure in botany and ethnology in the nineteenth century. In this article, I discuss how Martius articulated: (1) the notion of American race, that is, a broad characterization (...) of the native peoples of the Americas rooted in a complex natural history which brought together seemingly disparate fields of knowledge, such as medicine, botany, theology, philology, and mythology; (2) having ruins as a guiding concept, which helped him to make sense of American natives; and (3) savage knowledge – a concept semantically aligned to that of ruins, and among whose principal modes of expression was shamanic practice. (shrink)

Auditory perception is traditionally conceived as the perception of sounds — a friend’s voice, a clap of thunder, a minor chord. However, daily life also seems to present us with experiences characterized by the absence of sound — a moment of silence, a gap between thunderclaps, the hush after a musical performance. In these cases, do we positively hear silence? Or do we just fail to hear, and merely judge or infer that it is silent? This longstanding question remains controversial (...) in both the philosophy and science of perception, with prominent theories holding that sounds are the only objects of auditory experience and thus that our encounter with silence is cognitive, not perceptual. However, this debate has largely remained theoretical, without a key empirical test. Here, we introduce a novel empirical approach, presenting experimental evidence that silence can be genuinely perceived (not just cognitively inferred). We ask whether silences can ‘substitute’ for sounds in event-based auditory illusions — empirical signatures of auditory event representation in which auditory events distort perceived duration. Seven experiments introduce three new ‘silence illusions’ — the one-silence-is-more illusion, silence-based warping, and the oddball-silence illusion — each adapted from a prominent perceptual illusion previously thought to arise only from sounds. Subjects were immersed in ambient noise interrupted by silences structurally identical to the sounds in the original illusions. In all cases, silences elicited temporal distortions perfectly analogous to the illusions produced by sounds. Our results suggest that silence is truly heard, not merely inferred, introducing a general approach for studying absence perception. (shrink)

For many energy companies in China, green brand strategy is becoming an important approach to enhance competitive advantage. However, greenwashing behaviors result in a crisis of trust. Existing research focuses on green marketing, but is silent on the institutional view of the trust crisis resulting from greenwashing by energy brands. Thus, this study takes a decoupling perspective from institutional theory and considers legitimacy, energy policy management, and green brand theories to shed light on the path from the decoupling of an (...) energy brand from green promise to green energy brand trust and the role of brand legitimacy and brand loyalty. It then analyzes survey data to conclude that DEBG not only has a direct negative effect on GEBT but also has an indirect influence through the vital mediating role of green energy brand legitimacy. Moreover, brand loyalty is a moderating factor and can alleviate the energy brand trust crisis. These findings not only can enrich the theories of energy brand management and green marketing but also offer important implications for energy policy management. (shrink)

This paper explores the intricate relationship between the concept of “savage knowledge,” its significance during the ninteenth and twentieth centuries, and the emerging field of ethnoscience. It specifically focuses on the Amazon region as a pivotal area in the development of ethnoscience, examining the contributions of renowned naturalists Carl von Martius, Richard Spruce, and Richard Schultes, who each conducted scientific expeditions to the Amazon during this era. Their works are crucial in reevaluating the dynamic interplay between the Western perception of (...) the “savage,” the scientific principles that underpin it, and the geopolitics of knowledge exchange between countries in the global north and south. I argue that the contextual conditions which made possible the emergence of ethnoscience, including imperial assimilation, extraction, and coloniality, continue to exert influence on twentieth century political discourses concerning the integration of indigenous cultures into global politics. This influence is evident through the analysis of a UNESCO document in the second part of the paper. The study concludes that the incorporation of indigenous knowledge, systematised by ethnoscience, has often served as a pretext for controlling geographical areas historically regarded as “natural resources,” ultimately transforming them into reservoirs of indigenous epistemologies. (shrink)

This essay argues that individual-oriented informed consent is inadequate to protect human research subjects in mainland China. The practice of family-oriented decision-making is better suited to guide moral research conduct. The family’s role in medical decision-making originates from the mutual benevolence that exists among family members, and is in accordance with family harmony, which is the aim of Confucian society. I argue that the practice of informed consent for medical research on human subjects ought to remain family-oriented in mainland China. (...) This essay explores the main features of this model of informed consent and demonstrates the proper authority of the family. The family’s participation in decision-making as a whole does not negate or deny the importance of the individual who is the subject of the choice, but rather acts more fully to protect research subjects. (shrink)

This paper proposes a new 5D chaotic system with the flux-controlled memristor. The dynamics analysis of the new system can also demonstrate the hyperchaotic characteristics. The design and analysis of adaptive synchronization for the new memristor-based chaotic system and its slave system are carried out. Furthermore, the modularized circuit designs method is used in the new chaotic system circuit implementation. The Multisim simulation and the physical experiments are conducted, compared, and matched with each other which can demonstrate the existence of (...) the attractor for the new system. (shrink)

Is a rational approach always able to resolve intercultural conflicts about values and morals? The leading questions of this paper deal with the relationship between cultural difference and moral reasoning, the possibility to argue about cultural differences and the possibility of rational grounds for intercultural dialogue. The underlying idea is that a true intercultural attitude needs a serious theoretical and methodological reflection in order to be aware of the limits of understanding and the pitfalls of universalism. In the first part (...) of the paper I will give a general account of cultural difference and why does it matter from a moral point of view. In the second part I will deal with the issue of rationality, arguing for a pluralistic account of reason. Then I will focus on its relation with cultural differences, outlining some features of moral reasoning as intercultural dialogue. (shrink)

This article engages with the historiography of the Portuguese empire with reference to Mozambique. It explores the impact of visual archives on existing debates and asks what difference photographs make to our interpretation and understanding of this colonial past. Deprived of their 'historical rights' by the requirements of the Berlin treaties that insisted on 'effective occupation', the Portuguese started to employ a complex of knowledge-producing activities in which photography was crucially involved. This article examines different photographic moments before and during (...) the 'Pacification Campaign' that assured Portugal's authority over the Gaza Empire in southern Mozambique in the 1890s, by official, commercial and missionary photographers. It identifies controversies over the small number of portraits of the Gaza king Ngungunyane that took on distinctive and disputed 'other lives' after their initial production. The realisation of how one image might be disassembled to generate others becomes an exercise - in visual terms - of rethinking colonial violence. A critical engagement with the slippages and repositionings around photographs, and the errors or disputes in various captions, allows for a better understanding of the production of both silence and particular narratives in the archives and popular history. The demonstration of these other lives matters because it stimulates awareness of what is seen, what is made visible, and addresses the desire to look beyond the image to find others in a continuous interrogation of photographic excess. (shrink)

Despite their differences, the two Greek notions of justice, dike and dikaiosune, share a common framework which is built around the empirical concept of individual worth. Their Hellenistic feature forms an interesting contrast to modern egalitarian justice. An historical reevaluation of the latter, as this paper suggests, might cast a shadow on its current prestige.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Ideas 63.1 (2002) 1-17 [Access article in PDF] What if the Father Commits a Crime? Rui Zhu Apparently, Socrates and Confucius respond similarly to the question if a son should turn in his father in the case of the father's misdemeanor. When Euthyphro, flaring his pride of his moral impartiality, tells Socrates that he is on his way to report his father because he (...) has thrown one of the household slaves into a ditch and left him bound there until he was dead, Socrates says, "Good Heaven! Certainly, Euthyphro, most men would not know how they could do this and be right. It is not the part of anyone to do this, but of one who is far advanced in wisdom." 1According to Socrates, only a man of high wisdom knows how to prosecute his father righteously, but Euthyphro does not appear to have this wisdom. When his interlocutor observes that an upright man in his state would bear witness against his father if he misappropriates a sheep, Confucius contradicts the interlocutor's understanding of uprightness by speaking in a matter-of-fact tone: "In my country the upright men are of quite another sort. A father will cover up for his son, and a son his father—which incidentally does involve a sort of up—rightness." 2Confucius stands on the same line with Socrates but seems the more radical of the two. Socrates does not directly refute Euthyphro and only suggests that he make sure he understands what he is doing before going any further. Socrates is not only typically Socratic—indirect and suggestive—but also sounds so reasonable that Euthyphro appears in contrast to be a reckless youth who harbors [End Page 1] only a faint understanding of morality. Confucius's response is more rigid, for he categorically dismisses an act of the Euthyphroian kind. He demands that father and son cover up for each other in the case of either one's guilt. Compared to Socrates, Confucius advocates the position that seems a little too strong and leaves no room for justice, while Socrates does not have that problem with justice. This is how we feel about Socrates and Confucius on our first impression. The prima facie observations that we make from the remarks of Socrates and Confucius seem both plain and unproblematic.By embedding these remarks into their respective social or philosophical cultures, this paper will show that our previous observations are not quite accurate. The apparent affinity of the Socratic and Confucian stances belies different underlying moral philosophies. We want to use their comments as bridges to explore the early Greek and Confucian ethics and show how different a picture we see after things are examined within their traditions.The issue of a possible father-son conflict may be treated as a case study of the early Greek (the Heroic era until the age of Socrates) and early Confucian (Confucius and Mencius) morals. There is a strong theme in the early Greek morals that allows, or sometimes demands, a son such as Euthyphro to prosecute his father for the sake of justice, because justice, instead of love (philein) or filial piety, is the governing principle in the early Greek ethics. Confucian ethics is founded on love (human-heartedness), which in turn is extended from the love between father and son. All moral principles including justice are derived from this extension of love. The mutual love of father and son then becomes the governing principle in the case of Confucianism. A Guilty Father: The Greek Motif The question, "What if the father commits a crime?" has a certain realistic aroma to a boy coming of age in the Hesiodic Greek world. That father has to be overcome by son before some relief from strife becomes possible is a familiar theme in Greek literature. In Hesiod's Theogony, Uranus (the sky) incurs hatred from all his newborn children since he hides them in their mother Gaia's womb and does not let them return to the light, for no reason... (shrink)

Authoritarian leadership is of great significance to eastern countries, including China. Meanwhile, unethical employee behavior also exists in all types of social organizations. The relationship between authoritarian leadership and unethical employee behavior is worth studying. Senior leaders often do not have a direct influence on employees except for through their immediate supervisors. The leadership style of senior leaders also influences the leadership style of their subordinates. This paper studies how authoritarian manager leadership trickles down to unethical employee behavior through authoritarian (...) supervisor leadership and discusses the moderating effect of leader member exchange and an ethical climate. Through a questionnaire survey of 406 pairs of leaders, supervisors, and employees, the research results of the multilevel model show that authoritarian supervisor leadership is positively related to unethical employee behavior, authoritarian supervisor leadership mediates the relationship between authoritarian manager leadership and unethical employee behavior, LMX positively moderates the relationship between authoritarian manager leadership and authoritarian supervisor leadership and moderates the mediating effect of authoritarian supervisor leadership, and, that an ethical climate negatively moderates the relationship between authoritarian supervisor leadership and unethical employee behavior and moderates the mediating effect of authoritarian supervisor leadership. (shrink)

《反经》是唐朝人赵蕤所著。全书以谋略为经,历史为纬,交错纵横,蔚然成章,加上作者深厚的古今汉语功底,使《反经》行评议有如流水、通俗易懂。书中所引的前代著述经史子集如《玉钤经》、吴人张微的《墨记》等。《 反经》集政治学、谋略学、人才学、社会学为一体,以令人警策的历史教训,为现实生活中的思想家、政治家、军事家和实业家提供了卓有成交的谋略武器。本书深入浅出、言简意赅、发人深省.

: Scholars have underestimated and misunderstood the distinction between Sōtō and Rinzai, the two major branches of Zen Buddhism, because they have either parroted the sectarian polemics of the schools themselves or, as in the case of prominent scholars Carl Bielefeldt and T. P. Kasulis, dismissed these polemics as deriving from institutional politics rather than substantive doctrinal or practical differences. Here it is attempted for the first time to understand the polemics of these two schools as reflecting a real disparity (...) in concept and practice. The psychological concept of manas of the Yogācāra or "mind-only" school, a Buddhist philosophical tradition that is foundational to Mahāyāna Buddhist meditation practice and to Zen, is investigated.This concept is used to explicate the mental mechanics of meditation in order to appreciate the criticisms of classical Zen Masters directed against each other and thereby to understand important conceptual and practical differences between the two schools. (shrink)

Journal Name: Apeiron Issue: Ahead of print.

Autism is characterized by repetitive behavior and difficulties in adopting the viewpoint of others. We examine a communicative phenomenon resulting from these symptoms: non-prototypical direct speech for non-reports involving an actual utterance from previously produced discourse (e.g. quoting somebody’s words to refer to them,Pascual 2014). We video-recorded the naturalistic speech of five Brazilian children with autism, five typically developing children of the same mental age, and five of the same chronological age. They all used so-calledfictive speech(Pascual 2014,Dornelas & Pascual (...) 2016) for narration, expressing needs, and referring to individuals and events (e.g. sayingGoal!for ‘playing soccer’). Such verbatim fictive speech originated in specific prior interactions or in socio-communicative or socio-cultural knowledge. We found considerable differences in the three groups in the frequency and degree of creativeness of fictive speech as opposed to it representing standard linguistic formulae or echoing previously produced speech word by word. (shrink)

Hay muchas combinaciones del Urbanismo con los Juegos, pero los temas para entender las ciudades, su planeamiento, proyecto y gobierno, suelen tener gran complejidad. Este trabajo presenta la aplicación de un juego de grupo que motive los estudiantes de Arquitectura para los conocimientos integrados del Urbanismo. La experiencia de la actividad lúdica, ampliada por algunos ejercicios académicos en continuidad, permite discutir varias cuestiones relevantes, la escala, los indicadores y aspectos de economía y medio ambiente. Los resultados demuestran que hay aún (...) el potencial para mejorar las prácticas profesionales, en especial en la gestión urbanística y territorial. (shrink)

Based on a sample of 46 Portuguese schoolbooks, this study aims to understand how factory-farmed animals are presented in such books across the themes of food and health, the environment and sustainability, and animal welfare. It examines whether schoolbooks address the importance of reducing the consumption of animal-based products for a healthy diet, whether plant-based diets are recognized as healthy, whether animal welfare and agency are considered, and whether the livestock sector is indicated as a major factor in environmental degradation. (...) The findings show that schoolbooks present animals as essential for economic activities and human nutrition. Recommendations on reducing the consumption of animal-based products in consideration of the environment, sustainability and human health are very rare. Animal production is presented as benign, and the agency and welfare of factory-farmed animals are simply not addressed. (shrink)

Este artigo tem por objetivo apresentar a ideia de que Schopenhauer reavalia a noção de extinção com o passar do tempo através do contato com pensamentos filosóficos e científicos contemporâneos a sua vida ligados a concepções evolucionistas. Em O mundo como vontade e representação não há espaço para a consideração da extinção das espécies animais, imutáveis e eternas; ao passo que em Parerga e Paralipomena e em Sobre a vontade na natureza é comum que o autor faça alusão a conceitos (...) como generatio aequivoca, ao surgimento de espécies animais por meio de generatio in utero heterogeneo e ao seu desaparecimento. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem por objetivo principal investigar e circunscrever a relação problemática entre intelecto e cérebro na obra de Arthur Schopenhauer, de acordo com a já conhecida formulação de Eduard Zeller. Desse modo, pode-se contemplar o lugar dos conceitos de intelecto e cérebro no âmbito da explicação metafísica da natureza, tendo-se sempre como noção diretora central a distinção entre os modos de consideração do mundo, apresentadas simultaneamente ainda no texto de O mundo como vontade e como representação e aperfeiçoada (...) e mencionada com mais cuidado nas obras posteriores. Se, por um lado, o mundo é objeto de investigação através da subjetividade e de suas formas de existência, por outro ele é investigado através de um modo de consideração objetivo, que, inicialmente, toma os objetos como existentes por si mesmos, independentemente de qualquer sujeito. Sem poder existir totalmente em separado, na medida em que cada objeto existe apenas para o sujeito, ambos os modos devem confluir para a explicação completa do mundo, como complementação um do outro: o intelecto deve ser também considerado do ponto de vista objetivo e o cérebro segundo a análise do modo de consideração subjetivo, integrando-o na explicação geral do mundo e da natureza. (shrink)

Em seu texto Por quê olhar os animais?, John Berger comenta como a metáfora animal foi um recurso indispensável para revelar uma proximidade entre as espécies, e que sem o exemplo de animais seria improvável, por exemplo, descrever eventos como aqueles narrados por Homero n’A Iíada. A correlação entre vidas semelhantes e heterogêneas permitiram aos seres humanos, inspirados pelos animais, darem respostas às primeiras perguntas. É razoável afirmar que a primeira metáfora tenha sido a do animal, como um modo de (...) partilhar o mundo que lhes era comum e diferente. Mas nossa relação com os animais não-humanos também contém contradições; a criação do zoológico representou a elevação de um monumento à impossibilidade de qualquer reencontro com a animalidade. Em vez de liberados, os animais foram capturados por outras categorias políticas. Para John Berger as ambiguidades permanecem “Eles são os objetos de nosso conhecimento sempre crescente. O que sabemos sobre eles é um índice de nosso poder, e assim é um índice do que nos separa deles. Quanto mais sabemos, mais distante eles ficam.”. (shrink)

O presente artigo discute as relações entre animais não-humanos e o sensível. Para tanto, ensaia-se uma compreensão das formas animais e suas aparências expressivas, apoiando-se em ideias e teses dos filósofos franceses Merleau-Ponty e Dominique Lestel formuladas a partir do estudo do zoólogo Adolf Portmann sobre a aparência dos animais, denominado A forma animal. A investigação de Portmann, interessada em apreender fora do registro funcional do biológico o mistério que envolve as formas vivas, assimila uma nova concepção de corpo animal (...) e descobre nele uma qualidade estética de livre expressão resultante do dispêndio das aparências dos viventes não-humanos.Palavras-chave: Vida Sensível; Animalidade; Aparência; Natureza. (shrink)

This article is a Gadamer-Perelman's debate. The author points out the limits of the gadamerian's hermeneutic conception of philosophy and criticizes this conception from Perelman's new rhetoric point of view. Instead of speaking of truth as an ontological originary experience, the rhetorical foundation of philosophy allows us to say that in philosophy the important is the contrastation and the confrontation of criteria and that, for that reason, philosophy is above all characterized by discussibility.

Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) is defined as the conscious, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The greater the level of evidence the greater the grade of recommendation. This pioneering explicit concept of EBM is embedded in a particular view of medical practice namely the singular nature of the patient-physician relation and the commitment of the latter towards a specific goal: the treatment and the well being of his or her client. Nevertheless, (...) in many European countries as well as the United States, this integration of the best evidence from systematic research with clinical expertise and patient values appears to be re-interpreted in light of the scarcity of healthcare resources. The purpose of this paper is double. First, to claim that from an ethical perspective EBM should be a guideline to clinical practice; and second, that in specific circumstances EBM might be a useful tool in macro-allocation of healthcare resources. Methodologically the author follows Norman Daniels' theory of democratic accountability to justify this assumption. That is, choices in healthcare must be accountable by democratic procedures. This perspective of distributive justice is responsible for the scope and limits of healthcare services. It follows that particular entitlements to healthcare — namely expensive innovative treatments and medicines —may be fairly restricted as long as this decision is socially and democratically accountable and imposed by financial restrictions of the system. In conclusion, the implementation of EBM, as long as it limits the access to drugs and treatments of unproven scientific results is in accordance with this perspective. The use of EBM is regarded as an instrument to facilitate the access of all citizens to a reasonable level of healthcare and to promote the efficiency of the system. (shrink)

In congenitally or prelingually deaf childrencochlear implantation is open to seriousethical challenge. The ethical dimension ofthis technology is closely related to both asocial standard of quality of life and to theuncertainty of the overall results of cochlearimplantation. Uncertainty with regards theacquisition of oral communicative skills.However, in the western world, available datasuggest that deafness is associated with thelowest educational level and the lowest familyincome. Notwithstanding the existence of aDeaf-World, deafness should be considered as ahandicap. Therefore, society should provide themeans for the (...) fulfilment of a deaf child'sspecific needs.For the time being there is no definitiveanswer with regard the best way to rehabilitatea particular deaf child. Therefore,communitarian values may be acceptable. If thedeaf child parents' decide not to implant,their decision should be respected. Guardiansare entitled to determine which standard ofbest interest to use in a specificcircumstance. They are the proper judges ofwhat (re)habilitation process is best for theirdeaf child. However, most deaf children areborn to two hearing parents. Probably, theywill not be acculturated in the Deaf-World. Itfollows that cochlear implantation is awelcomed (re)habilitation technology.If auditory (re)habilitation will in the futureprovide the necessary communicative skills, inparticular oral language acquisition, customs,values and attitudes of the hearing worldshould be regarded as necessary to accomplish adeaf child's right to an open future. Ifcochlear implantation technology will provideall deaf children with the capacity to developacceptable oral communicative skills –whatever the hearing status of the family andthe cultural environment – then auditory(re)habilitation will be an ethical imperative. (shrink)

Multi-level teaching has been proven to be more effective than a one-size-fits-all learning approach. This study aimed to develop and implement a multi-level remedial teaching scheme in various high school classes containing students of a wide range of learning levels and to determine its effect of their learning. The deterministic inputs noisy and gate model of cognitive diagnosis theory was used to classify students at multiple levels according to their knowledge and desired learning outcomes. A total of 680 senior high (...) school students from central provinces in China participated in the initial cognitive diagnostic test, and 1,615 high school sophomores from seven high schools in China participated in a formal cognitive diagnosis test. Thirty-six high school students from Southwestern China participated in the think-aloud protocols, and 258 seniors from three high schools in southwest China participated in the remedial teaching experiment. Through an analysis of students’ think-aloud protocols, cognitive errors of students at all levels were determined, and multi-level remedial teaching programs were designed to address these common cognitive errors. The remedial teaching programs were then implemented in three schools and compared with a control group. The results indicated that the students in the experimental group showed a more significant improvement. In this study, the steps of designing multi-level remedial teaching include assessment, classification, and preparing a teaching scheme, which are feasible and can have remarkable teaching effects. This process can be used for reference by teachers of various subjects. (shrink)

PurposeThe study aimed at investigating the state of psychiatric nurses’ job satisfaction, job burnout, and the moderating effect of family support between them in China during the COVID-19 pandemic.Materials and methodsOnline self-report questionnaires were distributed and 212 psychiatric nurses participated in the research. Pearson correlation analysis, multiple stepwise regression analysis, and simple slope test were used for data analysis.ResultsThe results showed that the status of their job satisfaction and burnout did not reach a satisfactory level and job satisfaction had a (...) significant negative impact on job burnout. Meanwhile, family support played a negative moderating role between the two variables.ConclusionPsychiatric nurses suffered from job burnout in China during the COVID-19. Family support could have a counterproductive effect when the nurses were experiencing decreasing job satisfaction. It gave suggestions to the medical institutions and the government to improve the psychological well-being of the psychiatric nurses and even of all the medical staff. (shrink)

According to an influential epistemological tradition, science explains phenomena on the basis of laws, but the last two decades have witnessed a neo-mechanistic movement that emphasizes the fundamental role of mechanism-based explanations in science, which have the virtue of opening the “black box” of correlations and of providing a genuine understanding of the phenomena. Mechanisms enrich the empirical content of a theory by introducing a new set of variables, helping us to make causal inferences that are not possible on the (...) basis of macro-level correlations. However, the appeal to mechanisms has also a methodological price. They are vulnerable to interference effects; they also face underdetermination problems, because the available evidence often allows different interpretations of the underlying structure of a correlation; they are strongly context-dependent and their individuation as causal patterns can be controversial; they present specific testability problems; finally, mechanism-based extrapolations can be misleading due to the local character of mechanisms. At any rate, the study of mechanisms is an indispensable part of the human sciences, and the problems that they raise can be controlled by quantitative and qualitative methods, and an epistemologically informed exercise of critical thinking. (shrink)