In the remainder of this article, we will disarm an important motivation for epistemic contextualism and interest-relative invariantism. We will accomplish this by presenting a stringent test of whether there is a stakes effect on ordinary knowledge ascription. Having shown that, even on a stringent way of testing, stakes fail to impact ordinary knowledge ascription, we will conclude that we should take another look at classical invariantism. Here is how we will proceed. Section 1 lays out some limitations of previous (...) research on stakes. Section 2 presents our study and concludes that there is little evidence for a substantial stakes effect. Section 3 responds to objections. The conclusion clears the way for classical invariantism. (shrink)

This article examines whether people share the Gettier intuition (viz. that someone who has a true justified belief that p may nonetheless fail to know that p) in 24 sites, located in 23 countries (counting Hong Kong as a distinct country) and across 17 languages. We also consider the possible influence of gender and personality on this intuition with a very large sample size. Finally, we examine whether the Gettier intuition varies across people as a function of their disposition to (...) engage in “reflective” thinking. (shrink)

Does the Ship of Theseus present a genuine puzzle about persistence due to conflicting intuitions based on “continuity of form” and “continuity of matter” pulling in opposite directions? Philosophers are divided. Some claim that it presents a genuine puzzle but disagree over whether there is a solution. Others claim that there is no puzzle at all since the case has an obvious solution. To assess these proposals, we conducted a cross-cultural study involving nearly 3,000 people across twenty-two countries, speaking eighteen (...) different languages. Our results speak against the proposal that there is no puzzle at all and against the proposal that there is a puzzle but one that has no solution. Our results suggest that there are two criteria—“continuity of form” and “continuity of matter”— that constitute our concept of persistence and these two criteria receive different weightings in settling matters concerning persistence. (shrink)

Since at least Hume and Kant, philosophers working on the nature of aesthetic judgment have generally agreed that common sense does not treat aesthetic judgments in the same way as typical expressions of subjective preferences—rather, it endows them with intersubjective validity, the property of being right or wrong regardless of disagreement. Moreover, this apparent intersubjective validity has been taken to constitute one of the main explananda for philosophical accounts of aesthetic judgment. But is it really the case that most people (...) spontaneously treat aesthetic judgments as having intersubjective validity? In this paper, we report the results of a cross‐cultural study with over 2,000 respondents spanning 19 countries. Despite significant geographical variations, these results suggest that most people do not treat their own aesthetic judgments as having intersubjective validity. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for theories of aesthetic judgment and the purpose of aesthetics in general. (shrink)

Philosophers have long debated whether, if determinism is true, we should hold people morally responsible for their actions since in a deterministic universe, people are arguably not the ultimate source of their actions nor could they have done otherwise if initial conditions and the laws of nature are held fixed. To reveal how non-philosophers ordinarily reason about the conditions for free will, we conducted a cross-cultural and cross-linguistic survey (N = 5,268) spanning twenty countries and sixteen languages. Overall, participants tended (...) to ascribe moral responsibility whether the perpetrator lacked sourcehood or alternate possibilities. However, for American, European, and Middle Eastern participants, being the ultimate source of one’s actions promoted perceptions of free will and control as well as ascriptions of blame and punishment. By contrast, being the source of one’s actions was not particularly salient to Asian participants. Finally, across cultures, participants exhibiting greater cognitive reflection were more likely to view free will as incompatible with causal determinism. We discuss these findings in light of documented cultural differences in the tendency toward dispositional versus situational attributions. (shrink)

Is behavioral integration a necessary feature of belief in folk psychology? Our data from over 5,000 people across 26 samples, spanning 22 countries suggests that it is not. Given the surprising cross-cultural robustness of our findings, we argue that the types of evidence for the ascription of a belief are, at least in some circumstances, lexicographically ordered: assertions are first taken into account, and when an agent sincerely asserts that p, nonlinguistic behavioral evidence is disregarded. In light of this, we (...) take ourselves to have discovered a universal principle governing the ascription of beliefs in folk psychology. (shrink)

Within the otherwise lively debate on neuroethics, little attention has been devoted to the peculiar methodological issues and challenges it faces. My aim is to track down its methodological specificities. Firstly, I will investigate to which traditional debates neuroethics bears similarity and to what extent it actually represents a novelty in ethical thinking. While the ethics of neuroscience is akin to bioethics, the neuroscience of ethics seems akin to moral psychology. And yet they differ as far as the level of (...) explanation of human moral behavior and reasoning is concerned. Thus, while the neuroscience of ethics and moral psychology share a family resemblance, they cannot be reduced to one another. Secondly, I will explore three different philosophical temperaments towards the role empirical findings can and should have in normative ethics and in metaethics. Prudential reasons would recommend openness to new sources of evidence without risking either reductionism nor neglect. -/- I metodi della neuroetica: la neuroscienza dell’etica è davvero una nuova sfida per la filosofia morale? Riassunto: Nonostante il dibattito in ambito neuroetico sia molto vivace, poca attenzione è stata dedicata alla questione relativa al suo metodo specifico e ai problemi a cui va incontro. Il mio scopo è quello di identificare le specificità metodologiche di questa disciplina. Anzitutto cercherò di determinare a quali dibattiti tradizionali la neuroetica può essere avvicinata e in che misura invece questa costituisce una novità all’interno del pensiero etico. Mentre l’etica della neuroscienza ha delle affinità con la bioetica, la neuroscienza dell’etica appare maggiormente simile alla psicologia morale, sebbene tali discipline siano diverse fra loro per via del livello a cui spigano il comportamento morale umano e il ragionamento. Pertanto, nonostante la neuroscienza dell’etica e la psicologia morale rivelino una certa somiglianza di famiglia, non è possibile ridurre l’una all’altra. In secondo luogo esplorerò tre diversi atteggiamenti filosofici rispetto al ruolo che i risultati empirici giocano o dovrebbero giocare rispetto all’etica normativa e alla metaetica. Ragioni di prudenza suggeriscono di rimanere aperti verso nuove fonti di evidenza evitando tanto il riduzionismo quanto la trascuratezza. (shrink)

En este artículo se desarrolla el marco conceptual del “contextualismo sexual” para el estudio de las variables relacionadas con el sexo en la investigación biomédica. El contextualismo sexual ofrece una alternativa a los enfoques sexuales binarios y esencialistas del estudio del sexo como variable biológica. Específicamente, el contextualismo sexual reconoce el pluralismo y la especificidad contextual que tienen las operacionalizaciones de “sexo” a través de la investigación experimental de laboratorio. A la luz de recientes normativas para la consideración del sexo (...) como variable biológica, el contextualismo sexual ofrece una guía constructiva a los/as investigadores/as biomédicos/as para abordar la variación biológica relacionada con el sexo. En tanto alternativa y crítica al esencialismo binario del sexo biológico, el contextualismo sexual contribuye a los debates actuales en filosofía de la biología, estudios feministas de la ciencia y ontología social en torno a la construcción de categorías de la diferencia sexual/genérica en la investigación científica. (shrink)

Este artículo pretende analizar, el proceso de mercantilización y comercialización del carnaval de Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais (MG), Brasil, en el cual la juventud y las características que le son socialmente atribuidas emergen en un escenario festivo, influenciado principalmente por la industria del entretenimiento. Para ello, se realizó un estudio del carnaval de esta ciudad del año 2009, desde un enfoque cualitativo, combinando las investigaciones bibliográfica, documental y de campo. Sin desconsiderar las múltiples posibilidades de apropiación de los sujetos en (...) el diverso y plural tiempo-espacio de la fiesta, se identificó que las variadas formas específicas de ser joven, sus looks y estilos de vivenciar el carnaval, son el principal producto a ser vendido en el mercado de la diversión y del entretenimiento. La fiesta, que hasta hace muy poco tiempo ocurría en las calles de la ciudad, con posibilidad de participación gratuita, se transforma así en mega-producciones pagadas, privadas y destinadas principalmente al público joven. (shrink)

Riassunto: Nel suo contributo Rosalba Morese si occupa di tre fenomeni di particolare interesse per comprendere il modo in cui gli esseri umani di fatto si comportano nei confronti dei loro simili quando sono coinvolte le loro identità di gruppo, ovvero l’altruismo parrocchiale, la punizione antisociale e la punizione altruistica. Scopo di questo lavoro è indagare se e in quale misura i dati comportamentali e di risonanza magnetica funzionale riportati da Morese possano informare le nostre teorie morali normative. Se, cioè, (...) esse possano non solo informarci circa il modo in cui di fatto gli esseri umani si comportano, ma se possano influire sulla nostra comprensione di come essi dovrebbero comportarsi; se dicano qualcosa del “dover essere” oltre che dell’“essere”. Parole chiave: Altruismo parrocchiale; Punizione antisociale; Punizione altruistica; Etica descrittiva; Etica normativa Parochial Altruism, Antisocial Punishment, and Altruistic Punishment: What Contribution Can Empirical Data Make to the Understanding of Ethics?: In her contribution, Morese takes into account three phenomena that are particularly interesting for understanding how human beings actually behave towards others when their group identities are involved – i.e. parochial altruism, antisocial punishment, and altruistic punishment. The aim of this commentary is to understand if and to what extent the behavioral and fMRI data reported by Morese can also inform our moral normative theories. That is, if they can inform us not only about how human beings actually behave, but also influence our understanding of how they should behave; if they tell us something about the “ought” as well as the “is”. Keywords: Parochial Altruism; Antisocial Punishment; Altruistic Punishment; Ethics; Normative Ethics. (shrink)

Introducción: El examen estatal escrito evalúa la competencia del egresado y debe cumplir los requisitos de su confección y de su análisis informar las deficiencias en el proceso docente educativo para su perfeccionamiento. Objetivo: Caracterizar el examen estatal ordinario escrito y los resultados obtenidos en la Facultad de Estomatología. Camagüey durante el período 2011-2012. Métodos: Se realizó un estudio descriptivo del examen estatal ordinario escrito aplicado a 146 estudiantes. Se elaboró una base de datos con las calificaciones obtenidas, índice académico (...) y una guía con las variables tipo de examen, de preguntas, nivel de asimilación, claridad de formulación, correspondencia con los objetivos de la carrera, clave de calificación y cumplimiento de los criterios de Guilbert, analizados por grupo de expertos. Resultados: En los resultados se aproximó la nota de los excelentes (27,4 %) con el índice académico de los altos rendimientos (28,1 %). La mediana general fue de 86,3. Los temas más explorados fueron Endodoncia (18,8 %), Prótesis y Odontopediatría (10,4 %). Las preguntas con más valor fueron de temas curativos. El nivel de asimilación fue reproductivo y el 35,4 % de preguntas tipo selección múltiple complemento agrupado. Existieron dificultades de diseño del examen y autopreparación de los estudiantes. Conclusiones: Los resultados se aproximaron a los rendimientos académicos. No hubo equidad entre el número, valor de las preguntas por temas y nivel de asimilación. Los errores se asociaron en frecuencia al diseño y redacción de algunas preguntas, insuficiente estudio y en menor grado a la falta de sistematicidad en el proceso docente, que permitieron determinar las deficiencias para su intervención. Introduction: The State written exam evaluates the competence of seniors and must meet the requirements of its preparation and analysis in order to report deficiencies in the educational teaching process for its further development. Objective: To characterize the written regular state exam and the results obtained at the Faculty of Stomatology. Camaguey during the period of 2011-2012. Methods: A descriptive study of the written regular state exam was conducted to 146 students. A data base was developed with the grades obtained, academic index and a guide with the exam- type variables, questions, level of assimilation, clarity of formulation, correspondence with the objectives of the career, key qualification and compliance with the criteria of Guilbert, all analyzed by groups of experts. Results: In the results the excellent notes (27.4%) approached to the academic index of high yield (28.1%). The general average was 86,3. The most explored themes were Endodontics (18.8%), Prosthesis and Pediatric Odontology (10.4%). healing topics were the questions with more value. The level of assimilation was reproductive and 35.4% of multiple choice type questions complement clustered. There were difficulties according to the test design and the students' self study. Conclusions: The results were close to academic performance. There was no equality between the number, value of the questions by topic and level of assimilation. Errors were often associated with the design and wording of some questions, insufficient study and in a lesser extent to the lack of systematic fashion in the teaching process, which allowed to determine deficiencies for its intervention. (shrink)

Fundamento: La ampliación de matrícula con la diversidad de vías de ingreso ha constituido un reto en la educación médica y la evaluación de graduación implica la certificación de la competencia de los egresados, por eso se hace necesario analizar los resultados obtenidos en estas etapas. Objetivo: Comparar los resultados de los ejercicios prácticos, teóricos y notas finales obtenidas por los estudiantes presentados a Exámenes Estatales Ordinarios de los cursos del 2006 al 2012 de la Facultad de Estomatología en la (...) Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de Camagüey. Métodos: Se realizó una investigación descriptiva con 410 estudiantes presentados a exámenes estatales ordinarios en el período 2006-2012. Se clasificaron los grupos con menos o más de 40 estudiantes por cursos. Se obtuvieron las calificaciones de cada ejercicio y nota final estatal por cursos. Se utilizó el método porcentual, media aritmética y mediana obtenida en cada curso. Resultados: Los cursos del 2006-2009 sumaron 99 estudiantes y en los cursos del 2009-2012 se incrementaron hasta 311 educandos. En los exámenes estatales prácticos, los grupos pequeños obtuvieron calificación media de 99,2 y una mediana de 99 y 100; en los grupos numerosos las calificaciones disminuyeron hasta llegar a una media de 93 y una mediana de 95. En los exámenes teóricos, en los tres primeros cursos la media de calificación fue 83,5 y en el grupo numeroso de 83,7. Conclusiones: En los resultados se mantiene la calidad de la base científica de la actuación en todos los cursos, pero ha disminuido la del desempeño en los cursos con incremento de estudiantes. Background: The extension of registration with the diversity of entrance ways has been a challenge in medical education. Graduation assessment involves the certification of the competence among seniors, therefore it is necessary to analyze the results obtained in these stages. Objective: To compare the results of theoretical, practical exercises and final notes obtained by the students submitted to Regular State examinations in the courses from 2006 to 2012 of the Dentistry Faculty at the Medical Sciences University of Camaguey. Methods: A descriptive research with 410 students submitted to Regular State examination was conducted in the period of 2006 to 2012. The groups were classified with less or more than 40 students per courses. The ratings of each exercise and state final note by courses were obtained. The methods used in each course were the percentage method, arithmetic mean and median obtained. Results: The courses from 2006 to 2009 totaled 99 students and in the courses from 2009 to 2012 the number of students increased up to 311. In the State practical tests small groups obtained qualification average of 99.2 and a median of 99 and 100; numerous groups' ratings fell to an average of 93 and an average of 95. In the theoretical tests, in the first three courses the average rating was 83.5 and in the large group it was 83.7. Conclusions: The results maintain the quality of the scientific basis of the performance in all courses, but the performance in courses with students increase has declined. (shrink)

Kym Maclaren’s and David Morris’ edited volume Time, Memory, Institution: Merleau-Ponty’s New Ontology of Self is an excellent study of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s concepts of memory, temporality and institution. Its chapters examine these concepts in their relation to his indirect ontology, together revealing that selfhood is instituted via ontological disparity or divergence (écart). In this review, I explore what I take to be the most salient insights of the book’s authors, and suggest that the volume as a whole repositions phenomenology towards (...) a method that is implicated and operates in the movements of Being itself, and therefore calls for a critical phenomenology.Le volume Time, Memory, Institution: Merleau-Ponty’s New Ontology of Self dirigé par Kym Maclaren et David Morris présente une excellente étude des concepts de mémoire, temporalité et institution chez Merleau-Ponty. Ces concepts sont examinés en rapport avec l’ontologie indirecte de Merleau-Ponty, afin de révéler que le soi s’institue à travers un écart ontologique. Dans ce compte rendu, j’explore les intuitions des auteurs que je considère comme étant les plus significatives et je cherche à montrer comment l’ouvrage dans son ensemble vient replacer la phénoménologie dans la perspective d’une méthode qui opère dans les mouvements de l’Être lui-même, et appelle donc à une critique de la phénoménologie.Kym Maclaren e David Morris sono i curatori del volume Time, Memory, Institution: Merleau-Ponty’s New Ontology of Self che presenta un’eccellente analisi dei concetti di memoria, temporalità e istituzione nel pensiero del filosofo francese. Queste nozioni sono indagate in relazione all’ontologia indiretta di Merleau-Ponty, rivelando allo stesso tempo che il sé si istituisce a partire dalla disparità (écart) o dallo scarto ontologico. In questa recensione, mi concentro su quelli che ritengo essere gli apporti più significativi di questa opera collettiva, per mostrare come il volume nel suo insieme venga a riposizionare la fenomenologia nella prospettiva di un metodo che opera nei movimenti dell’Essere stesso e quindi implica una critica della fenomenologia. (shrink)

Los códigos éticos humanos no son coherentes en su diseño ni tampoco tienen una distribución universal. Por lo tanto, la imposible universalidad ni completitud de los sistemas éticos para la inteligencia artificial es algo evidente que tan sólo fue apuntado someramente por el estudio reciente del MIT. Al tener toda ética un matiz cultural inequívoco, y también incluir grados de interpretación en sus principios. Al mismo tiempo se produce un problema formal: un sistema de IA no siempre cuenta con suficientes (...) datos ni tiempo óptimo para procesar una situación, por lo que un factor de azar ético debe tenerse en cuenta en el diseño de tales sistemas. (shrink)

Los métodos productivos de enseñanza preparan a los estudiantes para resolver problemas semejantes a los que se enfrentarán en el ejercicio laboral. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo fundamentar la pertinencia de la utilización del caso clínico como herramienta didáctica para la enseñanza en las ciencias básicas biomédicas, mediante un sistema de tareas para abordar los contenidos del tema Fisiología de la sangre de la asignatura Sangre y Sistema Inmune de la carrera de medicina. El caso clínico permite la vinculación de (...) las ciencias básicas biomédicas con las ciencias clínicas. Su utilización contribuye a la aproximación del estudiante de las ciencias básicas al estudio de estas durante su formación médica. El aprendizaje se logra a lo largo del proceso de resolución del mismo, se estimula la incorporación de conceptos necesarios para resolver el problema y se aprende un método para abordar situaciones en la práctica. Se elaboró un sistema de tareas y preguntas derivadas del problema profesional síndrome anémico. El problema docente se basó en un artículo médico que expone un caso de lesiones por empalamiento que produjo un gran sangramiento en un individuo. Se elaboraron preguntas problémicas relacionadas con la fisiología de la sangre y el tratamiento que recibió el paciente con eritropoyetina, factores de la coagulación y soluciones cristaloides en sustitución de la sangre. Se incluyó una pregunta que aborda un conflicto ético para sistematizar los conocimientos adquiridos en la asignatura Sociedad y Salud II. Productive teaching methods train students to solve problems similar to those they will face in their work life. The objective of the paper is to argue pertinence in the use of the clinical case as a didactic tool in biomedical basic sciences teaching by means of a task system that deals with the contents of the Blood Physiology subject in the Blood and Immune System subject matter of the medicine degree. Clinical cases enable the link between biomedical basic sciences and clinical sciences. Their use contributes to basic sciences students' approach to the study of the latter during their medical training. Learning is achieved through its solving process; the introduction of necessary problem-solving concepts is encouraged and a method to deal with in-practice situations is learned. A task and questions system derived from the anemic syndrome professional problem was made. The teaching problem was based on a medical article which presents a case of an individual who suffered impaling injuries which caused a great bleeding. Problem questions related to blood physiology and to the erythropoietin-based treatment the patient received, coagulation factors and crystalloid fluids used as blood substitutes, were prepared. It was included a question that deals with an ethical conflict in order to systematize the knowledge acquired in the Society and Health II subject matter. (shrink)

En este artículo partimos del pensamiento de Butler para adentrarnos en las propuestas de tres autoras que consideramos que complementan su proyecto de ayudar a las personas excluidas en su lucha por una vida más digna, una vida “vivible”, así como la estrategia de lograrlo mediante resignificaciones performativas de discursos y prácticas. Por un lado, presentamos los trabajos de Sarah Ahmed y Lanei Rodemeyer, para atender a la espacialidad y temporalidad del cuerpo vivido, y a la relación entre el (...) cuerpo y el discurso. En ambos casos se aplica la fenomenología pura, no hermenéutica, a la cuestión de la diversidad sexual. Por otro lado, nos adentramos en las obras de Luise Bourgeois, para quien la creación artística es un modo de exorcizar el dolor y de liberarse de las cárceles socialmente construidas. Partiendo de la línea que recorren y abren estas autoras, creemos que se puede elaborar una fenomenología en la que quepa lo que se suele quedar en los márgenes. Esta fenomenología permitiría, por un lado, visibilizar a quienes no encajan en los conceptos y categorías establecidas, y por otro, contribuir a una reformulación de los discursos que les permita habitar en ellos. La fenomenología de las cosas mismas no naturaliza las opresiones, como podría sospecharse, creemos que más bien es una aliada para reconocerlas, denunciarlas y repararlas. (shrink)

Poco più di mezzo secolo fa, il padre domenicano Antoine Dondaine, in un articolo dedicato ai due fratelli pisani Ugo Eteriano e Leone Tosco, attivi nella seconda metà del secolo XII alla corte di Costantinopoli durante il regno dell'imperatore Manuele I Comneno, segnalava l'esistenza in due codici (Sevilla, Biblioteca Colombina 5.1.24, Oxford, Bodl. Canon. Pat. Lat. 1) dell'opuscolo Adversus Patherenos composto da Ugo a Costantinopoli (Hugues Éthérien et Léon Toscan, «Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge», 27, 1952, p. (...) 67–134, qui 109–114), importante non solo per la storia dell'eresia dualista in epoca medievale, ma anche per l'utilizzo da parte di Ugo di alcuni testimoni della letteratura agiografica ed edificante bizantina. (shrink)

Poco più di mezzo secolo fa, il padre domenicano Antoine Dondaine, in un articolo dedicato ai due fratelli pisani Ugo Eteriano e Leone Tosco, attivi nella seconda metà del secolo XII alla corte di Costantinopoli durante il regno dell'imperatore Manuele I Comneno, segnalava l'esistenza in due codici (Sevilla, Biblioteca Colombina 5.1.24, Oxford, Bodl. Canon. Pat. Lat. 1) dell'opuscolo Adversus Patherenos composto da Ugo a Costantinopoli (Hugues Éthérien et Léon Toscan, «Archives d'histoire doctrinale et littéraire du Moyen Âge», 27, 1952, p. (...) 67–134, qui 109–114), importante non solo per la storia dell'eresia dualista in epoca medievale, ma anche per l'utilizzo da parte di Ugo di alcuni testimoni della letteratura agiografica ed edificante bizantina. (shrink)

This article provides a history of private sector tracking technologies, examining how the advent of commercial surveillance centered around a logic of data capitalism. Data capitalism is a system in which the commoditization of our data enables an asymmetric redistribution of power that is weighted toward the actors who have access and the capability to make sense of information. It is enacted through capitalism and justified by the association of networked technologies with the political and social benefits of online community, (...) drawing upon narratives that foreground the social and political benefits of networked technologies. I examine its origins in the wake of the dotcom bubble, when technology makers sought to develop a new business model to support online commerce. By leveraging user data for advertising purposes, they contributed to an information environment in which every action leaves behind traces collected by companies for commercial purposes. Through analysis of primary source materials produced by technology makers, journalists, and business analysts, I examine the emergence of data capitalism between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s and its central role in the contemporary information economy. (shrink)

En este artículo nos centramos en la consideración de las injusticias epistémicas como emociones público-privadas para enfrentar la injusticia epistémica estructural. Partimos de la propuesta de Judith Shklar, quien critica a la concepción tradicional centrada en la justicia que entiende a las injusticias como una falla del modelo. En esta línea, revisamos la propuesta de Miranda Fricker sobre la injusticia epistémica como injusticia estructural, conceptualización que complejizamos a partir de los aportes de Sally Haslanger. Luego, a partir del planteo de (...) Sarah Ahmed, nos centramos en la dimensión social y a la vez individual de las emociones, entendidas como prácticas sociales y culturales. Desde este abordaje, destacamos el valor epistémico de las emociones socialmente valoradas como negativas, cuyo saber ha sido infravalorado a lo largo de la historia por la epistemología tradicional. En este sentido es que entendemos a la injusticia epistémica como emoción público-privada. Para finalizar, sumamos a este enfoque la propuesta de las estructuras del sentir de Raymond Williams, para profundizar en el análisis de la injusticia epistémica estructural desde esta propuesta entendiendo a las injusticias epistémicas como emociones público-privadas que emergen como sentir epocal. (shrink)

This article asks whether being a child is, all things considered, good or bad for children. I defend a predicament view of childhood, which regards childhood as bad overall for children. I argue that four features of childhood make it regrettable: impaired capacity for practical reasoning, lack of an established practical identity, a need to be dominated, and profound and asymmetric vulnerability. I consider recent claims in the literature that childhood is good for children since it allows them to enjoy (...) special goods that aren't available in adulthood, or which are harder to access in adulthood. I raise some difficulties for these claims. Then I argue that whatever version of these views survives my criticism will not establish that childhood is overall good for children. This is because the goods of childhood aren't significant enough to outweigh the bad features associated with being a child. I conclude by suggesting that the badness of childhood for children means that we are likely to owe more to children than to adults. (shrink)

Volume 20, Issue 7, July 2020, Page 86-88.

This article argues, contra-Derrida, that Foucault does not essentialize or precomprehend the meaning of life or bio- in his writings on biopolitics. Instead, Foucault problematizes life and provokes genealogical questions about the meaning of modernity more broadly. In The Order of Things, the 1974-75 lecture course at the Collège de France, and Herculine Barbin, the monster is an important figure of the uncertain shape of modernity and its entangled problems (life, sex, madness, criminality, etc). Engaging Foucault’s monsters, I show that (...) the problematization of life is far from a “desire for a threshold,” à la Derrida. It is a spur to interrogating and critiquing thresholds, a fraught question mark where we have “something to do.” As Foucault puts it in “The Lives of Infamous Men,” it an ambiguous frontier where beings lived and died and they appear to us “because of an encounter with power which, in striking down a life and turning it to ashes, makes it emerge, like a flash [...]. (shrink)

With recent controversies surrounding the eligibility of athletes with disorders of sex development and hyperandrogenism, as well as continued discussion of the conditions transgender athletes must meet to compete in high-performance sport, a wide array of scholars representing a diverse range of disciplines have weighed in on both the appropriateness of classifying athletes into the female and male categories and the best practices of doing so. In response to cases of high-profile athletes’ sex being called into question, the International Olympic (...) Committee, the International Association of Athletics Federations, and the National Collegiate Athletics Association, among others, published or updated policies addressing who is eligible to compete in the women’s sport category and under what conditions. This paper addresses the areas in which philosophical reasoning and ethical analysis can contribute to reopened debates about the surveillance of the women’s category in sport. Emphasis is placed on determining where the onus of responsibility should fall for ensuring the new policies are followed. (shrink)

In this article I set out to trace some of the implications of recharging the political potency of nature in more-than-human terms. This shifts attention from a biopolitical focus on the inventiveness of the life sciences and what this means in terms of the emergence of ‘cyborg’ political subjects to an onto-political focus on the inventiveness of knowledge controversies and what these mean for techno-political practices. Specifically, the article examines the onto-politics of ‘natural’ hazard events and their capacity to force (...) thought in those affected by them, and so to place new demands on research practices in terms of rendering such events affective and amenable to political interrogation. I work these arguments through the demanding experimental ethos of the philosopher Isabelle Stengers, for whom scientific practices produce reliable knowledge claims only in so far as the questions they address are at risk of being redefined by the phenomena mobilized in them, and who extends this ethos to elaborate an understanding of, even a test for, an adequate political theory and practice. I do so with reference to a recent research experiment in which I collaborated with social and natural scientists and people affected by flooding in the UK. (shrink)

This article argues, contra-Derrida, that Foucault does not essentialize or pre-comprehend the meaning of life or bio- in his writings on biopolitics. Instead, Foucault problematizes life and provokes genealogical questions about the meaning of modernity more broadly. In The Order of Things, the 1974-75 lecture course at the Collège de France, and Herculine Barbin, the monster is an important figure of the uncertain shape of modernity and its entangled problems. Engaging Foucault’s monsters, I show that the problematization of life is (...) far from a “desire for a threshold,” à la Derrida. It is a spur to interrogating and critiquing thresholds, a fraught question mark where we have “something to do.” As Foucault puts it in “The Lives of Infamous Men,” it an ambiguous frontier where beings lived and died and they appear to us “because of an encounter with power which, in striking down a life and turning it to ashes, makes it emerge, like a flash [...].”. (shrink)

Throughout 2019, retired athletes Martina Navratilova, Sharron Davies, Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe all spoke publically about what they perceive to b...

What is the best model of epistemic agency for virtue epistemology? Insofar as the intellectual and moral virtues are similar, it is desirable to develop models of agency that are similar across the two realms. Unlike Aristotle, the Stoics present a model of the virtues on which the moral and intellectual virtues are unified. The Stoics’ materialism and determinism also help to explain how we can be responsible for our beliefs even when we cannot believe otherwise. In this paper I (...) show how a neo-Stoic model of epistemic agency can address common objections to treating epistemic and moral agency similarly and allow a robust explanatory role for character in determining our actions and beliefs. The picture of epistemic responsibility that flows from this model also explains why we often deserve credit for our knowledge, while demonstrating that the truth of our beliefs is not something for which we are epistemically responsible. (shrink)

Ecological weed management (EWM) is a scientifically established management approach that uses ecological patterns to reduce weed seedbanks. Such an approach can save organic farmers time and labor costs and reduce the need for repeated cultivation practices that may pose risks to soil and water quality. However, adoption of effective EWM in the organic farm community is perceived to be poor. In addition, communication and collaboration between the scientific community, extension services, and the organic farming community in the US is (...) historically weak. In order to uncover the most persistent obstacles to promoting effective weed management in organic agroecosystems, we use the mental models approach to generate an expert model based on interviews with experts (e.g., weed scientists, weed ecologists, and extension personnel) and theories from the behavioral sciences. The expert model provides two main insights: (1) EWM is a complex strategy that may cause farmers to use heuristics in management decisions and (2) the long-term benefits of EWM, rather than the risks, need to be emphasized in communication with and outreach to organic farmers. The basis for new research topics and outreach material that incorporates these insights from the expert model are discussed. We briefly explain how the expert model is an incomplete picture of on-farm practices, but provides the basis for the second step of our mental models research, the farmer interviews and farmer decision model development. (shrink)

Last year, more than seven million Americans participated in yoga or tai chi classes.Yet despite its popularity the real nature of yoga remains shrouded in mystery. A diverse range of practitioners range from white-bearded Indian mystics to celebrities like Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow. Positioning Yoga provides an overview of the development of yoga, from its introduction to Western audiences by the Indian Swami Vivekananda at the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago to forms of modern practice. What makes (...) yoga practitioners affiliated with Swami Sivananda's Divine Life Society of Rishikesh, India unique--whether they hail from Indian, North America, or Europe? What values around the world have supported the surging popularity of yoga over the past century? This absorbing book considers how lifestyle values have made yoga a global industry and shows how this popular "lifestyle" is produced and disseminated across boundaries. (shrink)

This paper examines the pedagogical values inherent in various traditions of philosophy education, from the ancient Greeks to current practices in Ontario high schools, and asks whether our current educational practices are imparting the philosophical values we wish to bestow upon our learners. I compare the approaches of Socrates, Descartes, and Dewey on the nature of philosophy and the pedagogical frameworks they defend for transmitting the “spirit” of philosophy, and then examine the Ontario curriculum guidelines for the teaching of philosophy. (...) In past philosophical traditions, dynamic growth, free questioning, and social responsibility are considered essential to the practice of philosophy. Certain factors in today’s educational institutions limit students’ abilities to achieve those values, although the appeal to these values is the same. I end with recommendations for amendments to the Ontario curriculum expectations that would help put the philosophical development of the individual student more clearly at the centre of these guidelines. (shrink)

Cet article analyse le rôle des vêtements dans la métamorphose d’esclaves afro-américains en soldats de l’Union pendant la Guerre civile (1861-1865). Il explore la manière et la raison pour laquelle les uniformes militaires portent un tel poids narratif dans les portraits de ces hommes. Les textes, images, objets, gravures et photographies sont étudiés dans le contexte de la perception du corps au xixe siècle et des nouvelles théories de l’anthropologie physique et de la phrénologie. L’article souligne le rôle de ces (...) images dans la construction d’un discours cohérent sur la rédemption de l’esclavage et d’une catégorie « homme » plus inclusive, plus universelle, fondée sur le service militaire. (shrink)

Most learning models assume, either implicitly or explicitly, that the goal of learning is to acquire a complete and veridical representation of the world, but this view assumes away the possibility that pragmatic goals can play a central role in learning. We propose instead that people are relatively frugal learners, acquiring goal-relevant information while ignoring goal-irrelevant features of the environment. Experiment 1 provides evidence that learning is goal-dependent, and that people are relatively frugal when given a specific, practical goal. Experiment (...) 2 investigates possible mechanisms underlying this effect, and finds evidence that people exhibit goal-driven attention allocation, but not goaldriven reasoning. We conclude by examining how frugality can be integrated into Bayesian models of learning. (shrink)