In the concluding section of the Book One of the Treatise, Hume confronts radical scepticism about the standards of correct reasoning. According to the naturalistic interpretations, Hume resolves this scepticism by appealing to some psychological facts. A common criticism of this interpretation is that the alleged naturalistic epistemic norm seems to be merely Hume’s report of his psychology, and it remains unclear why this seemingly mere psychological description can provide a principled reason to overcome his scepticism. In this paper, I (...) will argue that Hume’s discussions of the ”indirect passions” and social identity provide a constitutivist ground for the naturalistic epistemic standards in the “Conclusion”: being the object of the indirect passions constitutes what kind of person one is, and being the kind of person (philosopher in Hume’s case) gives non-optional reason to pursue certain kinds of reasoning. (shrink)

Consumers are becoming increasingly interested in how their food is produced. Many studies have focused on consumers’ preferences and willingness-to-pay for specific production-related claims on food products. However, few studies have asked consumers to rank the importance of different production claims. In this study, we use a best-worst scaling approach to have consumers rank the importance of seven common production claims used on food products. Rankings are obtained across four product types: beef, milk, chicken, and eggs. Results of the study (...) show that consumers often prefer specific components of more encompassing claims as opposed to the broader, more encompassing claim itself. The majority of preference shares were captured by the top three claims, though the order of these preferences appears to vary for meat and non-meat animals. (shrink)

Ever since the pioneering works by Chogyū Takayama and others in 1899 Japanese scholars have endeavored to elucidate the structure, meaning, and genetic connections of Japanese mythology, which was systematically described in the volumes on the “Age of Gods” of the Kojiki (compiled in 712 A.D.), the Nihon Shoki (720), and other works. In recent years the research has experienced a remarkable development, which owes much of its stimulation to the epoch-making studies of Indo-European mythologies by Georges Dumézil. For Japanese (...) mythology betrays much in common with the Indo-European ones not only in its motifs but also in its basic structure, as we shall shortly see. In order not to be misleading, however, it should be stated here that analogies to Indo-European mythologies are but one aspect of the Japanese tradition, which comprises many other components, especially South Chinese and/or Southeast Asian components, and current researches on Japanese mythology are not restricted to comparisons with the Indo-European mythologies, but are undertaken through a variety of approaches, including those of the historian, the philologist, and the ethnologist. (shrink)

To articulate their understanding of Hume’s discussion of ‘distinctions of reason’, commentators have often taken what I refer to as a ‘respect-first view’ on resemblance, in which they cat...

This article studies the possible dialogue, both personal and theoretical, about primitive thought between the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset and the Romanian historian of religion Mircea Eliade. Although it is well known that both got acquainted with each other in Portugal, their theoretical relationship has not been fully studied. However, by analyzing closely their encounters, both personal and philosophical, it seems highly probable that Ortega had a great influence on Eliade’s theory of primitive mentality. For this reason, firstly (...) we analyze the personal contact between the two thinkers recorded in Eliade’s Portugal Journal. Secondly, we examine some important aspects of the theory of primitive thought in Ortega and Eliade in order to clarify their similarities and differences. (shrink)

Liber de orbe, attributed to Māshā'allāh (d.c.815), a court astrologer of the Abbasid dynasty, was one of the earliest Latin sources of Aristotelian physics. Until recently, its Arabic original could not be identified among Arabic works. Through extensive examination of Arabic manuscripts on exact sciences, I found two manuscripts containing the Arabic text of this Latin work, although neither of them is ascribed to Māshā'allāh: Berlin, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Ms. or. oct. 273, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania University Library, MS LJS 439. (...) In this paper, I describe these two manuscripts in great detail, so that I confirm their originality of theLiber de orbe, and then by analysing the contents of the Arabic text, I deny the attribution to Māshā'allāh, and identify the title and author asBook on the Configuration of the Orbby Dūnash ibn Tamīm, a disciple of Isaac Israeli (c.855–c.955). (shrink)

Many scholars have claimed that the psychology of the indirect passions in the Treatise is meant to capture how we come to regard persons as morally responsible agents. My question is exactly how the indirect passions relate to responsibility. In elucidating Hume’s account of responsibility, scholars have often focused not on the passionate responses themselves, but on their structural features. In this paper, I argue that locating responsibility in the structural features is insufficient to make sense of Hume’s account of (...) responsibility. I argue this on the grounds that without reference to the passions, Hume does not have the resources to distinguish between responsible and non-responsible entities. Instead, I attribute to Hume a distinctive, sympathy-based response-dependent conception of responsibility. (shrink)

El presente estudio investiga la influencia de José Ortega y Gasset sobre la teoría del juego de Johan Huizinga. Analiza especialmente la distinción entre el juego auténtico y el pueril, el deporte y el pasatiempo y el concepto de club en ambos autores. El club es una comunidad originaria por la cual el espíritu lúdico entra e interviene en el mundo cotidiano. Según ambos autores, el espíritu lúdico deportivo crea el Estado y todas las instituciones culturales políticas a través de (...) este extraño tipo de comunidad. (shrink)

Este artículo examina las diversas interpretaciones sobre el origen de la filosofía en José Ortega y Gasset y Karl Jaspers. Ortega redactó “Fragmentos de Origen de la filosofía” para celebrar el septuagésimo cumpleaños de Jaspers. Sin embargo, este ensayo aparentemente conmemorativo incluye una crítica sustancial a la interpretación jaspersiana del origen de la filosofía. En este contexto, analizamos tanto el concepto jaspersiano del “tiempo-eje (Achsenzeit)” como la tesis orteguiana que interpreta el origen de la filosofía como un fenómeno colonial y (...) ateo. Y, en realidad, la discrepancia entre Ortega y Jaspers en este tema se debe a sus concepciones radicalmente opuestas de la filosofía misma. (shrink)

Purpose – This paper aims to suggest that ethical issues in information and communications technology should be researched from a holistic perspective, including environmental values and other values inherent in ICT. This paper thoroughly discusses the value of speed by drawing on ICT advertisements and theories of speed, primarily Paul Virilio’s work. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology consists of a semiotic analysis of ICT-related advertisements primarily from Sweden. These empirical data are combined with a close reading of Paul Virilio’s work, and (...) the analysis moves abductively between theory and empirical data. Findings – Speed is promoted in ICT-related advertisements and may be analyzed using concepts of dromology, dromocracy, dromoscopy, the dromosphere, instantaneity and grey ecology. Research limitations/implications – Most of the data are from the Swedish context. Social implications – To create a sustainable society, one must explicitly discuss how speed forms and shapes society. Originality/value – The paper combines philosophical theories with everyday commercials. It draws on the work of Paul Virilio, whose theories are seldom used in studies of information ethics, and redraws attention to the need for a holistic perspective to understand the values of ICT. (shrink)

The Epistles of the Brethren of Purity' is an encyclopedic compendium, probably composed in tenth-century Iraq by a society of adepts with Platonic, Pythagorean, and Shi'i tendencies. Its 52 sections ('epistles') are divided into four parts (Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, Sciences of the Soul and Intellect, and Theology). The current volume provides an edition, translation, and notes to Epistle 3 ('On Astronomia'), which forms one of the 14 sections on Mathematics. The content is a mixture of elementary astronomy and astrology, but (...) it is not a beginner's textbook. Rather, the purpose is to use examples from those disciplines to provide spiritual, moral, and soteriological guidance. Thus the Epistle uses the argument from design to show the necessity for a Creator who made the harmonious universe; this wondrous design is then employed by the authors as a model, providing humans with a paradigm for proper ethical, political, and even economic conduct; and the study of Astronomia helps the soul achieve ultimate happiness as it seeks to throw off the shackles of this mundane world and oppressive body in favour of the purity of the celestial realm.0Although by no means typical of Islamic astronomical literature, Epistle 3 of the Brethren of Purity gives a window into a fascinating and intriguing group operating during the early period of Islam who sought to continue and adopt one of the esoteric strands of Hellenistic philosophy within an Islamic context, meshing astronomy, astrology, Platonic-Pythagorean philosophy, Quranic and Biblical quotations, and anecdotes from the lives of the Abrahamic prophets. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine the ethico-legal issue of P2P file sharing and copyright infringement in two different countries - Japan and Sweden - to explore the differences in attitude and behaviour towards file sharing from a socio-cultural perspective. We adopt a comparative case study approach focusing on one Japanese case, the Winny case, and a Swedish case, the Pirate Bay case. Whereas similarities in attitudes and behaviour towards file sharing using P2P software between the two countries are found in (...) this study, the Swedish debate on file sharing has been coloured by an ideological and political dimension, which is absent in the Japanese context. This might indicate that Swedes have been more interested in issues of right and wrong, and the creation of political subject of piracy, while the Japanese are more interested in their own individual well being. (shrink)