Aworkshop was held August 26–28, 2015, by the Earth- Life Science Institute (ELSI) Origins Network (EON, see Appendix I) at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. This meeting gathered a diverse group of around 40 scholars researching the origins of life (OoL) from various perspectives with the intent to find common ground, identify key questions and investigations for progress, and guide EON by suggesting a roadmap of activities. Specific challenges that the attendees were encouraged to address included the following: What key (...) questions, ideas, and investigations should the OoL research community address in the near and long term? How can this community better organize itself and prioritize its efforts? What roles can particular subfields play, and what can ELSI and EON do to facilitate research progress? (See also Appendix II.) The present document is a product of that workshop; a white paper that serves as a record of the discussion that took place and a guide and stimulus to the solution of the most urgent and important issues in the study of the OoL. This paper is not intended to be comprehensive or a balanced representation of the opinions of the entire OoL research community. It is intended to present a number of important position statements that contain many aspirational goals and suggestions as to how progress can be made in understanding the OoL. The key role played in the field by current societies and recurring meetings over the past many decades is fully acknowledged, including the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life (ISSOL) and its official journal Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, as well as the International Society for Artificial Life (ISAL). (shrink)

We prove new results on common cause closedness of quantum probability spaces, where by a quantum probability space is meant the projection lattice of a non-commutative von Neumann algebra together with a countably additive probability measure on the lattice. Common cause closedness is the feature that for every correlation between a pair of commuting projections there exists in the lattice a third projection commuting with both of the correlated projections and which is a Reichenbachian common cause of the correlation. The (...) main result we prove is that a quantum probability space is common cause closed if and only if it has at most one measure theoretic atom. This result improves earlier ones published in [1]. The result is discussed from the perspective of status of the Common Cause Principle. Open problems on common cause closedness of general probability spaces (L, ϕ) are formulated, where L is an orthomodular bounded lattice and ϕ is a probability measure on L. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to examine whether it is morally wrong to ban only male citizens from leaving a country in wartime, and if it is, why it is the case. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared martial law and ordered general mobilization, at the same time prohibiting male citizens aged 18 to 60 from crossing the border. The justifiability of the ban is in dispute, and opponents have made a case in both legal and (...) moral dimensions. In the moral dimension, there are arguments based on consequentialism, individual freedom, and fairness or non-discrimination. In this paper, I focus on the third argument and argue that the ban unfairly and morally wrongfully discriminates against male Ukraine citizens on the basis of their gender. First, I define discrimination and apply it to our case. Second, moving from the descriptive definition of discrimination to its moral wrongness, I argue that the male-only ban is unfair and morally unjustified. Third, I argue that the ban can also be deemed morally wrong from one of the prominent views in the field of the ethics of discrimination, namely the deliberative freedom view. (shrink)

EurepGAP is a pioneering field level food safety protocol called ‘good agricultural practices’ currently exercising influence over the global food quality assurance system. Developed by a consortium of major European retailers, this private standard enforces codes of conduct that address issues of health and safety for producers and consumers, as well as working conditions and environmental management on the farmland. Despite various merits and benefits that the standard is premised to offer, the institutional design gives a financial edge to powerful (...) large farms and exporters while diminishing opportunities for smaller growers and exporters to remain in the profitable agricultural export sector of the Global South. This paper explores the institutional origin and evolution of EurepGAP, discusses entry barriers and risks that EurepGAP imposes on the global value chain stakeholders, as well as the ethical implications from broader theoretical perspectives. Subsequently, it examines the evolving nature of a new trend in the fresh fruit and vegetable sector, i.e., the rise of public GAP standards. Promoted by some governments in the Global South, these GAP standards emphasize support for horizontal partnerships among value chain stakeholders, farmer participation, and less capital-intensive agricultural innovations. The paper argues that, within certain limitations, these GAP standards have the potential to be the major alternative GAP approach by encouraging a much broader inclusion of small-scale producers towards the attainment of various social, economic, and environmental benefits. (shrink)

Although it receives less attention, (Lewis in Noûs 13:455–476, 1979. https://doi.org/10.2307/2215339) admitted that the branching-time(-like) model fits a wide range of counterfactuals, including (Nix) ‘If Nixon had pressed the button, there would have been a nuclear war’, which was raised by (Fine in Mind 84:451–458, 1975). However, Lewis then claimed that similarity analysis is more general than temporality analysis. In this paper, we do not scrutinise his claim. Instead, we re-analyse (Nix) not only model-theoretically but also proof-theoretically from the ‘meaning-as-use’ (...) and ‘inferentialist’ points of view. Then, we re-formalise (Nix) in a natural extension of hybrid tense logic, which we refer to as hybrid tense logic for temporal conditionals (HTL$$_{TC}$$ TC ). Consequently, we find that not only among counterfactuals, but also among indicatives, there is a wide range of conditionals whose formalisation in HTL$$_{TC}$$ TC is appropriate. We refer to these conditionals as temporal conditionals. This suggests a new logical generality that temporality analysis has but similarity analysis does not, from which emerges a new logical perspective on conditionals in general: temporal ones and others. (shrink)

Fleeing is an act to which we have attributed different kinds of moral evaluations. It has been associated with virtues such as prudence. At the same time, it has often been seen as a sign of cowardice and irresponsibility. Law in our age sometimes restricts our freedom to flee from danger, even against an individual’s will, as we have all witnessed in the recent war in Ukraine. Here lies the dilemma of the right to flee. Every individual has an interest (...) in fleeing from danger to life and physical security. If so, then no one ought to be prevented from fleeing from danger. However, there are individuals who are unable to flee by themselves. Since life and physical security are equally valuable for all, including these vulnerable individuals, the government also has a positive duty of protecting all from the cause of danger. This could mean that the government needs to coerce its able-bodied citizens to sacrifice their lives and limbs to eliminate the cause of danger for the protection of their vulnerable compatriots. If so, then the right to flee would be a right only for the vulnerable. In this paper, I challenge a citizen’s duty to fight for his or her nation and defend the position that everyone (including able-bodied citizens) has the right to flee from danger. First, I clarify the ground and scope of the right to flee, which I defend here. Second, I examine possible arguments for the government’s restriction of the right to flee and coercion of its citizens to fight for their nation, which are based on two of the most promising contentions for political obligation (i. e., a natural duty of justice and fairness). Third, after showing the failure of these, I elaborate further on who ought to discharge what kind of responsibilities to enforce the protection of the right to flee for all in our international society. Finally, I respond to two possible objections to my position. (shrink)

The daseinisation is a mapping from an orthomodular lattice in ordinary quantum theory into a Heyting algebra in topos quantum theory. While distributivity does not always hold in orthomodular lattices, it does in Heyting algebras. We investigate the conditions under which negations and meets are preserved by daseinisation, and the condition that any element in the Heyting algebra transformed through daseinisation corresponds to an element in the original orthomodular lattice. We show that these conditions are equivalent, and that, not only (...) in the case of non-distributive orthomodular lattices but also in the case of Boolean algebras containing more than four elements, the Heyting algebra transformed from the orthomodular lattice through daseinisation will contain an element that does not correspond to any element of the original orthomodular lattice. (shrink)

Introduction -- The sciences of society in the early nineteenth century -- The politics of the American experience -- The notion of civilization -- Projected science of society -- Historical knowledge and the theory of social change -- The science of the formation of character -- The science and art of political economy -- The politics of the Irish land question -- Conclusion.

Si pretendemos interpretar el significado de “Bu” con el pensamiento y las ideas actuales, dicha letra representaría el concepto de violencia, de la magnitud de una masacre. Esto es algo similar a la ficción que supone la tecnología que Winston-Churchill, narra en su obra sobre la Crisis Mundial, donde una sola llamada de teléfono podía hacer que miles de soldados mujeres y niños murieran, empujando de este modo a la humanidad al borde de la extinción. La Constitución de Japón, que (...) proclama la amenaza permanente de “La intimidación o el uso de la fuerza”, ilustra claramente este razonamiento. Nuestra guerra moderna en realidad implica poco más que derrotar la tecnología enemiga pero, el concepto que encierra la letra “Bu” no es tan mecánico ni superficial. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to consider whether, when, and why it is morally right to treat members of socially disadvantaged racial or ethnic groups favorably when allocating scarce medical resources. Since the COVID 2019 pandemic has had different impacts on racial and ethnic groups, some U.S. states have given racial and ethnic minorities preferential access to COVID-19 vaccines, leading to controversy over the moral and legal permissibility of doing so. I examine three arguments for affirmative action—the compensation, equality-of-opportunity, (...) and antidiscrimination arguments—and argue that both the equality-of-opportunity and antidiscrimination arguments have the potential to provide well-founded justification for race-based affirmative action for the allocation of scarce medical resources. I also consider further moral requirements that instances of affirmative action based on both or either of the two arguments should comply with for them to be justified. (shrink)

A mathematical rigorous definition of EPR states has been introduced by Arens and Varadarajan for finite dimensional systems, and extended by Werner to general systems. In the present paper we follow a definition of EPR states due to Werner. Then we show that an EPR state for incommensurable pairs is Bell correlated, and that the set of EPR states for incommensurable pairs is norm dense between two strictly space-like separated regions in algebraic quantum field theory.

In his later polemical work against Eberhard, Kant uses the concept of “original acquisition” to defend the critical meaning of his own concept of the “a priori”. It is well known that the former has been borrowed from the modern idea of natural law. In this paper, I try to clarify how the former characterizes the latter in Kant's critical epistemology, referring to a certain Kantian transformation of the traditional concept of “innate”. Drawing on the dualism of human cognitive faculties, (...) i.e. of sensibility and understanding, the conception of “original acquisition” can distinguish the apriority of the transcendental imagination from the rest of the a priori apparatus. Thus the concept of “original acquisition” points to one of the central theses in the first Critique. (shrink)

Lewis (Noûs 13:455–476, 1979) claimed that branching-time(-like) models can be derived from his sphere models. However, he did not present any specific construction of branching-time(-like) models from his sphere models formally. Meanwhile, Hosokawa (in: Modern logic of modality and its philosophical range: counterfactuals, Gettier problem, and information flow, Tokyo Metropolitan University, 2018) presented a logico-mathematically strict manner in which sphere models can be reconstructed from branching-time models. Subsequently, Hosokawa (J Logic Lang Inf 32:677–706, 2023) presented a proof-theoretically refined version of (...) hybrid tense logic for a certain type of conditionals, which is referred to as hybrid tense logic for temporal conditionals ( $$\textbf{HTL}_{TC}$$ ). In this paper, we interpret a hybrid version $${\textbf{V}}_{\mathcal {HC(@, \downarrow )}}$$ of Lewis’s counterfactual logic $${\textbf{V}}$$ into $$\textbf{HTL}_{TC}$$, and then prove that $$\textbf{HTL}_{TC}$$ is more expressive than $${\textbf{V}}_{\mathcal {HC(@, \downarrow )}}$$ on the class of temporal sphere models, i.e., sphere models derived from a type of branching-time models. (shrink)

Smith’s critique of empire has recently attracted scholarly attention, but it has mostly been from the perspective of justice. The present article, however, argues that his views on it could also be appreciated by his 'utilitarian' attitude toward it. Combined with a similar line of analysis of Josiah Tucker, another key (though neglected) figure, the authors hope to add to the current trends of scholarship on the Enlightenment critique of empire. Neither Smith nor Tucker appealed merely to political right principles, (...) but rather frequently explored imperial problems from 'utilitarian' viewpoints. A difference between Smith and Tucker derives from the latter's explicit appeal to Christian, or Protestant, ethics, by which Tucker was in a way associated not only with his mentor, Joseph Butler, but also with some of his adversaries, such as Richard Price and Joseph Priestley. The non-welfarist or non-consequentialist concept of justice was a significant element in the Enlightenment crit... (shrink)

No-cloning theorem says that there is no unitary operation that makes perfect clones of non-orthogonal quantum states. The objective of the present paper is to examine whether an imperfect cloning operation exists or not in a C*-algebraic framework. We define a universal \ -imperfect cloning operation which tolerates a finite loss \ of fidelity in the cloned state, and show that an individual system’s algebra of observables is abelian if and only if there is a universal \ -imperfect cloning operation (...) in the case where the loss of fidelity is less than \ . Therefore in this case no universal \ -imperfect cloning operation is possible in algebraic quantum theory. (shrink)

Despite the police preventing special fraud victimisation of older adults, both the number of cases and the amount of damage have remained high in Japan. ‘Special fraud’, in Japan, is a crime in which victims are tricked by fraudsters who through phone or postcards impersonate the victims’ relatives, employees and other associates, to dupe the victims of their cash or other valuables. The number of recognised cases of special fraud has been turned to increase in 2021. Although police or consumer (...) affairs administrations have been conducting all-encompassing enlightenment or public education for prevention, it is also necessary to reach out to those who are vulnerable to fraud. In this study, we determine the psychosocial characteristics of victims of special fraud in Japanese older adults. We analysed the age, gender, education, residential status, household satisfaction, risk perception and scam vulnerability scale of 56 older adults aged 60 years or older who had been victims of special fraud and 99 older adults aged 60 years or older who had never been victims of special fraud. The study found that the victimised older adults were more likely to be females who live alone and go out less frequently than the non-victimised older adults. The total scores of the scam vulnerability scale were higher among the elderly victims of special fraud compared to those who had never been scammed, suggesting that the psychosocial characteristics of victims of special fraud among older adults are being female, living alone, going out infrequently, having high confidence against fraud victimisation and responding quickly to phone calls and unknown visitors. Therefore, government agencies or family members should take care of older women who meet these characteristics to reduce their contact with fraudsters. (shrink)

This special issue of the _ Revue d’études benthamiennes _, entitled the 'International and Colonial Thought of the British Empire', aims to broaden recent debates on global intellectual history and imperial history. While this subject has been extensively studied in current scholarship, the issue attempts to approach several relatively under-examined figures, including Adam Ferguson, Josiah Tucker, and Frederic Rogers, as well as classical thinkers such as Jeremy Bentham and Adam Smith, from new perspectives. In this Introduction, we describe a pan-European (...) intellectual setting wherein these thinkers’ international and imperial thought should partly be situated, with a focus on the idea of international law, cosmopolitanism, and colonialism. (shrink)

Ethics education for professionals has become popular in Japan over the last two decades. Many professional schools now require students to take an applied ethics or professional ethics course. In contrast, very few courses of professional ethics for teaching exist or have been taught in Japan. In order to obtain suggestions for teacher education, this paper reviews and examines practices of ethics education for engineers and nurses in Japan that have been successfully implemented. The paper concludes that difficulties in professional (...) ethics education in Japan are caused by the fact that both teachers and students lack experience in leading and participating in discussion-based classes and misunderstand the effectiveness of a case-based pedagogy. It also suggests that we need to offer teachers systematic opportunities to be trained to be proficient in enabling students to be active and critical in class. (shrink)

This paper discusses Adam Smith’s intellectual relationship with the French Enlightenment, with a particular focus on his view of French culture as conveyed in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Compared to England at that time, eighteenth-century Scotland is considered as having a closer affiliation with France in terms of their intellectual and cultural life during what has been dubbed the Enlightenment. While David Hume was representative of the affinity between the French and Scottish literati, Smith also held an enduring interest (...) in the French philosophy, literature, and other aspects of its civilisation, long before the historic visit to Toulouse and Paris that would shape his political economy greatly. While this paper shall examine Smith’s Francophile and Europeanist tendency within his moral argument, it also emphasises that he was abundantly aware of the moral cultural tensions between these two branches of the European Enlightenment. (shrink)