In light of the problem of logical omniscience, some scholars have argued that belief is question-sensitive: agents don't simply believe propositions but rather believe answers to questions. Hoek (2022) has recently developed a version of this approach on which a belief state is a "web" of questions and answers. Here, we present several challenges to Hoek's question-sensitive account of belief. First, Hoek's account is prone to very similar logical omniscience problems as those he claims to address. Second, the link between (...) belief and action he proposes is too rigid. We close by sketching a generalization of the account that can meet these challenges. (shrink)

Almost every state has its own legal system and there is a legal system in accordance with the social norms of the state. However, although states have autonomy with their own legal systems, the legal system of each state unites under larger legal systems. From this point of view, three major legal systems can be accepted; Anglo-Saxon Legal System (English Legal System, Common Law), Continental European Legal System (Legal system of European states based on Roman law), Social Legal System on (...) which Russian Federation is based. Apart from these systems, there is also an Islamic legal system with its unique structure. The reason why the Islamic legal system is unique is that it is based on both religious and rational sources. In general, the case-based method is used in the Anglo-Saxon Legal System, and the rule-based method is used in the Continental European Legal System. Which one of these two method used by Islamic law which takes its source from Qur’an and hadith well? Or is it use both methods? Our aim in this study, in addition to analysing the operation of these two methods in Islamic law from a logical point of view, is to analyse the integration of the rule-based method into the case-based method and the case-based method with the rule-based method. With this research it is to provide a logical proposal to extend the intended use of analogy in Islamic law. As a matter of fact, we think that different branches of science should come together in order to produce new suggestions in this field. (shrink)

Introduction: a peculiar experiment -- Kinaesthetic knowing: the nineteenth-century biography of another kind of knowledge -- Looking: Wölfflin's comparative vision -- Affecting: Endell's mathematics of living feeling -- Drawing: the Debschitz school and formalism's subject -- Designing: discipline and introspection at the Bauhaus -- Epilogue.

A recent approach to the problem of logical omniscience holds that belief is question-sensitive: what an agent believes depends on what question they try to answer (Pérez Carballo, 2016; Yalcin, 2018; Hoek, 2022). While the question-sensitive approach can avoid some logical omniscience problems, we argue that it suffers from nearby problems. First, these accounts all validate closure principles that are just as implausible as the ones it was designed to avoid. Second, question-sensitivity by itself isn’t suitable for explaining many kinds (...) of failures of logical omniscience. Recognizing the flaws of this approach, however, naturally leads to a more promising solution. Our account generalizes the question-sensitive approach by appealing to (1) the defeasible nature of dispositions toward action associated with belief and (2) the algorithms an agent uses to make decisions. On our view, then, believing that φ means being disposed to employ an algorithm which outputs acting on the information that φ in normal circumstances associated with φ. We argue that this account naturally generalizes the question-sensitive accounts while avoiding their faults. (shrink)

Gayretimin bir kısmı bilim dünyasına hizmet, ama diğer çok mühim bir gayesi ise; koskoca bir İslam aleminin yitirmiş olduğu kendine hürmeti, güveni ve insanlık tarihindeki yerini hatırlatmak, kaybettiklerini inşa etmek içindir. Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin anısına ithaf ettiğimiz Felsefe ve Din Bilimleri Özel Sayımıza hoşgeldiniz. Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin, 24 Ekim 1924 tarihinde Bitlis’te dünyaya gelen Fuat Sezgin, il-kokulu Doğubayazıt’ta, ortaokul ve liseyi ise Erzurum’da bitirdikten sonra 1943 yılında İstanbul’a geldi. İstanbul Üniversitesi şarkiyat (Doğu bilimi) Araştırmaları (...) Enstitüsü’nde ünlü Alman şarkiyatçı Prof. Dr. Hellmut Ritter’in (1892-1971) öğrencisi olan Sezgin, Ritter’in tavsiyesi üzerine İslâm bilimlerine yöneldi. 1951’de İstanbul Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakülte-si’den mezun olduktan sonra Arap Dili ve Edebiyatı alanında “Buhârî’nin Kaynakları Hakkın-da Araştırmalar” başlıklı teziyle doktorasını tamamladı. Bu çalışmasıyla, hadis kaynağı olarak İslâm kültüründe önemli bir yere sahip olan Buhârî’nin sözlü kaynaklar yerine yazılı kaynaklara dayandığı tezini ortaya attı. Doçent unvanını 1954 yılında alan Sezgin, 1960 askeri darbesinin ardından üniversi-telerden uzaklaştırılan 147 akademisyen arasında kendi adının da bulunması üzerine 1961’de Türkiye’den ayrıldı ve çalışmalarına Goethe Üniversitesi’nde (Frankfurt) devam etti. Câbir bin Hayyân hakkında hazırladığı ikinci tezini 1965’te Goethe Üniversitesi Doğa Bilimleri tarihi Enstitüsü’ne sunan ve bir yıl sonra profesörlüğe yükseltilen Sezgin, aynı yıl kendisi gibi şarkiyatçı olan Ursula Sezgin ile Evlendi. Alanında şimdiye kadar yazılan en kapsamlı eser kabul edilen Geshichte des arabisc-hen Schrifttums (Arapça Yazma Eserler Literatürü Tarihi) başlıklı kapsamlı eserinin ilk cildini 1967’de yayımlayan Sezgin, 1978’de Kral Faysal İslâmi İlimler Ödülü’ne lâyık görüldü. Bu ödül nedeniyle kendisine takdim edilen maddi desteği değerlendirerek 1982’de Goethe Üniversitesi Arap-İslâm Bilimleri Tarihi Enstitrüsü’nü, ertesi yıl ise bu enstitü bünyesinde, tarih boyunca Müslüman bilim insanlarının icat ettiği 800’den fazla bilimsel alet ve düzene-ğinin modellerinin sergilendiği İslam Bilim ve teknoloji Müzesi’ni kurdu. Bu müzenin bir benzerini 2008 yılında istanbul’da kuran Sezgin, 2010 yılında Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin İslam Bilim Tarihi Araştırmaları Vakfı’nın kuruluşuna öncülük etti. Kahire Arap Dili Akademisi, Şam Arap Dili Akademisi, Fas Rabat Kraliyet Akademisi, Bağdat Arap Dili Akademisi, Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi şeref üyeliği de dâhil olmak üzere çok sayıda ödül ve nişana layık görülen Sezgin’e; Erciyes Üniversitesi, Atatürk Üniversitesi, Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi ve İstanbul Üniversitesi tarafından fahri doktora unvanları verildi. Frankfurt am Main Goethe Plaketi, Almanya Üstün Hizmet Madalyası, İran İslâmi Bilimler Kitap Ödülü ve Cumhurbaşkanlığı Kültür ve Sanat Büyük Ödülü ile taltif edildi. Prof. Sezgin’in öncülüğünde kurulan İstanbul İslâm Bilim ve teknoloji tarihi Müzesi, Kültür ve Turizm bakanlığı 2016 özel Ödülü’ne lâyık görüldü. Arapça, Süryanice, İbranice, Latince ve Almanca başta olmak üzere 27 dil bilen Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin, 30 Haziran 2018’de İstanbul’da vefat etti ve Gülhane Parkı’ndaki İstanbul İslâm Bilim ve teknoloji tarihi Müzesi’nin bahçesine defnedildi. Vefatının ardından, 2018/6 sayılı Cumhurbaşkanlığı genelgesi ile 2019 yılı “Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin Yılı” olarak ilân edildi. Cumhurbaşkanlığı genelgesinde "İslam kültür ve medeniyetinin daha iyi anlaşılmasını sağlamak ve onu yeni nesillere en doğru şekilde aktarmak amacıyla yapılacak söz konusu çalışmalara ilgili tüm kamu kurum ve kuruluşlarınca her türlü destek ve katkının sağlanması hususunda gereğini rica ederim." İfadelerine yer verilerek Fuat Sezgin’in ülke sathında anlatılması ve düşüncelerinin anlaşılması için çeşitli faaliyetlerin yürütülmesi istenmişti. Koordinasyon Merkezi olarak da Kırıkkale Üniversitesi seçildi Dünyanın önde gelen bilim tarihçilerinden olan, İslam Bilim Tarihi alanındaki çalışmaları bulunan Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin’i gelecek nesillere tanıtmak, fikirlerini anlatmak amacıyla Sivas Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi tarafından da birçok faaliyet yapıldı. Dünyanın önde gelen bilim tarihçilerinden Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin’e, İslam Bilim Tarihi alanındaki çalışmalarından dolayı Üniversitemiz tarafından “Fahri Bilim Doktoru” unvanı verildi. Prof. Dr. Sezgin’e fahri bilim doktoru unvanı verilmesi dolayısıyla Üniversitemiz Kül-tür Merkezi’nde düzenlenen tören İstiklal Marşımızın okunması ve saygı duruşuyla başladı. Programa Rektörümüz Prof. Dr. Alim Yıldız, Sivas Belediye Başkan Yardımcısı Ah-met Özaydın, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Üniversitesi Rektörü Prof. Dr. Musa Uzun, öğretim elemanları ve öğrenciler katıldı. Rektörümüz Prof. Dr. Alim Yıldız yaptığı açış konuşmasında, "İnsanlara İslam bilimlerinin gerçeğini tanıtmak, benlik duygularını olumsuz etkileyen yanlış yargılardan onları kurtarmak ve ferdin ehemmiyetine olan inancı kazandırmak amacıyla İslam Bilimi Tarihi araştırmalarına adanmış bir ömürdür Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin Hocamız. Öyle büyük bir otoritedir ki onu anmadan, onun hazırladığı eserlere bakmadan, bilim tarihiyle, İslam tarihiyle ilgili ortaya bir şeyler sunabilmek çok zordur. Bilim tarihinin en çalışkan, en birikimli bilim insanlarından biridir. İslam tarihine, İslam düşüncesine, İslami eserlere ve bilim dünyasına vermiş olduğu katkılarıyla bir medeniyet kâşifi, eşi bulunmaz bir değer ve ‘darbeler neden kötüdür’ sorusunun mücessem cevabıdır Prof. Dr. Sezgin. Bizim medeniyet ve kültürümüzde kültür, sanat ve beşerin, Yaratıcının her eserinde müşahede ettiği güzellikleri, çeşitli yol ve yöntemlerle ortaya koymasının vasıtasıdır. Bilgiyi hikmetle taçlandırıp irfana ulaştırmadıkça hiçbir şeyi yerli yerine oturtamayız." dedi. Konuşmanın ardından Rektör Yıldız, 93 yaşındaki Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin’e cübbe giydirdi. Daha sonra Sezgin katılımcılara ‘Arap İslam Tarihinden Bazı İzlenimler’ konulu ders verdi. Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin, “İnsanların bilgi tarihi ile ilgili verileri yazılı olarak kaydetme gayreti, politik tarihe olana nispetle tesadüflere ve keyfi değerlendirmelere göre çok geri zamanlarda oldu. İslam bilim tarihi yüksek ve kaliteli görüşleri yansıtır. Bunları burada sunamayacağım. Birçoğunu Arap-İslam tarihi adlı kitabımın bugüne kadar çıkmış olan 17. cildinde kaydetmeye çalıştım. Onu İstanbul’da Gülhane Parkı’nda İslam Tarihi Araştırmaları Vakfı yayınları arasında bulabilirsiniz.” dedi. Prof. Dr. Sezgin “Bilimler tarihinin verilerini değerlendirmekte, yaşanılan zamanın etüt şartını gözden kaçırılmasının esas olması gerektiğini anladım ve henüz kitabımı yazma-ya başlamadan rastladığım Fransız Coğrafya tarihçisi Joseph Toussaint Renaud (1795-1867)’un şu sözleri beni çok etkilemişti. “Tesadüf teknik ve sanatın ilerlemesinde çok büyük bir rol oynamaz. İnsanlar buluşlarında devamlı bir şekilde birden bir sıçrayışla değil, adım adım hareket eder. Her zaman aynı hızda değil, fakat devamlı olarak insan icat etmez. Olanı ilerletir.” ifadelerine yer verdi. Konuşmasının sonunda Prof. Dr. Sezgin, “Benim 65 yıldır yaymaya çalıştığım Arap İslam bilimleri tarihi hemen hemen her gün beni hayata bağladı. İslam dünyasında büyük bir hızla ilerleyen bilimler MS. 8. yüzyıldan itibaren Fransa ve İngiltere’ye diğer taraftan 10 ve 11. yüzyıldan itibaren Sicilya’ya ve İtalya’ya 9. yüzyıldan itibaren Bizans’a ulaştılar. Avrupa-lılar teknik bilimleri diğer bilimlere nazaran daha kolay anlıyor ve alabiliyorlardı. Bu anlam-da onlar 16. yüzyılda bazı yönlerde Müslümanlara ulaşmaya hatta onları geçmeye başladılar.” ifadelerini kullandı. Programın sonunda Rektörümüz ve Fatih Sultan Mehmet Üniversitesi Rektörü Prof. Dr. Musa Duman, Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin’e tezhipli bir tablo hediye ettiler. 2019 Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin Yılı kapsamında Sivas Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi Merkezî Kütüphanesi’ne Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin’in ismi verildi. Ayrıca Üniversitemiz Rektörlüğü tarafından düzenlenen 5’inci Hazan Şiir Dinletisi Sezgin anısına ithaf edilmiştir. 2019 yılının Haziran ayı içerisinde ise Üniversitemiz Rektörlüğü öncülüğünde ve İlahiyat Fakültesi Dekanlığınca ile Sivas Merkez Ulu Cami’de merhum Prof. Dr. Sezgin için Kur’an-ı Kerim tilaveti ve Mevlid-i Şerif programı gerçekleştirilmiştir. Son olarak üniversitemiz rektörlüğü tarafından desteklenen ve Sivas Cumhuriyet Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi tarafından yayımlanan Cumhuriyet İlahiyat Dergisi’nin 23. Cilt 3. Sayısı (Felsefe ve Din Bilimleri Özel Sayısı) Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin anısına ithaf edilmiştir. Felsefe ve Din Bilimleri alanından birçok güncel ve ilgi çekici araştırmayı bir araya getirdiğimiz sayımızı sizlere sunmaktan heyecan ve mutluluk duyuyoruz. Bize emanet edi-len değerli çalışmaları uluslararası alana taşımak için geniş bir ekiple tüm gayretimizi gösterdiğimizi ifade etmek isteriz. Yeni sayımızda başta makale sahibi değerli bilim insanlarımıza, yayın, danışma ve hakem kurullarımıza, Rektörlüğümüz Basımevi personeline ve özellikle dergimizin yayın aşamasında yadsınmaz emekleri olan alan editörlerimiz Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Adem Çiftçi, Arş. Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Gör. Fatma Kurttekin, Arş. Gör. Maruf Çakır, Arş. Gör. Alper Ay, Arş. Gör. Esma Güneş, Gör. Bayram Ünce, Arş. Gör. Sena Kaplan, Arş. Gör. Gülistan Aktaş,Arş. Gör. Hamit Demir Arş. Gör. Merve Yetim, Arş. Gör. Rukiye Göğen, Arş. Gör. Ömer Faruk Özbek, Arş. Gör. Salime Bera Kemikli, Arş. Gör. Naim Yaman, Arş. Gör. Sema Tombul, Arş. Gör. Nurgül Akdoğan, Arş. Gör. Ayşe Mine Akar, Arş. Gör. İlknur Bahadır ile Arapça dil editörü Prof. Dr. Ömer Faruk Yavuz ve İngilizce dil kontrolü sorumluluğunu üstlenen alan editörlerimiz Dr. Miyase Yavuz Altıntaş, Uzm. Zeynep Yücedoğru, Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Zuhal Ağılkaya Şahin, Dr. Metin Güven ve Dr. Kenan Tekin’e teşekkür ederiz. Dergimizin 23. Cilt 2. ve 3. Sayı (Özel Sayı)’larından itibaren Yazı İşleri Müdürü olarak Dr. Ahmet Çelik’in görevlendirildiğini bildirir kendisine yeni görevinde başarılar dileriz. Önceki sayılarımızda dergimizin Yazı İşleri Müdürlüğünü ifa eden Doç. Dr. Ali Yılmaz’a teşekkürlerimizi sunarız. 15 Haziran 2020’de yayınlanacak bir sonraki sayımız için makale kabul tarihlerinin yayın kurulumuz tarafından 1 Ocak- 15 Mart olarak değiştirildiğini hatırlatır çalışmalarınız-da kolaylıklar dileriz. 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Neither art nor philosophy was kind to beauty during the twentieth century. Much modern art disdains beauty, and many philosophers deeply suspect that beauty merely paints over or distracts us from horrors. Intellectuals consigned the passions of beauty to the margins, replacing them with the anemic and rarefied alternative, "aesthetic pleasure." In Only a Promise of Happiness, Alexander Nehamas reclaims beauty from its critics. He seeks to restore its place in art, to reestablish the connections among art, beauty, and (...) desire, and to show that the values of art, independently of their moral worth, are equally crucial to the rest of life.Nehamas makes his case with characteristic grace, sensitivity, and philosophical depth, supporting his arguments with searching studies of art and literature, high and low, from Thomas Mann's Death in Venice and Manet's Olympia to television. Throughout, the discussion of artworks is generously illustrated.Beauty, Nehamas concludes, may depend on appearance, but this does not make it superficial. The perception of beauty manifests a hope that life would be better if the object of beauty were part of it. This hope can shape and direct our lives for better or worse. We may discover misery in pursuit of beauty, or find that beauty offers no more than a tantalizing promise of happiness. But if beauty is always dangerous, it is also a pressing human concern that we must seek to understand, and not suppress. (shrink)

For much of its history, philosophy was not merely a theoretical discipline but a way of life, an "art of living." This practical aspect of philosophy has been much less dominant in modernity than it was in ancient Greece and Rome, when philosophers of all stripes kept returning to Socrates as a model for living. The idea of philosophy as an art of living has survived in the works of such major modern authors as Montaigne, Nietzsche, and Foucault. Each of (...) these writers has used philosophical discussion as a means of establishing what a person is and how a worthwhile life is to be lived. In this wide-ranging, brilliantly written account, Alexander Nehamas provides an incisive reevaluation of Socrates' place in the Western philosophical tradition and shows the importance of Socrates for Montaigne, Nietzsche, and Foucault. Why does each of these philosophers—each fundamentally concerned with his own originality—return to Socrates as a model? The answer lies in the irony that characterizes the Socrates we know from the Platonic dialogues. Socratic irony creates a mask that prevents a view of what lies behind. How Socrates led the life he did, what enabled or inspired him, is never made evident. No tenets are proposed. Socrates remains a silent and ambiguous character, forcing readers to come to their own conclusions about the art of life. This, Nehamas shows, is what allowed Montaigne, Nietzsche, and Foucault to return to Socrates as a model without thereby compelling them to imitate him. This highly readable, erudite study argues for the importance of the tradition within Western philosophy that is best described as "the art of living" and casts Montaigne, Nietzsche, and Foucault as the three major modern representatives of this tradition. Full of original ideas and challenging associations, this work will offer new ways of thinking about the philosophers Nehamas discusses and about the discipline of philosophy itself. (shrink)

' But, although such a being (a purely intellectual being) might perhaps be conceived to exist, and although, in studying our internal frame, ...

Alexander R. Pruss examines a large family of paradoxes to do with infinity - ranging from deterministic supertasks to infinite lotteries and decision theory. Having identified their common structure, Pruss considers at length how these paradoxes can be resolved by embracing causal finitism.

Monographic issue on the Philosophy of Emotions. Contents: Resentment, Empathy and Indignation; Jacqueline Taylor / Compassion without Cognitivism; Charlie Kurth / “I Don’t Want Your Compassion!”. The Importance of Empathy for Morality; Manuel Camassa / Making sense of emotional contagion; Carme Isern-Mas, Antoni Gomila / On Pride; Lorenzo Greco / Envy and its objects; Alessandra Fussi / Admiration, moral knowledge and transformative experiences; Maria Silvia Vaccarezza / Fear as Related to Courage: An Aristotelian-Thomistic Redefinition of Cognitive Emotions; Claudia Navarini, Ettore (...) De Monte / On Courage. The Sense Of θυμός; Tiziana Migliore / Shades of Schadenfreude. A phenomenological account of pleasure at another’s misfortune; Danilo Manca / Concern and the Structure of Action; Alexander A. Jeuk / On Sexual Lust as an Emotion; Larry A. Herzberg / Emotions and Literature in Musil; Zeynep Talay Turner. (shrink)

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) has been the subject of intense interest as a locus of cognitive control. Several computational models have been proposed to account for a range of effects, including error detection, conflict monitoring, error likelihood prediction, and numerous other effects observed with single-unit neurophysiology, fMRI, and lesion studies. Here, we review the state of computational models of cognitive control and offer a new theoretical synthesis of the mPFC as signaling response–outcome predictions. This new synthesis has two interacting (...) components. The first component learns to predict the various possible outcomes of a planned action, and the second component detects discrepancies between the actual and intended responses; the detected discrepancies in turn update the outcome predictions. This single construct is consistent with a wide array of performance monitoring effects in mPFC and suggests a unifying account of the cognitive role of medial PFC in performance monitoring. (shrink)

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Hate speech law can be found throughout the world. But it is also the subject of numerous principled arguments, both for and against. These principles invoke a host of morally relevant features and practical considerations . The book develops and then critically examines these various principled arguments. It also attempts to de-homogenize hate speech law into different clusters of laws/regulations/codes that constrain uses of hate speech, so as to facilitate a more nuanced examination of the principled arguments. Finally, it argues (...) that it is morally fitting for judicial and legislative judgments about the overall warrant of hate speech law to reflect principled compromise. Principled compromise is characterized not merely by compromise over matters of principled concern but also by compromise which is itself governed by ideals of moral duty or civic virtue. (shrink)

The aim of interpretation is to capture the past in the future: to capture, not to recapture, first, because the iterative prefix suggests that meaning, which was once manifest, must now be found again. But the postulated author dispenses with this assumption. Literary texts are produced by very complicated actions, while the significance of even our simplest acts is often far from clear. Parts of the meaning of a text may become clear only because of developments occurring long after its (...) composition. And though the fact that an author means something may be equivalent to the fact that a writer could have meant it, this is not to say that the writer did, on whatever level, actually mean it.Alexander Nehamas, professor of philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, has written articles on ancient Greek philosophy, literary theory, Nietzsche and Thomas Mann. (shrink)

Alexander's views on universals are, it seems, quite important in the history of western philosophy. When Boethius gives in his second commentary on Porphyry's Isagoge his solution to the problem of universals as he conceived it, he claims to be adopting Alexander's approach. If true, this means that the locus classicus for all western medieval thinkers on this topic is really a rendering of Alexander's teaching. Alexander commented Aristotle’s statement in his On the Soul “The universal (...) animal either is nothing at all or is posterior if it exists”, and this commentary has been translated into Arabic several times in the classical period. In this study the anonymous Arabic translations of Alexander’s commentary has been translated into English. (shrink)

To figure out whether the main empirical question “Is our brain hardwired to believe in and produce God, or is our brain hardwired to perceive and experience God?” is answered, this paper presents systematic critical review of the positions, arguments and controversies of each side of the neuroscientific-theological debate and puts forward an integral view where the human is seen as a psycho-somatic entity consisting of the multiple levels and dimensions of human existence (physical, biological, psychological, and spiritual reality), allowing (...) consciousness/mind/spirit and brain/body/matter to be seen as different sides of the same phenomenon, neither reducible to each other. The emergence of a form of causation distinctive from physics where mental/conscious agency (a) is neither identical with nor reducible to brain processes and (b) does exert “downward” causal influence on brain plasticity and the various levels of brain functioning is discussed. This manuscript also discusses the role of cognitive processes in religious experience and outlines what can neuroscience offer for study of religious experience and what is the significance of this study for neuroscience, clinicians, theology and philosophy. A methodological shift from “explanation” to “description” of religious experience is suggested. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion between theologians, cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists. (shrink)

This book presents new findings that deal with different facets of the well-being of children and their relevance to the proper treatment of children. The well-being of children is considered against the background of a wide variety of legal, political, medical, educational and familial perspectives. The book addresses diverse issues from a range of disciplinary perspectives using a variety of methods. It has three major sections with the essays in each section loosely organized about a common general theme. The first (...) section focuses on issues concerning the relation between children’s well-being and autonomy or agency. The second section deals with child well-being insofar as the limits of parental authority are concerned. The third section has a more applied orientation and addresses a variety of public policy controversies involving the interpretation of children’s well-being. (shrink)

Appeals to human nature are ubiquitous, yet historically many have proven ill-founded. Why? How might frequent errors be remedied towards building a more robust and reliable scientific study of human nature? Our aim is neither to advance specific scientific or philosophical claims about human nature, nor to proscribe or eliminate such claims. Rather, we articulate through examples the types of errors that frequently arise in this field, towards improving the rigor of the scientific and social studies. We seek to analyze (...) such claims rhetorically, cognitively, and epistemically. Namely, how do we think about human nature? Claims about human nature, we show, are susceptible to widely exhibited deficits in cognitive tendencies such as framing, confirmation bias, satisficing, and teleological perspectives, as well as motivated reasoning. Such missteps foster methodological, empirical, and psychological mistakes and biases. Specifically, they promote the naturalizing error, whereby cultural ideology and values are projected onto an apparently objective description of nature. Concrete remedies are offered to aid scientists in conducting and reporting their research goals and findings more responsibly and effectively (relevant also to educators and other communicators who convey these findings publicly). Recommendations include acknowledging that human nature claims are often context-dependent, seeking multiple critical perspectives, and explicitly labeling uncertainties. (shrink)

This article examines some of the implications of technological optimism. I first contextualize, historically and culturally, some contemporary variants of techno-optimism in relation to the equally significant contemporary exemplars of techno-pessimism, skepticism and fatalism. I show that this techno-optimism is often instrumentalized in the sense that the optimistic outlook as such is believed to have some influence on the evolving state of affairs. The cogency of this assumption is scrutinized. I argue that in the absence of explicit probabilities, such optimism (...) presupposes some form of retro-causation, where the future is held to somehow have a retroactive effect on the past. This suggests that the underlying mechanism by which techno-optimism is supposed to be instrumental in bringing about the future is fundamentally superstitious. Such superstition, of course, goes against our common understanding of reason and rationality, for adopting rational expectations about the world requires that we avoid the emotional over-determination of our assessments. I show that applied reason is conceptually entangled with this superstitious optimism in the continued successes of technology. The article thus reveals a curious sense in which reason is intrinsically superstitious. I offer an evolutionary explanation for this, showing that the biological origins of reason will by nature tend to produce rational agents which are superstitiously bound to realism and causality, and thus implicitly optimistic about technology’s capacity to overcome contingency. (shrink)

In this volume his object is to fully examine his friend's writings and characters and draws upon his own personal recollections to do so.

We seem to be responsible for our beliefs in a distinctively epistemic way. We often hold each other to account for the beliefs that we hold. We do this by criticising other believers as ‘gullible’ or ‘biased’, and by trying to persuade others to revise their beliefs. But responsibility for belief looks hard to understand because we seem to lack control over our beliefs. In this paper, I argue that we can make progress in our understanding of responsibility for belief (...) by thinking about it in parallel with another kind of responsibility: legal responsibility for criminal negligence. Specifically, I argue that that a popular account of responsibility for belief, which grounds it in belief’s reasons-responsiveness, faces a problem analogous to one faced by H.L.A. Hart’s influential capacity-based account of culpability. This points towards a more promising account of responsibility of belief, though, if we draw on accounts of negligence that improve on Hart’s. Broadly speaking, the account of negligence that improves on Hart’s account grounds culpability in a concern for others’ interests, whereas my account of epistemic responsibility grounds responsibility for belief in a concern for the truth. (shrink)

Scotland has played an immense role in European high culture through the centuries, and among its cultural links none have been greater than those with France. This book shows that the links with France stretch back deep into the Middle Ages, and continue without a break into the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment.

The claim that workers are subject to structural domination in the labor market is a central contention of the recent radical turn in republican political theory, but it remains undertheorized. Two core components—the claim that workers have “no reasonable alternative” to selling their labor to capitalists and the relevance of exposure to potential interference in such cases—remain unclear. Without a more precise specification of the conditions of structural domination, it is difficult to assess how well republican prescriptions minimize it. I (...) develop a revised defense of the central claim through an analysis of these components. I clarify what it is to have reasonable alternatives in the labor market but show that holding such options is insufficient to avoid structural domination. I argue that the dependence at the heart of structural domination can be constituted multifariously and develop an additional criterion directed at capturing such dependence in production. (shrink)

Building on Nozick's invariantism about objectivity, I propose to define scientific objectivity in terms of counterfactual independence. I will argue that such a counterfactual independence account is (a) able to overcome the decisive shortcomings of Nozick's original invariantism and (b) applicable to three paradigmatic kinds of scientific objectivity (that is, objectivity as replication, objectivity as robustness, and objectivity as Mertonian universalism).

The article responds to an overlooked objection put by Allen Buchanan to John Rawls’s theory of justice: that implementing the Difference Principle over time may require gross and frequent disruptions of people’s framing and execution of long-term plans. Having strengthened Buchanan’s objection to resolve significant weaknesses in his main counterexample, I argue that the best response to this objection draws on the concept of the rule of law, specifically, the legal doctrine of legitimate expectations, which can be found in English, (...) French, and European Union administrative law. I also explore the suitability of incorporating this doctrine into Justice as Fairness given its absence in United States constitutional and administrative law. Finally, I turn to consider the question of what the government owes to agents in whom legitimate expectations are induced and then frustrated. Here I introduce the Precept of Administrative Liability. (shrink)

Those inquiring into the nature of mind have long been interested in the foundations of mathematics, and conversely this branch of knowledge is distinctive in that our access to it is purely through thought. A better understanding of mathematical thought should clarify the conceptual foundations of mathematics, and a deeper grasp of the latter should in turn illuminate the powers of mind through which mathematics is made available to us. The link between conceptions of mind and of mathematics has been (...) a central theme running through the great competing philosophies of mathematics of the twentieth century, though each has refashioned the connection and its import in distinctive ways. The present collection will be of interest to students of both mathematics and of mind. Contents include: "Introduction" by Alexander George; "What is Mathematics About?" by Michael Dummett; "The Advantages of Honest Toil over Theft" by George Boolos; "The Law of Excluded Middle and the Axiom of Choice" by W.W. Tait; "Mechanical Procedures and Mathematical Experience" by Wilfried Sieg; "Mathematical Intuition and Objectivity" by Daniel Isaacson; "Intuition and Number" by Charles Parsons; and "Hilbert's Axiomatic Method and the Laws of Thought" by Michael Hallett. (shrink)

It is an old idea, lately out of fashion but now experiencing a revival, that quantum mechanics may best be understood, not as a physical theory with a problematic probabilistic interpretation, but as something closer to a probability calculus per se. However, from this angle, the rather special C *-algebraic apparatus of quantum probability theory stands in need of further motivation. One would like to find additional principles, having clear physical and/or probabilistic content, on the basis of which this apparatus (...) can be reconstructed. In this paper, I explore one route to such a derivation of finite-dimensional quantum mechanics, by means of a set of strong, but probabilistically intelligible, axioms. Stated very informally, these require that systems appear completely classical as restricted to a single measurement, that different measurements, and likewise different pure states, be equivalent (up to the action of a compact group of symmetries), and that every state be the marginal of a bipartite non-signaling state perfectly correlating two measurements. This much yields a mathematical representation of (basic, discrete) measurements as orthonormal subsets of, and states, by vectors in, an ordered real Hilbert space – in the quantum case, the space of Hermitian operators, with its usual tracial inner product. One final postulate (a simple minimization principle, still in need of a clear interpretation) forces the positive cone of this space to be homogeneous and self-dual and hence, to be the state space of a formally real Jordan algebra. From here, the route to the standard framework of finite-dimensional quantum mechanics is quite short. (shrink)