Amazon Book Review Series of “Wild Wise Weird”.

Understanding everyday behavior relies heavily upon understanding our ability to improvise, how we are able to continuously anticipate and adapt in order to coordinate with our environment and others. Here we consider the ability of musicians to improvise, where they must spontaneously coordinate their actions with co-performers in order to produce novel musical expressions. Investigations of this behavior have traditionally focused on describing the organization of cognitive structures. The focus, here, however, is on the ability of the time-evolving patterns of (...) inter-musician movement coordination as revealed by the mathematical tools of complex dynamical systems to provide a new understanding of what potentiates the novelty of spontaneous musical action. We demonstrate this approach through the application of cross wavelet spectral analysis, which isolates the strength and patterning of the behavioral coordination that occurs between improvising musicians across a range of nested time-scales. Revealing the sophistication of the previously unexplored dynamics of movement coordination between improvising musicians is an important step towards understanding how creative musical expressions emerge from the spontaneous coordination of multiple musical bodies. (shrink)

Throughout the biological and biomedical sciences there is a growing need for, prescriptive ‘minimum information’ (MI) checklists specifying the key information to include when reporting experimental results are beginning to find favor with experimentalists, analysts, publishers and funders alike. Such checklists aim to ensure that methods, data, analyses and results are described to a level sufficient to support the unambiguous interpretation, sophisticated search, reanalysis and experimental corroboration and reuse of data sets, facilitating the extraction of maximum value from data sets (...) them. However, such ‘minimum information’ MI checklists are usually developed independently by groups working within representatives of particular biologically- or technologically-delineated domains. Consequently, an overview of the full range of checklists can be difficult to establish without intensive searching, and even tracking thetheir individual evolution of single checklists may be a non-trivial exercise. Checklists are also inevitably partially redundant when measured one against another, and where they overlap is far from straightforward. Furthermore, conflicts in scope and arbitrary decisions on wording and sub-structuring make integration difficult. This presents inhibit their use in combination. Overall, these issues present significant difficulties for the users of checklists, especially those in areas such as systems biology, who routinely combine information from multiple biological domains and technology platforms. To address all of the above, we present MIBBI (Minimum Information for Biological and Biomedical Investigations); a web-based communal resource for such checklists, designed to act as a ‘one-stop shop’ for those exploring the range of extant checklist projects, and to foster collaborative, integrative development and ultimately promote gradual integration of checklists. (shrink)

Appiah’s latest book does something distinctive: it shows why we need to take another look at very familiar dimensions of identity, those dimensions of our personhood that encompass cultural loyalties, moral responsibilities towards others, and the ethical life. Indeed, Appiah’s book is a kind of answer to an ancient Socratic question, that is, what sort of person one aims to be. The Ethics of Identity is an apt title, for the arguments contained within make the case that who we are (...) is often defined by what we are, whether we are conscious of this fact or not. This insight, as venerably ancient as it is currently in vogue, is examined here with renewed vigour and nuance. (shrink)

Through most of the twentieth century, life scientists grew increasingly sceptical of the biological significance of folk classifications of people by race. New work on the human genome has raised the possibility of a resurgence of scientific interest in human races. This paper aims to show that the racial sceptics are right, while also granting that biological information associated with racial categories may be useful.

This presentation includes a complete bibliography of John Corcoran’s publications relevant on Aristotle’s logic. The Sections I, II, III, and IV list respectively 23 articles, 44 abstracts, 3 books, and 11 reviews. Section I starts with two watershed articles published in 1972: the Philosophy & Phenomenological Research article—from Corcoran’s Philadelphia period that antedates his discovery of Aristotle’s natural deduction system—and the Journal of Symbolic Logic article—from his Buffalo period first reporting his original results. It ends with works published in 2015. (...) Some items are annotated as listed or with endnotes connecting them with other work and pointing out passages that, in retrospect, are seen to be misleading and in a few places erroneous. In addition, Section V, “Discussions”, is a nearly complete secondary bibliography of works describing, interpreting, extending, improving, supporting, and criticizing Corcoran’s work: 10 items published in the 1970s, 24 in the 1980s, 42 in the 1990s, 60 in the 2000s, and 70 in the current decade. The secondary bibliography is also annotated as listed or with endnotes: some simply quoting from the cited item, but several answering criticisms and identifying errors. Section VI, “Alternatives”, lists recent works on Aristotle’s logic oblivious of Corcoran’s research and, more generally in some cases, even of the Łukasiewicz-initiated tradition. As is evident from Section VII, “Acknowledgements”, Corcoran’s publications benefited from consultation with other scholars, most notably George Boger, Charles Kahn, John Mulhern, Mary Mulhern, Anthony Preus, Timothy Smiley, Michael Scanlan, Roberto Torretti, and Kevin Tracy. All of Corcoran’s Greek translations were done in collaboration with two or more classicists. Corcoran never published a sentence without discussing it with his colleagues and students. (shrink)

The philosophical interest in the nature, value, and varieties of human understanding has swelled in recent years. This article will provide an overview of new research in the epistemology of understanding, with a particular focus on the following questions: What is understanding and why should we care about it? Is understanding reducible to knowledge? Does it require truth, belief, or justification? Can there be lucky understanding? Does it require ‘grasping’ or some kind of ‘know-how’? This cluster of questions has largely (...) set the research agenda for the study of understanding in epistemology. This article will conclude by discussing some varieties of understanding and highlight directions for future research. (shrink)

This paper addresses the question of what the attitude of hope consists in. We argue that shortcomings in recent theories of hope have methodological roots in that they proceed with little regard for the rich body of literature on the emotions. Taking insights from work in the philosophy of emotions, we argue that hope involves a kind of normative perception. We then develop a strategy for determining the content of this perception, arguing that hope is a perception of practical reasons. (...) Our proposal stands in contrast with familiar views on which hope is fundamentally about the good. We conclude by considering the increasingly popular idea that some hopes are non-intentional and thus, by implication, non-perceptual. We reply by arguing that our perceptual theory plausibly generalizes to these instances of hope. (shrink)

Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, EarlyView.

The goal of this article is to present a first list of ethical concerns that may arise from research and personal use of virtual reality (VR) and related technology, and to offer concrete recommendations for minimizing those risks. Many of the recommendations call for focused research initiatives. In the first part of the article, we discuss the relevant evidence from psychology that motivates our concerns. In Section “Plasticity in the Human Mind,” we cover some of the main results suggesting that (...) one’s environment can influence one’s psychological states, as well as recent work on inducing illusions of embodiment. Then, in Section “Illusions of Embodiment and Their Lasting Effect,” we go on to discuss recent evidence indicating that immersion in VR can have psychological effects that last after leaving the virtual environment. In the second part of the article, we turn to the risks and recommendations. We begin, in Section “The Research Ethics of VR,” with the research ethics of VR, covering six main topics: the limits of experimental environments, informed consent, clinical risks, dual-use, online research, and a general point about the limitations of a code of conduct for research. Then, in Section “Risks for Individuals and Society,” we turn to the risks of VR for the general public, covering four main topics: long-term immersion, neglect of the social and physical environment, risky content, and privacy. We offer concrete recommendations for each of these 10 topics, summarized in Table 1. (shrink)

An intuitive and widely accepted view is that (a) beliefs aim at truth, (b) many citizens have stable and meaningful political beliefs, and (c) citizens choose to support political candidates or parties on the basis of their political beliefs. We argue that all three claims are false. First, we argue that political beliefs often differ from ordinary world-modelling beliefs because they do not aim at truth. Second, we draw on empirical evidence from political science and psychology to argue that most (...) people lack stable and meaningful political beliefs. Third, we claim that the true psychological basis for voting behavior is not an individual’s political beliefs but rather group identity. Along the way, we reflect on what this means for normative democratic theory. (shrink)

Episodic memory (memories of the personal past) and prospecting the future (anticipating events) are often described as mental time travel (MTT). While most use this description metaphorically, we argue that episodic memory may allow for MTT in at least some robust sense. While episodic memory experiences may not allow us to literally travel through time, they do afford genuine awareness of past-perceived events. This is in contrast to an alternative view on which episodic memory experiences present past-perceived events as mere (...) intentional contents. Hence, episodic memory is a way of coming into experiential contact with, or being again aware of, what happened in the past. We argue that episodic memory experiences depend on a causal-informational link with the past events being remembered, and that, assuming direct realism about episodic memory experiences, this link suffices for genuine awareness. Since there is no such link in future prospection, a similar argument cannot be used to show that it also affords genuine awareness of future events. Constructivist views of memory might challenge the idea of memory as genuine awareness of remembered events. We explain how our view is consistent with both constructivist and anti-causalist conceptions of memory. There is still room for an interpretation of episodic memory as enabling genuine awareness of past events, even if it involves reconstruction. (shrink)

Etic theorizing uses the theorist’s social notions to theorize about their subject. This theorist may claim that Genghis Khan was a war criminal even though his actions predate the enactment of the Geneva Conventions. Brian Epstein considers a modal etic theorist who claims that Genghis Khan would have been a war criminal even if the Geneva Conventions were never enacted. Epstein argues that this has metaphysical import: it requires postulating a novel metaphysical notion of “anchoring.” Drawing from some familiar issues (...) in modal actualism, I argue that modal etic theorizing does not support this postulate. But it does suggest a distinctive kind of modality at work in social reality. (shrink)

In this paper I propose and develop a social account of global autonomy. On this view, a person is autonomous simply to the extent to which it is difficult for others to subject her to their wills. I argue that many properties commonly thought necessary for autonomy are in fact properties that tend to increase an agent’s immunity to such interpersonal subjection, and that the proposed account is therefore capable of providing theoretical unity to many of the otherwise heterogeneous requirements (...) of autonomy familiar from recent discussions. Specifically, I discuss three such requirements: (i) possession of legally protected status, (ii) a sense of one’s own self-worth, and (iii) a capacity for critical reflection. I argue that the proposed account is not only theoretically satisfying but also yields a rich and attractive conception of autonomy. (shrink)

This paper outlines a new type of skepticism that is both compatible with fallibilism and supported by work in psychology. In particular, I will argue that we often cannot properly trust our ability to rationally evaluate reasons, arguments, and evidence (a fundamental knowledge-seeking faculty). We humans are just too cognitively impaired to achieve even fallible knowledge, at least for many beliefs.

In this paper, I examine two major challenges to epistemic theories of democracy: “the authority dilemma” and “the epistemic gamble.” The first is a conceptual challenge, suggesting that epistemic democracy is inherently self-undermining. The second is a normative challenge, asserting that the case for democracy should not rely on precarious epistemic grounds. I argue that both challenges fail. Thus, epistemic theories of democracy escape two of the most popular objections to this view.

A prevalent political narrative is that we are facing an epistemological crisis, where many citizens no longer care about truth and facts. Yet the view that we are living in a post-truth era relies on some implicit questionable empirical and normative assumptions. The post-truth rhetoric converts epistemic issues into motivational issues, treating people with whom we disagree as if they no longer believe in or care about truth. This narrative is also dubious on epistemic, moral, and political grounds. It is (...) epistemically dubious in being largely insensitive to the problem of complexity in politics; it is morally dubious because “post-truth” is often a derogatory label for individuals or groups that are deemed stupid, irrational, or morally compromised; and it is a politically toxic neologism because it purports to use the language of ‘truth’ as a weapon against power, yet these truth-claims are often themselves attempts to exert power over others by delegitimizing their perspectives. While it may seem as if truth and democracy are on especially bad terms lately, politics and truth have long had a vexed relationship, and moral panics about the value of truthfulness in politics are as old as politics itself. (shrink)

There is a loud and persistent drum beat of support for schools, for citizenship, for diversity and inclusion, and increasingly for labor market readiness with very little critical attention to the assumptions underlying these agendas, let alone to their many internal contradictions. Accordingly, in this book I examine the philosophical, motivational, and practical challenges of education theory, policy, and practice in the twenty-first century. As I proceed, I do not neglect the historical, comparative international context so essential to better understanding (...) where we are, as well as what is attainable in terms of educational justice. I argue that we must constructively critique some of our most cherished beliefs about education if we are to save the hope of real justice from the rhetoric of imagined justice. (shrink)

This paper argues against the common justification for the necessity of the state through the particular difficulty of private property right. Instead, I argue that the necessity of the state is internal to the concept of right in general. In order to show this, I point out how Kants adoption of hylomorphic language for the concept of right, where there is a formal and material aspect of right, allows us to understand the Rechtslehre as progressing through a syllogistic deduction from (...) innate right (major), private right (minor) to public right (conclusion). Material right is made necessary through its subsumption under formal right in the civil condition. (shrink)

Whatever the merits idealized liberal accounts of citizenship education may have in the seminar room, in this essay I argue that they are both unpersuasive and ineffectual. This is the case, because they are insufficiently attentive to the empirical realities, first (a) with respect to how real – versus imaginary – school systems function; and second, (b) with respect to the broader political context in which citizenship education policies are implemented. Because so much is already known about the former, I (...) devote more attention in this essay to the latter. (shrink)

A very influential idea in the epistemology of modality is that we acquire knowledge of metaphysical modality through knowledge of essence. As a consequence, the epistemology of essence becomes crucial in the attempt to answer the question of how we come to know modal propositions. In this paper I investigate Lowe’s and Hale’s approach to the epistemology of essence and argue that both of them remain in a crucial, structural sense incomplete. Systematizing this criticism against Lowe and Hale, I then (...) break down desiderata of what I call a structurally complete picture of the epistemology of essence. Finally, I discuss Husserl’s epistemology of essence and defend it against a notorious objection. However, Husserl’s approach also seems to remain incomplete, due to its appeal to imagination, which operates on the basis of background assumptions that are themselves in need of justification. I indicate, however, that a Husserlian theory of intuitive awareness of universals might supply us with (direct) justification of these background assumptions and, hence, that we might be able to paint a structurally complete picture of the epistemology of essence with Husserlian means. (shrink)

OBJETIVO -/- O estudante de Zootecnia e de Veterinária, quando se depara com a produção animal, um dos pilares importantes é a reprodução, uma vez que é a perpetuação da espécie, seja para gerar filhas de uma vaca campeã em produção leiteira e de um touro com rusticidade e com aptidão produtiva de corte, ou mesmo para reposição de um plantel, o mesmo deve estar consciente de que esse ramo é de extrema responsabilidade, já que estará intimamente lidando com a (...) vida e com um investimento que pode gerar lucros em demasia para a propriedade ou, se mal feito o manejo da reprodução, trazer sérios transtornos para a mesma. -/- Nesse trabalho, o estudante revisará os sucessos da puberdade e estacionalidade reprodutiva relacionando-os com os processos endócrinos e os fatores que afetam sua manifestação como os nutricionais, para compreender a maneira ao qual podem ser manipuladas. -/- -/- • _____INTRODUÇÃO -/- A puberdade marca o início da vida reprodutiva do animal, permitindo integrar o indivíduo ao seu ciclo produtivo. A estacionalidade é uma característica de adaptação que algumas espécies desenvolveram para fazer garantir a eficiência da reprodução e a sobrevivência dos filhotes. -/- -/- • _____PUBERDADE -/- A puberdade é atingida quando o animal é capaz de produzir e liberar gametas viáveis e funcionais (férteis). Na fêmea esse fato ocorre na primeira ovulação, que geralmente coincide com a manifestação do comportamento do cio; e nos machos durante a primeira ejaculação com espermatozoides viáveis. -/- Do ponto de vista da produção animal, puberdade prematura ou precoce, é importante para poder permitir a incorporação dos animais ao ciclo produtivo o mais rapidamente possível. No caso de touros holandeses, por exemplo, é desejável que produzam sêmen precocemente para incorporá-los a prova de progênie; nas fêmeas, entretanto, deve-se considerar que nem sempre é conveniente usar o primeiro ciclo ou cio para reprodução. É o caso das marrãs (porcas primíparas), onde é benéfico esperar até o segundo ou terceiro estro para aumentar o tamanho da ninhada. Também pode ser vantajoso esperar que o indivíduo alcance sua maturidade sexual, que ocorre quando a fêmea consegue se reproduzir sem sofrer efeitos adversos. A ovelha nascida na primavera, por exemplo, pode engravidar no outono seguinte e dar à luz no primeiro ano de vida, mas seu crescimento pode ser afetado; o mesmo ocorre com a novilha, em que o acasalamento precoce pode promover distorcia por falta de desenvolvimento pélvico. -/- A puberdade é um processo gradual e está intimamente relacionada à taxa de crescimento e ao metabolismo energético. O recém-nascido usa energia para funções vitais, principalmente termorregulação; esse feito se deve ao fato de os jovens possuírem uma superfície corporal muito elevada em relação ao seu volume. Durante o desenvolvi-mento subsequente dos tecidos também há prioridade no uso de nutrientes, que inicialmente favorecem o desenvolvimento do tecido ósseo e muscular, e uma vez que estes atingem determinado tamanho de acordo com as condições genéticas do indivíduo, inicia-se o desenvolvimento do tecido adiposo, que é indicativa de um reservatório de energia. É importante ressaltar que existe uma interação entre a genética e o meio ambiente, de forma que o potencial genético só será expresso se o meio ambiente for favorável. -/- Para que a ovulação ocorra, é necessário considerar o funcionamento do eixo hipotálamo-hipófise-gonodal. O aumento da frequência pulsátil do GnRH hipotalâmico e em consequência do LH hipofisário provoca a maturação do folículo em nível gonodal, o que aumenta a produção de estrógenos. O aumento dos estrogênios causa, por feedback positivo no hipotálamo, a liberação do pico pré-ovulatório de LH e, consequentemente, a ovulação. Na fase pré-púbere, a frequência dos pulsos de GnRH e LH é muito baixa e insuficiente para provocar a maturação folicular, pois o hipotálamo é inibido e, portanto, não ocorre ovulação. -/- A geração pulsátil de GnRH no momento reprodutivo adequado para desencadear o início da puberdade depende de uma rede neural complexa que, além dos neurônios GnRH, inclui outros neurônios e células da glia; ele também integra vários sinais internos e externos para o corpo. A morfologia dos neurônios GnRH também é única, uma vez que seus dendritos também podem funcionar como axônios, dando-lhes uma função distinta. A geração de pulsos também indica a necessidade de sincronização entre subpopulações de neurônios GnRH, que, acima de tudo, parece ser extrínseca a esses neurônios e envolve múltiplos hormônios e neurotransmissores -/- Se dois níveis de conexões aferentes são considerados, estima-se que cada neurônio de GnRH pode ser conectado a cerca de cinco milhões de outros neurônios; milhares de genes, então, podem estar envolvidos no processo da puberdade. A importância funcional e hierárquica de cada um desses genes no controle dos neurônios GnRH, juntamente com outros fatores neuronais e gliais, pode diferir entre as espécies. Existem, no entanto, componentes fundamentais que parecem ser comuns a todos os mamíferos e que se situam nos níveis hierárquicos mais elevados, ajudando a compreender a progressão do processo puberal. Assim, todas as espécies de mamíferos estudadas, por exemplo, têm aglomerados de neurônios kisspeptinérgicos (que secretam kisspeptina), envolvidos na regulação da secreção tônica e secreção cíclica de GnRH, que também se classifica como o elemento mais alto na hierarquia desse complexo neuronal após considerar os neurônios GnRH. -/- Sabe-se que o eixo hipotálamo-hipofisário-gonodal está ativo desde as primeiras fases da vida do indivíduo, mesmo antes do nascimento em certas espécies. A secreção de GnRH, no entanto, é suprimida mais tarde no desenvolvimento e permanece dessa forma até o período pré-púbere, quando será reativada gradualmente. -/- Por várias décadas, a supressão e reinicialização dos pulsos de GnRH foi atribuída a uma hipótese conhecida como teoria gonadostat que afirma que o centro tônico do hipotálamo é inibido devido à sua sensibilidade ao mecanismo de feedback negativo dos esteroides gonodais, é aumentado; portanto, o GnRH e a consequente secreção de gonadotrofinas (FSH e LH) são insuficientes para a ocorrência da maturação folicular e espermatogênese. Essa sensibilidade diminui progressivamente à medida que a puberdade se aproxima. -/- Sabe-se agora que existem fatores não gonodais que agem em paralelo com os esteroides para mediar mudanças no feedback negativo que também são específicos da espécie. -/- Na fêmea, o centro gerador de pulso cíclico também deve ser considerado, o qual é responsável por iniciar a primeira ovulação. O centro cíclico é composto por uma segunda subpopulação de neurônios GnRH que é reativada por meio de uma complexa interação entre vários sistemas neuronais inibitórios (que devem reduzir progressiva-mente sua influência) e outros sistemas excitatórios, que, por sua vez, operam por meio de diferentes neurotransmissores, como o ácido γ-amino-butírico (GABA) e seus receptores, glutamato, óxido nítrico e neuropeptídio Y (NPY). Esses fatores, juntamente com as alterações morfológicas observadas nos neurônios do GnRH à medida que a puberdade se aproxima, e com as interações e sinais aferentes das células gliais, levam a um padrão de progressão linear que culminará na reativação do centro cíclico. Esse processo era conhecido anteriormente como teoria da maturação central e faz parte das mudanças que configuram o processo para chegar à puberdade. A elevação nas concen-trações de estradiol subsequente à reativação gradual do centro gerador de pulso tônico GnRH provavelmente permitirá a maturação final do centro cíclico. -/- A forma como cada organismo estabelece o momento certo para iniciar as mudanças que levam à puberdade é conhecido; a existência de algum mecanismo neurobiológico que constitui um relógio interno pode ser considerada. No entanto, esse mecanismo afetaria principalmente o desenvolvimento neuronal no nível central; também seria difícil compará-lo com a maneira pela qual fatores externos ao indivíduo afetam o início da puberdade. Nessa perspectiva, um sistema que permita receber informações completas sobre o crescimento e desenvolvimento do indivíduo poderia ser mais prático. Os mediadores desse sistema incluem o hormônio do crescimento, IGF-I, leptina e outros substratos metabólicos. A leptina em particular, que sinaliza as reservas de tecido adiposo, é um dos elementos mais importantes e, embora não determine quando começa a puberdade, se atua como fator permissivo para que o processo progrida, uma vez que excede um nível limite. A consideração do estágio de desenvolvimento do animal para o início da puberdade era anteriormente conhecida como o peso corporal crítico ou teoria do lipostato. É importante considerar que as três teorias mencionadas não são exclusivas. -/- O mecanismo da puberdade nos machos é semelhante ao já descrito; entretanto, deve-se lembrar que no macho o centro cíclico não está ativo. À medida que a puberdade se aproxima, o crescimento testicular é desencadeado e, em ruminantes e suínos, o pênis que estava preso à mucosa prepucial é gradualmente liberado. -/- -/- • _____FATORES QUE INFLUENCIAM A PUBERDADE -/- Os animais podem manifestar a puberdade de três formas diferentes. Pode ser tardia e o animal demorar para estar apto a reprodução; precoce e o animal entrar na vida reprodutiva antes do esperado ou pode ser normal e o animal estar com boa conformação e idade. Para tanto, alguns fatores podem interferir à manifestação da puberdade pelos animais como a genética, idade e peso, nutrição, fotoperíodo e o próprio manejo adotado. -/- -/- Genética -/- O genótipo afeta a idade da puberdade, pois algumas raças são anteriores a outras. Nos bovinos, as raças europeias atingem a puberdade antes dos zebuínos, isto é, uma novilha ou novilho da raça holandesa atinge a puberdade primeiro que os animais da mesma idade e do mesmo peso da raça nelore, por exemplo. -/- Da mesma forma, as porcas da raça chinesa Meishan atingem a puberdade por volta dos 115 dias de idade, metade da idade das raças brancas. As ovelhas de raças de corte, da mesma forma, são mais precoces que os produtores de lã. As raças pequenas, da mesma forma, são geralmente mais precoces, pelo menos em bovinos (jersey x guzerá) e em caninos. Os híbridos, por outro lado, apresentam puberdade mais precoce que os puros, devido ao efeito da heterose. Por este motivo, em certas espécies são utilizadas linhas híbridas. -/- -/- Idade e peso -/- A tabela 1 mostra a idade média de início da puberdade em espécies domésticas. O peso vivo (PV) adulto é mais relevante para a idade na puberdade nos ruminantes, enquanto em suínos é menos decisivo. A tabela também apresenta a porcentagem de peso corporal necessária para a puberdade ocorrer de forma natural. -/- -/- Tabela 1: Idade e peso a puberdade das espécies domésticas -/- Espécie -/- Fêmea (meses) -/- Macho (meses) -/- PV adulto (%) -/- Gado holandês -/- 11 (8-15) -/- 11 (7-18) -/- 30-40 -/- Gado brahman -/- 19 -/- 17 -/- 45-60 -/- Caprinos e ovinos -/- 7 (4-14) -/- 7 (6-9) -/- 40-60 -/- Suínos -/- 6 (5-7) -/- 7 (5-8) -/- 75 -/- Equinos -/- 18 (12-19) -/- 14 (10-24) -/- - -/- Caninos -/- 12 (6-24) -/- 9 (5-12) -/- - -/- Felinos -/- 8 (4-12) -/- 9 (8-10) -/- - -/- Fonte: VALENCIA, 2018. -/- Nutrição -/- Como a puberdade está relacionada à taxa de crescimento, os animais que recebem uma nutrição adequada e balanceada apresentarão puberdade em uma idade mais jovem, ou seja, mais precocemente; ao contrário, a puberdade será tardia nos animais que sofreram restrição alimentar, que estão desnutridos ou que tiveram seu crescimento afetado por doenças infecciosas ou parasitárias. A superalimentação também não é recomendada, pois pode alterar tanto os sinais que são recebidos pelo hipotálamo quanto sua resposta a eles. -/- Logo, o manejo alimentar adotado deve estar de acordo com as normas estabeleci-das pelos especialistas na área, principalmente no tocante as exigências nutricionais que devem servir de regra na propriedade. Sendo assim, os animais entrarão em puberdade com as taxas de alta qualidade o que afetará positivamente na prole futura e dará retorno lucrativo ao proprietário. -/- -/- Época do ano (Fotoperíodo) -/- Em fêmeas de espécies sazonais, como ovelhas e cabras, existem certos requisitos de fotoperíodo que devem ser atendidos para que a puberdade ocorra. Nessas espécies, um período de exposição a dias longos é necessário, seguido por outro de exposição a dias curtos. Na verdade, os cordeiros e cabritos nascidos fora da estação, mesmo que tenham atingido o peso necessário, terão que esperar até o outono seguinte (a estação reprodutiva) para atingir a puberdade. Os machos, por outro lado, não estão sujeitos a essas limitações nos requisitos fotoperiódicos para apresentar a puberdade. -/- Em novilhas nascidas no outono, por outro lado, a puberdade ocorre antes de um ano de idade, no verão seguinte ou no início do outono, mais cedo do que nas nascidas na primavera, devido à exposição a longos dias durante os primeiros seis meses do ano após seu nascimento aceleram seu crescimento. Em gatos, o aumento do fotoperíodo também acelera o início da puberdade. -/- Em ovelhas e novilhas, a primeira ovulação que ocorre ao entrar na puberdade é silenciosa; ou seja, não é acompanhada de sinais comportamentais de cio como a micção frequente, inchamento da vulva, uma montando a outra e deixando-se montar etc., pois para que esse comportamento se manifeste, o sistema nervoso necessita de uma pré-sensibilização com progesterona que não estará presente até o próximo ciclo, após o desenvolvimento do corpo lúteo vindo desta primeira ovulação. -/- -/- Sociossexual -/- A interação de indivíduos da mesma espécie ou a presença ou ausência de sinais de bioestimulação, como feromônios, pode afetar o período de puberdade. A puberdade, por exemplo, é atrasada em porcas criadas individualmente em comparação com porcas criadas em grupo. Além disso, na porca, ovelha e cabra, a exposição ao macho estimula as fêmeas e a puberdade aparece mais precocemente. -/- -/- Manejo -/- Certas práticas de manejo podem acelerar a puberdade, especialmente no período pré-púbere. Em porcas próximas à puberdade, por exemplo, o estresse causado por procedimentos, como o transporte de um local para outro ou a exposição ao macho, faz com que apareça o estro em torno de sete dias após a realização do manejo mencionado. -/- -/- • _____ESTACIONALIDADE REPRODUTIVA -/- A estacionalidade ou sazonalidade reprodutiva é uma estratégia evolutiva que se desenvolveu em algumas espécies; tende a tornar a reprodução mais eficiente. Nos países de latitudes distantes do equador, o objetivo é que as crias nasçam na primavera, época do ano mais favorável, graças à abundância de alimentos e às amenas condições climáticas. No caso da ovelha, cuja gestação dura cinco meses, para que os partos ocorram na primavera, ela deve engravidar no outono (figura 1), quando os dias são curtos; enquanto a égua, tendo uma gestação de aproximadamente 11 meses, deve conceber na primavera, quando os dias são longos; assim, o parto ocorrerá na primavera do ano seguinte (figura 2). -/- -/- Figura 1: Esquema ilustrativo da estacionalidade reprodutiva na espécie ovina. Fonte: PIRES et al., 2011. -/- -/- Esta característica evolutiva desenvolvida pela seleção natural na maioria das espécies silvestres e ainda é conservado por algumas espécies domésticas, como ovelhas, cabras, cavalos e gatos. Em bovinos e suínos, ao contrário, a domesticação levou à perda quase total da estacionalidade reprodutiva. -/- A estacionalidade reprodutiva é codificada nos genes; significa então que a seleção natural favoreceu a propagação de genes que permitiam acoplar a hora do nascimento com a melhor época do ano, por isso passou a ser considerada um método anticoncepcional natural. -/- -/- Figura 2: ciclo reprodutivo anual em espécies estacionais; onde são apresentados os períodos de gestação e a forma como se agrupam os nascimentos, independentemente da época reprodutiva da espécie, em vermelho as fêmeas estão apresentando estro ou cio. Fonte: VALENCIA, 2018. -/- -/- Fotoperíodo -/- Para sincronizar o período fértil com a época mais favorável do ano, a maioria das espécies sazonais usa o fotoperíodo (quantidade de luz diária ao longo do ano). -/- Este sinal ambiental é seguro, confiável e se repete a cada ano. Ovinos e caprinos se reproduzem na época do ano em que os dias são curtos e os equinos quando são longos. O grau de sazonalidade depende da origem da raça. As raças nativas de países localizados em latitudes elevadas (> 50°,ovelhas: soay, blackface, suffolk; cabras: saanen, alpino francês, toggenburg; equinos: puro-sangue, hanoveriano) terão uma estacionalidade mais acentuada do que as latitudes menores ou mediterrâneas (ovelhas: merino; cabras: murciana granadina; equinos: quarto de milha). Também existem raças de latitudes próximas ao Equador cuja estacionalidade é baixa ou nula (ovelhas: raças de pelo, crioulas; cabras: raças africanas e asiáticas) (tabela 2). -/- Para a maioria das raças de ovinos e caprinos, a estação reprodutiva começa no final do verão e início do outono; caracteriza-se pela apresentação de ciclos estrais sucessivos, e termina no final do inverno, quando se inicia o anestro, que se caracteriza pela ausência de ovulação. Nos equinos, ocorre o contrário, uma vez que a estação reprodutiva ocorre na primavera e no verão. -/- -/- Tabela 2: Relação entre a origem da raça e o grau de estacionalidade ou sazonalidade -/- Espécie -/- Alta -/- Média -/- Baixa -/- Ovinos -/- Suffolk, raças britânicas de lã e corte -/- Merino -/- Pelibuey, crioulas -/- Caprinos -/- Saanen, alpino, toggenburg -/- Murciana granadina -/- Crioula -/- Equinos -/- Puro-sangue, hanoveriano, quarto de milha -/- - -/- Crioula, burros -/- Fonte: VALENCIA, 2018. -/- -/- Mecanismo neuroendócrino da estacionalidade -/- Durante o período de anestro, o fotoperíodo exerce efeito inibitório sobre o centro tônico do GnRH no hipotálamo, diminuindo a frequência de pulso. Consequentemente, a pulsatilidade do LH também diminui, que agora é incapaz de induzir a maturação folicular, o aumento dos estrogênios, o pico pré-ovulatório de LH e, portanto, a ovulação. -/- Isso ocorre porque durante o anestro a sensibilidade do hipotálamo ao mecanismo de feedback negativo dos estrogênios e de outros fatores de origem não gonodal é aumentada. Ao aproximar-se da estação reprodutiva, a sensibilidade hipotalâmica diminui e o aumento da pulsatilidade do GnRH causa as mudanças que culminam na ovulação. Portanto, o mecanismo endócrino do anestro estacional é semelhante ao do anestro pré-púbere e de alguns outros tipos de anestro. -/- A estacionalidade é um bom exemplo da interação entre o meio ambiente e o sistema neuroendócrino, pois o organismo é capaz de traduzir um sinal externo ambiental, como o fotoperíodo, em um sinal hormonal interno, que neste caso é a melatonina. -/- A glândula pineal secreta melatonina durante as horas de escuridão. Os animais sazonais apresentam um ritmo reprodutivo endógeno, que é regulado por janelas de fotossensibilidade, determinadas por mudanças na duração do dia. O sinal luminoso é captado pela retina e conduzido, via nervo, pelo trato retino-hipotalâmico até o núcleo supraquiasmático, que funciona como o relógio biológico do corpo. Daí o sinal viaja para o núcleo para-ventricular, depois para o gânglio cervical e, finalmente, para a glândula pineal, que responde secretando melatonina (figura 3). -/- Nas ovelhas, a estação reprodutiva começa quando a duração do dia diminui e, naturalmente, a noite aumenta; na égua, ocorre quando os dias se alongam. -/- A primavera não é necessariamente a melhor época do ano em todas as regiões do globo. Nas latitudes tropicais, a primavera coincide com a seca e não com a abundância de forragem, aspecto a ser levado em consideração ao programar a reprodução. -/- Outro ponto importante a considerar é que as raças europeias sazonais mantêm sua estacionalidade no Brasil. -/- -/- Figura 3: Mecanismo do fotoperíodo em ovinos e a melatonina. Fonte: HAFEZ, 2004. -/- -/- Estacionalidade no macho -/- O macho é menos afetado que a fêmea pelas mudanças típicas de cada época do ano, já que sua função reprodutiva não é necessariamente interrompida durante o anestro ou repouso sexual, embora a produção de hormônios reprodutivos, tamanho e tônus testicular, a libido, as características qualitativas e quantitativas do ejaculado e a fertilidade do esperma podem ser diminuídas. O nível de afetação depende do grau de sazonalidade da raça e da latitude. Por fim, os efeitos do fotoperíodo devem ser separados dos nutricionais, que também variam com a época do ano. -/- -/- REFERÊNCIAS BIBLIOGRÁFICAS -/- -/- BEARDEN, Henry Joe et al. Reproducción animal aplicada. México: Manual Moderno, 1982. -/- BROOKS, P. H.; COLE, D. J. A. The effect of the presence of a boar on the attainment of puberty in gilts. Reproduction, v. 23, n. 3, p. 435-440, 1970. -/- CARDOSO, Daniel; DE PAULA NOGUEIRA, Guilherme. Mecanismos neuroendócrinos envolvidos na puberdade de novilhas. Arquivos de Ciências Veterinárias e Zoologia da Unipar, v. 10, n. 1, 2007. -/- CHEMINEAU, P. et al. Induction and persistence of pituitary and ovarian activity in the out-of-season lactating dairy goat after a treatment combining a skeleton photoperiod, melatonin and the male effect. Reproduction, v. 78, n. 2, p. 497-504, 1986. -/- CLARKE, Iain J. et al. Kisspeptin and seasonality in sheep. Peptides, v. 30, n. 1, p. 154-163, 2009. -/- CORTEEL, J. M. Production, storage and insemination of goat semen. In: Management and Reproduction in Sheep and Goats Symposium, Madison, Wis. (USA), 1977. University of Wisconsin, 1977. -/- CUNNINGHAM, James. Tratado de fisiologia veterinária. Elsevier Health Sciences, 2011. -/- CUPPS, Perry T. (Ed.). Reproduction in domestic animals. Elsevier, 1991. -/- DUKES, Henry Hugh; SWENSON, Melvin J.; REECE, William O. Dukes fisiologia dos animais domésticos. Editora Guanabara Koogan, 1996. -/- DÝRMUNDSSON, Ó. R.; LEES, J. L. Effect of rams on the onset of breeding activity in Clun Forest ewe lambs. The Journal of Agricultural Science, v. 79, n. 2, p. 269-271, 1972. -/- EBLING, F. J. P.; FOSTER, D. L. Photoperiod requirements for puberty differ from those for the onset of the adult breeding season in female sheep. Reproduction, v. 84, n. 1, p. 283-293, 1988. -/- FIELDS, Michael J.; SAND, Robert S.; YELICH, Joel V. (Ed.). Factors affecting calf crop: Biotechnology of reproduction. CRC Press, 2001. -/- HAFEZ, Elsayed Saad Eldin; HAFEZ, Bahaa. Reprodução animal. São Paulo: Manole, 2004. -/- HUGHES, P. E.; PHILIP, G.; SISWADI, R. The effects of contact frequency and transport on the efficacy of the boar effect. Animal Reproduction Science, v. 46, n. 1-2, p. 159-165, 1997. -/- KARSCH, FRED J. et al. Neuroendocrine basis of seasonal reproduction. In: Proceedings of the 1983 Laurentian Hormone Conference. Academic Press, 1984. p. 185-232. -/- LINCOLN, G. A.; SHORT, R. V. Seasonal breeding: nature's contraceptive. In: Proceedings of the 1979 Laurentian Hormone Conference. Academic Press, 1980. p. 1-52. -/- MELLO, Raquel Rodrigues Costa. Puberdade e maturidade sexual em touros bovinos. Agropecuária Científica no Semiárido, v. 10, n. 3, p. 11-28, 2015. -/- MEZA‐HERRERA, C. A. et al. Neuroendocrine, metabolic and genomic cues signalling the onset of puberty in females. Reproduction in Domestic Animals, v. 45, n. 6, p. e495-e502, 2010. -/- MONTEIRO, Claudia Dias; BICUDO, Sony Dimas; TOMA, Hugo Shisei. Puberdade em fêmeas ovinas. Pubvet, v. 4, p. Art. 850-857, 2010. -/- OLIVEIRA, Daniel de Jesus Cardoso de. Mecanismos neuroendócrinos envolvidos na puberdade de novilhas da raça Nelore. 2006. Tese de Doutorado em Medicina Veterinária. Universidade de São Paulo. -/- OLSTER, DEBORAH H.; FOSTER, DOUGLAS L. Control of gonadotropin secretion in the male during puberty: a decrease in response to steroid inhibitory feedback in the absence of an increase in steroid-independent drive in the sheep. Endocrinology, v. 118, n. 6, p. 2225-2234, 1986. -/- PIRES, Bruno Carlos et al. Métodos para elevar o ritmo reprodutivo dos ovinos. PUBVET, Londrina, V. 5, N. 11, Ed. 158, Art. 1071, 2011. -/- PLANT, Tony M.; ZELEZNIK, Anthony J. (Ed.). Knobil and Neill's physiology of reproduction. New York: Academic Press, 2014. -/- RAMIREZ, Domingo V.; MCCANN, S. M. Comparison of the regulation of luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion in immature and adult rats. Endocrinology, v. 72, n. 3, p. 452-464, 1963. -/- ROSER, JANET F.; HUGHES, JOHN P. Seasonal effects on seminal quality, plasma hormone concentrations, and GnRH‐induced LH response in fertile and subfertile stallions. Journal of andrology, v. 13, n. 3, p. 214-223, 1992. -/- SALOMONI, Eduardo et al. Idade e peso à puberdade em fêmeas de corte puras e cruzas em campo natural. Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira, v. 23, n. 10, p. 1171-1179, 1988. -/- SMITH, Jeremy T.; CLARKE, Iain J. Seasonal breeding as a neuroendocrine model for puberty in sheep. Molecular and cellular endocrinology, v. 324, n. 1-2, p. 102-109, 2010. -/- VALENCIA, J. Pubertad y estacionalidad reproductiva. In. PORTA, L. R.; MEDRANO, J. H. H. Fisiología reproductiva de los animales domésticos. Cidade do México: FMVZ-UNAM, 2018. -/- WHITTEMORE, Colin et al. The science and practice of pig production. Blackwell Science Ltd, 1998. -/- -/- -/- FIXAÇÃO DO ASSUNTO -/- -/- 1. Defina o que é puberdade e como ela manifesta-se no corpo. -/- -/- -/- 2. Diferencie puberdade de maturidade sexual. -/- -/- -/- 3. Quais são os fenômenos que devem ser observados em fêmeas que estão entrando na puberdade? -/- -/- -/- 4. Qual o papel do GnRH e do IGF-I sobre a puberdade? -/- 5. Um produtor possui duas ovelhas e um carneiro reprodutor, as ovelhas possuem idade e peso, mas não manifestaram seu primeiro cio, quais elementos que você recomenda ao produtor para induzir a ciclicidade dessas fêmeas? -/- -/- -/- 6. De forma geral, quais os fatores que podem afetar a entrada na puberdade dos animais? -/- -/- -/- 7. Defina estacionalidade reprodutiva. -/- -/- -/- 8. O que é fotoperíodo e qual sua importância para a reprodução dos animais domésticos? -/- -/- -/- 9. Defina as relações existentes entre a origem da raça e o grau de estacionalidade e como tais teorias se aplicam ao rebanho brasileiro. -/- -/- -/- 10. Qual o papel da glândula pineal para a estacionalidade reprodutiva? -/- -/- -/- 11. Por que os machos são menos afetados pela sazonalidade reprodutiva do que as fêmeas? -/- -/- -/- 12. Sabendo-se sobre os termos de puberdade e estacionalidade e as características de ambos nas espécies domésticas, pede-se: um criador deseja obter 5 novas crias ovinas e 5 caprinas em seu plantel até o final do ano, para tanto ele ainda possui um ano e está na estação do verão, sabendo-se sobre a estacionalidade dessas espécies elabore um projeto reprodutivo de modo que essas 10 fêmeas possam gerar uma cria cada até a primavera. -/- -/- Dados: 10 fêmeas gerando 10 crias. 1 macho ovino e 1 caprino. Fêmeas com 1 ano de idade (2º cio) e peso corporal = 55% do peso adulto. Verão de 2020 para parir na primavera de 2020. (shrink)

This article articulates a framework for normatively assessing influence operations, undertaken by national security institutions. Section I categorizes the vast field of possible types of influence operations according to the communication’s content, its attribution, the rights of the target audience, the communication’s purpose, and its secondary effects. Section II populates these categories with historical examples and section III evaluates these cases with a moral framework. I argue that deceptive or manipulative communications directed at non-liable audiences are presumptively immoral and illegitimate (...) for liberal states, as are deceptive operations aimed at an unjust end, or even operations aimed at a just end where secondary effects are forecast to be disproportionate to the proximate end. (shrink)

Are we being manipulated online? If so, is being manipulated by online technologies and algorithmic systems notably different from human forms of manipulation? And what is under threat exactly when people are manipulated online? This volume provides philosophical and conceptual depth to debates in digital ethics about online manipulation. The contributions explore the ramifications of our increasingly consequential interactions with online technologies such as online recommender systems, social media, user-friendly design, micro-targeting, default-settings, gamification, and real-time profiling. The authors in this (...) volume address four broad and interconnected themes: • What is the conceptual nature of online manipulation? And how, methodologically, should the concept be defined? • Does online manipulation threaten autonomy, freedom, and meaning in life, and if so, how? • What are the epistemic, affective, and political harms and risks associated with online manipulation? • What are legal and regulatory perspectives on online manipulation? The Philosophy of Online Manipulation brings these various considerations together to offer philosophically robust answers to critical questions concerning our online interactions with one another and with autonomous systems. It will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working in moral philosophy, digital ethics, philosophy of technology, and the ethics of manipulation. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This article examines the under-researched figure A.W. Rehberg in his exchange with Kant over the relationship between theory and practice in the philosophy of right. I argue that Rehberg raises, what I call, two problems of political matter which attempt to show that Kant's overly formal approach to political theory cannot justifiably determine political practice. The first problem is the problem of positive determinations of right, rather than merely negative prohibitions. Rehberg takes this to mean that Kant cannot determine (...) us to a specific form of constitution. I argue that Kant's innovation of intelligible property functions as a response to this critique in that it provides the possibility of synthetic propositions of right a priori. Second, Rehberg insists that an a priori system of right cannot relate to already formed historical communities. Here Kant's response comes close to agreeing with Rehberg as Kant takes prudential or historical reasoning to harmonize with the demands of a priori right in order to applied to the sensible world. Kant, in this instance, comes closer to Rehberg by denying centralized enlightened monarchy and the reliance on natural and historical development for the application of right. (shrink)

In this essay, I examine four different reasons for thinking that political dissent has epistemic value. The realization of this epistemic value hinges in part on what I’ll loosely call the epistemic environment, or the environment in which individuals come to believe, reason, inquire, and debate. In particular, to the degree that our social practices encourage and even embody an attitude of epistemic arrogance, the epistemic value of dissent will be difficult to realize. Ironically, it is precisely then that dissent (...) is most often needed. (shrink)

A collection of articles on the the principles of social justice from an Australian Catholic perspective. Contents: Forward (Archbishop Philip Wilson), Introduction (James Franklin), The right to life (James Franklin), The right to serve and worship God in public and private (John Sharpe), The right to religious formation (Richard Rymarz), The right to personal liberty under just law (Michael Casey), The right to equal protection of just law regardless of sex, nationality, colour or creed (Sam Gregg), The right to (...) freedom of expression (Damian Grace), The right to choose and freely maintain a state of life, married or single, lay or religious (Marita Winters), The right to education (Anthony Cleary), The right to petition government for the redress of grievances (Paul Russell), The right to a nationality (Andrew Hamilton), The right to have access to the means of livelihood, by migration when necessary (Brenda Hubber), The right of association and peaceful assembly (Michael Hogan), The right to work and choose one's occupation (Ian Blandthorn), The right to personal ownership, use and disposal of property subject to the right of others (Brian Coman), The right to a living wage (Garrick Small), The right to collective bargaining (Keith Harvey), The right to associate by industries and professions to obtain economic justice (Henrik Jurisevic), The right to assistance from society, if necessary from the State, in distress of persons and family (Catherine Althaus), Afterword (James Franklin). (shrink)

The transparency approach to introspection has received much attention over the last few decades. It is inspired by some wellknown remarks from Gareth Evans (1982). Although this approach can seem quite plausible as applied to belief (and perhaps perception), philosophers tend to be sceptical that it can succeed for other mental kinds. This paper focuses on desire. It lays out in detail a transparency theory of desire introspection and addresses various concerns and objections to such a theory. The paper takes (...) as its launching point Alex Byrne's (2018) influential work on transparency. (shrink)

The manner in which individuals hold various nonevidentiary beliefs is critical to making any evaluative claim regarding an individual's autonomy. In this essay, I argue that one may be both justified in holding nonrational beliefs of a nonevidentiary sort while also being capable of leading an autonomous life. I defend the idea that moral instruction, including that which concerns explicitly religious content, may justifiably constitute a set of commitments upon which rationality and autonomy are dependent. I situate this discussion against (...) the backdrop of a minimalist notion of autonomy. I then consider the case for nonrational beliefs, examining the difference between those whose content is objectionable on evidentiary grounds and those that are immune to verification. Next, I consider the indoctrination/moral instruction distinction through examining the various ways in which indoctrination is defined. I also consider the role that value coherence plays in shaping our identities, paying particular attention to fundamental commitments as defined by our respective families, cultures, and communities. Finally, I argue that individual psychology is central to our ability to assess the outcome of an upbringing purported to be indoctrinatory, and I emphasize the important role that experience and agency play in enabling us to evaluate our beliefs. (shrink)

Nietzsche and Foucault famously employ a philosophical method of “genealogy” and apply it to the realm of morality in particular. In this article I would like to do two main things: I will begin by offering a contribution toward a sort of “genealogy of genealogy,” that is, toward an account of how the method emerged historically. I will then give an explanation of how the method is supposed to work. In a subsequent, companion article in this journal, “Genealogy and Morality,” (...) I will discuss the method’s application to morality in some concrete ways. (shrink)

Strategies for tackling educational inequality take many forms, though perhaps the argument most often invoked is school integration. Yet whatever the promise of integration may be, its realization continues to be hobbled by numerous difficulties. In this paper we examine what many of these difficulties are. Yet in contrast to how many empirical researchers frame these issues, we argue that while educational success in majority-minority schools will depend on a variety of material and non-material resources, the presence of these resources (...) does not require school integration; indeed sometimes the most crucial resources are easier to foster in its absence. To that end, we briefly canvass the evidence from the United States on high performing majority-minority schools serving poor and minority students. Yet because these debates are so contentious in the American context, we pivot away from the U.S. to consider a different country, the Netherlands. We invite the reader to consider an analogous case where racial injustice and educational inequality are just as serious, yet where differences in the state school system might prove instructive concerning how some majority-minority schools choose to respond to existing segregation, but more importantly how educational success can occur in the absence of integration. (shrink)

The physicalist credo is that the world is physical. But some phenomena, such as minds, morals, and mathematics, appear to be nonphysical. While an uncompromising physicalism would reject these, a conciliatory physicalism needn’t if it can account for them in terms of an underlying physical basis. Any such account must refer to the nonphysical. But won’t this unavoidable reference to the nonphysical conflict with the physicalist credo? This essay aims to clarify this problem and introduce a novel solution that relies (...) on a distinction between “circumstantial” facts that are based in the circumstances and “acircumstantial” facts that are not. This is used in two ways. First, physicalism is restricted to circumstantial facts: only they must have a physical basis that does not refer to the nonphysical. Second, facts accounting for the nonphysical are not restricted to the circumstantial: they may refer to the nonphysical if they are acircumstantial. Facts about how the physical accounts for the nonphysical therefore do not conflict with the physicalist’s credo. This provides a credible answer to what physicalism could be. (shrink)

HISTÓRIA DA SOCIOLOGIA: O DESENVOLVIMENTO DA SOCIOLOGIA I -/- A SOCIOLOGIA CONTEMPORÂNEA -/- HISTORY OF SOCIOLOGY: THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIOLOGY I THE SOCIOLOGY CONTEMPORANY -/- Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro da Silva – IFPE-BJ, CAP-UFPE e UFRPE. E-mails: [email protected] e [email protected] WhatsApp: (82)98143-8399. -/- PREMISSA -/- Se até a década de 1960 podia-se falar em uma Sociologia dividida por países, após essa época, tendo em vista um processo significativo de circulação de informações pelos mais variados meios de comunicação, pode-se dizer que os (...) principais cientistas sociais se tornaram globalizados, assim como a literatura sociológica. As questões sociais, que até então podiam estar localizadas em países ou em blocos de países, também se tornaram mundializadas, e vários pensadores passaram a refletir sobre temas chamados de pós-modernos, hipermodernos ou simplesmente contemporâneos, e que afetam um país, uma região ou todo o mundo. A Sociologia contemporânea, porém, mantém uma relação significativa com as grandes vertentes da Sociologia anterior: • a marxista ou histórico-estrutural, com suas variações; • a durkheimiana ou funcionalista, com o desenvolvimento de um neofuncionalismo; • a weberiana ou compreensiva, com o desenvolvimento da fenomenologia e da hermenêutica; • a teórica e pragmática estadunidense, com variadas linhas. Além dessas vertentes, pensadores como Jean-Gabriel de Tarde e Georg Simmel, que estavam um tanto esquecidos, pelo menos no Brasil, em razão da ênfase em Émile Durkheim, num caso, e em Max Weber, em outro, retomaram seus lugares de destaque. Essas vertentes inspiraram outros tantos pensadores, que – refletindo sobre a realidade em que vivem, mesclando ou não contribuições de diferentes linhas teóricas e formulando uma série de conceitos – demonstram as possibilidades e a diversidade do pensamento sociológico e fazem a Sociologia avançar muito no processo de compreensão da realidade contemporânea. A combinação de diversas vertentes teóricas torna difícil fazer qualquer enquadramento ou mesmo tentar classificar determinados autores. Muitos analistas veem nisso uma crise de paradigmas na Sociologia contemporânea. Essa “crise” poderia ser entendida do ponto de vista epistemológico; entretanto, sempre houve diversidade de epistemologias na Sociologia. Acreditamos que essa diversidade epistemológica, de teorias, de objetos e de métodos, concorrentes ou não, na explicação de fenômenos sociais deve ser vista como indicativo de vigor, e não de decadência. Por fim, indico a seguir, em ordem alfabética, alguns dos pensadores e sociólogos contemporâneos cujo trabalho tem dado especial contribuição à Sociologia desenvolvida no Brasil: Alain Touraine (1925-), Anthony Giddens (1938-), Axel Honneth (1949-), Boaventura de Sousa Santos (1940-), David Harvey (1935-), Edgard Morin (1921-), François Dubet (1946), Gilles Lipovetsky (1944-), Howard S. Becker (1928-), Immanuel Wallerstein (1930-), István Mészáros (1930-2017), Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007), Jürgen Habermas (1929-), Manuel Castells (1942-), Marshall Bermann (1940-2013), Michael Löwy (1938-), Michel Maffesoli (1944-), Néstor García Canclini (1939-), Niklas Luhmann (1927-1998), Norbert Elias (1897-1990), Peter Ludwig Berger (1929-2017), Ralph Dahrendorf (1929-2009), Raymond Boudon (1934-2013), Richard Sennett (1943-), Serge Moscovici (1928 -2014), Thomas Luckmann (1927-2016), Ulrich Beck (1944-2015) e Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017). -/- REFERENCIAL TEÓRICO -/- CUIN, C. H.; GRESLE, F. História da Sociologia. Trad. Roberto Leal Ferreira. São Paulo: Ensaio, 1994. -/- NERY, M. C. R. Sociologia contemporânea. 1ª ed. Curitiba: IESDE, 2007. -/- NOVA, S. V. Introdução a Sociologia. 6ª ed. São Paulo: Atlas, 2004. -/- SILVA, A. et al. Sociologia em movimento. 2ª ed. São Paulo: Moderna, 2016. -/- SBS - Sociedade Brasileira de Sociologia PUCRS - PPG em Ciências Sociais Avenida Ipiranga, 6681 - Partenon CEP: 90619-900 - Porto Alegre, RS [email protected] Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro da Silva © 2019 -/- Estimule a criatividade, respeite o direito autoral. (shrink)

Discussions of divine simplicity generally overlook the distinction between identity claims that are reductivist and identity claims that are eliminativist. If, for instance, the identity claim that 'the chair = a configuration of particles' is merely reductive, then there exist chairs and there exist configurations of particles and it turns out that they are identical. The identity in this case does not reduce the ontological complexity of the world. But if the identity claim is eliminativist, then it is true again (...) that chairs are configurations of particles, but chairs do not in fact exist. The illusory object that we call a chair turns out to be nothing over and above a configuration of physical particles. The chair reduces to the configuration of particles without remainder. The defense of divine simplicity in this paper argues that it is in this eliminativist sense that God's intrinsic properties are identical to God. (shrink)

This article makes the case that our digital devices create illusions of agency. There are times when users feel as if they are in control when in fact they are merely responding to stimuli on the screen in predictable ways. After the introduction, the second section of the article offers examples of illusions of agency that do not involve human–computer interaction in order to show that such illusions are possible and not terribly uncommon. The third and fourth sections of the (...) article cover relevant work from empirical psychology, including the cues that are known to generate the sense of agency. The fifth section of the article shows that our devices are designed to deliver precisely those cues. In the sixth section, the argument is completed with evidence that users frequently use their smartphones without the sort of intentional supervision involved in genuine agency. This sixth section includes the introduction of Digital Environmental Dependency Syndrome (DEDS) as a possible way of characterizing extended use of the smartphone without genuine agency. In the final section of the article, there is a discussion of questions raised by the main claim, including suggestions for reducing occurrences of illusions of agency through software design. (shrink)

The issue of voting rights for older children has been high on the political and philosophical agenda for quite some time now, and not without reason. Aside from principled moral and philosophical reasons why it is an important matter, many economic, environmental, and political issues are currently being decided—sometimes through indecision—that greatly impact the future of today’s children. Past and current generations of adults have, arguably, mortgaged their children’s future, and this makes the question whether (some) children should be granted (...) the right to vote all the more pressing. Should (some) children be given the right to vote? Moreover, does the answer to this question depend on civic education, on whether children have been deliberately prepared for the exercise of that right? These are the questions that will occupy us in this article. Our answer to the first will be that older children—children roughly between 14 and 16 years of age1—ought to be given the right to vote. (shrink)

It is commonly believed that intrinsically bad possible worlds are inconsistent with the perfect goodness of God. A perfectly good being could not exist in possible worlds that are intrinsically bad. Indeed it is widely believed that possible worlds that are insufficiently good are inconsistent with a perfectly good God. Modal atheological arguments aim to show that, since the pluriverse includes intrinsically bad worlds and insufficiently good worlds, there necessarily does not exist a perfectly good God. I show that modal (...) atheological arguments are in general invalid. Modal atheological arguments fail to show that there exists no perfectly good God even on the assumption that there are extremely bad worlds in the pluriverse. Modal atheological arguments depend entirely on the logic of modality in S5. But the logic of S5 ensures that a perfectly good God is consistent with extremely bad possible worlds and so guarantees that a perfectly good God is consistent with a plenitudinous pluriverse. (shrink)

This paper argues that there are two irreducibly distinct negative concepts of liberty: freedom as non-prevention, and freedom as non-coercion. Contemporary proponents of the negative view, such as Matthew Kramer and Ian Carter, have sought to develop the Hobbesian idea that freedom is essentially a matter of physical non-prevention. Accordingly, they have sought to reduce the freedom-diminishing effect of coercion to that of prevention by arguing that coercive threats function to diminish freedom by preventing people from performing certain combinations of (...) actions. Against this, this paper argues that coercion diminishes people’s freedom in ways that cannot be fully captured in terms of prevention. Focusing on two types of case, those involving coercive threats and those involving coercive preference manipulation, it argues that non-coercion and physical non-prevention are importantly different goods. It concludes that a complete negative account of liberty must draw not only on the (Hobbesian) ‘non-prevention’ strand of the negative tradition but also on its (Hayekian) ‘non-coercion’ strand. (shrink)

In this paper we examine the role the Dutch gymnasium continues to play in the institutional maintenance of educational inequality. To that end we examine the relational and spatial features of state-sponsored elite education in the Dutch system: the unique identity the gymnasium seeks to cultivate; its value to its consumers; its geographic significance; and its market position amidst a growing array of other selective forms of schooling. We argue that there is a strong correlation between a higher social class (...) background and the concern to transmit one’s cultural habitus. We further speculate on the moral implications of state-sponsored elite education, both as it concerns the specific role of the gymnasium in the reproduction of social inequality as well as the curious tendency among its supporters to rationalise the necessity of its existence. (shrink)

Many philosophers argue that religious schools are guilty of indoctrinatory harm. I think they are right to be worried about that. But in this article, I will postulate that there are other harms for many individuals that are more severe outside the religious school. Accordingly the full scope of harm should be taken into account when evaluating the harm that some religious schools may do. Once we do that, I suggest, justice may require that we choose the lesser harm. To (...) simplify matters, I focus my attention on the stigmatic harm done to Muslims, and the role that Islamic schools might be expected to play in mitigating that harm. If the full weight of stigmatic harm is factored into the ethical analysis concerning Islamic schools, then I suggest that there are sufficiently weighty pro tanto reasons for Muslim parents to prefer an Islamic school over the alternatives, notwithstanding the potential indoctrinatory harm. (shrink)

After a brief introduction and review of recent literature on microaggressions, a theoretical typology of three sources of social injustice (oppression, dehumanization, and exploitation) contributes to the theorization of the sources of microaggressions. A selected compendium of words and affective phrases generated in classroom exercises illustrates the nature of the experience of the moment of microaggression. Future research on microaggressions as well as evaluation of practice should examine the experience of microaggression, including being subjected to microaggression, initiating such acts, and (...) observing such acts. (shrink)

In all three of his major works on moral philosophy, Kant conceives of moral obligation, moral permissibility, and moral impermissibility in decidedly modal terms, namely in terms of moral necessity, moral possibility, and moral impossibility respectively. This terminology is not Kant’s own, however, but has a rather long history stretching back to a group of Spanish Jesuit theologians in the early seventeenth century, and it was used in two contexts: first, in the context of divine and human action to explain (...) how volition can be both metaphysically and physically free and yet morally necessary, and second in a deontic context to refer to moral obligation, permissibility, and impermissibility. In this paper, my first and primary aim is to sketch the way in which four of Kant’s most important German predecessors, namely Leibniz, Christian Wolff, Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, and Christian August Crusius, used the language of moral necessity, possibility, and impossibility in both the context of action and obligation. My second, more limited aim is to suggest that Kant’s use of these terms can be clarified by taking this background into consideration. (shrink)

This theoretical paper explores the application of Hegelian inferentialism combined with contemporary quantitative methods to enhance decision-making in healthcare leadership. It proposes a novel conceptual framework that integrates Hegel’s inferentialism with Bayesian analysis and epistemic justice indices to offer a new approach for understanding complex decision processes in healthcare settings. The paper develops theoretical constructs such as the Decision Quality Index (DQI) and the Epistemic Justice Quotient (EJQ), which aim to quantitatively assess leadership effectiveness and ethical considerations in decision-making processes. (...) The discussion includes mathematical proofs for these proposed indices and examines the potential practical implications of this integrated approach, emphasizing its theoretical potential to improve healthcare leadership through more inclusive and evidence-based practices. This work provides a conceptual foundation for future empirical research in healthcare leadership and decision-making. (shrink)

Respect appears to generate a puzzling self-other asymmetry: Respect for others can demand that we avoid knowledge of others or ignore that knowledge in deciding how we treat others. This demand for epistemic distancing lies behind the imperatives not to violate others’ privacy or to treat them paternalistically. Self-respect, in contrast, mandates that we pursue knowledge of ourselves and that we choose and act light of that self-knowledge. Individual agents thus do not have a duty to epistemically distance themselves from (...) themselves; a fortiori, they have self-regarding duties to reduce such distance. This article elaborates this asymmetry and offers a plausible solution to it, rooted in the distinctive importance that self-knowledge (and acting in the world on the basis of that self-knowledge) has for self-respecting rational agents: Self-respecting agents have reasons to have others defer to their ‘surfaces’ or self-presentations in order to inhibit making themselves vulnerable to others in ways that undermine their self-respect by subordinating their wills to the wills of others. A measure of control over what others know about us and over what they do with that knowledge thus undergirds self-respect by enabling self-knowledge to play the role that it should play in the lives of self-respecting agents. Epistemic distancing thus operates in concert with the ways in which self-respecting agents value and pursue epistemic intimacy with themselves. (shrink)

Social work has long been concerned with the respective roles of the social work profession and the social welfare system in addressing human needs. Social workers engage in needs assessment together with client systems. They provide and advocate for the needs of clients, as well enabling and empowering clients and communities to address their needs. They also advocate for social welfare benefits and services and overall social policies that take human needs into account. However, explicit ethical content was not present (...) in earlier Codes of Ethics of the National Association of Social Workers. Furthermore, until very recently, little published literature in peer-reviewed journals has human needs theories to guide models of social work practice or inform social work research. Universalistic assumptions about human needs have long been found within social work’s literature on human development (see Jani and Reisch 2011, under General Overviews). However, these assumptions were often inexplicit. They did not fully utilize theories of human need, which have long recognized that although human needs may be universal, they are addressed in culturally and environmentally specific manners. Also, in practice, social workers have often conflated human needs with the need for the services or benefits available at any one time. This bibliography will explore the history and evolution of the interdisciplinary body of human needs theory and research on which social work has drawn historically, with special attention to the recent surge in interest in human needs theories. In doing so, the entry will discuss a number of key debates that have arisen regarding needs, including whether they are universal or specific to particular cultures; what the relationship is between human needs, human rights, and social justice; and how to reconcile theories of human needs and of human capabilities. (shrink)