Many think that a specific aspect of phenomenal consciousness – valenced or affective experience – is essential to consciousness’s moral significance (valence sentientism). They hold that valenced experience is necessary for well-being, or moral status, or psychological intrinsic value (or all three). Some think that phenomenal consciousness generally is necessary for non-derivative moral significance (broad sentientism). Few think that consciousness is unnecessary for moral significance (non-necessitarianism). In this paper I consider the prospects for these views. I first consider the prospects (...) for valence sentientism in light of Vulcans, beings who are conscious but without affect or valence of any sort. I think Vulcans pressure us to accept broad sentientism. But I argue that a consideration of explanations for broad sentientism opens up possible explanations for non-necessitarianism about the moral significance of consciousness. That is, once one leans away from valence sentientism because of Vulcans, one should feel pressure to accept a view on which consciousness is not necessary for well-being, moral status, or psychological intrinsic value. (shrink)

In 1966 Gene Roddenberry, then a relatively unknown TV writer, created what was to become a cultural sensation. From cell phones and tablets, to MRI machines and medical jet injectors, Star Trek has undoubtedly anticipated much of the technology that we take for granted today. Moreover, the disagreements, fights and jokes between Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Dr Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and Mr Spock (Leonard Nimoy) were expertly crafted for dramatic impact. But I’m not writing this to confess to (...) you my obsessive infatuation with the Star Trek universe. Instead I want to discuss how the beliefs and practices of Vulcans like Spock are similar to those of the Stoic school of philosophy. (shrink)

Which beings have moral status? I argue that moral status requires some capacity for hedonic feelings of pleasure or displeasure. David Chalmers rejects this view on the grounds that it denies moral status to Vulcans, which are defined as conscious creatures with no capacity for hedonic feelings. On his more inclusive view, all conscious beings have moral status. We agree that only conscious beings have moral status, but we disagree about how to explain this. I argue that we cannot explain (...) why consciousness is necessary for moral status without denying that it is sufficient for moral status. Hence, we cannot exclude unconscious zombies without excluding conscious Vulcans too. (shrink)

Names like ‘Neptune’ and ‘Vulcan’ have lead some Millians to countenance a class of descriptive names. This is so, as, first, the closeness of the association between a descriptive name and its associated descriptive condition seems to show that the link between the name and the description must be semantic, and, second, as Millianism implies that names without bearers make no direct contribution to the propositions expressed by the sentences in which such names occur. In this paper we use (...) the notion of an object-dependent convention to offer a novel motivation for Millianism. We then show that our way of motivating Millianism implies that the above two reasons for treating names like ‘Neptune’ and ‘Vulcan’ as descriptive have little force. (shrink)

Holmes exists is false. How can this be, when there is no one for the sentence to misdescribe? Part of the answer is that a sentence’s topic depends on context. The king of France is bald, normally unevaluable, is false qua description of the bald people. Likewise Holmes exists is false qua description of the things that exist; it misdescribes those things as having Holmes among them. This does not explain, though, how Holmes does not exist differs in cognitive content (...) from, say, Vulcan does not exist. Our answer builds on an observation of Kripke’s: even if Holmes exists, he is not in this room, for we were all born too late. (shrink)

If one takes seriously the idea that a scientific language must be extensional, and accepts Quine’s notion of truth-value-related extensionality, and also recognizes that a scientific language must allow for singular terms that do not refer to existing objects, then there is a problem, since this combination of assumptions must be inconsistent. I will argue for a particular solution to the problem, namely, changing what is meant by the word ‘extensionality’, so that it would not be the truth-value that had (...) to be preserved under the substitution of co-extensional expressions, but the state of affairs that the sentence described. The question is whether or not elementary sentences containing empty singular terms, such as ‘Vulcan rotates’, are extensional in the substitutivity sense. Five conditions are specified under which extensionality in the substitutivity sense of such sentences can be secured. It is demonstrated that such sentences are state-of-affairs-as-extension-related extensional. This implies that such sentences are also truth-value-related extensional in Quine’s sense, but not truth-value-as-extension-related extensional. (shrink)

Some intentional attitudes (beliefs, fears, desires, etc.) have a common focus in spite of there being no object at that focus. For example, two beliefs may be about the same witch even when there are no witches, different astronomers had beliefs directed at Vulcan, even though there is no such planet. This relation of having a common focus, whether or not there is an actual concrete object at that focus, is called intentional identity. In the first part of this (...) thesis I develop a new theory of intentional identity, the triangulation theory, and argue that it has significant advantages over the extant theories of intentional identity in the literature. Empty attitudes (attitudes that are not, prima facie, about anything that exists) will serve as useful cases for testing theories of intentional identity. -/- In the second part, I put the theory developed in the first part to work. I use triangulation theoretic tools to shed light on other debates about intentional attitudes. Some issues to which intentional identity are relevant are the debate about the content of intentional attitudes, the issue of whether or not we need to appeal to external constraints on the content of intentional attitudes, how we should understand the agreement and disagreement of attitudes, how we should construe communication and how we ought to solve Kripke’s puzzle about belief. The second part of this thesis also motivates a broadly internalist and individualistic approach to the con-tent of intentional attitudes; it turns out that if we take a closer look at the narrowly construed psychological states of agents we find materials that allow us to make sense of phenomena usually associated with externalist constraints on the content of attitudes (such as causal constraints and eligibility constraints) in a new way. (shrink)

The search for the extensions of sentences can be guided by Frege’s “principle of compositionality of extension”, according to which the extension of a composed expression depends only on its logical form and the extensions of its parts capable of having extensions. By means of this principle, a strict criterion for the admissibility of objects as extensions of sentences can be derived: every object is admissible as the extension of a sentence that is preserved under the substitution of co-extensional expressions. (...) The question is: what are the extensions of elementary sentences containing empty singular terms, like ‘Vulcan rotates’. It can be demonstrated that in such sentences, states of affairs as structured objects (but not truth-values) are preserved under the substitution of co-extensional expressions. Hence, such states of affairs are admissible (while truth-values are not) as extensions of elementary sentences containing empty singular terms. (shrink)

The Louvre Museum is the largest of the world's art museums by its exhibition surface. These represent the Western art of the Middle Ages in 1848, those of the ancient civilizations that preceded and influenced it (Oriental, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan and Roman), and the arts of early Christians and Islam. At the origin of the Louvre existed a castle, built by King Philip Augustus in 1190, and occupying the southwest quarter of the current Cour Carrée. In 1594, Henri IV decided (...) to unite the palace of the Louvre with the palace of the Tuileries built by Catherine de Medicis. The Cour Carrée was built by the architects Lemercier and then Le Vau, under the reign of Louis XIII and Louis XIV. The Department of Paintings currently has about 7,500 paintings (of which 3,400 are exposed), covering a period that goes from the Middle Ages to 1848 (date of the beginning of the Second Republic). By including the deposits, the collection is, with 12,660 works, the largest collection of ancient paintings in the world. With rare exceptions, the works after 1848 were transferred to the Musée d'Orsay when it was created in 1986. CONTENTS: Louvre Museum - Variety of exhibited works - The Royal Palace - The collections - - Eastern antiquities - - Arts of Islam - - Egyptian Antiquities - - Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities - - Paintings - - - French school - - - Northern Schools (Flanders, Netherlands, Germany) - - - Italian School - - - Other schools Painting - Definitions - Painting genres - - The landscape - - Still life Paintings - FRANCOIS BOUCHER - - Vulcan presenting arms to Venus for Aeneas - RAPHAEL - - Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione - RUBENS - - Helena Fourment with children - LOUIS DAVID - - Madame Récamier - REMBRANDT - - Portrait of Heindrickje Stoffels - VELAZQUEZ - - Portrait of the Infanta Margarita - SIMONE MEMMI - - Jesus Christ walking on Calvary - JAN STEEN - - The Bad Company - HANS HOLBEIN - - Erasmus - CORREGGIO - - Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine - LANCRET - - Conversation - JAN VAN DER MEER (VERMEER) - - The Lacemaker - VAN DYCK - - Charles I at the Hunt - FRANÇOIS CLOUET - - Elisabeth of Austria (1554-1592), Wife of Charles IX and Queen of France (1570 - 1574) - DELACROIX - - The Barque of Dante - EL GRECO - - Saint Louis, King of France, and a page - REMBRANDT - - Pilgrims at Emmaus (The Supper at Emmaus) - GERARD DAVID - - Marriage at Cana - RAPHAEL - - Portrait of Dona Isabel de Requesens, Vice-Queen of Naples - RUBENS - - La Kermesse (The Village Fête, or Noce de village) - FRANS HALS - - The Gypsy Girl - DECAMPS - - The Sonneurs - HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER - - Anne of Cleves - P. PRUD’HON - - Psyche transported to Heaven - PHILIPPE DE CHAMPAIGNE - - Portrait of Richelieu - LANCRET - - The Autumn - L. DAVID - - Madame Seriziat - COROT - - Recollection of Mortefontaine - LEONARDO DA VINCI - - La belle ferronnière - CORREGGIO - - Venus and Cupid with a Satyr - WATTEAU - - Pilgrimage to Cythera (The Embarkation for Cythera) - NICOLAS POUSSIN - - The Inspiration of the Poet - PRUD’HON - - The Empress Josephine (1763-1814) - FRAGONARD - - The Bathers - H. RIGAUD - - Louis XIV (1638–1715) - TERBURG - - The Concert - LEOPOLD ROBERT - - The Pilgrimage to the Madonna of the Arch - LARGILLIERE - - Family Portrait - MANTEGNA - - Parnassus - MEMLING - - The Virgin and Child between St James and St Dominic - FRAGONARD - - The Music Lesson - JEAN VAN EYCK - - The Virgin of chancellor Rolin - PAOLO VERONESE - - Susannah and the Elders - FRANÇOIS BOUCHER - - Diana leaving her bath - GÉRICAULT - - The Raft of the Medusa - MURILLO - - Assumption of the Virgin - CLAUDE GELLEE (LORRAIN) - - Ulysses returning Chryseis to her father (Marine, setting sun) - INGRES - - Madame Riviere - E. MURILLO - - The Young Beggar - GREUZE - - The Broken Pitcher - PIETER DE HOOCH - - Card players in an opulent interior - POUSSIN - - Et in Arcadia ego - QUENTIN MATSYS - - The moneylender and his wife - ANDREA SOLARIO - - Madonna with the Green Cushion - TITIEN - - Woman with a Mirror - DAVID TENIERS (the Younger) - - The Works of Mercy - LEONARDO DA VINCI - - Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) - Armand Dayot . (shrink)

Previzualizare carte Există în prezent o mare varietate de dispute privind încălzirea globală, atât în discursurile politice și sociale cât și în media populară și ​​literatura științifică, cu privire la natura, cauzele și consecințele încălzirii globale. Principala controversă o reprezintă cauzele creșterii temperaturii medii globale a aerului, evoluând de la mijlocul secolului al XX-lea, dacă această tendință de încălzire este fără precedent sau în cadrul variațiilor climatice normale, dacă omenirea a contribuit semnificativ la aceasta, și dacă există un prag, eventual (...) apropiat de valorile actuale, de unde fenomenul se va desfășura ireversibil, în avalanșă. Cele mai multe țări din lume sunt părți la Convenția-cadru a Națiunilor Unite privind schimbările climatice (UNFCCC). Obiectivul final al Convenției este de a împiedica interferența umană periculoasă a sistemului climatic. După cum se precizează în Convenție, acest lucru necesită stabilizarea concentrațiilor de gaze cu efect de seră în atmosferă la un nivel în care ecosistemele se pot adapta în mod natural schimbărilor climatice, producția de alimente să nu fie amenințată, și dezvoltarea economică să poată continua într-un mod durabil. Convenția-cadru a fost convenită în 1992, dar emisiile globale au crescut de atunci. În literatura științifică, există un consens puternic că temperaturile globale ale suprafeței au crescut în ultimele decenii și că tendința este cauzată în principal de emisiile induse de om asupra gazelor cu efect de seră. Niciun organism științific de nivel național sau internațional nu contestă acest punct de vedere. Consensul științific din 2013, menționat în cel de-al cincilea raport de evaluare al IPCC, este că "este extrem de probabil ca influența omului să fi fost cauza dominantă a încălzirii observate de la mijlocul secolului al XX-lea". Academiile naționale de știință au solicitat liderilor mondiali politici de reducere a emisiilor globale. 20.000 oameni de știință din întreaga lume, inclusiv laureați ai Premiului Nobel, au publicat anul acesta o ”atenționare către umanitate”. În curând va fi prea târziu să evităm o catastrofă, și timpul zboară. Pământul este în mâinile noastre prin activitatea noastră zilnică, și în cele ale instituțiilor guvernamentale. Ne distrugem singuri viitorul dacă nu renunțăm imediat la consumurile inutile. "Prin faptul că nu se ia în considerație creșterea populației, rolul economiilor poluante în creștere, și posibilitatea reducerii emisiilor de gaze cu efect de seră, stimularea energiilor regenerabile, protejarea habitatului, restabilirea ecosistemelor, stoparea poluării, distrugerea biosistemului și limitarea speciilor străine invazive, biosfera noastră este în pericol," cu riscuri foarte mari de a se ajunge la un 'Armaghedon ecologic'. CUPRINS: Atmosfera Pământului - Scurgeri de atmosferă - Teren - Compoziție - Structura Pământului - Circulație - Importanța - Presiunea atmosferică - - Mecanism - - Atmosfera standard - - Presiunea medie a nivelului mării - - Variația altitudinii - - Variația locală - Meteorologia (Fizica norilor) - - Răcirea aerului până la punctul de rouă - Răcirea adiabatică: pachete în creștere de aer umed - - Ascendența frontală și ciclonică - - Ascendența convectivă - - Ascendența orografică - Răcirea non-adiabatică - - Adăugarea de umezeală în aer - - Suprasaturația - - Suprarăcirea - - Coliziune - coalescență - - Procesul Bergeron - - Coeziune și dizolvare Schimbări climatice - Terminologie - Cauze - Mecanisme de forțare - - Mecanisme interne de forțare - - Variabilitatea ocean-atmosferă - Viaţa - - Mecanisme externe de forțare - Variații orbitale - Variații solare - Vulcanism - Plăci tectonice - Influențe umane - Evidențe fizice - - Măsurători de temperatură și proxi-uri - - Dovezi istorice și arheologice - - Gheţarii - - Pierderea de gheață din Marea Arctică - - Vegetația - Resurse genetice forestiere - - Analiza polenului - - Acoperire de nori și precipitații - - Dendroclimatologia - - Mostre de gheață - - Animale - - Schimbarea nivelului mărilor - Efectul de seră - - Istorie - - Mecanism - - Gaze cu efect de seră - - Rolul schimbărilor climatice - Agricultura - - Impactul schimbărilor climatice asupra agriculturii - Insectele dăunătoare și schimbările climatice - Bolile plantelor și schimbările climatice Încălzirea globală - Note - Schimbări de temperatură observate - - Tendințe regionale și fluctuații pe termen scurt - - Cei mai calzi ani față de tendința generală - Cauzele inițiale (forțe externe) - - Gaze cu efect de seră - Aerosoli și funingine - - Activitatea solară - - Variații ale orbitei Pământului - Reacții la schimbările climatice - Modele climatice - Efecte - - Efecte observate și așteptate asupra mediului - Vremea extremă - Nivelul mării creste - Sisteme ecologice - Efecte pe termen lung - Impacturi pe scară largă și abrupte - - Efectele asupra sistemelor sociale - Habitatul inundațiilor - Economie - Infrastructură - Răspunsuri - - Atenuarea - - Adaptarea - - Ingineria climatică Etica mediului - Categoriile lui Marshall - - Extensia libertariană - - Extensia ecologică - - Etica conservării - Teoriile umaniste Referințe Despre autor - Nicolae Sfetcu - - De același autor - - Contact Editura - MultiMedia Publishing. 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