Biological ontologies are used to organize, curate, and interpret the vast quantities of data arising from biological experiments. While this works well when using a single ontology, integrating multiple ontologies can be problematic, as they are developed independently, which can lead to incompatibilities. The Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies Foundry was created to address this by facilitating the development, harmonization, application, and sharing of ontologies, guided by a set of overarching principles. One challenge in reaching these goals was that the (...) OBO principles were not originally encoded in a precise fashion, and interpretation was subjective. Here we show how we have addressed this by formally encoding the OBO principles as operational rules and implementing a suite of automated validation checks and a dashboard for objectively evaluating each ontology’s compliance with each principle. This entailed a substantial effort to curate metadata across all ontologies and to coordinate with individual stakeholders. We have applied these checks across the full OBO suite of ontologies, revealing areas where individual ontologies require changes to conform to our principles. Our work demonstrates how a sizable federated community can be organized and evaluated on objective criteria that help improve overall quality and interoperability, which is vital for the sustenance of the OBO project and towards the overall goals of making data FAIR. Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. (shrink)

J.L. Schellenberg argues that divine hiddenness provides an argument for the conclusion that God does not exist, for if God existed he would not allow non-resistant non-belief to occur, but non-resistant non-belief does occur, so God does not exist. In this paper, I argue that the stakes involved in theistic considerations put pressure on Schellenberg’s premise that non-resistant non-belief occurs. First, I specify conditions for someone’s being a resistant non-believer. Then, I argue that many people fulfill these conditions because, given (...) some plausible assumptions, there is a very good pragmatic reason to be a theist rather than an atheist. I assume it is more likely that theists go to heaven than atheists, and I argue there is a non-zero probability that one can receive infinite utility and a method of comparing outcomes with infinite utilities in which the probability of each outcome affects the final expected values. Then, I show how this argument entails there is no good reason to think that there are very many non-resistant non-believers. (shrink)

In Brazil, the social demand for veterinary expertise is growing. However, there is still a shortage of professionals trained in this area to apply specific knowledge to each case. Studies and research into forensic veterinary medicine are necessary for veterinary experts to assist in investigations and legal proceedings. Veterinary medicine has subjects on its curriculum that cover the knowledge needed to apply in the fields of animal health, public health and the environment. The interaction between human and veterinary medicine, as (...) well as other areas of health, is of great importance in the prevention and control of various diseases, both in animals and humans. Some cases of infectious bovine abortion have a major impact not only on cattle farming and animal health, but also on public and environmental health. The concept of "One Health" integrates human medicine and health professionals. In this context, knowledge of infectious abortive diseases that affect animal, human and environmental health is fundamental. Cattle are affected by specific infectious abortive diseases, caused by pathogens with different forms of presentation and transmission mechanisms. These include brucellosis, leptospirosis and listeriosis, which are potentially zoonotic diseases. Controlling these diseases can contribute to effective public health actions and reduce global health risks. In order to establish the diagnosis of these diseases, it is essential to properly collect specimens from live or dead animals under biosafety and biosecurity conditions, following the chain of custody for each case. These procedures allow for greater success in diagnosing the suspected agent and facilitate the investigation of other causes. Animal health standards for the prophylaxis and control of these diseases are established by specific legislation, including those of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (MALS). This literature review was based on current knowledge on the Pubmed platform, Google Scholar, articles and textbooks. The aim of this article is to identify, understand and discuss the main infectious abortive diseases of cattle in the legal and forensic context, which have an impact on cattle farming, animal health, food safety, public and environmental health. -/- Referências bibliográficas Abdullah, N. M., Mohammad, W. M. Z. W., Shafei, M. N., Sukeri, S., Idris, Z., Arifin, W. N., Nozmi, N., Saudi, S. N. S., Samsudin, S., & Zainudin, A.-W. (2019). Leptospirosis and its prevention: knowledge, attitude and practice of urban community in Selangor, Malaysia. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 1–8. Agrimani, D. S. R., Rui, B. R., Cruz, I. V, Romano, R. M., & Lopes, H. C. (2011). Retenção de Placenta em Vacas e Éguas: Revisão de Literatura. Revista Científica Eletrônica de Medicina Veterinária, 9(16), 1–12. Albuquerque, F. R. G., Dessanti, G. A., Neto, J. A. A., Marinho, M. R., & Barros, R. B. P. (2018). Os efeitos e consequências da leptospirose na gestação. Cadernos da Medicina-UNIFESO, 1(1), 75–82. Alencar, Á. G. (2001). Do conceito estratégico de segurança alimentar ao plano de ação da FAO para combater a fome. Revista Brasileira de Política Internacional, 44(1), 137–144. Almeida, Í. C., Sena, L. M., Maretto, V., & Martins, C. B. (2019). Aspectos relacionados a retenção de placenta em vacas. PUBVET, 13(1), 1–7. Amaral, J. B., & Tremori, T. M. (2022). Exame de corpo de delito nas perícias de bem-estar em bovinos leiteiros: Revisão. PUBVET, 16(4), 1–14. Amaral, J. B., Tremori, T. M., Silva, W. L., & Reis, H. M. G. (2023). Perícias legal e forense no laboratório veterinário: Revisão. PUBVET, 17(7), e1420. Amaral, J. B., Trevisan, G., Tremori, T. M., & Guerra, S. T. (2018). Fundamentos e aplicações da medicina veterinária forense no bem-estar de bovinos leiteiros: Revisão. PUBVET, 12(2), 1–13. Antoniassi, N. A. B., Santos, A. S., Oliveira, E. C., Pescador, C. A., & Driemeier, D. (2007). Diagnóstico das causas infecciosas de aborto em bovinos. Biológico, 69(2), 69–72. Assis, A. C. S. G., & Braga, R. S. (2020). Responsabilidade técnicas na medicina veterinária. Medvep. Autran, A., Alencar, R., & Viana, R. B. (2017). Cinco liberdades. PETVet Radar, 1(3), 1–2. Barancelli, G. V., Silva-Cruz, J. V., Porto, E., & Oliveira, C. A. F. (2011). Listeria monocytogenes: ocorrência em produtos lácteos e suas implicações em saúde pública. Arquivos Do Instituto Biológico, 78, 155–168. Barbosa, G., Baptista, R. F., Naame, G., & Batalha, F. (2023). Principais irregularidades identificadas pela vigilância sanitária em açougues localizados no município de Nilópolis, Rio de Janeiro. PUBVET, 17(3), 1–9. Basso, D. P., Balzan, V. Z., Schrenk, R. D., Santos, J. L. L., & Cardoso, J. S. (2022). Suspeita de infecção por Rhodococcus equi em pônei neonato: relato de caso. Salão Do Conhecimento, 8(8). BRASIL (1968). Lei Federal nº 5.550, de 28 de dezembro de 1968. Dispõe sobre o exercício da profissão de Médico Veterinário e cria os Conselhos Federal e Regionais de Medicina Veterinária. Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, DF, 29 dez. 1968. BRASIL (1990). Lei Federal nº 8.080, de 19 de setembro de 1990. Dispõe sobre as condições para a promoção, proteção e recuperação da saúde, a organização e o funcionamento dos serviços correspondentes e dá outras providências. Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, DF, 20 set. 1990. BRASIL (1998). Lei Federal nº 9.605, de 12 de fevereiro de 1998. Dispõe sobre as sanções penais e administrativas derivadas de condutas e atividades lesivas ao meio ambiente, e dá outras providências. Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, DF, 13 fev. 1998. BRASIL (1998). Ministério da Saúde, Conselho Nacional de Saúde, Resolução 287, de 8 de outubro de 1998. Dispõe sobre o Plenário do Conselho Nacional de Saúde em reunião nos dias 7 e 8 de 1998. BRASIL (2017). Decreto Federal nº 9.013, de 29 de março de 2017. Estabelece normas para a inspeção técnica e fiscalização sanitária de animais vivos, produtos e subprodutos de origem animal. Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, DF, 30 mar. 2017. BRASIL (2006). Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento. Instrução Normativa MAPA nº 65, de 3 de novembro de 2006. Estabelece padrões para garantir a qualidade do sêmen utilizado na reprodução bovina. Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, DF, 6 nov. 2006. BRASIL (2013). Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento. Instrução Normativa MAPA nº 50, de 21 de novembro de 2013. Estabelece diretrizes para a coleta de materiais biológicos destinados a exames laboratoriais em animais terrestres. Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, DF, 22 nov. 2013. BRASIL (2017). Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento. Instrução Normativa MAPA nº 44, de 20 de setembro de 2017. Estabelece medidas para o controle e erradicação da leptospirose bovina. Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, DF, 21 set. 2017. BRASIL (2018). Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento. Portaria MAPA nº 1.138, de 8 de junho de 2018. Normas para a prevenção, controle e erradicação da brucelose e da tuberculose animal. Diário Oficial da União, Brasília, DF, 11 jun. 2018. BRASIL (2017). Instrução normativa nº 10, de 3 de março de 2017. Brasília, Distrito Federal: Diário Oficial da União. 2017. Carvalho, R. F. B., Santos, H. P., Mathias, L. A., Pereira, H. M., Paixão, A. P., Costa Filho, V. M., & Alves, L. M. C. (2016). Frequência de brucelose bovina em rebanhos leiteiros e em seres humanos na região central do estado do Maranhão, Brasil. Arquivos do Instituto Biológico, 83, e1042014. Castro, J. R., Salaberry, S. R. S., Cardoso Neto, A. B., Ávila, D. F., Souza, M. A., & Lima-Ribeiro, A. M. C. (2010). Leptospirose canina-Revisão de literatura. PUBVET, 4, Art-917. Castro, J. R., Salaberry, S. R. S., Ribeiro, V. C., Souza, M. A., & Lima-Ribeiro, A. M. C. (2010). Brucelose canina-Revisão de literatura. PUBVET, 4(41), Art-981. CFMV. (2017). Código de ética do médico veterinário. Diário Oficial da União. Chaiblich, J. V., Lima, M. L. S., Oliveira, R. F., Monken, M., & Penna, M. L. F. (2017). Estudo espacial de riscos à leptospirose no município do Rio de Janeiro (RJ). Saúde em Debate, 41, 225–240. Coiro, C. J., Langoni, H., Silva, R. C., & Ullmann, L. S. (2011). Fatores de risco para leptospirose, leishmaniose, neosporose e toxoplasmose em cães domiciliados e peridomíciliados em Botucatu-SP. Veterinária e Zootecnia, 18(3), 393–407. Correa Júnior, F. F., & Silva, J. R. G. (2021). Responsabilidade técnica de animais de produção na área de produção animal – Confinamento de bovinos. In A. C. S. G. Assis & R. S. Braga (Eds.), Responsabilidade técnico na medicina veterinária. MED VET Livros. Corrêa, S. H. R., Vasconcelos, S. A., Teixeira, A. A., Dias, R. A., Guimarães, M. A. B., & Ferreira Neto, J. S. (2000). Epidemiologia da leptospirose em animais silvestres na Fundação Parque Zoológico de São Paulo. Brazilian Journal of Veterinary and Animal Science, 41(3), 189–193. Costa, M. (2001). Brucelose bovina e equina. In F. Riet-Correa, A. L. Schild, & R. A. A. Lemos (Eds.), Doenças de ruminantes e equinos (pp. 187–197). Varela Editora e Livraria Ltda. Cruz, C. D., Martinez, M. B., & Destro, M. T. (2008). Listeria monocytogenes: Um agente infeccioso ainda pouco conhecido no Brasil. Alimentos e Nutrição, 19, 195–206. Dallari Júnior, J. A. (2021). Direito médico veterinário. Editora Recanto. DA SILVA, Emanuel Isaque Cordeiro. Relação e Efeitos Bioquímico-nutricionais Sobre a Retenção de Placenta em Vacas. 2020. Dias, F. E. F., Aoki, S. M., Mesquita, L. G., Nunes, C. M., & Garcia, J. F. (2006). Detecção de Leptospira pomona em sêmen bovino por eletroforese capilar fluorescente. Brazilian Journal of Veterinary Research and Animal Science, 43(3), 394–399. Donate, B. R. S., Prado, L. B., Espinoza, L. H. C., Fernandes, M. C., Pedrão, M. B. M., & Santos, E. W. C. O. (2022). Conhecimento da população brasileira quanto à leptospirose, sua profilaxia e transmissão. PUBVET, 16(5), 1–8. Esteves, S. B., Santos, C. M., Silva, B. C. S., Salgado, F. F., Guilloux, A. G. A., Cortez, A., Lucco, R. C., & Miotto, B. A. (2023). Time for change? A systematic review with meta-analysis of leptospires infecting dogs to assess vaccine compatibility in Brazil. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 105869. Ferreira Júnior, J. A., Nascimento, K. A., & Miguel, M. P. (2015). Aborto e morte neonatal por Listeria monocytogenes em ruminantes. Revista de Literatura: Clínica e Cirurgia de Grandes Animais, 14, 85–89. Ferreira, V., Wiedmann, M., Teixeira, P., & Stasiewicz, M. J. (2014). Listeria monocytogenes persistence in food-associated environments: epidemiology, strain characteristics, and implications for public health. Journal of Food Protection, 77(1), 150–170. Fogaça, D. C., Dutra, H., & Oliveira, C. H. (2018). Leptospirose em propriedade rural com histórico de aborto em vacas leiteiras no município de Trindade, Estado de Goiás: Relato de Caso. Enciclopédia Biosfera, 15(27), 108–120. França, C. R., Silva, I. L. N., Costa, W. A., Ferreira, V. L., Castro, L. L., & Toniolli, R. (2023). Aborto em bovinos e bubalinos: Causas específicas e inespecíficas. Ciência Animal, 33(1), 114–128. Freitas, J. A., Galindo, G. A. R., Santos, E. J. C., Sarraf, K. A., & Oliveira, J. P. (2001). Risco de brucelose zoonótica associado a suínos de abate clandestino. Revista de Saúde Pública, 35(1), 101– 102. Genovez, M. E. (2014). Brucelose humana reemerge como preocupante doença ocupacional. Boletim APAMVET, 5(5), 15–19. Genovez, M. E. (2016). Leptospirose em animais de produção. In J. Megid, M. G. Ribeiro, & A. C. Paes (Eds.), Doenças Infecciosas em Animais de Produção e de Companhia (pp. 378–386). Roca, Brasil. Genovez, M. E., & Pituco, E. M. (2020). Causas infecciosas de mortalidade embrionária e fetal em bovinos. In J. Megid, M. G. Ribeiro, & A. C. Paes (Eds.), Doenças infecciosas em animais de produção e de companhia. Roca Ltda. Gombas, D. E., Chen, Y., Clavero, R. S., & Scott, V. N. (2003). Survey of Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat foods. Journal of Food Protection, 66(4), 559–569. Gonçalves, R. C., Faleiro, J. H., Santos, M. N. G., Carvalho, S. A., & Malafaia, G. (2016). Micro- organismos emergentes de importância em alimentos: Uma revisão de literatura. Revista de Saúde e Biologia, 11, 71–83. Kahn, L. H. (2017). Perspective: The one-health way. Nature, 543(7647), S47–S47. Kells, J., & Gilmour, A. (2004). Incidence of Listeria monocytogenes in two milk processing environments, and assessment of Listeria monocytogenes blood agar for isolation. International Journal of Food Microbiology, 91(2), 167–174. Krauzer, A. S., Acher, D. P. F., Oliveira, K. D., Gabriel, J., & Berto, V. (2022). Avaliação do conhecimento dos proprietários e vacinação contra às doenças reprodutivas em bovinos das propriedades na linha Cocal-Rondônia. Revista Ibero-Americana de Humanidades, Ciências e Educação, 8(10), 1893–1902. Kuibida, K. V., & Borges, C. M. N. (2021). Responsabilidade técnica na área de produção animal: confinamento de bovino. Medvep, 179–201. Langoni, H. (1999). Leptospirose: aspectos de saúde animal e de saúde pública. Revista de Educação Continuada Em Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia Do CRMV-SP, 2(1), 52–58. Larson, C. R., Dennis, M., Nair, R. V, Llanes, A., Peda, A., Welcome, S., & Rajeev, S. (2017). Isolation and characterization of Leptospira interrogans serovar Copenhageni from a dog from Saint Kitts. JMM Case Reports, 4(10), e005120. Lawinsky, M. L. J., Ohara, P. M., Elkhoury, M. R., Faria, N. C., & Cavalcante, K. R. L. J. (2010). Estado da arte da brucelose em humanos. Revista Pan-Amazônica de Saúde, 1(4), 75–84. Leitão, M. V. N., & Cantarino, L. (2021). Hospital escola de grandes animais: Papel na vigilância de zoonoses de importância em saúde pública. PUBVET, 15(7), 1–6. Lima, N. T. S., Araújo, L. R. T., Araújo, B. V. S., Batista, V. H. T., Veloso, L. S., & Leite, A. I. (2020). A Saúde Única na perspectiva da educação popular em saúde. Research, Society and Development, 9(10), e8839109314. Llano, H. A. B. (2013). Revisão e situação atual da brucelose e leptospirose em bovinos no Brasil e na Colômbia. Seminário Apresentado Junto à Disciplina Seminários Aplicados Do Programa de Pós- Graduação Em Ciência Animal Da Escola de Veterinária e Zootecnia da Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia. Loureiro, A. P., & Lilenbaum, W. (2020). Genital bovine leptospirosis: A new look for an old disease. Theriogenology, 141, 41–47. Macedo, I., Homem, J. S., & Carlot, P. A. (2021). A importância da brucelose bovina na saúde pública - Revisão Bibliográfica. Anais Congrega MIC, 17, 7–10. Machado, G. B., Neto, A. C. S., Dewes, C., Fortes, T. P., Pacheco, P. S., Freitas, L. S., Felix, S. R., & Silva, É. F. (2017). Leptospirose Humana: uma revisão sobre a doença e os fatores de risco associados à zona rural. Science And Animal Health, 5(3), 238–250. Maia, A. K., & Pagotto, R. F. (2018). Atuação do médico veterinário na área forense. In G. C. M. Garcia, Y. S. Gonçalves, K. A. Rosa, & L. R. Wolf (Eds.), Tópicos em medicina veterinária legal. Universidade Federal do Paraná, UFPR. Massad, M. R. R., & Massad, J. M. (2017). Responsabilidade profissional. In R. A. Tostes, S. T. J. Reis, & V. V Castilho (Eds.), Tratado de Medicina Veterinária Legal. Medvep. Medeiros, M. I. M., & Oliveira, H. F. (2021). Responsabilidade técnica na área ambiental. In A. C. S. G. Assis & R. S. Braga (Eds.), Responsabilidade técnico na medicina veterinária. MED VET Livros. Megid, J., Ribeiro, M. G., & Paes, A. C. (2016). Doenças infecciosas em animais de produção e de companhia. Guanabara, Koogan. Meirelles-Bartoli, R. B., Sousa, D. B., & Mathias, L. A. (2014). Aspectos da brucelose na saúde pública veterinária. PUBVET, 8, 1136–1282. Mesquita, M. O., Trevilato, G. C., Saraiva, L. H., Schons, M. S., & Garcia, M. I. F. (2016). Material de educação ambiental como estratégia de prevenção da leptospirose para uma comunidade urbana reassentada. Cadernos Saúde Coletiva, 24(1), 77–83. Mineiro, A. L. B. B., Bezerra, E. E. A., Vasconcellos, S. A., Costa, F. A. L., & Macedo, N. A. (2007). Infecção por leptospira em bovinos e sua associação com transtornos reprodutivos e condições climáticas. Arquivo Brasileiro de Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia, 59, 1103–1109. Miranda, M. (2018). A contribuição do médico veterinário a saúde única-one health. Psicologia e Saúde em Debate, 4(Suppl1), 34. Mohammed, H. O., Atwill, E., Dunbar, L., Ward, T., McDonough, P., Gonzalez, R., & Stipetic, K. (2010). The risk of Listeria monocytogenes infection in beef cattle operations. Journal of Applied Microbiology, 108(1), 349–356. Nardi Júnior, G., Ribeiro, M. G., Monteiro, F. M., Jesus, T. L., & Vieira, R. M. (2012). Brucelose em touros: Uma visão da doença no Brasil com ênfase ao diagnóstico e sua importância ao agronegócio. Tekhne e Logos, 3(3), 33–53. Nascimento, A. J. S., & Nardi Júnior, G. (2022). Programa de controle e erradicação da brucelose e tuberculose animal. Tekhne e Logos, 13(2), 34–43. Nascimento, R. A. P. (2017). Gestão de laboratórios oficiais de defesa agropecuária. Universidade de Brasília. Nobre, M. M., Azevedo, R. A., Campos, E. F., Lage, C. F. A., Glória, J. R., Saturnino, H. M., & Coelho, S. G. (2018). Impacto econômico da retenção de placenta em vacas leiteiras. Pesquisa Veterinária Brasileira, 38(3), 450–455. NUTRICIONAL. (2011). Plano Nacional de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional: 2012/2015. Ministério da Agricultura. Oliveira, S. V., Arsky, M. L. N. S., & Caldas, E. P. (2013). Reservatórios animais da leptospirose: Uma revisão bibliográfica. Saúde (Santa Maria), 39(1), 9–20. Oliveira-Neto, R. R., Souza, V. F., Carvalho, P. F. G., & Frias, D. F. R. (2018). Nível de conhecimento de tutores de cães e gatos sobre zoonoses. Revista de Salud Pública, 20, 198–203. Ortigoza, S., & José, M. (2018). Aborto bovino: Revisión de sus factores etiológicos. In Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia (pp. 1–22). Universidad Cooperativa de Colombia, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud. Pellegrin, A. O., Guimaraes, P. H. S., Sereno, J. R. B., Figueiredo, J. P., Lage, A. P., Moreira, E. C., & Leite, R. C. (1999). Prevalência da leptospirose em bovinos do Pantanal Mato-Grossense. Corumbá: Embrapa Pantanal, 1999. Pereira, P. A. C., Ferreira, A. M., & Carvalho, L. B. (2009). Perfil sorológico das leptospiroses em rebanhos bovinos leiteiros da região do Vale do Parnaíba-SP. Revista Brasileira de Reprodução Animal, 28(3), 174–176. Pfuetzenreiter, M. R., Zylbersztajn, A., & Avila-Pires, F. D. (2004). Evolução histórica da medicina veterinária preventiva e saúde pública. Ciência Rural, 34(5), 1661–1668. Pinillos, R. G. (2018). One welfare: A framework to improve animal welfare and human well-being. Cabi. Poester, F. P., Goncalves, V. S. P., & Lage, A. P. (2002). Brucellosis in Brazil. Veterinary Microbiology, 90(1–4), 55–62. Porto, Y. F., Pinto Neto, A., Bernardi, F., Possa, M. G., Mota, M. F., Martinez, A. C., Merlini, L. S., & Berber, R. C. (2018). Occurrence of brucellosis, leptospirosis and neosporosis in cows with retained placenta in Southwest Paraná, Brazil. Pesquisa Veterinária Brasileira, 38(8), 1537–1542. Radostits, O. M., Gay, C. C., Blood, D. C., Hinchcliff, K. W., & McKenzie, R. A. (2010). Clínica Veterinária: um tratado de doenças dos bovinos, ovinos, suínos, caprinos e eqüinos (Vol. 1). Guanabara Koogan. Ramos, T. M. V., Balassiano, I. T., Silva, T. S. M., & Nogueira, J. M. R. (2022). Leptospirose: Características da enfermidade em humanos e principais técnicas de diagnóstico laboratorial. Revista Brasileira de Análises Clínicas, 53(3), 211–218. Ribeiro, A. C. A., Araújo, R. V., Rosa, A. S. M., Silva, P. N., Moraes, S. C., & Katagiri, S. (2020). Zoonoses e educação em saúde: Conhecer, compartilhar e multiplicar. Brazilian Journal of Health Review, 3(5), 12785–12801. Rocha, C. F., Mol, J. P. S., Garcia, L. N. N., Costa, L. F., Santos, R. L., & Paixão, T. A. (2017). Comparative experimental infection of Listeria monocytogenes and Listeria ivanovii in bovine trophoblasts. Plos One, 12, 1–13. Rocha, N. S. (2017). Corpo de delito e processos por erro médico veterinário. In R. A. Tostes, S. T. J. Reis, & V. V Castilho (Eds.), Tratado de medicina veterinária legal. Medvep. Rossi, M., Paiva, A., Tornese, M., Chianelli, S., & Troncoso, A. (2008). Brotes de infección por Listeria monocytogenes: Una revisión de las vias que llevan a su aparición. Revista Ciencia y Tecnologia, Escuela de Postgrado, 25, 328–335. Sá, M. I., & Ferreira, C. (2007). Importância das zoonoses na segurança alimentar. Infoqualidade, 11, 14–17. Sakate, R. I., Aragon, L. C., Raghiante, F., Landgraf, M., Franco, B. D. G. M., & Destro, M. T. (2003). Quantificação de Listeria monocytogenes em salames fatiados embalados a vácuo. Archivos Latinoamericanos de Nutrición, 53, 1–5. Salmanov, A. G., Kotsyumbas, I. Y. А., & Trokhymchuk, V. V. (2018). One World — One Health. International Journal of Antibiotics and Probiotics, 2(1), 8–17. Santana, L., Novelli, M., Vidal, A., Pereira, S., Gasparinni, L., Alvarenga, A. M. O., & Motta, O. J. R. (2020). Brucelose: atualização para a prática clínica. Saúde Dinâmica, 5(3), 1–14. Santos-Filho, A. M. P., & Mayrink, R. R. (2017). Medicina Veterinária Forense. In J. A. Velho, G. C. Geiser, & A. Espíndula. (Eds.), Ciências Forenses, uma introdução às principais áreas da criminalística moderna. Millennium. Schmitt, C. I., Krug, F. D. M., Cereser, N. D., & Pinto, F. R. (2017). Brucelose: uma questão de saúde pública. REDVET. Revista Electrónica de Veterinária, 18(9), 1–17. Silva, H. R., Gianoglou, F. M., Campos, M. F., Graciano, E. M. A., & Toledo, R. C. C. (2016). Listeriose: Uma doença de origem alimentar pouco conhecida no Brasil. Higiene Alimentar, 30, 17– 20. Simões, L. S., Sasahara, T. H. C., Favaron, P. O., & Miglino, M. A. (2016). Leptospirose–Revisão. PUBVET, 10, 111–189. Slowinski, K., Tremori, T. M., Massad, M. R. R., Tasaka, A. C., & Rocha, N. S. (2016). Responsabilidade ética e civil do médico-veterinário no ambiente hospitalar. Revista de Educação Continuada em Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia Do CRMV-SP, 14(2), 30–37. Snak, A., & Osaki, S. C. (2019). Uma revisão sobre três importantes agentes causadores de aborto em bovinos: Neospora caninum, Leptospira sp. e Trypanosoma vivax. Revista de Ciência Veterinária e Saúde Pública, 6(1), 160–195. Sobrinho, O. P. L., Véras, G. M. C., Silva, L. F. B., Oliveira, L. S., Xavier, R. S., Alvim, J. F., Costa, D. A. S., Pereira, Á. I. S., Carlos, M. A. S., Cantanhede, E. K. P., & Santos, M. L. C. (2018). Brucelose bovina: Situação epidemiológica em rebanhos no município de Codó-MA. PUBVET, 12(12), 1–4. Souza, A. O. (2010). Listeriose na gravidez. Revista Médica de Minas Gerais, 20, 433–434. Suárez, Á. C. A., & Parra, C. A. B. (2017). Actualización de la leptospirosis bovina en Colombia. Conexión Agropecuaria JDC, 7(1), 57–77. Tonin, A. A., Azevedo, M. I., Escobar, T. P., Casassola, I., Santos, L. G., Cocco, M., Martins, J. L. R., Schaefe, P. C., & Badke, M. R. T. (2010). Leptospirose bovina: aumento na incidência da Leptospira interrogans sorovar butembo no rebanho do Estado de Santa Catarina, Brasil. Acta Veterinaria Brasilica, 4(4), 294–297. Topazio, J., Tonin, A. A., Machado, G., Noll, J. C. G., Ribeiro, A., Moura, A. B., Carmo, G. M., Grosskopf, H. M., Martins, J. L. R., & Badke, M. R. T. (2015). Antibodies to Leptospira interrogans in goats and risk factors of the disease in Santa Catarina (West side), Brazil. Research in Veterinary Science, 99, 53–57. Tremori, T. M., & Rocha, N. S. (2013). Exame do corpo de delito na Perícia Veterinária (ensaio). Revista de Educação Continuada em Medicina Veterinária e Zootecnia do CRMV-SP, 11(3), 30–35. Urzêda, M., Ribeiro, P. G. M., Nascente, E. P., Espíndola, W. R., Teodoro, J. V. S., Gonçalves, G. B., Carneiro, Y. F., & Souza, W. J. (2020). Soroprevalência de leptospirose em fêmeas bovinas na microrregião do Vale Do Rio Dos Bois, Goiás, Brasil. Brazilian Journal of Development, 6(9), 69614–69622. Vallim, D. C., Barroso Hofer, C., Lisbôa, R. de C., Barbosa, A. V., Rusak, L. A., Reis, C. M. F., & Hofer, E. (2015). Twenty years of Listeria in Brazil: Occurrence of Listeria species and Listeria monocytogenes serovars in food samples in Brazil between 1990 and 2012. BioMed Research International, 2015. Vasconcelos, C. H., Fonseca, F. R., Lise, M. L. Z., & Arsky, M. (2012). Fatores ambientais e socioeconômicos relacionados à distribuição de casos de leptospirose no Estado de Pernambuco, Brasil, 2001-2009. Caderno de Saúde Coletiva, 20(1), 49–56. Viana, K. F., & Zanini, M. S. (2009). Perfil de produtores frente à vacinação contra doenças infecciosas abortivas em rebanhos bovinos do município de Alegre/ES. Archives of Veterinary Science, 14(2), 103–108. Vitas, A. I., & Garcia-Jalon, V. A. E. I. (2004). Occurrence of Listeria monocytogenes in fresh and processed foods in Navarra (Spain). International Journal of Food Microbiology, 90(3), 349–356. (shrink)

What justifies our beliefs about what other people say? According to epistemic inferentialism​, the justification of comprehension-based beliefs depends on the justification of other beliefs, e.g., beliefs about what words the speaker uttered or even what sounds they produced. According to epistemic non-inferentialism, the justification of comprehension-based beliefs ​does not depend on the justification of other beliefs. This paper offers a new defense of epistemic non-inferentialism. First, I discuss three counterexamples to epistemic non-inferentialism provided recently by Brendan Balcerak Jackson. (...) I argue that only one of Balcerak Jackson’s counterexamples is effective, and that it is effective against only one version of epistemic non-inferentialism, viz. language comprehension dogmatism. Second, I propose an alternative version of epistemic non-inferentialism, viz. comprehension-process reliabilism, which is immune to these counterexamples. I conclude that we should follow Balcerak Jackson in his rejection of language comprehension dogmatism but not all the way to the endorsement of epistemic inferentialism. Comprehension-process reliabilism is superior to both these alternatives. (shrink)

This article challenges the view most recently expounded by Emily Jackson that ‘decisional privacy’ ought to be respected in the realm of artificial reproduction (AR). On this view, it is considered an unjust infringement of individual liberty for the state to interfere with individual or group freedom artificially to produce a child. It is our contention that a proper evaluation of AR and of the relevance of welfare will be sensitive not only to the rights of ‘commissioning parties’ to (...) AR but also to public policy considerations. We argue that AR has implications for the common good, by involving matters of human reproduction, kinship, race, parenthood and identity. In this paper we challenge presuppositions concerning decisional privacy. We examine the essential commodification of human life implicit in AR and the systematicity that makes this possible. We address the objection that it is an ethically neutral way of having children and consider the problem of ‘existential debt’. After examining objections to the thesis that AR is illegitimate for reasons of public policy and the common good, we return to the issue of decisional privacy in the light of considerations concerning the legitimate role of the state in matters affecting human reproduction. (shrink)

Much of the literature on the relationship between belief and credence has focused on the reduction question: that is, whether either belief or credence reduces to the other. This debate, while important, only scratches the surface of the belief-credence connection. Even on the anti-reductive dualist view, belief and credence could still be very tightly connected. Here, I explore questions about the belief-credence connection that go beyond reduction. This paper is dedicated to what I call the independence question: just how independent (...) are belief and credence? I look at this question from two angles: a descriptive one (as a psychological matter, how much can belief and credence come apart?) and a normative one (for a rational person, how closely connected are belief and credence?) Ultimately, I suggest that the two attitudes are more independent than one might think. (shrink)

Many evidentialists are impermissivists. But there’s no in-principle reason for this. In this paper, I examine and motivate permissivist evidentialism. Not only are permissivism and evidentialism compatible but there are unique benefits that arise for this combination of views. In particular, permissivist evidentialism respects the importance of evidence while capturing its limitations and provides a plausible and attractive explanation of the relationship between the epistemic and non-epistemic. Permissivist evidentialism is thus an attractive option in logical space that hasn’t received enough (...) attention. (shrink)

Credences are similar to levels of confidence, represented as a value on the [0,1] interval. This chapter sheds light on questions about credence, including its relationship to full belief, with an eye toward the empirical relevance of credence. First, I’ll provide a brief epistemological history of credence and lay out some of the main theories of the nature of credence. Then, I’ll provide an overview of the main views on how credences relate to full beliefs. Finally, I’ll turn to the (...) empirical, and suggest some ways that cognitive science does and could answer questions about credence, such as what credences one has, how credences relate to beliefs, and the extent to which we can control our credences. (shrink)

This essay concerns the question of how we make genuine epistemic progress through conceptual analysis. Our way into this issue will be through consideration of the paradox of analysis. The paradox challenges us to explain how a given statement can make a substantive contribution to our knowledge, even while it purports merely to make explicit what one’s grasp of the concept under scrutiny consists in. The paradox is often treated primarily as a semantic puzzle. However, in “Sect. 1” I argue (...) that the paradox raises a more fundamental epistemic problem, and in “Sects.1 and 2” I argue that semantic proposals—even ones designed to capture the Fregean link between meaning and epistemic significance—fail to resolve that problem. Seeing our way towards a real solution to the paradox requires more than semantics; we also need to understand how the process of analysis can yield justification for accepting a candidate conceptual analysis. I present an account of this process, and explain how it resolves the paradox, in “Sect. 3”. I conclude in “Sect. 4” by considering the implications for the present account concerning the goal of conceptual analysis, and by arguing that the apparent scarcity of short and finite illuminating analyses in philosophically interesting cases provides no grounds for pessimism concerning the possibility of philosophical progress through conceptual analysis. (shrink)

The distinction between propositional and doxastic justification is normally applied to belief. The goal of this paper is to apply the distinction to faith and hope. Before doing so, I discuss the nature of faith and hope, and how they contrast with belief—belief has no essential conative component, whereas faith and hope essentially involve the conative. I discuss implications this has for evaluating faith and hope, and apply this to the propositional/doxastic distinction. There are two key upshots. One, bringing in (...) faith and hope makes salient additional normative categories, including the way the distinction between epistemic and practical justification interacts with the distinction between propositional and doxastic justification. Two, a paradigm example of propositional without doxastic justification is a belief that is evidentially supported but based on wishful thinking. Surprisingly, parallel cases of faith and hope may actually enjoy both propositional and doxastic justification. I conclude by exploring what it might look like for faith and hope to have propositional justification without doxastic justification. (shrink)

This essay is a defense of the social construction of racialism. I follow a standard definition of “racialism” which is the belief that “there are heritable characteristics, possessed by members of our species, that allow us to divide them into a small set of races, in such a way that all the members of these races share certain traits and tendencies with each other that they do not share with other members of any other race”. In particular I want to (...) defend the “radical” social-constructive thesis that holds “the concept of race is exclusively the product of historical and cultural causes. It claims that humans do not tend to classify people into races when groups with different phenotypes meet, save for particular historical circumstances”. The quoted position is the consensus view among historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and other social scientists who study racialism but has recently been criticized by philosophical defenders of cognitive/evolutionary psychological approaches to racialism. Drawing on developmental studies as well as historical and contemporary cross-cultural research, CEP philosophers point to similarities of racialism across time and space. They hold that social constructionist approaches to racialism cannot explain these similarities. I hold that SC approaches do explain these similarities and that such similarities actually pose a significant challenge to the proposed CEP research program on racialism. (shrink)

The A-theory of time is plagued by certain standard armchair problems: the presentism–eternalism dilemma, the problem of truth-makers, the alleged impossibility of cross-temporal relations, and the problem of temporary intrinsics. These challenges supposedly force A-theories to make incredible claims. I argue that these challenges are not deep antinomies in common sense, but rest on avoidable mistakes. Then I present a new A-theory that shows what’s possible once we move past the old problems. On this proposal, time’s passing is a metaphysically (...) fundamental aspect of reality. I take this to mean that there are fundamental facts like: four hours passed from 8am today until noon. This A-theory also posits fundamental facts about the state of the universe at a time, and about cross-temporal relationships. The proposed metaphysical package attractively articulates our common sense, pre-relativistic conception of time. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to (i) examine the concept of epistemic paternalism and (ii) explore the consequences of normative questions one might ask about it. I begin by critically examining several definitions of epistemic paternalism that have been proposed, and suggesting ways they might be improved. I then contrast epistemic and general paternalism and argue that it’s difficult to see what makes epistemic paternalism an epistemic phenomenon at all. Next, I turn to the various normative questions one might (...) ask about epistemic paternalism and discuss the literature’s assumptions of epistemic consequentialism and veritism. I close by comparing and contrasting epistemic paternalism with other topics in social epistemology, such as disagreement or testimony. (shrink)

This paper introduces and motivates a solution to a dilemma from peer disagreement. Following Buchak (2021), I argue that peer disagreement puts us in an epistemic dilemma: there is reason to think that our opinions should both change and not change when we encounter disagreement with our epistemic peers. I argue that we can solve this dilemma by changing our credences, but not our beliefs in response to disagreement. I explain how my view solves the dilemma in question, and then (...) offer two additional arguments for it: one related to contents and attitudes, and another related to epistemic peerhood. (shrink)

Gilbert Harman’s famous principle of Clutter Avoidance commands that “one should not clutter one’s mind with trivialities". Many epistemologists have been inclined to accept Harman’s principle, or something like it. This is significant because the principle appears to have robust implications for our overall picture of epistemic normativity. Jane Friedman (2018) has recently argued that one potential implication is that there are no genuine purely evidential norms on belief revision. In this paper, we present some new objections to a suitably (...) formulated version of the clutter principle qua norm on belief revision. Moreover, we argue that the clutter principle is best understood as a norm on non-doxastic stages of inquiry. In our view, it is a norm of asking and considering questions rather than a norm of settling on an answer to a question by forming a belief. (shrink)

This book is devoted to applied ethics. We focus on six popular and controversial topics: abortion, the environment, animals, poverty, punishment, and disability. We cover three chapters per topic, and each chapter is devoted to a famous or influential argument on the topic. After we present an influential argument, we then consider objections to the argument, and replies to the objections. The book is impartial, and set up in order to equip the reader to make up her own mind about (...) the controversial topics covered. (shrink)

Doxastic voluntarism is the thesis that our beliefs are subject to voluntary control. While there’s some controversy as to what “voluntary control” amounts to (see 1.2), it’s often understood as direct control: the ability to bring about a state of affairs “just like that,” without having to do anything else. Most of us have direct control over, for instance, bringing to mind an image of a pine tree. Can one, in like fashion, voluntarily bring it about that one believes a (...) specific proposition? Doxastic voluntarists hold that, at least in some circumstances—such as when the evidence is ambiguous—we can. Doxastic involuntarists, in contrast, maintain that we cannot. Some involuntarists hold that the concept of belief itself precludes the possibility of believing voluntarily. Others hold that the impossibility of voluntary belief is a contingent psychological fact. Historically, the issue of doxastic voluntarism has been connected to how many think about religious commitment: a prominent view of faith is that it is a voluntary decision to believe. Furthermore, the issue of voluntarism has also been viewed as having bearing on fundamental questions in epistemology. For example, are epistemic norms duties to believe in certain ways? Are there practical or moral reasons to believe? If the answer to either question is “yes,” it seems some measure of voluntary doxastic control is required. -/- In section 1, we expand on the definition of doxastic voluntarism, and survey various kinds of control (e.g. direct, indirect, long-range) and the doxastic attitudes we might control (e.g. outright belief, withholding, credences). In section 2, we discuss a number of historical views on doxastic voluntarism. In section 3, we survey motivations for rejecting doxastic voluntarism. There are two general strategies: arguments that appeal to psychological considerations, and conceptual arguments regarding the nature of belief. In section 4, we survey five approaches to defending voluntarism: those that appeal to epistemic permissivism, doxastic compatibilism, skepticism, one-off considerations, and non-standard views of belief. In section 5, we cover empirical work on doxastic voluntarism. The last two sections discuss two implications of voluntarism. In section 6, we discuss voluntarism’s implications for the ethics of belief, and in section 7, we discuss issues at the intersection of voluntarism and religious faith. (shrink)

The mechanistic concept of the body, as inherited from René Descartes, has generated considerable trouble in philosophy—including, at least in part, the mind-body problem itself. Still, the corps mécanique remains perhaps the most prevalent though least examined assumption in recent philosophy of mind. I discuss two notable exceptions. Gilbert Ryle and Maurice Merleau-Ponty rejected this assumption for surprisingly similar reasons. Writing at about the same time, though in different languages and in very different circles, they each attempted to articulate a (...) non-mechanistic concept of the body by stressing the importance of skill: skillful behavior constituting cognition in Ryle’s case, and the skill body constituting perception in Merleau-Ponty’s case. In this article, I turn to their cautions and insights. By drawing out the relation between these two seemingly unrelated theorists, I hope to show that together Ryle and Merleau-Ponty have much to offer philosophy today. (shrink)

Pascal’s Wager involves expected utilities. In this chapter, we examine the Wager in light of two main features of expected utility theory: utilities and probabilities. We discuss infinite and finite utilities, and zero, infinitesimal, extremely low, imprecise, and undefined probabilities. These have all come up in recent literature regarding Pascal’s Wager. We consider the problems each creates and suggest prospects for the Wager in light of these problems.

In this paper I offer a comparative evaluation of two types of “fundamental hope”, drawn from the writing of Rebecca Solnit and Rowan Williams respectively. Arguments can be found in both, I argue, for the foundations of a dispositional existential hope. Examining and comparing the differences between these accounts, I focus on the consequences implied for hope’s freedom and stability. I focus specifically on how these two accounts differ in their claims about the relationship between hope and necessity. I argue (...) that both Solnit and Williams base their claims for warranted fundamental hope on a sense of how reality is structured, taking this structure to provide grounds for a basic existential orientation that absolute despair is never the final word. For Solnit this structure is one of unpredictability; for Williams it is one of excess. While this investigation finds both accounts of fundamental hope to be plausible and insightful, I argue that Williams’s account is ultimately more satisfying on the grounds that it offers a realistic way of thinking about a hope necessitated by what it is responsive to, and more substantial in responding to what is necessary. (shrink)

Juhani Yli-Vakkuri and John Hawthorne have recently presented a thought experiment—Mirror Man—designed to refute internalist theories of belief and content. We distinguish five ways in which the case can be interpreted and argue that on none does it refute internalism.

This paper explains and defends a belief-first view of the relationship between belief and credence. On this view, credences are a species of beliefs, and the degree of credence is determined by the content of what is believed. We begin by developing what we take to be the most plausible belief-first view. Then, we offer several arguments for it. Finally, we show how it can resist objections that have been raised to belief-first views. We conclude that the belief-first view is (...) more plausible than many have previously supposed. (shrink)

Friendship between professors and students have the potential for hurting those involved and can be hurtful to the larger society in which they occur. This paper examines what sort of boundary lines can be drawn for appropriate faculty-student relationships by considering three arguments against faculty-student friendships. After rejecting these arguments on the grounds that they rely upon a flawed conceptualization of friendship, the paper, drawing on William Rawlins’s theory of friendship, argues that faculty-student relationships are neither desirable nor undesirable per (...) se. However, if such relationships do arise, it is possible that they can be conducted in an ethically responsible and professionally appropriate way. (shrink)

In this paper, I consider the topic of racism in America, the Christian Church, and in Pentecostalism. Historically there has been a tepid response to racism by the Christian. Although many individuals who are Christian’s have voiced and demonstrated opposition to the practice of racism the Christian as a whole has not actively supported the rights of black people to be equal citizens in the United States. I examine the actions and words of whites from an historical and religious perspective (...) with a focus on Pentecostalism. My discussion shows that while Pentecostalism is not a movement that promotes racism some individuals from the Clergy to the pew who profess to be Pentecostals and recipients of the ‘second blessing’ embrace and practice racism. (shrink)

Knowledge, like other things of value, can be faked. According to Hawley (2011), know-how is harder to fake than knowledge-that, given that merely apparent propositional knowledge is in general more resilient to our attempts at successful detection than are corresponding attempts to fake know-how. While Hawley’s reasoning for a kind of detection resilience asymmetry between know-how and know-that looks initially plausible, it should ultimately be resisted. In showing why, we outline different ways in which know-how can be faked even when (...) a given performance is successful; and in doing so, we distinguish how know-how can be faked (no less than know-that) via upstream and downstream indicators of its presence, and within each of these categories, we’ll distinguish (in connection with detection resilience) both faking symptoms and (various kinds of) criteria. The unappreciated resilience of faked knowledge-how to successful detection highlights a largely overlooked dimension of social-epistemic risk – risk we face not just in our capacity as recipients of testimony, but in our capacity as both (would-be) apprentices and clients of knowledge-how. (shrink)

What are words? What makes two token words tokens of the same word-type? Are words abstract entities, or are they (merely) collections of tokens? The ontology of words tries to provide answers to these, and related questions. This article provides an overview of some of the most prominent views proposed in the literature, with a particular focus on the debate between type-realist, nominalist, and eliminativist ontologies of words.

Abstract: Might knowledge normatively govern conversations and not just their discrete constituent thoughts and (assertoric) actions? I answer yes, at least for a restricted class of conversations I call aimed conversations. On the view defended here, aimed conversations are governed by participatory know-how - viz., knowledge how to do what each interlocutor to the conversation shares a participatory intention to do by means of that conversation. In the specific case of conversations that are in the service of joint inquiry, the (...) view defended is that interlocutors (A, B, ... n) must intentionally inquire together into whether p, by means of an aimed conversation X, only if A,B, ... n know how to use X to find out together whether p. The view is supported by considerations about instrumental rationality, shared intentionality, the epistemology of intentional action, as well as linguistic data. (shrink)

Our aim is to provide a topography of the relevant philosophical terrain with regard to the possible ways in which knowledge can be conceived of as extended. We begin by charting the different types of internalist and externalist proposals within epistemology, and we critically examine the different formulations of the epistemic internalism/externalism debate they lead to. Next, we turn to the internalism/externalism distinction within philosophy of mind and cognitive science. In light of the above dividing lines, we then examine first (...) the extent to which content externalism is compatible with epistemic externalism; second, whether active externalism entails epistemic externalism; and third whether there are varieties of epistemic externalism that are better suited to accommodate active externalism. Finally, we examine whether the combination of epistemic and cognitive externalism is necessary for epistemology and we comment on the potential ramifications of this move for social epistemology and philosophy of science. (shrink)

Jack Spencer argues we should reject a decision rule called MaxRat because it's incompatible with this principle: If you know that you will choose an option, x, and you know that x is better than every other option available to you, then it is permissible for you to choose x. I agree with Spencer that defenders of MaxRat should reject this principle. However, I disagree insofar as he suggests that he and orthodox causalists are in a position to accept it. (...) Both orthodox CDT and Spencer's own theory of rational choice are incompatible with the principle as well. It is surprising to realise, but all are agreed: it can be irrational to knowingly choose the best. (shrink)

Cognitive science and evolutionary psychology show great potential as explanatory paradigms for a wide array of cultural products and activities, including literature. In some scholars’ minds these two fields are emerging as the cornerstones of a major ‘‘new interdisciplinarity’’ that may well displace the relativistic interpretive paradigms that have dominated the humanities for the last few decades. Through a review of a number of recently published works, I assess the situation of these two fields in relation to the specific, currently (...) reigning approaches to literary study as well as in relation to more general issues of academic literary interpretation.What do we have so far, and what can we possibly expect these essentially empirical-scientific disciplines to add to literary criticism? If cognitive science and evolutionary psychology are to become important in a truly interdisciplinary sense, then what kinds of claims will they need to make? Most important, how will the problematic but unavoidable distinction between nature and nurture be dealt with? Though the kinds of explanations offered in both fields can obviously enough be relevant to defining what literature is in relation to the human organism, how will the same kinds of explanations be involved in the actual interpretation of specific literary texts? For only an approach that provides new interpretive possibilities of actual texts can succeed on any broad level. After considering examples of current interdisciplinary work that, regardless of their other strengths, do not turn out to be significantly new and different from previous paradigms, I consider an example that, to my mind, most strongly illustrates in a general way what the new interdisciplinarity will have to look like if it is going to succeed. (shrink)

Understanding consciousness and its place in the natural world is one of the principal targets of contemporary philosophy of mind. Australian philosophers made seminal contributions to this project during the twentieth century which continue to shape the way philosophers and scientists think about the conceptual, metaphysical and empirical aspects of the problem. After some scene setting, I will discuss the main players and their work in the context of broader developments in the philosophy of mind.

The philosophical significance of attitudinal autonomy—viz., the autonomy of attitudes such as beliefs—is widely discussed in the literature on moral responsibility and free will. Within this literature, a key debate centres around the following question: is the kind of attitudinal autonomy that’s relevant to moral responsibility at a given time determined entirely by a subject’s present mental structure at that time? Internalists say ‘yes’, externalists say ’no’. In this essay, I motivate a kind of distinctly epistemic attitudinal autonomy, attitudinal autonomy (...) that is relevant to knowledge. I argue that regardless of whether we are externalists or internalists about the kind of attitudinal autonomy that is relevant for moral responsibility, we should be externalists about the kind of autonomy that a belief must have to qualify as knowledge. (shrink)

Epistemic relativists often appeal to an epistemic incommensurability thesis. One notable example is the position advanced by Wittgenstein in On certainty (1969). However, Ian Hacking’s radical denial of the possibility of objective epistemic reasons for belief poses, we suggest, an even more forceful challenge to mainstream meta-epistemology. Our central objective will be to develop a novel strategy for defusing Hacking’s line of argument. Specifically, we show that the epistemic incommensurability thesis can be resisted even if we grant the very insights (...) that lead Hacking to claim that epistemic reasons are always relative to a style of reasoning. Surprisingly, the key to defusing the argument is to be found in recent mainstream work on the epistemic state of objectual understanding. (shrink)

Information can be public among a group. Whether or not information is public matters, for example, for accounts of interdependent rational choice, of communication, and of joint intention. A standard analysis of public information identifies it with (some variant of) common belief. The latter notion is stipulatively defined as an infinite conjunction: for p to be commonly believed is for it to believed by all members of a group, for all members to believe that all members believe it, and so (...) forth. This analysis is often presupposed without much argument in philosophy. Theoretical entrenchment or intuitions about cases might give some traction on the question, but give little insight about why the identification holds, if it does. The strategy of this paper is to characterize a practical-normative role for information being public, and show that the only things that play that role are (variants of) common belief as stipulatively characterized. In more detail: a functional role for “taking a proposition for granted” in non-isolated decision making is characterized. I then present some minimal conditions under which such an attitude is correctly held. The key assumption links this attitude to beliefs about what is public. From minimal a priori principles, we can argue that a proposition being public among a group entails common commitment to believe among that group. Later sections explore partial converses to this result, the factivity of publicity and publicity from the perspective of outsiders to the group, and objections to the aprioricity of the result deriving from a posteriori existential presuppositions. (shrink)

[This is an edited version of a keynote talk at the conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) on November 28, 2022, with some minor additions and subtractions.] -/- There has recently been widespread discussion of whether large language models might be sentient or conscious. Should we take this idea seriously? I will break down the strongest reasons for and against. Given mainstream assumptions in the science of consciousness, there are significant obstacles to consciousness in current models: for example, their (...) lack of recurrent processing, a global workspace, and unified agency. At the same time, it is quite possible that these obstacles will be overcome in the next decade or so. I conclude that while it is somewhat unlikely that current large language models are conscious, we should take seriously the possibility that successors to large language models may be conscious in the not-too-distant future. (shrink)

I explore how rational belief and rational credence relate to evidence. I begin by looking at three cases where rational belief and credence seem to respond differently to evidence: cases of naked statistical evidence, lotteries, and hedged assertions. I consider an explanation for these cases, namely, that one ought not form beliefs on the basis of statistical evidence alone, and raise worries for this view. Then, I suggest another view that explains how belief and credence relate to evidence. My view (...) focuses on the possibilities that the evidence makes salient. I argue that this makes better sense of the difference between rational credence and rational belief than other accounts. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that the relationship between belief and credence is a central question in epistemology. This is because the belief-credence relationship has significant implications for a number of current epistemological issues. I focus on five controversies: permissivism, disagreement, pragmatic encroachment, doxastic voluntarism, and the relationship between doxastic attitudes and prudential rationality. I argue that each debate is constrained in particular ways, depending on whether the relevant attitude is belief or credence. This means that epistemologists should pay attention (...) to whether they are framing questions in terms of belief or in terms of credence and the success or failure of a reductionist project in the belief-credence realm has significant implications for epistemology generally. (shrink)

This paper explores the relationship between technological and human intelligence through ‘The New Natural’, a term which at once accepts the nature of technological intelligence as real instead of forever ‘artificial’. It supports an evolutionary, reciprocal relationship between humans and technology that culminates in technological singularity and rejects the primacy of human perception known to popular human access theories, before seriously considering the ‘decentered’ implications of posthuman access. In conversation with western-centric sci-fi film of the late twentieth century, then, this (...) philosophical study explores how the concept of a technology-only intelligence entity can: (1) help us dispose of the core problems often associated with human-only access, (2) neutral-ize our fears of human annihilation at the hands of technological intelligence, and (3) establish strong grounds for why we may have to push back against early conceptions of nature’s opposition to technology, if only so we may resist falling into the great, and most human-centered traps known to the Anthropocene. (shrink)

Aggregating individuals’ consistent attitudes might produce inconsistent collective attitudes. Some groups therefore need the capacity to form attitudes that are irreducible to those of their members. Such groups, group-agent realists argue, are agents in control of their own attitude formation. In this paper, however, I show how group-agent realism overlooks the important fact that groups consist of strategically interacting agents. Only by eliminating group agency from our social explanations can we see how individuals vote strategically to gain control of their (...) groups and produce collective attitudes we cannot make sense of if we treat groups as agents. (shrink)

The phenomenon of ambivalence is an important one for any philosophy of action. Despite this importance, there is a lack of a fully satisfactory analysis of the phenomenon. Although many contemporary philosophers recognize the phenomenon, and address topics related to it, only Harry Frankfurt has given the phenomenon full treatment in the context of action theory - providing an analysis of how it relates to the structure and freedom of the will. In this paper, I develop objections to Frankfurt's account, (...) all revolving around the charge that his account contains a serious ambiguity between willing and identifying. With such objections in place, I then develop an analysis that avoids the difficulties and ambiguities that Frankfurt's analysis is prey to. I briefly distinguish ambivalence from other types of internal conflict. This paper aims to offer conceptual clarification on the phenomenon of ambivalence, which will then allow for discussions about the normative merits and demerits of ambivalence, the effects of ambivalence on autonomous action, and methods of resolution of ambivalence. (shrink)

Epistemic permissivism is the thesis that the evidence can rationally permit more than one attitude toward a proposition. Pascal’s wager is the idea that one ought to believe in God for practical reasons, because of what one can gain if theism is true and what one has to lose if theism is false. In this paper, I argue that if epistemic permissivism is true, then the defender of Pascal’s wager has powerful responses to two prominent objections. First, I argue that (...) if permissivism is true, then permissivism is true about theistic belief. Second, I show how epistemic permissivism about theistic belief dispels two objections to Pascal’s wager: the objection that wagering is impossible, and the objection that wagering is epistemically impermissible. (shrink)

A series of papers on different aspects of practical knowledge by Roderick Chisholm, Rudolf Haller, J. C. Nyiri, Eva Picardi, Joachim Schulte Roger Scruton, Barry Smith and Johan Wrede.

Belief-credence dualism is the view that we have both beliefs and credences and neither attitude is reducible to the other. Pragmatic encroachment is the view that practical stakes can affect the epistemic rationality of states like knowledge or justified belief. In this paper, I argue that dualism offers a unique explanation of pragmatic encroachment cases. First, I explain pragmatic encroachment and what motivates it. Then, I explain dualism and outline a particular argument for dualism. Finally, I show how dualism can (...) explain the intuitions that underlie pragmatic encroachment. My basic proposal is that in high-stakes cases, it is not that one cannot rationally believe that p; instead, one ought not to rely on one's belief that p. One should rather rely on one's credence in p. I conclude that we need not commit ourselves to pragmatic encroachment in order to explain the intuitiveness of the cases that motivate it. (shrink)

Principles of chance deference face two kinds of problems. In the first place, they face difficulties with a priori knowable contingencies. In the second place, they face difficulties in cases where you've lost track of the time. I provide a principle of chance deference which handles these problem cases. This principle has a surprising consequence for Adam Elga's Sleeping Beauty Puzzle.