The National Library of Finland and the Von Wright and Wittgenstein Archives at the University of Helsinki keep the collected correspondence of Georg Henrik von Wright, Wittgenstein’s friend and successor at Cambridge and one of the three literary executors of Wittgenstein’s Nachlass. Among von Wright’s correspondence partners, Elizabeth Anscombe and Rush Rhees are of special interest to Wittgenstein scholars as the two other trustees of the Wittgenstein papers. Thus, von Wright’s collections held in Finland promise to shed light on the (...) context of decades of editorial work that made Wittgenstein’s later philosophy available to all interested readers. In this text, we present the letters which von Wright received from Anscombe and Rhees during the first nine months after Wittgenstein’s death. This correspondence provides a vivid picture of the literary executors as persons and of their developing relationships. The presented letters are beautiful examples of what the correspondence as a whole has to offer; it depicts – besides facts of editing – the story of three philosophers, whose conversing voices unfold the human aspects of inheriting Wittgenstein’s Nachlass. Their story does not only deal with editing the papers of an eminent philosopher, but with the attempt to do justice to the man they knew, to his philosophy and to his wishes for publication. (shrink)

This is the introduction to Seeing Wittgenstein Anew, eds. William Day & Victor J. Krebs (Cambridge UP, 2010), a collection of essays on Ludwig Wittgenstein's remarks on aspect-seeing. Section 1: Why Seeing Aspects Now?; Section 2: The Importance of Seeing Aspects; Section 3: The Essays. (The front matter to Seeing Wittgenstein Anew appears above under "Books.").

Seeing Wittgenstein Anew is the first collection to examine Ludwig Wittgenstein’s remarks on the concept of aspect-seeing. These essays show that aspect-seeing was not simply one more topic of investigation in Wittgenstein’s later writings, but, rather, that it was a pervasive and guiding concept in his efforts to turn philosophy’s attention to the actual conditions of our common life in language. Arranged in sections that highlight the pertinence of the aspect-seeing remarks to aesthetic and moral perception, self-knowledge, mind and consciousness, (...) linguistic agreement, philosophical therapy, and “seeing connections,” the sixteen essays, which were specially commissioned for this volume, demonstrate the unity of not only Philosophical Investigations but also Wittgenstein’s later thought as a whole. They open up novel paths across familiar fields of thought: the objectivity of interpretation, the fixity of the past, the acquisition of language, and the nature of human consciousness. Significantly, they exemplify how continuing consideration of the interrelated phenomena and concepts surrounding aspect-seeing might produce a fruitful way of doing philosophy. The volume includes a concordance for the unnumbered remarks in the various editions of Philosophical Investigations, including the latest (4th) edition. (The front matter is posted here. The introduction - "Seeing Aspects in Wittgenstein" - appears below under "Published articles."). (shrink)

This paper argues that challenges that are grand in scope such as "lifelong health and wellbeing", "climate action", or "food security" cannot be addressed through scientific research only. Indeed scientific research could inhibit addressing such challenges if scientific analysis constrains the multiple possible understandings of these challenges into already available scientific categories and concepts without translating between these and everyday concerns. This argument builds on work in philosophy of science and race to postulate a process through which non-scientific notions become (...) part of science. My aim is to make this process available to scrutiny: what I call founding everyday ideas in science is both culturally and epistemologically conditioned. Founding transforms a common idea into one or more scientifically relevant ones, which can be articulated into descriptively thicker and evaluatively deflated terms and enable operationalisation and measurement. The risk of founding however is that it can invisibilise or exclude from realms of scientific scrutiny interpretations that are deemed irrelevant, uninteresting or nonsensical in the domain in question-but which may remain salient for addressing grand-in-scope challenges. The paper considers concepts of "wellbeing" in development economics versus in gerontology to illustrate this process. (shrink)

Discussions of patient-centred care and patient autonomy in bioethics have tended to focus on the decision-making context and the process of obtaining informed consent, leaving open the question of how patients ought to be counselled in the daily maintenance of their health and management of chronic disease. Patient activation is an increasingly prominent counselling approach and measurement tool that aims to improve patients’ confidence and skills in managing their own health conditions. The strategy, which has received little conceptual or ethical (...) analysis, raises important questions about how clinicians ought to foster confidence and a sense of control in their patients without exposing them to blame, stigma and other harms. In this paper, we describe patient activation, discuss its relationship to personal responsibility, autonomy and health disparities, and make recommendations regarding its use and measurement. (shrink)

El Naturalismo Trascendental del Ultimo Wittgenstein The present article considers an internal tension in Wittgenstein's late philosophy. In what I call his 'naturalism', Wittgenstein circumscribes philosophical reflection to natural objects, to «making natural history». In his 'transcendentalism' he focuses on the «possibility of phenomena» and distinguishes philosophical method from the method of the natural sciences. I show that his 'transcendentalism' is present in his discussion of rules and prívate language, arguing for an interpretation in terms of a kantian type of (...) transcendental synthesis. But far from contradicting his 'naturalism', both tendencies are inseparable and essential to the main purpose of his Philosophical Investigations. (shrink)

“¿Principio de caridad o hybris?” La intuición de Wittgenstein, de que el significado lingüístico se constituye dentro de la trama de vida pareciera hacer posible un acercamiento entre la tradición hermenéutica continental y la filosofía analítica del lenguaje. En el presente artículo se sostiene que esta intuición debe ir acompañada de una revisión de la concepción del sujeto implícita en el “principio de caridad” de Donald Davidson. Sin esa reconcepción, el principio de caridad se convierte en una forma encubierta de (...) imperialismo conceptual incompatible con el espíritu de la hermenéutica continental. Se concluye el artículo con algunas observaciones sobre el relativismo a la luz de las consideraciones anteriores. (shrink)

This collection addresses two different audiences: 1) historians and philosophers of the life sciences reflecting on collaborations across disciplines, especially as regards defining and addressing Grand Challenges; 2) researchers and other stakeholders involved in cross-disciplinary collaborations aimed at tackling Grand Challenges in the life and medical sciences. The essays collected here offer ideas and resources both for the study and for the practice of goal-driven cross-disciplinary research in the life and medical sciences. We organise this introduction in three sections. The (...) first section provides some background and context. The second motivates our take on this topic and then outlines the central ideas of each paper. The third section highlights the specificity and significance of this approach by considering: a) how this collection departs from existing literature on inter- and trans-disciplinarity, b) what is characteristic about this approach, and c) what role this suggests for the history and philosophy of the life sciences in addressing Grand Challenges. (shrink)

Three separate churches erected in Constantinople were all dedicated to the wisdom of Christ and erected on the same site one after the other. These churches were built between 360 and 537 AD by three different emperors: Constantius II, Theodosius the Younger, and Justinian I. The first two churches were consumed in flames after relatively short lives, but the final and greatest church still stands today, despite a history of extensive damage. This final edifice is the main focus of this (...) paper, owing to its 1500 year longevity and unprecedented architecture. If the entire History of Justinian's church is to considered, it is inaccurate to refer to it as a “church,” because although it remained a church for the first 900 years after its audacious construction, it was later converted into a mosque. Today it is a museum, in remembrance of its long history. (24). (shrink)

This collection of writings on aesthetics includes selections from Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Mikhail Bakhtin, Sigmund Freud, Martin Heidegger, Amy Mullin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Frederich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling. This collection may still be available as a print-on-demand title at the Ryerson University bookstore.

This collection for a course in Social Thought and the Critique of Power includes selections from Sandra Bartkey, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, Luc Boltanski, Eve Chiapello, Juergin Habermas, Margaret Kohn, Saskia Sassen, Margit Mayer, David Ciavatta, Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri, and Jeremy Waldron. Selections include material on the city, neoliberalism, computer-mediated life, precarity, cosmopolitanism, and gender. This packet may still be available as a print-on-demand title at the Ryerson University Bookstore.

This out-of-print collection in the area of European twentieth-century political philosophy includes selections from Adorno, Benjamin, Benhabib, Marcuse, Ciavatta, Comay, Honneth, and Fraser.

This collection in the area of continental philosophy of language, aesthetics, and semiotics includes articles and book selections from Derrida, Ricouer, McCumber, Oliver, Sheshradi-Krooks, Lacan, and Kristeva. This collection is available in the University of Guelph bookstore.

This out-of-print collection on animal rights, applied ethics, and continental philosophy includes readings by Martin Heidegger, Karin De Boer, Martha Nussbaum, David De Grazia, Giorgio Agamben, Peter Singer, Tom Regan, David Morris, Michael Thompson, Stephen Jay Gould, Sue Donaldson, Carolyn Merchant, and Jacques Derrida.

This out-of-print, two-volume, photocopy packet, in the area of "Surrealism and the Politics of the Particular" includes readings on language, meaning, and surrealism from Adorno, Benjamin, McCumber, Breton, Heidegger, Freud, Kristeva, Ricouer, and Bataille.

This out-of-print collection in the area of the history, politics, ethics, and theory of privacy includes selections from Peter Gay, Alan Westin, Walter Benjamin, Catharine MacKinnon, Seyla Benhabib, Anita Allen, Ann Jennings, Charles Taylor, Richard Sennett, Mark Wicclair, Martha Nussbaum, and Robert Nozick.

In this paper, I will try to look at Leibniz from the topos of Indian philosophy. François Jullien called such a strategy “dépayser la pensée” – to withdraw an idea from its familiar environment and to see it through the lens of a different culture. “Read Confucius to better understand Plato.” I am referring to Indian philosophy, especially to some Buddhist systems, in order to highlight certain aspects of Leibniz’s mode of thinking, that I define as “atomistic approach”.

Seneca’s tragedy is considered from the point of view of the intertextual relations with other Greek and Roman literary works, connected with the Corinthian history about Jason and Medea. Seneca represents a special view of the hierarchy of male virtues: Jason is a husband, a father and a mentor. The rage of Medea is ‘legalized,’ the reaction of Jason is depicted in the Stoic terms. The main characters of the tragedy are represented by the Roman writer in a pedagogical rather (...) than a heroic posture: the adults seek to educate each other in the process of their conflict over custody of their children. (shrink)

With increasing publication and data production, scientific knowledge presents not simply an achievement but also a challenge. Scientific publications and data are increasingly treated as resources that need to be digitally ‘managed.’ This gives rise to scientific Knowledge Management : second-order scientific work aiming to systematically collect, take care of and mobilise first-hand disciplinary knowledge and data in order to provide new first-order scientific knowledge. We follow the work of Leonelli, Efstathiou and Hislop in our analysis of the use of (...) KM in semantic systems biology. Through an empirical philosophical account of KM-enabled biological research, we argue that KM helps produce new first-order biological knowledge that did not exist before, and which could not have been produced by traditional means. KM work is enabled by conceiving of ‘knowledge’ as an object for computational science: as explicated in the text of biological articles and computable via appropriate data and metadata. However, these founded knowledge concepts enabling computational KM risk focusing on only computationally tractable data as knowledge, underestimating practice-based knowing and its significance in ensuring the validity of ‘manageable’ knowledge as knowledge. (shrink)

Using an interdisciplinary approach to reading Plato's Apology of Socrates, I argue that the counter penalty offered by Socrates, what is commonly translated as maintenance in the Prytaneion, was a literary addition from Plato, resembling comic topoi from Aristophanes. I begin with the accounts we have from Plato and Xenophon, then analyze the culture and context of the Prytaneion. Given the evidence, I provide arguments for why the historical Socrates wouldn't respond with sitēsis in the Prytaneion. I suggest that Plato (...) borrows the grammatical phrase from Aristophanes' Knights. (shrink)

Our main research question is how pliable Norwegian meat consumption practices are. However it is not any type of elasticity we are interested in. We are specifically interested in the scope for what we dub the “4Rs” of responsible meat consumption within existing food systems: 1. Reducing the amount of animal-based proteins used 2. Replacing animal-based protein with plant-based, or insect-based alternatives 3. Refining processes of utilization of animal-based protein to minimize emissions, loss and waste 4. Recognising animal-based protein as (...) precious –i.e. recognising the people and the animals involved in meat production. -/- These four principles are derived by analogy to ethical principles guiding the use of animals in research, the so-called “3Rs”, namely: the imperatives to reduce the number of animals needed to make a scientific inference, to replace animal experiments with other types of research, and where not possible to replace ‘more’ with ‘less’ sentient creatures, and to refine the experimental setup so it minimises the discomfort and/or distress inflicted upon the animals (Russell and Burch, 1959). There are no such principles guiding the use of animals in farming, given the farming industry intrinsically relies on increasing its resources, of which animals are one. The current profile of climate change however opens up a way to re-appreciate meat –indeed what we articulate as the fourth principle of recognizing the preciousness of meat, above, given planetary boundaries. We proceed to reflect on how these 4Rs can be modulated, from a cultural-social perspective, that is, we look at cultural factors that could stretch current food practices along the 4R aspects. (shrink)

В статье рассматриваются проблемы молодой науки – философии образования – в контексте процессов глобализации. Среди основных проблем, с которыми столкнулась новая отрасль социальной философии, названы: вопрос о научном статусе дисциплины, многообразие конкурирующих направлений в русле современной философии образования и неоднозначная трактовка самого понятия «образование» в XXI веке.

Рассмотрены процессуальные категории социальной интеграции и дифференциации применительно к описанию эволюции отечественной образовательной системы и выявлена их диалектическая взаимосвязь. Показано место исследуемых понятий среди таких философских категорий, как «единичное –особенное – множественное», «единое – множество», «целостность – фрагментарность», «универсальность – партикулярность». Образование понимается в первую очередь как система, развитию которой присущи тенденции интеграции и дифференциации на различных ее уровнях, что позволяет объединить социально-функциональный и философско-антропологичский взгляды на онтологическую сущность и цели образования.

Автором исследуется роль понятия интеграции в описании эволюции отечественной образовательной системы. В качестве методологической базы исследования выступает философия образования. Выделяются и характеризуются ведущие направления интеграции в отечественном образовании на современном этапе.

Исследовано развитие представлений об интеграции и дифференциации в образовании в истории научно-философской мысли. Выделены основные тенденции взаимовлияния этих процессов в развитии образовательных систем и социума. Выявлены области общего проблемного содержания процессов интеграции и дифференциации в образовании на протяжении его исторического развития.

В статье обсуждаются два подхода к пониманию феномена образования: социально-функциональный и личностно-экзистенциальный, выделяются и осмысляются проблемные зоны отечественного среднего общего образования. Акцентируется диалогическая сущность феномена образования: важная роль отводится Другому, в неконкурентном общении с которым раскрывается подлинная экзистенция субъекта образования. Постулируется, что только в целостном познании мира через призму нескольких равноправных картин мира различных областей знания возможно воспитание целостной личности с целостным мировоззрением. Обращение педагогов к личностно-экзистенциальному подходу способно вывести субъектов системы образования из кризиса.

Проведя анализ работ на тему миссии университета, автор приходит к заключению, что социальная интеграция и дифференциация зафиксированы в качестве средств и/или целей университетского образования в классических работах на тему идеи и миссии университета, а среди современных трактовок его «третьей миссии» наибольшее внимание изучаемым процессам уделяется в контексте социальной вовлечённости университета в жизнь сообщества.

Семиотика образования (edusemiotics) – относительно новая отрасль философии образования, обладающая, на взгляд автора, потенциалом для переосмысления и разрешения противоречий, накопившихся в системе современного российского образования. В статье выявлены острые противоречия на различных уровнях системы образования (уровне содержания образования, уровне организации образовательного процесса, институциональном и глобальном уровнях), вызванные дисбалансом процессов интеграции и дифференциации в образовании. С позиций семиотики образования предпринята попытка их философского осмысления. Предлагаются и обсуждаются варианты разрешения данных противоречий.

Семиотика образования (edusemiotics) – относительно новая отрасль философии образования, обладающая, по мнению автора, потенциалом для переосмысления и разрешения противоречий, накопившихся в системе современного российского образования. Источник противоречий – неверный выбор концептуальной метафоры образования, положенной авторами современной образовательной политики и реформ в основу проектирования желаемых результатов преобразований, а именно производственной метафоры, рассматривающей систему образования с позиций экономцентричной логики. Данные социологических исследований в русле образования и контент-анализа дискурса об образовании, используемых для метафорического моделирования, подтверждают при-мат данной метафоры над другими. Лингвистическими маркерами этой (...) метафоры являются следующие: образовательная услуга, потребитель образовательных услуг, эффективность образовательного процесса, оптимизация образовательного процесса, знания как товар и т. д. Аналогичная метафора господствует и в США. Следствия концептуальной метафоры, формирующей сознание граждан, – пассивная роль обучающихся, обесценивание труда преподавателя, неадекватные критерии оценки качества образования. Альтернативной метафорой образования является метафора «участия» или «практики», сравнивающая образование с путешествием, растениеводством или строительством, подразумевающая совместное творчество учеников и преподавателей, активную роль первых и высокий статус последних. К сожалению, в отечественном образователь-ном дискурсе этой метафорой оперирует лишь часть профессионального сообщества, а не регуляторы и не все остальные граждане. По мнению автора, семиотика образования обладает потенциалом для того, чтобы обратить внимание общественности на важность концептуальной метафоры образования, декларируемой на уровне государства, поскольку именно эта отрасль философии образования изучает процесс семиозиса и отношения между смыслами, которыми оперирует концептуальная метафора образования. (shrink)

Статья нацелена на установление причин недовольства реформами высшего образования. Автор усматривает их истоки в несовпадении концептуальных метафор образования, которыми руководствуются работники высшей школы и мега- и макрорегуляторы системы образования. Экономцентричная логика последних заставляет ориентировать индивидов и целые организации высшего образования на конкурентные отношения. Однако это противоречит русской ментальности, и конкуренция зачастую осуществляется за счет сотрудничества. Противостояние патерналистскому стилю управления является мощным интегрирующим фактором. Автор выделяет и описывает несколько уровней, на которых прослеживаются отношения конкуренции и сотрудничества, а также характеризует социально-одобряемые и (...) девиантные способы их осуществления. Отношения сотрудничества являются механизмами интеграции в подсистеме высшего образования, а механизмы дифференциации реализуются в конкурентных отношениях. Оба механизма взаимосвязаны и взаимообусловлены и выражают процессы, присущие развитию любой системы. Тем не менее то, какими методами осуществляются интеграция и дифференциация, будет влиять на жизнеспособность системы и нравственный климат внутри нее. В свете недовольства граждан проводимыми реформами высшего образования чрезвычайно важным оказывается их аксиологический аспект. Делается вывод о необходимости возвращения в высшую школу идеалов достоинства, а также научной, преподавательской и студенческой этики, что возможно только при соблюдении мега- и макрорегуляторами принципов управленческой диалектики, то есть уравновешивания вертикали власти горизонтальными сетевыми отношениями на основе механизмов конкуренции и сотрудничества внутри профессионального сообщества. В данной ситуации профессиональное сообщество само сможет выделить и предложить релевантные для высшего образования как процесса результаты и ценности, показатели оценки образовательной и научной деятельности вузов и эффективности работы ППС. (shrink)

Проблемная цель статьи заключается в выявлении направления вектора развития современных образовательных систем в цифровую эпоху в сторону реонтологизации или деонтологизации образования. Целенаправленные цифровизация и коммодификация образования, способствующие воплощению в реальность положений этики трансгуманизма, влекут за собой трансформацию представлений о сущности образования, по масштабам сравнимую с внедрением массового образования в XX веке. Возникают новые способы построения онтологий образования, направленные на поиски основополагающих оснований данного феномена. Веками под образованием понимался процесс трансляции знаний, ценностей, норм поведения, способов деятельности от человека к человеку, вовлечение (...) в локальные и международные социокультурные и профессиональные практики, принятые в конкретном человеческом сообществе. В настоящее время речь идёт о перепоручении в будущем данной миссии искусственному интеллекту и исключительно персонализированным, но, по сути, дегуманизированным компьютерным программам, мобильным приложениям и онлайн-курсам. Таким образом, проводится политика очередной реонтологизации образования как социокультурного феномена, в которой отдельные исследователи видят деонтологизацию, т. е. подрыв фундаментальных основ в социальном устроении образования как соцокультурного феномена и модуса бытия. Возникает вопрос о том, настолько ли деструктивны по своим последствиям вышеозначенные тенденции, или же речь идёт о смене отдельных онтологем (т. е. положений онтологии образования). Автор статьи выявляет направления реонтологизации образования в XXI веке и проводит социально-философскую экспертизу онтоаксиологии онлайн-образования. Делается вывод о наличии у онлайн-образования как позитивного реонтологизирующего, так и деструктивно деонтологизирующего потенциала в совокупности с другими трансформировавшимися онтологемами современного образования. Среди фундаментальных сущностных основ образования, утрата которых будет означать конец для социокультурного феномена и рождение новой практики, названы личностное взаимодействие участников образовательного процесса и баланс интеграции и дифференциации в ­образовании. (shrink)

In modern Russian society, it is possible to trace the division into citizens who support the reforms of the education system, carried out over the past 20 years, and their ideological opponents. The purpose of the article is to identify the grounds of this social conflict and the failure of the reforms at the level of public consciousness. The author argues that the discrepancy between conceptual education metaphors guiding the vector of education policy causes a different understanding of the essence, (...) goals and objectives of education, which leads to social conflict and dysfunction of the system. The article seeks to identify the leading conceptual metaphors of education at the regulatory level and in the citizens’ consciousness; to elucidate of the values constituting the core of each metaphor; to compare the found metaphors with the leading philosophical approaches to education; to detect other conceptual metaphors; and, finally, to suggest recommendations for resolving the conflict. The two found leading metaphors of education in modern Russia contradict at the axiological level, which leads to social conflict. The author sees a solution in adopting philosophic-anthropological approach and, according to the results of the survey, the corresponding conceptual metaphors of education as construction and educational journey. (shrink)

The purpose of the article is to consider the socio-cultural aspect of the processes of integration and differentiation in the development of the system of education in Russia that undergoes changes in a globalized society.

The goal of the article is to consider one of the urgent issues of modern school, i. e. education in the contextof multiculturalism. In the article there are compared the concepts of “multicultural education” in the USA and “polycultural education” in Russian Federation. Meanwhile it is noted that conceptual structure of modernpolycultural education is going through a syncretic phase, which means that inventory and concretization of concepts appearing in the papers on this topic are indispensable.

Felipe Gonzalez and Victoria Camps on the Catalan independent.

O objetivo desta publicação é incentivar a produção filosófica de excelência por parte de pesquisadores notadamente influenciados pela filosofia de Wittgenstein e cujos temas possam suscitar um debate aprofundado. Além de desafiar o empreendimento filosófico contemporâneo, os temas aqui apresentados abordam questões que muitas vezes estão além daquelas consideradas por Wittgenstein em seu tempo. O leitor encontrará neste volume questões relacionadas ao ceticismo semântico e epistêmico, ao relativismo ético, às leituras literárias de Wittgenstein, ao problema das outras mentes e percepção (...) de aspectos, a intersubjetividade e o caráter contrassensual do Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, e, também, relacionadas ao Paradoxo de Moore. (shrink)

The goal of this paper is to critically examine the objections of John Locke’s contemporaries against the theory of substance or substratum. Locke argues in Essay that substratum is the bearer of the properties of a particular substance. Locke also claims that we have no knowledge of substratum. But Locke’s claim about our ignorance as to what substratum is, is contentious. That is, if we don’t know what substratum is, then what is the point of proposing it as a bearer (...) of properties? This question underlies the criticism Locke’s contemporaries raise against the notion of substratum. In section I, I lay out the context for Locke’s theory of substratum by pointing out his main motivation in proposing his theory. In section II, I give a brief analysis of the theory of substratum. In section III, I discuss the objections of Locke’s contemporaries against the theory of substratum.1 I focus on Edward Stillingfleet, Lee Henry, G. W. Leibniz and John Sergeant. In section IV, I conclude that there is no warrant to dismiss Locke’s theory of substance. (shrink)

The study of a person existence in Internet space is certainly an actual task, since the Internet is not only a source of innovation, but also the cause of society's transformations and the social and cultural problems that arise in connection with this. Computer network is global. It is used by people of different professions, age, level and nature of education, living around the world and belonging to different cultures. It complicates the problem of developing common standards of behavior, a (...) system of norms and rules that could be widely accepted by all users. On the other hand, the Internet space can be viewed as a new form of existence where physical laws do not work, and in connection with this, social ones are often questioned. This paper focuses on how social norms regulate relations in Internet space. The authors represents the typology of deviant behavior in the network. The empirical basis of the research includes the sociological survey of students of the senior courses in the Institute of Computer Science and Technology of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. Sociological survey allows to identify students’ understanding of Internet space. The selection of students is conditioned by the fact that IT professionals are considered simultaneously as ordinary users of the network and as future professionals in this field. (shrink)

I consider an argument by Plotinus to show how the notion of transcendence is used in explaining the nature of knowledge. The argument is set forth in sections 4-6 of the treatise V.8 (31). In my opinion this argument provides a good example of the philosophical frame of Platonism. I sum up this frame in the following theses: a) for a thing being is to be real and true; so that for a thing being real and being true is equivalent; (...) but b) for a thing being real and true means being intelligible; that is to say: a thing could be understood because that thing is a being; thus, c) for a thing being is the identity of its ontological and epistemological nature. (shrink)

Hundreds of millions of rare biospecimens are stored in laboratories and biobanks around the world. Often, the researchers who possess these specimens do not plan to use them, while other researchers limit the scope of their work because they cannot acquire biospecimens that meet their needs. This situation raises an important and underexplored question: how should scientists allocate biospecimens that they do not intend to use? We argue that allocators should aim to maximise the social value of the research enterprise (...) when allocating scarce biospecimens. We provide an ethical framework for assessing the social value of proposed research projects and describe how the framework could be implemented. (shrink)

Victoria Davion in “Itch Scratching, Patio Building, and Pesky Flies: Biocentric Individualism Revisited” takes biocentric individualism to task, focusing in particular on my paper, “Reverence for Life as a Viable Environmental Virtue.” Davion levels a wide-range of criticisms, and concludes that we humans would be better off putting biocentric individualism aside to focus on more important issues and positions. Worries raised by Davion can be defended by elaborating on the position laid out in the original paper, including a background (...) normative theory appealing to hypothetical virtuous ideal observers, upon which the position is drawn. Many of her criticisms appear to arise out of misreading or ignoring what is explicitly argued. When these misconstruals are corrected, it becomes clear that there is still space for a viable virtue of reverence for life. (shrink)

This is a study of sophía from the passage 20d-21a in Plato’s Apology. There, Socrates tries to understand what kind of wisdom he would have, since the Oracle of Delphi stated that no one would be wiser than him. An investigation of historical aspects was made to understand the trial of Socrates and conviction, also a mapping of sophía’s main uses through the corpus platonicum was built, as well an overview of the usage of this concept by others greek authors. (...) In addition, a side of the figure of Socrates that has been given little attention was perceived, becoming important to explain the influence of magical thinking on his philosophy and his relationship with shamanism. Este é um estudo sobre sophía que parte da passagem 20d-21a na Apologia de Platão. Ali, Sócrates tenta compreender que tipo de sabedoria ele teria, uma vez que o Oráculo de Delfos afirmou que ninguém seria mais sábio que ele. Para discutir isso, foi feito um estudo sobre os aspectos históricos que se relacionam com o julgamento e a condenação de Sócrates, um mapeamento dos principais usos de sophía por todo o corpus platonicum, bem como uma análise do panorama relacionado ao uso desse conceito por outros autores do mundo grego. Além disso, foi percebido um lado pouco comentado da figura de Sócrates, tornando-se importante explanar sobre a influência do pensamento mágico em sua filosofia e a7 relação dele com o xamanismo. (shrink)

Recent academic fashions have posited visual images of colonial landscape space as forming part of a network of intellectual influences that promoted both a culture of imperialism and an imperial culture in the nineteenth century. Frequently these analyses concentrate on constructing an overarching socio-political interpretation into which to place this art, thereby ignoring the influence of artistic and aesthetic theory in the creation, assessment and reception of these images.

It seems certain that one day we will allow the genetic technology which will enhance our offspring. A highly effective new tool, called CRISPR, which allows for carving out genes, is already being used to edit the genomes of animals. In July 2017, the FDA legalized that germline drugs for therapeutic purposes could be sold in the market. It is a high time, now, that we need engage in discussions about the ethics of germline intervention. To contribute to the discussion (...) by showing our thought and to educate the public, we write this paper. (shrink)

Functional diversity holds the promise of understanding ecosystems in ways unattainable by taxonomic diversity studies. Underlying this promise is the intuition that investigating the diversity of what organisms actually do—i.e. their functional traits—within ecosystems will generate more reliable insights into the ways these ecosystems behave, compared to considering only species diversity. But this promise also rests on several conceptual and methodological—i.e. epistemic—assumptions that cut across various theories and domains of ecology. These assumptions should be clearly addressed, notably for the sake (...) of an effective comparison and integration across domains, and for assessing whether or not to use functional diversity approaches for developing ecological management strategies. The objective of this contribution is to identify and critically analyze the most salient of these assumptions. To this aim, we provide an “epistemic roadmap” that pinpoints these assumptions along a set of historical, conceptual, empirical, theoretical, and normative dimensions. (shrink)

This paper explores Victoria Welby's fundamental assumption of meaning process (“semiosis” sensu Peirce) as translation, and some implications for the development of a general model of intersemiotic translation.