Current work in language models (LMs) helps us speed up or even skip thinking by accelerating and automating cognitive work. But can LMs help us with critical thinking -- thinking in deeper, more reflective ways which challenge assumptions, clarify ideas, and engineer new concepts? We treat philosophy as a case study in critical thinking, and interview 21 professional philosophers about how they engage in critical thinking and on their experiences with LMs. We find that philosophers do not find LMs to (...) be useful because they lack a sense of selfhood (memory, beliefs, consistency) and initiative (curiosity, proactivity). We propose the selfhood-initiative model for critical thinking tools to characterize this gap. Using the model, we formulate three roles LMs could play as critical thinking tools: the Interlocutor, the Monitor, and the Respondent. We hope that our work inspires LM researchers to further develop LMs as critical thinking tools and philosophers and other 'critical thinkers' to imagine intellectually substantive uses of LMs. (shrink)

This book addresses “containment” as it relates to interlocking discourses around the “War on Terror” as a global effort and its link to race and sexuality within the United States. The project emerged from the recognition that the events of 11 September 2001, prompted new efforts at containment with both domestic and international implications.

This reconsideration of Hume’s classic essay “Of Miracles” via the lens of American pragmatist ways of thinking about history and power shifts our attention from Hume’s epistemic concerns about the legitimacy of witnesses and testimony to his distaste for sacred history, his critical stance regarding the social force of revelation, and his disdain for religious authority. To view Hume’s essay both as an articulation of a critical philosophy of history and as an exercise in moral dynamism (social power or, authority, (...) is a result of epistemic transactions), is to intervene in both Hume studies and Contemporary Pragmatism. (shrink)

Under the lig ht of Being and Nothingness’s the o re t ical body – Sartre’s master piece –, it is intended to discuss the essential source of human reality as “n i h i l a t i o n” and ontological lack, as well as manifestations and cons e q u e nces from this primordial human passion to be transformed to coagulated transcendence, to be transformed in Being In-itself-For-itself: to be consciousness and, at the same t i (...) me, to be a complete and finished Being, with infinite de nsity and witho u t fissures. (shrink)

An examination of David Hume's philosophy of religion that situates his conception "true religion" within the context of his overall science of human nature, his rejection of popular religion, and his Ciceronian influence"--Provided by publisher.

El diagnóstico prenatal como opción reproductiva más difundida a nivel mundial se refiere a métodos para investigar la salud del feto. Entre sus objetivos está la detección de malformaciones congénitas en la vida fetal y permitir la interrupción del embarazo. Un enfoque ético, basado en el respeto por las personas y a la confidencialidad, evitando el daño y respetando la autonomía, son las claves de un asesoramiento genético óptimo. Se realizó una revisión bibliográfica con el objetivo de exponer algunas consideraciones (...) éticas en la práctica asistencial de la genética médica, a partir de los principios fundamentales de la bioética vinculados al diagnóstico prenatal y al proceso de asesoramiento genético, ya que estos aspectos éticos en la práctica de la genética médica es una temática relativamente joven que ha estado influida por el desarrollo de la bioética y la solución de los dilemas éticos y sociales en la práctica médica. Prenatal diagnosis, as the world widest spread reproductive option, refers to fetus health research methods. Fetal life congenital malformation detection and allowing termination of pregnancy are among its main objectives. An ethical approach, based on respect for people and for confidentiality, avoiding hurt and respecting autonomy, is the key towards optimum genetic counseling. A bibliographic review was conducted. Its objective is to set out some ethical considerations in medical genetics health care practice starting from bioethics fundamental principles, which are linked to prenatal diagnosis and to the genetic counseling process; since dealing with issues related to these ethical aspects in medical genetics practice is a relatively new subject that has been influenced by the development of bioethics and the solution to ethical and social dilemmas in medical practice. (shrink)

El aborto voluntario del embarazo es un tema de salud global y constituye uno de los más complejos de la bioética, pues tiene connotaciones psicológicas, éticas y jurídicas no solo para la persona que lo practica, sino también para la sociedad donde se desarrolla y para el lugar que en esta ocupa la mujer. Para profundizar en la temática se realizó una revisión bibliográfica para exponer algunos de los dilemas éticos en cuanto a la interrupción del embarazo por malformaciones congénitas. (...) En Cuba en el 2013, se aprobaron las normas para la terminación voluntaria del embarazo, por razones médicas o de salud o por el diagnóstico prenatal de malformaciones congénitas incompatibles con la vida. La conducta ética del asesor genético debe basarse en los principios éticos y bioéticos que se reflejan en los principios de la ética médica, que aplicados al quehacer profesional aseguran y amparan su práctica legal. Abortion is a world health issue and one of bioethics most complex subjects, since it has psychological, ethical and legal connotations not only for the person who experiences it but also for the society where it is carried out and for the role women play in this society. In order to set forth some of the ethical dilemmas regarding abortion due to congenital abnormalities, a bibliographic review meant to deepen on the subject was conducted. Laws for abortion due to medical, health or life incompatible congenital abnormalities prenatal diagnosis were passed in Cuba in 2013. A genetic counselor's ethical behavior must be based on the ethical and bioethical principles reflected on medical ethics principles which, applied to professional work, ensure and protect its legal practice. (shrink)

Drawing on recent findings, this study examines whether valence concordant electromyography (EMG) responses can be explained as an unconditional effect of mere stimulus processing or as somatosensory simulation driven by task-dependent processing strategies. While facial EMG over the Corrugator supercilii and the Zygomaticus major was measured, each participant performed two tasks with pictures of album covers. One task was an affective evaluation task and the other was to attribute the album covers to one of five decades. The Embodied Emotion Account (...) predicts that valence concordant EMG is more likely to occur if the task necessitates a somatosensory simulation of the evaluative meaning of stimuli. Results support this prediction with regard to Corrugator supercilii in that valence concordant EMG activity was only present in the affective evaluation task but not in the non-evaluative task. Results for the Zygomaticus major were ambiguous. Our findings are in line with the view that EMG activity is an embodied part of the evaluation process and not a mere physical outcome. (shrink)

EL propósito del presente trabajo es clarificar la coherencia y la validez de la clasificación de los apetitos innecesarios ilegales para la ubicación del hombre tiránico en la clasificación antropológica que Platón elabora en los libros VIII y IX de Republica. Especial énfasis se hará en la lujuria como el más eminente de los apetitos ilegales y como el concepto central para explicar la conducta tiránica. En tal sentido, examinaremos la naturaleza de la lujuria, sus características, su relación con otros (...) deseos y apetitos, y sus consecuencias políticas. Sc termina concluyendo que puede encontrarse una interpretación del tipo de desorden que la lujuria impone al alma que permite hacer de la clasificación antropológica algo coherente. Sin embargo, la lujuria hace de dicha clasificación con un criterio teórico de escasa aplicabilidad.The aim of this paper is to clarify the coherence and validity of Plato's anthropological classification of the illegal, unnecessary appetites that are characteristic of the tyrannical man, as set forth in Books VIII and IX of The Republic . Emphasis is made on lust as the most prominent of illegal appetites and as the central feature of tyrannical conduct. The nature and characteristics of lust, and its relation with other desires and appetites are examined from the point of view of their political consequences. The conclusion is reached that Plato's classification is coherent as an undemanding of the disorders that lust imposes on the soul. However, as based on lust, that classification itself turns to be a theoretical concept of scarce applicability. (shrink)

Lorenz proposed in his (1935) articulation of a theory of behavioral instincts that the objective of ethology is to distinguish behaviors that are “innate” from behaviors that are “learned” (or “acquired”). Lorenz’s motive was to open the investigation of certain “adaptive” behaviors to evolutionary theorizing. Accordingly, since innate behaviors are “genetic”, they are open to such investigation. By Lorenz’s light an innate/acquired or learned dichotomy rested on a familiar Darwinian distinction between genes and environments. Ever since Lorenz, ascriptions of innateness (...) have become widespread in the cognitive, behavioral, and biological sciences. The trend continues despite decades of strong arguments that show, in particular, the dichotomy that Lorenz invoked in his theory of behavioral instincts is literally false: no biological trait is the product of genes alone. Some critics suggest that the failure of Lorenz’s account shows that innateness is not well-defined in biology and the practice of ascribing innateness to various biological traits should be dropped from respectable science. Elsewhere (Ariew 1996) I argued that despite the arguments of critics, there really is a biological phenomenon underlying the concept of innateness. On my view, innateness is best understood in terms of C.H. Waddington’s concept of “canalization”, i.e. the degree to which a trait is innate is the degree to which its developmental outcome is canalized. The degree to which a developmental outcome is canalized is the degree to which the developmental process is bound to produce a particular endstate despite environmental fluctuations both in the development’s initial state and during the course of development. The canalization account differs in many ways to the traditional ways that ethologists such as Konrad Lorenz originally understood the concept of innateness. Most importantly, on the canalization account the distinction between innate and acquired is not a dichotomy, as Konrad Lorenz had it, but rather a matter of degree difference that lies along a spectrum with highly canalized development outcomes on the one end and highly environmentally sensitive development outcomes on the other end. Nevertheless, I justified the canalization account on the basis of a set of desiderata or criteria that I suggested falls-out of what seemed uncontroversial about Lorenz’s account of innateness (briefly): innateness is a property of a developing individual, innateness denotes environmental stability, and innate-ascriptions are useful in certain natural selection explanations (more below). From that same set of desiderata I argued (in my 1996) that neither the concept of heritability nor of norms of reactions—two concepts from population genetics—suffice to ground innateness. In this essay, I wish to provide further support of the canalization account in two ways. First, I wish to better motivate the desiderata by revisiting a debate between Konrad Lorenz and Daniel Lehrman over the meaning and explanatory usefulness of innate ascriptions in ethology. Second, I wish to compare my canalization account of innateness with accounts proposed by contemporary philosophers, one by Stephen Stich (1975), another by Elliott Sober (forthcoming), and a third by William Wimsatt (1986). (shrink)

¿The authors argue that queer, black, brown, and foreign bodies, and the so-called threats they represent, such as immigration reform and same-sex marriage, have been effectively linked with terrorism. These awful conflations¿ are enduring and help to explain the contradictions of contemporary U.S. politics. We are far from a post post-9/11 world.¿ Ronald R. Sundstrom, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, The University of San Francisco, United States ¿If you want to understand how a new biopolitics of citizenship is containing bodies (...) of the nation by re-inscribing sex and race into it and how this new biopolitics is being resisted you must read this book.¿ Engin F. Isin, Professor, Department of Politics and International Studies, The Open University, United Kingdom. (shrink)

This collection fills a gap in the current literature in philosophy and film by focusing on the question: How would thinking in philosophy and film be transformed if race were formally incorporated moved from its margins to the center? The collection’s contributors anchor their discussions of race through considerations of specific films and television series, which serve as illustrative examples from which the essays’ theorizations are drawn. Inclusive and current in its selection of films and genres, the collection incorporates dramas, (...) comedies, horror, and science fiction films into its discussions, as well as recent and popular titles of interest, such as _Twilight_, _Avatar_, _Machete_, _True Blood_, and _The Matrix _and _The Help_. The essays compel readers to think more deeply about the films they have seen and their experiences of these narratives. (shrink)

English summary: Marc Andre Wiegand analyzes the neo-Kantian premises of Gustav Radbruch's legal philosophy.

This study examines the concept of food morality and explores its implications for today's world. The analysis carried out allowed us to develop a theoretical construct that approaches food morality from a holistic and interconnected perspective, providing us with a new way of understanding it. This new perspective on food morality will serve as an overarching framework for guiding individual choices, public policy making, and transformative actions needed to address the complex challenges facing food systems in the modern world. The (...) theoretical approach used in this study focuses on the elements that shape food morality, considering its different contexts. This theoretical approach provides a solid basis for proposing a new food morality. (shrink)

The purpose of this essay is to explain what kind of responsibility citizens should assume for structural corruption. To delve into this topic, we analyze the components of a concept of structure as applied to the features of corruption, as well as the notions of guilt, responsibility and political responsibility. Thus, we argue that citizens who do not participate directly in acts of bribery are politically responsible for systemic corruption. Assuming political responsibility implies taking actions in the public sphere to (...) combat the structure of corruption in conjunction with other citizens. (shrink)

We distinguish dynamical and statistical interpretations of evolutionary theory. We argue that only the statistical interpretation preserves the presumed relation between natural selection and drift. On these grounds we claim that the dynamical conception of evolutionary theory as a theory of forces is mistaken. Selection and drift are not forces. Nor do selection and drift explanations appeal to the (sub-population-level) causes of population level change. Instead they explain by appeal to the statistical structure of populations. We briefly discuss the implications (...) of the statistical interpretation of selection for various debates within the philosophy of biologythe `explananda of selection' debate and the `units of selection' debate. (shrink)

El estudio es una aportación teórica cuyo objetivo es valorar un conjunto de elementos que sustenten la conveniencia de crear un diseño institucional que permita la funcionalidad y permanencia de un modelo de desarrollo de fuerte integración social en América Latina, con énfasis en el caso venezolano. Se construyó un modelo para el diseño de instituciones bajo un marco valorativo neosocialista, con el fin de darles respuestas a la dinámicas de cambios sociales en los territorios venezolanos y America Latina.

Food ethics in the indigenous context is associated with a historical and profound relationship that indigenous groups have with nature. To address this relationship and identify the food uses associated with the maguey plant from a biocultural perspective among the Ngigua indigenous people living in the municipality of Tlacotepec de Benito Juárez in Puebla, the three main communities in the municipality of Tlacotepec de Benito Juárez that make use of the maguey plant were chosen. The study was carried out with (...) a qualitative approach, using a semi-structured interview as a research technique. The analysis carried out recognises the importance of the maguey plant as a biocultural resource for the Ngigua in a context of ethical deliberation. Among the food uses associated with the maguey plant, the following are identified: pulque (a drink of pre-Hispanic origin) and red worm. Women play an important role, participating in 80% of the preparation of both foods. The cultural environment of the maguey is a way of life that, in the case of the Ngigua people, represents a strategic element for survival. In times of food crisis, the study shows how ethnic food strategies in a context of ethical deliberation can constitute an alternative for the design of food solutions in territories with food shortages. (shrink)

Over the past fifteen years there has been a considerable amount of debate concerning what theoretical population dynamic models tell us about the nature of natural selection and drift. On the causal interpretation, these models describe the causes of population change. On the statistical interpretation, the models of population dynamics models specify statistical parameters that explain, predict, and quantify changes in population structure, without identifying the causes of those changes. Selection and drift are part of a statistical description of population (...) change; they are not discrete, apportionable causes. Our objective here is to provide a definitive statement of the statistical position, so as to allay some confusions in the current literature. We outline four commitments that are central to statisticalism. They are: 1. Natural Selection is a higher order effect; 2. Trait fitness is primitive; 3. Modern Synthesis (MS)-models are substrate neutral; 4. MS-selection and drift are model-relative. (shrink)

Le génie de Léonard de Vinci, celui de Michel-Ange ressortent mieux sur le fond révélateur de l’Académie de Careggi, où Marsile Ficin règne en maître, évoquant sinon invoquant Platon. La culture platonicienne entretenue par Ficin - mais Cristoforo Landino ou Ange Politien sont tour à tour convoqués - délimite le contour d’un nouvel ordre artistique dont André Chastel, dans un travail de jeunesse qui engage déjà ses subtiles analyses d’histoire de l’art et des idées, rend raison avec passion. En quelques (...) pages lumineuses, Jean Wirth donne à ce maître livre sa juste place dans une tradition historiographique qu’il a contribué à renouveler. (shrink)