Deep brain stimulation — a novel surgical procedure — is emerging as a treatment of last resort for people diagnosed with neuropsychiatric disorders such as severe obsessive-compulsive disorder. The US Food and Drug Administration granted a so-called humanitarian device exemption to allow patients to access this intervention, thereby removing the requirement for a clinical trial of the appropriate size and statistical power. Bypassing the rigors of such trials puts patients at risk, limits opportunities for scientific discovery, and gives device manufacturers (...) unique marketing opportunities. We argue that Congress and federal regulators should revisit the humanitarian device exemption to ensure that it is not used to sidestep careful research that can offer valuable data with appropriate patient safeguards. (shrink)

Research on federalism is rarely concerned with its philosophical foundations. However, arguments on why and how best to organise a plurality of states in a multilevel political order have first been discussed by philosophers and continue to inspire contemporary reasoning on international and supranational relations not only in political philosophy. This book offers a unique overview of the philosophical foundations of federalism from both a historical and a systematic perspective. The analyses proposed by renowned scholars from the US and from (...) several European countries cover classic writers such as Hobbes and the authors of the Federalist Papers, Kant and Rawls, and range from anthropological justifications of federal orders to contemporary problems of EU constitutionalism, the principle of subsidiarity and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights. The book is of relevance to anyone interested in philosophical justifications of federalism. (shrink)

'This book is a masterpiece of theoretical thought. It anticipates the actual achievements of much of what we now call sociolinguistics.

Things and Their Place in Theories Our talk of external things, our very notion of things, is just a conceptual apparatus that helps us to foresee and ...

Der Wunsch nach Stimmungsaufhellung und Verbesserung oder PerfektionierungPerfektionierung des Menschen des körperlichen Erscheinungsbildes und der kognitiven LeistungsfähigkeitHirndoping hat Menschen zu allen Zeiten begleitet. In den letzten Jahrzehnten haben wissenschaftlich-medizinische Entwicklungen die Voraussetzungen dafür geschaffen, diesem Streben durch chirurgische Eingriffe oder Einsatz psychopharmazeutischer Mittel nachzuhelfen. Bis in die Boulevardmedien werden Vor- und Nachteile von Schönheitsoperationen, von Smart Drugs, Happy Pills und anderen Mitteln zur Leistungssteigerung diskutiert.

Die Menschen hat zu allen Zeiten die Abgrenzung zu anderen LebensformenLebensform interessiert, sei es zu anderen Sippen und Kulturen, zu Tieren, Maschinen oder Göttern. Dies diente und dient der Identitätsbildung und dem Bewusstmachen der eigenen (individuellen, kulturellen, biologischen oder metaphysischen) Identität. Darin erscheint eine ambivalente Werthaltung: Neben der Wertschätzung der Eigenschaften und Fähigkeiten, in denen sich die eigene Überlegenheit manifestiert (z. B. gegenüber Tieren), drückt sich in diesen Vergleichen auch die Erfahrung der Mängel der eigenen Lebensform (z. B. gegenüber den (...) Göttern) oder der Begrenztheit und Unterlegenheit der dem Menschen allgemein zukommenden Fähigkeiten (z. B. im Vergleich zu Robotern oder Computern) aus. (shrink)

Unter ‚Sinn im Leben‘ verstehe ich einen persönlichen, intrinsischen Wert für einen Akteur A. Die auf den ersten Blick widersprüchlich erscheinende doppelte Intuition, dass ein SL nur subjektiv aufgefasst werden kann, zugleich aber objektiv ‚gut‘ ist, wird von Susan Wolf als ein Argument zugunsten einer ‚hybriden‘ subjektiv-objektiven Theorie des SL vorgebracht. Sie bringt ihr Verständnis von SL auf die mittlerweile sehr bekannte Formel „meaning in life arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness“. In meinem Beitrag verteidige ich eine Variante eines (...) in einem weiten Sinne ‚hybriden‘, d. h. subjektive und objektive Merkmale verbindenden Verständnisses von SL. Ich entwickle diese Variante, die als ‚schwach objektivistisch‘ bezeichnet werden könnte, im Anschluss an Harry G. Frankfurt. Ich zeige, dass Frankfurts Position, der nicht zuletzt von Wolf ein ‚Subjektivismus‘ vorgehalten wird, mit dem hier skizzierten ‚schwachen‘ Objektivitätsverständnis kompatibel ist. Die Stärke des hier vorgeschlagenen SL-Verständnisses liegt darin, dass eine inhaltliche Evaluierung vermieden, zugleich aber der genannten doppelten Intuition entsprochen wird. Eine ethische oder moralische Evaluierung der von einem Akteur zum SL auserkorenen Werte bleibt davon unberührt. (shrink)

In this article, cognitivism is understood as the view that the engine of human (individual and collective) action is the intentional, dispositional, or other mental capacities of the brain or the mind. Cognitivism has been criticized for considering the essence of human action to reside in its alleged source in mental processes at the expense of the social surroundings of the action, criticism that has often been inspired by Ludwig Wittgenstein's later philosophy. This article explores the logical extent of the (...) critique of cognitivism, arguing that by positing collectively shared knowledge of criteria as the engine of human action many such critiques themselves display latent cognitivism. (shrink)

In this article, cognitivism is understood as the view that the engine of human action is the intentional, dispositional, or other mental capacities of the brain or the mind. Cognitivism has been criticized for considering the essence of human action to reside in its alleged source in mental processes at the expense of the social surroundings of the action, criticism that has often been inspired by Ludwig Wittgenstein's later philosophy. This article explores the logical extent of the critique of cognitivism, (...) arguing that by positing collectively shared knowledge of criteria as the engine of human action many such critiques themselves display latent cognitivism. (shrink)

Ocherk 1. Voprosy ontologii -- Ocherk 2. Voprosy ėtiki i ėstetiki -- Ocherk 3. Voprosy gnoseologii i aksiologii.

Because the techno-economic paradigm of contemporary conceptualizations of innovation is often taken for granted in the literature, this chapter opens up this self-evident notion. First, the chapter consults the work of Joseph Schumpeter, who can be seen as the founding father of the current conceptualization of innovation as technological and commercial. Second, we open up the concept by reflecting on two aspects of Schumpeter’s conceptualization of innovation, namely its destructive and its constructive aspect, based on findings in the history of (...) innovation. Finally, we synthesize our findings and propose an ontic-ontological conceptualization of innovation as ontogenetic process and outcome with six dimensions—newness, political dimension, economic dimension, temporal dimension, human dimension and risk—that moves beyond its technological and commercial orientation. (shrink)

Research on brain or cognitive/affective processes, culture, social interaction, and structural analysis are overlapping but often independent ways humans have attempted to understand the origins of their evolution, historical, and contemporary development. Each level seeks to employ its own theoretical concepts and methods for depicting human nature and categorizing objects and events in the world, and often relies on different sources of evidence to support theoretical claims. Each level makes reference to different temporal bandwidths (milliseconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, (...) years, decades, and centuries) and focuses on different spatio-temporal activities and controlled and non-controlled stimulus conditions. Biological mechanisms and environmental pressures for survival simultaneously created a gradual intersection and enhancement of cognitive/affective skills, cultural practices, and changes in collaborative social interaction and communicative skills. The evolution of a given level of analysis is assumed to have been incremental and overlapping. These innovative and independent ways humans have learned to characterize their brain or cognitive/affective and social/economic/political life often depend on unexamined, representational re-descriptions or cognitive/affective and socio-cultural devices and forms of communication that facilitate the depiction of practices and beliefs we attribute to respondents or subjects and research colleagues. (shrink)

The robustness of the classical tests on means (Z, t, and F) and variances (chi square and F) was investigated by obtaining 30,000 (or, sometimes, 10,000 or 150,000) values of the test statistic under assumption-violating conditions and comparing the actual proportion of Type I errors with the proportion expected when all assumptions are met. The sampling and testing conditions investigated were: population shape (L-shape or bell-shape), relative population variance (1 or 4), sample size (8, 16, or 24), nominal significance level (...) (.05,.01, or.001), and location of rejection region (left-tailed, right-tailed, or two-tailed). All tests on means were nonrobust under most of the investigated conditions, and one was nonrobust under all of them. Both tests on variances were extremely nonrobust under virtually all conditions. The worst nonrobustness of the one- and two-independent-sample Z and t tests rivaled or exceeded that of the notoriously nonrobust chi-square and F tests on variances. (shrink)

Russkai︠a︡ t︠erkovʹ i drugie statʹi -- V temnykh religioznykh luchakh.

The "mathematization" of knowledge is a historically inevitable process governed by two circumstances. In the first place there is the need for the further extension of knowledge in all areas of human activity, whether it be the study of natural phenomena or the theory of taking decisions in the economic or social sphere. Marx pointed out long ago that a science reaches its highest levels only when it succeeds in making use of mathematics. The second circumstance rendering the process of (...) deepening and broadening the mathematization of knowledge not only necessary but possible lies in the constant development both of mathematics itself and of the technical means broadening the sphere of its application. (shrink)

On verbal epistemology of the neo-Nyaya school in Indic philosophy; includes Sanskrit text, Apūrvavāda from Nyāyasiddhāntadīpa of Śaśadhara.