bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
War and Memory in Lebanon
Authors: Haugbolle Sune
Published: May 2010

From 1975 to 1990, Lebanon endured one of the most protracted and bloody civil wars of the twentieth century. Sune Haugbolle's 2010 book chronicles the battle over ideas that emerged from the wreckage of that war. While the Lebanese state encouraged forgetfulness and political parties created sectarian interpretations of the war through cults of dead leaders, intellectuals and activists - inspired by the example of truth and reconciliation movements in different parts of the world - advanced the idea that confronting and remembering the war was necessary for political and cultural renewal. Through an analysis of different cultural productions - media, art, literature, film, posters, and architecture - the author shows how the recollection and reconstruction of political and sectarian violence that took place during the war have helped in Lebanon's healing process. He also shows how a willingness to confront the past influenced the popular uprising in Lebanon after the assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
Reclaiming Patriotism
Authors: Soutphommasane Tim
Published: May 2010

Affronted by the xenophobic nationalists who stalked the land during the Howard years, many progressive Australians have rejected a love of country, forgetting that there is a patriotism of the liberal left that at different times has advanced liberty, egalitarianism, and democratic citizenship. Tim Soutphommasane, a first-generation Australian and political philosopher who has journeyed from Sydney's western suburbs to Oxford University, re-imagines patriotism as a generous sentiment of democratic renewal and national belonging. In accessible prose, he explains why our political leaders will need to draw upon the better angels of patriotism if they hope to inspire citizens for nation-building, and indeed persuade them to make sacrifices in the hard times ahead. As we debate the twenty-first century challenges of reconciliation and a republic, citizenship and climate change, Reclaiming Patriotism proposes a narrative we have to have.
Synthetic Geometry of Manifolds
Authors: Kock Anders
Published: May 2010

This elegant book is sure to become the standard introduction to synthetic differential geometry. It deals with some classical spaces in differential geometry, namely 'prolongation spaces' or neighbourhoods of the diagonal. These spaces enable a natural description of some of the basic constructions in local differential geometry and, in fact, form an inviting gateway to differential geometry, and also to some differential-geometric notions that exist in algebraic geometry. The presentation conveys the real strength of this approach to differential geometry. Concepts are clarified, proofs are streamlined, and the focus on infinitesimal spaces motivates the discussion well. Some of the specific differential-geometric theories dealt with are connection theory (notably affine connections), geometric distributions, differential forms, jet bundles, differentiable groupoids, differential operators, Riemannian metrics, and harmonic maps. Ideal for graduate students and researchers wishing to familiarize themselves with the field.
The Transformation of Mathematics in the Early Mediterranean World
Authors: Netz Reviel
Published: May 2010

The transformation of mathematics from ancient Greece to the medieval Arab-speaking world is here approached by focusing on a single problem proposed by Archimedes and the many solutions offered. In this trajectory Reviel Netz follows the change in the task from solving a geometrical problem to its expression as an equation, still formulated geometrically, and then on to an algebraic problem, now handled by procedures that are more like rules of manipulation. From a practice of mathematics based on the localized solution (and grounded in the polemical practices of early Greek science) we see a transition to a practice of mathematics based on the systematic approach (and grounded in the deuteronomic practices of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages). With three chapters ranging chronologically from Hellenistic mathematics, through late Antiquity, to the medieval world, Reviel Netz offers an alternate interpretation of the historical journey of pre-modern mathematics.
The Science of the Struggle for Existence
Authors: Cooper Gregory J.
Published: May 2010

This book is a sustained examination of issues in the philosophy of ecology that have been a source of controversy since the emergence of ecology as an explicit scientific discipline. The controversies revolve around the idea of a balance of nature, the possibility of general ecological knowledge and the role of model-building in ecology. The Science of the Struggle for Existence is also a detailed treatment of these issues that incorporates both a comprehensive investigation of the relevant ecological literature and the development of an explicit theoretical framework in the philosophy of science. It addresses issues in the philosophy of ecology that are of particular importance for the deployment of ecology in the solution of environmental problems. It will have a cross-disciplinary appeal and will interest students and professionals in science, the philosophy of science, and environmental studies as well as policy-makers.
Taming the Leviathan
Authors: Parkin Jon
Published: May 2010

Thomas Hobbes is widely acknowledged as the most important political philosopher to have written in English. Originally published in 2007, Taming the Leviathan is a wide-ranging study of the English reception of Hobbes's ideas. In the first book-length treatment of the topic for over forty years, Jon Parkin follows the fate of Hobbes's texts (particularly Leviathan) and the development of his controversial reputation during the seventeenth century, revealing the stakes in the critical discussion of the philosopher and his ideas. Revising the traditional view that Hobbes was simply rejected by his contemporaries, Parkin demonstrates that Hobbes's work was too useful for them to ignore, but too radical to leave unchallenged. His texts therefore had to be controlled, their lessons absorbed and their author discredited. In other words the Leviathan had to be tamed. Taming the Leviathan significantly revised our understanding of the role of Hobbes and Hobbism in seventeenth-century England.
Thermal Field Theory
Authors: Le Bellac Michel
Published: May 2010

Now in paperback, this text introduces the theoretical framework for describing the quark-gluon plasma, an important new state of matter. The first part of this book is a self-contained introduction to relativistic thermal field theory. Topics include the path integral approach, the real and the imaginary time formalisms, fermion fields and gauge fields at finite temperature. Useful techniques such as the evaluation of frequency sums or the use of cutting rules are illustrated on various examples. The second part of the book is devoted to recent developments, giving a detailed account of collective excitations (bosonic and fermionic), and showing how they give rise to energy scales which imply a reorganization of perturbation theory. The relation with kinetic theory is also explained. Applications to processes which occur in heavy ion collisions and in astrophysics are worked out in detail. Each chapter ends with exercises and a guide to the literature.
Absence of intestinal microbiota does not protect mice from diet-induced obesity
Authors: Fleissner Christine K. , Huebel Nora , Abd El-Bary Mohamed Mostafa , Loh Gunnar , Klaus Susanne , Blaut Michael
Published: May 2010

The gut microbiota has been implicated in host nutrient absorption and energy homeostasis. We studied the influence of different diets on body composition in germ-free (GF) and conventional (CV) mice. GF and CV male adult C3H mice were fedad libituma semi-synthetic low-fat diet (LFD; carbohydrate–protein–fat ratio: 41:42:17; 19·8 kJ/g), a high-fat diet (HFD; 41:16:43; 21·4 kJ/g) or a commercial Western diet (WD; 41:19:41; 21·5 kJ/g). There was no difference in body weight gain between GF and CV mice on the LFD. On the HFD, GF mice gained more body weight and body fat than CV mice, and had lower energy expenditure. GF mice on the WD gained significantly less body fat than GF mice on the HFD. GF mice on both HFD and WD showed increased intestinal mRNA expression of fasting-induced adipose factor/angiopoietin-like protein 4 (Fiaf/Angptl4), but they showed no major changes in circulating Fiaf/Angptl4 compared with CV mice. The faecal microbiota composition of the CV mice differed between diets: the proportion of Firmicutes increased on both HFD and WD at the expense of the Bacteroidetes. This increase in the Firmicutes was mainly due to the proliferation of one family within this phylum: the Erysipelotrichaceae. We conclude that the absence of gut microbiota does not provide a general protection from diet-induced obesity, that intestinal production of Fiaf/Angptl4 does not play a causal role in gut microbiota-mediated effects on fat storage and that diet composition affects gut microbial composition to larger extent than previously thought.
Sources et signification de la théorie lockienne de l'espace
Authors: Lennon Thomas M.
Published: May 2010

Leibniz avait certes raison d'opposer Locke à Descartes et de le situer plutôt dans la lignée de Gassendi et l'atomisme antique. Mais le problème est de distinguer entre Gassendi et ses disciples contemporains de Locke comme source immédiate d'inspiration pour celui-ci. Ses Commonplace Books attestent que Locke avait lu Gassendi avec attention, et son Journal indique que pendant ses séjours à Paris (mai 1677–juin 1678, novembre 1678–avril 1679), il fut en contact avec des gassendistes tels Bernier et Launay, dont il acheta les oeuvres pour les emporter en Angleterre. L'analyse que Locke fournit de l'espace est d'un intérêt particulier, car tout en témoignant de l'orientation que Leibniz attribuait à Locke, elle s'écarte nettement des vues de Gassendi sur la question.
Une grammaire de l'incomplétude référentielle: la logique intensionnelle desPrincipia Mathematica
Authors: Couture Jocelyne
Published: May 2010

Cet article s'ajoute à la liste déjà longue de ceux qui traitent des rapports entre la théorie russellienne des descriptions définies et la théorie ramifiée des types. Seule la prétention d'aborder cette question dans une perspective nouvelle justifie ici sa présence: d'une part, la théorie des descriptions définies sera resituée dans le contexte initial et souvent méconnu de la théorie des expressions dénotantes et d'autre part, c'est à la logique intensionnelle de Russell, objet d'une méconnaissance au moins égale, que nous nous intéresserons. De plus, c'est du point de vue de la théorie de la signification et non pas du point de vue ontologique, génético-historique ou logico-mathematique que nous nous proposons de traiter de ces rapports.
Three Interpretations of Eternal Recurrence
Authors: Small Robin
Published: May 2010

It is commonly agreed that Nietzsche's doctrine of eternal recurrence is hard to understand. The difficulty lies not so much in any great complexity or highly technical character as in uncertainty over what kind of doctrine it is intended to be. Without knowing this we are in no position to agree upon the guidelines for assessing its validity or invalidity. In this discussion I intend to suggest an approach to the problem which will help us to answer these questions—and to avoid some of the difficulties encountered by previous interpretations.
La réalité de l'apparence/l'apparence de la réalité
Authors: Brisson Luc
Published: May 2010

Comme Yvon Lafrance l'indique dans les deux premières lignes de son introduction: « Il n'existe aucune étude en français sur la théorie platonicienne de la doxa ». En ce domaine, la recherche a été Presque exclusivement le fait de platonisants allemands (cités 11–12, n. 1). D'où l'importance du livre de Yvon Lafrance, qui renouvelle la problématique sur la doxa en la situant dans un contexte intellectuel tout à fait original, celui d'un Français d'Amérique du Nord qui, dans ses recherches sur Platon, tient compte à la fois du courant analytique anglo-saxon, dont l'importance quantitative et qualitative n'a cessé de croître depuis les années cinquante, et du courant historique « continental », allemand et français surtout.
Reason, Spirits and Criteria
Authors: Penelhum Terence
Published: May 2010

These comments are a response to Professor John King-Farlow's criticism of three of my essays that have recently been reprinted in the volume Analytical Philosophy of Religion in Canada, edited by Mostafa Faghfoury. I shall try to present them in a way that is intelligible to those not familiar with the book; but, inevitably, the choice of topics will be determined by the particular disagreements between King-Farlow and myself that emerged there, and will not deal with the many questions on which we have similar views.
Entities for Analyzing Legal Relations
Authors: Robinson Richard E.
Published: May 2010

One speaks of a person having a duty to do something and also of a person having a duty to another person to do something. It seems natural to treat the first as a case of a two-termed relation and the second as a case of a three-termed relation. However, the problem is what to take as the second term of a case of the two-termed relation and the third term of a case of the three-termed relation. For a long time act, instances of which would seem natural contenders, has been a suspect concept; its deficiency being integrally connected with the lack of a specification of how to individuate acts. This paper urges a particular solution to what sort of entity could serve as that which a person has a duty to do. Although discussion will be limited to the legal relations of duty, right, and so on, the problem is similar for the basic moral relations of duty, right, and so on, and the same solution avails for that problem. Before providing the solution to what sort of thing it is that people have a duty, right, etc. to do, it is important to set out what conditions an adequate solution must satisfy.
Hume's Defence of Causal Inference
Authors: Wilson Fred
Published: May 2010

As is well known, the Humean account of causal inference gives a central location to inferencehabits. Some of these habits one can discipline. Thus, one can so discipline oneself as to reason in accordance with the “rules by which to judge of causes and effects” (173ff.), that is, one can discipline oneself to think scientifically, rather than, say, in accordance with the rules of prejudice (146f.), or of superstition (271). All such judgments, even those of science, are, however, upon the Humean account fallible. Some, or rather very many, have raised the issue about howanysuch causal judgment or inference is justified. That is, how can suchinferencehabits be justified, shown to be reasonable. Hume meets this challenge by arguing that there are some habits all men do andmusthave. Because we must have them weoughtto have them. They are, therefore, justified.
Is Thinker a Natural Kind?
Authors: Churchland Paul M.
Published: May 2010

Functionalism in the philosophy of mind is here criticized from the perspective of a more naturalistic and less compromising form of materialism. Parallels are explored between the problem of cognitive activity and the somewhat more settled problem of vital activity. The lessons drawn suggest that functionalism in the philosophy of mind may be both counterproductive as a research strategy, and false as a substantive position.
Can I Cease to be a Person?
Authors: Mackenzie Nollaig
Published: May 2010

Patricia Kitcher has argued that there is an anomaly in our thought about ourselves. Her thesis turns on a claim concerning our attitude toward an imagined case, and on an argument that the attitude is irrational.

The example, E, is as follows. Suppose you are told today that tomorrow you will lose those capacities, whatever they may be, in virtue of which you are a person. After this happens, the body which is now yours will be tortured. Pain will be felt.
Explaining Complexity in Evolution
Authors: Thompson R. Paul
Published: May 2010

Rolf Gruner (1977) has argued that natural selection plus time does not entail, and hence does not explain, evolution. This according to Gruner is the result of the undeniable fact that evolution involves an increase in the complexity of organisms:

Since increase in complexity is part of the concept of evolution, evolution is not explained by the theory of natural selection. The Darwinian or Neo-Darwinian affirms the reality of evolution and seems to believe that it can be accounted for in terms of natural selection. But it could be accounted for in this way only if the assumption were justified that generally the more complex organism is better adapted to its environment, and thus stands a better chance to survive and breed, than the less complex organism. And this assumption is not justified. “The more complex, the better adapted” will not do even as a rule of thumb, as most biologists today will be prepared to admit (711).
Fichte's Early Thought
Authors: Rabb J. Douglas
Published: May 2010

Josiah Royce relates the following story concerning the writing and publication of Johann Gottlieb Fichte's first major work, the Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation.

Fichte … called upon Kant at Königsberg, in July, 1791. The aged, prudent, and … highly economical philosopher regarded this reverent, fiery, but obviously impecunious young disciple with a certain suspicion, and received his confidences coolly. The rebuff only heated Fichte the more. He tarried in Königsberg two months, in order … to write, for presentation to Kant, a work on religious philosophy, which, once finished, proved to be so thoroughly in Kant's spirit that, when in the spring of the next year the book was published anonymously, it was very generally hailed by Kant's admirers as a new production of the master's own genius. Kant himself had to correct this misapprehension, and in doing so named, and now with warm praise, the real author.
Potential Persons and Murder: A Reply to John Woods
Authors: Moskop John C.
Published: May 2010

In his book Engineered Death: Abortion, Suicide, Euthanasia and Senecide, John Woods uses an argument from analogy to establish the following conclusion: even if one grants that foetuses are not persons but only potential persons, killing foetuses is murder. Murder, according to Woods, is the defeasibly wrongful violation of the right to life ascribed to persons. If this argument is successful, it would of course have profound consequences for the ongoing philosophical debate over the morality of abortion. Whether or not they hold that foetuses are persons, philosophers would be forced to adopt the same moral attitude toward foeticide as they would adopt toward the killing of persons. That is, the killing of foetuses and the killing of persons would be defeasibly wrong in the same way; their wrongfulness could be defeated only in special and limited circumstances, perhaps like those suggested by Judith Thomson in her “Defense of Abortion”.
A Note on Desire in Stoic Theory
Authors: Inwood Brad
Published: May 2010

In a recent article in this journal, Bernard Carnois has given us a valuable comparative study of desire in the Stoa and in Spinoza (‘Le desir selon les Stoïciens et selon Spinoza’, Dialogue 19 [1980], 255–277). I am in no position to judge what he says about Spinoza, but his generally accurate account of ⋯ρμή in Stoic doctrine is marred by one or two misconceptions which ought to be set right. These criticisms do not, it should be said, detract from the value of the overall comparison he wishes to make.
Doxa et Epistémè chez Platon selon Th. Ebert
Authors: Lafrance Yvon
Published: May 2010

L'étude de la nature et du rapport entre la doxa et l' épistèmé a retenu depuis quelques décennies l'attention des platonisants allemands. Déjà en 1877, O. Ihm publiait une dissertation doctorale sous le titre: Uber den Begriff der Platonischen Doxa und deren Verhältniss zum Wissen der Ideen. Plus récemment J. Sprute publiait également sa dissertation doctorale sous le titre: Der Begriff der Doxa in der Platonischen Philosophie (Göttingen, 1962). Quelques années plus tard, E. Tielsch faisait paraître un volumineux ouvrage portant le titre: Die Platonischen Versionen der griechischen Doxalehre (Meisenheim am Glan, 1970). C'est le dernier en date de ces ouvrages sur la doxa-épistémè qui retiendra ici notre attention. II s'agit de l'ouvrage de Th. Ebert qui a été publié en 1974 sous le titre: Meinung und Wissen in der Philosophic Platons. Cet ouvrage a été accueilli avec une certaine réticence par la critique tant pour sa méthode de lecture des dialogues platoniciens que pour son interprétation générale du platonisme. Nous aimerions done ici l'analyser à ce double point de vue de la méthode de lecture et de son interprétation du platonisme. Mais auparavant il nous faut dire un motsur la thèse centrale que défend l'auteur, pour être mieux en mesure de juger de la profondeur des changements que l'auteur nous suggère d'opérer dans notre compréhension des dialogues de Platon et, d'une façon plus générale, de la tradition platonicienne.
Réflexions sur la Fonction Méta
Authors: Breton Stanislas
Published: May 2010

Les réflexions que je propose sous ce titre se rattachent, d'une manière plus ou moins lointaine, à ce qu'on appelait jadis « la doctrine de l'analogie ». Comme on sait, analogie, en grec, fut surtout employé par les mathématiciens. Cette origine mathématique, quelles que fussent les transformations que philosophes, théologiens et logiciens lui ont fait subir, n'acessé de hanter, comme une obsession, les conceptions qu'on en a proposées au cours des siècles.
Aristotle's Dialectic, Refutation, and Inquiry
Authors: Galston Miriam
Published: May 2010

The last half-century has witnessed a resurgence of interest in Aristotle's Topics and his theory of dialectic—culminating in J. D. G. Evan's book about Aristotle's concept of dialectic; the decision to devote the entire Third Symposium Aristotelicum to the Topics; and the appearance of a small but steady stream of articles, several of which are now conveniently bound together in the first volume of Articles on Aristotle, edited by Barnes, Schofield, and Sorabji. These studies provide two somewhat incompatible views of Aristotle's dialectic. On the one hand, it is argued that dialectic—as a method parallel but inferior to demonstration—was superseded by the discovery of the scientific method, or that dialectic—as a method of discussing first principles and of eliciting assent during debate—is at best a propadeutic to philosophic inquiry. These assessments are a consequence of the view that, what ever its strengths, dialectic can never transcend the level of opinion (endoxa) with which it begins, so as to achieve knowledge or certainty. At the other side of the spectrum are those who maintain that in addition t o having nonphilosophic uses, for Aristotle dialectical inquiry is often an integral part of philosophic investigation and, on occasion, its most important part. To some, dialectic's role in philosophic investigation is limited to the verification of definitions already discovered and to bringing an investigator to the threshold of discovering first principles, to others, dialectic's last stage (resolution, euporia) comprises part of the philosophic discovery itself.
Le droit à la vie et la peine de mort
Authors: Theau Jean
Published: May 2010

Nous voudrions montrer que, contrairement à une opinion que certains groupes de pression font tout pour répandre, le droit à la vie a pour corollaire la peine de mort comme pierre angulaire de la justice pénale. Nous passerons en revue quelques unes des raisons avancées pour l'abolition de cette peine: boucherie sauvage, rituel barbare, assassinat légal, et nous répondrons comme Socrate à Polos: « ce n'est pas un argument que tu nous opposes ici, c'est un épouvantail ». Nous montrerons ensuite que quelque répugnance que doive éprouver tout homme de sens et de coeur à appliquer une telle peine, quelque disposition qu'il ait à la mansuétude et à la miséricorde, et en raison même de ces dispositions, il doit admettre aussi que la justice pénale est condamnée à perdre tout critère objectif lorsqu'on exclut ce principe qu'ôter la vie du prochain, ou la mutiler gravement, expose à perdre la sienne. Or il n'est pire danger pour le respect des droits humains que le subjectivisme moral et juridique: ce qui rend presque vaine la question de savoir si la peine de mort est un « déterrent » efficace ou inefficace. En outre si elle est juste, elle est respect du coupable qui la doit subir, et par conséquent, contrairement à ce qu'une certaine démagogie sen-timentale avance, signe et facteur d'humanité. Il est significatif que Socrate et Jésus, qui l'ont subie injustement, n'aient jamais mur-mure contre elle. Au contraire Robespierre, qui était pour l'abolition en 1789, fit de la guillotine la première institution de l'Etat en 1793. Une humanité abolitionniste peut craindre de connaître en pire le même destin.
Talking to Oneself
Authors: Hunter J. F. M.
Published: May 2010

Talking to oneself can seem either a perfectly daft activity or, if not that, an activity the practicality of which requires us to make some psychological suppositions we would otherwise prefer to avoid. If we know something, there will be no need to inform ourselves of it; while if we do not know it, we will have nothing to tell ourselves. Hence, it would seem, either it is perfectly pointless to tell ourselves anything or, when we talk to ourselves, the informer and the informed are somehow distinct, and one of them can know something the other does not yet know. Similarly ifwe ask ourselves a question, then unless the asker and the asked are somehow distinct, we will either know the answer, in which case there was no need to ask, or not know it, in which case it will be useless to ask.
“God Loves Us”: Theology and Falsification Reexamined
Authors: Colwell Gary G.
Published: May 2010

Some have argued that because factually meaningful assertions must be falsifiable, putative theistic assertions such as “God loves us” are not meaningful because they are not falsifiable. It is further suggested that every attempt to make a factually significant theistic assertion founders on the same shoal of falsifiability.
Les pratiques pseudo-scientifiques (à propos de similarités et de différences)
Authors: Lugg Andrew
Published: May 2010

L'astrologie, affirme Francis Bacon, «est tellement infectée de superstitions qu'on a peine à y trouver quelque chose de sain». A la différence de l'astronomie, qui est «assez bien fondée sur les phénomènes; mais [qui] s'élève peu, et manque tout à fait de solidité», Bacon estime que l'astrologie «en bien des choses … manque même de fondement». Tout en soulignant que certaines parties doivent en être retenues et épurées, Bacon en rejette l'essentiel comme «extravagances astrologiques». Mais comment au juste l'astronomie se différencie-t-elle de l'essentiel de l'astrologie? Que veut dire Bacon lorsqu'il affirme que l'astrologie est sans fondement et remplie de superstition? Le problème philosophique tient à ce que, en dépit de la vraisemblance des remarques de Bacon, il ne semble y avoir aucun moyen satisfaisant pour distinguer des parodies de science de la science authentique. Science et pseudoscience diffèrent en espèce, pense-t-on, mais la réflexion philosophique semble révéler qu'au mieux elles diffèrent en degrés.
Canfield, Cavell and Criteria
Authors: Shiner Roger A.
Published: May 2010

More nonsense, in my view, has been purveyed in print about Wittgenstein than about any other recent philosopher. Moreover, of this nonsense a great deal has been about Wittgenstein's notion of “criterion”. I have read, therefore, with an immense lightening of the spirit two recent studies of precisely this notion, each of which is both thorough and fundamentally sensitive to central elements of Wittgenstein's later thought which most philosophers, admirers as well as critics, have missed. Part One of Stanley Cavell's monumental The Claim of Reason deploys Wittgenstein's notion of “criterion” with telling effect in the initial exposition of Cavell's general view of human knowledge. John Canfield's Wittgenstein: Language and World is a very detailed and systematic presentation of Wittgenstein's notion of “criterion” itself, together with Canfield's reasons for judging it so important. The two books complement each other very well. There are differences between them as well as similarities, differences not merely of emphasis and nuance but of doctrine. As will emerge in subsequent pages, I believe Cavell's to be the deeper and subtler work. But Cavell's book is relatively inaccessible to those who do not have already some acquaintance with Wittgenstein's later thought and have not already made some attempt to think that thought for themselves (and parts of it are still inaccessible even to those who have!).
The Rationality of Science
Authors: Brown James Robert
Published: May 2010

William Newton-Smith is a fine young Canadian philosopher of science who has spent the last decade in productive thought at Balliol, Oxford. His new work, The Rationality of Science, follows hot on the heels of his other book, The Structure of Time (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980). And with them he establishes himself as a major force to be reckoned with in philosophical circles.
On Taking Historical Materialism Seriously
Authors: Nielsen Kai
Published: May 2010

In the first chapter of Karl Marx's Theory of History, G. A. Cohen contrasts Marx's image of history with Hegel's, contrasts, that is, a powerful form of historical idealism with historical materialism. Historical idealism stresses the “dominion of thought” (Gedankenherrschaft); social change, on such an account, is to be explained principally in terms of changes in consciousness, the course of history being determined by fundamental ruling ideas and conceptions. This view is to be contrasted with historical materialism. The central vision of history in Hegel is formulated as follows by Cohen, “History is the history of the world spirit (and, derivatively of human consciousness) which undergoes growth in self-knowledge, the stimulus and vehicle of which is a culture, which perishes when it has stimulated more growth than it can contain” (26). Marx's vision, a historical materialist vision, is identical in structure with Hegel's, but endows the structure with a new content. This can be seen from the parallel formulation of it, given by Cohen: “History is the history of human industry, which undergoes growth in productive power, the stimulus and vehicle of which is an economic structure which perishes when it has stimulated more growth than it can contain (26).
Langages actantiels et sciences humaines: commentaire sur un texte de Nicolas Kaufmann
Authors: Panaccio Claude
Published: May 2010

Je me sens en très grande sympathie avec la démarche de mon collègue Kaufmann, mais je ne puis en partager toutes les conclusions et j'essaierai de dire brièvement pourquoi. Plus précisément: je partage l'ascriptivisme de Kaufmann, mais je ne crois pas que soit irrémédiablement compromise toute utilisation nomologique ou empirique du langage de l'action. Un tel langage peut être employé pour la production d'énoncés partiellement empiriques dont certains peuvent très bien avoir la forme de lois générales. Soit par exemple le schéma suivant:

ceux qui posent habituellement des actions de type A1 dans des circonstances C1 ont tendance à poser des actions de type A2 dans des circonstances C2.
Essentialism and The New Theory of Reference
Authors: Bradley Raymond D.
Published: May 2010

Kripke, Putnam and others have proposed what is often called The New Theory of Reference. Professor Matthen thinks that this theory needs to be modified in various ways: (1) so as to avert misunderstandings about the New Theory's commitment to essentialism; (2) so as to clarify the semantic function of what he calls “nonconnoting terms”; (3) so as to answer Quinean doubts about the determinacy of ostension; (4) so as to correct Putnam's “simplistic” account of ostension; (5) so as to solve Kripke's puzzle about the seemingly inconsistent beliefs of the bilingual Pierre; and (6) so as to show how many ordinary names, contra Kripke and Putnam, can be treated as “equivalent” to definite descriptions. No doubt many of the other things he says in his paper are clever, and perhaps even true. But as to the six modifications I have listed, I have run into difficulties. To the extent that I am able to understand them, I have been forced to conclude that they are neither needed nor helpful.
Le principe de conservation de la valeur et le problème de la transformation
Authors: Lagueux Maurice
Published: May 2010

Le long débat sur le « problème de la transformation », qui a marqué si profondément le développement de la pensée marxiste depuis cent ans, est probablement l'un des plus étranges mais peut-être aussi Fun des plus instructifs parmi ceux que l'histoire encore jeune des sciences sociales peut offrir à l'attention croissante que lui porte l'analyse épistémologique.
Defining Self-Deception
Authors: Radden Jennifer
Published: May 2010

In this paper I shall first expose a weakness shared by several philosophical discussions of self-deception: I shall show that these discussions have failed to give it a complete analysis. The apparent phenomenon of self-deception is all too familiar, and yet its adequate characterization in general terms is wanting. More exactly, I shall argue that to understand self-deception statically, as these accounts have done, has been—and must be—to fail to give a characterization of it as a state of mind, sufficient to distinguish it from other mental states not born of self-deception.
Religious Tolerance
Authors: Thiessen Elmer John
Published: May 2010

One reason why religious intolerance is so widespread, according to Newman, is that many people do not understand what tolerance means. Thus, “many intolerant people actually think that they are tolerant, and liberal people usually have trouble explaining to them why they are wrong” (147). Newman therefore begins his book with an analysis of the concept of tolerance. “Tolerance involves tolerating, that is, accepting, enduring, bearing, putting up with; it involves acceptance in the sense of refraining from any strong reaction to the thing in question; it is half hearted, an attitude towards something that is not liked, loved, respected, or approved of; and it is often, though not always, understood as a praiseworthy act or virtue” (6).
The Maximum Claims of Gauthier's Bargainers: Are the Fixed Social Inequalities Acceptable?
Authors: Braybrooke David
Published: May 2010

A central feature of David Gauthier's impressively searching version of social contract theory is the principle of maximin relative advantage. Given certain assumptions—more than he originally thought—this principle may be described as calling for maximum equal advantage, which is easier to talk about; and I shall refer to the principle under this description. Maximum equal relative advantage is equivalent to minimum equal relative concession; hence the principle of maximum equal relative advantage has a twin and mirror, the principle of minimum equal relative concession. Relative advantage and relative concession are ratios with the same denominator, the difference for a given agent between the maximum utility (umax) that she might get from the societyt o be contracted for and the minimum utility (umin) that would give her an incentive to cooperate in establishing the society and in keeping it up. The numerator for the one ratio—relative advantage—is the difference between the utility that she is actually going to gain from society (ua) and her minimum cooperative utility (umin). The numerator for the other ratio—relative concession—is the difference between her maximum utility (umax) and the utility that she is going to get (ua), in other words, the amount of utility that she foregoes in not getting her maximum.
La notion de problème moteur principal en contexte de recherche (suite et fin)
Authors: Lacharité Normand
Published: May 2010

Le texte qui suit est la seconde tranche d'un article dont la publication a commencé dans la dernière livraison de Dialogue. Dans les trois sections numérotées respectivement 1.1,1.2 et 1.3 de la tranche déjàpubliee, je présente un modéle des déterminations principales d'un problème en contexte de recherche, modèle que j'appelle, par abréviation, « ERPC », pour rappeler que le modèle érotétique PC est une partie du modèle ER qui articule le système des déterminations d'une enterprise de recherche et pour évoquer les deux premières catégories du modèle PC, à savoir: « ce qui est posé » et « ce qui est cherché ».
Le concept de philosophie de Husserl
Authors: Piché Claude
Published: May 2010

La première partie de la grande étude de Husserl sur le thème de la Krisis a pour titre «La crise des sciences comme expression de la crise radicale de la vie de l'humanité européenne». Par cette formulation, on pourrait être porté à croire que Husserl voit dans la crise de la science la simple conséquence secondaire d'une crise beaucoup plus profonde se situant à l'échelle de l'humanité européenne entière. Et pourtant il n'en est rien. Dans la suite du texte, Husserl s'applique à démontrer que le rapport d'implication entre l'humanité en crise et les sciences doit plutôt être considéré à l'inverse. Le problème de l'humanité européenne réside au premier chef dans cette crise des sciences; si bien qu'il est sans doute possible, dans un premier temps, de voir dans la crise des sciences une simple «expression » de la détresse de l'Europe, mais à y regarder de plus près, c'est celle-là qui est cause de la crise radicale de la vie de l'humanité européenne.
Self-Love and Self-Respect
Authors: Narveson Jan
Published: May 2010

Egoism, the subject of this book, is of unending interest to moral philosophers. Campbell reasonably compares it to scepticism in epistemology: just as it is a touchstone of a good epistemological theory that it should show us why scepticism is unsatisfactory, so it is often taken to be a touchstone of a good moral theory that it shows us what is wrong with egoism. The parallel is imperfect in an interesting way, though; for while scarcely anyone in epistemology ends up rejecting the “touchstone” and outrightly advocating scepticism, this does happen in moral philosophy with egoism. In attempting to expose the deficiencies of egoism, we are not tilting against windmills, nor pushing over straw men. And I think it clear that inquiries such as this could have very real implications for practice as well; in this, as in many things, I concur fully with the author.
Geoffrey Sampson: Liberty and Language
Authors: Bracken Harry M.
Published: May 2010

This book should be of interest to philosophers because it shows how important empiricist/rationalist debates are to a large range of issues. Sampson is a defender of empiricism, of liberalism, and of a tie between them. He has produced a sustained attack on Chomsky's Cartesianism and on his political views. He tells us that “the central aim of this book has been to show that Chomsky's fine-sounding words about human nature actually mean something close to the opposite of what they appear to say” (210). This suggests that Chomsky has written in an Aesopian language which Sampson has generously agreed to translate for us. It also makes Sampson's interpretation difficult to attack. Given his interpretive principle, there would appear to be no way of demonstrating that he has misinterpreted, misunderstood, or falsified the text he purports to be criticizing. Accordingly, I shall content myself with suggesting a few ways in which he seems to be in error. There can, however, be no doubt that Sampson seeks to make evident the philosophical foundations of the “principled liberalism of Margaret Thatcher and Sir Keith Joseph” (39).
Graham Nerlich: The Shape of Space
Authors: Hooker C.A.
Published: May 2010

Space (better: space-time) is a particular, the particular thing structuring our world. It has shape. And size. And reference to space and its properties is fundamental to physical explanation. This, in a nutshell, is Nerlich's position. Espousing it Nerlich marches against the tide of philosophical opinion which dominated the first half or more of this century.

His arguments are laid out in a wholly enjoyable book: clearly and simply written, ‘meaty’ in argument and lucid in explanation. The book does not have the same technical scope in theoretical physics as do its relevant companions (e.g., Earman et al. [2], Grunbaum [3], Sklar [16], Winnie [18]). Rather, the book is a sustained argument aimed at establishing the theses with which I began and its content has been selected accordingly. But the clarity of presentation and consistency of argument recommend it as a major contribution to the field. It is especially to be recommended to the non-technical philosopher. And there is another important reason for commending it: much of the argumentation of the book is not to be found elsewhere, it fills an important gap in the field. I need hardly add that I find myself in sympathy with Nerlich's position.
Quatenus (de la contradiction en philosophie)
Authors: Brodeur Jean-Paul
Published: May 2010

Le principe de non-contradiction a depuis très longtemps étéreconnu comme le principe le plus fondamental de la pensée rationnelle. II est facile de l'énoncer sous sa forme symbolique: – (P.–P). Ce principe pose que quelqu'un ne saurait affirmer en même temps une proposition et sa négation. Pour que ce principe ne demeure pas une exigence vide, il faut en outre que l'on puisse déterminer avec précision quelles sont les conditions de son application. Cette détermination des conditions d'application d'un principe commence par la recherche des moyens par lesquels il est possible de démarquer, dans le champ de son application, ce qui en respecte l'énoncé de ce qui n'en respecte pas l'énoncé. Or si rien n'est plus facile que de formuler un précepte, rien, appa-remment, n'est plus difficile que de tracer une ligne nette entre ce qui se conforme au précepte et ce qui le transgresse. Bien qu'il soit l'assise la plus profonde de nos raisonnements, le principe de non-contradiction ne fait pas exception à ce constat. Son énoncé fait sans doute l'unanimité mais il est assez rare que l'on s'accorde, en dehors des disciplines formelles, sur ce qui constitue l'occurrence d'une contradiction. Cet accord sur ce qui constitue ou non l'exemple d'une contradiction m'apparaît faire défaut d'une façon particulièrement marquée en philosophic Cette situation pose un double problème.
Beyond Materialism and Back Again
Authors: Cooper W. E.
Published: May 2010

One result of the protracted and inconclusive contemporarydebate over the merits of a materialist theory of mind is that philosophers have been prompted to explore new and credible alternative theories. Campbell's “new epiphenomenalism” is one of these, and Goldman's conception of mental and physical events as “simultaneous nomic equivalents” is another. After a brief introductory discussion of materialism, I shall examine and assess these views. My path leads back, tentatively, to materialism, via a critical look at the main reasons given by Campbell and Goldman for abandoning it.
La position des entités théoriques
Authors: Lane Gilles
Published: May 2010

Cet article veut présenter une approche épistémologique assez différente de celles qui sont les plus répandues aujourd'hui. Une approche moins formelle, sans doute plus phénoménologique. On s'apercevra qu'elle ne vient pas en contradiction avec ces épistémologies plus formelles, mais qu'elle permet un debut de reponse aux questions ou objections que plusieurs se posent au sujet de la portee cognitive des théories scientifiques. Wittgenstein, par exemple, s'est montre fort insatisfait des explications «illusoires» des sciences (Tract., 6.371–2), alors que plusieurs de nos contemporains se detournent de ce mode de connaissance, jugé trop formel et vide.
The Structure of Scientific Theories, edited and with a critical introduction by Frederick Suppe
Authors: Savitt Steven F.
Published: May 2010

This volume is the record of a symposium on the structer of scientific theories held in urbana, Illinois in the spring of 1969. ofSeven main papers (though two are represented in this volume by “summary-abstracts”), commentaries, discussions, and a postscript form the bulk of the book. The rest is a nearly 240-page monograph-in-the-guise-of-an-introduction by the editor titled “The Search for Philosophic Understanding of Scientific Theories”.
Promises and Reliance
Authors: Árdal Páll S.
Published: May 2010

In a Recent paper toThe Joint Session of the AristotelianSociety and Mind AssociationProfessor Neil MacCormick makes some interesting observations about the nature of promises and the source of the obligation to keep them. He rejects the view that an act can count as a promise only because a certain practice exists in a society. One may on the contrary well understand what promises are and know how to make them without there being any special convention making possible the speech act of promising which amounts to no more than …“an utterance of the speaker's about his own future conduct which is essentially characterized by the speaker's intending his addressee to take it as being intended to induce the addressee to rely upon the speaker's taking the action in question.” One needs no special rule to explain why promise-breaking is wrong for …“the fact of the addressee's reliance on the promisor is sufficient ground for asserting that the promisor has an obligation to keep his word.” To bring home the point, MacCormick contrasts promising with divorcing by the simple utterance of 'I divorce thee, I divorce thee.' This is intelligible as an act of divorcing only by presupposing a convention that allows a divorce to be effected in this way. In performing the act by the appropriate formula the person is invoking the conventional rules that must obtain in the society if the act is to be successful. Searle, we are told, fails to see that promises are quite different in that they …“are explicable in terms of an intention to bring about a specific perlocutionary effect, and an intention that that intention be recognized” It is neither here nor there to point out, as Searle does, that ‘I predict’ and ‘I intend’ like ‘I promise’ tend to create expectations for the effect a promise is intended to achieve is reliance and not simply an expectation.
L'akrasia chez Aristote ou l'échec de l'éducation morale
Authors: Bédard Michel
Published: May 2010

Pour le Maître du Lycée, si la vertu intellectuelle s'enseigne, c'est qu'elle est objet de science et qu'à ce titre elle «peut s'apprendre»': en effet, d'aprés lui, «toute science est susceptible d'être enseignée». Seulement, une telle prise de position implique l'existence de rapports etroits éntrel'aréteetl'épistémé. Or, les relations «vertu-science», longtemps avant Aristote, avaient déjà coincé plusieurs moralistes grecs. Les Anciens, effectivement, tenaient pour scandaleux l'échec de l'éducation chez les enfants issus de parents vertueux. Aussi, s'étaient-ils appliqués a découvrir l'explication d'un phénomène qui, à leurs yeux, traduisait l'une des données les plus complexes de la nature humaine et qui, par suite, mettait en jeu la sauvegarde et le progrés de celle-ci par le biais de l'éducation.
Knowledge and Reflexivity
Authors: Odegard Douglas
Published: May 2010

On First view there seem to be many possible instances of knowers who lack knowledge of their knowledge. A self-deceiver seems capable of knowing his own faults without knowing that he knows them. A philosopher seems capable of knowing that there are physical objects around him without knowing that he has such knowledge. Deep-rooted insecurity seems capable of preventing a mathematician from knowing that he has just made a genuine discovery. A child seems capable of acquiring knowledge before acquiring the concept ‘knowledge’ and hence before being able to know that he knows.