bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Identity and Commitment: Sen’s Fourth Aspect of the Self
Authors: Davis John B
Published: November 2023

Amartya Sen has made examination of the behavioral foundations of economics and their connection to three different interpretations of the “privateness” of the individual a central theme of his work. He has also associated this examination with the issue of how we might talk about the self or the identity of individual. This paper argues that while Sen frames his views about identity primarily in terms of social identity or in connection with how individuals identify with others, his thinking about social identity derives from his understanding of commitment and its association with a fourth aspect of the self that provides the basis for an account of individual or personal identity.
Socrates’ Deliberative Authoritarianism
Authors: Hatzistavrou Antony
Published: November 2023

According to the current ‘orthodox’ interpretation of the moral philosophy of Plato’s early dialogues, Socrates is an archetypal anti-authoritarian philosopher. He is considered to advocate individual moral autonomy and rule out subordination to the authority of another person in moral decision-making. Popper claims, for example, that Socrates wanted individuals to ‘learn to make up their minds, and to rely, critically, on their decisions, and on their insight’ on moral matters. Klosko ascribes to Socrates a demand that ‘the individual become morally autonomous and rule himself’ based on his belief that ‘every individual has the capacity to develop his rational faculties and be governed by them’. Vlastos argues that for Socrates ‘everyone of us would have the royal art, each of us would pursue the “examined life”, we would all be ruled in our individual lives by our personal knowledge and vision of the good’. Finally, Gulley explains Socrates’ demand that ‘the individual must be free to realise his own good’ on the basis of the importance Socrates assigns to the moral worth of the individual.
Zeno Unlimited
Authors: Hasper Pieter Sjoerd
Published: November 2023

When it comes to Zeno’s paradoxes, it is difficult to distinguish interpretation from attempts at solving them. How to make sense of arguments which are deliberately paradoxical and thus challenge the basics of common sense, without finding out what is wrong with them? This interplay between historical interpretation and philosophical analysis is often fruitful enough, sharpening our view of what is going on in the arguments under consideration. However, the balance of power in the interplay is easily disturbed, as the perceived clarity of philosophical analysis may come to guide our interpretative efforts at the expense of our sensitivity to the details of the historical evidence.
Methexis and Geometrical Reasoning in proclus’ Commentary on Euclid’ s Elements
Authors: Harari Orna
Published: November 2023

The addition of the imagination to the Platonic account of geometrical objects is aimed at accommodating geometrical certainty with geometrical reasoning. The correlation between discursive reason and geometrical objects accounts only for the former; the immateriality of the objects of discursive reason accounts for the precision of geometrical objects, the truth of geometrical propositions, and the role of geometry in emancipating the soul from sensation (49. 7–24). Yet geometrical reasoning requires material objects. In geometrical proofs the objects under consideration are constructed and compared with each other. For instance, geometry considers whether lines, angles, and figures are equal or unequal to each other and requires one to bisect lines, to construct figures, or to inscribe them in others.
Addiction as Defect of the Will: Some Philosophical Reflections
Authors: Wallace R Jay
Published: November 2023

It is both common and natural to think of addiction as a kind of defect of the will. Addicts, we tend to suppose, are subject to impulses or cravings that are peculiarly unresponsive to their evaluative reflection about what there is reason for them to do. As a result of this unresponsiveness, we further suppose, addicts are typically impaired in their ability to act in accordance with their own deliberative conclusions. My question in this paper is whether we can make adequate sense of this conception of addiction as a volitional defect. In particular, I want to focus on some philosophical assumptions, from the theory of action, that bear directly on the very idea that addiction might impair the agent’s volitional capacities.
Ressentiment, Value, and Self-Vindication: Making Sense of Nietzsche’s Slave Revolt
Authors: Wallace R Jay
Published: November 2023

In its broad outlines the account of the origin of modern morality that Nietzsche offers in the first essay of his Genealogy is reasonably clear. The account begins with the postulation of two different schemes of value, organized around the pairs of opposites good/bad and good/evil, which are associated respectively with the contrasting personality types of the noble and the slave. Characteristic of the slavish personality structure are the negative affects of hatred and ressentiment, which, deprived of a natural outlet, become pent up and fester within the psyche of the powerless until reaching ‘monstrous and uncanny proportions’ (GM, I. 7).1
Actions, Reasons, and Causes
Authors: Lepore Ernie , Ludwig Kirk
Published: November 2023

What is the relation between a reason and an action when the reason explains the action by giving the agent’s reason for doing what he did? We may call such explanations rationalizations, and say that the reason rationalizes the action. In this paper I want to defend the ancient-and commonsense-position that rationalization is a species of causal explanation. The defence no doubt requires some redeployment, but it does not seem necessary to abandon the position, as has been urged by many recent writers.
The Individuation of Events
Authors: Lepore Ernie , Ludwig Kirk
Published: November 2023

There is a familiar embarrassment in asking identity questions of this sort that comes out clearly if we rephrase the question slightly: when are two events identical? Or, when is one event identical with another? It seems only one answer is possible: no two events are identical, no event is ever identical with another. It is hopeless to try to improve matters by asking instead, when is an event identical with itself? For again, only one answer is possible: always.
Mental Events
Authors: Lepore Ernie , Ludwig Kirk
Published: November 2023

Mental events such as perceivings, rememberings, decisions, and actions resist capture in the nomological net of physical theory. How can this fact be reconciled with the causal role of mental events in the physical world? Reconciling freedom with causal determinism is a special case of the problem if we suppose that causal determinism entails capture in, and freedom requires escape from, the nomological net. But the broader issue can remain alive even for someone who believes a correct analysis of free action reveals no conflict with determinism. Autonomy (freedom, self-rule) may or may not dash with determinism; anomaly (failure to fall under a law) is, it would seem, another matter.
On Saying That
Authors: Lepore Ernie , Ludwig Kirk
Published: November 2023

‘I wish I had said that’, said Oscar Wilde in applauding one of Whistler’s witticisms. Whistler, who took a dim view of Wilde’s originality, retorted, ‘You will, Oscar; you will’.1 This tale reminds us that an expression like ‘Whistler said that’ may on occasion serve as a grammatically complete sentence. Here we have, I suggest, the key to a correct analysis of indirect discourse, an analysis that opens a lead to an analysis of psychological sentences generally (sentences about propositional attitudes, so-called), and even, though this looks beyond anything to be discussed in the present paper, a clue to what distinguishes psychological concepts from others.
A Coherence Theory of Truth and Knowledge
Authors: Lepore Ernie , Ludwig Kirk
Published: November 2023

In this essay I defend what may as well be called a coherence theory of truth and knowledge. The theory I defend is not in competition with a correspondence theory, but depends for its defense on an argument that purports to show that coherence yields correspondence. The importance of the theme is obvious. If coherence is a test of truth, there is a direct connection with epistemology, for we have reason to believe many of our beliefs cohere with many others, and in that case we have reason to believe many of our beliefs are true. When the beliefs are true, then the primary conditions for knowledge would seem to be satisfied.
The Invention of an Algorithmic Biology
Authors: Bullock Seth
Published: November 2023

Biology and computing might not seem the most comfortable of bedfellows. It is easy to imagine nature and technology clashing as the green-welly brigade rub up awkwardly against the back-room boffins. But collaboration between the two fields has exploded in recent years, driven primarily by massive investment in the emerging field of bioinformatics charged with mapping the human genome. New algorithms and computational infrastructures have enabled research groups to collaborate effectively on a worldwide scale in building huge, exponentially growing genomic databases, to ‘mine’ these mountains of data for useful information, and to construct and manipulate innovative computational models of the genes and proteins that have been identified.
Richard Dawkins and the Problem of Progress
Authors: Ruse Michael
Published: November 2023

Directionalist common sense surely wins on the very long time scale: once there was only blue-green slime and now there are sharp-eyed metazoa. One of the many attractive things about the writings of Richard Dawkins is his willingness to state his positions clearly and forcefully. No hiding of ideas in ambiguity or of saying one thing in the text and then qualifying it to death with a thousand footnotes. In the language of the Bible, Dawkins lets his yea be yea and his nay be nay. Nowhere has Dawkins been more forthright than in his endorsement of the idea of evolutionary progress. He believes in it, he has said so many times, and he has argued for it. Yet, perhaps surprisingly, this is a controversial position, with today’s evolutionists split down the middle on the issue.
The Skeptic’s Chaplain: Richard Dawkins As A Fountainhead of Skepticism
Authors: Shermer Michael
Published: November 2023

Over the weekend of 12 to 14 August 2001, I participated in an event entitled ‘Humanity 3000’, whose mission it was to bring together ‘prominent thinkers from around the world in a multidisciplinary framework to ponder issues that are most likely to have a significant impact on the long-term future of humanity’. Sponsored by the Foundation for the Future—a non-profit think tank in Seattle founded by aerospace engineer and benefactor Walter P. Kistler—long-term is defined as a millennium. We were tasked with the job of prognosticating what the world will be like in the year 3000. Yeah, sure. As Yogi Berra said, ‘It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future’. If such a workshop were held in 1950 would anyone have anticipated the World Wide Web? If we cannot prognosticate fifty years in the future, what chance do we have of saying anything significant about a date twenty times more distant?
Do Word Meanings Exist?
Authors: Hanks Patrick
Published: November 2023

My contribution to this discussion is to attempt to spread a little radical doubt. Since I have spent over 30 years of my life writing and editing monolingual dictionary definitions, it may seem rather odd that I should be asking, do word meanings exist? The question is genuine, though: prompted by some puzzling facts about the data that is now available in the form of machine-readable corpora. I am not the only lexicographer to be asking this question after studying corpus evidence. Sue Atkins, for example, has said “I don’t believe in word meanings” (cited as the title of a paper by Kilgarriff, 1997e–also in this volume, Ed.), and Eugene Nida (1997) is one of many who have insisted that words only have meaning in context. It is a question of fundamental importance to the enterprise of sense disambiguation. If senses don’t exist, then there is not much point in trying to “disambiguate” them – or indeed do anything else with them. The very term disambiguate presupposes what Fillmore (1975b) characterized as “checklist theories of meaning”. Here I shall reaffirm the argument, on the basis of recent work in corpus analysis, that checklist theories in their current form are at best superficial and at worst misleading. If word meanings do exist, they do not exist as a checklist. The numbered lists of definitions found in dictionaries have helped to create a false picture of what really happens when language is used.
Sleeplessness
Authors: Stores Gregory
Published: November 2023

Some of the key points in helping to explain why your child is not sleeping well are described in this chapter. The importance of these and the other points mentioned here will be explained in later sections of the book.
Sleep disorders that make you sleep too much
Authors: Stores Gregory
Published: November 2023

There are various conditions, each with recognizable characteristics, in which prolonged or otherwise excessive sleep is an intrinsic part of their nature, rather than a consequence of them.

In some of these conditions, the sleepiness is continuous; in others, it comes and goes at intervals.
Parasomnias mainly early in the night when lightly asleep
Authors: Stores Gregory
Published: November 2023

Some of these types of parasomnia are more common in children than was originally thought. Again, it is appropriate for the possibility of an underlying condition that requires investigation and treatment to be considered, but this will not often be the case.

Bruxism or teethgrinding is forceful grinding and clenching of the teeth in a paroxysmal fashion, sometimes producing a loud grinding noise at night without the person being aware. This usually occurs in light sleep, but may occur at any stage of sleep. It is thought to be particularly common in adults (although it is a serious problem in only a minority) and can be caused, for example, by stress.
Characteristics Of Patients In Headache Centres
Authors: Göbel Hartmut , Heinze Axel , Heinze-Kuhn Katja , Roth Andrea , Rüschmann Hans-Heinrich
Published: November 2023

Headache clinics can be divided into three principal categories. The first category includes outpatient practices that offer special headache consultations. In Germany, further specialist training for physicians choosing to specialize in the field of pain management has been available since 1998. A large percentage of doctors who have attained this additional qualification work in outpatient practice settings. The second organizational category includes neurological clinics that offer outpatient headache consultations. These facilities serve extended regions. The third organizational category applies to specialized headache centres. These are either affiliated with large hospitals or are independent establishments. Ideally, headache centres such as these are autonomous, have a multiprofessional team and are geared exclusively toward the care of patients who are affected by severe headaches.
Imaging And Other Tests In Headache Diagnosis
Authors: Evers Stefan
Published: November 2023

Imaging and other tests in headache diagnosis are among of the most controversial issues in the routine work of headache clinics. On the other hand, there is nearly no evidence-basing research in this field and most of the recommendations rely more on consensus guidelines than on systematic research. This review focuses on some basic information on the relevant diagnostic methods for headache diagnosis; in addition, the limitations and pitfalls of the different methods will be addressed. It has to be made clear that imaging and other tests in headache treatment are not able to positively diagnose a distinct primary headache disorder. Their role is to exclude (or prove) underlying causes of secondary headache disorders, which, however, can only be diagnosed in about 7–8 per cent of all headache patients, in contrast about 92 per cent of all headache patients have primary headaches.
Introduction
Authors: Dubow Saul
Published: November 2023

Since the end of apartheid the Cape has become a prime international destination. Tourists who marvel at the majesty of Table Mountain, travel through the wine lands, appreciate the distinctive architecture of Cape Dutch homesteads, are startled by the richness of the Cape Horal kingdom, or applaud the conscious multiculturalism of its cosmopolitan society, all participate knowingly or unknowingly in the re-enactment of core themes in Cape identity. Many of these tropes were carefully cultivated by nineteenth- and early twentieth-century writers and publicists who imagined the Cape as a unique offshoot of Europe, located at the tip of Africa.
Conclusion: The Renationalization of Knowledge
Authors: Dubow Saul
Published: November 2023

In October 1949, a year after the election which brought the National Party to power with its slogan of apartheid, Prime Minister D. F. Malan was called upon to open the African Regional Scientific Conference in Johannesburg. The event attracted around 100 delegates from Europe, the United States, and colonial Africa, and there were high hopes that it would inaugurate a new era of cooperation in the subcontinent. Basil Schonland was closely involved with the arrangements and, indeed, had been one of its progenitors. At the 1946 British Commonwealth Scientific Conference in London, where he proudly led the South African delegation (and was showered with personal honours), Schonland had called for the establishment of an African Research Committee to look closely at the requirements of the continent.
The Case Against Perfection: What ‘s Wrong with Designer Children, Bionic Athletes, and Genetic Engineering
Authors: Sandel* Michael J
Published: November 2023

Breakthroughs in genetics present us with a promise and a predicament. The promise is that we may soon be able to treat and prevent a host of debilitating diseases. The predicament is that our newfound genetic knowledge may also enable us to manipulate our own nature— to enhance our muscles, memories, and moods; to choose the sex, height, and other genetic traits of our children; to make ourselves ‘ ‘better than well. ‘ ‘ When science moves faster than moral understanding, as it does today, men and women struggle to articulate their unease. In liberal societies they reach first for the language of autonomy, fairness, and individual rights. But this part of our moral vocabulary is ill equipped to address the hardest questions posed by genetic engineering. The genomic revolution has induced a kind of moral vertigo.
Good, Better, or Best?
Authors: Caplan Arthur L
Published: November 2023

Excellence has come in for a lot of bad press recently. A torrent of books and articles have appeared [see list of References, 1 – 10, 20] all raising serious ethical questions about the wisdom and morality of trying to use new biomedical knowledge to perfect ourselves or our offspring. Of course, beating up on the literal pursuit of perfection is silly. As the artist Salvador Dali famously pointed out, ‘ ‘Have no fear of perfection— you ‘ll never reach it ‘ ‘. Critics of those who allegedly seek to perfect human beings by means of bioengineering know this. Nonetheless, they often invoke the rhetoric of ‘perfection ‘ in their critiques since the pursuit of perfection seems arrogant at best and silly at worst. Perfection, however, while an easy target, is not their real target. What they really are attacking is the far more frequently expressed, albeit far less lofty, and, notably, far less controversial goal— improvement.
Paternalism in the Age of Cognitive Enhancement: Do Civil Liberties Presuppose Roughly Equal Mental Ability?
Authors: Wikler Daniel
Published: November 2023

Advances in genetics and biotechnology may enable scientists to augment our cognitive powers. If this does become feasible, it is virtually certain that many people will want this kind of intervention for their children, or indeed if it proves feasible, for themselves. Perhaps the maximum enhancement will be minor, say a 5 to 10 per cent increase in memory capacity, ability to concentrate, or speed of calculation. Some of us can achieve performance enhancements of this magnitude now, with training, coffee, or a good night ‘s sleep. If many people achieved these gains, they might be more productive, and perhaps fewer accidents would occur. The aggregate benefit might be impressive. But their effect on our social institutions and relationships would be minor or non-existent.
Life
Authors: Hedges S Blair
Published: November 2023

This the earliest and most controversial portion of the tree of life and few details can be regarded as well established. It involves the relationships and times of origin of the three super kingdoms, Eubacteria, Archaebacteria, and Eukaryota. But the key to understanding how these earliest events unraveled is to know how eukaryotes arose and their relationship to prokaryotes. Despite the availability of hundreds of completely sequenced genomes from prokaryotes and dozens from eukaryotes, the answers are not yet in hand. New models for the origin of eukaryotes appear frequently. For ease of discussion they are classified here as merger models (1–11) and deep-root models (12, 13). The former ascribe the origin of eukaryotes to a merger between two prokaryotes whereas the latter minimize the role of mergers and instead postulate an ancient origin of eukaryotes, at least as old as the earliest divergences among living prokaryotes. The goal of this brief synopsis is to review the evidence bearing on the earliest aspects of the time tree of life. Details concerning differences among the many proposed models, as well as different points of view, can be found elsewhere (2, 14, 15).
Magnoliids
Authors: Forest Félix , Chase Mark W
Published: November 2023

The magnoliid clade attaches to one of the basal-most nodes in the angiosperm tree and comprises four orders, Magnoliales, Laurales, Piperales, Canellales, and a total of ca. 8000 species grouped in 20 families, of which Piperaceae (black pepper family; 3000 species), Lauraceae (laurel family; 2500 species), and Annonaceae (custard-apple family; 1200 species) are by far the largest (1). Many species in this group are widely cultivated as ornamentals (e.g., Magnolia, Magnoliaceae (Fig. 1); Peperomia, Piperaceae) for spices and Pavorings such as nutmeg (Myristica, Myristicaceae), cinnamon (Cinnamomum, Lauraceae), and bay (Laurus, Lauraceae), and for their fruit (e.g., avocado; Persea, Lauraceae) (2). Representatives of this clade have various habits ranging from trees and shrubs to lianas and herb, and are widespread in tropical and temperate regions of the world (3). Here, relationships and divergence times of the four orders and 20 families forming the magnoliids are reviewed.
Sturgeons and paddlefishes (Acipenseriformes)
Authors: Penga Zuogang , Diogob Rui , Ludwigc Arne , Hea Shunping
Published: November 2023

The extant sturgeons (Acipenseridae, containing four genera—Acipenser, Huso, Pseudoscaphirhynchus, and Scaphirhynchus) and paddleAshes (Polyodontidae, containing two monospeciAc genera—Polyodon and Psephurus) with some extinct families form a monophyletic group of the ray-Anned Ashes, the Order Acipenseriformes. Sturgeons are diagnosed by presenting Ave rows of bony scutes or plates on their body, four barbels in front of mouth, and absence of teeth in adults. PaddleAshes are diagnosed by their paddle-like snout, absence of large scutes on their body, and minute barbels on their snout (1). Additionally, Polyodon is best known for its Altered-feeding habit based on numerous thin, elongate gill rakers unique to them among sturgeons and paddleAshes (2). Acipenseriforms only inhabit the Northern Hemisphere, and the present biogeographic distribution of the extant species of this group repects ancient relationships among Ash faunas of Europe, Asia, and North America. Extant representatives are in two families with six genera and 27 species. Here, we review the relationships and divergence times of the major groups of acipenseriforms (Fig. 1).
Teleost fishes (Teleostei)
Authors: Penga Zuogang , Diogob Rui , Hea Shunping
Published: November 2023

Teleosts are a modern group of Ashes including more than 26,000 species (1), which are grouped into 40 orders. They are typically grouped together with the garAshes (Lepisosteiformes) and BowAn (Amiifomes) in the Subclass Neopterygii. Teleosts are the most speciesrich and diversiAed group of all the vertebrates. 7ere are more teleost species than all the other vertebrates combined (2). 7ey dominate in the world’s rivers, lakes, and oceans. 7ere are four subdivisions within extant teleosts: Osteoglossomorpha (e.g., mooneyes and bonytongues), Elopomorpha (e.g., eels, tarpons, and boneAshes), Otocephala (e.g., ostariophysan and clupeomorph teleosts), and Euteleostei (the remaining teleosts, e.g., Argentiniformes, Osmeriformes, Salmoniformes, and Neoteleostei) (3). At least 27 anatomical shared derived traits were found by de Pinna (4) to support the monophyly of the Teleostei. Here, we review the relationships and divergence times of the major groups of teleosts (Fig. 1). Until recently, the classification of teleosts pioneered by Greenwood et al. (5) and expanded on by Patterson and Rosen (6) has followed the arrangement proposed by Nelson (7) and today is still rePected in Ash textbooks and papers. In it, species were placed in four major groups: Osteoglossomorpha, Elopomorpha, Otocephala, and Euteleostei. This is division was based on multiple morphological characters and molecular evidence.
Lizards, Snakes, And Amphisbaenians (Squamata)
Authors: Hedgesa S Blair , Vidal Nicolas
Published: November 2023

The lizards, snakes, and amphisbaenians form a monophyletic group of scaly reptiles, the Order Squamata. 7ey are typically grouped together with the tuataras (Order Rhynchocephalia) in the Subclass Lepidosauria. Male squamates have a pair of unique copulatory organs, hemipenes, located in the tail base. Limb reduction or loss has occurred independently in multiple lineages. Nearly 8200 living species of squamates have been described and placed in 58 families: 4900 species in 26 families of lizards (Fig. 1), 200 species in six families of amphisbaenians, and 3070 species in 26 families of snakes (1, 2). Here, we review the relationships and divergence times of the families of squamates, excluding snakes (Serpentes), which are treated elsewhere (3).
Cranes, rails, and allies (Gruiformes)
Authors: Houde Peter
Published: November 2023

The avian Order Gruiformes, as traditionally conceived, consists of as many as a dozen families of extant or recently extinct birds and nearly as many more families known only from fossils. theFamily Gruidae is represented by 15 species of cranes, which are found worldwide except in Antarctica and South America. thenearly cosmopolitan Family Rallidae comprises some 135–142 species of rails, crakes, coots, moorhens, gallinules, and Pufftails (1, 2). Cranes and rails comprise the genetically closely related and relatively morphologically homogeneous Suborder Grues (3), which in turn is divided into the stocky rail-like Superfamily Ralloidea (rails, Anfoots, adzebills) and the lanky crane-like Superfamily Gruoidea (cranes, Limpkin, trumpeters). Ralloids and gruoids represent extremes along a continuum of size from 139 to 1524 mm in length (4). Most are drab somber birds of wetlands or aquatic habitats, although gallinules are colorful and many others have pigmented patches of skin on the head (Fig. 1).
Primates (Primates)
Authors: Steiper Michael E , Youngc Nathan M
Published: November 2023

Living primates comprise an order of placental mammals characterized by forward facing eyes, a petrosal-derived auditory bulla, grasping hands and feet, nails instead of claws, a large brain relative to body size, and a slow life history (1). 7ere are over 350 extant primate species (Fig. 1). Aside from our own widely distributed species, primates are native to habitats throughout Central and South America, Africa, and Asia. Here, molecular divergence times of the 15 extant primate families (2) are reviewed. Currently, there is general consensus on the overall shape and structure of the subordinal through familylevel phylogeny of the primates, with some exceptions (Fig. 2) (3–6). Lemurs and lorises, collectively known as the strepsirrhines, are united by the presence of derived features including a toothcomb and grooming claw. Within the lemurs, there is as yet no consensus on the relationships among the Ave extant families, except that Daubentoniidae is likely to be the most basal taxon based on molecular evidence (7). 7erefore, we represent the relationships among the remaining four families as a polytomy and use the oldest date for included nodes given in each study (8–10).
The structure of quantifiers and nominalizations, and the role of the definite article
Authors: Giannakidou Anastasia , Rathert Monika
Published: November 2023

One of the most fruitful ideas in formal semantics has been the thesis that quantifier phrases (QPs) denote generalized quantifiers (GQs; Montague (1974), Barwise & Cooper (1981), Zwarts (1986), Westerståhl (1985), Partee (1987), Keenan (1987), Keenan & Westerståhl (1997), among many others). GQ theory initiated an exciting research agenda in the 1980s, and the decades that followed featured extensive studies of quantificational structures, with attention to the constituents of QPs, and their scopal properties.
Properties, entity correlates of properties, and existentials
Authors: mcnally louise
Published: November 2023

Setting aside obviously predicative uses of nominals, the claim that predicates can take property-type nominal arguments has been motivated on the basis of two very different kinds of data. On the one hand, Chierchia (1984) discussed cases in which a predicate such as fun or good can apply to a nominalized property such as in the following examples: Such examples, he argued, show that some predicates denote true properties of properties.
Moral Dependence
Authors: Zangwill Nick
Published: November 2023

What is the relation between moral and natural properties? And how do we conceive of this relation? By ‘moral’ properties I will mean properties such as being evil, just, or virtuous or having duties or rights; and by ‘natural’ properties I will mean properties such as psychological, sociological, and physical properties.¹Suppose we judge that Queen Isabella of Spain was evil in 1492, or at least that many of her actions in 1492 were evil. Then we do not think that she had various natural properties in 1492— such as being a torturer, a bigot, and desiring other’s pain— and by an astounding coincidence she or her actions also had the moral property of evil. Rather, we think that she or her actions were evil in virtue of those natural properties; we think that her moral properties depend on her natural properties; we think that she had her moral properties because of her natural properties. In general, when we make a moral judgment we judge not just that something has a moral property, but that it has a moral property because it has some natural property. This is a fundamental principle of our moral thought.
Constructivism about Reasons
Authors: Street Sharon
Published: November 2023

Do valuable things possess their value independently of our valuing them? Or does their value always depend, at least ultimately, on our taking them to be valuable? I have argued elsewhere that Darwinian considerations settle this debate in favor of the latter, antirealist view.¹ Things are valuable ultimately because we take them to be. But the ultimately in this statement is important. While there are, ultimately, no normative truths that hold independently of our evaluative attitudes— while normative realism is false, in other words— it does not follow that it’s impossible to go wrong with one’s normative judgments. On the contrary, there is still a robust sense in which normative judgments can be, and often are, in error. This is the important core of truth in realism. The truth in antirealism, however— and what makes antirealism the right view in the end— is that the standards of correctness that determine what counts as an error are ultimately set by our own normative judgments. To put the point another way: A person does not have a normative reason merely in virtue of taking herself to have it; it’s easy to go wrong about one’s reasons, and we do so all the time.
Epistemological Foundations for the Cosmological Argument
Authors: Koons Robert
Published: November 2023

The cosmological argument— the argument from contingency to the existence of a necessary First Cause— forms the core of a long-standing research programme in philosophical theology. Even if such theistic arguments are, as Plantinga has demonstrated, unnecessary for the reasonableness of theistic belief, a successful proof would by all accounts have considerable significance. The cosmological argument has in recent years garnered considerable respect, both from theists and agnostics. However, the central assumption of that argument, a principle of sufficient reason or general causation, has failed to win universal acceptance. A recent book by Alexander Pruss (2006a), The Principle of Sufficient Reason, has addressed this question with a number of ingenious appeals to our metaphysical intuitions. In this paper, I will attempt to complement Pruss’s efforts through an appeal to epistemology.
Ceteris Absentibus Physicalism
Authors: Leuenberger Stephan
Published: November 2023

In a slogan, microphysicalism is the view that there is nothing over and above microphysical facts in our world. But how are we supposed to understand this slogan? There is a popular picturesque explanation: once God had created all the microphysical facts, He was done creating the world as it is; there was nothing left for Him to do. Clearly, this is merely a metaphor, since God ‘s creating the universe is incompatible with physicalism. However, the metaphor has heuristic value, and can guide our search for an adequate formulation of physicalism.
Truthmakers and Predication
Authors: Nolan Daniel
Published: November 2023

A theory of truthmakers has often gone hand in hand with a theory of facts, or states of affairs. In one direction, this seems understandable: if, for whatever reason, one thinks that there are facts in the world, and especially if they are abundant, so that whenever a proposition p is true, there exists a fact that p (and if no ‘ ‘false facts ‘ ‘ or other such things exist), then facts make for tempting truthmakers: whenever a proposition is true, then necessarily there is something which makes that proposition true: there is a fact that p. Truthmaker theorists would typically like something stronger: they would like the necessity connecting the existence of truthmakers and the truth of the corresponding proposition to be de re rather than de dicto: not just that necessarily, when p is true there is a fact that p, but also that for any fact that p, necessarily when it exists p is true.
Suarez Law And Obligation
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: November 2023

Discussion of natural law reaches a new level of sophistication in Suarez’s elaborate and careful treatment. He takes account of Aquinas, Scotus, Ockham, and their successors, and claims to defend Aquinas’ views on the main issues. Since his discussion is usually fuller than Aquinas’ discussion, and explores questions that Aquinas does not discuss at length, Suarez deserves careful study. We may not always agree with his claim to defend Aquinas’ position. Indeed, some readers, especially among those sympathetic to Aquinas, have argued that Suarez does not simply disagree with Aquinas on some details, but radically alters Aquinas’ views on natural law and the foundations of ethics, and alters them for the worse.
Hobbes: From Human Nature To Morality
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: November 2023

Hobbes tries to follow an ‘idoneous principle of tractation’ in moral philosophy, by beginning with an account of human nature and human motives. On this basis he hopes to improve the lamentable situation in which knowledge of the law of nature has failed to grow ‘beyond its ancient stature’. He assumes that sound moral philosophy will discuss natural law, but will reject previous views of natural law. In claiming that knowledge of natural law has not advanced beyond its ancient stature, Hobbes implies that Scholastic discussions of natural law have not advanced moral philosophy. We can perhaps clarify his aims in moral philosophy if we see what he rejects in Scholastic views of natural law.
Cudworth
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: November 2023

Cudworth died in 1688, but his main work on moral philosophy, A Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality, was not published until 1731. The first major moral philosopher who is clearly influenced by this book is Price. Cudworth’s Treatise of Freewill was published only in 1838. These facts about his posthumous works, however, may give a misleading impression of Cudworth’s influence on the development of ethical thought. For Locke and Clarke may have been acquainted with Cudworth’s main ideas, either through reading his manuscripts or through oral dissemination of ‘Cambridge Platonism’.
Pufendorf
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: November 2023

When Barbeyrac praises Grotius as the pioneer in the theory of natural law, the standard against which he compares Grotius is the doctrine of Pufendorf. His comparisons of Grotius and Pufendorf argue that their two positions agree in substance. We have found some reasons to question his interpretation of Grotius. It will be useful to examine Pufendorf’s views, and then to consider Barbeyrac’s reasons for claiming that Grotius and Pufendorf agree. Barbeyrac’s view of Grotius and Pufendorf appears to differ from Pufendorf ’s view of his relation to Grotius. For Pufendorf rejects the naturalist position that he ascribes to Grotius. He rejects intrinsic rightness, and claims that whatever is right is right only because it is imposed by divine command. On this point he agrees with Cumberland (whom he cites).
Balguy And Clarke: Morality And Natural Theology
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: November 2023

Rationalism is important for Balguy because it allows him to explain how God is good, and why we can expect the moral demands of God to be morally right. Since basic moral principles are accessible to reason, and since a rational agent who grasps these principles will also be moved to act on them, God, being a rational agent, knows basic moral principles and acts on them. Being wise and just, God also wants us to act on them; hence God enjoins action on the principles that commend themselves to natural reason. If this argument succeeds, however, it seems to present Balguy with a difficulty. In his defence of intrinsic morality that is accessible to natural reason, he has to explain why he does not make Christianity superfluous to morality.
Butler: Superior Principles
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: November 2023

Butler explains his conception of superiority by appeal to the difference between mere power or strength and authority. Authority belongs to the lawful government, even if it happens that a tyrant or brigand has greater power. The lawful authority has the right to command and we have reason to obey it, even if in fact we do not or cannot always obey it. Butler appeals to the contrast between power and authority in order to emphasize the normative character of superior principles; this is their claim to motivate us by something other than their psychological strength. If there were no superior principles, we would have to suppose ‘that there was no distinction to be made between one inward principle and another but only that of strength’ (ii 16).
Hume: Errors Of Objectivism
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: November 2023

In the section ‘Moral distinctions not derived from reason’, Hume strengthens his defence of Hutcheson. He now defends anti-rationalism not only about practical reason and motivation, but also about morality. His discussion of reason and passion implicitly attacks Butler’s views on superior principles and self-love; he now attacks Butler’s views on conscience. Butler regards conscience as the expression of reason, as a source of moral requirements, and as a superior principle carrying authority. Hume rejects these claims.
Voluntarism, Egoism, And Utilitarianism
Authors: Irwin Terence
Published: November 2023

We noticed earlier that theological voluntarism is a persistent feature of English moral philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries. We might have expected to find it in Scottish philosophy too, given its affinity to some trends in Calvinism, but we do not find it. Probably this is not because it was unpopular in Scotland, but because the major Scottish philosophers belonged to the theological moderates who reacted to Calvinism. Complaints against Hutcheson suggest that some of his opponents may have been voluntarists. No English moralist sets out a voluntarist position as fully as Pufendorf does. But the English voluntarists are worth examining as critics of rationalism and sentimentalism. John Clarke sets out the main points of criticism. In his view, both Samuel Clarke the rationalist and Hutcheson the sentimentalist leave obscurities and unanswered questions that a voluntarist account removes.
Appearances and Calculations: Plato’S Division of the Soul
Authors: Moss Jessica
Published: November 2023

Why does Plato divide up the soul in just the way he does? The question is complicated by the fact that it is not quite clear how he does divide it. Republic 4 famously uses cases of motivational conflict to show that the soulhas three parts: the rational part, which desires truth and the overall good of the soul, the spirited part, source of anger and ambition, and the appetitive part, which desires food, drink, sex, and other pleasures. In book 10, however, Socrates twice more argues for a divide between the rational part and some other part of the soul, without stating how these divisions relate to the one already established. At 602 c–603 A he gives an argument based on the cognitive dissonance that sometimes occurs when we experience optical illusions: the rational part calculates the truth and believes in accordance with its calculations, while an inferior part believes that things are as they appear. Then at 603 E–605 c he gives a third argument, based on what we might call emotional conflict: the rational part wishes to follow calm deliberation, while a non-rational part longs to indulge in violent emotion.
Aristotle’S Argument for a Human Function
Authors: Barney Rachel
Published: November 2023

In the famous ‘function argument’ of Nicomachean Ethics 1. 7 (1097b22–1098a18) Aristotle gives an outline account of human virtue and happiness by relating them to our function or work [ ergon ]. If something has a function, he argues, its function determines what counts as ‘the good and the well’ for that thing. Human beings do have a function; and since the function of a thing consists in the activity proper to or characteristic of it, the human function must consist in rational activity. The virtue or excellence [ aret  ē ] of a thing is what makes it perform its function well; so, Aristotle concludes, the human good—that is, happiness—is activity of the soul involving rational virtue.
A linguistic axiom challenged
Authors: Sampson Geoffrey
Published: November 2023

This book responds to the fact that an idea which ranked for many decades as an unquestioned truism of linguistics is now coming under attack from many different directions. This introductory chapter sketches the history of the axiom, and goes on to draw together some of the diverse ways in which it is now under challenge.
Superficialism in Ontology1
Authors: Hawthorne John
Published: November 2023

Taken at face value, ontological disputes are substantive disputes about how theworld is, albeit disputes which are difficult to resolve. Superficialists in ontology think that, at least for very many disputes of this sort, this face-value construal of them is incorrect: very often disputants are talking past one another, on account of having attached different meanings to the key terms of the debate. In particular, quantifiers can shift their meanings in such a way that, for very many ontological debates, the most reasonable account of the languages of the disputants reckons each to speak the truth. One upshot is that a good deal of the ontological enterprise is pointless. Debates between ontologists are frequently terminological, and so-called challenges to the common sense image of the world are at best shifts to a new way of speaking that does not challenge the common sense image after all.
Ambitious, Yet Modest, Metaphysics
Authors: Hofweber Thomas
Published: November 2023

There is a long history of worrying about whether or not metaphysics is a legitimate philosophical discipline. Traditionally such worries center around issues of meaning and epistemological concerns. Do the metaphysical questions have any meaning? Can metaphysical methodology lead to knowledge? But these questions are, in my opinion, not as serious as they have sometimes (historically) been taken to be. What is much more concerning is another set of worries about metaphysics, which I take to be the greatest threat to metaphysics as a philosophical discipline. These worries, in effect, hold that the questions that metaphysics tries to answer have long been answered in other parts of inquiry, ones that have much greater authority. And if they haven ‘t been answered yet then one should not look to philosophy for an answer. What metaphysics tries to do has been or will be done by the sciences. There is nothing left to do for philosophy, or so the worry. Let me illustrate this with two examples, one of which is our main concern here.
Values clarification
Authors: Llewellyn-Thomas Hilary A
Published: November 2023

The background argument to this chapter relates to the context of preference-sensitive health care situations, where there is no single therapeutic action appropriate for all patients (Wennberg, 2002). Decision support is a systematic, theory-based clinical strategy for helping an individual in such a situation to arrive at an evidence-based patient choice among the relevant options – including the status quo (O’Connor et al., 1998a, 1998b).
The decision research ‘lab’
Authors: Llewellyn-Thomas Hilary
Published: November 2023

Considerable progress has been made in the science and infra-structure needed to incorporate high-quality decision support (DS) and patients’ decision aids (PtDAs) into regular clinical practice in preference-sensitive situations. On the basis of these achievements, investigators can now justifiably focus future efforts entirely on the development and testing of pragmatic, sustainable strategies for the widespread introduction of DS and PtDAs into the mainstream of care.
Education and training of health care professionals
Authors: Towle Angela , Godolphin William
Published: November 2023

The education of health professionals for shared decision-making (SDM) or Evidence Based Patient Choice (EBPC) has received increasing attention over the past decade. The knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for SDM, the gap between this ideal and current practice, and the types of training and education that are needed to bridge the gap were reviewed in the first edition (Towle and Godolphin 2001). We suggested approaches to teaching and assessment of SDM competencies, barriers to implementation, and strategies to overcome them. This chapter is an overview of how education and training of health professionals for SDM has developed since and how it has informed further understanding of the barriers and possible future directions.