Body, Community, Language, World. [REVIEW]Brian Hansford Bowles -1999 -Review of Metaphysics 53 (1):188-189.detailsTheCzech philosopher Jan Patocka has been called “a teacher of the stature of a Merleau-Ponty” by none less than Paul Ricoeur. In Body, Community, Language, World, Patocka substantiates Ricoeur’s assessment both by presenting an insightful overview of the positions of his philosophical predecessors and by forging his own original phenomenological thought.
I Know You Are, But What Am I?: Anti-Individualism in the Development of Intellectual Humility and Wu-Wei.Brian Robinson &Mark Alfano -2016 -Logos and Episteme 7 (4):435-459.detailsVirtues are acquirable, so if intellectual humility is a virtue, it’s acquirable. But there is something deeply problematic—perhaps even paradoxical—about aiming to be intellectually humble. Drawing on Edward Slingerland’s analysis of the paradoxical virtue of wu-wei in Trying Not To Try (New York: Crown, 2014), we argue for an anti-individualistic conception of the trait, concluding that one’s intellectual humility depends upon the intellectual humility of others. Slingerland defines wu-wei as the “dynamic, effortless, and unselfconscious state of mind of a person (...) who is optimally active and effective” (Trying Not to Try, 7). Someone who embodies wu-wei inspires implicit trust, so it is beneficial to appear wu-wei. This has led to an arms race between faking wu-wei on the one hand and detecting fakery on the other. Likewise, there are many benefits to being (or seeming to be) intellectually humble. But someone who makes conscious, strategic efforts to appear intellectually humble is ipso facto not intellectually humble. Following Slingerland’s lead, we argue that there are several strategies one might pursue to acquire genuine intellectual humility, and all of these involve commitment to shared social or epistemic values, combined with receptivity to feedback from others, who must in turn have and manifest relevant intellectual virtues. In other words, other people and shared values are partial bearers of a given individual’s intellectual humility. If this is on the right track, then acquiring intellectual humility demands epistemic anti-individualism. (shrink)
Clifford's Consequentialism.Brian Zamulinski -2022 -Utilitas 34 (3):289-299.detailsIt is morally negligent or reckless to believe without sufficient evidence. The foregoing proposition follows from a rule that is a modified expression of W. K. Clifford's ethics of belief. Clifford attempted to prove that it is always wrong to believe without sufficient evidence by advancing a doxastic counterpart to an act utilitarian argument. Contrary to various commentators, his argument is neither purely nor primarily epistemic, he is not a non-consequentialist, and he does not use stoicism to make his case. (...) Clifford's conclusion is a universal generalisation that is in a precarious position because of potential counterexamples. But the counterexamples do not preclude a rule against going beyond the available evidence and it is worthwhile making a moral case for such a rule. (shrink)
The attention habit: how reward learning shapes attentional selection.A. Anderson,Brian -2015 -Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1:24-39.detailsThere is growing consensus that reward plays an important role in the control of attention. Until recently, reward was thought to influence attention indirectly by modulating task-specific motivation and its effects on voluntary control over selection. Such an account was consistent with the goal-directed (endogenous) versus stimulus-driven (exogenous) framework that had long dominated the field of attention research. Now, a different perspective is emerging. Demonstrations that previously reward-associated stimuli can automatically capture attention even when physically inconspicuous and task-irrelevant challenge previously (...) held assumptions about attentional control. The idea that attentional selection can be value driven, reflecting a distinct and previously unrecognized control mechanism, has gained traction. Since these early demonstrations, the influence of reward learning on attention has rapidly become an area of intense investigation, sparking many new insights. The result is an emerging picture of how the reward system of the brain automatically biases information processing. Here, I review the progress that has been made in this area, synthesizing a wealth of recent evidence to provide an integrated, up-to-date account of value-driven attention and some of its broader implications. (shrink)
Some reflections on intelligence and the nature-nurture issue.Brian Yapp -1989 -Journal of Philosophy of Education 23 (2):317–320.detailsBrian Yapp; Some Reflections on Intelligence and the Nature-Nurture Issue, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Volume 23, Issue 2, 30 May 2006, Pages 317–320, h.
Levinas and the Ancients.Brian Schroeder &Silvia Benso (eds.) -2008 - Indiana University Press.detailsThe relation between the Greek and Judeo-Christian traditions is "the great problem" of Western philosophy, according to Emmanuel Levinas. In this bookBrian Schroeder, Silvia Benso, and an international group of philosophers address the relationship between Levinas and the world of ancient thought. In addition to philosophy, themes touching on religion, mythology, metaphysics, ontology, epistemology, ethics, and politics are also explored. The volume as a whole provides a unified and extended discussion of how an engagement between Levinas and thinkers (...) from the ancient tradition works to enrich understandings of both. This book opens new pathways in ancient and modern philosophical studies as it illuminates new interpretations of Levinas' ethics and his social and political philosophy. (shrink)
Speed, demon! Accelerationism’s rhetoric of weird, mystical, cosmic love.Brian Zager -forthcoming -Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication.detailsAccelerationism offers a theoretical stance towards capitalism that takes shape in various rhetorical guises. In general, these writings attempt to push through the boundaries imposed by capital while speeding off into unknown possible futures. While some articulations of this philosophy rely on traditional scholarly argumentation, others proceed along more obscure paths to envision a post-capitalist (and usually post-human) future. In this article, I focus on the latter approach by examining how some accelerationist works embrace occult poetics and subsequently align with (...) what Brad Baumgartner identifies as a communicative praxis of Weird Mysticism. In contrast to more pragmatic approaches, Weird Mysticism provides a worthwhile rhetorical perspective for contemplating accelerationist works that embrace a nihilistic inclination to imagine a world without us. (shrink)
The Critique of Science Becomes Academic.Brian Martin -1993 -Science, Technology and Human Values 18 (2):247-259.detailsThe author uses personal experiences to introduce the view that the critique of science, on entering the academy in the form of the sociology of scientific knowledge, has become increasingly remote from crucial social issues and social movements confronting it. By linking their analyses more with such issues and movements, science studies scholars can serve a more useful social purpose and also reinvigorate their theory.
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Scientific Archives in the Age of Digitization.Brian Ogilvie -2016 -Isis 107 (1):77-85.detailsHistorians are increasingly working with material that is not only digital but has been digitized. Early digitization projects aimed to encode data for systematic analysis; more recent projects have sought to reproduce unique archival material in a manner that allows for open-ended historical inquiry without the need to travel to archives and manipulate physical objects. Such projects have undeniable benefits for the preservation of documents and access to them. Yet historians must be aware of the scope of digitization, the reasons (...) why material is chosen to be digitized, and limitations on the dissemination of digitized sources. Furthermore, some physical aspects of sources, and of collections of sources, are lost in their digital simulacra. Nonetheless, digitization and the standardization of metadata offer significant possibilities for future archival research and documentation. (shrink)
(1 other version)After poststructuralism: transitions and transformations.Rosi Braidotti (ed.) -2010 - Durham, England: Acumen Publishing.details1. Postmodernism, Simon Malpas; German philosophy after 1980: themes out of school, Dieter Thoma; 3. The structuralist legacy, Patrice Maniglier; 4. Italian philosophy between 1980 an 1995, Silvia Benso &Brian Schroeder; 5. Continental philosophy in theCzech Republic, Josef Fulka, Jr.; 6. Third generation critical theory: Benhabib, Fraser, and Honneth, Amy Allen; 7. French and Italian Spinozism, Simon Duffy; Radical democracy, Lasse Thomassen; 9. Cultural and postcolonial studies, Iai Chambers; 10. The "ethical turn" in continental philosophy in (...) the 1980s, Rober Eaglestone; 11. Feminist philosophy: coming of age, Rosi Braidotti; 12. Continental philosophy of religion, Bruce Ellis Benson; 13. The performative turn and the emergence of post-analytic philosophy, Jose Medina; 14. Out of bounds: philosophy in an age of transition, Judith Butler & Rosi Braidotti. (shrink)
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Noziek’s Anachronistic Libertarianism.Brian Zamulinski -2005 -Dialogue 44 (2):211-223.detailsABSTRACT: The conclusions on libertarianism Robert Nozick reaches are appropriate for a bygone era. In a modern market economy, libertarianism requires that employable people have the option of taking up a publicly provided income instead of employment. This is the only way to compensate the involuntarily unemployed that a market economy requires and to ensure that all employment is voluntary. Taxation on voluntary exchanges is unobjectionable because it alters prices, not property, and no one has a right to a particular (...) price. The best way to provide state incomes for the capable unemployed is through a negative income tax.RÉSUMÉ: Les conclusions de libertarisme que tire Nozick valent pour une époque révolue. Dans une économie de marché moderne, le libertarisme exige que les gens aptes au travail puissent opter pour un revenu de source publique plutôt que pour un travail. Voilà le seul moyen de compenser les sans-emploi involontaires que requiert l’economie de marché et de s’assurer que chacun travaille volontairement. Imposer les échanges volontaires est acceptable parce que cela affecte les prix, non la propriété, et que nul n’a droit à un prix prticulier. Le meilleur moyen pour l’État de fournir un revenu aux sans-emploi aptes au travail passe par un impôt sur le revenu négatif. (shrink)
Are researchers ethically obligated to report suspected child maltreatment? A critical analysis of opposing perspectives.Brian Allen -2009 -Ethics and Behavior 19 (1):15 – 24.detailsA number of authors have commented on the topic of mandated reporting in cases of suspected child maltreatment and the application of this requirement to researchers. Most of these commentaries focus on the interpretation of current legal standards and offer opinions for or against the imposition of mandated reporting laws on research activities. Authors on both sides of the issue offer ethical arguments, although a direct comparison and analysis of these opposing arguments is rare. This article critically examines the ethical (...) arguments made by authors on both sides of the debate. The conclusion is reached that researchers should be mandated reporters of child maltreatment because the current arguments do not justify their exclusion from current ethical and legal standards. The author makes recommendations for the ethically responsible conduct of research in regard to this topic and legal implications are discussed. (shrink)
Good News from Africa, Community Transformation Through the Church.Brian E. Woolnough -2014 -Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies 31 (1):1-10.detailsWe live in a world of gross inequality. While a minority live in unprecedented wealth, the majority live in considerable poverty. Though much money has been given in aid by the rich countries to the poor, both by secular and Christian institutions, there has been much criticism that much of that aid has been wasted, indeed much of it has been actually harmful. But while there is truth in some of these criticisms, there is also increasing evidence of where community (...) development has been effective, and sustainable. This article considers the strengths and limitations, and examples, of such a church-based, bottom-up, approach to transforming the physical and spiritual needs of the individuals and their communities. We will see that it is, arguably, the only way that truly holistic transformation can be delivered, and consider some of the implications for Western Christians and Christian NGOs. (shrink)
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But how do we Know we are Making a Difference? Issues relating to the evaluation of Christian development work.Brian E. Woolnough -2008 -Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies 25 (2-3):134-143.detailsThere has, over the last few decades, been a considerable growth in the development ‘business’ where, largely western, donors have sought to help the poorer nations develop. Much of this growth has been driven by Christian motivation. Increasingly such projects are being held accountable to try to ensure that the money and the effort being spent are being well spent. The question that is being asked of, and by, development workers is ‘how do we know that we are making a (...) difference?’ and a range of practices have been developed to assess, to measure, to evaluate such effects. Terms like impact assessment, objectives, log-frames, objective verifiable indicators, baselines, clients, have become part of the language. In this paper the author raises various fundamental questions about this practice of evaluating development projects, and in so doing challenges the suitability of some of the current practices for development work. (shrink)
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Politics and philosophy in the thought of Destutt de Tracy.Brian Head -1987 - New York: Garland.detailsFirst published in 1987. This study describes and analyses the published writings of the French philosopher Antoine Destutt de Tracy. The author focuses on the three decades from the calling of the Etats-généraux to the early years of the Restoration - the period of Tracy's entire literary production, and the period of his greatest influence and reputation. This title will be of great interest to students of history, philosophy and politics.
The Cambridge Handbook of the Changing Nature of Work.Brian J. Hoffman,Mindy K. Shoss &Lauren A. Wegman (eds.) -2020 - Cambridge University Press.detailsThis handbook provides an overview of the research on the changing nature of work and workers by marshalling interdisciplinary research to summarize the empirical evidence and provide documentation of what has actually changed. Connections are explored between the changing nature of work and macro-level trends in technological change, income inequality, global labor markets, labor unions, organizational forms, and skill polarization, among others. This edited volume also reviews evidence for changes in workers, including generational change, that has accumulated across domains. Based (...) on documented changes in work and worker behavior, the handbook derives implications for a range of management functions, such as selection, performance management, leadership, workplace ethics, and employee well-being. This evaluation of the extent of changes and their impact gives guidance on what best practices should be put in place to harness these developments to achieve success. (shrink)
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Géographie différentielle.Brian Holmes -2007 -Multitudes 1 (1):109-115.detailsRésumé Black Sea Files, d’Ursula Biemann, et Corridor X, d’Angela Melitopoulos, sont des vidéos projetées sur double écran qui explorent la construction d’infrastructures : le pipeline BTC (Bakou-Tbilissi-Ceyhan) et le corridor paneuropéen de transport allant de Salzbourg et Budapest à Sofia et Thessalonique. Chacune se confronte au caractère abstrait des espaces produits par les processus de planification capitaliste contemporains ; mais chacune se détourne dans le même temps vers « une myriade de trajectoires humains qui se déroulent au niveau du (...) sol ». Elles y découvrent la production d’un milieu existentiel vécu et façonné par ses habitants, un espace vital ouvert aux devenirs les plus inattendus, et en même temps intérieurement contradictoire de par sa multiplicité même. C’est ce que Lefebvre appelait « l’espace différentiel ». Mais entre l’époque de Lefebvre et la nôtre, il y a eu une floraison d’enquêtes féministes et d’historiographies postcoloniales, qui ont prêté une attention particulière aux interactions entre la positionnalité des sujets et les savoirs situés (y compris les savoirs d’expression). Ces réflexions induisent un nouveau traitement du récit, une démultiplication de sa texture gestuelle et narrative, qui élargit la production de l’espace à travers le montage vidéographique lui-même. La recherche artistique donne forme à une géographie différentielle, c’est-à-dire à un mode de connaissance (de reconnaissance, d’auto-connaissance) qui permet aux sujets d’inscrire dans la trame gestuelle du récit leur propre positionnalité, tout en exposant ses déterminations socioéconomiques au flux du temps intersubjectif et à la fluctuation électronique de l’image vidéo. (shrink)
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L'extra-disciplinaire.Brian Holmes -2007 -Multitudes 1 (1):11-17.detailsRésumé Black Sea Files, d’Ursula Biemann, et Corridor X, d’Angela Melitopoulos, sont des vidéos projetées sur double écran qui explorent la construction d’infrastructures : le pipeline BTC (Bakou-Tbilissi-Ceyhan) et le corridor paneuropéen de transport allant de Salzbourg et Budapest à Sofia et Thessalonique. Chacune se confronte au caractère abstrait des espaces produits par les processus de planification capitaliste contemporains ; mais chacune se détourne dans le même temps vers « une myriade de trajectoires humains qui se déroulent au niveau du (...) sol ». Elles y découvrent la production d’un milieu existentiel vécu et façonné par ses habitants, un espace vital ouvert aux devenirs les plus inattendus, et en même temps intérieurement contradictoire de par sa multiplicité même. C’est ce que Lefebvre appelait « l’espace différentiel ». Mais entre l’époque de Lefebvre et la nôtre, il y a eu une floraison d’enquêtes féministes et d’historiographies postcoloniales, qui ont prêté une attention particulière aux interactions entre la positionnalité des sujets et les savoirs situés (y compris les savoirs d’expression). Ces réflexions induisent un nouveau traitement du récit, une démultiplication de sa texture gestuelle et narrative, qui élargit la production de l’espace à travers le montage vidéographique lui-même. La recherche artistique donne forme à une géographie différentielle, c’est-à-dire à un mode de connaissance (de reconnaissance, d’auto-connaissance) qui permet aux sujets d’inscrire dans la trame gestuelle du récit leur propre positionnalité, tout en exposant ses déterminations socioéconomiques au flux du temps intersubjectif et à la fluctuation électronique de l’image vidéo. (shrink)
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The manipulative business and society.Brian W. Kulik,Michelle Alarcon &Manjula S. Salimath -2020 -Business and Society Review 125 (1):89-118.detailsWe extend the theory of secular business cults (SBCs) to manipulative businesses (MBs), which we define as a financially‐successful type of reformed SBC, and explain their influence on industry, government, and social environments. Prior work on irresponsible, illegally‐behaving, and anti‐social SBCs suggests that they arise when antisocial business leaders are left unconstrained. This article examines the other side of this argument: What emerges from the 'toxic triangle' when such leaders are constrained by legal limits? We posit that pressure from lawsuits (...) leads to the metamorphosis of an SBC into an MB that retains the intent and "formula of success" of the SBC. In both business types (SBCs and MBs), the underlying process involves the unethical manipulation of the employee's commitment, and the buyer's interest, through established policies and business models for higher profits. We further explain how the profit‐seeking anti‐social business leaders who find success in the toxic triangle lead to the emergence of manipulative policies and practices in businesses, legal systems, and industries (the “iron triangle”), and eventually influences general societal norms. (shrink)
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Jean-Baptiste Say's First Visit to England.Brian Lancaster -2015 -History of European Ideas 41 (7):922-930.detailsSummaryThe French classical economist Jean-Baptiste Say gained fame as a political economist in the first half of the nineteenth century. In 1785, aged eighteen, he visited Britain for the first time to prepare himself for a commercial career and to learn English. Other visits followed; but, in contrast to his visits in subsequent years, during 1814/15 and 1825, little is known about his first visit and those writing about Say tend to ignore it or consider it irrelevant. By drawing on (...) his draft autobiography and on his street plan of Croydon, the article adds more information to supplement the meagre published accounts of this visit: where and with whom he lived, for whom he worked, whom he met and what his itinerary was during the time he was in England. The key places Say mentions are London, Croydon and Fulham. While not a definitive account of the visit, it does correct factual errors, clear up confusion and clarify ambiguities. The article questions speculations about Say witnessing the Industrial Revolution and proposes that, during his visit, his interests may have lain elsewhere than only in matters of commerce and taxation. (shrink)
The Capability Approach to Labour Law.Brian Langille (ed.) -2019 - Oxford University Press.detailsForty years ago Amartya Sen delivered his Tanner Lecture, 'Equality of What?', in which he introduced to the world a novel approach to the idea of equality by way of the notion of 'basic capability' as 'a morally relevant dimension'. We can now see with hindsight that Sen's argument - that we should focus upon equality of basic capabilities ('a person being able to do certain basic things') - launched what has become an academic armada now proceeding under the flag (...) of 'the capability approach'. While that flag has ventured far and wide and engaged many area of inquiry, this volume of essays is the first to explore how the capability approach (the CA) might shed light upon labour law. Three dimensions of the CA's potential for illuminating labour law are examined. Part I enquires into the nature of the basic relationship between CA and labour law - do they share common ground or disagree about what is important? Can the CA provide a normative 'foundation' for labour law? Part II goes further by examining the relationship of the CA and other well-established perspectives on labour law, including economics, history, critical theory, restorative justice, and human rights. Part III examines the possible relevance of the CA to a range of specific labour law issues, such as freedom of association, age discrimination in the workplace, trade, employment policy, and sweatshop goods. (shrink)
Functional Analysis.Brian Macwhinney -1998 - In George Graham & William Bechtel,A Companion to Cognitive Science. Blackwell. pp. 402–412.detailsThe functional approach to language holds that the forms of natural languages are created, governed, constrained, acquired, and used in the service of communicative functions. To evaluate this claim, we need to examine both the strengths and the weaknesses of the functional approach.
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Defending university integrity.Brian Martin -2017 -International Journal for Educational Integrity 13 (1).detailsUniversities are seldom lauded publicly for maintaining good processes and practices; instead, media stories commonly focus on shortcomings. Furthermore, universities, even when doing everything right, sometimes are unfairly targeted for criticism in circumstances in which making a public defence is difficult. A prominent case at the University of Wollongong shows how defending a university’s integrity can be hampered by confidentiality requirements, lack of public understanding of thesis examination processes and of disciplinary expectations, and university procedures not designed for extraordinary attacks. (...) The implication is that there can be value in fostering greater awareness of the ways that universities and disciplinary fields operate, and reconsidering procedures with an eye towards possible attacks, both external and internal. (shrink)
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God Incarnate.Brian Davies -1992 - InThe Thought of Thomas Aquinas. New York: Clarendon Press.detailsChristology can be defined as the study of the person of Christ and, in particular, of the union in him of divine and human natures’. Not everyone would agree with this definition, and it cannot be said whether or not Thomas Aquinas would have agreed with it, although it might well be surmised that he would at least sympathize with it, because Christology is his chief concern when he talks about Christ directly; it is also an area of inquiry in (...) which he draws heavily on what he had said before he turned to the subject of Christ. Aquinas’ Christology is indebted to his teaching on God considered as Creator and Trinity. It is also bound up with what he thinks about human beings and their natural and supernatural happiness, for he conceives of Christ as the definitive means by which creatures who have come from God return to their source, and he takes him to be the point at which divinity and humanity come closest to each other. The different sections of the chapter discuss the general nature of Aquinas’ Christology, the union of divinity and humanity, and what Christ was like as Aquinas viewed him. (shrink)
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Incontinent Belief.Brian P. McLaughlin -1990 -Journal of Philosophical Research 15:115-126.detailsAlfred Mele has recentIy attempted to direct attention to a neglected species of irrational belief which he calls ‘incontinent belief’. He has devoted a paper and an entire chapter (chapter eight) of his book, Irrationality (Oxford University Press, 1987) to explaining its logical possibility. In what follows, I will appeal to familiar facts about the difference between belief and action to make a case that it is entirely unproblematic that incontinent belief is logically possible. In the process, I will call (...) into question the philosophical intercst of incontinent belief. If what I say is correct, incontinent belief does not warrant the attention of philosophers of mind. (shrink)
Christian NGOs in Relief and Development: One of the Church’s Arms for Holistic Mission.Brian E. Woolnough -2011 -Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies 28 (3):195-205.detailsThe development of Christian NGOs over the second half of the 20th century has been one of the great stories of the church. At a time when the evangelical church in the West had gone into reverse, away from a holistic gospel, emphasising personal salvation alone and leaving the social gospel to the more liberal and ecumenical branch of the church, individual Christians had responded to the needs of a suffering world by forming CNGOs to tackle the relief and development (...) problems around the world. This paper outlines the background to the CNGO movement, from earliest biblical times, describes the growth of the movement, with special reference to Tearfund, and then discusses the issues and challenges currently being faced. It concludes that by working through the local churches the mission of CNGOs can be holistic, and bring hope to the world. (shrink)
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Science and Christianity: Friends or Foes?Brian E. Woolnough -2010 -Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies 27 (2):83-94.detailsIn this article I will discuss the relationship between science and Christianity and argue that the two should be considered as complementary, not conflicting, ways of looking at God’s world. It is aimed primarily at those Christians without a scientific background, who have been lead to believe that science in general and the theory of evolution in particular, lead people away from God.After a short history to put the debate into context, underlying issues which can lead to misunderstanding will be (...) discussed; issues relating to different forms of knowledge, different forms of truth, and, in particular, the use of metaphor in both science and in Christianity. In conclusion, dangers to the Church and the faith of believers by perpetuating the ‘conflict’ myth between science and faith will be suggested. (shrink)
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Medical Time Travel.Brian Wowk -2013 - In Max More & Natasha Vita-More,The Transhumanist Reader: Classical and Contemporary Essays on the Science, Technology, and Philosophy of the Human Future. Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 220–226.detailsTime travel is a solved problem. Einstein showed that if you travel in a spaceship for months at speeds close to the speed of light, you can return to earth centuries in the future.
Decidable theories of non-projectable l -groups of continuous functions.Brian Wynne -2007 -Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 146 (1):21-39.detailsWe study the class of l-groups of the form C with X an essential P-space. Many such l-groups are non-projectable and their elementary theories may often be reduced to that of an associated Boolean algebra with distinguished ideal. In this paper we establish the decidability of the theories of two classes of such l-groups via corresponding results for the associated structures.
And now I become its mouth: On Arthur Schopenhauer and weird ventriloquism.Brian Zager -2019 -Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication 10 (1):55-69.detailsFrom Arthur Schopenhauer we can glean a characteristically moody perspective on the primordial condition of speaking and being spoken. Focusing on his dualistic view of the embodied subject as having to contend with the forces of both Will and presentation, in this article I argue that his philosophy construes communication as a sort of weird ventriloquism. Drawing on François Cooren’s proposed method of ‘ventriloqual analysis’, I re-examine Schopenhauer’s subject as a being that both animates and is animated by his strange (...) dark noumena. Bearing witness to this eerie metaphysical stagecraft, his concept of Will becomes synonymous with a will to communicate, which manifests itself through the voice of the speech actor and allows us to think about his ontology and ethics from a different rhetorical perspective. (shrink)
Rejoinder to Scott.Brian Zamulinski -2005 -Religious Studies 41 (2):225-229.detailsMichael Scott attacks my use of likelihood in assessing two explanations for human religion. He assumes that I rely on likelihood alone. He is attacking a straw man. We have no alternative but to rely on likelihood when the probabilities of two competing hypotheses are identical, as I charitably assumed with respect to the hypotheses I discussed. His other criticisms likewise miss the mark.
Reframing Participation in Postsecondary STEM Education With a Representation Metric.Brian L. Zuckerman,William E. J. Doane &Christopher K. Tokita -2015 -Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society 35 (5-6):125-133.detailsEfforts aimed at broadening participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) require a holistic presentation of the state of racial and gender participation. Statistics currently used to describe participation often include raw counts of degrees and the percentages of demographic groups receiving STEM degrees. While these data provide insights into demographic trends, they do not present the complete picture because these “traditional” statistics do not capture how well a field of study reflects—or is proportionally similar to—a larger body, such (...) as the college population. If the goal of broadening participation in STEM education is to ensure that all racial and gender groups are proportionally represented, analysts require direct measures of representation. In this article, we present a novel metric that assesses the degree to which groups are overrepresented or underrepresented in a given field. This metric calculates field-specific representation by comparing the proportion of degrees awarded to members of a demographic group in a specific field of study with the proportion of all degrees awarded to that group. Using data from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education, we demonstrate the efficacy of this representation metric and show that it provides new insights into STEM participation levels for women and other groups considered to be underrepresented. While traditional measurements show the increasing number of degrees awarded to and the increasing share of underrepresented minority students in STEM, our metric revealed that underrepresented minorities remain underrepresented in STEM fields, especially in engineering and the natural sciences. (shrink)
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God, Evil, and Evolution.Brian Zamulinski -2010 -European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 2 (2):201 - 217.detailsMost evil is compatible with the existence of God if He has an aim that He can achieve only by using an unguided process of evolution and if He cannot be condemned for trying to achieve His aim. It is argued that there is an aim that could reasonably be attributed to God and that God cannot achieve it without using evolution. There are independent grounds for thinking an evolutionary response is necessary if God is to be defended at all. (...) Issues that require further investigation are pointed out and desirable features of the evolutionary response indicated. (shrink)