This is the first book-length project to examine the relationship between blackness, queerness, and hip hop. Using aesthetics as its organizing lens, Hip Hop Heresies attends to the ways that hip hop cultural production in New York City from the 1970s through the first fifteen years of the 21st century produced hip hop cultural products (film, visual art, and music) that offer "queer articulations" of race, gender, and sexuality that are contrary to hegemonic ideas and representations of those categories in (...) hip hop production, as well as in writing about hip hop culture. (shrink)

What role do metaphors play in philosophical language? Are they impediments to clear thinking that should be eradicated in the interests of terminological exactness? Or can they be used by philosophers to indicate the attitudes that regulate an epoch?

The revolution involving the foundations of the physical sciences heralded by relativity and quantum theories has been stimulating philosophers for many years. Both of these comprehensive sets of concepts have involved profound challenges to traditional theories of epistemology, ontology, and language. This volume gathers six experts in physics, logic and philosophy to discuss developments in space exploration and nuclear science and their impact on the philosophy of science.

In an earlier issue, I argue (2014) that psychology and epistemology should distinguish religious credence from factual belief. These are distinct cognitive attitudes. Levy (2017) rejects this distinction, arguing that both religious and factual “beliefs” are subject to “shifting” on the basis of fluency and “intuitiveness.” Levy’s theory, however, (1) is out of keeping with much research in cognitive science of religion and (2) misrepresents the notion of factual belief employed in my theory. So his claims don’t undermine my distinction. (...) I conclude by suggesting some approaches to empirically testing our views. (shrink)

Solidarity between generations served as a prominent but controversially discussed normative reference point in public debates about the Coronavirus-pandemic. The aim of this contribution is the empirical reconstruction and ethical evaluation of prominent notions of intergenerational solidarity and their underlying assumptions in the public media discourse on the pandemic in Germany. After a brief introduction to the concept of intergenerational solidarity and the pertinent discourses during the pandemic, we present the results of a comprehensive qualitative content analysis of 149 articles (...) from leading media in Germany. On this basis, we carve out three typical understandings of intergenerational solidarity: (a) communal care, (b) mutual support, and (c) responsible use of freedom. We discuss these understandings and the underlying ‘moral paradigms’ and evaluate their theoretical and practical implications from an ethical point of view, drawing conclusions for discourses on future societal crises. (shrink)

This paper investigates the nature of scientific realism. I begin by considering the anomalous fact that Bas van Fraassen’s account of scientific realism is strikingly similar to Arthur Fine’s account of scientific non-realism. To resolve this puzzle, I demonstrate how the two theorists understand the nature of truth and its connection to ontology, and how that informs their conception of the realism debate. I then argue that the debate is much better captured by the theory of truthmaking, and not by (...) any particular theory of truth. To be a scientific realist is to adopt a realism-relevant account of what makes true the scientific theories one accepts. The truthmaking approach restores realism’s metaphysical core—distancing itself from linguistic conceptions of the debate—and thereby offers a better characterization of what is at stake in the question of scientific realism. (shrink)

Analytical categories of scientific cultures have typically been used both exclusively and universally. For instance, when styles of scientific research are employed in attempts to understand and narrate science, styles alone are usually employed. This article is a thought experiment in interweaving categories. What would happen if rather than employ a single category, we instead investigated several categories simultaneously? What would we learn about the practices and theories, the agents and materials, and the political-technological impact of science if we analyzed (...) and applied styles, paradigms, and models simultaneously? I address these questions in general and for a specific case study: a brief history of systematics. (shrink)

The ethical review of research using methods of artificial intelligence and machine learning in health care contexts has become an important challenge for Research Ethics Boards (also refer...

In this article, I discuss the implications of generative AI in future of creative work in the music industries through an ethnographic study of music technologists in Melbourne, Australia. Drawing on visual ethnography methods, I explore how researchers, developers, as well as professional and aspiring artists, across sectors in Melbourne’s ecosystem, value the role of mistakes, glitches and uncertainty in the creative process with music technology. This stands in opposition to the controlled processes within generative AI models, based on the (...) management of uncertainty as an input value. Thus, I reframe the concept of creative uncertainty which emerges as a shaping force in the creative process, and in opposition to the controlled outputs of generative AI. Furthermore, this article shows the limitations and misalignment of dominant visions about the impact of generative AI, on creative workflows and practices, by highlighting the experiences, motivations and expectations of the research participants in this multi-sited ethnography. (shrink)

This paper compares and contrasts the concept of a stance with that of a paradigm qua disciplinary matrix, in an attempt to illuminate both notions. First, it considers to what extent it is appropriate to draw an analogy between stances and disciplinary matrices. It suggests that despite first appearances, a disciplinary matrix is not simply a stance writ large. Second, it examines how we might reinterpret disciplinary matrices in terms of stances, and shows how doing so can provide us with (...) a better insight into non-revolutionary science. Finally, it identifies two directions for future research: “Can the rationality of scientific revolutions be understood in terms of the dynamic between stances and paradigms?” and “Do stances help us to understand incommensurability between disciplinary matrices?”. (shrink)

Problems and Paradigms is a feature series devoted to discussions of major problems in biology. Past contributions have dealt with the selector gene hypothesis, problems of pattern formation, the phenomenon of paramutation, theories of aging, and the origins of life. In this article, Brian C. Goodwin discusses the problem of morphogenesis, in terms of the idea of the genetic program and in the light of recent findings.

This chapter begins by clarifying the principle behind most false reasoning about abstraction. This misleading principle is called here inebriation by abstraction, which leads the explorer in the field to always want to rise to a more abstract level. The best way to get rid of this spontaneous philosophy in the study of abstraction is to assume the concrete conditions of its production and circulation. It was handwritten inscriptions in the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries, the proliferation of printed collections in (...) the nineteenth century, and electronic media today. The three regimes are characterized by comparing their respective know-how and presuppositions. The question then arises as to the conditions of their contemporary presence on the same scientific horizon for instance today, from both an epistemological and a sociological or historical point of view. (shrink)

The present work focuses on the pre-logical realm from which different logics and paradigms are derived. It is a realm before us, fully sensed by us, yet unthought by us. We know it, are immersed in it, but do not think it. It defines us, prompts us, motivates us, reveals itself to us, yet remains concealed. Here we focus on commentaries by continental philosophers Nietzsche and Heidegger, as well as the Andalusian Muslim mystic Ibn Arabi in investigation of the (...) pre-logical realm. Relationships between knowledge and power, in this context, are explored. In the light of resonating thoughts by above-mentioned thinkers, we elaborate and revisit laws of thought as well as multiple well-known ‘self-evident’ axioms such as principals of contradiction, identity, non-circular reasoning, and causality (to name a few), which can and should be always revisited, enabling new openings and singing of new paradigms. (shrink)

in the present work we analyze the new concepts and theories related to the activity of Design Management, which focus on the experiences of people and the particular characteristics of each one of them. Specifically, from an Industrial Design perspective, the scope and relationships between these conceptual definitions —now made visible— that always belonged to the field of design of the discipline will be studied, trying to identify how they influence innovation and product development. Finally, it will conclude about its (...) strategic relevance for public and private organizations, and the incorporation to the set of professional activitie. (shrink)

While existing literature often portrays China’s human genetic resource (HGR) regulations as primarily restrictive, this report demonstrates their evolution towards a more sophisticated and balanced framework. First, China’s transition from addressing biopiracy to incorporating HGR management into national security frameworks reflects a reconceptualization of genetic resources as strategic assets. Second, regulatory changes since 2023 show increasing flexibility in international collaboration, particularly in clinical trials, whilst maintaining protective measures. Third, regarding ethical management, the absence of clear legal distinctions between HGRs at (...) the natural state and processed cellular products may negatively affect biotech industry development, while donors’ property rights over their genetic resources remain unsettled. These findings demonstrate how China has continuously refined its HGR regulatory framework to protect national interests whilst advancing innovation and international scientific cooperation. (shrink)

This article examines the regulation of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, with particular focus on products approved for marketing in the United Kingdom, while denied marketing approval in the United States on safety grounds, and then subsequently withdrawn from the UK market on those grounds. Using international comparison of regulatory data never before accessed outside government and companies, together with interviews with relevant industry scientists and regulators, the article demonstrates the importance of regulatory expectations, deficits and paradigms. It is argued both (...) that these sociological concepts can be enriched by their application to detailed comparative case study of regulatory science, and that they provide an important policy-relevant framework with which to understand discrepant drug regulatory processes in a sociohistorical context. It is found that regulatory expectations and paradigms may be regarded as mediating factors between political culture and structural interests, on the one hand, and the outcomes of regulatory science, on the other. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThis article provides an insight into the changing role of businesses in dealing with the natural environment issues. From being regarded as poachers of the natural environment, many businesses have now started to position themselves as gamekeepers of the natural environment. This article traces the events and factors that have contributed toward this shift. The article starts with an introduction to the current state of the natural environment. It then discusses the role that businesses have traditionally played in contributing toward (...) the rapid deterioration of the natural environment. The article then traces the events that have gradually resulted in businesses accepting that they have a responsibility to address environmental issues. This is followed by an overview of the business responses, to the risks and opportunities, posed by changes in the natural environment. The article then provides a brief overview of the various phase models that attempt to categorize business responses to environmental issue. The conclusion focuses on the challenges that lie ahead. (shrink)

Current education paradigms were informed by the classical Newtonian worldview of brain functioning in which the mind is simply the physical activity of the brain, and our thoughts cannot have any effect upon the physical world. However, researchers in the field of quantum mechanics found that the outcomes of certain subatomic experiments are determined by the consciousness of the observer, leading philosophers to propose that the observed and the observer are linked. Quantum mechanics also demonstrates that distant minds may (...) behave in simultaneous correlational ways, in the absence of being linked through any known energetic signal. Further, researchers in this field propose that an external memory space is operating in the human brain, suggesting that this proposed external memory space may be a quantum field surrounding the brain and interacting with other fields, generating a global mental field of information flow. This article proposes that current education paradigms, which have been informed by a classical Newtonian physics worldview may need to be expanded to include a quantum mechanics worldview. The author seeks to understand if, and how, quantum mechanics could inform education practices, theories and paradigms and invites discussion, debate and speculation on the implications this would have for education systems. (shrink)

We analyse theories and research approaches in ecology and find that they fall into two internally homogeneous groups of linked ideas, each comprising a unique set of premises. The two sets of interpretive statements are thus mutually exclusive; they constitute alternative theoretical developments in ecology and should not be seen as complementary. They can, therefore, be considered two paradigms (Kuhn, 1962). Our interpretation is supported by the minimal overlap, if any, in the premises and research directions of the two (...) approaches. We label the dominant group of ideas the demographic paradigm and the less developed one the autecological paradigm. The internal logic of the demographic paradigm of ecology is strongly developed and consistent. Its premises and logic extend into current models of population genetics, biogeography, palaeontology, evolutionary theory and conservation biology. Nevertheless, many phenomena contradict the premises of the demographic paradigm; these contradictions cannot be accommodated within its theoretical framework without major disruptions in logic ensuing. Such phenomena can, in contrast, be understood in terms of the autecological paradigm. Because the status and strengths of the autecological paradigm are generally unrecognised and because autecology is frequently misrepresented in the literature, we redefine its premises and clarify its structure and aims as an aid to its future development. (shrink)

Philosophers have had surprisingly little to say about the concept of a victim although it is presupposed by the extensive philosophical literature on rights. Proceeding in four stages, I seek to remedy this deficiency and to offer an alternative to the two current paradigms that eliminates the Othering of victims. First, I analyze two victim paradigms that emerged in the late 20th century along with the initial iteration of the international human rights regime – the pathetic victim paradigm (...) and the heroic victim paradigm. Holocaust victims are quintessential instances of the pathetic victim paradigm. They are marked by passivity and innocence in the face of overpowering force and unspeakable humanly inflicted suffering. Aung San Suu Kyi is an exemplar of the heroic victim paradigm – prisoners of conscience, in Amnesty International’s terms. Because heroic victims face off against the repressive power of the state to fight injustice, they are by no means passive, but they must be innocent of wrongdoing – that is, they must use nonviolent means of dissent – to qualify as heroic victims. Second, I problematize the asymmetrical conceptions of innocence that underwrite the two victim paradigms. Whereas the pathetic victim paradigm identifies innocence with passivity, the heroic victim paradigm countenances agentic victims and adverts to a universalist, absolutist stance on the limits of the legitimate use of state power to ascribe innocence to heroic victims. Both conceptions of innocence are out of keeping with well established social and legal practices regarding what constitutes coercive force and innocent victimhood. Consequently, there is reason to be skeptical of the two victim paradigms. Third, I identify two kinds of human rights violations and two categories of victims that AI defends despite their failure to fit the two paradigms – women trafficked into sex work and prisoners on death row. In many cases, women forced to do sex work are not innocent girls who are ignorant of the trafficking system and who helplessly fall prey to smugglers. They are desperately poor women who for that reason are willing to take enormous risks to try to relieve their own and often their families’ deprivation and suffering. Although these women act nonviolently for irreproachable reasons, they lack the public political agendas that characterize heroic victims. Unless non-fulfillment of subsistence rights is recognized as a form of overpowering force that inflicts severe, avoidable suffering, these women do not qualify as pathetic victims either. The victim paradigms pose an even greater obstacle to recognizing that the death penalty is a human rights violation and that death row prisoners are victims. Because a jury concluded that these individuals committed heinous, violent crimes, they are excluded by the heroic victim paradigm. Only if death row prisoners can be proven (usually through DNA evidence) not to have committed the crimes for which they were convicted can these individuals qualify as pathetic victims. In the absence of any reason to believe that they are innocent and especially if they are unrepentant, they are widely regarded as brutal victimizers of others who deserve no sympathy for, let along relief from, the suffering they “brought on themselves.” Finally, I confront the Othering of victims that results from the two victim paradigms, which leads many victims to eschew the label, thereby opting out of human right discourse. I propose revisions in the victim paradigms that eliminate the real-world exclusions they sponsor as well as the Othering of victims of human rights abuses. In particular, I endorse greater attention to what people and the institutions they create do to other people, and I favor a presumption that unnecessary and severe humanly inflicted suffering is a human rights violation. Moreover, I reject the innocence criterion embedded in the two paradigms and urge that it be replaced by a burdened agency criterion. These modifications better align the concept of a victim with a realistic understanding of human subjectivity and agency and allow for a more capacious understanding of who is a bearer of human rights and under what conditions right-holders become victims of rights violations. (shrink)

In previous chapters, we have discussed how philosophers, scientists, and engineers alike construct the idea that computer simulations offer a ‘new epistemology’ for scientific practice. By this they meant that computer simulations introduce new—and perhaps unprecedented—forms of knowing and understanding the surrounding world, forms that were not available before. Whereas scientists and engineers emphasize the scientific novelty of computer simulations, philosophers try to appraise computer simulations for their philosophical virtues. The truth of the former claim is out of question, the (...) latter, however, is more controversial. (shrink)

There has long been communication between phenomenology and the study of literature, especially regarding literary art. This has produced phenomenological accounts of reading by Ingarden, Sartre, Gadamer and Dufrenne, and influenced many other theories of literature. More recently, phenomenological concepts have sometimes been fused with assumptions from empirical psychology, cognitive linguistics, computation or neuroscience, as in the work of Monika Fludernik, David Herman, Paul Armstrong, Brook Miller and Anežka Kuzmičová. The current chapter will explore the assumptions of these approaches in (...) the light of a phenomenological framing of experience. It will criticize certain reductive approaches to text reading. These can neglect the role which a synthesis of temporal difference must play in reading, or explain the unconscious by ascribing to bodily processes (e.g., neural networks) the ability to act as independent agents with their own goals. (shrink)

China during the Sui, Tang and five dynasties underwent complete cycles of order and chaos. Due to the forces of the political terrain and the self-conscious efforts of many Confucian scholars, there were not only many new major creations in the political system during this period. It was also a period characterized by a transition in political thought.

This article addresses the importance of a Brazilian anti-racist education in contemporary times. It brings historical, ontological and racial elements as an argumentative basis in the face of the challenges of Afroperspectivism, a philosophical tendency defended by the Brazilian Renato Noguera, and the Intersubjectivation of the Mozambican José P. Castiano. These references of African Philosophy are indicated as pedagogical praxis necessary to confront racism in the school environment. The research has the characteristic of a theoretical qualitative investigation and defends curricular (...) and methodological decolonization as a form of philosophical and epistemic decentralization. The creation and application of pedagogical praxis that aim at interculturality in the references of African Philosophy are essential tools capable of promoting an anti-racist education. (shrink)

This closing chapter begins by taking first steps towards an abstracted “background narrative” for Islamic legal-theoretical evolution (Sect. 9.1), describing a matrix of constantly evolving “argumentation epistemes,” the early confluence of which, infused by new Islamic axioms and driven by the exigencies of dialectical disputation, lies behind the development of epistemic justification in Islamic sciences. Following this, a “motive model” is offered to explain how the exigencies of dialectical disputation shape theory-systems at an individual level; dialectical axioms are bequeathed to (...) theory-systems via the anticipation of thesis-destroying critiques (Sect. 9.2). The chapter closes by calling for an increased focus on Islamic dialectics, emphasizing how its study may contribute to disciplines both within and outside of Islamic studies, and to the broader intellectual history of the world (Sect. 9.3). (shrink)

It is often assumed that analytic philosophy cannot be treated in a Kuhnian way, since what characterizes philosophical practice is not a disciplinary matrix with paradigmatic exemplars of theoretical and empirical problem solving. We propose to challenge this assumption by arguing that at least in some areas of analytic philosophy one can find disciplinary matrices in the Kuhnian sense and, above all, exemplary cases that give rise to a metatheoretical problem-solving program. In particular, we will focus on meta-theoretical structuralism and (...) its notion of T theoricity. We will show that the work of historical-philosophical analysis carried out by Lorenzano (2008) is a paradigmatic example that has been replicated by several subsequent works, extending the range of application of the disciplinary matrix. (shrink)

The investigation of concept of “true” and “false” has long privileged in contemporary philosophy apophantic truth, that is, the truth of dicta (sentences or propositions). To which entities, though, beyond dicta, the predicate ‘true’ pertains? This paper sheds a light on the less frequently investigated cases where we speak of a truth of things, or res. We say, for instance, that a 17 euros banknote is not a true banknote, or that a true soldier ought to be brave. The paper, (...) thus, distinguishes, beside the concept of de dicto (apophantic) truth, the concept of de re truth and two of its subspecies: eidological truth and idiological truth. (shrink)

Although databases have been well-defined and thoroughly discussed in the computer science literature, the actual users of databases often have varying definitions and expectations of this essential computational infrastructure. Systems administrators and computer science textbooks may expect databases to be instantiated in a small number of technologies, but there are numerous examples of databases in non-conventional or unexpected technologies, such as spreadsheets or other assemblages of files linked through code. Consequently, we ask: How do the materialities of non-conventional databases differ (...) from or align with the materialities of conventional relational systems? What properties of the database do the creators of these artifacts invoke in their rhetoric describing these systems—or in the data models underlying these digital objects? To answer these questions, we conducted a close analysis of four non-conventional scientific databases. By examining the materialities of information representation in each case, we show how scholarly communication regimes shape database materialities—and how information organization paradigms shape scholarly communication. These cases show abandonment of certain constraints of relational database construction alongside maintenance of some key relational data organization strategies. We discuss the implications that these relational data paradigms have for data use, preservation, and sharing, and discuss the need to support a plurality of data practices and paradigms. (shrink)

Release of the ATP hydrolysis product ortophosphate (Pi) from the active site of myosin is central in chemo‐mechanical energy transduction and closely associated with the main force‐generating structural change, the power‐stroke. Despite intense investigations, the relative timing between Pi‐release and the power‐stroke remains poorly understood. This hampers in depth understanding of force production by myosin in health and disease and our understanding of myosin‐active drugs. Since the 1990s and up to today, models that incorporate the Pi‐release either distinctly before or (...) after the power‐stroke, in unbranched kinetic schemes, have dominated the literature. However, in recent years, alternative models have emerged to explain apparently contradictory findings. Here, we first compare and critically analyze three influential alternative models proposed previously. These are either characterized by a branched kinetic scheme or by partial uncoupling of Pi‐release and the power‐stroke. Finally, we suggest critical tests of the models aiming for a unified picture. (shrink)

What is the meaning of historical changes to the visualisation of knowledge? This article examines the long history of the Latin grammar from antiquity until early modernity and traces shifts in graphics through hundreds of manuscripts and printed books. It shows how the table—today the most common means for representation of grammatical paradigms—only became a common feature of grammar books in the Renaissance. To account for this visual change requires teasing apart the effects of intellectual from material factors on (...) one of the most basic branches of knowledge and learning. It brings to the fore educational practices which are often unnoticed by scholars and shows how humanism, paper and print interacted in forming a new learning experience. Following the evolution of one schoolbook genre throughout a millennium and a half, the articles challenges some of our notions regarding transmission of ideas and entails some important methodological lessons about dealing with visualisations in scientific texts more generally. Above all, it underscores the importance of cognitive considerations in shaping epistemic genres and whole fields of knowledge. (shrink)