Often, inquirers who do not know the right answer to a question they are inquiring into are nevertheless in a position to grasp a range of possible answers to it. This article proposes that such inquirers are in a position to have a particular form of understanding: non-factive objectual understanding. The state differs from non-factive states discussed in the extant understanding literature by focusing on grasping of multiple accounts that are all live possibilities. Non-factive objectual understanding is an epistemic improvement (...) that primarily enriches the subject’s grasp on the target phenomenon. Once the contours and the value of this state are made clearer, its importance in accounting for nuances of epistemic progress in many different contexts also emerges—including, but not limited to, progress made in inquiries where knowledge and factive understanding is, practically or as a matter of principle, out of reach. (shrink)

This article explores the question as to whether images generated by Artificial Intelligence such as DALL-E 2 can be considered artworks. After providing a brief primer on how technologies such as DALL-E 2 work in principle, I give an overview of three contemporary accounts of art and then show that there is at least one case where an AI-generated image meets the criteria for art membership under all three accounts. I suggest that our collective hesitancy to call AI-generated images art (...) stems from the lack of a clear author figure. I propose two possible complementary solutions. First, that some AI-generated images as artworks are conjunctively authored by both the developers of the AI and the prompt-giver. Second, that AI image generators can themselves be considered works of art authored by the developers. I conclude by way of suggesting that we might have separate art competitions specifically for AI-generated artworks. (shrink)

This book offers an unprecedented quantitative portrait of analytic philosophy focusing on two seemingly marginal features of philosophical texts: citations and acknowledgements in academic publications. Originating from a little network of philosophers based in Oxford, Cambridge, and Vienna, analytic philosophy has become during the Twentieth century a thriving philosophical community with thousands of members worldwide. Leveraging the most advanced techniques from bibliometrics, citations and acknowledgments are used in this book to shed light on both the epistemology and the sociology (...) of this philosophical field, illuminating the intellectual trajectory of analytic philosophy as well as the social characteristics of the analytic community. Special attention is dedicated to the last forty years, providing insights into a phase of analytic philosophy which is still understudied by historians of philosophy. In the eight chapters of the book, readers will find not only numerous quantitative investigations and technical explanations, but also a robust theoretical framework and epistemological reflections on the strengths and limitations of quantitative methods for the study of philosophy. With its strong interdisciplinary appeal, this book will engage a wide range of scholars, including historians of philosophy seeking new methodologies, analytic philosophers interested in a new look at their discipline, and scholars in digital humanities, bibliometrics, and quantitative studies of science, who will find many innovative techniques for investigating disciplinary fields. (shrink)

Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002), one of the towering figures of contemporary Continental philosophy, is best known for Truth and Method, where he elaborated the concept of "philosophical hermeneutics," a programmatic way to get to what we do when we engage in interpretation. Donatella Di Cesare highlights the central place of Greek philosophy, particularly Plato, in Gadamer's work, brings out differences between his thought and that of Heidegger, and connects him with discussions and debates in pragmatism. This is a sensitive and thoroughly (...) readable philosophical portrait of one of the 20th century’s most powerful thinkers. (shrink)

What I will aim for in answering the title question is extensional adequacy, that is, I will try to formulate an account that captures as much of the extension as possible of what we ordinarily think counts as a portrait. Two philosophers have recently and independently from one another embarked on the same project. Cynthia Freeland’s theory of portraiture, as it is developed in her book, Portraits and Persons, is discussed in Sections 1 and 2 of this paper. Sections (...) 3 and 4 offer a critical exploration of Paolo Spinicci’s phenomenological study of portraiture. Finally, in Sections 5 and 6, I present an alternative account of portraiture, one that will hopefully address all the objections raised against the two competing theories. (shrink)

BackgroundMedical education and communication companies (MECCs) are key actors in the production of commissioned publications. Analyzing publications that acknowledge medical writing offers a broad overview of their role, which is scarce in the literature. The reason is that activities related to industry-funded research are highly opaque, which makes access to this information particularly hard, and related analyses scarce. This article offers a novel approach to collecting, and thus, analyzing data. It maps how MECCs, funders, authors, and publishers organize to produce (...) this literature and identifies risks of research integrity breaches.MethodsThe database contains the metadata of 29 911 commissioned papers collected from Web of Science (WoS). All articles involving medical writing were collected if they mentioned “medical writing” in WoS, if they were published by MECCs websites, and if they were listed in publication trackers (documents that list the publications of companies, found on the Industry Documents Library (IDL)). The metadata were collected semi-automatically (manually and with R). Reference lists were built to extract MECCs from acknowledgments and harmonize organizations’ names. The analysis maps the relationships among MECCs, authors, funders, and publishers and shows how they connect.ResultsIn contrast with pharmaceutical companies and research institutes, only 33.6% of MECCs are listed in the bylines and even less (18%) are acknowledged in the publications found on their websites and on the Industry Documents Library. Even though they provide writing, MECCs are usually not considered as authors.Medical writing is a flourishing business and MECCs are key actors. Only a few sponsors (5.5%) outsource medical writing to many MECCs, and a few MECCs (7.7%) have a high number of clients. The medical writing market is thus very competitive and can benefit sponsors. MECCs sometimes publish in journals that are owned by their parent or sister companies. The business model of the publishers largely benefits from medical writing by publishing their product, and sometimes providing it as a service.ConclusionsThe database presented in this article offers new routes to explore the key role of MECCs in industry-funded research and to further assess the commissioned literature and its impacts on biomedical science and research integrity. (shrink)

This essay is a soul biography charting how the trauma of facing military conscription in my teens influenced my entire life, emotional and professional. As a student I was studying, among other texts like the war poets from the First World War, Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The play’s protagonist was ready-made for psychological projection and self-identification for a student living in the 1960s zeitgeist of youthful yearning for peaceful “flower power.” In the first court ensemble scene of the play, Hamlet finds himself (...) in the position of alienated, isolated and disaffected youth – “A little more than kith and less than kind.” This chimed precisely with the theories of R.D. Laing as the most celebrated, countercultural psychologist in the 1960s, sheeting the blame for so-called mental disorders to “the politics of the family” causing “the divided self,” and presenting “madness” as an essentially “sane,” coping response to conflict – “Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t.” He is then compelled by circumstances forced upon him by actions of his father’s generation into facing extreme existential decisions and experiences. For me, this “generation gap” manifested in the law enforcing conscription of randomly chosen twenty year olds for the Vietnam conflict. The experience revealed and reinforced my sense of self as a temperamental pacifist and conscientious objector. It transpired that the intense psychic experiences of that year would preoccupy and shape me, both personally and professionally, for the rest of my life down to the present day. I have in my career published polemical essays dealing with war and peace, two books on Hamlet in particular, and more generally two on literature and pacifism, the latter being Shakespeare Against War: Pacifist Readings. Yet like Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner I am still compelled once again to recount my critical, formative “agony,” “And until my ghastly tale is told, / This heart within me burns.”. (shrink)

In answering the title question this paper will aim for extensional adequacy, that is, it will aim to formulate an account that captures as much of the extension as possible of what we ordinarily think counts as a portrait. Two philosophers have recently, and independently from one another, embarked on the same project. Cynthia Freeland’s theory of portraiture, as it is developed in her book Portraits & Persons, is discussed in sections 1 and 2 of this paper. Sections 3 (...) and 4 offer a critical exploration of Paulo Spinicci’s phenomenological study of portraiture. Finally, in sections 5 and 6, an alternative account of portraiture is presented, one that seeks to address all the objections raised against the two competing theories. (shrink)

The Aesthetic Theory of Art—any theory of art claiming that the aesthetic is a descriptively necessary feature of art—has been largely repudiated, in light of what are now considered traditional counter-examples. Mag Uidhir and Buckner argue that the Aesthetic Theory of Art can be more plausibly recast by abandoning aesthetic-feature possession by the artwork for a claim about aesthetic-concept possession by the artist. Aesthetic Theory so re-framed suggests that the aesthetic might have a central and substantial explanatory role to play (...) within both traditional philosophical enquiries and recent, more empirical enquiries into the psychological and cognitive aspects of art and its practice. Finally, they discuss the directions this new work might take—by tying art theory to investigations of the distinctive sensorimotor capacities of expert artists, their specialized aesthetic conceptual schemata, and the ways these distinctive capacities and schemata contribute to the production of artworks. (shrink)

_A concise and illuminating introduction to the elusive Thomas Aquinas, the man and the saint_ Leaving so few traces of himself behind, Thomas Aquinas seems to defy the efforts of the biographer. Highly visible as a public teacher, preacher, and theologian, he nevertheless has remained nearly invisible as man and saint. What can be discovered about Thomas Aquinas as a whole? In this short, compelling portrait, Denys Turner clears away the haze of time and brings Thomas vividly to life (...) for contemporary readers—those unfamiliar with the saint as well as those well acquainted with his teachings. Building on the best biographical scholarship available today and reading the works of Thomas with piercing acuity, Turner seeks the point at which the man, the mind, and the soul of Thomas Aquinas intersect. Reflecting upon Thomas, a man of Christian Trinitarian faith yet one whose thought is grounded firmly in the body’s interaction with the material world, a thinker at once confident in the powers of human reason and a man of prayer, Turner provides a more detailed human portrait than ever before of one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in all of Western thought. (shrink)

Scientific psychology and neuroscience are taking increasingly precise and comprehensive pictures of the human mind, both in its physi- cal architecture and its functional processes. Meanwhile, each human mind has an abbreviated view of itself, a self-portrait that captures how it thinks it operates, and that therefore has been remarkably influential. The mind’s self-portrait has as a central feature the idea that thoughts cause actions, and that the self is thus an origin of the body’s actions. This self- (...) portrait is reached through a process of inference of apparent mental cau- sation, and it gives rise to the experience that we are consciously willing what we do. Evidence from several sources suggests that this self-portrait may often be a humble and misleading caricature of the mind’s opera- tion—but one that underlies the feeling of authorship and the acceptance of responsibility for action. (shrink)

This paper focuses on the relationships between scientists and software. We propose to view the field of computational chemistry as a particular ‘repertoire’ where software is central and where interactions among practitioners involve disputed visions of software openness. We argue that the multifaceted category of ‘users’ is key to understanding these visions of openness. Our aim is thus to discuss how the computational chemistry community evolves in its relationship to software packages. Throughout our paper, the notion of ‘users’ becomes more (...) complex, all along the commodification of programs into packages and the increasing complexity of the packages themselves. We relate four different vignettes from the history of computational chemistry, spanning from 1962 to 2024, to illustrate how visions of openness and user agency evolve. These include a software-sharing initiative, controversies over licensing and user management, and debates about the AlphaFold AI tool. Ultimately, the paper explores how these dynamics contribute to inequity in how scientists engage with computational tools. A general trend of dispossession of agency of users in their relationship with a piece of software is finally put forward. (shrink)

This exploratory study surveyed approximately 370 women leaders in industry, education, and government about factors that contributed to their success.Results indicate that most successful women come from, and live in, supportive and stable family circumstances. The biggest obstacle that most women leaders faced in achieving success was their gender, and for black women the additional obstacle encountered was their race.

Dans un article de 1984 intitulé « Le libéralisme et l’art de la séparation », Michael Walzer critique le fantasme libéral d’autodétermination. Afin d’illustrer sa thèse, il convoque la dernière tragédie de Shakespeare, Coriolan : « The liberal hero, author of himself and of social roles, is a mythic invention. It is Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, that aristocratic warrior and anti-citizen, who claims (and fails) to live “as if he were the author of himself and knew no other kin” ». Cet article (...) entend discuter cette interprétation. Au-delà d’une tragédie sur le rêve d’autonomie brisé, Coriolan donne à voir un personnage aux prises avec l’aliénation liée à l’éthique aristocratique. Relire Shakespeare dans le sillage de certaines exégèses marxistes et féministes invite donc à interroger la pertinence du « communautarisme libéral ». (shrink)

In John Dewey: An Intellectual Portrait, first published in 1939, Hook examines Dewey's approach to philosophy in clear, nontechnical language meant to offer ...

Il s’agit ici d’aborder comparativement Nietzsche et Shakespeare sous le rapport de la « folie ». Après avoir résumé Le Roi Lear, de Shakespeare, l’article s’attache à définir le personnage du Fol (ou bouffon) comme porteur d’une vérité cynique et porteur du thème de l’inversion des valeurs propre au paradigme carnavalesque de la fête (Saturnales antiques), auquel Nietzsche, autant que Shakespeare, a pu puiser. On montre ensuite, dans une perspective foucaldienne, que la folie dans la pièce de Shakespeare garde un (...) caractère d’ambiguïté, la vérité semblant circuler entre les différents types de folie (feinte, oraculaire, poétique) que démontrent les différents personnages de la pièce. On rappelle enfin la cohérence entre le rapport philosophique et le rapport existentiel de Nietzsche à la maladie. La notion d’Amor Fati, qui imprègne également la pièce de Shakespeare, synthétise cette attitude à la fois tragique et dionysienne. (shrink)

. There are many types of artistic representations of the legend of Don Juan, i.e. the universal archetype of the seducer who, through deception, conquers a woman and, once she succumbs to his charms, he boasts of his triumph, despises her, and shifts his interest towards another lady. In this work, I compare three of the most famous versions don Juan: The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest by Tirso de Molina, Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Lorenzo (...) Da Ponte, and Don Juan Tenorio by José Zorrilla. The first and third are theatrical pieces, while the second is an opera. The myth of Don Juan is essentially the same in all three, but the message and the moral vary according to the cultural movement the works belong to, namely the Baroque, the Enlightenment and the Romanticism, respectively. Key words: The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest, Don Giovanni, Don Juan, Tirso de Molina, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo Da Ponte, José Zorrilla, sin, redemption, sociopath. Resumen. Son muchos los tipos de representación artística —teatro, música, ópera, ballet, literatura, cine, televisión, pintura, escultura, etc.— de la leyenda de Don Juan, el arquetipo universal del seductor que, mediante engaños, conquista a una mujer y, una vez que ella sucumbe a sus encantos, se jacta de su triunfo, las desprecia y reenfoca su interés en otras damas. En este trabajo, comparo a tres de los don Juanes más famosos: El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra de Tirso de Molina, Don Giovanni de Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart y Lorenzo Da Ponte, y Don Juan Tenorio de José Zorrilla. La primera y la tercera son piezas teatrales, en tanto que la segunda es una ópera. El mito de Don Juan es, esencialmente, el mismo en estas tres obras, aunque varían el mensaje y la moraleja según el movimiento cultural al que pertenecen: Barroco, Ilustración y Romanticismo, respectivamente. Palabras clave: Burlador de Sevilla, Don Giovanni, Don Juan, Tirso de Molina, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo Da Ponte, José Zorrilla, pecado, redención, sociópata. (shrink)

This chapter outlines the main events associated with the increasing colonization of Kazakhstan in the period from the end of the nineteenth century to the end of the 1930s: the consequences of the Stolypin reform implementation; the mass resettlement of peasants from the internal provinces of Russia to Kazakh steppes; Kazakh revolt of 1916. The following describes how the Russian February Revolution and the October coup of 1917 and the civil war (1918–1923) affected the political life of Kazakhstan. During the (...) period of Soviet power, two mass famines, collectivization, the forced sedentarization of Kazakh nomads, and the political terror of 1937–1938 are covered. (shrink)

To what extent are artists and sitters (or researchers and “objects” of investigation) implicated in their representations of others? How implicated are we when we identify with the way different cultures or perspectives represent ourselves? Understanding how specific forms of representation reveal differently authored perceptions of the individual is a critical concern. My overarching concern, as an artist, is to start mapping contemporary practices of identity formation and expression through the investigation of specific non- Western and subcultural modes that prioritise (...) different codes and social processes of cultural production – modes that do not privilege the gaze. Crucially, the case studies operate a strategic reversal of the classical artistic and scientific approaches: both sides in this dialogue of interpretation and representation involving the artist/researcher and the cultural actor are equally subject and object. The resulting artworks present distinct cultural practices as new possibilities for portrayal, and acts of selection, interpretation and definition as forms of cultural production. (shrink)

Introduction to the life and work of G.E.M. Anscombe.

It is recognized that teachers’ beliefs system influence their teaching strategies (Buehl et Beck, 2014 ; Driel et al., 1998 ; OCDE, 2 0 14). Since these strategies might have consequences on student learning, success and motivation, it is crucial to better understand the nature of these beliefs. We have thus developed and validated a questionnaire to probe the beliefs held by science and technology (ST) teachers, as well as to eventually establish the links that these beliefs may have with (...) their students’ motivation toward ST. Based on other existing tools, our 30-items questionnaire was designed according to the three axes of the SOMA model (Legendre, 2005). A subsequent cluster analysis made it possible to group teachers (N = 25) into two clusters : the “subjective, resistant to technology and directive” on the one hand and the “objective, technophile and participative” on the other. Finally, we discuss the possible implications of these results for teacher education and in-service teacher development. (shrink)

La filosofía en la Antigüedad era considerada como forma de vida a través de la práctica de ciertos ejercicios espirituales que permitían conciliar discurso filosófico y praxis filosófica. Pierre Hadot, estudioso de la filosofía helenística procura develar en sus investigaciones el concepto de ejercicio espiritual, y evidencia cómo era acogida la filosofía en esta etapa; donde el filósofo era un director de conciencias que generaba en sus discípulos una conversión interna. Hadot expone en su libro, Plotino o la simplicidad de (...) la mirada, los rasgos esenciales de la filosofía plotiniana y resalta la aptitud del filósofo como sujeto activo que ejecuta la contemplación de sí mismo y su entorno, en pos de redirigir el alma hacia el principio supremo o Uno. La filosofía plotiniana se halla impregnada de praxis filosófica. En Plotino no hay ruptura entre el hombre y filósofo; hombre que se halla arrojado a la vida y filósofo que permanece en la contemplación interna. En la figura de Plotino se conjugan ambos, y con maestría irresoluta logra captar todo el proceso del alma que trasciende y se eleva hacia el principio último, Uno o Bien. Pierre Hadot nos advierte que, a medida que Plotino, ejerce una conversión interna, donde su mirada gira hacia el Uno, ocurre en la misma proporción una metamorfosis de la mirada externa; perpetuando una transformación en el quehacer, en la praxis del individuo que protagoniza dicho proceso. (shrink)

Decades after his death, Albert Camus (1913–1960) is still regarded as one of the most influential and fascinating intellectuals of the twentieth century. This biography by Stephen Eric Bronner explores the connections between his literary work, his philosophical writings, and his politics. _Camus_ illuminates his impoverished childhood, his existential concerns, his activities in the antifascist resistance, and the controversies in which he was engaged. Beautifully written and incisively argued, this study offers new insights—and above all—highlights the contemporary relevance of an (...) extraordinary man. “A model of a kind of intelligent writing that should be in greater supply. Bronner manages judiciously to combine an appreciation for the strengths of Camus and nonrancorous criticism of his weaknesses.... As a personal and opinionated book, it invites the reader into an engaging and informative dialogue.”—_American Political Science Review_ __ “This concise, lively, and remarkably evenhanded treatment of the life and work of Albert Camus weaves together biography, philosophical analysis, and political commentary.”—_Science & Society_. (shrink)

Edward Said was a versatile intellectual, anchored in a solid humanistic culture, who, in his career as a public figure as a university Professor at Columbia, placed at the center of his reflections the sense of commitment of the man of culture. His multifaceted education and his interests are the summit of an attention to the generative issues of pedagogical and educational culture, aimed at redefining a new “radical humanism.” For Said, however, the commitment and careful examination of texts and (...) reality can only pass through an effort of critical thinking, capable of acquiring its own autonomy of judgment and, for this reason, point out and highlight the differences of all forms of power and coercion. (shrink)

Departing from observations taken from the legal judgment that lifted the ban on _Ulysses_ that concern the intricate way that Joyce in his novel portrays “the screen of consciousness,” this chapter first examines the classical empirical model of human perception where the eye is modeled on the lens of a camera. Moving to a consideration of what that model misses in terms of the webs of associations woven into perception by the experiential history of the perceiver and some philosophical arguments (...) critiquing that oversimplified model, the chapter then looks into some details concerning acts of remembering, moments of recognition, the understanding of human motives, and the way the past can overlay the perception of the present, all of which challenge any reductive model of mere ocular sensation as the fundamental content of perception. With this background the chapter then moves to its main project, a reading of Joyce’s great novel that sees the work as an expansive and encompassing study of the nuances of perception, of the relationally complex ways in which the mind organizes and interacts with the world, and of the structuring power that our language exerts within perceptual consciousness. (shrink)

This remarkable book is the first ever sociological study of an operational army unit. The author, himself a former regular soldier, observed a group of raw recruits to the British Army during their basic training, accompanied a unit on an exercise in Canda and also went with it to the dangerous ’bandit country’ of South Armagh. John Hockey paints a memorable picture of the subsculture of private soldiers in today’s regular infantry, and he shows vividly how this conforms and conflicts (...) with the formal demands of the military organisation. Anyone who wants to know more about the working of the army at grass-roots level will find this book essential reading. (shrink)

Teaching morally and teaching morality are understood as mutually dependent processes necessary for providing moral education, or the communication of messages and lessons on what is right, good and virtuous in a student's character. This comprehensive and contextualized volume offers anecdotes and experiences on how an elementary schoolteacher envisions, enacts, and reflects on the ethical teaching and learning of her students. By employing a personally developed form of moral education that is not defined by any particular philosophical or theoretical orientation, (...) this volume relates that classroom-based moral education can, therefore, be conceived of and promoted as moral agency. Accentuated by the teacher's voice to offer the experience of being in the classroom, this volume enables others to transfer relevant practices to their own teaching contexts. (shrink)