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The article focuses on the relevance of communication studies for human sciences. Communication studies is often proposed as a synthetic approach to the human sciences outright, an interdisciplinary inquiry capable of linking the researches of specialized human sciences to the philosophical foundations of the project of human scientific inquiry itself. The author says that from the standpoint of the relation between philosophy and the human sciences, the constitution of perception, institutions and thought by media of communication is the thesis proper to communication studies, the thesis from which its larger significance derives. According to the author, by describing the precise point at which a theory of communication diverges from a theory of scientific meaning, it is possible to note a significant convergence between phenomenology and a Marxist critique of a semiotic theory of language.

In 1979 the author spent the summer at a National Endowment for the Humanities summer seminar at Princeton with Richard Rorty, an experience which had numerous consequences, including a very Rortyan paper subsequently published in Human Studies called "Social theory," without wholes. Over this summer he has also worked on a manuscript that grew out a long article published in Human Studies on Max Weber and the fact-value distinction entitled "The limits of reason and some limitations of Weber's morality." The research that he was doing in the Princeton library was primarily concerned with filling in the context in which Weber had made his famous statements about fact and value, and also with examining the sequel of those writings in subsequent philosophy. This topic represents an important and distinctive strand in the tradition of continental philosophy, something that has now increasingly come to be recognized.

This paper explores a series of challenges presented by Hartmut Rosa's concept of resonance viewed in the context of the normative and political dimensions of critical theory, a tradition in which he explicitly places his work (even as he draws on a wide range of other scholarly fields and domains). First, a tension between the anthropological and sociocultural aspects of his project raises questions about whether the avowed political commitments of the project can be incorporated into its theoretical framework. Second, the variability with which resonance can present, and its fundamentally pathic nature, makes it difficult to imagine how it might serve an emancipatory interest. Beyond this, the critical diagnosis of forms of impaired or deficient resonance introduces methodological questions with moral consequences. Despite these challenges, Rosa's project importantly calls for a renewed relation to the world, one that shares affinities with parallel developments within the humanities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid proliferation of online content producing and sharing technologies resulted in an explosion of user-generated content (UGC), which now extends to scientific data. Citizen science, in which ordinary people contribute information for scientific research, epitomizes UGC. Citizen science projects are typically open to everyone, engage diverse audiences, and challenge ordinary people to produce data of highest quality to be usable in science. This also makes citizen science a very exciting area to study both traditional and innovative approaches to information quality management. With this paper we position citizen science as a leading information quality research frontier. We also show how citizen science opens a unique opportunity for the information systems community to contribute to a broad range of disciplines in natural and social sciences and humanities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes some of the characteristics of retracted articles in Arts and Humanities. A total 129 retracted articles in Arts and Humanities journals were identified using Retraction Watch and Scopus and then analyzed. The analysis shows that the main reasons for retracting Arts and Humanities articles is recycling and plagiarism. The analysis also shows that retracted articles continue to be read, downloaded and cited as well as mentioned in social media channels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how an interdisciplinary approach to the "wicked problem" of plastics pollution offers unique and important collaborative possibilities. Specially, the paper considers the approach of the Synthetic Collective, a group comprising artists, humanities scholars, and scientists. Considering first how artists and scientists might respond differently to tracking, mapping, understanding, and representing plastics pollution, we then look for potential points of commonality across disciplinary difference. In respect to the urgent and multifaceted problem of marine plastics pollution in the Great Lakes region, we ask what are some of the successes and pitfalls of bringing together diverse approaches and interests? The paper concludes with a clear strategy: a set of instructions geared towards building successful interdisciplinary collaborations. Ultimately, we conclude that a strong relationship amongst scientists and artists is possible, fruitful, and indeed warranted when shared goals are the driving principle of the group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that more work is needed to facilitate cross-disciplinary collaborations by scholars across the physical sciences and humanities to improve Data Rescue Activities (DARE). Debate over the scale and potential impact of anthropogenic global warming is one of the dominant narratives of the twenty-first century. Predicting future climates and determining how environment and society might be affected by climate change are global issues of social, economic and political importance. They require responses from different research communities and necessitate closer inter-disciplinary working relationships for an integrated approach. Improving the datasets required for long-term climate models is an important part of this process. Establishing a multi-disciplinary dialogue and approach to DARE activities is increasingly being recognised as the best way to achieve this. This paper focuses on the recovery of the long-term instrumental weather observations used for models and reconstructions of the climate over the past two-hundred years. Written from the perspective of an historian working in the field, it does not seek to explore the reconstructions themselves but the process of data gathering, advocating a closer working relationship between the arts, social sciences, and sciences to extend the geographic and temporal coverage of extant datasets. This is especially important for regions where data gaps exist currently. First, it will offer a justification for extending data recovery activities for Southeast Asia and the China Seas region. Second, it will offer a brief overview of the data recovery projects currently operating in that area and the typesof historic source material that are used. Third, it will explore the work currently being undertaken for Southeast Asia and China under the Atmospheric Circulation Reconstructions over the Earth initiative as an example of a successful cross-disciplinary program. Finally, it will argue the importance of advertising DARE activities across different fields and the benefits of a more joined-up discussion on potential data sources by exploring the use of the resource by the wider academic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how and why academics in different parts of the academy collaborate. In this paper we argue that: (1) There is a useful analytical distinction to be made between collaboration (fluid and expressive) and Collaboration (concrete and instrumental); (2) These two are not mutually exclusive and their use varies between disciplines; and (3) This distinction is an informative one for policy making that aims to encourage collaboration. Two interview based studies were used to explore the differences in collaborative practices across disciplines. The first was small and confined to a single university (n = 36) and the second was a larger study conducted in three countries (n = 274). Cross tabulations and analysis of open ended questions demonstrated many differences across the humanities, sciences and social sciences in collaboration. The C/collaboration distinction proves useful in understanding different disciplinary approaches to research, and in pointing to implications for research policy and funding. Attempts to increase collaborative research through Collaboration only, may well have deleterious effects on both collaboration and Collaboration. Research policy and funding should bear these differences in mind when seeking to stimulate collaborative research, so as to gain better outcomes across a range of disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the instructions for the authors of the November 1, 2003 issue of the journal "Erkenntnis." Erkenntnis is a philosophical journal publishing papers which are committed in one way or another to the philosophical attitude which is signified by the label analytic philosophy. It concentrates on those philosophical fields which are particularly inspired by this attitude, though other topics are welcome as well. Contributions should not be purely historical, but attempt to advance current systematic issues.

As software developers design artificial agents (AAs), they often have to wrestle with complex issues, issues that have philosophical and ethical importance. This paper addresses two key questions at the intersection of philosophy and technology: What is deception? And when is it permissible for the developer of a computer artifact to be deceptive in the artifact's development? While exploring these questions from the perspective of a software developer, we examine the relationship of deception and trust. Are developers using deception to gain our trust? Is trust generated through technological 'enchantment' warranted? Next, we investigate more complex questions of how deception that involves AAs differs from deception that only involves humans. Finally, we analyze the role and responsibility of developers in trust situations that involve both humans and AAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainstream operationalisations of music in contemporary digital culture tend to take forms that fit with Western folk-theoretic conceptions of music: as discrete sonic entities—songs, pieces, works—that fall within an autonomous domain of human experience, that have determinate structure and that have both affective and exchange value. This perspective is problematised in alternative digital manifestations of music as constituted in and through interaction, in which music is emergent from interactive processes that are computationally mediated. This alternative digital approach fits with broad conceptions of music that are grounded in ethnomusicological accounts and that have increasing weight in the cognitive sciences, in which music is understood and explored as a communicative medium. This paper will outline some of the possibilities, potentials and problems for digital approaches that are likely to arise in operationalising music as communicative interaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued in this paper that amalgamating confirmation from various sources is relevantly different from social-choice contexts, and that proving an impossibility theorem for aggregating confirmation measures directs attention to irrelevant issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of possible worlds in philosophy is hard to overestimate. Nevertheless, their nature and existence is very controversial. This is particularly serious, since their standard applications depend on there being sufficiently many of them. The paper develops an account of possible worlds on which it is particularly easy to believe in their existence: an account of possible worlds as pleonastic entities. Pleonastic entities are entities whose existence can be validly inferred from statements that neither refer to nor quantify over them as a matter of conceptual necessity. Definitions are proposed that ensure that this is the case for possible worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Jeremy Tanner has published a highly informative review article in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, in which he introduces and advertises 'Sino-Hellenic Studies' as a new and upcoming subfield in academic inquiry. Tanner particularly focuses on what he terms 'Sino-Hellenic comparative philosophy,' while developing his perspective clearly from within contemporary Classicists' academic parameters. In this paper, I approach the matter precisely from the other end, i.e. from within contemporary comparative philosophy, distinguishing four different approaches in comparative philosophy, pointing out some pitfalls in comparison and offering a perhaps provocative conclusion by provincializing and politicizing 'Sino-Hellenic Studies'. The paper not only seeks to supplement Tanner's review, but also and more importantly to introduce some fundamental methodological problems to be dealt with in any comparative inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Braun (Linguistics & Philosophy 35, 461-489, ) argued for a non- relativist, invariantist theory of 'might'. Yanovich () argues that Braun's theory is inconsistent with certain facts concerning diachronic meaning changes in 'might', 'can', and 'may'. This paper replies to Yanovich's objection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the contemporary debate about the nature of persistence, stage theory is the view that ordinary objects (artefacts, animals, persons, etc.) are instantaneous and 'persist' by being suitably related to other instantaneous objects. In this paper I focus on the issue of what stage theorists should say about the semantics of ordinary proper names, like 'Socrates' or 'London'. I consider the remarks that stage theorists actually make about this issue, present some problems they face, and finally offer what I take to be the best alternative available for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper criticizes Soames's main argument against a variant of two-dimensionalism that he calls strong two-dimensionalism. The idea of Soames's argument is to show that the strong two-dimensionalist's semantics for belief ascriptions delivers wrong semantic verdicts about certain complex modal sentences that contain both such ascriptions and claims about the truth of the ascribed beliefs. A closer look at the formal semantics underlying strong two-dimensionalism reveals that there are two feasible ways of specifying the truth conditions for claims of the latter sort. Only one of the two yields the problematic semantic verdicts, so strong two-dimensionalists can avoid Soames's argument by settling for the other way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

shared problem across the sciences is to make sense of correlational data coming from observations and/or from experiments. Arguably, this means establishing when correlations are causal and when they are not. This is an old problem in philosophy. This paper, narrowing down the scope to quantitative causal analysis in social science, reformulates the problem in terms of the validity of statistical models. Two strategies to make sense of correlational data are presented: first, a 'structural strategy', the goal of which is to model and test causal structures that explain correlational data; second, a 'manipulationist or interventionist strategy', that hinges upon the notion of invariance under intervention. It is argued that while the former can offer a solution the latter cannot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  Standard derivations of the Bell inequalities assume a common-common-cause-system that is a common screener-off for all correlations and some additional assumptions concerning locality and no-conspiracy. In a recent paper (Graßhoff et al., The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 56, 663–680 (2005)) Bell inequalities have been derived via separate common causes assuming perfect correlations between the events. In the paper it will be shown that the assumptions of this separate-common-cause-type derivation of the Bell inequalities in the case of perfect correlations can be reduced to the assumptions of a common-common-cause-system-type derivation. However, in the case of non-perfect correlations a non-reducible separate-common-cause-type derivation of some Bell-like inequalities can be given. The violation of these Bell-like inequalities proves Szabó’s (International Journal of Theoretical Physics, 39, 911 (2004)) conjecture concerning the non-existence of a local, non-conspiratorial, separate-common-cause-model for a δ-neighborhood of perfect EPR correlations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the widest elaborations of generativity today is the theoretical model proposed by McAdams and de St. Aubin. This model has not yet been tested completely, that is only some of its components and their relations have been tested. The main reasons for such an empirical status of the model are inadequately clear operationalizations of the components of the model. After our previous research, which include adaptation of scales for measuring of some key components of model, generative care and generative action (Lacković-Grgin et al., Suvremena Psihologija, 5, 9, 2002; Lacković-Grgin, Zbirka psihologijskih skala i upitnika, Zadar: University of Zadar, 2004; Tucak et al., Generativna briga i generativno djelovanje u odraslih osoba u Hrvatskoj i Sloveniji, XVII Dani Ramira i Zorana Bujasa, Summaries, 98, 2005), as well as operationalization of so called belief in species component (which is a component of Philosophy about human nature) (Ćubela Adorić et al., Philosophies of Human Nature in Adolescents and Adults, 7th Alps-Adria Conference in Psychology, Abstracts, 167, 2005), in this paper we have tried to evaluate life goals questionnaire. This questionnaire tried to measure the other component of the model—inner desire. In that way we could realize the main goal of this paper, research of how important are the evaluations in the prediction of generative action in Croatian and Slovenian adults. Generative action is under the strong influence of cultural demands and inner desires. There are more sociological and economical indications about the differences in expected social development in countries like Croatia and Slovenia. Because of the fact that in the last decade Slovenia has been developed more than Croatia, we could expect that this could also be manifested in assessment of importance of some areas of life, which are relevant for generative action (e.g., work, marriage, free time), for life goals of agency and communion, as well as for generative care as a possible predictor of generative action. The greater differences were obtained in some predictors of generative action (e.g. importance of job, importance of free time, goals of agency and communion), as well as in their predictive importance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a flaw in the teaching of issues related to market economics and social justice at American institutions of higher learning. The flaw we speak of is really a gap, or an educational disconnect, which exists between those faculty who support market-based economies and those who believe capitalism promotes economic injustice. The thesis of this paper is that the gap is so wide and the ideas that are promoted are so disconnected that students are trapped into choosing one or the other position (or neither) and are left unable to link the two sides of the discussion. Such an educational process is not one that produces free and reasoned discernment. In this paper, we briefly relate how we came to be aware of the disconnect and its harms. We present evidence that a pedagogical gulf exists within the teaching of markets and capitalism at American universities – faculty interviews, course syllabi, portions of the corpus of material generally referred to as Catholic Social Thought, as well as references to traditional, mainstream economic theory. Further, we give evidence of the confusion and frustration among students this gulf causes. We suggest possible reasons for the gulf–primarily through an investigation of the differences in underlying assumptions and misperceptions that exist between two divisions within universities. We conclude by suggesting a set of curricular changes designed to improve teaching. The authors’ aim is not to change people’s minds. It is to change their teaching. The authors believe that these curricular changes will leave students less frustrated and better prepared for a life of significant service – with improved critical thinking skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Peter Singer has famously argued that people living in affluent western countries are morally obligated to donate money to famine relief. The central premise in his argument is that, “If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do so.” The present paper offers an argument to the effect that affluent people ought to support foreign aid projects based on a much weaker ethical premise. The new premise states that, “If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of moral importance, we ought, morally, to do so.” This premise, supplemented with a notion of final value drawing on Amartya Sen's concept of freedom as capabilities and functionings, is conceived as a special version of a weak, egalitarian Pareto principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional discourses upon literature have been predicated upon the ability to refer to a text that others may consult (Landow, 1994, p. 33). Texts that involve elements of feedback and non-trivial decision-making on the part of the reader (Aarseth, 1997, p. 1) therefore present a challenge to readers and critics alike. Since a persuasive case has been made against a critical method that sets out to ``identify the task of interpretation as a task of territorial exploration and territorial mastery'' (Aarseth, p. 87), this paper proposes the use of readers in an empirically based approach to hypertext fiction. Meta-interpretation, a method that combines individual responses to a text, reading logs, screen recordings and limited qualitative/quantitative analysis, and critical interpretation is outlined. By analysing readers' responses it is possible to suggest both the ways that textual elements may have influenced or determined readers' choices and the ways that readers' choices ``configure'' the text. The method thus addresses Espen Aarseth's concerns and illuminates interesting features of interactive processes in fictional environments. The paper is divided into two parts: the first part sketches out meta-interpretation through consideration of the main problems confronting the literary critic; the second part describes reading research aimed at generating data for the literary critic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parallel to, and to some degree in reaction to French poststructuralist theorization (as championed by Derrida, Foucault, and Lacan, among others) is a French neo-structuralism built directly on the achievements of structuralism using electronic means. This paper examines some exemplary approaches to text analysis in this neo-structuralist vein: SATOR's topoi dictionary, the WinBrill POS tagger and François Rastier's interpretative semantics. I consider how a computer-assisted ``Wissenschaft'' accumulation of expertise complements the neo-structuralist approach. Ultimately, electronic critical studies will be defined by their strategic position at the intersection of the two chief technologies shaping our society: the new information processing technology of computers and the representational techniques that have accumulated for centuries in texts. Understanding how these two information management paradigms complement each other is a key issue for the humanities, for computer science, and vital to industry, even beyond the narrow realm of the language industries. The direction of critical studies, a small planet long orbiting in only rarefied academic circles, will be radically altered by the sheer size of the economic stakes implied by a new kind of text, the industrial text, the technological heart of an information society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the claims made by both Freudian psychoanalysic thought and Husserlian phenomenology about the unconscious. First, it is shown how Husserl incorporates a complex notion of the unconscious in his analysis of passive synthesis. With his notion of an unintentional reservoir of past retentions, Husserl articulates an unconscious zone that must be activated from consciousness in order to “come to life.” Second, it is explained how Husserl still does not account for the Freudian unconscious. Freud's unconscious could be called, in phenomenological terms, a repressed retentional zone that differs from both near and far retention. Finally, an analysis is offered for the significance of this psychoanalytic argument for phenomenology. Does phenomenology provide a complete account of the psychical life of the subject without the Freudian unconscious? Does phenomenology suggest, as is often done, that Freud's “discovery” of the unconscious is a fantastical invention? Or, does the Freudian unconscious represent a true stumbling block for phenomenology? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of papers and books related to the image-based humanities computing. Some of the books enlisted are "Creating and Distributing High Resolution Cartographic Images," by David Yehling Allan, "Languages of Visuality: Crossings Between Science, Art, Politics, and Literature," edited by Beate Allert, "Introduction to 3-D Spatial Visualization," by , Beverly Baartmans, "IEEE Conference on Information Visualization: An International Conference on Computer Visualization and Graphics," by Ebad Banissi, Farzad Khosrowshahi, and Muhammad Sarfraz and others.

This paper discusses selected aspects of the work of the CTI Centre for Textual Studies, a Centre which has its roots in a 1984 initiative and ceased to operate in 1999. The work of the Centre was grounded in humanities computing, a subject area which itself has developed over time. The article compares earlier observations made by Joseph Raben and Susan Hockey about the integration of resources within humanities teaching and learning, to current realities. Its focus is the development of access to distributed resources, beginning with an interface between the early PC and the mainframe and ending with a vision of a humanities portal to distributed resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on Roy Sorenson's argument against vague objects. Sorensen's argument, which is explicitly spelled out in Section I of his paper, goes like this: The blob must have a boundary; If a spherical cavity grows from the center of the blob, the blob's outer boundary is completely unaffected as long as some of the blob remains; As soon as nothing remains of the blob, the blob's boundary goes out of existence all at once; Lemma: The blob's boundary goes out of existence instantaneously; Conclusion: The blob goes out of existence instantaneously.

The humanistic disciplines aim to offer explanations of a wide variety of phenomena. Philosophical theories of explanation have focused mostly on explanations in the natural sciences; a much discussed theory of explanation is the causal theory of explanation. Recently it has come to be recognized that the sciences sometimes offer respectable explanations that are non-causal. This paper broadens the discussion by discussing explanations that are offered in the fields of history, linguistics, literary theory, and archaeology that do not seem to fit the causal theory of explanation. We conducted an exploratory survey in acclaimed humanities textbooks to find explicitly so-called explanations and analyze their nature. The survey suggests that non-causal explanations are an integral part of the humanities and that they are of distinct kinds. This paper describes three kinds that are suggested by our survey: teleological, formal, and normative explanations. We suggest that such humanistic explanations strengthen the case for explanatory pluralism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper justifies the concept of ’’thematic structure‘‘ or ’’order of knowledge‘‘ over the traditional ’’classification of sciences‘‘ due to the uncertainty of many classification criteria. The thematic structure of science has, of course, various levels and various dimensions. Arguments against any forms of separating the humanities from sciences in the traditional sense of the term are presented and discussed. Equally unacceptable are attempts at sharp separation of technical disciplines and humanities. The thematic structure of humanities is not created by some material aspects but rather through the interest – or problem-oriented aspects. In addition to the natural sciences and the humanities there exists an important sphere of sciences on artefacts or, using the term by H. Simon, the sciences of the artificial. For the contemporary research activities is typical what could be denoted as ’’interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary complex.‘‘ The paper traces a set of epistemological criteria for the justification of the relative independence of a scientific discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I examine Quine‘s indispensability argument, with particular emphasis on what is meant by ’indispensable‘. I show that confirmation theory plays a crucial role in answering this question and that once indispensability is understood in this light, Quine‘s argument is seen to be a serious stumbling block for any scientific realist wishing to maintain an anti-realist position with regard to mathematical entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines recent attempts to defend Rule-Consequentialism against a traditional objection. That objection takes the form of a dilemma, that either Rule-Consequentialism collapses into Act-Consequentialism or it is incoherent. Attempts to avoid this dilemma based on the idea that using RC has better results than using AC are rejected on the grounds that they conflate the ideas of a criterion of rightness and a decision procedure. Other strategies, Brad Hooker‘s prominent amongst them, involving the thought that RC need contain no overarching concern to maximize the good are acknowledged to avoid the original dilemma, but lead to further problems of motivating and justifying RC in the absence of such a concern. The paper argues that Hooker‘s attempt to deal with these problems by using a ‘Reflective Equilibrium plus‘ method is unsuccessful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to trace the evolution of Bachelard‘s thought as he gropes toward a concrete formulation of a philosophy of the imagination. Reverie, the creative daydream, occupies the central position in Bachelard‘s emerging metaphysic, which becomes increasingly ’’phenomenological‘‘ in a manner reminiscent of Husserl. This means that although Bachelard does not use Husserlian terms, he appropriates the following features of (Husserlian) phenomenology: 1. a desire to ’’embracket‘‘ the initial (rationalistic) impulse; and 2. an aspiration to apprehend in its entirety, the creative epiphany of an image. Ultimately, this paper aims to show that there is a sense in which Bachelard‘s metaphysical concerns in his poetics are an outgrowth of (rather than radical break from) his earlier scientific and epistemological concerns. What results in reverie is an aesthetic intentionality providing a metaphysic of the imagination: the aesthetic object, such as fire or water, is an object only insofar as it enables/calls forth a subject to enter into a receptive, self-aware and cosmic state of being; subject-ness and object-ness are intimately and archetypally intertwined. Bachelard‘s ’’new poetics‘‘ results from his transplantation/cross-fertilization of the general epistemology of the ’’new scientific spirit‘‘ on to/across his aesthetics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A form of metaphysical humanism in the field of philosophy of technology can be defined as the claim that besides technologies' physical aspects, purely human attributes are sufficient to conceptualize technologies. Metaphysical nonhumanism, on the other hand, would be the claim that the meanings of the operative words in any acceptable conception of technologies refer to the states of affairs or events which are in a way or another shaped by technologies. In this paper, I focus on the conception of technologies as problem-solving physical instruments in order to study the debate between the humanist and the nonhumanist ways of understanding technologies. I argue that this conception commits us to a hybrid understanding of technologies, one which is partly humanist and partly nonhumanist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philosophical interest in the role of self-locating information in the confirmation of hypotheses has intensified in virtue of the Sleeping Beauty problem. If the correct solution to that problem is 1/3, various attractive views on confirmation and probabilistic reasoning appear to be undermined; and some writers have used the problem as a basis for rejecting some of those views. My interest here is in two such views. One of them is the thesis that self-locating information cannot be evidentially relevant to a non-self-locating hypothesis. The other, a basic tenet of Bayesian confirmation theory, is the thesis that an ideally rational agent updates her credence in a non-self-locating hypothesis in response to new information only by conditionalization. I argue that we can disprove these two theses by way of cases that are much less puzzling than Sleeping Beauty. I present two such cases in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the space of possible worlds, there might be a best possible world (a uniquely best world or a world tied for best with some other worlds). Or, instead, for every possible world, there might be a better possible world. Suppose that the latter is true, i.e., that there is no best world. Many have thought that there is then an argument against the existence of God, i.e., the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient and morally perfect being; we will call such arguments no-best-world arguments. In this paper, we discuss ability-based objections to such arguments; an ability-based objection to a no-best world argument claims that the argument fails because one or more of its premises conflict with a plausible principle connecting the applicability of some type of moral evaluation to the agent's possession of a relevant ability. In particular, we formulate and evaluate an important new ability-based objection to the most promising no-best world argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The wrongful disability problem arises whenever a disability-causing, and therefore (presumptively) wrongful, procreative act is a necessary condition for the existence of a person whose life is otherwise worth living. It is a problem because it seems to involve no harm, and therefore no wrongful treatment, vis-à-vis that person. This essay defends the nonconsequentialist, rights-based, account of the wrong-making features of wrongful disability. It distinguishes between the person-affecting restriction, roughly the idea that wrongdoing is always the wronging of some person, and the harm principle, the idea that all wrongings are harmings. It argues, first, that the harm principle should be rejected, in light of offending intuitions in salient examples. Rejection of the harm principle is not only independently plausible, but also paves the way for a nonconsequentialist diagnosis of wrongful disability. This diagnosis conceives of wrongdoing as a failure to express adequate respect for the humanity or personhood inherent in the person created. The paper defends a theory of humanity-respecting rights that accommodates plausible intuitions about satisficing and fairness, without resorting to consequentialist premises that lead to well-known impossibility results and paradoxes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the analytical philosophy of science regards inconsistent theories as disastrous, Chomsky allows for the temporary tolerance of inconsistency between the hypotheses and the data. However, in linguistics there seem to be several types of inconsistency. The present paper aims at the development of a novel metatheoretical framework which provides tools for the representation and evaluation of inconsistencies in linguistic theories. The metatheoretical model relies on a system of paraconsistent logic and distinguishes between strong and weak inconsistency. Strong inconsistency is destructive in that it leads to logical chaos. In contrast, weak inconsistency may be constructive, because it is capable of accounting for the simultaneous presence of seemingly incompatible structures. However, paraconsistent logic cannot grasp the dynamism of the emergence and resolution of weak inconsistencies. Therefore, the metatheoretical approach is extended to plausible argumentation. The workability of this metatheoretical model is tested with the help of a detailed case study on an analysis of discontinuous constituents in Government-Binding Theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defends the claim that there is a deep tension between the principle of countable additivity and the one-third solution to the Sleeping Beauty problem. The claim that such a tension exists has recently been challenged by Brian Weatherson, who has attempted to provide a countable additivity-friendly argument for the one-third solution. This attempt is shown to be unsuccessful. And it is argued that the failure of this attempt sheds light on the status of the principle of indifference that underlies the tension between countable additivity and the one-third solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I explore the ways in which the 2012 Elsevier boycott and resultant call for open access scholarship known as the 'academic spring' have been taken up by scholars in the humanities and social sciences. I begin by reviewing the current state of affairs with regards to publishing and the academy, explicating the movement's reasons for demanding change. From this, I identify two moral principles which emerge from its critique, and then I show how implementing the recommendations which have been circulated as alternatives to the status quo do not necessarily support the academic spring's foundational principles. I conclude by suggesting a possible alternative direction of productive action and sounding a final word of caution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does inferential justification require the subject to be aware that her premises support her conclusion? Externalists tend to answer 'no' and internalists tend to answer 'yes'. In fact, internalists often hold the strong higher-level requirement that an argument justifies its conclusion only if the subject justifiably believes that her premises support her conclusion. I argue for a middle ground. Against most externalists, I argue that inferential justification requires that one be aware that her premises support her conclusion. Against many internalists, I argue that this higher-level awareness needn't be doxastic or justified. I also argue that the required higher-level awareness needn't be caused in some appropriate way, e.g. by a reliable or properly functioning faculty. I suspect that this weaker higher-level requirement is overlooked because, at first glance, it seems absurd to allow nondoxastic, unjustified, and unreliably-caused higher-level awareness to contribute to inferential justification. One of the central goals of this paper is to explain how such weak awareness can make an essential contribution to inferential justification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of digital humanities techniques to philosophy is changing the way scholars approach the discipline. This paper seeks to open a discussion about the difficulties, methods, opportunities, and dangers of creating and utilizing a formal representation of the discipline of philosophy. We review our current project, the Indiana Philosophy Ontology (InPhO) project, which uses a combination of automated methods and expert feedback to create a dynamic computational ontology for the discipline of philosophy. We argue that our distributed, expert-based approach to modeling the discipline carries substantial practical and philosophical benefits over alternatives. We also discuss challenges facing our project (and any other similar project) as well as the future directions for digital philosophy afforded by formal modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I consider two transcendental arguments for realism in the philosophy of science, which are due to Roy Bhaskar (A realist theory of science, 1975) and Nancy Cartwright (The dappled world, 1999). Bhaskar and Cartwright are both influential figures, however there is little discussion of their use of transcendental arguments in the literature. Here I seek to correct this oversight. I begin by describing the role of the transcendental arguments in question, in the context of the broader philosophical theories in which they are embedded, by Bhaskar and Cartwright respectively. I then consider some specific problems that arise for these particular transcendental arguments, in the context of contemporary philosophy of science. I raise two general problems for transcendental arguments for realism and I finish by spelling out what needs to be done to address the criticisms raised in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographical concerns with space and place have escaped the confines of the discipline of geography. Many humanities scholars now invoke such conceptions as a means to integrate diverse sources of information and to understand how broad social processes play out unevenly in different locations. The social production of spatiality thus offers a rich opportunity to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogues between different schools of critical theory. Following a brief assessment of the spatial turn in history, history of science, and political philosophy, this paper explores its implications for literary and cultural studies. It invokes a detailed case study of late 18th century Lima, Peru to explicate the dynamics of colonialism, the construction of racial identities, and different power/knowledge configurations within a particular locale. Space in this example appears as both matter and meaning, i.e., as simultaneously tangible and intangible, as a set of social circumstances and physical landscapes and as a constellation of discourses that simultaneously reflected, constituted, and at times undermined, the hegemonic social order. The intent is to demonstrate how multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary scholarship can be facilitated by paying attention to the unique of circumstances that define places within given historical moments. As seen in this example from literary colonial studies, other disciplines, therefore, can both draw from and contribute to poststructuralist interpretations of space as a negotiated set of situated practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, Ancient Mesopotamian epistemic practices resulting in the vast corpus of cuneiform ‘lexical lists’ and other, similarly formatted treatises have been conceptualized as “ Listenwissenschaft” in Assyriology. Introduced by the German Assyriologist Wolfram v. Soden in , this concept has also been utilized in other disciplines of the Humanities as a terminological means to describe epistemic activity allegedly inferior to ‘Western’ modes of analytical and hypotactic scientific reasoning. Building on the exemplary evidence of a bilingual list of cuneiform compound graphemes from the early 2nd millennium BCE as well as on recent conceptualizations of ‘epistemic cultures’ and the instrumental function of material ‘representations’ in the context of epistemic practices, the present paper attempts to replace the essentialistic and teleological concept of an Ancient Mesopotamian “ Listenwissenschaft” with a new epistemological model describing the underlying epistemic practices as highly adaptive non-linear epistemic practices comparable to what has been described as ‘practices with »epistemic things«’ in recent epistemology and practice theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific essentialism holds that: (1) each scientific kind is associated with the same set of properties in every possible world; and (2) every individual member of a scientific kind belongs to that kind in every possible world in which it exists. Recently, Ellis (Scientific essentialism, ; The philosophy of nature ) has provided the most sustained defense of scientific essentialism, though he does not clearly distinguish these two claims. In this paper, I argue that both claims face a number of formidable difficulties. The necessities of scientific essentialism are not adequately distinguished from semantic necessities, they have not been shown to be necessities in the strictest sense, they must be relativized to context, and they must either be confined to a subset of scientific properties without warrant or their connection to causal powers must be revoked. Moreover, upon closer examination (1) turns out to be a trivial thesis that can be satisfied by non-kinds, and (2) is inapplicable to some of the most fundamental kinds in the basic sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Mike Goodchild on critical issues related to spatial thinking in social sciences and humanities and colleague and another by sociologist John Logan and colleague on geographic information systems (GIS)-based spatial methods across the social sciences.

The article discusses relationship of juridical state of states and the state of nature. This paper explored the proper relationship of the individual nation states among individuals that are members of international body. It gives explanation or theories that may help form and develop ideas to the philosophical basis which led to the creation of such international bodies or organizations. Among the most significant philosopher who gave avenues for progress in research is Kant who postulated the legal philosophy toward perpetual peace.

Many philosophers claim that it cannot be the case that a person ought to perform an action if this person cannot perform this action. However, most of these philosophers do not give arguments for the truth of this claim. In this paper, I argue that it is plausible to interpret this claim in such a way that it is entailed by the claim that there cannot be a reason for a person to perform an action if it is impossible that this person will perform this action. I then give three arguments for the truth of the latter claim, which are also arguments for the truth of the former claim as I interpret it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper lays the groundwork for developing a thorough-going phenomenological description of different phenomena of violence such as physical, psychic and structural violence. The overall aim is to provide subject-centered approaches to violence within the social sciences and the humanities with an integrative theoretical framework. To do so, I will draw primarily on the phenomenological accounts of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Alfred Schutz, and thereby present guiding clues for a phenomenologically grounded theory of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]