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Several philosophers propose probabilistic measures of how well a potential scientific explanation would explain the given evidence. These measures could elaborate “best” in “inference to the best explanation”. This paper argues that none of these measures (and no other measure built exclusively from such probabilities) succeeds. The paper considers the various rival explanations that scientists proposed for the parallelogram of forces. Scientists regarded various features of these proposals as making them more or less “lovely” (in Lipton’s sense). None of these probabilistic measures of loveliness can reflect these features. The paper concludes by considering the kinds of probabilities that could reflect these features.

International audience

Some mathematical proofs explain why the theorems they prove hold. This paper identifies several challenges for any counterfactual account of explanation in mathematics (that is, any account according to which an explanatory proof reveals how the explanandum would have been different, had facts in the explanans been different). The paper presumes that countermathematicals can be nontrivial. It argues that nevertheless, a counterfactual account portrays explanatory power as too easy to achieve, does not capture explanatory asymmetry, and fails to specify why certain proofs are explanatory and others are not. Greater informativeness about counterfactual dependence can even yield less explanatory power.

This paper is concerned with Bolzano’s philosophy of physics and discusses his explanatory proof of the parallelogram law for the composition of forces. It is argued that this proof is neither clearly causal nor clearly non-causal. In order to illuminate its explanatory potential, the proof is compared with Bolzano’s explanation of the intermediate value theorem: Bolzano takes the latter to have a unified explanation covering all functions, and in a similar spirit he regards an explanation of the parallelogram law as unifying it with analogous laws regarding various other quantities that are potential causes.

Does smoke cause fire or does fire cause smoke? James Woodward’s “Flagpoles anyone? Causal and explanatory asymmetries” argues that various statistical independence relations not only help us to uncover the directions of causal and explanatory relations in our world, but also are the worldly basis of causal and explanatory directions. We raise questions about Woodward’s envisioned epistemology, but our primary focus is on his metaphysics. We argue that any alleged connection between statistical (in)dependence and causal/explanatory direction is contingent, at best. The directions of causal/explanatory relations in our world seem not to depend on the statistical (in)dependence relations in our world (conceived of either as frequency patterns or as relations among chances). Thus, we doubt that statistical (in)dependence relations are the worldly basis of causal and explanatory directions.; ¿El humo causa el fuego, o es el fuego el que causa el humo? James Woodward argumenta en “Flagpoles anyone? Causal and explanatory asymmetries” que varias relaciones de independencia estadística no solo nos ayudan a descubrir la dirección de las relaciones causales y explicativas, sino que además constituyen el fundamento en el mundo de estas direcciones causales y explicativas. Aunque plantearemos preguntas acerca de la epistemología propuesta por Woodward, nos centraremos en su metafísica. Argumentaremos que cualquier supuesta conexión entre (in)dependencia estadística y dirección explicativa/causal es en el mejor de los casos contingente. La dirección de las relaciones causales/explicativas en nuestro mundo no parece depender de relaciones de (in)dependencia estadística en nuestro mundo (concebidas como patrones de frecuencia o como relaciones entre probabilidades). Por tanto, ponemos en duda que las relaciones de (in)dependencia estadística constituyan la base de las direcciones causales y explicativas.

Introduction Depuis les années 2000 qui ont vu l’apparition dans les textes officiels de dispositifs visant à favoriser au sein des classes les rencontres entre les disciplines, nombre d’entre eux se sont succédé notamment dans l’enseignement secondaire, ces dispositifs privilégiant des approches par compétences et de type projet. On peut citer en France pour le collège les itinéraires de découvertes (IDD), les thèmes de convergence et les expérimentations d’un enseignement intégré des scienc...

This paper examines some recent attempts that use counterfactuals to understand the asymmetry of non-causal scientific explanations. These attempts recognize that even when there is explanatory asymmetry, there may be symmetry in counterfactual dependence. Therefore, something more than mere counterfactual dependence is needed to account for explanatory asymmetry. Whether that further ingredient, even if applicable to causal explanation, can fit non-causal explanation is the challenge that explanatory asymmetry poses for counterfactual accounts of non-causal explanation. This paper argues that several recent accounts (Woodward, in: Reutlinger and Saatsi (eds) Explanation beyond causation: philosophical perspectives on non-causal explanations, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 117–140, 2018; Jansson and Saatsi in Br J Philos Sci, forthcoming; Jansson in J Philos 112:7–599, 2015; Saatsi and Pexton in Philos Sci 80: 613–624, 2013; French and Saatsi, in: Reutlinger and Saatsi (eds) Explanation beyond causation: philosophical perspectives on non-causal explanations, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 185–205, 2018) fail to meet this challenge. The paper then sketches a more positive proposal for dealing with explanatory asymmetry in non-causal explanations.

A typical textbook explanation of a rocket’s motion when its engine is fired appeals to momentum conservation: the rocket accelerates forward because its exhaust accelerates rearward and the system...

International audience; The risk of neutralizing the political dimension in environmental education through the depoliticization of its thematic objects, its intended learning, and its educational purposes, is a curricular phenomenon identified by recent research in the field. The aim of this article is to develop a conceptual and analytical framework to identify clarification of the political dimension. The framework on the political dimension as part of environmental education provides political learning entry that help to avoid the vanishing of this dimension. Nevertheless, this is not without themes and cannot be decoupled from its educational aims. Therefore, establishing a conceptual and analytical framework considering environmental themes, political learning and educational purposes together can effectively support the curricular construction of environmental education’s political dimension. Thus, we define six environmental issue meta-themes by politicization and depoliticization trends that cross them; draw on environmental and political education research to identify political learning components in an environmental education context; and discuss linking political learning to possible educational purposes. We believe that within the dialectic of politicization/depoliticization that crosses the thematic subjects, learning and purposes of environmental education’s political dimension, the path leading to the democratic subjectification of learners guarantees its non-neutralization.

Cette recherche s'inscrit dans la perspective d'une education au politique, emancipatrice, critique, creative et mobilisatrice permettant le depassement des deux inhibitions fondamentales epistemique et sociale qui engendrent le doute voire le renoncement sur les possibilites individuelles ou collectives de transformer le monde dans une perspective de transition ecologique. Cinq profils de l'engagement ecocitoyen de jeunes arrivants en fin de scolarite obligatoire (14-17 ans) ont ete etablis au moyen d'une enquete par questionnaire (n = 170) actualisant et precisant ainsi les resultats obtenus lors d'une recherche precedente. Ces resultats sont ici completes par la caracterisation sociologique et territoriale, mais aussi cognitive, tels les Raisonnements Socio Scientifiques dans la perspective de Durabilite, des cinq profils, au moyen de focus groupes. Sont pris en compte dans ce cadre et parametres, la dynamique des interactions, le rapport aux savoirs et au monde, dans ses dimensions identitaire, sociale et epistemique afin de determiner des strategies socio-didactiques plus efficientes car contextualisees.

L'objet de cet article est de rendre compte des recits relatifs aux enjeux de durabilite/soutenabilite dont sont porteurs les jeunes arrivant en fin de scolarite obligatoire en France (14-17 ans, college et Lycee) et de mettre a jour, a travers les verbatim d'eleves, ce qui releve du discours convenu, socialement valorise, et a l'inverse de la manifestation d'une certaine perplexite. Sont presentes le contexte et les objectifs du programme de reference, puis la methodologie du recueil de donnees et de leur analyse, et enfin les principaux resultats obtenus a ce stade de l'enquete. L'hypothese de tensions a l'oeuvre parmi les representations des eleves, est discutee. Les auteur.e.s montrent ainsi dans quelle mesure il convient de relativiser, a cette occasion, le role de mise en cohesion reflexive que l'Ecole serait sensee jouer sur ces questions educatives.

Cet article vise a mettre a jour les principaux determinants de l'engagement de jeunes vis-a-vis des enjeux de durabilite/soutenabilite et arrives en fin de scolarite obligatoire. Il s'inscrit en continuite avec les travaux menes lors d'un programme precedent et fondes sur une methodologie qualitative d'analyse des discours. La methode employee ici releve d'une analyse statistique des resultats d'une enquete par questionnaire. Elle conduit a identifier de maniere statistiquement significative 8 determinants principaux qui caracterisent 5 figures de l'engagement chez les 14 - 17 ans en contexte scolaire.

International audience; This research follows the perspective of political, emancipatory, critical, creative, and engaging education allowing tto overcome two fundamental epistemic and social inhibitions which generate doubt or even renunciation of individual or collective possibilities to transform the world for an ecological transition. Five profiles of the eco-citizen engagement of young people arriving at the end of compulsory education (14-17 years) were established by means of a questionnaire survey (n = 170) updating and thus specifying the results obtained during a previous research. These results are now completed by the sociological and territorial characterization, but also cognitive dimensions, such as Socio Scientific Reasoning in the perspective of Sustainability, of the five profiles, by means of focus groups. The dynamics of interactions, the relationship to knowledge and to the World, in relation to identity, as well as social and epistemic dimensions, are taken into account in this framework and parameterized in order to determine contextualized and therefore more efficient socio-didactic strategies; Cette recherche s'inscrit dans la perspective d'une éducation au politique, émancipatrice, critique, créative et mobilisatrice permettant le dépassement des deux inhibitions fondamentales épistémique et sociale qui engendrent le doute voire le renoncement sur les possibilités individuelles ou collectives de transformer le monde dans une perspective de transition écologique. Cinq profils de l'engagement écocitoyen de jeunes arrivants en fin de scolarité obligatoire (14-17 ans) ont été établis au moyen d'une enquête par questionnaire (n = 170) actualisant et précisant ainsi les résultats obtenus lors d'une recherche précédente. Ces résultats sont ici complétés par la caractérisation sociologique et territoriale, mais aussi cognitive, tels les Raisonnements Socio Scientifiques dans la perspective de Durabilité, des cinq profils, au moyen de focus groupes. Sont pris en compte dans ce cadre et paramétrés, la dynamique des interactions, le rapport aux savoirs et au monde, dans ses dimensions identitaire, sociale et épistémique afin de déterminer des stratégies socio-didactiques plus efficientes car contextualisées.

The article provides an overview of the opinions and attitudes of a selected group of experts on the introduction of electronic healthcare in the Czech healthcare system. The research used the DELPHI method, the first wave of which took place in the first quarter of this year and the second wave is planned for the second half of this year. A total of forty respondents assessed the relevance of the individual steps of electronization and digitization, as well as the obstacles that need to be overcome in the implementation of the National eHealth Strategy. Respondents consider electronic information on health promotion and prevention programs (87%) and support for chronic patients (77%) to be the most appropriate or important, while the least supported is the publication of service level assessments of providers (27%) and on-line access to documentation of the authorizing person (30%), less support is also given to the optimization of waiting times with the help of digitization (35%) and electronic consultation with a doctor (35%). Respondents see the biggest obstacles to eHealth implementation in the resistance of providers (up to 70% for some measures) and in unsatisfactory or missing legislation (up to 85% for some steps). The survey was carried out as part of the project Structural Reform Support Service (SRSS) of the European Commission at the Ministry of Health and under coordination of National eHealth Centre (NeHC).

Home-based rehabilitation after an acute episode or following an exacerbation of a chronic disease is often problematic with a clear lack of continuity of care between hospital and home care. Secondary prevention is an essential element of long-term rehabilitation where strategies oriented toward risk reduction, treatment adherence, and optimization of quality of life need to be applied. Frail and sometimes isolated, the patient fails to adhere to the proposed post-discharge clinical pathway due to lack of appropriate clinical, emotional, and informational support. Providing a suitable rehabilitation after an acute episode or a chronic disease is a major issue, as it helps people to live independently and enhance their quality of life. However, as the rehabilitation period usually lasts some months, the continuity of care is often interrupted in the transition from hospital to home. Virtual coaches could help these patients to engage in a personalized rehabilitation program that complies with age-related conditions. These coaches could be a key technology for empowering patients toward increasing their adherence to the care plan and to improve their secondary prevention measures. In this paper, we are presenting a novel virtual coaching system that will address these challenges by combining recent technological advances with clinical pathways, based on joint research and validation activities from researchers from the medical and information and communication technology (ICT) domains.

The influence of systematic risk exposure on corporate financing decisions is receiving increasing attention in the empirical capital structure research. While most recent studies of the US-market show, that systematic risk (measured with asset beta) affects corporate capital structure decisions, little is known about cross-country differences regarding this relationship. In this paper we use institutional factors that represent the protection of creditors to explore the interaction effects between country-specific factors and asset beta on financing decisions. Our findings indicate, that (i) on average, firms with higher asset beta use less debt, (ii) the protection of creditor rights mitigate the negative impact of asset beta on leverage, (iii) the negative effect of asset beta on leverage is more pronounced for firms with higher levels of leverage and (iv) that especially in countries with weak protection of creditor rights, firms with high asset beta choose less leverage in economic downturns.