Argumenta Philosophica最新文献_第7页

Happy-people-pills and Prosocial Behaviour 快乐药丸和亲社会行为

Argumenta Philosophica Pub Date : 2007-01-02 DOI: 10.21825/philosophica.82187

M. Walker

{"title":"Happy-people-pills and Prosocial Behaviour","authors":"M. Walker","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82187","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82187","url":null,"abstract":"There is evidence from the empirical sciences that ‘happiness’ – understood in the social scientists’ sense of ‘positive affect’– leads to prosocial behaviour: the happiest amongst us are more likely to help others. There is also scientific evidence of a genetic component to positive affect: genetic differences can account for some of the observed variances in positive affect. Let us think of ‘happy-people-pills’ as pharmacological agents, modeled on those with a genetic predisposition for high levels of positive affect, which will promote positive moods and em otions in ‘normally’ happy persons . It is argued that if we want to increase prosocial behaviour then we should (other things being equal) promote the use of happy-people-pills. Since we should inc rease prosocial behaviour, we should (other things being equal) promote the use of happy-people-pills. In a short paper like this, I cannot possibly show that everything else is equal. How ever, I hope to establish at least a prima facie case for policy that permits the creation and distribution of happy-people-pills. Perhaps one of the more surprising results of the explosion of scientific interest in happiness is the discovery of a causally symmetrical relationship between happiness and helping others (prosocial behaviour). That is, the happiest amongst us are more likely to engage in prosocial behaviour, and those who engage in prosocial activities are more likely to be happy. This causal symmetry suggests tantalizing prospects for ethics and policy. On the one hand, if we could encourage people to be more prosocial then the causal symmetry finding suggests people will be happier. On the other hand, if we can use the results of the scientific investigation of happiness to make it easier for people to be happy, then prosocial behaviour should increase. In this paper we will examine the idea that it may be possible to boost happiness by utilizing another surprising result from contemporary happiness research: genetics. Genetics play a large role in the level of individual happiness. I will","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74751588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 4

Should We Enhance Self-esteem? 我们应该增强自尊吗?

Argumenta Philosophica Pub Date : 2007-01-02 DOI: 10.21825/philosophica.82186

Rebecca Roache

引用次数: 2

Critical Remarks on Shortcuts to Happiness: the Relevance of Effort and Pain 《通往幸福的捷径:努力与痛苦的相关性

Argumenta Philosophica Pub Date : 2007-01-02 DOI: 10.21825/philosophica.82185

Valérie DE PRYCKER

引用次数: 0

The Dynamics of the Treatment-enhancement Distinction: ADHD as a Case Study 治疗-强化区别的动态:ADHD个案研究

Argumenta Philosophica Pub Date : 2007-01-02 DOI: 10.21825/philosophica.82183

M. Schermer

{"title":"The Dynamics of the Treatment-enhancement Distinction: ADHD as a Case Study","authors":"M. Schermer","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82183","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82183","url":null,"abstract":"A central issue in the ethical debate on psychopharmacological enhancers concerns the distinction between therapy and enhancement. Although from a theoretical point of view it is difficult to make a clear-cut distinction between treatment (of disease) on the one hand, and enhancement (of normal functioning) on the other, in medical practice and policy debates the counter-positioning of therapy to enhancement is clearly at work. Especially pharmaceutical companies have an interest in occupying the ‘grey area’ between normal and abnorm al, treatment and enhancement. This article discusses the dynamics of the treatment-enhancement distinction, and argues that practices that could be labelled ‘enhancement’ can also be understood in terms of medicalisation and ‘d isease mongering’. The argument is supported by results from a qualitative empirical study into the experiences and opinions of adults diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADH D). Patients are ambivalent about how to understand ADH D: as a disease, a disorder or a normal variation. Intervention with psychopharmacological means can a lso be understood in d ifferent ways . From an insider perspective it is conceived of as a ‘norm alising’ of functioning, w hereas from an outsider perspective it can be understood as med icalisation of underperformance, or indeed as performance enhancement. This draws attention to new moral issues which are important but under-recognised in the enhancement debate, and which are related to medicalisation.","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86650660","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 7

The Rationale of Variation in Methodological and Evidential Pluralism 方法论和证据多元论中变异的基本原理

Argumenta Philosophica Pub Date : 2006-01-02 DOI: 10.21825/philosophica.82199

F. Russo

{"title":"The Rationale of Variation in Methodological and Evidential Pluralism","authors":"F. Russo","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82199","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82199","url":null,"abstract":"Causal analysis in the social sciences takes advantage of a variety of methods and of a multi-fold source of information and evidence. The first developments of quantitative causal analysis in the social sciences are due to Quetelet (1869) and Durkheim (1895 and 1897) in demography and sociology respectively. Significant improvements are due to Blalock (1964) and Duncan (1975). Since then causal analysis has shown noteworthy progress in the formal methods of analysis, e.g., structural equation models, covariance structure models, multilevel models, and contingency tables. By means of these different methodologies, social scientists try to infer causal relations between variables of interest with reasonable confidence. Data comes from a variety of different sources: surveys, census, experiments, interviews, etc. Analogously, evidence of causal relations can come from different sources: previous studies, background knowledge, knowledge of mechanisms or of probabilistic relations, etc. This pluralistic methodology and source of information raises the question of whether we should accordingly have a pluralistic metaphysics and epistemology. This paper focuses on epistemology and argues that a pluralistic methodology and evidence do not entail a pluralistic epistemology. It will be shown that causal models employ a single rationale of testing, based on the notion of variation. This view of causality profoundly breaks down with the received view, an heritage of Hume, that sees in regularity and/or invariance the key notions for causality. For instance, the rationale of variation clearly emerges in the interpretation of structural equation models: given a system of equations, parameters quantify the variation of the dependent variable due to the variation in the independent variable(s). Regularity and invariance thus become constraints to impose on the variation in order ensure that the model correctly specify the data generating process and that it does not confuse accidental and spurious relations with causal ones. Further, I argue that this monistic epistemology is also involved in alternative philosophical theories of causation, for instance, in probabilistic theories of causality, mechanist and counterfactual accounts, agency-manipulability theories and in the epistemic theory. The philosophical gain in adopting the rationale of variation is at least threefold. First, causality is not merely lodged in a psychological habit of observing regular successions of events. Agreed, we do experience such regular sequences but it is not because of regularity that we interpret them causally. Instead, this is because certain variational relations hold. Second, causality is not reduced to statistics either. Further, to claim that variation is a precondition for regularity and invariance has the advantage of not confusing the rationale of causality with the conditions that allow to interpret variations causally. Third, the adoption of the rationale of variation ","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"42 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73225189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 17

Mechanisms and Counterfactuals: a Different Glimpse of the (Secret?) Connexion 机制与反事实:对(秘密?)的不同一瞥联系

Argumenta Philosophica Pub Date : 2006-01-02 DOI: 10.21825/philosophica.82196

Raffaella Campaner

{"title":"Mechanisms and Counterfactuals: a Different Glimpse of the (Secret?) Connexion","authors":"Raffaella Campaner","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82196","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82196","url":null,"abstract":"Ever since Wesley Salmon’s theory, the mechanical approach to causality has found an increasing number of supporters who have developed it in different directions. Mechanical views such as those advanced by Stuart Glennan, Jim Bogen and Peter Machamer, Lindley Darden and Carl Craver have met with broad consensus in recent years. This paper analyses the main features of these mechanical positions and some of the major problems they still face, referring to the latest debate on mechanisms, causal explanation and the relationship between mechanisms and counterfactuals. I shall claim that the mechanical approach can be recognised as having a fundamental explanatory power, whereas the counterfactual approach, recently developed mainly by Jim Woodw ard and essentially linked to the notion of intervention, has an important heuristic role. Claiming that mechanisms are by no means to be seen as parasitic on counterfactuals or less fundamental than them – as it has been recently suggested –, and that yet counterfactuals can play a part in a conceptual analysis of causation, I shall look for hin ts in support of the peaceful coexistence of the two. 1. The causal structure of the world: processes and interactions, entities and activities In the last couple of decades philosophy of science has seen the elaboration of several mechanical accounts. While terminology and emphasis differ, all the theories overlap in believing that mechanisms are complex systems present in nature. Wesley Salmon’s philosophical work is unanimously regarded as the compulsory locus for anyone interested in the notion of mechanism since the eighties. As is well-known, Salmon has developed a “process theory” of causation, centred on the notions of causal process, causal RAFAELLA CAMPAN ER 16 1 Apart from Craver (2001:69-70). production and causal propagation. In short, causal processes are defined as spatio-temporally continuous processes which exhibit consistency of structure over time, and are capable of transmitting a modification of their structure from the point at which it is performed onwards, without additional interventions. The production of causal influence is accounted for by appealing to causal forks, characterised in statistical terms. Once produced, causal influence is propagated continuously through processes. Interacting processes constitute a mechanical, objective and probabilistic network, underlying phenomena and responsible for their occurrence. Salmon’s conception of causality goes hand in hand with his theory of causal explanation, which comprises two levels: we first need to identify the properties which are statistically relevant with respect to the occurrence of the event to be explained; we then account for them in terms of the net of causal processes underlying the event. A further distinction Salmon makes, not recalled by later authors, is that between etiological and constitutive causation. When we aim at explaining a given event E, we may look at E as occu","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80110981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 9

A Defence of Quasi-reductionism in the Epistemology of Testimony 证言认识论中的准还原论辩护

Argumenta Philosophica Pub Date : 2006-01-02 DOI: 10.21825/philosophica.82189

D. Pritchard

{"title":"A Defence of Quasi-reductionism in the Epistemology of Testimony","authors":"D. Pritchard","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82189","url":null,"abstract":"Two key intuitions regarding knowledge are explored: that knowledge is a kind of cognitive achievement and that knowledge excludes luck. It is claimed that a proper understanding of how these intuitions should inform our conception of knowledge leads to some surprising results, not just as regards the theory of knowledge more generally but also as regards the epistemology of testimonial belief. In particular, it is argued that this conception of knowledge motivates a new kind of proposalquasi-reductionismthat can accommodate the motivations behind both reductionist and anti-reductionist accounts of the epistemology of testimony. 0. Here are two intuitions that many have regarding knowledge, and which inform much of our theorising about knowledge. The firstwhat I will call the achievement intuitionis that knowledge is a cognitive achievement of some sort. The secondwhat I will call the antiluck intuitionis that knowledge is incompatible with luck. It is tempting to think that these intuitions are just two sides of the same coin, or at least that once the intuitions are suitably fleshed out then we will come to see that the one intuition is simply an entailment of the other. For example, one might hold that achievements by their nature exclude luck in the relevant way and thus that the anti-luck intuition is simply a consequence of the achievement intuition. As I will show, however, this natural way of thinking about these two intuitions is mistaken, and this has important ramifications not only for our understanding of knowledge but also for our understanding of specifically testimonial knowledge. Indeed, I will claim that the intuition that knowledge is a type of cognitive achievement, while containing (like all intuitions) an important truth, is in fact wrong. As we will see, gaining an understanding of how these intuitions should inform our conception of knowledge will lead us to adopt a very","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"88 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85947031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 11

Testimony as Evidence 作为证据的证词

Argumenta Philosophica Pub Date : 2006-01-02 DOI: 10.21825/philosophica.82190

Sanford C. Goldberg

{"title":"Testimony as Evidence","authors":"Sanford C. Goldberg","doi":"10.21825/philosophica.82190","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21825/philosophica.82190","url":null,"abstract":"Regarding testimony as evidence fails to predict the sort of epistemic support testimony provides for testimonial belief. As a result, testimony-based belief should not be assimilated into the category of ep istemically inferen tial, evidence-based belief. 1. Reasons, Evidence, and Inference Holmes is trying to determine who committed the murder. His evidence consists of E1, E2, and E3. It occurs to him that he would have these pieces of evidence only if Mustard did it. He concludes that Mustard committed the murder. Here, the basis of Holmes’ conclusion is (a) his belief that his evidence consists of E1, E2, and E3, (b) his belief that he would have these pieces of evidence only if Mustard committed the murder, (c) whatever it is that supports these beliefs, and (d) whatever it is that bears on Holmes’ entitlement to draw the relevant inference from (a) and (b) to the conclusion that Mustard committed the murder. Smith is suffering from some condition that she would like diagnosed. The doctor notes the manifesting symptoms, S1, S2, and S3. On the basis of observing these symptoms, and having good reason to think that a patient manifests S1, S2, and S3 only if she is suffering from disease D, the doctor diagnoses Smith as suffering from D. Here, the basis of the doctor’s diagnosis is (e) his belief that Smith manifests S1, S2, and S3, (f) his belief that one manifests S1, S2, and S3 only if one is suffering from disease D, (g) whatever it is that supports these beliefs, and (h) whatever it is that bears on the doctor’s entitlement to draw the SANFORD C. GOLDBERG 30 relevant inference from (e) and (f) to the conclusion that Smith suffers from D. My description of these two cases is meant to bring out what I regard as an obvious parallel – one that goes to the heart of the epistemic account of inferential, evidence-based belief. In both case, the materials relevant to an epistemic assessment of the conclusion/diagnosis are the same. They consist of (i) the belief(s) that constitute(s) the subject’s evidence, (ii) the belief(s) that constitute(s) the generalization that links this evidence to the target conclusion/diagnosis, (iii) the epistemic support for all of these beliefs, and (iv) the subject’s entitlement to make the transition from these beliefs to the target conclusion/diagnosis itself. If the evidence-involving inference through which the subject acquired the belief is the only source of support for the belief in question, then (i)(iv) are the only materials that are relevant to the epistemic assessment of the belief: these exhaust the belief’s epistemic support. I will call beliefs of this sort Evidence-based beliefs, or E-beliefs for short. E-beliefs are only as epistemically good as the evidence on which they are based, the generalization(s) applied to that evidence, and the subject-drawn inference(s) to the E-belief itself. We can capture the foregoing idea in terms of the notion of supervenience, as follows: (Spv) The epistemic goodne","PeriodicalId":36843,"journal":{"name":"Argumenta Philosophica","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2006-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79221118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 3

Introduction to the Epistemology of Testimony 证言认识论导论

Argumenta Philosophica Pub Date : 2006-01-02 DOI: 10.21825/philosophica.82188

D. O’Brien

引用次数: 3

Causal Pluralism versus Epistemic Causality 因果多元论与认知因果论

Argumenta Philosophica Pub Date : 2006-01-02 DOI: 10.21825/philosophica.82198

Jon Williamson

引用次数: 53