75 research outputs found

    The Truth in Compatibilism and the truth of Libertarianism

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    The paper offers the outlines of a response to the often-made suggestion is that it is impossible to see how indeterminism could possibly provide us with anything that we might want in the way of freedom, anything that could really amount to control, as opposed merely to an openness in the flow of reality that would constitute merely the injection of chance, or randomness, into the unfolding of the processes which underlie our activity. It is suggested that the best first move for the libertarian is to make a number of important concessions to the compatibilist. It should be conceded, in particular, that certain sorts of alternative possibilities are neither truly available to real, worldly agents, nor required in order that those agents should act freely; and it should be admitted also that it is the compatibilist who tends to give the most plausible sorts of analyses of many of the ‘can’ and ‘could have’ statements which seem to need to be assertible of those agents we regard as free. But these concessions do not bring compatibilism itself in their wake. The most promising version of libertarianism, it is argued, should be based on the idea that agency itself (and not merely some special instances of it which we might designate with the honorific appellation ‘free’) is inconsistent with determinism. This version of libertarianism, it is claimed, can avoid the objection that indeterminism is as difficult to square with true agential control as determinism can sometimes seem to be

    Actions, adjuncts, and agency

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    Avaliação da formação de corpos lúteos acessórios e dosagem de progesterona em cabras da raça Saanen após o uso de hCG.

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    Avalia a formação de CLa e concentração plasmática de progesterona em decorrência da administração de hCG em cabras cinco dias após a última monta natural. Conclui-se que o tratamento com hCG 5 dias após a última MN induziu um efeito luteotrópico, e não a formação de CLa, antecipando o momento da ocorrência da elevação das concentração de progesterona plasmática. [Evaluation of formation of accessories corpora lutea and plasma progesterone concentration in Saanen goats treated with hCG]

    Analogical cognition: an insight into word meaning

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    Analogical cognition, extensively researched by Dedre Gentner and her colleagues over the past thirty five years, has been described as the core of human cognition, and it characterizes our use of many words. This research provides significant insight into the nature of word meaning, but it has been ignored by linguists and philosophers of language. I discuss some of the implications of the research for our account of word meaning. In particular, I argue that the research points to, and helps account for, a key explanatory role that linguistic meaning must play. The research also shows how words contribute to thought as opposed to merely being a means of conveying thought
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