Group assertion and group silencing

Jennifer Lackey (2018) has developed an account of the primary form of group assertion, according to which groups assert when a suitably authorized spokesperson speaks for the group. In this paper I pose a challenge for Lackey's account, arguing that her account obscures the phenomenon of group silencing. This is because, in contrast to alternative approaches that view assertions (and speech acts generally) as social acts, Lackey's account implies that speakers can successfully assert regardless of how their utterances are taken up by their audiences. What reflection on group silencing shows us, I argue, is that an adequate account of group assertion needs to find a place for audience uptake

Thinking and acting both locally and globally: new issues for school development planning

No abstract available

Thermocline topography, horizontal currents and “ridging” in the Eastern Tropical Pacific

ENGLISH: A primary objective of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission is a knowledge of the ecology of tunas which inhabit the Eastern Tropical Pacific. This paper presents some results of the work in physical oceanography, which, it is hoped, will be useful to the biological work and at the same time of interest to physical oceanographers. The work presented here was begun in connection with simple observable facts; the thermocline is very close to the sea surface in a region off Costa Rica (Wooster and Cromwell, 1958), and this region is biologically productive (Holmes, et al. 1957; Brandhorst, 1958). It is the main object of this study to describe and explain these facts, insofar as possible. SPANISH: Uno de los principales objetivos de la Comisión Interamericana del Atún Tropical es el conocimiento de la ecología de los atunes que viven en el Pacífico Oriental Tropical. Este informe presenta algunos de los resultados del estudio en oceanografía física, los cuales se espera que serán útiles en la investigación biológica y, al mismo tiempo, de interés para los oceanógrafos físicos. El trabajo presentado aquí se inició en conexión con sencillos hechos observables; mar afuera de Costa Rica, la termoclina queda muy cerca de la superficie del mar (Wooster y Cromwell, 1958) y esta región es biológicamente productiva (Holmes, el al., 1957; Brandhorst, 1958). El objeto principal de este estudio es describir y explicar estos hechos, hasta donde sea posible. (PDF contains 32 pages.

Groups with Minds of Their Own Making

According Philip Pettit, suitably organised groups not only possess ‘minds of their own’ but can also ‘make up their minds’ and 'speak for themselves'--where these two capacities enable them to perform as conversable subjects or 'persons'. In this paper I critically examine Pettit's case for group personhood. My first step is to reconstruct his account, explaining first how he understands the two capacities he considers central to personhood – the capacity to ‘make up one’s mind’, and the capacity to ‘speak for oneself’ – before showing how he thinks these can be manifested in groups. With Pettit’s account duly reconstructed, I then turn to criticism, arguing that Pettit’s construal of making up one’s mind does not do proper justice to our first-personal self-understanding, nor to our characteristic interpersonal forms of engagement. This leads me, finally, to consider an alternative construal of ‘making up one’s mind’ and ‘speaking for oneself’ that is associated with the work of Richard Moran and whichargue, could usefully be exteextended to groups

Joint Commitment and Collective Belief

According to Margaret Gilbert, two or more people collectively believe that p if and only if they are jointly committed to believe that p as a body. But the way she construes joint commitment in her account – as a commitment of and by the several parties to “doing something as a body” – encourages the thought that the phenomenon accounted for is not that of genuine belief. I explain why this concern arises and explore a different way of construing joint commitment, in order to avoid the concern. This leads me to propose a revised Gilbertian account of collective belief, according to which two or more people collectively believe that p if and only if they are jointly committed to p as true

Recurrent Acceleration in Dilaton-Axion Cosmology

A class of Einstein-dilaton-axion models is found for which almost all flat expanding homogeneous and isotropic universes undergo recurrent periods of acceleration. We also extend recent results on eternally accelerating open universes.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. minor changes. Version 4 corrects a figure captio

Reclaiming Self-Determination: A Call for Intraracial Adoption

The wholesale marketing of Black children to suit the economic interests of others was one of the cruelest aspects of slavery. Sons and daughters who were traded away from their parents would later struggle in vain to remember their families, their customs, and their countries of origin. Even the extended families which evolved in the transient slave communities were continually fragmented as children and their caretakers were merchanted to different plantations according to the whims of White slavemasters. 1 Although due to quite different circumstances, today the Black community continues to lose its children. At present, government sponsored entities, 2 overlooking the potentially harmful consequences of transracial adoption, 3 remove Black children from their communities through transracial adoption with Whites who are unable to secure children of their own race. 4 Part I of this Note provides an overview of transracial adoption legislation leading up to the Multiethnic Placement Act (MPA) of 1994 and critiques the Act. Part II considers the effects of the transracial placement of Black children. This section focuses on the survival skills Black transracial adoptees would or would not acquire in a White home and the effect such an adoption may have on their racial identities and sense of community. Part III examines the current state of the law regarding the transracial adoption of Native American children. This section concludes that Black children should be accorded similar treatment, and moreover, that Black parents should be encouraged to adopt thereby diminishing the lengthy wait faced by adoptees ..