“Human freedom is best understood as self-determination. free action consists of deliberation, decision, and action. the free human person deserves dignity, that is, we each deserve to be treated as a moral end and not merely as a means to someone else’s end. neurocentrist philosophy-a form of eliminative materialism-based on neuroscience, however, threatens the extinction of the human self and, thereby, threatens to turn our experience of freedom and dignity into a mere delusion. this evacuates the moral agenda of every activist liberation theology. one task of today’s public theologian is to protect cognitive liberty, because it conceptually undergirds political, economic, and social liberation.”
Sommaggio, P., Mazzocca, M., Gerola, A., & Ferro, F.. (2017). Cognitive Liberty. A first step towards a human neuro-rights declaration. BioLaw Journal
“This paper discusses the emerging debate concerning the concept of cognitive liberty and its connection with human rights. therefore, considering how recent developments of neurosciences are granting us an increasing ability to monitor and influence mental processes, this article aims to provide a clear definition of cognitive liberty understood as a necessary condition to all other freedoms that cannot be reduced to existing rights. in this regard, after presenting the most important positions on the issue, we introduce our point of view, according to which cognitive liberty allows us to lay the groundwork for building new neurorelated human rights.”
Weissenbacher, A.. (2018). Defending cognitive liberty in an age of moral engineering. Theology and Science
“In 2009, mark walker first proposed the genetic virtue project, advancing that science should explore using genetic engineering to eliminate moral evils just as it attempts to eliminate natural ones like disease. this seemed like an issue for the far future given the unique challenges. walker focused on the wrong aspect of personhood, however, as moral engineering of the brain appears to be a more likely possibility. as early aspects of moral engineering the brain are in development, especially through the manipulation of the neural correlates of religious and political beliefs, emotions, and behaviors, i consider several issues surrounding this project so as to protect individual rights and prevent future harms. i advance an internal criterion for the field called acceptability across ideologies to serve as a guide to protect against coercive and harmful technologies and analyze how current laws protecting cognitive liberty are lacking and in need of revision.”
Sommaggio, P., & Mazzocca, M.. (2020). Cognitive liberty and human rights. In Neuroscience and Law: Complicated Crossings and New Perspectives
“This chapter discusses the emerging debate regarding the relationship between the concept of cognitive liberty and human rights. for this reason, after briefly presenting some issues related to the development of recent neurotechnology, the different types of definitions of the concept of cognitive liberty, that have been recently proposed, are illustrated. starting from these last, this chapter aims to analyze how, the whole relationship between human rights and cognitive liberty can change depending on the legislative strategy that one prefers to undertake.”
Ienca, M.. (2017). The Right to Cognitive Liberty. Scientific American
“Rapid advancements in human neuroscience and neurotechnology open unprecedented possibilities for accessing, collecting, sharing and manipulating information from the human brain. such applications raise important challenges to human rights principles that need to be addressed to prevent unintended consequences. this paper assesses the implications of emerging neurotechnology applications in the context of the human rights framework and suggests that existing human rights may not be sufficient to respond to these emerging issues. after analysing the relationship between neuroscience and human rights, we identify four new rights that may become of great relevance in the coming decades: the right to cognitive liberty, the right to mental privacy, the right to mental integrity, and the right to psychological continuity.”
Walsh, C.. (2010). Drugs and human rights: Private palliatives, sacramental freedoms and cognitive liberty. International Journal of Human Rights
Kraft, C. J., & Giordano, J.. (2017). Integrating brain science and law: Neuroscientific evidence and legal perspectives on protecting individual liberties. Frontiers in Neuroscience
“Advances in neuroscientific techniques have found increasingly broader applications, including in legal neuroscience (or ‘neurolaw’), where experts in the brain sciences are called to testify in the courtroom. but does the incursion of neuroscience into the legal sphere constitute a threat to individual liberties? and what legal protections are there against such threats? in this paper, we outline individual rights as they interact with neuroscientific methods. we then proceed to examine the current uses of neuroscientific evidence, and ultimately determine whether the rights of the individual are endangered by such approaches. based on our analysis, we conclude that while federal evidence rules constitute a substantial hurdle for the use of neuroscientific evidence, more ethical safeguards are needed to protect against future violations of fundamental rights. finally, we assert that it will be increasingly imperative for the legal and neuroscientific communities to work together to better define the limits, capabilities, and intended direction of neuroscientific methods applicable for use in law.”
Rainey, S., Martin, S., Christen, A., Mégevand, P., & Fourneret, E.. (2020). Brain Recording, Mind-Reading, and Neurotechnology: Ethical Issues from Consumer Devices to Brain-Based Speech Decoding. Science and Engineering Ethics
“Brain reading technologies are rapidly being developed in a number of neuroscience fields. these technologies can record, process, and decode neural signals. this has been described as ‘mind reading technology’ in some instances, especially in popular media. should the public at large, be concerned about this kind of technology? can it really read minds? concerns about mind-reading might include the thought that, in having one’s mind open to view, the possibility for free deliberation, and for self-conception, are eroded where one isn’t at liberty to privately mull things over. themes including privacy, cognitive liberty, and self-conception and expression appear to be areas of vital ethical concern. overall, this article explores whether brain reading technologies are really mind reading technologies. if they are, ethical ways to deal with them must be developed. if they are not, researchers and technology developers need to find ways to describe them more accurately, in order to dispel unwarranted concerns and address appropriately those that are warranted.”
Ienca, M., & Andorno, R.. (2021). Towards new human rights in the age of neuroscience and Neurotechnology. Analisis Filosofico
“Rapid advancements in human neuroscience and neurotechnology open unprecedented possibilities for accessing, collecting, sharing and manipulating information from the human brain. such applications raise important challenges to human rights principles that need to be addressed to prevent unintended consequences. this paper assesses the implications of emerging neurotechnology applications in the context of the human rights framework and suggests that existing human rights may not be sufficient to respond to these emerging issues. after analysing the relationship between neuroscience and human rights, we identify four new rights that may become of great relevance in the coming decades: the right to cognitive liberty, the right to mental privacy, the right to mental integrity, and the right to psychological continuity.”
Wolpe, P. R.. (2017). Neuroprivacy and cognitive liberty. In The Routledge Handbook of Neuroethics
“The term ‘‘cognitive liberty’’ has been used in a variety of ways. in general, it refers to the degree to which an individual has the right to control his or her own mental and emotional brain processes against the desires of external agents, especially the state, to control or access them. it is largely reflective of the value of neuroprivacy, the idea that privacy rights extend to a citizen’s brain, and that if privacy has any meaning at all, it must mean one’s right to protect the contents of one’s brain (i.e., one’s thoughts, emotions, and other subjective states). these terms are relatively recent concepts, reactions to the development of neurotechnologies that are beginning to allow unprecedented access to the inner workings of the brain. the values they reflect, however, have a long pedigree.”
Walsh, C.. (2014). Beyond religious freedom: Psychedelics and cognitive liberty. In Prohibition, Religious Freedom, and Human Rights: Regulating Traditional Drug Use
“This chapter will examine the blurred boundaries between the sacred and the secular when it comes to psychedelic experiences, and the inevitable ensuing arbitrariness involved in protecting some such rituals and not others. it will put forth the argument that there is a need to move beyond simply seeking exemptions from drug prohibition in the name of religious freedom; rather, there should be a broader right to ingest psychedelics as an aspect of cognitive liberty. cognitive liberty is the right to control one’s own consciousness. it is a concept that equates to freedom of thought, a right protected internationally by the universal declaration of human rights and enforceable in europe through article 9 of the european convention of human rights.”
White, A. E.. (2010). The lie of fMRI: An examination of the ethics of a market in lie detection using functional magnetic resonance imaging. HEC Forum
“The financial crisis, and associated scandals, created a sense of a juridical deficit with regard to the financial sector. forms of independent judgement within the sector appeared compromised, while judgement over the sector seemed unattainable. elites, in the classical millsian sense of those taking tacitly coordinated ‘big decisions’ over the rest of the public, seemed absent. this article argues that the eradication of jurisdictional elites is an effect of neoliberalism, as articulated most coherently by hayek. it characterizes the neoliberal project as an effort to elevate ‘unconscious’ processes over ‘conscious’ ones, which in practice means elevating cybernetic, non- human systems and processes over discursive spheres of politics and judgement. yet such a system still produces its own types of elite power, which come to consist in acts of translation, rather than judgement. firstly, there are ‘cyborg intermediaries’: elites which operate largely within the system of codes, data, screens and prices. secondly, there are ‘diplomatic intermediaries’: elites who come to narrate and justify what markets (and associated technologies and bodies) are ‘saying’. the paper draws on lazzarato’s work on signifying vs asignifying semiotics in order to articulate this, and concludes by considering the types of elite crisis which these forms of power tend to produce.”
Foster, J. B., & Holleman, H.. (2010). The Financial Power Elite. Monthly Review
“The article presents an historical overview of the emergence of the financial sector within the u.s. banking system, focusing on the developments of the end of the 20th century which led to the formation of a financial elite. introductory comments are given noting the rise and fall of different regulatory regimes within the u.s. banking sector in the first half of the century up to 1980. in-depth discussion is then provided highlighting the concentration of the financial sector as a dominant force in the nation’s economy up to the events of the 2008 global financial crisis and the return of political demands for regulation.”
Iyer, R., Koleva, S., Graham, J., Ditto, P., & Haidt, J.. (2012). Understanding libertarian morality: The psychological dispositions of self-identified libertarians. PLoS ONE
“Libertarians are an increasingly prominent ideological group in u.s. politics, yet they have been largely unstudied. across 16 measures in a large web-based sample that included 11,994 self-identified libertarians, we sought to understand the moral and psychological characteristics of self-described libertarians. based on an intuitionist view of moral judgment, we focused on the underlying affective and cognitive dispositions that accompany this unique worldview. compared to self-identified liberals and conservatives, libertarians showed 1) stronger endorsement of individual liberty as their foremost guiding principle, and weaker endorsement of all other moral principles; 2) a relatively cerebral as opposed to emotional cognitive style; and 3) lower interdependence and social relatedness. as predicted by intuitionist theories concerning the origins of moral reasoning, libertarian values showed convergent relationships with libertarian emotional dispositions and social preferences. our findings add to a growing recognition of the role of personality differences in the organization of political attitudes.”
Boire, R.. (2000). On Cognitive Liberty. In Journal of Cognitive Liberties
“Mirando la pagina de este hombre resulta que es un abogado que dirige un centro por el derecho a la libertad cognitiva y dirigia una revista del mismo nombre que defiende el derecho a mi propio cerebro, especialmente en (a) nadie me puede obligar a tomar psicofarmacos (b) tengo todo el derecho a consumar las drogas que me de la gana (incluyendo marihuana, cannabis etc”
Ienca, M., & Andorno, R.. (2017). Towards new human rights in the age of neuroscience and neurotechnology. Life Sciences, Society and Policy
“Rapid advancements in human neuroscience and neurotechnology open unprecedented possibilities for accessing, collecting, sharing and manipulating information from the human brain. such applications raise important challenges to human rights principles that need to be addressed to prevent unintended consequences. this paper assesses the implications of emerging neurotechnology applications in the context of the human rights framework and suggests that existing human rights may not be sufficient to respond to these emerging issues. after analysing the relationship between neuroscience and human rights, we identify four new rights that may become of great relevance in the coming decades: the right to cognitive liberty, the right to mental privacy, the right to mental integrity, and the right to psychological continuity.”
Shanker, S. G.. (2009). Three concepts of liberty. In After Cognitivism: A Reassessment of Cognitive Science and Philosophy
Rindermann, H.. (2012). Intellectual classes, technological progress and economic development: The rise of cognitive capitalism. Personality and Individual Differences
SENTENTIA, W.. (2006). Neuroethical Considerations: Cognitive Liberty and Converging Technologies for Improving Human Cognition. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
“Developers of nbic (nano-bio-info-cogno) technologies face a multitude of obstacles, not the least of which is navigating the public ethics of their applied research. biotechnologies have received widespread media attention and spawned heated interest in their perceived social implications. now, in view of the rapidly expanding purview of neuroscience and the growing array of technologic developments capable of affecting or monitoring cognition, the emerging field of neuroethics calls for a consideration of the social and ethical implications of neuroscientific discoveries and trends. to negotiate the complex ethical issues at stake in new and emerging kinds of technologies for improving human cognition, we need to overcome political, disciplinary, and religious sectarianism. we need analytical models that protect values of personhood at the heart of a functional democracy-values that allow, as much as possible, for individual decision-making, despite transformations in our understanding and ability to manipulate cognitive processes. addressing cognitive enhancement from the legal and ethical notion of ‘cognitive liberty’ provides a powerful tool for assessing and encouraging nbic developments.”
Desai, A. C.. (2011). Libertarian Paternalism, Externalities, and the “Spirit of Liberty”: How Thaler and Sunstein Are Nudging Us toward an “Overlapping Consensus”. Law and Social Inquiry, 36(1), 263–295.
“In their 2008 book nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth, andnhappiness, richard thaler and cass sunstein use research from psychologynand behavioral economics to argue that people suffer from systematicncognitive biases. they propose that policy makers mitigate these biasesnby framing people’s choices in ways that help people act in their ownnself-interest. thaler and sunstein call this approach “libertariannpaternalism,{’’} and they market it as “the real third way.{’’} in thisnessay, i argue that the book is a brilliant contribution to thinkingnabout policy making but that “choice architecture{’’} is not just ansolution to the problem of cognitive biases. rather, it is a means ofnapproaching any kind of policy making. i further argue that policynmakers must take externalities into account, even when using choicenarchitecture. finally, i argue that libertarian paternalism can best benseen as motivated by what sunstein has celebrated in his work onnconstitutional theory: a humility about the possibility of policy-makernerror embodied in learned hand’s famous aphorism about the “spirit ofnliberty{’’} and an attempt to reduce social conflicts by searching fornwhat john rawls called an “overlapping consensus.{’’}.”
Pustilnik, A. C.. (2012). Neurotechnologies at the intersection of criminal procedure and constitutional law. In The Constitution and the Future of Criminal Justice in America
“The rapid development of neurotechnologies poses novel constitutional issues for criminal law and criminal procedure. these technologies can identify directly from brain waves whether a person is familiar with a stimulus like a face or a weapon, can model blood flow in the brain to indicate whether a person is lying, and can even interfere with brain processes themselves via high-powered magnets to cause a person to be less likely to lie to an investigator. these technologies implicate the constitutional privilege against compelled, self-incriminating speech under the fifth amendment and the right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure under the fourth amendment of the united states constitution. law enforcement use of these technologies will not just require extending existing constitutional doctrine to cover new facts but will challenge these doctrines’ foundations. this short chapter discusses cognitive privacy and liberty under the fourth and fifth amendments, showing how current jurisprudence under both amendments stumbles on limited and limiting distinctions between the body and the mind, the physical and the informational. brain processes and emanations sit at the juncture of these categories. this chapter proposes a way to transcend these limitations while remaining faithful to precedent, extending these important constitutional protections into a new era of direct access to the brain/mind.”
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Wittgenstein taught at the University of Cambridge .More at Wikipedia
“The aspects of things that are most important to us are hidden from us because of their simplicity and familiarity. (One is unable to notice something – because it is always before one’s eyes” (1958, §129)
“Migration movements to industrialized countries have grown in number and size, and the presence of large numbers of immigrants has raised concerns about their integration and assimilation into host societies. this article is an empirical study of assimilation of foreign nationals in germany. their experience may hold lessons for other relatively recent immigration destinations. as expected, language is one of the most critical factors for determining integration and assimilation at the workplace and in society. our results indicate uneven success in these two areas, and suggest that greater language skills may be required for social assimilation, compared to economic assimilation. among the most important findings of our study are the strong and statistically significant effects of the attitudes by germans toward immigrants, the significant influence of the region of residence, and the ambivalence of german-born foreign residents toward naturalization and continued stay. this signals the failure of past integration and assimilation policies. the results show that negative attitudes by ethnic germans against others at work or in society, in general, reduce interest in integration and assimilation. this is neither new nor surprising and this research does not contribute new theoretical insights, but it demonstrates the magnitude and significance of the effects. the question of why different locations seemed to have different impacts on citizenship aspirations is beyond the scope of this article. the data do not provide information to pursue this question and we suspect that the causes are too complex for a short answer. as expected, non-eu citizens showed greater interest in acquiring german citizenship than eu citizens. finally, the results also indicate that the immediate post-world war ii notion of ‘guest workers’ was not completely false. there has been significant return migration and a significant number of respondents to the survey say that they intend to return.”
Kripke, S.. (1982). Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language: An Elementary Exposition. Ethics
“In the interpretation of wittgenstein’s thinking about the concept of a rule, two sharply differing positions have emerged. on one reading wittgenstein is taken to hold that the concept of a rule presupposes a community within which a common agreement in actions fixes the meaning of a rule. baker and hacker argue vigorously against this reading. they take wittgenstein to be holding that agreement is necessary only for ‘shared’ rules, ‘shared’ concepts, ‘shared’ language. according to their interpretation, wittgenstein allows the possibility that a human being who had always lived in isolation from any human community, could have a language and could follow rules. in my article i argue that baker and hacker have misunderstood wittgenstein on the concept of a rule, that the passages they adduce in support of their reading do not support it, and that many passages in his writings show wittgenstein’s position to be that without general agreement there could be neither rules nor language.”
Grayling, A. C.. (2001). Wittgenstein : a very short introduction. Very short introductions
“Ludwig wittgenstein (1889-1951) was an extraordinarily original philospher, whose influence on twentieth-century thinking goes well beyond philosophy itself. in this book, which aims to make wittgenstein’s thought accessible to the general non-specialist reader, a. c. grayling explains the nature and impact of wittgenstein’s views. he describes both his early and later philosophy, the differences and connections between them, and gives a fresh assessment of wittgenstein’s continuing influence on contemporary thought.”
Hamilton, A.. (2017). Ludwig Wittgenstein. In The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Memory
“This study tried to determine if drainage fluid amylase reflects pancreatic leakage after pancreaticoduodenectomy and to determine the factors affecting the drainage amylase level. patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy were recruited. the drainage amylase was measured from postoperative day (pod) 1 to pod 7. direct evidence of pancreatic leakage was provided by upper gastrointestinal studies using a water-soluble contrast medium and methylene blue dye in the pancreaticogastrostomy group or by pancreaticography with injected contrast medium via an exteriorized pancreatic stent in the pancreaticojejunostomy group on pod 7. a total of 37 patients were recruited. the drainage amylase level was higher than the normal serum amylase (>or= 190 u/l) in more than half of the cases on the initial pod 2 specimen, with a median of 745 u/l on pod 1 and 663 u/l on pod 2. the drainage amylase level was more than three times the normal serum amylase level (>or= 190 x 3 u/l) in 56.8% on pod 1, in 51.4% on pod 2, and in nearly one-third on pod 7 (29.7%). however, no pancreatic leakage occurred in any of the patients with a drainage amylase of >or= 190 u/l. only one case of pancreatic leakage with a small amount of drainage fluid (10 ml) and low amylase level (74 u/l), was noted. soft pancreatic parenchyma and a nondilated pancreatic duct were significantly associated with higher drainage amylase levels. in conclusion, biochemical leakage defined by amylase-rich drainage fluid might have no clinical significance and was not necessarily clinical pancreatic leakage following pancreaticoduodenectomy.”
Wittgenstein, L.. (1975). On Certainty. Igarss 2014
“Mycotoxins are small (mw approximately 700), toxic chemical products formed as secondary metabolites by a few fungal species that readily colonise crops and contaminate them with toxins in the field or after harvest. ochratoxins and aflatoxins are mycotoxins of major significance and hence there has been significant research on broad range of analytical and detection techniques that could be useful and practical. due to the variety of structures of these toxins, it is impossible to use one standard technique for analysis and/or detection. practical requirements for high-sensitivity analysis and the need for a specialist laboratory setting create challenges for routine analysis. several existing analytical techniques, which offer flexible and broad-based methods of analysis and in some cases detection, have been discussed in this manuscript. there are a number of methods used, of which many are lab-based, but to our knowledge there seems to be no single technique that stands out above the rest, although analytical liquid chromatography, commonly linked with mass spectroscopy is likely to be popular. this review manuscript discusses (a) sample pre-treatment methods such as liquid-liquid extraction (lle), supercritical fluid extraction (sfe), solid phase extraction (spe), (b) separation methods such as (tlc), high performance liquid chromatography (hplc), gas chromatography (gc), and capillary electrophoresis (ce) and (c) others such as elisa. further currents trends, advantages and disadvantages and future prospects of these methods have been discussed.”
Anscombe, G. E. M.. (1995). Ludwig Wittgenstein. Philosophy
“In the safety of his manuscripts, ludwig wittgenstein was free to endlessly revise, rework and reframe his philosophical thoughts. thus his published work yields a glimpse of just a small portion of wittgenstein’s philosophical thought the portion that eventually appeared in print. yet for wittgenstein, philosophy was an on-going activity, a process. only in his dialog with the philosophical community and in his private moments does wittgenstein’s philosophical practice fully come to light. those public and private occasions are collected here. in private occasions, co-editor alfred nordmann presents wittgenstein’s diaries from the 1930s to an english audience for the first time. they are accompanied by wittgenstein’s letters to and from friend ludwig hansel. together, they reveal a great deal about wittgenstein, who himself says ‘the movement of thought in my philosophizing should be discernible also in the history of my mind.’ in public occasions, james klagge collects wittgenstein’s papers and speeches, some newly published, from a number of forums, including his lectures at cambridge and his involvement with the cambridge moral science club. much of wittgenstein’s philosophical work came through, or in the form of, dialogs, making these public encounters particularly valuable. the result of this collaboration, ludwig wittgenstein: public and private occasions, is a thorough look at the philosophy of one of the 20th century’s greatest thinkers that goes beyond a mere study of his published work.””
Das, V.. (1998). Wittgenstein and Anthropology. Annu. Rev. Anthropol
“This essay explores the theme of wittgenstein as a philosopher of culture. the primary text on which the essay is based is philosophical investigations; it treats stanley cavell’s work as a major guide for the understanding and re- ception of wittgenstein into anthropology. some wittgensteinian themes ex- plored in the essay are the idea of culture as capability, horizontal and verti- cal limits to forms of life, concepts of everyday life in the face of skepticism, and the complexity of the inner in relation to questions of belief and pain. while an attempt has been made to relate these ideas to ethnographic de- scriptions, the emphasis in this essay is on the question of how anthropology may receive wittgenstein.”
ColivaMc, A.. (1997). Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations. Lingua e Stile
“Schroeder isolates three points in wittgenstein’s discussion of reasons that set reasons apart from causes: (i) sometimes, reasons are rules that justify actions. (ii) giving a reason is like describing the route one has taken: it is «the description of a e{singular} process, not the specification of a cause which always involves a whole host of observations. for this reason we say too that we know the reason for our action with certainty {…} but not the cause of an act» (vw 424; cf. bb 15). later, wittgenstein came to revise this view: «the reason may be nothing more than just the one he gives when asked» (al 5; cf. pi {s}479). (iii) agents have first-person authority about their reasons for their actions: what they sincerely claim to be their reason is what we call their reason (vw 30f., 110f.).nsuch first-person authority applies even to reasons given for one’s past actions. one knows what one was going to say or wanted to say, and yet one does not read it off from some mental process which took place then and which one remembers (pi {s}637). words do not report what happened on that occasion, they are a conditional statement about the past, a reaction to what i remember of the situation (pi {s}{s}648, 657, 659, 684). we ask people for their reasons, and given that (a) the agent’s claim as to his reason is sincere and not in conflict with what he expressed (by words or deeds, including the action in question) at other times, and (b) that reason was a fact of which the agent was aware and not a supposed fact which the agent did not believe to (or knew not to) obtain, we accept the avowed reasons, which provide us with an insight into the agent’s character. n”
Bloor, D.. (1999). Wittgenstein, Rules and Institutions. International Journal of Philosophical Studies
“Clearly and engagingly written, this volume is vital reading for those interested in philosophy and sociology, and in wittgenstein’s later thought. david bloor provides a challenging and informative evaluation of wittgenstein’s account of rules and rule-following. arguing for a collectivist reading, bloor offers the first consistent sociological interpretation of wittgenstein’s work for many years.”
Sen, A.. (2003). Sraffa, Wittgenstein, and Gramsci. Journal of Economic Literature
“The article focuses on economist piero sraffa and his relationship with and influence on philosopher ludwig wittgenstein and marxist theorist antonio gramsci. sraffa’s intellectual impact includes several new explorations in economic theory, including a reassessment of the history of political economy (starting with the work of david ricardo). his economic contributions, particularly his one book, ‘production of commodities by means of commodities: prelude to a critique of economic theory,’ have generated major controversies in economics. even though sraffa was only 29 years old at that time (he was born in turin on august 5th, 1898), he was already well known in britain and italy as a highly original economist. he had obtained a research degree (testi de laurea) from the university of turin in late 1920, with a thesis on monetary economics, but its was an article on the foundations of price theory which he published in 1925 in ‘annali di economia’ (a journal based in milan) that made him a major celebrity in italy and britain. the influence that sraffa had on wittgenstein’s thinking came through a series of regular conversations between the two. it concerned a change in wittgenstein’s philosophical approach in the years following 1929–a change in which conversations with sraffa evidently played a vital role. wittgenstein told a friend (rush rhees, another cambridge philosopher) that the most important thing that sraffa taught him was an ‘anthropological way’ of seeing philosophical problems. antonio gramsci was less reticent that sraffa about writing down his philosophical ideas. after some harrowing experiences of imprisonment, not least in milan, gramsci faced a trial, along with a number of other political prisoners, in rome in the summer of 1928. from february 1929 gramsci was engaged in writing essays and notes that would later be famous as his ‘prison notebooks.’”
Sluga, H., & Stern, D. G.. (2017). Preface to the second edition. The Cambridge Companion to Wittgenstein, Second Edition
“The photo-catalytic degradation of 1,2-dichloroethane (1, 2-dce) using nitrogen-doped tio2 photo-catalysts under fluorescent light irradiation was investigated. highly pure tio2 and nitrogen-doped tio2 were prepared by a sol-gel method and characterized by thermo-gravimetric/differential-thermal analysis (tg/dta), x-ray diffraction (xrd), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (xps), and fourier transform infrared (ftir) spectroscopy. the results indicate that the photo-catalysts were mainly nano-size with an anatase-phase structure. the degradation reaction of 1,2-dce was operated under visible-light irradiation, and the photo-catalytic oxidation was conducted in a batch photo-reactor with various nitrogen doping ratios (n/ti = 0-25 mol%). the relative humidity (rh) was controlled at 0-20% and the oxygen concentration was controlled at 0-21%. the photo-degradation with nitrogen-doped tio2 showed superior photo-catalytic activity compared to that for pure tio2. tio2 doped with 15 mol% nitrogen exhibited the best photo-catalytic efficiency under the tested conditions. the products from the 1,2-dce photo-catalytic oxidation were co2 and water; the by-products included dichloromethane, methyl chloride, ethyl chloride, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen chloride. the reaction pathway of 1,2-dce indicates that oxygen molecules are the major factor that causes the degradation of 1,2-dce in the gas phase. ?? 2011 elsevier b.v. all rights reserved.”
Wittgenstein, L.. (1965). I: A Lecture on Ethics. The Philosophical Review
“In non-ethical contexts judgments of value (i.e., ‘this is the right way to granchester’) are judgments of relative value, and can be converted to statements of fact. in ethics and religion, we find what appear to be judgments of ‘absolute’ value. all such ‘judgments’ turn out to be incoherent expressions, however. as attempts to say more than facts, they are attempts to go beyond the world, and so beyond the bounds of significant language. (staff)”
Wittgenstein, L.. (1958). The Blue and Brown Books. New York
“Preliminary studies for the ‘philosophical investigations,’ generally known as the”
Wittgenstein, L.. (1984). Zettel. In Werkausgabe in 8 Bänden
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“Zettel, an en face bilingual edition, collects fragments from wittgenstein’s work between 1929 and 1948 on issues of the mind, mathematics, and language.”
Picardi, E.. (1997). Wittgenstein and Quine. Lingua e Stile
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“This unique study brings together for the first time two of the most important philosophers of this century. never before have these two thinkers been compared – and commentators’ opinions on their relationship differ greatly. are the views of wittgenstein and quine on method and the nature of philosophy comparable or radically opposed? does wittgenstein’s concept of language engender that of quine, or threaten its philosophical foundations? an understanding of the similarities and differences between the thought of wittgenstein and of quine is essential if we are to have a full picture of contemporary philosophy. this collection of essays offers diverse and original ways in which to view their relationship.”
Glock, H.-J.. (1996). A Wittgenstein dictionary. The Blackwell philosopher dictionaries
“This lucid and accessible dictionary presents technical terms that wittgenstein introduced into philosophical debate or transformed substantially, and also topics to which he made a substantial contribution. hans-johann glock places wittgenstein’s ideas in their relevance to current debates. the entries delineate wittgenstein’s lines of argument on particular issues, assessing their strengths and weaknesses, and shed light on fundamental exegetical controversies. the dictionary entries are prefaced by a ‘sketch of a intellectual biography’, which links the basic themes of the early and later philosophy and describes the general development of wittgenstein’s thinking. extensive textual references, a detailed index and an annotated bibliography will facilitate further study. authoritative, comprehensive and clear, the volume will be welcomed by anyone with an interest in wittgenstein – his life, work or influence. each blackwell philosopher dictionary presents the life and work of an individual philosopher in a scholarly but accessible manner. entries cover key ideas and thoughts, as well as the main themes of the philosopher’s works. a comprehensive biographical sketch is also included.”
Schatzki, T. R.. (1996). Social practices: A Wittgensteinian approach to human activity and the social. Review of Metaphysics
“This book addresses key topics in social theory such as the basic structures of social life, the character of human activity, and the nature of individuality. drawing on the work of wittgenstein, the author develops an account of social existence that argues that social practices are the fundamental phenomenon in social life. this approach offers new insight into the social formation of individuals, surpassing and critiquing the existing practice theories of bourdieu, giddens, lyotard, and oakeshott.”
“Perhaps the most important work of philosophy written in the twentieth century, tractatus logico-philosophicus was the only philosophical work that ludwig wittgenstein published during his lifetime. written in short, carefully numbered paragraphs of extreme brilliance, it captured the imagination of a generation of philosophers. for wittgenstein, logic was something we use to conquer a reality which is in itself both elusive and unobtainable. he famously summarized the book in the following words: ‘What can be said at all can be said clearly; and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence.’ david pears and brian mcguinness received the highest praise for their meticulous translation. the work is prefaced by bertrand russell’s original introduction to the first english edition.”
Block, N.. (2012). Wittgenstein and qualia. In Reading Putnam
“Wittgenstein (1968) endorsed one kind of inverted spectrum hypothesis and rejected another. this paper argues that the kind of inverted spectrum hypothesis that wittgenstein endorsed (the innocuous inverted spectrum hypothesis) is the thin end of the wedge that precludes a wittgensteinian critique of the kind of inverted spectrum hypothesis he rejected (the dangerous kind). the danger of the dangerous kind is that it provides an argument for qualia, where qualia are (for the purposes of this paper) contents of experiential states which cannot be fully captured in public language. i will pinpoint the difference between the innocuous and dangerous scenarios that matters for the argument for qualia, give arguments in favor of the coherence and possibility of the dangerous scenario, and try to show that some standard arguments against qualia are ineffective against the version of the dangerous scenario i will be advocating. one of the two arguments for qualia i will give is a shifted spectrum argument that is much less controversial than the version i gave in block (1999), and the other argument for qualia is an inverted spectrum argument that is much less controversial than the one i gave in block (1990). the inverted spectrum argument is much less controversial because it does not require a behaviorally indistinguishable spectrum inversion. wittgensteins views provide a convenient starting point for a paper that is much more about qualia than about wittgenstein.”
McDowell, J.. (1984). Wittgenstein on following a rule. Synthese
“This paper originated in an attempt to respond to simon blackburn’s lsquorule-following and moral realismrsquo, in steven holtzman and christopher leich (eds.), wittgenstein: to follow a rule, routledge and kegan paul, london, boston and henley, 1981, pp. 163187; i was stimulated also, in writing the first draft, by an unpublished paper of blackburn’s called lsquorule-followingrsquo. i have been greatly helped by comments on the first draft from margaret gilbert, susan hurley, saul kripke, david lewis, christopher peacocke, philip pettit, david wiggins, and crispin wright, who also kindly let me see a draft of his lsquokripke’s wittgensteinrsquo, a paper presented to the seventh wittgenstein symposium at kirchberg, austria, in august 1982, and forthcoming in the journal of philosophy.”
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist, Georgist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey is one of the primary figures associated with the philosophy of pragmatism and is considered one of the fathers of functional psychology. More at Wikipedia
The only really fundamental approach to the problem is to inquire concerning the necessary effect of the present economic system upon the whole system of publicity; upon the judgment of what news is, upon the selection and elimination of matter that is published, upon the treatment of news in both editorial and news columns. The question, under this mode of approach, is not how many specific abuses there are and how they may be remedied, but how far genuine intellectual freedom and social responsibility are possible on any large scale under the existing economic regime.
Publishers and editors, with their commitments to “the public and social order” of which they are the beneficiaries, will often prove to be among the “chief enemies” of true “liberty of the press,” Dewey continued. It is unreasonable to expect “the managers of this business enterprise to do otherwise than as the leaders and henchmen of big business,” and to “select and treat their special wares from this standpoint.” Insofar as the ideological managers are “giving the public what it `wants’,” that is because of “the effect of the present economic system in generating intellectual indifference and apathy, in creating a demand for distraction and diversion, and almost a love for crime provided it pays” among a public “debauched by the ideal of getting away with whatever it can.”
Free thought and official propaganda : delivered at South Place Institute on March 24, 1922
“Manwhile the whole machinery of the State, in all the different countries, is turned on to making defenceless children believe absurd propositions the effect of which is to make them willing to die in defence of sinister interests under the impression that they are fighting for truth and right. This is only one of countless ways in which education is designed, not to give true knowledge, but to make the people pliable to the will of their masters. Without an elaborate system of deceit in the elementary schools it would be impossible to preserve the camouflage of democracy.
… It must not be supposed that the officials in charge of education desire the young to become educated. On the contrary, their problem is to impart information without imparting intelli- gence. Education should have two objects : first, to give definite knowledge — reading and writing, languages and mathematics, and so on ; secondly, to create those mental habits which will enable people to acquire knowledge and form sound judgments for themselves. The first of these we may call information, the second intelligence. The utility of information is admitted practically as well as theoretically ; without a literate population a modern State is impossible. But the utility of intelligence is admitted only theoretically, not practically ; it is not desired that ordinary people should think for themselves, because it is felt that people who think for themselves are awkward to manage and cause administrative difficulties. Only the guardians, in Plato‘s language, are to think ; the rest are to obey, or to follow leaders like a herd of sheep. This doctrine, often unconsciously, has survived the introduction of political democracy, and has radically vitiated all national systems of education.
Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge, justification, and the rationality of belief. Much debate in epistemology centers on four areas: (1) the philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and how it relates to such concepts as truth, belief, and justification,[2][3] (2) various problems of skepticism, (3) the sources and scope of knowledge and justified belief, and (4) the criteria for knowledge and justification. Epistemology addresses such questions as: “What makes justified beliefs justified?”,[4] “What does it mean to say that we know something?”,[5] and fundamentally “How do we know that we know?”.[6]
The quadrivium (plural: quadrivia) is the four subjects, or arts, taught after teaching the trivium. The word is Latin, meaning four ways, and its use for the four subjects has been attributed to Boethius or Cassiodorus in the 6th century. Together, the trivium and the quadrivium comprised the seven liberal arts (based on thinking skills), as distinguished from the practical arts (such as medicine and architecture).
Etymologically, the Latin word trivium means “the place where three roads meet” (tri + via); hence, the subjects of the trivium are the foundation for the quadrivium, the upper division of the medieval education in the liberal arts, which comprised arithmetic (number), geometry (number in space), music (number in time), and astronomy (number in space and time). Educationally, the trivium and the quadrivium imparted to the student the seven liberal arts of classical antiquity.[1]
Grammar teaches the mechanics of language to the student. This is the step where the student “comes to terms,” defining the objects and information perceived by the five senses. Hence, the Law of Identity: a tree is a tree, and not a cat.
Logic (also dialectic) is the “mechanics” of thought and of analysis, the process of identifying fallacious arguments and statements and so systematically removing contradictions, thereby producing factual knowledge that can be trusted.
Rhetoric is the application of language in order to instruct and to persuade the listener and the reader. It is the knowledge (grammar) now understood (logic) and being transmitted outwards as wisdom (rhetoric).
One can utilise a computer analogy to conceptually explain the Trivium. Per analogiam, input (via input channels such as the senses/sensors, or any other form of information transmission ) refers to grammar, processing to logic (thought & analysis), and output to rhetoric (written words & spoken language).
Sister Miriam Joseph, in The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric (2002), described the trivium as follows:
Grammar is the art of inventing symbols and combining them to express thought; logic is the art of thinking; and rhetoric is the art of communicating thought from one mind to another, the adaptation of language to circumstance.
. . .
Grammar is concerned with the thing as-it-is-symbolized. Logic is concerned with the thing as-it-is-known. Rhetoric is concerned with the thing as-it-is-communicated.[4]
John Ayto wrote in the Dictionary of Word Origins (1990) that study of the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) was requisite preparation for study of the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). For the medieval student, the trivium was the curricular beginning of the acquisition of the seven liberal arts; as such, it was the principal undergraduate course of study. The wordtrivial arose from the contrast between the simpler trivium and the more difficult quadrivium.[5]
Quadrivium
The quadrivium consisted of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. These followed the preparatory work of the trivium, consisting of grammar, logic, and rhetoric. In turn, the quadrivium was considered preparatory work for the study of philosophy (sometimes called the “liberal art par excellence”)[5] and theology.
These four studies compose the secondary part of the curriculum outlined by Plato in The Republic and are described in the seventh book of that work (in the order Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy, Music). [4] The quadrivium is implicit in early Pythagorean writings and in the De nuptiis of Martianus Capella, although the term quadrivium was not used until Boethius, early in the sixth century.[6] As Proclus wrote:
The Pythagoreans considered all mathematical science to be divided into four parts: one half they marked off as concerned with quantity, the other half with magnitude; and each of these they posited as twofold. A quantity can be considered in regard to its character by itself or in its relation to another quantity, magnitudes as either stationary or in motion. Arithmetic, then, studies quantities as such, music the relations between quantities, geometry magnitude at rest, spherics [astronomy] magnitude inherently moving.[7]
Medieval usage
At many medieval universities, this would have been the course leading to the degree of Master of Arts (after the BA). After the MA, the student could enter for bachelor’s degrees of the higher faculties (Theology, Medicine or Law). To this day, some of the postgraduate degree courses lead to the degree of Bachelor (the B.Phil and B.Litt. degrees are examples in the field of philosophy).
The study was eclectic, approaching the philosophical objectives sought by considering it from each aspect of the quadrivium within the general structure demonstrated by Proclus (AD 412–485), namely arithmetic and music on the one hand[8] and geometry and cosmology on the other.[9]
The subject of music within the quadrivium was originally the classical subject of harmonics, in particular the study of the proportions between the musical intervals created by the division of a monochord. A relationship to music as actually practised was not part of this study, but the framework of classical harmonics would substantially influence the content and structure of music theory as practised in both European and Islamic cultures.
Modern usage
In modern applications of the liberal arts as curriculum in colleges or universities, the quadrivium may be considered to be the study of number and its relationship to space or time: arithmetic was pure number, geometry was number in space, music was number in time, and astronomy was number in space and time. Morris Kline classified the four elements of the quadrivium as pure (arithmetic), stationary (geometry), moving (astronomy), and applied (music) number.[10]
“Today’s conflicts between the views that the humanities hold of science and engineering and the views science and engineering hold of the humanities weaken the very core of our culture. their cause is lack of integration in today’s education among subjects that hark back to the medieval trivium and quadrivium. a new trivium is needed to provide every educated person with a basic understanding of the endeavors and instruments that help us address our world and shape a new morality – the humanities, in the noblest sense of the word, to civilize, science to understand nature, and engineering, broadly defined, to encompass the kindred activities that modify nature. integration of these endeavors is urgent. it involves, in turn, an intimate interaction (the ‘biosoma’) of biological organisms, society, and machines – a new quadrivium. no domain can any longer be considered and learned in isolation.”
Etzkowitz, H., Ranga, M., & Dzisah, J.. (2012). Whither the university? The Novum Trivium and the transition from industrial to knowledge society. Social Science Information
“Beyond the bologna process key objective of achieving a common structure of the european tertiary educational format is the fundamental issue of the changing content of higher education. the highly specialized curricula of the industrial society no longer fully meet the needs of an emerging knowledge society that requires citizens with entrepreneurial and inter-cultural capabilities to innovate and respond to change in an increasingly inter-connected world. in this article we propose an innovative approach to undergraduate education called the novum trivium, comprised of (i) academic specialization, (ii) innovation and entrepreneurship, and (iii) a language and culture in addition to one’s own, as a new higher-education paradigm for the knowledge society. this vision of undergraduate education aims to contribute to the realization of the bologna process objective of better integrating education, research and innovation. the novum trivium brings together three diverse, yet complementary, educational skill sets, in a modern version of the tripos degree introduced by cambridge university in the 17th century as an honours degree in mathematics that eventually became a format that encompassed three closely related disciplines such as politics, philosophy and economics. the novum trivium is also inspired by the medieval trivium of grammar, rhetoric and dialectics (logic), the essential elements of education for all.”
