Critical Rationalism and Trust in Science

In this paper, I consider whether the critical rationalist philosophy of science may provide a rationale for trusting scientific knowledge. In the first part, I refer to several insights of Karl Popper’s social and political philosophy in order to see whether they may be of help in offsetting the distrust of science spawned by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the second part, I address the more general issue of whether the theoretical principles of the critical rationalist philosophy of science may afford a foundation for building trust in science. Both parts of the discussion, confined for the sake of the argument largely to the repudiation of the concept of good reasons for considering a theory to be true, imply that this question would have to be answered negatively. Against this, I argue that such a conclusion is based on a misconception of the nature of scientific knowledge: critical rationalism views science as a cognitive regime which calls for bold theories and at the same time demands a rigorous and continuous distrust towards them, and it is precisely this attitude that should be adopted as a compelling argument for trusting science.

Self-Constitution and Folds of Subjectivation in Foucault

The purpose of this paper is to analyze Foucault’s final key notion of subjectivation in the light of the Baroque metaphor of fold(ing). According to Deleuze, two distinct sources, Heidegger’s memory of Being and Leibniz’s monadology, are in a way brought together in this Foucauldian notion. I try to highlight the importance of the concept of subjectivation in the context of a performative turn in contemporary philosophy and various historical ways of conceiving this concept. A technical yet crucial aspect that has to be emphasized is the complex interplay and mutual co-dependence between active subjectivation and subjection (assujettissement). Understanding the «mode of subjection» as one of «the four folds of subjectivation» in Foucault provides us with a compelling argument for ethical pluralism. Finally, this gives us the vital clue for adjusting Deleuze’s interpretation of Foucault, revealing Nietzsche’s violent memory rather than the Heideggerian memory of Being as decisive in the process of subjectivation, and also a necessary conversion of «negative» freedom into positive liberty as autonomy and self-discipline, likewise in agreement with Nietzsche’s project of making «asceticism natural again».

When Walls Could Talk

How can visual texts, closed books, and painted images work together in Buddhist temples to reinforce one another and act upon viewers? The fourteenth-century murals at the Tibetan temple of Shalu integrate pictures with long passages of Tibetan texts and select inscriptions that explain the powers of seeing paintings. The murals combine and mix media—books, paintings, cloth—into expressive wholes that ultimately argue that walls are in fact much more than walls. The paintings find ways to make the temple's book collections more accessible. Here we find a public art effort that weaves together a compelling argument for why religious texts and religious art both “work” for and on their audiences. Shalu was a grandly expanded temple showing off its resources and its connections in a broader cosmopolitan sphere of production and exchange. Its walls were designed to weave media together, finding ways to celebrate and explain larger and newer corporate productions (book projects, larger monasteries). An intentional play of materiality (clay, cloth, book) emphasized by the inscriptions and performed in the pictorial compositions assists in the imaginative act of directly seeing deities, while also playing with the awareness that acts of imagination entail the play of just-like/seeing-as. Since neither clay nor cloth nor word on their own are adequate vessels for representing an enlightened being, here they collaborate with each other and with viewers in the imaginative act, promising that the deity, like the teachings, can be directly experienced.

Pornography Viewers

It is of interest to public health to determine the percentage of people who view pornography and to characterize the population of pornography viewers. This chapter presents estimates of lifetime and past-year pornography viewing for US populations, discusses whether pornography viewers consume pornography more frequently than in decades past, and presents estimates for pornography exposure for children and by demographic subgroups. The chapter concludes that pornography use is not rare and is not restricted to only males, young people, or the nonreligious. The chapter argues that the prevalence of pornography use alone is insufficient to qualify it as a public health crisis. If pornography use is both common and causes harm, that would be a compelling argument for addressing it as a public health concern.

Practitioners respond to Sarah Mercer's ‘Psychology for language learning: Spare a thought for the teacher’

Mercer (2018) makes a compelling argument for the urgent need to further research teacher psychology, focussing on language teachers. While there has been considerable research on language learner psychology and with considerable focus on individual differences (IDs), there have been comparatively few studies into language teacher psychology. Mercer (2018, p. 506) highlights that teachers are among the most important stake holders in the language learning and teaching process. Therefore, it is essential to understand the psychology of both learners and teachers to achieve the best learning outcomes.

On the Risk Posed by Deepfakes

Adam Garfinkle has made a compelling argument that deepfakes pose dangers to politics and news information. But there are, thankfully, some reasons for not sharing his pessimism—at least, not fully.

Reading Science Articles

This chapter covers how to read about data in a variety of journals and magazines and learn from how another author organizes and writes about their findings. This chapter also demonstrates how a reader can identify the main components of a data analysis and examine how an author brings these components together to form a logical and compelling argument. Examples include templates for use in organizing and writing about findings.

Return to Fanon

Articulating the dangers and the possibilities of decolonization, Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth, loomed large over African studies in the 1960s and 1970s. With its arousing language, its gripping descriptions, and its compelling argument, it traverses seamlessly between the psychological and the structural, between alienation and domination. Yet, it passes lightly over the connecting tissue, the social processes that are the entry point for ethnography. In this essay, the author sketches Fanon’s theory of decolonization, how it shaped one of his ethnographies of postcolonial Zambia, and ends with reflections on its significance today.

Are We Responsible for Laughing?

In his Commentary on Aristotle’s De Anima, Francisco Suárez offers a rich account of the psychology and physiology of laughter. Among other claims, he asserts that laughter is a voluntary act, without giving any further explanation. The aim of this paper is to glean from his texts a philosophically compelling argument for this claim. I will claim that for Suárez laughter is a commanded act of the will, since it somehow needs the will’s consent to be elicited. This kind of voluntariness is enough to make laughter morally relevant.

Change in or of global governance?

Michael Zürn's Theory of Global Governance is an original, bold, and compelling argument regarding the causes of change in global governance. A core argument is that legitimation problems trigger changes in global governance. This contribution addresses two core features of the argument. Although I am persuaded that legitimacy matters, there are times when: legitimacy appears to be given too much credit to the relative neglect of other factors; other times when the lack of legitimacy has little discernible impact on the working of global governance; and unanswered questions about how the legitimacy of global governance relates to the legitimacy of the international order of which it is a part. The second feature is what counts as change in global governance. Zürn reduces change to either deepening or decline, overlooking the possible how of global governance. In contrast to Zürn's map of global governance that is dominated by hierarchies in the form of international organizations, an alternative map locates multiple modes of governance: hierarchies, markets, and networks. The kinds of legitimation problems that Zürn identifies, I argue, can help explain some of the movement from hierarchical to other modes of global governance.