Abstract Generalism about conspiracy theories (CTs) is the view that CTs, as a class, are epistemically flawed. Particularists argue that each CT must be judged individually on its evidence. Both sides accuse each other of circular reasoning—of defining the term “CT” in ways that make their conclusions trivially true. This paper proposes a way out of this deadlock. In section (1), we argue that the debate is path-dependent: resolving the impasse requires addressing key questions in the right order, starting with whether “CT” is a pejorative term in ordinary usage. Section (2) answers in the affirmative and defends a refined version of the deficiency view: “CT” works as a thick epistemic term. Section (3) asks whether this ordinary usage should be revised. We argue that it should not: the particularist’s main worry that generalism encourages the offhand dismissal of all conspiracy explanations rests on a misconception of generalism, while particularists’ other legitimate concerns can be addressed without redefining the term. We then take a conciliatory turn towards the particularist. For one, there is a broadly particularist challenge that calls for a further refinement of the deficiency view: it has proven difficult to pinpoint a single deficiency common to all CTs. Building on a recent proposal by Boudry and Napolitano, we argue in section (4) that generalists need not maintain that all CTs share the same defect. Rather, CTs may exhibit overlapping subsets of a broader cluster of epistemic shortcomings—the family resemblance view of CTs. We also show that the particularist’s core demand for case-by-case investigations of conspiracy hypotheses remains legitimate and that generalism and particularism turn out to be compatible. On reasonable construals that distill each view to its core, both emerge as true.

Numerous attempts to define art have been made from antiquity to the present, yet historical overviews often adopt a Eurocentric (and American-centric) perspective focused mainly on culturally dependent aesthetic approaches. As a universal social and cultural phenomenon, art resists center-periphery models. The cognitive turn reshaped art theory by reconsidering art as a cognitive dimension of humanity. Art has no limits on who can create or enjoy it. The ability to use and understand metaphor, for instance, demonstrates everyday human artistic cognition. The analysis relies on both field research (case studies) and academic literature; it argues for a revised theoretical frame for defining art and organizes it into a dynamic model of three main vectors: (1) art as communication (including art as agency); (2) art as creation; and (3) art as experience (involving both audience and artist). The model can incorporate the study of emotions into the third criterion while remaining open to both materialist and non-materialist approaches. Rather than offering a new definition, the study integrates the perspective of cognitive anthropology, cognitive semantics, and the anthropology of art in order to broaden understanding. Instead of searching for special aesthetic or economic values, these three dimensions of art appear more universal. A pragmatic analysis of how art “works” in individuals and groups provides a useful model for cognitive sciences. Instead of binary codes, it is a vectorial model, a 3D space for expressing family resemblance, since there is no common denominator (prototype) for all kinds of art.

ABSTRACT This study examined the effect of history of science (HOS)–based instruction on sixth-grade students' understanding of the nature of science (NOS) through the Reconceptualized Family Resemblance (RFN). RFN conceptualizes NOS across five categories: aims and values, scientific practices, methods and methodological rules, scientific knowledge, and the social–institutional system of science. A mixed-methods Embedded Experimental Model was employed. The sample consisted of 101 students from a public middle school in Türkiye, drawn from four intact classes randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Quantitative data were collected using the RFN Student Questionnaire administered as pre- and post-tests, while qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with eight purposively selected students who demonstrated moderate science achievement and balanced gender representation. Pre-test MANOVA results indicated no statistically significant differences between the groups. Post-test MANOVA results showed that students receiving HOS-based instruction achieved significantly higher NOS understanding in the categories of aims and values, scientific knowledge, and the social–institutional system. Although differences in scientific practices and methodological rules were not statistically significant, the experimental group displayed higher mean scores in these dimensions. Qualitative findings supported the quantitative results.

The present study examined 1) basic biliteracy difficulty subtypes in Chinese (L1) and English (L2) Hong Kong Chinese children, 2) genetic-versus-environmental aetiologies for the subtypes, and 3) the moderating role of SES and school language use in the aetiologies. Four hundred fifty-six twin pairs (91.08 ± 13.20months, 50% female) were assessed on Chinese and English word reading and spelling skills. Results of latent profile analysis identified four biliteracy profiles: 51.2% Chinese-dominant learners (CDL), 17.0% poor biliterate learners (PBL), 12.4% English-poor Chinese-dominant learners (EPCDL), and 19.4% English-dominant learners (EDL). Focusing on the difficulty profiles, results of familial resemblance showed that the additive genetic factor (55%) contributed more than the environmental factors to the probability of PBL, while the shared environmental factors (56%) contributed more than the genetic (25%) and unique environmental factors to the probability of EPCDL. Low SES was associated with a higher probability of PBL and EPCDL, and it exacerbated the genetic contribution to both difficulty profiles. The current findings suggest the influence of environmental factors underlying basic biliteracy difficulties, although we cannot rule out the possibility of high heritability, which appears to be the case for both L1 Chinese and L2 English.

Maternal stress during gestation can alter offspring physiology, behaviour, and immune function. In pigs, such ‘prenatal stress’ is known to increase stress sensitivity, but the potential to automatically detect such sensitivity has remained unexplored. Automatic detection of facial expression has successfully identified differences in pigs dependent on their stress status. This study progresses this work by demonstrating that, for the first time, using a deep learning framework applied to facial analysis, stress-linked phenotypes can be learned from one generation and detected in the next. Using a dataset of over 7000 facial images from 18 gestating sows and 53 of their daughters, we trained and evaluated five state-of-the-art deep learning architectures across six independent daughter cohorts. Attention-based models significantly outperformed CNN-based models, with the Vision Transformer (ViT) model achieving a mean accuracy of 0.78 and an average F1-score of 0.76. Grad-CAM visualisations showed that the ViT consistently attended to biologically relevant facial regions, such as the eyes and snout, whereas CNNs often focused on diffuse or non-informative areas, resulting in reduced low-stress recall and greater batch sensitivity. Models trained on maternal facial images successfully predicted stress responsiveness in daughters from unrelated lineages, indicating that the model captured generalisable facial cues of stress rather than familial resemblance. This approach supports previous work showing that machine vision can detect putatively stress-related alterations to facial expression in pigs. Future application of this approach could offer a scalable, non-invasive tool for early detection of stress in livestock production systems, opening new avenues for welfare-oriented precision livestock management and informed breeding strategies aimed at improving stress resilience.

ABSTRACT This article assesses the determinants of intragenerational social mobility across occupational trajectories in Southern Europe, focusing on Catalonia (1880s–1950s). Using a novel longitudinal database of individuals born 1870–1909 in the Baix Llobregat area, we examine sibling correlations in occupational status as a proxy for family socioeconomic resemblance and trace career progression across early, mid-, and late-career stages. Framing the analysis within modernization debates on structural and exchange mobility, we test four hypotheses addressing the evolution of family influence across career stages, cohort differences tied to industrialization, class-based inequalities in career advancement, and the role of family type (stem versus nuclear) and impartible inheritance. Employing multilevel modeling, we disentangle absolute changes driven by occupational restructuring from relative persistence attributable to family background. Results show that sibling correlations are strongest at career entry and generally decline over the life course, particularly among occupations associated with industrial expansion, partially confirming the hypothesis of diminishing familial influence. Cohort analysis reveals greater intragenerational upward mobility for younger cohorts (1890–1909) who matured amid consolidated industrialization, consistent with increased absolute mobility. Nevertheless, fathers’ higher occupational status remained a robust predictor of career progression, signalling persistent class-based advantages and constrained relative mobility. Contrary to classical expectations, the persistence of stem-family arrangements and the practice of impartible inheritance did not systematically intensify family resemblance in occupational trajectories. By combining rich longitudinal microdata with life-course modeling, this study advances understanding of how industrialization, family systems, and class structures jointly shaped intragenerational mobility in the Southern European context. Findings contribute to debates on modernization theory and highlight the need for research integrating education, migration, and gendered labor histories.

Abstract This brief response to the interdisciplinary manifesto “Provincializing ‘New’ Diplomatic History” traces family resemblances between discussions in diplomatic history and in the history of international law, and the shared implication of these discussions in larger questions of how we understand projects of international, global or transnational history. The response probes the Manifesto’s framing of a new “new” diplomatic history, arguing for an approach which is less about drawing lines in new places, further out from a Eurocentric institutional touchstone, and more able to put the multifaceted nature of terms like “diplomacy” in issue as a permanent structural question. In closing, the response explores some of the methodological suggestions made in the Manifesto, including what is at stake in imagining scholarly cooperation itself as diplomacy.

This article focuses on the didactic function of the Masoretic Psalter in the Second Temple period. It shows that an approach to the psalms based on the “family resemblance” model, combined with the identification of prototypical texts, makes it possible to understand the didactic typicity of the psalms of the Second Temple period. It exposes that this functional typicity may have been modified in some cases, in particular to serve partisan debates or various polemics. Finally, it examines the inclusion of the Psalter in the literature of advice and the editorial process that gave it a didactic function.

Abstract While the relationship between space and openness has been explored in electroacoustic music since the 1960s, and contemporary composers have shown increasing interest in contingency, recent advancements in ambisonics, sound diffusion, and VR have granted composers greater control over the spatial image presented to the listener. This article revisits the discussion of space and openness through the lens of the author’s artistic practice and compositional experience, framed by new materialism, object-oriented philosophy and relational space theory. Through case studies from the author’s work, it examines spatialisation strategies that emphasise openness and the agency of sound materials. These strategies include sound source localisation, networks of family resemblances and parametric spatialisation, aiming to create an open sound experience that maintains identity while allowing agency for the sound material, the listener and the composer. In light of current global crises, partly driven by total control and exploitation, this article advocates for rethinking compositional practices to foster open sound experiences that reflect dynamic interactions between composer, material and listener.

Abstract: Ever since Philipp Vielhauer’s classic article on the Paulinism of Acts, it has become common for NT scholars to remark that Luke’s theology conforms very little with Paul’s. Some have recently called this consensus into question by bringing other topics into the comparative investigation. What has received no examination, however, is the degree to which Paul and Luke belong together vis-à-vis a conviction that arguably stands at the center of Pauline theology: participation in Christ. In this essay, I carry recent discussions further by comparing Luke’s narrative theology of participation with Paul’s. Notwithstanding divergences and distinctives, I argue that Luke and Paul bear notable family resemblances to each other with respect to participation that pressure toward reconceiving how Luke’s theological proximity to Paul is framed and articluated.

Abstract Wittgenstein on the formation of concepts This article envisages Wittgenstein‘s account of concepts from a somewhat unusual angle. Instead of directly addressing the topic of ‛family resemblance’, it rather targets a misleading philosophical picture of concepts. According to this picture, concepts have ‛counterparts’ contained in the things that fall under them (§1). It is in the course of a critique of this idea that Wittgenstein introduces an alternative view of concepts that is guided by the picture of family resemblances (§2). However, attempts to spell-out a family resemblant conception of concepts have long been known to be subject to the so-called problem of ‛wide open texture’. According to this problem, extending a concept in a way that is guided by resemblances between its instances threatens its content with arbitrariness (§3). Examining existing solutions, the article provides a view of concepts as neither determined by how things are nor as merely contingent expressions of historically changeable speaker dispositions (§§4 – 5). Rather, concepts are shown to be logical achievements whose expansion in the face of unprecedented circumstances brings about an increase of knowledge that is reflected in them (§§6 – 7). It is then argued that the logico-epistemic dimension of our use of concept words is interspersed with contingent features which might conceal their rational form (§8). The article ends with remarks that seek to exhibit the account of concepts presented before as a foil of Wittgenstein‘s critique of culture (§9).

Abstract Wittgenstein’s ‘redemptive words’ Wittgenstein uses expressions such as ‚Erlösung” or ‚erlösende Worte‘ (‘redemption’ or ‘redemptive words’) in various places. Yet, there are not too many such passages, and those that do exist hardly refer to each other; they also belong to different creative periods and concern different subjects. – What one might call ‘the unity in the various relevant statements’ is therefore not obvious. It can be of quite different kinds in different creative periods, and in the end must consist in nothing more than the fact that they are Wittgenstein's utterances. Here, they are ordered around the ideas of the Abhandlung being highly systematic, and the later philosophical remarks being connected via the concept of family resemblance. In both cases, Wittgenstein’s philosophy might be called ‘Philosophie der Erlösung’, though in each case in a different, yet related sense.

Abstract This paper aims to highlight a distinctive, projective, mode of aspect perception within Wittgenstein's philosophy that has gone underappreciated in the scholarly literature. Although it bears a family resemblance to other instances of the phenomenon Wittgenstein describes as ‘noticing an aspect’ in PI Part II §113, it is distinctive in that it involves not only ‘seeing’ a pattern but also ‘projecting’ the pattern to subsequent cases of application. One reason it is important to highlight this projective mode of aspect perception is that it plays a critical role within Wittgenstein's rule‐following considerations. Confusions arise, such as those associated with the analysis of arithmetical infinity characteristic of Russellian Platonism, when philosophers adopt metaphysical misinterpretations of this ‘projective’ mode of aspect perception. By reflecting on this mode of aspect perception in association with rule‐following, Wittgenstein aims to dispel such confusions.

Abstract This paper reviews and prospects the study of word meaning and dynamic categorization. Based on a large number of literature, we find that cognitive semantics makes the study of word meaning systematic, and the categorization theory in cognitive linguistics is the basis of the study of word meaning, but, most of the research in prototype theory, family resemblance theory and category hierarchy theory only studies semantics from the static and synchronic perspective, and ignore the dynamic nature of the semantic categories, especially the diachronic evolution and immediate changes of the word meaning. Scholars have noticed the dynamic nature of categories, while few of them described the uniform definition of the dynamic categorization theory, let alone an intensive and systematic study on its causes, working mechanisms and process. Therefore, we will first construct the theory of dynamic categorization of word meaning under the guidance of the empirical view of cognitive semantics in future research, focus on the motivation, working mechanism and process of dynamic categorization of word meaning. Then, based on the qualitative analysis of corpus, we will have a systematic research on the process of dynamic semantic categorization of individual category and composite category.

Asian residents frequently have a higher percentage of body fat in comparison to individuals with European ancestry, which increases their susceptibility to metabolic diseases. This study aimed to explore the familial resemblance patterns of different body adiposity indicators among 16,983 Tehranian adults. The intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) of first-degree pairs were estimated to verify the family resemblance of the anthropometric and adiposity-related traits(ARTs) between family members and spouses. The family-based heritability of ARTs was estimated using the classical likelihood-based approach. Results were obtained based upon two scenarios: the first measurement scenario(FM), analysis of the individuals' ARTs in which they become ≥ 18 years for the first time, and the second scenario, which was based on the average of valid values of the ARTs for each individual(AM). There were 22,879 first-degree relative pairs (17,562 Parents/offspring and 5,137 siblings), 11,015s-degree relative pairs, and 1,299 third-degree cousin pairs. The familial resemblance between sibling pairs of the same sex was significantly higher than those of other pairs, as for brother: brother pairs, ICC ranged between 19.6% (95%CI:0.118,0.274) for a body shape index(ABSI) to 35.6% (95%CI:0.280,0.432) for body mass index(BMI). Also, for sister: sister pairs, ICC varied from 19.4%(95%CI:0.116,0.272)(ABSI) to 36.6% (95%CI:0.280,0.432)(BMI). For spouses, ICC varied between 5.6% (95%CI:0.025,0.087) for waist-to-hip ratio(WHR) to 10.4% (95%CI:0.065,0.143) for waist circumference. Family-based heritability estimation ranged from 28% (SE = 0.026) for body adiposity index (BAI) to 43% (SE = 0.024) for BMI. The highest pairwise correlation between family members was shown to exist between siblings, and same-sex relative pairs have shown a relatively larger correlation than relative pairs with a different sex.

Abstract: In his Ālambanaparīkṣāvṛtti , Dignāga refutes the externalists who hold that an external object is composed of substantial atoms. He argues that no theories of atomism defining external objects can fulfill the two criteria for an object-support. According to Vinītadeva and the Chinese Yogācāra tradition, the third position of atomism is a separate thesis from the other two positions. However, Tibetan exegetes and some modern scholars are skeptical about this claim. In this article, I argue that the third position is a more complex doctrine than the other two. It is not one atomic doctrine belonging to a certain Buddhist or Indian philosophical school but a complex of different atomic doctrines with a family resemblance, including those of the Vaibhāṣikas, the Dārṣṭāntikas (Sautrāntikas), and the Vaiśeṣikas. Accordingly, Dignāga's arguments in ĀP 4–5 can be analyzed as targeting different nuances, and all his arguments have their sources in the Abhidharma texts.

Abstract In this afterword, the directors of the Center for Advanced Studies ‘Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective’ (CAS-E) at Friedrich- Alexander-Universität offer a brief response to the comments by Carole Cusack, Mark Q. Gardiner, Steven Engler, Wouter Hanegraaff, Elizabeth McAlister, Jason Josephson Storm, and Hugh Urban. Reflecting on various theoretical and methodological discussions within CAS-E, particularly in light of the center’s fellows’ highly heterogeneous materials, conceptual challenges, and disciplinary frameworks, the afterword also sketches promising avenues for future research at CAS-E. These avenues focus on themes and debates, such as global religious history, family resemblances and the researcher’s situatedness, and alternative rationalities.

Abstract In ‘Universals and Family Resemblances’, Renford Bambrough claims that Ludwig Wittgenstein's conception of family resemblance solves the problem of universals. Bambrough's analysis has attracted a number of criticisms, including (i) that his exposition of the problem of universals is ill‐conceived, (ii) that he overgeneralizes Wittgenstein's claims about family resemblance and (iii) that his reconstruction of Wittgensteinian family resemblance fails as a solution to the problem of universals. In this paper, I revisit Bambrough's account in light of these objections. I try to show that, despite its shortcomings, Bambrough presents a viable approach to the problem of universals that also seems to match Wittgenstein's original view—which is, quite surprisingly, committed to an essentialist framework of sorts and propagates a tacit form of knowledge of the subsumption principles of general terms.

We investigate the hypothesis that family resemblance on school performance can be fully explained by additive genetic effects and assortative mating. Our sample consists of all schoolchildren who took Norwegian national standardized tests between 2007 and 2019 (N = 936,708). These tests measure aptitude in math and reading comprehension, and are taken the years children turn 10, 13, and 14 y old. We identify millions of pairs of relatives within our sample (82 different kinds, in total), including not only conventional biological relatives such as siblings and cousins, but also relatives-in-law, relatives through adoption, twins, and relatives connected through twins. When fitting models which assume that family resemblance arises solely from additive genetic effects and assortative mating, we find that they describe much of our data well, but that they systematically underestimate the similarity of close relatives (particularly monozygotic twins), maternal relatives, relatives-in-law, and relatives through adoption. We discuss potential explanations for these deviations, including shared-environmental effects, nonadditive genetic effects, and gene-environment interplay.

The aim of this study is to explore how nature of science is addressed in biology textbooks according to grade level and the chapters. The textbooks examined within the scope of the study are Biology 9 and Biology 10 textbooks. The analysis of the textbooks was based on the Reconceptualized Family Resemblance Approach. The study was conducted through content analysis based on an analytical framework in which aspects of NOS were included. According to the findings, it was determined that there were a total of 246 representations in the Biology 9 textbook about the nature of science. While 165 of these representations are related to the cognitive-epistemic structure of science, 81 are related to the social-institutional aspect. The findings also showed that there were a total of 178 representations related to the NOS in the Biology 10 textbook. While 82 of these representations are related to the cognitive-epistemic structure of science, 96 are related to the social-institutional aspect. No representations about political power structures were found in either textbook. The most frequent representations regarding the cognitive-epistemic structure of science were identified in the dimension of scientific practices in both textbooks. In the social-institutional dimension of science, the most representations were found in the financial aspect science in Biology 9 textbook, and in the scientific ethos sub-dimension in Biology 10 textbook. Chapter 3 in Biology 9 textbook and chapter 3 in Biology 10 textbook are the chapters that contain the most representations to NOS. The results showed that the social-institutional aspect of science is neglected in biology education in accordance with results about other science disciplines in the literature.