Initial Argument Research Articles

The effects of successful versus failure-based cases on argumentation while solving decision-making problems

Solving complex, ill-structured problems may be effectively supported by case-based reasoning through case libraries that provide just-in-time domain-specific principles in the form of stories. The cases not only articulate previous experiences of practitioners, but also serve as problem-solving narratives from which learners can acquire meaning. The current study investigated the effects of different case-types (success, failures) on analogical transfer to similar problems. In the first week, undergraduate sales management students (N = 36) were assigned to different case library treatments (success, failure) and asked to construct a multifaceted argument (initial argument, counterargument, rebuttal) to resolve an ill-structured, decision-making hiring problem. In the following week, students constructed an argument to solve a novel case without the support of the case library. Data analysis revealed the failure-based case library condition produced significantly higher scores on measurements of counterarguments and holistic argumentation scores on both tasks. A discussion of the implications for pedagogy and instructional design are also presented.

Further considerations on suicides among union forces during the U.S. Civil War

In their thoughtful commentary McCutcheon et al. (2013) remind us that caution is warranted in interpreting military suicide data, in part due to the possible political, leadership, and morale pressures to disguise suicides that may have existed during the U.S. Civil War. While we agree generally, we offer further considerations on suicides among Union forces during the war. We discuss the integrity of the data source, the ratio of homicides to suicides, contemporaneous journalistic accounts regarding cultural acceptance of suicide, seasonal variations in suicides, and Dyer's Compendium. All of these points suggest support for our initial argument that suicide rates during the U.S. Civil War were much lower than modern U.S. military suicide rates. We agree with McCutcheon et al. that geography and history remind us there is good reasons to be optimistic that the psychological consequences of war are not inevitably devastating to all those who serve.

The Nonself of Girard

The Nonself of Girard Samuel Buchoul (bio) Girard and Philosophy According to René Girard, mimetic theory and philosophy cannot go together; mimetic theory must go beyond philosophy. More than an ideological disagreement, there is here an actual methodological divergence. Philosophy, he argues, tends to remain at the superficial level of pure intellectual understanding, whereas other human faculties must be accessed to overcome the illusions of an independent desire: In reality, no purely intellectual process and no experience of a purely philosophical nature can secure the individual the slightest victory over mimetic desire and its victimage delusions. Intellection can achieve only displacement and substitution, though these may give individuals the sense of having achieved such a victory.1 Furthermore, Girard relates the impossibility of philosophy’s real progress to its incapacity to question the ultimate levels of introspection, namely, “ego,” “personality,” or “temperament”: For there to be even the slightest degree of progress, the victimage delusion must be vanquished on the most intimate level of experience; and this triumph, if it is not to remain a dead letter, must succeed in collapsing, or at the very least shaking to their foundations, all the things that are based upon our interdividual oppositions—consequently, [End Page 101] everything that we can call our ‘ego,’ our ‘personality,’ our ‘temperament,’ and so on.2 In other words, Girard affirms that philosophy has always been biased by the romantic axiom par excellence: the existence of an autonomous self. However, one may argue that not all philosophical traditions of the world repeat this faith in the independence of the self. Buddhism is one of them, and it actually fulfils both of the aforementioned requisites of Girard’s theory.3 Buddhism, too, argues that a purely intellectual inquiry, without the practice of morality (Sīla), concentration (Samādhi), and wisdom (Prajñā), cannot suffice to reach the truth. Furthermore, Buddhism also refutes the hypothesis of an independent self; fighting this belief is actually the central element of the Buddhist path to liberation. Although Girard does not directly address ethics, we can gain much by extending his reflections into this realm. Doing so, we can discover certain values that may be common to Girard and Buddhism and that naturally point to the same conclusion: the need to forsake the romantic lie of the autonomy and independence of human beings in favor of a deep awareness of the interdependence in human life and all worldly phenomena. This awareness is the starting point and essential precondition to a new understanding of what an ethical life is.4 In this essay, I shall attempt to highlight some of the common features and possible meeting points of mimetic theory and Buddhist philosophy. This will be done on the basis of the Buddhist notion of Anattā, nonself, which Leo D. Lefebure already noted as offering a deep conceptual compatibility with the theory of mimetic desire.5 I will try to go further and present some initial arguments in favor of a more ambitious hypothesis: that mimetic theory could finally find, with Buddhism, support from a major philosophical tradition. This short article is intended as a speculative and provocative introduction to an intellectual encounter that deserves greater academic attention. In addition to advancing some preliminary arguments that will be developed further in subsequent works, the present essay, taken alone, still serves an important purpose: to introduce parts of Buddhist terminology that will be relevant for future philosophical and ethical studies of Girard’s work.6 Anattā: Nonself Anattā is one of the unique contributions of Sakyamuni Buddha, the founder of Buddhism who lived in the fifth-century BCE in India. Along [End Page 102] with his rejection of the caste system and the practice of sacrifice, Buddha questioned the existence of the Ātman (Sanskrit) or Atta (Pāli), the self or soul7 widely accepted in Brāhmaṇism. The Ātman concept is similar to the idea that each person or thing has an independent self, a view that is shared by several main families of Western philosophy, from the Greek era to the Enlightenment. Walpola Rahula recalls that, in the Brāhmaṇical tradition, it was believed that “in man there is a permanent, everlasting...

Demonizing the Jews: Luther and the Protestant Church in Nazi Germany

Martin Luther’s writings against the Jews have embarrassed later generations, both by their substance and by their tone. Their initial argument is theological. Both in the Old Testament and in Luther’s time, Jews profess that they can lead a life pleasing to God without the help of divine grace. For their rejection of the Messiah, they have been punished with exile, and Christians should not persecute them but leave them in their misery as a dreadful warning. However, the notorious later treatises, Von den Juden und ihren Lügen (1542) and Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi (1543), denounce the Jews wholesale as blasphemous criminals and urge Christian princes to destroy their houses, burn their synagogues and schools, and set them to hard labour. With their cloacal imagery, these treatises are steeped in the rhetoric of late-medieval antisemitism. Commentators since 1945 have stressed the theological thrust of Luther’s anti-Judaism and pointed out that despite its fury it is at least free from the racial antisemitism that developed in the nineteenth century. Before 1945, however, as Christopher Probst argues, these treatises provided ample ammunition—more than is generally realized—for antisemites in the German Lutheran Church. Thus their reception is an important topic in the generally dispiriting history of the Church’s relations with Nazism, in which individuals sympathetic to Jews, such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, formed a small minority.

Response to “Stripy Nanoparticles Revisited”

In a paper entitled "Stripy Nanoparticles Revisited", Levy and co-workers contest the interpretation of scanning tunneling microscopy images of monolayer protected gold nanoparticles that our group has presented. We show that the two arguments they use are based on flawed assumptions and contradict each other. We also show new evidence for the existence of stripe-like domains on mixed monolayer-coated gold nanoparticles. Copyright © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Embryo deaths in reproduction and embryo research: a reply to Murphy's double effect argument

The majority of embryos created in natural reproduction die spontaneously within a few weeks of conception. Some have argued that, therefore, if one believes the embryo is a person (in...

Initiation of an anal cancer screening in HIV+MSM: results of cytology, biopsy and determination of risk factors

Incidence of anal cancer is increasing and risk of anal cancer is higher in MSM, especially if they are HIV+. European guidelines for treatment of HIV‐infected adults recommend anal cancer screening by digital rectal exam±Pap test with anuscopy if Pap test is abnormal. A systematic anal cancer screening in HIV+MSM with anal cytology (Pap smears) was established in June 2011 in our reference centre in Brussels. If anal cytology was abnormal, high‐resolution anuscopy (HRA) with biopsy was performed. 353 MSM HIV+were screened by anal smears between June 2011 and May 2012. 90% were Caucasians, median age was 44.5 years, 83% were on HAART and 74% had an undetectable viral load, median CD4 was 632/µl and 33% had a nadir CD4<200. Thirty‐three (9.3%) were excluded because of poor quality. Cytology was abnormal in 46% of the 320 remaining patients: high‐grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) 3%, low‐grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) 24%, atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC‐US) 16%, and atypical squamous cells / cannot rule out a high‐grade lesion (ASC‐H) 3%. Viral load (VL) was more frequently undetectable (82% vs 64%, p=0.0003) and median duration of HAART was longer (111 vs 61 months, p=0.0145) in patients with normal cytology. 80 HRA with biopsies have been performed. 12.5% were normal, 44% showed anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN) 1, 24% AIN 2 and 19% AIN 3. For this analysis, high‐grade AIN (2 and 3) were put together (AIN 2+). Among patients with AIN 2+(n=33), cytology had showed 8 (24%) ASC‐US, 3 (9%) ASC‐H, 19 (57%) LSIL, 3 (9%) HSIL. When patients with normal cytology or normal biopsy and patients with AIN 2+were compared, the only significant risk factor found for AIN 2+was a nadir CD4<100/µl (32% of the patients with AIN 2+vs 14% in patients with normal smear, p=0.0073). Anal precancerous lesions are frequent and at different stages. Among 46% abnormal cytology, 87% had abnormal biopsy including half AIN 2+.Cytology±biopsy is the only way to detect those lesions and should be performed systematically in HIV+MSM. Risk factor for AIN2+was a nadir CD4<100/µl. A normal cytology was associated with an undetectable VL and a longer duration of HAART. Those results provide further argument for early initiation of HAART.

Dip coating with colloids and evaporation

We investigate the coating of a glass plate with silica colloids by a dip coating method in presence of evaporation. We show experimentally that the deposed quantity plotted versus plate velocity V exhibits a minimum, in agreement with a simple argument developed by us in a previous, theoretical paper. This minimum corresponds to a crossover between the well-known Landau–Levich regime observed at higher plate velocity and a less well-known regime at lower plate velocity where the deposit is formed directly at the contact line. This very general result is consistent with experiments and calculations made by other teams with different compounds or under different drying geometries. Modifying our initial argument by taking into account the particle density gradient, we show that a simple modeling of each regime in terms of scaling laws is possible, the deposed mean thickness scaling respectively as V−1 and V2/3 in the lower and higher velocity limits.

KANT'S RETREAT, HUGO'S ADVANCE, FREUD'S ERECTION; OR, DERRIDA'S DISPLACEMENTS IN HIS DEATH PENALTY LECTURES

abstractThis article analyzes the role played by Immanuel Kant's defense of the death penalty, in the first and the second years of Jacques Derrida's Death Penalty Seminars, delivered from 1999 to 2001. Regarding the first year, the initial part of this article charts how Derrida introduces Kant's writings that purport to elaborate the categorical imperative of the death penalty, not by Kant's primary arguments but rather precisely through Kant's concession of an exception to this categorical imperative, concerning the impunity of a mother's infanticide. Derrida's lectures juxtapose Kant's philosophy of the death penalty with Victor Hugo's claim for the inviolability of life, and in doing so, the sessions introduce other examples of the applicability of the death penalty to mothers who have killed their children. What is at stake is the status of philosophy relative to the death penalty. Concerning the second year, the latter part of this article isolates the logic of Kant's categorical imperative, as deconstructed by Derrida, through recourse to the additions that Kant was obliged to append to his initial argument—those involving precisely sex crimes. The article follows how Derrida thoroughly takes apart both the simplicity of Kant's categorical imperative of the death penalty by means of the complications that are its abyssal foundation and the phallogocentrism of Freud's sexual oppositions through the extraction of insights into another thinking of sexual difference that Freud's categories foreclosed.

TRANS-HUMAN COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT, PHENOMENAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE EXTENDED MIND

Drawing on Charles Stross's recent trans-humanist, science fiction novel, Accelerando, I argue that phenomenology can play an important supplementary role in arguments for the hypothesis of extended cognition — the view that the mind might sometimes extend beyond the skull. In their initial arguments for this hypothesis Clark and Chalmers [Clark, A. and Chalmers, D. [1998] extended mind, Analysis58(1), 7–19], deliberately downplay the role of phenomenology, emphasizing third person, functionalist reasons for it. However, passages from Stross's novel suggest that feasible, extra-cranial cognitive technology will have dramatic effects on phenomenology. Such trans-human phenomenology will likely eliminate intuitive resistance to the hypothesis of extended cognition, thereby supporting functionalist arguments for it. Although this is not sufficient to establish that consciousness itself might extend beyond the skull, I also argue that any view on which consciousness supervenes on the functional properties of the nervous system, like Chalmers, D. [1996] The Conscious Mind (Oxford University Press, New York) and Baars, B. [1988] A Cognitive Theory of Consciousness (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK); Baars, B. [1997] In the Theatre of Consciousness (Oxford University Press, New York); Baars, B. [2002] The conscious access hypothesis: Origins and recent evidence, Trends in Cognitive Science6, 47–52; Baars, B. [2003] How brain reveals mind: Neuroimaging supports the central role of conscious experience, Journal of Consciousness Studies10, 100–114, must accept this possibility.

Rhythms of Nature and Culture in the Art of M. K. Ciurlionis

This article aims to grasp the ontological constitutional principle known as correspondances des artes. The affinity of arts is usually interpreted as a functional quality, while the author holds that it is of ontic character as well. This results from the shared ontological reference of all natural phenomena of human life and, consequently, human creative work. Experimental knowledge of this metaphysical truth, according to the composer-synaesthetic Olivier Messiaen, is within the reach of very few people, even less so amongst the artists themselves. Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, the Lithuanian composer and painter, was one of those very few. The main argument of the article, which is developed in the realm of the ontology of a piece of art, is the premise that the rhythm factor can serve as grounds for discussion to investigate the nature of the correspondances des artes. This was also the subject matter of the French phenomenologist Mikel Dufrenne’s writings (Dufrenne 1992, pp. 323–324).In addition, the author argues that all so-called organic aesthetics (Tatarkiewicz 1985, p. 84), those who claim that the laws of the creative process depend on the laws of nature, prove the existence of the common and shared ontic base of the world, logos. This base belongs to both natural and created ontological phenomena. The synaesthetic pictorial and musical oeuvre of Čiurlionis is the research field for inferring the initial argument of the paper.

Critical time scales for advection-diffusion-reaction processes

The concept of local accumulation time (LAT) was introduced by Berezhkovskii and co-workers to give a finite measure of the time required for the transient solution of a reaction-diffusion equation to approach the steady-state solution [A. M. Berezhkovskii, C. Sample, and S. Y. Shvartsman, Biophys. J. 99, L59 (2010); A. M. Berezhkovskii, C. Sample, and S. Y. Shvartsman, Phys. Rev. E 83, 051906 (2011)]. Such a measure is referred to as a critical time. Here, we show that LAT is, in fact, identical to the concept of mean action time (MAT) that was first introduced by McNabb [A. McNabb and G. C. Wake, IMA J. Appl. Math. 47, 193 (1991)]. Although McNabb's initial argument was motivated by considering the mean particle lifetime (MPLT) for a linear death process, he applied the ideas to study diffusion. We extend the work of these authors by deriving expressions for the MAT for a general one-dimensional linear advection-diffusion-reaction problem. Using a combination of continuum and discrete approaches, we show that MAT and MPLT are equivalent for certain uniform-to-uniform transitions; these results provide a practical interpretation for MAT by directly linking the stochastic microscopic processes to a meaningful macroscopic time scale. We find that for more general transitions, the equivalence between MAT and MPLT does not hold. Unlike other critical time definitions, we show that it is possible to evaluate the MAT without solving the underlying partial differential equation (pde). This makes MAT a simple and attractive quantity for practical situations. Finally, our work explores the accuracy of certain approximations derived using MAT, showing that useful approximations for nonlinear kinetic processes can be obtained, again without treating the governing pde directly.

The neurophysiological correlate to grammatical function reanalysis in Swedish

Language comprehension is assumed to proceed incrementally, and comprehenders commit to initial interpretations even in the absence of unambiguous information. Initial ambiguous object arguments are therefore preferably interpreted as subjects, an interpretation that needs to be revised towards an object initial interpretation once the disambiguating information is encountered. Most accounts of such grammatical function reanalyses assume that they involve phrase structure revisions, and do not differ from other syntactic reanalyses. A number of studies using measurements of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) provide evidence for this view by showing that both reanalysis types engender similar neurophysiological responses (e.g., P600 effects). Others have claimed that grammatical function reanalyses rather involve revisions of the mapping of thematic roles to argument noun phrases (NPs). In line with this, it has been shown that grammatical function reanalysis during spoken language comprehension engenders a N400 effect, an effect which has been shown to correlate with general problems in the mapping of thematic roles to argument NPs in a number of languages. This study investigated the ERP correlate to grammatical function reanalysis in Swedish. Postverbal NPs that disambiguated the interpretation of object-topicalised sentences towards an object-initial reading engendered a N400 effect with a local, right-parietal distribution. This “reanalysis N400” effect provides further support for the view that grammatical function reanalysis is functionally distinct from syntactic reanalyses and rather involves a revision of the mapping of thematic roles to the sentence arguments. Postverbal subject pronouns in object-topicalised sentences were also found to engender an enhanced P300 wave in comparison to object pronouns, an effect which seems to depend on the overall infrequency of object-topicalised constructions. This finding provides support for the view that the “reanalysis N400” in some cases can be attenuated by a task-related P300 component.

Saving Wisdom: Theology in the Christian University by Brian W. Hughes

89 BOOK REVIEWS bOOk rEvIEw Saving Wisdom: Theology in the Christian University. By Brian W. Hughes. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2011. Pages: xvi + 353. Paper: ISBN 978–1–60608–958–3. $41.00. Few individuals could have predicted the pervasive impact of George Marsden’s The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Nonbelief (Oxford University Press,1994) on scholars and administrators in Christian higher education. While the rise of secularism in these institutions had been of concern since the late-nineteenth century, Marsden was able to paint a picture of the demise of religious identity that was initiated by committed people of faith who were swept up in the progressive spirit of modernity. The impact of this revelation was enough to make Protestants and Catholics alike rethink the religious identity of their colleges and universities with one result being a literature base concerning Christian higher education that is continuing to expand to this day. Despite the size and growing level of the sophistication of this literature base,the number of formal discussions concerning the role of theology in the university, in particular, is still relatively small. For example, a recent search only produced two volumes: David Ray Griffin and Joseph C. Hough (editors), Theology and the University:Essays in Honor of John B.Cobb, Jr. (SUNY Press,1991) and Darlene Bird and Simon G.Smith (editors.),Theology and Religious Studies in Higher Education: Global Perspectives (Continuum, 2009). As a result, Brian W. Hughes, an Associate Professor of Theology at the University of Saint Mary (Kansas), is to be commended for tackling this critical topic. If theology is the Queen of the Sciences and is thus necessary to a universal and integrated understanding of knowledge, any Christian college or university needs to think through how theology is more than just another academic discipline. However, Hughes’ book proves to be more of an encyclopedic review of how four important theologians—Friedrich Schleiermacher, John Henry Newman, Avery Cardinal Dulles, and Edward Farley—approached this topic than a thoughtful reflection on how these thinkers offer the Christian university a way forward. Part of this disappointment stems from Hughes’ unfulfilled desire to “valuably illuminate options and implications about the future of theology in the university for the twenty-first century” (12). Hughes claims that he wants to go about doing so by offering a “comparative and critical exposition” of the thought of Schleiermacher, Newman, Dulles, and Farley. However, little to no comparative or critical language makes its way into this book.What does emerge and what proves to be somewhat of a surprising contribution is the way Hughes deduces the underlying soteriology driving the work of these four theologians. As a result, Hughes concludes his book by asserting that “Understanding theology as a kind of saving wisdom does clarify latent presuppositions that operate within diverse theological styles and underlie various appeals to the audiences of church, academy, and society” (324). While an interesting and arguably important contribution, it remains unclear how Hughes Newman Journal V9 Issue 1_Newman Journal V9 Issue 1 2/1/12 10:13 AM Page 89 NEWMAN STUDIES JOURNAL 90 moved from his initial argument to this final conclusion. Perhaps part of the problem is that the bulk of his book is long on overview and short on analysis. For the most part, Hughes’ book, as previously mentioned, is an encyclopedic review of the work of these four theologians. For example, Hughes commits two chapters apiece to exploring the work of Schleiermacher,Newman,and Dulles and one chapter to the work of Farley. In the case of the chapters concerning Schleiermacher, Newman, and Dulles, the first chapter deals with more introductory matters with the second chapter then focusing on methodological commitments. For example, the first of two chapters on Newman draws heavily from The Idea of a University and An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent. Hughes seeks to“examine the conditions that legitimate theology as an academic discipline” according to Newman and then develop an understanding of Newman’s definition of theology (99). In the second chapter, Hughes explores Newman’s understanding of “(1) the nature of liberal knowledge as philosophical; (2) theology as servant...

Moral Competence, Moral Blame, and Protest

I argue that wrongdoers may be open to moral blame even if they lacked the capacity to respond to the moral considerations that counted against their behavior. My initial argument turns on the suggestion that even an agent who cannot respond to specific moral considerations may still guide her behavior by her judgments about reasons. I argue that this explanation of a wrongdoer’s behavior can qualify her for blame even if her capacity for moral understanding is impaired. A second argument is based on the observation that even when a blameworthy wrongdoer could have responded to moral considerations, this is often not relevant to her blameworthiness. Finally, I argue against the view that because blame communicates moral demands, only agents who can be reached by such communication are properly blamed. I contend that a person victimized by a wrongdoer with an impaired capacity for moral understanding may protest her victimization in a way that counts as a form of moral blame even though it does not primarily express a moral demand or attempt to initiate moral dialogue.

Hiper-realidade versus sedução: o paradoxo do Big Brother Brasil

In this article, we turned Baudrillard against himself in the analysis of the TV show Big Brother Brasil (BBB). First, we developed the affirmation, made by the theorist himself, that this reality show reveals the trivial condition characteristic of hyperreality. Next, we propose to overturn the initial argument by pointing the presence of a seductive power. Primarily, we not only revise some of the basic concepts of the French author’s theory, but also show the path that led to the ascent and decline of the modern perception of reality.

REALITY WITHOUT SCARE QUOTES

This article builds on initial arguments about the advantages of using Critical Realism as an underpinning ontology in Journalism Studies, by discussing its compatibility with practical journalistic teaching and some aspects of constructivism, its grounds for political and ethical engagement, and its ability to open up new avenues of research in journalism research. In particular, it advances ideas about the ways in which Critical Realism allows journalism scholars to move beyond the rigid categorisation of different fields of research, by encouraging the critical exploration of the inter-relationship/s of structure and agency. It then turns to “mid-range” theory-building: considering whether the work of Archer, Bourdieu and Bates would help researchers ask more nuanced questions about journalistic processes and products, as well as assisting them in modelling time and change.

The Testimonial Argumentation

In the encyclical letter Fides et Ratio, Pope John Paul II, summarizes his thinking, his philosophical and theological reflections on the testimonial argumentation: “Human beings are not made to live alone. They are born into a family and in a family they grow, eventually entering society through their activity. From birth, therefore, they are immersed in traditions which give them not only a language and a cultural formation but also a range of truths in which they believe almost instinctively. Yet growth and maturity imply that these same truths can be cast into doubt and evaluated through a process of critical enquiry. It may be that, after this time of transition, these truths are “recovered” as a result of the experience of life or by dint of further reasoning.Nonetheless, there are in the life of a human being many more truths which are simply believed than truths which are acquired by way of verification. Who, for instance, could assess critically the countless scientific findings upon which modern life is based? Who could personally examine the flow of information which comes day after day from all parts of the world and which is generally accepted as true? Who in the end could forge anew the paths of experience and thought which have yielded the treasures of human wisdom and religion? This means that the human being — the one who seeks the truth — is also the one who lives by belief. In believing, we entrust ourselves to the knowledge acquired by other people. This suggests an important tension. On the one hand, the knowledge acquired through belief can seem an imperfect form of knowledge, to be perfected gradually through accumulation of evidence; on the other hand, belief is often humanly richer than mere evidence, because it involves an interpersonal relationship and brings into play not only a person's capacity to know but also the deeper capacity to entrust oneself to others, to enter into a relationship with them which is intimate and enduring.”After reading this Encyclical, we could say that it was written by a reductionist: John Paul II is in fact a suspicious! What does it mean? It simply means that the author considers the testimonial argumentation insufficient, a source (topic), then, which needs - in order to have epistemic value - to use other sources of argument. In itself, it expresses a limited epistemic charge, it must find the comfort of other good arguments. In what sense? In this sense: following testimonial argumentation x is submitted to me, “Palestra di Botta e Risposta is located in Piazza Capitaniato”; can I say (i) I can believe in this testimonial argumentation and therefore know x only because I got testimonial argumentation that Palestra di Botta e Risposta is located in Piazza Capitaniato, or (ii) have I to find some good evidence to support this testimonial argumentation In epistemological environment, if you answer (i) you are “gullible”, “fundamentalist” and therefore anti-reductionist; if you answer (ii) you are “anti-gullible”, “suspicious” and therefore reductionist. This is the reason why JPII must be considered as a suspicious, reductionist arguer: he considers his testimonial argumentation as an imperfect source of knowledge, which is perfected gradually through only personal accumulation of evidence. “It means that further argumentations, or other different evidences are required to bear and support the initial argumentation.”I would like to start this research with some questions that I think will clearly emerge from this reading: first, 1) is the testimonial argumentation an epistemic argumentation? 2) And then, if so, what epistemic argument are we talking about? 3) And, again, is it reductionist as the excellent” testimony of John Paul II implies, or is it non-reductionist? In this work we will try to give some answers to these questions, starting with a philosophical analysis of the testimonial argumentation and then trying to draw some philosophical-proceedings consequences.

Outsiders and Civil Wars: From Outbreak to Settlement

How International Relations Affect Civil Conflict: Cheap Signals, Costly Consequences. By Clayton L. Thyne Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009. 237 pp., $70.00 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-3456-4). Clayton Thyne has written a very ambitious book that largely delivers on its promise. He starts by breaking with much of the literature and looking for explanations of civil wars not in domestic factors, but rather the role of outside states. Moreover, rather than looking at outbreak, duration, and settlement as separate phenomena, he links them together with the general notion of rational actors responding to expectations of success or failure. His initial assumption is that there are often dissatisfied groups in countries which would like to initiate a civil war if they thought they could win, reflecting the common argument that grievances are widespread and perceived opportunities explain why war breaks out in some particular countries at some particular times and not at others. His second assumption is that expectations about the behavior of outside states have a major impact on both governments and potential rebels. This suggests that states with high levels of dissatisfaction (often based on inequality) presumably do not break down into civil war because the government and potential rebels both expect that the government will win any such conflict because of a shared assumption about some kind of outside action (diplomacy, sanctions, interventions, etc.), which will make this result more likely. Thyne's initial argument is that war will come only when these expectations change. This in turn produces an intriguing paradox—strong signals, even when aimed at avoiding war and costly to the sender, usually do not have much impact on the targets because they confirm pre-existing expectations. Thyne argues that cheap signals that signal a possible policy change are likely to change expectations …

Functional localization within the prefrontal cortex: missing the forest for the trees?

Anatomical and functional studies of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) have identified multiple PFC subregions. We argue that the PFC is involved in cognitive functions exceeding the sum of specific functions attributed to its subregions. These can be revealed either by lesions of the whole PFC, or more specifically by selective disconnection of the PFC from certain types of information (for example, visual) allowing the investigation of PFC function in toto. Recent studies in macaque monkeys using the latter approach lead to a second conclusion: that the PFC, as a whole, could be fundamentally specialized for representing events that are extended in time. The representation of temporally complex events might underlie PFC involvement in general intelligence, decision-making, and executive function.