Some remarks on the bearing of model theory on the theory of theories

The present paper offers some remarks on the significance of first order model theory for our understanding of theories, and more generally, for our understanding of the “structuralist” accounts of the nature of theoretical knowledge that we associate with Russell, Ramsey and Carnap. What is unique about the presentation is the prominence it assigns to Craig’s Interpolation Lemma, some of its corollaries, and the manner of their demonstration. They form the underlying logical basis of the analysis.     

The Emergence and Evolution of the Expression “Conflict of Interests” in <Emphasis Type="Italic">Science</Emphasis>: A Historical Overview, 1880–2006

The tendency is strong to take the notion of "conflict of interests" for granted as if it had an invariant meaning and an ethical content independent of the historical context. It is doubtful however, from an historical and sociological point of view, that many of the cases now considered as instances of "conflicts of interests" would also have been conceived and perceived as such in, say, the 1930s. The idea of a "conflict of interests" presupposes that there are indeed interests in conflict. Conversely, as long as there is a consensus among the different groups involved, they will not conceive and even less denounce a given practice as being an instance of a "conflict of interests". In this article we will show that the content of the discussions over conflicts of interests has changed over time in close relation with the transformations of the research system. In other words: there are social conditions for the emergence of "conflicts of interests". The changing meaning of the notion is assessed by analyzing the presence of the expression "conflicts of interests" in the magazine Science over the past century. Three different meanings emerge and their content has evolved in close link with the changing structure of the relations between the scientific community first with the State and then with industry. It moved from a situation external to the scientific community to a debate going on inside the scientific community generated by the growing relations between university and industries.     

当下关注和未来利益

对未来可作这样的区分：一是在政治上有资格考虑的未来,二是那些在政治上无资格考虑的未来。前一段时期的长度取决于实际上对现在的政治决策施以影响的那种未来利益。这些未来利益的性质与我们现在的利益的性质很相近,都是一种关涉到自己的利益。政治上无资格考虑的未来则是一个在我们所及的世界之我的世界,那个世界中的利益对我们来说 一个他考虑的利益。然而,政治上无资格考虑的未来利益应进入我们的道德考虑而不是深谋远虑的评价之中,对政治上无资格考虑的未来利益的关注型地是道德层面的事情。     

美学"心理距离说"的哲学认识论联想

本文从审美与认识的异中求同,提出了认识过程中“距离”的存在可以缩小认识成果与真理之间距离的基本观点,多角度地分析了时空距离和心理距离在认识过程中的作用,论述了研究认识过程中距离效应的重要价值。     

Ethical Considerations for Clinical Research and Off-label Use of Ketamine to Treat Mood Disorders: The Balance Between Risks and Benefits

Previous research conducted in 1999 highlighted ethical concerns behind challenge studies inducing psychosis with ketamine and made recommendations to enhance ethical standards. Recently, a plethora of clinical trials have evaluated the efficacy of ketamine to treat mood disorders, which lead to complex ethical issues. Pharmaceutical companies and researchers hope to profit by developing patentable variations on ketamine for treating depression. Media have labeled ketamine as a “miracle” antidepressant. Some clinics offer expensive off-label use of ketamine to treat mood disorders. This article examines the ecological validity of ketamine trials, measures to protect patients, informed consent procedures, financial inducements to participants and conflict of interest of researchers, therapeutic misconception, concealment, and deception. Further recommendations are purposed to improve ethical standard of clinical research involving ketamine.     

Noise,uncertainty, and interest: Predictive coding and cognitive penetration

This paper concerns how extant theorists of predictive coding conceptualize and explain possible instances of cognitive penetration. Section 1 offers brief clarification of the predictive coding framework and of cognitive penetration. Section 2 develops more precise ways that the predictive coding framework can explain genuine top-down causal effects on perceptual experience. Section 3 develops these insights further with an eye towards tracking one extant criterion for cognitive penetration, namely, that the relevant cognitive effects on perception must be sufficiently direct. In Section 4, we analyze and criticize a claim made by some theorists of predictive coding, namely, that (interesting) instances of cognitive penetration tend to occur in perceptual circumstances involving substantial noise or uncertainty. We argue that, when applied, the claim fails to explain (or perhaps even be consistent with) a large range of important and uncontroversially interesting possible cases of cognitive penetration. We conclude with a general speculation about how the recent work on the predictive mind may influence the current dialectic concerning top-down effects on perception.     

A license to speak up: Outgroup minorities and opinion expression

Four studies examined the relationship between outgroup minority status, defined as both belonging to a different social category and holding a different opinion than other group members, and opinion expression. Specifically, it was hypothesized - and results confirmed - that outgroup minorities would be more willing to express their opinions on an issue when their social category membership granted them psychological standing (i.e., a subjective sense of entitlement to act) than when it did not. Implications for the roles of social category membership and psychological standing in opinion expression, and for how to encourage diverse viewpoints to emerge in group contexts, are discussed.     

Crystallizing enterprising interests among adolescents through a career development program: The role of personality and family background

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a new career development program designed to help adolescents explore their interest in enterprise as a career option. Using a person-oriented approach, pre- and post-test measurements of enterprising interests in an intervention (n = 321) and a control group (n = 302) of adolescents aged 16.5 years on average were compared. As predicted, the frequency of five different patterns of enterprising interest development (stable high, stable low, decreaser, increaser, middle) differed between the two groups, with increasers and decreasers more prevalent in the intervention group. Furthermore, a discriminant function analysis revealed that adolescents in the stable high and increaser groups showed the most entrepreneurial personality profile (e.g., low risk avoidance, high social dominance). Moreover, increasers often had a non-entrepreneurial family background. Results suggest that the new program is a useful tool in supporting adolescents’ exploration of enterprise as future career option.     

浅议生物医学研究中不同主体的利益冲突

作为医学伦理学研究的重要内容,生物医学研究中的利益冲突问题日益受到公众、研究机构和管理部门的关注。探讨生物医学活动中研究者、研究机构、学术期刊三种不同主体利益冲突的表现、危害及其特点,以期有针对性地促进人们对该领域利益冲突问题的认识。     

Computational explanation in neuroscience

According to some philosophers, computational explanation is proprietary to psychology—it does not belong in neuroscience. But neuroscientists routinely offer computational explanations of cognitive phenomena. In fact, computational explanation was initially imported from computability theory into the science of mind by neuroscientists, who justified this move on neurophysiological grounds. Establishing the legitimacy and importance of computational explanation in neuroscience is one thing; shedding light on it is another. I raise some philosophical questions pertaining to computational explanation and outline some promising answers that are being developed by a number of authors.