News - reviews

Markus Schrenk, The Metaphysics of Ceteris Paribus Laws, Ontos, 2007, 192pp., $79.00 (hbk), ISBN 9783938793428 Max Kistler: "The question is whether laws of nature can have exceptions. There seems to be an urgent need for a concept of laws that allow for exceptions, particularly so as to understand so-called special sciences like biology or psychology. Certain dysfunctional haemoglobin molecules, such as haemoglobin M, do not form bonds with oxygen, although it is a law of biochemistry that haemoglobin does form such bonds (see p. 136). The challenge is to understand how a universal generalisation can express a law and nevertheless be compatible with exceptions. This seems paradoxical: it is generally considered to be necessary for a statement to express a law of nature that it be strictly universal and true. " more

News - law

Jordi Ferrer, professor of legal phylosophy at the University of Girona (Spain) is organizing a conference celebrating the 50th volume of the series Philosophy and Law, published by Marcial Pons Publisher, which he co-edits together with Professor Jos Juan Moreso (University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona). The website of the congress is the following: http://www.filosofiayderecho.es/congreso/en/index.html The congress, devoted to the topic Neutrality and Theory of Law, will take place the 20th, 21st and 22nd of May 2010 in the Spanish city of Girona. The conference is conceived of as a meeting place for authors and readers of our books and topics. For this reason twelve authors from the collection will be speakers at the event Dr. Robert Alexy, Dr. Juan C. Bayón, Dr. Brian Bix, Dr. Eugenio Bulygin, Dr. Bruno Celano, Dr. Jules L. Coleman, Dr. Riccardo Guastini, Dr. Brian Leiter, Dr. Jorge Luis Rodríguez, Dr. Frederick Schauer, Dr. Scott J. Shapiro, Dr. Wilfrid J. Waluchow. Our objective is to offer an event of great importance in the legal-philosophical debate that will gather and try to bridge different legal traditions.

News - law

Professor Daniel J. Solove (George Washington University Law School) has posted a short essay on SSRN entitled "I've Got Nothing to Hide" and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy.  The essay is available here: http://ssrn.com/abstract=998565 Abstract:

In this short essay, written for a symposium in the San Diego Law Review, Professor Daniel Solove examines the "nothing to hide" argument. When asked about government surveillance and data mining, many people respond by declaring: "I've got nothing to hide." According to the "nothing to hide" argument, there is no threat to privacy unless the government uncovers unlawful activity, in which case a person has no legitimate justification to claim that it remain private. The "nothing to hide" argument and its variants are quite prevalent, and thus are worth addressing. In this essay, Solove critiques the "nothing to hide" argument and exposes its faulty underpinnings.

The essay contains a brief survey of Solove's theory of privacy, which it applies to the "nothing to hide" argument. [[b]Submitted by solove[/b]]

News - science

If science is neither cookery, nor angelic virtuosity, then what is it? Modern societies have tended to take science for granted as a way of knowing, ordering and controlling the world. Everything was subject to science, but science itself largely escaped scrutiny. This situation has changed dramatically in recent years. Historians, sociologists, philosophers and sometimes scientists themselves have begun to ask fundamental questions about how the institution of science is structured and how it knows what it knows. David Cayley talks to some of the leading lights of this new field of study. Please note all programs will be available to listen to again in real audio after the episode has aired. Go to http://www.cbc.ca/podcasting/index.html?newsandcurrent#thinkaboutscience  for the podcast versions of the series. http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/features/science/index.html [[b]Submitted by Telos[/b]]

News - science

BBC: "The experiments, described in the Science journal, offer a scientific explanation for a phenomenon experienced by one in 10 people. Two teams used virtual reality goggles to con the brain into thinking the body was located elsewhere. The visual illusion plus the feel of their real bodies being touched made volunteers sense that they had moved outside of their physical bodies. The researchers say their findings could have practical applications, such as helping take video games to the next level of virtuality so the players feel as if they are actually inside the game. Clinically, surgeons might also be able to perform operations on patients thousands of miles away by controlling a robotic virtual self. " more.