Surveillance Ethics Surveillance involves paying close and sustained attention to another person. It is distinct from casual yet focused people-watching, such as might occur at a pavement cafe, to the extent that it is sustained over time. Furthermore the design is not to pay attention to just anyone, but to pay attention to some entity (a person or group) in particular and for a particular

Pejorative Language Some words can hurt. Slurs, insults, and swears can be highly offensive and derogatory. Some theorists hold that the derogatory capacity of a pejorative word or phrase is best explained by the content it expresses. In opposition to content theories, deflationism denies that there is any specifically derogatory content expressed by pejoratives. As noun phrases, ‘insult’ and ‘slur’ refer to symbolic vehicles designed

Lewis Carroll: Logic Charles L. Dodgson (also known as Lewis Carroll), 1832-1898, was a British mathematician, logicien, and the author of the ‘Alice’ books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. His fame derives principally from his literary works, but in the twentieth century some of his mathematical and logical ideas found important applications. His approach to them

Anne Le Fèvre Dacier (1647—1720) A distinguished classicist during the reign of the French king Louis XIV, Madame Dacier achieved renown for her translation of Greek and Latin texts into French. Her translation of Homer’s Iliad (1699) and Odyssey (1708) remains a monument of neoclassical French prose. In defending Homer during a new chapter of the literary quarrel between the ancients and the moderns, Dacier developed

Functionalism Functionalism is a theory about the nature of mental states. According to functionalism, mental states are identified by what they do rather than by what they are made of. This can be understood by thinking about artifacts like mousetraps and keys. En particulier, the original motivation for functionalism comes from the helpful comparison of minds with computers. But that is only an analogy. Le

Transmission and Transmission Failure in Epistemology An argument transmits justification to its conclusion just in case, à peu près, the conclusion is justified in virtue of the premises’ being justified. An argument fails to transmit justification just in case, à peu près, the conclusion is not justified in virtue of the premises’ being justified. An argument might fail to transmit justification for a variety of uncontroversial reasons, tel que