Singular Reference Without Singular Thought

Abstract In this paper I challenge the widespread assumption that the conditions for singular reference are more or less the same as the conditions for singular thought. I claim that we refer singularly to things without thinking singularly about them more often than it is usually believed. I first argue that we should take the idea that singular thought is non-descriptive thought very seriously. If we do that, it seems that we cannot be so liberal about what counts as acquaintance; only perception (and memory) will do. I also briefly discuss and reject semantic instrumentalism. Finally, I argue that while singular reference is cheap, singular thought comes only at a price.

O senador e o bispo: as estratégias de construção identitária nas eleições municipais cariocas de 2004

Este artigo analisa o processo de construção identitária de Marcelo Crivella (então senador da República, eleito em 2002 pelo Partido Liberal, e bispo da Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus) em sua campanha para o cargo de prefeito da cidade do Rio de Janeiro nas eleições de 2004 a partir da pesquisa do processo eleitoral nos jornais Folha Universal e O Globo. A observação de três tipos de recursos discursivos utilizados pelas publicações referidas indica, em sua orientação para a disputa política, a ocorrência de uma identidade fragmentária referente ao candidato. Tal processo explica-se no âmbito religioso como uma consequência do fenômeno da secularização e aponta para a autonomia da esfera política e sua relação com a pluralidade de esferas semânticas na sociedade.

David Trumbull, entre masonería y protestantismo: la conformación del frente anticlerial en Chile a fines del siglo XIX

El objetivo de este artículo es caracterizar la figura del Pastor Protestante David Trumbull en la configuración del Frente anticlerical chileno de fines del siglo XIX. Se analizan los planteamientos fundamentales de Trumbull, respecto a la vinculación Política-Religión en temáticas críticas de época, como lo fueron la búsqueda de la Libertad de Culto y la participación de lo protestante en la construcción del Chile republicano. Es considerada la interrelación entre Masonería y Protestantismo a través de la figura de Trumbull, como un articulador de perspectivas doctrinalmente contradictorias, pero instrumentalmente posibles de ser ensambladas por causa de un objetivo común, la implementación del ideario liberal.

The use of genes for performance enhancement: doping or therapy?

Recent biotechnological advances have permitted the manipulation of genetic sequences to treat several diseases in a process called gene therapy. However, the advance of gene therapy has opened the door to the possibility of using genetic manipulation (GM) to enhance athletic performance. In such ‘gene doping’, exogenous genetic sequences are inserted into a specific tissue, altering cellular gene activity or leading to the expression of a protein product. The exogenous genes most likely to be utilized for gene doping include erythropoietin (EPO), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), insulin-like growth factor type 1 (IGF-1), myostatin antagonists, and endorphin. However, many other genes could also be used, such as those involved in glucose metabolic pathways. Because gene doping would be very difficult to detect, it is inherently very attractive for those involved in sports who are prepared to cheat. Moreover, the field of gene therapy is constantly and rapidly progressing, and this is likely to generate many new possibilities for gene doping. Thus, as part of the general fight against all forms of doping, it will be necessary to develop and continually improve means of detecting exogenous gene sequences (or their products) in athletes. Nevertheless, some bioethicists have argued for a liberal approach to gene doping.

Balanço hídrico, injúria renal aguda e mortalidade de pacientes em unidade de terapia intensiva

Injúria renal aguda (IRA) é uma síndrome de elevada incidência, associada a altas taxas de morbimortalidade. Sepse, grandes cirurgias e baixo débito cardíaco são as principais causas de IRA no mundo. Na maioria destas situações clínicas, a expansão volêmica é o elemento fundamental de prevenção e do manejo terapêutico da IRA, restaurando a perfusão periférica e atenuando a nefrotoxicidade de drogas. Ressuscitação volêmica precoce em pacientes sépticos está associada à prevenção de isquemia tecidual e à maior sobrevida. Contudo, a manutenção de estratégia liberal de infusão de fluidos após ressuscitação inicial pode causar balanços hídricos cumulativamente positivos, e este vem sendo associado a aumento de morbimortalidade em pacientes criticamente enfermos. Neste trabalho, revisamos os principais estudos que associam balanço hídrico positivo (BH+) e morbimortalidade em pacientes internados em Unidades de Terapia Intensiva (UTI). Sugerimos que BH+ (não apenas o volume urinário) possa ser utilizado como possível biomarcador precoce de IRA nestes pacientes.

Para superar el estancamiento económico en México: "nudos críticos" de un proyecto nacional de desarrollo

This article is devoted to analyze changes in economic policy to be adopted by Mexico if a national development project were implemented. Starting from an evaluation of the main economic and political outcomes of Vicente’s Fox administration, the author proposes an alternative development strategy which permits Mexico to overcome economic stagnation. That strategy would be based in recovering the internal market as the dynamical focus of the economy with the purpose of satisfying basic needs of people. To be successful this strategy should to confront the "critical knots" of the Neo-liberal model: to reverse the uneven distribution of income; abandoning the fixing of restrictive monetary, fiscal and exchange rate policies; and mobilizing economic surplus by means of a profound revision of debt service schemes. It concludes that to implement a national development project it is required a political and economic strategy to dismantle neoliberalism, which is an antinational structure of power.

Resuming growth in Latin America: short and long term policies

The authors of this paper assert that the paralysis of the state generated by the crises of the 1970s and 1980s deprived the economies of the region of an important lever to resume and sustain growth. They thus maintain that to overcome stagnation it will be necessary to reconstruct the state's capacity to implement pro-growth policies. Following Keynes and Kalecki's ideas, but also classical development economists, the authors argue, first, that short-term macroeconomic policies, to reduce unemployment and to increase the degree of capacity utilization, should be used to promote the generation of profits to firms and to wake up entrepreneurs' animal spirits. Short-term expansionary policies should be coupled with measures to improve competitiveness and avoid balance of payments problems. They also claim that alternatives to the liberal programme will fail unless a pro-growth strategy is adopted which includes both short- and long-term policies. They thus propose that long-term policies must complete the package, signaling: a) sustained increases of effective demand in the future; and b) investment priorities to ensure that capacities will be created in strategic sectors and branches of the economy.

Rethinking the economics of capital mobility and capital controls

This paper reexamines the issue of international financial capital mobility, which is today's economic orthodoxy. Discussion is often framed in terms of the impossible trinity. That framing distorts discussion by representing capital mobility as having equal significance with sovereign monetary policy and control over exchange rates. It also distorts discussion by ignoring possibilities for coordinated monetary policy and exchange rates, and for managed capital flows. The case for capital mobility rests on neo-classical economic efficiency arguments and neo-liberal political arguments. The case against capital mobility is based on Keynesian macroeconomic inefficiency arguments, neo-Walrasian market failure arguments, and neo-Marxian arguments regarding distortion of the social structure of accumulation. Close examination shows the case for capital mobility to be extremely flimsy, pointing to the ideological dimension behind today's policy orthodoxy.

The new international financial crisis: causes, consequences and perspectives

The paper investigates the recent financial crisis within a historical and comparative perspective having in mind that it is ultimately a confidence crisis, initially associated to a chain of high risk loans and financial innovations that spread thorough the international system culminating with impressive wealth losses. The financial market will eventually recover from the crisis but the outcome should be followed by a different and more disciplined set of international institutions. There will be a change on how we perceive the widespread liberal argument that the market is always efficient, or at least, more efficient than any State intervention, overcoming the false perception that the State is in opposition to the market. A deep financial crisis brings out a period of wealth losses and an adjustment process characterized by price corrections (commodities and equity price deflation) and real effects (recession and lower employment), and a period of turbulences and end of illusions is in place.

Five models of capitalism

Besides analyzing capitalist societies historically and thinking of them in terms of phases or stages, we may compare different models or varieties of capitalism. In this paper I survey the literature on this subject, and distinguish the classification that has a production or business approach from those that use a mainly political criterion. I identify five forms of capitalism: among the rich countries, the liberal democratic or Anglo-Saxon model, the social or European model, and the endogenous social integration or Japanese model; among developing countries, I distinguish the Asian developmental model from the liberal-dependent model that characterizes most other developing countries, including Brazil.

Teorias do comércio internacional: um debate sobre a relação entre crescimento econômico e inserção externa

Theories of international trade: a debate on the relationship between economic growth and foreign market insertion. The paper analyzes the importance accorded to the high technology industry sector in the process of economic growth, in its relation to international trade. Considering at first liberal arguments that disregard productive and commercial specialization as a cause of unequal economic development, the paper discusses then some institutionalist and evolutionist arguments which, since List, stress that high technology specialization matters for the rate of increase of productivity and for the surmount for foreign exchange restrictions to growth.

Alternative banking: theory and evidence from Europe

Since financial liberalization in the 1980s, non-profit maximizing, stakeholder-oriented banks have outperformed private banks in Europe. This article draws on empirical research, banking theory and theories of the firm to explain this apparent anomaly for neo-liberal policy and contemporary market-based banking theory. The realization of competitive advantages by alternative banks (savings banks, cooperative banks and development banks) has significant implications for conceptions of bank change, regulation and political economy.

Gênese e agenda do novo desenvolvimentismo brasileiro

The debate regarding Brazil's development model returned again to the public arena in the first decade of 21st century after two decades of orthodox economic policies which encouraged non-developed countries to adopt liberal economic policies as their preferred growth strategies. As Brazil achieved neither economic stability nor development, the discussion of new development strategies returned as a popular research topic. It is in this context that a new development theory - New Developmentalism - emerges. The objective of this article is to review the origins of this debate and the main propositions defended by the group aiming to implement a new development model policy in the country. The main conclusions are that this group has had an important contribution in maintaining the development debate in the public agenda as well as proposing a new theoretical approach called "structuralist macroeconomic development".

Narratives of emergence: rising powers and the end of the Third World?

This article examines recent arguments from development economists, from historians and from international relations specialists that do challenge the continued relevance of the idea of the Third World. It then examines five reasons why these arguments are wrong. We can indeed understand much about emerging powers in terms of how they are seeking to navigate and best position themselves within an existing state-centric, liberal and capitalist order whilst accepting many of the underlying assumptions and values of that order. But the nature of that navigation has been shaped by their historical trajectory and by the developmental, societal and geopolitical context of their emergence.

Crise e industrialização no Brasil entre 1929 e 1954: a reconstrução do Estado Nacionale a política nacional de desenvolvimento

RESUMOO texto analisa os principais efeitos decorrentes da política econômica de defesa do café e do extraordinário esforço de industrialização desencadeado pelo Estado Nacional entre 1929 e 1954. Distingue o desenvolvimentismo do I e II governo Vargas (30-45 e 51-54), contrapondo-o à frustrada tentativa de retorno liberal de Dutra (46-50). Destaca o importante esforço de reconstrução do Estado e da introdução de instrumentos de controle da política econômica nacional, materializados pelo extraordinário trabalho da Assessoria Econômica da Presidência (51-54), criada por Vargas, onde pontificaram nomes de grandes brasileiros como Rômulo de Almeida, Ignácio Angel, Jesus Soares Pereira, Cleanto Paiva Leite e Tomás P. Acioli Borges, verdadeiros artífices de nossos principais projetos e planos de desenvolvimento de então.