El texto se propone abordar el problema de la expresión en la filosofía de Merleau-Ponty bajo tres aspectos generales: 1. Hacia una ontología de lo sensible, 2. Expresión y diferencia corporal y 3. Cuerpo y expresión creadora. A partir de la noción de naturaleza se busca, con el primer apartado, destacar el carácter ontológico de la percepción, con el fin de comprender por qué la percepción es ya expresión. En segundo lugar, se pretende ahondar en la tesis del cuerpo como (...) expresión y de esta manera poder precisar su vínculo esencial con el lenguaje. A partir de la distinción entre el lenguaje hablante y el lenguaje hablado se precisa, finalmente, el carácter paradójico de la expresión, su sentido encarnado. (shrink)

Resumen: El texto propone un diálogo entre fenomenología y teoría crítica, concretamente en Merleau-Ponty y Adorno. Sostenemos que la labor asignada por ellos a la filosofía pone en evidencia una concepción dialéctica de la experiencia en la que se reivindica el sentido de ésta como experiencia viva. No obstante las fuertes objeciones dirigidas a la fenomenología por Adorno, Horkheimer y Marcuse, identificamos a modo de introducción la negatividad de la experiencia como rasgo característico en Husserl, Heidegger y Merleau-Ponty. En segundo (...) lugar, nos ocupamos de la concepción de percepción como experiencia sensible en Merleau-Ponty, con el fin de precisar el sentido dialéctico de esta. En tercer lugar, señalamos la importancia que Adorno asigna al trabajo conceptual de la filosofía con el propósito de ver el sentido dialéctico de este que lo vincula a la experiencia viva de las cosas. Por último, identificamos a modo de conclusión puntos de encuentro en la concepción de la dialéctica en ambos autores y presentamos una reflexión sobre la actualidad de esta.: The text proposes a dialogue between phenomenology and critical theory, specifically in Merleau-Ponty and Adorno.We argue that the work assigned by them to philosophy highlights a dialectical conception of experience in which its meaning as living experience is vindicated. Notwithstanding the strong objections to phenomenology by Adorno, Horkheimer, and Marcuse, we identify by way of introduction the negativity of experience as a characteristic feature in Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty. Second, we deal with the conception of perception as sensible experience in Merleau-Ponty, in order to clarify its dialectical meaning. Third, we point out the importance that Adorno assigns to the conceptual work of philosophy in order to see its dialectical meaning that links it to the living experience of things. Finally, by way of conclusion, we identify meeting points in the conception of dialectics in both authors and present a reflection on its current relevance. (shrink)

Nuestro punto de partida es la concepción de Merleau-Ponty del lenguaje como "habla". Sostenemos que esta, como experiencia corporal del lenguaje -como lenguaje "en" nosotros-, permite comprender el fenómeno de la /nter-culturalidad como un fenómeno esencialmente /ntra-cultural, en el sentido de una experiencia de la cultura "desde dentro", es decir, desde la experiencia que cada quien hace del lenguaje. Este carácter endógeno e individual de pensar la cultura pone en evidencia, sin embargo, un "entre-lazamiento" recíproco originario entre lo propio y (...) lo extraño que impide de entrada privilegiar ya sea una visión universalista o totalizante o bien individualista o regionalista de la cultura. En dos momentos doy cuenta de este planteamiento: 1. Mundo de la vida y diversidad cultural y 2. El habla como lugar de acceso a las culturas. Our starting point is the conception in Merleau Ponty of language as "speech". We support this concept as corporal experience of language -as language "in" us - allows to understand the phenomenon of ¿nter-culturality as an essentially ¿ntra-cultural phenomenon, in the sense of an experience of culture "from within", that is to say; from the experience that everyone does with the language. This endogenous and individual character of thinking about culture highlights, however, a reciprocal "entanglement" originated among one's own and the strange that initially prevents to privilege, even a universal or totalizing or either an individualistic or regionalist vision of culture. Two moments I take on this approach: 1. World of life and cultural diversity. 2. Speech as an access place to the cultures. (shrink)

Nuestro punto de partida es el planteamiento de Merleau-Ponty de una ontología de lo sensible concebida como endo o intra-ontología. La exigencia de pensar al ser desde dentro del ser, hecha por esta ontología, implica reconocer la existencia de un vínculo originario – sensible – entre el sujeto y el mundo. Este vínculo es entendido como el ‘punto de cruce’ – de quiasmo – que defi ne nuestra existencia como ser en el mundo. Ser en el mundo es ser en (...) el espacio como espacio vivido, espacio de experiencia. El aporte de Merleau-Ponty está en concebir una espacialidad originaria, no determinada solamente por nuestra existencia corporal, sino como parte constitutiva del mundo, del ser. El propósito de este trabajo es, en este contexto, mostrar que en la concepción ontológica de la experiencia sensible como experiencia de quiasmo – de reversibilidad – el espacio vivido se revela como un espacio habitado corporalmente. Este planteamiento lo desarrollamos en dos apartados generales: 1. Intra o endo-ontología y 2. El cuerpo como expresión o el habitar corporalmente en el espacio. (shrink)

Nuestro punto de partida es la concepción de Merleau-Ponty del lenguaje como "habla". Sostenemos que esta, como experiencia corporal del lenguaje -como lenguaje "en" nosotros-, permite comprender el fenómeno de la /nter-culturalidad como un fenómeno esencialmente /ntra-cultural, en el sentido de una experiencia de la cultura "desde dentro", es decir, desde la experiencia que cada quien hace del lenguaje. Este carácter endógeno e individual de pensar la cultura pone en evidencia, sin embargo, un "entre-lazamiento" recíproco originario entre lo propio y (...) lo extraño que impide de entrada privilegiar ya sea una visión universalista o totalizante o bien individualista o regionalista de la cultura. En dos momentos doy cuenta de este planteamiento: 1. Mundo de la vida y diversidad cultural y 2. El habla como lugar de acceso a las culturas. Our starting point is the conception in Merleau Ponty of language as "speech". We support this concept as corporal experience of language -as language "in" us - allows to understand the phenomenon of ¿nter-culturality as an essentially ¿ntra-cultural phenomenon, in the sense of an experience of culture "from within", that is to say; from the experience that everyone does with the language. This endogenous and individual character of thinking about culture highlights, however, a reciprocal "entanglement" originated among one's own and the strange that initially prevents to privilege, even a universal or totalizing or either an individualistic or regionalist vision of culture. Two moments I take on this approach: 1. World of life and cultural diversity. 2. Speech as an access place to the cultures. (shrink)

RESUMEN Nos proponemos mostrar que la filosofía de Merleau-Ponty encarna la experiencia fundamental de la dialéctica: llevar a concepto el sentido de las cosas, del mundo, de los otros, a través de unaexperiencia de expresión que no convierte el sentido de estos en un simple resultado de su reflexión. Para él esta dialéctica se resuelve como dialéctica negativa, en el sentido de ser una filosofía que piensa lo negativo en sentido radical, esto es, como una negación que es parte constitutiva (...) de lo positivo, integrada a éste de manera esencial. Veremos, en particular, que esta idea de la dialéctica atraviesa su concepción de un nuevo pensar como 'pensar sensible' o de 'quiasmo'. El texto está conformado por los siguientes apartados: 1. La dialéctica negativa, 2. La dialéctica como reencuentro con el pasado y 3. El sentido de la crítica. ABSTRACT We intend to show that the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty embodies the fundamental experience of the dialectic: To bring concept to the meaning of things, the world, from the others, through an experience expression that does not convert the sense of these in a simple result of its reflection. For him this dialectic is resolved as negative dialectic, in the sense of being a philosophy that thinks the negative in a radical sense, that is, as a denial that is a constitutive part of the positive, integrated to this one in an essential way. We see, in particular, that this idea of the dialectic crosses a new conception of new thinking as sensible thinking sensitive ' or 'chiasmus '. The text consists of the following sections: 1. Negative dialectic, 2. The dialectic as reunion with the past; and, 3. The sense of criticism. (shrink)

La pregunta por el tiempo, junto a la pregunta por el cuerpo y el lenguaje, ocupa un lugar central en la filosofía de Merleau-Ponty. La restitución ontológica de la vida sensible, corporal -proyecto en el que se podría enmarcar toda su obra- lleva consigo una revisión de la idea del tiempo. El tiempo, sostiene Merleau-Ponty, se forma en nuestra experiencia corporal. Este tiempo en 'gestación', en 'estado naciente', es lo que el autor llama tiempo salvaje. Este trabajo se centra en (...) mostrar que la concepción del sentido en la obra de Merleau-Ponty -particularmente sus reflexiones sobre el sentido de la experiencia sensible y del lenguaje- se encuentra atravesada por la idea de un tiempo salvaje. Esta idea la desarrollamos en tres apartados: 1. introducción, 2. El ser salvaje del tiempo y la formación del sentido y 3. Tiempo y lenguaje. The question of the time, along with the question of the body and language, is central to the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty. The ontological restitution of the sensible, corporal life -project in which all his work- could be framed, and carries itself a review of the idea of time. "Time" says Merleau-Ponty, is formed in our body experience. This time in 'period of gestation' in 'nascent state', is what the author will call wild time. This work focuses on showing how the conception of the sense in the work of Merleau-Ponty, particularly his reflections on the sense of the sensible experience and the language, which is crossed by the idea of a wild time. We develop this idea into three sections: 1. introduction, 2. The wild being of the time and the formation of the sense and 3. Time and language. (shrink)

RESUMEN El diálogo propuesto entre Heidegger y Adorno, especificamente en lo que concierne a las ideas de crítica y de resistencia, no desconoce la importancia que adquiere para el último la crítica extensa que él mismo dirige a la ontología de Heidegger, ni para este su cuestionamiento de la filosofia dialéctica. El artículo busca mostrar que, en ambos autores, la idea de crítica y de resistencia se resuelve como indagación del sentido negativo de la experiencia. Se concluye que, destacando semejanzas (...) y diferencias en sus planteamientos, la reivindicación del carácter negativo de la experiencia equivale reivindicar el poder crítico de la filosofia y del arte. ABSTRACT The dialogue between these two authors, concerning specifically the ideas of critique and resistance, does not ignore the importance attributed by Adorno to the extensive critique that himself addresses to Heidegger's ontology, nor the one attributed by the latter to his questioning of the dialectical philosophy. The paper shows that in both authors the ideas of critique and resistance can be settled as an inquiry into the negative sense of experience. It is concluded that, highlighting similarities and differences in their approaches, the recognition of the negative trait of experience equals to claiming the critical power of philosophy and art. (shrink)

Da Vinci, 500 años después: del humanismo a la humanización Da Vinci, 500 anos depois: do humanismo à humanização Leonardo Da Vinci is a prototype of humanism. Five hundred years after his death, we reflect on what humanism may add to humanization in health sciences in general and medical education in particular. The history of thought classifies humanisms into Renaissance, socialist, existential, hermeneutic, anti-humanism and new humanism. By contrast, transhumanism is pointed out. Their main lines of thought and exponents (...) are listed. Finally, some reactions of contemporary philosophy to these humanisms are explained, and it is concluded that for proper humanization it is necessary to build on the basics contributed by classical humanism and some key points of bioethics. Para citar este editorial / To reference this editorial / Para citar este editorial Gamboa-Bernal GA. Da Vinci, 500 años después: del humanismo a la humanización. Pers Bioet. 2019;23:171-179. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5294/pebi.2019.23.2.1. (shrink)

Verano, Leonardo. “La idea de un tiempo salvaje en Merleau-Ponty.” Eidos 24 (2016): 49-67.

RESUMEN Se aborda el pensamiento de E.M. Cioran desde la perspectiva de un sinsabor vital denominado sentimiento de muerte. El término, aunque aparece solo en su primer escrito, es transversal a toda su obra, puesto que para el autor los seres humanos nos intuimos como posesos de la muerte en cada momento de nuestra existencia. Esto cambia el tono normal de la vida, al poner frente a la persona una realidad carente de sentido y dominada por circunstancias radicales y limitantes (...) como el dolor y la agonía, que culmina en una atmósfera gobernada por la intuición trágica de la vida. ABSTRACT The article addresses the thought of E.M. Cioran from the perspective of that vital uneasiness known as the sentiment of death. Although the term appears only in his first book, the idea cuts across his entire work given that, for Cioran, human beings intuit themselves as possessed by death at every moment of their lives. When persons are faced with a meaningless reality, dominated by radical and limiting circumstances such as pain and agony, the whole tenor of life changes until it becomes a tragic intuition of life. (shrink)

La "posición original" es un aspecto fundamental de la teoría de la justicia de John Rawls, así como el concepto del "velo de ignorancia". El análisis se divide en tres momentos: en el primero, se expone la posición original de Rawls, en el segundo se contrasta la teoría de la razonabilidad de Scanlon con el papel que tiene la razonabilidad en la teoría de Rawls y en el tercero se exploran los señalamientos de Habermas y Benhabib al velo de ignorancia.

The Lewis-Sider argument from vagueness is one of the most powerful objections against restricted composition. Many have resisted the argument by rejecting its key premise, namely that existence is not vague. In this paper, I argue that this strategy is ineffective as a response to vagueness-based objections against restricted composition. To that end, I formulate a new argument against restricted composition: the argument from determinate vagueness. Unlike the Lewis-Sider argument, my argument doesn’t require accepting that existence is not vague, but (...) only that it is not vague in a specific way, which, I argue, is entailed by restricted composition. I show that the rejection of this species of vague existence follows from assumptions even friends of vague existence should be happy to accept. (shrink)

This paper investigates the semantics of implicit comparatives (Alice is tall compared to Bob) and its connections to the semantics of explicit comparatives (Alice is taller than Bob) and sentences with adjectives in plain positive form (Alice is tall). We consider evidence from two experiments that tested judgments about these three kinds of sentence, and provide a semantics for implicit comparatives from the perspective of degree semantics.

Balanço da produção científica em Educação Física em Estados do Nordeste, visando a identificar tendências, perspectivas e desafios que se apresentam à consolidação dessa produção. O estudo integra a pesquisa matricial do grupo LEPEL/UFBA.

Este trabajo surge de un diálogo interdisciplinario entre dos tesis doctorales, una de educación y otra de filosofía, que comparten un interés sobre formas emancipadoras y democráticas de pensar con otros y otras en la escuela pública latinoamericana. Desde una perspectiva crítica propia de la filosofía de la educación latinoamericana realizamos un análisis epistemológico sobre las distintas formas de habitar la pregunta dentro de una práctica filosófica con niños y niñas. Tomamos como objeto de estudio una experiencia específica de comunidad (...) de indagación realizada en 2022 en el sur de Mendoza, Argentina. Entramamos herramientas teóricas de Walter Kohan, Paulo Freire y Jacques Rancière con la intención de visibilizar diversas formas de habitar la producción de saberes dentro de dicha comunidad. Proponemos dos nudos problemáticos: por un lado, el orden explicador/embrutecedor a partir de Rancière y, por el otro,la pregunta como afirmación vital a partir de Kohan y Freire. Trabajamos una serie de disonancias en torno a la circulación y a la potencia de la pregunta en la escuela y la educación pública. Finalmente proponemos una síntesis de estas problemáticas en la postulación de una “pregunta niña” como potencia epistémica emancipadora que supone una intimidad con los otros y otras, con las cosas y el mundo abierta desde una igualdad política e intelectual radical. (shrink)

An atmosfere of fear seems to surround western culture in the last two or three decades. From it stems a new kind of fear, imaginarially expressed in the fear of collapse event. In this paper, we chart some manifestations of the new fear of collapse in the sphere of cinema and of intelectual academic writings. In the first case, with the emergence of collapse and zombie movies in cultural industry productions; in the second one, in the emergence of civilizational collapse (...) as a theme for historians, systems and complexity cientists, ecologists, peak-oil theorists, economists, social scientists etc. Some possible explanatory hipothesis for the emergency of this fenomenon are conjectured. (shrink)

El artículo reflexiona sobre las políticas de la memoria que deberían desarrollarse en sociedades donde han ocurrido masivas violaciones de derechos humanos, y cuyos procesos se guían por los principios normativos de la justicia transicional. Se analizan primero los conceptos de memoria e historia, y la forma como el Holocausto transformó sus tareas en el siglo xx; luego se examinan dos modelos de responsabilidad propuestos por Iris Marion Young, y se propone cómo usarlos en la justicia transicional. Finalmente, se explican (...) las tareas de la política de la memoria en estos contextos. (shrink)

En una de sus formulaciones más simples, la tesis quineana de la equivalencia empírica entre teorías sostiene que dada una teoría T que dé cuenta del conjunto de observaciones O, es posible que haya otra teoría T* lógicamente incompatible con T, pero empíricamente equivalente, i. e. da cuenta del mismo conjunto O de observaciones. El propósito de este ensayo será el de examinar el impacto de esta tesis frente a la del realismo científico ingenuo, reformulándola en términos más precisos y (...) examinando su plausibilidad. La conclusión será que la tesis de la equivalencia empírica no es una tesis lógico-filosófica como aquellas sobre las que se basa (subdeterminación de las teorías por la experiencia, holismo epistemológico), sino que su carácter es práctico y condiciona sobre las actuales capacidades para observar y testar; también se explotará esta consecuencia para mostrar cómo podría darse cabida a un tipo de realismo a pesar de las tesis quineanas. Se tendrá como referente el artículo de W. V. O. Quine “On Empirically Equivalent Systems of the World” (1975). (shrink)

Para Ockham, todo animal posee un alma sensitiva, en virtud de la cual, puede tener deseos sensitivos, cogniciones intuitivas sensitivas y cogniciones abstractivas sensitivas. Entre estas últimas, tenemos representaciones sensibles, actos del sentido común y recuerdos. El objetivo de este artículo es el de reconstruir la teoría de Ockham sobre la cognición animal sensitiva. Esta reconstrucción muestra que Ockham adscribe a los animales, en general, una capacidad de representar diferentes propiedades de las cosas singulares, una memoria episódica, una memoria procedimental (...) y cierto tipo de ilusiones. Debido a que ciertas representaciones sensibles son equivalentes a proposiciones mentales, según Ockham, los animales no-humanos pueden juzgar y formar silogismos. (shrink)

We provide two programmatic frameworks for integrating philosophical research on understanding with complementary work in computer science, psychology, and neuroscience. First, philosophical theories of understanding have consequences about how agents should reason if they are to understand that can then be evaluated empirically by their concordance with findings in scientific studies of reasoning. Second, these studies use a multitude of explanations, and a philosophical theory of understanding is well suited to integrating these explanations in illuminating ways.

The study of corpography (corpographèse) in J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians establishes a symptomatology of the body -linked to the experiences of torture and eroticism- that associates the illness with somnolence in the fictional text and the parasitization of the represented historical text. The tortured and undesired bodies of the protagonists undergo a process of objectification that manifests the acceleration of the fall of the Empire and the fragmentation of its discursive body as well as reinforces the secrecy and (...) illegibility of the text inscribed in the body of barbarism. This indecipherable text/body is defined by the paradox of the border labyrinth whose specularity gives rise to the illusion of control at the frontier between empire and barbarism. We will study, first of all, the writing of torture on the bodies, focusing on two organs - the eyes and the feet. Then, we will be interested in the erotic experience between the two protagonists. Finally, we will see how these vacuous bodies establish, at the border, a suspensive temporary bond with the historical and the memorial text. (shrink)

Resumen: El objetivo de este trabajo es describir la situación actual y las proyecciones de la comparación forense de la voz en Chile, a la luz de los estándares internacionales que se enfocan en la producción de evidencia confiable, que pueda ser utilizada en los tribunales de justicia. Para ello, en principio, se dan a conocer los fundamentos científicos que caracterizan esta rama de las ciencias forenses y, luego, sobre esa base se analiza y comenta la situación de Chile y (...) sus proyecciones, tanto en la práctica como en la investigación forense. Abstract: The objective of this work is to describe the current situation and the projections of forensic voice comparison in Chile, in the light of international standards that focus on the production of reliable evidence that can be used in the courts of justice. To do this, first, the scientific foundations that characterize this branch of forensic sciences are disclosed and, then, on that basis, the situation in Chile and its projections are analyzed and discussed, both in practice and in the forensic research. (shrink)

Apresentação do n.1 da Revista Filosfia e Educação, dedicado à temática Educação e epistemologias. A organização deste número temático contou com a colaboração do Prof. Dr. Marcelo Donizete da Silva da |Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto. A seleção de trabalhos inclui nove artigos diretamente relacionados com a temática proposta e que compõem a seção do dossiê e seis artigos da seção de fluxo contínuo da revista Filosofia e Educação.

A presente edição de Filosofia e Educação, a primeira de 2018, apresenta algumas novidades com relação às anteriores. A primeira delas é a mudança de datas na organização dos três números que correspondem a 2018, mantendo sua periodização quadrimestral. Esta edição que na sequência anterior correspondia aos meses de outubro-janeiro sofre um ajuste neste 1º número do décimo volume. Assim, a atual edição corresponde aos quatro primeiros meses de 2018. Na sequência, a 2ª edição deve corresponder aos meses de maio-agosto (...) e a 3ª aos meses de setembro-dezembro. (shrink)

RESUMEN La educación médica superior tiene la responsabilidad social de formar educandos autónomos, independientes y autorregulados. Por ello las estrategias de aprendizaje permiten la adquisición de información y el establecimiento de relaciones a partir del conocimiento previo; son procesos de toma de decisiones, consciente e intencional. Objetivo: Exponer las necesidades del desarrollo de estrategias de aprendizaje en los estudiantes de primer año de Estomatología. Método: Se realizó una investigación descriptiva transversal. El universo estuvo constituido por los estudiantes de 1er año (...) de la carrera de Estomatología, del que fueron seleccionados 120 educandos que conformaron la muestra y a los que se les aplicó la Escala de Estrategias de Aprendizaje ACRA-Abreviada para alumnos universitarios. Los datos fueron procesados utilizando la estadística descriptiva. Resultados: Las estrategias que más utilizan son las que los llevan a un aprendizaje memorístico y reproductivo, las estrategias de apoyo al aprendizaje son utilizadas por el 47.79% de los educandos y existen inadecuados hábitos de estudios. Discusión: El estudio permitió corroborar que las insuficiencias que presentan los estudiantes en cuanto al uso de estrategias de aprendizaje son similares a las descritas por los autores consultados. ABSTRACT The high medical education has the social responsibility of forming autonomous, independent and auto-regulated pupils. For it the learning strategies allow the acquisition of information and the relations establishment from the previous knowledge; there are processes of decision making, conscious and intentional. Objective: To exhibit the needs for the development of strategies of learning in the students of the first year of Stomatology. Method: A transverse descriptive investigation was carried out. The universe was constituted by the students of 1st year of the career of Dentistry, of which there were selected 120 pupils who shaped the sample and to whom there was applied the Scale of Strategies of Learning ACRA-Abbreviated for university pupils. The information was processed using the descriptive statistics. Results: The strategies that they use more are those which take them to memory and reproductive learning, the support strategies to learning are used by 47.79 % of the pupils and inadequate studies habits exist. Discussion: The study allowed to corroborate that the insufficiencies that the students present as for the use of strategies of learning are similar to the described ones by the consulted authors. (shrink)

Resumo Este artigo procura apresentar e discutir tentativas recentes em filosofia social de analisar e interpretar o capitalismo, a partir de uma perspectiva praxeológica. O practice turn em teoria social procurou superar o dualismo entre agência e estrutura, ou entre ação e sistema, por meio da noção de prática social. Seria possível então interpretar o capitalismo como um tipo especifico de prática social? Para tentar encaminhar essa questão, explicita-se brevemente, em um primeiro momento, em que consiste o practice turn em (...) teoria social. Num segundo momento, analisa-se e se discute a proposta de Rahel Jaeggi de conceber a economia como uma rede de práticas sociais. Em seguida, expõe-se e se avalia a tentativa de Christian Lotz em ver, no dinheiro, a chave para compreender aquilo que ele chama de esquema capitalista. Por fim, conclui-se, chamando a atenção para os potenciais e desafios ligados ao empreendimento de interpretar o capitalismo em função de uma teoria da prática, sugerindo que um aprofundamento na análise da imaginação especificamente capitalista, vinculando-a com a típica plasticidade e diversidade do capitalismo, possa ajudar a avançar nesse campo.This paper aims to present and discuss recent attempts in social philosophy to analyze and interpret capitalism from a praxeological perspective. The practice turn in social theory sought to overcome the dualism between agency and structure, or between action and system, through the notion of social practice. Is it then possible to interpret capitalism as a specific type of social practice? To try to address this question, I briefly introduce, in a first moment, the practice turn in social theory. In a second moment, I analyze and discuss Rahel Jaeggi’s proposal to conceive the economy as a network of social practices. I then explain and evaluate Christian Lotz’s attempt to see money as the key to understanding what he names as “the capitalist schema”. Finally, I conclude by drawing attention to the potentials and challenges of interpreting capitalism as a social practice, suggesting that a deeper analysis of specifically capitalist imagination, linking it with the typical plasticity and diversity of capitalism, may help to move forward in this field. (shrink)

Organization figures centrally in the understanding of biological systems advanced by both new mechanists and proponents of the autonomy framework. The new mechanists focus on how components of mechanisms are organized to produce a phenomenon and emphasize productive continuity between these components. The autonomy framework focuses on how the components of a biological system are organized in such a way that they contribute to the maintenance of the organisms that produce them. In this paper we analyze and compare these two (...) accounts of organization and argue that understanding biological organisms as cohesively integrated systems benefits from insights from both. To bring together the two accounts, we focus on the notions of control and regulation as bridge concepts. We start from a characterization of biological mechanisms in terms of constraints and focus on a specific type of mechanism, control mechanisms, that operate on other mechanisms on the basis of measurements of variables in the system and its environment. Control mechanisms are characterized by their own set of constraints that enable them to sense conditions, convey signals, and effect changes on constraints in the controlled mechanism. They thereby allow living organisms to adapt to internal and external variations and to coordinate their parts in such a manner as to maintain viability. Because living organisms contain a vast number of control mechanisms, a central challenge is to understand how they are themselves organized. With the support of examples from both unicellular and multicellular systems we argue that control mechanisms are organized heterarchically, and we discuss how this type of control architecture can, without invoking top-down and centralized forms of organizations, succeed in coordinating internal activities of organisms. (shrink)

Living organisms act as integrated wholes to maintain themselves. Individual actions can each be explained by characterizing the mechanisms that perform the activity. But these alone do not explain how various activities are coordinated and performed versatilely. We argue that this depends on a specific type of mechanism, a control mechanism. We develop an account of control by examining several extensively studied control mechanisms operative in the bacterium E. coli. On our analysis, what distinguishes a control mechanism from other mechanisms (...) is that it relies on measuring one or more variables, which results in setting constraints in the control mechanism that determine its action on flexible constraints in other mechanisms. In the most basic arrangement, the measurement process directly determines the action of the control mechanism, but in more complex arrangements signals mediate between measurements and effectors. This opens the possibility of multiple responses to the same measurement and responses based on multiple measurements. It also allows crosstalk, resulting in networks of control mechanisms. Such networks integrate the behaviors of the organism but also present a challenge in tailoring responses to particular measurements. We discuss how integrated activity can still result in differential, versatile, responses. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper aims at examining the way in which Rahel Jaeggi’s conception of forms of life as inert bundles of practices is connected to the problem of the possibility of an immanent critique of life forms, that is, of a kind of analysis that is both internal and transformative. In the first part, my contention will be that understanding practices in terms of conventions makes it difficult to admit of internal criticisms of them. Jaeggi’s account of immanent critique, as (...) argued in the second part, tries to differentiate practices from social conventions by maintaining that transformations of life forms can be seen as the result of episodes of crises ignited by the inability to cope with “second order” problems. I maintain that, unless one is willing to postulate something like an absolute telos dictating the historical sequence that forms of life must follow, the way in which forms of life solve second order problems displays some conventional features preventing any quick assimilation to the paradigm of immanent critique. This circumstance, as argued in the third section of my presentation, poses an obstacle to Jaeggi’s project of an immanent critique of life forms. (shrink)

Biological regulation is what allows an organism to handle the effects of a perturbation, modulating its own constitutive dynamics in response to particular changes in internal and external conditions. With the central focus of analysis on the case of minimal living systems, we argue that regulation consists in a specific form of second-order control, exerted over the core regime of production and maintenance of the components that actually put together the organism. The main argument is that regulation requires a distinctive (...) architecture of functional relationships, and specifically the action of a dedicated subsystem whose activity is dynamically decoupled from that of the constitutive regime. We distinguish between two major ways in which control mechanisms contribute to the maintenance of a biological organisation in response to internal and external perturbations: dynamic stability and regulation. Based on this distinction an explicit definition and a set of organisational requirements for regulation are provided, and thoroughly illustrated through the examples of bacterial chemotaxis and the lac-operon. The analysis enables us to mark out the differences between regulation and closely related concepts such as feedback, robustness and homeostasis. (shrink)

Despite numerous and increasing attempts to define what life is, there is no consensus on necessary and sufficient conditions for life. Accordingly, some scholars have questioned the value of definitions of life and encouraged scientists and philosophers alike to discard the project. As an alternative to this pessimistic conclusion, we argue that critically rethinking the nature and uses of definitions can provide new insights into the epistemic roles of definitions of life for different research practices. This paper examines the possible (...) contributions of definitions of life in scientific domains where such definitions are used most (e.g., Synthetic Biology, Origins of Life, Alife, and Astrobiology). Rather than as classificatory tools for demarcation of natural kinds, we highlight the pragmatic utility of what we call operational definitions that serve as theoretical and epistemic tools in scientific practice. In particular, we examine contexts where definitions integrate criteria for life into theoretical models that involve or enable observable operations. We show how these definitions of life play important roles in influencing research agendas and evaluating results, and we argue that to discard the project of defining life is neither sufficiently motivated, nor possible without dismissing important theoretical and practical research. (shrink)

Endocrinologists apply the idea of feedback loops to explain how hormones regulate certain bodily functions such as glucose metabolism. In particular, feedback loops focus on the maintenance of the plasma concentrations of glucose within a narrow range. Here, we put forward a different, organicist perspective on the endocrine regulation of glycaemia, by relying on the pivotal concept of closure of constraints. From this perspective, biological systems are understood as organized ones, which means that they are constituted of a set of (...) mutually dependent functional structures acting as constraints, whose maintenance depends on their reciprocal interactions. Closure refers specifically to the mutual dependence among functional constraints in an organism. We show that, when compared to feedback loops, organizational closure can generate much richer descriptions of the processes and constraints at play in the metabolism and regulation of glycaemia, by making explicit the different hierarchical orders involved. We expect that the proposed theoretical framework will open the way to the construction of original mathematical models, which would provide a better understanding of endocrine regulation from an organicist perspective. (shrink)

Relatively subtle forms of exploitation of human subjects may arise from the inefficiency or incompetence of a researcher, from the existence of a power imbalance between principal and subject, or from the uneven distribution of research risks among various segments of the population. A powerful and knowledgeable person (or institution) may perpetrate the exploitation of an unempowered and ignorant individual even without intending to. There is an ethical burden on the former to protect the interests of the vulnerable. Excessive or (...) insufficient compensation may be exploitative. However, genuine economic imperatives motivating needy volunteers have to be considered. These forms of exploitation should be appreciated in the context of social and cultural factors suggesting that the relationship between researcher and subject cannot properly be appraised as a contractual undertaking. While compliance with pertinent codes and regulations minimises the exploitative potential, they cannot be enforced in a way that does not recognise a society's peculiar characteristics. The experience with some Filipino cultural traits illustrates this point. (shrink)

El presente trabajo recupera, caracteriza y evalúa el marco antropológico subyacente en la Declaración de los Derechos Humanos de 1948. Para este propósito, se utilizó como metodología el análisis del discurso y una evaluación antropológica de su contenido en relación directa con la Bioética contemporánea y sus problemas más sobresalientes. doi: 10.5294/pebi.2015.19.2.4.

This article analyses the Fair Trade sector as a “mixed-form market,” i.e., a market in which different types of players (in this case, nonprofit, co-operative and for-profit organizations) coexist and compete. The purposes of this article are (1) to understand the factors that have led Fair Trade to become a mixed-form market and (2) to propose some trails to understand the market dynamics that result from the interactions between the different types of players. We start by defining briefly Fair Trade, (...) its different dimensions (including the “fair” quality of the products) and its organizational landscape, focusing on the distinction between the pioneer “Alternative Trading Organizations” and the second-mover companies. Then, we recall the theoretical emergence factors for each type of organization (nonprofit, co-operative and for-profit) and apply these emergence factors to the context of Fair Trade. This analysis allows us to capture the specificities of each type of operator with regard to Fair Trade and, thus, to have a better understanding of the dynamics in the sector. Such dynamics includes competition, but also conflict and partnership. Our analysis includes elements on ethical imitation, consumers’ behaviors, effects on welfare and the role of the government. (shrink)