Thomas Aquinas wrote a text later known as Quaestio de attributis and ordered it inserted in a precise location of his Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard more than a decade after composing this work. Aquinas assigned exceptional importance to this text, in which he confronts the debate on the issue of the divine attributes that swept the most important centres of learning in 13th Century Europe and examines the answers given to the problem by the representatives of the (...) four mainstream schools of his time: the Greek mystic Dionysius Areopagita, the Latin Saint Anselm of Canterbury, the Jewish rabbi Moses Maimonides and the Muslim philosopher Ibn Sina. This in-depth study of Thomas Aquinas’ Quaestio de attributis (In I Sent., d. 2, q. 1, a. 3) binds together the findings of previous research on the unique history of this text by reconstructing the historical circumstances surrounding its composition, shows that the Quaestio contains Aquinas’ final answer to the dispute on the divine attributes, and thoroughly examines his interpretation of Maimonides’ position on the issue of the knowledge of God by analysing this and other texts related to it chronologically and doctrinally. The examination of the Quaestio reveals the background of Thomas Aquinas’ renewed interest in Maimonides’ position on the issue and brings to light elements of Aquinas’ interpretation that are absent from his earlier references to Maimonides. Moreover, the chronological and doctrinal connection of the Quaestio de attributis to other Thomistic works with explicit references to Maimonides enables a reconstruction of his comprehensive approach to Maimonides’ teaching on the possibility and extent of the knowledge of God in the Guide of the Perplexed and highlights the place of Maimonides’ philosophical teachings in Thomas’ own thought in issues like "Being" as the proper name of God, the multiplicity of the divine names, the beatific vision in the afterlife, the causes that prevent the instruction of the multitude in divine matters and the role of faith and prophecy in the acquisition of the true knowledge of God in this life. The last chapter examines the reasons behind Aquinas’ silencing of Maimonides’ name when introducing his Five Ways for the knowledge of the existence of God, in spite of the evident relation between these and Maimonides’ Four Speculations. The study is completed with an extensive appendix that includes the text of the Quaestio de attributis with an English translation and the critical edition of several chapters of the 13th Century Latin translation of the Guide of the Perplexed known as Dux neutrorum. (shrink)

Las cuestiones éticas vuelven a ocupar un lugar central en la preocupacioes del hombre contemporáneo. Se trata de la eclosión de una sensibilidad renovada que lleva a enfocar todos los asuntos humanos y sociales desde el punto de vista moral.

The aim of this article is to theorize how materials can play an active, constitutive, and causally effective role in the production and sustenance of cultural forms and meanings. It does so through an empirical exploration of the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA). The article describes the museum as an “objectification machine” that endeavors to transform and to stabilize artworks as meaningful “objects” that can be exhibited, classified, and circulated. The article explains how the extent to which (...) the museum succeeds in this process of stabilization ultimately depends on the material properties of artworks and, more specially, on whether these behave as “docile” or “unruly” objects. Drawing on different empirical examples, the article explores how docile and unruly objects shape organizational dynamics within the museum and, through them, the wider processes of institutional and cultural reproduction. The article uses this empirical example to highlight the importance of developing a new “material sensibility” that restores heuristic dignity to the material within cultural sociology. (shrink)

In the last few years, biologists and computer scientists have claimed that the introduction of data science techniques in molecular biology has changed the characteristics and the aims of typical outputs (i.e. models) of such a discipline. In this paper we will critically examine this claim. First, we identify the received view on models and their aims in molecular biology. Models in molecular biology are mechanistic and explanatory. Next, we identify the scope and aims of data science (machine learning in (...) particular). These lie mainly in the creation of predictive models which performances increase as data set increases. Next, we will identify a tradeoff between predictive and explanatory performances by comparing the features of mechanistic and predictive models. Finally, we show how this a priori analysis of machine learning and mechanistic research applies to actual biological practice. This will be done by analyzing the publications of a consortium—The Cancer Genome Atlas—which stands at the forefront in integrating data science and molecular biology. The result will be that biologists have to deal with the tradeoff between explaining and predicting that we have identified, and hence the explanatory force of the ‘new’ biology is substantially diminished if compared to the ‘old’ biology. However, this aspect also emphasizes the existence of other research goals which make predictive force independent from explanation. (shrink)

Ce livre résume une recherche que l'auteur a menée pendant de très longues années, et qu'il a voulu exposer comme élargissement de l'œuvre de William James, fondateur de la philosophie et de la psychologie américaines.

Este trabajo ha sido seleccionado de entre los participantes en la VI Olimpiada de Filosofía que organiza FICUM en la modalidad de secundaria y bachillerato, para promocionar la filosofía entre los jóvenes.

An analysis of ms Vat. Lat. 781 reveals ratio and limppiditas as two key notions in Albert the Great's teaching on the possibility of knowing God.

Las fake news se suelen caracterizar como contenidos, de modo que prevalece el planteamiento semántico. Aquí se propone un enfoque pragmático, donde son actos comunicativos intencionales. Esto permite entender las fake news desde los actos locucionarios, ilocucionarios y perlocucionarios. Esta triple versión de intencionalidad comunicativa permite una mejor intelección de la mala información (misinformation) y de la desinformación (disinformation), que se refleja con claridad en el caso económico.Para mitigar o neutralizar los daños causados por las fake news en el tejido (...) social, se suele recomendar la contrastación de hechos (fact checking). La contribución de la Economía Experimental —y, en concreto, la aportación de Alvin Roth (Premio Nobel de Economía 2012)— puede ser especialmente relevante en dos direcciones: (a) la actividad económica y (b) la Economía como actividad entrelazada con otras. Esto supone el contrastar hechos partiendo de la intencionalidad en la actividad económica, en cuanto tal y en su nexo con otras actividades humanas. A este respecto, las fake news convergen con la toma de decisiones económicas, en cuanto que ambas están surcadas por la intencionalidad y, además, tienen lugar en un contexto donde adquieren un perfil orientado a fines. (shrink)

In the last few years, biologists and computer scientists have claimed that the introduction of data science techniques in molecular biology has changed the characteristics and the aims of typical outputs (i.e. models) of such a discipline. In this paper we will critically examine this claim. First, we identify the received view on models and their aims in molecular biology. Models in molecular biology are mechanistic and explanatory. Next, we identify the scope and aims of data science (machine learning in (...) particular). These lie mainly in the creation of predictive models which performances increase as data set increases. Next, we will identify a tradeoff between predictive and explanatory performances by comparing the features of mechanistic and predictive models. Finally, we show how this a priori analysis of machine learning and mechanistic research applies to actual biological practice. This will be done by analyzing the publications of a consortium—The Cancer Genome Atlas—which stands at the forefront in integrating data science and molecular biology. The result will be that biologists have to deal with the tradeoff between explaining and predicting that we have identified, and hence the explanatory force of the ‘new’ biology is substantially diminished if compared to the ‘old’ biology. However, this aspect also emphasizes the existence of other research goals which make predictive force independent from explanation. (shrink)

Deep learning is a kind of machine learning which happens in a certain type of artificial neural networks called deep networks. Artificial deep networks, which exhibit many similarities with biological ones, have consistently shown human-like performance in many intelligent tasks. This poses the question whether this performance is caused by such similarities. After reviewing the structure and learning processes of artificial and biological neural networks, we outline two important reasons for the success of deep learning, namely the extraction of successively (...) higher level features and the multiple layer structure, which are closely related to each other. Then some indications about the framing of this heated debate are given. After that, an assessment of the value of artificial deep networks as models of the human brain is given from the similarity perspective of model representation. Finally, a new version of computational functionalism is proposed which addresses the specificity of deep neural computation better than classic, program based computational functionalism. (shrink)

Physical forces regulate numerous biological processes during development, physiology, and pathology. Forces between the external environment and intracellular actin cytoskeleton are primarily transmitted through integrin‐containing focal adhesions and cadherin‐containing adherens junctions. Crosstalk between these complexes is well established and modulates the mechanical landscape of the cell. However, integrins and cadherins constitute large families of adhesion receptors and form multiple complexes by interacting with different ligands, adaptor proteins, and cytoskeletal filaments. Recent findings indicate that integrin‐containing hemidesmosomes oppose force transduction and traction (...) force generation by focal adhesions. The cytolinker plectin mediates this crosstalk by coupling intermediate filaments to the actin cytoskeleton. Similarly, cadherins in desmosomes might modulate force generation by adherens junctions. Moreover, mechanotransduction can be influenced by podosomes, clathrin lattices, and tetraspanin‐enriched microdomains. This review discusses mechanotransduction by multiple integrin‐ and cadherin‐based cell adhesion complexes, which together with the associated cytoskeleton form an integrated network that allows cells to sense, process, and respond to their physical environment. (shrink)

The study of agriculture in ancient societies is of vital importance for the understanding of their ecological basis. This article discusses data gathered from Alonso de Molina's dictionary, published in Mexico City in 1571. Molina's information on soil, rain, plants, technology, and human labor applied to agricultural activities gives a picture of the complexity of the several native agricultural systems practiced at that time. Since the Sixteenth Century, native agriculture was impacted by the introduction of new plants, animals, agricultural equipment, (...) and techniques from the Old World. A combination of the two agricultural models conform a new Mexican model of agriculture along the Colonial times. The knowledge of Sixteenth Century agricultural systems is fundamental for the understanding of the history and the conformation of contemporary agro-ecosystems. Recent studies on ecology and social anthropology agree on the necessity to take into account historical data for the discussion of ecological sustainability. (shrink)

El vocabulario en los niños con Trastorno del Desarrollo del Lenguaje (TDL) o con Retraso del Lenguaje (RL) es más pobre que en los niños con un desarrollo típico del lenguaje, por lo que se pretende conocer qué diferencias existen entre ellos. Han participado 66 infantes entre 3 y 5 años; se ha valorado que vocabulario conocen, se ha determinado que tienen menos vocabulario (52%) que sus homónimos (69%), a excepción de la categoría de transportes, en la que tienen los (...) mismos resultados. Finalmente, se determina el listado de categorías que más necesitan trabajar los niños con RL o TDL. (shrink)

Background: Patients at the end-of-life and their families experience a strong emotional impact. The wellbeing of the patient at the end-of-life and their family caregiver are related. Aim: to explore the elements related with the emotional wellbeing of patients with and without cognitive impairment at the end-of-life and that of their primary family caregivers. Design: Cross- sectional study. Participants: data was collected from 202 patients at the end of life with different diagnosis (COPD, cancer and frail elderly) as well as (...) from their respective 202 primary family caregivers. Results: Structural equation models indicated that the emotional state of the patients was best predicted by their functional independence and the burden of their family caregivers. At the same time, the emotional state of the primary family caregiver was predicted by their burden and not by the cognitive state or the functional independence of the patient. Nevertheless, the burden of the family caregiver, which is the only variable predicting both the emotional state of the patient and that of the caregiver, was directly related with the functional independence of the patient and indirectly with the patient’s cognitive state. Conclusions: The burden of the family caregiver stands out as a key factor in the reduction of the emotional distress of patients at the end-of-life –whether or not they present significant cognitive impairment- and that of their family caregivers. (shrink)

Self-determination theory considers motivation as a multidimensional phenomenon, with different levels of intensity, purposes, intentions, wills and autonomies. It distinguishes between intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and amotivation. In this paper, we are going to focus on extrinsic motivation, which is related to those tasks that the subject performs without having a purpose in themselves, and which is composed of identified regulation, introjected regulation and external regulation. The aim of this research is to analyse the relationship between them and emotional intelligence (...) in 165 students with university degrees related to Physical Activity and Sport Sciences. The main findings of this work lie mainly in the demonstration of the fact that emotional intelligence is a predictor of identified regulation, introjected regulation and external regulation. (shrink)

This paper attempts to answer whether the property of “efficacy” can be attributed to constitutive rules. In particular, according to Di Lucia, I will point out some problems that the “semantic conception of efficacy” has concerning constitutive and regulative rules. Then, the main goal of the paper will be to reflect on the possibility of the efficacy of constitutive rules by means of a complex case that the semantic conception seems to disregard: The case of the cheater. Does the action (...) of the cheater show the inefficacy of constitutive rules? Does she play the game while breaking the rule? Can the semantic conception of efficacy explain this situation, or do we need a more flexible concept of efficacy that takes nomotropism into account? These are some of the questions I will try to answer. (shrink)

Abstract: The present text compare the concepts of Spirit and Dialectic in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit and Kierkegaard's Sikness unto Death respectively. For this, the clarifications made by one author and the other of the concepts to be compared are taken, as a starting point, in order to detect whether or not these concepts have some kind of relationship that serves to bring german and danish closer together. -/- .

From 1912, Alejandro Korn and José Ingenieros began to publish articles that then would be part of their historical works, respectively, Influencias filosóficas en la evolución nacional and La evolución de las ideas argentinas. Therefore, they started to generate some discussion in reference to sections that they knew of each other's work. Being the first major works from a developing philosophical field about the history of Argentine thought, their authors sought to create cultural traditions to affirm their own academic, cultural (...) and political positions. Thus, they based their positions about their academic situation through their interventions in the debate on the evaluation of the various features of the intellectual past of the country and national identity during the academic professionalization of historical studies, and actively participated in discussions on the function of culture and philosophy in a national project. Yet, besides, in order to address their history of ideas, the two most important teachers of the philosophical sphere around 1918 tested very different methodological approaches that worked under different conceptions of philosophical and historical practice and two different ways of thinking the reception and circulation of ideas from Europe. (shrink)

This paper compares the concepts of “spirit” and “dialectic” in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death respectively. For this purpose, I delve into the way in which both philosophers understand these two concepts. The aim of this comparison is to detect whether there is some kind of relationship between the two concepts that could bring Hegel and Kierkegaard closer to each other.

En 1993 y 2012 la poeta irlandesa Mary O’Malley publicó Valparaiso y Where the Rocks Float que edificó alrededor de la figura del mar y de la zona costera irlandesa donde nació. En ambas colecciones, la figura del mar se transforma en un potente agente activo que denuncia el rol de la mujer en la sociedad irlandesa y la explotación de los espacios azules con fines de consumo. Utilizando el análisis de Donna Haraway en Manifiesto cíborg (1985), este artículo analizará (...) una selección de textos de ambos poemarios para estudiar el vínculo entre mujer y mar como agentes activos contra la opresión patriarcal y la explotación capitalista. (shrink)

La investigación presentada explora el método Painting Dialogues, llevado a cabo en la Universidad de Cádiz, durante la estancia postdoctoral de su creadora, Małgorzata Karczmarzyk, con estudiantes de Educación Infantil.A partir de la experiencia de creación compartida y del análisis y reflexión conjunta de la huella gráfica originada a modo de cartografía, el diálogo pictórico se presenta como proceso clave de aprendizaje. Esta forma de comunicación ayuda a comprender e interiorizar el conocimiento, potenciando la expresividad, la sensorialidad, la intuición, la (...) confianza y la escucha hacia uno mismo y hacia el otro. (shrink)

The purpose of professional education programs is to prepare aspiring professionals for the challenges of practice within a particular profession. These programs typically seek to ensure the acquisition of necessary knowledge and skills, as well as providing opportunities for their application. While not denying the importance of knowledge and skills, this paper reconfigures professional education as a process of becoming. Learning to become a professional involves not only what we know and can do, but also who we are (becoming). It (...) involves integration of knowing, acting, and being in the form of professional ways of being that unfold over time. When a professional education program focuses on the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills, it falls short of facilitating their integration into professional ways of being. In addition, through such a focus on epistemology (or theory of knowing), ontology (or theory of being) is overlooked. This paper explores what it means to develop professional ways of being where the focus is becoming, not simply knowing as an end in itself. (shrink)

Although expected utility theory has proven a fruitful and elegant theory in the finite realm, attempts to generalize it to infinite values have resulted in many paradoxes. In this paper, we argue that the use of John Conway's surreal numbers shall provide a firm mathematical foundation for transfinite decision theory. To that end, we prove a surreal representation theorem and show that our surreal decision theory respects dominance reasoning even in the case of infinite values. We then bring our theory (...) to bear on one of the more venerable decision problems in the literature: Pascal's Wager. Analyzing the wager showcases our theory's virtues and advantages. To that end, we analyze two objections against the wager: Mixed Strategies and Many Gods. After formulating the two objections in the framework of surreal utilities and probabilities, our theory correctly predicts that (1) the pure Pascalian strategy beats all mixed strategies, and (2) what one should do in a Pascalian decision problem depends on what one's credence function is like. Our analysis therefore suggests that although Pascal's Wager is mathematically coherent, it does not deliver what it purports to, a rationally compelling argument that people should lead a religious life regardless of how confident they are in theism and its alternatives. (shrink)

Partiendo de la noción de “arte de gobierno liberal”, que encuentra su con guración en la forma de una Economía Política y su modelo normativo en un gobierno frugal, pretendemos elevar nuestro estudio hacia un análisis del tipo de subjetividad que funciona como correlato de la racionalidad política (neo)liberal: el homo oeconomicus y su actualización en la forma de sujeto “empresario de sí mismo”. Para tal n nos veremos en la necesidad de señalar la mutación epistemológica planteada por el análisis (...) neoliberal –iniciado por la Escuela de Friburgo y, más especí camente, desarrollado por la Escuela de Chicago en el ámbito norteamericano–, el cual tiende un puente entre el análisis de los procesos económicos y el estudio de la racionalidad interna del comportamiento humano. Asimismo, haremos una incursión en la teoría del Capital Humano a través de intelectuales como eodore W. Schultz y Gary S. Becker y sus derroteros actuales. (shrink)