El presente artículo tiene como propósito presentar una reflexión pedagógica mediante la aplicación de referentes del pensamiento de Juan José Bautista, discípulo de Enrique Dussel. Se busca repensar en términos epistemológicos la enseñanza del locus de enunciación latinoamericano. Se tiene en cuenta que el proceso de desarrollo y consolidación de la razón moderna como forma de compresión de la realidad latinoamericana ha destruido sistemáticamente otras formas de pensar, incluidas las de los pueblos originarios americanos. Es por eso que este (...) artículo busca introducir la reflexión sobre los compromisos que implican pensar y pertenecer a esta zona geográficamente diversa. (shrink)

Current work in language models (LMs) helps us speed up or even skip thinking by accelerating and automating cognitive work. But can LMs help us with critical thinking -- thinking in deeper, more reflective ways which challenge assumptions, clarify ideas, and engineer new concepts? We treat philosophy as a case study in critical thinking, and interview 21 professional philosophers about how they engage in critical thinking and on their experiences with LMs. We find that philosophers do not find LMs to (...) be useful because they lack a sense of selfhood (memory, beliefs, consistency) and initiative (curiosity, proactivity). We propose the selfhood-initiative model for critical thinking tools to characterize this gap. Using the model, we formulate three roles LMs could play as critical thinking tools: the Interlocutor, the Monitor, and the Respondent. We hope that our work inspires LM researchers to further develop LMs as critical thinking tools and philosophers and other 'critical thinkers' to imagine intellectually substantive uses of LMs. (shrink)

This reconsideration of Hume’s classic essay “Of Miracles” via the lens of American pragmatist ways of thinking about history and power shifts our attention from Hume’s epistemic concerns about the legitimacy of witnesses and testimony to his distaste for sacred history, his critical stance regarding the social force of revelation, and his disdain for religious authority. To view Hume’s essay both as an articulation of a critical philosophy of history and as an exercise in moral dynamism (social power or, authority, (...) is a result of epistemic transactions), is to intervene in both Hume studies and Contemporary Pragmatism. (shrink)

Under the lig ht of Being and Nothingness’s the o re t ical body – Sartre’s master piece –, it is intended to discuss the essential source of human reality as “n i h i l a t i o n” and ontological lack, as well as manifestations and cons e q u e nces from this primordial human passion to be transformed to coagulated transcendence, to be transformed in Being In-itself-For-itself: to be consciousness and, at the same t i (...) me, to be a complete and finished Being, with infinite de nsity and witho u t fissures. (shrink)

An examination of David Hume's philosophy of religion that situates his conception "true religion" within the context of his overall science of human nature, his rejection of popular religion, and his Ciceronian influence"--Provided by publisher.

Drawing on recent findings, this study examines whether valence concordant electromyography (EMG) responses can be explained as an unconditional effect of mere stimulus processing or as somatosensory simulation driven by task-dependent processing strategies. While facial EMG over the Corrugator supercilii and the Zygomaticus major was measured, each participant performed two tasks with pictures of album covers. One task was an affective evaluation task and the other was to attribute the album covers to one of five decades. The Embodied Emotion Account (...) predicts that valence concordant EMG is more likely to occur if the task necessitates a somatosensory simulation of the evaluative meaning of stimuli. Results support this prediction with regard to Corrugator supercilii in that valence concordant EMG activity was only present in the affective evaluation task but not in the non-evaluative task. Results for the Zygomaticus major were ambiguous. Our findings are in line with the view that EMG activity is an embodied part of the evaluation process and not a mere physical outcome. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es abordar el reciente problema del nexo entre realismo y fenomenología hermenéutica desde un enfoque específico: el diálogo entre el nuevo realismo de Markus Gabriel y algunas propuestas hermenéutico-fenomenológicas alemanas que se autocomprenden en términos realistas. Afirmo la hipótesis de que es posible un diálogo productivo entre estas propuestas, basado en una comprensión mínima del realismo como fundamentación ontológica viable. Para esto, en primer lugar mostraré el sentido del actual resurgimiento del realismo en el contexto (...) de la ontología continental contemporánea, situando su recepción, crítica e integración a propósito del ámbito de la fenomenología y hermenéutica recientes. En segundo lugar, analizaré la propuesta de nuevo realismo, que está implicada en la ontología de campos de sentido de M. Gabriel. Y, en tercer lugar, reseñaré las propuestas de Günter Figal, Anton Friedrich Koch y Tobias Keiling en su fundamento realista. Mediante este trabajo comparativo, concluiré afirmando que el diálogo entre ambas corrientes comparte una comprensión realista no reductiva a la cuestión del mundo exterior, que le permite entenderlo como búsqueda de cierto criterio de objetividad para lo que aparece sensiblemente con sentido, con el propósito de esclarecer por qué las cosas reales son dependientes de la interpretación (interpretables en general), pero independientes de interpretaciones individuales. (shrink)

Resumen En este artículo propongo un análisis crítico de varias tendencias filosóficas contrarias al uso de la noción de verdad en el ámbito epistemológico, especialmente la de Rorty. En particular, sostengo que la verdad es un concepto clave para el estudio del conocimiento, especialmente el científico, en cuanto toma una forma concisa en los procedimientos experimentales de carácter probatorio-empírico. Gracias a este enfoque, busco socavar varias tesis de los enfoques de la ‘posverdad’ por medio del uso de un conjunto de (...) procedimientos científicos de obtención de evidencias en varios campos vinculados a la disciplina práctica de la medicina.In thispaper, I present a critical analysis of several philosophical tendencies that go against the use of the notion of truth in epistemology, especially Rorty’s one. Particularly, I claim that truth is a key conceptfor the study of knowledge, especially the scientific knowledge, as it takes a concise form through the experimentalprocedures for eliciting evidences. With the help of this analysis, I seek to undermine some ‘post-truth’ theses by means of analyying some scientific procedures to get evidences in severalfields related to the practical discipline of medicine. (shrink)

Étude sur deux pensées philosophiques de l'existence qui furent influencées par le romantisme au milieu du XIXe siècle. L'auteur s'interroge sur la conception de l'homme que chacun des deux philosophes propose. D'après lui, leurs postulats sont parents par bien des aspects. L'existence est envisagée dans ses dimensions littéraires, philosophiques et religieuses.--Résumé de l'éditeur.

Le rôle de David Hume dans la philosophie moderne, par A. L. Leroy.--The enlightenment of David Hume, by E. C. Mossner.--Hume and Jurieu: possible Calvinist origins of Hume's theory of belief, by R. H. Popkin.--Hume: philosopher or psychologist? A problem of exegesis, by T. E. Jessop.--L'astrazione nella filosofia di Hume, di M. Dal Pra.--Infinite divisibility in Hume's "Treatise," by A. Flew.--Note a "La rgola del gusto," di E. Migliorini.--Kant, Hamann-Jacobi and Schelling on Hume, by P. Merlan.--Bibliografia humiana dal 1937 al (...) 1966, di E. Ronchetti. (shrink)

For this study, I especially have centred myself on the work of the doctor in psychiatry and professor of the University of Tehran, Javad Nurbakhsh. He was a Master of the Order of Sufi Shah Nematollah Wali and died a year ago. This work, which appeared in 1999, is titled ‘Sufi Women’ and in it, the author compiled the brief biographies, which were sometimes only slight glimpses of existence, of 136 women. I will focus on three principle questions: the women (...) themselves, their relationships with their surroundings, and their relationships with God. I conclude that female Sufi Mystics’ bodies were soaked in tears and their souls in flames. They shed tears because of their distance from God and for being stuck in bodies and because of their desire for transcendence, to drown in Oneness. Since their bodies impeded this desire, they mortified them impiously with fasts and vigils and became unsightly to all who saw them. They did not take care of others, and they did not take care of themselves, they renounced all care. (shrink)

This paper proposes a state-of-the-art methodology for the analysis of stakeholders and their role and performance related to SMEs in the mining industry in the Chilean region of Coquimbo. The relationships between the actors are studied and prioritized according to their support network position. An individual index for each actor based on their influence on solving problems is provided. The social network analysis was used to know the influence of the actors in the sector through the centrality measures. Furthermore, a (...) methodology to measure stakeholders’ influence based on the multicriteria method analytic network process approach is proposed. Both methods are used to identify the main stakeholders, study their relationships, and identify the most influential actors involved in executing strategies to boost the sector performance. The results show that the network remains cohesive thanks to certain actors, while the links between private actors must be strengthened; likewise, some public actors should assume a more proactive role in dealing with the problems of the sector. (shrink)

In contributions elsewhere to this volume, we considered the histories of Colombia and South Africa and how some of the values indigenous to those locales might plausibly bear on transitional justice in them. We advanced broadly relational and constructive (non-retributive) approaches to the social conflicts that had taken place there, ones that make victim compensation central. In this chapter we consider how Metz’s ubuntu-based reconciliatory approach to reparations might be relevant to Colombia in ways he did not consider, after which (...) we reflect on how the kinds of communitarian practices advanced by Bautista might apply to South Africa. We conclude that these cross-applications are revealing, pointing out how economic compensation in Colombia should plausibly be influenced by cultural factors, and how considerations of culture in South Africa call for compensation beyond economic factors. (shrink)

En este artículo, nos proponemos analizar el horizonte epistemológico sobre el que se construye la psiquiatría de Kraepelin, particularmente su posición frente al problema de los criterios de clasificación de las enfermedades mentales, que fue un tema ampliamente discutido por la psiquiatría mundial a fines del siglo XIX. Analizamos de qué modo Kraepelin se vinculaba con el debate de su época sobre la definición de criterios científicos, válidos y objetivos de clasificación de las enfermedades psiquiátricas, para, posteriormente, analizar las consecuencias (...) implícitas en una elección de criterios diagnósticos que significó el abandono de las narrativas de los pacientes frente a la fantasmagoría de las categorías diagnósticas. In this paper we analyze the epistemological framework on which Kraepelin's psychiatry was built. We are particularly interested in Kraepelin's position relating to the criteria of classification of mental illnesses; a topic that was widely discussed by in psychiatry throughout the world at the end of the XIX century. We analyze his contributions to the discussion concerning the definition of scientific and objectively valid criteria for the classification of psychiatric illnesses. Then, we show how settling upon certain diagnostic criteria led to paying little attention to patients narratives, and giving major weight to the paraphernalia of diagnostic categories. (shrink)

Social constructionists maintain that we invent the properties of the world rather than discover them. Is reality constructed by our own activity? Do we collectively invent the world rather than discover it? André Kukla presents a comprehensive discussion of the philosophical issues that arise out of this debate, analysing the various strengths and weaknesses of a range of constructivist arguments and arguing that current philosophical objections to constructivism are inconclusive. However, Kukla offers and develops new objections to constructivism, distinguishing between (...) the social causes of scientific beliefs and the view that all ascertainable facts are constructed. (shrink)

Scientific realists have argued that the truth(likeness) of our theories provides the only explanation for the success of science. I consider alternative explanations proposed by antirealists. I endorse Leplin's contention that neither van Fraassen's Darwinist explanation nor Laudan's methodological explanation provides the sort of explanatory alternative which is called for in this debate. Fine's suggestion--that the empirical adequacy of our theories already explains their success--is more promising for antirealists. Leplin claims that this putative explanation collapses into realism on one reading (...) and into vacuity on another reading. But his analysis conflates three doctrines into two, and one of the three avoids both realism and vacuity. (shrink)

Over the past fifteen years there has been a considerable amount of debate concerning what theoretical population dynamic models tell us about the nature of natural selection and drift. On the causal interpretation, these models describe the causes of population change. On the statistical interpretation, the models of population dynamics models specify statistical parameters that explain, predict, and quantify changes in population structure, without identifying the causes of those changes. Selection and drift are part of a statistical description of population (...) change; they are not discrete, apportionable causes. Our objective here is to provide a definitive statement of the statistical position, so as to allay some confusions in the current literature. We outline four commitments that are central to statisticalism. They are: 1. Natural Selection is a higher order effect; 2. Trait fitness is primitive; 3. Modern Synthesis (MS)-models are substrate neutral; 4. MS-selection and drift are model-relative. (shrink)

El artículo aborda la relación entre Nietzsche y Levinas, en particular se enfrenta a la concepción de cuerpo y narración sostenida por cada autor. En ese sentido se afirma que la aparente distancia que existe entre ambos pensadores puede reducirse a partir de las temáticas que se estudian en este trabajo. A la luz de todo ello, la lectura del cuerpo de Nietzsche y la comprensión de narración de Levinas no habrían sido solo reflexiones filosóficas, sino más bien el pretexto (...) para que ambos pensadores critiquen el pensamiento establecido y propongan, cada uno a su modo, un quehacer filosófico que afecta directamente la existencia humana en cuanto reflexión sobre las formas como se comprende la vida misma. (shrink)

According to an externalist theory of content the content of an individual’s thoughts and the meaning of her words need not supervene on her intrinsic history. Two individuals may be intrinsically exactly alike yet entertain different thoughts, and attach different meanings to the words they use. ETC, which has been most notably defended by Saul Kripke, Hilary Putnam and Tyler Burge, has attained the status of current orthodoxy. Nevertheless, some maintain that combining ETC with the premisses that we have privileged (...) access to our intentional states yields a surprising conclusion. It yields the conclusion that we can have a priori knowledge of features of the external world that seem only accessible to empirical investigation. Call the argument from ETC and privileged access to this conclusion the main argument. Some take the main argument to be a reductio of ETC. Since we have privileged access to our intentional states, and lack the a priori knowledge attributed by the main argument, ETC is false. Some take the main argument to refute the premisses that we have privileged access to those intentional states falling within the scope of ETC. Others see the main argument as a refutation of external world scepticism. We will show that the main argument does not support any of these interesting conclusions. We will show that the main argument does not threaten to restrict privileged access, refute external world scepticism, or constitute a reductio of ETC. More exactly, we will show that the most defensible version of ETC, even when combined with the premiss that we have unrestricted privileged access to our intentional states, yields no a priori knowledge of the external world. (shrink)

The central point of this essay is to demonstrate the incommensurability of ‘Darwinian fitness’ with the numeric values associated with reproductive rates used in population genetics. While sometimes both are called ‘fitness’, they are distinct concepts coming from distinct explanatory schemes. Further, we try to outline a possible answer to the following question: from the natural properties of organisms and a knowledge of their environment, can we construct an algorithm for a particular kind of organismic life-history pattern that itself will (...) allow us to predict whether a type in the population will increase or decrease relative to other types? 1. Introduction2. Darwinian fitness3. Reproductive fitness and genetical models of evolution4. The models of reproductive fitness4.1 The Standard Viability Model4.2 Frequency-dependent selection4.3 Fertility models4.4 Overlapping generations5. Fitness as outcome5.1 Fitness as actual increase in type5.2 Fitness as expected increase in type5.2.1 Expected increase within a generation5.2.2 Expected increase between generations5.2.3 Postponed reproductive fitness effects6. The book-keeping problem7. Conclusion. (shrink)

El cuidado en el florecimiento o desarrollo humano personal: reflexiones desde la psicología para la bioética del cuidado Cuidado no florescimento ou desenvolvimento humano pessoal: reflexões da psicologia para a bioética do cuidado This paper looks into the place care holds in personal development. It begins considering care as a universal and necessary category for human life and asks about the role it plays and how it influences one’s own personal development. Even though the framework that surrounds this reflection is (...) a multidimensional humanistic anthropological perspective—that is, it recognizes the richness of the person with his different dimensions: biological, psychological, and social, all of them involved in personal development—, it specifically analyzes the psychological dimension of care under three aspects: being taken care of, taking care of others, and being aware of both realities. Para citar este artículo / To reference this article / Para citar este artigo Hernáez-García M. El cuidado en el florecimiento o desarrollo humano personal: reflexiones desde la psicología para la bioética del cuidado. pers. bioét. 2018; 22: 271-287. DOI: 10.5294/pebi.2018.22.2.6. (shrink)

Las clases virtuales son una modalidad de estudio a distancia que ha sido aplicadas por más de 10 años. Son utilizadas principalmente en universidades para abarcar las necesidades de sus estudiantes que no pueden acceder al sistema presencial. Al encontrarnos en una emergencia sanitaria por el COVID-19, la aplicación de las clases virtuales alrededor del mundo se volvió una obligación para precautelar la vida de los estudiantes. Es por esto que la población universitaria tuvo que adaptarse a nuevas condiciones de (...) estudio como: las clases, trabajos y exámenes en línea con el fin de no detener su aprendizaje. Sin duda, esto desencadenó inconformidades e inquietudes al estudiar por primera vez bajo esta modalidad. En este trabajo se evaluó la satisfacción sobre clases virtuales tomadas el primer semestre del 2020 a estudiantes de la carrera de Ingeniería Industrial de la Universidad de las Américas con edades entre 18 a 20 años. Para ello se realizó una encuesta de 15 ítems los cuales evaluaron las distintas condiciones que se presentaron en las clases virtuales durante el periodo de pandemia, con datos validados por un alfa de Cronbach 0,92. En este trabajo se obtuvo como resultado que gran parte de las personas encuestadas aprobó el software aplicado para la realización de las clases virtuales debido a que es una herramienta de uso intuitivo y de fácil acceso, por otro lado, están en desacuerdo con la modalidad de evaluación del conocimiento adquirido. Palabras Clave: Clases virtuales, Satisfacción estudiantil, COVID-19, TIC’s. Referencias [1]K. Brandl, «Are you ready to Moodle?,» Language Learning & Technology, vol. 9, nº 2, pp. 16-23, 2005. [2]C. Belloch, «Entornos virtuales de aprendizaje,» Universidad de Valencia, vol. 1, nº 1, pp. 1-3, 2012. [3]J. Jarrín, «Informe Nacional: Ecuador,» Universa, Quito, 2016. [4]M. Reeves. y T. Barbour, «The reality of virtual schools: A review of the literature,» Computers & Education, vol. 52, nº 10, pp. 402-416, 2009. [5]C. Bonfill, «Clases virtuales a través de videoconferencias: factores críticos vivenciados por los tutores en un sistema de educación a distancia.,» Temas de Managment, vol. 5, nº 2, pp. 12-20, 2007. [6]A. García, M. Mediavilla y A. Casares, «Evaluación entre iguales en entornos de edcucación superior online mediante el taller Moodle,» A case study, vol. 13, nº 2, pp. 119-126, 2020. [7]R. Bendezu, A. Quijuano, H. Rebatta y G. Gutierrez, «Aprendizaje en tiempos de aislamiento social: cursos masivos abiertos en línea sobre la COVID-19,» vol. 37, nº 2, pp. 375-277, 2020. [8]M. Bautista y R. Torres, «El uso de material didáctico y las tecnologías de la información y comunicación para mejorar el alcance académico,» Ciencia y tecnología, nº 14, 2014. [9]G. Gutierrez, P. Krystell, C. Zarate, I. Juarez. y M. López, «Uso de tecnologías de la información en el rendimiento académico basado en una población de estudiantes de Medicina,» Educ Med Super, vol. 31, nº 2, pp. 23-34, 2017. [10]A. Rodrífuez, B. González y J. Fariñas, «Simulaciones virtuales como complemento de las clases y los laboratorios de Física. Ejemplos en la carrera de Ingeniería en Telecomunicaciones y Electrónica.,» Latin-American Journal of Physics Education, vol. 7, nº 4, pp. 16-20, 2013. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Popular Culture in the Houses of Poe and CortázarDaniel Bautista (bio)"[…]at the age of nine I read Edgar Allan Poe for the first time. That book I stole to read because my mother didn't want me to read it, she thought I was too young and she was right. The book scared me and I was ill for three months, because I believed in it."…—Julio Cortázar1In interviews and (...) essays, Julio Cortázar, the famous Argentine author, often expressed a lifelong fascination with Edgar Allan Poe (Berg 227–32). Moreover, as a young man Cortázar spent two years translating the American author's prose into Spanish, making irresistible the search for traces of Poe in his own work. His description of Poe as a youthful and guilty pleasure reflects a common reaction to the American author that has led some critics to rue Poe's influence. Jonathan Elmer points out that "Poe's connection with juvenile tastes, and hence with a time when reading and acquiring 'culture' were actually enjoyable […] has been insistently and disapprovingly stressed by the Anglo-American literary-historical tradition" (3). Although Poe himself often liked to "advertise [his work] as ethereal and otherworldly, or avowedly timeless," critics who found elements of the vulgarly popular in his writing regarded the author as a true "stumbling block" in the American literary landscape (Rosenheim and Rachman xii; Eliot 205). In a similar vein, Elmer observes,It has puzzled many critics, sometimes to the point of vituperation, that Poe stands simultaneously as the germinal figure of a central modernist trajectory (leading via Baudelaire to French Symbolism and thence to the high modernism of Eliot and others) and as the much-acknowledged pioneer of several durable mass-cultural genres: detective fiction and science fiction, as well as certain modes of sensational or gothic horror, which are today, to use one of Poe's coinages, "omniprevalent."(2)In the past, such critics tended to dismiss Poe to the fringes of the American canon for what they saw as his highbrow pretensions and lowbrow taste. More recently, critics like Elmer and others have argued that Poe's ability to straddle the high/low cultural divide is precisely what makes him such a perennially fascinating writer and one of the most revealing about American culture in general.Considering Poe's high standing in Latin America, one might assume that the question of his low or popular status was not as much of a stumbling block there.2 Cortázar himself blamed American discomfort with Poe on his use of "baroque" language, an issue that Cortázar's own background as a native Spanish speaker allowed him to ignore: [End Page 1] "since I'm neither English nor American, I see it with another perspective. I know there are aspects which have aged a lot, that are exaggerated, but that hasn't the slightest importance next to his genius" (Weiss 73). The idea that an author's "genius" could rise above the demands of his countrymen was important to Cortázar. Questions about his own cultural status also significantly affected the reception of Cortázar's work, though in many ways he suffered from just the opposite charges made against Poe. The style and themes of his work, and the political context in Argentina during the early part of his career (characterized most conspicuously by the rise of Perónism), led some in the literary establishment of his own country to accuse Cortázar of being too European or elitist.3 Looking at Poe and Cortázar together, this essay compares how both authors negotiated such cultural issues in their writing and the way that Cortázar reworks some of Poe's particular strategies in a modern Argentine setting. Focusing on two of these authors' most well-known stories, "The Fall of the House of Usher" (published in 1839) and "Casa tomada" ("House Taken Over") (published in 1946), I argue that they both reflect some of the ways that Poe and Cortázar grappled with the rise and attraction of a popular culture that threatened to reconfigure their particular literary landscapes.In Keywords, Raymond Williams traces the... (shrink)

After nearly three decades of scientific research, digital mental health (DMH) is having its moment. Millions of dollars of venture capital funding are entering this space (Shah and Berry 2021; Wan...

Este trabajo tiene por objeto demostrar la importancia de la Ética en las Constituciones políticas y Tratados internacionales desde la teoría de la virtud aristotélica. Dicho objeto es imprescindible debido al aumento de la frivolidad, decadencia institucional y corrupción política en diversos gobiernos y administraciones públicas contemporáneas.

Annotation: This is a comprehensive and psychological history of art from a variety of cultures by one of the eminent thinkers of the twentieth century.

The aim of this paper is to elucidate the question of whether Newtonian mechanics can be derived from relativity theory. Physicists agree that classical mechanics constitutes a limiting case of relativity theory. By contrast, philosophers of science like Kuhn and Feyerabend affirm that classical mechanics cannot be deduced from relativity theory because of the incommensurability between both theories; thus what we obtain when we take the limit c → ∞ in relativistic mechanics cannot be Newtonian mechanics sensu stricto. In this (...) paper I focus on the alleged change of reference of the term mass in the transition from one theory to the other. Contradicting Kuhn and Feyerabend, special relativity theory supports the view that the mass of an object is a characteristic property of the object, that it has the same value in whatever frame of reference it is measured, and that it does not depend on whether the object is in motion or at rest. Thus mass preserves the reference through the change of theory, and the existence of a Newtonian limit of relativity theory provides a good example of the rationality of theory change in mathematical physics. (shrink)

Le génie de Léonard de Vinci, celui de Michel-Ange ressortent mieux sur le fond révélateur de l’Académie de Careggi, où Marsile Ficin règne en maître, évoquant sinon invoquant Platon. La culture platonicienne entretenue par Ficin - mais Cristoforo Landino ou Ange Politien sont tour à tour convoqués - délimite le contour d’un nouvel ordre artistique dont André Chastel, dans un travail de jeunesse qui engage déjà ses subtiles analyses d’histoire de l’art et des idées, rend raison avec passion. En quelques (...) pages lumineuses, Jean Wirth donne à ce maître livre sa juste place dans une tradition historiographique qu’il a contribué à renouveler. (shrink)

Occasions of Identity is an exploration of timeless philosophical issues about persistence, change, time, and sameness. Andre Gallois offers a critical survey of various rival views about the nature of identity and change, and puts forward his own original theory. He supports the idea of occasional identities, arguing that it is coherent and helpful to suppose that things can be identical at one time but distinct at another. Gallois defends this view, demonstrating how it can solve puzzles about persistence dating (...) back to the Ancient Greeks, and investigates the metaphysical consequences of rejecting the necessity and eternity of identities. (shrink)