Mounting evidence suggests that participation in clinical trials confers neither advantage nor disadvantage on those enrolled. Narrow focus on the question of a “trial effect,” however, distracts from a broader mechanism by which patients may benefit from ongoing clinical research. We hypothesize that the existence of clinical trials infrastructure—the organizational culture, systems, and expertise that develop as a product of sustained participation in cooperative clinical trials research—may function as a quality improvement lever, improving the quality of care and outcomes of (...) all patients within an institution or region independent of their individual participation in trials. We further contend that this “infrastructure effect” can yield particular benefits for patients in low- and middle-income countries. The hypothesis of an infrastructure effect as a quality improvement intervention, if correct, justifies enhanced research capacity in LMIC as a pillar of health system development. (shrink)

We study several perfect set properties of the Baire space which follow from the Ramsey property ω→(ω) ω . In particular we present some independence results which complete the picture of how these perfect set properties relate to each other.

El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar en un solo cuerpo tres maneras de relativizar (o generalizar) el concepto de conjunto constructible de Gödel que no suelen aparecer juntas en la literatura especializada y que son importantes en la Teoría de Conjuntos, por ejemplo para resolver problemas de consistencia o independencia. Presentamos algunos modelos resultantes de las diferentes formas de relativizar el concepto de constructibilidad, sus propiedades básicas y algunas formas débiles del Axioma de Elección válidas o no válidas en (...) ellas. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to point out significant and meaningful overlapping between several styles of scientific thinking, as they were proposed by Crombie (1981) and discussed by Hacking (1985; 2009). This paper is divided in four sections. First, I examine an interpretation made by Barnes (2004) about the incompatibility among scientific styles. As explained by its author, this interpretation denies any possibility of similarities between styles of scientific reasoning. In opposition, the following sections of this paper include explanations (...) of relevant characteristics of Geometry, as stated in Euclid's Elements, which are also present in other three scientific styles: modeling, experimental exploration and taxonomic style (and some of the shared characteristics are even used to define such styles). By stressing out these characteristics I argue that these four styles discussed by Hacking are not so different from each other, in fact, they overlap and may even be abridged into one foundational style: geometric. El objetivo de este artículo consiste en explicar traslapes importantes y significativos entre varios estilos de pensamiento científico, tal como fueron propuestos por Crombie (1981) y discutidos por Hacking (1985; 2009). El presente artículo está dividido en cuatro secciones. Primero, se examina la interpretación de Barnes (2004) sobre la incompatibilidad entre diversos estilos. Según este autor, no existe posibilidad alguna de encontrar similitudes en los estilos de razonamiento científico. En oposición a esta interpretación, las siguientes secciones explican características relevantes de la Geometría, tal como fueron plasmadas en Los Elementos de Euclides, y que están presentes en otros tres estilos: de modelación, de experimentación y taxonómico (las características compartidas incluso definen algunos de estos estilos). Destacar estas características me permite argumentar que estos cuatro estilos discutidos por Hacking no son tan diferentes entre sí, de hecho, se traslapan e incluso pueden ser condensados en un estilo fundacional: el geométrico. (shrink)

¿Qué ha pasado con el problema del cardinal del continuo después de Gödel (1938) y Cohen (1964)? Intentos de responder esta pregunta pueden encontrarse en los artículos de José Alfredo Amor (1946-2011), "El Problema del continuo después de Cohen (1964-2004)", de Carlos Di Prisco , "Are we closer to a solution of the continuum problem", y de Joan Bagaria, "Natural axioms of set and the continuum problem" , que se pueden encontrar en la biblioteca digital de mi blog de (...) Lógica Matemática y Fundamentos de la Matemática (ver). También en la entrada "The Continuum Hypothesis" de la web de Enciclopedia de Filosofía de la Universidad de Stanford existe información importante y actualizada al respecto. En esta breve nota se comenta sobre el tema de una manera divulgativa. (shrink)

We present a Hilbert-style axiomatization of a recently introduced logic, called G'3 G'3 is based on a 3-valued semantics. We prove a soundness and completeness theorem. The replacement theorem holds in G'3. As it has already been shown in previous work, G'3 can express some non-monotonic semantics. We prove that G'3can define the same class of functions as Lukasiewicz 3 valued logic. Moreover, we identify some normal forms for this logic.

Tradicionalmente se ha separado a la epistemología y a la hermenéutica, puesto que la primera trata de lo conmensurable y la segunda, lo inconmensurable. Sin embargo, en mi opinión, hoy en día es posible unir a la epistemología y la hermenéutica sólo si partimos de una teoría de la epistemología contemporánea: la teoría de la verdad como aceptabilidad racional en condiciones epistémicas óptimas. Dicha teoría permite justificar lo conmensurable y entender lo inconmensurable.Traditionally epistemology and hermeneutics have been separated, since the (...) first deals with commensurability and the second with incommensurability. Nevertheless, in my opinion, nowadays it is possible to unite epistemology and hermeneutics if we start from a theory contemporary epistemology: the theory of the truth as rational acceptability in optimal epistemic conditions. This theory allows us to justify commensurability and to understand incommensurability. (shrink)

This paper discusses the introduction of fraudulent “molecular detector” technology into Mexico. The case is used to argue that contemporary science and technology studies’ approaches to scientific policy-making make basic assumptions about the societies they operate in that are inconsistent with the Mexican context. This paper also argues that contrary to what happens in the so-called Global North, the relative power of Mexican science in government and policy circles is as much limited by its relatively weak position as much as (...) it is by self-censorship and unrealized impact in the country’s fragile democracy. The case is also used to highlight the necessity for more politically involved scientific institutions in Mexico, as these become critical safeguards against incoming destabilizing technologies from more powerful nations into the local “peripheral” context. (shrink)

Hace unas décadas la filosofía de la cienciaera una disciplina centrada en estudioslógico-lingüísticos y basada en la distinciónentre contexto de justificación y contextode descubrimiento. Sin embargo, hoysabemos que la ciencia es acción humana,por lo que la filosofía de la ciencia tambiénes práctica. De ahí que hoy en día no hayaseparación entre razón teórica y razónpráctica. Un ejemplo de ello es elfalibilismo y la razonabilidad en la filosofíade la ciencia y en la hermenéutica filosófica.Tradicionalmente se ha visto al falibilismocomo una metodología (...) exclusiva de lafilosofía de la ciencia teórica y se ha pensadoque la razonabilidad se refiere a la moral yla política, que son cuestiones de la razónpráctica. Sin embargo, tanto en la filosofíade la ciencia como en la hermenéuticafilosófica, el falibilismo y la razonabilidadse hallan estrechamente relacionados, porlo que no habría separación en dichasdisciplinas en un sentido teórico y práctico.A fin de mostrar lo anterior, presentamoscuatro secciones: en la primera,mostraremos las principales críticas a laseparación entre razón teórica y razónpráctica; en la dos siguientes, abordaremosel falibilismo y la razonabilidad en lafilosofía de la ciencia y en la hermenéuticafilosófica; en la última, trataremos elcarácter predictivo de la razonabilidad enambas disciplinas.A few decades ago, philosophy of sciencewas focused in logical and linguistic studiesand based in the distinction between context of discovery and context of justification. Nowadays we know that science is human action, hence philosophy of science has a practical side that prevents a sharp separation between theoretical and practical reason. Fallibilism and reasonability in philosophy of science and hermeneuticsare an example of such a view. Fallibilism has been considered as amethodology of exclusive use in philosophyof science, while reasonability has been considered as referring to morals and politics which belong to practical reason.However,both in philosophy of science as in hermeneutics fallibilism and reasonability are closely related, hence there is no separation between both disciplines. To illustrate this, I will proceed in four parts.Inthe first one, I discuss the main criticisms to the separation between theoretical and practical reason; in parts two and three, I will consider fallibilism and reasonability in the philosophy of science and the practical reason. In the last part, I will discuss the predictive character of reasonability in both disciplines. (shrink)

Many of the computing systems programmed using Machine Learning are opaque: it is difficult to know why they do what they do or how they work. Explainable Artificial Intelligence aims to develop analytic techniques that render opaque computing systems transparent, but lacks a normative framework with which to evaluate these techniques’ explanatory successes. The aim of the present discussion is to develop such a framework, paying particular attention to different stakeholders’ distinct explanatory requirements. Building on an analysis of “opacity” from (...) philosophy of science, this framework is modeled after accounts of explanation in cognitive science. The framework distinguishes between the explanation-seeking questions that are likely to be asked by different stakeholders, and specifies the general ways in which these questions should be answered so as to allow these stakeholders to perform their roles in the Machine Learning ecosystem. By applying the normative framework to recently developed techniques such as input heatmapping, feature-detector visualization, and diagnostic classification, it is possible to determine whether and to what extent techniques from Explainable Artificial Intelligence can be used to render opaque computing systems transparent and, thus, whether they can be used to solve the Black Box Problem. (shrink)

The present paper has three objectives: Presenting an actualization of a proof of the decidability of monadic predicates logic in the contemporary model theory context; Show examples of decidable and undecidable fragments inside First order logic, offering an original proof of the following theorem: Any formula of First of order logic is decidable if its prenex normal form is in the following form: ∀x1,…,∀xn∃y1,…,∃ymφ; Presenting a theorem that characterizes the validity of First order logic by the tautologicity of Propositional logic, (...) said result is interesting since immediately arises the doubt of how to conciliate said characterization with Alonzo Church’s Undecidability Theorem for First Order Logic. (shrink)

Andres Bonifacio is a household name in the history of the Philippines.His name has been included into many discussion and controversies revolvingover his identity as the Father of the Revolution and being the founder ofKataastaasang, Kagalanggalangag Katipunan . His poems serve as legaciesthat can unlock what kind of person is Andres. Through his poems, he expressedreflections about the situation of the Indios during the time of colonization andthe rage of the revolution. This descriptive study analyzed four selected poemsof Andres Bonifacio (...) and sought to find a new insight into the poems through a Neo-Marxist perspective using a Neo-Marxist lens, specifically the theory of cultural hegemony by Antonio Gramsci. Based on the content analysis of hispoems, it was found out that Bonifacio was affected by the false consciousnesspropagated by the colonizers during the Spanish settlement in the country. Italso answered the question whether Bonifacio is a patriotic man or a nationalistichero. Keywords: Literature, revolution, neo-marxism, poems, Andres Bonifacio, descriptiveresearch, Philippines. (shrink)

La palabra “Grimorio” deviene del provenzal “Grammaire noir” traducible como “Gramática negra” o “Gramática de la oscuridad”. Estos son los libros de magia utilizados por brujas y hechiceros desde que el Diablo formó parte de la imaginería popular. Parecería contradictorio que un texto sagrado —siguiendo las ideas de Roger Caillois y James Frazer—, correspondería con la “escrituralidad”: la estructura de su mensaje debería ser puntual y científica; pero hay ejemplos donde no se respeta esto. Dentro de la literatura fantástica hispanoamericana (...) encontramos manuscritos y libros sagrados con una gran carga de oralidad: el argentino Enrique Anderson Imbert con su cuento “El Grimorio” donde, más que una gramática, parece una historia dedicada a alguien. Para este estudio se utilizará la novela corta de Emiliano González: El discípulo; una novela de horror sobrenatural ; donde aparece una versión extraña de un grimorio. La estrategia de análisis parte de los estudios sobre la evolución y uso cotidiano de la lengua de Ignace Gelb, Peter Koch y Wulf Oesterreicher, para determinar si es una cuestión cultural o si es tan solo una curiosidad literaria el deconstruir así un texto sagrado al hacer que tenga elementos orales. ¿Se está reconfigurando o resemantizando el manuscrito como texto sagrado en la literatura mexicana del siglo xx? ¿Se puede llamar a estos escritos “grimorios” aunque no se traten de empastados con las mismas características del grimoire medieval? Estas respuestas esperan dilucidarse a partir de la literatura y de su estudio. (shrink)

The received view of dynamical explanation is that dynamical cognitive science seeks to provide covering law explanations of cognitive phenomena. By analyzing three prominent examples of dynamicist research, I show that the received view is misleading: some dynamical explanations are mechanistic explanations, and in this way resemble computational and connectionist explanations. Interestingly, these dynamical explanations invoke the mathematical framework of dynamical systems theory to describe mechanisms far more complex and distributed than the ones typically considered by philosophers. Therefore, contemporary dynamicist (...) research reveals the need for a more sophisticated account of mechanistic explanation. (shrink)

Models developed using machine learning are increasingly prevalent in scientific research. At the same time, these models are notoriously opaque. Explainable AI aims to mitigate the impact of opacity by rendering opaque models transparent. More than being just the solution to a problem, however, Explainable AI can also play an invaluable role in scientific exploration. This paper describes how post-hoc analytic techniques from Explainable AI can be used to refine target phenomena in medical science, to identify starting points for future (...) investigations of causal relationships, and to generate possible explanations of target phenomena in cognitive science. In this way, this paper describes how Explainable AI—over and above machine learning itself—contributes to the efficiency and scope of data-driven scientific research. (shrink)

Resumen: El objetivo principal de este artículo es mostrar que determinadas tesis del filósofo italiano Giorgio Agamben, especialmente sus argumentos sobre la soberanía biopolítica occidental, la pérdida de experiencia y la idea de uso, son relevantes para reflexionar sobre algunas limitaciones y posibilidades impensadas de la institución educativa. Con este objetivo, se presentan algunas de las ideas nucleares de sus libros Homo sacer, El reino y la gloria, Infancia e historia y El uso de los cuerpos. Finalmente, se sugiere un (...) posible uso de las tesis de Agamben para enriquecer el sentido de la actividad educativa. Este artículo presupone la convicción de que los abstractos y críticos argumentos filosóficos pueden ser útiles para contribuir a perfeccionar instituciones como la educación porque aportan una perspectiva que trasciende los legítimos requerimientos y responsabilidades que demandan soluciones meramente instrumentales.: The main objective of this article is to show that certain theses by the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben, especially his arguments about Western biopolitical sovereignty, loss of experience and the idea of use, are relevant in order to reflect on some unthinking limitations and possibilities of educational institution. To this end, some of the core ideas of his books Homo sacer, The Kingdom and the Glory, Infancy and History and The Use of Bodies are presented. Finally, it is suggested a possible use of Agamben’s theses to enrich the sense of educational activity. This article presupposes the conviction that abstract and critical philosophical arguments can be useful to contribute to perfecting institutions such as education because they provide a perspective that transcends the legitimate requirements and responsibilities that demand merely instrumental solutions. (shrink)

Resumen El autor distribuye este trabajo en los siguientes apartados: plantea la diferencia entre el concepto de desarrollo y de progreso, consciente de que después de estos cincuenta años, con la evolución tanto de la economía como de las ideologías, y después de una gran crisis social y financiera, es necesario distinguir conceptual-mente y en la praxis estos dos términos; situamos la reflexión en el horizonte de la agenda 2030. Desde esta perspectiva estudia la propuesta de PP sobre el desarrollo (...) y la evolución y dinamismo de este pensamiento a través de las encíclicas sociales posteriores hasta nuestros días dedicando un apartado especial a su relación con la ecología integral. Finalmente, a modo de conclusión, presenta los principios que fundamentan la gradualidad del desarrollo.The author distributes this work in the following sections: he points out the difference between the concept of development and progress, aware that after these fifty years, with the evolution of both economy and ideologies, and after a great social crisis and financial, it is necessary to distinguish conceptually and praxis these two terms; we place the reflection on the horizon of the 2030 agenda. From this perspective, he studies the proposal of Populorum progressio on the development and evolution and dynamism of this thought through the social encyclicals that have been up until now, devoting a special section to its relation with integral ecology. Finally, by way of conclusion, it presents the principles underlying the gradual development. (shrink)

To date, no definition of life has been unequivocally accepted by the scientific community. In frustration, some authors advocate alternatives to standard definitions. These include using a list of characteristic features, focusing on life’s effects, or categorizing biospheres rather than life itself; treating life as a fuzzy category, a process or a cluster of contingent properties; or advocating a ‘wait-and-see’ approach until other examples of life are created or discovered. But these skeptical, operational, and pluralistic approaches have intensified the debate, (...) rather than settled it. Given the failure of even these approaches, we advocate a new strategy. In this paper, we reverse the usual line of reasoning and argue that the “life problem” arises from thinking incorrectly about the nature of life. Scientists most often conceptualize life as a class or kind, with earthly life as a single instance of it. Instead, we advocate thinking about Earth’s Life as an individual, in the way that species are now thought to be. In this view, Life is a monophyletic clade that originated with a last universal common ancestor, and includes all its descendants. We can continue to use the category ‘life’ pragmatically to refer to similarities between various phenomena and Life. But the relevant similarities are a matter of interest and preference, not a matter of fact. The search for other life in the Universe, then, is merely a search for entities that resemble parts of Life in whatever sense astrobiologists find most appealing. This does not mean that the search for evolved complexity elsewhere in the universe or its creation in the lab are futile endeavors, but that debates over whether they count as ‘life’ are. Ironically, finally abandoning the concept ‘life’ may make our searches for evolved complexity more fruitful. We explain why. (shrink)

Bayesian reverse-engineering is a research strategy for developing three-level explanations of behavior and cognition. Starting from a computational-level analysis of behavior and cognition as optimal probabilistic inference, Bayesian reverse-engineers apply numerous tweaks and heuristics to formulate testable hypotheses at the algorithmic and implementational levels. In so doing, they exploit recent technological advances in Bayesian artificial intelligence, machine learning, and statistics, but also consider established principles from cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Although these tweaks and heuristics are highly pragmatic in character and (...) are often deployed unsystematically, Bayesian reverse-engineering avoids several important worries that have been raised about the explanatory credentials of Bayesian cognitive science: the worry that the lower levels of analysis are being ignored altogether; the challenge that the mathematical models being developed are unfalsifiable; and the charge that the terms ‘optimal’ and ‘rational’ have lost their customary normative force. But while Bayesian reverse-engineering is therefore a viable and productive research strategy, it is also no fool-proof recipe for explanatory success. (shrink)

"Epistola a Memeceo, Maximas capitales, Sentencias vaticanas, fragmentos y testimonios; texto griego y traduccion": p. [87]-161.

This paper discusses the varieties of capitalism in transitional societies in Latin America and Central / Eastern Europe. The intended purpose of these transitions from semi-closed import-substituting economies in the first case and state socialist ones in the second was to institutionalize open-market economies. Twenty or thirty years later, there is a variety of types of capitalism in these countries, which I classify into three: open-market, neo-mercantilist, and anemic. The question for sociology is whether these quite different variants represent temporary (...) stages or distortions in the same process of transition or whether, on the contrary, they may institutionalize as discrete forms of peripheral capitalism. Neither standard “legacy” argu­ments nor institutionalist theories offer satisfactory answers to this question. The multiple modernities approach, on the other hand, is more appropriate as a theoretical perspective, but it has not produced yet specific propositions applicable to this question. My paper makes two claims. First, the successful transfer of institutions depends on the congruence between these institutions and the broader institutional framework of the recipient economies, a point not developed by institutionalist theories. I offer a hypothesis in this regard: Two critical nodes of congruence are the regulatory and extractive capacity of the state and the strength of civil society. Second, market capitalism (as liberal democracy as well) is a complex institution, and some of its components “travel” more easily across societies and institutional frameworks, and therefore are easier to institutionalize. This is the source of the hybrid variants. (shrink)

Aun cuando se plantea que Arendt y Benjamin sostienen posiciones filosófico políticas irreconciliables, nosotros consideramos que existen líneas de confluencia que parten de una crítica a la Modernidad y los llevan a explorar temas como la narración, la narratividad, la autoridad y la legitimidad. En este trabajo me centraré en la visión que cada uno de ellos tiene sobre el Marxismo, sus apropiaciones, así como las derivaciones a las que llegan. Intentaré mostrar que, mientras en Arendt sobresale una crítica al (...) marxismo como parte de la tradición de pensamiento Occidental, en Benjamin derivará en un giro al idealismo y la teología que pasará a ser redención. (shrink)

The philosophical conception of mechanistic explanation is grounded on a limited number of canonical examples. These examples provide an overly narrow view of contemporary scientific practice, because they do not reflect the extent to which the heuristic strategies and descriptive practices that contribute to mechanistic explanation have evolved beyond the well-known methods of decomposition, localization, and pictorial representation. Recent examples from evolutionary robotics and network approaches to biology and neuroscience demonstrate the increasingly important role played by computer simulations and mathematical (...) representations in the epistemic practices of mechanism discovery and mechanism description. These examples also indicate that the scope of mechanistic explanation must be re-examined: With new and increasingly powerful methods of discovery and description comes the possibility of describing mechanisms far more complex than traditionally assumed. (shrink)