The blooming desert or ‘El desierto florido’ in Spanish, is a millenarian climate pattern caused by El Niño that warms the surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean and creates the conditions for rain in the Altiplano and the Atacama Desert, north of Chile. After some millimeters of abundant rain, a rich biotic community emerges, and in a matter of hours or days, the driest surface on Earth becomes an impressive colorful habitat for more than two hundred different species (...) of eye-catching flowers that host the desert biotic life. Unfortunately, this breathtaking display of colors coexists with less appealing but equally astonishing landscapes. The Atacama Desert harbors the largest accumulation of discarded clothing worldwide and the largest pools of lithium mining which require vast amounts of water for their production. Every year, approximately 56,000 tons of used clothing, predominantly consisting of fast fashion polyester products, water-intensive cotton fabrics, and equally polluting material scraps, are deposited, forming toxic mountains of waste. This article presents an interpretation of these distinct landscapes as interconnected realities of the dump that illustrate the impact of biocultural semiocides, whereby the loss of relationships and meanings with Earth materials is shaped by glocal forces. By making this argument, the article contends that the Atacama region replicates the conditions of the Earth as a global dumping and solastalgia, namely ‘the pain caused by the loss of solace and the sense of desolation connected to one´s home and territory.’. (shrink)

A modo de preámbulo, consideramos importante mencionar que el presente ensayo pretende entrelazar los conceptos mirada y seducción desde distintas ópticas. Se plantean someramente algunas ideas desde la filosofía hasta el psicoanálisis. Se inicia con una “mirada” a las construcciones literarias de creadores de gran importancia, tales como Jean Braudrillard y Georges Bataille, en quienes se estudia la idea del ojo perverso, de la mirada y el deseo, subjetividad que nos atrapa. Se ambiciona articular con teorizaciones psicoanalíticas de lo inconsciente, (...) abundando en investigaciones freudianas y de otros teóricos del psicoanálisis para analizar e interpretar sus “seductoras” aportaciones.By way of preamble, we consider important to mention that this essay intends to link the concepts of look and seduction from different angles. Some ideas are raised from philosophy to psychoanalysis. The article starts with a “look” to the creators of literary constructions of great importance such as Jean Braudrillard and Georges Bataille, in order to study the idea of the evil eye, the gaze and desire, the subjectivity that catch us. The article aspires to articulate psychoanalytic theories of the unconscious, abounding in Freudian investigations and other theorists of psychoanalysis to analyze and interpret “seductive” contributions. (shrink)

The Neoplatonic commentaries on Aristotle’s works have always been considered somehow suspicious. That is partly related to the doctrinal commitments of the commentators, partly with the hermeneutical strategies to which they seem to recur. Both of these reasons have also give place to the accusation of distortion and misunderstanding of Aristotle’s philosophy. In the following paper I want to perform an exercise of disclosing the hermeneutical procedure that one of this commentators applies to one of the passages of the first (...) book of the De Anima. The commentator is Philoponus, the passage is the refutation of the soul-harmony theory. My aim is to show that, despite the doctrinal commitments that the commentator may have, his methodology follows Aristotelian guidelines. I hope that this could open perspectives on the value that the commentators must have as philosophers, rather than merely interpreters or paraphrasers. (shrink)

Se busca rastrear la imagen que Platón tiene de Heráclito y articularla con la estructura argumentativa del Cratilo, para comprender las necesidades textuales a las que responde la doctrina del flujo perpetuo, es decir, la discusión sobre la corrección (ὀρθότης) del nombre. Gracias a la inclusión de..

Este artículo examina la posición de Aristóteles frente a la teoría del alma como entidad automotriz a la luz de una concepción menos negativa de la discusión de Aristóteles con sus predecesores. Para ello, exploro la hipótesis de que Aristóteles está produciendo los conceptos necesarios para su propia investigación a través de una crítica de la tesis de Platón. Muestro que, más que a una crítica, a lo que asistimos es a un proceso de apropiación conceptual en el que Aristóteles (...) filtra la opinión para hacer un mejor uso de ella. Para fundamentar mi argumento, muestro cómo funciona el dispositivo exegético de Aristóteles y cómo podría conectarse en su propio procedimiento definicional del libro II del De Anima. (shrink)

Existe una tradición antigua que hace de Jenófanes de Colofón el padre del escepticismo. Esta idea, transmitida por varias fuentes, vincula al colofonio no solo con algunas tesis que fueron apreciadas por los escépticos antiguos sino, además, con una actitud hacia el conocimiento en general. En el presente texto estudiaré esa tradición escéptica con el fin de hacer explícitas las razones que hacen posible atribuirle dicha paternidad y las implicaciones que articulan dicha tradición tienen a la hora de interpretar su (...) pensamiento. (shrink)

Review of the book: Rossetti, L.. Un altro Parmenide. Diogene Multimedia.

Este texto apresenta resultados de um levantamento sobre os principais autores que tratam sobre a epistemologia da educação física e suas principais contribuições no desenvolvimento da pesquisa sobre a formação profissional. A síntese apresentada integra a pesquisa: “A produção do conhecimento sobre a formação profissional em educação física: realidade e perspectivas superadoras”. Apontamos que os balanços teóricos das produções científicas da área estão provocando a busca de maiores níveis de qualidade nas novas pesquisas. Concluímos que as avaliações epistemológicas são pertinentes (...) como referência básica para novos estudos sobre a formação profissional no campo de Educação Física, Esporte e Lazer. (shrink)

Una perspectiva del pensamiento de Adam Smith ha pasado desapercibida para la historia: su Teoría de los sentimientos morales. Si se revisa la teoría filosófica del padre del neoliberalismo, no parece tan claro que sea el monstruo que proclama la vigencia del libre mercado y concibe al ser humano como un ser esencialmente egoísta. Para Smith, en realidad, la naturaleza humana se mueve en un delicado equilibrio entre razón y emoción: tenemos una disposición natural para acoger moralmente al otro. De (...) acuerdo con esta idea de lo humano, los criterios para juzgar con la mayor corrección posible la conducta de los otros son la simpatía basada en la imaginación y la figura del espectador imparcial. Preocupándose por estos mecanismos morales, Smith cree que nuestras sociedades funcionarán como una buena orquesta, en la cual nuestras vidas serán bellas y armoniosas; no seremos una sociedad de solistas eternos que solo abogan por el interés propio. Este texto presenta un esbozo general de la ética de Smith y sus dos propuestas centrales: la simpatía y el espectador imparcial. A partir de estos conceptos, se desarrolla la idea de que la moral no es exclusivamente racional, sino que depende de la interacción social y de la experiencia. (shrink)

En este artículo se analiza un conjunto de obras sobre ríos y represas que pertenece a la serie titulada Represa /Represión (2012-) de la artista colombiana Carolina Caycedo. La pregunta de la que se ocupa esta investigación es ¿cómo las estrategias estéticas de estas obras identifican los problemas socio-ecológicos generados por las represas y contribuyen a articular imaginarios políticos de sostenibilidad? El argumento principal es que las obras de Caycedo sobre el río Yuma o Magdalena contribuyen con la construcción (...) de una memoria histórica ambiental, a partir de saberes populares, campesinos y cosmovisiones indígenas. Con este fin, este texto caracteriza el problema de las represas a partir de los conceptos de ‘extractivismo’, de Macarena Gómez-Barris, y ‘desterritorialización’, de Rob Nixon, para luego realizar un recorrido por las obras de la artista, de cuyo análisis se va construyendo una caracterización de la memoria histórica ambiental de un segmento del río Yuma. El marco conceptual del trabajo incluye las nociones de ‘seres-tierra’, de Marisol de la Cadena y ‘territorio’, de Arturo Escobar, así como ‘memoria de los ríos’, de Kristina Lyons. La metodología se basa en el análisis conceptual y técnico de las piezas de Caycedo en el marco interdisciplinar de las humanidades ambientales. El análisis concluye que las obras de Caycedo generan espacios de memoria histórica ambiental desde perspectivas trasnacionales y, en estos espacios de encuentro que constituyen las obras, se relacionan y rearticulan los extremos de falsos antagonismos como naturaleza/cultura, humano/no humano y ciencia/arte. (shrink)

Situados en un progresivo traspaso de responsabilidades en la ejecución de los servicios sociales desde el Estado hacia actores no gubernamentales, aparece una demanda hacia el mismo Estado, el cual en lugar de simplemente declinar su labor, debiera de hecho expandir su regulación de modo de asegurar que la oferta social sea eficiente en satisfacer al ciudadano usuario en aquellos servicios prometidos por las políticas y programas sociales. Así mismo, la institucionalidad pública debiera reconocer las demandas del mundo privado para (...) actuar articuladamente hacia fines comunes, que finalmente conduzcan a un horizonte de desarrollo de una sociedad más igualitaria. Este estudio da cuenta de las tensiones, reveladas por autoridades de servicios públicos que atienden personas vulnerables, en su relación de colaboración con OSFL (Organizaciones Sin Fines de Lucro), para alcanzar tal horizonte. (shrink)

Se busca rastrear la imagen que Platón tiene de Heráclito y articularla con la estructura argumentativa del Cratilo, para comprender las necesidades textuales a las que responde la doctrina del flujo perpetuo, es decir, la discusión sobre la corrección (ὀρθότης) del nombre. Gracias a la inclusión del testimonio heraclíteo, resulta posible rastrear la presunta consolidación de la tesis sobre los nombres primarios y los secundarios como el eje de la separación entre dos planos de realidad (uno estable y uno móvil) (...) y de la teoría de las Ideas -es decir, como la base de la epistemología platónica presente en los diálogos de madurez-. The article seeks to trace the image Plato has of Heraclitus and connect it with the argumentative structure of the Cratylus in order to understand the textual needs that give rise to the doctrine of perpetual flux, that is, the discussion regarding the correctness (ὀρθότης) of names. The inclusion of Heraclitus's testimony makes it possible to trace the alleged consolidation of the thesis regarding primary and secondary names as the axis of separation between two levels of reality (one stable, the other, changing) and the theory of Ideas -that is, as the basis of Plato's epistemology as set forth in the late dialogues-. (shrink)

Uno de los documentos de la Antigüedad que más atención susci-ta en los años recientes es el llamado Vidas de los filósofos de Diógenes Laercio. Una nueva edición del texto griego salió a la luz en 1999 y otra más está en preparación. A pesar de que durante mucho tiempo se consideró este tratado solamente como un nutrido testimonio doxográfico, y a la persona misma de Diógenes como un transmisor poco fiable de noticias, para la historia de la filosofía es (...) parte de la tradición material que necesariamente ha resultado indis-pensable en la construcción de nuestra visión de la filosofía griega hoy en día. El libro completo reporta los testimonios de al menos ochenta y cinco personalidades que hicieron parte del panorama intelectual de la antigua Grecia. De cada una de esas personalidades se dan tanto noticias sobre su vida como resúmenes de su actividad filosófica y ci-tas presuntamente literales de sus obras. (shrink)

Svampa, Lucila M. “Notas sobre la promesa en el pensamiento de Friedrich Nietzsche y Hannah Arendt.” _Tópicos_. Revista de Filosofía 46 (2014): 75-93.

RESUMEN La crisis de legitimidad de las democracias representativas y del proyecto de globalización económica ha colocado en el centro del debate público la capacidad de ciertos grupos intelectuales, tradicionales o emergentes, para intervenir en la esfera pública y normalizar o alterar el horizonte establecido de posibilidades politicas y económicas. La popularización de conceptos como "posverdad" guarda relación con una transformación del papel que se había atribuido históricamente a los expertos e intelectuales en los sistemas democráticos y la aparición de (...) nuevas figuras capaces de movilizar la sensibilidad colectiva. En este contexto se está produciendo una intensificación de la recepción de la obra de Antonio Gramsci como fuente de utilidades analíticas. Este artículo propone, precisamente, una revisión de la noción de "intelectual orgánico" como una herramienta esclarecedora para las tareas contemporáneas de la filosofía política. ABSTRACT The crisis of legitimacy of representative democracies and the economic globalization project has placed the power of certain intellectual groups, traditional or emerging, to intervene in the public sphere and legitimize or transform the current political and economic paradigm at the center of public debate. The popularization of concepts such as "post-truth" is related to a transformation of the role that had been historically attributed to experts and intellectuals in democratic systems and the appearance of new figures capable of mobilizing collective sensitivity. In this context, an intensification of the reception of the work of Antonio Gramsci is taking place, as a source of analytical utilities. This article proposes a revision of the notion of "organic intellectual" as an illuminating tool for the contemporary tasks of political philosophy. (shrink)

Se indaga la relación que se da en la República entre los dos significados de ousia: como propiedad en el sentido de posesiones y riqueza, o en el sentido de esencia o sustancia. Aparte de las relaciones económicas asociadas al préstamo, al intercambio y al interés, se examina la función que, respecto de la ousia, cumple la moneda en la economía como recurso para disociar la riqueza de las posesiones, con lo cual logra un nivel de universalidad y equivalencia equiparable (...) al del propio ser. The article inquires into the relation established in the Republic between the two meanings of ousia: property in the sense of possessions and wealth, and essence or substance. Besides the economic relations associated with loans, exchange, and interest, the paper examines the role of currency in the economy, with respect to ousia, as a means of dissociating wealth from possessions, thus achieving a degree of universality comparable to that of being itself. (shrink)

La noción de interpretación desarrollada en el racionalismo crítico de Karl R. Popper muestra atributos específicos que la distinguen de modo sustancial de la interpretación constitutiva de la experiencia que tanto N. R. Hanson como Th. Kuhn defienden en sus respectivas propuestas. Se muestra que la interpretación del modelo popperiano queda atrapada en una epistemología de corte empirista que la separa de modo radical de toda hermenéutica filosófica. The notion of interpretation developed in the critical rationalism of Karl R. Popper (...) displays specific attributes that substantially distinguish it from the constituent interpretation of experience defended in both N. R. Hanson and T. Kuhn proposals. The article shows that the interpretation of Popper's model is trapped in an empiricist epistemology that radically separates it from all hermeneutic philosophy. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza desde una perspectiva fenomenológica-hermenéutica los aportes del pensamiento franciscano en los procesos de autoevaluación institucional de la Universidad de San Buenaventura, Bogotá. En primera instancia, se abordará el pensamiento franciscano como elemento que transversa las funciones sustantivas y todas aquellas actividades que propenden por el aseguramiento de la calidad y el mejoramiento continuo de la educación superior. En segundo lugar, se describen los significados y opiniones sobre el sistema de autoevaluación institucional en los diferentes agentes de la (...) comunidad académica Bonaventuriana en la sede Bogotá. Finalmente, se reconocerá cómo la filosofía institucional se materializa en los procesos de autoevaluación en el marco de los procesos de acreditación con el propósito de aportar elementos significativos para los planes de mejoramiento. (shrink)

¿El conflicto armado ha transformado los roles de la mujer en Colombia? En este artículo se quiere evaluar la diversidad de escenarios y roles que las mujeres adquirieron durante el conflicto armado en Colombia. Para dirigir el rumbo de esta investigación y la posibilidad de evaluar alguno escenarios de posacuerdo, este texto se propone: realizar una consideración epistemológica por parte del feminismo latinoamericano que tenga en cuenta la pluralidad de relatos violentos en Latinoamérica analizar relatos de mujeres partícipes en la (...) guerra que permitan evaluar el rol de la mujer más allá de su simple victimización; examinar la situación de la mujer dentro de los conflictos bélicos colombianos y presentar cómo se diferencia de las situaciones de guerra ocurridas en Europa. Todos estos puntos permiten evaluar cómo la guerra en Colombia ha sido fundamental para contemplar los roles de las mujeres más allá del de víctima, como, por ejemplo, las mujeres activistas que han participado en la reconciliación y el ejercicio de memoria histórica durante el acuerdo de paz y el posacuerdo. Dicho logro promueve un porvenir del feminismo que abre nuevos espacios de acción para la mujer, los cuales, debido a la limitación de este trabajo, quedan aún por explorar. (shrink)

La Inclusión en la educación superior chilena se ha enmarcado dentro del contexto del respeto a la diversidad, sustentabilidad y dignidad de las personas. La aplicación del Index for Inclusion en la Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins instala como ejercicio la autoevaluación respecto de los propios procesos inclusivos. Esta investigación cuantitativa permite proponer mejoras desde la reflexión de la propia comunidad educativa respecto de la cultura, políticas y prácticas inclusivas. Conocer la comunidad, sus necesidades e intereses, respetando su potencial independiente de su (...) diversidad, es lo que permite establecer procesos de aprendizaje y enseñanza que aseguren una educación para todos y todas. (shrink)

As yet, there is no enactive account of social cognition. This paper extends the enactive concept of sense-making into the social domain. It takes as its departure point the process of interaction between individuals in a social encounter. It is a well-established finding that individuals can and generally do coordinate their movements and utterances in such situations. We argue that the interaction process can take on a form of autonomy. This allows us to reframe the problem of social cognition as (...) that of how meaning is generated and transformed in the interplay between the unfolding interaction process and the individuals engaged in it. The notion of sense-making in this realm becomes participatory sense-making. The onus of social understanding thus moves away from strictly the individual only. (shrink)

An important shift is taking place in social cognition research, away from a focus on the individual mind and toward embodied and participatory aspects of social understanding. Empirical results already imply that social cognition is not reducible to the workings of individual cognitive mechanisms. To galvanize this interactive turn, we provide an operational definition of social interaction and distinguish the different explanatory roles – contextual, enabling and constitutive – it can play in social cognition. We show that interactive processes are (...) more than a context for social cognition: they can complement and even replace individual mechanisms. This new explanatory power of social interaction can push the field forward by expanding the possibilities of scientific explanation beyond the individual. (shrink)

This paper comments on Gallagher’s recently published direct perception proposal about social cognition [Gallagher, S.. Direct perception in the intersubjective context. Consciousness and Cognition, 17, 535–543]. I show that direct perception is in danger of being appropriated by the very cognitivist accounts criticised by Gallagher. Then I argue that the experiential directness of perception in social situations can be understood only in the context of the role of the interaction process in social cognition. I elaborate on the role of social (...) interaction with a discussion of participatory sense-making to show that direct perception, rather than being a perception enriched by mainly individual capacities, can be best understood as an interactional phenomenon. (shrink)

In search of our highest capacities, cognitive scientists aim to explain things like mathematics, language, and planning. But are these really our most sophisticated forms of knowing? In this paper, I point to a different pinnacle of cognition. Our most sophisticated human knowing, I think, lies in how we engage with each other, in our relating. Cognitive science and philosophy of mind have largely ignored the ways of knowing at play here. At the same time, the emphasis on discrete, rational (...) knowing to the detriment of engaged, human knowing pervades societal practices and institutions, often with harmful effects on people and their relations. There are many reasons why we need a new, engaged—or even engaging—epistemology of human knowing. The enactive theory of participatory sense-making takes steps towards this, but it needs deepening. Kym Maclaren’s idea of letting be invites such a deepening. Characterizing knowing as a relationship of letting be provides a nuanced way to deal with the tensions between the knower’s being and the being of the known, as they meet in the process of knowing-and-being-known. This meeting of knower and known is not easy to understand. However, there is a mode of relating in which we know it well, and that is: in loving relationships. I propose to look at human knowing through the lens of loving. We then see that both knowing and loving are existential, dialectic ways in which concrete and particular beings engage with each other. (shrink)

What does it take to see how autistic people participate in social interactions? And what does it take to support and invite more participation? Western medicine and cognitive science tend to think of autism mainly in terms of social and communicative deficits. But research shows that autistic people can interact with a skill and sophistication that are hard to see when starting from a deficit idea. Research also shows that not only autistic people, but also their non-autistic interaction partners can (...) have difficulties interacting with each other. To do justice to these findings, we need a different approach to autistic interactions—one that helps everyone see, invite, and support better participation. I introduce such an approach, based on the enactive theory of participatory sense-making and supported by insights from indigenous epistemologies. This approach helps counteract the homogenising tendencies of the “global mental health” movement, which attempts to erase rather than recognise difference, and often precludes respectful engagements. Based in the lived experiences of people in their socio-cultural-material and interactive contexts, I put forward an engaged—even engaging—epistemology for understanding how we interact across difference. From this perspective, we see participatory sense-making at work across the scientific, diagnostic, therapeutic, and everyday interactions of autistic and non-autistic people, and how everyone can invite and support more of it. (shrink)

Underlying the recent focus on embodied and interactive aspects of social understanding are several intuitions about what roles the body, interaction processes, and interpersonal experience play. In this paper, we introduce a systematic, hands-on method for investigating the experience of interacting and its role in intersubjectivity. Special about this method is that it starts from the idea that researchers of social understanding are themselves one of the best tools for their own investigations. The method provides ways for researchers to calibrate (...) and to trust themselves as sophisticated instruments to help generate novel insights into human interactive experience. We present the basics of the method, and two empirical studies. The first is a video-study on autism, which shows greater refinement in the way people with autism embody their social interactions than previously thought. The second is a study of thinking in live interactions, which provides insight into the common feeling that too much thinking can hamper interaction, and into how this kind of interactional awkwardness might be unblocked. (shrink)

Is an individual agent constitutive of or constituted by its social interactions? This question is typically not asked in the cognitive sciences, so strong is the consensus that only individual agents have constitutive efficacy. In this article we challenge this methodological solipsism and argue that interindividual relations and social context do not simply arise from the behavior of individual agents, but themselves enable and shape the individual agents on which they depend. For this, we define the notion of autonomy as (...) both a characteristic of individual agents and of social interaction processes. We then propose a number of ways in which interactional autonomy can influence individuals. Then we discuss recent work in modeling on the one hand and psychological investigations on the other that support and illustrate this claim. Finally, we discuss some implications for research on social and individual agency. (shrink)

In this paper, we introduce an enactive account of loving as participatory sense-making inspired by the “I love to you” of the feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray. Emancipating from the fusionist concept of romantic love, which understands love as unity, we conceptualise loving as an existential engagement in a dialectic of encounter, in continuous processes of becoming-in-relation. In these processes, desire acquires a certain prominence as the need to know (the other, the relation, oneself) more. We build on Irigaray’s account of (...) love to present a phenomenology of loving interactions and then our enactive account. Finally, we draw some implications for ethics. These concern language, difference, vulnerability, desire, and self-transformation. (shrink)

Current theories of social cognition are mainly based on a representationalist view. Moreover, they focus on a rather sophisticated and limited aspect of understanding others, i.e. on how we predict and explain others’ behaviours through representing their mental states. Research into the ‘social brain’ has also favoured a third-person paradigm of social cognition as a passive observation of others’ behaviour, attributing it to an inferential, simulative or projective process in the individual brain. In this paper, we present a concept of (...) social understanding as an ongoing, dynamical process of participatory sense-making and mutual incorporation. This process may be described (1) from a dynamical agentive systems point of view as an interaction and coordination of two embodied agents; (2) from a phenomenological approach as a mutual incorporation, i.e. a process in which the lived bodies of both participants extend and form a common intercorporality. Intersubjectivity, it is argued, is not a solitary task of deciphering or simulating the movements of others but means entering a process of embodied interaction and generating common meaning through it. This approach will be further illustrated by an analysis of primary dyadic interaction in early childhood. (shrink)

What makes it possible to affect one another, to move and be moved by another person? Why do some of our encounters transform us? The experience of moving one another points to the inter-affective in intersubjectivity. Inter-affection is hard to account for under a cognitivist banner, and has not received much attention in embodied work on intersubjectivity. I propose that understanding inter-affection needs a combination of insights into self-affection, embodiment, and interaction processes. I start from Michel Henry's radically immanent idea (...) of self-affection, and bring it into a contrastive dialogue with the enactive concepts of autonomy and (participatory) sense-making. I suggest that the latter ideas can open up Henry's idea of self-affection to inter-affection (something he aimed to do, but did not quite manage) and that, in turn, Henry's work can provide insights into underexplored elements of intersubjectivity, such as its ineffable and mysterious aspects, and erotic encounters. (shrink)

Can we see the expressiveness of other people's gestures, hear the intentions in their voice, see the emotions in their posture? Traditional theories of social cognition still say we cannot because intentions and emotions for them are hidden away inside and we do not have direct access to them. Enactive theories still have no idea because they have so far mainly focused on perception of our physical world. We surmise, however, that the latter hold promise since, in trying to understand (...) cognition, enactive theory focuses on the embodied engagements of a cognizer with his world. In this paper, we attempt an answer for the question What is social perception in an enactive account? In enaction, perception is conceived as a skill, crucially involving action, an ability to work successfully within the set of regularities, or contingencies that characterize a given domain. If this is the case, then social perception should be a social skill. Having thus transformed the question of what social perception is into that of what social skill is, we examine the concept of social contingencies and the manner in which social skills structure—both constrain and empower— social interaction. Some of the implications of our account for how social and physical perception differ, the role of embodiment in social interaction and the distinction between our approach and other social contingency theories are also addressed. (shrink)

This paper combines a survey of existing literature in game-theoretic pragmatics with new models that fill some voids in that literature. We start with an overview of signaling games with a conflict of interest between sender and receiver, and show that the literature on such games can be classified into models with direct, costly, noisy and imprecise signals. We then argue that this same subdivision can be used to classify signaling games with common interests, where we fill some voids in (...) the literature. For each of the signaling games treated, we show how equilibrium-refinement arguments and evolutionary arguments can be interpreted in the light of pragmatic inference. (shrink)

Pregnancy presents some interesting challenges for the philosophy of embodied cognition. Mother and fetus are generally considered to be passive during pregnancy, both individually and in their relation. In this paper, we use the enactive operational concepts of autonomy, agency, individuation, and participation to examine the relation between mother and fetus in utero. Based on biological, physiological, and phenomenological research, we explore the emergence of agentive capacities in embryo and fetus, as well as how maternal agency changes as pregnancy advances. (...) We show that qualitatively different kinds of agency have their beginnings already in utero, and to what extent fetal and maternal movement modulate affectivity and individuation in pregnancy. We thus propose that mother and fetus are both agents who participate in pregnancy. Pregnancy then emerges as a relational developmental organization that anchors and holds its developing participants. We end the paper with reflections on ethical implications of this proposal, and suggestions for future research. (shrink)

This paper combines a survey of existing literature in game-theoretic pragmatics with new models that fill some voids in that literature. We start with an overview of signaling games with a conflict of interest between sender and receiver, and show that the literature on such games can be classified into models with direct, costly, noisy and imprecise signals. We then argue that this same subdivision can be used to classify signaling games with common interests, where we fill some voids in (...) the literature. For each of the signaling games treated, we show how equilibrium-refinement arguments and evolutionary arguments can be interpreted in the light of pragmatic inference. (shrink)

In a paper from the late 1990s, Francisco Varela indicates that a science of inter-being is on the horizon. But how to envisage such a science? Here I propose that an enactive science of inter-being will benefit from engaging with recent innovative autism research that starts from autistic experience and intersubjectivity. Properly intersubjective autism research is both more ethically just and scientifically richer than cognitivist explanations that have dominated research, discourse, and practice for a long time, and which have tended (...) to set people apart more than connect them. I discuss the work of Bervoets and Hens (2020), who show how autism research is unavoidably theorethical, and must be in order to move past the catch-22 they identify between autism and dysfunction. This kind of research exemplifies a participatory sense-making between subjects and scientists, and it is here that 'steps to a science of inter-being' (Varela, 1999a) are being taken. (shrink)

This paper develops a model of persuasive demand inducement in the expert–client relationship. The expert frames the decision on whether or not to buy expert services faced by a client with prospect-theoretic preferences, by making the client see this decision from the perspective of a particular reference point. When inducing a client to buy risky curative services, the expert should set a high reference point, and frame all outcomes as losses. When instead inducing a client to buy safe preventive services, (...) as long as the client’s loss aversion is sufficiently high, the expert should set an intermediate reference point, framing high outcomes as gains and low outcomes as losses. (shrink)

Telle est la sombre grandeur proposee desormais a l'historien contemporain : consacrer ses efforts a discrediter les auteurs anciens en montrant a quel point ils avaient ete tributaires de leurs aveuglements ; souligner les lacunes, la myopie, l'extravagance de leurs jugements ; debusquer prejuges de classe et stereotypes de genre ; dresser l'inventaire, la genealogie de leurs successives reinterpretations par chaque generation. Tenir en revanche leurs oeuvres pour un reservoir d'exemples, de modeles, de situations utiles pour guider notre reflexion, comme (...) le recommandait Plutarque, les considerer meme comme des chefs d'oeuvre d'une "inalterable actualite", parce qu'ils "savent dire ce que l'homme a d'humain" serait rester a la surface des choses, "dans l'ether de la culture classique". Se flatter de poursuivre avec ces vieux morts un dialogue que nos differences et notre eloignement releguent au rang de vain songe releverait de la naivete, de l'amateurisme et de l'outrecuidance. J'ai ecrit ce livre parce que je pense tout le contraire. Repudiant tout anachronisme simplificateur, mais refusant aussi de considerer le legs de l'Antiquite comme une beaute morte, infeconde, Michel De Jaeghere mobilise sa formation d'historien des idees, sa longue frequentation des auteurs antiques, et sa familiarite avec la politique contemporaine pour affronter une redoutable question : les Anciens sont-ils, en politique, encore de bon conseil? (shrink)

English summary: Now that it has managed to become a science, history must remain the symposium theatre which allows us to converse with the dead. Our "connected" world delivers us up, defenceless, to the tyranny of every instant. History could be the antidote, inasmuch as it is a depository of people's collective experience. It lifts shadows up from the depth of the ages to make us share what we have learned from being who we are. We have undertaken a boundless (...) dialogue with the living. This book proposes to restore the dialogue with the dead by revisiting, through a succession of brief texts in the form of short essays and short stories, a number of episodes of universal history in an attempt to cull some lessons from it. At a time when history's progress has led to an excessive specialisation which has caused many scholars to withdraw into their ivory towers to enjoy, among experts, the fruit of their research, Michel De Jaeghere wants us to resume meditating on examples that have nourished human thought since ancient times. French description: Ils ont ete pharaons, empereurs romains, rois de France, croises, missionnaires, conquerants, batisseurs de palais et de cathedrales, decouvreurs de mondes nouveaux. Ils ont connu l'ivresse de la gloire, l'amertume de la defaite, ils ont peine dans les travaux. Ils ont incarne l'aventure de l'Occident jusqu'aux extremites de la terre, ils ont du faire face a la barbarie, a la guerre, a la terreur et a la tyrannie totalitaires. De la profondeur de l'Egypte ancienne aux conflits qui ont ouvert le XXIe siecle, ils offrent la plus etonnante des galeries de portraits. Marc Aurele y croise Christophe Colomb, Louis XVI, Honore d'Estienne d'Orves ou Helie de Saint Marc. Ils forment la compagnie des ombres, surgie du passe pour nous offrir un tete a tete. Un dialogue singulier avec les morts.L'histoire est trop souvent traitee comme un cadavre par des medecins legistes si attentifs aux organes qu'ils prelevent sur le corps dont ils font l'autopsie que leur echappe son mystere, ce qui lui donnait sa vie meme. Elle est, ailleurs, consideree comme le divertissement d'un jour, l'occasion d'une promenade sans enjeu. Les textes reunis ici comme en un recueil de nouvelles voudraient s'inscrire dans une autre tradition, celle d'une histoire meditative: une histoire tournee vers la recherche de ce qu'elle a a nous dire d'essentiel, de vital sur nous-meme. Ils se proposent de convoquer les ombres du passe pour nous donner a contempler ce qui n'est pas mort avec elles. Nous doutons aujourd'hui que l'histoire puisse etre maitresse de vie: magistra vitae, disait Ciceron. Nous voulons croire que nous n'avons plus rien a apprendre d'elle. Il nous manque d'avoir les yeux ouverts sur ce qui fait echapper ses protagonistes a leur condition mortelle; ce qui leur donne leur part d'eternite. (shrink)

Open peer commentary on the article “Going Beyond Theory: Constructivism and Empirical Phenomenology” by Urban Kordeš. Upshot: I propose that getting the empirical study of subjective experience off to a good start requires an intersubjective approach, in both theory and method, where intersubjectivity is understood not in the standard science way of verification by others, but rather as participation in the investigation of how experience transforms when examining it together. I argue that this will greatly help do justice to and (...) respect experience’s special transforming and transformative nature. (shrink)

Wat gebeurt er allemaal in relaties? We raken gefrustreerd wanneer een vriend niet terugbelt. We missen een geliefde die ver weg is. We komen elkaar tegen op straat. We vrijen. We voelen ons eenzaam. Soms terwijl we vrijen. We voelen ons diep met iemand verbonden. We verwachten veel. We doen ons best om niet te veel te verwachten. Soms lukt dat, en dan kunnen we elkaar echt ontmoeten. Dit boek gaat over de spanningen die in elke relatie aanwezig zijn. In (...) romantische relaties, maar ook in andere. Je verhoudt je tot de anderen en tot jezelf. Maar je verhoudt je ook tot de verhouding zelf. Dat is een nieuw idee in de cognitiewetenschappen. Daar gaat het veel vaker over kennen, dan over liefhebben. Maar wat als kennen en liefhebben eigenlijk heel dicht bij elkaar zouden liggen? In dit boek breekt cognitiefilosoof Hanne De Jaegher een lans om kennen en liefhebben samen te bestuderen. Want allebei zijn het geëngageerde relaties vol spanningen. Zo schrijft de auteur een wonderlijk nieuw hoofdstuk in de filosofie van de liefde. (shrink)