1Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol, 9 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB, UKScience Without Laws Ronald Giere Chicago, IL University of Chicago Press 1999 x + 285 Hardback£17.50.

This paper focuses on the consolidation of Molecular Evolution, a field originating in the 1960s at the interface of molecular biology, biochemistry, evolutionary biology, biophysics and studies on the origin of life and exobiology. The claim is made that Molecular Evolution became a discipline by integrating different sorts of scientific traditions: experimental, theoretical and comparative. The author critically incorporates Timothy Lenoir’s treatment of disciplines , as well as ideas developed by Stephen Toulmin on the same subject. On their account disciplines (...) are spaces where the social and epistemic dimensions of science are deeply and complexly interwoven. However, a more detailed account of discipline formation and the dynamics of an emerging disciplinary field is lacking in their analysis. The present essay suggests focusing on the role of scientific concepts in the double configuration of disciplines: the social/political and the epistemic order. In the case of Molecular Evolution the concepts of molecular clock and informational molecules played a central role, both in differentiating molecular from classical evolutionists, and in promoting communication between the different sorts of traditions integrated in Molecular Evolution. The paper finishes with a reflection on the historicity of disciplines, and the historicity of our concepts of disciplines. (shrink)

Johannes Kepler dedicated much of his work to discover a law for the refraction of light. Unfortunately, he formulated an incorrect law. Nevertheless, it was useful for anticipating the behavior of light in some specific conditions. Some believe that Kepler did not have the elements to formulate the law that was later accepted by the scientific community, that is, the Snell–Descartes law. However, in this paper, we propose a model that agrees with Kepler’s heuristics and that is also successful in (...) anticipating the behavior of light when it passes through a surface that separates two media with different optical densities. This model adopts strategies that were recommended by Kepler in two types of analogies. The obstacles that led to the failure of the two types of analogies are presented in the article, and we argue that the model proposed here could overcome these specific obstacles. Finally, we show how the proposed model could be articulated with Kepler’s metaphysics of light. (shrink)

This paper defends an inferential conception of scientific representation. It approaches the notion of representation in a deflationary spirit, and minimally characterizes the concept as it appears in science by means of two necessary conditions: its essential directionality and its capacity to allow surrogate reasoning and inference. The conception is defended by showing that it successfully meets the objections that make its competitors, such as isomorphism and similarity, untenable. In addition the inferential conception captures the objectivity of the cognitive representations (...) used by science, it sheds light on their truth and completeness, and it explains the source of the analogy between scientific and artistic modes of representation. (shrink)

Este artículo propone una discusión sobre la naturaleza hermenéutica de la corporalidad (Leiblichkeit). Un aspecto que resultará decisivo para descifrar fenómenos corporales como el dolor y que hará comprensible la tesis del filósofo de que para lograr un acceso al fenómeno del dolor es preciso tener en cuenta lo que denomina aspectos existenciales del fenómeno del cuerpo (Leibphänomen). Para ello, este trabajo mostrará, por una parte, en qué sentido el ser corporal(leiblich sein) de lo humano es un fenómeno cooriginario de (...) las otras estructuras existenciales que integran su ser-en-el-mundo (In-der-Welt-sein) y, por otra, el carácter afectivo de dicha constitución existencial o mundana de la experiencia corporal. Una perspectiva hermenéutica que contribuirá asimismo a entender el carácter extático y disruptivo del dolor. (shrink)

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic, now a global health crisis, has surprised health authorities around the world. Recent studies suggest that the measures taken to curb the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak have generated issues throughout the population. Thus, it is necessary to establish and identify the possible risk factors related to the psychosocial and psychophysiological strain during the COVID-19 outbreak. The present extensive literature review assesses the social, psychological, and physiological consequences of COVID-19, reviewing the impact of quarantine measures, (...) isolation, vast human loss, social and financial consequences in the family’s economies, and its impact on the psychological health of the population. We also discussed the effect of psychophysiological factors, considering the impact of physical inactivity and modifications in nutritional habits, at psychological and physiological levels. The present review includes an actualized to date bibliography, articles for which were methodologically analyzed to verify they met the standards of quality and scientific accuracy. Authors understand the pandemic as a multifactorial event for which only a profound and extensive analysis would lead to better compression and efficient intervention in the near future. (shrink)

En el contexto del conflicto armado interno en Colombia, la atrocidad en las acciones violentas también se transmite a los conflictos familiares y comunitarios, y aumenta el desplazamiento político forzado, que provoca fuertes choques culturales al generar debilitamiento en la estructura familiar patriarcal, en los roles de los géneros y en las prácticas de la sexualidad. El artículo destaca el apoyo brindado por organizaciones no gubernamentales y agencias de cooperación internacional a este fenómeno, presentando los casos de tres núcleos de (...) mujeres desplazadas. (shrink)

This paper defends the deflationary character of two recent views regarding scientific representation, namely RIG Hughes’ DDI model and the inferential conception. It is first argued that these views’ deflationism is akin to the homonymous position in discussions regarding the nature of truth. There, we are invited to consider the platitudes that the predicate “true” obeys at the level of practice, disregarding any deeper, or more substantive, account of its nature. More generally, for any concept X, a deflationary approach is (...) then defined in opposition to a substantive approach, where a substantive approach to X is an analysis of X in terms of some property P, or relation R, accounting for and explaining the standard use of X. It then becomes possible to characterize a deflationary view of scientific representation in three distinct senses, namely: a “no-theory” view, a “minimalist” view, and a “use-based” view – in line with three standard deflationary responses in the philosophical literature on truth. It is then argued that both the DDI model and the inferential conception may be suitably understood in any of these three different senses. The application of these deflationary ‘hermeneutics’ moreover yields significant improvements on the DDI model, which bring it closer to the inferential conception. It is finally argued that what these approaches have in common – the key to any deflationary account of scientific representation – is the denial that scientific representation may be ultimately reduced to any substantive explanatory property of sources, or targets, or their relations. (shrink)

Holobionts are symbiotic assemblages composed by a host plus its microbiome. The status of holobionts as individuals has recently been a subject of continuous controversy, which has given rise to two main positions: on the one hand, holobiont advocates argue that holobionts are biological individuals; on the other, holobiont detractors argue that they are just mere chimeras or ecological communities, but not individuals. Both parties in the dispute develop their arguments from the framework of the philosophy of biology, in terms (...) of what it takes for a “conglomerate” to be considered an interesting individual from a biological point of view. However, the debates about holobiont individuality have important ontological implications that have remained vaguely explored from a metaphysical framework. The purpose of this paper is to cover that gap by presenting a metaphysical approach to holobionts individuality. Drawing upon a conception of natural selection that puts the focus on the transgenerational recurrence of the traits and that supports the thesis that holobionts are units of selection, we argue that holobionts bear emergent traits and exert downward powers over the entities that compose them. In this vein, we argue, a reasonable argument can be made for conceiving holobionts as emergent biological individuals. (shrink)

"Ce volume presente la seconde partie d'une etude sur l'angelologie medievale dont la premiere partie a paru dans cette meme collection sous le titre: 'Les anges et la philosophie: subjectivite et fonction cosmologique des substances separees au XIIIe siecle', Etudes de philosophie medievale LXXXII, Paris, 2002"--T.p. verso.

A partir de questions sur l'ange, son individualité, sa position et sa fonction par rapport aux autres êtres, dans l'architecture cosmologique et dans la structure métaphysique de l'univers, les penseurs médiévaux élaborent des théories autour de la structure et du sens de l'ordo rerum, et d'un paradigme de la subjectivité. Par le biais de ce dernier, l'ange figure le meilleur de l'humanité.

This paper argues for a broadly dispositionalist approach to the ontology of Bohmian mechanics . It first distinguishes the ‘minimal’ and the ‘causal’ versions of Bohm’s theory, and then briefly reviews some of the claims advanced on behalf of the ‘causal’ version by its proponents. A number of ontological or interpretive accounts of the wave function in BM are then addressed in detail, including configuration space, multi-field, nomological, and dispositional approaches. The main objection to each account is reviewed, namely the (...) ‘problem of perception’, the ‘problem of communication’, the ‘problem of temporal laws’, and the ‘problem of under-determination’. It is then shown that a version of dispositionalism overcomes the under-determination problem while providing neat solutions to the other three problems. A pragmatic argument is thus furnished for the use of dispositions in the interpretation of the theory more generally. The paper ends in a more speculative note by suggesting ways in which a dispositionalist interpretation of the wave function is in addition able to shed light upon some of the claims of the proponents of the causal version of BM. (shrink)

Despite the promises made by molecular evolutionists since the early 1960s that phylogenies would be readily reconstructed using molecular data, the construction of molecular phylogenies has both retained many methodological problems of the past and brought up new ones of considerable epistemic relevance. The field is driven not only by changes in knowledge about the processes of molecular evolution, but also by an ever-present methodological anxiety manifested in the constant search for an increased objectivity—or in its converse, the avoidance of (...) subjectivity.This paper offers an exhaustive account of the methodological and conceptual difficulties embedded in each of the steps required to elaborate molecular phytogenies. The authors adopt a historical perspective on the field in order to follow the development of practices that seek to increase the objectivity of their methods and representations. These include the adoption and development of explicit criteria for evaluation of evidence, and of procedures associated with methods of statistical inference, quantification and automation. All these are linked to an increasing use of computers in research since the mid 1960s. We will show that the practices of objectivity described are highly dependent on the problems and tools of molecular phylogenetics. (shrink)

An English translation of the Second Disputation.

Se parte del planteamiento general de la perspectiva moderna que aún impera en la interpretación regular de la fe, para señalar sus insuficiencias. Posteriormente, se aborda la oposición entre universalidad ética y particularidad teológica, con base en las observaciones hechas por Kant y Kierkegaard, respectivamente, a fin de determinar el ámbito de la fe y su independencia respecto de la moral. Hecho el deslinde entre el Dios de la fe y el Dios de las filósofos, se describen los rasgos fundamentales (...) de la fe teologal, con base en el testimonio neotestamentario. Finalmente, se expone la concepción místico-religiosa de San Juan de la Cruz acerca de la fe como conocimiento oscuro amoroso, para luego aclarar en qué sentido la fe está íntimamente relacionada con el amor-ágape y la esperanza. Unidad que constituye la esencia de la actitud teologal. Be part of the overall approach of the modern perspective that still prevails in the interpretation regular of faith, to point out its shortcomings. Subsequently, deals with the opposition between ethical universality and particularity theological, based on observations made by Kant and Kierkegaard, respectively, to determine the field of faith and independence from morality. Made the boundary between the God of faith and the God of the philosophers, describes the basic features of theological faith, based on the New Testament witness. Finally, we illustrate the mystical-religious conception of San Juan de la Cruz about faith as loving dark knowledge, then clarify in what sense faith is intimately linked to the love-agape and hope. Unit which is the essence of the theological attitude. (shrink)

RESUMEN El objetivo de este artículo fue analizar cómo es subsumido el sentido de lo transmoderno por el filósofo colombiano Santiago Castro-Gómez para proponer una política emancipatoria. La transmodernidad es un proyecto decolonial planteado por Enrique Dussel en 1994. La modernidad, definida como mito sacrificial -eurocéntrica, colonizadora y capitalista- sería superada desde el momento en que se pueda afirmar la alteridad de las culturas universales -analéctica-. Tal proyecto de la Filosofía de la Liberación se puede concebir como un método que (...) tomaría lo mejor de la modernidad -su carácter racional-, pero en sentido contrario a la dominación política, cultural y económica. Castro-Gómez asume este método para proponer un republicanismo transmoderno. En este texto se establece como hilo conductor el posible diálogo modernidad/colonialidad establecida por estos dos filósofos para determinar cómo es posible plantear una nueva forma de entender la ontología de la política emancipatoria que presenta el filósofo colombiano. ABSTRACT This article seeks to analyze how the sense of transmodernity is subsumed in philosopher Santiago Castro-Gómez, to propose an emancipatory policy. Transmodernity is a decolonial project proposed by Enrique Dussel in 1994. Modernity, defined as a sacrificial myth -eurocentric, colonizing, and capitalist- would be overcome from the moment in which it is possible to affirm the otherness of the universal cultures -ana-lectic-. Such a project of the Philosophy of Liberation can be conceived as a method that would take the best of modernity -its rational character-, but in an opposite sense to political, cultural, and economic domination. Gastro-Gómez assumes this method to propose a transmodern republicanism. In this text, the possible modernity/ coloniality dialog, corroborated by these two philosophers, will be established as the guiding thread to determine how a new way of understanding the ontology of emancipatory politics, presented by the Colombian philosopher, is possible. (shrink)

El presente artículo explora cómo la Iglesia Presbiteriana en Colombia forjó su propia identidad como iglesia reformada, manteniendo características y adoptando cambios en su identidad y misión. Esta presentación se da mediante una investigación bibliográfica, documental y un análisis en la formación de los actores y las comunidades, sus prácticas, imaginarios y representaciones. Pone especial énfasis en el papel que jugaron los misioneros, la formación del liderazgo local, el talante de la mujer presbiteriana y la expresión regional del presbiterianismo, en (...) la identidad que forjó el presbiterianismo colombiano, en un ambiente de confrontación religiosa y resistencia. (shrink)