CHAMELEON is a computational melodic harmonization assistant. It can harmonize a given melody according to a number of independent harmonic idioms or blends between idioms based on principles of conceptual blending theory. Thus, the system is capable of offering a wealth of possible solutions and viewpoints for melodic harmonization. This study investigates how human creativity may be influenced by the use of CHAMELEON in a melodic harmonization task. Professional and novice music composers participated in an experiment where they were asked (...) to harmonize two similar melodies under two different conditions: one with and one without computational support. A control group harmonized both melodies without computational assistance. The influence of the system was examined both behaviorally, by comparing metrics of user-experience, and in terms of the properties of the artifacts that were created between the two experimental conditions. Results suggest that appreciation of the system was expertise-dependent. At the same time, users seemed to adopt more explorative strategies as a result of interaction with CHAMELEON based on the fact that the harmonizations created this way were more complex, diverse, and unexpected in comparison to the ones of the control group. (shrink)

La cuestión planteada por Henri Bergson es ¿por qué la profundidad de la percepción y la continuidad del tiempo que experimentamos en nosotros es confinada y delimitada por signos, símbolos o ideas que utilizamos para representar el mundo que percibimos? Su hipótesis es que la filosofía y la ciencia han debilitado a través de su historia el poder de la corriente vital representada por el tiempo y la memoria. El objetivo de Henri Bergson es defender la necesidad de volver a (...) una metafísica que una en la misma durée el tiempo eterno y el fluir del tiempo vital y corporal. Su metodología consiste en revisar la historia de la idea de tiempo y la concepción de los filósofos sobre ella, así como su resistencia a descubrir la duración por debajo de esta idea de tiempo. Palabras clave: Tiempo, idea, memoria, percepción, materia, cuerpo. (shrink)

The topic of the present reflection is Christian religious belief. Specifically, we will use Husserlian tools in order to examine the positional nature of this particular type of belief. We will be less interested in the question concerning the success conditions of this experience and more in its noetic structure. According to our proposal, to believe by faith supposes (although it is not exhausted by) accepting the existence of mundane evidence speaking against this fundamental belief. The believer acknowledges the existence (...) of this contradicting en-doxical basis and nevertheless believes what she believes. We will refer to this simultaneous movement of accepting and cancelling as the concessive structure of the religious attitude. The para-doxical movement of experiencing conflicting evidence as being subjectively ineffective is a key component of this attitude. At least some inchoative conflict with the world is required in order for the religious belief to be religious. Lastly, we will try to show that, with a distinctive terminology, the idea that the Christian religious attitude involves a conflict between subjectivity and world is present not only in Kierkegaard but also in phenomenological figures like Scheler and even Husserl. (shrink)

Providing the first English translation of Análisis del ser del mexicano, this book features a full biography of Uranga, a detailed overview of the translated text, and discussion of Uranga's relevance to contemporary debates in the phenomenology of culture, the philosophy of liberation, Latin American philosophy and phenomenology itself. Reading Uranga's brilliant words expertly translated and introduced by Carlos Alberto Sánchez finally allows us to understand why this Mexican philosopher is considered one of the most fearless and original thinkers of (...) the 20th century. (shrink)

El movimiento transhumanista tiene, entre sus propuestas principales, el proyecto de alargar la vida para poder alcanzar la inmortalidad en una vida indefinida o en una forma cibernética de existencia. En este artículo se presenta la propuesta del transhumanismo y se reflexiona sobre el deseo de ser inmortales y sobre las implicaciones antropológicas de la muerte. La crítica se hace desde la consideración de aspectos fundamentales del ser humano, como la finitud, la historicidad y la vulnerabilidad. Además, el proyecto transhumanista (...) de vencer la muerte supone una propuesta de salvación, que coincide en su formulación con la misma que hace el cristianismo. Ambos pretenden una victoria sobre la muerte. La crítica teológica se centra en la comprensión de la muerte y en la reflexión sobre los medios para vencerla. En este artículo la crítica al proyecto transhumanista se dirige, más que a lo que propone, a lo que queda sin plantear, provocando una reducción en la comprensión de la muerte y en la forma de vencerla. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage important reflète le dynamisme actuel en Espagne de la recherche en histoire des femmes, tout en vérifiant la diversité théorique, méthodologique et thématique de ce courant historiographique. Afin de faciliter la présentation nous regroupons par thèmes les 24 travaux inclus dans cette vaste publication. En premier lieu, distinguons les contributions orientées vers l’analyse théorique. Mª Isabel del Val Valdivieso dans « A modo de introducción. La historiografía en los albores del...

The act of iudicare hostes (‘declare public enemy’) was a formal pronouncement of the Roman Senate, voted for the first time in 88 BCE following a proposal by L. Cornelius Sulla after his first march on Rome. Legal historians have generally interpreted it as an emergency measure intended to preserve legality in a situation of civil strife and viewed it as a consistently defined institutional framework throughout the final decades of the Republic. Through an analysis of Sulla’s performative political communication, (...) before, during and in the immediate aftermath of the march, this paper argues that the act of judging (iudicare) someone a public enemy (hostis publicus) was first deployed as a political action, void of legal effects. Later instances of iudicare suggest that this act underwent a process of institutionalization after 63 BCE. (shrink)

The author, who shared the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physics with Owen Chamberlain, offers impressions and recollections of the development of modern physics. Rather than a chronological approach, Segre emphasizes interesting, complex personalities who often appear only in footnotes. Readers will find that this book adds considerably to their understanding of science and includes compelling topics of current interest.

Stakeholder engagement and dialogue have a central role in defining the relations between organisations and their internal and external interlocutors. Drawing upon the analysis of dialogic motifs, power–conflict dynamics and sociopolitical perspectives, and based on a set of interviews with the stakeholders of a consumer-owned cooperative, the research explores the dialogic potential of stakeholder engagement. The analysis revealed a fragmented picture where the co-design and co-implementation aspects were mainly related to the non-business areas of cooperative life, while business logic dominated (...) the most central aspects. Stakeholder engagement was mainly related to consensus building, while dialogic engagement based on a pluralistic understanding was only partially considered and then neglected. The social capital in the local area, the growing size of the organisation and the related power structure embrace stakeholder engagement, influencing the orientation of the dialogic dynamic. The analysis indicates that a dialogic exchange is a relative concept which depends on the interests involved and the topics discussed. It also reveals that the key factors in the democratisation of stakeholder engagement are a mutual understanding and long-term opportunities. Common sociopolitical aspects are also important, but they do not necessarily guarantee the creation of dialogism paths. The research contributes to the critical dialogic literature in revealing whether and how stakeholder engagement has been implemented in a specific setting. It also shows the limitations of voluntarist stakeholder engagement initiatives. (shrink)

Hailed by the Journal of the History of Astronomy as "charming and witty," this chronicle by a renowned physicist traces the development of scientific thought from the works of the "founding fathers" — Galileo, Huygens, and Newton — to the more recent discoveries of Maxwell, Boltzmann, and Gibbs. 1984 edition.

Las exigencias del diálogo entre la fe y la cultura actual han obligado a plantearse seriamente la tarea de "inculturación" del cristianismo, una misión necesaria aunque compleja y delicada. Tras definir los términos principales del tema, se exponen los criterios a seguir y los equilibrios necesarios para su adecuada realización. A continuación se describe el objeto principal de este estudio: la inculturación de la catequesis. En primer lugar, los agentes o personas responsables de la inculturación (la comunidad cristiana, los diferentes (...) servicios o ministerios, el papel de los catequistas), los aspectos o lugares particularmente implicados (pequeñas comunidades cristianas, catequesis locales, catequesis populares, etc.). El estudio termina destacando algunos de los posibles riesgos y dificultades que la tarea de inculturar la catequesis debería intentar superar. (shrink)

El artículo presenta y comenta las catequesis de Benedicto XVI en las audiencias públicas de los miércoles. A lo largo de los años los temas tratados son: los salmos y cánticos litúrgicos de laudes y vísperas; la Iglesia, su naturaleza e identidad; los Padres de la Iglesia; San Pablo (en el Año Paulino, 2008). En 2009, Benedicto XVI lanza una serie dedicada al Año Sacerdotal. En los últimos años de pontificado (2009-2011), presenta figuras de la historia de la Iglesia en (...) la Edad Media en los siglos XII y XIII, y a continuación personalidades femeninas de la historia eclesial de la Edad Media, y Moderna. Una última nueva serie está dedicada a los Doctores de la Iglesia. Estas catequesis dirigidas a todos los fieles constituyen un significativo momento de formación. (shrink)

Los últimos diez años –prácticamente la década a caballo del año 2000– han sido muy fecundos en la reflexión y en el magisterio eclesial a propósito especialmente de la evangelización, la iniciación cristiana y la catequesis. Muchos documentos, publicaciones y experiencias quieren relanzar la acción evangelizadora y catequética por nuevos derroteros.

Some transhumanist authors make the prophecy of immortality thanks to the transfer of the human mind to a superintelligent computer that would guarantee the survival of the person. That immortality would mean a happy life. In this article we try to show that this supposed indefinite survival is not exactly what is usually understood by immortality. In addition, we try to think about what immortality is based on the theological understanding of eternity and personal communion in which the life of (...) God consists. The decisive questions in this dialogue with the postures of transhumanism are the meaning of the body for the human person and what happiness is. (shrink)

One of the more controversial articles published in the philosophy of criticism during the past twenty-five years is “The Intentional Fallacy” by W. K. Wimsatt, Jr. and Monroe Beardsley. Scholars from a variety of disciplines have expended a lot of energy in attacking and defending the Wimsatt-Beardsley position. Their efforts fall mainly into two classes. Either they have been exploratory with respect to the nature of the concept ‘intention’, but so exploratory as to present no tangible discovery; or they have (...) merely been occasions to air the author’s own views, views which take sides, but views which in the end only serve to define what positions may be taken without really convincing anyone whether one position is clearly better than the other. This dilemma is really rather odd because in a certain sense it is pitifully easy to understand what the intentional fallacy amounts to. There is a kind of minimal meaning to it, and I suspect that introductory students in courses in Aesthetics and Criticism have little difficulty in understanding it. ‘Difficulties’ seem to arise primarily in connection with its implications and general scope within the totality of criticism. However, it would be wrong to conclude that these difficulties have nothing to do with the intentional fallacy. They do. And the reason is this: the way in which one argues for, that is, establishes, the intentional fallacy has much to do with its implications and general scope within the realm of criticism. (shrink)

The parallel distributed processing (PDP) perspective brings forward the important point that all semantic phenomena are based on analog underlying mechanisms, involving the weighted summation of multiple inputs by individual neurons. It falls short of indicating, however, how the essentially discrete nature of semantic processing may emerge at the cognitive level. Bridging this gap probably requires attractor networks.

To think a Deleuzian politics requires to understand the philosophical markleft in his work by Spinoza. Both philosophers’ paths crisscross in their problems, questions and consequences. In this paper three concepts will be put in relation: critique, right and crowd. The aim is to elucidate how man can open new ways of political experience from the conjunction of two philosophies articulated upon a common ground: immanence and life.

The aim of this text is to develop an epistemological-technique approach which permit analyze the work of Juan Downey, and his use of technical medias and also include the struggle against the State in the political and cultural model of the primitive societies of the Yano- mani, particularly by the work of Pierre Clastres and Jacques Lizot, and also their point of view of the methods of production in the societies of abundance, as theorized the anthropologist Marshall Sahlins, considering these (...) anthropological paradigms as a medium to understand the mediatic interaction and the technique development in the works of Juan Downey. (shrink)

The aim of this text is to develop an epistemological-technique approach which permit analyze the work of Juan Downey, and his use of technical medias and also include the struggle against the State in the political and cultural model of the primitive societies of the Yano- mani, particularly by the work of Pierre Clastres and Jacques Lizot, and also their point of view of the methods of production in the societies of abundance, as theorized the anthropologist Marshall Sahlins, considering these (...) anthropological paradigms as a medium to understand the mediatic interaction and the technique development in the works of Juan Downey. (shrink)

The anticipation of the typical under the assumption of the non-occurrence of the atypical is the experiential schema governing the individuation of ordinary enduring objects and their properties. Against this background, a primitive form of “if-and-only-if” consciousness is implicit in our everyday perceptual intentions. The thematization of the fact that perception operates under this proto-tentative structure occurs at the level of reflection and is expressed by defeasible judgments of the form “if p, then q, unless r,” or “if p, then (...) q provided that not-r”. Here I will argue that what is made thematic by judgments containing such restrictive clauses is the structure of unpredictability inherent in what Husserl calls the horizon of latency and, indirectly, the world as background of normality. (shrink)

In this paper we suggest that differing approaches to the science of social cognition mirror the arguments between radical embodied and traditional approaches to cognition. We contrast the use in social cognition of theoretical inference and mental simulation mechanisms with approaches emphasizing a direct perception of others’ mental states. We build from a recent integrative framework unifying these divergent perspectives through the use of dual-process theory and supporting social neuroscience research. Our elaboration considers two complementary notions of direct perception: one (...) primarily stemming from ecological psychology and the other from enactive cognition theory. We use this as the foundation from which to offer an account of the informational basis for social information and assert a set of research propositions to further the science of social cognition. In doing so, we point out how perception of the minds of others can be supported in some cases by lawful information, supporting direct perception of social affordances and perhaps, mental states, and in other cases by cues that support indirect perceptual inference. Our goal is to extend accounts of social cognition by integrating advances across disciplines to provide a multi-level and multi-theoretic description that can advance this field and offer a means through which to reconcile radical embodied and traditional approaches to cognitive neuroscience. (shrink)

The ageing society poses significant challenges to Europe’s economy and society. In coming to grips with these issues, we must be aware of their ethical dimensions. Values are the heart of the European Union, as Article 1a of the Lisbon Treaty makes clear: “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity…”. The notion of Europe as a community of values has various important implications, including the development of inclusion policies. A special case of exclusion concerns the (...) gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology and those without access to it, the “digital divide”, which in Europe is chiefly age-related. Policies to overcome the digital divide and, more generally speaking, e-inclusion policies addressing the ageing population raise some ethical problems. Among younger senior citizens, say those between 65 and 80 years old, the main issues are likely to be universal access to ICT and e-participation. Among the older senior citizens, say those more than 80 years old, the main issues are mental and physical deterioration and assistive technology. An approach geared towards the protection of human rights could match the different needs of senior citizens and provide concrete guidance to evaluate information technologies for them. (shrink)

La noción de emergencia acompaña a la Filosofía de la Biología desde finales del siglo XIX, afirmando que las propiedades de los sistemas biológicos no pueden deducirse de las de sus componentes. A lo largo del siglo XX las caracterizaciones de este concepto se han apoyado en cuatro pilares, impredecibilidad, novedad, restricción y causación descendente, pilares ligados a la asunción de una jerarquización de la realidad en niveles de organización. En este trabajo intento demostrar que puede explicarse la naturaleza de (...) las propiedades biológicas sin hacer referencia a la emergencia utilizando como herramienta la noción de cuasi-descomponibilidad propuesta originariamente por Herbert Simon. (shrink)