Although the main focus of Hume’s career was in the humanities, his work also has an observable role in the historical development of natural sciences after his time. To show this, I shall center on the relation between Hume and two major figures in the history of the natural sciences: Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and Albert Einstein (1879–1955). Both of these scientists read Hume. They also found parts of Hume’s work useful to their sciences. Inquiring into the relations between Hume and (...) the two scientists shows that his philosophical positions had a partial but constructive role in the formation of modern biology and physics. This is accordingly a clear indication of Hume’s impact on the scientific tradition. Before proceeding to analyze Hume’s contribution to the history of science, it is important to address his broader role in the history of philosophy of science. Hume’s discussions concerning the topics of causation, induction, the distinction between mathematical and empirical propositions, and laws of nature have been important for the philosophy of science of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. (shrink)

This article centers on Hume’s position on the intelligibility of natural philosophy. To that end, the controversy surrounding universal gravitation shall be scrutinized. It is very well-known that Hume sides with the Newtonian experimentalist approach rather than with the Leibnizian demand for intelligibility. However, what is not clear is Hume’s overall position on the intelligibility of natural philosophy. It shall be argued that Hume declines Leibniz’s principle of intelligibility. However, Hume does not eschew intelligibility altogether; his concept of causation itself (...) stipulates mechanical intelligibility. (shrink)

Starting with the claim that Quantum Mechanics is in need of a new interpretation that would allow us to understand the phenomena of this realm, I wish to analyse in this paper de Ronde's theory of power and potentia from a phenomenological perspective. De Ronde's claim is that the reason for the lack of success in the foundations of QM is due to the reluctance of both physicists and philosophers to explore the possibility of finding a new ontology, new concepts (...) for the physical theory. De Ronde proposes such new ontology and the question I wish to address here, is whether his ontology is conceptually plausible. I will, for this purpose, recur to Edmund Husserl's phenomenology. After presenting some of the basic concepts and methodological tools of this theory, I shall apply them to de Ronde's ontology to determine the viability of his theory. (shrink)

En el presente ensayo se propone una lectura de la obra Taberna y otros lugares (1969) de Roque Dalton. Se considera que es oportuno pensar la figura del poeta salvadoreño a la luz, no simplemente de los exilios políticos, sino también de la privación (en términos genéricos) de la figura del poeta de sus antiguas funciones en –lo que Ángel Rama denominó– la ciudad letrada. La ciudad modernizada (Rama, 1984) expulsó al poeta de su lugar privilegiado, lo que provoca un (...) trauma y una búsqueda novedosa. En ese contexto, el poeta redefine su voz y la literatura sufre una reterritorialización, es decir, redefine sus márgenes. En América Latina, el problema fue abordado por José Martí que incluso propuso nuevos desafíos a la disciplina (como el problema de la identidad latinoamericana). Se cree que Taberna y otros lugares (1969) retoma estas búsquedas y se arriesga la hipótesis ue, al redefinir su campo, la obra de Dalton puede ser leída no solo en clave literaria, sino también historiográfica desde una mirada benjaminiana. (shrink)

What is the significance of high-speed computation for the sciences? How far does it result in a practice of simulation which affects the sciences on a very basic level? To offer more historical context to these recurring questions, this paper revisits the roots of computer simulation in the development of the ENIAC computer and the Monte Carlo method. With the aim of identifying more clearly what really changed (or not) in the history of science in the 1940s and 1950s due (...) to the computer, I will emphasize the continuities with older practices and develop a two-fold argument. Firstly, one can find a diversity of practices around ENIAC which tends to be ignored if one focuses only on the ENIAC itself as the originator of Monte Carlo simulation. Following from this, I claim, secondly, that there was no simulation around ENIAC. Not only is the term ‘simulation’ not used within that context, but the analysis also shows how ‘simulation’ is an effect of three interrelated sets of different practices around the machine: (1) the mathematics which the ENIAC users employed and developed, (2) the programs, (3) the physicality of the machine. I conclude that, in the context discussed, the most important shifts in practice are about rethinking existing computational methods. This was done in view of adapting them to the high-speed and programmability of the new machine. Simulation then is but one facet of this process of adaptation, singled out by posterity to be viewed as its principal aspect. (shrink)

There are indications that the interpersonal affective factor and the social deviation factor, both of which are underlying dimensions of psychopathy, have a positive and a negative relationship, respectively, with executive functioning. However, this is seldom taken into consideration in the research on the relationship between executive functioning and psychopathy, which may be an explanation for the many inconsistent results in this area as reported in the literature (e.g., Rogers, 2006). In the present study, executive functioning was studied using the (...) Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) in 53 inpatients of a Dutch forensic psychiatric clinic who were classified by means of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Special attention was given to the relationship between the two separate factors and executive functioning. Age, educational level, and substance abuse were controlled for in the analysis. No difference was found between psychopathic (N = 17) and nonpsychopathic (N = 36) patients in the WCST scoring categories, nor was there a significant difference in the four diagnostic subgroups defined by the two factors. However, the trends observed do justify further study in this direction. (shrink)

I examine an intuitive property of folk-psychological explanations I call self-sufficiency. I argue that individualism cannot honor this property and work toward distilling an account of psychological explanation that does honor it, given some fairly standard assumptions. In doing so, my preference for an Externalist individuation of intentional state will emerge unambiguously. The assumptions I rely on are fairly standard but not uncontroversial. Yet not always do I attempt to defend them from objections. My goal is an account of folk (...) psychology consistent with our every-day practices rather than the deduction of an idealized psychology from first principles. I conclude with some applications offered as evidence that the goal was achieved. (shrink)

The birth, growth, stabilization and subsequent understanding of a new field of practical and theoretical enquiry is always a conceptual process including several typologies of events, phenomena an...

We present the methodological principles underlying the scientific activities of the DHST Commission on the History and Philosophy of Computing. This volume collects refereed selected papers from the First International Conference organized by the Commission.

I argue that Hume’s philosophy of time is relationist in the following two senses. 1) Standard definition of relationism. Time is a succession of indivisible moments. Hence there is no time independent of change. Time is a relational, not substantial feature of the world. 2) Rigid relationism. There is no evidence of uniform natural standard for synchronization of clocks. No absolute temporal metric is available. There are countless times, and no time is privileged. Combining 1) and 2) shows that Hume’s (...) ontology of time is thoroughly relationist. (shrink)

What is the significance of high-speed computation for the sciences? How far does it result in a practice of simulation which affects the sciences on a very basic level? To offer more historical context to these recurring questions, this paper revisits the roots of computer simulation in the development of the ENIAC computer and the Monte Carlo method.With the aim of identifying more clearly what really changed (or not) in the history of science in the 1940s and 1950s due to (...) the computer, I will emphasize the continuities with older practices and develop a two-fold argument. Firstly, one can find a diversity of practices around ENIAC which tends to be ignored if one focuses only on the ENIAC itself as the originator of Monte Carlo simulation. Following from this, I claim, secondly, that there was no simulation around ENIAC. Not only is the term ‘simulation’ not used within that context, but the analysis also shows how ‘simulation’ is an effect of three interrelated sets of different practices around the machine: (1) the mathematics which the ENIAC users employed and developed, (2) the programs, (3) the physicality of the machine. I conclude that, in the context discussed, the most important shifts in practice are about rethinking existing computational methods. This was done in view of adapting them to the high-speed and programmability of the new machine. Simulation then is but one facet of this process of adaptation, singled out by posterity to be viewed as its principal aspect. (shrink)

A history of writing the history of computing is presented in its relationship to the history of mathematics. As with many historiographies, the initial history of computing was very much an internalistic history. In the late 1970s, the field became more serious and started looking at the histories of mathematics and technology for (methodological) inspiration. Whereas the history of mathematics was initially quite influential, it is the history of technology (in its U.S. form) that has become the dominant framework for (...) doing history of computing since the 1990s. (shrink)

The crisis resilience of vital social systems is currently the target of constant development efforts in Finland, as their drifting into crisis would weaken societies’ functional abilities, safety, and security. This is also the case regarding the Finnish health care system. In an attempt to move beyond existing frameworks of crisis imagination, this article takes an unconventional stance by elucidating endogenous crisis dynamics present in the Finnish health care system. Delphi process was conducted for top experts in Finnish health care (...) and crisis management. With a dissensus-seeking orientation, our aim was to fertilize disagreements among panelists to reveal key vulnerabilities in the health system. Despite our efforts to evoke dissensus, the panelists ended up generating a consensus that aims to protect the underlying assumptions of the health system’s knowledge structure. Through inductive analysis of expert discourses, the data was analyzed through our research question “what constitutes a crisis-proof health system and a crisis-prone health system”. What is framed as a strength of the system by our panelists, namely the ability to maintain legitimacy, improve efficiency, and guarantee continuity, can still have questionable implications that are left ungrasped. A system’s theory approach illustrates how such effects can develop and escalate beyond the reach of social interventions, and thus be predisposed to cause objectionable yet concealed social crises. The discussion illustrates how these endogenous crisis dynamics could be seen to materialize in real-life cases. (shrink)

Fear, which has always been one of the most powerful of human passions, has grown in importance during modernity. First with Machiavelli and later especially with Hobbes, fear has become one of the foundational ideas of modern political philosophy. If fear, especially fear of death, does indeed occupy a central place in the foundation of modern politics, then it is necessary to study carefully the implications and consequences of the transhumanist attempt to overcome death. Among the main aspirations of transhumanism (...) is the search for almost infinite longevity and, eventually, the total abolition of aging. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the specific role that fear of death has played in modern political philosophy to understand the possible effects that an eventual overcoming of death would have, albeit partial, as wanted by transhumanists. While the possibility of achieving immortality seems unlikely, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t study what’s behind this transhumanist aspiration. In this way, transhumanism seems the final consequence of modern development, since it’s in continuity with the modern attempt to respond to the fear of death, but it does so by trying an ultimate solution to it through the elimination of death, at least by sickness and old age. In this paper, we will review the role of fear of death in the founding of modern political philosophy by Machiavelli and Hobbes, and then we will analyse the transhumanist attempt to overcome death as a consequence of this fear and its possible political effects. (shrink)

Illich’s criticism of contemporary industrial societies involves, among otherthings, a new conception of technology assessment based on the philosophical notionof “conviviality”. The purpose of this paper is to reconstruct such conception, whosemost salient features are radical pluralism, technologic constructivism and humanism, that is,the idea that the best yardstick to measure actual or potential.

En el contexto de ofrecer lógicas alternativas que lidien no trivialmente con paradojas semánticas y superen a la vez la objeción de incoherencia que se alza habitualmente contra ellas, el BA-Plan propone una definición de lógica en el sentido de secuencia infinita de nociones de consecuencia que especifica estándares de validez para el nivel inferencial y para los metainferenciales. El presente trabajo argumenta que si se admite la conveniencia de esta definición de lógica es posible desacoplar la noción de coherencia (...) entre estándares de validez de la noción de uniformidad entre estándares de validez. (shrink)

This article explores the strategic management of government affairs in companies active in the EU. The article relies on a unique large-N dataset on the functioning and staffing of EU government affairs. The analysis shows that companies delegate government affairs functions to in-house managers with specific competences, who stay in office for long periods and who have an extensive knowledge of the core competences of the company, thanks to their educational background and work experience in the private sector. These findings (...) suggest that how companies strategically manage and staff government affairs in Brussels rests on the distinct structure of business–government relations in the EU, which are based on the exchange of technical information and the establishment of credibility and long-run trust arrangements. (shrink)

Este artículo estudia y def iende el derecho de las niñas y niños al trabajo. Contra el desinformado/interesado “sentido común”, las niñas y niños han trabajado siempre, con normalidad e integrados a la sociedad. El escándalo que hoy produce el trabajo infantil surge hace poco más de un siglo en el mundo minoritario, y no precisamente por una pre- ocupación por el bienestar de niñas y niñas y niños en cuanto tales, sino por la presión del capitalismo y de un (...) creciente y ya hegemónico adultismo, ventilado por la globalización al resto del planeta. La defensa del derecho al trabajo se hace aquí desde la perspectiva de los movimientos sociales de Niñas, Niños y Adolescentes Trabajadores (NNATs), organizados en el mundo mayoritario para luchar por su derecho a un trabajo digno. Es decir, se hace “desde abajo”, considerando lo que signif ica el trabajo para las propias niñas y niños, para sus familias y sus comunidades que, como se mostrará, dista mucho de la concepción hegemónica: el trabajo infantil, nos enseñan los NNATs, puede equivaler a dignidad, a ciudadanía y a emancipación. (shrink)

En este articulo se interpreta teoría y práctica de la historieta durante la Unidad Popular chilena desde aspectos contextuales y sociales, intermediales y culturales. La teoría se expone a partir del popular ensayo Cómo leer al Pato Donald (1972) de Ariel Dorfman y Armand Mattelart como crítica al cómic de Disney pero también como implícita propuesta de una práctica distinta. Como contraste práctico se estudiarán dos ejemplos de las revistas de la Editora Nacional Quimantú Cabrochico y El manque. En estas (...) historietas, basadas en la evaluación crítica de Dorfman y Mattelart, logran distinta articulaciones entre narrativa visual, la política y la recepción de los lectores. (shrink)

La Teoría Crítica ligada a la tradición del Instituto de Investigación Social de Frankfurt ha sido frecuentemente periodizada teniendo en cuenta las sucesivas generaciones de pensadores que la animaron. Desde este recorte temporal, la llamada “tercera generación” de la Teoría Crítica renovó sus principales líneas de investigación incorporando a la tradición alemana de pensamiento los desarrollos del posestructuralismo francés. En esta misma dirección, una representante de la “cuarta generación”, Juliane Rebentisch, encuentra en las teorías de Claude Lefort y Jacques Rancière (...) nuevas formas de abordar problemas propios del idealismo alemán, tal como el de la apariencia estética, en su vínculo siempre conflictivo con la política. El objetivo de nuestro trabajo es desentrañar la tesis central de Rebentisch en lo que concierne a su reinterpretación de la estetización de la política. (shrink)

En este articulo se interpreta teoría y práctica de la historieta durante la Unidad Popular chilena desde aspectos contextuales y sociales, intermediales y culturales. La teoría se expone a partir del popular ensayo Cómo leer al Pato Donald (1972) de Ariel Dorfman y Armand Mattelart como crítica al cómic de Disney pero también como implícita propuesta de una práctica distinta. Como contraste práctico se estudiarán dos ejemplos de las revistas de la Editora Nacional Quimantú Cabrochico y El manque. En estas (...) historietas, basadas en la evaluación crítica de Dorfman y Mattelart, logran distinta articulaciones entre narrativa visual, la política y la recepción de los lectores. (shrink)

El presente estudio tiene por objetivo demostrar lo siguiente: que no es posible comprender suficientemente, al menos en un aspecto, el método de ejecución(Methode der Ausführung) de la Fenomenología del espíritu como “la exposición del saber que aparece” (die Darstellung des erscheinenden Wissens), si es que no se comprende la relación que tiene dicho método de ejecución con la temática del auto-engaño. Este objetivo se lleva a cabo de la siguiente manera: 1) se propone el tipo de relación que se (...) busca establecer entre el concepto de “auto-engaño” y el método de ejecución, 2) se presentan las notas que les corresponden a ambos y 3) se argumenta en orden a demostrar que el método de ejecución no se puede comprender rectamente sino en relación con la temática del auto-engaño. (shrink)

El punto de partida de este trabajo es el objetivo general de explorar las resonancias conceptuales entre la filosofía de Deleuze y Guattari y el pensamiento oriental. Este artículo desarrolla dos series de figuras del Oriente presentes en Mil mesetas, explicitando sus conexiones con diversos temas deleuziano-guattarianos. La primera serie comprende juegos y artes marciales que los autores utilizan para ejemplificar los conceptos "espacio liso" y "máquina de guerra"; la segunda comprende las prácticas sexuales taoístas como un caso, entre otros, (...) de la libre circulación del deseo en un cuerpo sin órganos. El énfasis está puesto en aclarar cómo operan estas figuras del Oriente en el texto de Mil mesetas, así como en exponer algunas fuentes que Deleuze y Guattari suelen dejar en las sombras. Por último, se adelantará el trasfondo sobre el cual el pensamiento oriental y la filosofía de Deleuze y Guattari tejen sus "perturbadoras afinidades". The starting point for this work is a general aim to explore the conceptual resonances between Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy and the Eastern thought. This paper develops two series of figures from the East that appear in A Thousand Plateaus and brings out their connection with various Deleuzian-Guattarian themes. The first series includes some games and martial arts used by the authors as examples for the concepts "smooth space" and "war machine". The second series includes some Taoist sexual practices as one of many cases for the free circulation of desire within a body without organs. The emphasis is laid on clarifying the role these figures from the East play in A Thousand Plateaus, as well as on unveiling some sources the authors usually leave hidden behind. Finally, i figure out the background against which the Eastern thought and Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy weave their 'disturbing affinities'. (shrink)

RESUMEN Este trabajo desarrolla algunas «figuras del Oriente» presentes en la obra de Deleuze y Guattari: en primer lugar, los hexagramas del Libro de los Cambios como un caso límite entre el pensamiento por figuras y el pensamiento por conceptos, y entre sabiduría y filosofía; en segundo lugar, los paisajes «típicamente» orientales y occidentales que pueblan Mil mesetas y ¿Qué es la filosofía?; por último, la figura del pintor–poeta chino como realizador del devenir–imperceptible. El objetivo es explorar las resonancias conceptuales (...) entre ambos autores y el pensamiento oriental, especialmente en cuanto a la articulación entre ontología y ética. (shrink)

There is a longstanding debate in the stakeholder literature as to who and what really counts as the stakeholders of the firm. Likewise, there have been discussions on whether nature should be considered a stakeholder of the firm. However, one seldom encounters any definitions of the key concepts, that is of nature or the natural environment . We seek to contribute to the debate by taking a closer look at what this thing called nature actually is. In addition, we discuss (...) the implications of this conceptual refinement for the stakeholder model. In order to reinforce the status of the natural environment in the stakeholder model, we propose that any visualisation of a stakeholder network should be embedded in the natural environment. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Argentina has a rich history of social movements, of which the transgender is one of the most notorious and resilient. In this work, I present South American Transvestite Theory, its latest theoretical development, in the light of Deleuzian thought. Although Deleuze is not an actual source for this current, both can be productively connected as sharing several themes and concerns, such as the tight relation between creative thought and political practice, the ontological and practical consequences of the concepts of (...) identity and becoming, and the rejection of binary models as an underlying structure of hierarchical thought and social oppression. The potentiality of the encounter between Deleuze and South American Transvestite Theory will be explored via four heuristic questions, reminiscent of the Aristotelian causes, which respectively ask about their concrete intersections, their formal connections, the effects they could trigger and the reasons to read them together. (shrink)

Category-based induction is an inferential mechanism that uses knowledge of conceptual relations in order to estimate how likely is for a property to be projected from one category to another. During the last decades, psychologists have identified several features of this mechanism, and they have proposed different formal models of it. In this article; we propose a new mathematical model for category-based induction based on distances on conceptual spaces. We show how this model can predict most of the properties of (...) this kind of reasoning while providing a solid theoretical foundation for it. We also show that it subsumes some of the previous models proposed in the literature and that it generates new predictions. (shrink)

En confrontación con las interpretaciones que asignan un significado religioso o teológico a las referencias a los dioses, a lo sagrado, o al “último dios” presentes en la obra de Martin Heidegger, este trabajo defiende una lectura en clave estrictamente ontológica de tales referencias. Para ello, se remite al diálogo que Heidegger mantiene con la poesía de Hölderlin y se argumenta que el significado que atribuye a la invocación hölderliniana a los “dioses huidos” depende del carácter ontológico que, en otro (...) contexto, concede a la nominación de los dioses característica del decir poético griego. Ese mismo carácter se pone de manifiesto en el sentido que, según Heidegger, ostenta la apelación a “lo sagrado” de la poesía de Hölderlin como nombre poético del ser en su despliegue histórico. Finalmente, dicha interpretación se hace extensiva a la figura del “último dios”, resaltando que su comprensión pasa por atender a la exégesis heideggeriana de la cuestión de la huida de los dioses en la obra poética de Hölderlin. (shrink)

En este artículo se propone, como clave de lectura para entender la filosofía política de Maquiavelo, una síntesis, por una parte, entre la primacía del miedo identificada por Leo Strauss y, por otra parte, siguiendo a Claude Lefort, la prioridad del conflicto político causada por los humores. Se discuten las dificultades y el alcance del intento de articular las interpretaciones de Strauss y Lefort sobre Maquiavelo. Una vez mostrada la manera en que la primacía del miedo permite articular las tensiones (...) internas de la teoría de los humores, se aplica la combinación de ambas en el paradigmático discurso de Istorie fiorentine III 13, sobre la revuelta de los ciompi. (shrink)

Eternalism is the view that all times are equally real. The relativity of simultaneity in special relativity backs this up. There is no cosmically extended, self-existing ‘now.’ This leads to a tricky problem. What makes statements about the present true? I shall approach the problem along the lines of perspectival realism and argue that the choice of the perspective does. To corroborate this point, the Lorentz transformations of special relativity are compared to the structurally similar equations of the Doppler effect. (...) The ‘now’ is perspectivally real in the same way as a particular electromagnetic spectrum frequency. I also argue that the ontology of time licensed by perspectival realism is more credible in this context than its current alternative, the fragmentalist interpretation of special relativity. (shrink)