Sponsored by the Argentine Association for the Progress of Sciences, Ciencia e Investigación magazine released its first issue in 1945. In order to circulate the discoveries in the areas of medical and natural sciences, and to instruct on scientific thought, the magazine was introduced as a knowledge disseminating one and attempted to address a general audience. However, during its first publication decade the CEI editors faced two challenges related to scientific communication. On the one hand, they exhibited the conflicts implied (...) in research writing and the typical conditions of the language of science. On the other, they manifested their interest to bestow a discursive style on the magazine which, although simple and oriented to a wide audience, would not corrupt scientific veracity. This paper follows the French approach to discourse analysis, whose purpose is the simultaneous and reciprocal study of the verbal and the socio-institutional dimension of discourses, and analyses the sociolinguistic representations of the language of science and of its dissemination formulated in CEI between 1945-1955, a period - besides - complex for the scientific development in Argentina, characterized by state interventionism in different institutions. To this aim, editorials and articles that address the aforementioned problems have been selected and examined. The results exhibit the discursive complexities of scientific dissemination in an environment unaware of this practice and, consequently, the difficulty of determining a reader profile for the magazine. In general terms, they reveal the importance of the reflection on the language for the development and communication of science. (shrink)

Este artículo presenta los resultados de una investigación de corte cualitativo realizada los años 2007 y 2008 en Santiago de Chile, la que tuvo como uno de sus objetivos el describir y comprender las condiciones y la experiencia de trabajo de un grupo de hombres y mujeres de bajo nivel ocupacional empleados en la sala de venta de una gran cadena nacional de supermercados. A partir de la presentación y discusión de estos hallazgos se busca contribuir a una mejor comprensión (...) de los profundos procesos de flexibilización y modernización experimentados por el sector del retail en Chile en las últimas décadas, especialmente en lo que respecta al impacto de los mismos en la experiencia de trabajo de los sujetos empleados en dicho sector. Se espera de este modo arrojar luces desde una perspectiva psicosocial sobre los aspectos laborales de los cambios en el mundo del retail, los que han tendido a quedar invisibilizados ante los enfoques que han enfatizado las dimensiones económicas, o culturales y de consumo, de dichas transformaciones. (shrink)

According to a popular narrative, in 1932 von Neumann introduced a theorem that intended to be a proof of the impossibility of hidden variables in quantum mechanics. However, the narrative goes, Bell later spotted a flaw that allegedly shows its irrelevance. Bell’s widely accepted criticism has been challenged by Bub and Dieks: they claim that the proof shows that viable hidden variables theories cannot be theories in Hilbert space. Bub’s and Dieks’ reassessment has been in turn challenged by Mermin and (...) Schack. Hereby I critically assess their reply, with the aim of bringing further clarification concerning the meaning, scope and relevance of von Neumann’s theorem. I show that despite Mermin and Schack’s response, Bub’s and Dieks’ reassessment is quite correct, and that this reading gets strongly reinforced when we carefully consider the connection between von Neumann’s proof and Gleason’s theorem. (shrink)

It is a widespread belief that the Kochen-Specker theorem imposes a contextuality constraint on the ontology of beables in quantum hidden variables theories. On the other hand, after Bell’s influential critique, the importance of von Neumann’s wrongly called ‘impossibility proof’ has been severely questioned. However, Max Jammer, Jeffrey Bub and Dennis Dieks have proposed insightful reassessments of von Neumann’s theorem: what it really shows is that hidden variables theories cannot represent their beables by means of Hermitian operators in Hilbert space. (...) Hereby I show that i) the very same constraint can be derived from Gleason’s theorem, and that ii) if we consider the import of von Neumann’s and Gleason’s theorems, the relevance of the Kochen-Specker theorem for hidden variables theories gets substantially weakened: it does not force them to be contextual in any interesting sense of the term. (shrink)

Der orthodoxen Interpretation zufolge wird die Genetik als eine Disziplin dargestellt, deren Geschichte (von ihrem vermuteten Ursprung mit dem Werk Mendels an über die Werke der sogenannten «Wiederentdecker» de Vries, Correns und Tschermak und des englischen Mendelianers Bateson bis hin zur Arbeit Morgans) kontinuierlich, kumulativ und linear verlaufen sei. Im ersten Teil des Buches wird hingegen die Diskontinuität dieses Prozesses betont. Innerhalb der strukturalistischen Auffassung wissenschaftlicher Theorien wird die klassische Genetik im zweiten Teil in einer Weise rekonstruiert und formal analysiert, (...) die den im ersten Teil erarbeiteten Ergebnissen gerecht wird. (shrink)

Das, was gesehen, gehört oder gedacht wird, begreift der Band 23 Manifeste zu Bildakt und Verkörperung nicht als ein passives, sondern aktives Gegenüber. Dieses zeigt sich in Bildern, Objekten, Tönen, Materialien, Wörtern oder Schriftzeichen, welche die Beiträge des Bandes im Sinne einer Kulturtheorie des Entgegenkommenden deuten. Diese gründet auf einer analytischen Herangehensweise, die die Gegenstände der Betrachtung in ihrer Eigenständigkeit respektiert, um den Modus ihrer Aktivität angemessen beschreiben zu können. Die versammelten Untersuchungen aus den Bereichen Kunst- und Bildwissenschaft, Philosophie, Sprachphilosophie (...) sowie Musik- und Filmwissenschaft, nähern sich programmatisch zentralen Begriffen von Active Matter bis zu Verkörperung. (shrink)

La nota ofrece algunas precisiones sobre el Catálogo de la Biblioteca de Tschirnhaus, impreso en 1723 y publicado en un número anterior de esta revista, a partir de la comparación con el Catálogo manuscrito de la misma, levantado en 1709, pocos meses después de la muerte de Tschirnhaus. El Catálogo manuscrito tampoco registra la presencia de las _Opera_ de Spinoza. Sin embargo, la presencia en este Catálogo de una obra, también ausente del Catálogo impreso (el infamado _Homo politicus, hoc est: (...) Consiliarus novus, officiarius et aulicus, secundum hodiernam Praxin_, escrito por Philipp Andreas Oldenburger, un autor criticado por Spinoza y su círculo y sobre el cual Pieter Van Gent había escrito a Tschirnhaus remitiendo a las _Opera posthuma_ de Spinoza), permite acreditar la hipótesis más plausible de que el volumen de las _Opera _de Spinoza, así como del _Homo politicus_, desaparecieran de la biblioteca y no fueran recogidos en el Catálogo por su carácter de obras 'infames'. (shrink)

This article provides new information on the printing and readership history of the fifth edition of De iure belli ac pacis. Building on our earlier research on the way that the dispute between Willem Janszoon Blaeu and Johannes Janssonius influenced the publication of the 1631 edition of the text, this article studies how Blaeu harnessed his position to make the 1632 edition more reputable than the earlier version published by his rival. The article considers how, over four centuries, readers have (...) appreciated the quality of the production and three engaged with the text for radically different ends: Remigius Faesch, Baron von Boineburg, and Wendell Phillips. The article draws attention to the changes and continuities in reading and annotation patterns and offers preliminary insights into the themes that these influential readers focused on. We hope that it will inspire readers to bring further copies to our attention. (shrink)

En 1723, quince años después de la muerte de Tschirnhaus, se publicó en Görlitz un Catálogo de su Biblioteca, que el 23 de agosto y días sucesivos iba a ser subastada al mejor postor. Ignoramos quién se hizo con ella y cuál fue su destino. Miguel Á. Granada encontró una mención de ese catálogo en un artículo de E. Winter y finalmente pudo localizar el Catálogo en la Sächsische Landesbibliothek –Staats– und Universitätsbibliothek de Dresde, donde se ofrece una copia digitalizada (...) del ejemplar conservado en la Biblioteca Albertina de Leipzig. Comentado el descubrimiento con Pablo Montosa, ambos coincideron en la importancia del Catálogo para la mejor evaluación de la cultura subyacente a la Medicina mentis y para la historia intelectual de Tschirnhaus. Dada la parquedad de los registros de las obras en el Catálogo, se hizo ver de inmediato la necesidad de proceder a la identificación y registro bibliográfico completo de los títulos del Catálogo, empresa que acometió Pablo Montosa con la ayuda puntual de Miguel Á. Granada. Ofrecemos al lector el resultado de esta tarea minuciosa en una transcripción del Catálogo que no ha conseguido identificar y describir todos los títulos, pero sí la gran mayoría y desde luego los más importantes. (shrink)

In his influential paper Legal Reasons, Sources and Gaps' reprinted in The Authority of Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), Raz says that legal gaps only exist when law speaks with uncertain voice or when it speaks with many voices, but there are no gaps when law is silent. In this later case, rules of closure, which are analytically true, prevent from the occurrence of gaps. According to Raz, if there is a gap in a legal system, then both the (...) claim that there is a conclusive legal reason to perform a certain action, and its negation are neither true nor false. Therefore, one of the Raz's most important contributions to the solution of the problem of legal gaps is to remark that legal discourse is not altogether governed by the principle of bivalence. However, philosophers often claim that the denial of bivalence leads to a logical inconsistency. If this claim were true, then Raz's solution to the problem of gaps would be seriously threatened. In this paper we show ‐ with the aid of a sophisticated analytical tool, i.e. von Wright's Truth Logic ‐ that the rejection of bivalence only commits us to accept the trivial conclusion that propositions can lack truth‐values. For this reason, Raz's paper can still be regarded as a good starting‐point for analyzing the relationships among norms, practical reasoning and legal gaps. However, we also show that in order to admit propositions which are neither true nor false, Raz's theses must be reformulated. Otherwise, the claim that there is no gap when law is silent would not be compatible with the rejection of bivalence. (shrink)

RESUMEN Se aborda la llamada Kantkrise de Heinrich von Kleist, entendida como el colapso epistemológico de toda posibilidad de acceso a la cosa en sí debido a su carácter radicalmente indecidible. Sin embargo, tal imposibilidad sigue conservando una vigencia negativa, como una brecha que adquiere para Kleist el carácter del suceso y, por consiguiente, de la soberanía de la contingencia. Esta se convierte en el principio fundamental de la producción literaria de Kleist, reconocible en el lema "el frágil ordenamiento del (...) mundo", en la frágil constitución del sujeto y la inminencia constante de su destitución. ABSTRACT The article addresses Heinrich von Kleist's so-called Kantkrise, understood as the epistemological collapse of any possibility of access to the thing-in-itself, given its radically undecidable nature. However, that impossibility maintains a negative validity as a gap that takes on the character of an event and, therefore, of the sovereignty of contingency in Kleist. This becomes the fundamental principle of Kleist's literary production, as expressed in his motto "the fragile order of the world", that is, the fragile constitution of the subject and the constant imminence of its destitution. (shrink)

Se aborda la llamada Kantkrise de Heinrich von Kleist, entendida como el colapso epistemológico de toda posibilidad de acceso a la cosa en sí debido a su carácter radicalmente indecidible. Sin embargo, tal imposibilidad sigue conservando una vigencia negativa, como una brecha que adquiere para Kleist el carácter del suceso y, por consiguiente, de la soberanía de la contingencia. Esta se convierte en el principio fundamental de la producción literaria (dramatúrgica, narrativa y ensayística) de Kleist, reconocible en el lema “el (...) frágil ordenamiento del mundo”, en la frágil constitución del sujeto y la inminencia constante de su destitución. (shrink)

In this paper contingency is estimated as an essentially identifying trait of the world emerging from the radical upheavals of the late 18th century and the beginnings of the 19th century. If contingency is the mark of the world as world, the question arises how human beings should, or merely could deal with it. For the purpose of discussing this issue, the usual alternative of violence and dialogue is considered. Nevertheless, the intention is not merely to oppose violent to rational (...) conduct. Taking recourse to two authors who had a particularly acute sense of contingency, Heinrich von Kleist and Paul Celan, the aim of this paper, on the one hand, is to discuss a concept of violence that is not merely instrumental, nor attributable to merely subjective intentions, but that has the significance of the principle of overcoming contingency by way of absolutely forcing order or absolutely renouncing to it. On the other hand, it involves discussing a concept of dialogue that is essentially different to what may be called the institution of Western dialogue, characterized by the disembodiment of the word, and therefore to suggest the concept of a radically embodied dialogue as a way to positively deal with contingency. (shrink)

A partir de la divergencia de M. Foucault con Th. Hobbes con respecto a la guerra como principio y fundamento del poder, se muestra la importancia de esa diferencia conceptual para los análisis políticos contemporáneos. Foucault sostiene que, en las sociedades modernas de Occidente, la comunidad política, y más precisamente la política misma, ha sido el terreno de la guerra librada por otros medios. Por extensión, esta tesis significa invertir el principio de von Clausewitz; a saber, que la guerra es (...) la continuación de la política por otros medios. On the basis of the difference between M. Foucault and Th. Hobbes regarding war as a principle and foundation of power, the article shows the importance of this conceptual difference for contemporary political analyses. Foucault argues that in modern Western societies, the political community and, more specifically, politics itself, has been the space of a war waged by other means. By extension, this thesis entails the inversion of von Clausewitz's principle, namely, that war is the continuation of politics by other means. A partir da divergência de M. Foucault com Th. Hobbes sobre a guerra como princípio e fundamento do poder, mostra-se a importância dessa diferença conceitual para as análises políticas contemporâneas. Foucault sustenta que, nas sociedades modernas do Ocidente, a comunidade política, e mais precisamente a política em si, tem sido o terreno da guerra travada por outros meios. Por extensão, esta tese significa inverter o princípio de von Clausewitz; a saber, que a guerra é a continuação da política por outros meios. (shrink)

The acquisition of a nuclear power reactor from the North American company Westinghouse in 1964 not only brought atomic practices and knowledge to Spain but also introduced new methods of industrial organization and management, as well as regulations created by organizations such as the US Atomic Energy Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency. This article analyzes the history of the knowledge, regulations and experimental practices relating to radiation safety and protection that traveled with this reactor to an industrial space: (...) the Zorita nuclear power plant. Within this space, the appropriation, use, and coproduction of knowledge and practices were conditioned by political, economic, industrial and social factors, and by the engineers, researchers and other professionals who contributed expert knowledge. Material held in the Tecnatom Historical Archive—the engineering company that coordinated construction of the plant—is the main source for this work, which delves into the history of knowledge and atomic technologies and adds to the historiography of radiological protection in Spain.ZusammenfassungMit dem Kauf des ersten Kernreaktors von der nordamerikanischen Firma Westinghouse im Jahre 1964 gelangten neue atomare Praktiken und Kenntnisse nach Spanien, ebenso wie neue Formen der Organisation und des Managements dieses Industriezweigs und bis dahin in Spanien unbekannte Regelungen, wie z. B. die der US Atomenergiekommission und der Internationalen Atomenergiebehörde. Der vorliegende Artikel analysiert die Geschichte des – angeeigneten, genutzten und koproduzierten – Wissens, der Vorschriften und der experimentellen Praktiken hinsichtlich der Strahlensicherheit und des Strahlenschutzes, die mit der Inbetriebnahme des Reaktors im industriellen Komplex des Kernkraftwerks Zorita einhergingen. Dort, wo Wissen und Praktiken durch politische, wirtschaftliche, industrielle und soziale Faktoren bedingt waren, waren neben den Ingenieuren und Forschern auch andere Fachleute beteiligt, die gleichermaßen kompetentes Wissen beisteuerten. Das Material, das im Historischen Archiv von Tecnatom, dem Ingenieurbüro, das den Bau der Anlage koordinierte, aufbewahrt wird, ist die Hauptquelle dieser Arbeit, die versucht, die Geschichte des Atomwissens und der Atomtechnologien zu vertiefen und die Darstellungen zur Geschichte des Strahlenschutzes in Spanien zu erweitern. (shrink)

En "Legal Reasons, Sources and Gaps", Raz señala que las lagunas jurídicas existen sólo cuando el derecho habla con voz incierta o cuando habla con muchas voces, pero que no hay lagunas cuando el derecho guarda silencio. En este último caso habría reglas de clausura, analíticamente verdaderas, que impiden la ocurrencia de esas lagunas. Según Raz, si hay una laguna en un sistema jurídico, entonces no es verdadero ni falso que exista una razón concluyente para ejecutar cierta acción. Así, una (...) de las contribuciones más importantes de Raz a la solución del problema de las lagunas jurídicas es subrayar que el discurso jurídico no está completamente controlado por la bivalencia. Sin embargo, a menudo se sostiene que el rechazo de la bivalencia conduce a contradicciones. Si esta afirmación fuese verdadera, entonces la solución de Raz al problema de las lagunas jurídicas se vería seriamente amenazada. En este artículo mostramos, con ayuda de una herramienta analítica sofisticada, i.e., la lógica de la verdad de G.H. von Wright, que el rechazo de la bivalencia sólo nos compromete a aceptar la conclusión trivial de que puede haber proposiciones que no son verdaderas ni falsas. Por esta razón, el trabajo de Raz todavía puede ser considerado un buen punto de partida para analizar las relaciones entre normas, razonamiento práctico y lagunas jurídicas. Sin embargo, también mostramos que para admitir proposiciones que no son verdaderas ni falsas, las tesis de Raz deben ser reformuladas. De otra manera, la tesis de que no existen lagunas cuando el derecho guarda silencio no sería compatible con el rechazo de la bivalencia. /// In his paper "Legal Reasons, Sources and Gaps", Raz says that legal gaps only exist when law speaks with uncertain voice or when it speaks with many voices, but there are no gaps when law is silent. In this later case, rules of closure, which are analytically true, prevent from the occurrence of gaps. According to Raz, if there is a gap in a legal system, then both the claim that there is a conclusive legal reason to perform a certain action, and its negation are neither true nor false. Therefore, one of the Raz's most important contributions to the solution of the problem of legal gaps is to remark that legal discourse is not altogether governed by the principie of bivalence. However, philosophers often claim that the denial of bivalence leads to a logical inconsistency. If this claim were true, then Raz's solution to the problem of gaps would be seriously threatened. In this paper we show--with the aid of a sophisticated analytical tool, i.e., von Wright's truth-logic--that the rejection of bivalence only commits us to accept the trivial conclusion that propositions can lack truth-values. For this reason, Raz's paper can still be regarded as a good starting-point for analyzing the relationships between norms, practical reasoning and legal gaps. However, we also show that in order to admit propositions which are neither true nor false, Raz's theses must be reformulated. Otherwise, the claim that there is no gap when law is silent would not be compatible with the rejection of bivalence. (shrink)

We say that a sentence A is a permissive consequence of a set X of premises whenever, if all the premises of X hold up to some standard, then A holds to some weaker standard. In this paper, we focus on a three-valued version of this notion, which we call strict-to-tolerant consequence, and discuss its fruitfulness toward a unified treatment of the paradoxes of vagueness and self-referential truth. For vagueness, st-consequence supports the principle of tolerance; for truth, it supports the (...) requisite of transparency. Permissive consequence is non-transitive, however, but this feature is argued to be an essential component to the understanding of paradoxical reasoning in cases involving vagueness or self-reference. (shrink)

A partir de la divergencia de M. Foucault con Th. Hobbes con respecto a la guerra como principio y fundamento del poder, se muestra la importancia de esa diferencia conceptual para los análisis políticos contemporáneos. Foucault sostiene que, en las sociedades modernas de Occidente, la comunidad política, y más precisamente la política misma, ha sido el terreno de la guerra librada por otros medios. Por extensión, esta tesis significa invertir el principio de von Clausewitz; a saber, que la guerra es (...) la continuación de la política por otros medios. On the basis of the difference between M. Foucault and Th. Hobbes regarding war as a principle and foundation of power, the article shows the importance of this conceptual difference for contemporary political analyses. Foucault argues that in modern Western societies, the political community and, more specifically, politics itself, has been the space of a war waged by other means. By extension, this thesis entails the inversion of von Clausewitz's principle, namely, that war is the continuation of politics by other means. A partir da divergência de M. Foucault com Th. Hobbes sobre a guerra como princípio e fundamento do poder, mostra-se a importância dessa diferença conceitual para as análises políticas contemporâneas. Foucault sustenta que, nas sociedades modernas do Ocidente, a comunidade política, e mais precisamente a política em si, tem sido o terreno da guerra travada por outros meios. Por extensão, esta tese significa inverter o princípio de von Clausewitz; a saber, que a guerra é a continuação da política por outros meios. (shrink)

This text proposes an interpretation of the work of Franklin Leopoldo e Silva based on the reading of some of his numerous published articles and books, without neglecting the classes and guidance received from the stage of Scientific Initiation to Postdoctoral studies. Precisely, by highlighting the importance of three thinkers widely studied by Professor Franklin – Berkeley, Bergson and William James –, we suggest that at the heart of this philosophical experience there would be a constant: empiricism. Whether in the (...) classical or radical version, the line we draw in this multiplicity reveals an openness to concrete empiricism. (shrink)

Michel Janssen and Harvey Brown have driven a prominent recent debate concerning the direction of an alleged arrow of explanation between Minkowski spacetime and Lorentz invariance of dynamical laws in special relativity. In this article, I critically assess this controversy with the aim of clarifying the explanatory foundations of the theory. First, I show that two assumptions shared by the parties—that the dispute is independent of issues concerning spacetime ontology, and that there is an urgent need for a constructive interpretation (...) of special relativity—are problematic and negatively affect the debate. Second, I argue that the whole discussion relies on a misleading conception of the link between Minkowski spacetime structure and Lorentz invari-ance, a misconception that in turn sheds more shadows than light on our understand-ing of the explanatory nature and power of Einstein’s theory. I state that the arrow connecting Lorentz invariance and Minkowski spacetime is not explanatory and uni-directional, but analytic and bidirectional, and that this analytic arrow grounds the chronogeometric explanations of physical phenomena that special relativity offers. (shrink)

When we speak about different interpretations of quantum mechanics it is suggested that there is one single quantum theory that can be interpreted in different ways. However, after an explicit characterization of what it is to interpret quantum mechanics, the right diagnosis is that we have a case of predictively equivalent rival theories. I extract some lessons regarding the resulting underdetermination of theory choice. Issues about theoretical identity, theoretical and methodological pluralism, and the prospects for a realist stance towards quantum (...) theory can be properly addressed once we recognize that interpretations of quantum mechanics are rival theories. (shrink)

To what degree can language be acquired from linguistic input alone? This question has vexed scholars for millennia and is still a major focus of debate in the cognitive science of language. The complexity of human language has hampered progress because studies of language–especially those involving computational modeling–have only been able to deal with small fragments of our linguistic skills. We suggest that the most recent generation of Large Language Models (LLMs) might finally provide the computational tools to determine empirically (...) how much of the human language ability can be acquired from linguistic experience. LLMs are sophisticated deep learning architectures trained on vast amounts of natural language data, enabling them to perform an impressive range of linguistic tasks. We argue that, despite their clear semantic and pragmatic limitations, LLMs have already demonstrated that human-like grammatical language can be acquired without the need for a built-in grammar. Thus, while there is still much to learn about how humans acquire and use language, LLMs provide full-fledged computational models for cognitive scientists to empirically evaluate just how far statistical learning might take us in explaining the full complexity of human language. (shrink)

In 1991 Larry Laudan and Jarret Leplin proposed a solution for the problem of empirical equivalence and the empirical underdetermination that is often thought to result from it. In this paper we argue that, even though Laudan and Leplin’s reasoning is essentially correct, their solution should be accurately assessed in order to appreciate its nature and scope. Indeed, Laudan and Leplin’s analysis does not succeed in completely removing the problem or, as they put it, in refuting the thesis of underdetermination (...) as a consequence of empirical equivalence. Instead, what they show is merely that science possesses tools that may eventually lead out of an underdetermination impasse. We apply their argument to a real case of two empirically equivalent theories: Lorentz’s ether theory and Einstein’s special relativity. This example illustrates the validity of Laudan and Leplin’s reasoning, but also shows the importance of the reassessment we argue for. (shrink)

This paper studies an economy whose agents perceive their consumption possibilities subjectively, and whose preferences are defined on what they subjectively experience, rather than on those alternatives that are objectively present. The model of agents' perceptions is based on intuitionistic logic. Roughly, this means that agents reason constructively: a solution to a problem exists only if there is a construction by which the problem can be solved. The theorems that can be proved determine how an agent perceives a set of (...) alternatives. A dual model relates perceived alternatives to a shared language, which the agents use in trading. So perceptions relate objective alternatives to an agent's subjective view of them, and reporting dually relates an agent's subjective world to a shared language. It turns out that an appropriately modified notion of competitive equilibrium always exists. However, in contrast with standard results in economic theory, competitive equilibrium need not be efficient. (shrink)

After a mild indoctrination into the Christian faith, at the age of 15 I discovered myself to be a non-believer: the idea of an invisible, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent God suddenly seemed simply unbelievable. Years later I decided to re-examine the question. Perhaps I had missed something. This in turn led to a fascination with God questions and religious belief, but a re-confirmation of my earlier discovery: the traditional Christian concept of God was not only unbelievable, but incoherent and morally muddled. (...) But further reflection has yielded a qualifying conclusion: God—or rather gods, many gods—do exist but as ideas, tremendously powerful ideas that shape our reality. The crucial concern is that these be good ideas, which has not always been the case. (shrink)

In this paper I argue that the case of Einstein׳s special relativity vs. Hendrik Lorentz׳s ether theory can be decided in terms of empirical evidence, in spite of the predictive equivalence between the theories. In the historical and philosophical literature this case has been typically addressed focusing on non-empirical features. I claim that non-empirical features are not enough to provide a fully objective and uniquely determined choice in instances of empirical equivalence. However, I argue that if we consider arguments proposed (...) by Richard Boyd, and by Larry Laudan and Jarret Leplin, a choice based on non-entailed empirical evidence favoring Einstein׳s theory can be made. (shrink)

Topics in Cognitive Science, Volume 14, Issue 3, Page 634-645, July 2022.

We study decision under uncertainty in an Anscombe–Aumann framework. Two binary relations characterize a decision-maker: one incomplete relation, reflecting her objective rationality, and a second complete relation, reflecting her subjective rationality. We require the latter to be an extension of the former. Our key axiom is a dominance condition. Our main theorem provides a representation of the two relations. The objectively rational relation has a Bewley-style multiple prior representation. Using this set of priors, we fully characterize the subjectively rational relation (...) in terms of the most optimistic and most pessimistic expected utilities. (shrink)

Human dignity: social movements invoke it, several national constitutions enshrine it, and it features prominently in international human rights documents. But what is it, why is it important, and what is its relationship to human rights and social justice? Pablo Gilabert offers a systematic defence of the view that human dignity is the moral heart of justice. In Human Dignity and Human Rights (OUP 2019), he advanced an account of human dignity for the context of human rights discourse, which (...) covers the most urgent, basic claims of dignity. This book extends the dignitarian approach to more ambitious claims of maximal dignity of the kind encoded in democratic socialist conceptions of social justice. In particular, this book focuses on the just organization of working practices. It recasts in a dignitarian format the critique of capitalist society as involving exploitation, alienation, and domination of workers, and revamps a neglected but inspiring socialist principle. In its dignitarian interpretation, the Abilities/Needs Principle (‘From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs!’) yields reasonable and feasible requirements on social cooperation geared to empowering each human being to lead a flourishing life. While Human Dignity and Human Rights offered the first systematic philosophical account of human dignity in human rights discourse, Human Dignity and Social Justice presents the first systematic application of the dignitarian framework to the core ideals of democratic socialism. (shrink)

In this paper we investigate a semantics for first-order logic originally proposed by R. van Rooij to account for the idea that vague predicates are tolerant, that is, for the principle that if x is P, then y should be P whenever y is similar enough to x. The semantics, which makes use of indifference relations to model similarity, rests on the interaction of three notions of truth: the classical notion, and two dual notions simultaneously defined in terms of it, (...) which we call tolerant truth and strict truth. We characterize the space of consequence relations definable in terms of those and discuss the kind of solution this gives to the sorites paradox. We discuss some applications of the framework to the pragmatics and psycholinguistics of vague predicates, in particular regarding judgments about borderline cases. (shrink)

One way in which we might approach the challenge posed by the Sorites Paradox is considering that Sorites-susceptible predicates have several candidate extensions, or several ways in which these expressions can be made precise. For example, a candidate extension for the predicate ‘is a baby’ is the set of humans of less than two years, but also the set of those less than two years and one second, and of those less than two years and two seconds. In this chapter (...) we present and discuss two theories for vague predicates based on this idea: supervaluationism and subvaluationism. The chapter is structured in three parts. The first presents the super- and subvaluationist theories: their similarities and differences in the semantics, the resulting logics with their most characteristic features. The second reviews the super- and subvaluationist solutions to the Sorites Paradox and provides discussion on several controversies surrounding these theories. The third part introduces proof procedures for s’valuationist logics. (shrink)

A salient feature of de Broglie-Bohm quantum theory is that particles have determinate positions at all times and in all physical contexts. Hence, the trajectory of a particle is a well-defined concept. One then may expect that the closely related notion of inertial trajectory is also unproblematically defined. I show that this expectation is not met. I provide a framework that deploys six different ways in which dBB theory can be interpreted, and I state that only in the canonical interpretation (...) the concept of inertial trajectory is the customary one. However, in this interpretation the description of the dynamical interaction between the pilot-wave and the particles, which is crucial to distinguish inertial from non-inertial trajectories, is affected by serious difficulties, so other readings of the theory intend to avoid them. I show that in the alternative interpretations the concept at issue gets either drastically altered, or plainly undefined. I also spell out further conceptual difficulties that are associated to the redefinitions of inertial trajectories, or to the absence of the concept. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza la novela Jardín, de la escritora cubana Dulce María Loynaz, deteniéndose en las estrategias que despliega para subvertir distintos modelos de feminidad. La novela sostiene un diálogo productivo con distintas corrientes estéticas, cuyas formas de expresión asume y a la vez critica por las limitaciones que le imponen al desarrollo de la subjetividad femenina. A través del recorrido que realiza en Jardín por distintas propuestas estéticas e ideológicas que han contribuido a la configuración del sujeto moderno, Loynaz (...) despliega una crítica a las formas en que estas construyen el sujeto femenino y su posición en el orden de género sexual. Este recorrido se realiza desde dentro de estas estéticas, desde su apropiación productiva en la textualidad de la novela, la que transita por el lenguaje del romanticismo, del simbolismo, del modernismo y de las vanguardias. En Jardín se muestra cómo estos movimientos abren, pero también cierran, posibilidades de expresión y desarrollo para las mujeres. (shrink)