This essay attempts to rethink the human sciences from the idea of ​​spirit proper to the peoples of the Amazon. To do this, I will give an account of contemporary Brazilian critical thinking, which assumes alterity and the environmental crisis as central axes of its reflections, to later articulate them to an idea of ​​human sciences that take as an object not the human, but the living.

Las investigaciones que Carlos Alchourrón desarrolló en la Filosofía del Derecho se vincularon, desde inicios de la década de 1980, con problemáticas críticas de la Inteligencia Artificial. Su contribución a la construcción de una lógica de las normas se conectó rápidamente con la deducción automática y los Sistemas Expertos Jurídicos. Su preocupación por la cuestión de los conflictos de obligaciones que pueden plantearse en un sistema normativo cuando el juez se enfrenta a la necesidad de emitir un veredicto considerando ciertos (...) hechos, se vinculó, en sus trabajos, con la noción más general de "condicionales derrotables" y con la formalización del Razonamiento No Monótono. Pero su contribución de mayor impacto fue aquella derivada de la búsqueda de una solución al problema de los resultados múltiples que surgen de la derogación de una norma en un sistema jurídico, problema que puede ser visto, en un contexto epistémico, como el de la contracción de un conjunto de creencias. Su enfoque constructivo, que desarrolló con David Makinson, convergió con el axiomático elaborado por Peter Gärdenfors, dando lugar al surgimiento de la teoría de los Cambios Racionales de Creencias, más conocida como AGM, teoría que fue adoptada en IA como un modelo standard para la especificación de las actualizaciones de Bases de Conocimiento, operaciones que, habitualmente, involucran la introducción de una nueva creencia que puede ser inconsistente con las anteriores. ¿Por qué AGM adquirió rápidamente carta de ciudadanía en IA, al punto de que su influencia, medida según la cantidad de menciones bibliográficas del artículo fundacional de 1985, se ha duplicado en la última década? Mostraremos en este trabajo que la teoría apareció en un momento de crisis de la IA y que el alto nivel de abstracción del modelo de AGM era lo que muchos investigadores de la disciplina estaban buscando. El presente artículo, luego de describir la génesis de AGM, realiza un análisis histórico de las circunstancias en las cuales la teoría se introdujo en la IA y una evaluación cuantitativa y cualitativa de su impacto en dicha disciplina. The main lines of research that Carlos Alchourrón developed in the Philosophy of Law, were connected, from the beginnings of the 80' s, to some critical problems in the Artificial Intelligence. His contributions to the construction of a logic of norms were rapidly linked to automatic deduction and the Legal Expert Systems. His concerns for the conflict of obligations that could arise in a normative system when a judge has to issue a ruling taking some particular facts into account were associated in his work with the more general notion of "defeasible conditionals" and with the formalization of Non Monotonic Reasoning. But his most relevant contribution was the one derived from the search of a solution to the problem of multiple outcomes resulting from the derogation of a norm in a legal corpus, which may be considered -within an epistemic framework- analogous to the contraction of a set of beliefs. The constructive approach he worked out with David Makinson converged with Peter Gärdenfors' axiomatic, giving rise to the formulation of the theory of Rational Changes of Belief, which was adopted in AI as a model for the specification of the updates of Knowledge Bases as it usually involves a new belief that may be inconsistent with the old ones. (shrink)

Entrevista a Miguel Valderrama por Raúl Rodríguez Freire.

The search for a systems‐level picture of metabolism as a web of molecular interactions provides a paradigmatic example of how the methods used to characterize a system can bias the interpretation of its functional meaning. Metabolic maps have been analyzed using novel techniques from network theory, revealing some non‐trivial, functionally relevant properties. These include a small‐world structure and hierarchical modularity. However, as discussed here, some of these properties might actually result from an inappropriate way of defining network interactions. Starting from (...) the so‐called bipartite organization of metabolism, where the two meaningful subsets (reactions and metabolites) are considered, most current works use only one of the subsets by means of so‐called graph projections. Unfortunately, projected graphs often ignore relevant biological and chemical constraints, thus leading to statistical artifacts. Some of these drawbacks and alternative approaches need to be properly addressed. (shrink)

El presente ensayo intenta repensar las ciencias humanas a partir de la idea de espíritu que manejan los pueblos de la Amazonía. Para ello, se dará cuenta del pensamiento crítico brasileño contemporáneo, que asume la alteridad y la crisis ambiental como ejes centrales de sus reflexiones, para luego articularlo a una idea de ciencias humanas que asuman como objeto no lo humano, sino lo viviente.

This paper offers a re-reading of the works of Umberto Eco, be they academic, journalistic or literary, with a pseudologic tone: his desire to investigate the mechanisms of lying, and their relation with fiction, falsification, error, secrecy, and conspiracy. The study will review some of his main academic texts in the fields of semiotics, rhetoric, and aesthetics, and will make some references to his recent novels and essay compilations, as well as offer an explanation of how the evolution of his (...) thoughts takes a pessimistic turn. The face of the lie, which initially was aesthetic consolation and consumerist delusion, and then a game of intelligence, a creative stimulus and an interpretive challenge, changes when serves the purpose of extortion, manipulation, and war. In short, it could be argued that Eco became increasingly disappointed by deceptions, and lost faith in fakes and forgeries. (shrink)

Historicismo y Marxismo. El Historicismo, Ludovico Geymonat y la disputa en torno al Marxismo como método o concepción de mundo.

Background: I suggest this individualized care is a fundamental principle closely linked to nursing ethics and has important benefits for the patients, however, nurses do not always take into consideration the principles of individualized care. Moreover, there is no validated instrument to assess patients’ views of individualized care in Spanish-speaking countries. Objectives: To assess the validity and reliability of the Spanish version of the Individualized Care Scale-patient. Design: A cross-sectional study design was conducted. A questionnaire survey, including the Individualized Care (...) Scale-patient, was used for data collection. Psychometric properties of reliability and validity were assessed. Fit indices of the overall model were computed. Participants and research context: Survey data were collected from a sample of 118 inpatients at a public hospital in Spain. Ethical considerations: Informed consent from participants and ethical approval was obtained from a regional Clinical Research Ethics Committee. Findings: Ordinal Cronbach’s alphas were 0.966 for Individualized Care Scale-patient subscale A and 0.969 for Individualized Care Scale-patient subscale B. The polychoric correlation between each item and the subscale ranged between 0.653–0.874 and 0.604–0.916, respectively. The exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor solution. Personal life situation explained relatively large amounts of the variance. Goodness of fit index showed a good fit for the model. Discussion: This study confirms three factors underlining the individualized care concept, but some differences were found in the load of the factors, such as the relevance of “personal life situation” subscale, that need further research. Conclusion: The Spanish version of the Individualized Care Scale-patient is reliable, valid, user-friendly, and suitable to be used in Spanish-speaking countries showing satisfactory properties. This instrument may help managers better understand and develop areas in which patients perceive lower individualized care received and the factors influencing it. Such key information will help ensure the right of the patient to be respected as an individual. (shrink)

En este trabajo ofreceré argumentos para mantener que el entorno co-textual de una expresión configura su significado y también conforma su referente. Donde el referente es resultado de una actividad metalingüística cuya base se encuentra en las operaciones lingüísticas de condensación, síntesis y reificación, entre otras. Lo anterior implica que se puede mantener una teoría referencial sin la necesidad de asumir compromisos ontológicos tal como lo manifestaron Russell y especialmente W. V. Quine. Me valdré de la construcción nominal “la radiación (...) adaptativa” con el objetivo de responder a qué tipo de entidades se refiere esta expresión. Una respuesta parcial e incompleta a esta interrogante la encontramos en Quine por esta razón intentaré desarrollarla más recurriendo a la lingüística operacional y a la lingüística de texto. In this paper I will offer arguments to show that the co-textual environment of an expression configures its meaning and also conforms its referent. Where reference is a result of a metalinguistic activity which is based on linguistic operations of condensation, synthesis and reification, among others. The above implies that we can maintain a referential theory without the necessity to assume ontological commitments as they manifested especially Russell and WV Quine. I will use the nominal construction “la radiación adaptativa” in order to respond to what kind of entities is covered by this expression. A partial and incomplete answer to this question is found in Quine for this reason I will try to develop appealing to operational linguistics and textual linguistics. (shrink)

Se exponen las prácticas docentes de las educadoras de párvulos, que cumplen una función reproductora del nacionalismo que es internalizado en las niñas y niños como la ciudadanía chilena. Para ello, configuran un escenario lúdico que ritualiza la conducta cívica y patriótica, por medio de conmemoraciones cívicas fundadas en el belicismo de la guerra del Pacífico, sin considerar la realidad cosmopolita y de diversidad cultural presente en las aulas nortinas. A partir de esto, proponemos una nueva perspectiva respecto de la (...) realización de actos cívicos en la educación parvularia, para hacerlos más inclusivos y acordes a la realidad cultural de la región de Tarapacá, la más multicultural de Chile. This paper describes the teaching practices of pre-school teachers who play a reproductive role of nationalism internalized in children as Chilean citizenships. This happens as the result of a ludic scenario that ritualizes civic and patriotic conduct, through civic commemorations based on the Pacific war, regardless both the cosmopolitan reality and cultural diversity present in classrooms in the Northern part of Chile. Considering this, we propose a new perspective on conducting civic events in early childhood education, to make them more inclusive and consistent with the cultural reality of the region of Tarapacá, Chile's most multicultural region. (shrink)

Judo is a multifactorial sport where many variables or key performance indicators such as force-velocity profile, bioenergetic capacity, technical and tactical skills, and cognitive and emotional competence play a role and influence the final result. While there have been many academic studies of these variables, usually in isolation, none have examined KPIs holistically or analyzed their impact on strategic performance. The main objective of the present study, therefore, is to apply a novel and easily replicable methodology to identify and prioritize (...) the main KPIs affecting performance in professional judo. Such a methodology was applied to the High-Performance Judo Centre of Valencia, using a multi-criteria decision aid technique: the analytic network process. The ANP is used to identify and quantify cause and effect relationships not only between KPIs but also between KPIs and performance objectives. Further, the ANP offers effective results when there is a lack of historical KPI data, because it is based on experts' opinions and judgments. A judo expert group comprising elite judo coaches and half-lightweight male judokas applied the methodology to discriminate between the characteristics required when aiming to reach high-level strategic objectives. The JEG, which consisted of five elite judokas, national and international champions, and three Olympic coaches—including a former European champion and silver medalist in a world championship—provided high added value to the study. The main findings were that the KPIs that made the most difference were mostly psychological, specifically motivation, stress, and team cohesion. Of these, motivation was by far the most important KPI for success in our case study, so judokas should make sure that they analyze it properly. Motivation is usually intrinsic to the competitor and should be maintained at a high level, not only during tournaments but also during daily training and lifestyle activities. Physical and other specific forms of training, as well as lifestyle KPIs, are very important for the elite competitor but are not sufficient to reach high-level objectives. The most important of these KPIs were Kumi-Kata, dual career, focus and concentration level, scouting, nutrition, and basic technique. Power and strength were the most important physical KPIs. In general, these are essential for meeting strategic objectives, but they do not make the crucial difference. This suggests that professional psychological support should be provided in daily training and that international team composition and internships should be fostered. (shrink)

This chapter argues that from a particularly weak recombination principle and plausible assumptions about the nature of parthood and location, it follows that it is possible that the mereological structure of the material world and that of space-time fail to correspond to one another in very radical ways. The chapter suggests, moreover, that rejecting the possibility of such failures of correspondence leaves us with a choice of no less unappealing alternatives. It also discusses a few ways in which their possibility (...) is relevant to various important debates in metaphysics. (shrink)

I argue that from a very weak recombination principle and plausible assumptions about the nature of parthood and location it follows that it's possible that the mereological structure of the material world and that of spacetime fail to correspond to one another in very radical ways. I defend, moreover, that rejecting the possibility of such failures of correspondence leaves us with a choice of equally radical alternatives. I also discuss a few ways in which their possibility is relevant to various (...) debates in metaphysics. (shrink)

I give shape to a neglected debate in metaphysics, the debate over the ontological priority between individuality and collectivity. I distinguish the debate from more familiar ones in the recent literature and articulate what I call ontological collectivism, the view that collectivity is prior to individuality. I defend the in-principle intelligibility of the view from forceful general objections and argue that not only is it coherent but also of significant interest to the literature: it allows for overlooked alternatives on a (...) variety of central discussions. (shrink)

Purpose: To determine the relative value that patients place on consent for procedures in the emergency department (ED) and to define a set of procedures that fall in the realm of implied consent. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to a convenience sample 134 of 174 patients who were seen in the ED of a Midwestern teaching hospital. The questionnaire asked how much time they believed was necessary to give consent for various procedures. Procedures ranged from simple (venipuncture) to complex (procedural (...) sedation). Results: Participants valued a simple blood draw at a low mean of 1.02 minutes of extra time and a lumbar puncture at a high mean of 7.78 minutes. Of all participants 52% and 48% noted a time-value of ?0? time on blood draw and intravenous line starts, respectively, indicating that they desire no additional consent for these procedures. Conclusion: Defining a set of ED procedures covered under implied consent will be difficult because many patients value formal consent for even the simplest procedure. (shrink)

1. The Bundle Theory I shall discuss is a theory about the nature of substances or concrete particulars, like apples, chairs, atoms, stars and people. The point of the Bundle Theory is to avoid undesirable entities like substrata that allegedly constitute particulars. The version of the Bundle Theory I shall discuss takes particulars to be entirely constituted by the universals they instantiate.' Thus particulars are said to be just bundles of universals. Together with the claim that it is necessary that (...) particulars have constituents, the fundamental claim of the Bundle Theory is: (BT) Necessarily, for every particular x and every entity y, y constitutes x if and only ify is a universal and x instantiates y. 2 The standard and supposedly devastating objection to the Bundle Theory is that it entails or is committed to a false version of the Principle of Identity of Indiscernibles (Armstrong 1978: 91, Loux 1998: 107), namely: (Pll) Necessarily, for all particulars x and y and every universal z, if z is instantiated by x if and only if z is instantiated byy, then x is numerically identical with y. The most famous counterexample to the Identity of Indiscernibles is that put forward by Max Black, consisting of a world where there are only two iron spheres two miles apart from each other, having the same diameter, temperature, colour, shape, size, etc (Black 1952: 156). Let us from now on think of the properties of the spheres in this world as universals. The possibility of this world, which I shall hereafter refer to as 'Black's world', makes (Pll) false.' And according to common philosophical opinion this means that the Bundle Theory is false.. (shrink)

We study whether robots can satisfy the conditions of an agent fit to be held morally responsible, with a focus on autonomy and self-control. An analogy between robots and human groups enables us to modify arguments concerning collective responsibility for studying questions of robot responsibility. We employ Mele’s history-sensitive account of autonomy and responsibility to argue that even if robots were to have all the capacities required of moral agency, their history would deprive them from autonomy in a responsibility-undermining way. (...) We will also study whether humans and technological artifacts like robots can form hybrid collective agents that could be morally responsible for their actions and give an argument against such a possibility. (shrink)

Page 1. Economics and Philosophy, 26 291--320 Copyright C Cambridge University Press doi: 10.1017 / S0266267110000386 TWO KINDS OF WE-REASONING RAUL HAKLI, KAARLO MILLER AND RAIMO TUOMELA University of Helsinki.

Various sources in the literature claim that the deduction theorem does not hold for normal modal or epistemic logic, whereas others present versions of the deduction theorem for several normal modal systems. It is shown here that the apparent problem arises from an objectionable notion of derivability from assumptions in an axiomatic system. When a traditional Hilbert-type system of axiomatic logic is generalized into a system for derivations from assumptions, the necessitation rule has to be modified in a way that (...) restricts its use to cases in which the premiss does not depend on assumptions. This restriction is entirely analogous to the restriction of the rule of universal generalization of first-order logic. A necessitation rule with this restriction permits a proof of the deduction theorem in its usual formulation. Other suggestions presented in the literature to deal with the problem are reviewed, and the present solution is argued to be preferable to the other alternatives. A contraction-and cut-free sequent calculus equivalent to the Hubert system for basic modal logic shows the standard failure argument untenable by proving the underivability of DA from A. (shrink)

Este artículo busca responder si es posible planificar y reflexionar sobre contenidos transversales en educación, sin una aproximación transdisciplinaria sobre la complejidad de lo real, en un contexto de mutación planetaria. Todos los esfuerzos, dice el autor, parten del mismo diagnóstico: los distintos niveles educativos se encuentran obsoletos, se requiere una mirada transdisciplinar, y los docentes no tienen una epistemología acorde. El artículo analiza los estados de avance y las distinciones entre multidisciplinariedad, interdisciplinariedad y transdisciplinariedad.

Endorsing the idea of group knowledge seems to entail the possibility of group belief as well, because it is usually held that knowledge entails belief. It is here studied whether it would be possible to grant that groups can have knowledge without being committed to the controversial view that groups can have beliefs. The answer is positive on the assumption that knowledge can be based on acceptance as well as belief. The distinction between belief and acceptance can be seen as (...) a refinement of the ordinary language concept of belief, and it may be useful in understanding the nature of epistemic justification and classifying various types of epistemic subjects. (shrink)

Background and objectives: Definitions of medical futility, offered by healthcare professionals, bioethicists and other experts, have been rigorously debated by many investigators, but the perceptions of patients of futility have been explored only by a few. Patients were allowed to discuss their concerns about end-of-life care, so that their ideas about treatment futility or utility could be extrapolated by us.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, in-depth, semistructured interviews were conducted with 30 elderly people who were receiving outpatient care in a large, (...) urban Veterans Affairs medical centre in the US. Each of their healthcare providers was also interviewed. Participants were asked to consider four terms commonly used in advance directive forms and to discuss what these terms meant to them. Audiotapes of the open-ended interviews were transcribed and responses were coded and categorised by constant comparison, a commonly used qualitative method.Results: The following four factors were taken into account by the participants when discussing end-of-life interventions and outcomes: expected quality of life; emotional and financial costs of treatment; likelihood of treatment success; and expected effect on longevity.Conclusions: Although the terms “utility” or “futility” were not generally used by the participants, segments of speech indicating their perceptions of these terms were identified. Treatment was not always discussed in the same way by patients and providers, but seemed to reflect the same four concerns. Therefore, it may be fruitful for providers to focus on these concerns when discussing end-of-life treatment options with their patients. (shrink)

Epistemic justification of non-summative group beliefs is studied in this paper. Such group beliefs are understood to be voluntary acceptances, the justification of which differs from that of involuntary beliefs. It is argued that whereas epistemic evaluation of involuntary beliefs can be seen not to require reasons, justification of voluntary acceptance of a proposition as true requires that the agent, a group or an individual, can provide reasons for the accepted view. This basic idea is studied in relation to theories (...) of dialectical justification in which justification is taken to require ability to justify. Since the reasons offered can in principle always be challenged, there is no ultimate end to the dialectical chain of justification. This makes justification of acceptance, and thus group belief, social and, in a way, contextual, but this does not seem to entail strong forms of epistemic relativism. (shrink)