What is the relationship between taxation and public safety? Contrary to studies suggesting that personal victimization and heightened perceptions of insecurity increase pro-social attitudes and support for state intervention in the form of greater taxation, this article argues that such concerns decrease willingness to pay taxes to address public safety. It estimates what citizens are willing to pay to reduce crime, using an original representative survey conducted in Mexico and relying on the contingent valuation method to assess the value of (...) nonmarket goods. Attitudes toward taxation are found to respond to subjective, sociotropic assessments of public safety rather than to actual risk or occurrences of individual victimization. These findings counter the conventional wisdom that demand for personal security enables greater extraction, a central proposition in classic accounts of state building. Showing that willingness to accept heavier taxation may be weakest among those who perceive the gravest need for security, the study adds precision to theories of fiscal exchange. (shrink)

There is an ongoing debate about the meaning of lexical words, i.e., words that contribute with content to the meaning of sentences. This debate has coincided with a renewal in the study of polysemy, which has taken place in the psycholinguistics camp mainly. There is already a fruitful interbreeding between two lines of research: the theoretical study of lexical word meaning, on the one hand, and the models of polysemy psycholinguists present, on the other. In this paper I aim at (...) deepening on this ongoing interbreeding, examine what is said about polysemy, particularly in the psycholinguistics literature, and then show how what we seem to know about the representation and storage of polysemous senses affects the models that we have about lexical word meaning. (shrink)

CONTENIDO: Lo político, el arte y la religión, expresiones de identidad y diferencia - Nietzsche y Heidegger, precursores de la diferencia - Vattimo y los caminos de la diferencia - Identidad o diferencia como opción política.

This article focuses on Stuart Hall’s reading of Louis Althusser’s main theoretical works. Since the early 1970s, Hall has undertaken a critical confrontation with Althusser’s ‘structural Marxism’, rescuing those useful concepts to think cultural difference and identity, without failing to criticize his ‘superstructuralist’ interpretation of Marx. However, what Hall will retain as Althusser’s most important contribution is, above all, his theory of ideology. In this context, I follow an idea formulated by Hall that could be read as summarizing the theoretical (...) and political scope of Althusser’s contribution to Cultural Studies: ‘he enabled me to live in and with difference’. By complicating classical interpretations schemes in the Marxist tradition, Hall’s Althusser may be read as a ‘thinker of difference’ who opens up a whole research program to reconsider class conflicts as traversed (or ‘overdetermined’) by gender, racial or colonial conflicts. (shrink)

Teaching mathematics and improving mathematics competence are pending subjects within our educational system. The PEIM (Programa Evolutivo Instruccional para Matemáticas), a constructivist intervention program for the improvement of mathematical performance, affects the different agents involved in math learning, guaranteeing a significant improvement in students’ performance. The program is based on the following pillars: (a) students become the main agents of their learning by constructing their own knowledge; (b) the teacher must be the guide to facilitate and guarantee such a construction (...) by being a great connoisseur of the fundamental aspects of the development of the child’s mathematical thinking; (c) the mathematical contents must be sequenced in terms of the complexity and significance for the student as well as contextualized at all times; and (d) the classroom must have a constructivist climate highlighting cooperative work among students. The implementation of PEIM along with the empirical evaluation conducted in several centers in Madrid and Zaragoza (Spain) confirm how students improve their mathematical competence. Both first- and second-grade students in elementary education were far more effective in solving problems, highlighting the use of more advanced strategies in their resolution and a lower incidence of conceptual errors. Moreover, it was possible to verify how the students proving greater difficulty, experienced an evolution in learning similarly to those who did not present it. The program provides customized education to allow the teacher to know at all times how he should be more influential on the students’ learning through mathematical profiles. Both teaching practice and teachers were observed, being that of the experimental group more prone to analyzing processes and allowing the construction of knowledge by students, due to their psycho-developmental training. As a result, we found several improvements through the implementation of the program that may serve, for upcoming years, as a basis for the necessary changes in the teaching of mathematics. (shrink)

De maneira reconhecida ou não, a presença de Górgias, e suas teses, no corpus platônico transcende os limites da presença da personagem Górgias nos sete diálogos em que este é mencionado por Platão. Diante de uma influência multifacetada – que abarca desde questões relativas à linguagem, passando pela metafísica, política e estatuto da arte – faz-se necessário um recorte para melhor evidenciar a apropriação e reelaboração platônica do quadro conceitual gorgiano. A pretensão é fazer uma releitura de alguns momentos do (...) texto platônico por meio de um destaque às referências, diretas e indiretas, que nele estão contidas, tanto da sofística de um modo geral, como de Górgias de Leontinos de modo específico. A tese que se pretende defender é a de que as principais hipóteses teóricas apresentadas pelos sofistas, e por Górgias de modo proeminente, devem ser consideradas imprescindíveis para a construção da filosofia platônica – ainda que esta constitua-se como reação ou apropriação seletiva daquelas. Assim, a indústria platônica não se constitui apenas em desqualificar o edifício filosófico gorgiano, a fim de erguer suas teses sobre as ruínas deste, mas também utilizar alguns conceitos da empresa filosófica de Górgias como vigas-mestras da nova perspectiva reflexiva que o discípulo de Sócrates comprometeu-se a desenvolver. Palavras-chave: Górgias; Platão; Sofística; Platonismo; Discurso. (shrink)

We agree with Heyes that an explanation of human uniqueness must appeal to cultural evolution, and not just genes. Her account, though, focuses narrowly on internal cognitive mechanisms. This causes her to mischaracterize human behavior and to overlook the role of material culture. A more powerful account would view cognitive gadgets as spanning organisms and their (shared) environments.

This paper presents a logical Style painting classifier based on evaluated Horn clauses, qualitative colour descriptors and Explanations. Three versions of $\ell $-SHE are defined, using rational Pavelka logic, and expansions of Gödel logic and product logic with rational constants: RPL, $G$ and $\sqcap $, respectively. We introduce a fuzzy representation of the more representative colour traits for the Baroque, the Impressionism and the Post-Impressionism art styles. The $\ell $-SHE algorithm has been implemented in Swi-Prolog and tested on 90 paintings (...) of the QArt-Dataset and on 247 paintings of the Paintings-91-PIB dataset. The percentages of accuracy obtained in the QArt-Dataset for each $\ell $-SHE version are 73.3%, 65.6% $) and 68.9% $). Regarding the Paintings-91-PIB dataset, the percentages of accuracy obtained for each $\ell $-SHE version are 60.2%, 48.2% $) and 57.0% $). Our logic definition for the Baroque style has obtained the highest accuracy in both datasets, for all the $\ell $-SHE versions. An important feature of the classifier is that it provides reasons regarding why a painting belongs to a certain style. The classifier also provides reasons about why outliers of one art style may belong to another art style, giving a second classification option depending on its membership degrees to these styles. (shrink)

now, there is a debate about the “nature” of the Renaissance French writer Michel de Montaigne’s skepticism that could be similar, in some way, to the Quarrel between the Ancient and the Modern. some authors believe that Montaigne was a completely innovative author, who would have broken completely with the ancient skeptical tradition. others, however, feel that he has made little changes in the skeptical arguments and that his role would be reduced to a mere transmitter of the ancient forgotten (...) thought. Faced with both interpretations, it would be our intention, first of all, to explain the relevance of the montanian skepticism, its importance in the work of the author, and second exposing traditional and innovative positions, make clear their limits. This try to conclude the “truly” skeptical nature the of montanian skepticism, innovative and traditional at the same time. In addition, it attempts to resist the classification of dogmatic theories, traditional or renewal, which would seek to impose their own systems rather than read the author in his own terms. (shrink)

In this paper we introduce two issues relevantly related to the cognitive phenomenology debate, which, to our minds, have not been yet properly addressed: the relation between access and phenomenal consciousness in cognition and the relation between conscious thought and inner speech. In the first case, we ask for an explanation of how we have access to thought contents, and in the second case, an explanation of why is inner speech so pervasive in our conscious thinking. We discuss the prospects (...) of explanation for both sides of the debate and argue that cognitive phenomenology defenders are in an overall advantageous position. We also propose an account of inner speech that differs from other influential explanations in some interesting respects. (shrink)

This paper presents a blueprint for an ecological cognitive architecture. Ecological psychology, I contend, must be complemented with a story about the role of the CNS in perception, action, and cognition. To arrive at such a story while staying true to the tenets of ecological psychology, it will be necessary to flesh out the central metaphor according to which the animal perceives its environment by ‘resonating’ to information in energy patterns: what is needed is a theory of resonance. I offer (...) here the two main elements of such a theory: a framework and a methodology. (shrink)

One big challenge faced by cognitive science is the development of a unified theory that integrates disparate scales of analysis of cognitive phenomena. In this paper, I offer a unified framework that provides a way to integrate neural and behavioral scales of analysis of cognitive phenomena—typically addressed by neuroscience and experimental psychology, respectively. The framework is based on the concept of resonance originated in ecological psychology and aims to be the foundation for a unified theory for radical embodiment; that is, (...) a unified theory for that dissident part of cognitive science that shares a methodological commitment to dynamic systems theory and remains skeptical about the adequacy of mechanism and representationalism as the guiding ideas in the field. In the course of my presentation, I analyze different issues regarding the requirements and constraints unification poses to radical embodiment. (shrink)

Following some of the main arguments Derrida develops in ‘White Mythology’, in this article I propose an unexplored dialogue between Derrida and Althusser considering the use and the place that each of them gives to metaphor in their philosophical strategies. I give special attention to some rather isolated passages of ‘Elements of Self-Criticism’ and ‘Lenin and Philosophy’, where Althusser, against all evidence, seems to be quite aware of the importance of metaphor and mataphorization in every philosophical practice. As Balibar has (...) argued, contrary to the metaphysical tradition, metaphor would not be the opposite but what anticipates the concept. In this sense, it is possible to observe how Althusser’s work has continuously put into practice – as the singular signature of his theoretical practice – something that I call the ‘detour of metaphor’ as a necessary ‘deviation’ for the production of new concepts. Without any evidence that Althusser may have known Derrida’s essay, I show how Althusser’s own theoretical work, one in which ‘metaphor’ as a philosophical theme appears to be rather anecdotic, is unexpectedly close to Derrida’s own positions concerning the margins of philosophy and its ‘outside’, the relation to the metaphysical tradition, and the importance of strategy in philosophy. (shrink)

El artículo aborda el comportamiento de los precios, salarios y deuda morosa de las familias como una aproximación a la comprensión de las causas de la movilización social en Chile desde 2019. Si bien este país ha mostrado sólidos fundamentos macroeconómicos durante los últimos treinta años, estos han escondido importantes cuellos de botella para las familias como alzas de precios de bienes y servicios sensibles para la población, salarios estancados, una de las distribuciones del ingreso más desiguales del mundo, un (...) mercado laboral heterogéneo y el crecimiento galopante de la deuda morosa de los mayores de dieciocho años. Se plantea que estas insatisfacciones económicas han puesto en apuro a las familias chilenas, especialmente a las más vulnerables y la clase media, las que exigen cambiar el modelo de desarrollo. (shrink)

Impairments in pragmatic abilities, that is, difficulties with appropriate use and interpretation of language – in particular, non-literal uses of language – are considered a hallmark of Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC). Despite considerable research attention, these pragmatic difficulties are poorly understood. In this paper, we discuss and evaluate existing hypotheses regarding the literalism of ASC individuals, that is, their tendency for literal interpretations of non-literal communicative intentions, and link them to accounts of pragmatic development in neurotypical children. We present evidence (...) that reveals a developmental stage at which neurotypical children also have a tendency for literal interpretations and provide a possible explanation for such behaviour, one that links it to other behavioural, rule-following, patterns typical of that age. We then discuss extant evidence that shows that strict adherence to rules is also a widespread feature in ASC, and suggest that literalism might be linked to such rule-following behaviour. (shrink)

Much of what we say is never said aloud. It occurs only silently, as inner speech. We chastise, congratulate, joke and cajole, all without making a sound. This distinctively human ability to create public language in the privacy of our own minds is no less remarkable for its familiarity. And yet, until recently, inner speech remained at the periphery of philosophical and psychological theorizing. This essay collection, from an interdisciplinary group of leading philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists, displays the rapidly growing (...) interest among researchers in the puzzles surrounding the nature and cognitive role of the inner voice. Questions explored include: the aids and obstacles inner speech presents to self-knowledge; the complex relation it bears to overt speech production and perception; the means by which inner speech can be identified and empirically assessed; its role in generating auditory verbal hallucinations; and its relationship to conceptual thought itself. (shrink)

Los ensayos clínicos son imprescindibles para disponer de medicamentos que ayuden a nuestra curación. En muchos casos es imprescindible llevarlos a cabo con menores para lograr medicamentos seguros y ef icaces para ese grupo de población. Existen muchas normas que regulan la participación de los menores en esos ensayos, tratando de conciliar la necesidad de investigar con la proteger el bienestar de los niños. Este trabajo trata de ofrecer una interpretación coherente de la confusa regulación española sobre la materia. El (...) criterio general consiste en exigir tanto el consentimiento de los padres (o representantes legales) y el asentimiento de los niños hasta que alcancen la mayoría de edad legal. (shrink)

Algunos autores sostienen que una de las características que ha de tener la bioética que aspire a ser universal es la laicidad. En la primera parte del trabajo analizo lo que algunos autores que se han ocupado de la cuestión entienden por bioética laica y el tratamiento que proponen para las posiciones procedentes de ámbitos religiosos. Concluyo que el concepto de bioética laica es ambiguo y corre el riesgo de convertirse en justificación para la exclusión pública de aquellos discursos que (...) no se compartan. En la segunda parte recuerdo algunas ideas acerca de la utilidad social de la religión (Tocqueville) y de la importancia vital de la libertad de pensamiento y expresión para la democracia (Mill), en cuanto que pueden contribuir a definir con mayor precisión el puesto de las religiones en los debates públicos sobre bioética. (shrink)

O projeto emancipatório moderno estabelece uma concepção otimista de desenvolvimento científico e social. Os filósofos Immanuel Kant e Karl Marx, de modo distinto, levam ao ápice tal projeto emancipatório, o primeiro, ancorado numa concepção de sujeito transcendental capaz de estabelecer verdade e validade universal, o segundo, ancorado na categoria de trabalho desenvolvida em sua doutrina do materialismo histórico. A partir do século XIX, filósofos como Nietzsche, Heidegger e Adorno/Horkheimer põem sob suspeita tal projeto ao demonstrar seus fundamentos não metafísicos. Tais (...) críticas expurgam as pretensões totalitárias do projeto emancipatório moderno, e nos remetem à sua revisão. O filósofo alemão Jurgen Habermas, considerando as críticas elaboradas pelos filósofos da suspeita, vai buscar reconstruir o projeto emancipatório moderno a partir de bases pós-metafísicas. A raiz de tal reconstrução está em Trabalho e Interação. Notas sobre a filosofia do espírito de Hegel em Jena, na qual Habermas promove o confronto da filosofia hegeliana com o pensamento de Kant e Marx, possibilitando a revisão destes. Nessa revisão Habermas desenvolve os conceitos de trabalho e interação, que ao mesmo tempo fundamentam sua crítica à tecnocracia e lançam os pilares para a posterior elaboração da Teoria da Ação Comunicativa. (shrink)

In this paper we discuss a phenomenon we call perspectival plurality, which has gone largely unnoticed in the current debate between relativism and contextualism about predicates of personal taste. According to perspectival plurality, the truth value of a sentence containing more than one PPT may depend on more than one perspective. Prima facie, the phenomenon engenders a problem for relativism and can be shaped into an argument in favor of contextualism. We explore the consequences of perspectival plurality in depth and (...) assess several possible responses on behalf of advocates of relativism. (shrink)

Este artículo analiza la doctrina de la Ṭā’ifa Ŷazūliyya, una orden sufí populista y políticamente activa que dominó el misticismo marroquí a lo largo de todo el siglo xvi. Esta doctrina se centraba en el concepto de santidad paradig mática en el que confluían dos modelos diferentes de autoridad religiosa. El primer modelo vería la autoridad como una propiedad adquirida del šayj Sufi que mejor reproducía las características del Profeta. El segundo modelo veía la autoridad como una propiedad adscrita, la (...) gracia o baraka transmitida por nacimiento dentro del linaje del Profeta. En los escritos del šayj ŷazūlī ‛Abd Allāh al-Gazwānī ambos modelos de autoridad se consideran partes de la «herencia profética» reunidos por la doctrina de la «soberanía del imamato». En esta doctrina, el santo axial del sufismo marroquí a quien al-Ghazwānī llama Ŷaras o «campana» se yergue como sucesor del Profeta y primer intérprete del Islam. Adquirió de esta manera muchas de las cualidades del Imam Šī‛í y planteó serios peligros a los jefes políticos contemporáneos. (shrink)

Considering the most recent advances in artificial intelligence and biomechanics, a hypothetical future of physicalism is explored. It is concluded that a rational and sensible extrapolation of present and expected future advances in those two areas will have vast consequences in the physicalist view. In particular, it is also argued that consciousness cannot be defined in a simple general manner, but only understood through the observable and behavioural actions of humans or sufficiently advanced robots, which may be, at some future (...) time, indistinct. This last result is established by applying what we call Plato’s trap, and our main conclusion is a defence of physicalism. It is argued that human beings are robots which soon will be indistinguishable from suitable advanced man-made robots, which will in turn render many philosophical questions and objections to physicalism irrelevant and, in fact, quite similar in sense and importance to some philosophical medieval questions about God, the soul and immortality. (shrink)

: This article deals with the relationship between language and thought, focusing on the question of whether language can be a vehicle of thought, as, for example, Peter Carruthers has claimed. We develop and examine a powerful argument—the “argument from explicitness”—against this cognitive role of language. The premises of the argument are just two: the vehicle of thought has to be explicit, and natural languages are not explicit. We explain what these simple premises mean and why we should believe they (...) are true. Finally, we argue that even though the argument from explicitness shows that natural language cannot be a vehicle of thought, there is a cognitive function for language. (shrink)

[1]. Puntualizaciones sobre la persona metafísica -- Kant en la historia de Dios -- Disquisiciones en torno al hombre marxiano -- 2. Salvación e historia ; La Eucaristía ; Evangelio: escándalo y revolución.

Phenomenal contrast arguments (PCAs) are normally employed as arguments showing that a certain mental feature contributes to (the phenomenal character of) experience, that certain contents are represented in experience and that kinds of sui generis phenomenologies such as cognitive phenomenology exist. In this paper we examine a neglected aspect of such arguments, i.e., the kind of mental episodes involved in them, and argue that this happens to be a crucial feature of the arguments. We use linguistic tools to determine the (...) lexical aspect of verbs and verb phrases – the tests for a/telicity and for duration. We then suggest that all PCAs can show is the presence of a generic achievement-like phenomenology, especially in the cognitive domain, which contrasts with the role that PCAs are given in the literature. (shrink)

In this paper, I suggest that some tales (or narratives) developed in the literature of embodied and radical embodied cognitive science can contribute to the solution of two longstanding issues in the cognitive neuroscience of perception and action. The two issues are (i) the fundamental problem of perception, or how to bridge the gap between sensations and the environment, and (ii) the fundamental problem of motor control, or how to better characterize the relationship between brain activity and behavior. In both (...) cases, I am going to propose that cognitive neuroscience could incorporate embodied insights—coming from the sensorimotor approach to perception and action, and from ecological psychology—to advance the solution for each issue without the need for abandoning or undergoing a substantial revision of its core assumptions. Namely, cognitive neuroscience could incorporate the forgotten tales of embodiment without undergoing through a complete revolution. In this sense, I am proposing not a call but a farewell to arms. (shrink)

Heras-Escribano argues against the normative character of affordances from a framework that relies on a Wittgensteinian notion of normativity and the incompatibility of direct perception, ….