This paper analyzes two different proposals, one by Ellis and Brundrit, based on classical relativistic cosmology, the other by Garriga and Vilenkin, based on the DH interpretation of quantum mechanics, both concluding that, in an infinite universe, planets and beings must be repeated an infinite number of times. We point to possible shortcomings in these arguments. We conclude that the idea of an infinite repetition of histories in space cannot be considered strictly speaking a consequence of current physics and cosmology. (...) Such ideas should be seen rather as examples of «ironic science» in the terminology of John Horgan. (shrink)

A world without individual entities? An advice to not to extract immediate ontological consequences from quantum theory. Should we assume a world without individual entities? I pledge not to extract immediate ontological consequences from quantum theory. My intention is to focus on the complexity of ontological concepts commonly associated with quantum theory. Using as an example the compatibility of EPR correlations with the existence of individual entities, it is shown that an absolute rejection of an ontological category, based on some (...) aspects of the formalism of quantum theory, does not seem reasonable. A consequence of this argument is that the common sense view - the world is composed of individual entities-can be maintained, despite of the particularities of quantum mechanics. (shrink)

This paper analyzes two different proposals, one by Ellis and Brundrit, based on classical relativistic cosmology, the other by Garriga and Vilenkin, based on the DH interpretation of quantum mechanics, both concluding that, in an infinite universe, planets and beings must be repeated an infinite number of times. We point to possible shortcomings in these arguments. We conclude that the idea of an infinite repetition of histories in space cannot be considered strictly speaking a consequence of current physics and cosmology. (...) Such ideas should be seen rather as examples of «ironic science» in the terminology of John Horgan. (shrink)

The objective of this paper is analyzing to which extent the multiverse hypothesis provides a real explanation of the peculiarities of the laws and constants in our universe. First we argue in favor of the thesis that all multiverses except Tegmark’s “mathematical multiverse” are too small to explain the fine tuning, so that they merely shift the problem up one level. But the “mathematical multiverse" is surely too large. To prove this assessment, we have performed a number of experiments with (...) cellular automata of complex behavior, which can be considered as universes in the mathematical multiverse. The analogy between what happens in some automata (in particular Conway’s “Game of Life") and the real world is very strong. But if the results of our experiments can be extrapolated to our universe, we should expect to inhabit—in the context of the multiverse—a world in which at least some of the laws and constants of nature should show a certain time dependence. Actually, the probability of our existence in a world such as ours would be mathematically equal to zero. In consequence, the results presented in this paper can be considered as an inkling that the hypothesis of the multiverse, whatever its type, does not offer an adequate explanation for the peculiarities of the physical laws in our world. (shrink)

A world without individual entities? An advice to not to extract immediate ontological consequences from quantum theory. Should we assume a world without individual entities? I pledge not to extract immediate ontological consequences from quantum theory. My intention is to focus on the complexity of ontological concepts commonly associated with quantum theory. Using as an example the compatibility of EPR correlations with the existence of individual entities, it is shown that an absolute rejection of an ontological category, based on some (...) aspects of the formalism of quantum theory, does not seem reasonable. A consequence of this argument is that the common sense view – the world is composed of individual entities – can be maintained, despite of the particularities of quantum mechanics. (shrink)

El siguiente artículo se propone mostrar una aplicación de las series infinitas en un problema netamente filosófico, a la vez que pasa del análisis de un pensador moderno al de uno contemporáneo. Se expone un complemento a la filosofía de David Hume desde la filosofía carnapiana, concretamente en el problema de la inducción. Se desarrolla una justificación para la inducción a partir de un argumento basado en Carnap y las series infinitas haciendo alusión al carácter potencial y actual del infinito.

En este artículo se analizan algunas de las implicaciones que tienen las prácticas de triaje para la ética de desastres. Se considera la centralidad técnica de la cuantificación en los modelos algorítmicos y numéricos de triaje y se incide en la prevalencia normativa de los criterios consecuencialistas, incluso cuando éstos hayan de ajustarse a sistemas de múltiples principios. Finalmente se sugiere que una concepción ética de los desastres precisa de una perspectiva compleja y integral de la gestión de los desastres (...) que no se limite a la fase de respuesta inmediata a los mismos y que supere a la par que integre los principios de la bioética y la indispensabilidad de los criterios consecuencialistas en las decisiones de triaje. (shrink)

Entre las valiosas piezas que conforman el rico tesoro de la catedral hispalense destacan un cáliz y un copón de oro y piedras preciosas, joyas sobre las que existen pocas y confusas noticias. En este artículo se aclaran definitivamente diversos aspectos sobre su origen, autoría y ejecución.

In this article Jason Brennan’s arguments about the moral duties relating to our practice of voting are examined. These arguments provide an epistocratic approach of politics and present a conception of abstention at four levels: abstention as a personal choice, as a moral responsibility, as a duty legally enforceable and as an obligation decided by lot. The contrast with John Stuart Mill’s positions helps to highlight the postdemocratic ambivalences and the latent paternalism behind Brennan’s rejection of massive voting and electoral (...) democracy. A deliberative, Millian-inspired understanding of abstention also allows questioning the assumption in Brennan’s successive proposals that there is no significant loss in overlooking the political valence of qualified abstention. (shrink)

In this article, we identify various kinds of injustice at work in the global care chains by looking at the damages they entail and at some of their ties. Taking as our point of reference an invidious privileges dilemma that poses a real challenge to feminist theories, we analyze first the moral harm that, as Eva Kittay maintains, follows the fracturing of central, interpersonal and affective relationships of the women migrant workers. This specific moral harm of care relationships is not (...) reducible to other kinds of social injustice. These other kinds are identified by applying Nancy Fraser’s questioning of the frame problem to the global care chains. We can then talk of an interdependence of several genres or axes of injustice (maldistribution, misrecognition and misrepresentation) that work and intersect at several scales. (shrink)

La teoría discursiva afirma que la razón que la tradición filosófica ha concebido ante todo como razón moral y como razón política puede ser reformulada con una racionalidad práctico-comunicativa que está incorporada en los procesos de diálogo y en los procedimientos argumentativos. El artículo indaga en la propuesta habermasiana de la transformación de la razón práctica. En la parte central se analizan además los conceptos básicos de la formulación del principio del discurso, entendido como un principio general de justificación fundado (...) en la racionalidad comunicativa. Finalmente se extraen algunas consideraciones sobre las modulaciones del uso público de la razón práctica. (shrink)

El artículo propone una lectura de la obra de Jürgen Habermas tomando dos temas vertebradores: su convicción metafilosófica de que tras la muerte de Hegel existe un clausura infranqueable en el destino de la filosofía, cuya actual condición postmetafísica es estructuralmente análoga a la situación legada por los jóvenes hegelianos; y su convicción kantiana de que la concepción crítica y pública de la racionalidad va unida de suyo a ese destino de la filosofía, la cual queda hoy posicionada entre las (...) culturas de expertos y el sentido común y se hace cargo de los principales impulsos del pensamiento postmetafísico contemporáneo. (shrink)

As a result of a spate of studies geared to investigating Brazilian racial categories, it is now believed by many that Brazilians reason about race in a manner quite different to that of Americans. This paper will argue that this conclusion is premature, as the studies in question have not, in fact, investigated Brazilian categories. What they have done is elicit sorting tasks on the basis of appearances, but the cognitive models of respondents have not been investigated in order to (...) determine what are the boundaries of their concepts. Sorting based on appearances is not sufficient to infer the boundaries of concepts whenever appearance is not a defining criterion for the concepts in question, as the case appears to be for racial and ethnic categories. Following a critique of the methods used, I review a terminological and theoretical confusion concerning the use of the terms 'emic' and 'etic' in anthropology that appears directly responsible for the failure so far to choose methods appropriate to parsing the conceptual domain of 'race' in Brazil. (shrink)

In this essay I will explore the important connection between conformism as an adaptive psychological strategy, and the emergence of the phenomenon of ethnicity. My argument will be that it makes sense that nature made us conformists. And once humans acquired this adaptive strategy, I will argue further, the development of ethnic organization was inevitable. Understanding the adaptive origins of conformism, as we shall see, is perhaps the most useful way to shed light on what ethnicity is—at least when examined (...) from the functional point of view, which is to say from the point of view of the adaptive problems that ethnicity solves. I shall begin with a few words about our final destination. (shrink)

El cordobés Damián de Castro, gran exponente de la platería rococó española en la centuria dieciochesca, realizó junto a otros artífices diferentes piezas para el cardenal Delgado y Venegas, arzobispo hispalense entre 1776 y 1781. Hoy muchas de estas piezas las podemos contemplar en las vitrinas de nuestro museo catedralicio, sin embargo la existencia en su tiempo de diferentes piezas similares produjo cierta confusión en su posterior identificación. En este nuevo trabajo intentaremos desentrañar las dudas sobre dos de las más (...) vistosas piezas del tesoro de nuestro templo mayor: las dos bandejas de plata sobredorada que, ejecutadas en un exuberante y depurado rococó, deslumbran al visitante con sus fúlgidos destellos y atrevido diseño. (shrink)

Miranda Fricker characterizes the most basic or primary form of epistemic, testimonial injustice by way of a set of negative delimitations. In this paper I raise some doubts about how these delimitations are drawn, about the wrongful harms and disadvantages the testimonial injustice is supposed to entail and produce,and about the way Miranda Fricker clarifies the perfectionist character of the corrective virtue on the part of hearers, the ethical and intellectual virtue of testimonial justice.

I argue that (1) the accusation that psychological methods are too diverse conflates “reliability” with “validity”; (2) one must not choose methods by the results they produce – what matters is whether a method acceptably models the real-world situation one is trying to understand; (3) one must also distinguish methodological failings from differences that arise from the pursuit of different theoretical questions.

Researchers from across the social sciences have found consistent deviations from the predictions of the canonical model of self-interest in hundreds of experiments from around the world. This research, however, cannot determine whether the uniformity results from universal patterns of human behavior or from the limited cultural variation available among the university students used in virtually all prior experimental work. To address this, we undertook a cross-cultural study of behavior in ultimatum, public goods, and dictator games in a range of (...) small-scale societies exhibiting a wide variety of economic and cultural conditions. We found, first, that the canonical model – based on self-interest – fails in all of the societies studied. Second, our data reveal substantially more behavioral variability across social groups than has been found in previous research. Third, group-level differences in economic organization and the structure of social interactions explain a substantial portion of the behavioral variation across societies: the higher the degree of market integration and the higher the payoffs to cooperation in everyday life, the greater the level of prosociality expressed in experimental games. Fourth, the available individual-level economic and demographic variables do not consistently explain game behavior, either within or across groups. Fifth, in many cases experimental play appears to reflect the common interactional patterns of everyday life. Key Words: altruism; cooperation; cross-cultural research; experimental economics; game theory; ultimatum game; public goods game; self-interest. (shrink)