In this paper I shall briefly analyze Husserl’s and Wittgenstein’s divergent reactions against the positivist stance on natural science and on the new cultural role that philosophy should play in relation to science. To a great extent, their philosophies can be considered as a departure from positivism, although for quite different reasons. I shall argue that Wittgenstein, in the Tractatus, took positivism as a starting point that he tried to overcome from within. This endeavor led him to defend some theses (...) of a pragmatist flavour as well as a peculiar type of radical agnosticism on ontological and epistemological issues. Husserl, however, considered that positivism was a dead-end for philosophy. Positivism has beheaded philosophy as a consequence of advancing a reductive view of science. Phenomenology is the attempt to understand the genetic and subjective processes that have ended up in an objective and scientific image of the world. (shrink)

In this paper I shall argue that Tim Williamson’s argument for the anti-luminosity of many mental states faces difficult logical, psychological and epistemological problems. From a logical point of view, his argument is correct. However, the contrary argument that says that the anti-luminosity thesis does not necessarily follow from it is also correct. This opens a sceptical scenario. Hence, if Williamson wants to convince us that we should rationally prefer his argument rather than the other, he needs to add considerations (...) that are not merely logical. These are psychological and epistemological in nature. However, none of these considerations is convincing. (shrink)

This paper addresses four different, albeit related, issues concerning Hilary Putnam's fact/value entanglement theory. It is organized around a series of questions. First, what set of problems does the theory attempt to resolve? The revision of the empiricists and the positivist traditions will be the main concern of this first section. Secondly, how does the notion of "fact/value entanglement" solves these problems? I argue that while Putnam has persuasively defended the possibility of an entanglement between descriptive functions and evaluative functions (...) at the level of language use, he nevertheless provides us with only indirect indications about the existence and properties of the bearers of this kind of entanglement; namely the assumed existence of thick ethical concepts and their necessity for some central human practices. These indirect signs are not sufficient to buttress Putnam's entanglement thesis between facts and values. Thirdly, what are the most appropriate candidates to play the role of bearers of the description/evaluation entanglement? I challenge the claim that the ontological notion of entanglement between facts and values, itself obscure, is indispensable. Instead, I argue that we can substitute the idea of fact/value entanglement for the simpler, and less problematic, notion of human action. Finally, does Putnam commit a petitio pincipii when he attempts to lay down the criteria by which to judge if a thick ethical concept is being appropriately used in a given situation? I argue that Putnam faces what I shall call "Nietzsche's problem" - the problem of not prejudging, in giving the relevant examples for the discussion, how the situation should be morally valued. (shrink)

En este ensayo propongo un modelo teórico para comprender el significado y alcance de los acuerdos racionales a partir de una concepción determinada de las relaciones entre justificación y verdad. Desde este modelo, al que denomino “acuerdo como signo”, se puede sostener que no todo consenso racional que surge dentro de una comunidad humana, incluidas las científicas, tiene por qué remitir única y exclusivamente a las creencias de ese grupo social y a sus modos internos de justificarlas sin que ellas (...) supongan nunca una ventana abierta al mundo, como sostiene sin asomo de dudas el etnocentrismo de Rorty. Frente al modelo propuesto y valorado desde él, el modelo que sostiene Rorty supone un caso de sinécdoque. (shrink)

Son muchas las cuestiones que en la reflexión epistemológica contemporánea se han ido acumulando en torno a la doctrina coherentista de la verdad y la justificación. En este artículo propongo un conjunto de distinciones sistemáticamente organizadas para orientarse en la forma en que todos estos problemas encajan entre sí. Fundamentalmente estas distinciones tiene que ver con los aspectos descriptivos y prescriptivos que tienen las siguientes preguntas: ¿Cuál ha sido la creencia que pide paso en nuestro sistema de creencias? ¿Es racional (...) aceptarla? ¿Cómo se ha realizado lógicamente la acomodación de la nueva creencia? ¿Se ha hecho siguiendo procedimientos racionales fiables? ¿Cómo se ha formado de hecho el sistema de creencias del que partimos? ¿Ha sido racional este proceso de formación? ¿Qué estructura tiene nuestro sistema de creencias? ¿Podemos revisar racionalmente esta estructura? ¿Es verdadero o racional el sistema de creencias resultante? (shrink)

Vulnerability has become part of our everyday vocabulary. We are used to hearing that we ought to act so as to protect the highly vulnerable; the qualifier suggests that we are all vulnerable. In addition to being of contemporary relevance, the notion of vulnerability has also been at the heart of philosophical reflection since the birth of the discipline, playing a vital role across many different traditions. Its prevalence is unsurprising. Vulnerability, which partially defines us as human beings, has appeared (...) in many guises: mortality, finitude, sin, ignorance, etc. However, no attempt has yet been made to fully apply the notion of vulnerability to the domains of epistemology and the philosophy of science, to relate it to our general human vulnerability, and to explore the wide range of consequences that derive from it. The contributors of this book fill this gap; they present new approaches to classical problems. They highlight different aspects of our cognitive vulnerability, from issues related to the realism/antirealism debate to reflections on epistemic success and trust. (shrink)

In this paper, I shall argue that both cognitivism and liberal contractualism defend a pre-moral conception of human desire that has its origin in the Hobbesian and Humean tradition that both theories share. Moreover, the computational and syntactic themes in cognitive science support the notion, which Gauthier evidently shares, that the human mind ¿ or, in Gauthier¿s case, the mind of ¿economic man¿ ¿ is a purely formal mechanism, characterized by logical and mathematical operations. I shall conclude that a single (...) conception of human behaviour runs through the various dominant psychological, moral and political theories of analytic inspiration. (shrink)

Según la psicología moral de Iris Murdoch no hay ninguna diferencia esencial entre el arte (el buen arte) y la moral. Ambas actividades exigen del individuo una disciplina que está encaminada a desembarazarse de las distorsiones que nuestra imaginación produce en la realidad. La imaginación, puesta al servicio del egoísmo y la autoconsolación, impide todo progreso hacia la objetividad y el bien tanto en el arte como en la moral. Un obstáculo en este progreso, además del egoísmo, es la opacidad (...) de los seres humanos. Según Murdoch, el arte y, sobre todo, la literatura tienen la función primordial de retratar la situaciones humanas de una manera que haga de la lectura una actividad no sólo estética, sino también cognoscitiva. (shrink)

In this paper, I shall argue that both cognitivism and liberal contractualism defend a pre-moral conception of human desire that has its origin in the Hobbesian and Humean tradition that both theories share. Moreover, the computational and syntactic themes in cognitive science support the notion, which Gauthier evidently shares, that the human mind – or, in Gauthier’s case, the mind of “economic man” – is a purely formal mechanism, characterized by logical and mathematical operations. I shall conclude that a single (...) conception of human behaviour runs through the various dominant psychological, moral and political theories of analytic inspiration. (shrink)

Según se considere cuál es el ámbito de investigación al que debe circunscribirse la lógica y en qué consiste propiamente el conocimiento, tendremos una u otra idea de cómo los valores están relacionados con estos ámbitos de la actividad humana. En este artículo investigo críticamente la postura filosófica agnóstica de Wittgenstein en torno a los años en que escribió el Tractatus, las tesis neopragmatistas de Putnam y la fenomenología genética de Husserl en tanto que doctrinas relevantes para el estudio de (...) las relaciones entre la lógica, el conocimiento y el valor. (shrink)

El naturalismo como fundamento de la psicología científica y la interpretación de la psicología popular desde supuestos también naturalistas, son dos de las características más básicas de la filosofía de la mente contemporánea. Contra esta manera de tratar los problemas en el ámbito de la filosofía de la psicología, se plantea la posibilidad de tomar muy en serio las criticas que hizo Husserl al naturalismo a partir de una cierta concepción de la historia de la ciencia y de la filosofía. (...) Sin embargo, tanto el naturalismo como su critica tienen que enfrentarse con problemas graves que están en el fondo de las discusiones metafísicos de este final de siglo. (shrink)

La existencia de tradiciones filosóficas inconmensurables plantea dificultades serias para algunas de las teorías más importantes que se han propuesto en este siglo sobre la historiografía filosófica. Las teorías historiográficas pretenden ofrecer un marco general unitario válido para dar sentido a la labor de cualquier historiador de la filosofía cuando, en realidad, ese marco no resiste la confrontación con las distintas tradiciones de pensamiento en las que se han formado los diversos historiadores de la filosofía. Desde esta perspectiva, se analizan (...) las propuestas de Gadamer, MacIntyre y Rorty. (shrink)

En este ensayo se trata de analizar algunas ideas pujantes que, desde la Ilustración, se han defendido sobre las relaciones entre los individuos y la historia gracias a las cuales se ha visto la posibilidad de compaginar los fines particulares del individuo con fines universales. También se estudian algunas teorías que suponen el desmoronamiento progresivo de este planteamiento.

In this essay I shall analyze same main ideas that, from the Enlightenment onwards, have been defended about the relationships between individuals and history. According to these relationships it is always possible to coordinate the aims of particular people with universal aims. I shall also study some theories that imply the collapse of this approach.

ABSTRACTColin Hay's constructivist institutionalism and Vivien A. Schmidt's discursive institutionalism are two recent attempts to theorize ideas as potential explanations of institutional change. This new attention to the causal role of ideas is welcome, but Hay and Schmidt do not take into consideration the constitutive and structural aspects of ideas. Instead they reduce ideas to properties of individual conscious minds, scanting the respects in which ideas are intersubjectively baked into the practices shared by individuals. This aspect of ideas—arguably, the institutional (...) side of ideas—is developed in post-structuralist thought, which therefore demands a place in ideational research. (shrink)

ABSTRACT The technocratic dimension of government—its reliance upon knowledge claims, usually in scientific guise—is of great importance if we wish to understand modern power and governance. In Power Without Knowledge: A Critique of Technocracy, Jeffrey Friedman investigates the often-overlooked question of the relationship between technocratic knowledge/power and ideas. Friedman’s contribution to our understanding of technocracy can therefore be read as a contribution to governmentality studies, one that introduces the possibility of adding normative solutions to this critical tradition.

El Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) establece que el aprendizaje debe estar centrado en el estudiante. Partiendo de este enunciado, el artículo explica cómo la gamificación puede ser una técnica pedagógica que propicie el ansiado cambio en la docencia universitaria hacia donde marca el EEES. Este trabajo presenta el diseño de una metodología de gamificación sencilla y fácil de implementar en un Grado de Ingeniería utilizando Kahoot! como herramienta y su evolución a lo largo de tres cursos académicos. Los (...) resultados indican que los alumnos ven más atractiva la asignatura, aumenta el seguimiento y mejoran sus resultados académicos. (shrink)

En una primera aproximación a la obra de Leibniz, podemos tener la impresión de enfrentarnos a una metafísica que sostiene tesis, las cuales, aparte de su enorme dificultad para ser comprendidas, también parecen entrar en conflicto entre sí. Uno de esos casos, particularmente destacado, es el tema de la libertad. En efecto, un sistema que reivindica radicalmente el principio de razón suficiente parece no poder explicar de manera satisfactoria los conceptos de espontaneidad, elección y libertad que quiere atribuir a las (...) acciones humanas. Este ensayo busca aclarar esos conceptos que son fundamentales para una correcta comprensión de la noción leibniziana de libertad. En dicha noción se encuentran fuertemente interconectados tanto elementos provenientes de su metafísica, como sus hallazgos en física y dinámica. A pesar de que estas tesis sobre dinámica son fundamentales para comprender las afirmaciones del autor acerca del tema de la libertad, son precisamente ellas las que suelen pasarse por alto, haciendo que la propuesta de Leibniz aparente cierta inconsistencia. Por el contrario, cuando comprendemos las nociones leibnizianas de fuerza, espontanei dad y elección—y cómo ellas operan en el resto de su sistema metafísico—, entendemos por qué nuestro autor, a pesar de ser un racionalista coherente, ve necesario sostener la libertad humana. Con ello, se pretende mostrar que tal noción es totalmente consistente con el resto de su sistema y cómo ella tiene un buen grado de plausibilidad. (shrink)

In the second half of the 20th century, Latin American poetry has had to deal with representing the phenomenon of forced disappearance in its various poetic productions. Some of those have incubated in the Central American civil wars, the dictatorial regimes of the Southern Cone and even in countries with supposed democratic stability such as Mexico and Colombia. Memorial de Ayotzinapa, by the Mexican poet Mario Bojórquez, and Carta de las mujeres de este país, by the Colombian poet and activist (...) Fredy Yezzed, experiment with the discursive forms of the long poem and the letter poem, respectively, to construct collective memories around a phenomenon that continues to take lives to this day. Bojórquez's text is concerned with constructing a testimony, apparently in situ, of the disappearance of the forty-three Mexican teacher trainees; Yezzed's work, for its part, refrains from referring to a specific event or place in order to provide a more complete testimony of the Colombian armed conflict, nearly seventy years old. The article analyzes the forms of the text, the subjects and their spaces of enunciation, as well as the memory strategies that are seen in both works. Thus, the testimonial status of poetry is confirmed, sometimes overshadowed by genres such as the novel and the short story. (shrink)

¿Cuáles son los márgenes de la cultura en la contemporaneidad? ¿Cómo se puede resistir desde estos? ¿Quiénes lo hacen o pueden hacerlo? Por supuesto, es imposible responder estas preguntas en esta corta presentación, tal vez sean imposibles de responder sin importar la extensión del texto que las analice. No obstante, nos parece necesario presentarlas para situarlas en un contexto que nos permita problematizar este dossier. Zygmunt Bauman4 planteó que tres campos de conocimiento: la filosofía de la historia, la antropología filosófica (...) y la estética, y un concepto: la cultura, emergieron en el siglo XVIII con el propósito de explicar la crisis de una forma de comprender y estar en el mundo, que se había pensado y vivido como natural y que parecía mutar en un orden radicalmente humano y, por ende, endeble, arbitrario y cambiante. (shrink)

Aim: The presence of noise in urban environments is rarely considered a factor that causes damage to the environment. The primary generating source is transportation means, with vehicles being the ones that affect cities the most. Traffic noise has a particular influence on the quality of life of those who are exposed to it and can cause health alterations ranging from annoyance to cardiovascular diseases. This study aims to describe the relationship between the traffic noise level and the perceived annoyance (...) in the inhabitants of a city on the Northern Border of Mexico. The work carried out in a city represents the vulnerability characteristics: economic, social, and migratory of its sizable portion of the inhabitants. Due to that, it is impossible to identify precisely the number of residents as the number of vehicles in circulation.Methods: The streets and avenues with an annual average daily traffic of more than 1,000 vehicles were considered for the measurement of traffic noise. The equipment used was a vehicle gauge with non-invasive speed radar; type I integrating sound level meters, with their respective gauges and tripods. A questionnaire was applied to people living within 250 m of the streets and avenues in which the noise was measured.Results: The noise measurement found a parameter of LAeq estimated for 12 h during the day, exceeding 70 dBA. The data received from the questionnaire were statistically tested by using Pearson's correlation tests. A total number of 2,350 people were participated, of whom 1,378 were women and 972 were men. The age of participants is ranged from 18 to 75 years. The overall perception of traffic noise annoyance identified that 1,131 participants responded “Yes” as they considered the noise annoying. Participants who responded “No” as well as those who responded “Do not know” resulted in a total of 1,219 people.Conclusion: The results show that the population is desensitized to traffic noise and does not perceive it as an annoyance. The flow of vehicles and the type of vehicles are the significant factors for the propagation and increase in the traffic noise levels. Women present a considerable appreciation of traffic noise perception instead of younger people who demonstrate a higher tolerance to high-level exposure. This reflects the lack of information of the population around the noise problem and its effects. (shrink)

How do people use information from others to solve complex problems? Prior work has addressed this question by placing people in social learning situations where the problems they were asked to solve required varying degrees of exploration. This past work uncovered important interactions between groups' connectivity and the problem's complexity: the advantage of less connected networks over more connected networks increased as exploration was increasingly required for optimally solving the problem at hand. We propose the Social Interpolation Model (SIM), an (...) agent‐based model to explore the cognitive mechanisms that can underlie exploratory behavior in groups. Through results from simulation experiments, we conclude that “exploration” may not be a single cognitive property, but rather the emergent result of three distinct behavioral and cognitive mechanisms, namely, (a) breadth of generalization, (b) quality of prior expectation, and (c) relative valuation of self‐obtained information. We formalize these mechanisms in the SIM, and explore their effects on group dynamics and success at solving different kinds of problems. Our main finding is that broad generalization and high quality of prior expectation facilitate successful search in environments where exploration is important, and hinder successful search in environments where exploitation alone is sufficient. (shrink)

The aim of this research is to ascertain whether a firm’s environmental motivations may help to predict how complete or incomplete its environmental management will be, understanding incomplete management to be that which neglects one or more of the three keys aspects of such management, namely, monitoring, action and results. We specifically posit that while motivations based on the search for legitimation lead to more incomplete styles of environmental management, competitive motivations entail a more complete management. The analyses conducted with (...) a sample of 1,902 plants provide empirical evidence in favour of such reasoning. The contribution this research makes, therefore, is not restricted solely to showing the effect motivations have on the environmental performance of organisations, as it also introduces a new dimension of environmental management—the degree of completeness, which needs to be considered when understanding and evaluating this effect. (shrink)

This article aims to compare the national legal systems that regulate biomedical research in an industrialized country (United States) and a developing country (Venezuela). A new international order is emerging in which Europe, Japan and the United States (US) are revising common guidelines and harmonizing standards. In this article, we analyze – as an example – the US system. This system is controlled by a federal agency structured to regulate research funded by the federal government uniformly, either in the US (...) or abroad. In contrast, in Venezuela, a developing country, the creation of a centralized system is a slow process. Different types of ethical committees review research projects using non-uniform criteria. Consequently, various parallel organizations that conduct biomedical research, such as universities, research institutes and private hospitals have diverse regulations operating at a local level. Thus, the most relevant difference between the Venezuelan and the US systems is the degree of standardization. In the US, the review process is performed by institutional review boards (IRBs), which have a similar organization and maintain relationships with a centralized agency, following standard regulations. Although new proposals for establishing national regulations are currently being considered in Venezuela, the success of these initiatives will depend on promoting governmental efforts to create a more structured centralized system supported by a national regulatory framework. This system will need governmental financial support at all levels. This article proposes an integrated system to regulate research with human participants in Venezuela and other developing countries. (shrink)