The altered nuclear transfer-oocyte assisted reprogramming (ANT-OAR) proposal has serious scientific and philosophical flaws, and it is not a morally acceptable means of obtaining embryonic stem cells. Note that this is the final preprint of an article that was published in the newspaper Science and Theology News in June 2006.

The assembly of products or components by operators in industries is a complex task with recurring problems. In these processes, operators often make errors that can lead to defective products. Therefore, they need to be inspected later to verify their correct assembly. The main problems are caused by several reasons including high employee turnover, lack of experience in manufacturing specific products or confusion in interpreting instructions to assemble similar components. In this paper, a novel structured language aimed to describe the (...) required actions to manufacture a product in industrial assembly environments is presented. The main contribution is to provide a formal language to feed automatic systems that can verify through visual control whether the actions performed by the operator are carried out following the standard described by this language. In general, the use of this formal language will allow to minimize the negative impact of errors during assembly and to reduce waste in many forms in the industry. (shrink)

La influencia de José Ortega y Gasset en el pensamiento mexicano ha sido estudiada con detalle, pero no así la relación que guardó con el insigne literato y diplomático mexicano, don Alfonso Reyes. En este artículo se muestra, desde la perspectiva del pensador regiomontano, esa reacia amistad o ese largo malentendido que se dio entre él y el filósofo español. En el texto se da cuenta minuciosamente de la presencia de Ortega y Gasset en México, gracias a la ayuda (...) de Reyes. Esta relación no solo se detiene en las influencias intelectuales, sino que va hasta el encuentro personal, en donde se identifica la circunstancia que hace a cada uno. (shrink)

The aim of this study was to assess the predictive capacity of some of the most relevant cognitive skills pertaining to the academic field as measured by the Spanish Primary School Aptitude Test Battery. This psychometric tool was applied to all students who were enrolled in the final year of Early Childhood Education in the public schools of the province of Alicante and a follow-up of their academic progress was carried out when they completed Primary Education. The results obtained show (...) that medium-high and high scores in Verbal Aptitude and Numerical Aptitude tests in Early Childhood Education, can predict academic success at the end of Primary Education in instrumental subjects such as: Language and Mathematics. We have determined the importance of developing pedagogical programs that stimulate the development of these skills during Early Childhood Education, while implementing support strategies during Primary Education, for those students who present underdeveloped aptitudes in these areas. In this way, school difficulties would be prevented in the instrumental subjects that provide access to other academic areas. (shrink)

La obra del padre Pedro José Márquez ha sido poco estudiada. Las historias y los estudios de pensamiento novohispano más asequibles no lo incluyen, aunque no ha dejado de haber, empero, recuerdo y crítica del "Docto mexicano". Se entiende por Estética, en general y propiamente dicha, la rama de la filosofía que se aboca al estudio de la sensibilidad que, orientada por el intelecto, es el aparato con el que se capta la belleza. Así pues la Estética es, en (...) primer lugar, filosofía de la sensibilidad y filosofía de la belleza. Pero la Estética conecta con las artes. Así pues, la Estética, en segundo lugar, es filosofía del arte. Este es el camino que siguió el padre Pedro José Márquez. El propósito de este trabajo es demostrar que la Estética del padre jesuita, especialmente en su discurso titulado Sobre lo bello en general, es una filosofía de la sensibilidad, de la belleza y del arte. Se aprovecharán los recursos teóricos y prácticos que aporta la Hermenéutica analógica. Este trabajo estará dividido en dos partes. En la primera se presentan los contextos de Sobre lo bello en general; y, en la segunda, se tratarpa la Estética del padre jesuita. (shrink)

Review by A. Kanamori, Boston University (author of The Higher Infinite), review in The Bulletin of Symbolic Logic: “Notwithstanding and braving the daunting complexities of this labyrinth, José Ferreirós has written a magisterial account of the history of set theory which is panoramic, balanced and engaging. Not only does this book synthesize much previous work and provide fresh insights and points of view, but it also features a major innovation, a full-fledged treatment of the emergence of the set-theoretic approach (...) in mathematics from the early nineteenth century. Much of history is in the details, and much of good history is in tone, emphasis, and the drawing together of different strands. Without being Whiggish, Ferreirós is never far from major synthetic themes, themes that in the main work toward balance and pull back from excesses of emphasis of some recent histories. The main criticism of the book would have to be on matters of broad interpretation. Yet, Ferreirós brings a considerable mathematical acuity and expertise to his enterprise, and this makes his viewpoints the more compelling.” . (shrink)

El 10 de octubre de 2016 se celebró, en la Facultad de Filosofía de la Universidad Complutense, un encuentro titulado Ramón enseñó en público su Arte - Raimundus Artem suam publice legit. Coloquio 700 aniversario de Ramon Llull, auspiciado por el Departamento de Filosofía y Sociedad, y organizado por José Luis Villacañas y José Higuera Rubio. En el marco de esa jornada, José Luis Villacañas sugirió la posibilidad de publicar los resultados de este encuentro en una entrega (...) especial de la revista ASHF, y encargó a los editores del monográfico un estudio bibliográfico de la obra de Llull y de la historia del lulismo. Debido al gran número de compromisos asumidos durante el aniversario luliano algunos de los participantes de aquella reunión postergaron su contribución. Por lo tanto, ofrecemos en este número especial los resultados del coloquio, enriquecidos con otras aportaciones que surgieron en el contexto del aniversario luliano celebrado en Santa fe de Bogotá durante la exposición bibliográfica que la Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia dedicó a la figura de Llull y a las ediciones que conserva de su obra recogidas por las bibliotecas coloniales neogranadinas. La convergencia de estos trabajos y de sus autores ha tomado algún tiempo, percance agravado por las contingencias ocurridas el año anterior. Sin embargo, esperamos que este volumen permita al lector aproximarse tanto a la obra luliana como a su variada y prolongada recepción. (shrink)

The dialogue Bruno of 1802 is arguably the natural starting point for any investigation on the concepts of finitude, evil and human freedom in Schelling’s middle metaphysics. In this dialogue the author elaborates for the first time in his system a concept of freedom and independence of the finite, which extends via his reformulation in Philosophy and Religion of 1804 to the Freedom Essay of 1809 and beyond to the works of 1810 and 1811 – Stuttgart Private Lectures and The (...) Ages of the World. The central ontological problem of the dialogue relates to the possibility of a separation between the absolute and the world as space of finite beings, which, according to the system of identity first presented in 1801, cannot exist as such. The question we will then address concerns the status of the finite as such and how would it be possible to admit both its existence for consciousness and the positing of an absolute and infinite principle of philosophy. We will show how Schelling’s interest shifts, almost unintentionally, from the infinite principle to the finite as such, as a principle of freedom and self-initiation independent of the real. (shrink)

Evolutionary game theory and public goods games offer an important framework to understand cooperation during pandemics. From this perspective, the COVID-19 situation can be conceptualized as a dilemma where people who neglect safety precautions act as free riders, because they get to enjoy the benefits of decreased health risk from others’ compliance with policies despite not contributing to or even undermining public safety themselves. At the same time, humans appear to carry a suite of evolved psychological mechanisms aimed at curbing (...) free riding in order to ensure the continued provision of public goods, which can be leveraged to develop more effective measures to promote compliance with regulations. We also highlight factors beyond free riding that reduce compliance rates, such as the emergence of conspiratorial thinking, which seriously undermine the effectiveness of measures to suppress free riding. Together, the current paper outlines the social dynamics that occur in public goods dilemmas involving the spread of infectious disease, highlights the utility and limits of evolutionary game-theoretic approaches for COVID-19 management, and suggests novel directions based on emerging challenges to cooperation. (shrink)

The history of modern feminist political theories is often framed in terms of the already existing theories of a number of radical nineteenth-century men philosophers such as James Mill, John Stuart Mill, Charles Fourier, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels. My argument takes issue with this way of framing feminist political theory by demonstrating that it rests on a derivation that remains squarely within the logic of malestream political theory. Each of these philosophers made use of a particular discursive trope that (...) linked the idea of women's emancipation with the idea of social progress. I argue that this trope reproduced the masculinist signification and symbolism inherent in their particular political philosophies. I argue for a more positive, less masculinist, account of the history of feminist political thought. (shrink)

Este trabajo tiene el objetivo de mostrar que actualmente la bioética, si bien requiere de la aplicación de conocimientos de disciplinas heterogéneas, afronta diversas polémicas que tienen una estructura filosófica. Para sustentar una perspectiva filosófica como problema central, el método de abordaje de la presente propuesta contempla un análisis acerca del tipo de indagaciones que caracterizan a la bioética, la delimitación del objeto que estudia, las propuestas metodológicas más relevantes y aquellas alternativas de búsqueda que pretenden tomar distancia de la (...) reflexión filosófica, paralelamente a las variadas conceptualizaciones que parten de la moral y desembocan en la casuística. El argumento central es que la bioética atiende a incertidumbres morales que surgen en la interacción con la vida, estas son el objeto sobre el que reflexiona la ética, y si la ética es una disciplina que se resuelve apelando a los métodos de la filosofía, con este trabajo se pretende concluir que la bioética necesariamente ha de tener una estructura filosófica. (shrink)

James Shaw has written an excellent book on Wittgenstein’s rule-following considerations. It manages to provide fresh perspectives on a topic on which it seemed.

ABSTRACT I argue that some of the central doctrines of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus can be seen as addressing the twin problems of semantic unity and...

This work gives a new argument for ‘Empirical Philosophy of Mathematical Practice’. It analyses different modalities on how empirical information can influence philosophical endeavours. We evoke the classical dichotomy between “armchair” philosophy and empirical/experimental philosophy, and claim that the latter should in turn be subdivided in three distinct styles: Apostate speculator, Informed analyst, and Freeway explorer. This is a shift of focus from the source of the information towards its use by philosophers. We present several examples from philosophy of mind/science (...) and ethics on one side and a case study from philosophy of mathematics on the other. We argue that empirically informed philosophy of mathematics is different from the rest in a way that encourages a Freeway explorer approach, because intuitions about mathematical objects are often unavailable for non-mathematicians. This consideration is supported by a case study in set theory. (shrink)

The Gamer's Dilemma challenges us to find a distinction between virtual murder and virtual pedophilia. Without such a distinction, we are forced to conclude that either both are morally acceptable or that both should be morally illicit. This paper argues that the best way to solve the dilemma is, in one sense, to dissolve it. The Gamer's Dilemma rests on a misunderstanding in the sense that it does not distinguish between the form of a simulation and its surface content. A (...) greater appreciation of the way structural features of a simulation affect subject experience will help us see why only simulations of murder and pedophilia generating virtually real experiences are likely to be seen as wrong. I argue that a simulation’s structural elements powerfully affect how subjects experience simulated content and hence is an important, and previously neglected, variable necessary to dissolve the Gamer's Dilemma. Properly understood, virtually real simulations of murder and pedophilia are both likely to be treated by players as morally wrong. Similarly, virtually unreal murder and pedophilia will be less likely to be judged as wrong. Subject judgments are thus consistent once a simulation’s structural variables are accounted for. The Gamer's Dilemma dissolves as a dilemma once we acknowledge these structural features of simulations and how they affect experience and moral judgment. (shrink)

A down-to-earth admission of abstract objects can be based on detailed explanation of where the objectivity of mathematics comes from, and how a ‘thin’ notion of object emerges from objective mathematical discourse or practices. We offer a sketch of arguments concerning both points, as a basis for critical scrutiny of the idea that mathematical and social objects are essentially of the same kind—which is criticized. Some authors have proposed that mathematical entities are indeed institutional objects, a product of our collective (...) imposition of function onto reality (the phrase comes from Searle) and of surrogation or hypostasis. Yet there are significant disanalogies between the typical social objects and mathemata, on which basis I argue that one should make a clear distinction between both. The comparison of mathematical with social objects helps understanding how non-physical objects can figure prominently in our explanations of reality. Yet mathematical objects have a different kind of cognitive grounding, and the more elementary of them emerge under relatively very simple sociocultural conditions. The differences are also reflected in the wide scope of use of mathematical concepts, and the much higher degree of variation found among social objects. On the basis of all of these features, I defend the thesis that one can significantly distinguish degrees of objectivity, and I use the distinction to articulate a graded ontology where one can locate the different kinds of mathematical and social objects. (shrink)

O objetivo do artigo é explorar as conexões entre o problema da morte, o conceito de ideia e a tese da indestrutibilidade do nosso ser com a morte, em Schopenhauer. Como ponto de partida, é apresentada a crítica de Schopenhauer à compreensão empírica da morte como passagem ao não-ser. Passa-se, então às considerações do filósofo sobre a indestrutibilidade do nosso ser com a morte, por meio do destaque às suas considerações sobre o caráter de coisa, vinculado à sua intepretação das (...) ideias como formas eternas. Após discorrer pontualmente a respeito do sentido desta noção na filosofia platônica, são apresentados os principais elementos que configuram a apropriação schopenhaueriana da teoria platônica das ideias tendo em vista exclusivamente o problema elegido, qual seja, a morte e a indestrutibilidade do nosso ser. (shrink)