Category-based induction is an inferential mechanism that uses knowledge of conceptual relations in order to estimate how likely is for a property to be projected from one category to another. During the last decades, psychologists have identified several features of this mechanism, and they have proposed different formal models of it. In this article; we propose a new mathematical model for category-based induction based on distances on conceptual spaces. We show how this model can predict most of the properties of (...) this kind of reasoning while providing a solid theoretical foundation for it. We also show that it subsumes some of the previous models proposed in the literature and that it generates new predictions. (shrink)

In this paper, we outline a comprehensive approach to composed analogies based on the theory of conceptual spaces. Our algorithmic model understands analogy as a search procedure and builds upon the idea that analogical similarity depends on a conceptual phenomena called ‘dimensional salience.’ We distinguish between category-based, property-based, event-based, and part-whole analogies, and propose computationally-oriented methods for explicating them in terms of conceptual spaces.

In Gärdenfors and Makinson :197–245, 1994) and Gärdenfors it was shown that it is possible to model nonmonotonic inference using a classical consequence relation plus an expectation-based ordering of formulas. In this article, we argue that this framework can be significantly enriched by adopting a conceptual spaces-based analysis of the role of expectations in reasoning. In particular, we show that this can solve various epistemological issues that surround nonmonotonic and default logics. We propose some formal criteria for constructing and updating (...) expectation orderings based on conceptual spaces, and we explain how to apply them to nonmonotonic reasoning about objects and properties. (shrink)

Over the past few decades, cognitive science has identified several forms of reasoning that make essential use of conceptual knowledge. Despite significant theoretical and empirical progress, there is still no unified framework for understanding how concepts are used in reasoning. This paper argues that the theory of conceptual spaces is capable of filling this gap. Our strategy is to demonstrate how various inference mechanisms which clearly rely on conceptual information—including similarity, typicality, and diagnosticity-based reasoning—can be modeled using principles derived from (...) conceptual spaces. Our first topic analyzes the role of expectations in inductive reasoning and their relation to the structure of our concepts. We examine the relationship between using generic expressions in natural language and common-sense reasoning as a second topic. We propose that the strength of a generic can be described by distances between properties and prototypes in conceptual spaces. Our third topic is category-based induction. We demonstrate that the theory of conceptual spaces can serve as a comprehensive model for this type of reasoning. The final topic is analogy. We review some proposals in this area, present a taxonomy of analogical relations, and show how to model them in terms of distances in conceptual spaces. We also briefly discuss the implications of the model for reasoning with concepts in artificial systems. (shrink)

In this article I am going to reconstruct Stephen Toulmin’s procedural theory of concepts and explanations in order to develop two overlooked ideas from his philosophy of science: methods of representations and inferential techniques. I argue that these notions, when properly articulated, could be useful for shedding some light on how scientific reasoning is related to representational structures, concepts, and explanation within scientific practices. I will explore and illustrate these ideas by studying the development of the notion of instantaneous speed (...) during the passage from Galileo’s geometrical physics to analytical mechanics. At the end, I will argue that methods of representations could be considered as constitutive of scientific inference; and I will show how these notions could connect with other similar ideas from contemporary philosophy of science like those of models and model-based reasoning. (shrink)

Volume 32, Issue 6, August 2019, Page 995-999.

Controversy has reigned for some time over the biological connection between DNA methylation and cancer. For this reason, the methylation mechanism responsible for increased cancer risk has received greater attention in recent years. Tumor suppressor genes are often hypermethylated resulting in gene silencing. Although some have questioned this interpretation of the link between methylation and cancer, it appears that both hypermethylation and hypomethylation events can create epigenetic changes that can contribute to cancer development. Recent studies have shown that the methyltransferases (...) DNMT1 and DNMT3b cooperatively maintain DNA methylation and gene silencing in human cancer cells. Disruption of the human DNMT3b only slightly reduces the overall global DNA methylation; however, demethylation was markedly potentiated when both DNMT1 and DNMT3b were simultaneously deleted. The results to these experiments provide compelling evidence towards a role for DNA methylation in cancer. This review discusses the current understanding of cancer‐epigenetic information and highlights recent studies that connect the methylation machinery and chromatin remodelling with cancer susceptibility. BioEssays 25:1071–1084, 2003. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. (shrink)

This article explores the motives underlying corporate responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis begins with Thomas Dunfee’s Statement of Minimum Moral Obligation, which specifies, more precisely than any other contribution to the business ethics canon, the level of corporate beneficence required during a pandemic. The analysis then turns to Milton Friedman’s neoliberal understanding of human nature, critically contrasting it with the notion of stoic virtue that informs the works of Adam Smith. Friedman contends that beneficence should play no role (...) in corporate settings. Smith, by contrast, emphasizes the need for prudence, beneficence and self-command in all human endeavours. The article then uses these competing frameworks to reflect on a published survey of 145 corporate responses to COVID-19. In many of these responses, the benefit to a non-financial stakeholder is clear, while the financial consequence to the firm remains nebulous. This supports the contention that during a pandemic, beneficence provides a more complete explanation of many corporate actions than the profit motive alone. The article contests Friedman’s Chicago School profit imperative and goes beyond Dunfee’s SMMO by endorsing the more full-throated embrace of beneficence and stoic virtue found in the works of Smith. (shrink)

Eternalism is the view that all times are equally real. The relativity of simultaneity in special relativity backs this up. There is no cosmically extended, self-existing ‘now.’ This leads to a tricky problem. What makes statements about the present true? I shall approach the problem along the lines of perspectival realism and argue that the choice of the perspective does. To corroborate this point, the Lorentz transformations of special relativity are compared to the structurally similar equations of the Doppler effect. (...) The ‘now’ is perspectivally real in the same way as a particular electromagnetic spectrum frequency. I also argue that the ontology of time licensed by perspectival realism is more credible in this context than its current alternative, the fragmentalist interpretation of special relativity. (shrink)

This study explores the legal and ethical issues associated with contract pricing. In particular, it focuses on a set of legal precedents which have addressed the enforceability of allegedly unfair contract prices. Traditionally, the common law has emphasized the consent of the parties. If the parties consented to a given price; it is presumptively fair and enforceable. The cases reviewed in this study, however, seem to draw upon alternative moral conceptions of fairness not normally associated with the common law. The (...) analysis begins by distinguishing the traditional legal conception of fairness from alternative moral conceptions. The cases are then read with a critical eye so as to tease out the underlying principles which best explain them. The analysis illustrates that, notwithstanding judicial rhetoric to the contrary, the courts continue to employ the traditional legal notion of fairness, to the exclusion of alternative moral concerns. The study clarifies an otherwise murky area of the law and illustrates that the legal meaning of fairness differs greatly from the moral one. (shrink)

Giorgio Agamben and Ludwig Wittgenstein seem to have very little in common: the former is concerned with traditional ontological issues while the latter was interested in logics and ordinary language, avoiding metaphysical issues as something we cannot speak about. However, both share a crucial notion for their philosophical projects: form of life. In this paper, I try to show that, despite their different approaches and goals, form of life is for both a crucial notion for thinking ethics and life in-common. (...) Addressing human existence in its constitutive relation to language, this notion deconstructs traditional dichotomies like bios and zoé, the cultural and the biological, enabling both authors to think of a life which cannot be separated from its forms, recognizing the commonality of logos as the specific trait of human existence. Through an analogical reading between both theoretical frameworks, I suggest that the notion of form-of-life, elaborated by Wittgenstein to address human production of meaning, becomes the key notion in Agamben's affirmative thinking since it enables us to consider the common ontologically in its relation to Human potentialities and to foresee a new, common use of the world and ourselves. Giorgio Agamben e Ludwig Wittgenstein parecem ter muito pouco em comum: o primeiro se ocupa de questões ontológicas tradicionais, enquanto o segundo estava interessado na Lógica e na linguagem corrente, evitando os problemas metafísicos como algo de que não podemos falar. No entanto, ambos partilham um conceito crucial para seus projetos filosóficos respectivos: forma de vida. Este artigo tento mostrar que, apesar de seus diferentes enfoques e objetivos, a noção de forma de vida é fundamental no momento de pensar a ética e a vida em-comum. Abordando a existência humana em sua relação constitutiva com a língua, essa noção desconstrói dicotomias tradicionais como bios e zoe, o cultural e o biológico, permitindo-lhes pensar uma vida que não pode ser separada de suas formas, e reconhecendo o caráter comum do logos como o traço específico da existência humana. Através de uma leitura analógica entre ambos quadros teóricos, sugiro que a noção de forma-de-vida, elaborada por Wittgenstein para abordar a produção humana de significados, tornase o conceito-chave do pensamento afirmativo de Agamben, já que nos permite considerar o comum ontologicamente em sua relação com as potencialidades humanas e vislumbrar um uso novo e comum do mundo e de nós mesmos. (shrink)

Con ocasión del 80 aniversario de la Universidad Iberoamericana y de su Departamento de Filosofía hemos querido recuperar y comentar uno de los dos primeros libros que se publicaron en lo que entonces se llamaba Centro Cultural Universitario. El libro que nos ocupa es fiel testimonio de la época en que fue publicado. Las conferencias del padre jesuita Ledit son ejemplo de la manera de entender la historia moderna y contemporánea de muchos pensadores católicos preconciliares. La cristiandad medieval había realizado (...) una síntesis con el pensamiento griego. La modernidad fue la paulatina separación de esta filosofía perenne abierta a la trascendencia, con el resultado de una razón soberbia y orgullosa de su finitud; una de sus consecuencias fueron los sistemas totalitarios de la primera mitad del siglo xx, los cuales en su confrontación llevaron al estallido de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. (shrink)

For the last forty years, Hume's Newtonianism has been a debated topic in Hume scholarship. The crux of the matter can be formulated by the following question: Is Hume a Newtonian philosopher? Debates concerning this question have produced two lines of interpretation. I shall call them ‘traditional’ and ‘critical’ interpretations. The traditional interpretation asserts that there are many Newtonian elements in Hume, whereas the critical interpretation seriously questions this. In this article, I consider the main points made by both lines (...) of interpretations and offer further arguments that contribute to this debate. I shall first argue, in favor of the traditional interpretation, that Hume is sympathetic to many prominently Newtonian themes in natural philosophy such as experimentalism, criticality of hypotheses, inductive proof, and criticality of Leibnizian principles of sufficient reason and intelligibility. Second, I shall argue, in accordance with the critical interpretation, that in many cases Hume... (shrink)

This article joins a somewhat nascent, but growing, body of scholarship addressing the ethical obligation to pay tax. The analysis is grounded to the ethical duty to obey law generally and highlights two competing orientations to statutory interpretation. The norms of self-interested advocacy suggest that tax planners should assert that interpretation that will generate the most wealth for the client. The norms of professional advising, by contrast, direct the tax planner to interpret tax law with reference to plain meaning, interpretive (...) maxims, court precedents, and legislative purpose. When the two orientations differ, the ethical duty to obey law requires the tax planner to recommend, and for the taxpayer to follow, the latter view. Case studies drawn from a Louisiana sales tax avoidance scheme and from Google’s profit-shifting activities illustrate the ethical issues incumbent in tax interpretation. (shrink)

Este texto recoge parte de las reflexiones y del desarrollo del capítulo 5 del libro La barbarie que no vimos: Fotografía y memoria en Colombia. Aquí algunas preguntas que se intentan responder en este ensayo: ¿son las tecnologías las únicas responsables de la imposibilidad de ejercer una contemplación activa frente al infortunio de los demás? A propósito de la Parábola del Buen Samaritano, ¿este habría sido reemplazado por el espectador distante o implicado? ¿Qué sucede cuando ese espectador, de tanto ver (...) naufragios, termina fatigado? ¿Y de tanta fatiga, se vuelve indiferente? ¿Qué significa ser espectadores de naufragios en una época en la que la catástrofe no es ocasionada exclusivamente por fuerzas naturales sino por los propios seres humanos? ¿Es posible hallar hoy alguna orilla segura para reconocernos distanciados y salvados de las catástrofes ajenas? (shrink)

ABSTRACT John MacFarlane’s truth relativism makes use of two notions of propositional truth: a monadic assessment sensitive one taken to be our ordinary truth notion, and a non-monadic one that is meant to account for the assessment sensitivity of the former notion. Some authors contend that any theory introducing a technical non-monadic truth notion has to make sense of it by defining or characterizing it in terms of ordinary monadic truth. First, I give some reasons why the relativist should not (...) discard this approach to make sense of the notion of truth relative to a context of assessment. Second, I argue that an illuminating characterization of this notion must provide an answer to a dilemma Paul Boghossian poses to the relativist. Third, I single out the characterization that can answer this dilemma. Finally, I contend that the relativist still needs to show that this solution works for each case subject to a relativist treatment. (shrink)

Dada la especie de clausura al que las historias de las ideas en Colombia han llevado al expediente sobre las relaciones entre positivismos y tradicionalismos, y ante la necesidad de construir unos criterios de reconocimiento del "positivismo", creo necesario hacer un trabajo preliminar de reproblematización de esas relaciones en el nivel global, utilizando los aportes de historiadores y filósofos europeos y colombianos, a lo que dedicaré las páginas siguientes. Lo que sorprende en la literatura más reciente sobre las relaciones entre (...) tradicionalismos y positivismos es el señalamiento de una serie de singulares parentescos, contra lo que hemos pensado habitualmente. Quisiera entonces pasar revista a esos parentescos, para luego extraer algunas conclusiones que permitan reorientar nuestras investigaciones. [Fragmento]. (shrink)

Fear, which has always been one of the most powerful of human passions, has grown in importance during modernity. First with Machiavelli and later especially with Hobbes, fear has become one of the foundational ideas of modern political philosophy. If fear, especially fear of death, does indeed occupy a central place in the foundation of modern politics, then it is necessary to study carefully the implications and consequences of the transhumanist attempt to overcome death. Among the main aspirations of transhumanism (...) is the search for almost infinite longevity and, eventually, the total abolition of aging. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the specific role that fear of death has played in modern political philosophy to understand the possible effects that an eventual overcoming of death would have, albeit partial, as wanted by transhumanists. While the possibility of achieving immortality seems unlikely, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t study what’s behind this transhumanist aspiration. In this way, transhumanism seems the final consequence of modern development, since it’s in continuity with the modern attempt to respond to the fear of death, but it does so by trying an ultimate solution to it through the elimination of death, at least by sickness and old age. In this paper, we will review the role of fear of death in the founding of modern political philosophy by Machiavelli and Hobbes, and then we will analyse the transhumanist attempt to overcome death as a consequence of this fear and its possible political effects. (shrink)

This article explores the strategic management of government affairs in companies active in the EU. The article relies on a unique large-N dataset on the functioning and staffing of EU government affairs. The analysis shows that companies delegate government affairs functions to in-house managers with specific competences, who stay in office for long periods and who have an extensive knowledge of the core competences of the company, thanks to their educational background and work experience in the private sector. These findings (...) suggest that how companies strategically manage and staff government affairs in Brussels rests on the distinct structure of business–government relations in the EU, which are based on the exchange of technical information and the establishment of credibility and long-run trust arrangements. (shrink)

Eternalism is the view that the past, the present and the future exist simpliciter. A typical argument in favor of this view leans on the relativity of simultaneity. The ‘equally real with’ relation is assumed to be transitive between spacelike separated events connected by hyperplanes of simultaneity. This reasoning is in tension with the conventionality of simultaneity. Conventionality indicates that, even within a specific frame, simultaneity is based on the choice of the synchronization parameter. Hence the argument for eternalism is (...) compromised. This paper lays out alternative eternalist strategies which do not hinge on hyperplanes. While we lack a rigorous proof for eternalism, there are still cogent reasons to prefer eternalism over presentism. (shrink)

El presente trabajo analizará una serie de esfuerzos teóricos recientes vinculados a la posible redefinición y aprehensión conceptual de los fenómenos de ideología en las sociedades contemporáneas. El estudio desplegará algunos de los problemas que se presentan al interior de esta clase de esfuerzos conceptuales, enfocando especialmente en el contexto del pensamiento político de raíces postestructurales y lacanianas. Se observará, en suma, el modo en que dichas redefiniciones confrontan con ciertas dificultades o generan tensiones conceptuales debido al tipo de presupuestos (...) epistémicos más vastos desde los que las búsquedas parten. La puesta en relieve y el análisis de algunos de estos problemas constituye el objeto principal del presente estudio. (shrink)

A través del presente ejercicio investigativo y hermenéutico se busca proponer la beneficencia como principio articulador entre la Teología Moral de la Persona, la Bioética y las Prácticas Biomédicas, con el fin de salvaguardar al ser humano de forma integral y desde el ámbito interdisciplinar, frente a la manipulación y menoscabo de la persona en su: dignidad, status antropológico, verdad ontológica y trascendente, lo cual nos lleva a proponer alternativas, dadas las nuevas circunstancias por las que atraviesa la humanidad; y (...) es aquí donde adquiere resonancia proponer la Beneficencia como principio articulador entre estas tres ciencias, dado que ella, como principio, está en los tres saberes de forma implícita y explícita y, las cuales, por su misma esencia, tienen puntos de convergencia como son: la determinación de su carácter moral, su estatuto de servicio, la salvaguarda de la riqueza de la vida, el reconocimiento y respeto por la dignidad humana, el reconocimiento de la multidimensionalidad del ser, y el cuidado que requiere toda persona humana en su fragilidad y vulnerabilidad. Además de lo anterior se cuenta con un abordaje teórico sobre la bioética como saber interdisciplinar; los principios de la bioética y la relación de la teología moral de la persona con la bioética. El presente ejercicio investigativo fue llevado a cabo en un lapso de dos años. (shrink)

El artículo recorre el problema de las analogías y diferencias entre la prisión y la escuela, un tema agitado desde la década de 1980 en el seno del Movimiento Pedagógico Colombiano, a la luz de ciertas apropiaciones del libro Vigilar y castigar de Michel Foucault. En la segunda parte el texto recoge la tesis foucaultiana sobre el “fracaso de la prisión” y propone analizar este “fracaso” en el caso de la escuela moderna, a partir de análisis desarrollados en el marco (...) de los trabajos del Grupo de Historia de la Práctica Pedagógica en Colombia. (shrink)

This article explores the law and ethics of lobbying. The legal discussion examines disclosure regulations, employment restrictions,bribery laws, and anti-fraud provisions as each applies to the lobbying context. The analysis demonstrates that given the social value placed on the First Amendment, federal law generally affords lobbyists wide latitude in determining who, what, when, where, and how to lobby.The article then turns to ethics. Lobbying involves deliberate attempts to effect changes in the law. An argument is advanced that because law implicates (...) the use of force and because law ideally reflects the values of a democratic society, seeking to slant the law to serve a client’s narrow interests cannot provide an adequate ethical end for a lobbyist. On the contrary, a lobbyist has an affirmative moral duty to seek reasonably balanced and just laws. The article examines, refines, and defends this proposition in a number of settings. (shrink)

Se investiga la metodología estructural deHistoire de la folie à l’ageclassique. Se sos- tiene que Michel Foucault, a partir de los trabajos de George Dumézil, elabora el concepto de experiencia para dar fundamento a las diversas experiencias históricas de la locura. La experiencia epocal, desarrollada en aquel texto, apela a una causalidad estructural que proviene del esquema de la trifuncionalidad ideológica indoeuropea de las obras de Dumézil.

RESUMEN Se investiga la metodología estructural deHistoire de la folie à l'ageclassique. Se sostiene que Michel Foucault, a partir de los trabajos de George Dumézil, elabora el concepto de experiencia para dar fundamento a las diversas experiencias históricas de la locura. La experiencia epocal, desarrollada en aquel texto, apela a una causalidad estructural que proviene del esquema de la trifuncionalidad ideológica indoeuropea de las obras de Dumézil. ABSTRACT The article inquires into the structural methodology of the Histoire de la folie (...) à Γ âge classique. It argues that Michel Foucault draws on the works of Georges Dumézil to develop the concept of experience that grounds the different historical expressions of madness. The epochal experience developed in the above-mentioned text resorts to a structural causality that has its source in the Indo-European trifunctional scheme of ideology found in the works of Dumézil. (shrink)

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo investigar el fundamento existencialista de la introducción escrita por Michel Foucault a “Traum und Existenz” de Ludwing Binswanger. Sostenemos que Foucault, partiendo de la antropología binswangeriana, desarrolla el esbozo de una antropología de la imaginación. Esta antropología se centra en una serie de conceptos: sueño, existencia, libertad, imagen e imaginación. Sin embargo, a diferencia del Daseinsanalyse, Foucault pone el acento en la facticidad y en la expresión histórica de la libertad. En este punto se (...) plantea una diferencia importante entre ambos autores: mientras que Binswanger pone el acento en una noción de individuo que supedita su existencia individual a un ideal de totalidad comunitaria, Foucault destaca la necesidad de dirigir la dimensión fundante de la libertad hacia sus formas de expresión concretas. (shrink)

“Michel Foucault and the Tragic Structure. An Early Nietzschean Reading of Tragedy”. The purpose of this article is to investigate the statute of the tragic in Michel Foucault’s early texts, especially in the original preface of Histoire de la folie à l’age classique. It will be argued that in his early reading of Nietzsche, Foucault elaborates the concept of tragic structure to give foundation, in epistemic sense, to the historical experiences of madness. Subsequently, we will trace the different formulations on (...) tragic in Foucault’s early texts. The concept of tragic appears on these texts as a term to identify the negativity and of the oblivion in the field of the psychological knowledge. Finally, we will explain how Foucault re-elaborates Nietzsche’s concept of the tragic to expose an underlying determination to the history. The battle between the dionysian and apollonian elements defines the status of this experience. (shrink)

I examine an intuitive property of folk-psychological explanations I call self-sufficiency. I argue that individualism cannot honor this property and work toward distilling an account of psychological explanation that does honor it, given some fairly standard assumptions. In doing so, my preference for an Externalist individuation of intentional state will emerge unambiguously. The assumptions I rely on are fairly standard but not uncontroversial. Yet not always do I attempt to defend them from objections. My goal is an account of folk (...) psychology consistent with our every-day practices rather than the deduction of an idealized psychology from first principles. I conclude with some applications offered as evidence that the goal was achieved. (shrink)

La dirección de Nemesio Antúnez entre 1962 y 1964, y las administraciones que le siguieron en el Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MAC), son un caso ejemplar de las dinámicas político-culturales desarrolladas durante la Guerra Fría. Este artículo analiza esta gestión museal desde la historia intelectual y la historia cultural, trabajando las redes de pensamiento que rodearon a Antúnez y la disquisición entre su programación y la influencia norteamericana en ese momento, atendiendo a cómo el MAC se involucró en la guerra (...) fría cultural. De esta manera se busca aportar al conocimiento de las tramas institucionales que se dieron entre la intelectualidad periférica y los centros metropolitanos durante uno de los periodos claves del siglo XX, presentando ciertos programas expositivos que respondieron al impulso de los EE. UU. de inserción ideológica. (shrink)

El tema del espacio público ha sido un problema filosófico tanto en la forma de teorizarse como en la de habitarse, lo que históricamente ha ocupado la atención de múltiples disciplinas, saberes e instituciones políticas. A partir de un ejercicio interpretativo en el campo de la sociología y antropología urbanas, se muestra que éste es el resultado de las contingencias y dinámicas ciudadanas propias que trascienden cualquier especulación teórica, pero que genera un modo de ser particular de los ciudadanos por (...) su comprensión y apropiación, en este caso, de los habitantes de Medellín. (shrink)