Sacrifice haunts the Phaedo. In this article, I argue that the mise-en-scène of the death scene of the Phaedo, as well as other sacrificial elements in the background of the dialogue, creates a nexus that positively integrates the birth, philosophical practice, and death of Socrates into the ritualized rhythm of the life of the city of Athens. A close reading of the death scene presented as a synopsis with Walter Burkert’s well-known analysis of Greek sacrifice reveals convergences and divergences between (...) the Phaedo and Greek sacrificial practice. Socrates appears as a willing victim who accepts the city’s sacrificial practice while remaining on his own terms. (shrink)

This paper responds to Marina Marren’s “The Contemplative Community: Pre-Socratic Teachings and Their Appropriation in the Phaedo” by listing areas of agreement and raising questions for further consideration. Marren’s position—that the comedic aspects of the dialogue can be understood through a retrieval of Anaxagorean mixing of opposites and Heraclitean images of doubling—is discussed. The response then challenges Marren to clarify why we should think that Plato would disagree with Socrates regarding the status of the forms and to think more deeply (...) about divinization as a theme in the Phaedo. (shrink)

John F. Kavanaugh and W. Norris Clarke, two twentieth-century Jesuits, contributed to philosophy through their development of a Thomistic and personalist view of reality emphasizing the human endowments of knowing, freely choosing, and loving. While spiritual exercises played a role in the formation of both Jesuits, the function of spiritual exercises in their own philosophy has not been explored. Recent interest in philosophy as a way of life provides a means by which this can be accomplished. In their work Michel (...) Foucault and Pierre Hadot have shown how spiritual exercises function in the formation of the self and in the acquisition of a synoptic vision that allows contemplation of one’s participation in the whole. This paper shows that while Kavanaugh primarily uses spiritual exercises in his philosophy to accomplish a disciplinary/formational aim Clarke’s aim is dialogical/exploratory. A brief examination of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola reveals how these different aims in fact complement one another. (shrink)

Weaving and unweaving the fabric of sacrifice -- A description of Greek sacrificial ritual -- Sacrificing Socrates: the mise-en-scène of the death scene of the Phaedo -- The search for the most fitting cause -- The so-called genuine philosophers and the work of soul -- Athens at twilight.

⦿ In my dissertation I introduce, motivate and take the first steps in the implementation of, the project of naturalising modal metaphysics: the transformation of the field into a chapter of the philosophy of science rather than speculative, autonomous metaphysics. -/- ⦿ In the introduction, I explain the concept of naturalisation that I apply throughout the dissertation, which I argue to be an improvement on Ladyman and Ross' proposal for naturalised metaphysics. I also object to Williamson's proposal that modal (...) metaphysics --- or some view in the area --- is already a quasi-scientific discipline. -/- ⦿ Recently, some philosophers have argued that the notion of metaphysical modality is as ill defined as to be of little theoretical utility. In the second chapter I intend to contribute to such skepticism. First, I observe that each of the proposed marks of the concept, except for factivity, is highly controversial; thus, its logical structure is deeply obscure. With the failure of the "first principles" approach, I examine the paradigmatic intended applications of the concept, and argue that each makes it a device for a very specific and controversial project: a device, therefore, for which a naturalist will find no use for. I conclude that there is no well-defined or theoretically useful notion of objective necessity other than logical or physical necessity, and I suggest that naturalising modal metaphysics can provide more stable methodological foundations. -/- ⦿ In the third chapter I answer a possible objection against the in-principle viability of the project: that the concept of metaphysical modality cannot be understood through the philosophical analysis of any scientific theory, since metaphysical necessity "transcends'' natural necessity, and science only deals with the latter. I argue that the most important arguments for this transcendence thesis fail or face problems that, as of today, remain unsolved. -/- ⦿ Call the idea that science doesn't need modality, "demodalism''. Demodalism is a first step in a naturalistic argument for modal antirealism. In the fourth chapter I examine six versions of demodalism to explain why a family of formalisms, that I call "spaces of possibility'', are (i) used in a quasi-ubiquitous way in mathematised sciences (I provide examples from theoretical computer science to microeconomics), (ii) scientifically interpreted in modal terms, and (iii) used for at least six important tasks: (1) defining laws and theories; (2) defining important concepts from different sciences (I give several examples); (3) making essential classifications; (4) providing different types of explanations; (5) providing the connection between theory and statistics, and (6) understanding the transition between a theory and its successor (as is the case with quantisation). -/- ⦿ In fifth chapter I propose and defend a naturalised modal ontology. This is a realism about modal structure: my realism about constraints. The modal structure of a system are the relationships between its possible states and between its possible states and those of other systems. It is given by the plurality of restrictions to which said system is subject. A constraint is a factor that explains the impossibility of a class of states; I explain this concept further. First, I defend my point of view by rejecting some of its main rivals: constructive empiricism, Humean conventionalism, and wave function realism, as they fail to make sense of quantum chaos. This is because the field requires the notion of objective modal structure, and the mentioned views have trouble explaining the modal facts of quantum dynamics. Then, I argue that constraint realism supersedes these views in the context of Bohm's standard theory and mechanics, and underpins the study of quantum chaos. Finally, I consider and reject two possible problems for my point of view. -/- ⦿ A central concern of modal metaphysicians has been to understand the logical system that best characterises necessity. In the sixth chapter I intend to recover the logical project applied to my naturalistic modal metaphysics. Scientists and philosophers of science accept different degrees of physical necessity, ranging from purely mathematically necessary facts that restrict physical behaviour, to kinetic principles, to particular dynamical constraints. I argue that this motivates a multimodal approach to modal logic, and that the time dependence of dynamics motivates a logic of historical necessity. I propose multimodal propositional (classical) logics for Bohmian mechanics and the Everettian theory of many divergent worlds, and I close with a criticism of Williamson's approach to the logic of state spaces of dynamic systems. (shrink)

Transformar el modo de vida individual es necesario para abordar la crisis ecosocial, y resulta perentorio que las políticas comprometidas con su resolución promocionen una capacidad individual de acción ecosocial. Sin embargo, parece que cierta brecha motivacional está obstaculizando la transformación del modo de vida individual. A fin de dar respuesta a esta brecha, ensayamos una mixtura del enfoque de las capacidades con las teorías de Hartmut Rosa. Argumentamos que la resonancia natural funge de factor personal de conversión necesario, si (...) bien no suficiente, para la capacidad de acción ecosocial; y que una política que promocione la resonancia natural se adecuaría también a los requisitos impuestos al desarrollo humano tanto por el enfoque de las capacidades como por la sostenibilidad. (shrink)

Background: Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing [EMDR] is an innovative, evidence-based and effective psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]. As with other psychotherapies, the effectiveness of EMDR contrasts with a limited knowledge of its underlying mechanism of action. In its relatively short life as a therapeutic option, EMDR has not been without controversy, in particular regarding the role of the bilateral stimulation as an active component of the therapy. The high prevalence of EMDR in clinical practice and the dramatic increase (...) in EMDR research in recent years, with more than 26 randomized controlled trials published to date, highlight the need for a better understanding of its mechanism of action. Methods: We conducted a thorough systematic search of studies published until October 2017, using PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Knowledge and Scopus databases that examined the mechanism of action of EMDR or provided conclusions within the framework of current theoretical models of EMDR functioning. Results: Seventy-five studies were selected for review and classified into three overarching models; (i) psychological models (ii) psychophysiological models and (iii) neurobiological models. The evidence available from each study was analysed and discussed. Results demonstrated a reasonable empirical support for the working memory hypothesis and for the physiological changes associated with successful EMDR therapy. Recently, more sophisticated structural and functional neuroimaging studies using high resolution structural and temporal techniques are starting to provide preliminary evidence into the neuronal correlates before, during and after EMDR therapy. Discussion: Despite the increasing number of studies that published in recent years, the research into the mechanisms underlying EDMR therapy are still in its infancy. Studies in well-defined clinical and non-clinical populations, larger sample sizes and tighter methodological control are further needed in order to establish firm conclusions. (shrink)

The Western world is experiencing a resurgence of interest in the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, most of which are derived from plants or fungi with a history of Indigenous ceremonial use. Recent research has revealed that psychedelic compounds have the potential to address treatment‐resistant depression and anxiety, as well as post‐traumatic stress disorder and addictions. These findings have contributed to the decriminalization of psychedelics in some jurisdictions and their legalization in others. Despite psychedelics’ opaque legal status, numerous companies and individuals (...) are profiting from speculative investments with few, if any, benefits accruing to Indigenous Peoples. In this paper, we suggest that the aptly named “psychedelic renaissance,” like the European Renaissance, is made possible by colonial extractivism. We further suggest that Indigenous philosophical traditions offer alternative approaches to reorient the “psychedelic renaissance” towards a more equitable future for Indigenous Peoples, psychedelic medicines, and all our relations. (shrink)

En este estudio se exploran recursos didácticos para fomentar la reflexión intercultural en el aula de idiomas. En un aula de alemán como lengua extranjera de una universidad española, con alumnas y alumnos de nivel inicial (A1.2), se integraron actividades para el desarrollo de la competencia comunicativa intercultural en una programación anterior de orientación comunicativa y con fuerte presencia de la interacción oral entre pares. Los resultados obtenidos en esta investigación cuasi-experimental informan sobre el desarrollo de la conciencia cultural de (...) las y los participantes. (shrink)

Scientists are becoming increasingly aware of a “replicability crisis” in the behavioral, social, and biomedical sciences. Researchers have made progress identifying statistical and methodological...

There has been much debate recently on the question whether essence can explain modality. Here, I examine two routes to an essentialist account of modality. The first is Hale's argument for the necessity of essence, which I will argue is — notwithstanding recent attempted defences of it — invalid by its very structure. The second is the proposal that it is essential to essential truth that it is necessary. After offering three possible versions of the view, I will argue that (...) each fails to provide a metaphysical explanation of necessity in terms of essence. (shrink)

Ross P. Cameron argues that the flow of time is a genuine feature of reality. He suggests that the best version of the A-Theory is a version of the Moving Spotlight view, according to which past and future beings are real, but there is nonetheless an objectively privileged present. Cameron argues that the Moving Spotlight theory should be viewed as having more in common with Presentism than with the B-Theory. Furthermore, it provides the best account of truthmakers for claims (...) about what was or will be the case. Cameron goes on to defend an account of the open future, and argues that this is a better account than that available to the Growing Block theory. (shrink)

A partir de la revisión de bibliografía especializada y del análisis crítico-constructivo del trabajo de Dow (2013) que examina los anacronismos existentes en la recreación digital de la ciudad de Florencia en el videojuego Assassin’s Creed II (2009), el presente trabajo explora la capacidad que tienen este tipo de videojuegos para reconstruir la ambientación de un período histórico concreto a partir del uso de anacronismos derivados de licencias creativas y de las necesidades artísticas propias del videojuego. Los resultados demuestran que (...) el anacronismo es una herramienta que los desarrolladores de videojuegos históricos utilizan de forma intencionada para transmitir una imagen del pasado que resulte vigente y atractiva en la actualidad. Igualmente se evidencia la necesidad de una metodología propia dentro de los denominados Game Studies que aborde el videojuego como objeto de estudio artístico lejos del enfoque de líneas de investigación como los Historical Game Studies y otras disciplinas humanísticas. (shrink)

Is authoritarian power ever legitimate? The contemporary political theory literature—which largely conceptualizes legitimacy in terms of democracy or basic rights—would seem to suggest not. I argue, however, that there exists another, overlooked aspect of legitimacy concerning a government’s ability to ensure safety and security. While, under normal conditions, maintaining democracy and rights is typically compatible with guaranteeing safety, in emergency situations, conflicts between these two aspects of legitimacy can and often do arise. A salient example of this is the COVID-19 (...) pandemic, during which severe limitations on free movement and association have become legitimate techniques of government. Climate change poses an even graver threat to public safety. Consequently, I argue, legitimacy may require a similarly authoritarian approach. While unsettling, this suggests the political importance of climate action. For if we wish to avoid legitimating authoritarian power, we must act to prevent crises from arising that can only be resolved by such means. (shrink)

El texto aborda uno de los temas de la violencia contemporánea, la violencia política de las mujeres. A partir de los problemas para nombrar la violencia y de los análisis de A. Cavarero sobre el «horrorismo», se centra en dos casos: la muerte de Yoyes y las mujeres bombas suicidas chechenas, mostrando las construcciones sociales y culturales de sexo/género, sus mitos y estereotipos, en cuanto constituyen una de las raíces más profundas y persistentes de la violencia. En definitiva, de lo (...) que se trata es de reflexionar y comprender la vulnerabilidad de la condición humana. (shrink)

Se propone un método paradójico para el análisis del Derecho. Este método de conocimiento consiste en una mirada a la complejidad del fenómeno jurídico, presentando sus aspectos complejos en forma de aparentes contradicciones. No son contradicciones reales, sino elementos complejos que, al constatarlos como0 dándose conjuntamente, nos permite dotar de profundidad nuestra reflexión. Hay diferentes maneras de definir la paradoja, pero aquí nos centramos en las cualidades literarias, retóricas y filosóficas que ofrece el tipo o tipos de paradoja utilizados, de (...) forma magistral, por el escritor inglés G.K. Chesterton. De las funciones de las paradojas (desde esta perspectiva, pero no solamente) son especialmente útiles para el análisis jurídico: criticar el sistema de pensamiento y abrir a la realidad. La primera se relaciona con el Derecho porque este siempre está bajo la amenaza del formalismo. La segunda se relaciona con él porque el Derecho es un fenómeno humano, de forma que, cuando hablamos de Derecho, estamos analizando la realidad compleja de la persona humana. Esta nos e puede reducir a una sola de sus dimensiones, y por ello es necesaria la paradoja, para equilibrar los distintos enfoques del análisis. Tras explicar todo esto, se procede en el artículo a sugerir siete paradojas que muestran la complejidad del fenómeno jurídico y pretenden ser retos al pensamiento. (shrink)

'Chains of Being' argues that there can be infinite chains of dependence or grounding. Cameron also defends the view that there can be circular relations of ontological dependence or grounding, and uses these claims to explore issues in logic and ontology.

A través de este escrito se pretende dar a conocer algunos aportes de lafundamentación de la ciencia de la mecánica en el siglo XVIII adelantados porLeohnard Euler y ponerlos en relación con algunas de las respectivaspropuestas de Jean le Rond d’Alelmbert. Se resalta, en particular, que laspreocupaciones de estos dos pensadores no se limitan sólo a una intención dematematización de la ciencia de la mecánica. También existe en ellos la intenciónexplícita de clarificación de la mecánica a través de la reorganizaciónconceptual (...) de las nociones primeras y de la identificación de los principios enlos que debe fundamentarse esta ciencia, ambas intenciones soportadas enpresupuestos epistemológicos sobre la certeza y la validez de nuestroconocimiento. (shrink)

It is common in psychiatry and other sciences to describe an individual or a type of individual in terms of its disposition to manifest specific effects in a particular range of circumstances. According to one understanding, dispositions are statistical regularities of an individual or type of individual in specific circumstances. According to another understanding, dispositions are properties of individuals in virtue of which such regularities hold. This entry considers a number of ways of making each of these senses of disposition (...) more precise while discussing a number of dangers lurking in careless use of the concept of a disposition. (shrink)

This book provides an up-to-date revision of materialism’s central tenets, its main varieties, and the place of materialistic philosophy vis a vis scientific knowledge. Materialism has been the subject of extensive and rich controversies since Robert Boyle introduced the term for the first time in the 17th century. But what is materialism and what can it offer today? The term is usually defined as the worldview according to which everything real is material. Nevertheless, there is no philosophical consensus about whether (...) the meaning of matter can be enlarged beyond the physical. As a consequence, materialism is often defined in stark exclusive and reductionist terms: whatever exists is either physical or ontologically reducible to it. This conception, if consistent, mutilates reality, excluding the ontological significance of political, economic, sociocultural, anthropological and psychological realities. Starting from a new history of materialism, the present book focuses on the central ontological and epistemological debates aroused by today’s leading materialist approaches, including some little known to an anglophone readership. The key concepts of matter, system, emergence, space and time, life, mind, and software are checked over and updated. Controversial issues such as the nature of mathematics and the place of reductionism are also discussed from different materialist approaches. As a result, materialism emerges as a powerful, indispensable scientifically-supported worldview with a surprising wealth of nuances and possibilities. (shrink)

I address an intuition commonly endorsed by metaphysicians, that there must be a fundamental layer of reality, i.e., that chains of ontological dependence must terminate: there cannot be turtles all the way down. I discuss applications of this intuition with reference to Bradley’s regress, composition, realism about the mental and the cosmological argument. I discuss some arguments for the intui- tion, but argue that they are unconvincing. I conclude by making some suggestions for how the intuition should be argued for, (...) and discussing the ramifications of giving the justification I think best. (shrink)

Macroscopic irreversible processes emerge from fundamental physical laws of reversible character. The source of the local irreversibility seems to be not in the laws themselves but in the initial and boundary conditions of the equations that represent the laws. In this work we propose that the screening of currents by black hole event horizons determines, locally, a preferred direction for the flux of electromagnetic energy. We study the growth of black hole event horizons due to the cosmological expansion and accretion (...) of cosmic microwave background radiation, for different cosmological models. We propose generalized McVittie co-moving metrics and integrate the rate of accretion of cosmic microwave background radiation onto a supermassive black hole over cosmic time. We find that for flat, open, and closed Friedmann cosmological models, the ratio of the total area of the black hole event horizons with respect to the area of a radial co-moving space-like hypersurface always increases. Since accretion of cosmic radiation sets an absolute lower limit to the total matter accreted by black holes, this implies that the causal past and future are not mirror symmetric for any spacetime event. The asymmetry causes a net Poynting flux in the global future direction; the latter is in turn related to the ever increasing thermodynamic entropy. Thus, we expose a connection between four different “time arrows”: cosmological, electromagnetic, gravitational, and thermodynamic. (shrink)

I discuss the recent claims made by Mario Bunge on the philosophical implications of the discovery of gravitational waves. I think that Bunge is right when he points out that the detection implies the materiality of spacetime, but I reject his identification of spacetime with the gravitational field. I show that Bunge’s analysis of the spacetime inside a hollow sphere is defective, but this in no way affects his main claim.

La presente investigación se efectuó con el objetivo de evaluar el impacto de la introducción y generalización del resultado científico: La educación en valores mediante la aplicación de medios de enseñanza - aprendizaje en la disciplina de Morfofisiología en la Licenciatura en Enfermería, a través de indicadores diseñados de acuerdo a las particularidades de la investigación. Se aplicaron encuestas, se realizó una revisión documental de bibliografía relacionada con la temática y de documentos de los departamentos e instituciones en que ha (...) incidido este resultado, lo cual permitió constatar la amplia y efectiva aplicación práctica de los resultados obtenidos de forma sistemática, a través de publicaciones, posgrados, presentación en eventos científicos y su generalización en diversas instituciones educacionales. This research was conducted with the objective of assessing the impact of the introduction and generalization of the scientific result: Values education through the application of teaching aids- learning in Morphophysiology subject in the Nursing Degree through indicators designed according to the research characteristics. Surveys were carried, furthermore, a documentary bibliographic review related to the subject matter and a review of documents from departments and institutions affected by this result were made. They enabled to verify the wide and effective practice of the results got in a systematic way, through publications, postgraduate courses and presentations in scientific events as well as its generalization in different educational institutions. (shrink)

What are the ontological commitments of a sentence? In this paper I offer an answer from the perspective of the truthmaker theorist that contrasts with the familiar Quinean criterion. I detail some of the benefits of thinking of things this way: they include making the composition debate tractable without appealing to a neo-Carnapian metaontology, making sense of neo-Fregeanism, and dispensing with some otherwise recalcitrant necessary connections.

Academic integrity policies at 200 institutions of higher education were examined for the presence of academic prohibitions against the nonmedical use of prescription stimulants or any other cognitive enhancing drug. Researchers used online search tools to locate policy handbooks in a stratified random sample of IHE’s drawn from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System database, searching for NMUPS/CED use as violations of either academic integrity or alcohol and other drug policies. Of 191 academic integrity policies found online, NMUPS/CED prohibitions were (...) present in only one. However, NMUPS was addressed in all but two of the 200 IHE AOD policies, often with language referencing IHE adherence to federal or state law. NMUPS/CED prohibitions are predominantly absent in IHE academic integrity policies, raising questions about whether colleges and universities are concerned about the use of enhancement drugs as a form of cheating. Implications for fairness, health promotion, and future research are discussed. (shrink)

In this paper I further elucidate and defend a metaontological position that allows you to have a minimal ontology without embracing an error-theory of ordinary talk. On this view 'there are Fs' can be strictly and literally true without bringing an ontological commitment to Fs. Instead of a sentence S committing you to the things that must be amongst the values of the variables if it is true, I argue that S commits you to the things that must exist as (...) truthmakers for S if it is true. I rebut some recent objections that have been levelled against this metaontological view. (shrink)

El presente artículo trata sobre cómo la fenomenología del dolor físico puede entablar un dialogo con las ciencias médicas, brindando, por un lado, un marco teórico sobre la relación mente-cuerpo que no sea reduccionista y, por otro lado, algunos aspectos que mejoren la posibilidad de la cuantificación del dolor mediante test de evaluación del dolor, a partir del refinamiento de los reportes subjetivos. El artículo que divide en tres secciones: la consideración fenomenológica del dolor; la consideración médica del dolor y (...) la relación con la fenomenología; y por último, el para qué de dicha relación. (shrink)

Resumen Las enfermedades raras o poco frecuentes constituyen un tema muy complejo desde el punto de vista socio-sanitario y también desde el punto de vista comunicativo. Afectan a menos de 5 por 10.000 personas y suelen ser graves y crónicas. La mayor parte son de origen genético por lo que, con frecuencia, se manifiestan en la etapa infantil. Apenas un diez por ciento tiene tratamientos efectivos. Son pocos los estudios que han abordado el discurso sobre estas patologías. Las ER constituyen (...) aún un tópico que podríamos denominar ‘emergente’ para los profesionales de los medios de comunicación. En este artículo vamos a analizar la representación de las enfermedades raras y de sus principales protagonistas en un corpus de 436 piezas informativas correspondientes a enero de 2014. Desde las premisas del Análisis Crítico del Discurso, estudiaremos los aspectos más relevantes tanto desde el punto de vista macroestructural, como microestructural. (shrink)