This paper aims at providing an epistemic defense of democracy based on John Dewey’s idea that democracies do not only find problems and provide solutions to them but they also articulate problems....

La Lógica: La Teoría de la Investigación es un texto relativamente desconocido de John Dewey en el mundo hispanohablante, a pesar de que se trata de un texto fundamental en la obra del autor. Hasta ahora sólo disponíamos de la traducción realizada por Eugenio Imaz y publicada por el Fondo de Cultura Económica en 1950, la cual era difícilmente accesible y adolecía de algunas limitaciones que hacían necesaria la aparición de una nueva traducción. Por ello, presentamos con gran satisfacción las...

This paper aims at providing an epistemic defense of democracy based on John Dewey’s idea that democracies do not only find problems and provide solutions to them but they also articulate problems. According to this view, when citizens inquire about collective issues, they also partially shape them. This view contrasts with the standard account of democracy’s epistemic defense, according to which democracy’s is good at tracking and finding solutions that are independent of political will-formation and decision-making. It is also less (...) vulnerable to the criticisms that have been raised against the standard account. To show this, the paper develops a theory of expressive domination and argues that problem-articulation works best when it is inclusive and domination-free. It also shows that democratic conflict represents a fundamental element for problem-articulation. (shrink)

Es un placer para nosotros, flamantes nuevos editores de la sección multilingüe de la EJPAP, estrenar esta sección con el dossier monográfico “Jane Addams en español.” El monográfico ha conseguido la hazaña de poder unir por primera vez textos de las todavía pocas personas que escriben en lengua castellana y que están familiarizadas con la obra de Jane Addams (1860-1935). El desconocimiento de la vida y obra de Jane Addams entre el público hispanohablante no se debe, de ningún modo, al (...) hecho... (shrink)

This essay is part of a dossier on Cristina Lafont's book Democracy without Shortcuts.

Journal of Social Philosophy, Volume 53, Issue 1, Page 38-58, Spring 2022.

In the series of lectures he delivered during the two years he spent in China, John Dewey provided the most complete version of his theory of social conflict and struggle. The two textual sources from this time we have at our disposal – the doubly translated lectures published in Honolulu2 and Dewey’s original notes recently published under the name of Lectures in Social and Political Philosophy 3 – outline an original understanding of social conflict as taking place between groups with (...) different interests, aims and powers. After formulating a programmatic account of the nature and the tasks of social philosophy, Dewey devoted one of his lectures to the exploration of society’s tendencies to generate... (shrink)

In the last three decades, ongoing debates on the epistemic features of democratic decision making have influenced the way we conceive the basic terms of democratic theory, such as inclusion, participation, public reason, and collective autonomy.1 Within these debates, attention has been given to the role played by mobilized collectives in the generation of the knowledge necessary for the enhancement of the epistemic quality of those processes. However, little attention has been given to a further epistemic function of mobilizations: the (...) innovations they have brought about in the very practices within which new knowledge and perspectives are generated. Using... (shrink)

Critical social theories are generally understood to be distinct from other normative theories by their explicit orientation toward emancipation: they not only present normative criteria for assessing the legitimacy or justification of social institutions or merely inquire into the actualized freedom of a given form of social life but claim to point toward a “freedom in view”—an end that might aid those participating in social struggles to overcome the pathological, alienated, or ideological social order of the present. John Dewey’s social (...) theory clearly cherishes this ideal of social criticism. It contributes to a critical social inquiry in a variety of ways, some of which, so we believe, are still to be... (shrink)

This article argues that populism, both in its left-wing and right-wing versions, is a social pathology in the sense contemporary critical theorists give to it. As such, it suffers from a disconnect between first order political practices and the reflexive grasp of the meaning of those practices. This disconnect is due to populists’ ideal of freedom, which they understand as authentic self-expression of ‘the People’, rejecting the need for mediating instances such as parties, parliaments or epistemic actors. When enacted in (...) political practices and institutions, this ideal creates the conditions for undermining different forms of political freedom, including populist’s own ideal of collective self-expression, which they erode by fostering expressive domination. This all makes populism a self-defeating political ideology and bad candidate for advancing democracy in times of crisis. The article ends with a consideration of the advantages of this view compared to existing approaches to populism. (shrink)

En varios pasajes de la obra de Lévinas vemos que su manera de presentarse frente a lo político es ambigua. O bien, resulta mejor decir que solo en apariencia el "objeto" de lo político en sus reflexiones sobre la justicia y el Estado resultan claras; hay una suerte de equívoco que vale la pena precisar y distinguir. Así, el objetivo central de este trabajo es describir dos momentos políticos en Lévinas leídos en clave Estado, como una figura posible de la (...) política; desentrañamos así la trama anti-política en tanto crítica política al Estado, para llegar a la trama del Estado justo e igualitario, lo que abre nuevas puertas para pensar lo político. A partir de esta descripción reflexionamos, por un lado, una postura crítica frente a las ideas sobre el Estado de Lévinas desde las vinculaciones ético-políticas que hace, tal como la de Alberto Sucasas. Y por otro, en contraposición a éstas, las interesantes y extravagantes lecturas que hace Miguel Abensour de Lévinas creyendo que las relaciones ético-políticas levinasianas aportan a renovar críticamente una nueva figura de Estado dejando el terreno político y estatal abierto a nuevas reflexiones. In several passages of Levinas' work we see that his way of presenting the political front is ambiguous. Or, more precisely, that the "object" of the political in his reflections about justice and the State is only apparently clear; there is a sort of equivocalness that is worth clarifying and distinguishing. The aim of this article is to describe two political moments in Levinas, read in terms of the State as a possible figure in politics. We thus unravel an anti-political theme which is critical of the politics of the State, in order to reach a theme of a State that is just and egalitarian. This opens up new territory from which to think of the political. One critique of Levinas' ideas of the State in terms of its ethical-political linkages is that put forth by Alberto Sucasas. A second contrasting critique is the interesting and extravagant reading of Miguel Abensour, in which Levinasian ethical-political relationships lead to a critical renewal of a new figure of the State, leaving the political and state terrain open to new reflections. (shrink)

En mi artículo esbozo una teoría de base psicológica de la identidad personal. En oposición a ciertas otras conocidas teorías que, análogamente, subrayan la relevancia de alguna "continuidad psicológica" para la configuración de una tal identidad, mi teoría se funda en una firme ontología de la primera persona, articulada en un reflexivo marco unificador que deja espacio, no obstante, a puntuales omisiones y discontinuidades de la memoria y a inopinados cambios estructurales de conciencia. Intento justificar que esta ontología no presupone (...) en cualquier caso un Yo sustancial, semántico, sino un mero Yo sintáctico y ejecutivo.In this paper I outline a theory about personal identity on a psychological basis. In contrast to well-known theories that stress in an analogous way the significance of a psychological continuity for the configuration of such an identity, my theory is founded on an ontology of the first person within a reflexive framework that allows incidental omissions and discontinuities of memory, as well as unexpected structural changes of consciousness. I try, further, to justify that this ontology does not presuppose a substantial, semantical Self, but just a sintactical and performative one. (shrink)

My essay is devoted to the very early and attractive understanding of the lived body in Ortega y Gasset’s thought. I focus especially on the text “Vitality, Soul, Spirit” of 1925, which can be considered a proto-phenomenological approach to the issue of embodiment. Ortega identifies “vitality” with “the intrabody” and makes the latter the founding dimension of subjectivity, at the basis of the affective sphere (“soul”) and at the basis of the intellectual and volitional sphere (“spirit”). In a manner very (...) close to Husserl’s unpublished manuscripts, he also shows how the body is the only reality of which there is simultaneously external perception, as if it were just another thing in the world that everyone else can see, and internal perception, which only the self can have and feel. The study also points out, however, the two major difficulties that I detect in Ortega’s precocious attempt. A first doubt concerns the too sharp stratification of vitality, soul and spirit, as can be seen in the analysis of the experiences of pain and of mobility. A second doubt concerns the ontological hesitations surrounding Ortega’s position, which is torn between a coherent phenomenological perspective and a vitalist position in which my body is only an emanation of the lifestream of the universe. (shrink)

In bilingüal lexicography it is quite frequent to find an Arabic word denoting a specific color with several different meanings in Western Languages. Although there are not many studies concerning the semantics of color in Arabic, the aim of this study is to present an overview of the color semantic fields in Arabic taking as an example, the red color. I would present a sincronic study based on Medieval Arabic Lexicography. The main source of this study is Ibn Sīdah’s Kitāb (...) al-Mujaṣṣaṣ from which I will obtain a corpus of colors. The definitions offered by Ibn Sīdah have been compared to others contained in some bilingual dictionaries just to make my own study. I have used the methodology of “the terminology” discipline, drawing up the foundations for a semantic field of colour in Arabic. After this, it will be possible to elaborate a glossary covering all the lexical field of the colour with the Spanish equivalent. (shrink)

It has become commonplace to talk about the “crisis” of democracies, to denote various current phenomena such as abstention, rise of authoritarian governments through electoral processes themselves, or a supposed inability of democratic institutions to address pressing problems like environmental issues. In response to such diagnoses, public discourses and philosophical theories of democracy have taken two main paths. On the one hand, criticisms of the intrinsic limits of democracy have emerg...

La pena natural es una situación paradójica que se puede presentar cuando el autor de un delito, al cometerlo o a causa de éste, ha sufrido un daño igual o mayor al que padecería si el juez de la causa le aplicara la pena estatal prevista para tal conducta. Se da con frecuencia al juzgar ciertos accidentes viales, cuando el acusado ya carga el peso de ser quien, por imprudencia, mató a su pareja o familiar cercano, por ejemplo. Pero ¿en (...) qué situaciones y cómo cabe recurrir a la pena natural? En esta investigación, Manuel Serrano explora las diversas aristas y posturas en pugna que atraviesan este tema, donde se cruzan cuestiones como la idea de la “culpa compensada”, la prohibición de aplicar castigo doble por un mismo hecho (non bis in idem) y la clemencia judicial. El autor desmonta la estructura conceptual de la pena natural, estudia jurisprudencia argentina y recorre producciones teóricas de juristas que se han preocupado por este asunto complejo, profundo y poco abordado del derecho penal. (shrink)

Our knowledge about colonial philosophical manuscripts preserved in the «Fondo Antiguo» and «Fondo Varios» at the National Historical Archive is limited almost exclusively to its listing and location. In some cases, there is a very brief description of the contents, identification of their philosophical tendency and some information about their authors. In order to expand our knowledge about them, we have tried here, on the one hand, to provide a more detailed description of the contents of the works, and, on (...) the other hand, to systematise the information provided by different catalogues. For this work, the contents of the original manuscripts and the corresponding microfiche have been revised and described. Thus, we have been able to correct some errors concerning location and content. We therefore hope to contribute, even minimally, to the construction of the history of philosophy in Chile. (shrink)

El artículo revisa los contenidos generales del Tratado Acerca de los elementos de Manuel Antonio Talavera, que es parte de los capítulos que estudian la Física especial en su obra Instituciones de Física. En ésta, se combinan las doctrinas de filosofía natural según las enseñanzas de los filósofos modernos, los nuevos datos empíricos generados a partir de los experimentos científicos y la autoridad de las Escrituras. Se intenta mostrar cómo en la enseñanza de la disciplina durante la última época colonial (...) convivieron conocimientos propios de la modernidad matizados con elementos característicos de la escolástica. Presentamos una breve nota biográfica del autor y revisamos desde una perspectiva general los principales aspectos del tratado. La intención es visibilizar el quehacer educativo de Talavera y rescatar parte del legado filosófico latinoamericano. (shrink)

La transmisión de la filosofía al continente americano puede rastrearse materialmente por medio del examen de las redes comerciales que procuraron la numerosa llegada de libros que alimentaron a las primeras bibliotecas coloniales. En ellas se resguardaron variadas obras filosóficas y humanísticas que fueron fundamentales en la promoción y el desarrollo de la cultura escrita y la educación. Al revisar algunos aspectos centrales del comercio, el control librario y la colección de obras afines en las primeras bibliotecas privadas y religiosas, (...) se pretende reconstruir, al menos en sus rasgos característicos, el devenir de la filosofía en el Nuevo Mundo. The transmission of philosophy to the Americas can be traced through the examination of the commercial networks that provided the first colonial libraries with books. These vast collections contained various philosophical and humanistic works that were a key factor in the promotion and the development of written culture and education. Reviewing some aspects on trading, book inventory and the collection of related works in the first private and religious libraries, the main goal is to reconstruct, at least in its characteristic features, the development of philosophy in the New World. (shrink)

The objective of this study has been to establish the level of significance that Gustavo Gutierrez and Juan Luis Segundo attribute to politics in their contributions to liberation theology and to extract the relevant consequences for political theory. ;A systematic analysis of the theory of history in the works of these two authors indicates a higher level of integration between Christianity and politics that is usual in Christian political thought. Liberation is equated with salvation and political liberation is seen as (...) one of its components. This brings politics to a position of privilege. When at the service of justice it occupies, for our authors, a high rank among Christian concerns and when devoted to oppression it requires diligent response from every Christian. ;This understanding of politics is valuable in that it accentuates the political aspect of the Christian theory of history, an element frequently underestimated. Certain tensions remain, however, in the theory as a result of this emphasis: between the moral improvement expected from the involvement in political activities conducive to justice and the moral ambiguity of political structures emerging from such activity; and between the use of the concept of class struggle and notions of conversion and reconciliation. Finally, there is the danger of reducing the critical ability of Christians regarding a particular political project by identifying it with the concept of eschatology. (shrink)

We argue that philosophers are competent to facilitate public discussion concerning restrictions on human migration across political borders. We also argue that presenting public audiences with a prima facie case for open borders offers a unique opportunity to elucidate important aspects of philosophical reasoning. Finally, we share resources and a lesson plan for those keen to examine the case for open borders with students, or to facilitate public discussion on these issues.

ResumenEste artículo propone una idea de intervención e institución que se entrelace en lo social a través del concepto de contagio como elemento filosófico articulador. En primer lugar, se establece un marco teórico-filosófico para pensar la vida como una ontología social del contagio, que permita habitar un pensar relacional etológico que se abra a otros modos de existencia. Desde este marco, los hallazgos perfilan la relación intervención-institución desde la sensibilidad que evoca esta forma distinta de intervención en lo social, disponiendo (...) de otros modos las variaciones de la institución y sus procesos de instituir el campo social. Se concluye discutiendo la relación entre intervención y sus capacidades transformativas como componente metódico y epistemológico distinto que trae consigo un fuerte potencial político y ético. Al multiplicar los modos de ser y los procesos de subjetivación se abren prácticas humanas y más-que-humanas, instituyendo otros modos de hacer-y-pensar toda intervención del presente.Palabras clave: institución; intervención; contagio; formas de vida; cartografías. (shrink)

El siguiente artículo revisa brevemente diferentes aspectos de los Comentarios Acerca del alma, dictados por el franciscano chileno fray Juan de Fuica, en mayo de 1689, en el Colegio San Diego de Alcalá de Santiago de Chile. Presentamos, primero, una nota biográfica del fraile con información relativa a su trayectoria académica y administrativa dentro de la orden franciscana. Luego, analizamos en cinco categorías los aspectos fundamentales de este curso inédito: características generales, características del lenguaje, estructura, método de enseñanza y contenidos (...) ad mentem Scoti. Creemos que con la edición de este testimonio exclusivo de la enseñanza filosófica de la época, visibilizamos el patrimonio filosófico colonial del país y, en consecuencia, llenamos una gran laguna en la historia de la filosofía chilena. This article briefly reviews the different aspects of the Commentaries On the Soul, dictated in 1689 by Chilean Franciscan Friar Juan de Fuica at San Diego de Alcalá College, Santiago de Chile. First, we present a biographical note on the Friar with information concerning his academic and administrative career within the Franciscan order. Second, we analyze in five categories the fundamental aspects of this unreleased manuscript: general features, language features, structure, teaching method and ad mentem Scoti contents. We believe that with the edition of this exclusive testimony of philosophical teachings at that time, we give visibility to the colonial philosophical heritage of the country and, thereby, fill a gap in the history of Chilean philosophy. (shrink)

Ortega y Gasset’s old lament that no one had so far attempted a rigorous phenomenology of pain no longer holds since the appearance of Christian Grüny’s recent monograph Zerstörte Erfahrung. Eine Phänomenologie des Schmerzes. Grüny argues for the use of phenomenological categories from Merleau-Ponty in order to understand physical pain as a “blocked escape-movement” , concluding that corporeal suffering makes impossible both a clean distinction and a pure identification between the lived body and the physical body that I am. In (...) my paper, I would like to suggest some improvements to Grüny’s approach through the utilization of the category of self-affection, as the material phenomenology of Michel Henry has developed it. In addition to the radical immanence in which hyle, noesis, and noema are unified into a “carnal cogito,” however, I argue that it is necessary to describe the painful self-affection not only in terms of any sensitive excess whatever , as Grüny posits, but also in terms of a mutation of the sensitive excess into the intra-tactile sphere of sensibility. Thus I endorse the Husserlian insight that makes tactility the primordial structure of sensibility. (shrink)

Resumen: El artículo estudia los Elementos de Filosofía (EdF), dictados por Andrés Bello a Juan Alemparte en Santiago de Chile hacia los años 1840-1843 y conservados actualmente en una copia manuscrita. Se muestra que los EdF corresponden a un esbozo preliminar de las materias abordadas por Bello tanto en las entregas del periódico El Crepúsculo como en su obra póstuma Filosofía del Entendimiento. Por ello, se plantea que estas lecciones manuscritas constituyen un testimonio exclusivo de las clases particulares del maestro (...) venezolano en Santiago del siglo XIX y exhiben, además, un estadio de maduración temprano de ideas que llegarán a ser gravitantes en su obra magna. Se espera que este material represente un insumo para futuras pesquisas en torno a las percepciones en general, y desde la perspectiva del pensador caraqueño en particular. Abstract: The article examines the Elements of Philosophy, taught by Andrés Bello to Juan Alemparte in Santiago de Chile around 1840-1843 and currently preserved in a manuscript copy. It is shown that the Elements of Philosophy correspond to a preliminary outline of the matters addressed by Bello both in the newspaper El Crepúsculo and in his posthumous work Philosophy of the Understanding. For this reason, it is proposed that these manuscript notes constitute an exclusive testimony of the private lessons of the Venezuelan Master in Santiago of the 19th century and exhibit a stage of early maturation of ideas that will become gravitational in his magnum opus. It is expected that this material represents an input for future research on perceptions in general, and from the perspective of the thinker from Caracas in particular. (shrink)

Observational studies have suggested that some nonhuman primates’ cooperative behavior may rely on their capacity to share goals and understand the role of their partners. Experimental studies have tried to find evidence for this under controlled conditions, investigating aspects like the degree of organization in different primate species and the individuals’ capacity to recognize and choose good partners, switch roles with them, and care about their outcomes. Often, the results have been mixed. Partly, this is because of the methodological difficulties (...) inherent to empirical research. In this paper, I offer a critical, methodological review of the experimental studies done in the last years on nonhuman primates’ cooperation, I discuss their findings, and suggest possible solutions to some of the procedural problems. Hopefully, this will contribute to improve the design of future studies and therefore our knowledge about the evolutionary history of cooperation. (shrink)

The theme of the other (autrui) in Deleuze is confused with the double task of articulating a new perspective of the sense while questioning the traditional image of thought. This opens up ground from which to analyze this theme in the work of Deleuze which although is systematically visible in Différence et répétition (1968) and Logique du sens (1969) some elements of are discernable in Proust et les signes (1964). This study addresses the idea that the territory of the other (...) is the sense as identified in these three texts. Further ideas will also be introduced that center on the face and the manner in which it reformulates ties to sense. As suggested in Deleuze, a type of thinking is installed in the opening to the other, however not necessarily entering into the registry of morality nor of knowledge. (shrink)

La filosofía, como "toma de posición razonada respecto a la totalidad de lo real", constituye todavía hoy, en la modernidad tardía, quizás no un saber propiamente dicho, pero sí, en todo caso, una "sabiduría buscada" ; una sabiduría que se constituye por relación a la razón y que no renuncia a abordar las cuestiones últimas, fundamentales y metafísicas. El filósofo resulta, pues, guardián de una tradición de inquietudes y problemas intelectuales hondamente humanos que no deben ser acallados. Para ellos la (...) ciencia no tiene una adecuada solución, pero permanecen ahí incitando al pensamiento e invitando a superar toda concepción positivista de la razón. ¿Cómo hacer compatible la pervivencia actuante de esa tradición y el irrenunciable criticismo que hacia la misma mantiene, por razones sobradamente justificadas, la racionalidad ilustrada? He aquí quizá una de las tareas más difíciles, pero también más estimulantes, que tiene ante sí la filosofía actual. (shrink)

BackgroundUmbilical cord banks are a central component, as umbilical cord tissue providers, in both medical treatment and scientific research with stem cells. But, whereas the creation of umbilical cord banks is seen as successful practice, it is perceived as a risky style of play by others. This article examines and discusses the ethical, medical and legal considerations that arise from the operation of umbilical cord banks in Mexico.DiscussionA number of experts have stated that the use of umbilical cord goes beyond (...) the mere utilization of human tissues for the purpose of treatment. This tissue is also used in research studies: genetic studies, studies to evaluate the effectiveness of new antibiotics, studies to identify new proteins, etc. Meanwhile, others claim that the law and other norms for the functioning of cord banks are not consistent and are poorly defined. Some of these critics point out that the confidentiality of donor information is handled differently in different places. The fact that private cord banks offer their services as "biological insurance" in order to obtain informed consent by promising the parents that the tissue that will be stored insures the health of their child in the future raises the issue of whether the consent is freely given or given under coercion. Another consideration that must be made in relation to privately owned cord banks has to do with the ownership of the stored umbilical cord.SummaryConflicts between moral principles and economic interests (non-moral principles) cause dilemmas in the clinical practice of umbilical cord blood storage and use especially in privately owned banks. This article presents a reflection and some of the guidelines that must be followed by umbilical cord banks in order to deal with these conflicts. This reflection is based on the fundamental notions of ethics and public health and seeks to be a contribution towards the improvement of umbilical cord banks' performance. (shrink)

La renta básica se nos presenta en la obra de Philippe van Parijs como una propuesta política filosóficamente argumentada, de modo tal que convencerá tanto al teórico de la justicia como al ciudadano que votará su implantación. En este artículo analizamos la argumentación de van Parijs mostrando cómo la efectividad política de sus tesis sólo se sostiene a costa de reducir el debate sobre la renta básica a los términos de su propia concepción de la ética. Ponemos en duda, por (...) nuestra parte, el alcance de esta reducción sobre un doble plano: diluye por completo la dimensión prudencial de toda argumentación política, y no deja más alternativa que la educación sentimental para quienes no se dejen convencer por el equilibrio reflexivo. (shrink)