Inauguration speech at chair number 18 of the Brasilian Academy of Philosophy.

This paper investigates some classical oppositional categories, like synthetic vs. analytic, posterior vs. prior, imagination vs. grammar, metaphor vs. hermeneutics, metaphysics vs. observation, innovation vs. routine, and image vs. sound, and the role they play in epistemology and philosophy of science. The epistemological framework of objective cognitive constructivism is of special interest in these investigations. Oppositional relations are formally represented using algebraic lattice structures like the cube and the hexagon of opposition, with applications in the contexts of modern color theory, (...) Kantian philosophy, Jungian psychology, and linguistics. (shrink)

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

1. Modern science in historical perspective -- On the origins of modern science -- The post-Renaissance revolution : the New Science -- Frank Sherwood Taylor : the man who was converted by Galileo -- The limits of science -- Proofs and demonstrations -- On the intelligibility of Quantum Mechanics -- Uncertainty, incompleteness, chance, and design -- A Finite, Open and Contingent Universe -- 2. On the origin and development of life -- A brief history of evolutionary thought -- Life's intelligible (...) design -- What are the contributions of Genetics to the understanding of life? -- On the Human Genome in contrast to the Great Apes Genome -- On The Evolution Controversy -- Scientific critiques of Darwinism -- 3. Beyond nature and history -- The religion of Darwinism -- On the riddle of man's origin -- On science, history and free will -- Science and Faith -- Concluding remarks. (shrink)

O gás sarin no metrô de Tóquio, as 'balas perdidas' no Rio de Janeiro e os ataques terroristas às torres gêmeas em Nova York ou ao transporte coletivo em Madri e Londres revelam que nossa sociedade interdependente é muito vulnerável.

De la materia del sueño nace de un esfuerzo de síntesis entre dos orientaciones vitales. Por un lado, en el plano poético, la poesía y los medios por los que esta logra extenderse en la vida cotidiana a partir de la experiencia de lo maravilloso; por otro, en el plano político, las potencialidades de la Utopía como medio de reactivación del imaginario revolucionario. Es ahí, y no en otra parte, donde debe enmarcarse este ensayo. Si no fuera porque ellos nunca (...) hablaron previamente, podríamos decir que en este libro está basada la última película de Jan Švankmajer, Sobreviviendo a la vida (Teoría y práctica). (shrink)

A INTERFERÊNCIA DO PODER EXECUTIVO NOS ORÇAMENTOS DO PODER JUDICIÁRIO E DO MINISTÉRIO PÚBLICO: SEPARAÇÃO DOS PODERES E IMPACTOS NO EXERCÍCIO DE SUAS FUNÇÕES INSTITUCIONAIS.

The present work gives an account of an Ethics of weakness in the hermeneutical thought of the Italian philosopher Gianni Vattimo. The article highlights that, in his proposal, called “weak thinking”, the bases are provided for a defense, respect and recognition of cultural differences in the context of postmodernity and that it ends up involving minorities. Arguments that I observe in different moments of his textual production, accentuating the passage from the ontological to the ethical. I try to answer three (...) fundamental questions: 1. What is the Debolist Ethics that emerges from the Nihilist Hermeneutics of Vattimo? 2. How does this Ethics respond to the postmodern condition, today in its multicultural phase; that builds differences, minorities, and pluralities? 3. How can cultural differences be interpreted from the hermeneutical horizon in which Gianni Vattimo is inserted? (shrink)

Se interpreta el pensamiento hermenéutico del filósofo aragonés Andrés Ortiz-Osés como una filosofía relacional. Por destacar el carácter mediador de la realidad, en tanto construcción de sentido gracias al lenguaje y la experiencia interhumana. Se comprende, además, las características de esta reflexión ontológica, muy apegada a las consecuencias de la crisis de la metafísica tradicional y al impulso de la filosofía hermenéutica. En atención a esto, el pensamiento ortizosesiano intenta superar los dualismos y monismos heredados, para anteponer la relación entre (...) ser humano, mundo y lenguaje. El objetivo: una tercera vía ontológica llamada implicacionismo o relacionismo. (shrink)

Conceptual congruency effects are biases induced by an irrelevant conceptual dimension of a task (e.g., location in vertical space) on the processing of another, relevant dimension (e.g., judging words’ emotional evaluation). Such effects are a central empirical pillar for recent views about how the mind/brain represents concepts. In the present paper, we show how attentional cueing (both exogenous and endogenous) to each conceptual dimension succeeds in modifying both the manifestation and the symmetry of the effect. The theoretical implications of this (...) finding are discussed. (shrink)