Tomando como ponto de partida o diálogo "Clara", escrito por Schelling, o autor faz da conexão da Natureza com o Espírito o fio condutor da trajetória do pensamento schellinguiano. É, antes de tudo, na disputa com as filosofias de Fichte e Hegel, que se revela a convergência entre a concepção transcendental do Espírito e a filosofia da Natureza, dando-se assim a entender a importância de um conceito especulativo da Natureza como acesso ao mundo real. Taking the dialogue "Clara", written (...) by Schelling, as a starting point, the author uses the conection of Nature with the Spirit as a guiding line for his exposition of Schelling’s thought. It is, above all, the dispute with the philosophies of Fichte e Hegel that reveals the convergence between a transcendental conception of Spirit and the philosophy of Nature. Thus, the author implies the importance of speculative concept of Nature as an access to the real world. (shrink)

Resumen: Este ensayo tiene como propósito fundamentar teóricamente el carácter situado del conocimiento de la vida cotidiana. Como punto de partida, apoyándonos en la noción de “forma de vida” de Ludwig Wittgenstein, postulamos que nuestras decisiones son, fundamentalmente, usos prácticos de sistemas de reglas históricamente construidas y, por consiguiente, irreductibles a procedimientos algorítmicos de evaluación racional costo-beneficio. Posteriormente, para abordar la cuestión sobre las condiciones que hacen posible la incorporación subjetiva de estas reglas y, con ello, nuestro sentido práctico, (...) recuperamos algunos planteamientos de las tesis del “trasfondo” de John Searle y habitus de Pierre Bourdieu. Luego de esta discusión, a partir de la perspectiva de los conocimientos situados de Donna Haraway, proponemos que la conformación de dicho sentido es siempre parcial, esto es, sujeto a prácticas articulatorias encarnadas. Finalmente, tras exponer sucintamente los principales aspectos críticos de las tesis “trasfondo” y habitus, argumentamos que la perspectiva de los conocimientos situados representa una alternativa plausible para fundamentar teórica y metodológicamente una nueva aproximación al conocimiento de la vida cotidiana.: This essay argues for a situated character of knowledge of everyday life. As a starting point, relying on Ludwig Wittgenstein's notion of “form of life”, we propose that our decisions are fundamentally practical uses of historically constructed rules systems and, therefore, those are irreducible to algorithmic procedures of rational cost-benefit evaluation. Later, to address the question of the conditions that make possible the subjective incorporation of these rules and, with it, our practical sense, we recover some approaches from the “background” thesis of John Searle and habitus by Pierre Bourdieu. After this discussion, from Donna Haraway's perspective of situated knowledge, we propose that the conformation of that sense is always partial; that is, related to embodied articulatory practices. Finally, we argue that the perspective of situated knowledge represents a plausible alternative to theoretically and methodologically support an approach to knowledge of everyday life. (shrink)

Pedro Álvarez (Cuba) y Rafael Trelles (Puerto Rico) son dos importantes exponentes de la plástica contemporánea en el Caribe hispano que encontraron en dos hitos artísticos del siglo xix una vía para cuestionar las fórmulas fijadas por la Historia y el Arte. Ambos, a partir de la reapropiación de la obra de Víctor Patricio Landaluze y Francisco Oller, respectivamente, reflexionan sobre las complejas circunstancias de sus islas. Mediante el estudio del pasado ambos se preocupan comprometidamente por el sentido de su (...) historia patria, por la (re) actualización de su tradición artística o las funciones del intelectual en la configuración de sus contextos nacionales. La fragmentación y el collage resultan métodos constructivos eficaces que utilizan ambos artistas para descontextualizar los múltiples signos culturales de sus referentes de partida y readecuar sus múltiples significados en la nueva obra, y en el nuevo contexto. Sin embargo, a pesar de las semejanzas se advierten igualmente diferencias de intención, de acuerdo a las respectivas realidades nacionales. (shrink)

La persona humana ha sido definida de muchas maneras a lo largo de la historia. Con el paso del tiempo, la reflexión filosófica, teológica, psicológica, antropológica, sociológica, histórica, etc, ha hecho grandes aportes a la comprensión de la persona humana y aportado otras definiciones. Nos hemos enfocado en las reflexiones que ha hecho el personalismo que sostiene que la persona humana es el centro y punto de partida de toda reflexión. De todas sus características, la persona humana es ante (...) todo un ser para el encuentro y el primer encuentro de su existencia es la relación filial. No obstante lo evidente que resulta el ser hijos, no vivimos como tales o al menos no parece que lo entendamos así.. Es por eso que hemos qurido sacar a la luz algunas claves que sirvan a hombres y mujeres del mundo actual para comprender el valor de la dimensión filial de la persona humana y qué puede estar impidiendo vivirla o aceptarla en la propia vida; esperando que a partir de esta reflexión se pueda ayudar a reconocer la riqueza del ser hijos, y de esta manera, se tiendan puentes para facilitar la comprensión y la apertura a la fe cristiana que entiende a todo ser humano como hijo de Dios. (shrink)

En este artículo tomamos como punto de partida la Fuga y Masacre de Trelew (agosto de 1972), pero nuestro eje principal será el ciclo de conflictividad docente en la región (1969-1972) en el marco del Plan de Lucha Nacional que condujo el Acuerdo de Nucleamientos Docentes. El nexo entre ambas situaciones es la presencia de Mario Abel Amaya (docente, miembro de la Asociación Gremial de Abogados, dirigente de la UCR y presidente de la recién constituida Asociación de Docentes (...) del Este de Chubut), en el aeropuerto de Trelew al momento en que se producía la fuga de presos políticos del penal U6 de Rawson. Por su mediación en ese momento con las fuerzas represivas para garantizar la rendición pacífica de lxs 19 guerrillerxs fugadxs, fue acusado de complicidad y detenido por la dictadura militar. Esto sucedió hasta que la movilización popular del “Trelewazo” consiguió su libertad tres meses más tarde. Ese es nuestro punto retrospectivo de partida, para analizar la unidad que se fue forjando entre los sectores docentes y el incremento de su combatividad, en el marco del primer acto de terrorismo de estado. Encontramos en la figura de Amaya una trama de relaciones que nos permiten hilvanar analíticamente las luchas políticas y económicas de la región. (shrink)

The author gets human creativity to bridge phenomenology and metaphysics. He examines closely the poetical principle of Edgar Allan Poe and considers the artwork as a phenomenon appealing to the metaphysical beauty. He also considers the problem of free-dom in phenomenological and metaphysical aspects of creativity. To harmonize the freedom and phenomenology the author offers to differentiate two kinds of intentionality: “intentionality to” and “intentionality from”. The first is reducible to the purposefulness of events and refers to the constitutive function (...) of consciousness, the latter implies the human creativity and freedom as an act of differentiation of phenomenon from its previous limits. The incipient point of the second form of intentionality seems to be a metaphysical object, which is worth considering as an inexhaustible source of the world of phenomena.El autor considera la creatividad humana pare tender un puente entre fenomenología y metafísica. Examina de cerca el principio poético de Edgar Allan Poe y considera la obra de arte como un fenómeno que apela a la belleza metafísica. Considera el problema de la libertad en relación a los aspectos fenomenológicos y metafísicos de la creatividad. Para armonizar la libertad y la fenomenología, el autor propone diferenciar dos tipos de intencionalidad: “intencionalidad a” y “intencionalidad de ”. La primera es reducible a la intencionalidad de los hechos y se refiere a la función constitutiva de la conciencia; la segunda implica la creatividad humana y la libertad como un acto de diferenciación del fenómeno de sus límites anteriores. El punto de partida de la segunda forma de intencionalidad parece ser un objeto metafísico, el cual merece la pena considerar como una inagotable fuente del mundo de los fenómenos. (shrink)

CADERNOS DE FILOSOFIA EXTRAVAGANTE - ANTÓNIO TELMO Vários Autores Um dos sinais do Quinto Império é que ainda há andorinhas O provérbio diz que uma andorinha não faz a Primavera Mas eu acho que faz Enquanto houver um homem onde resida a espiritualidade há sempre um princípio do Quinto Império António Telmo Este terceiro volume dos Cadernos de Filosofia Extravagante é o primeiro que se publica após a partida de António Telmo, que os imaginou, concebeu e fundou Constitui por (...) isso, na íntegra, um preito de homenagem ao autor da História Secreta de Portugal, nele se inserindo, bem a propósito, as actas do Colóquio A Obra e o Pensamento de António Telmo, realizado em 14 e 15 de Fevereiro de 2011, no Palácio da Independência, em Lisboa, por iniciativa do Instituto de Filosofia Luso-Brasileira, documento a que acrescem alguns testemunhos de amigos que, por uma ou outra razão, não puderam participar naquela comemoração, e duas entrevistas, uma das quais se encontrava por publicar, pelo filósofo concedidas na última década Por outro lado, nestas páginas o leitor poderá ainda encontrar dois escritos do autor de O Bateleur – um poema e um conto – nunca antes dados ao papel em letra de forma E, o que talvez seja mais, uma série significativa de correspondência epistolar até agora mantida inédita, tendo o filósofo por destinatário São missivas de Álvaro Ribeiro, José Marinho, Agostinho da Silva, Dalila Pereira da Costa e António Quadros, definindo um arco temporal que vai da publicação de Arte Poética, em 1963, à de Filosofia e Kabbalah, em 1990 Quase trinta anos de uma vida filosófica singular em que, a cada passo, são bem notórias a admiração e a amizade que mestres e condiscípulos lhe dedicam Autores- António Telmo, Pedro Martins, Renato Epifânio, Américo Rodrigues, Helena Estriga, António Braz Teixeira, Joaquim Domingues, Abel de Lacerda Botelho, Roque N Brás de Oliveira, M N Vieira, Luís Paixão, António Carlos Carvalho, Cynthia Guimarães Taveira, Rui Lopo, António Quadros Ferro, Carlos Aurélio, António Cândido Franco, Rodrigo Sobral Cunha, Carlos Vargas, Manuel Ferreira Patrício, Pedro Sinde, Paulo Santos, Pedro Paquim Ribeiro, Maurícia Teles da Silva, J Pinharanda Gomes, António Quadros, Avelino de Sousa, Elísio Gala, José Paulo Ribeiro Albuquerque, Helder Cortes, Eduardo Aroso, Isabel Xavier, Jesus Carlos, Álvaro Ribeiro, José Marinho, Agostinho da Silva, Dalila Pereira da Costa. (shrink)

Excerpt from La Philosophie Moderne Personne, j'espere, ne croira que j'ai eu la preten tion de traiter en trois cents pages de la philosophie moderne au sens plein de cette expression. J'ai seulement voulu faire un expose sommaire de la forme sous laquelle les grands problemes de la philo sophie se posent a l'heure actuelle. Et ce titre con viendrait beaucoup plus precisement a cet ouvrage si les couvertures de nos livres se pretaient a un pareil allongement. About the Publisher (...) Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. (shrink)

Este artículo examina las ruralidades queer como campo de estudios en el Estado español. Se abordarán detalladamente algunos de los conceptos clave que fundamentan este campo a nivel internacional, y se proporcionará un análisis del breve, pero a la vez prolífico, desarrollo que este campo de estudios ha experimentado en el Estado español durante la última década. Finalmente, se presentarán algunas de las propuestas culturales, políticas y artísticas que están enriqueciendo las ruralidades queer y ampliando sus horizontes políticos e interpretativos.

En contraposición a la predominancia cultural de lo urbano y en medio de un contexto de desenfrenado capitalismo globalizador, el VIII Congreso sobre Pensamiento Filosófico Contemporáneo se planteó el desafío de recoger algunas voces y discursos a menudo marginados por el canon del pensamiento occidental metrocentrista. A lo largo de esos tres días de octubre, en el congreso se analizaron pormenorizadamente las situaciones de sujetos, comunidades y geografías rurales, situaciones que tienden a ser activamente desescuchadas en un presente espacial que (...) encuentra la globalización, la híper-densificación de las principales zonas urbanas-metropolitanas, y el vaciamiento forzoso de las geografías rurales, como uno de sus marcos de conflicto. Estos análisis profundizaron en las necesidades específicas de dichas comunidades, arrojando luz sobre sus desafíos y ofreciendo una perspectiva crítica a propósito de la complejidad de la interacción entre lo rural y lo urbano. Desde estas inquietudes, el VIII Congreso se articuló como una plataforma a través de la que celebrar la diversidad de discursos filosóficos emergentes producidos en los marcos de lo comúnmente entendido como «rural», reconociendo su importancia crucial en la construcción de un diálogo integral sobre los desafíos que definen nuestro presente; y este monográfico es resultado de ese intercambio de saberes. (shrink)

The debate between the amodal and the grounded views of cognition seems to be stuck. Their only substantial disagreement is about the vehicle or format of concepts. Amodal theorists reject the grounded claim that concepts are couched in the same modality-specific format as representations in sensory systems. The problem is that there is no clear characterization of format or its neural correlate. In order to make the disagreement empirically meaningful and move forward in the discussion we need a neurocognitive criterion (...) for representational format. I argue that efficient coding models in computational neuroscience can be used to characterize modal codes: These are codes which satisfy special informational demands imposed by sensory tasks. Additionally, I examine recent studies on neural coding and argue that although they do not provide conclusive evidence for either the grounded or the amodal views, they can be used to determine what predictions these approaches can make and what experimental and theoretical developments would be required to settle the debate. (shrink)

While scientific inquiry crucially relies on the extraction of patterns from data, we still have a far from perfect understanding of the metaphysics of patterns—and, in particular, of what makes a pattern real. In this paper we derive a criterion of real-patternhood from the notion of conditional Kolmogorov complexity. The resulting account belongs to the philosophical tradition, initiated by Dennett :27–51, 1991), that links real-patternhood to data compressibility, but is simpler and formally more perspicuous than other proposals previously defended in (...) the literature. It also successfully enforces a non-redundancy principle, suggested by Ladyman and Ross, that aims to exclude from real-patternhood those patterns that can be ignored without loss of information about the target dataset, and which their own account fails to enforce. (shrink)

Abstract:I defend that the distinctive object of our aesthetic evaluation of films is the full emotional experience, taken as a unified whole, that we go through as we watch a film and that I call the viewer's film emotional life. The aesthetic value itself—the positive quality we perceive in the experience of having had a certain film emotional life—is in the significance we experience in that film emotional life insofar as it contributes to the discovery and the exploration of the (...) viewer's human and individual emotional nature. I finally suggest that the explanation of the positive felt quality of such experience is in the progress it represents regarding our resourcefulness as emotional subjects toward the realization of our individual ideal of life. (shrink)

Although it has been argued that mechanistic explanation is compatible with abstraction, there are still doubts about whether mechanism can account for the explanatory power of significant abstract models in computational neuroscience. Chirimuuta has recently claimed that models describing canonical neural computations must be evaluated using a non-mechanistic framework. I defend two claims regarding these models. First, I argue that their prevailing neurocognitive interpretation is mechanistic. Additionally, a criterion recently proposed by Levy and Bechtel to legitimize mechanistic abstract models, and (...) also a criterion proposed by Chirimuuta herself aimed to distinguish between causal and non-causal explanation, can be employed to show why these models are explanatory only under this interpretation. Second, I argue that mechanism is able to account for the special epistemic achievement implied by CNC models. Canonical neural components contribute to an integrated understanding of different cognitive functions. They make it possible for us to explain these functions by describing different mechanisms constituted by common basic components arranged in different ways. (shrink)

John Venn and Charles L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) created systems of logic diagrams capable of representing classes (sets) and their relations in the form of propositions. Each is a proof method for syllogisms, and Carroll's is a sound and complete system. For a large number of sets, Carroll diagrams are easier to draw because of their self-similarity and algorithmic construction. This regularity makes it easier to locate and thereby to erase cells corresponding with classes destroyed by the premises of an (...) argument, a particularly difficult task in Venn diagrams for more than four sets. Carroll diagrams can represent existential propositions easily, so they are capable of clearly representing more complex problems than Venn's system can. Finally, both Carroll and Venn diagrams are maximal, in the sense that no additional logic information like inclusive disjunctions is able to be represented by them. Carroll's logic diagrams and logic trees constitute his visual logic system. (shrink)

I argue that our everyday evaluations of architecture are primarily evaluations of spaces and, in particular, of their inhabitability— that is, whether they serve or can serve to the realization of our individual ideal of life. Inhabitability is not only a functional criterion but an aesthetic one as well. It is aesthetic insofar as the evaluations about inhabitability include evaluations about the quality of the experience of actually doing something in —or simply occupying—a particular space. This aesthetic aspect of our (...) everyday evaluations explains, on one hand, the distinctive features of our everyday preferences for some architectonic spaces over others—namely, their very personal nature; their noticeable value in our daily lives; their inseparability from the activities we plan to realize in those spaces; and the importance of the spaces which are contiguous to the one we are evaluating. And on the other, it both reveals architecture’s significance for the quality of our daily life and serves as a guide for us to choose spaces that improve that quality. (shrink)

One of the most prominent ethical concerns regarding emerging neurotechnologies is mental privacy. This is the idea that we should have control over access to our neural data and to the information about our mental processes and states that can be obtained by analyzing it. A key issue is whether this information needs more stringent protection than other kinds of personal information. I will articulate and support the view, underlying recent regulatory frameworks, that mental privacy requires a special treatment because (...) of its relation to relevant aspects of personal identity. It has been suggested that this approach could be supported by the idea that mental privacy constitutes a fundamental psychological dimension of privacy. The connection between this psychological view of privacy and identity can be traced back to Irwin Altman’s idea that privacy is an interpersonal boundary regulation process. However, it is not clear whether this notion of privacy can be associated with a conception of identity that is relevant in contemporary neuroethics. I will suggest that the narrative and relational approach to identity, a prominent view in recent ethical discussions of neurotechnology, lines up with key aspects of Altman’s proposal. I suggest that if mental privacy is an essential component of identity, the latter could be affected by technological mind-reading. (shrink)

It has been argued that the approximate number system (ANS) constitutes a problem for the grounded approach to cognition because it implies that some conceptual tasks are performed by non-perceptual systems. The ANS is considered non-perceptual mainly because it processes stimuli from different modalities. Jones (2015) has recently argued that this system has many features (such as being modular) which are characteristic of sensory systems. Additionally, he affirms that traditional sensory systems also process inputs from different modalities. This suggests that (...) the ANS is a perceptual system and therefore it is not problematic for the grounded view. In this paper, I defend the amodal approach to the ANS against these two arguments. In the first place, perceptual systems do not possess the properties attributed to the ANS and therefore these properties do not imply that the ANS is perceptual. In the second place, I will propose that a sensory system only needs to be dedicated to process modality-specific information, which is consistent with responding to inputs from different modalities. I argue that the cross-modal responses exhibited by traditional sensory systems are consistent with modality-specific information whereas some responses exhibited by the ANS are not. (shrink)

The paper introduces a special issue of the journal Philosophical Problems in Science (ZFN) on the topic of the nature and norms of scientific explanation.

It is widely recognized that police performance may be hindered by psychophysiological state changes during acute stress. To address the need for awareness and control of these physiological changes, police academies in many countries have implemented Heart-Rate Variability biofeedback training. Despite these trainings now being widely delivered in classroom setups, they typically lack the arousing action context needed for successful transfer to the operational field, where officers must apply learned skills, particularly when stress levels rise. The study presented here aimed (...) to address this gap by training physiological control skills in an arousing decision-making context. We developed a Virtual-Reality breathing-based biofeedback training in which police officers perform deep and slow diaphragmatic breathing in an engaging game-like action context. This VR game consisted of a selective shoot/don’t shoot game designed to assess response inhibition, an impaired capacity in high arousal situations. Biofeedback was provided based on adherence to a slow breathing pace: the slower and deeper the breathing, the less constrained peripheral vision became, facilitating accurate responses to the in-game demands. A total of nine male police trainers completed 10 sessions over a 4-week period as part of a single-case experimental ABAB study-design. Results showed that eight out of nine participants showed improved breathing control in action, with a positive effect on breathing-induced low frequency HRV, while also improving their in-game behavioral performance. Critically, the breathing-based skill learning transferred to subsequent sessions in which biofeedback was not presented. Importantly, all participants remained highly engaged throughout the training. Altogether, our study showed that our VR environment can be used to train breathing regulation in an arousing and active decision-making context. (shrink)

Charles L. Dodgson's reputation as a significant figure in nineteenth-century logic was firmly established when the philosopher and historian of philosophy William Warren Bartley, III published Dodgson's ?lost? book of logic, Part II of Symbolic Logic, in 1977. Bartley's commentary and annotations confirm that Dodgson was a superb technical innovator. In this paper, I closely examine Dodgson's methods and their evolution in the two parts of Symbolic Logic to clarify and justify Bartley's claims. Then, using more recent publications and unpublished (...) letters, I argue that Dodgson approached the elimination problem in class logic differently than his contemporaries, and in doing so, anticipated several important concepts and techniques in automated deductive reasoning. These materials also provide additional insight into his reasons for writing this book. (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)

The somewhat disturbing success of bioethics as a discipline is probably due to the unique nature of its subject matter. Indeed what is it that happens when scientific interest, with its particular resources and language, turns toward the study of the human body? Can this body be instrumentalized like any other object, or do the sciences have to give way here before a taboo subject? Have the sciences not, without their knowing it, taken on an unprecedented signification? The truly prodigious (...) growth of new fields of biological knowledge has thrust biology into the public arena. Extending more than ever beyond the status of narrowly scientific knowledge, these new fields have taken on a mythological and normative character in the social imagination. (shrink)

Film emotions are genuine emotions whose formation and development is affected by conflictive factors. Whereas their arousal, similar to that of real-life emotions, is disproportionately strengthened by the cinematographic medium, their subsequent course is both weakened and interrupted. Their objects, which I view as members of our personal emotional world (not in terms of their supposed fictionality, as often assumed), are also proper intentional objects of emotions: our fear is about the shark on the screen, our pity about the main (...) character. This view allows also for an explanation of two of film emotions’ neglected features: (a) the viewer's emotional attachment and empathy toward film objects and (b) the long-lasting emotional impact films can have on viewers. (shrink)

This paper asks: What is philosophy and what are some current challenges and future prospects for pursuing and teaching it? What role can and should students’ imagination, interests, and circumstances play in addressing these challenges and prospects? It argues, first, that there are at least six senses of the term “philosophy”: the personal, social, branch of inquiry, theory, school of thought, and wise sayings senses; second, that a variety of stimuli contribute to motivate philosophy in all of its senses. Third, (...) it argues that teaching philosophy involves not just teaching one or more philosophies historically held, nor just partially or totally defending one or another of these philosophies; but also engaging in the third sense of “philosophy” above listed: philosophy as a branch of inquiry. Finally, the paper argues that by relying on the interests of philosophy learners that match the stimuli motivating philosophy, philosophy teaching sensitizes philosophy learners to the grounds that make this investigation viable and promising, and motivates them to engage in it. (shrink)

In this work we present some reflections about the interaction of preschool children (between 3 and 5 years old) with sound-producing objects. We implemented the phenomenological approach of Alfred Schutz, who under the influence of Edmund Husserl, elaborated his own notions concerning the Lebenswelt or life-world. We present some situations of interaction with musical instruments by children that have been documented in different research on musical education in early childhood, the same ones we use to exemplify possible analyses from the (...) perspective of the phenomenology of the social world. We conclude with some remarks that conceive of Schutz’s theory as a relevant perspective for the analysis of children’s experiences with sound-producing objects. (shrink)

Although much has been written on Descartes’ thought on animals, not so much has originated in, or has taken full account of, Descartes’ views on emotions. I explore here the extent to which the latter can contribute to the debate on whether he embraced, and to which extent, the doctrine of the bête machine. I first try to show that Descartes’ views on emotions can help offer new support to the skeptical position without necessarily creating new tensions with other central (...) aspects of his philosophy. And second, I sketch the type of theory of animal passions which Descartes could have accepted. The general conclusion I draw is not that Descartes did not hold the view of the bête machine but rather that we can find within his thought a solid stream of ideas, which became stronger towards the end of his life, that points in the opposite direction. (shrink)