Introduction: The many faces of human nature / Agustín Fuentes and Aku Visala Chapter 1. Off human nature / Jonathan Marks. Response I. On your marks... get set, we’re off human nature / James M. Calcagno ; Response II. Rethinking human nature : comments on Jonathan Marks’s anti-essentialism / Phillip R. Sloan ; Response III. Off human nature and on human culture : the importance of the concept of culture to science and society / Robert Sussman and Linda Sussman Chapter (...) 2. "To human" is a verb / Tim Ingold. Response I. Free and easy wandering : humans, humane education, and designing in harmony with the nature of the way / Susan D. Blum ; Response II. On human natures : anthropological and Jewish musings / Richard Sosis ; Response III. The humanifying adventure : a response to Tim Ingold / Markus Mühling ; Response IV. The ontogenesis of human moral becoming / Darcia Narvaez Chapter 3. Recognizing the complexity of personhood : complex emergent developmental linguistic relational neurophysiologicalism / Warren Brown and Brad D. Strawn. Response I. "Self-organizing personhood" and many loose ends / Lluis Oviedo ; Response II. A last hurrah for dualism? / Kelly James Clark ; Response III. Why the foundational question about human nature is open and empirical / Carl Gillett Chapter 4. Human origins and the emergence of a distinctively human imagination : theology and the archaeology of personhood / J. Wentzel van Huyssteen. Response I. Constructing the face, creating the collective : Neolithic mediation of personhood / Ian Kuijt ; Response II. Imago Dei and the glabrous ape / Douglas Hedley Chapter 5. What is human nature for? / Grant Ramsey. Response I. The difficulties of forsaking normativity / Neil Arner ; Response II. Some remarks on human nature and naturalism / Aku Visala Epilogues. Putting evolutionary theory to work in investigating human nature / Agustín Fuentes ; Moving us forward? / Celia Deane-Drummond. (shrink)

The paper argues for a decompositionalist account of lexical concepts. In particular, it presents and argues for a cluster decompositionalism, a view that claims that the complexes a token of a word corresponds to on a given occasion are typically built out of a determinate set of basic concepts, most of which are present on most other occasions of use of the word. The first part of the paper discusses some explanatory virtues of decompositionalism in general. The second singles out (...) cluster decompositionalism as the best explanation of the variability of meaning. The third part is devoted to responding to some problems. (shrink)

In order to predict and explain behavior, one cannot specify the mental state of an agent merely by saying what information she possesses. Instead one must specify what information is available to an agent relative to various purposes. Specifying mental states in this way allows us to accommodate cases of imperfect recall, cognitive accomplishments involved in logical deduction, the mental states of confused or fragmented subjects, and the difference between propositional knowledge and know-how .

Has science already answered the fundamental questions about the concepts of Life, Cosmos and Evolution? Has science not relegated these fundamental questions by following up on more immediate, “useful” and practical endeavors that ultimately ensure that the wheel of capitalism keeps spinning in its frantic search for material and economic progress? There is something terribly wrong with the current theory of evolution, understood as the Darwinian theory with its successive versions and extensions. The concept of natural selection, the cornerstone of (...) Darwinism, is logically inconsistent. This has been demonstrated in some of my latest academic publications. The entire conceptual framework of Darwinism is inadequate. Organisms do not compete with each other for the survival of the fittest. The fundamental relationship in Nature is not competition or confrontation, but interconnectivity, complementarity, and relational meaningfulness. A new theory of evolution is necessary to explain how it is possible that organisms as simple as bacteria, protozoa and diatoms could have generated organisms as complex as primates, and among them, the human being, a being capable of feeling and thinking, of suffering and enjoying, a being capable of having ideals and purposes. A theory that explains how it is possible that this being so complex, rich, and to some extent still unknown, has emerged from a single cell, an egg-cell, lacking all the capacities, riches and depths of human existence. Such a theory already exists. (shrink)

Life is the center of our existence. One would be tempted to say that first of all we live. However, our existence does not seem to pass in that modality. The exacerbated materialism in which our existence takes place, displaces life from the center of the scene. Our society is organized around production, consumerism, exploitation, efficiency, trade and propaganda. That is to say, our existence seems to have economy as the center of organization of our activities. The struggle of this (...) century that is beginning is to put life at the center of our existence, and to put economy in its proper place, that is, in the service of life. (shrink)

Resumen: El presente trabajo quiere mostrar la expresión del pensamiento político de Alfonso Fernández de Madrigal “El Tostado” en su obra De optima politia. Esta pequeña composición ofrece reflexiones sobre la comunidad humana que funda la política, sobre la ciudad como sede de la constitución política, sobre el mejor gobierno posible y la crítica de algunos elementos platónicos, como el comunismo de esposas y la condición y valor de la familia. ElTostado introduce como autor y fuente principal de inspiración de (...) su pensamiento a Aristóteles en la España prehumanista y en los ambientesuniversitarios del siglo XV. (shrink)

Las grandes cuestiones de la metafísica se han tratado con un renovado impulso y orientaciones filosóficas originales en los últimos 50 años; entre estas grandes cuestiones está el problema de Dios, la libertad del hombre y el mal. Esta renovación de la teología filosófica ha cobrado particular protagonismo dentro de la tradición analítica: en círculos académicos internacionales son cada vez más frecuentes las discusiones sobre los atributos divinos y su relación con distintos aspectos de la existencia humana. En este libro (...) se recogen estudios sobre algunas de estas cuestiones, con la intención de presentar algunos de estos planteamientos novedosos al público académico de habla hispana. En concreto los temas que se tratan son tan variados como el origen y los fundamentos teóricos de la teología filosófica analítica, la eternidad y la presciencia de Dios en relación con la libertad humana, la providencia divina, el determinismo teológico, el problema del mal, la acción divina en la naturaleza, etc. Esperamos que este conjunto de ensayos sean la ocasión para fomentar la discusión en torno a estos temas y abrir nuevas perspectivas en el ámbito de la metafísica y la filosofía de la religión. (shrink)

There is an ongoing debate about the meaning of lexical words, i.e., words that contribute with content to the meaning of sentences. This debate has coincided with a renewal in the study of polysemy, which has taken place in the psycholinguistics camp mainly. There is already a fruitful interbreeding between two lines of research: the theoretical study of lexical word meaning, on the one hand, and the models of polysemy psycholinguists present, on the other. In this paper I aim at (...) deepening on this ongoing interbreeding, examine what is said about polysemy, particularly in the psycholinguistics literature, and then show how what we seem to know about the representation and storage of polysemous senses affects the models that we have about lexical word meaning. (shrink)

This book sets out some of the latest scientific findings around the evolutionary development of religion and faith and then explores their theological implications. This unique combination of perspectives raises fascinating questions about the characteristics that are considered integral for a flourishing social and religious life and allows us to start to ask where in the evolutionary record they first show up in a distinctly human manner. The book builds a case for connecting theology and evolutionary anthropology using both historical (...) and contemporary sources of knowledge to try and understand the origins of wisdom, humility, and grace in 'deep time'. In the section on wisdom, the book examines the origins of complex decision-making in humans through the archaeological record, recent discoveries in evolutionary anthropology, and the philosophical richness of semiotics. The book then moves to an exploration of the origin of characteristics integral to the social life of small-scale communities, which then points in an indirect way to the disposition of humility. Finally, it investigates the theological dimensions of grace and considers how artefacts left behind in the material record by our human ancestors, and the perspective they reflect, might inform contemporary concepts of grace. This is a cutting-edge volume that refuses to commit the errors of either too easy a synthesis or too facile a separation between science and religion. As such, it will be of interest to scholars of religious studies and theology - especially those who interact with scientific fields - as well as academics working in anthropology of religion. (shrink)

Las Comunidades de Aprendizaje son reconocidas por sus estrategias de inclusión y participación democrática. El objetivo de este texto es conocer las estrategias de participación democrática que se llevan a cabo en una escuela constituida como Comunidad de Aprendizaje. Los resultados muestran las experiencias de éxito educativo, convivencia e implicación de la comunidad educativa que surgen como consecuencia de la transformación de la escuela hacia un proyecto más inclusivo y participativo. En definitiva, la participación democrática representa una estrategia educativa y (...) reivindicativa que pretende acabar con las desigualdades que convergen en los espacios educativos. (shrink)

This is the introductory chapter to the anthology: Inner Speech: New Voices, to be published in fall 2018 by OUP. It gives an overview of current debates in philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience concerning inner speech, and situates the chapters of the volume with respect to those debates.

Este artículo investiga dos problemas principales en los conocidos argumentos de San Agustín en pro de la certeza, contra los escépticos. En realidad, son más bien dos niveles de una misma cuestión "metodológica": la interioridad del conocimiento y la reflexión, como vía de certeza. Conclusión principal de este estudio es que ambas dimensiones son correlativas: la reflexión supone interioridad, N la interioridad exige reflexión, como ría de certeza. La última parte del artículo examina la doctrina agustiniana de la reflexión, en (...) el contexto de su "filosofía del espíritu". La presente investigación intenta mostrar en este punto que, de hecho, San Agustín tematiza o supone, a lo largo de su obra tres grandes modos de reflexión, correspondientes a otros tantos modos de autoconocimiento del alma: el noticial, el cogitativo y el fenomenológico. (shrink)

Distensión de la finitud y belleza son paralelas en Agustín, su deducción y su calificación estética. Ontología de lo finito es, por ello, a la vez, discurso estético en tres grandes dimensiones: a) fundación y estructura de lo finito; b) sucesión temporal ; c) devenir histórico . Podríamos, sin reduccionismo alguno, interpretar su doctrina estética como >?.Distension of the finiteness and beauty are parallel in St. Augustine, its deduction and its aesthetic qualification. Ontology of finiteness is therefore, at the same (...) time, aesthetic thought in three dimensions: a) foundation and structure of the finetenesss; b) temporal succession ; c) historic becoming . Could we, with no reduction, interpret his aesthetic doctrine as >? (shrink)

The renewed interest in concepts and their role in psychological theorizing is partially motivated by Machery’s claim that concepts are so heterogeneous that they have no explanatory role. Against this, pluralism argues that there is multiplicity of different concepts for any given category, while hybridism argues that a concept is constituted by a rich common representation. This article aims to advance the understanding of the hybrid view of concepts. First, we examine the main arguments against hybrid concepts and conclude that, (...) even if not successful, they challenge hybridism to find a robust criterion for concept individuation and to show an explanatory advantage for hybrid concepts. Then we propose such a criterion of individuation, which we will call ‘functional stable coactivation’. Finally, we examine the prospects of hybridism to understand what is involved in recent approaches to categorization and meaning extraction. 1 The Heterogeneity of Conceptual Representations2 Two Challenges for Hybrid Concepts: Individuation and Explanation2.1 The coordination criterion2.2 Concepts as constituents of thoughts3 Individuating Hybrids: Functional Stable Coactivation4 The Explanatory Power of Hybrid Concepts4.1 Categorization4.2 Meaning extraction4.2.1 Linguistic comprehension and rich lexical entries4.2.2 Polysemy and hybrid concepts5 Conclusion. (shrink)

I propose a way of thinking aboout content, and a related way of thinking about ontological commitment. (This is part of a series of four closely related papers. The other three are ‘On Specifying Truth-Conditions’, ‘An Actualist’s Guide to Quantifying In’ and ‘An Account of Possibility’.).

In this paper we address the question of what determines the content of our conscious episodes of thinking, considering recent claims that phenomenal character individuates thought contents. We present one prominent way for defenders of phenomenal intentionality to develop that view and then examine ‘sensory inner speech views’, which provide an alternative way of accounting for thought-content determinacy. We argue that such views fare well with inner speech thinking but have problems accounting for unsymbolized thinking. Within this dialectic, we present (...) an account of the nature of unsymbolized thinking that accords with and can be seen as a continuation of the activity of inner speech, while offering a way of explaining thought-content determinacy in terms of linguistic structures and representations. (shrink)

The aim of this essay is to show that the subject-matter of ontology is richer than one might have thought. Our route will be indirect. We will argue that there are circumstances under which standard first-order regimentation is unacceptable, and that more appropriate varieties of regimentation lead to unexpected kinds of ontological commitment.

En las últimas décadas, el uso exponencial de Internet ha generado en la población mundial el miedo de ser vigilados por los gobiernos locales o extranjeros. Países como Corea del sur y China hacen ya uso de una potente red de datos y de múltiples cámaras de reconocimiento facial para rastrear a su población. Estos mecanismos de cibervigilancia fueron criticados por los ciudadanos, los pensadores y los dirigentes de Europa y América argumentando, principalmente, que el “modelo chino” encarna una violación (...) de los derechos humanos. La cibervigilancia y la transferencia de datos son ya utilizados en los países occidentales, sin embargo, su uso no viola ningún derecho humano pues se emplea para rastrear, vigilar y expulsar a los “migrantes clandestinos”. El presente trabajo busca demostrar cómo el desarrollo tecnológico actual está vinculado a la experimentación con figuras no-humanas, como es el caso de los migrantes clandestinos quienes personifican una especie de conejillos de Indias para los experimentos digitales de las potencias europeas. In the last decades, the exponential use of the Internet has stimulated in the world population the fear of being watched by local or foreign governments. Countries like South Korea and China already use a powerful data network and multiple facial recognition cameras to track their populations. These cyber surveillance mechanisms were criticized by citizens, thinkers and various leaders from Europe and America, arguing mainly that the “Chinese model” embodies a violation of human rights. Cyber surveillance and data transfer are already used in Western countries; however, its use does not violate any human right because it is used to track, monitor and expel "clandestine migrants". The present work seeks to demonstrate how current technological development is linked to experimentation with non-human figures, as is the case of clandestine migrants who personify a kind of guinea pig for digital experiments by European powers. (shrink)

In this article I defend two theses related to the ontology of the mind and the conception of explanatory levels supposed by evolutionary psychology. First, that the theory of mind adopted by this program can not remove all dualist remnant and present an acceptable picture of mind-body relationship. Second, that the difficulties presented by the ontological hypothesis, in addition to certain plausible theses on the explanatory compatibility, reduce in wide measure the attractiveness of pluralism of levels defended.

Resumen: El presente trabajo quiere mostrar la expresión del pensamiento político de Alfonso Fernández de Madrigal “El Tostado” en su obra De optima politia. Esta pequeña composición ofrece reflexiones sobre la comunidad humana que funda la política, sobre la ciudad como sede de la constitución política, sobre el mejor gobierno posible y la crítica de algunos elementos platónicos, como el comunismo de esposas y la condición y valor de la familia. ElTostado introduce como autor y fuente principal de inspiración de (...) su pensamiento a Aristóteles en la España prehumanista y en los ambientesuniversitarios del siglo XV. (shrink)

La obra del artista asturiano Evaristo Valle está plagada de referencias antropológicas vinculadas, en muchos casos, a la festividad pagana del carnaval. Esta hunde sus raíces en la mitología clásica, si bien ha ido acom-pañando al hombre a lo largo de los siglos en sus innumerables manifestaciones artísticas. En el siguiente artículo se evidencian los orígenes clásicos de la fiesta del carnaval y se analiza la obra del gijonés a la luz de las principales características de una festividad que despierta (...) los sentidos primigenios del hombre y su naturaleza irracional. (shrink)

Este volumen recoge las lecciones del X Curso de Cultura hispanojudía y sefardí de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, organizado por la Asociación de Amigos del Museo Sefardí (Toledo, Septiembre 2000) y consagrado al Pensamiento y Mística hispanojudía y sefardí. Las quince conferencias aquí reunidas ofrecen una perspectiva amplia, representativa y completa de los momentos, autores y temas más significativos tratados por pensadores y místicos sefardíes desde la Edad Media hasta nuestros días. Se aprecia una continuidad en los problemas y (...) una búsqueda constante de nuevas soluciones, adaptadas a las circunstancias de cada época. Es la primera vez que aparece en lengua castellana una visión global de esta rica faceta de la cultura hispanohebrea, que permite al lector acercarse a la evolución del pensamiento de los judíos originarios de Sefarad antes y después de 1492, tanto en su faceta filosófica con en su faceta mística (cábala). (shrink)