Alberto Sobrado, Carlos González-García y María Ruz Centro de Investigación Mente, Cerebro y Comportamiento, Universidad de Granada, España El término … Read More →.

This book presents a novel theory of fictional entities which is syncretistic insofar as it integrates the work of previous authors. It puts forward a new metaphysical conception of the nature of these This This book presents a novel theory of fictional entities which is syncretistic insofar as it integrates the work of previous authors. It puts forward a new metaphysical conception of the nature of these entities, according to which a fictional entity is a compound entity built up from (...) both a make-believe theoretical element and a set-theoretical element. The fictional entity is constructed by imagining the existence of an individual with certain properties and adding a set-theoretical element consisting of the set of properties corresponding to the properties of the imagined entity. Moreover, the book advances a new combined semantic and ontological defence of the existence of fictional entities. (shrink)

Using the optical ether as a case study, this article advances four lines of consideration to show why synchronic versions of the divide et impera strategy of scientific realism are unlikely to work. The considerations draw from the nineteenth-century theories of light, the rise of surprising implication as an epistemic value from the time of Fresnel on, assessments of the ether in end-of-century reports around 1900, and the roots of ether theorizing in now superseded metaphysical assumptions. The typicality of the (...) case and its impact on diachronic versions of the strategy are briefly discussed. (shrink)

Among the main concerns of 20th century philosophy was that of the foundations of mathematics. But usually not recognized is the relevance of the choice of a foundational approach to the other main problems of 20th century philosophy, i.e., the logical structure of language, the nature of scientific theories, and the architecture of the mind. The tools used to deal with the difficulties inherent in such problems have largely relied on set theory and its “received view”. There are specific issues, (...) in philosophy of language, epistemology and philosophy of mind, where this dependence turns out to be misleading. The same issues suggest the gain in understanding coming from category theory, which is, therefore, more than just the source of a “non-standard” approach to the foundations of mathematics. But, even so conceived, it is the very notion of what a foundation has to be that is called into question. The philosophical meaning of mathematics is no longer confined to which first principles are assumed and which “ontological” interpretation is given to them in terms of some possibly updated version of logicism, formalism or intuitionism. What is central to any foundational project proper is the role of universal constructions that serve to unify the different branches of mathematics, as already made clear in 1969 by Lawvere. Such universal constructions are best expressed by means of adjoint functors and representability up to isomorphism. In this lies the relevance of a category-theoretic perspective, which leads to wide-ranging consequences. One such is the presence of functorial constraints on the syntax–semantics relationships; another is an intrinsic view of (constructive) logic, as arises in topoi and, subsequently, in more general fibrations. But as soon as theories and their models are described accordingly, a new look at the main problems of 20th century’s philosophy becomes possible. The lack of any satisfactory solution to these problems in a purely logical and set-theoretic setting is the result of too circumscribed an approach, such as a static and punctiform view of objects and their elements, and a misconception of geometry and its historical changes before, during, and after the foundational “crisis”, as if algebraic geometry and synthetic differential geometry – not to mention algebraic topology – were secondary sources for what concerns foundational issues. The objectivity of basic geometrical intuitions also acts against the recent version of structuralism proposed as ‘the’ philosophy of category theory. On the other hand, the need for a consistent and adequate conceptual framework in facing the difficulties met by pre-categorical theories of language and scientific knowledge not only provides the basic concepts of category theory with specific applications but also suggests further directions for their development (e.g., in approaching the foundations of physics or the mathematical models in the cognitive sciences). This ‘virtuous’ circle is by now largely admitted in theoretical computer science; the time is ripe to realise that the same holds for classical topics of philosophy. (shrink)

In his highly regarded history of the rise of clinical trials in America, HarryMarks describes how their widespread adoption resulted largely fromthe efforts of ‘therapeutic reformers’ who sought to replace the individualexpertise of clinicians with the ‘science of controlled experiment’. Thetransition described by Marks resembles in many respects the transition fromthe ‘truth-to-nature’ objectivity of individual experts to a ‘mechanical’ formof objectivity portrayed by Daston and Galison. In particular,Marks details the passage from a regime of trust in expertise and experts to (...) aregime based on the mechanical generation of data, the elimination ofhuman judgement and the adoption of a ‘view from nowhere’ where individual and group idiosyncrasies are systematically suppressedthrough recourse to quantitative methods.[...]. (shrink)

A common assumption in non-relativistic quantum mechanics is that self-adjoint operators mathematically represent properties of quantum systems. Focusing on spin, we argue that a natural view considers observables as determinable properties and their eigenvalues as their corresponding determinates. We provide a taxonomy of the different views that one can hold, once it is accepted that spin can be modelled with the determinable-determinate relation. In particular, we present the two main families of views, dubbed Spin Monism and Pluralism, and we show (...) that the current literature does not take a stance between the two. Then we put forward two arguments in favour of the former. Finally, we present a new account of Spin Monism, that is absent in current literature; such a view is worth discussing, or so we contend, because several compelling considerations support it, and it opens new ways of thinking about the ontology of quantum mechanics. (shrink)

Alain Badiou, Manifesto for Philosophy, Translated, Edited and withan Introduction by Norman Madarasz ISBN - 9780791442197Alain Badiou, Deleuze. The Clamor of Being, Translated and with aPreface by Louise Burchill ISBN - 9780816631391.

All over Europe, the provision of healthcare services is widely considered a primary duty of the government. Universal access to medical care can be considered a basic ingredient of the so-called “European social model.” But if universal access to medical care is seldom questioned, European governments—faced with expanding costs caused by an increasing demand driven by an aging population and technology-driven improvements—are contemplating the possibility of “rationing”1 treatments, or the possibility of allowing a greater role for private suppliers. If a (...) “multi-tier” healthcare system has long been anathema to the European leadership, guaranteeing a uniform access to state-of-the-art care seems to be well beyond the means of states suffering from persisting debt crisis. Was the failure of state-controlled “adequate” healthcare totally unpredictable? Far-sighted criticisms had been offered by two eminent thinkers in the classical liberal tradition, Herbert Spencer and Friedrich A. von Hayek . Neither author is usually recognized as a forerunner of contemporary critics of the welfare state, and both investigated the issue of the state financing and providing health services well before or right after the establishment of national health services. With the benefit of hindsight, reading Spencer and Hayek helps us to understand how the crisis of state-supplied healthcare is not rooted in the mere progress of clinical technology, but is rather the logical consequence of the theoretical basis of the model itself. Whereas modern theorists of the welfare state tend to offer theories that are impervious to a critical appraisal of their unintended consequences—insofar as they are framed in a language of “rights”—both Hayek and Spencer understood that human systems are complex, and that unwanted effects of public policy should be taken into account. Although Spencer emphasized the moral hazards accruing from the paternalism involved in governmental provision of health services, Hayek explained how modern healthcare systems differ from real, private insurance designed to offer proper coverage against risks. These authors appreciated that the politicization of healthcare was bound to result in both standardization of care and disregard for the responsibility that comes with personal freedom. These two “diagnoses before the illness” can help us in defining the challenges and the potential solutions that healthcare systems face today. Understanding the fatal conceits inherent in the very architecture of national health services can be the first step toward healing our healthcare systems. (shrink)

The paper addresses the main questions to be dealt with by any semantic theory which is committed to provide an explanation of how meaning is possible. On one side the paper argues that the resources provided by the development of mathematical logic, theoretical computer science, cognitive psychology, and general linguistics in the 20th Century, however indispensable to investigate the structure of language, rely on the existence of end products in the morphogenesis of meaning. On the other, the paper argues that (...) philosophy of language, which, either in the analytic or the structuralist or the hermeneutical tradition, made little use of such resources (when they are not simply rejected). Left the main question unanswered. Though phenomenology intended to focus on the constitutive process, it ended up mostly with philology. Cognitive semantics paved the way to focus on patterns of bodily interaction within the natural environment out of which basic schemes emerge and are metaphorically “lifted” to any universe of discourse. The explanatory commitment is thus endorsed through two hypotheses: (1) these schemes, of topological and kinaesthetic structure, determine the range of forms of atomic sentences of any natural language, and (2) the category-theoretic notion of universality allows for a proper analysis of how such schemes are “lifted”. (shrink)

To put side by side the figure of Sade and the idea of modernity allows to explore a few important conceptualizations, concerning in particular the chronological definition of modernity and its contrast with something else – an anti- or counter-modernity, a double. From his absolutely singular point of view, Sade is in a strategic position to judge the fate of modernity, denying its pre-conditions, the possibilities of its real understanding, or even the chance to access it.

(No abstract is available for this citation).

n un momento determinado de su historia, nuestra revista modificó el nombre. El leve cambio hecho se contempla aquí desde una doble perspectiva: 1. como justificación de lo abolido en ese título, y 2. como desafío y compromiso para lo conservado en él. ¿Por qué estos dos puntos de vista? Se impone el primero, porque nada podría autorizar el atribuirse la exclusividad en ser fieles a Tomás de Aquino. Y se reafirma hoy la opción por el segundo, porque, a zaga (...) de la huella del encuentro Habermas-Ratzinger de 2004, impresiona hondamente el hallar en recientes intervenciones, repetidas y notables, del Papa Benedicto XVI, un claro sentimiento de preocupación y un rico ofrecimiento de sugerencias. Una y otras, relativas a campos muy específicos y concretos de trabajo e investigación cosmológica, filosófica y teológica, en el terreno –importante y casi yermo– del diálogo entre ciencia y religión. A la postre, una vez más, veremos emerger una antiquísima fórmula de los incombustibles griegos, rememorada de tanto en tanto y de una u otra forma, a lo largo de los siglos. También en nuestros días.The journal altered its name in a fixed moment of its history. The slight change made in 1970 is seen here under a double perspective. First, like a justification of the abolished in that title. Second, like a challenge and a commitment of the maintained in it. Why these two viewpoints? The first prevails because nothing could authorize claiming exclusiveness in being faithful to Thomas Aquinas. And the option for the second is reaffirmed today, because after the track of Habermas-Ratzinger’s meeting in 2004, it is deeply impressive to find, in recent, repeated and notable Pope Benedictus XVI’s interventions, a clear feeling of preoccupation and a rich offering of suggestions. One and the others are relative to very specific and concrete fields of work and cosmological, philosophical and theological investigation on the important and almost barren ground of the dialogue between science and religion. At the end, once more, we will see emerge an ancient formula of the ever present Greeks remembered from time to time and one way or another along the centuries, nowadays, too. (shrink)

Santo Tomás establece algunos principios de interpretación, sumamente útiles para aplicar a expresiones de la fe tal como han quedado fijadas en cada confesión cristiana, cuando van a ser «leídas» desde otra distinta. Una misma realidad creída, ha podido y debido proclamarse bajo fórmulas diversas. La diferente locución ha venido exigida precisamente por la expresa voluntad de retener y transmitir la coincidencia exacta en “lo” creído. Lo aparentemente divergente o contrario en el modo de decir no lo es finalmente, una (...) vez plasmado en la realidad que se comunica. Y esto es así, porque las diferencias en la expresión provienen, no solamente de la versión o traducción de un idioma a otro sino también del ambiente y de la estructura intelectual o lingüística de cada Iglesia y de cada creyente, lo cual tiene a su vez mucho que ver con la vivencia espiritual o tradición «desde» la que se habla. Un ejemplo relativamente reciente, lo encontramos, dentro del campo ecuménico, en la solución a que se ha llegado, en relación con el controvertidísimo filioque. Algo semejante podemos decir, de manera general, de toda fórmula que resulta extraña o malsonante para el oyente que no se sitúa en el preciso paraje del orador. (shrink)

This article provides a brief commentary on Éric Alliez and Antonio Negri's `Peace and War', focusing mainly on their understanding of political ontology, their analysis of the transformations undergone by the link between sovereignty and warfare, and their attempt to delineate the place of artistic practice within a biopolitics of the multitude.