AimThe aim of our study was to analyze physical activity levels, sitting time, physical fitness, and their relationship with depressive symptoms after home confinement in previously active older adults.MethodsThis cross-sectional study sample comprised 68 older adults from a community-based exercise program conducted in Porto, Portugal. After home confinement, participants were assessed in person for lower-body strength, cardiorespiratory fitness, agility/dynamic balance, handgrip strength, and anthropometry. Telephone interviews were performed to evaluate depressive symptoms with the Geriatric Depression Scale – 15 items and (...) physical activity levels through the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Individuals were also asked to self-report changes in their physical activity levels and time spent sitting.ResultsNinety percent of older adults self-reported a decrease in overall physical activity levels, and nearly 65% increased daily sitting time during the home confinement. However, previously active older adults still presented high levels of physical fitness after 11 weeks of home confinement. Overall, 52.9% of participants scored 5 or more points on GDS-15, which is suggestive of depression. Higher levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness were found in the non-depressed group compared with the depressed group. Finally, results from multiple regression analysis revealed that MVPA was negatively associated with depression. This model explained 16.4% of the variability seen in depression score, controlled for age, gender, and education.ConclusionEven reporting a decline in physical activity, older adults who previously participated in a formal exercise program, still presented high levels of physical fitness after 11 weeks of home confinement. However, MVPA, but not physical fitness, seems to be an associated depression score in previously active older adults. These results reinforce the importance of older adults to remain physically active, since higher levels of MVPA may have a protective effect on depressive symptoms and, therefore, mitigate the negative impact of home confinement on mental health. Future longitudinal research studies are needed to ascertain these results. (shrink)

Background: The new human coronavirus that leads to COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world and has a high degree of lethality. In more severe cases, patients remain hospitalized for several days under treatment of the health team. Thus, it is important to develop and use technologies with the aim to strengthen conventional therapy by encouraging movement, physical activity, and improving cardiorespiratory fitness for patients. In this sense, therapies for exposure to virtual reality are promising and have been shown to (...) be an adequate and equivalent alternative to conventional exercise programs.Aim: This is a study protocol with the aim of comparing the conventional physical therapy intervention with the use of a non-immersive VR software during COVID-19 hospitalization.Methods: Fifty patients hospitalized with confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 will be divided in two groups under physiotherapy treatment using conventional or VR intervention: Group A: participants with COVID-19 will start the first day of the protocol with VR tasks in the morning and then in the second period, in the afternoon, will perform the conventional exercises and Group B: participants with COVID-19 will start the first day with conventional exercises in the morning and in the second period, in the afternoon, will perform activity with VR. All participants will be evaluated with different motor and physiologic scales before and after the treatment to measure improvements.Conclusion: Considering the importance of benefits from physical activity during hospitalization, VR software shows promise as a potential mechanism for improving physical activity. The results of this study may provide new insights into hospital rehabilitation.Trial Registration:ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT04537858. Registered on 01 September 2020. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem origem em pesquisa de doutorado[1] sobre a presença de Quilombolas na Pós-graduação em quatro universidades públicas do Brasil – duas do Centro-oeste e duas do Nordeste, tendo em vista as considerações de seus interlocutores a respeito da luta por cidadania e afirmação de direitos - ao território, seu bem estar e à cidade/universidade. A partir da discussão sobre concepções como pertencimento, bem viver, cidade cognitiva e educação, o artigo traz à reflexão o contexto urbano marcado por (...) racismos e colonialidades, e onde se faz necessária a ação sociopolítica, para iniciar processos de transformação e produção de vida, em que todos tenham a sensação de pertencer e possam ter uma vida plena e satisfatória. Assim, resgatamos a compreensão do que significa a atuação quilombola dentro das comunidades, cidades e universidades, articulando seus saberes tradicionais com os conhecimentos científicos sistematizados, o se apresenta como um novo caminho para o desenvolvimento humano. [1] Pesquisa Financiada pelo Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq). Bolsa Doutorado. 2019-2022. (shrink)

As AI Systems become increasingly autonomous, they are expected to engage in decision-making processes that have moral implications. In this research we integrate theoretical and empirical lines of thought to address the matters of moral reasoning and moral uncertainty in AI Systems. We reconceptualize the metanormative framework for decision-making under moral uncertainty and we operationalize it through a latent class choice model. The core idea being that moral heterogeneity in society can be codified in terms of a small number of (...) classes with distinct moral preferences and that this codification can be used to express moral uncertainty of an AI. Choice analysis allows for the identification of classes and their moral preferences based on observed choice data. Our reformulation of the metanormative framework is theory-rooted and practical in the sense that it avoids runtime issues in real time applications. To illustrate our approach we conceptualize a society in which AI Systems are in charge of making policy choices. While one of the systems uses a baseline morally certain model, the other uses a morally uncertain model. We highlight cases in which the AI Systems disagree about the policy to be chosen, thus illustrating the need to capture moral uncertainty in AI systems. (shrink)

Jorge Luis Borges is working for decades now on the execution of the nightmare. Perhaps his most celebrated instance is "Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius ". It would take much work to sift the fabricated references in Borges' works from the ones deliberately misread from the over-emphasis on an author's casual remark, etc.

O livro aqui resenhado apresenta resultados de pesquisas realizadas por docentes que têm se dedicado às questões relacionadas às diversidades/ diferenças (étnicas, raciais, de gênero, sexualidades, culturais, linguísticas) em diferentes perspectivas teórico-metodológicas.

O presente artigo contempla a contextualização da educação superior na contemporaneidade, seus desafios e exigências demandados pelos novos tempos e espaços de formação em relação aos estudos da Educação a Distância (EaD) e aos avanços frente aos processos de ensino e aprendizagem em EaD. Este estudo é parte da investigação qualitativa realizada junto aos cursos de Pedagogia EaD da Universidade de Caxias do Sul (UCS) e da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). O lastro teórico que embasou esta (...) investigação foram os estudos apresentados por Belloni (2003), Litwin (2001), Leite (2002), Sancho (2006) e outros. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam que a EaD, mediada pelas tecnologias, apresenta características que propõem avanços aos processos de ensino e aprendizagem dessa modalidade, produzindo mudanças na cultura dos sujeitos, tornando os autônomos, participativos e integrantes da cultura digital. (shrink)

1234Coming from the current context permeated by technological systems of Artificial Intelligence (AI), we discern a growing and recurring concern for the future, for its images and imaginaries, wh...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to bring changes to legal systems. These technologies may have positive practical implications when it comes to access, efficiency, and accuracy in Justice. However, there are still many uncertainties and challenges associated with the implementation of AI in the legal space. In this research, we surveyed Judges on critical challenges related to the Judging Profession in the AI paradigm; Automated Adjudication; and Legal Principles. Our results suggest that (i) Judges are hesitant about changes in their (...) profession. They signal the need for adequate training that fosters legal literacy in AI, but are less open to changes in legal writing or their social and institutional role; (ii) Judges believe higher levels of automation only lead to fair outcomes if used in earlier phases of adjudication; (iii) Judges believe and are concerned about AI leading to Techno-Legal Positivism; and (iv) Judges consider that Legal AI technologies may have a positive impact in some legal principles, as long as everyone has equal access to those technologies and cybersecurity and judge on the loop safeguards are in place; and (v) Judges are strongly concerned about the de-humanization of Justice. They consider that assessing evidence, analyzing arguments, and deciding on a legal case should be inherently human. By surveying these practitioners, we aim to foster a responsible, inclusive, and transparent innovation in Justice. (shrink)

In this paper I want to explore the arguments for so-called ‘unarticulated constituents’ (UCs). Unarticulated constituents are supposed to be propositional elements, not presented in the surface form of a sentence, nor explicitly represented at the level of its logical form, yet which must be interpreted in order to grasp the (proper) meaning of that sentence or expression. Thus, for example, we might think that a sentence like ‘It is raining’ must contain a UC picking out the place at which (...) the speaker of the sentence asserts it to be raining. In §1 I will explore the nature of UCs a little further, and, in §2, suggest that we can recognise two different forms of argument for them.. (shrink)

RESUMO Com diversos best sellers no currículo, Elena Ferrante é uma das escritoras mais influentes da atualidade; não obstante, é anônima. Sua obra é exemplo do que chamamos literatura de transição, pois indica mutações, resquícios e sinais do presente, enfatizando deslocamentos e margens nas metamorfoses sociopolíticas, bem como conflitos civilizacionais e éticos do viver. Neste ensaio, pretende-se explorar alguns elementos do ‘hibridismo pop’ de sua obra, evidenciando aspectos que conformaram sua recepção no Brasil e a adesão febril aos seus escritos. (...) O que ela denomina ‘desmarginação’ é apresentado como potência: permite a reaproximação do passado e o conhecimento de suas implicações na identidade, conduta e ética das pessoas comuns. Ação política munida da experiência histórica, a narrativa possibilita - no presente - alterações de rotas, rupturas prévias, resistências, bloqueios. ABSTRACT With several bestsellers under her belt, Elena Ferrante is one of today’s most influential writers, albeit anonymous. Her work is an example of what we could call transitional literature, as it indicates mutations, residues and signs of the present, emphasizing displacements and margins in sociopolitical metamorphoses as well as civilization and ethical conflicts of living. In this essay, we intend to explore some elements of the ‘pop hybridism’ of her work, highlighting aspects that shaped her reception in Brazil and her feverish readership. What she calls ‘demargination’ is presented as potency: it allows a reconnection to the past and the knowledge of its implications in the identity, behavior and ethics of common people. Political action imbricate in historical experience: the narrative makes possible - in the present time - alterations of routes, previous ruptures, resistances, and blockages. (shrink)

Seeking a historical-philosophical approach to science teaching, narrative texts have been used as pedagogical tools to improve the learning experience of students. A review of the literature of different types of narrative texts and their different rates of effectiveness in science education is presented. This study was developed using the so-called Historical Narrative as a tool to introduce science content from a historical-philosophical approach, aiming to discuss science as a human construction. This project was carried out in a 9th grade (...) Physics class in K-12 school, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The steps involved in constructing a Historical Narrative based on the controversy over animal electrical fluid between Luigi Galvani and Alessandro Volta is reported herein. Finally, qualitative research results of the activities inspired by this Historical Narrative are presented with the purpose of answering the research question: to what extent do Historical Narratives support and enhance discussions about the Nature of Science, through teaching the scientific content in a historical-philosophical approach with 9th grade students? The results indicate that Historical Narrative, based on historical episodes, is a good “door opener” to teach scientific content in a historical-philosophical approach, introducing discussions about the Nature of Science without neglecting the scientific content or simplifying the discussions about the NOS. (shrink)

DIAS, Andréia Christina do Nascimento. Religião e Ciência: sustentação e entraves acerca do debate. 2014. Dissertação (Mestrado), Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências da Religião, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte. Palavras-Chave: Religião. Ciência. Razão. Psicologia. Moral. Educação. Keywords : Religion. Science. Reason. Psychology. Morals. Education.

O presente estudo teve como objetivo realizar uma pesquisa bibliográfica-documental a partir de artigos disponíveis na base de dados do Scielo. Para a seleção desses artigos foram utilizadas sete palavras-chave que permitiram identificar as pesquisas sobre as pessoas com deficiência intelectual. A partir desta seleção realizou-se uma análise qualitativa dos resumos e dos objetivos destes artigos separando-os com base na fundamentação teórica do modelo conceitual sobre a deficiência intelectual utilizados nesta pesquisa, a saber: o modelo biomédico e o modelo social (...) da deficiência. Os resultados indicaram a predominância de pesquisas na vertente biomédica, além da predominância de estudos realizados com crianças com deficiência intelectual. (shrink)

O N Concilio de Latrão, realizado em 1215, foi para a Igreja Ocidental o mais importante do período medieval. Seus 70 cânones apresentam uma síntese do projeto de reforma eclesial liderado pelo Papado, em vias de implantação desde meados do século XI, e que visava, dentre outros pontos, a moralização do clero. Contudo, qual foi o impacto destas regulamentações canônicas nas diversas regiões da Cristandade? Como tentativa de resposta parcial a tais questões, optamos por um estudo de caso: o da (...) Igreja Castelana, tão resistente às imposições romanas no século XI. Para o estudo da questão, optamos pela análise da obra literária Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos, de. Gonzalo de Berceo, clérigo secular e primeiro autor culto a escrever em castelhano do qual possuímos notícias históricas. Objetivamos, através do estudo comparativo desta obra literária e os cânones do Concilio de 1215, o impacto e penetração no início do século XIII, em Castela, do projeto de reformulação da moral eclesiástica promovido pelo papado. (shrink)

Neste trabalho, trataremos primeiramente sobre o ensino de filosofia no novo ensino médio. Iremos abordar algumas das competências e habilidades presentes na nova BNCC e apontar como elas apresentam um cunho filosófico. Além disto, falaremos também um pouco sobre as novas metodologias, principalmente a partir da perspectiva de Silvio Gallo, e pensaremos novas maneiras de adotar estas metodologias dentro do ensino de filosofia do novo ensino médio a partir da perspectiva do uso da cinematografia no ensino de Filosofia. O objetivo (...) deste trabalho é propor um ensino de filosofia através da cinematografia. Após análises feitas sobre o novo ensino médio e levando em conta a nova BNCC, refletimos sobre a relação entre cinema e filosofia, apresentando como e quais pensadores já a reconheceram, dando um maior enfoque no pensamento de Julio Cabrera e em sua perspectiva sobre como se fazer filosofia através do cinema. Pensamos também em como a filosofia, desde o início de sua história, usou recursos imagéticos para a apresentação e representação de teorias e conceitos importantes dentro do pensamento filosófico. Tampouco o uso de filmes no ensino é novidade. Porém, aqui pretendemos explorar o uso da cinematografia no que se refere ao ensino de filosofia, previsto dentro da nova base. (shrink)

RESUMO O presente artigoapresenta reflexões sobre o conceito de “imprevisibilidade” advindas a partir do exercício de tradução para a língua portuguesa da obra Os mecanismos culturais imprevisíveis1, último livro publicado por Iuri Lótman. Mais do que uma explicação completa e definitiva das acepções sobre os trabalhos imprevisíveis da cultura, esboçamos nestes escritos fundamentos de interesse para a constituição de processos semiósicos de nossas particulares preocupações. Dessa forma, apresentam-se para as análises relações imprevisíveis em processos relacionados à ciência e à tecnologia, (...) à arte e à figura do estrangeiro.ABSTRACT This article reflects upon for the concept of unpredictability based on the translation into Portuguese of The Unpredictable Workings of Culture, Yuri Lotman’s last published book. More than a complete and definitive explanation of the meanings of the unpredictable works of culture, this article outlines the fundamentals that interest the constitution of semiosic processes that concerns us. Thus, unpredictable relationships in processes related to science and technology, art and the foreign figure are presented for the analysis. (shrink)

Brazil has recently been experiencing a phenomenon of political polarization: a conflict involving political views and social identities. Considering the extent to which this socially constructed conflict has been partially fueled by the media, we propose to use the Social Representations Theory. The present study explores how discourses in the mainstream media construct the political polarization taking place in Brazil. The topics covered in 82 texts published between January 2015 and August 2019 in Brazilian mainstream press, Folha da S. Paulo (...) and Estado de S. Paulo, were examined using content analysis and Reinert’s method with IRaMuTeQ software. A descending hierarchical analysis divided the corpus into four classes, and content analysis showed that both daily newspapers strongly criticized the political polarization underway, which was anchored to and objectified through episodes of violence, and they supported the valorization of democracy. (shrink)

This is a book symposium on Steffen Borge’s The Philosophy of Football. It has contributions from William Morgan, Murray Smith and Brian Weatherson with replies from Borge.

relevant to the differences between the two speakings, Odile’s words in the first case said what was false, while in the second case they said what was true. Both spoke of the same state of the world, or the same refrigerator in the same condition. So, in the first case, the words said what is false of a refrigerator with but a milk puddle; in the second case they said what is true of such a refrigerator.

There is a well-established social practice whereby we hold one another responsible for the things that we say. Speakers are held liable for the truth of the contents they express and they can be sanctioned and/or held to be unreliable or devious if it turns out what they say is false. In this paper chapter we argue that a better understanding of this fundamental socio-linguistic practice – of ascribing what we will term (following Borg (2019)) ‘linguistic liability’ – helps to (...) shed light on a core debate in semantics and pragmatics, concerning how and where to draw the line between different kinds of content. We suggest that attributions of linguistic liability form a heterogenous (rather than a homogenous) class and seek to show that different kinds of liability judgements are useful because they track divergent kinds of content – specifically the kinds that have come to prominence in recent theorising theorizing about the semantics/pragmatics divide. (shrink)

Action, reason, and causes in Kant -- Can we act without feelings? Respect, sympathy and other forms of love -- A place for affects and passion in the Kantian system -- What can Kant teach us about emotions? -- Physiology and the controlling of affects in Kant's philosophy -- Virtue as a cure for affects and passions -- The beautiful and the good: refinement as an introduction to morality -- Women and emotion -- Evil and passion -- An emotional Kant?

Como expuso Walter Lippmann en su libro La opinión pública, en sociedades complejas como la nuestra los medios de comunicación de masas construyen un pseudoentorno, a través del cual nos hacen llegar las informaciones necesarias para nuestra vida cotidiana. Pero, los medios de comunicación hacen algo más que informarnos: eligen y organizan jerárquicamente nuestro menú cotidiano de informaciones relevantes. Conjuntamente con los agentes sociales, económicos y políticos prominentes, determinan la agenda de las preocupaciones ciudadanas, colocando en primer plano de la (...) actualidad determinados asuntos y silenciando o soslayando otros. Por esa razón, en la sociedad actual el concepto de opinión pública es incomprensible sin referirnos a la actuación de los medios de comunicación. Pero no se trata únicamente de la labor de los media como vehículos para la información y plataformas para la discusión colectiva. Los media popularizan valores, actitudes y modelos de conducta y su enorme capacidad de influir despierta una razonable preocupación entre los ciudadanos. Esta comunicación analiza siete cuestiones que ilustran las fricciones entre ciudadanía y medios de comunicación en la sociedad contemporánea. (shrink)

Burnout has been recognized as a serious health problem. In Portugal, before COVID-19 Pandemic, there were strong indicators of high prevalence of burnout in physicians and nurses. However, the Portuguese Health Care Service was able to efficiently respond to the increased demands. This study intends to understand how psychosocial variables might have been protective factors for burnout in physicians and nurses in Portugal. Specifically, we considered several psychosocial variables that have been found to be protective factors for burnout in previous (...) research and we compared their predictive and unique impact in the prediction of burnout. These variables are perceptions of justice (distributive, procedural, justice from colleagues, justice from patients, and their families), professional identification, meaningful work and empathy. We also included workload, as a risk factor, and controlled other variables that can be confounds for burnout, such as socio-demographic variables, ideological variables (religiosity, political orientation), and specific variables related with COVID-19 pandemic. The sample of the present study is composed by 229 physicians (aged between 23 and 70 years old,M= 36.54;SD= 10.72; 48% male and 52% female) and 268 nurses (aged between 22 and 69 years old,M= 34.96;SD= 9.52; 27% male and 73% female). An online survey was created using Qualtrics and participants were recruited via Facebook and LinkedIn. The data were collected during 29 days (between the 45th and the 74th days after the first diagnosed case of COVID-19 in Portugal). The results showed that workload was a significant risk factor, except for disengagement in physicians. The most consistent protectors across samples were procedural justice (for both dimensions of burnout, both in physicians and nurses) and professional identification (for disengagement, both in physicians and nurses; for exhaustion only in physicians). This study suggests that decreasing workload and promoting procedural justice and professional identification are key factors that might be simultaneously and independently addressed in interventions for reducing the risk of burnout or preventing it from occurring in the first place. (shrink)

The reflections around teacher training and the means by which it is treated in the educational contexts have major importance, due to the urgency of the topic as well as the multiplicity of ways to be dealt along with the teachers. From researches of images production, developed with children and teachers in the ambit of early childhood education, this text will reflect on the formative processes of teachers in the childhood education. In this context, there are a few relevant questions: (...) what can the image do in the formative processes? In which ways may the teacher training help us to think about the childhood and the educational practices with little children? By which means may the childhood help us to think the work of teacher training. In this way, using the produced images, this text aims to operate in the circulation movement of the thought itself, in which the thought can, in its exteriority, experiment with words, childhood, image and teacher training, enabling ruptures to think about the child, the educators, the school, the knowledge, the doing, the powers, the action protocols, what to do with the children and how to deal with them, composing possibilities that overflow what is determined and legalized. As theoretical basis, we take authors such as G. Agamben, G. Deleuze e Michel Foucault. (shrink)

Altered attachment characteristics may disturb the HPA and can even cause changes in the hippocampus. However, it is unknown if that will influence spatial navigation performance, learning and recalling. In this study we pretend to verify if there are differences in spatial navigation learning and was associated with attachment style dimensions of anxiety and close-depend. Sixty-five female participants were recruited and were evaluated using the Adult Attachment Scale-R and tested on a virtual maze navigation task (VMT) at one moment (exploratory (...) trial + 3 trials) and 24h later (3 trials). There was a significant Moment x Trial x Close-Depend interaction for the outcome time, F (2, 126) = 3.807, p = 0.025, with post-hoc analysis indicating that the High Close-Depend group displayed significant improvements between Trial 1 and Trial 3 in the post-test assessment. Conversely, the Low Close-Depend group displayed significant improvements between Trial 1and Trial 3 but on the pre-test assessment. Furthermore, the Low Close-Depend group presented significant better performance in pre-test Trial 3 in comparison to the High Close-Depend group. Thereby, it seems that low comfort with proximity and trust in others is associated with reduced spatial navigation recall, although spatial learning performance was actually superior in these participants. It is possible that reduced exposure to social interaction and meaning relationship may be reduced in the Low Close-Depend group, leading to modifications in hippocampal function and, ultimately, reduced spatial recall. Conversely, participants with high comfort with proximity and trust in others may not display typical spatial learning in the proposed task as they are more willing to freely explore the presented environment. (shrink)

No presente artigo, interessa-nos apontar algumas possibilidades acerca da presença, no século X, da obra Formula Vitae Honestae, escrita por Martinho de Braga, que viveu na Galiza no século VI, na biblioteca de San Millán de la Cogolla, mosteiro localizado em La Rioja. De acordo com nossas conclusões, ainda parciais, vinculamos tal presença à identificação dos dois momentos históricos, o da Galiza no século VI e por La Rioja no X, marcados pela reorganização eclesiástica e monárquica.

Big Data and Artificial Intelligence have a symbiotic relationship. Artificial Intelligence needs to be trained on Big Data to be accurate, and Big Data's value is largely realized through its use by Artificial Intelligence. As a result, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence practices are tightly intertwined in real life settings, as are their impacts on society. Unethical uses of Artificial Intelligence are therefore a Big Data problem, at least to some degree. Efforts to address this problem have been dominated by (...) the documentation of Ethical Artificial Intelligence principles and the creation of technical tools that address specific aspects of those principles. However, there is mounting evidence that Ethical Artificial Intelligence principles and technical tools have little impact on the Artificial Intelligence that is created in practice, sometimes in very public ways. The goal of this commentary is to highlight four interconnected areas society can invest in to close this Ethical Artificial Intelligence publication-to-practice gap, maximizing the positive impact Artificial Intelligence and Big Data have on society. For Ethical Artificial Intelligence to become a reality, I argue that these areas need to be addressed holistically in a way that acknowledges their interdependencies. Progress will require iteration, compromise, and transdisciplinary collaboration, but the result of our investments will be the realization of Artificial Intelligence's and Big Data's tremendous potential for social good, in practice rather than in just our hopes and aspirations. (shrink)

Contexto histórico-social da América Latina nas décadas de 1960 e 1970 -- Um modo peculiar de fazer filosofia, teologia e pedagogia na América Latina dos anos 1960 e 1970 -- A reconstrução de uma ética pedagógica libertadora freireana a partir do oprimido.

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:.. MERELY A MAN OF LETTERS" an interview with Jorge Luis Borges* Philosophy and Literature: Why don't you tell us about some of the philosophers who have influenced your work and in whom you have been the most interested? Jorge Luis Borges: Well, I think that's an easy one. You might talk in terms of two: Berkeley and Schopenhauer. But I suppose Hume might be worked in (...) also, because, after all, Hume refutes Berkeley. Really, he comes from Berkeley—even if Berkeley comes from Locke. You might think of Locke, of Berkeley, and of Hume as being three links in an argument..... But I suppose that when someone refutes someone else in philosophy, he is carrying on the argument. P&L: And Schopenhauer? Borges: Schopenhauer is very different from Hume. Of course, Schopenhauer had his idea of the Will. That is not to be found in Hume.... The case of Berkeley was different. I suppose he thought of God as being aware of all things all the time, if I don't get him wrong. If we go away, does this room disappear? No, because God is thinking about it. Now, in the case of Schopenhauer, I was rereading Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, The World as Will and Idea, and I was rather taken aback, or baffled I should say, puzzled by something that keeps on recurring in Schopenhauer. Of course it may have been a slip of the pen, but as he goes back to it, and as he was a very careful writer, I wonder if it is a slip of the pen. For example, Schopenhauer begins by saying that the universe, the stars, the spaces in between, the planets, *On April 14, 1976, two editors of Philosophy and Literature, along with an interested colleague, interviewed Jorge Luis Borges at Michigan State University, where he held a position as visiting professor for the winter term. These remarks are edited from the transcript of that conversation. 337 338Philosophy and Literature this planet, those things, have no existence—except in the mind which perceives them. But then, to my surprise—and I suppose you can explain this to me, since you are philosophers and I am not—what Schopenhauer says is that all those things have no existence except in the brain. And that the universe—I remember these words, I don't think I'm inventing them now—"ist ein Gehirnphänomen," that the world is a cerebral phenomenon. Now, I was baffled. Because, of course, if you think of the universe, I suppose the brain is as much a part of the external world as the stars or the moon. The brain after all is a system of visual, of tactile, perceptions. He keeps on insisting on the brain. I don't think, for example, that Bishop Berkeley insists on the brain, or Hume, who would have insisted on the mind, consciousness. P&L: People sometimes say that they see Berkeley in stories like "Orbis Tertius." Borges: Yes, I suppose they do. Well, of course. But in that story I was led by literary means also. P&L: How do you distinguish the literary from the philosophical means in that story? Could you explain that? Borges: Very easily.... Encyclopedias have been my chief reading. I have always been interested in encyclopedias. I used to go to the Biblioteca National in Buenos Aires—and since I was so shy, I felt I could not cope with asking for a book, so I looked on the shelves for the Encyclopaedia Britannica. I would pick up any chance volume and I would read it. One night I was richly rewarded, because I read all about the Druses, Dryden and the Druids—a treasure trove, no?—all in the same volume, "Dr-." Then I came to the idea of how fine it would be to think of an encyclopedia... a very rigorous one of course, of an imaginary world, where everything should be linked. For example, you would have a language and then a literature, and then a history and so on. Then I thought I would write a story of a fancy encyclopedia. Of course that would require many different people to write it... (shrink)

I argue that, against what is commonly believed, Spinoza’s use of the relation of constitution to characterize the relation between attributes and the essence of a substance does not indicate that, for him, there must be a numerical identity between each attribute and the essence constituted by that attribute. To do this, I follow a twofold strategy. First, I contend that the claim that because in Spinoza’s time constitution was understood as a one- to-one relation is mistaken: the main logicians (...) of Spinoza’s time, all Cartesian philosophers, believe that the constitution of an essence can be a many-to-one relation. I show that Spinoza can both accept that constitution is a many-one relation and share Descartes’ understanding of this relation. Second, I defend the claim that Spinoza’s use of constitution in the Ethics is consistent with these logicians’ account of constitution. In particular, I focus on Spinoza’s inclusion of the intellect in the definition of attribute and his definition of God. (shrink)