One of the psychological responses to audiovisual fictions that has been receiving more attention recently is appreciation, defined as a reflexive eudaimonic gratification obtained from a meaningful entertainment mode. Appreciation is the perception that the media experience has a profound meaning, has taught or revealed something. This study seeks to advance on the understanding of appreciation by youngsters. It translates and adapts the Oliver and Bartsch’s questionnaire for teenagers of three European countries. A total of 213 Italians, 55 Spaniards and (...) 42 Germans watched a drama film and immediately afterwards answered the questionnaire. The results of confirmatory factor analysis suggest the existence of four first-order factors for each country. The multi-group analysis shows the questionnaire is not invariant across groups. Thus, the concept of appreciation in its current formulation is not universal. Instead, it seems to be dependent on the cultural aspects of the audience. This article discusses the implications of such results for the understanding of appreciation and of teenagers’ media responses. It also reports mean comparisons for the invariant parameters. (shrink)

El artículo se constituye en una exploración del pensamiento de un escritor, pensador y activista afrocostarricense Dolores Joseph Montout, específicamente en relación con el Caribe. La reconstrucción de sus ideas se basó principalmente en su obra periodística en los años treinta, en The Searchlight y The Atlantic Voice, en los cuales escribió asiduamente sobre sus principales preocupaciones referentes a la población afrocostarricense. Se recuperan tres aspectos fundamentales en su obra: a) sus inquietudes nacionalistas y su lucha por la integración y (...) ciudadanía de los afrodescendientes, b) su relación y controversias con las ideas de Marcus Garvey y la Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) y los ataques producto de su posición y c) la importancia que le brinda a la educación y a la formación intelectual de los jóvenes para el crecimiento de su cultura, por ejemplo, a través delClub Literario Alpha. En las conclusiones, se evidencia lo contradictorio y lo complejo de su pensamiento y de la diversidad y diferencias de la población afrocostarricense entre 1930-1938, sus ideas nacionalistas y patrióticas, así como la importancia de proseguir con este tipo de estudios, tanto del autor como de otros pensadores y pensadoras invisibilizados enla historia del Caribe costarricense. (shrink)

This article offers a philological commentary on the ‘Calpurnia Cycle’ present within the letters composed by Pliny the Younger, concentrating particularly on the analysis of Ep. 7.5. The author behaves like a true elegiac lover and a loving husband, since the letters that he writes to his wife Calpurnia can be set in the context of the elegiac genre, given the lexicon and motifs present in them. Calpurnia is transformed into a scripta puella not in the sense of a metaphorical (...) figure, but in the sense of ‘literary material’. The aim is to adapt the elegiac motifs to his declared intention of creating a positive image of his persona in the world and for posterity (immortalitas) through the Epistulae. Although Pliny presents himself as similis excluso amatori, albeit while innovatively setting the scene at midday, his interest is not in the typical elegiac conduct of militia or servitium amoris, which would run counter to his self-presentation as an active and politically engaged citizen; rather, his theme is the praise of the beloved and reflections upon his own importance as a poet. (shrink)

The general fact of the impossibility of a bivalent, truth-functional semantics for the propositional structures determined by quantum mechanics should be more subtly demarcated according to whether the structures are taken to be orthomodular latticesP L or partial-Boolean algebrasP A; according to whether the semantic mappings are required to be truth-functional or truth-functional ; and according to whether two-or-higher dimensional Hilbert spaceP structures or three-or-higher dimensional Hilbert spaceP structures are being considered. If the quantumP structures are taken to be orthomodular (...) latticesP L, then bivalent mappings which preserve the operations and relations of aP L must be truth-functional . Then as suggested by von Neumann and Jauch-Piron and as proven in this paper, the mere presence of incompatible elements in aP L is sufficient to rule out any semantical or hidden-variable proposal which imposes this strong condition, for anytwo-or-higher dimensional Hilbert spaceP L structure. Thus from the orthomodular lattice perspective, the peculiarly non-classical feature of quantum mechanics and the peculiarly non-Boolean feature of the quantum propositional structures is the existence of incompatible magnitudes and propositions. However, the weaker truth-functionality condition can instead be imposed upon the semantic or hidden-variable mappings on theP L structures, although such mappings ignore the lattice meets and joins of incompatibles and preserve only the partial-Boolean algebra structural features of theP L structures. Or alternatively, the quantum propositional structures can be taken to be partial-Boolean algebrasP A, where bivalent mappings which preserve the operations and relations of aP A need only be truth-functional (c). In either case, the Gleason, Kochen-Specker proofs show that any semantical or hidden variable proposal which imposes this truth-functionality (c) condition is impossible for anythree-or-higher dimensional Hilbert spaceP A orP L structures. But such semantical or hidden-variable proposals are possible for any two dimensional Hilbert spaceP A orP L structures, in spite of the presence of incompatibles in these structures, in spite of the fact that Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle applies to the incompatible elements in these structures, and in spite of the fact that these structures are non-Boolean in the Piron sense. (shrink)

In the midst of the global financial crisis and in the ‘anti-race era’, Europe has witnessed a revival of deeply racialized discourses targeting the Roma, leading to new discriminatory practices and legitimating existing ones in many social domains. While westward Roma immigration has spurred these discourses, it has also favored the emergence of invisible grassroots reactions against them that need to be further analyzed. Drawing on interviews with migrant Romani women, this article aims to shed light on these unknown processes, (...) as experienced by women in Romani women-based solidarity networks. Data show that these networks help the women to access basic social facilities, while also challenging the abovementioned racialized discourses. (shrink)

The final portion of the thesis surveys proposals for the introduction of hidden variables into quantum mechanics, proofs of the impossibility of such hidden-variable proposals, and criticisms of these impossibility proofs. And arguments in favour of the partial-Boolean algebra, rather than the orthomodular lattice, formalization of the quantum propositional structures are reviewed. ;As for , each quantum state-induced expectation-function on a P truth-functionally assigns 1 and 0 values to the elements in a ultrafilter and dual ultraideal of P, where in (...) general the union of an ultrafilter and its dual ultraideal is smaller than the entire structure. Thus it is argued that each expectation-function is the quantum analog of a classical semantic mapping, even though the domain where each expectation-function is bivalent and truth-functional is usually a non-Boolean substructure of P. ;In classical propositional logic, propositions form a Boolean algebra, and each semantic mapping assigns the value 1 to the members of a certain subset of the algebra, namely, an ultrafilter, and assigns 0 to the members of the dual ultraideal, where the union of these two subsets is the entire algebra. The propositional structures of classical mechanics are likewise Boolean algebras, so one can straightforwardly provide a classical semantics, which also satisfies . However, quantum propositional structures are non-Boolean, so it is an open question whether a semantics satisfying , and can be provided. ;Von Neumann first proposed that the algebraic structures of the subspaces of Hilbert space be regarded as the propositional structures P of quantum mechanics. These structures have been formalized in two ways: as orthomodular lattices which have the binary operations "and", "or", defined among all elements, compatible and incompatible ; and as partial-Boolean algebras which have the binary operations defined among only compatible elements. In the thesis, two basic senses in which these structures are non-Boolean are discriminated. And two notions of truth-functionality are distinguished: truth-functionality ,) applicable to the Plattices; and truth-functionality ) applicable to both the Plattices and partial-Boolean algebras. Then it is shown how the lattice definitions of "and", "or", among incompatibles rule out a bivalent, truth-functional ,) semantics for any PQM lattice containing incompatible elements. In contrast, the Gleason and Kochen-Specker proofs of the impossibility of hidden-variables for quantum mechanics show the impossibility of a bivalent, truth-functional ) semantics for three-or-higher dimensional Hilbert space PQM structures; and the presence of incompatible elements is necessary but is not sufficient to rule out such a semantics. ;The thesis investigates the possibility of a classical semantics for quantum propositional structures. A classical semantics is defined as a set of mappings each of which is bivalent, i.e., the value 1 or 0 is assigned to each proposition, and truth-functional, i.e., the logical operations are preserved. In addition, this set must be "full", i.e., any pair of distinct propositions is assigned different values by some mapping in the set. When the propositions make assertions about the properties of classical or of quantum systems, the mappings should also be "state-induced", i.e., values assigned by the semantics should accord with values assigned by classical or by quantum mechanics. (shrink)

Est e trabaj o pretend e mostra r l a actualida d y necesida d d e l a crític a feminist a a u n derecho qu e h a inco r porad o y a política s antidiscriminatorias . Aunqu e desd e e l feminism o s e h a yan denunciand o repetidament e dete r minada s dinámica s jurídica s perjudiciale s par a la s mujeres , est e a r tícul o trat (...) a d e ilustra r mediant e resolucione s judiciale s actuales , qu e l a m a y o r pa r t e d e la s funcione s d e u n análisi s feminist a de l derech o n o s e ha n agotad o tod a vía . Las sentencia s analizada s muestra n cóm o e l derech o pena l y l a aplicació n qu e d e ést e hacen lo s tribunale s sigu e siend o masculina , cóm o e n la s decisione s sobr e l a atribució n d e la custodi a d e lo s hijo s comune s e n caso s d e separació n y d iv orci o continúa n jugand o un pape l centra l cie r to s estereotipo s femenino s y cóm o e n l a aplicació n d e lo s delito s contra l a libe r ta d s e xua l sigu e dándos e poc o crédit o a l a palabr a d e la s mujere s víctimas. (shrink)

We argue that artificial networks are explainable and offer a novel theory of interpretability. Two sets of conceptual questions are prominent in theoretical engagements with artificial neural networks, especially in the context of medical artificial intelligence: Are networks explainable, and if so, what does it mean to explain the output of a network? And what does it mean for a network to be interpretable? We argue that accounts of “explanation” tailored specifically to neural networks have ineffectively reinvented the wheel. In (...) response to, we show how four familiar accounts of explanation apply to neural networks as they would to any scientific phenomenon. We diagnose the confusion about explaining neural networks within the machine learning literature as an equivocation on “explainability,” “understandability” and “interpretability.” To remedy this, we distinguish between these notions, and answer by offering a theory and typology of interpretation in machine learning. Interpretation is something one does to an explanation with the aim of producing another, more understandable, explanation. As with explanation, there are various concepts and methods involved in interpretation: Total or Partial, Global or Local, and Approximative or Isomorphic. Our account of “interpretability” is consistent with uses in the machine learning literature, in keeping with the philosophy of explanation and understanding, and pays special attention to medical artificial intelligence systems. (shrink)

Filosofía latinoamericana es para mí una expresión que describe un estilo de reflexión, esto es, la manera como el filósofo responde a las exigencias de su situación con los elementos que tiene 'a la mano' comprendiendo, es decir, creando proyectos. Permítanme aclarar lo que entiendo por estilo.

El presente ensayo resume la crítica del filósofo Gilbert Simondon al antropocentrismo moderno y a las concepciones sobre la técnica desarrolladas en el siglo XX por ciertas corrientes filosóficas que provienen, según él, de lo que denomina un humanismo fácil, que circunscriben el desarrollo técnico a la racionalidad instrumental y a la distinción entre medios y fines. La propuesta de Simondon para salir del marco de estas visiones que considera reduccionistas, es ampliar nuestra mirada sobre la técnica, no centrarnos en (...) la relación entre medios y fines y adentrarnos en el conocimiento sobre los modos de existencia de los objetos técnicos. La mirada de Simondon nos invita a repensar nuestra relación con la técnica y, más allá incluso, a revisar nuestras concepciones ontológicas inclinándose por las que hoy conocemos como ontologías relacionales. La técnica para el filósofo francés es un puente entre nuestro pasado ritual y nuestra actualidad que persiste en la co-existencia de todos los seres, vivos y no vivos que conforman el tecno ecosistema. (shrink)

According to Michael Thompson’s defence of neo-Aristotelian naturalism in meta-ethics, (i) ‘[t]he concept LIFE-FORM is a pure or a priori, perhaps a logical, concept’, and (ii) ‘[t]he concept HUMAN, as we human beings have it, is an a priori concept’ (p. 57). Here I show Thompson’s argument for (ii) to be unsound, hoping thereby to shed light on the neglected subject of the a prioricity of concepts more generally.

Seeing total darkness is a peculiar perceptual state: in it, the subject is visually aware of something while seeming to fail to be aware of anything. Recent treatments of the topic (Sorensen 2008, Soteriou 2000) leave this particular puzzle unsolved. Here, I attempt a solution. Following Dretske, I begin by suggesting that the perceptual report ‘S sees (total) darkness’ is ambiguous between two distinct kinds of perceptual states: epistemic and non-epistemic. This will lead to an examination of the metaphysics of (...) what is supposed to be seen. I show, on the one hand, the difficulty of reducing the perception of total darkness to the perception of a particular instantiation of a property, and on the other, that it has important similarities with the perception of (non-particular) ‘stuff’. I propose, finally, that the solution to the puzzle might involve postulating a novel ontological status for total darkness: that of a ‘concrete universal’. Potential implications of interest for particularism and for naïve realism are suggested. (shrink)

Technological development is accompanied by a paradox: while it often promises enormous benefits for humanity, it can also lead to inconceivable tragedy, including the instrumentalization of the individual, growing social inequality, environmental impact, etc. What causes this paradox? a) Could it be that the nature of technology generates this contradiction? b) Is it the agent that uses it? c) Or is it the circumstances in which technology is used that determine its suitability or disservice? My aim in this paper is (...) to revise nature, causes and political explanations of the paradox. To do so, the first section will give a historical overview of this phenomenon, the second will assess three proposals that attempt to explain its origin, and, finally, the paper will weigh such approaches from the view of the Frankfurt School. Evaluating the paradoxical conditions that surround technology allows us to better understand its role in our societies. (shrink)

El presente ensayo resume la crítica del filósofo Gilbert Simondon al antropocentrismo moderno y a las concepciones sobre la técnica desarrolladas en el siglo XX por ciertas corrientes filosóficas que provienen, según él, de lo que denomina un humanismo fácil, que circunscriben el desarrollo técnico a la racionalidad instrumental y a la distinción entre medios y fines. La propuesta de Simondon para salir del marco de estas visiones que considera reduccionistas, es ampliar nuestra mirada sobre la técnica, no centrarnos en (...) la relación entre medios y fines y adentrarnos en el conocimiento sobre los modos de existencia de los objetos técnicos. La mirada de Simondon nos invita a repensar nuestra relación con la técnica y, más allá incluso, a revisar nuestras concepciones ontológicas inclinándose por las que hoy conocemos como ontologías relacionales. La técnica para el filósofo francés es un puente entre nuestro pasado ritual y nuestra actualidad que persiste en la co-existencia de todos los seres, vivos y no vivos que conforman el tecno ecosistema. (shrink)

A long‐standing aim of cinema – in particular of ‘extreme’, ‘unwatchable’ or ‘feel‐ bad’ cinema – has been to acquaint viewers with extreme suffering. In this article I first offer an explication of that aim in terms of recent work in philosophy of mind, then exploit the resulting framework to examine claims to the effect that a new technological development, Virtual Reality, provides cinema's best shot at achieving that aim.

This article addresses the need to interpret Latin American philosophy from its narrative experience. To do this, we must grasp the reflective style of Latin America as a way of cultural configuration and as a symbol work of its own. In addition, to identify Latin American philosophy as a tactic to respond and resist the strategy of the European hegemonic power is essential. Finally, it is argued it is not possible to think of Latin American identity without practicing a political (...) ethic which transposes the figures of narratives with the figures of history to the justice demand situation in which we find ourselves. (shrink)

Constructive Neutral Evolution is an evolutionary mechanism that can explain much molecular inter-dependence and organismal complexity without assuming positive selection favoring such dependency or complexity, either directly or as a byproduct of adaptation. It differs from but complements other non-selective explanations for complexity, such as genetic drift and the Zero Force Evolutionary Law, by being ratchet-like in character. With CNE, purifying selection maintains dependencies or complexities that were neutrally evolved. Preliminary treatments use it to explain specific genetic and molecular structures (...) or processes, such as retained gene duplications, the spliceosome, and RNA editing. Here we aim to expand the scope of such explanation beyond the molecular level, integrating CNE with Multi-Level Selection theory, and arguing that several popular higher-level selection scenarios are in fact instances of CNE. Suitably contextualized, CNE occurs at any level in the biological hierarchy at which natural selection as normally construed occurs. As examples, we focus on modularity in protein–protein interaction networks or “interactomes,” the origin of eukaryotic cells and the evolution of co-dependence in microbial communities—a variant of the “Black Queen Hypothesis” which we call the “Gray Queen Hypothesis”. (shrink)

The beginning of university life can be a stressful event for students. The close social relationships that they can experience can have positive effects on their well-being. The objective of this paper is to estimate the effect of perceived social support on the changes of the hedonic and eudaimonic well-being of Chilean university students during the transition from the first to the second academic year. Overall, 205 students participated with an average age of 19.14 years, evaluated during their first academic (...) year and the succeeding one. For the evaluation of perceived social support, the Spanish version of the Perceived Social Support Questionnaire “MSPSS” was used, and PERMA-profiler was used to measure hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Changes through the time of hedonic well-being and social support and the correlations between the variables were analyzed. Changes in the perception of social support were analyzed according to four categories of hedonic well-being. The prediction of social support for eudaimonic well-being was evaluated. Results indicated that the perception of students’ social support did not change over time. Statistically significant differences were found in hedonic well-being scores in the two measurements, being significantly higher in the first measurement than in the second one. More than 50% of the participants presented a positive balance of affections. The perception of social support is associated with the two types of well-being. Students who had a high balance of affections had a greater perception of general social support than the groups of positive evolution of affections and a low balance of affections. In the case of the friends and family support dimensions, the perception in the high-balance group of affections concerning the low-scale group is greater. Improving the perception of social support increases the eudaimonic well-being of university students. The perception of support that students had during the beginning of their university life benefits their general well-being, which contributes to their mental health. (shrink)

I begin by proposing a notion of mathematical understanding; then I take a brief look at four approaches to the task of teaching infinity to mathematical novices—four approaches, that is, to “popular” philosophy and mathematics—and assess whether they provide such an understanding. But I don’t mean this to be a recommendation for or against any author. Rather, I want to submit the idea that mathematical understanding is an important dimension of popularizing efforts, all of which can be valuable, to be (...) sure, along other dimensions. (shrink)

DISSERTAÇÃO DE MESTRADO SANTOS, Ariadna de Oliveira. Discurso pentecostal e diálogo inter-religioso: um estudo sob a perspectiva da metáfora conceptual. 2011. 111 folhas. Dissertação (Mestrado) – Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências da Religião, Belo Horizonte.

Several approaches to clinical ethics consultation (CEC) exist in medical practice and are widely discussed in the clinical ethics literature; different models of CECs are classified according to their methods, goals, and consultant’s attitude. Although the “facilitation” model has been endorsed by the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) and is described in an influential manual, alternative approaches, such as advocacy, moral expertise, mediation, and engagement are practiced and defended in the clinical ethics field. Our Clinical Ethics Center in (...) Paris was founded in 2002 in the wake of the Patients’ Rights Act, and to date it is the largest center that provides consultation services in France. In this article we shall describe and defend our own approach to clinical ethics consultation, which we call the “Commitment Model,” in comparison with other existing models. Indeed commitment implies, among other meanings, continuity through time, a series of coherent actions, and the realization of important social goals. By drawing on a recent consultation case, we shall describe the main steps of our consultation procedure: interviews with major stakeholders, including patients and proxies; case conferences; and follow up. We shall show why we have chosen the term “commitment” to represent our approach at three different but interrelated levels: commitment towards patients, within the case conference group, and towards society as a whole. (shrink)

El artículo se constituye en una exploración del pensamiento de un escritor, pensador y activista afrocostarricense Dolores Joseph Montout, específicamente en relación con el Caribe. La reconstrucción de sus ideas se basó principalmente en su obra periodística en los años treinta, en The Searchlight y The AtlanticVoice, en los cuales escribió asiduamente sobre sus principales preocupaciones referentes a la población afrocostarricense. Se recuperan tres aspectos fundamentales en su obra: a) sus inquietudes nacionalistas y su lucha por la integración y ciudadanía (...) de los afrodescendientes, b) su relación y controversias con las ideas de Marcus Garvey y la Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) y los ataques producto de su posición y c) la importancia que le brinda a la educación y a la formación intelectual de los jóvenes para el crecimiento de su cultura, por ejemplo, a través del Club Literario Alpha. En las conclusiones, se evidencia lo contradictorio y lo complejo de su pensamiento y de la diversidad y diferencias de la población afrocostarricense entre 1930-1938, sus ideas nacionalistas y patrióticas, así como la importancia de proseguir con este tipo de estudios, tanto del autor como de otros pensadores y pensadoras invisibilizados en la historia del Caribe costarricense. (shrink)