This volume has 41 chapters written to honor the 100th birthday of Mario Bunge. It celebrates the work of this influential Argentine/Canadian physicist and philosopher. Contributions show the value of Bunge’s science-informed philosophy and his systematic approach to philosophical problems. The chapters explore the exceptionally wide spectrum of Bunge’s contributions to: metaphysics, methodology and philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of physics, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of social science, philosophy of biology, philosophy of technology, moral philosophy, social and political (...) philosophy, medical philosophy, and education. The contributors include scholars from 16 countries. Bunge combines ontological realism with epistemological fallibilism. He believes that science provides the best and most warranted knowledge of the natural and social world, and that such knowledge is the only sound basis for moral decision making and social and political reform. Bunge argues for the unity of knowledge. In his eyes, science and philosophy constitute a fruitful and necessary partnership. Readers will discover the wisdom of this approach and will gain insight into the utility of cross-disciplinary scholarship. This anthology will appeal to researchers, students, and teachers in philosophy of science, social science, and liberal education programmes. 1. Introduction Section I. An Academic Vocation Section II. Philosophy Section III. Physics and Philosophy of Physics Section IV. Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Mind Section V. Sociology and Social Theory Section VI. Ethics and Political Philosophy Section VII. Biology and Philosophy of Biology Section VIII. Mathematics Section IX. Education Section X. Varia Section XI. Bibliography. (shrink)

The world today is facing unprecedented challenges of governance far beyond what the United Nations, established more than 70 years ago, was designed to face. The grave effects of global climate change are already manifesting themselves, requiring rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society if we are to arrest catastrophic and probably irreversible consequences. Science has uncovered the frightening and rapid collapse in global biodiversity, threatening ecosystems across the planet that maintain the correct functioning of the biosphere, (...) upon which we rely for survival. But there is more; there are other global catastrophic risks. We live in a world in which a diminished faith in our political leaders and governmental structures, public disillusionment with partisan politics and a willingness to believe populist promises, disturbing trends in income inequality, human rights violations and the spread of corruption have coincided with the rise of autocratic leaders, often intent on awakening the voices of nationalisms which have been so destructive during the 20th century. The rejection by some nations of the benefits of multilaterism and international cooperation, which have been at the center of the postwar global order, has heightened the risks of fundamental instabilities that could precipitate a range of major crises, disregarding the lessons of the past. (shrink)

Academic achievement is a factor of interest in both psychology and education. Determining which factors have a negative or positive influence on academic performance has produced different investigations. The present study focuses on analyzing the relationship between resilience, emotional intelligence, self-concept and the academic achievement of university students. For this purpose, different self-report tools were administered to a sample of 1,020 university students from Southern Spain. The Structural Equation-based mediational analysis suggests that there is no direct relationship between resilience and (...) academic achievement, nor between emotional intelligence and academic achievement. Likewise, self-concept is positioned as a mediating factor in the relationship between resilience and academic achievement. The findings indicate that university students who exhibit high levels of resilience tend to cope better with difficult moments and understand and value the effort required and invested in study time. This study supports positive beliefs and behaviors for better academic achievement. (shrink)

This thought-provoking book discusses the concept of progress in economics and investigates whether any advance has been made in its different spheres of research. The authors look back at the history, successes and failures of their respective fields and thoroughly examine the notion of progress from an epistemological and methodological perspective. The idea of progress is particularly significant as the authors regard it as an essentially contested concept which can be defined in many ways – theoretically or empirically; locally or (...) globally; or as encouraging or impeding the existence of other research traditions. The authors discuss the idea that for progress to make any sense there must be an accumulation of knowledge built up over time rather than the replacement of ideas by each successive generation. Accordingly, they are not concerned with estimating the price of progress, reminiscing in the past, or assessing what has been lost. Instead they apply the complex mechanisms and machinery of the discipline to sub-fields such as normative economics, monetary economics, trade and location theory, Austrian economics and classical economics to critically assess whether progress has been made in these areas of research. -/- Bringing together authoritative and wide-ranging contributions by leading scholars, this book will challenge and engage those interested in philosophy, economic methodology and the history of economic thought. It will also appeal to economists in general who are interested in the advancement of their profession. (shrink)

En este ensayo nos proponemos realizar un trabajo de traducción, como lo sugiere Boaventura de Sousa Santos, entre aspectos puntuales de la teoría estética de Augusto Boal y algunos de los estudios que sobre la colonialidad del ser han realizado autores como Walter Mignolo y Nelson Maldonado Torres, entre otros. Nuestros objetivos son, primero, subrayar los vínculos entre las dos teorías para revelar la viabilidad de la existencia de una colonialidad del crear; segundo, reflexionar la estética del oprimido como (...) una estética descolonizadora. (shrink)

Este libro inaugura la serie Homenaje de la Colección La Fuente. Con él se busca reconocer, de manera particular, al pensador, dramaturgo y director brasileño Augusto Boal (1931-2009), creador del teatro y la estética del oprimido, genuina aportación cultural latinoamericana que mucho tiene que ver con ese particular lugar de enunciación que es Nuestra América y sus siempre actuales expectativas emancipadoras. El libro fue precedido y nutrido por un Coloquio que en mayo de 2014 reunió a importantes especialistas y (...) seguidores del legado teórico-práctico de Boal y que tuvo como tema principal el del rescate y la continuación de su obra. Incluye los más importantes trabajos allí presentados, junto a un estudio biográfico, una contribución enviada por su hijo, una entrevista a su esposa y dos obras del propio Boal que (una parcialmente y la otra de manera completa) se publican por primera vez. (shrink)

Axel Honneth, em O direito da liberdade, apresenta uma crítica aos elementos problemáticos da liberdade jurídica desde sua primeira formulação, no século XVII, de caráter negativo, até um segundo momento, marcado pela ampliação dos direitos subjetivos, que transforma o espaço privado em um lugar de reflexão ética de onde derivam juízos de “bem” e de “justiça”. Como exemplo desde segundo momento, Honneth se vale do pensamento de John Stuart Mill. Ocorre que, mesmo reconhecendo a importância das teorizações millianas, Honneth insiste (...) em afirmar que a liberdade jurídica implica na constituição do sujeito como ator solitário dotado de objetivos estratégicos. Nossa proposta aqui é sugerir que ao se valer do pensamento de Mill para ilustrar sua reconstrução da noção de liberdade jurídica, e concluir por sua limitação, Honneth não alcança a extensão da proposta de filosofia social do autor inglês. A imbricação entre as noções de liberdade e igualdade em Mill permeia a esfera privada garantida pelos direitos individuais e introduz questões intersubjetivas no momento de reflexão ética. Ou seja, há claros elementos de influência do outro na determinação dos juízos morais legitimadores da ação social milliana. Visando explorar esta questão, procuramos, em um primeiro momento, identificar a crítica à insuficiência do reconhecimento de obrigações recíprocas entre os sujeitos que gozam de seus direitos individuais, para, em seguida, confrontarmos seus argumentos com as formulações de John Stuart Mill sobre o assunto. (shrink)

El texto sirve como capítulo introductorio y de presentación del libro Teatro y Estética del Oprimido. Homenaje a Augusto Boal. Se reflexiona y evalúa críticamente sobre los diferentes "usos" que se hacen del legado teórico-práctico de Augusto Boal, lo que se hace y lo que, ajuicio de los autores, se debe hacer con él. Se describe además las fuentes y el contenido capitular del libro en cuestión.

Se muestra y fundamenta una de las principales ideas que desarrolla augusto Boal en su libro Estética del Oprimido: toda actividad artística, para que lo sea realmente, debe cumplir ciertos requerimientos éticos.

O presente estudo tem por objetivo demonstrar que o mito, não a ciência, expressa a mais elevada aplicação e atividade da mente humana. Para tanto, é preciso compreender a natureza da razão científica em sua delimitação/limitação conceitual dos fenômenos, o que impossibilita à ciência uma descrição científica da realidade em sua concretude. As contribuições da moderna epistemologia servem-nos aqui de base para uma compreensão da natureza das investigações científicas. Diante de tais contribuições, a ciência se apresenta como dependente de um (...) discurso que alcance a totalidade vivenciada pelos seres humanos, discurso que terá de ser simbólico. O símbolo é a operação essencial do pensamento humano em vista da totalidade do ser, como dizer e agir. Com isso, tornar-se claro de que modo qualquer atividade científica e conceitual depende, em última instância, de uma cosmovisão mitológica que lhe ofereça sua moldura de compreensão e de sentido, a partir da qual ela pode ser vivenciada pela cultura humana. (shrink)

Ante la realidad que circunda, son muchas las voces que denuncian una ruptura entre el espíritu humano y el desarrollo de la cultura. Es inevitable pensar que en la universidad y en la academia pareciese estar presente dicha separación. La universidad y su identidad de lugar para el encuentro y la búsqueda de la verdad humana está siendo asaltada por aquel esquema de empresa al servicio del liberalismo capitalista que denuncia Nussbaum (2010 38), a propósito del informe de la comisión (...) sobre el futuro de la educación superior en Estados Unidos, que le da a la educación la misión de moldear el desarrollo nacional, en términos de crecimiento económico. Los múltiples debates que se han instaurado deben causar una actitud de resistencia a un modelo que instrumentaliza lo que ha defendido la universidad como espacio del sentido y dejan claro una vocación empresarial en la educación superior que la ha convertido en un nodo productivo que ocupa un lugar importante en el crecimiento económico. (shrink)

Los autores realizan un análisis comparativo entre The Tempest de Willian Shakespeare y La Tempestad de Augusto Boal, siguiendo la pauta de este último autor, quien ve en su obra no la adaptación de la del clásico dramaturgo inglés, sino la respuesta a aquella desde la perspectiva de Caliban y no de Próspero.

En representación de la Colección La Fuente, los autores entrevistan a Cecilia Boal, viuda y colaboradora de Augusto Boal, fundador del teatro y la estética del oprimido. La entrevista permite complementar, con los aspectos menos conocidos de la vida y obra del destacado creador y dramaturgo brasileño, el libro que La Fuente le dedica en su serie Homenaje.

En el presente artículo se analiza el relato sobre la supuesta correspondencia mantenida por Jesús y el rey Abgar V de Edesa, presente en la obra Historia Eclesiástica de Eusebio de Cesarea. Desde sus inicios, la leyenda gozó de mucha fama debido a la consideración de los fieles de que se trataba de uno de los pocos testimonios existentes sobre un texto escrito por el mismísimo Jesús. Este hecho provocó que esta tradición se tradujese a numerosas lenguas y recibiera varias (...) influencias distintas, lo que sin duda favoreció su desarrollo y su pervivencia en el tiempo. A pesar de los numerosos estudios sobre su popularidad y sobre las distintas versiones existentes, el origen de esta leyenda sigue sin estar claro y está lejos de llegar a un consenso académico. Por tanto, en este trabajo se estudian las distintas perspectivas sobre el inicio de esta tradición, analizando aquellas teorías que se centran en sugerir que la obra se trata de una invención del autor, pero también buscando algún matiz histórico que pudo servir como fuente de inspiración para Eusebio de Cesarea. (shrink)

El objetivo de la formación doctoral es la generación y difusión de nuevo conocimiento, sin embargo, no es claro cómo los programas de doctorado en Colombia se relacionan con este tipo de producción académica. A partir de ello, en el presente estudio se presenta el panorama general de la producción académica a través de las instituciones de educación superior colombianas que ofertan programas de formación doctoral en psicología. La producción académica se obtuvo de la base de datos Scopus en una (...) muestra de 13 universidades. Tras una búsqueda inicial, se encontraron 1345 documentos, con los cuales se realizó un análisis de los indicadores de productividad y de las redes de colaboración al interior de la disciplina en el país. Posteriormente, esta información se contrastó con la información nacional registrada en el sistema de Currículum Vitae Latinoamericano y del Caribe de 193 profesores asociados a las universidades que ofertan los programas de doctorado. Al comparar la producción académica nacional e internacional, se encontró una mayor correlación entre la dirección de tesis de posgrado y la publicación en revistas nacionales. Por lo tanto, se puede afirmar que el impacto de la formación doctoral en la generación de nuevo conocimiento es relativo y tiene un alcance limitado, siendo principalmente las revistas nacionales el medio de difusión de este conocimiento. Se recomienda evaluar el impacto de los productos asociados a la formación posgradual y la visibilidad internacional, con énfasis en las revistas indexadas en bases de datos internacionales. (shrink)

La Educación Parvularia en Chile y principalmente su gestión pedagógica, se sitúa en un nuevo escenario que exige de los educadores competencias más humanas que de funcionalidad técnica para adaptarse a las impresiones, la emergencia, la incertidumbre y la complejidad de los procesos epistemológicos infantiles; comprender cómo aprenden los niños, cómo acceden al conocimiento y qué estrategias utilizan para hacerlo, es fundamental para contribuir a un sistema educativo de calidad. Si bien en Chile se han intentado algunas reformas e innovaciones (...) curriculares para la Educación Parvularia con el firme propósito de mejorar la calidad del sistema educativo, aún no está claro, qué es aquello que entorpece el logro de los aprendizajes y pone en peligro la calidad del sistema. En este contexto, resulta interesante centrar la mirada en los juegos infantiles, describir el tipo de interacciones sociales y con el entorno que se producen en estas dimensiones lúdicas e intentar descubrir los indicios epistemológicos que en ellas surjan; descubrir en los espacios de informalidad en que se desarrollan los juegos infantiles algunas aproximaciones que nos contextualicen epistemológicamente, nos permitirá comprender que las prácticas adultistas utilizadas en los espacios educativos formales no impactan significativamente los procesos de aprendizaje de los niños. (shrink)

The idea that love changes who we are is widely shared, and has been mostly explored from a stance in the middle stage of love (i.e., when people already love each other). But how do we get there? And what happens when love ends? In this chapter, I explore how self-understanding may be shaped in different ways at different stages of love through the notions of narrative and existential feeling. As I will argue, love gains narrative momentum at the beginning, (...) which is maintained during the middle, and ultimately extinguished at the end. This momentum is triggered and later sustained by the existential feeling that ‘things make sense’, which keeps the lovers oriented towards each other. (shrink)

Why does social injustice exist? What role, if any, do implicit biases play in the perpetuation of social inequalities? Individualistic approaches to these questions explain social injustice as the result of individuals’ preferences, beliefs, and choices. For example, they explain racial injustice as the result of individuals acting on racial stereotypes and prejudices. In contrast, structural approaches explain social injustice in terms of beyond-the-individual features, including laws, institutions, city layouts, and social norms. Often these two approaches are seen as competitors. (...) Framing them as competitors suggests that only one approach can win and that the loser offers worse explanations of injustice. In this essay, we explore each approach and compare them. Using implicit bias as an example, we argue that the relationship between individualistic and structural approaches is more complicated than it may first seem. Moreover, we contend that each approach has its place in analyses of injustice and raise the possibility that they can work together—synergistically—to produce deeper explanations of social injustice. If so, the approaches may be complementary, rather than competing. (shrink)

This book tells the story of the Scientific Buddha, "born" in Europe in the 1800s but commonly confused with the Buddha born in India 2,500 years ago. The Scientific Buddha was sent into battle against Christian missionaries, who were proclaiming across Asia that Buddhism was a form of superstition. He proved the missionaries wrong, teaching a dharma that was in harmony with modern science. And so his influence continues. Today his teaching of "mindfulness" is heralded as the cure for all (...) manner of maladies, from depression to high blood pressure.In this potent critique, a well-known chronicler of the West's encounter with Buddhism demonstrates how the Scientific Buddha's teachings deviate in crucial ways from those of the far older Buddha of ancient India. Donald Lopez shows that the Western focus on the Scientific Buddha threatens to bleach Buddhism of its vibrancy, complexity, and power, even as the superficial focus on "mindfulness" turns Buddhism into merely the latest self-help movement. The Scientific Buddha has served his purpose, Lopez argues. It is now time for him to pass into nirvana. This is not to say, however, that the teachings of the ancient Buddha must be dismissed as mere cultural artifacts. They continue to present a meaningful challenge, even to our modern world. (shrink)

Modèle d'une société en mal de cohésion, ou modelé par elle et ses normes, le corps construit l'identité, et rend possible l'aliénation. Apprêté, mis en scène, observé ou transformé, il donne son étoffe au héros, ses rouages au pantin, ses prothèses à l'homme en mal de puissance. À moins que, habité en conscience, il ne devienne la source vive où l'homme peut puiser sa joie. Les 27 et 28 mars 2017, dans l'amphithéâtre de l'École Nationale Supérieure d'Art de Bourges, s'est (...) tenu un colloque de philosophie sur le thème "Ce que peut un corps". Enseignants de philosophie, de sociologie, plasticien, maître d'arts martiaux se sont succédé pour faire état des états du corps."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

A group of philosophers suggests that a sense of mineness intrinsically contained in the phenomenal structure of all conscious experiences is a necessary condition for a subject to become aware of himself as the subject of his experiences i.e. self-awareness. On this view, consciousness necessarily entails phenomenal self-awareness. This paper argues that cases of delusions of thought insertion undermine this claim and that such a phenomenal feature plays little role in accounting for the most minimal type of self-awareness entailed by (...) phenomenal consciousness. First, I clarify the main view endorsing this claim i.e. the Self-Presentational View of Consciousness and formulate the challenge from thought insertion. After, I offer a systematic evaluation of all the strategies used by the advocates of this view to deal with this challenge. Finally, I conclude that most of these strategies are unsatisfactory for they rest in unwarranted premises, imprecisions about the agentive nature of cognitive experiences, and especially, lack of distinction between the different ways in which subjects can become aware of their own thoughts. (shrink)

This book highlights the powerful impact of some important Spanish Jesuits on some relevant English thinkers such as Locke, Bacon, and others, regarding politics, law and natural rights, an influence sometimes hidden and always controversial.

The claim of the freedom of the will (understood as an individual who is transcendent to Nature) in the name of XXth century scientific knowledge, against the perspective of XVIIIth-XIXth century scientific materialism, is analysed and refuted in the present paper. The hypothesis of reductionism finds no obstacle within contemporary natural sciences. Determinism in classical physics is irrefutable, unless classical physics is itself refuted. From quantum mechanics, some authors argue that free will is possible because there is an ontological indeterminism (...) in the natural laws, and that the mind is responsible for the wave function collapse of matter, which leads to a choice among the different possibilities for the body. However, here I defend the opposite thesis because indeterminism does not imply free will, and because the considerations about an autonomous mind sending orders to the body is against neuroscience or evolutionary theories about human beings. The quantum theory of measurement can be interpreted without the intervention of human minds, but other fields of science cannot contemplate the mentalist scenario. A fatalistic or materialist view, which denies the possibility of a free will, makes much more sense in scientific terms. (shrink)

A substantial body of recent philosophy envisages a close, congenial relationship between blame and morality. It has been posited, assumed or argued, for instance, that blame is responsive to moral...

What different relativist claims about a given domain are to be distinguished? Which of them is best placed to account for intuitive facts about disagreement in that domain? In a recent paper in this journal, ‘Indexical Relativism versus Genuine Relativism’ (2004), Max Kölbel distinguishes two forms of relativism, andargues that one of them, indexical relativism, faces problems in accounting for disagreement. In the first part of this discussion I present my own taxonomy of relativist positions in a given domain, which (...) is based on David Lewis’s 1980 essay, and I compare it with Kölbel’s and other recent suggestions. In the second part, I argue that the presuppositional defence of indexical relativism against related objections that I have elaborated elsewhere is also effective against Kölbel’s recent charges. (shrink)

A common approach in the philosophy of love defines love as caring about one another and promoting one another's interests, aims and values. The view faces several problems and has been re-formulated to avoid them. However, here I argue that a larger re-formulation of the definition of love is needed in order to accommodate three instances of what I call 'non-harmonious' relationships. I identify three types of non-harmonious love (featuring problematic interests, opposing interests and neutral interests the lovers do not (...) care about) and ultimately claim that our definition of love must incorporate conflict and self- interest, and we should then abandon the excessive focus on the sharing of values. (shrink)

En este artículo expongo y analizo la propuesta berkeleyana del conocimiento nocional, que representa entre otras cosas el intento del irlandés por conocer a la mente o espíritu, esto es, a aquella cosa pensante y activa que por su propia actividad resulta irrepresentable como idea. Como el conocimiento nocional ya se menciona en los Comentarios Filosófi cos me remitiré a ellos para conocer los orígenes del mismo; sin embargo, como tal conocimiento aparece con mayor detalle en obras posteriores me serviré (...) sobre todo del Tratado para abordar la compleja doctrina nocional. // In this paper I expose and analyze the berkeleian proposal of notional knowledge. Among other things, this proposal represents Berkeley ́s attempt to know the mind or spirit, that is, the thinking and active thing that by its own activity results unrepresentable as idea. As such knowledge is already mentioned in the Philosophical Commentaries, I will refer to them in order to know the origins of that proposal. However, as notional knowledge appears in more detail in later works, I will make use especially of the Treatise to address the complex notional doctrine. (shrink)

This article presents an alternative understanding of corporations from the two problematic visions that see corporations as either the shareholders’ property or as nexuses of contracts. The alternative proposed here is based on the theories of pre-eighteenth-century philosophers, particularly Aristotle’s political philosophy, which Thomas Aquinas later refined. The article aims to advance a theory of corporate legal and moral responsibility for human rights based on the conception of corporations as imperfect communities whose purpose is to produce a good or service (...) through participatory work that allows individuals to self-develop while contributing to the community by satisfying consumers’ needs through collaborative work. The critical account of corporations presented here provides a sound foundation upon which to build a justification of corporate responsibility for human rights violations, providing a more accurate description of the reality of a corporation than most mainstream contemporary accounts do. (shrink)

Shows the relevance of Schiller’s thought for contemporary philosophy, particularly aesthetics, ethics, and politics. This book seeks to draw attention to Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) as a philosophical thinker in his own right. For too long, his philosophical contribution has been neglected in favor of his much-deserved reputation as a political playwright. The essays in this collection make two arguments. First, Schiller presents a robust philosophical program that can be favorably compared to those of his age, including Rousseau, Kant, Schelling, and (...) Hegel, and he proves to be their equal in his thinking on morality, aesthetics, and politics. Second, Schiller can also guide us in our more contemporary philosophical concerns and approaches, such as phenomenology, hermeneutics, aesthetics, and politics. Here, Schiller instructs us in our engagement with figures such as Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, Jacques Rancière, Roberto Esposito, and others. María del Rosario Acosta López is Associate Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University. She has published several books, including La tragedia como conjuro: el problema de lo sublime en Friedrich Schiller. Jeffrey L. Powell is Professor of Philosophy at Marshall University and the editor of Heidegger and Language. (shrink)