An introduction to the model-theoretic approach in the philosophy of science is given and it is argued that this program is further enhanced by the introduction of partial structures. It is then shown that this leads to a natural and intuitive account of both "iconic" and mathematical models and of the role of the former in science itself.

A espiritualidade é o cuidado com a vida em sua integralidade. Como define Faustino Teixeira no artigo “Malhas da hospitalidade”, ela é a _capacidade de celebrar a vida em profundidade_, ou seja, a capacidade humana de reconhecer que a vida tem uma dimensão profunda – da qual irradiam amor desinteressado, gratuidade, atenção, cortesia e hospitalidade – e de se alegrar com isso. Diferentemente do que geralmente se pensa, a espiritualidade não se restringe aos templos e espaços religiosos, antes, diz respeito (...) a pessoas e não a almas etéreas. Portanto, perpassa toda a vida cotidiana. Na atualidade, diante dos desafios dos tempos sombrios em que vivemos, tanto na dimensão política como na de saúde pública, a casa se torna um lugar privilegiado para o cultivo da espiritualidade. Neste artigo, buscamos explicitar a dimensão espiritual da comensalidade de acordo com uma análise interpretativa do filme “A Festa de Babette” (1987), dirigido por Gabriel Axel, baseado na obra homônima da escritora dinamarquesa Karen Blixen. Em nossa análise, buscamos ressaltar a compreensão ecumênica do mistério eucarístico que o filme inspira. (shrink)

Physical superpositions exist both in classical and in quantum physics. However, what is exactly meant by ‘superposition’ in each case is extremely different. In this paper we discuss some of the multiple interpretations which exist in the literature regarding superpositions in quantum mechanics. We argue that all these interpretations have something in common: they all attempt to avoid ‘contradiction’. We argue in this paper, in favor of the importance of developing a new interpretation of superpositions which takes into account contradiction, (...) as a key element of the formal structure of the theory, “right from the start”. In order to show the feasibility of our interpretational project we present an outline of a paraconsistent approach to quantum superpositions which attempts to account for the contradictory properties present in general within quantum superpositions. This approach must not be understood as a closed formal and conceptual scheme but rather as a first step towards a different type of understanding regarding quantum superpositions. (shrink)

Maíra Dos Santos Matthes Da Costa Au cours des dernières décennies, l’approche walzérienne de la guerre juste fit l’objet de vives critiques de la part de l’école révisionniste, qui est devenue l’approche dominante dans le débat universitaire portant sur ce sujet. Sa révision de la philosophie walzérienne de la guerre englobe deux points fondamentaux, à savoir : 1) le refus de comprendre la guerre comme une situation exceptionnelle dans laquelle nos jugements moraux se distingueraient significativement de ceux que l’on (...) formule dans des contextes de paix ; 2) le refus du dualisme moral et de l’indépendance entre des ordres de jugements concernant le jus ad bellum et le jus in bello. Dans cet article, nous allons nous pencher sur ces deux points fondamentaux, pour en conclure qu’ils proposent une conception apolitique de la guerre. (shrink)

The republican revival in political philosophy, political theory, and legal theory has produced an impressive range of novel interpretations of the historical figures of the republican tradition. It has also given rise to a variety of contemporary neo-republican theories that build on its historical themes. Although there have been some feminist discussions of its historical representatives, neo-republicanism has not generated a great deal of enthusiasm among feminists. The present paper examines Phillip Pettit's theory of freedom as nondomination in order to (...) assess its potential usefulness for those with feminist goals. It defends Pettit's account of interpersonal domination from certain feminist objections, but argues that his account of state domination needs to be amended if it is fully to protect the interests of women and other groups. (shrink)

This article discusses Philip Pettit’s neo-republicanism in light of the criterion of self-sustenance: the requirement that a political theory be capable of serving as a self-sustaining public philosophy for a pluralist democracy. It argues that this criterion can only be satisfied by developing an adequate politics of virtue. Pettit’s theory is built around the notion of freedom as non-domination, and he does not say much about the virtues of citizens or the policies the state may employ to encourage their development. (...) In order to explain the motivation to comply with republican laws that promote non-domination, Pettit relies on the phenomenon of civility and the mechanism of the intangible hand. But to understand what underlies an adequate level of robust civility one needs to focus on the more basic phenomenon of personal virtue. Policies that aim to promote non-domination should take into account the need to cultivate virtue among citizens, as well as the full range of conditions that favor its exercise. (shrink)

The paper studies first order extensions of classical systems of modal logic (see (Chellas, 1980, part III)). We focus on the role of the Barcan formulas. It is shown that these formulas correspond to fundamental properties of neighborhood frames. The results have interesting applications in epistemic logic. In particular we suggest that the proposed models can be used in order to study monadic operators of probability (Kyburg, 1990) and likelihood (Halpern-Rabin, 1987).

This paper develops the first deontic logic in the context of paraconsistent logics.

David hume is sometimes viewed as a skeptic who argues that none of our beliefs about the world are justified. this paper challenges that view by developing and explicating an account of justified belief that is compatible with hume's theories about belief formation, inference, and principles governing the association of ideas. it is noted that the resultant account bears some resemblance to contemporary causal/reliability views of justification.

O presente artigo tem como objetivo apresentar a pertinência do recurso da narração tanto na representação quanto da própria constituição da ipseidade. Para realizar esse intento, optou-se por uma estratégia comparativa entre uma posição antinarrativista e uma narrativista no que concerne aos poderes da narração em apreender e compor o domínio das identificações. Em um primeiro momento será realizada uma reconstrução das posições de Jean-Paul Sartre acerca da narração tendo por base a ontologia fenomenológica de O ser e o nada (...) bem como as considerações sobre narrativa e identidade encontradas no romance A náusea e no texto de Diários de uma guerra estranha. O momento seguinte explorará os argumentos narrativistas de Alasdair MacIntyre em Depois da Virtude, de Charles Taylor em As fontes do self e, especialmente, de Paul Ricoeur em Tempo e narrativa e O si-mesmo como outro. Finalmente, no momento mais estritamente comparativo, pretende-se mostrar certas dificuldades da posição antinarrativista, bem como a fecundidade da posição narrativista, no que diz respeito ao distinto modo de administração da demanda por sentido no rechaço antinarrativista da identidade e do acolhimento do desafio de permanente elaboração de sentido da posição narrativista. (shrink)

The article focuses on representing different forms of non-adjunctive inference as sub-Kripkean systems of classical modal logic, where the inference from □A and □B to □A ∧ B fails. In particular we prove a completeness result showing that the modal system that Schotch and Jennings derive from a form of non-adjunctive inference in (Schotch and Jennings, 1980) is a classical system strictly stronger than EMN and weaker than K (following the notation for classical modalities presented in Chellas, 1980). The unified (...) semantical characterization in terms of neighborhoods permits comparisons between different forms of non-adjunctive inference. For example, we show that the non-adjunctive logic proposed in (Schotch and Jennings, 1980) is not adequate in general for representing the logic of high probability operators. An alternative interpretation of the forcing relation of Schotch and Jennings is derived from the proposed unified semantics and utilized in order to propose a more fine-grained measure of epistemic coherence than the one presented in (Schotch and Jennings, 1980). Finally we propose a syntactic translation of the purely implicative part of Jaśkowski's system D₂ into a classical system preserving all the theorems (and non-theorems) explicilty mentioned in (Jaśkowski, 1969). The translation method can be used in order to develop epistemic semantics for a larger class of non-adjunctive (discursive) logics than the ones historically investigated by Jaśkowski. (shrink)

We use Padoa's principle of independence of primitive symbols in axiomatic systems in order to show that time is dispensable in continuum thermodynamics, according to the axiomatic formulation of Gurtin and Williams. We also show how to define time by means of the remaining primitive concepts of Gurtin and Williams system. Finally, we introduce thermodynamics without time as a primitive concept.

Os textos reunidos nesta obra analisam a chamada crise de valores contemporâneos a partir de fenômenos como o culto ao corpo e à aparência, o consumismo e a cultura de imagem. São textos marcados ao mesmo tempo pela erudição, pelo rigor e pela ética. Embora pontuado pela filosofia, pelas ciências sociais e pela psicanálise, este não é um livro apenas para acadêmicos ou especialistas. A escritura de Jurandir Freire torna seu pensamento acessível a todos os que se interessam pelas grandes (...) questões da existência humana e pelos impasses do mundo de hoje. (shrink)

Las nociones de vida y biología adquieren distintos sentidos en la teoría de las generaciones o se expresan en distintas oposiciones según se sitúen en el campo político, filosófico o científico. Este artículo afronta estas dimensiones prestando especial atención al peculiar estilo de Ortega, en particular a las reiteradas metáforas biologicistas, asumiendo que son inseparables del contenido teórico presente en sus obras. Este estilo puede ser un instrumento muy apropiado para articular la relación de los campos entre sí y con (...) la biografía de Ortega, teniendo en cuenta su heterodoxa apuesta filosófica. (shrink)

This article shows that although Fitch’s paradox has been extremely widely studied, up to now no correct formalization of the problem has been proposed. The purpose of this article is to present the paradox front the viewpoint of combining logics. It is argued that the correct minimal logic to state the paradox is composed by a fusion of modal frames, and a fusion of modal languages and logics.

« Amours anfractueuses, revenez,Déchirez le corps clairvoyant.La lumière affectionne les lèvres éclatées. »Jacques Dupin(Le Corps clairvoyant, 1999, p. 86) Quand on parle du corps, on recourt au blasonnement : des morceaux de corps épars donnent à voir un corps fragmenté, en archipel. Une image unitaire/relationnelle du corps semble contrebalancée par sa dimension osirienne/« archipélagique ». Un imaginaire du démembrement hante la tradition poétique qui depuis le xvie siècle s’attarde, conte...

Two studies examined the possibility that instruction in psychological methodology is committed to a philosophy of science, logical positivism, that is not adequately acknowledged and is empirically problematic. Study 1 suggested that psychology departments had more courses in methodology than corresponding physics departments, and psychology departments were far more likely to offer an introductory course in general methodology. Study 2 suggested that psychology had more introductory general methods textbooks than did physics. Both studies suggested psychology still presents itself as the (...) kind of science that was defined by logical positivism. Study 2 suggested psychology does this only implicitly in its texts and without acknowledging problematic features of that philosophy. Psychology methods texts commonly justified the importance of the scientific method by describing human cognitive fallibilities without cautioning that these same fallibilities could be seen alternatively as showing the problematic nature of the positivistic conception of scientific methodology. In several regards, texts conformed to Fleck's notion of “textbook science” and to Kuhn's description of science texts as “tourist brochures.” It was cautioned that an implicit appeal by psychology to logical positivism contradicts its claim that its methods and data are objective, transparent, and little influenced by philosophy, logic divorced from data, or authority. 2012 APA, all rights reserved). (shrink)

We formulate Suppes predicates for various kinds of space-time: classical Euclidean, Minkowski's, and that of General Relativity. Starting with topological properties, these continua are mathematically constructed with the help of a basic algebra of events; this algebra constitutes a kind of mereology, in the sense of Lesniewski. There are several alternative, possible constructions, depending, for instance, on the use of the common field of reals or of a non-Archimedian field (with infinitesimals). Our approach was inspired by the work of Whitehead (...) (1919), though our philosophical stance is completely different from his. The structures obtained are idealized constructs underlying extant, physical space-time. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:141 HUME AND CAUSAL INFERENCE Hume held that any time we reach by inference a belief about the existence or qualities of some object or event that we have not actually perceived, the inference is grounded in beliefs about causal relations holding between the object of belief and some other object or objects that have actually been experienced. I will examine here Hume's account of such causal inferences. There (...) are many places in the Treatise of Human Nature at which Hume seems to claim that causal inferences take place when and only when the percipient has had an extensive previous experience of objects of the respective types as regularly conjoined in relations of contiguity and temporal priority. It seems to me that reliance on these passages alone gives a distorted view of Hume's theory of causal inference. Contrary to appearances, Hume did not hold that extensive previous experiences of objects of the same types as properly conjoined is either necessary or sufficient for causal inference. Hume's view is more subtle and complicated, and there are important considerations of coherence and holism present in it. Getting Hume's view on this matter clear is important because it shows how he can escape some of the objections that have been laid against his theory, and it makes possible a reading of Hume as a causal realist. Hume's theory of inference provides the resources for drawing a distinction between accidental and genuine causal regularities and it is compatible with the view that causal relations (and not mere de facto regularities) hold among events in the world independently of their being perceived. The examination begins by looking at a different, but related, issue. Why does Hume think 142 that of the three types of association, only cause and effect association is capable of producing belief? Hume puts the question in the form of a possible objection to his account. For it may be said, that if all the parts of that hypothesis be true, viz. that these three species of relation are deriv'd from the same principles; that their effects in inforcing and inlivening our ideas are the same; and that belief is nothing but a more forcible and vivid conception of an idea; it shou'd follow, that that action of the mind may not only be deriv'd from the relation of cause and effect, but also from those of contiguity and resemblance. But as we find by experience, that belief arises only from causation, and that we can draw no inference from one object to another, except they be connected by this relation, we may conclude, that there is some error in that reasoning, which leads us into such difficulties. (T 107) It is important to note that Hume is talking here only about beliefs about the existence or situations of objects that have not been intuited or experienced. Beliefs about relations of ideas (e.g., that 2 + 2 = 4) are intuitions (or perhaps memories 2 of intuitions). Beliefs in the existence of things as experienced or in the previous existence of things as previously experienced automatically have the 3 vivacity of impressions or memory ideas. What Hume takes himself to need to explain is why cause and effect association allows for a transfer of this vivacity to an idea of an object or situation that has not itself been intuited or experienced and why 4 resemblance and contiguity association do not. If I see a green ball next to a red sweater, then I will normally subsequently believe that the green ball existed next to the red sweater at that time (at 143 least until my memories begin to lose vivacity). This is purely a matter of sense experience and memory. Now if I subsequently see a different red sweater (or the same sweater in a different location), I may be led to think of a green ball existing next to it purely through contiguity and resemblance association. But presumably I would not believe that a green ball existed next to the currently perceived red sweater unless I currently perceived a green ball or my belief was based on some 5 form of causal inference... (shrink)

This paper aims to propose an invitation to look at the kind of childhood we have been constructing from the practices of Special Education, in articulation with the practices of Early Childhood Education. It problematizes the discursive webs formed in this articulation, considering the way that Special Education teachers working with Early Childhood in public schools regard childhood. Such discussions have derived from the uneasiness of thinking about how we have been producing childhood, given the policy of expanding mandatory attendance (...) to four-year-old children. The analytical exercise, inspired by the discourse analysis proposed by Michel Foucault, has enabled us to question the production of subjects, truths and realities in the “confessions” of the interviewed teachers, in which we have identified two ways of thinking about and producing childhood: captured childhood, which is produced through the operationalization of normalization practices by Special Education, determined by the will to knowledge and the will to power over childhood; and childhood as heterotopy, produced as a powerful movement of resistance and denaturalization of normalizing practices – childhood regarded from other places, as an infinite, multiple, non-nameable, ever undetermined becoming, as an invitation to thought: what can we do in the encounter with childhood? (shrink)

Summary During the first decades of the sixteenth century, several animals described and viewed as exotic by the Europeans were regularly shipped from India to Lisbon. This paper addresses the relevance of these ‘new’ animals to knowledge and visual representations of the natural world. It discusses their cultural and scientific meaning in Portuguese travel literature of the period as well as printed illustrations, charts and tapestries. This paper suggests that Portugal did not make the most of its unique position in (...) bringing news and animals from Asia. This was either because secrecy associated with trade and military interests hindered the diffusion of illustrations presented in Portuguese travel literature or because the illustrations commissioned by the nobility were represented on expensive media such as parchments and tapestries and remained treasured possessions. However, the essay also proposes that the Portuguese contributed to a new sense of the experience and meaning of nature and that they were crucial mediators in access to new knowledge and new ways of representing the natural world during this period. (shrink)

La Recherche de Malebranche influyó en Vico de una doble manera. En primer lugar, inició al pensador napolitano en los grandes problemas que se debatían en la cultura francesa, ayudándole a superar, gracias a la filosofía cartesiana, la inicial formación escolástica. En segundo lugar, Malebranche predispuso a Vico para mirar más allá de los límites del cartesianismo, suministrándole una base teológica lo bastante segura como para efectuar una peligrosa operación de recuperación del pensamiento más heterodoxo, atribuyéndolo a los primitivos, sin (...) caer en el riesgo de ser tomado por un incrédulo; una operación que le permitió elaborar la parte más original de su filosofía.Malebranche’s Recherche influenced Vico in a twofold ways. First, it brought into the Napolitan thinker’s consideration the great issues which were debated in the French culture which helped him to overcome his early scholastic upbringing. Secondly, Malebranche set Vico in a position as to be able to go beyond the limits of Cartesianism, by providing him with a theological basis secure enough as to rescue the traces of the old heterodox thought, which Vico attributed to the primitive culture, without being taken by a skeptic; a move which enabled him to elaborate the most original part of his philosophy. (shrink)

É corrente se afirmar que antes da Modernidade não há registro de mulheres na construção do pensamento erudito. Que, se tomarmos, por exemplo, a Filosofia e a Teologia, que foram as duas áreas do conhecimento que mais produziram intelectuais, durante a Idade Média, não encontraremos aí a presença de mulheres. Entretanto, apesar de todas as evidências, se vasculharmos a construção do Pensamento Ocidental, veremos que é possível identificar a presença de algumas mulheres já nos tempos remotos, na Antiguidade Clássica e (...) na Patrística (ou Alta Idade Média). Mas é na Escolástica(Baixa Idade Média) que encontramos as primeiras Pensadoras, responsáveis por um sistema autônomo, distinguindo-se como fecundas escritoras, donas de obras tão profundas e importantes quanto as produzidas pelos homens de seu tempo, com os quais muitas vezes dialogaram em pé de igualdade. Dentro desse maravilhoso universo feminino de intelectuais, destacamos, na Escolástica, a figura de Hildegarda de Bingen (1098-1165), da qual trataremos um pouco neste artigo. (shrink)

Es conocido el efecto de espectacularización derivado del proceso de colonialización-mundialización de la cultura: una vez que la actividad local ingresa en la economía política mundial de la cultura, cada acontecimiento se vuelve espectáculo , con su doble aspecto de “estrellato” y “museificación”. En efecto, ante la multiplicación de modos de vida que circulan en las redes telecomunicacionales, Estados e industrias culturales buscan por un lado preservar formas sociales y culturales que se consideran en peligro y, por otro, difundir y (...) explicar esas mismas formas. En este marco, el museo ha aparecido últimamente como uno de los dispositivos privilegiados para afrontar este doble propósito. Analizaré aquí un museo que se resiste a petrificar aquello que pretende cuidar, así como a extraer el núcleo de su razón de ser únicamente de las motivaciones económicas asociadas a la inversión en cultura. Me refiero al Museo-Taller Ferrowhite, ubicado en Ingeniero White, provincia de Buenos Aires. Propongo que se trata de un museo que se sabe un artefacto cultural hiper complejo, capaz de identificar la tensión que él mismo encarna, como institución estatal, al intentar contar la (su) historia y proponer un sentido para el rescate de esa historia en el presente. (shrink)

Depois de participar da revista Clima como ficcionista, dona Gilda de Mello e Souza dedicou-se ao ensaísmo, tratando, entre outros objetos, do teatro moderno no Brasil. Por sua independência intelectual, seus ensaios apresentam lições ainda hoje válidas para nós.