Based on studies with infants, we expand on Stoffregen & Bardy's explanation of perceptual motor errors, given the global array. Information pick-up from the global array is not sufficient without adequate exploratory movements and learning to support perceptually guided activity.

Retrieval practice, relative to further study, leads to long-term memory enhancement known as the “testing effect.” The neurobiological correlates of the testing effect at retrieval, when the learning benefits of testing are expressed, have not been fully characterized. Participants learned Swahili-English word-pairs and were assigned randomly to either the Study-Group or the Test-Group. After a week delay, all participants completed a cued-recall test while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The Test-Group had superior memory for the word-pairs compared to the Study-Group. (...) While both groups exhibited largely overlapping activations for remembered word-pairs, following an interaction analysis the Test-Group exhibited differential performance-related effects in the left putamen and left inferior parietal cortex near the supramarginal gyrus. The same analysis showed the Study-Group exhibited greater activations in the dorsal MPFC/pre-SMA and bilateral frontal operculum for remembered vs. forgotten word-pairs, whereas the Test-Group showed the opposite pattern of activation in the same regions. Thus, retrieval practice during training establishes a unique striatal-supramarginal network at retrieval that promotes enhanced memory performance. In contrast, study alone yields poorer memory but greater activations in frontal regions. (shrink)

L'actuel regain d'intérêt pour la philosophie témoigne de l'attente la plus légitime qui soit, eu égard aux prétentions traditionnelles et à l'aura de cette discipline, mais également la plus difficile à satisfaire : qu'elle mène celui qui épouse ses chemins à une véritable réappropriation de sa propre existence, à une recréation personnelle. Impossible ici de se satisfaire d'un horizon de consolations aimables et de recettes de prospérité, non plus que de vertiges théorisants ou d'érudition monomaniaque. Face à un monde qui (...) semble avoir d'avance consumé nos élans et consommé nos révoltes, les postures et commodités ne sont plus de mise. Un retour d'authenticité s'impose à l'engagement philosophique lui-même. En fait, la mise à l'épreuve de soi est passage obligé, dès lors que de mort de Dieu en chute des idoles de remplacement, nul ne peut plus prétendre faire surgir la valeur irréductible de l'humain d'ailleurs que de l'homme... D'où la pertinence et l'attrait de l'exploration, ici proposée, des voies traditionnelles et ressorts nouveaux d'une maïeutique propre à faire naître l'homme à lui-même, à travers la mise à nu et le retrait de tous les masques que nous imposent la vie en société et le respect de ses codes. Poussant au déracinement du moi comme à une étape nécessaire au dévoilement de notre vérité, les auteurs de cet essai s'inscrivent dans la lointaine filiation de ces philosophes de l'Antiquité (Stoïciens, Cyniques) qui vivaient leur philosophie comme un travail sur soi, voire une ascèse, et dans le prolongement de tout ce pan de la pensée contemporaine qui, avec Foucault notamment, s'est employé à armer la philosophie d'un pouvoir maximal de transformation croisée de celui qui s'y adonne et du social qui l'environne. (shrink)

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have had extraordinary successes in classifying photographic images of objects and are often described as the best models of biological vision. This conclusion is largely based on three sets of findings: (1) DNNs are more accurate than any other model in classifying images taken from various datasets, (2) DNNs do the best job in predicting the pattern of human errors in classifying objects taken from various behavioral datasets, and (3) DNNs do the best job in predicting (...) brain signals in response to images taken from various brain datasets (e.g., single cell responses or fMRI data). However, these behavioral and brain datasets do not test hypotheses regarding what features are contributing to good predictions and we show that the predictions may be mediated by DNNs that share little overlap with biological vision. More problematically, we show that DNNs account for almost no results from psychological research. This contradicts the common claim that DNNs are good, let alone the best, models of human object recognition. We argue that theorists interested in developing biologically plausible models of human vision need to direct their attention to explaining psychological findings. More generally, theorists need to build models that explain the results of experiments that manipulate independent variables designed to test hypotheses rather than compete on making the best predictions. We conclude by briefly summarizing various promising modeling approaches that focus on psychological data. (shrink)

Pourquoi a-t-on raison de se révolter contre l'homme-machine et le monde mécanique qu'entraînent les mutations technologiques incontrôlées? Et si, contre les robots, la fragilité faisait l'humanité? Un traité philosophique, un manuel de combat. Dans cet essai de philosophie contemporaine, Pascal Marin rassemble un large faisceau d'arguments contre ceux qui entendent faire de l'homme une machine. De chapitre en chapitre, il dénonce le fantasme du transhumanisme californien, qui s'exporte aujourd'hui à travers des médias en mal de sujets. Mais selon (...) class='Hi'>Marin, cette crise du sens de l'humain est peut-être une chance pour la pensée : elle contraint à mieux prendre la mesure de la vie qui demeure énigmatique à la science. Cette enquête d'anthropologie radicale progresse donc par des chemins insolites jusqu'à atteindre à l'ironie d'un constat paradoxal : ce pouvoir technicien fascinant, qui semble sans limite, aurait pour cause le rapport intime que l'homme entretient depuis toujours avec le raté, la panne, le bug, bref tout ce qui peut mettre justement une machine en défaut. Un cri d'alerte, où l'intelligence et le style convainquent à chaque page. (shrink)

On several key issues we agree with the commentators. Perhaps most importantly, everyone seems to agree that psychology has an important role to play in building better models of human vision, and (most) everyone agrees (including us) that deep neural networks (DNNs) will play an important role in modelling human vision going forward. But there are also disagreements about what models are for, how DNN–human correspondences should be evaluated, the value of alternative modelling approaches, and impact of marketing hype in (...) the literature. In our view, these latter issues are contributing to many unjustified claims regarding DNN–human correspondences in vision and other domains of cognition. We explore all these issues in this response. (shrink)

Continuous poleward motion of microtubules in metazoan mitotic spindles has been fascinating generations of cell biologists over the last several decades. In human cells, this so‐called poleward flux was recently shown to be driven by the coordinated action of four mitotic kinesins. The sliding activities of kinesin‐5/EG5 and kinesin‐12/KIF15 are sequentially supported by kinesin‐7/CENP‐E at kinetochores and kinesin‐4/KIF4A on chromosome arms, with the individual contributions peaking during prometaphase and metaphase, respectively. Although recent data elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying this cellular (...) phenomenon, the functional roles of microtubule poleward flux during cell division remain largely elusive. Here, we discuss potential contribution of microtubule flux engine to various essential processes at different stages of mitosis. (shrink)

La France est une nation légère - ce lieu commun antique est abondamment repris tout au long du XVIIIe siècle, témoignant de profonds bouleversements axiologiques, scientifiques et éthiques, dont ce volume collectif cherche à mesurer l'importance et les enjeux, en racontant l'histoire d'un autre siècle des Lumières: celle d'un siècle de la Légèreté. Ce volume collectif offre une perspective interdisciplinaire, croisant les champs d'études concernés par la question de la légèreté. Les 15 articles réunis analysent tant la peinture que la (...) morale, tant les sciences que l'histoire politique, tant la littérature que les technologies ou l'économie. Ensemble, ces articles révèlent la complexité de la légèreté au dix-huitième siècle, en proposant non seulement des analyses nouvelles originales de sources bien connues (Hogarth, Fontenelle ou Voltaire) mais aussi des découvertes de textes et des objets moins souvent étudiés (La Morlière, le Père Castel, Octave Uzanne, les cabriolets ou les parfums). L'un des atouts principaux de cette recherche est son approche critique et historiographique de la légèreté qui remet en question la façon dont s'écrit l'Histoire. Derrière les idées reçues, ce livre découvre les enjeux nationaux, diplomatiques, voire parfois aussi existentiels qui ont participé à la construction des représentations du dix-huitième siècle français. (shrink)

Este artículo plantea que ciertas situaciones en las que nos vemos obligados a prestar atención a los riesgos que tomamos al confiar, como la amenaza de violencia o la ruptura de la confianza, motivan una forma particular de confianza en la cual nos interesa tomar consciencia de las creencias, valoraciones e intenciones prácticas implicadas al confiar. Tras describir fenomenológicamente, desde una perspectiva husserliana, la estructura de esta forma de confianza, denominada confianza reflexiva o racional, se expone por qué su análisis (...) filosófico puede contruibuir a aclarar problemáticas epistemológicas y éticas que se desprenden del carácter social de nuestra existencia. En la parte final del artículo se sugiere que el concepto de confianza reflexiva o racional puede servir para entender problemáticas relacionadas con la posverdad y para discernir algunas formas básicas de dominación y de complicidad con la dominación. (shrink)

This article discusses C. E. Alchourrdn and E. Bulygin's ideas regarding the distinction between strong permission and weak permission. The author takes for granted that the distinction between the two terms should be placed at the level of the assertive metalanguage about norms. But the symbolizations and the definitions of strong and weak permissions offered by Alchourrdn and Bulygin, as well as their thesis concerning the relations between the two concepts are challenged.

This paper investigates the relation between what James Conant has called Kantian and Cartesian varieties of skepticism. It is argued that a solution to the most prominent example of a Kantian variety of skepticism, i.e. Kripkensteinian skepticism about rule-following and meaning, can be found in the works of Wilfrid Sellars. It is then argued that, on the basis of that very same solution to the Kantian problematic of rule-following and meaning, a novel argument against external world skepticism can be formulated. (...) This argument takes the shape of a transcendental argument, which is reminiscent of Hilary Putnam’s infamous argument against the brain-in-a-vat hypothesis, but is, as is argued, superior to it in certain respects. (shrink)

Chemero's concept of sensorimotor empathy offers a relevant introduction to the study of human/non-human relationships. This article proposes an empirical characterization of this phenomenon occurring in human–horse interactions through the notion of 'contact', which is a core concept in the technical tradition of the equestrian world. According to the assumptions of 4E cognition, we approach the notion of contact with a broader meaning than how it is usually defined, i.e.as the connection of the rider's hand with the horse's mouth. We (...) state that contact involves the whole body and that it is not a passive touch but a dynamic one. Contact is intersubjective, meaning that its quality depends on the two agents of the interaction: the human and the horse. Within such an interaction, sensorimotor empathy allows the human and the horse to understand through the body and to fine-tune with each other to bring about 'good contact'. (shrink)

The present paper is an attempt at examining the value configuration and the socio-demographical profiles of the local political elites in four countries of East-Central Europe: Romania, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Poland. The treatment is a comparative one, predominantly descriptive and exploratory, and employs, as a research method, the case-study, being a quite circumscribed endeavor. The cases focus on the members of the Municipal/Local Council in four towns similar in terms of demography and developmental strategies (i.e. small-to-medium sized communities (...) of around 35,000 inhabitants, with economies largely based on food industry and commercial activities): Tecuci (Galați county, Romania), Česká Lípa (Liberec region, Czech Republic), Targovishte (Targovishte province, Bulgaria), and Oleśnica (Lower Silesia province, Poland). Hypothesizing that the local elites of the former Sovietized Erurope tend to differ in outlook, priorities, and value attainment, as compared to their Western counterparts, the paper considers the former’s attitudes and perspectives in regard to seven values: a series of values customarily connected with the concept of ‘democracy’ (i.e. citizen participation, political conflict, gradual change, economic equality), state intervention in economy, decentralization and increased local autonomy, cultural-geographical self-identification. The study uses, as well, five models of value attainment in what concerns the ‘ideal portrait’ of the local councilor (Putnam 1976): ethical, pragmatic, technocratic, political, and gender. According to the results of a study applying a standard written questionnaire among the local councilors of the three communities in the period December 2010-February 2013, the paper distinguishes among three corresponding types of local elites: (1) ‘predominantly elitistic,’ (2) ‘democratic elitist,’ and (3) ‘predominantly democratic,’ following two types of explanation accounting for the differences among the four cases: the legacy of the defunct regime and the degree of administrative decentralization. (shrink)

O texto procura realizar uma apresentação do “percurso-pensamento” de Vera Lúcia Gonçalves Felício, professora do Departamento de Filosofia da USP por cerca de vinte anos, a partir de seus escritos, que foram publicados ao longo de décadas em diferentes meios, tais como livros, revistas e jornais.

El presente trabajo intenta mostrar la implicación entre ética y filosofía de la historia en la obra de Fichte. Para ello se considera necesario integrar su filosofía de la historia en el conjunto de su filosofía, entendida como una unidad y como sistema de la libertad. A partir de ahí propone un análisis de las llamadas cinco épocas recogidas en Los Caracteres de la Edad Contemporánea y los cinco puntos de vista presentados en su Exhortación a la vida bienaventurada o (...) doctrina de la religión. (shrink)

Homenagem a Marilena em forma de uma breve pesquisa sobre o período em que ela esteve à frente da SMC-SP, tendo como referência, principalmente, os seus próprios textos e relatos a respeito dessa experiência institucional.

The mise en scène of resistance against a global society. An analysis of (a)symmetrical distinctions The concept of oikophobia is often used as an answer and rebuttal to the accusation of xenophobia that is often raised against nationalist groups. Oikophobia denounces the image of nationalists as people who first and foremost hate what is foreign or the foreigner. They describe themselves, on the contrary, as having a strong attachment to their own culture and their opponents as having a fear of (...) or aversion to their origin or (cultural) home. This game of asymmetrical descriptions is the subject of this contribution, which focuses on the logic of distinctions that lies behind this resistance to (hostile) images. What then also lights up is that the global polarization we see between nationalist and cosmopolitan movements also concerns the status of asymmetrical distinctions themselves. The nationalist resistance to world society can be interpreted as a resistance to the becoming symmetrical of existential distinctions, i.e. distinctions that create identity and belonging. (shrink)

El conocimiento ha incursionado como tema de gran alcance dadas las múltiples disciplinas que lo evocan y cuyos intereses investigativos incurren en una definición para este. Primeras cavilaciones acerca del conocimiento se adelantaron bajo una óptica dualista de materialismo e idealismo, ambas posturas de carácter filosófico que determinaron el pensar de Occidente. Dicho así, desde la Grecia clásica pensadores como Platón, entre otros clásicos, entronizaron esta cuestión, pero dicho trato dualista en el ámbito del saber estuvo fuertemente vinculado con una (...) reflexión de talante ético del que Platón no se eximió. Con lo dicho, el presente artículo busca describir los postulados gnoseológicos y éticos en Platón con el fin de esclarecer el nexo entre conocimiento y práctica humana. (shrink)

Pagan solar and fire metaphors, which Christianity accepts and modifies and which are frequent in the early literature of the Serbs and Bulgarians, experience very wide use in the 14th and 15th centuries, i.e., in the period when Hesychasm (Palamism) becomes a peculiar poetics of the early Renaissance. With the Hesychasts antique solar metaphors acquire a new poetic-religious semantics. For the Hesychasts light becomes a postulate of philosophy and aesthetics. From the Bible, liturgy and early literature the given metaphors also (...) pass into oral folk creation, into the living conversational language, and into numerous personal names, surnames and toponyms where they survive to the present day with a somewhat altered poetic semantics. (shrink)

O encontro entre filosofia e crianças é possível e a proposta didático-metodológica da Comunidade de Investigação se apresenta como um excelente caminho para propiciá-lo. Porque através de jogos? Porque jogar é uma oportunidade criativa de se encontrar com a gente mesmo, com os outros, com o todo. É uma maneira lúdica, prazerosa e criativa de aprender a pensar, a agir, a refletir, a filosofar.

Lejos de ser lo político una cuestión secundaria o extraña a la filosofía epicúrea, se arguye de este ser un componente esencial de su pensamiento que se presenta en el trato de la amistad como rasgo característico e ineludible para el constructo social decara a los conflictos internos y externos de la Grecia del siglo IV a.C. Desde esta óptica, un interés por precisar el alcance ético-político de la φιλíα (filopolitismo) tan referido en la antigüedad, pero desde un filósofo al (...) que se le endilga la defensa de apoliticidad (O’Keefe,2010; Christensen, 2020), el actual estudio explora argumentos que hacen de ese término un fundamento práctico que ofrece las mejores condiciones para una vida social en tanto puede ofrendar patrones de conducta en lo que respecta a vínculos comunitarios. Para ello se recurre al análisis de textos que se conservan de Epicuro los cuales tienen un tratamiento de la amistad como la Carta a Meneceo (Ad Menoeceum), las Máximas Capitales (Ratæ Sententiae) y las Sentencias Vaticanas (Gnomologio Vaticano), pues se trata de un estudio documental el cual tiene por fin la revisión y análisis de fuentes bibliográficas. (shrink)

Los aspectos ético y moral se insertan en los problemas de la filosofía antigua, aspectos que han sido tenidos en cuenta como determinantes en la búsqueda de la vida feliz. Una de tantas propuestas fue desarrollada por el heleno Epicuro oriundo de la isla de Samos quien argumenta que el placer es el fin de la vida feliz. Tal identificación del placer con la felicidad ha sido fundamento para que otros pensadores cataloguen a este filósofo de libertino, promiscuo, antimoral, etc. (...) Así pues, el presente estudio se desarrolla desde una propuesta hermenéutica que contribuya a la interpretación veraz de la filosofía ética epicúrea. Además, se pretende argumentar desde la objetividad el verdadero sentido del placer rebatiendo toda opción que le perfila desde la práctica como elemento propicio para la lujuria, derroche, narcisismo; e inclusive impugnar aquellas conjeturas que profieren falacias en torno al tema en desarrollo. (shrink)

Hace ya varias décadas que Latinoamérica salió del colonialismo “centroeuropeo”, como lo llama Dussell; sin embargo, se mantiene una actitud de “colonialidad”, entendida como un proceso amplio de control hegemónico de imposición de conocimientos, prácticas y formas culturales en todos los campos de la vida social, al tiempo que se desprecian y desdeñan los valores autóctonos, los conocimientos ancestrales y populares que Boaventura de Sousa Santos denomina con la metáfora de “Las epistemologías del sur”; es decir, aquellas epistemologías de quienes (...) no han tenido voz ni voto en las decisiones trascendentales de la vida social, económica, política y cultural, como los desposeídos, los marginados de la sociedad, campesinos, indígenas, afrodescendientes, homosexuales, entre otros. Los responsables de esta actitud colonialista, no solamente han sido los gobiernos que, mediante convenios y tratados bilaterales y multilaterales con las potencias hegemónicas, financian proyectos de diversa índole e imponen sus criterios e intereses en los distintos campos de la economía, la política y la educación. Pero también la misma educación ha tenido su responsabilidad en este proceso. El conocimiento impartido en las universidades es hegemónico y colonizador, que llega de Europa y Norte América. Por esta razón, la ciencia y el conocimiento que se producen en estas regiones, debe construirse para su validez, con las epistemologías y las metodologías de estas potencias; mientras que los conocimientos culturales, populares y ancestrales, se consideran obstáculos epistemológicos que no pueden convivir e interactuar con la epistemología de la ciencia clásica. Es por esto que la Universidad también tiene que “decolonizar” sus saberes, para alcanzar un espacio transcultural que incluya todos aquellos conocimientos y cosmovisiones populares y tradicionales para que puedan ser tenidos como pares, en un diálogo de saberes dentro de los procesos de formación y aprendizaje. (shrink)

In this paper we present the problem of a noisy lexical taxonomy and suggest two tasks as potential remedies. The first task is to identify and eliminate incorrect hypernymy links, and the second is to repopulate the taxonomy with new relations. The first task consists of revising the entire taxonomy and returning a Boolean for each assertion of hypernymy between two nouns (e.g. brie is a kind of cheese). The second task consists of recursively producing a chain of hypernyms for (...) a given noun, until the most general node in the taxonomy is reached (e.g. brie → cheese → food → etc.). In order to achieve these goals, we implemented a hybrid hypernym-detection algorithm that incorporates various intuitions, such as syntagmatic, paradigmatic and morphological association measures as well as lexical patterns. We evaluate these algorithms individually and collectively and report findings in Spanish, English and French. (shrink)

Las micotoxinas son metabolitos fúngicos secunda­rios que pueden ejercer un efecto tóxico tanto en el hombre como en los animales debido, principalmente, a su exposición a través de los alimentos. La presencia de estos compuestos ha sido demostrada en una amplia variedad de materias primas, alimentos y piensos, en los que lo habitual es encontrar de for­ma frecuente una contaminación múltiple por diferentes mico­toxinas, en pequeñas cantidades, lo que puede generar efectos tóxicos subcrónicos, así como bioacumulación. Este artículo revisa los (...) principales elementos que configuran la problemática de las micotoxinas para el hombre y los animales, y aborda los retos de futuro que se plantean en el estudio de las micotoxinas, entre los que destacan el efecto que el cambio climático puede tener sobre el patrón de contaminación por micotoxinas en los alimentos, el descubrimiento creciente de nuevas micotoxinas en formas modificadas, la evaluación de la coexistencia de estas to­xinas y otros contaminantes, y las formas para detectar e intentar eliminar estos compuestos tóxicos de los alimentos. (shrink)

Este trabajo se centra en el papel de la gestisn de la superacisn de los directivos universitarios y el reto que significa para las universidades latinoamericanas. Desde una perspectiva ciencia- tecnologma y sociedad se pretende determinar las condiciones sociales en que se sustenta la necesidad de elaboracisn de un modelo de superacisn en la gestisn acadimica de los directivos para perfeccionar el proceso formativo de la Escuela Superior Politicnica de Manabm "Manuel Filix Lspez", en Ecuador. A partir de un diagnsstico (...) realizado previamente en esa universidad se identificaron limitaciones en el modelo de gestisn de superacisn actual, que demandan el diseqo e implementacisn de un modelo, ajustado a las necesidades sociales concretas de ese centro de educacisn superior. The role of negotiation in order to improve the level of the principal staff in higher education is the main objective of this research. This work was carried out through a scientific and technologic point of view based on a creative model which develop a formative process at Manuel Filix Lspez" polytechical school in Ecuador. A diagnosis revealed the necessity of implementing a model according to the real needs in higher education. (shrink)

A novidade do Deus cristão apresentado por Jesus Cristo é a Trindade. Sem contradizer o monoteísmo judeu, a reflexão para formulação dogmática se estendeu por quatro séculos. Sucessivamente, a Trindade foi tema esquecido na Igreja por 1.600 anos. Sua importância está sendo redescoberta não somente na liturgia, mas, também, na vida e na reflexão eclesial. A unidade no amor dos Três distintos, Pai, Filho e Espírito Santo, estimula a espiritualidade e a vivência do cristão de hoje. Para tanto, é necessário (...) o auxílio das ciências humanas, que permitem a atualização da linguagem do dogma sem a perda do seu conteúdo fundamental. A reflexão do teólogo napolitano Bruno Forte dá uma grande contribuição para a teologia atual, respeitando a formulação dogmática e, ao mesmo tempo, buscando categorias e linguagens apropriadas para a compreensão do homem contemporâneo. A Trindade de Deus tem algo importante a dizer para o ser humano de hoje a respeito de si mesmo, pois que feito “à imagem e semelhança de Deus” (Gn 2, 26). Palavras-chave : Trindade. Pai. Filho. Espírito Santo. Amor.The Holy Trinity is the novelty of God presented by Jesus Christ. Without contradicting Jewish monotheism, the reflection for a dogmatic formulation lasted for four centuries. Subsequently, the issue of the trinity was forgotten in the Church for 1,600 years. The importance of this issue is currently being rediscovered not only in the liturgy but also in life and ecclesial reflection. The unity in love on the part of the three distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, stimulates spirituality and experience of the Christians today. To do so, one needs the assistance of the humanities that allow the update of the dogma of language without losing its essential content. The reflection of the Neapolitan theologian Bruno Forte is of great value to the current theology because it respects the dogmatic formulation and also uses categories and languages appropriate to an understanding of contemporary man. The Trinity of God has something important to say about the man himself because man was created as God’s image. (Gn 2,26). Keywords : Trinity. Father. Son. Holy Spirit. Love. (shrink)

Unfounded—conspiracy and health—beliefs about COVID-19 have accompanied the pandemic worldwide. Here, we examined cross-nationally the structure and correlates of these beliefs with an 8-item scale, using a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. We obtained a two-factor model of unfounded (conspiracy and health) beliefs with good internal structure (average CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.05, SRMR = 0.04), but a high correlation between the two factors (average latent factor correlation = 0.57). This model was replicable across 50 countries (total N = 13,579), (...) as evidenced by metric invariance between countries (CFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.06, SRMS = 0.07) as well as scalar invariance across genders (CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMS = 0.03) and educational levels (CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMS = 0.03). Also, lower levels of education, more fear of COVID-19, and more cynicism were weakly associated with stronger conspiracy and health beliefs. The study contributes to knowledge about the structure of unfounded beliefs, and reveals the potential relevance of affective (i.e., fear of COVID-19) and cognitive (i.e., cynicism) factors along with demographics, in endorsing such beliefs. In summary, we obtained cross-cultural evidence for the distinctiveness of unfounded conspiracy and health beliefs about COVID-19 in terms of their structure and correlates. (shrink)

Starting from the current trend to digitise the university, this thesis aims to clarify the specific relation between university thinking and its use of media. This thesis is an investigation concerning the sensorial and medial conditions which enable the event of thinking to emerge at the university, i.e. conditions which do not make thinking necessary, but possible. Thinking is approached as an event which can happen while studying at the university, not as an outcome, nor a disposition or skill. The (...) ambition of this thesis is theory development and of making a contribution in the field of philosophy of education. The theoretical framework discussed in chapters one and two will allow first, an analysis of the university sensorium inspired by the work of Ivan Illich who, through a history of the senses, pioneered this kind of research applied to medieval reading practices. Secondly, the work of media philosopher Vilém Flusser is used to operationalize the analysis of media at the university; this thesis will use the Flusserian concepts of code, modes of consciousness, transcoding, gestures, intellectual field, dialogue and apparatus. The methodology consists of a novel approach inspired by Flusser’s phenomenology of gestures: in order to find traces of thinking, this investigation looks for gestures (with media) occurring in university practices, gestures which seem to imply some form of coding or transcoding. The first chapter critically discusses Ivan Illich’s historical hypothesis of the mediatic specificity of the university thinking. Illich works with a particular conception of the history of the senses through which he shows how the invention of the optical text and its way of reading gave rise to a new way of thinking which was later fostered by the university. The text emerges as an instrumental way of using the book for studying and thinking, a profanation and suspension of the book. This move is taken to be the signature move of the university which enables a particular way of thinking: abstract and non-visual thinking, which is made present through the event of reading. The second chapter introduces the media-theoretical framework of Flusser by discussing his particular take on codes and the modes of consciousness enabled by the dominant codes. Provisionally, transcoding is taken to be an indication of the event of thinking. The threshold introduces the approach of a phenomenology of gestures which will be used in the following two chapters. The third chapter examines the practice of university lecturing from a sensorial and gestural perspective by using several direct observations of lectures and historical reports of lectures. It was found that the lecture does not promote any particular sense, hence no particular mode of consciousness, and that the media in the lecture suffers a continuous transcoding. Thinking in the lecture was described as a thinking which suddenly makes itself present for all those attending the lecture. The fourth chapter examines MOOCs which are taken to be the digital counterpart of the university course. The specific media usage enabled by MOOCs is described starting from two case studies: an xMOOC and the bMOOC (designed by KU Leuven and LUCA researchers). Using interviews and an autoethnographic account, this chapter finds indications of what could be digital gestures in the MOOC and concludes that thinking in the MOOC occurs as a collective construction of a techno-image. The fifth and final chapter outlines the theoretical contributions of this thesis. The kind of thinking made possible by university practices is described as a form of collective thinking, non-productive and anti-apparatus. The ways in which this thinking is made possible are theorised by introducing the notion of mediatic displacement, a specific event in which the particular logic of media is suspended in such a way as to make room for a thinking which is not determined by any mediality. The notion of intellectual askesis is proposed for the collective enactment of attention, as the sensorial condition which makes possible the mediatic displacement. In light of these findings, the thesis proposes to understand the promise of the digital university as still a utopian project to come, because it cannot yet enable the sensorial and collective attention techniques which the classical university managed to enact through its study practices. (shrink)

The interview focuses on Kymlicka's major area of research, i.e., the issue of minority rights. Kymlicka explains why the rights of national minorities have been traditionally neglected in the Western political tradition. He argues that these rights promote individual freedom, and so should be seen as promoting liberal democratic principles. The interview covers many issues including the relationship between ethno‐cultural groups and other forms of “identity politics”; how to individuate cultural groups with legitimate claims to minority rights; whether something like (...) a “cosmopolitan view” can seriously challenge the need for minority rights; what are the dangers of building transnational political institutions such as the EU for democratic citizenship; what are the bases of social unity in multination states and what are the limits of toleration of illiberal minorities. (shrink)

El artículo consta de dos partes: en la primera se hacen algunos comentarios aclaratorios y de contexto acerca del origen de los tres textos de Thomas Hobbes, de los cuales se presenta una versión en castellano y constituyen la segunda parte y la más relevante del artículo. La primera parte se centra en hacer evidente la importancia de éstos, considerados representativos del periodo de juventud del autor y su papel y lugar en el pensamiento político hobbesiano, así como la relación (...) de éste con sus trabajos sobre ciencia natural. De ahí que el tema del método sea central en dicha relación. (shrink)

Filosofía e Historia dormían en la placidez uterina del mito, cuando quizá el hecho del principio era el principio del hecho, donde acaso no era consciente la distinción entre el origen cronológico y el origen lógico. Pero Filosofía e Historia despertaron y, no acordándose de su matricial maridaje, acordaron mutuamente su divorcio. Tal vez fuera la querella entre Ilustración y Romanticismo la expresión "ideal" de esa escisión efectiva entre lo racional y lo histórico. No obstante, la propia conciencia histórica de (...) la separación aportó justamente la posibilidad de su superación: la "conciencia histórica" misma. Y ése era el requisito necesario para una Filosofía de la Historia. La Scienza Nuova lo cumple porque, contando cómo efectivamente se reúnen Filosofía y Filología, relata idealmente la supresión del enfrentamiento ilustrado-romántico. Vico aporta una conciencia histórica que narra una nueva racionalidad, una modificación de la mente en que haciendo de la razón Historia y de la Historia razón se le restituye al mito su condición histórica y racional, a la par que Filosofía e Historia recuperan su mítica originalidad. (shrink)

This article studies the etiquette diffusion and the reform of behavior during the pastoral visit of D. Carlos Luiz D'Amour, south of the Diocese of Cuiabá, in 1886. The source is the diary written by the private secretary Canon Bento Severiano da Luz. In such diary, the paths of the party were narrated as well as its major events and achievements, having the bishop as the central character. One of the objectives of the trip was to spread new patterns of (...) behavior, feelings and etiquette, civilize Mato Grosso and establish a good Catholic society. The public appearances of the bishop had symbolic functions, i.e, the political and religious affirmation of the episcopal power in society, creating a sacred sphere embodied in his person. D. Carlos, in the game of power relations, sees himself compelled to submit to the etiquette as well as to pressure the diocesans to do the same. Every detail of the etiquette and the ceremonial has fulfilled the function of ostentatious self-representation. His suppression has abolished distances, the social distinctions and obliterated his authority and power. (shrink)