The life of Saint Teresa of Jesus, the most famous mystic of sixteenth-century Spain, was characterized by recurrent visions and states of ecstasy. In this paper, we examine social components related to Teresa’s personal crises and the historical conditions of her times, factors that must be taken into account to understand these unusual forms of experience and behavior. Many of these factors (e.g., increasing individualism and reflexivity) are precursors of the condition of modern times. Indeed, certain parallels can be observed (...) between Saint Teresa and certain present-day psychopathological disorders. The analogy should not, however, be carried too far. Religion played a particularly crucial role in Teresa’s cultural context; as a result, it would be misleading to view her mystical experiences as resulting from a mental disorder. (shrink)

The Communicational Theory of Law (CTL) usually differentiates between Legal Sociology and Legal Theory, in the sense that Legal Sociology is concerned with the social validity of the rules and Legal Theory with the formal or legal validity of the rules. It can be argued that both disciplines are two different perspectives of the same empirical reality (legal rules). Also, legal System and social milieu are two closely linked realities; they cannot be separated because they need each other. The Law (...) is the form or order that the social milieu takes, and, at the same time, the social environment provides the ideas, collective representations and other matters that need a legal regulation. For this reason, the epistemological separation between Sociology and Legal Theory must be overcome when the theoretical perspective comes to legal decisions. Thus, the decisional moment becomes the meeting point between the legal System and the social milieu. This is where the concept of the legal System fulfils its main function, as it allows for the dynamism and adaptability of the legal order. The hermeneutic re-elaboration of the normative texts will be the channel through which the social facts and other material elements can inform the meaning or possible interpretations of the rules and institutions of the legal order. This happens primarily by influencing theoretical and doctrinal works of an expository and didactic nature; and secondarily by influencing the decisions of legal operators and courts. This study seeks to explain how the social context influences legal decisions and the formation of the legal System, from a communicational perspective of Law. In order to do so, it will be necessary to set out two epistemological premises of CTL: the semiotic tripartition of the Theory of Law and the legal Order-legal System distinction. (shrink)

Summary In relation to King Pyrrhus of Epirus, a great number of studies have analysed his different military campaigns, but very few have focused on the political and economic aspects of his reign. Based on a series of references taken from literary accounts, we seek to demonstrate how the internal organisation of the Kingdom of Epirus under Pyrrhus was similar to that of other contemporaneous Hellenistic kingdoms, replete with a Court consisting of a large number of the king’s friends and (...) companions. Using certain archaeological evidence, especially funerary remains, we seek to reflect the existence of this Epirote élite in material terms. The literary tradition bears witness to an interest in agriculture and livestock farming during Pyrrhus’ period, although the accounts handed down to us provide little detail. Once again, archaeology enables us to provide corroborating evidence. In this respect, we focus on the existence of a series of fortified rural residences distributed in irregular manner throughout Epirote territory, which are interpreted as being those of the members of this aristocratic élite, who used these fortified enclosures as centres of exploitation for their lands and as symbols of their power and prestige. As comparative points of reference that enable us to understand these processes, we provide various examples from neighbouring Macedonia, a kingdom with which Epirus maintained close links, especially as of the mid-fourth century B.C., which appears to be the period in which many of these new developments also began to emerge in Epirus, reaching their culmination during the reign of Pyrrhus. (shrink)

DBS Think Tank IX was held on August 25–27, 2021 in Orlando FL with US based participants largely in person and overseas participants joining by video conferencing technology. The DBS Think Tank was founded in 2012 and provides an open platform where clinicians, engineers and researchers can freely discuss current and emerging deep brain stimulation technologies as well as the logistical and ethical issues facing the field. The consensus among the DBS Think Tank IX speakers was that DBS expanded in (...) its scope and has been applied to multiple brain disorders in an effort to modulate neural circuitry. After collectively sharing our experiences, it was estimated that globally more than 230,000 DBS devices have been implanted for neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. As such, this year’s meeting was focused on advances in the following areas: neuromodulation in Europe, Asia and Australia; cutting-edge technologies, neuroethics, interventional psychiatry, adaptive DBS, neuromodulation for pain, network neuromodulation for epilepsy and neuromodulation for traumatic brain injury. (shrink)

This article attempts to show the importance of the concept of superstition in understanding a range of psychological problems. With this aim, we critically analyze several constructs that, without actually using the term “superstition,” concern this phenomenon and its role in the development of mental disorders. First we discuss “Thought–Action Fusion” and “magical thinking,” two concepts from the cognitive tradition that view superstition as basically an ideational phenomenon. Second, we look at “Experiential Avoidance,” a post-Skinnerian concept that understands superstition as (...) a type of avoidance behavior for certain private events. Third, we discuss superstition as an emotional phenomenon, in particular, Jean-Paul Sartre’s phenomenological analysis of emotions as magical operations. Finally, we review a cultural approach to superstition and its influence on psychopathology. In this perspective, superstition is seen as a cultural form linked to the historical–social context, which is fostered by certain social practices or institutions, including (perhaps surprisingly) certain features of modernity. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Defending a Phenomenological–Behavioral Perspective: Culture, Behavior, and ExperienceMarino Pérez-Álvarez (bio), José M. García-Montes (bio), Adolfo J. Cangas (bio), and Louis A. Sass (bio)KeywordsBehavior, contextual phenomenology, culture, experienceWe should like to express our sincere thanks to all the authors for their commentaries on our articles. Given the restrictions of space (a limitation they too had to contend with), we can only respond to a few aspects of their interesting (...) remarks. We shall reply of course on the basis of our own approach—an approach that sets out to integrate culture, behavior, and experience, and that might be termed contextual phenomenology, phenomenological behaviorism, or perhaps most accurately (albeit more awkwardly), the phenomenological–behavioral perspective.In her commentary, Ibáñez-Guerra (2008), referring to the target articles “Phenomenology and behaviorism” (Pérez-Álvarez, Sass, and Cangas 2008) and “The role of superstition in psychopathology” (García-Montes et al. 2008), wonders whether our maintaining of the spirit of Skinner, as well as our recourse to phenomenology, might not themselves represent forms of superstitious behavior. She points out that it is not always a good idea to put new wine in old barrels. For her, the new wine and new barrels would be represented by social constructivism, of which she is reminded by some aspects of our work. But in making her own case, Ibáñez-Guerra (2008) reveals certain common prejudices concerning behaviorism, prejudices that have apparently persisted even after reading our article. Thus, for example, she does not see operant behavior as incorporating intentionality (what, in the target article, is presented in terms of final causality), because she assumes that intentionality would necessarily imply a mentalist and dualist notion involving a supposed internal mental entity that causes behavior. Skinner (1974) himself noted and rejected this very assumption in a passage that clearly distinguishes his own approach from what he calls a “stimulus-response formula”: “Possibly no charge,” he wrote,is more often leveled against behaviorism or a science of behavior than that it cannot deal with purpose or intention. A stimulus-response formula has no answer, but operant behavior is the very field of purpose and [End Page 281] intention. By its nature it is directed toward the future: a person acts in order that something will happen, and the order is temporal.(pp. 55–6)The place Skinner gives to intentionality and purpose is elaborated in our target article.Furthermore, Ibáñez-Guerra (2008) assumes that, on methodological grounds, Skinner rejects all that is not observable, or at least that cannot be operationalized. This, however, is simply incorrect, at least as regards Skinner’s radical behaviorism. As the reader may recall, radical (as opposed to methodological) behaviorism is neither operationalist nor does it reject private or subjective events because of their unobservability. Indeed, Skinner specifically acknowledges that such events are in fact observable—at least for one person: the subject him- or herself. The question for Skinner is to understand how the part of the world that is only observable and experiential for oneself is constructed or formed. In the end, it turns out that radical behaviorism is more radical, in the Aristotelian ontological sense (see Pérez-Alvarez, Sass, and García-Montes 2008), than post-modern constructionism. Indeed, as we remarked, radical behaviorism can still surprise us today. Similarly, phenomenology is starting to be missed in the clinical context (Andreasen 2007). We believe that radical behaviorism and phenomenology, mutually readjusted, are in fact excellent wines for the times we live in—if only we knew how to appreciate them.In their commentary on “Phenomenology and behaviorism: A mutual readjustment,” Fletcher and Hayes (2008) argue that the philosophy and theory of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)/Relational Frame Theory (RFT) already contain the salutary aspects of phenomenology that we highlight in our target article. Their insistence on reducing the affinities we find between phenomenology and behaviorism to ACT/RFT consists, in our view, in a scientific–technical argument that is more scientistic than strictly philosophical in nature. Their insistence on the scientific–technical argument itself implies an unclarified philosophical assumption. On what grounds do experimental data constitute the last word? Has... (shrink)

We estimate that 208,000 deep brain stimulation (DBS) devices have been implanted to address neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders worldwide. DBS Think Tank presenters pooled data and determined that DBS expanded in its scope and has been applied to multiple brain disorders in an effort to modulate neural circuitry. The DBS Think Tank was founded in 2012 providing a space where clinicians, engineers, researchers from industry and academia discuss current and emerging DBS technologies and logistical and ethical issues facing the field. (...) The emphasis is on cutting edge research and collaboration aimed to advance the DBS field. The Eighth Annual DBS Think Tank was held virtually on September 1 and 2, 2020 (Zoom Video Communications) due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting focused on advances in: (1) optogenetics as a tool for comprehending neurobiology of diseases and on optogenetically-inspired DBS, (2) cutting edge of emerging DBS technologies, (3) ethical issues affecting DBS research and access to care, (4) neuromodulatory approaches for depression, (5) advancing novel hardware, software and imaging methodologies, (6) use of neurophysiological signals in adaptive neurostimulation, and (7) use of more advanced technologies to improve DBS clinical outcomes. There were 178 attendees who participated in a DBS Think Tank survey, which revealed the expansion of DBS into several indications such as obesity, post-traumatic stress disorder, addiction and Alzheimer’s disease. This proceedings summarizes the advances discussed at the Eighth Annual DBS Think Tank. (shrink)

"Libro sumamente valioso. Tras sendas visiones de conjunto, muy logradas, del positivismo en América Latina en general y en Venezuela en particular, siguen capítulos sobre: Adolfo Ernst; Rafael Villavicencio; Vicente Marcano; Lasandro Alvarado; Luis Razetti; Guillermo Delgado Palacios; Luis López Méndez; José Gil Fortoul; Laureano Vallenilla Lanz; César Zumeta y Manuel Arcaya. Tiende a hacer comparaciones con otras manifestaciones del positivismo latinoamericano"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

Contents: Foreword. Wolfgang BALZER and C. ULISES MOULINES: Introduction. José A. DÍEZ CALZADA: Structuralist Analysis of Theories of Fundamental Measurement. Adolfo GARCÍA DE LA SIENRA and Pedro REYES: The Theory of Finite Games in Extensive Form. Hans Joachim BURSCHEID und Horst STRUVE: The Theory of Stochastic Fairness - its Historical Development, Formulation and Justification. Wolfgang BALZER and Richard MATTESSICH: Formalizing the Basis of Accounting. Werner DIEDERICH: A Reconstruction of Marxian Economics. Bert HAMMINGA and Wolfgang BALZER: The Basic Structure of (...) Neoclassical General Equilibrium Theory. Klaus MANHART: Balance Theories: Two Reconstructions and the Problem of Intended Applications. Rainer WESTERMANN: Festinger's Theory of Cognitive Dissonance: A Structuralist Theory-Net. Rainer REISENZEIN: Wundt's Three-Dimensional Theory of Emotion. Pablo LORENZANO: Classical Genetics and the Theory-Net of Genetics. Hinne HETTEMA and Theo A.F. KUIPERS: The Formalisation of the Periodic Table. C. ULISES MOULINES: The Basic Core of Simple Equilibrium Thermodynamics. Thomas BARTELBORTH: An Axiomatization of Classical Electrodynamics. Author's Index. Subject Index. (shrink)

The aim of the present paper is to provide a logical reconstruction of the Marxian Theory of Value. This reconstruction is based upon the concept of abstract as opposed to that of homogeneous labor. Abstract labour is a social relation that holds in a market economy, (at least) whenever the profit rate is uniform; it consists in a comparison of the different labors through the exchange relationship. The author proved in a different place (see García de la Sienra, 1987) that (...) there exists a mathematical representation of abstract labor which is unique up to similarity transformations. The existence of this function — which is none other than the value function — is the basis of the present axiomatization, which includes detailed reconstructions of two of the most important models of the theory. (shrink)

The aim of the present paper is to attack some of the conceptual problems that arise when the framework of mathematical learning theory is applied to the description of the behavior of the firm, in setting prices and production quotas, in a competitive market. The goal is to depict the process by which the firm fixes prices and production quotas as a stochastic learning process. A solution to such problems is proposed which is based on statistical-decision concepts. The conceptualization of (...) the behavior of the firm by means of concepts pertaining to mathematical learning theory gives rise to certain mathematical problems, which are formulated here in rather precise terms. (shrink)

Se aborda en este trabajo un tema tan antiguo y general, pero al mismo tiempo tan actual, como las diferencias y posibles relaciones entre la materia y el espíritu. Se hace a través de la consideración de fenómenos como las «cosmovisiones», o interpretaciones generales de lo que es nuestro mundo y lo que los hombres hacemos en él, surgidos periódicamente en la humanidad como consecuencia de grandes descubrimientos y grandes teorías explicativas de la naturaleza de nuestro universo, incluyendo al hombre (...) dentro de él. Sugerimos que estamos entrando en la séptima cosmovisión y la definimos en términos generales. El perfeccionamiento de la especie humana fisiológica y mentalmente puede que sea uno de los resultados concretos a los que pueden dar lugar las nuevas interpretaciones y los cambios tecnológicos que las acompañan, así como la utilización de la Inteligencia Artificial Fuerte y la creación de robots humanoides y «máquinas espirituales». Más importante que todo ello, y a lo que especialmente nos referimos, es el hecho de que la nueva etapa del hombre ante la que estamos, puede caracterizarse por un mayor papel del espíritu, la consciencia, y la subjetividad en la marcha de nuestro mundo, algo a lo que contribuyen las nuevas concepciones relacionadas con la Mecánica Cuántica y con la posibilidad de existencia de un Universo Consciente. (shrink)

A partir de la noción de regímenes de signos, propuesta por Deleuze y Guattari, la semiótica se concibe como una pragmática general donde se articula el conjunto de los sistemas de signos. Desde esa perspectiva, el presente artículo trata de ver cómo el sacrificio del corazón y la pulsión antropofágica, que identifican las grandes culturas prehispánicas de Mesoamérica, pueden ser proyectados como plano de contenido de una semiótica mixta a escala imperial. Numerosos estudiosos y eruditos han intentado postular, a partir (...) de allí, una estructura simbólica fundamental de la cultura maya o azteca. Nosotros simplemente queremos describir ciertos enunciados rituales -donde coinciden los textos etnográficos de Sahagún y las escrituras legadas por los aztecas- a fin de comprender el rol de lo que Lyotard llama "figural''. para otros lo prejudicativo, en el pensamiento delos antiguos mexicanos. (shrink)

Esta obra ofrece un sumario de las partes capitales en la ciencia del Derecho, haciendo destacar los principios que informan el Derecho todo y son el fundamento de su unidad ideal.

Este artículo pretende mostrar la convivencia de dos estructuras de pensamiento en la escolástica española y, especialmente, en Suárez. Vitoria presenta una visión comunitaria del orden internacional y sus enseñanzas serán transmitidas a Suárez, quien, al contrario, presenta una visión societaria del orden internacional. Esta diferencia no es una casualidad, sino un auténtico cambio de paradigma en el sabio granadino, que hace de él un autor más próximo a la modernidad que a la tradición escolástica. Gracias a un estudio comparado (...) mostraremos el punto de inflexión que supone Suárez en el tránsito hacia la modernidad y su idea de un orden mundial fundado en una sociedad de Estados. (shrink)

In the Platonic dialogue that bears his name Protagoras,1 in a myth and in a logos positively affirms the absolute character of universal moral values, such as force themselves upon all men; this makes one think that the famous man-measure dictum was subservient to the ends that the sophist had in view as a teacher of areté. Indeed, his condemnation in that dialogue of the sophists who, like Hippias, included in their teaching mathematical and naturalistic studies , must be connected (...) with the criticism of mathematics reported by an Aristotelian text.2 These studies, that is to say purely theoretic disciplines, were considered by Protagoras not only useless for the spiritual formation of men and citizens, but also void of any certitude and objectivity whatever.3 We feel therefore allowed to suggest that also the man-measure principle had to perform an office of the same kind: to show that natural philosophy could not yield an objective knowledge of φ?σις which formed its object, because such knowledge is denied to man. Mistrust of the general conceptions of the cosmology of physiologists was widely spread at that time, and the authors of some medical treatises of the Hippocratean corpus used it to justify the construction of a discipline founded on the study of empirical materials interpreted rationally and not with the general hypotheses void of certainty. (shrink)

Hasta ahora, las discusiones sobre el multiculturalismo se han presentado como una revisión progresista de los límites del liberalismo en cuanto a políticas de inclusión y reconocimiento. Este artículo plantea que la recepción del multiculturalismo en Latinoamérica, si no quiere ser puramente procedimental, puede plantearse como una deconstrucción de los conceptos de Sujeto y Estado. Para ello hemos adoptado el punto de vista de comunidades étnicamente diferenciadas (que Deleuze y Guattari han categorizado como máquinas territoriales), de modo que sus relaciones (...) de poder y sus procesos de subjetivación puedan ser vistos como expresión de lo intraestatal y lo preindividual, respectivamente. Aunque esta diferencia de perspectiva se plantea, básicamente, como un diferendo entre teorías, al final se sugieren criterios para un debate más amplio sobre las relaciones entre Estado y capitalismo alrededor de las condiciones de existencia de las sociedades premodernas. (shrink)

This article explores the sources of the concept of difference advanced by Deleuze and, in particular, the idea of a non-phenomenological difference, understood as internal difference. In the first part, Deleuze’s appropriation of the concepts of memory and duration proposed by Bergson is explored, as if it corresponded with a response to Heidegger’s systematization of Nietzsche, thus opening the concept of forces to others such as heterogeneity, relativity, and multiplicity. The second part contains a dicussion of the hypothesis according to (...) which the immersion in the Bergsonian synthesis of time results in the justification for the reformulation of the eternal return as repetition, the distinctively deleuzian problem of internal difference, and the concept of virtual as the definitive sign of a new plane of immanence for thought. The article concludes by presenting the internal difference from the outside that overflows it and makes it mutate in the whole of Deleuzian philosophy. (shrink)

Este ensayo se plantea las relaciones entre dos regímenes de visibilidad: pintura y televisión, que parecen constitutivos de la tradición cultural en Occidente. El propósito es analizar esa relación siguiendo tres estrategias: la primera, traza la genealogía que va del cuadro como modo privilegiado de representación visual a la pantalla como medio privilegiado de simulación; la segunda, rastrea los diferendos y las hibridaciones entre arte y televisión, contrastando el “déficit de realidad” que caracteriza al arte en relación con el exceso (...) de copias, reproducciones y simulaciones de “lo real” que caracteriza la televisión; por último, se sugieren formas de resistencia a las políticas de producción masiva de imágenes televisivas en el mundo actual. (shrink)

The present article aims at postulating cannibalism as a fundamental axis for the analysis of the processes of subjectivation of Spanish America since the 15th century. The hypothesis is that this process has gone through three stages, which allow for the delimitation of the differences of what I shall refer to, for now, as regimes of cannibalism understood as subjectivation processes:(i) Anthropophagic or of ritual war.(ii) Mimetic or of colonial incorporation(iii) Iconic or of mediatic absorption, at a global level.In order (...) to construct the regimes of cannibalism as a concept I have chosen to use two perspectives: the one which speaks of the ritual experimentation of anthropophagy from the inside and the one which moves through the variants of that double desire for the other’s desire that makes every process of colonization possible; in the known forms of territorial annexation, incorporation (productive, spiritual, institutional) and absorption by the global system of mediatization. (shrink)

El artículo aborda la relación filosofía/literatura teniendo plan en el contexto de la moderna novela latinoamericana. En la primera parte se retoman las discusiones sobre el indigenismo para examinar hasta donde la crítica y el olvido del que fue objeto son justificados. La pregunta, en este caso, es si se trata de un problema filosófico relativo a la representación y, si es el caso, cómo escapa la novela a la filosofía de la representación “indigenista” para hacerse plenamente moderna. La segunda (...) parte describe la influencia del surrealismo en la novela americana, para mostrar cómo la pregunta por lo moderno es una pregunta por el presente que O. Paz logró formular desde muy pronto en sus ensayos teórico-poéticos. La tercera parte plantea la pregunta por los mundos literarios y su relación indisociable con el yo, el punto de vista y el ensamblaje desbordante del concepto de máquina literaria a la imagen del sujeto-escritor. (shrink)