Introduction: Traditionally, empathy has been studied from two main perspectives: the theory-theory approach and the simulation theory approach. These theories claim that social emotions are fundamentally constituted by mind states in the brain. In contrast, classical phenomenology and recent research based on enactive theories consider empathy as the basic process of contacting others’ emotional experiences through direct bodily perception and sensation. Objective: This study aims to enrich knowledge of the empathic experience of pain by using an experimental phenomenological method. Method: (...) Implementing an experimental paradigm used in affective neuroscience, we exposed 28 healthy adults to a video of sportspersons suffering physical accidents while practicing extreme sports. Immediately after watching the video, each participant underwent a phenomenological interview to gather data on embodied, multi-layered dimensions (bodily sensations, emotions, and motivations) and temporal aspects of empathic experience. We also performed quantitative analyses of the phenomenological categories. Results: Experiential access to the other person’s painful experience involves four main-themes. Bodily resonance: participants felt a multiplicity of bodily, affective, and kinesthetic sensations. Attentional focus: some participants centered their attention more on their own personal discomfort and sensations of rejection, while others on the pain and suffering experienced by the sportspersons. Kinesthetic motivation: some participants experienced the feeling in their bodies to avoid or escape from watching the video, while others experienced the need to help the sportspersons avoid suffering any injury while practicing extreme sports. Temporality of experience: participants witnessed temporal fluctuations in their experiences, bringing intensity changes in their bodily resonance, attentional focus, and kinesthetic motivation. Finally, two experiential structures were found: one structure is self-centered empathic experience, characterized by bodily resonance, attentional focus centered on the participant’s own experience of seeing the sportsperson suffering, and self-protective kinesthetic motivation; the other structure is other-centered empathic experience, characterized by bodily resonance, attentional focus centered on the sportsperson, and prosocial kinesthetic motivation to help them. Discussion: We show how phenomenological data may contribute to comprehending empathy for pain in social neuroscience. In addition, we address the phenomenological aspect of the enactive approach to the three dimensions of embodiment of human consciousness, especially the intersubjective dimension. Also, based on our results, we suggest an extension of the enactive theory for non-interactive social experience. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es evaluar el desempeño democratizador de las candidaturas independientes en México a partir de su adopción en el año 2014. En específico, este trabajo analiza sus fundamentos jurídicos y sus requisitos legales y económicos en comparación con las candidaturas tradicionales de los candidatos de los partidos políticos. En la segunda parte del trabajo se analiza el desempeño de los candidatos independientes en los procesos electorales llevados a cabo en los años 2015, 2016 y 2017. Finalmente, (...) se proponen algunas conclusiones que giran en torno a una cuestión central: a pesar de que las candidaturas independientes se introdujeron con la finalidad de estimular la participación ciudadana, han recibido poco apoyo electoral y, en general, han sido utilizadas de forma creciente por políticos vinculados a los partidos tradicionales que desean emprender una carrera política personal.The aim this paper is to evaluate the performance of the independent candidates in Mexico, since its legal adoption in 2014. Specifically, this paper analyses its legal foundations, the legal and the economic requirements –compared to the traditional candidacies of the political parties. The second part of the paper analyses the performance of the independent candidates in the electoral processes carried out in the years 2015, 2016 and 2017. Finally, some conclusions are proposed that revolve around a central question: although the Independents candidacies were introduced with the aim of stimulating the citizen participation, they have received generally a minor electoral support, and they have been increasingly used by politicians linked to traditional parties who wish to begin a personal political career. (shrink)

El profesor Dinu Garber nació en Rumania, el 26 de octubre de 1938, en el seno de una familia de origen judío, que, por los avatares de la guerra, debió emigrar, vía Francia e Italia, para radicarse finalmente en Venezuela. En Caracas terminó sus estudios de primaria y bachille-rato, y se trasladó luego a Brasil, donde cursó la carrera de Arquitectura. Al regresar a Venezuela, organizó, con algunos colegas, una firma de arquitectos, en la que trabajó unos años con (...) gran éxito. En el año 1970 contrajo matrimonio con su esposa Doris Halle. (shrink)

Los estudios de géneros discursivos han prestado poca atención a las tesis o seminarios producidos para la obtención del grado de licenciatura. En este artículo se describe, desde el enfoque del genre analysis (Swales, 1990), la organización retórica del marco referencial de un conjunto de 30 tesis de pregrado elaboradas por estudiantes de la carrera de Trabajo Social de la UCSC. Se identifican cuatro movidas retóricas: teórico, conceptual, empírico y normativo. Se observa que cada una tiene propósitos diferentes sobre (...) cuestiones teóricas, prácticas y legales relacionadas con el problema social que aborda cada tesis. Se advierte la presencia de algunos pasos retóricos recursivo y, al mismo tiempo, un fuerte compromiso de la investigación con la resolución de un problema social real. Studies of discourse genre have paid little attention to graduation theses produced by undergraduate students. This article describes, from a genre analysis approach (Swales, 1990), the rhetorical organization of the reference framework of a set of 30 undergraduate theses prepared by social work students at the UCSC. The study identifies four rhetorical moves: theoretical, conceptual, empirical, and normative. It is observed that each move has different purposes on theoretical, practical, and legal issues related to the social problem addressed by each thesis. The presence of recursive rhetorical steps is apparent, along with a strong commitment to solving real social problems through research. (shrink)

In this chapter, we discuss a selection of current views of the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). We focus on the different predictions they make, in particular with respect to the role of prefrontal cortex (PFC) during visual experiences, which is an area of critical interest and some source of contention. Our discussion of these views focuses on the level of functional anatomy, rather than at the neuronal circuitry level. We take this approach because we currently understand more about experimental (...) evidence at this coarse level and because these results are appropriate for arbitrating between current theoretical frameworks. We discuss the Two-Visual-Systems Hypothesis (Milner & Goodale 1995; 2006), Local Recurrency (Lamme 2010; Lamme 2006), Higher Order (Lau 2008; Lau & Rosenthal 2011) and Global Workspace theories (Baars 1997; Baars 2005; Dehaene & Naccache 2001; Dehaene 2014). Despite the apparent stark differences between conscious and unconscious perceptual processing, available evidence suggests that their neural substrates must be largely shared. This indicates that the difference in neural activity between conscious and unconscious perceptual processing is likely to be subtle and highly specialized. We argue that current experimental evidence about the involvement of specific activity in prefrontal cortex supports the higher order neural theory of consciousness. In consequence, imaging techniques that focus only on marked differences between conscious and unconscious level of activity are likely to be insensitive to the relevant neural activity patterns that underlie conscious experiences. Finally, it follows from the evidence we discuss that the functional advantages of conscious over unconscious perceptual processing may be more limited than commonly thought. (shrink)

Introspection is a fundamental part of our mental lives. Nevertheless, its reliability and its underlying cognitive architecture have been widely disputed. Here, I propose a principled way to model introspection. By using time-tested principles from signal detection theory (SDT) and extrapolating them from perception to introspection, I offer a new framework for an introspective signal detection theory (iSDT). In SDT, the reliability of perceptual judgments is a function of the strength of an internal perceptual response (signal- to-noise ratio) which is, (...) to a large extent, driven by the intensity of the stimulus. In parallel to perception, iSDT models the reliability of introspective judgments as a function of the strength of an internal introspective response (signal-to-noise ratio) which is, to a large extent, driven by the intensity of conscious experiences. Thus, by modelling introspection after perception, iSDT can calibrate introspection’s reliability across a whole range of contexts. iSDT offers a novel, illuminating way of thinking about introspection and the cognitive processes that support it. (shrink)

When a circular coin is rotated in depth, is there any sense in which it comes to resemble an ellipse? While this question is at the center of a rich and divided philosophical tradition (with some scholars answering affirmatively and some negatively), Morales et al. (2020, 2021) took an empirical approach, reporting 10 experiments whose results favor such perspectival similarity. Recently, Burge and Burge (2022) offered a vigorous critique of this work, objecting to its approach and conclusions on both philosophical (...) and empirical grounds. Here, we answer these objections on both fronts. We show that Burge and Burge’s critique rests on misunderstandings of Morales et al.’s claims; of the relation between the data and conclusions; and of the philosophical context in which the work appears. Specifically, Burge and Burge attribute to us a much stronger (and stranger) view than we hold, involving the introduction of “a new entity” located “in some intermediate position(s) between the distal shape and the retinal image.” We do not hold this view. Indeed, once properly understood, most of Burge and Burge’s objections favor Morales et al.’s claims rather than oppose them. Finally, we discuss several questions that remain unanswered, and reflect on a productive path forward on these issues of foundational scientific and philosophical interest. (shrink)

This book views Massimo Cacciari's career. As well as being an academic philosopher who has devoted his life to active politics, he is also one of the most high-profile intellectuals in contemporary Italy. This busy man's bibliography is massive because he has published more than forty authored and coauthored books, several of them translated into all major European languages, and has written hundreds of articles, interviews, essays, and journalistic pieces. The range of his study has ignored the borders of academic (...) specialization, and he has often broken new ground with impressive competence. In his most ambitious theoretical books, he shows a masterful command of classical antiquity, Neoplatonism, and Christian theology, but many of his works are far from being simply accessible to the reader who is not well learned in Greek and German literature and philosophy. It proves that the author's conclusion is not just poetic; his emphasis on possibility is just the beginning of a new phase in philosophy because possibility means chance and chance is infinite only before it is realized. (shrink)

This article provides a comprehensive review of the rather intricate relationship between contemporary environmental ethics, understood as a philosophical branch, and ancient philosophy. While its primary focus is on Western philosophy, it also includes some brief yet crucial considerations about the influence of Eastern traditions of thought on environmental ethics. Aside from the introduction in the first section, the discussion is organised into three main sections. In the Reception: Ancient philosophy in environmental ethics section, I review the initial reception of (...) ancient philosophy in contemporary environmental ethics. Next, in the Reaction: Environmental ethics in ancient philosophy scholarship section, I examine how the scholarship in AP responded to this early reception. I conclude, in the final section, with some constructive suggestions for future research. (shrink)

The Zapatista Indigenous Movement from Chiapas, Mexico is an example of the anthropological dynamics between the visible and the invisible in Western culture and the possible revolution of perceiving reality as such since they had to cover their faces with masks in their rebel anti-system movement in order to be considered as having the same dignity as other human beings: they performed a revolutionary act that changed the symbolic order of the visible by the public exhibition of their colonial submission. (...) The mask gave them a face, disrupting the order of the visible with uncanny faces. In this article, a nondual model is proposed to capture the inessential ground of the given composed of endless perspectives in continuous transformation by the generation of ontological novelty: an open cognitive horizon of symbolically empty points of view irreducible to one perspective. For Krishnamurti, the revolutionary act is to see without an image in order to phenomenologically attend to things as they are beyond the known and the unknown such as Stilinovi? and Malevich pursued the dissolution of symbolic representations through art for the transformation of human reality. (shrink)

We address some phenomena about the interaction between lower semicontinuous submeasures on $${\mathbb {N}}$$ N and $$F_{\sigma }$$ F σ ideals. We analyze the pathology degree of a submeasure and present a method to construct pathological $$F_{\sigma }$$ F σ ideals. We give a partial answers to the question of whether every nonpathological tall $$F_{\sigma }$$ F σ ideal is Katětov above the random ideal or at least has a Borel selector. Finally, we show a representation of nonpathological $$F_{\sigma }$$ (...) F σ ideals using sequences in Banach spaces. (shrink)

Substantial advances in our understanding of the neural bases of emotional processing have been made over the past decades. Overall, studies in humans and other animals highlight the key role of the amygdala in the detection and evaluation of stimuli with affective value. Nonetheless, contradictory findings have been reported, especially in terms of the exact role of this structure in the processing of different emotions, giving rise to different neural models of emotion. For instance, although the amygdala has traditionally been (...) considered as exclusively involved in fear (and possibly anger), more recent work suggests that it may be important for processing other types of emotions, and even nonemotional information. A review of the main findings in this field is presented here, together with some of the hypotheses that have been put forward to interpret this literature and explain its inconsistencies. (shrink)

Research on Augmented Reality in education has demonstrated that AR applications designed with diverse components boost student motivation in educational settings. However, most of the research conducted to date, does not define exactly what those components are and how these components positively affect student motivation. This study, therefore, attempts to identify some of the components that positively affect student motivation in mobile AR learning experiences to contribute to the design and development of motivational AR learning experiences for the Vocational Education (...) and Training level of education. To identify these components, a research model constructed from the literature was empirically validated with data obtained from two sources: 35 students from four VET institutes interacting with an AR application for learning for a period of 20 days, and a self-report measure obtained from the Instructional Materials Motivation Survey. We found that the following variables: use of scaffolding, real-time feedback, degree of success, time on-task and learning outcomes are positively correlated with the four dimensions of the ARCS model of motivation: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. Implications of these results are also described. (shrink)

Whether the prefrontal cortex is part of the neural substrates of consciousness is currently debated. Against prefrontal theories of consciousness, many have argued that neural activity in the prefrontal cortex does not correlate with consciousness but with subjective reports. We defend prefrontal theories of consciousness against this argument. We surmise that the requirement for reports is not a satisfying explanation of the difference in neural activity between conscious and unconscious trials, and that prefrontal theories of consciousness come out of this (...) debate unscathed. (shrink)

What is it for history to matter? Stephen Gould argued that unpredictability is part of the answer. For example, the “fact“ that repeated replays of the history of life would end differently every time is a sign that history matters to the course of evolution. But there is a problem here: if a particular point in the past leaves open alternative possible futures, then in what sense does that point in the past matter with regard to which of the outcomes (...) occurs? We argue that unpredictability is central to the importance of history. However, it is not the unpredictability of the future, but rather the unpredictability of the past itself that is the key. History matters when a particular future depends on a particular past that was not bound to happen, but did. (shrink)

Se intenta en este trabajo identificar y describir de algún modo, en caso de que exista, la contracultura digital de nuestro tiempo. Con tal propósito en mente, en primer lugar, el autor esboza sus presuposiciones con respecto la cultura, la tecnología digital, la cultura digital y la contracultura, bajo las ópticas que imponen la naturaleza de este artículo. Digital Culture and Counter-Culture: an Essay It is attempted in this work to identify and to describe somehow, in case it exists, the (...) digital counterculture of our time. With such a purpose in mind, first of all, the author sketches his presuppositions regarding culture, digital technology, digital culture and counterculture, under the optics that imposes the nature of this article. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo sostendremos que Marx y Engels no se limitaron a denunciar la explotación económica. Su crítica incidió de igual modo en la degradación espiritual de las víctimas del capital. Y, en consonancia con otros teóricos socialistas y no socialistas, señalaron que el capitalismo también era responsable de un empobrecimiento estético y de un ocaso de las artes. Marx no escribió un trabajo específicamente estético, pero sí esbozó algunas reflexiones y comentarios que demuestran su interés por el arte (...) y la literatura. Tales consideraciones, y asimismo las de Engels, abren perspectivas muy interesantes, para meditar sobre el destino del arte en las sociedades capitalistas. (shrink)

Resumen: En el presente artículo se propone una forma particular de problematizar lo que podemos comprender como conocimiento en ciencias sociales, que marginado de una perspectiva naturalista y más próximo a una fenomenológico-hermenéutica, vislumbra posibles intersecciones entre lo simbólico, lo social y lo cognitivo, con la finalidad de establecer desde una dimensión compleja y dialéctica un enfoque analítico de la ciencia social del conocimiento. Para ello, comenzaremos por figurar una problematización sobre el conocimiento en ciencias sociales, abordando algunas premisas sociológicas (...) y las funciones sociocognitivas para conceptualizar una perspectiva compleja del conocimiento. Posteriormente, un segundo apartado se sustenta sobre tres ejes principales: la objetividad, la subjetividad y la imaginación, como una tríada trascendental en esta perspectiva epistemológica. Para finalizar con la búsqueda de la relación entre el conocimiento y un pensamiento simbólico de acuerdo con los argumentos expuestos en los apartados anteriores, donde se entiende que las estructuras imaginario-arquetípicas circundantes en la realidad social, el proceso de comprensión e intersubjetividad constituyen, entre otros, los cimientos de los que vamos a entender por conocimiento en ciencias sociales.: This paper proposes a particular form of problematize what we can understand as knowledge in social sciences, that marginalized from a naturalistic perspective and closer to a phenomenological-hermeneutics glimpses possible intersections between the symbolic, the social and the cognitive, with the purpose of establishing from a complex and dialectical dimension an analytical approach of the social science of knowledge. To do this, we will begin by figuring out a problematization about knowledge in social sciences, addressing some sociological premises and socio-cognitive functions to conceptualize a complex perspective of knowledge. Subsequently, a second section is based on three main axes: objectivity, subjectivity and imagination, as a transcendental triad in this epistemological perspective. To end with the search for the relationship between knowledge and the symbolic thought according to the arguments outlined in the preceding paragraphs, where we understood that the imaginary-archetypal structures surrounding the social reality, the process of understanding and intersubjectivity constitute, among others, the foundations of which we will understand by knowledge in social sciences. (shrink)

Con motivo del centenario de su nacimiento, nos adentraremos en la compleja vida y pensamiento del filósofo catalán Raimon Panikkar, una de las principales figuras en el ámbito del diálogo interreligoso. Analizaremos su relación, a veces ambigua, con las diversas tradiciones religiosas que adoptó, examinando su cristología y comparando su ontología de inspiración budista con la del budismo Theravāda. Para concluir, nos gustaría sugerir la posibilidad de una aproximación _homeomórfica _al acto de crear filosofía.

The paper tries to elucidate some of the implications of using phenomenology in anthropological research. The starting point is Blumenberg’s critique of the Husserlian Anthropologieverbot, against which he proposes a phenomenological anthropology as a “description of man” that can never be completed. This idea resonates with the use of phenomenology in contemporary ethnographic and anthropological works: the problem stems from the “disempowering” effect that this anthropological use has on the phenomenological analytical power. Phenomenology has, from an anthropological point of view, (...) the great advantage of offering a “trans-ontological” perspective able to let the Other speak. Many influential anthropologists cite Merleau-Ponty as a key figure in their approach, as in the case of Csordas’ “embodiment paradigm”, Jackson’s “existential anthropology” or Throop’s idea of an “ethnographic epoché”. This is equally true for two of the key figures of the “Ontological turn”, Descola and Ingold, albeit in radically different ways. On the contrary, it is difficult to find philosophers influenced by “non-philosophical” anthropology. The paper discusses both advantages and limits of phenomenological approaches in anthropology, adopting philosophical and anthropological perspectives, attempting to understand the deeply asymmetrical relation of the two disciplines. (shrink)

Biosemiosis is a process of choice-making between simultaneously alternative options. It is well-known that, when sufficiently young children encounter a new word, they tend to interpret it as pointing to a meaning that does not have a word yet in their lexicon rather than to a meaning that already has a word attached. In previous research, the strategy was shown to be optimal from an information theoretic standpoint. In that framework, interpretation is hypothesized to be driven by the minimization of (...) a cost function: the option of least communication cost is chosen. However, the information theoretic model employed in that research neither explains the weakening of that vocabulary learning bias in older children or polylinguals nor reproduces Zipf’s meaning-frequency law, namely the non-linear relationship between the number of meanings of a word and its frequency. Here we consider a generalization of the model that is channeled to reproduce that law. The analysis of the new model reveals regions of the phase space where the bias disappears consistently with the weakening or loss of the bias in older children or polylinguals. The model is abstract enough to support future research on other levels of life that are relevant to biosemiotics. In the deep learning era, the model is a transparent low-dimensional tool for future experimental research and illustrates the predictive power of a theoretical framework originally designed to shed light on the origins of Zipf’s rank-frequency law. (shrink)

"Databases containing the accumulated genomic data of the research community are growing exponentially. This book contains cutting-edge insights from scholars, bioethicists and legal practitioners who work at the ever-changing intersection of law and bioinformatics"--Page 4 of cover.

ABSTRACT Glen Pettigrove argues against the proportionality principle that it cannot accommodate important phenomena of our moral practice, namely forgiveness, love, and ambition: each of the cases involve pro- or contra-attitudes that are disproportionate to the intrinsic value or disvalue of their object. In this commentary, I offer alternative interpretations of forgiveness, love, and ambition and show that each of these phenomena is in line with the proportionality principle.

Abstractabstract:The present article reassesses Aristotle's views on the relationship between ethical character and the natural environment. The standard reading, to the effect that Aristotle endorsed environmental determinism, is rejected. The discussion invites a more careful examination of Aristotelian texts commonly adduced to support the orthodox reading, while also providing a clear account of what environmental determinism is. I argue that the textual evidence presented by defenders of the standard reading does not match that account. All in all, I conclude, we (...) are not authorized to invoke Aristotle's views on the relationship between natural environment and human beings in order to discredit his ethical and political project. (shrink)