Based on published works and unpublished materials, this article analyses how cybernetics was received by two Spanish thinkers exiled in Mexico: José Gaos (1900–1969) and Eduardo Nicol (1907–1990). This reception is particularly intriguing especially when considering the substantial presence and social impact that Norbert Wiener had in Mexican society because of his friendship with Arturo Rosenblueth. Gaos and Nicol are the first philosophers to develop a complex and original diagnosis of cybernetics in Mexico. It will be shown how the (...) exiled thinkers take on the philosophical implications of this science in the light of their respective theoretical projects, and finally, it will be defended how the critical perspective they develop is particularly significant for Mexico’s political and academic context since it illuminates some negative aspects of cybernetics that Wiener did not foresee and that had not been reported there until then. (shrink)

La intención de este artículo es destacar la importancia de Cervantes en Aranguren. El filósofo español interpreta el pensamiento del Quijote centrándose en la relevancia del héroe y su importancia para la moral, como una referencia crítica y ejemplar en tiempos de crisis y desánimo como los de Cervantes y los nuestros.

This article analyses the nature of mental imagery in metaphoric thought as envisaged by the contemporary theory of metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics (Lakoff, Cambridge University Press, 1993). Our study of metaphor in the field of marine biology draws on two crucial aspects of mental imagery, namely dynamicity and pervasiveness. Image metaphors and behaviour-based metaphors have generally been regarded as two different types of resemblance metaphor. In our view, the dynamicity of certain mental images highlights inherent similarities between these two types (...) of metaphor, and makes the differences between them more apparent than real. For this reason, we propose a more refined description of resemblance metaphors in terms of the static or dynamic nature of the mental images underlying them. Our study also underlines the fact that mental images permeate all classes of metaphor, and that the pervasiveness and dynamicity of mental images affords insights into both resemblance metaphors and non-resemblance metaphors. (shrink)

Jeffrey King has famously argued that there are several prima facie problems with the direct reference theory of the semantics of complex demonstratives, three of which apparently resist solution. King concludes by observing that, if these outstanding problems cannot be solved, then the prospects for a direct reference semantics for complex demonstratives will be poor. I shall focus on just one of these outstanding problems—the objection from belief attributions—and suggest that it, at least, can be answered.

Do our present circumstances allow us to defend a specific connection (that specific connection) between «legal rules», «moral claims» and «democratic principles» which we may say is granted by an unproblematic presupposition of universality or by an «acultural» experience of modernity? In order to discuss this question, this paper invokes the challenge-visée of a plausible reinvention of Law’s autonomous project (a reinvention which may be capable of critically re-thinking and re-experiencing Law’s constitutive cultural-civilizational originarium in a «limit-situation» such as our (...) own). The discussion is developed by recognising that the claim to universality is not only incompatible with a substantive conception of juridicalness as validity but also sustained with difficulty by a procedural representation of discourse and rationality (a representation which, against its own conclusion-claims, could also be said to be culturally and civilizationally bounded). Not forgetting some specific features of contemporary juridical pluralism—namely that which emerges from the counterpoint between semiotic groups or interpretative communities (and their differently assumed claims of intersemioticity concerning the signifier law)—this train of reflection diagnoses briefly a sequence of complementary main difficulties (as «obstacles» to recognising Law’s demand as an unmistakable cultural project), namely those arising from the formalistic normativistic inheritance (confounding legal autonomy with isolationism), from the challenges and seductions of practical holism (justifying a continuum in which Law’s project loses its sense and autonomy), and also from the familiar debate between exclusive and inclusive versions of positivism and non-positivism (a debate which establishes-consecrates an equivocal counterpoint between Law and Morality). (shrink)

Unamuno y Benjamin fueron dos personalidades muy dispares tanto en su biografía como en su obra. Sin embargo, la lectura de sus escritos permite detectar ciertas similitudes entre ambos, no tanto en las preocupaciones y motivaciones reflejadas sino en el empleo de iguales o parecidos conceptos de raigambre religiosa. En el presente trabajo se pretende poner en diálogo a ambos autores a partir de uno de estos conceptos teológicos: el de la apocatástasis paulina.

Only the excess is enough. This is our title about the relationship between João Paisana and philosophy. The main theme is phenomenology and hermeneutics, in particular the philosophy of Husserl and Heidegger. João Paisana’s reflection about these authors is very important and capable to introduce novelties. Moreover, his last writings about the concept of experience and communication, is also a very sound one. Politics, and the notion of cultures, is another vertex of his philosophy. Who knows João Paisana can recognize (...) that there is no gap between life and philosophy. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo se realizará un análisis y comparación críticos de las ideas con relación a la tecnología desarrolladas por Eduardo Nicol y Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez. En ese sentido, se confrontará el concepto de “razón de fuerza mayor” de Nicol con la idea del “racionalismo tecnológico” de Sánchez Vázquez. Demostrando, finalmente, que el concepto nicoliano encajaría perfectamente dentro de los parámetros de la ideología del racionalismo tecnológico tal y como la define Adolfo Sánchez Vázquez. Todo ello con el fin (...) de valorar el alcance y las limitaciones de las propuestas de ambos autores y su posible vigencia de cara a pensar un problema tan actual como el de la tecnología y la responsabilidad del ser humano en su desarrollo. Así pues, este trabajo no se propone estudiar un diálogo o polémica real entre los autores en cuestión ni tampoco se hace cargo de una crítica explícita de uno a otro. Lo que se busca es conectar dos desarrollos filosóficos aparentemente alejados (la metafísica fenomenológica de Nicol y el marxismo crítico de Sánchez Vázquez) examinando cómo abordan uno y otro el tema de la tecnología y destacando las hipotéticas implicaciones de uno de esos desarrollos sobre el otro. Para ello, se parte de una breve explicación del contexto histórico de ambos pensadores, luego se enmarcan las ideas de la tecnología de cada uno en su contrastante concepción de la praxis, se muestran los puntos en común y las discrepancias y, finalmente, se termina señalando la hipotética repercusión de las ideas Sánchez Vázquez sobre las de Nicol. (shrink)

This introductory chapter integrates two different steps: a global consideration of the problems which the “signifier” limits is able to include and a detailed mapping of the reflective path which the following thirteen chapters effectively pursue.

Este artículo revisa la concepción de la Independencia de Antonio Caso, Alfonso Reyes, José Vasconcelos, Samuel Ramos, Juan Hernández Luna, Leopoldo Zea, Emilio Uranga y Luis Villoro. La pregunta por las “raíces ideológicas” de la Independencia guio en buena medida esta discusión intergeneracional. Miguel Hidalgo era considerado, de manera casi unánime, un héroe, ya fuese uno de la latinidad (para Caso o Reyes) o un héroe existencialista (para Villoro). El artículo adopta el presupuesto metodológico del historicismo: una idea no (...) es sino la forma de reacción de un ser humano concreto frente a sus circunstancias. (shrink)

Jose Manuel Delgado Ocando presents us with a brilliant and original analysis of Venezuelan political reality. It is well known that due to the election of President Hugo Chavez Frías, a popular referendum was convened with the express intention of constituting a new constitutional order. This..

Aunque Vico hace varias referencias a Hobbes creemos que en realidad nunca tuvo un estrecho conocimiento del filósofo inglés. Pensamos que no merece la pena realmente buscar similitudes o coincidencias generales en textos seleccionados. Pero sí creemos que sería interesante comparar ambas actitudes metodológicas, su esfuerzo común por establecer las bases de una ciencia civil invirtiendo la "jerarquía de la evidencia", esto es, llevando el nivel de la ciencia social a las matemáticas y trasladando las ciencias naturales al rango de (...) la hipótesis. (shrink)

Giacomo Zabarella es considerado uno de los aristotélicos más prestigiosos y más influyentes del siglo XVI. Su obra lógica, sus escritos sobre física y sus comentarios, publicados póstumamente, tuvieron un enorme impacto especialmente en las primeras décadas del siglo XVII, y sirvieron como verdaderos manuales con los que se formaron muchos universitarios europeos. Este artículo analiza la figura de Zabarella centrándose en su obra sobre física, el De rebus naturalibus libri XXX, editado en 1590, apenas unos días antes de su (...) muerte. (shrink)

It can be stated that self-regulated learning (SRL) brings broad benefits to the process of students' learning and studying. However, research has yet to be undertaken in relation to one of its components, namely self-regulation of motivation and affectivity. The main objectives of this study are to examine the use of self-motivation strategies that involve classmates and to obtain models on the influence of academic goals and self-efficacy on such self-motivation strategies. To this end, was conducted a study using two (...) different samples of students in the compulsory secondary education or baccalaureate stages in Spain (N = 613 and N = 910). The results obtained indicate that, with regard to gender, differences only exist in the use of the strategy of deception (t = 5.450, p <.001, d =.364). That the two pairs of strategies positively and significantly correlated with one another (r =.239, p <.01 and r =.355, p <.01). That only the strategy of annulation of others correlates with a more adaptive type of motivation. Thus, the group of students that reported the greatest level in its use also did so in relation to task and ego self-enhancing goals, to self-efficacy, and being negatively associated with the goal of work avoidance. Finally, were offered models on relationships between academic goals, self-efficacy and enhancement and annulation strategies (χ² (8) = 5.204, p =.736) and deception and annulation strategies (χ² (4) = 3.228, p =.520). (shrink)

Este trabajo consiste en una aproximación a las razones de la democracia y al papel de la opinión pública en la misma. Contiene también un ensayo conceptual analítico que pretende dar cuenta suficientemente de los elementos definitorios de esos dos conceptos centrales del discurso político y jurídico. Democracia y opinión pública no son realidades identificables de manera indiscutible y no siempre cuando se habla de ellas se hace un uso homogéneo de los términos y de su sentido político. Este trabajo (...) pretende dar respuesta, aunque sea con carácter no definitivo, a algunos de los interrogantes que derivan de las distintas propuestas sobre la democracia y sobre la opinión pública que se han ofrecido por el pensamiento político moderno y contemporáneo. (shrink)

La estética posee una importancia central en el pensamiento de Nietzsche. En el presente trabajo se expone cómo la afirmación filosófica nietzscheana de lo inmanente tiene como sustento sus reflexiones en torno al arte y extrae de este ámbito su instrumental teórico. Se mostrará así cómo Nietzsche lleva a cabo una justificación estética de la inmanencia.