El objetivo de este artículo es proporcionar algunas claves históricas y conceptuales para comprender la historia del socialismo británico libertarian y su relación con la concepción fiduciaria del poder político y del poder económico. Las expresiones de este socialismo no son homogéneas, convivieron con otras ideas rivales llegando en ocasiones a mezclarse con ellas; y fueron formuladas siempre como respuestas concretas ante los problemas que planteaba cada momento histórico. Desde el socialismo republicano de algunos seguidores de Robert Owen hasta los (...) desafíos que planteó la New Left, las teorías fiduciarias encontraron hueco para abrirse paso en los escritos de estos socialistas libertarian. The objective of this paper is to provide some historical and conceptual keys to understand the history of libertarian British socialism, and its relationship with the fiduciary conception of political power and economic power. The expressions of this libertarian socialism are not homogeneous, they coexisted with other rival conceptions, sometimes mixing with them. Those articulations were always formulated as concrete responses to the problems laid out by different historical moments. From the republican socialism of some Robert Owen’s followers to the challenges exposed by the New Left, fiduciary theory found room to break through in the writings of these libertarian socialists. (shrink)

Inauguration speech at chair number 18 of the Brasilian Academy of Philosophy.

Resumen La educación superior se ha constituido en un objeto de creciente interés en la literatura especializada. A pesar de lo anterior, la mayor parte de la investigación disponible se concentra en estudios de corte descriptivo y evaluativo, sin conectar sus desarrollos con las reflexiones de la teoría sociológica. El presente ensayo identifica las principales posibilidades teóricas y epistemológicas de la teoría de sistemas sociales para el análisis de la educación superior, examinando los rendimientos de la noción de diferenciación de (...) planos de formación sistémica (interacción, organización y sociedad) y la idea de diferenciación de sistemas parciales especializados. Abstract Higher education has become an object of growing interest in the specialized literature. Despite this, most of the available research concentrates on descriptive and evaluative studies, without connecting its developments with the reflections of general sociological theory. This essay identifies the main theoretical and epistemological possibilities of social systems theory for the analysis of higher education, examining the uses of the notion of differentiation of systemic formation planes (interaction, organization, and society) and the idea of differentiation of specialized partial systems. (shrink)

Although logical consistency is desirable in scientific research, standard statistical hypothesis tests are typically logically inconsistent. To address this issue, previous work introduced agnostic hypothesis tests and proved that they can be logically consistent while retaining statistical optimality properties. This article characterizes the credal modalities in agnostic hypothesis tests and uses the hexagon of oppositions to explain the logical relations between these modalities. Geometric solids that are composed of hexagons of oppositions illustrate the conditions for these modalities to be logically (...) consistent. Prisms composed of hexagons of oppositions show how the credal modalities obtained from two agnostic tests vary according to their threshold values. Nested hexagons of oppositions summarize logical relations between the credal modalities in these tests and prove new relations. (shrink)

In this article, we discuss some issues concerning magical thinking—forms of thought and association mechanisms characteristic of early stages of mental development. We also examine good reasons for having an ambivalent attitude concerning the later permanence in life of these archaic forms of association, and the coexistence of such intuitive but informal thinking with logical and rigorous reasoning. At the one hand, magical thinking seems to serve the creative mind, working as a natural vehicle for new ideas and innovative insights, (...) and giving form to heuristic arguments. At the other hand, it is inherently difficult to control, lacking effective mechanisms needed for rigorous manipulation. Our discussion is illustrated with many examples from the Hebrew Bible, and some final examples from modern science. (shrink)

This article explores the metaphor of Science as provider of sharp images of our environment, using the epistemological framework of Objective Cognitive Constructivism. These sharp images are conveyed by precise scientific hypotheses that, in turn, are encoded by mathematical equations. Furthermore, this article describes how such knowledge is pro-duced by a cyclic and recursive development, perfection and reinforcement process, leading to the emergence of eigen-solutions characterized by the four essential properties of precision, stability, separability and composability. Finally, this article discusses (...) the role played by ontology and metaphysics in the scientific production process, and in which sense the resulting knowledge can be considered objective. (shrink)

In this article, we discuss some issues concerning magical thinking—forms of thought and association mechanisms characteristic of early stages of mental development. We also examine good reasons for having an ambivalent attitude concerning the later permanence in life of these archaic forms of association, and the coexistence of such intuitive but informal thinking with logical and rigorous reasoning. At the one hand, magical thinking seems to serve the creative mind, working as a natural vehicle for new ideas and innovative insights, (...) and giving form to heuristic arguments. At the other hand, it is inherently difficult to control, lacking effective mechanisms needed for rigorous manipulation. Our discussion is illustrated with many examples from the Hebrew Bible, and some final examples from modern science. (shrink)

John Rawls é um dos filósofos políticos mais proeminentes do século XX. A partir da publicação em 1971 da obra Uma Teoria da Justiça, o filósofo estadunidense se tornou mundialmente famoso nos meios políticos e acadêmicos. Contudo, um ponto que sempre suscitou um enorme debate é naquilo que dizia respeito aos regimes econômicos apoiados e defendidos pelo autor. Esse ponto só foi esclarecido quando Rawls publicou em 2001, portanto 30 anos depois de sua principal obra, o livro Justiça como equidade: (...) uma reformulação. Na obra de 2001, Rawls se coloca abertamente contrário ao estado de bem-estar social e defensor da democracia de cidadãos-proprietários e do socialismo (democrático) liberal. Nesse trabalho, além de apresentar o modo pelo qual Rawls chega aos regimes econômicos consonantes com a justiça como equidade, deseja-se investigar a relação da democracia no local de trabalho com os regimes econômicos rawlsianos. Assim, argumenta-se que Rawls não pode ser visto como exigindo a democracia no local de trabalho, apesar de que seus regimes podem ser consonantes com tal prática. (shrink)

The full Bayesian signi/cance test (FBST) for precise hypotheses is presented, with some illustrative applications. In the FBST we compute the evidence against the precise hypothesis. We discuss some of the theoretical properties of the FBST, and provide an invariant formulation for coordinate transformations, provided a reference density has been established. This evidence is the probability of the highest relative surprise set, “tangential” to the sub-manifold (of the parameter space) that defines the null hypothesis.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar o conceito de Egoísmo de Schopenhauer elaborado na obra “O mundo como Vontade e como Representação”, ligando-o à defesa da necessidade da instituição de um Estado Civil como é realizado por Hobbes no Leviatã. De onde se parte do pressuposto que egoísmo seria o ponto de partida das ações dos indivíduos, o que em um Estado de Natureza, sem um poder comum a todos, levaria os homens a uma situação de “guerra de todos contra (...) todos”, por isso a necessidade da instituição do Estado Civil. Por meio dos conceitos expostos por Schopenhauer e Hobbes em suas obras, será feita uma análise de até que ponto se pode levar essa afirmação como verdadeira, assim como ligar os pontos em comum das duas teorias acerca das ações morais dos homens, sem deixar de lado as diferenças conceituais e práticas das teorias de Hobbes e Schopenhauer. (shrink)

According to the orthodox or humanist conception of human rights, individuals have a moral duty to promote the universal realization of human rights. However, advocates of this account express the implications of this duty in extremely vague terms. What does it mean when we say that we must promote human rights satisfaction? Does it mean that we must devote a considerable amount of our time and resources to this task? Does it mean, instead, that we must make occasional donations to (...) charities working to advance human rights realization? In this essay, I argue that this duty can only be constructed as imperfect. This means that it confers agent-relative discretion on us to decide when, how, and to what extent to advance the human rights of others. It also means that it is neither correlative with rights nor enforceable. As I will explain, the main reason for this is that any attempt to construct it as a perfect duty would infringe the dignity of the potential duty bearers and thereby undermine the very values that human rights practice aspires to serve. Finally, I will conclude by providing some guidelines for those who wish to comply with their imperfect duties to improve the situation of those whose human rights are in peril. (shrink)

This article discusses the mathematizing of the chemical periodic system as a grid, which leads to a quadratic function or “binódica function” formed by pairs of periods or binodos. We describe the periodic law as an increasing function of the principal quantum number. It works subject to the dialectical laws that generate; first: gradual quantitative changes:, with “duplication” of periods:. Second: radical quantitative changes:, with the emergence of new quantum transitions, growth and a change in the format of the binodos. (...) We use analytical and graphic methods to mathematize Mendeleev’s law, making the size of the binodos and the continuous series depend on the number of the binode, which is the same quantum number. Likewise, we show a graphic representation, in 2D, of a continuous and self-similar spiral function of the elements, in a geometric growth pattern. (shrink)

Sortition, i.e. random appointment for public duty, has been employed by societies throughout the years as a firewall designated to prevent illegitimate interference between parties in a legal case and agents of the legal system. In judicial systems of modern western countries, random procedures are mainly employed to select the jury, the court and/or the judge in charge of judging a legal case. Therefore, these random procedures play an important role in the course of a case, and should comply with (...) some principles, such as transparency and complete auditability. Nevertheless, these principles are neglected by random procedures in some judicial systems, which are performed in secrecy and are not auditable by the involved parties. The assignment of cases in the Brazilian Supreme Court is an example of such a procedure, for it is performed using procedures unknown to the parties involved in the judicial cases. This article presents a review of how sortition has been historically employed by societies and discusses how Mathematical Statistics may be applied to random procedures of the judicial system, as it has been applied for almost a century on clinical trials, for example. A statistical model for assessing randomness in case assignment is proposed and applied to the Brazilian Supreme Court. As final remarks, guidelines for the development of good randomization procedures are outlined. (shrink)

Ibn al-Bann1321) is the author of one of the four extant of the unfinished zq (fl. Tunis and Marrakesh ca. 1193j accessible for the computation of planetary longitudes. The present paper studies some modifications of the structure of the tables the purpose of which is to make calculations easier. The tables of the planetary and lunar equations of the centre are ' appears as a clever adapter, who displays a clear ingenuity allowing him to introduce formal modifications which give his (...) work an appearance of novelty which does not correspond to reality. (shrink)

This study integrates corpus-assisted text analysis with frame semantics to study a social problem. Taking a cognitive-linguistic approach to critical discourse studies, in this article I examine the linguistic construction of minors in a corpus of 489 articles from the Uruguayan newspaper El País in the context of the so-called ‘Criminal Imputability Referendum’. Throughout, I focus on the construal operation of framing and identify a host of discursive patterns via which minors and adolescents are recurrently placed within the semantic frame (...) CRIME, and within this, they profile the frame elements of perpetrators of violent crimes rather than victims. I argue that, in the context of the referendum, these discursive strategies run the risk of facilitating the consolidation of a strong conceptual link whereby youth become readily associated with criminality, and are subservient to the political views of groups supporting a lower cut-off age for criminal responsibility and more stringent punishments. The observations arrived at in this instance set the foundations for a future experimental study testing whether the discursive patterns unearthed here have an effect on how readers conceptualize minors outside the texts. (shrink)

This article reflects on the anthropological aspect of the pilgrimage, the human journey, as a metaphor for life, as a way of relating and understanding religion, spirituality, life itself and tourism as forms of pilgrimage. The pilgrimages of the Christian tradition will be analyzed, seeking to understand them of the anthropology of Victor Turner, analyzing the pilgrimage as a state of liminality and liminoid. Concretely we will look at the case of the Romarias da Terra in Brazil, as an example (...) of liminality/ liminoid and communitas. In addition, this article reflects on the "new centers" of pilgrimage, outside the religious scope, as spaces of pop culture or the visit to tourist sites and monuments of social and cultural memory. The goal is to understand where people have pilgrims and what the meaning of these pilgrimages. In this displacement out of the religious scope, one wonders if tourism would also be a form of pilgrimage. Or would tourism lack precisely the preliminary aspect, something that could be related to Bauman's analysis of the tourist and the vagabond? It is suspected that in a globalized world, places lose their content and identity. People pass through places, but places no longer pass through them. With this, walking also loses its liminal function. (shrink)

El texto reflexiona sobre el vaciamiento neoliberal de la política, despolitizando la vida y cuantificando la realidad. El neoliberalismo enaltece la libertad individual, llevando a un individualismo extremo que amenaza el tejido social. La destrucción creativa moldea cuerpos y subjetividades, promoviendo competencia y autosacrificio. La exterioridad neoliberal afecta a los individuos, enfocándolos en su propia libertad y bloqueando su capacidad de actuar con otros. La crítica se centra en recuperar la sensibilidad y el deseo para restaurar la vida colectiva, explorando (...) la relación entre el cuerpo entristecido y la lógica neoliberal de acumulación y autorresponsabilidad, sugiriendo que puede generar cuerpos tristes y descontentos -todo esto en atención a una ontología spinozista-. Se critica, así, el culto a la vida en la sociedad neoliberal y cómo se marginaliza a los cuerpos vulnerables, abogando por abrazar la vulnerabilidad y la interdependencia para superar la lógica destructiva y la obsesión por la acumulación. (shrink)

1. Modern science in historical perspective -- On the origins of modern science -- The post-Renaissance revolution : the New Science -- Frank Sherwood Taylor : the man who was converted by Galileo -- The limits of science -- Proofs and demonstrations -- On the intelligibility of Quantum Mechanics -- Uncertainty, incompleteness, chance, and design -- A Finite, Open and Contingent Universe -- 2. On the origin and development of life -- A brief history of evolutionary thought -- Life's intelligible (...) design -- What are the contributions of Genetics to the understanding of life? -- On the Human Genome in contrast to the Great Apes Genome -- On The Evolution Controversy -- Scientific critiques of Darwinism -- 3. Beyond nature and history -- The religion of Darwinism -- On the riddle of man's origin -- On science, history and free will -- Science and Faith -- Concluding remarks. (shrink)

A fim de celebrar o bicentenário da publicação d´ O mundo como vontade e representação, rememoraremos uma polêmica de grandes proporções na filosofia alemã ao final do século XIX: a Pessimismus-Frage. Originada pela recepção da filosofia schopenhaueriana, essa polêmica suscitou – sobretudo após a morte de Schopenhauer - extensos debates entre os partidários do pessimismo filosófico e seus críticos. Iniciaremos descrevendo algumas características do horizonte intelectual alemão da época. A seguir, apresentaremos traços do pensamento de três representantes da chamada escola (...) de Schopenhauer, defensores do pessimismo filosófico. Posteriormente, elencaremos algumas das principais críticas dirigidas contra Schopenhauer e seu pessimismo, oriundas sobretudo do movimento neokantiano, ora dominante na filosofia universitária alemã. Concluiremos mostrando como a Pessimismus-Frage tinha como pressuposto uma discussão acerca da natureza e dos limites da própria filosofia, ressaltando a influência da filosofia schopenhaueriana durante a segunda metade do século XIX na Alemanha. (shrink)

This article considers distinct ways of understanding the world, referred to in psychology as Functions of Consciousness or as Cognitive Modes, having as the scope of interest epistemology and natural sciences. Inspired by C.G. Jung's Simile of the Spectrum, we consider three basic cognitive modes associated to: (R) embodied instinct, experience, and action; (G) reality perception and learning; and (B) concept abstraction, rational thinking, and language. RGB stand for the primary colors: red, green, and blue. Accordingly, a conceptual map between (...) cognitive modes and primary and secondary colors is built based on the physics and physiology of color perception and epistemological characteristics of the aforementioned cognitive modes, leading to logical relations structured as an Hexagon of Opposition. Finally, this model of cognitive modes is applied to the analysis and interpretation of some important episodes in the historical development of physics and technology. (shrink)

Comments presented at the 35th International Seminar on the -- New Institutional Economics -- Empirical Methods for the Law; Syracuse, 2018.

Mi ensayo ha querido explicar genealógicamente y de forma contextualizada el desencuentro entre Ernst Cassirer y Martin Heidegger en Davos, y la deriva de éste hacia el nazismo desde los presupuestos de su filosofía existencial. ¿Qué papel juega el antisemitismo espiritual en la crítica heideggeriana al neokantismo y la fenomenología trascendental? ¿Por qué la fenomenología de Edmund Husserl es "una monstruosidad"? ¿Por qué Kant se convierte en batalla y campo de batalla de la Kulturkampf? ¿Por qué se lee a Heidegger (...) como se lee? ¿Qué sentido tiene la práctica de la historia de la filosofía en el “final” de la filosofía?My essay wanted to explain genealogically and in a contextualized way the disagreement between Cassirer and Heidegger in Davos, and its drift towards Nazism from the budgets of their existential philosophy. What role does spiritual anti-Semitism play in the Heideggerian critique of neo-Kantianism and transcendental phenomenology? Why is Husserl's phenomenology "a monstrosity"? Why does Kant become the battle and battlefield of the Kulturkampf? Why do you read Heidegger as you read? What is the meaning of the practice of the history of philosophy in the “final” of philosophy? (shrink)

Este libro ofrece una imprescindible riqueza de perspectivas sobre el aspecto más problemático -que coincide con el menos tratado por los investigadores. de la obra de F. Nietzsche (1844-1990): la cuestión política. Nuestro reto de cara al Centenario de su muerte fue encarar lo que suele escamotearse. Y, al menos en este país, así ha sido por regla general. bien porque Nietzsche era "apolítico", otra forma más, como en el caso de otros pensadores, de situarlo universitariamente a la derecha, ángulo (...) desde el que se le importaba, ya porque, consigna progresista y transición filosófica, había que poner esta última interpretación en su sitio y demostrarle al mundo que Nietzsche había sido "utilizado erróneamente" por el totalitarismo nazi, el caso es que ya porque nos repugnaba moralmente aquella lectura, ya porque de tanto estar en favor de Nietzsche tampoco lo leíamos, cuestiones fundamentales de su obra y, por qué no decirlo, irritantes tanto para la derecho como para la izquierda, quedaron piadosamente salvadas. Y ahora ¿qué?... Los trabajos aquí presentados, nacionales e internacionales, han sido rigurosamente seleccionados. (shrink)

Realiza una lectura "nietzscheana" de El mundo como voluntad y representación, al igualmente que de El nacimiento de la tragedia para unificar sus tres aspectos: metafísico-gnoseológico, estético y político. Finalmente se analiza la esencia de la "intempestividad" en relación a la metafísica platónico-cristiana, así como frente a la historia lineal-progresista, al Estado y al nacionalismo.

This paper has three main objectives: (a) Discuss the formal analogy between some important symmetry-invariance arguments used in physics, probability and statistics. Specifically, we will focus on Noether’s theorem in physics, the maximum entropy principle in probability theory, and de Finetti-type theorems in Bayesian statistics; (b) Discuss the epistemological and ontological implications of these theorems, as they are interpreted in physics and statistics. Specifically, we will focus on the positivist (in physics) or subjective (in statistics) interpretations vs. objective interpretations that (...) are suggested by symmetry and invariance arguments; (c) Introduce the cognitive constructivism epistemological framework as a solution that overcomes the realism-subjectivism dilemma and its pitfalls. The work of the physicist and philosopher Max Born will be particularly important in our discussion. (shrink)

The main goal of this article is to use the epistemological framework of a specific version of Cognitive Constructivism to address Piaget’s central problem of knowledge construction, namely, the re-equilibration of cognitive structures. The distinctive objective character of this constructivist framework is supported by formal inference methods of Bayesian statistics, and is based on Heinz von Foerster’s fundamental metaphor of objects as tokens for eigen-solutions. This epistemological perspective is illustrated using some episodes in the history of chemistry concerning the definition (...) or identification of chemical elements. Some of von Foerster’s epistemological imperatives provide general guidelines of development and argumentation. (shrink)