In this paper, I address the significance of the key notions of coordination, constitution and convention. My aim in so doing is to provide a better understanding of their relation to conventionalism and to evaluate the prospects for a version of the relativized a priori based on a refinement of the notion of coordination. I stress the Kantian roots of all three concepts. Moreover, I argue that the link between the early logical positivist requirement for the uniqueness of coordination and (...) the Kantian account of empirical objectivity provides an interpretive key that sheds light on the alleged incompatibility between constitutive principles and conventionalism. (shrink)

Scientists typically use a variety of representations, including different kinds of figures, to present and defend hypotheses. In order to understand the justification of scientific hypotheses, it is essential to understand how visual representations contribute to scientific arguments. Since the logical understanding of arguments involves the truth or falsity of the representations involved, visual representations must have the capacity to bear truth in order to be genuine components of arguments. By drawing on Goodman's analysis of symbol systems, and on Tarski's (...) work on truth, I show that the figures used in science meet this criterion. (shrink)

In General Relativity (GR), it has been claimed that inertia receives a dynamical explanation. This is in contrast to the situation in other theories, such as Special Relativity, because the geodesic principle of GR can be derived from Einstein’s field equations. The claim can be challenged in different ways, all of which question whether the status of inertia in GR is physically different from its status in previous spacetime theories. In this paper I state the original argument for the claim (...) precisely, discuss the different objections to it and then propose a formulation that avoids the problems the original claim encounters. My conclusion is that one can say meaningfully that inertia is dynamically explained in GR. There are two senses in which the derivation of geodetic motion can be said to provide a (more) dynamical explanation of inertia in GR: it holds for any material test body that is a source of the gravitational field; and it is derivable without assuming inertial structures that are fixed independently of matter. (shrink)

According to Weyl, “‘inexhaustibility’ is essential to the infinite”. However, he distinguishes two kinds of inexhaustible, or merely potential, domains: those that are “extensionally determinate” and those that are not. This article clarifies Weyl's distinction and explains its enduring logical and philosophical significance. The distinction sheds lights on the contemporary debate about potentialism, which in turn affords a deeper understanding of Weyl.

Philosophers of perception have a notoriously difficult time trying to account for hallucinatory experiences. One surprisingly quite popular move, and one that cross-cuts the representationalism/relationalism divide, is to say that hallucinations involve an awareness of uninstantiated properties. In this paper, I provide a new argument against this view. Not only are its proponents forced to classify many hallucinations as veridical, such experiences turn out to be necessarily veridical. In addition, I show that representationalists who endorse the uninstantiated property view must (...) reject the common fundamental kind claim and adopt disjunctivism, and naïve realists/relationalists must radically modify their disjunctivism: The distinction between ‘veridical’ and ‘hallucinatory’ will no longer track a metaphysical distinction between the relevant experiences. (shrink)

The interpretation and justification of Earman’s symmetry principles (stating that any spacetime symmetry should be a dynamical symmetry and vice-versa) are controversial. This is directly connected to the question of how certain structures in physical theories acquire a spatiotemporal character. In this paper I address these issues from a perspective (arguably functionalist) that relates the classical discussion about the measurement and geometrical determination of space with a characterization of the notion of dynamical symmetry in which its application to subsystems that (...) act as measuring devices plays an essential role. I argue that in order to reformulate and justify Earman’s principles, and to provide a general account of the chronogeometrical character of some structures, the existence of a coordination between two notions of congruence, one mathematical and one dynamical, must be assumed for the interpretation of physical theories. This coordination provides the basis on which we can understand space-time in physical theories as the codification (representation) of certain features of the access ideal observers have to experience. (shrink)

Much discussion was inspired by the publication of Harvey Brown's book \textit{Physical Relativity} and the so-called dynamical approach to Special Relativity there advocated. At the center of the debate there is the question about the nature of the relation between spacetime and laws or, more specifically, between spacetime symmetries and the symmetries of laws. Originally, the relation was mainly assumed to be explanatory and the dispute expressed in terms of the arrow of explanation – whether it goes from spacetime (symmetries) (...) to (symmetries of) laws or vice-versa. Not everybody agreed with a setting that involves leaving ontology out. In a recent turn, the relation has been claimed to be analytical or definitional. In this paper I intend to examine critically this claim and propose a way to generally understand the relation between spacetime symmetries and symmetries of laws as deriving from constitutive principles. (shrink)

Dark matter is an essential ingredient of the present Standard Cosmological Model, according to which only 5% of the mass/energy content of our universe is made of ordinary matter. In recent times, it has been argued that certain cases of gravitational lensing represent a new type of evidence for the existence of DM. In a recent paper, Peter Kosso attempts to substantiate that claim. His argument is that, although in such cases DM is only detected by its gravitational effects, gravitational (...) lensing is a direct consequence of Einstein's Equivalence Principle and therefore the complete gravitational theory is not needed in order to derive such lensing effects. In this paper I critically examine Kosso's argument: I confront the notion of empirical evidence involved in the discussion and argue that EEP does not have enough power by itself to sustain the claim that gravitational lensing in the Bullet Cluster constitutes evidence for the DM Hypothesis. As a consequence of this, it is necessary to examine the details of alternative theories of gravity to decide whether certain empirical situations are indeed evidence for the existence of DM. It may well be correct that gravitational lensing does constitute evidence for the DM Hypothesis—at present it is controversial whether the proposed modifications of gravitation all need DM to account for the phenomenon of gravitational lensing and if so, of which kind—but this will not be a direct consequence of EEP. (shrink)

Kant afirma que espacio y tiempo son condiciones a priori de toda experiencia, a la vez que parece comprometerse con la naturaleza euclidiana del espacio y la simultaneidad absoluta. Su defensa del carácter a priori de estas nociones pasa por considerarlas intuiciones puras, de ahí que su naturaleza newtoniana parecería tener su origen en la configuración de lo que Kant llama intuición. No obstante, como muestran ciertas discusiones recientes, no está claro qué sea la intuición en Kant y cómo se (...) determina el espacio-tiempo a partir de ella. En este artículo, me acerco al debate sobre la procedencia de la síntesis de la intuición pura que, según Kant, determinaría la estructura espacio-temporal y discuto hasta que punto tener en cuenta la participación de las categorías en esta síntesis puede tener un efecto en el compromiso que, según la propuesta kantiana, uno debería asumir con respecto a una métrica determinada a priori. Mi conclusión es que el análisis kantiano da cabida, de forma natural, a que la determinación de la métrica espacio-temporal no esté dada a priori, en el sentido de universal y necesariamente. (shrink)

El artículo propone entender la precariedad en un análisis que sobrepase las condiciones laborales, y que observe la formación de un ciclo vital atravesado por sistemas generales de administración de los medios de subsistencia. Estos sistemas en el contexto neoliberal se han transformado profundamente a través del crédito y la capitalización individual. De modo que el conjunto vital de la población queda precarizado. Se trata entonces del análisis no de trabajos precarios, sino de formas de vida precarizadas. -/- The article (...) proposes that it is necessary to situate the precariousness in an analysis that exceed the working conditions, and to observe the formation of a Lifecycle that is criss-crossed by General Administration of livelihood systems. These systems in the neo-liberal context have been deeply transformed through credit and individual capitalization. So that the life of the population is precarious. It is then not precarious jobs, but life precarized producers forms analysis. (shrink)

El año 2011 remeció a Chile con un despertar de los movimientos sociales que levantaron sus demandas para la reestructuración del modelo educacional y social chileno heredado de la dictadura. El libro recopila columnas en prensa, artículos de discusión y material de información elaborado por autores y colectivos diversos que desde una perspectiva crítica al modelo y de compromiso con los movimientos sociales activan algunas de las discusiones de este proceso.

Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason remains one of the most opaque of Kant's published writings. Though this opacity belongs, partly, to the text itself, a key claim of this article is that this opacity stems also from the narrow lenses through which his readers view this text. Often read as part of Kant's moral philosophy or his universal history, the literature has thus far neglected a different vantage point on the Religion, one that does not refute the utility (...) of these lenses but complements them. This paper places the Religion alongside parts of Kant's corpus that it is less typically paired with, namely his natural history writings—in particular, his writings on the concept of race and the development of the human races. I argue that by doing so, we can shed much light on Kant's infamous claim that there is a radical evil in the human species. More precisely, we will come to appreciate that this evil is not, as it is usually understood, a static property or fixed characteristic of human beings. Instead, radical evil concerns a dynamic, changing defect in human nature that increasingly threatens our aspirations to collective moral perfection. (shrink)

Welches Verhältnis besteht zwischen „Bild" und menschlichem Denken? Welche Rolle spielt das Konzept der „Form" im menschlichen Wissen? Forscher aus Philosophie, Kulturwissenschaften, Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Ästhetik, Literatur, Anthropologie, Mathematik und Biologie untersuchen aus historischer und theoretischer Perspektive den Zusammenhang zwischen der Aktivität des Denkens und den Konzepten von Bild und Form.

The Fold is a book of practical philosophy that takes a radical new approach to aesthetics. Laura U. Marks calls this philosophy "enfolding-unfolding aesthetics," based in ideas derived from Gilles Deleuze and others (G.F.W. Leibniz, David Bohm, and Édouard Glissant) that the universe is folded in on itself. She proposes a theory of mediation as contact and connection across the folds and a set of embodied methods for detecting such cosmic connections. In drawing out this aesthetics, Marks considers the (...) embodied and sensuous dimensions of engaging with audiovisual works and works of art-dimensions that Marks suggests are composed of the very folds that compose everything and everyone: all living beings, from humans to particles, sandwiches to stars, technologies, thoughts and images, in the present, the past, and the future. Making use of art and film, with a focus on African diaspora and Arab cinema, Marks opens ways to strengthen connections to the cosmos and to better trace processes of becoming that are immanent within the fold. (shrink)

A scholarly edition of a work by Adam Smith. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.

Kant states that space and time are a priori conditions of experience, while apparently being committed to the euclidean nature of space and absolute simultaneity. His defense of the a priori character of spatio-temporal notions stems from taking them as pure intuitions, so its newtonian nature would derive from the configuration of what Kant names as intuition. Nevertheless, according to some recent discussions, it is not clear what intuition means for Kant and how space-time is determined from it. In this (...) paper I look into the debate about the origin of the synthesis of pure intuition that, according to Kant, would determine the spatio-temporal structure. I discuss to what extent taking into account the participation of categories in such a synthesis might have an effect on the commitment that, according to the kantian perspective, one should have with respect to the metric being determined a priori. My conclusion is that kantian analysis can incorporate the idea of a spatio-temporal metric that is not given, in the sense of universally and necessarily, a priori. (shrink)

The volume provides a thorough look into Marina Sbisà’s distinctive, Austinian-inspired approach to speech acts. By gathering original essays from a world-class lineup of philosophers of language, linguists, social epistemologists, action theorists, and communication scholars, the collection provides the first comprehensive critical treatment of Sbisa’s outstanding contribution to speech act theory.

The question about the relation between spacetime structure and the symmetries of laws has received renewed attention in a recent discussion about the status of Minkowski spacetime in Special Relativity. In that context we find two extreme positions (either spacetime explains symmetries of laws or vice-versa) and a general assumption about the debate being mainly about explanation. The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to argue that the ontological dimension of the debate cannot be ignored; second, to claim that (...) taking ontology into account involves considering a third perspective on the relation between spacetime and symmetries of laws; one in which both terms would be somehow derived from common assumptions on the formulation of a given physical theory. (shrink)

It has been claimed, recently, that the fact that all the non-gravitational fields are locally Poincaré invariant and that these invariances coincide, in a certain regime, with the symmetries of the spacetime metric is miraculous in general relativity. In this paper I show that, in the context of GR, it is possible to account for these so-called miracles of relativity. The way to do so involves integrating the realisation that the gravitational field equations impose constraints on the behaviour of matter (...) in a novel interpretation of the equivalence principle, which dictates the determination of local inertial frames through gravitational interaction. This proposed explanation of the miracles can also deal with the problematic cases for attempts at explaining them in the context of the standard geometrical perspective on relativity theory. (shrink)

A proof of Bell’s theorem without inequalities is presented in which distant local setups do not need to be aligned, since the required perfect correlations are achieved for any local rotation of the local setups.

Bell non-locality and Kochen–Specker contextuality are logically independent concepts, fuel different protocols with quantum vs classical advantage, and have distinct classical simulation costs. A natural question is what are the relations between these concepts, advantages, and costs. To address this question, it is useful to have a map that captures all the connections between Bell non-locality and KS contextuality in quantum theory. The aim of this work is to introduce such a map. After defining the theory-independent notions of Bell non-locality (...) and KS contextuality for ideal measurements, we show that, in quantum theory, due to Neumark’s dilation theorem, every quantum Bell non-local behavior can be mapped to a formally identical KS contextual behavior produced in a scenario with identical relations of compatibility but where measurements are ideal and no space-like separation is required. A more difficult problem is identifying connections in the opposite direction. We show that there are “one-to-one” and partial connections between KS contextual behaviors and Bell non-local behaviors for some KS scenarios, but not for all of them. However, there is also a method that transforms any KS contextual behavior for quantum systems of dimension d into a Bell non-local behavior between two quantum subsystems each of them of dimension d. We collect all these connections in map and list some problems which can benefit from this map. (shrink)

We introduce a two-party communication complexity problem in which the probability of success by using a particular strategy allows the parties to detect with certainty whether or not some forbidden communication has taken place. We show that theprobability of success is bounded by nature; any conceivable method which gives a probability of success outside these bounds is impossible. Moreover, any conceivable method to solve the problem which gives a probability success within these bounds is possible in nature. This example suggests (...) that a suitaby chosen set of communication complexity problems could be the basis of an information-theoretic axiomatization of quantum mechanics. (shrink)

Machine generated contents note: -- List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroductionImmanent authorship: From the Living Theatre to Cage and Goat IslandDisorganizing language, voicing minority: From Artaud to Carmelo Bene, Robert Wilson & Georges LavaudantImmanent imitations, animal affects: From Hijikata Tatsumi to Marcus CoatesPaying attention, participating in the whole: Allan Kaprow alongside Lygia ClarkEthical durations, opening to other times: Returning to Goat Island with WilsonIn-Conclusion: What 'good' is immanent theatre? Immanence as an ethico-aesthetic valueCodaBibliographyIndex.

Predicativity is a notable example of fruitful interaction between philosophy and mathematical logic. It originated at the beginning of the 20th century from methodological and philosophical reflections on a changing concept of set. A clarification of this notion has prompted the development of fundamental new technical instruments, from Russell's type theory to an important chapter in proof theory, which saw the decisive involvement of Kreisel, Feferman and Schütte. The technical outcomes of predica-tivity have since taken a life of their own, (...) but have also produced a deeper understanding of the notion of predicativity, therefore witnessing the " light logic throws on problems in the foundations of mathematics. " (Feferman 1998, p. vii) Predicativity has been at the center of a considerable part of Feferman's work: over the years he has explored alternative ways of explicating and analyzing this notion and has shown that predicative mathematics extends much further than expected within ordinary mathematics. The aim of this note is to outline the principal features of predicativity, from its original motivations at the start of the past century to its logical analysis in the 1950-60's. The hope is to convey why predicativity is a fascinating subject, which has attracted Feferman's attention over the years. (shrink)

If quantum mechanics is correct and there is a finite upper bound for the speed of causal influences (e.g., the speed of light), then quantum mechanics is complete (i.e., it does not admit a more detailed description in terms of hidden variables). Here I show that the conclusion holds if we replace the assumption of bounded velocity by the assumption that there is a finite upper bound to the memory a finite physical system can store (e.g., the Holevo bound). On (...) the way to this conclusion I first show that, although the quantum violation of an inequality valid for any non-contextual model can be explained with a classical contextual model, the inequality can be promoted to a Bell inequality in which, if the model is contextual, then it must be also non-local. This suggests that there is something non-classical in any contextual explanation of the individual systems, and leads us to the question of which are the minimum resources (and specifically memory) any contextual explanation should consume. (shrink)

Laura Nader is a towering figure as anthropologist, teacher, and public intellectual. Her letters give a glimpse of academic life mostly unseen by academics and by the general public. The collection includes letters from academic colleagues, but it also contains correspondence from lawyers, politicians, citizens, people on death row, Peace Corps workers, members of the military, scientists, and more.

El artículo pretende explorar la categoría de hombre-empresa, que Foucault propuso como uno de los dispositivos o interfaces claves del poder en el contexto del neoliberalismo. A través de esta categoría se muestra una particular forma de poder sobre la vida, o biopoder, que es distinto al tipo de poder de la sociedad disciplinaria, aunque tiene relaciones de continuidad con este último. En tal sentido el artículo maneja la hipótesis de la superposición o coexistencia, de las formas del poder, en (...) contra de las hipótesis más extendidas, que entiende la biopolítica o como una superación de las sociedades disciplinarias o como una sofisticación de la misma. El artículo remite constantemente a las formas del neoliberalismo chileno como punto de referencia para entender las tensiones del biopoder. (shrink)

Los discursos sobre el biopoder han marcado buena parte de las discusiones en filosofía política durante la última década. Particularmente, el desarrollo de estos discursos entre diversos filósofos italianos, lo que ha abierto diversas líneas de interpretación sobre el biopoder. A continuación se revisa una de las hipótesis centrales del planteamiento de Roberto Esposito y que justifica gran parte de su trabajo en torno a estos discursos. Esta hipótesis consiste en que la biopolítica mostraría el encuentro léxico entre el vocabulario (...) médico y político que se atestigua durante el siglo XX. Al mismo tiempo el artículo interroga críticamente esta hipótesis de modo que, por una parte, expone el planteamiento de Esposito y sirve como introducción a sus propuestas y, por otra, permite revisar los aportes y límites de esta particular recepción del biopoder. -/- The Biopower discourses have marked much of the discussions on political philosophy during the last decade. In particular, the development of these speechs among several Italian philosophers, which has opened various lines of interpretation of Biopower. Then review one of the central hypothesis of the approach of Roberto Esposito and that justifies much of her work around these discourses. This hypothesis is that the biopolitical would show the lexical meeting between the medical and political vocabulary which is testified during the 20th century. At the same time the article critically interrogates this hypothesis so that, on the one hand, it exposes the approach of Esposito and serves as an introduction to their proposals and, on the other hand, allows to review the contributions and limits of this particular reception of BioPower. (shrink)

Insights into the intelligence throughout the natural and technical environment, in the fabric of our devices and dwellings, in our clothes, and under our skin. Is there a way to understand the materials that surround us not as passive objects, but as other intelligences interacting with our own? In Parallel Minds, expert in materials science and nanotechnology Laura Tripaldi delivers not only detailed insights into the properties and emergent behaviors of matter as revealed by state-of-the-art chemistry, synthetic biology, and (...) nanotech, but also a rich philosophical reflection that crosses the frontier between nature and culture, where the most cutting-edge scientific syntheses resonate with ancient myth. The result is a technomaterial bestiary full of unexpected encounters with “strange minds”—from cobwebs to kevlar and carbon fibre, from centaurs to amoebas to arachnids, from polycephalic slime to resonating plasmons, from viruses to golems. Parallel Minds reveals the intelligence at large throughout the natural and technical environment, in the fabric of our devices and dwellings, in our clothes, and even under our skin. Full of lateral ideas and unexpected images, Tripaldi’s book imbues the study and synthesis of materials with a new urgency. For not only do the materials that surround us participate actively in the construction of the world in which we live, but harnessing their ability to interact intelligently with their environment could be the key to the future of our species. (shrink)

Se tratan algunas de las discusiones vertidas en el coloquio Lippmann de 1938, evento que puede considerarse con los datos actuales como la escena inaugural del neoliberalismo. Se muestra tanto la heterogeneidad de dos grupos de pensadores que marcarán posteriormente la línea alemana y norteamericana de pensadores neoliberales. Al mismo tiempo se muestran algunas de sus coincidencias principales en torno a una idea de democracia para el mercado.

El artículo propone una interpretación de la obra literaria "Las Crónicas de Narnia" del autor ingles C. S Lewis. Tal interpretación posibilita considerar la alegoría religiosa que esta obra literaria realiza sobre la experiencia de la divinidad a través de la figura del León.

In his Letter on the Blind, Denis Diderot describes, based on mathematical physics, a method for evaluating hypotheses in situations where certainty cannot be reached. This article's thesis is that the author of the Letter extends this method to metaphysical questions of finalism and idealism. Diderot presents each pair of antagonistic positions (finalism-antifinalism and idealism-realism) in such a way that readers are invited to carefully weigh the arguments and to choose the one that appears to be the best, or most (...) probable, position. (shrink)

Neoliberal Techniques of Social Suffering: Political Resistance and Critical Theory from Latin America and Spain is the result of the critical and political commitment of various Latin American and Spanish philosophers who share a critical approach to the global “stealth revolution” in recent decades, where neoliberalism has forced the well-being and reproduction of life to adapt to a system devastating for both humans and non-humans. The authors voice the shared concern of contemporary Spanish and Latin American societies to build new (...) conceptions of the public and the common through mobilizing affects usually disavowed in political theory. If, in Ancient Greece, the idea of strengthening the most vulnerable and weakest was deplored as the art of sophists, this collection edited by Laura Quintana and Nuria Sánchez Madrid explores the other side of our social world to revive grassroots strategies of resistance and emancipation, which are able to bring about new distributions of power, welfare, and discursive legitimation and to extend our goal of creating a radically democratic world. (shrink)

While various definitions of moral distress have been proposed, some agreement exists that it results from illegitimate constraints in clinical practice affecting healthcare professionals’ moral agency. If we are to reduce moral distress, instruments measuring it should provide relevant information about such illegitimate constraints. Unfortunately, existing instruments fail to do so. We discuss here several shortcomings of major instruments in use: their inability to determine whether reports of moral distress involve an accurate assessment of the requisite clinical and logistical facts (...) in play, whether the distress in question is aptly characterized as moral, and whether the moral distress reported is an appropriate target of elimination. Such failures seriously limit the ability of empirical work on moral distress to foster appropriate change. (shrink)