Walter Benjamin is a seminal philosopher whose work makes us think about the concepts of experience, child, and childhood. A journey through his life experience and personal narratives brings us closer to the world of his own childhood. As such, it is a philosophical journey in the sense of taking us towards something that is unknown to us and that in the end can transform us. We will travel through the following texts by Benjamin: Children’s Hour Radio Narrative (2015), Berlin (...) Childhood: around 1900 (2013), Reflections on the child, the toy and education (2009), One-Way Street (2013) and The Storyteller:Reflections on the works of Nikolai Leskov (2018). To navigate these texts is to allow and encourage us to experiment with other ways of looking at and being in the world. His narrative allows us to experience the experiences of the child Benjamin, to traverse its unique and sparsely inhabited places, and thus to travel through any child’s world, feeling a child’s temporality and a child’s gaze. According to Jorge Larrosa (2003), childhood is an enigma. Benjamin’s narratives allow us to enter this enigma, to unveil images redolent with the experience of children and childhood, and thereby to approach this mystery that is both philosophical and pulsating with life, like the life of this philosopher himself. (shrink)

This article argues that corporate social responsibility (CSR) may contribute to product differentiation in export markets and thus improve export performance. We test this argument by observing a period of decreasing export competitiveness in a leading emerging economy (Brazil). Using a large-scale survey design with 252 questionnaires completed by medium- and large-sized Brazilian exporters, we used structural equations modelling to test our hypotheses. The results suggest that CSR product differentiation predicts export performance better than product quality differentiation and almost as (...) well as product innovation differentiation. Multi-group analysis further revealed that the positive and significant effect of CSR product differentiation on export performance is likely to be contingent on the number and type (developing vs. developed) of countries that are targeted. Our study contributes to the literature on CSR and export performance by developing and empirically validating a model that explains under which conditions CSR-based product differentiation may lead to improved export performance. (shrink)

Objetiva-se fazer uma breve explanação sobre a problemática da representação teatral e os seus efeitos sobre os espectadores a partir do caráter etnológico, através da crítica realizada pelo filósofo Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). Fundamenta-se_ _com base na obra _Carta a D’Alembert sobre os espetáculos. _Nesta obra, Rousseau apresenta uma crítica à representação social através do teatro francês do século XVIII. Na _Carta _o autor discorre toda sua crítica ao teatro francês do século XVIII e expressa as razões para não fundar uma (...) companhia de teatro em Genebra, atribuindo aos jogos e espetáculos cívicos uma importância pedagógica em oposição aos espetáculos teatrais produzidos na época. Assim, iremos, no presente artigo, tratar sobre essa dualidade entre ser e parecer que se evidencia como um jogo de oposição entre uma sociedade corrompida pelos espetáculos teatrais e outra livre dos efeitos corruptores da cena teatral. Nessa última, o único espetáculo possível são as festas populares. (shrink)

Este artigo tem o objetivo de identificar em primeiro lugar o desdobramento da racionalidade nos mitos ao tempo em que surgem as cidades como novas formas de agrupamento social. Em seguida, analisar a formulação do conceito de justiça como estrutura ideal para a consolidação da República, considerando, em decorrência disto, a demanda por uma reforma educacional que se daria a partir da crítica filosófica à figura do poeta como representante onisciente do saber cuja linguagem ambivalente a distanciava do referencial de (...) verdade segundo Platão. Nesse entendimento, recorreremos aos estudos em autores como Vernant, Havelock, Matos e outros autores que poderão contribuir para a compreensão sobre os conceitos de política e estética em Platão. O presente artigo poderá servir de auxílio nas pesquisas cujo campo de análise se identifique especificamente com a educação, política, ética e estética, sem, contudo, pretender encerrar o debate concernente ao tema proposto. Palavras-chave: Poetas; República; Justiça; Linguagem; Verdade. (shrink)

A partir das concepções de Immanuel Kant e Hannah Arendt relativamente à Faculdade do Juízo, esse artigo busca analisar as possíveis conexões entre a nossa capacidade de julgar o belo, e a forma como a Arte Contemporânea articula valores estéticos, morais e cognitivos. Para tanto, apresenta alguns aspectos da apropriação que Arendt faz do juízo estético do gosto que julga o belo, considerando-o como uma categoria política, visando a uma possível associação das manifestações públicas da Arte Contemporânea à ação política (...) de caráter público. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to analyze the nuances that flow Rousseau both the first Romanticism in Germany the Sturm und Drang , as the political doctrines of the French Revolution , as well as in moral philosophy and the history of Kant.

O presente artigo tem como objetivo abordar a questão sobre a natureza da arte, em específico da poesia trágica, seus efeitos sobre os indivíduos e a censura da poesia, segundo a concepção de Platão na obra República, especificamente nos livros II, III e X. Na República, Platão ao censurar, condenar e rejeitar a poesia como um instrumento para a formação dos indivíduos, vai de encontro ao modelo tradicional grego de educação. Sua crítica adentra na tradição de seu povo. Essa postura (...) platônica é pautada sobre o estudo da natureza da poesia, a mímesis, e sobre os efeitos da poesia nos indivíduos. Desse modo, primeiramente apresenta-se a concepção de Platão sobre a poesia, abordando o conceito de mímesis, em seguida a censura platônica a poesia, e algumas considerações. (shrink)

RESUMO:Na Carta a d’Alembert, Rousseau se coloca contra a ideia de um teatro enquanto instrumento de educação moral, porém, o posicionamento do filósofo não está em colocar essa atividade lúdica de ordem moral na categoria de atividade imoral, mas na de atividade artificial, e, talvez, isso gerasse efeitos imorais. Todavia, é preciso observar os verdadeiros efeitos do teatro, a partir de alguns argumentos que Rousseau resolve construir e analisá-los, contudo, apenas se trouxesse à tona a crítica de Rousseau ao romance, (...) na Carta a d’Alembert, que tem como contexto “a ideia negativa de privatização da cena”, pois o teatro destina uma excessiva importância à descrição do amor, obviamente, exagerando na representação, naquilo que é romanesco. Porém, se, na Carta a d’Alembert, o filósofo não expressa de forma direta que a teorização sobre o teatro também equivale ao romance, na Nova Heloísa, ou seja, no próprio romance, o autor faz essa ratificação, ao importar um longo comentário sobre o teatro que estava na Carta, afirmando que considera o mesmo da própria cena quanto à maioria dos novos escritos. O cidadão genebrino ataca os romances indiretamente e viceversa, porque é observado que tudo aquilo que diz sobre uma arte se aplica quase que integralmente a outra arte. E, como um povo galante deseja amor e polidez, Rousseau resolve fixar alguns termos, na tentativa de explicar suas críticas e argumentar a coerência de seu posicionamento, já que, se, em geral, a cena é um quadro das paixões humanas, cujo original está nos corações, se o pintor, porém, não tiver cuidado de acariciar suas paixões, os espectadores logo ficarão desgostosos e não desejarão mais se ver sob um aspecto que fizesse com que desprezassem a si mesmos. E pontua que essa linguagem não tem mais sentido, em seu século, pois é preciso falar as paixões, esforçando-nos para usar uma que melhor se compreenda, talvez o romance. ABSTRACT:In theLetter to d’Alembert, Rousseau argues against the idea of theater as a moral instrument of education. However, the position of the philosopher is not one of putting this playful activity in the category of immoral activity, but in the category of an artificial activity that perhaps generates immoral purposes. It is necessary to observe the true effect of the theater on the basis of some arguments that Rousseau decides to construct. These are analyzed here, bringing to the fore Rousseau’s critique of the novel in theLetter to d’Alembert. The letter has as its context “the negative idea of privatization of the scene”, as the theater gives an excessive importance to the description of love, obviously exaggerating the representation of romance. If, in theLetter to d’Alembert, the philosopher does not directly express that theorizing about the theater is equivalent to the novel, in theNouvelle Héloïse, that is, in the novel itself, the author does this. He adds to the novel a long commentary on the theater that was in theLetter, stating that he considers the theatrical scene itself to be the same as most new writing. He attacks novels indirectly, as well as the theatre, observing that everything said about one art applies almost entirely to another art. As a gallant people want love and politeness, Rousseau decides to fix certain terms in an attempt to explain his criticism and argue the consistency of his position. In general, the scene is a picture of human passions whose original is in the heart; if the painter is not careful in stroking these passions, spectators will soon become disgusted, not wanting to see themselves in such a way that they despise themselves. Rousseau points out that this language has no more meaning in his century, as it is necessary to speak the passions, striving to use language that best understands the passions, such as, perhaps, that of the novel. (shrink)

This article aims to approach the relationship between poetry and philosophical thought through the approximation between Kantian aesthetics and the work of Carlos Drummond de Andrade. It makes a presentation of the poet's work in the four phases of its development. It briefly exposes Kant's aesthetic conception, highlighting his classification of the arts, his concept of fine arts and the privileged place that the philosopher gives to poetic art. It undertakes an approximation of fine arts and poetry with Drummond's Poema (...) de Sete Faces. (shrink)

Este artigo visa abordar a relação entre poesia e o pensamento filosófico através da aproximação entre a estética kantiana e a obra de Carlos Drummond de Andrade. Faz uma apresentação da obra do poeta nas quatro fases de seu desenvolvimento. Expõe brevemente a concepção estética de Kant destacando sua classificação das artes, seu conceito de belas artes e o lugar privilegiado que o filósofo dá à arte poética. Empreende uma aproximação das belas artes e da poesia com o Poema de (...) Sete Faces de Drummond. (shrink)

Com este artigo, pretendeu-se problematizar a integração da hipermídia educacional, nas Atividades de Estudo a Distância (AEDs), como possibilidade de potencializar a interação mediada por computador. Dessa forma, foram apresentadas algumas estratégias que embasaram o planejamento, a organização e a implementação de uma AED mediada pelo Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment (Moodle). Assim, observou-se que é essencial que as AEDs sejam planejadas e organizadas didaticamente pelo professor, que define quais propósitos pretende alcançar no contexto de ensino e aprendizagem mediado pelas (...) Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TICs), pois, elaborar uma AED hipermidiática e guiar seu desenvolvimento, tanto com relação à tecnologia quanto ao próprio conteúdo em questão, colabora na proposição de alternativas para resolvê-las e também possibilita uma maior interação entre os envolvidos (professor e alunos) na apropriação crítica do conhecimento escolar, o que contribui para a sustentabilidade do processo ensino e aprendizagem significativo e interativo para todos os envolvidos. (shrink)

I defend an interpretation of Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics Book I which distinguishes between two projects in different passages of that work: (i) to explain what a given science is and (ii) to explain what properly scientific knowledge is. I present Aristotle’s theory in answer to ii, with special attention to his definition of scientific knowledge in 71b9-12 and showing how this is developed on chapters I.2-9 and I.13 into a solid Theory of Scientific Demonstration. The main point of this theory (...) is that demonstrations need to capture relevant explanations. Some formal requirements of the demonstration (as the syllogistic structure and coextension between terms) are unfoldings of the main project, i.e., to capture and present properly relevant causal-explanatory relations. (shrink)

Information and Communication Technologies have profoundly changed many aspects of life, including the nature of entertainment, work, communication, education, healthcare, industrial production and business, social relations and conflicts. They have had a radical and widespread impact on our moral lives and hence on contemporary ethical debates. The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics, first published in 2010, provides an ambitious and authoritative introduction to the field, with discussions of a range of topics including privacy, ownership, freedom of speech, responsibility, (...) technological determinism, the digital divide, cyber warfare, and online pornography. It offers an accessible and thoughtful survey of the transformations brought about by ICTs and their implications for the future of human life and society, for the evaluation of behaviour, and for the evolution of moral values and rights. It will be a valuable book for all who are interested in the ethical aspects of the information society in which we live. (shrink)

Democracia -- Modernidade -- Psicanálise -- Literatura.

Scholars from all over Europe have focused on various aspects of philosophical and theological theories on time that characterized late medieval thought. The essays within this volume of the Acts of the international Colloquium held at Trieste, Italy, are a major contribution to the most current research in this field of study.

O objetivo do artigo consiste em analisar a experiência da angústia e do desespero, tomando como base a filosofia existencial de Sören Aabye Kierkegaard. Ao refletir sobre a angústia e o desespero, intentamos acentuar o caráter positivo de tais experiências. Através da angústia, o homem pode tomar reconhecimento que é um ser-capaz-de, e que diante de diversas possibilidades, pode escolher, exercitando sua liberdade. No tocante ao desespero, o homem pode perceber os graus de inautenticidade de sua condição existencial. A partir (...) desse dado, pode tomá-lo como ponto de partida para a construção de uma existência esclarecida e autêntica, realizando a síntese do finito e infinito, do temporal e do eterno, da possibilidade e necessidade. Para este texto, tomaremos como base as obras O conceito de angústia e A doença para a morte. Palavras-chave: Angústia. Desespero. Liberdade. Construção da existência. (shrink)

Scholars and policy makers often refer to the “information society”. And yet, it is more accurate to speak of societies, each different, some of which may qualify as information ones at different levels of maturity. Through exploration of the concepts of expectations, education and innovation, this paper explores what it means for an information society to be more or less mature than others, and the impact of this on the ongoing digital revolution.

Luciano Floridi develops the first ethical framework for dealing with the new challenges posed by Information and Communication Technologies. He establishes the conceptual foundations of Information Ethics by exploring important metatheoretical and introductory issues, and answering key theoretical questions of great philosophical interest.

I hope I will not be accused of mental colonialism by attributing to Europe the role which belongs to it historically: that of the Self, which leaves the position of the Other for us. Consequently, this text ought to begin with the view taken of the Other (the European view of the Brazilians) and continue with the view held by the Other (the Brazilian view of the Europeans).

La primacía de lo técnico y de lo económico, en las sociedades contemporâneas, ha forzado el poder político no solo a ignorar esasdimensiones, sino también a disputarles (no sin fracaso) las direcciones, los ritmos, los proyectos que prefiguran el futuro de la sociedad humana. Si en el pasado lo eco..

Chow' efforts toward a methodology of theory-corroboration and the plea for significance testing are welcome, but there are many risky claims. A major omission is a discussion of significance testing in the Bayesian framework. We sketch here the Bayesian reinterpretation of the significance level for assessing direction of effects.

The attacks of September 11 oblige us to revise a prevalent view of religion as harmless and incompatible with rational forms of knowledge. Three modes of knowledge coexist today: theological knowledge involves adhesion to a system of beliefs; technological and natural science knowledge is value-free and neutral with regard to beliefs; lastly, knowledge in philosophy, social and human sciences relates to values, transcends national and cultural specificities and involves freedom and reason. Is this latter form of knowledge more apt to (...) preserve one’s critical conscience than other modes of knowledge? History does not, alas, corroborate this theory. All three knowledge modes, taken separately, lack both a wider rationality which would enable them to legitimize their actions in light of universal criteria, and the properties of democratic debate, the only way to avoid pathologies in thought, be they of a religious or scientific nature. In a post-secular society, religions resist all forms of secularizing influences. A true secular society is, however, able to preserve the contents of religion without destroying them. (shrink)

El artículo presenta hechos estilizados sobre los doscientos años de historia económica brasileña según los liberales clásicos, nacionalistas y marxistas. Para ello se eligen algunos autores clásicos de cada orientación teórica por la influencia de sus interpretaciones. Mientras que los liberales clásicos alaban la dependencia económica y critican la lucha política por superar las herencias coloniales y neocoloniales, los nacionalistas y marxistas, de diferentes maneras, critican la dependencia y proponen superarla políticamente. En Brasil, los marxistas nunca han estado en el (...) poder, pero es claro un péndulo entre liberales y nacionalistas. La relevancia de la clasificación propuesta se ilustra al recordar que, hoy, Brasil es gobernado por un líder en la tradición del neoliberalismo autoritario latinoamericano inaugurado por Augusto Pinochet en 1973. Sin embargo, poco después de conmemorarse los 200 años de la independencia política en 07 de septiembre de 2022, la elección presidencial de octubre de 2022 puede marcar un nuevo giro en el péndulo hacia una visión nacionalista del pasado y el futuro de Brasil. (shrink)

Em As razões do Iluminismo, Sergio Paulo Rouanet refletiu sobre as tendências irracionalistas no Brasil e no mundo, e tentou opor a essas tendências um Iluminismo reformulado. Neste novo livro, dá um conteúdo conceitual mais preciso à idéia iluminista, a partir do funcionamento, em três configurações históricas - a Ilustração, o liberalismo e o socialismo -, dos momentos constitutivos do Iluminismo, que para Rouanet são a universalidade, a individualização e a autonomia.O autor explora sob vários ângulos esse tema, (...) em ensaios de caráter histórico ou teórico, versando tanto sobre a realidade brasileira como sobre a cultura mundial. Numa fase de eclipse das certezas e de exaustão dos paradigmas, Mal-estar na modernidade propõe, não uma alternativa concreta, mas o debate em torno de um caminho possível - uma civilização iluminista. (shrink)

Who are we, and how do we relate to each other? Luciano Floridi, one of the leading figures in contemporary philosophy, argues that the explosive developments in Information and Communication Technologies is changing the answer to these fundamental human questions. As the boundaries between life online and offline break down, and we become seamlessly connected to each other and surrounded by smart, responsive objects, we are all becoming integrated into an "infosphere". Personas we adopt in social media, for example, (...) feed into our 'real' lives so that we begin to live, as Floridi puts in, "onlife". Following those led by Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud, this metaphysical shift represents nothing less than a fourth revolution. "Onlife" defines more and more of our daily activity - the way we shop, work, learn, care for our health, entertain ourselves, conduct our relationships; the way we interact with the worlds of law, finance, and politics; even the way we conduct war. In every department of life, ICTs have become environmental forces which are creating and transforming our realities. How can we ensure that we shall reap their benefits? What are the implicit risks? Are our technologies going to enable and empower us, or constrain us? Floridi argues that we must expand our ecological and ethical approach to cover both natural and man-made realities, putting the 'e' in an environmentalism that can deal successfully with the new challenges posed by our digital technologies and information society. (shrink)

This paper outlines and discusses the relative merits and problems of two current interpretations of Philosophy of Information (PI), the metaphysical approach and the analytical approach. The paper argues that both approaches complement one another, being normative and mutually compatible.

*SufferingWhy so much pain/Why so much hate/When we are brothers/And should offer a hand?/Look at the suffering/Look at the torment/Coming from within/Our land is dying./Look at the suffering/Look at the torment/Coming from within/Our land suffers too much./Look at this mother/She has no more tears/She has nothing left to lament/Our land is dying. /Angola is so great/So rich and so beautiful/Let there be a place for all of us and for those who love it (bis)./Long live Angola/Long live Angola/Long live Angola.

This book helps us understand the true meaning of the concept and how it can be used to understand our world.

Artificial agents (AAs), particularly but not only those in Cyberspace, extend the class of entities that can be involved in moral situations. For they can be conceived of as moral patients (as entities that can be acted upon for good or evil) and also as moral agents (as entities that can perform actions, again for good or evil). In this paper, we clarify the concept of agent and go on to separate the concerns of morality and responsibility of agents (most (...) interestingly for us, of AAs). We conclude that there is substantial and important scope, particularly in Computer Ethics, for the concept of moral agent not necessarily exhibiting free will, mental states or responsibility. This complements the more traditional approach, common at least since Montaigne and Descartes, which considers whether or not (artificial) agents have mental states, feelings, emotions and so on. By focussing directly on mind-less morality we are able to avoid that question and also many of the concerns of Artificial Intelligence. A vital component in our approach is the Method of Abstraction for analysing the level of abstraction (LoA) at which an agent is considered to act. The LoA is determined by the way in which one chooses to describe, analyse and discuss a system and its context. The Method of Abstraction is explained in terms of an interface or set of features or observables at a given LoA. Agenthood, and in particular moral agenthood, depends on a LoA. Our guidelines for agenthood are: interactivity (response to stimulus by change of state), autonomy (ability to change state without stimulus) and adaptability (ability to change the transition rules by which state is changed) at a given LoA. Morality may be thought of as a threshold defined on the observables in the interface determining the LoA under consideration. An agent is morally good if its actions all respect that threshold; and it is morally evil if some action violates it. That view is particularly informative when the agent constitutes a software or digital system, and the observables are numerical. Finally we review the consequences for Computer Ethics of our approach. In conclusion, this approach facilitates the discussion of the morality of agents not only in Cyberspace but also in the biosphere, where animals can be considered moral agents without their having to display free will, emotions or mental states, and in social contexts, where systems like organizations can play the role of moral agents. The primary cost of this facility is the extension of the class of agents and moral agents to embrace AAs. (shrink)

This work fulfills the need for a conceptual and technical framework to improve understanding of Information Quality (IQ) and Information Quality standards. The meaning and practical implementation of IQ are addressed, as it is relevant to any field where there is a need to handle data and issues such as accessibility, accuracy, completeness, currency, integrity, reliability, timeliness, usability, the role of metrics and so forth are all a part of Information Quality. -/- In order to support the cross-fertilization of theory (...) and practice, the latest research is presented in this book. The perspectives of experts from beyond the origins of IQ in computer science are included: library and information science practitioners and academics, philosophers of information, of engineering and technology, and of science are all contributors to this volume. -/- The chapters in this volume are based on the work of a collaborative research project involving the Arts and Humanities Research Council and Google and led by Professor Luciano Floridi, University of Oxford. -/- This work will be of interest to anyone handling data, including those from commercial, public, governmental and academic organizations. The expert editors’ contributions introduce issues of interest to scientists, database curators and philosophers, even though the issues may be disguised in the language and examples common to a different discipline. (shrink)

The use of “levels of abstraction” in philosophical analysis (levelism) has recently come under attack. In this paper, I argue that a refined version of epistemological levelism should be retained as a fundamental method, called the method of levels of abstraction. After a brief introduction, in section “Some Definitions and Preliminary Examples” the nature and applicability of the epistemological method of levels of abstraction is clarified. In section “A Classic Application of the Method ofion”, the philosophical fruitfulness of the new (...) method is shown by using Kant’s classic discussion of the “antinomies of pure reason” as an example. In section “The Philosophy of the Method of Abstraction”, the method is further specified and supported by distinguishing it from three other forms of “levelism”: (i) levels of organisation; (ii) levels of explanation and (iii) conceptual schemes. In that context, the problems of relativism and antirealism are also briefly addressed. The conclusion discusses some of the work that lies ahead, two potential limitations of the method and some results that have already been obtained by applying the method to some long-standing philosophical problems. (shrink)

This Guide provides an ambitious state-of-the-art survey of the fundamental themes, problems, arguments and theories constituting the philosophy of computing.

The essential difficulty about Computer Ethics' (CE) philosophical status is a methodological problem: standard ethical theories cannot easily be adapted to deal with CE-problems, which appear to strain their conceptual resources, and CE requires a conceptual foundation as an ethical theory. Information Ethics (IE), the philosophical foundational counterpart of CE, can be seen as a particular case of environmental ethics or ethics of the infosphere. What is good for an information entity and the infosphere in general? This is the ethical (...) question asked by IE. The answer is provided by a minimalist theory of deseerts: IE argues that there is something more elementary and fundamental than life and pain, namely being, understood as information, and entropy, and that any information entity is to be recognised as the centre of a minimal moral claim, which deserves recognition and should help to regulate the implementation of any information process involving it. IE can provide a valuable perspective from which to approach, with insight and adequate discernment, not only moral problems in CE, but also the whole range of conceptual and moral phenomena that form the ethical discourse. (shrink)

O uso de drogas é complexo e multicausal com impactos para as pessoas, famílias e sociedade. Este estudo investigou legislações, políticas públicas e estratégias, que possam diminuir vulnerabilidades e contribuir para os ODS. Foi realizado levantamento documental, em legislações e documentos, para análise da realidade social, a partir das experiências profissionais, e ainda levantamento bibliográfico, na BVS e LILACS, de 2016 a 2018. Observou-se que o Estado se mantém disciplinador e entre as políticas mais relevantes estão a Redução de Danos, (...) os CAPS e o Consultório de Rua, marcadas pelo empirismo, obstáculos e desafios em relação à universalidade e equidade. Estratégias intersetoriais, podem ser utilizadas para se obter melhores condições de saúde e bem-estar, saneamento e água, educação, trabalho. A promoção da saúde corrobora na redução das vulnerabilidades e equidade, com maior sensibilização e qualificação dos profissionais das redes de atenção social, para acolher a população com competência e dignidade. (shrink)

This paper outlines a quantitative theory of strongly semantic information (TSSI) based on truth-values rather than probability distributions. The main hypothesis supported in the paper is that the classic quantitative theory of weakly semantic information (TWSI), based on probability distributions, assumes that truth-values supervene on factual semantic information, yet this principle is too weak and generates a well-known semantic paradox, whereas TSSI, according to which factual semantic information encapsulates truth, can avoid the paradox and is more in line with the (...) standard conception of what generally counts as semantic information. After a brief introduction, section two outlines the semantic paradox implied by TWSI, analysing it in terms of an initial conflict between two requisites of a quantitative theory of semantic information. In section three, three criteria of semantic information equivalence are used to provide a taxonomy of quantitative approaches to semantic information and introduce TSSI. In section four, some further desiderata that should be fulfilled by a quantitative TSSI are explained. From section five to section seven, TSSI is developed on the basis of a calculus of truth-values and semantic discrepancy with respect to a given situation. In section eight, it is shown how TSSI succeeds in solving the paradox. Section nine summarises the main results of the paper and indicates some future developments. (shrink)

This is the revised version of an invited keynote lecture delivered at the "1st Australian Computing and Philosophy Conference". The paper is divided into two parts. The first part defends an informational approach to structural realism. It does so in three steps. First, it is shown that, within the debate about structural realism, epistemic and ontic structural realism are reconcilable. It follows that a version of OSR is defensible from a structuralist-friendly position. Second, it is argued that a version of (...) OSR is also plausible, because not all relata are logically prior to relations. Third, it is shown that a version of OSR is also applicable to both sub-observable and observable entities, by developing its ontology of structural objects in terms of informational objects. The outcome is informational structural realism, a version of OSR supporting the ontological commitment to a view of the world as the totality of informational objects dynamically interacting with each other. The paper has been discussed by several colleagues and, in the second half, ten objections that have been moved to the proposal are answered in order to clarify it further. (shrink)

This article offers an account and defence of constructionism, both as a metaphilosophical approach and as a philosophical methodology, with references to the so-called maker's knowledge tradition. Its main thesis is that Plato's “user's knowledge” tradition should be complemented, if not replaced, by a constructionist approach to philosophical problems in general and to knowledge in particular. Epistemic agents know something when they are able to build (reproduce, simulate, model, construct, etc.) that something and plug the obtained information into the correct (...) network of relations that account for it. Their epistemic expertise increases with the scope and depth of the questions that they are able to ask and answer. Thus, constructionism deprioritises mimetic, passive, and declarative knowledge that something is the case, in favour of poietic, interactive, and practical knowledge of something being the case. Metaphilosophically, constructionism suggests adding conceptual engineering to conceptual analysis as a fundamental method. (shrink)

Inducement prizes have been long used to stimulate individuals and groups to accomplish diverse goals. Lately, governments have become more and more interested in these prizes and sought to include this kind of incentives within the set of policy tools available to promote science, technology, and innovation. To date, however, there has been little empirically-based scientific knowledge on how to design, manage, and evaluate innovation prizes. This note discusses aspects of the prize phenomenon and the opportunities and challenges related with (...) the use of innovation prizes as a government policy instrument. Compared to other incentive mechanisms, prizes are likely to present advantages to, for example, accelerate the development and commercialization of technologies that are held back for diverse reasons and help to leverage public money with external ideas, collaborative efforts, and the participation of diverse individuals and organizations. Still, despite these advantages and other interesting features of prizes, there are key questions that policy-makers and scholars must address to better understand this kind of incentives and further improve prize designs and implementations before governments move forward to a more widespread use of innovation prizes in science and technology policies. (shrink)