Para el siglo IV d. C. de Aristóteles sólo los tratados de lógica se encontraban disponibles en latín y el conocimiento de otras obras se debió al testimonio de otros. Las traducciones de las Categorías y Sobre la interpretación, de algunas Enéadas de Plotino y la traducción de la Isagoge se debieron a Mario Victorino. Además de lo mencionado debe haber otros accesos a la obra del filósofo macedonio, ya que, para el caso de interés de este artículo, san (...) Agustín tiene obras, como De doctrina cristiana, De dialéctica, La ciudad de Dios, entre otras, en las que o hay menciones explícitas a Aristóteles o sus doctrinas se asemejan mucho. Los objetivos de este trabajo son evidenciar las menciones explícitas que hace de Aristóteles san Agustín en sus obras; exponer los accesos indirectos por medio de otras fuentes a la obra del estagirita que hace el mismo; y presentar el posible uso que hace Agustín de la filosofía del pensador griego. (shrink)

AQUINO, Orlando Fernandez; PUENTES, Roberto Valdéz. Trabalho didático na Universidade: estratégias de formação. Campinas: Alínea, 2011. 146p. Um dos mais novos trabalhos publicados pelos professores Orlando Fernández Aquino e Roberto Valdéz Puentes intitula-se Trabalho Didático na Universidade: estratégias de formação e apresenta como proposta a estratégia de trabalho metodológico para formação do docente universitário no contexto do desenvolvimento em serviço. O trabalho metodológico é, segundo os autores, além de um processo dinâmico e complexo, processo que pode ser utilizado com outras (...) finalidades tais como: a gestão estratégica do processo de ensino-aprendizagem-pesquisa e a elevação da qualidade da formação dos futuros profissionais e dos profissionais em serviço. [...] Na introdução, os autores destacam a importância da atuação docente na Universidade e apresentam a visão atual a respeito da educação superior e suas instituições. Destacam a inserção das instituições de educação superior na sociedade do conhecimento. O esgotamento do paradigma predominante impede de ver o global e o essencial. Em seu lugar, ganha força o conhecimento interdisciplinar e politransdisciplinar; surge um novo paradigma sociocultural, pós-moderno que busca a organização do saber e a democratização do conhecimento por meio de uma reforma do pensamento. Citam ainda o amparo do trabalho metodológico para os processos de gestão universitária; ensino aprendizagem; pesquisa; produção científica e extensão universitária. Segundo os autores, “sem instituições de educação superior e de pesquisa capazes de formar um corpo crítico de profissionais, qualificado e culto, a sociedade moderna não poderá garantir um desenvolvimento autêntico e sustentável”. Data de registro:29/04/2012 Data de aceite:08/02/2013. (shrink)

Mindfulness is associated with a wide range of beneficial outcomes such as well-being. However, less is known about the mechanisms underlying these benefits. Some researchers suggest that the benef...

Deployment Realism resists Laudan’s and Lyons’ objections to the “No Miracle Argument” by arguing that a hypothesis is most probably true when it is deployed essentially in a novel prediction. However, Lyons criticized Psillos’ criterion of essentiality, maintaining that Deployment Realism should be committed to all the actually deployed assumptions. But since many actually deployed assumptions proved false, he concludes that the No Miracle Argument and Deployment Realism fail. I reply that the essentiality condition is required by Occam’s razor. In (...) fact, there is a simpler formulation of essentiality which escapes Lyons’ criticisms and rescues the No Miracle Argument and Deployment Realism from their purported historical counterexamples: a hypothesis is essential when it has no proper parts (in Yablo’s sense) sufficient to derive the same prediction. Although essentiality so conceived cannot be detected prospectively, this is just natural, and it is not a problem but an advantage for Deployment Realism. (shrink)

There are two possible realist defense strategies against the pessimistic meta-induction and Laudan’s meta-modus tollens: the selective strategy, claiming that discarded theories are partially true, and the discontinuity strategy, denying that pessimism about past theories can be extended to current ones. A radical version of discontinuity realism is proposed by Gerald Doppelt: rather than discriminating between true and false components within theories, he holds that superseded theories cannot be shown to be even partially true, while present best theories are demonstrably (...) completely true. I argue that this position, running counter both the cumulativity of science and fallibilism, is untenable; it cannot account for the success of past theories, nor for the failures of current theories, and rather than shutting the door to the pessimistic historical objections it opens it wide. The best strategy, instead, joins the selective idea there was both some truth and some falsity in discarded theories, like in current ones, with the moderate discontinuity idea that the truth rate in present best theories is much greater than in past ones. (shrink)

Fabian Heubel is intellectually situated in both Frankfurt and Taipei. He also embarks on regular excursions to Paris and Beijing. Due to this rare combination of influences, he has managed to square a philosophical circle that comprises Critical Theory in the Frankfurt-School tradition, contemporary French philosophy as well as classical and modern Chinese philosophy in the PRC and Taiwan. Heubel's approach reflects the experience of being existentially immersed in Chinese language as well as academic life at his academic home, the (...) Academia Sinica in Taipei, for significant periods of his life, without thereby losing touch with Western academic discourse. One of the chapters of his two most recent books discussed... (shrink)

In the scientific communities most criticisms are constructive, while they are destructive in the humanistic circles. Indeed, scientists circulate their drafts among colleagues and students, hoping to elicit their comments and suggestions before submitting their work to publication. In contrast, philosophers and political thinkers attack their rivals, without sparing arguments ad hominem or even insults. The reason for this difference is that scientists are after the truth, whereas most humanists fight for more or less noble causes, from swelling their own (...) curricula to joining crusades for or against rationality, realism, justice, or what have you. (shrink)

The utopian imagination is ambivalent in that it both escapes from, while also critically engaging with contemporary societies and forms of living. This paper calls to mind the dignity of utopian longing as well as common objections against political interpretations of utopia. Philosophical utopias, it is argued, make deliberative use of the imagination by sharpening a sense of possibility and providing reasons for (or against) utopian thought-images. On this account, utopias draw on irony and satire as constructive modes of imagining (...) unrealized potentials and exposing what falls short of these potentials. Thus conceived, the utopian imagination is not the enemy, but an essential aid of practical reason. (shrink)

One of the most difficult and interesting problems of rational decision is the choice among possible diverging paths in theory construction and among competing scientific theories—i.e., systems of accurate testable hypotheses. This task involves many beliefs—some warranted and others not as warranted—and marks decisive crossroads. Suffice to recall the current conflict between the general theory of relativity and alternative theories of gravitation that account for the same empirical evidence, the rivalry among different interpretations of quantum mechanics, and the variety of (...) cosmological theories. They all account for the same observed facts although they may predict different kinds of as yet unknown facts; they are consequently, up to now, empirically equivalent theories even though they are conceptually different and may even involve different philosophical views—i.e., they are conceptually inequivalent. (shrink)

Against certain positivistic and neopositivistic strictures still rooted in our society, Agazzi argues that knowing the invisible is possible, not just in science, but also in metaphysics, in morals, in aesthetics, and in other areas, including, in a sense, religion. The book also examines many examples of such knowledge, surveying not only the great classics of philosophy, but various immortal masterpieces of art, music and literature. It is not just a treatise in epistemology, but a book of philosophy in the (...) most complete and traditional sense, for it discusses knowledge not only for its own sake, but also as a guide to culture, morality, happiness and to the sense of life. Thus, it also provides some important suggestions on how to face our time of crisis and an uncertain future. Despite Agazzi’s proverbial rigor and clarity, his project is so momentous and demanding that I discuss certain points which might deserve further explication and argumentation. (shrink)

Given the dark side of technological progress, this chapter proposes a new way to ensure its greatest benefits and minimize its costs. This can be accomplished if the technologies are benign, if governments are democratic, if industries are benign as well, and if citizens are educated and politically engaged.

Many formulations of scientific realism (SR) include some commitment to metaphysical realism (MR). On the other hand, authors like Schlick, Carnap and Putnam held forms of scientific realism coupled with metaphysical antirealism (and this has analogies in Kant). So we might ask: do scientific realists really need MR? or is MR already implied by SR, so that SR is actually incompatible with metaphysical antirealism? And if MR must really be added to SR, why is that so? And which additional arguments (...) scientific realists need to support it? After reviewing and classifying a number of different kinds of realisms, metaphysical and not, I answer that SR and MR are logically independent of each other, so that there is no logical inconsistency in holding SR while rejecting MR. However, I argue that the “no miracle” argument (NMA) not only is the “ultimate” argument for SR, but by the same token it also supports MR. Therefore one cannot effectively defend SR without also subscribing to MR, but this can be done at no additional argumentative cost. I show this by discussing not only the standard version of the NMA, but also three more versions which are not usually considered as such in the literature. (shrink)

L’esigenza di conferire alla filosofia lo status di scienza per il tramite della forma sistematica è una delle caratteristiche principali dell’idealismo tedesco e, conseguentemente, una peculiarità ravvisabile nella filosofia e di Kant e di Hegel. Il presente contributo mira precisamente a comparare il sistema della ragione kantiano e hegeliano, al fine di metterne in luce gli elementi teoretici distintivi. In tal modo, sarà possibile rilevare non solo l’influsso esercitato dal filosofo di Königsberg sul pensatore di Stoccarda, ma anche l’originalità con (...) la quale il secondo assimila l’istanza sistematica del primo. In particolare, la tesi che si intende sostenere è la seguente: laddove per Kant, in ultima analisi, la dimensione morale è necessaria al fine di realizzare il sistema della ragione, per Hegel è fondamentale la dimensione teoretica, ovvero quella logica-concettuale. (shrink)