This is an introduction to the Special Issue of Empedocles European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication focused on Latin American studies. The articles collected here were meticulously selected in light of previous discussions and conferences about Latin America that took place over the past year. The contributors transversally analyse several issues in current Latin American studies, particularly those related to philosophy, art, literature and visual studies. They propose alternative readings of Latin America taking into account its singularity and the (...) way in which traditional categories such as representation, power, modernity or gender, among others, are implicitly and explicitly used and criticized. (shrink)

Esta es una introducción al volumen especial de Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication enfocada en estudios latinoamericanos. Los trabajos que a continuación se presentan forman parte de una selección minuciosa llevada a cabo a propósito de varias conversaciones sobre Latinoamérica llevadas a cabo durante el último año. Los artículos en cuestión recorren transversalmente diversas áreas del pensamiento latinoamericano en la actualidad, particularmente las relacionadas con la filosofía, el arte, la literatura y los estudios visuales. Del mismo modo, (...) proponen lecturas alternativas de la realidad latinoamericana atendiendo a su autenticidad, su contexto y a la forma en la cual se interpretan y critican, implícita y explícitamente, categorías tradicionales como representación, poder, modernidad o género entre otras. (shrink)

Can the history of philosophy transcend the reconstruction of facts and the causal relationships that bind them together? As such, it can also be said to facilitate the analysis of key philosophical problems inherent to the act of communicating the history of philosophy itself. In this article, such a possibility is explored from the vantage point of William Lyons’ short films The Examination (2015) and The Letter (n.d.). These productions re-create certain episodes in the life of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Hannah (...) Arendt with an eye to institutional and moral issues of philosophical significance. (shrink)

Context: Research in the contemplative field has focused on trainable capacities that foster self-regulation and integration. From a psychological perspective, mindfulness and personality research ….

We propose a liminality-based analysis of the process of ethical leadership/followership in organizations. A liminal view presents ethical leadership as a process taking place in organizational contexts that are often characterized by high levels of ambiguity, which render the usual rules and preferences dubious or inadequate. In these relational spaces, involving leaders, followers, and their context, old frames may be questioned and new ones introduced in an emergent way, through subtle processes whose evolution and implications may not be easy to (...) grasp even by those participating in them. (shrink)

We propose a liminality-based analysis of the process of ethical leadership/followership in organizations. A liminal view presents ethical leadership as a process taking place in organizational contexts that are often characterized by high levels of ambiguity, which render the usual rules and preferences dubious or inadequate. In these relational spaces, involving leaders, followers, and their context, old frames may be questioned and new ones introduced in an emergent way, through subtle processes whose evolution and implications may not be easy to (...) grasp even by those participating in them. (shrink)

Obedience: a simple term. Stanley Milgram, the famous experimental social psychologist, shocked the world with theory about it. Another man, Pol Pot, the infamous leader of the Khmer Rouge, showed how far the desire for obedience could go in human societies. Milgram conducted his experiments in the controlled environment of the US psychology laboratory of the 1960s. Pol Pot experimented with Utopia in the totalitarian Kampuchea of the 1970s. In this article, we discuss the process through which the Khmer Rouge (...) regime created an army of unquestioningly obedient soldiers — including child soldiers. Based on these two cases, we advance a framework on how obedience can be grown or countered. (shrink)

Las organizaciones sin fines de lucro han sufrido grandes cambios. Dejó de ser un sector empobrecido, donde se recibían como donaciones aquel dinero que les sobraba a los grandes empresarios, y donde sólo tenían cabida las personas voluntarias. Hoy en día es un sector marcado por el trabajo de personas profesionales y por ser organizaciones capaces de llenar los espacios que ha dejado el Estado sin atender. Además de ser organizaciones inteligentes, con estructuras flexibles, que les permiten responder de manera (...) ágil a los requerimientos de su entorno. Sin embargo para que el sector sin fines de lucro pueda evolucionar de manera exitosa, no sólo necesitan de la labor de sus miembros, también necesitan del compromiso del estado, las universidades y las entidades privadas. Un compromiso que se haga visible a través de alianzas de colaboración entre sí, y así de esta manera trabajar conjuntamente en el desarrollo humano y la inclusión social en Chile. (shrink)

Obedience: a simple term. Stanley Milgram, the famous experimental social psychologist, shocked the world with theory about it. Another man, Pol Pot, the infamous leader of the Khmer Rouge, showed how far the desire for obedience could go in human societies. Milgram conducted his experiments in the controlled environment of the US psychology laboratory of the 1960s. Pol Pot experimented with Utopia in the totalitarian Kampuchea of the 1970s. In this article, we discuss the process through which the Khmer Rouge (...) regime created an army of unquestioningly obedient soldiers – including child soldiers. Based on these two cases, we advance a framework on how obedience can be grown or countered. (shrink)

En el artículo, se sigue el objetivo de revisar los planteamientos del español radicado en México, Adolfo Sánchez, fallecido en 2011, luego de una destacada actividad investigativa en la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Sus reflexiones en torno a la estética de Marx llevaron a Sánchez a plantear asuntos como la praxis de la creación artística, en que el realismo socialista que busca el reflejo del mundo y la ideología en la obra resulta perjudiciales para la tarea estética e, incluso, (...) pueden coartar la libertad del creador. Sánchez se preocupa por incluir en la praxis estética la acción interpretativa del lector en que el placer por una obra nos conecta con la significación de lo humano, raíz del sentido de la belleza. De tal modo, en la expresión estética de una obra, las mediaciones culturales e ideológicas no se dan ausentes, ya que las ideas culturales, políticas o filosóficas dejan huellas en la creación del artista. (shrink)

Physical activity, and likely the motivation for it, varies throughout the day. The aim of this investigation was to create a short assessment (CRAVE: Cravings for Rest and Volitional Energy Expenditure) to measure motivation states (wants, desires, urges) for physical activity and sedentary behaviors. Five studies were conducted to develop and evaluate the construct validity and reliability of the scale, with 1,035 participants completing the scale a total of 1,697 times. In Study 1, 402 university students completed a questionnaire inquiring (...) about the want or desire to perform behaviors “at the present moment (right now).” Items related to physical activity (e.g., “move my body”) and sedentary behaviors (e.g., “do nothing active”). An exploratory structural equation model (ESEM) revealed that 10 items should be retained, loading onto two factors (5 each for Move and Rest). In Study 2, an independent sample (n= 444) confirmed these results and found that Move and Rest desires were associated with stage-of-change for exercise behavior. In Study 3, 127 community-residing participants completed the CRAVE at 6-month intervals over two years- two times each session. Across-session interclass correlations (ICC) for Move (ICC = 0.72–0.95) and Rest (ICC = 0.69–0.88) were higher than when they were measured across 24-months (Move: ICC = 0.53; Rest: ICC = 0.49), indicating wants/desires have state-like qualities. In Study 4, a maximal treadmill test was completed by 21 university students. The CRAVE was completed immediately pre and post. Move desires decreased 26% and Rest increased 74%. Changes in Move and Rest desires were moderately associated with changes in perceived physical fatigue and energy. In Study 5, 41 university students sat quietly during a 50-min lecture. They completed the CRAVE at 3 time points. Move increased 19.6% and Rest decreased 16.7%. Small correlations were detected between move and both perceived energy and tiredness, but not calmness or tension. In conclusion, the CRAVE scale has good psychometric properties. These data also support tenets of the WANT model of motivation states for movement and rest (Stults-Kolehmainen et al., 2020a). Future studies need to explore how desires to move/rest relate to dynamic changes in physical activity and sedentarism. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo consiste emdetalhar como Pedro Abelardo transformou a Dialéticatanto em método de investigação, quanto emtécnica de ensino e de aprendizagem. Nesteartigo, são também examinados os seguintesconceitos: o de probabiliter e o de consensus, e o de motes(r-ferente à Ética.

Un a d e la s proclama s má s escuchada s e n la s concentracione s de l 15- M e s qu e los ca r go s político s n o no s r ep r esentan . P ar a v eri f ca r s i es e reproch e est á justi f icado , e n este estudi o analizamo s primer o qu é deb e se r l a representació n (...) polític a e n u n Estad o democrático ; a continuación , y par a sabe r s i lo s representante s “no s representan” , no s f ijamos e n l a fo r m a e n qu e ha n sid o el e gidos , e n e l mod o e n e l qu e ejerce n s u funció n y e n las pre r r o gat iv a s que , e n teoría , garantiza n e l ejercici o d e es a función. (shrink)

En este texto reconstruyo una concepción decolonial de la belleza, a partir del pensamiento de Robin Wall Kimmerer y Édouard Glissant, de acuerdo con la cual la belleza constituye una condición del mundo que, no obstante, debemos cuidar. En estos dos pensamientos, provenientes de tradiciones diferentes, la belleza es tanto lo que se ve amenazado por el proyecto colonial occidental, como lo que permite su resistencia decolonial. Reconstruir la belleza del mundo es necesario y, sin embargo, imposible: su búsqueda implica (...) no solo atender al llamado de las diferencias, sino también a las instancias en las que se niegan a ser escuchadas. (shrink)

Hasta mediado s del siglo pasado, el tema que nos ocupa, la presencia de Cristo en los sacramentos, se resumía y concentraba, po r no deci r que se agotaba, en la presencia real eucanstica. O sea el concept o 'presencia' de Cristo se reservaba en la practica únicamente para su realización máxima en la Eucaristía; era la presencia real somática la que absorbía cualquier otra forma de presencia sacramental, que en todo caso quedaba en la sombra. Subrayo lo de (...) presencia sacramental, porque obviamente la presencia divina llenándolo todo, abarcando el cosmo s y la historia, no era desconocida Po r lo que a mi se m e alcanza, la primera vez que en un documento eclesiástico se hace explícita referencia a la presencia de Cristo en los sacramentos es precisamente en la única encíclica enteramente consagrada a la liturgia que hasta hoy conocemos : la Mediator Dei promulgada por Pío XII el 20 de noviembre de 1947. La doctrina aquí propuesta ha tenido tal aceptación o recepción que pertenece ya, podríamos decir, al tesoro de la Tradición. (shrink)

En este texto reconstruyo una concepción decolonial de la belleza, a partir del pensamiento de Robin Wall Kimmerer y Édouard Glissant, de acuerdo con la cual la belleza constituye una condición del mundo que, no obstante, debemos cuidar. En estos dos pensamientos, provenientes de tradiciones diferentes, la belleza es tanto lo que se ve amenazado por el proyecto colonial occidental, como lo que permite su resistencia decolonial. Reconstruir la belleza del mundo es necesario y, sin embargo, imposible: su búsqueda implica (...) no solo atender al llamado de las diferencias, sino también a las instancias en las que se niegan a ser escuchadas. (shrink)

The multi-volume Political Philosophy is an ambitious attempt by Luc Ferry to re-establish the possibility of a normative theory of politics after the demise of the metaphysical politics associated with the various grand narratives of modernity. Polemically oriented against the “anti-humanism” of post-modernity, Ferry’s political philosophy delineates a new strategy for the Enlightenment project of universal emancipation by developing a “non-metaphysical humanism” that draws heavily on the thought of Kant and Fichte.

Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss are undoubtedly two of the most influential and radical conservative critics of liberalism of our century. Their work takes aim at the heart of liberalism: it questions the consistency of liberalism’s theologico-political ground, namely, the separation of church and state. They take exception to the neutrality of the liberal state with respect to matters of faith on the ground that such neutrality betrays a lack of absolute moral commitments and places liberalism in a chronic crisis (...) of legitimacy. Schmitt advances his critique of liberalism from the standpoint of political theology. This discourse claims that the political state is authoritative in virtue of its capacity to equate the individual decision of whether or not to obey unconditionally a given legal order with the absolute decision between good and evil, to which the individual has access only through religious faith. Whether the standpoint of Strauss’s critique falls within the purview of political theology is one of the questions that will be discussed in this review. More importantly, their respective critiques of liberalism raise the topical question of the nature of the relation between liberalism and politico-religious fundamentalism. (shrink)

In his 1935 treatise on divine sovereignty, the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber introduced the idea of an 'anarchic soul of theocracy.' A decade before, the German jurist Carl Schmitt had coined the term 'political theology' in order to designate the Christian theological foundations of modern sovereignty and legal order. In a specular and opposite gesture, Buber argued that the covenant at Sinai established YHWH as the King of the Israelites and simultaneously promulgated the principle that no human being could become (...) sovereign over this people. In so doing, Buber offered an interpretation of Jewish theocracy that is both republican and anarchic. Republican because, by pivoting on the idea that democracy is a function of a people's fidelity to a prophetic higher law, theocracy displaces the central role of the human sovereign. Anarchic because this divine law is saturated with the messianic aim to put an end to relations of domination between peoples. In this book I show that this republican and anarchic articulation of the discourse of political theology characterises the development of Jewish political theology in the 20th century from Hermann Cohen to Hannah Arendt. (shrink)

Machiavelli's influence on modern politics and the importance of his thought for the development of modern political ideas has long been universally acknowledged. The Prince has become a key text in Philosophy and Political Theory, one that is widely read and studied. Machiavelli's most important work is a hugely exciting, yet challenging, piece of philosophical writing. In Machiavelli's 'The Prince': A Reader's Guide, Miguel Vatter offers a clear and thorough account of this key philosophical work. Setting Machiavelli's text in (...) its historical and philosophical context, the book offers a detailed review of the key themes (epistemological, social, ethical and theological-political) and a lucid commentary that will enable readers to rapidly navigate the text. Geared towards the specific requirements of students who need to reach a sound understanding of the text as a whole, the guide explores the complex and important ideas inherent in the text and provides a cogent survey of the reception and influence of Machiavelli's work. This is the ideal companion to study this most influential of texts. (shrink)

This dissertation advances the thesis that modern political freedom has an aporetical relation to the possibility of its own foundation. In the first volume, I examine how Machiavelli establishes the internal relation between political freedom and historical contingency that gives rise to the non-foundational concept of political freedom in early modernity. Far from reducing politics to the activity of providing secure foundations for the state, Machiavelli elaborates a conception of politics torn by the antinomical tasks of giving political freedom its (...) reality in the "form" of the state, and of restoring the anti-realist character of this ungroundable freedom in the "event" of the republic. These two irreducible poles of modern political life correspond to the basic political difference between the process of securing rule and the affirmation of a space of no-rule, where a common political existence is led in the absence of domination. ;The second volume illustrates how the historicist and anti-foundational character of modern political freedom can illuminate the situation of late modernity, viewed politically. The first trait of this situation is revealed by the problematic, yet inescapable, synthesis of political philosophy and philosophy of history. By exploring the reasons for, and the limits of, this synthesis I provide a new interpretation of the complementary ideas that freedom has a history and that history is the history of freedom in view of elaborating a postmetaphysical concept of political freedom. The second trait of the situation of modernity consists in the permanent possibility of situating politically the validity of norms, thereby putting into question the link between morality and metaphysically consolidated principles. Focusing on the contemporary debate over the tension between the validity of a norm and its application to a given situation, I argue that the erosion of metaphysical grounds for the determination of what is right corresponds to the priority assigned to political freedom over justice. This priority is manifest by the fact that, in the situation of modernity, the very difference between fact and norm is drawn on the site of politics conceived as an uncircumventable conflict of interpretations. (shrink)

Cacciari, academic and mayor of Venice as of 1993, surveys the history of angels in Judaic, Islamic, and Christian traditions; and how Dante, Rilke, Kafka, and other writers have used the metaphor of angels to speak about the phenomenology of language. Translated from the.

In Vita della mente e tempo della polis, Simona Forti gives the most convincing account to date of Hannah Arendt's unique path into “post-metaphysical thinking” and shows why it remains one of the most radical “thought-experiments” of this century. Forti's approach to Arendt's thought is centered on the problem of the relation between philosophy and politics, theoria and praxis. Her main thesis is that Arendt identifies the fundamental motivation that is operative in metaphysics as the “occlusion” and “removal” of the (...) originary phenomenon of politics, and thereby also the finitude, multiplicity, and temporality of the “human condition” that is constitutively bound to politics. Forti claims that by the re-memoration of such an “originary” understanding of politics, Arendt is able to deconstruct the tradition of metaphysics in a more radical fashion than Heidegger. Conversely, this “originary” or “authentic” politics, because it stands as the “other” of the whole apparatus of metaphysics, remains immune to a totalizing theorization of its domain, and this in two ways: no “system” of politics is possible, and the role played by theory in political action itself undergoes a thorough revaluation. This theoretical fragility of authentic praxis is precisely what does not permit, at the practical level, its stabilization and foundation. Hence the “tragic” fracture between praxis and theoria, their impossible reconciliation, that in turn becomes the proper matter of “thinking” after metaphysics. A “thinking” which is problematized by Forti through the analysis of the question of judgment in Arendt, whereby a new modality of the “life of the mind” is disclosed, one that lies beyond the very dualism of philosophy and politics. (shrink)

pt. 1. The form of the state : on beginnings -- pt. 2. Machiavelli's theory of history : modes of encounter between action and time -- pt. 3. The event of the republic : the return to beginnings.

We introduce the Hausdorff measure for definable sets in an o-minimal structure, and prove the Cauchy—Crofton and co-area formulae for the o-minimal Hausdorff measure. We also prove that every definable set can be partitioned into “basic rectifiable sets”, and that the Whitney arc property holds for basic rectifiable sets.

La amenaza del terrorismo y la radicalización son desafíos que trascienden las fronteras internacionales, por sus consecuencias negativas para nuestra sociedad. España fue uno de los países europeos más afectados por los atentados terroristas. Ejemplo de ello fueron los firmados años de liderazgo de la banda terrorista ETA (1961-2010); el 11M (2005), que sacudió no solo a Madrid, sino a toda Europa; y los atentados de Barcelona y Cambrills (2017), todos los cuales dieron la voz de alarma sobre la necesidad (...) de detectar y prevenir la radicalización, ya que aparentemente se trataba de jóvenes integrados en la sociedad. El sufrimiento, el dolor y la muerte tangible del terrorismo hacen de la pedagogía de la muerte la mejor manera de abordar la educación del terrorismo desde un enfoque radical e inclusivo holístico, un estudio de la educación que la ve como antesala de una formación profunda por interiorización. Se basa en varios enfoques didácticos y formativos: (1) enfoque de acompañamiento educativo, desde el que se ofrecen respuestas eficaces a situaciones de duelo vivenciadas por algún miembro de la comunidad educativa; (2) un enfoque curricular centrado en promover la conciencia de la finitud en la educación y su tratamiento normalizado; (3) Un enfoque evolutivo fenomenológico entendido a partir de la teoría evolutiva desde la conciencia donde el nacimiento y la muerte no definen claramente el antes y el después. (4) Un enfoque meditativo vacío de la inexistencia. A partir de ahí, se hace referencia a la meditación para alcanzar la plena conciencia. Pues bien, en esta contribución científica se propone cómo trabajar con aplicar cada uno de estos enfoques en una Didáctica del Terrorismo que tenga un cuenta un enfoque radical e inclusivo. (shrink)

Traditional approaches to conflict are oriented towards establishing (or re-establishing) consensus, either in the form of a resolution of the conflict or in the form of an ‘agree-to-disagree’ standstill between the stakeholders. In this paper, we criticize these traditional approaches, each for specific reasons, and we propose and develop the agonistic approach to conflict. Based on Chantal Mouffe’s agonistic democratic theory, the agonistic approach to conflict is more welcoming of dissensus, replacing discussion stoppers with discussion starters and replacing standstills with (...) contestation. We illustrate such replacements and develop this approach, we analyse technological conflicts in a concrete R&D setting: the global hydrogen economy. From this context, we focus on the conflict between the proponents of blue hydrogen (drawn from fossil fuels) and those of green hydrogen (created through electrolysis). We conclude by highlighting the advantage of the agonistic approach but also drawing attention to its own specific risk, namely, antagonism. (shrink)

For today, the medical association came to common opinion, that a doctor-scientist cannot be higher than the universal values. At a decision-making, equally with the scientific interests, which, undoubtedly, will bring to development of the theoretical and practical medicine, a doctor must take into account moral values. The doctrine of the informed consent of patient that is examined as a necessary condition of any medical interference became ethic basis of experiment with participation of human. An observance of confidentiality of the (...) results of the studies is also very important. The present development of the biomedical knowledge supposes realization of human research in a good cause, after the conducted tests on the animals and the other models. A clinical test on human must take place only then, when the risk does not exceed the benefit. Carrying out of the biomedical studies is considered as illegal, unconscionable, amoral and even criminal action. If the regulations and the norms of the law are not observed, it entails penal offence. This article provides the basic foundations of medical activities rather moral standards of medical and research activity, which in the different periods underwent the changes dictated by moral requirements of an era and society are analyzed. (shrink)

The Frauchiger–Renner Paradox is an extension of paradoxes based on the “Problem of Measurement,” such as Schrödinger’s Cat and Wigner’s Friend. All these paradoxes stem from assuming that quantum theory has only unitary physical dynamics, and the attendant ambiguity about what counts as a ‘measurement’—i.e., the inability to account for the observation of determinate measurement outcomes from within the theory itself. This paper discusses a basic inconsistency arising in the FR scenario at a much earlier point than the derived contradiction: (...) namely, the inconsistency inherent in treating an improper mixture as a proper, epistemic mixture. This is an illegitimate procedure that is nevertheless endemic if quantum theory is assumed to be always unitary. In contrast, under a non-unitary account of quantum state reduction yielding determinate outcomes, the use of a proper mixture for measurement results becomes legitimate, and this entire class of paradoxes cannot be mounted. The conclusion is that the real lesson of the FR paradox is that it is the unitary-only assumption that needs to be critically reassessed. (shrink)

The question of political sovereignty must at all times be of acute academic interest, since it is practically impossible to say anything about the state without implying something about sovereignty, or vice versa. Political theory has very generally found this conception central to its inquiry; but in recent years the notion has been thrown into sharp relief by political events . In Fascism and Nazism the doctrine of state sovereignty is “made flesh” in startlingly substantial forms. These modern incarnations of (...) Leviathan , and their threat to much which has come to be deeply valued, give unprecedented importance to an age-long discussion. Political theory is not to-day, if it has ever seemed, a simply academic issue, or an “arm-chair” branch of philosophy. Not all of those who carry through revolutions, who build barricades and defend them with their lives, have a clear philosophical theory of the state; but powerful beliefs and motives they certainly have; and it daily becomes more manifest that unless the world is content to allow its political future to be determined more and more by obscure visceral impulses or crude economic motives a more intense effort to achieve and to apply true beliefs in the political field is imperative. (shrink)

Background: Patient autonomy has been promoted as the most important principle to guide difficult clinical decisions. To examine whether practising physicians indeed value patient autonomy above other considerations, physicians were asked to weight patient autonomy against three other criteria that often influence doctors’ decisions. Associations between physicians’ religious characteristics and their weighting of the criteria were also examined. Methods: Mailed survey in 2007 of a stratified random sample of 1000 US primary care physicians, selected from the American Medical Association masterfile. (...) Physicians were asked how much weight should be given to the following: (1) the patient’s expressed wishes and values, (2) the physician’s own judgment about what is in the patient’s best interest, (3) standards and recommendations from professional medical bodies and (4) moral guidelines from religious traditions. Results: Response rate 51% (446/879). Half of physicians (55%) gave the patient’s expressed wishes and values “the highest possible weight”. In comparative analysis, 40% gave patient wishes more weight than the other three factors, and 13% ranked patient wishes behind some other factor. Religious doctors tended to give less weight to the patient’s expressed wishes. For example, 47% of doctors with high intrinsic religious motivation gave patient wishes the “highest possible weight”, versus 67% of those with low (OR 0.5; 95% CI 0.3 to 0.8). Conclusions: Doctors believe patient wishes and values are important, but other considerations are often equally or more important. This suggests that patient autonomy does not guide physicians’ decisions as much as is often recommended in the ethics literature. (shrink)

Shoemaker (1996) presenteda prioriarguments against the possibility of ‘self‐blindness’, or the inability of someone, otherwise intelligent and possessed of mental concepts, to introspect any of her concurrent attitude states. Ironically enough, this seems to be a position that Gopnik (1993) and Carruthers (2006, 2008, 2009a,b) have proposed as not only possible, but as the actual human condition generally! According to this ‘Objectivist’ view, supposed introspection of one's attitudes is not ‘direct’, but an ‘inference’ of precisely the sort we make about (...) the attitudes of others, an inference that has the advantage in our own case ofonlyour own sensory data and memories, our behavior, and of the context we are in; i.e. we are all substantially self‐ blind. After sorting out a number of methodological and verbal issues, I argue, first, that thea prioriarguments against Objectivism don't succeed, and that Gopnik and Carruthers are right to regard the issue as an empirical one. On the other hand, I think they seriously underestimate the difficulty of establishing Objectivism. It is unlikely there is an inferential procedure from the data of pure sensation, behavior and context to the relevant self‐attributions that would be as spectacularly reliable as people manifestly seem to be. Moreover, there is a simpler model: the mind very likely consists of a panoply of sub‐routines some of whose outputs are ‘tagged’ for their having been so processed, rather in the way that software ‘documents’ are on standard computers. Introspection plausibly consists in a person's simply attending to distinctive constellations of these tags, even though they may lack phenomenal feels. This draws attention to an important independent fact: that much of phenomenology (or ‘what it's like’ to be in a certain state) may be constituted by facts that are not phenomenal. (shrink)

2. The Meno offers a dramatic demonstration of the validity of the first argument put forward for Anamnesis and the immortality of the soul in the Phaedo.