A reflection on the philosophical traditions at the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon and in the city of Monterrey.

The Lewis-Sider argument from vagueness is one of the most powerful objections against restricted composition. Many have resisted the argument by rejecting its key premise, namely that existence is not vague. In this paper, I argue that this strategy is ineffective as a response to vagueness-based objections against restricted composition. To that end, I formulate a new argument against restricted composition: the argument from determinate vagueness. Unlike the Lewis-Sider argument, my argument doesn’t require accepting that existence is not vague, but (...) only that it is not vague in a specific way, which, I argue, is entailed by restricted composition. I show that the rejection of this species of vague existence follows from assumptions even friends of vague existence should be happy to accept. (shrink)

This paper investigates the semantics of implicit comparatives (Alice is tall compared to Bob) and its connections to the semantics of explicit comparatives (Alice is taller than Bob) and sentences with adjectives in plain positive form (Alice is tall). We consider evidence from two experiments that tested judgments about these three kinds of sentence, and provide a semantics for implicit comparatives from the perspective of degree semantics.

We provide two programmatic frameworks for integrating philosophical research on understanding with complementary work in computer science, psychology, and neuroscience. First, philosophical theories of understanding have consequences about how agents should reason if they are to understand that can then be evaluated empirically by their concordance with findings in scientific studies of reasoning. Second, these studies use a multitude of explanations, and a philosophical theory of understanding is well suited to integrating these explanations in illuminating ways.

Apresentação do n.1 da Revista Filosfia e Educação, dedicado à temática Educação e epistemologias. A organização deste número temático contou com a colaboração do Prof. Dr. Marcelo Donizete da Silva da |Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto. A seleção de trabalhos inclui nove artigos diretamente relacionados com a temática proposta e que compõem a seção do dossiê e seis artigos da seção de fluxo contínuo da revista Filosofia e Educação.

La "posición original" es un aspecto fundamental de la teoría de la justicia de John Rawls, así como el concepto del "velo de ignorancia". El análisis se divide en tres momentos: en el primero, se expone la posición original de Rawls, en el segundo se contrasta la teoría de la razonabilidad de Scanlon con el papel que tiene la razonabilidad en la teoría de Rawls y en el tercero se exploran los señalamientos de Habermas y Benhabib al velo de ignorancia.

El artículo reflexiona sobre las políticas de la memoria que deberían desarrollarse en sociedades donde han ocurrido masivas violaciones de derechos humanos, y cuyos procesos se guían por los principios normativos de la justicia transicional. Se analizan primero los conceptos de memoria e historia, y la forma como el Holocausto transformó sus tareas en el siglo xx; luego se examinan dos modelos de responsabilidad propuestos por Iris Marion Young, y se propone cómo usarlos en la justicia transicional. Finalmente, se explican (...) las tareas de la política de la memoria en estos contextos. (shrink)

A presente edição de Filosofia e Educação, a primeira de 2018, apresenta algumas novidades com relação às anteriores. A primeira delas é a mudança de datas na organização dos três números que correspondem a 2018, mantendo sua periodização quadrimestral. Esta edição que na sequência anterior correspondia aos meses de outubro-janeiro sofre um ajuste neste 1º número do décimo volume. Assim, a atual edição corresponde aos quatro primeiros meses de 2018. Na sequência, a 2ª edição deve corresponder aos meses de maio-agosto (...) e a 3ª aos meses de setembro-dezembro. (shrink)

The study of corpography (corpographèse) in J.M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians establishes a symptomatology of the body -linked to the experiences of torture and eroticism- that associates the illness with somnolence in the fictional text and the parasitization of the represented historical text. The tortured and undesired bodies of the protagonists undergo a process of objectification that manifests the acceleration of the fall of the Empire and the fragmentation of its discursive body as well as reinforces the secrecy and (...) illegibility of the text inscribed in the body of barbarism. This indecipherable text/body is defined by the paradox of the border labyrinth whose specularity gives rise to the illusion of control at the frontier between empire and barbarism. We will study, first of all, the writing of torture on the bodies, focusing on two organs - the eyes and the feet. Then, we will be interested in the erotic experience between the two protagonists. Finally, we will see how these vacuous bodies establish, at the border, a suspensive temporary bond with the historical and the memorial text. (shrink)

Resumen: El objetivo de este trabajo es describir la situación actual y las proyecciones de la comparación forense de la voz en Chile, a la luz de los estándares internacionales que se enfocan en la producción de evidencia confiable, que pueda ser utilizada en los tribunales de justicia. Para ello, en principio, se dan a conocer los fundamentos científicos que caracterizan esta rama de las ciencias forenses y, luego, sobre esa base se analiza y comenta la situación de Chile y (...) sus proyecciones, tanto en la práctica como en la investigación forense. Abstract: The objective of this work is to describe the current situation and the projections of forensic voice comparison in Chile, in the light of international standards that focus on the production of reliable evidence that can be used in the courts of justice. To do this, first, the scientific foundations that characterize this branch of forensic sciences are disclosed and, then, on that basis, the situation in Chile and its projections are analyzed and discussed, both in practice and in the forensic research. (shrink)

El texto se propone abordar el problema de la expresión en la filosofía de Merleau-Ponty bajo tres aspectos generales: 1. Hacia una ontología de lo sensible, 2. Expresión y diferencia corporal y 3. Cuerpo y expresión creadora. A partir de la noción de naturaleza se busca, con el primer apartado, destacar el carácter ontológico de la percepción, con el fin de comprender por qué la percepción es ya expresión. En segundo lugar, se pretende ahondar en la tesis del cuerpo como (...) expresión y de esta manera poder precisar su vínculo esencial con el lenguaje. A partir de la distinción entre el lenguaje hablante y el lenguaje hablado se precisa, finalmente, el carácter paradójico de la expresión, su sentido encarnado. (shrink)

Para Ockham, todo animal posee un alma sensitiva, en virtud de la cual, puede tener deseos sensitivos, cogniciones intuitivas sensitivas y cogniciones abstractivas sensitivas. Entre estas últimas, tenemos representaciones sensibles, actos del sentido común y recuerdos. El objetivo de este artículo es el de reconstruir la teoría de Ockham sobre la cognición animal sensitiva. Esta reconstrucción muestra que Ockham adscribe a los animales, en general, una capacidad de representar diferentes propiedades de las cosas singulares, una memoria episódica, una memoria procedimental (...) y cierto tipo de ilusiones. Debido a que ciertas representaciones sensibles son equivalentes a proposiciones mentales, según Ockham, los animales no-humanos pueden juzgar y formar silogismos. (shrink)

Nuestro punto de partida es la concepción de Merleau-Ponty del lenguaje como "habla". Sostenemos que esta, como experiencia corporal del lenguaje -como lenguaje "en" nosotros-, permite comprender el fenómeno de la /nter-culturalidad como un fenómeno esencialmente /ntra-cultural, en el sentido de una experiencia de la cultura "desde dentro", es decir, desde la experiencia que cada quien hace del lenguaje. Este carácter endógeno e individual de pensar la cultura pone en evidencia, sin embargo, un "entre-lazamiento" recíproco originario entre lo propio y (...) lo extraño que impide de entrada privilegiar ya sea una visión universalista o totalizante o bien individualista o regionalista de la cultura. En dos momentos doy cuenta de este planteamiento: 1. Mundo de la vida y diversidad cultural y 2. El habla como lugar de acceso a las culturas. Our starting point is the conception in Merleau Ponty of language as "speech". We support this concept as corporal experience of language -as language "in" us - allows to understand the phenomenon of ¿nter-culturality as an essentially ¿ntra-cultural phenomenon, in the sense of an experience of culture "from within", that is to say; from the experience that everyone does with the language. This endogenous and individual character of thinking about culture highlights, however, a reciprocal "entanglement" originated among one's own and the strange that initially prevents to privilege, even a universal or totalizing or either an individualistic or regionalist vision of culture. Two moments I take on this approach: 1. World of life and cultural diversity. 2. Speech as an access place to the cultures. (shrink)

RESUMEN El artículo reflexiona sobre las políticas de la memoria que deberían desarrollarse en sociedades donde han ocurrido masivas violaciones de derechos humanos, y cuyos procesos se guían por los principios normativos de la justicia transicional. Se analizan primero los conceptos de memoria e historia, y la forma como el Holocausto trans formó sus tareas en el siglo XX; luego se examinan dos modelos de responsabilidad propuestos por Iris Marion Young, y se propone cómo usarlos en la justicia transicional. Finalmente, (...) se explican las tareas de la política de la memoria en estos contextos. ABSTRACT The article carries out a reflection on the politics of memory that should be developed in societies where massive human rights violations have occurred and whose pro cesses are being guided by the normative principles of transitional justice. It starts out by analyzing the concepts of memory and history and the manner in which the Holocaust transformed their tasks in the 20th century. Ten it goes on to examine two models of responsibility proposed by Iris Marion Young, and suggests how to use them in transitional justice. Finally, the article explains the tasks of the politics of memory in these contexts. (shrink)

Nuestro punto de partida es la concepción de Merleau-Ponty del lenguaje como "habla". Sostenemos que esta, como experiencia corporal del lenguaje -como lenguaje "en" nosotros-, permite comprender el fenómeno de la /nter-culturalidad como un fenómeno esencialmente /ntra-cultural, en el sentido de una experiencia de la cultura "desde dentro", es decir, desde la experiencia que cada quien hace del lenguaje. Este carácter endógeno e individual de pensar la cultura pone en evidencia, sin embargo, un "entre-lazamiento" recíproco originario entre lo propio y (...) lo extraño que impide de entrada privilegiar ya sea una visión universalista o totalizante o bien individualista o regionalista de la cultura. En dos momentos doy cuenta de este planteamiento: 1. Mundo de la vida y diversidad cultural y 2. El habla como lugar de acceso a las culturas. Our starting point is the conception in Merleau Ponty of language as "speech". We support this concept as corporal experience of language -as language "in" us - allows to understand the phenomenon of ¿nter-culturality as an essentially ¿ntra-cultural phenomenon, in the sense of an experience of culture "from within", that is to say; from the experience that everyone does with the language. This endogenous and individual character of thinking about culture highlights, however, a reciprocal "entanglement" originated among one's own and the strange that initially prevents to privilege, even a universal or totalizing or either an individualistic or regionalist vision of culture. Two moments I take on this approach: 1. World of life and cultural diversity. 2. Speech as an access place to the cultures. (shrink)

RESUMEN La educación médica superior tiene la responsabilidad social de formar educandos autónomos, independientes y autorregulados. Por ello las estrategias de aprendizaje permiten la adquisición de información y el establecimiento de relaciones a partir del conocimiento previo; son procesos de toma de decisiones, consciente e intencional. Objetivo: Exponer las necesidades del desarrollo de estrategias de aprendizaje en los estudiantes de primer año de Estomatología. Método: Se realizó una investigación descriptiva transversal. El universo estuvo constituido por los estudiantes de 1er año (...) de la carrera de Estomatología, del que fueron seleccionados 120 educandos que conformaron la muestra y a los que se les aplicó la Escala de Estrategias de Aprendizaje ACRA-Abreviada para alumnos universitarios. Los datos fueron procesados utilizando la estadística descriptiva. Resultados: Las estrategias que más utilizan son las que los llevan a un aprendizaje memorístico y reproductivo, las estrategias de apoyo al aprendizaje son utilizadas por el 47.79% de los educandos y existen inadecuados hábitos de estudios. Discusión: El estudio permitió corroborar que las insuficiencias que presentan los estudiantes en cuanto al uso de estrategias de aprendizaje son similares a las descritas por los autores consultados. ABSTRACT The high medical education has the social responsibility of forming autonomous, independent and auto-regulated pupils. For it the learning strategies allow the acquisition of information and the relations establishment from the previous knowledge; there are processes of decision making, conscious and intentional. Objective: To exhibit the needs for the development of strategies of learning in the students of the first year of Stomatology. Method: A transverse descriptive investigation was carried out. The universe was constituted by the students of 1st year of the career of Dentistry, of which there were selected 120 pupils who shaped the sample and to whom there was applied the Scale of Strategies of Learning ACRA-Abbreviated for university pupils. The information was processed using the descriptive statistics. Results: The strategies that they use more are those which take them to memory and reproductive learning, the support strategies to learning are used by 47.79 % of the pupils and inadequate studies habits exist. Discussion: The study allowed to corroborate that the insufficiencies that the students present as for the use of strategies of learning are similar to the described ones by the consulted authors. (shrink)

El presente trabajo recupera, caracteriza y evalúa el marco antropológico subyacente en la Declaración de los Derechos Humanos de 1948. Para este propósito, se utilizó como metodología el análisis del discurso y una evaluación antropológica de su contenido en relación directa con la Bioética contemporánea y sus problemas más sobresalientes. doi: 10.5294/pebi.2015.19.2.4.

En este texto quiero hacer un análisis de las propuestas de paz del gobierno de Uribe Vélez y sus efectos en las instituciones y la cultura democrática colombiana. El análisis no pretende evaluar directamente si las propuestas de paz fueron efectivas para dar por terminado el conflicto, sino mostrar el vínculo que existe entre una democracia débil, como la colombiana, la gran influencia de la personalidad de Uribe Vélez en el imaginario político y sus proyectos de seguridad democrática y de (...) estado comunitario, en la medida en que estos proyectos hicieron parte de sus propuestas de paz. La tesis central que defiendo en este artículo es que precisamente la debilidad democrática colombiana permitió que una propuesta como la de Álvaro Uribe frente a la paz fuera apoyada por una inmensa mayoría, aunque esta propuesta en vez de profundizar la democracia hubiese debilitado más sus instituciones y la cultura ciudadana. (shrink)

In the late 19th century, physiologists such as David Ferrier, Eduard Hitzig, and Hermann Munk argued that cerebral brain functions are localized in discrete structures. By the early 20th century, this became the dominant position. However, another prominent physiologist, Friedrich Goltz, rejected theories of cerebral localization and argued against these physiologists until his death in 1902. I argue in this paper that previous historical accounts have failed to comprehend why Goltz rejected cerebral localization. I show that Goltz adhered to a (...) falsificationist methodology, and I reconstruct how he designed his experiments and weighted different kinds of evidence. I then draw on the exploratory experimentation literature from recent philosophy of science to trace one root of the debate to differences in how the German localizers designed their experiments and reasoned about evidence. While Goltz designed his experiments to test hypotheses about the functions of predetermined cerebral structures, the localizers explored new functions and structures in the process of constructing new theories. I argue that the localizers relied on untested background conjectures to justify their inferences about functional organization. These background conjectures collapsed a distinction between phenomena they produced direct evidence for (localized symptoms) and what they reached conclusions about (localized functions). (shrink)

Despite the emergence of computer games as a dominant cultural industry, we know little or nothing about the ethics of computer games. Considerations of the morality of computer games seldom go beyond intermittent portrayals of them in the mass media as training devices for teenage serial killers. In this first scholarly exploration of the subject, Miguel Sicart addresses broader issues about the ethics of games, the ethics of playing the games, and the ethical responsibilities of game designers. He argues (...) that computer games are ethical objects, that computer game players are ethical agents, and that the ethics of computer games should be seen as a complex network of responsibilities and moral duties. Players should not be considered passive amoral creatures; they reflect, relate, and create with ethical minds. The games they play are ethical systems, with rules that create gameworlds with values at play. Drawing on concepts from philosophy and game studies, Sicart proposes a framework for analyzing the ethics of computer games as both designed objects and player experiences. After presenting his core theoretical arguments and offering a general theory for understanding computer game ethics, Sicart offers case studies examining single-player games, multiplayer games, and online gameworlds from an ethical perspective. He explores issues raised by unethical content in computer games and its possible effect on players and offers a synthesis of design theory and ethics that could be used as both analytical tool and inspiration in the creation of ethical gameplay. (shrink)

This paper is concerned with the semantics of bare plural I-generics such as ‘Tigers are striped’, ‘Chickens lay eggs’, and ‘Kangaroos live in Australia’. In a series of recent papers, Bernhard Nickel has developed a comprehensive view of a certain class of bare plural I-generics, which he calls characterizing sentences :629–648, 2009. doi:10.1007/s10988-008-9049-7; Linguist Philos 33:479–512, 2010a. doi:10.1007/s10988-011-9087-4; Philos Impr 10:1–25, 2010b). Nickel’s ambitious proposal includes a detailed account of their truth-conditions, an account of certain pragmatic phenomena that they give (...) rise to, a metaphysical picture of their truth-makers in terms of mechanisms, and an epistemological story connecting characterizing sentences to such concepts as induction and explanation. This paper offers an extended critique of the central truth-conditional component of Nickel’s proposal. In a nutshell, his account has it that ‘Tigers are striped’ is true iff, for tigers, there is a way of being normal with respect to fur-pattern such that all tigers that are normal that way are striped. I begin by explaining what characterizing sentences are and distinguish several readings that are available for sentences with bare plurals in subject position. I then introduce Nickel’s account and discuss some of its predictions which, in my view, seem highly problematic. Moreover, I argue that Nickel’s principle of Homogeneity does not go together well with his proposed truth-conditions, and that his truth-conditional account violates a plausible principle about the logic of generics, a principle I call generic non-contradiction. (shrink)

In having an experience one is aware of having it. Having an experience requires some form of access to one's own state, which distinguishes phenomenally conscious mental states from other kinds of mental states. Until very recently, Higher-Order (HO) theories were the only game in town aiming at offering a full-fledged account of this form of awareness within the analytical tradition. Independently of any objections that HO theories face, First/Same-Order (F/SO) theorists need to offer an account of such access to (...) become a plausible alternative. My aim in this paper is twofold. In the first place, I wish to widen the logical space of the discussion among theories of consciousness by offering a distinction, orthogonal to that between F/SO and HO theories, between what I will call 'Self-Involving' (SI) and 'Mental-State-Involving' (MSI) theories and argue in favor of the former one. In the second place, I will present the basics of a characterization of such a Self-Involving theory in Same-Order terms. (shrink)

Why computer games can be ethical, how players use their ethical values in gameplay, and the implications for game design.

Recent experimental studies indicate that epistemically irrelevant factors can skew our intuitions, and that some degree of scepticism about appealing to intuition in philosophy is warranted. In response, some have claimed that philosophers are experts in such a way as to vindicate their reliance on intuitions—this has become known as the ‘expertise defence’. This paper explores the viability of the expertise defence, and suggests that it can be partially vindicated. Arguing that extant discussion is problematically imprecise, we will finesse the (...) notion of ‘philosophical expertise’ in order to better reflect the complex reality of the different practices involved in philosophical inquiry. On this basis, we offer a new version of the expertise defence that allows for distinct types of philosophical expertise. The upshot of our approach is that wholesale vindications or rejections of the expertise defence are shown to be unwarranted; we must instead turn to local, piecemeal investigations of philosophical expertise. Lastly, in the spirit of taking our own advice, we exemplify how recent developments from experimental philosophy lend themselves to this approach, and can empirically support one instance of a successful expertise defence. (shrink)

Philosophers of mathematics commonly distinguish between explanatory and non-explanatory proofs. An important subclass of mathematical proofs are proofs by induction. Are they explanatory? This paper addresses the question, based on general principles about explanation. First, a recent argument for a negative answer is discussed and rebutted. Second, a case is made for a qualified positive take on the issue.

La noticia de la conclusión del primer pangenoma humano ocurre veinte años después de que se pudo contar con una versión de referencia de la información genética completa de la especie humana. Las limitaciones técnicas de ese tiempo permitieron que esa versión tuviera errores y varias lagunas de la información genética. Ahora es posible contar con un nuevo atlas gigante con información que permite evidenciar la gran diversidad genética de la especie humana. Este trabajo está siendo realizado por el Consorcio (...) Internacional de Referencia del Pangenoma Humano, del que hacen parte cerca de cien investigadores y está financiado por el Instituto Nacional de Investigación del Genoma Humano y por los Institutos Nacionales de Salud de EEUU. En este escrito que describe a grandes rasgos en qué consiste el proyecto, cuáles son sus aplicaciones posibles y las dificultades técnicas que tiene actualmente. Se repasan también algunos aspectos éticos y jurídicos y se dan pautas para su culminación: profundizar en la reflexión ética de los problemas que se generan; cuidar la formación en ética de la investigación, bioética e integridad científica en todos los actores del proceso; no perder de vista la Declaración Universal sobre el genoma humano y los derechos humanos de la UNESCO; orientar los desarrollos de la bioinformática, para que los datos obtenidos se manejen de una mejor manera; extremar la prudencia en el manejo de esos datos; revisar y reajustar las prioridades que se tienen en la investigación de estas temáticas. (shrink)

La maternidad subrogada es una respuesta técnica ante una dificultad biológica que se puede dar en la reproducción humana. Luego de una introducción, que muestra la problemática que la guerra en Ucrania ha ocasionado en esta materia, se exponen algunas generalidades sobre la maternidad subrogada, su presencia en el mundo y sus costos; así mismo, se reflexiona sobre los problemas éticos, bioéticos y biojurídicos desde las perspectivas biológica, antropológica y jurídica en cada uno de los actores del proceso (madre sustituta, (...) pareja o persona contratante, el embrión resultante y la sociedad). Se concluye que la maternidad subrogada, aunque sea técnicamente posible, no es una solución ética ni bioética para la esterilidad humana porque deja de lado el respeto a la dignidad; es un negocio que incluye explotación de mujeres; impone actuaciones jurídicas que fuerzan la realidad al declarar como derechos lo que no son más que deseos y es causa de varias formas de vulnerabilidad en las personas que intervienen en ella y en la sociedad en su conjunto. (shrink)

Justo antes de la pandemia por COVID-19, la Organización Mundial de la Salud definió unas prioridades de trabajo para la década 2020-2030. Un grupo interdisciplinario de profesionales de la salud reflexiona sobre estas prioridades, determinando unas categorías de análisis y, desde una perspectiva bioética, analiza cada una de ellas, ve su pertinencia, algunos eventos causales, las implicaciones que pueden tener si no son enfrentadas adecuadamente y hace sugerencias sobre la forma de llevarlas a cabo. En esta primera entrega se analiza (...) el primer grupo de prioridades estratégicas: “poblaciones más sanas”. En las conclusiones se destaca la conveniencia de acometer cada una de ellas de una manera colaborativa, gubernamental y privada; de reestructurar el sector salud con base en estas prioridades, aprovechando la experiencia obtenida en la lucha contra el COVID-19. La relación del ser humano con el medio ambiente también debe cambiar, apelando a la responsabilidad humana por el cuidado del planeta. (shrink)

Resumen: El texto propone un diálogo entre fenomenología y teoría crítica, concretamente en Merleau-Ponty y Adorno. Sostenemos que la labor asignada por ellos a la filosofía pone en evidencia una concepción dialéctica de la experiencia en la que se reivindica el sentido de ésta como experiencia viva. No obstante las fuertes objeciones dirigidas a la fenomenología por Adorno, Horkheimer y Marcuse, identificamos a modo de introducción la negatividad de la experiencia como rasgo característico en Husserl, Heidegger y Merleau-Ponty. En segundo (...) lugar, nos ocupamos de la concepción de percepción como experiencia sensible en Merleau-Ponty, con el fin de precisar el sentido dialéctico de esta. En tercer lugar, señalamos la importancia que Adorno asigna al trabajo conceptual de la filosofía con el propósito de ver el sentido dialéctico de este que lo vincula a la experiencia viva de las cosas. Por último, identificamos a modo de conclusión puntos de encuentro en la concepción de la dialéctica en ambos autores y presentamos una reflexión sobre la actualidad de esta.: The text proposes a dialogue between phenomenology and critical theory, specifically in Merleau-Ponty and Adorno.We argue that the work assigned by them to philosophy highlights a dialectical conception of experience in which its meaning as living experience is vindicated. Notwithstanding the strong objections to phenomenology by Adorno, Horkheimer, and Marcuse, we identify by way of introduction the negativity of experience as a characteristic feature in Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty. Second, we deal with the conception of perception as sensible experience in Merleau-Ponty, in order to clarify its dialectical meaning. Third, we point out the importance that Adorno assigns to the conceptual work of philosophy in order to see its dialectical meaning that links it to the living experience of things. Finally, by way of conclusion, we identify meeting points in the conception of dialectics in both authors and present a reflection on its current relevance. (shrink)

Resumen: Este artículo pretende abordar aspectos esenciales del pensamiento de Henri Bergson en la dimensión de las prácticas políticas. Específicamente, esta indagación se centrará en un análisis del sentido de la democracia en Les Deux Sources de la morale et de la religion, en las escuetas, pero decisivas porciones de texto donde esta es abordada. Bajo este objetivo, se podrá extender una discusión de fondo, de carácter ontológico, en torno al rendimiento de una noción de Acontecimiento que pretende servir de (...) reflexión basal en torno al dominio de un concepto de lo político atribuible a este filósofo francés.: This article aims to address essential aspects of Henri Bergson’s thought in the dimension of political practices. Specifically, this inquiry will focus on an analysis of the meaning of democracy in Les Deux Sources de la morale et de la religion, in the succinct, but decisive portions of the text where it is focussed. Under this point, it will be possible to extend a substantive discussion, of an ontological nature, around the performance of a notion of Event that aims to serve as a basal reflection on the domain of a concept of the political attributable to this French philosopher. (shrink)

It is often claimed that a minimal form of self-awareness is constitutive of our conscious experience. Some have considered that such a claim is plausible for our ordinary experiences but false when considered unrestrictedly on the basis of the empirical evidence from altered states. In this paper I want to reject such a reasoning. This requires, first, a proper understanding of a minimal form of self-awareness – one that makes it plausible that minimal self-awareness is part of our ordinary experiences. (...) I will argue that it should be understood as Perspectival First-Person Awareness : a non-conceptual identification-free self-attribution that defines the first-person perspective for our conscious experience. I will offer a detailed characterization of PFP-Awareness in semantic and epistemological terms. With this tool in hand, I will review the empirical literature on altered states. I will focus on psychedelics, meditation and dreams, as they have been claimed to present the clearest cases in favor of a radical disruption of self-awareness. I will show that the rejection of the idea that minimal self-awareness is constitutive of our experience on the basis of this evidence is unfounded, for two main reasons. First, although there are good grounds to think that some forms of self-awareness that typically accompany our ordinary experiences are compromised, they do not support the claim that PFP-Awareness is absent. Secondly, the reports that could make us think of a radical disruption of self-awareness are most probably due to a confirmation bias – and hence we should mistrust them – derived from the expectations and metaphysical views of their subjects. (shrink)

In developing a theory of consciousness, one of the main problems has to do with determining what distinguishes conscious states from non-conscious ones—the delimitation problem. This paper explores the possibility of solving this problem in terms of self-awareness. That self-awareness is essential to understanding the nature of our conscious experience is perhaps the most widely discussed hypothesis in the study of consciousness throughout the history of philosophy. Its plausibility hinges on how the notion of self-awareness is unpacked. The idea that (...) consciousness involves self-awareness has been understood in two different ways: either as awareness of oneself—the subject of experience—or as awareness of the conscious episode itself. In this paper I argue (i) that every experience concerns the subject in a very specific way, involving what I will call ‘perspectival de se representation’, and (ii) that there is no need to appeal to the experience itself in order to characterize the awareness within that experience. The view I articulate explains the subjective nature of experience without over-intellectualizing it, accommodates the phenomenology of experience, and dispels any doubt about the need to find the self in introspection. (shrink)

The fictional regime of the photographic image allows Helena Almeida to stage a theatrical metamorphosis of her own body through displacements, expansions and dissimulations, placing photography at the heart of a pictorial transgression that undermines the disciplinary boundaries of visual media: the artist becomes ink, inhabits the empty canvas space, multiplies herself in mirror games that produce the unfolding of a body in deep crisis, thrown beyond its physical limits and identity. Moreover, in multimedia works such as Feel me, Hear (...) me and See me (1979–1980), as well as in some images of the series entitled The House (1982–1983), Almeida seems to move towards a radical linguistic and pictorial derangement, likely to break the traditional communicative and representative mechanisms. We seek to demonstrate, on the basis of these different aspects relating to photography’s effects of hybridization, and making use of the post-structuralist thought of Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze, that the artist moves towards the designation of a structural space that combines photography, writing and the reinvention of the body. Almeida’s work confronts us with a complex reconfiguration of ways of seeing, feeling and thinking the photographic act, as well as its discursive features. (shrink)

In this paper I investigate which of the main conditions proposed in the moral responsibility literature are the ones that spell trouble for the idea that Artificial Intelligence Systems could ever be full-fledged responsible agents. After arguing that the standard construals of the control and epistemic conditions don’t impose any in-principle barrier to AISs being responsible agents, I identify the requirement that responsible agents must be aware of their own actions as the main locus of resistance to attribute that kind (...) of agency to AISs. This is because this type of awareness is thought to involve first-person or de se representations, which, in turn, are usually assumed to involve some form of consciousness. I clarify what this widespread assumption involves and conclude that the possibility of AISs’ moral responsibility hinges on what the correct theory of de se representations ultimately turns out to be. (shrink)

Phenomenology in medicine’s main contribution is to present a first-person narrative of illness, in an effort to aid medicine in reaching an accurate disease diagnosis and establishing a personal relationship with patients whose lived experience changes dramatically when severe disease and disabling condition is confirmed. Once disease is diagnosed, the lived experience of illness is reconstructed into a living-with-disease narrative that medicine’s biological approach has widely neglected. Key concepts like health, sickness, illness, disease and the clinical encounter are being diversely (...) and ambiguously used, leading to distortions in socio-medical practices such as medicalization, pharmaceuticalization, emphasis on surveillance medicine. Current definitions of these concepts as employed in phenomenology of medicine are revised, concluding that more stringent semantics ought to reinforce an empirical phenomenological or postphenomenological approach. (shrink)

Higher-order thought theories of consciousness attempt to explain what it takes for a mental state to be conscious, rather than unconscious, by means of a HOT that represents oneself as being in the state in question. Rosenthal Consciousness and the self: new essays, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2011) stresses that the way we are aware of our own conscious states requires essentially indexical self-reference. The challenge for defenders of HOT theories is to show that there is a way to explain (...) the required reference-fixing mechanisms that is compatible with the theory. According to Rosenthal, the reference to oneself as such is grounded in the disposition to identify the individual the HOT refers to as the individual who has that HOT. I argue that this leads to a vicious infinite regress on the more than plausible assumption that our cognitive capacities are limited. This leaves such theories without a foundation, since self-reference is thought essential to consciousness. (shrink)

The fundamental problem proponents of truth conditional semantics must face is to specify what role a truth theory is supposed to play within a meaning theory. The most detailed proposal for tackling this problem is the account developed by Ernest Lepore and Kirk Ludwig. However, as I will show in this paper, theories along the lines of Lepore and Ludwig do not suffice to put someone into the position to understand the objectlanguage. The fundamental problem of truth conditional semantics thus (...) remains unsolved. (shrink)

Cognitive theories claim, whereas non-cognitive theories deny, that cognitive access is constitutive of phenomenology. Evidence in favor of non-cognitive theories has recently been collected by Block and is based on the high capacity of participants in partial-report experiments compared to the capacity of the working memory. In reply, defenders of cognitive theories have searched for alternative interpretations of such results that make visual awareness compatible with the capacity of the working memory; and so the conclusions of such experiments remain controversial. (...) Instead of entering the debate between alternative interpretations of partial-report experiments, this paper offers an alternative line of research that could settle the discussion between cognitive and non-cognitive theories of consciousness. Here I relate the neural correlates of cognitive access to empirical research into the neurophysiology of dreams; cognitive access seems to depend on the activity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. However, that area is strongly deactivated during sleep; a period when we entertain conscious experiences: dreams. This approach also avoids the classic objection that consciousness should be inextricably tied to reportability or it would fall outside the realm of science. (shrink)