Widespread conceptions of practical reasoning confront us with a choice between its practicality and its objectivity: between its efficacious, world-changing character and its accountability to objective rational standards. This choice becomes unnecessary, I argue, on an alternative view embodied by the thesis that the conclusion of practical reasoning is an action. I lay bare and challenge the assumptions underlying the rejection of that thesis and outline a defense of its picture of practical reasoning against common objections. On such a picture, (...) practical reasoning provides a principle not externally imposed upon an action but rather constitutive of it. (shrink)

A discussão sobre a existência ou não da Filosofia Africana, associada à negação do direito à Filosofia caracterizou seis décadas: 1940-2000. A necessidade de apagar o espectro que as representações ocidentais (europeias) atribuem à África foi, de certa forma, respondida com várias publicações. O presente artigo pretende mostrar que existiram, também, pensadores individuais, preciamente no antigo Kôngo.

Resumen Este escrito es fruto de una investigación documental y bibliográfica realizada en el Archivo General del Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano. Busca presentar una síntesis del impulso que ha realizado el CELAM en orden al diálogo interreligioso. Este no ha sido un camino fácil y aún hay mucho por hacer. No obstante, en el ámbito de la Iglesia Católica, el CELAM ha sido un permanente animador de las orientaciones de los obispos en esta temática, plasmadas en el Concilio Vaticano II y (...) las Conferencias Generales del Episcopado Latinoamericano.This paper is the product of documentary and bibliographic research in the General Archives of the Latin American Bishops’ Council and it endeavors to provide a synthesis of the efforts that CELAM has made in regard to interreligious dialogue. This has not been an easy path to follow and there is still much more yet to be done. However, in the context of the Catholic Church, CELAM has been a persistent dynamic force, encouraging bishops on this topic, according to the guidelines found in the documents of Vatican II and the General Conferences of Latin American Bishops. (shrink)

Faced with an Alexandrian (Arian) anthropology of Neoplatonic inspiration, Eustathius adopts a strong position in several statements that is similar to astoic Aristotelianism of the 4th century. Nevertheless, Eustathius's reflection is more genuinely theological, than it is reflective of any particular philosophical trend. For him, the human body is a dynamic concept which finds its full meaning in light of the history of salvation, wherein the incarnate and glorified Logos, the second Adam, brings to completion the perfection and incorruptibility of (...) the humble body formed from clay in the first Adam, the protoplast. (shrink)

Pragmatic approaches to genetic testing are discussed and appraised. Whilst there are various schools of pragmatism, the Deweyan appraoch seems to be the most appreciated in bioethics as it allows a historical approach indebted to Hegel. This in turn allows the pragmatist to specify and balance principles in various contexts. There are problems with where to draw a line between what is referred to here as the micro- and macro-level of doing bioethics, unless one is simply to be classified as (...) a principlist. Whilst most discussions on genetics occur at a macro level, most specifying must be done also at a micro level – the clinical encounter. Whilst pragmatism encourages us to understand better social and scientific factors and puts into perspective statements like ‘playing God’, doubts are raised about the ‘consensus’ process and how one can put aside fundamental values such as the moral status of the embryo on which there is general disagreement. If those doing pragmatism do not endorse these values, there seems to be little ground for process and compromise with those who do. It seems therefore that pragmatism cannot ignore values, even those which are not endorsed by everyone. (shrink)

This paper discusses the issue of whether we have responsibilities to future generations with respect to genetic screening, including for purposes of selective abortion or discard. Future generations have been discussed at length among scholars. The concept of ‘Guardianfor Future Generations’ is tackled and its main criticisms discussed. Whilst germ-line cures, it is argued, can only affect family trees, genetic screening and testing can have wider implications. If asking how this may affect future generations is a legitimate question and since (...) we indeed make retrospective moral judgements, it would be wise to consider that future generations will make the same retrospective judgements on us. Moreover such technologies affect present embryos to which we indeed can be considered to have an obligation. (shrink)

Malta traditionally enjoys a Roman Catholic Society, with the official religion of the country being cited in the second article of the constitution. Recently the government proposed to legislate to regulate human reproductive technology, in particular In Vitro Fertilization, which has been practiced for over two decades without controlling legislation. A Parliamentary Committee for social affairs was set up to study the situation inviting most stakeholders. The arguments gravitated mostly on issues of the status of the embryo and the media (...) played a considerable role. At the end of the discussion the Archbishop made a statement which pointed out that IVF involves destruction of embryos and the process stopped. This article examines what caused the deterioration of the process and points favourably towards a way forward within the context of a Catholic Country. (shrink)

Critico la teoría hermenéutica de Landgrebe sobre el cartesianismo de Husserl mostrando la estructura argumentativa en la que se inserta, lo que pretende y lo que está forzada a pretender. Su núcleo duro radica en los conceptos de crítica inmanente y lógica interna y tiene como meta final promover una idea de trascendental no-entitativa voluntarista y correlacional opuesta a la de un yo absoluto. Para probar esto, analizo tres niveles del cartesianismo de Landgrebe: primero, la síntesis contradictoria entre apodicticidad y (...) experiencia; segundo, su interpretación de Filosofía Primera, y, tercero, el objetivismo de Husserl. Concluyo de la función que juega el cartesianismo en este esquema y del fracaso de documentar con ejemplos la idea que el concepto no describe una noción en la filosofía de Husserl, sino que es una herramienta hermenéutica para controlar el sentido de trascendental en esta filosofía.I criticize Landgrebe’s hermeneutical theory about Husserl’s Cartesianism describing the structure of the argument where this concept is rooted, what it claims and what it is forced to claim. The theory’s hard core is based on the concepts of immanent critique and internal logic and it’s final goal consists in advancing a non-entitative voluntaristic and correlational definition of transcendental opposite to that of an absolute I. To prove this, I analyze three levels inside Landgrebe’s concept of Cartesianism: first, the contradictory synthesis of experience and apodicticity; second, his interpretation of First Philosophy, and, third, Husserl’s objectivism. I conclude from the goal that Cartesianism plays in this argument and the failure in documenting this idea with examples that Landgrebe’s Cartesianism is rather an hermeneutical tool made to control the definition of transcendental in Husserl’s philosophy than a concept describing Husserl’s thought. (shrink)

Pourquoi s'interroger sur la possibilité de l'existence d'une philosophie au Chili? Voici la question traitée ici, en prenant comme axe le travail intellectuel du philosophe chilien Jorge Eduardo Rivera, décédé en janvier 2017, après l'écriture de cet ouvrage. Jorge Eduardo Rivera représente parfaitement le travail philosophique et universitaire. Celui qui se réalise dans le plus grand silence, hors de toute stridence ou de toute mode. Etranger au raffut des bavardages qui nous inonde. Une méditation sobre, loin de toute bouffonnerie. Peut-être (...) est-ce cela qui amena Rivera à décrire simplement et profondément des zones inconnues, éclairées par une parole qui, sans être poétique, nous renvoie à l'être en tant que tel et sous toutes ses formes. Ce livre présente l'exercice philosophique de Jorge Eduardo Rivera sous un horizon de réflexion à la fois propre et inspiré de la tradition européenne. Il expose sa biographie et son histoire intellectuelle, les différents espaces dans lesquels sa pensée s'est formée, depuis son noviciat et son scolasticat chez les Pères Français, jusqu'à ses études philosophiques et théologiques en Allemagne et ses rencontres avec Heidegger, Gadamer, Fink, Welte, Von Herrmann et Xavier Zubiri. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to show that Thomas Hobbes suggests an original understanding of the doctrine of the discernment of spirits in the Leviathan. I claim that, from a radical reading of the concepts of spirit and prophecy in the Bible, the philosopher of Malmesbury proposes a discernment of allegiances as a way to control prophecy inside the State.

Este artículo tiene por objetivo analizar la equidad natural como criterio de interpretación jurídica. Contadas las excepciones, es posible aseverar que no ha sido objeto de un estudio sistemático y profundo por parte de filosofía del Derecho; no existe claridad respecto a cómo funciona la equidad natural, cuál es su naturaleza, cómo se aplica, si acaso es un concepto moral, jurídico o participa de ambas categorías. Frente a este panorama en este trabajo se busca responder a estas interrogantes, proponiendo un (...) análisis de las propiedades que constituyen la idea de equidad interpretativa. Ello no para alcanzar una definición final, sino para entregar claridad conceptual a los operadores jurídicos cuando hacen uso de este elemento hermenéutico. Para lograr este objetivo se realizará un análisis crítico de la bibliografía especializada en el tema, con la finalidad de repensar ciertos lugares comunes en torno a este concepto. (shrink)

Part One defends the thesis, first advanced by Aristotle, that the conclusion of practical reasoning is an action, and argues for its philosophical significance. Opposition to the thesis rests on a contestable way of distinguishing between acts and contents of reasoning and on a picture of normative principles as external to the actions that fall under them. The resulting view forces us to choose between the efficacious, world-changing character of practical thought and its subjection to objective rational standards. This is (...) a false choice. Aristotle's own understanding of the thesis points the way to an alternative conception of practical reason on which it is at once a power to effect changes in the world and to get things right. Practical reasoning endows the action performed on its basis with a principle that is not imposed on it from outside: instead, it makes the action what it is. Properly understood in terms of the relevant acts of a rational subject, the thesis is defensible and philosophically attractive. Furthermore, it helps us understand the continuity and discontinuity that exists between the motions of human beings and those of other animals, as Aristotle showed. (shrink)

El texto aborda la existencia de una tradición filosófica conocida como “conocimiento del hacedor”, que sostiene que conocer implica crear o producir lo que se conoce. Esta concepción experimenta un cambio significativo en el siglo XVII. La identidad entre la verdad y el hacer, que durante la Edad Media caracterizaba el conocimiento de Dios, se convierte en la marca del conocimiento humano. Danilo Marcondes ubica esta tradición en la problemática escéptica de la Modernidad. El objetivo del trabajo es analizar si (...) esta perspectiva es solo una de las múltiples variantes posibles o si representa adecuadamente la contextualización de la tradición como expresión pura del escepticismo moderno. (shrink)

Este artigo tem como objetivo fazer uma reflexão sobre uma metodologia para analisar a relação entre pós-modernidade e comunicação. Com isso, busca fortalecer um método que pode auxiliar na compreensão da organização da sociedade pós-moderna, relacionada ao uso de dois meios de comunicação. Para atender a esses objetivos, pretendemos partir das visões de Marshall Mcluhan, estudamos dois meios de comunicação; Michael Foucault, sua Arqueologia do Saber constitui dois paradigmas de uma época; e por Giorgio Agamben e seu método baseado na (...) relação entre paradigma, arqueologia e matéria. Este debate torna-se relevante para que seja possível desenvolver um método científico das Ciências da Comunicação que questione o contexto contemporâneo de dois saberes académicos. (shrink)

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a media literacy intervention targeting, for the first time, the specific topic of Performance and Appearance Enhancing Substances use in high-school students. Overall, 389 students aged between 13 and 19 years participated to a media literacy intervention while 103 students aged between 14 and 19 year were considered as the control group. In two separate occasions over the course of six consecutive months, students in both groups filled out a (...) set of questionnaires which included measures of social-cognitive beliefs and a self-reported measure of retrospective use of doping and supplements. Compared to students in the control group = 1.96; SD= 0.85; and Mean= 2.09; SD= 0.94), intervention students on average expressed relatively stronger attitudes against doping use over time = 2.2; SD= 0.85; and Mean= 2.05; SD= 0.82). Students in the latter group also showed a statistically significant decrease in self-reported supplement use = 6.7%; Use= 3.8%;p= 0.05, McNemar Test). Interestingly, albeit marginally significant, students in the control group showed a relative increment in the self-reported use of supplements over time = 4.9%; Use= 8.7%;p= 0.22, McNemar Test). Overall, the media literacy intervention investigated in the present study was effective in decreasing adolescent student’s positive attitudes toward doping use and in reducing the use of legal PAES. These findings supported the generalizability and the usefulness of a media literacy approach in the specific field of PAES. (shrink)

Health Care professionals working in disaster situations have to face urgent choices which diverge from their normal deontological ethos and are more utilitarian. Such is the triage system used to choose whom to treat. Instead of entering a crisis these professionals should be thought that ethics is not harmonizable to all situations and that there are situations in which saving as many lives as possible mean sacrificing others. This calls for defining a perimeter zone in which such choices occur, and (...) a time frame (a space–time niche) in which it ought to be considered ethical and legitimate to use such value laden choices. (shrink)

Este artículo tiene como objetivo dilucidar la función que cumple el temor reverencial en el Leviatán de Thomas Hobbes y en la Ciencia Nueva de Giambattista Vico como principio del mundo civil. Se centra la atención en la imaginación y en la religión como elementos fundantes de las instituciones humanas, analizando sus implicaciones.Palabras clave: Vico, Hobbes, política, temor, “terror”.This article aims to elucidate the role of ‘awe’ in Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan and in Giambattista Vico’s Scienza Nuova as a principle of (...) civilian world. The focus is on imagination and religion as foundational elements of human institutions, analyzing its implications.Keywords: Vico, Hobbes, politics, fear, “awe”. (shrink)

Perkins, Patricio Agustín. Respuesta al comentario de Juan Diego Bogotá “La relación filosófica entre Husserl y Avenarius en Problemas fundamentales de la fenomenología.” Ideas y Valores 65.160 (2016): 286-289.

Aristotle famously distinguishes between merely doing a virtuous action and acting in the way in which a virtuous person would. Against an interpretation prominent in recent scholarship, I argue that ‘acting virtuously,’ in the sense of exercising a virtue actually possessed, is prior to ‘virtuous action,’ understood generically. I propose that the latter notion is best understood as a derivative abstraction from the former, building upon a reading of a neglected distinction between per se and coincidentally just action in Nicomachean (...) Ethics 5, and thus shed light on the meaning and philosophical significance of the priority of acting from virtue. (shrink)

Philosophy & Social Criticism, Volume 48, Issue 6, Page 882-903, July 2022. Indigenous conservation through patrimonialization is the product of political and legal decisions made by a non-indigenous agent: the liberal state, using the law to retain a form of bios. We propose that patrimonialization is the device by which liberal states have processed and integrated indigenous claims into a form of bios ultimately designed to safeguard state legal structures. We argue that, to uphold the rule of law in contexts (...) of struggle and resistance that challenge the very understanding of the law, states respond by wielding the law in the form of the rule by law, that is, pushing the law to the limit to give normative content to the criteria by which the state conducts its affairs, without straying from the individual rights framework. We hold that the rule by law is an operation that defines the patrimonialization of indigenous peoples. It increases their visibility while imposing limits on political action to keep them from becoming sui juris subjects capable of breaching the distinction between zoe and bios. In this article, we try to understand the political–ideological intent of these decisions, the intentions beyond the letter of the law of patrimonialized peoples. (shrink)

In order to discuss the relations between history and theory on Aristotle, this paper analyses the internal structure of an Aristotle’s work, The Athenian Constitution, and tries to evaluate – in this same work (but also with regard to Aristotle’s Politics) – which kind of bonds between history and theory turn out to be seen if one speculates the formation of the theory based on political facts and, conversely, the arrangement of the facts based on political theorizing. This frame enables (...) the author to conclude that Aristotle formulates his political theory taking into account historical evidences and that he incorporates them in his considerations on the natural and social evolution of the Polis. (shrink)

La concepción de _disciplina_ y la reflexión sobre las disciplinas liberales en la filosofía temprana de Agustín se encuentran mayormente en su obra _De ordine_. Allí, el Hiponense describe la sabiduría de las artes liberales como modesta y sucinta, de modo más prescriptivo que descriptivo. Por otra parte, en _Retractationes_, el autor reseña su proyecto de volver a pensar las disciplinas liberales dedicando una obra a cada una de ellas. Esta empresa inconclusa dio lugar a una obra sobre la gramática, (...) perdida en tiempos de Agustín, y otra sobre la música. En _De musica_, Agustín describe el funcionamiento de la sensibilidad y su articulación con la racionalidad que culmina en el reconocimiento de Dios en el alma. Intentaremos mostrar cómo la dimensión psicológica del funcionamiento de la sensibilidad permite volver sobre el concepto de disciplina y comprender las disciplinas liberales mediante el desarrollo de una de ellas en particular tomando como eje el acercamiento a lo divino por la vía racional. (shrink)

Aristotle’s soul is a first principle (an ‘efficient cause’) of every vital change in an animal, in the way that a craft is a cause of its product’s coming-to-be. We argue that the soul’s causal efficacy cannot therefore be reduced to the formal constitution of vital phenomena, or to discrete interventions into independently constituted processes, but involves the exercise of vital powers. This reading does better justice to Aristotle’s conception of craft as a rational productive disposition; and it captures the (...) soul’s continuous causal role as that which brings about all forms of vital change and underwrites their unity. (shrink)

The primary basis for historical research is literature in the form of both manuscripts and printed works. Hence the significance of knowing the essential bibliographic sources of the history of America, a comprehensive list of which is provided in this paper.

El trabajo analiza la estructura de L'Action (1893) del filósofo francés Maurice Blondel en tres niveles diferentes según el modelo de la configuración triádica de la temporalidad. El primer nivel está implícito en la analítica de la acción llevada a cabo en la Introduction a la obra; el segundo nivel se identifica con el análisis de la pasividad del primer momento de la cuarta parte; el tercer nivel abarca la obra considerada en su globalidad, extendiéndose a la problemática del fenómeno (...) de la acción, de la demostración del único ser necesario y de la alternativa de la acción. El análisis pretende demostrar que las dimensiones antecedente, presente y adveniente de la temporalidad están a la base de la comprensión de esta obra blondeliana. (shrink)

Analizo la afirmación husserliana «Los vivos despiertan al no vivo», en cuanto caracteriza la condición de posibilidad para el progreso humano desde la perspectiva del vínculo entre un niño y su madre. Primero, describo el ámbito fenomenológico en donde se inscribe esta problemática, i.e. la fenomenología constructiva. Segundo, analizo el tema del proto–niño [Urkind] y de la condición de posibilidad para su progreso según se presenta en el anexo XLV de la Husserliana XV. Tercero, amplío la cuestion indagando la condición (...) de posibilidad del progreso humano desde la perspectiva de la humanidad como tal. (shrink)

El concepto de igualdad articula el análisis de Agustín de Hipona en su diálogo De musica. Agustín comienza por el estudio técnico del ritmo de los versos latinos con la función de organizar los pies métricos de acuerdo con su cercanía a la igualdad. La cercanía a la igualdad es el criterio de la delectación, entendida como respuesta de los sentidos ante las proporciones simples. El análisis racional de la experiencia estética da lugar al ascenso del alma hacia Dios, identificado (...) como fundamento de la belleza y de la delectación por las cosas proporcionadas y bellas. Este pasaje de la teoría musical a la filosofía de la música con alcances teológicos articula una teoría estética que aborda la experiencia estética y la reflexión sobre esta experiencia. Sostendremos que los tres momentos del diálogo permiten comprender el concepto de aequalitas de acuerdo con tres perspectivas: aritmética, estética y teológica. La igualdad aritmética es la relación entre dos cantidades iguales. La igualdad estética refiere a las relaciones entre las cantidades de la realidad temporal en tanto que son percibidas y respecto de su belleza. Por último, la igualdad teológica es una igualdad suprema, divina y ajena a la multiplicidad. (shrink)

At least for those who uphold the rationality of morality, ethics and practical reason are not two distinct topics: an ethically sound agent is one whose practical reason functions as it should. Take, for instance, the greatest historical figures. Aristotle claimed that no virtue of character can exist without practical wisdom—the excellence of practical, deliberative reason. And Kant thought that the categorical imperative, the ultimate moral principle that governs a good will, was at the same time the fundamental principlof practical (...) reasoning because the will simply ispractical reason. Even before any philosophical theory of the connection between acting well and the exercise of a rational power is in view, our moral practices strongly suggest that there is one. For we take it for granted that, in an important range of cases, when an agent fails to act as she should, something has gone awry with the agent and not just with her acts, and, furthermore, that the agent herself may be held responsible for this. In calling an agent who acts unethically "irrational," we are saying these two things. (shrink)

The article argues for the existence of an elective affinity between the systems theory of Niklas Luhmann and German philosophical anthropology, affinity that would bring to light a 'blind spot' of the functionalism of the equivalence that is placed in the antithesis of the so called anti humanism in Luhmann. The question asked by the German sociologist: which self-projection of man is behind the assumptions of functionalist thinking? He responded: the man as problem solver in a transcendental sense. As well (...) as in Goethe elective affinity of a 'new' theoretical content with pre-existing materials, in the case that concerns us, such pre-existing materials would have had a known address, so that the originality of Luhmann would be in a new composition of categories. The new luhmannian composition takes shape, at least in the following arguments: the distinction from man/environment to the distinction system/environment; the turn from contingency to double contingency; complexity and its reduction in German philosophy to complexity and its reduction in systems theory; from categories of self-reference and self-observation to the theory of the observer; the offset of the human and the world to the offset of society; the functionalism of the German philosophy to the functionalism of the equivalence. El artículo postula la existencia de una afinidad electiva entre la Teoría de Sistemas de Niklas Luhmann y la Antropología Filosófica Alemana , afinidad que traería a la luz un ‘punto ciego’ del funcionalismo de la equivalencia que se coloca en la antítesis del mentado antihumanismo luhmanniano. A la pregunta que el mismo sociólogo alemán se planteaba: ¿qué autoproyección del hombre está detrás de las suposiciones del pensamiento funcionalista?, se respondía: el hombre como solucionador de problemas en un sentido trascendental. Tesis antropológica central de la AFA. Así como en Goethe afinidad electiva dice de una ‘nueva composición’ teórica con materiales prexistentes, en el caso que nos ocupa, tales materiales preexistentes tendrían domicilio conocido, de modo que la originalidad de Luhmann estaría en una nueva composición de categorías de una tradición antropológica muy desarrollada en su época y país. La nueva composición luhmanniana toma forma, al menos, en los siguientes desplazamientos argumentales: de la distinción hombre/entorno a la distinción sistema/entorno; del giro a la contingencia al giro a la doble contingencia; de la complejidad y su reducción en la AFA a la complejidad y su reducción en la teoría de sistemas; de las categorías de autorreferencia y de autoobservación a la teoría del observador; del descentramiento de lo humano y del mundo al descentramiento de la sociedad; del funcionalismo de la AFA al funcionalismo de la equivalencia. (shrink)

La objeción que Simmias formula en el Fedón (85e-86d) responde al tercer argumento presentado por Sócrates acerca de la inmortalidad del alma, a saber, el argumento de la afinidad (78b-84b). Allí Simmias sugiere que el alma es una especie de armonía. Como la armonía desaparece tras la destrucción de la lira, entonces hay que afirmar que el alma desaparece tras la destrucción del cuerpo. O bien, habría que afirmar que la armonía sobrevive a la destrucción de la lira, lo cual (...) es absurdo. Ante la objeción, Sócrates formula tres refutaciones que se dirigen específicamente contra la tesis del alma como armonía. Proponemos que ἁρμονία debe entenderse como afinación para comprender el sentido de la objeción de Simmias y de las refutaciones de Sócrates. Esta tesis del alma como ἁρμονία fue atribuida mayormente al pitagorismo, especialmente a Filolao. No obstante, si se entiende el término ἁρμονία como afinación, se presentan problemas teóricos para aceptar la atribución. (shrink)

El presente ensayo aborda el trabajo realizado por Miguel Rojas Mix en América Imaginaria en torno a la construcción de la imagen fantástica de América y sus habitantes en Europa en tiempos de la conquista y colonización del Nuevo Mundo. En primer lugar, se revisan las tesis del autor sobre el imaginario, donde se comprende la función de la imagen en relación con la construcción de la identidad del otro tras el supuesto arribo de Colón a las Indias occidentales. Para (...) continuar, en segundo lugar, se lleva a cabo el análisis de las imágenes del monstruo en la teratología del siglo XVI para comprender su rol clave en la deshumanización del otro. En tercer lugar, se describen los avances de la cartografía en paralelo con la proyección de la imagen fantástica del territorio de América, entendida como la continuación de la teratología por otros medios, como un modo de afianzar la conquista y explotación de las tierras que reclama para sí la Corona de Castilla, así como otras potencias europeas. La relevancia de esta revisión se cifra en evaluar, a partir del atlas que propone Rojas-Mix, la pervivencia del imaginario precientífico en la construcción de la imagen del otro colonizado en América hasta nuestros días. (shrink)