La obra de Robert Musil Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften no sólo se considera una de las cumbres de la novela del siglo XX, sino que constituye también un ensayo de profundo calado teórico político sobre la nación y los nacionalismos en la Europa de entreguerras. La crisis del Imperio austrohúngaro sirve de motivo al autor para desarrollar una crítica profunda de algunos de los fundamentos teóricos fundamentales del pensamiento político moderno. Este artículo muestra cómo la crítica sistemática a la que (...) el nacionalismo esencialista y racista se somete en la obra se basa en una revisión de dos de los presupuestos filosóficos que la hacen posible: la concepción lineal del tiempo y la historia, y la metafísica del sujeto. El análisis explora las profunda relación que existe en la obra entre la identidad individual y la identidad colectiva, entre la crisis del sujeto unitario moderno como individuo autónomo y las dificultades de la construcción de un concepto pluralista, democrático e inclusivo de Nación. Palabras-clave: Nacionalismo, nacionalidades, Imperio Austro-Húngaro, Robert Musil, identidad colectiva. (shrink)

Frente a la tradicional discusión contemporánea en mesas separadas de la teoría política verde y las teorías de la igualdad, se propone aquí una lectura igualitarista del principio de sustentabilidad. Junto a la responsabilidad hacia las generaciones futuras y el respeto a los límites de los ecosistemas, la sustentabilidad debe incorporar como un aspecto fundamental la igualdad de oportunidades de bienestar en el interior de cada país, así como entre Norte y Sur. La sustitución de la hipótesis de la abundancia (...) por la hipótesis de la escasez requiere que los debates en torno a la igualdad incluyan el horizonte teórico de la sustentabilidad y sus exigencias. Todo ello se traduce en la postulación de una ciudadanía ecológico-igualitaria netamente diferenciada de la ciudadanía liberal medioambiental. (shrink)

The work of Robert Musil Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften is not only considered one of the heights of the twentieth century novel, but also constitutes an essay of deep political theoretical depth on the nation and nationalism in interwar Europe. The crisis of the Austro-Hungarian Empire serves as the reason for the author to develop a deep critique of some of the fundamental theoretical foundations of modern political thought. This article shows how the systematic criticism to which essentialist and racist (...) nationalism is subjected in the work is based on a review of two of the philosophical assumptions that make it possible: the linear conception of time and history, and the metaphysics of the subject. The analysis explores the deep relationship that exists in the work between individual identity and collective identity, between the crisis of the modern unitary subject as an autonomous individual and the difficulties of the construction of a pluralist and democratic concept, inclusive of Nation. (shrink)

En este artículo se exponen las principales ideas de Hans Kelsen y Carl Schmitt en torno a la guerra y la paz en las relaciones internacionales a partir de la idea de ‘pacif is- mo jurídico’ y se valora su sentido a la luz del debate contemporáneo sobre las lamadas “guerra humanitaria” y “guerra contra el terrorismo”.

El tratamiento dispensado al hecho religioso en nuestro país y en general en las sociedades avanzadas es discriminatorio respecto a otros colectivos y grupos sociales. Discriminatorio en una dimensión interna y externa. Internamente, porque no todos los grupos religiosos reciben el mismo trato jurídico. Externamente, porque otros grupos sociales distintos a los religiosos, que buscan otros fines, no reciben el mismo trato que los grupos religiosos, sino más desfavorable. Junto a una primera discriminación en el ámbito extraeclesial -el de las (...) confesiones religiosas en su relación con las demás asociaciones del país-, hay otros dos supuestos en el ámbito intraeclesial -el de las relaciones de los grupos religiosos entre sí-, el contraste de las opciones fideístas y las no fideístas críticas y el de las confesiones religiosas mayoritarias y minoritarias. En uno y otro caso, interna y externamente, el hecho religioso se convierte en un criterio de discriminación, sin que en mi opinión existan razones objetivas suficientes. (shrink)

E l auto r de f iend e un a democraci a a r mónica , qu e n o e s u n model o nu ev o d e democracia sin o l a relació n equilibrad a d e la s do s modalidade s clásica s d e democracia , l a representat iv a y l a directa , a la s qu e s e añadirí a l a democraci a pa r ticipat iv (...) a prom o vid a po r lo s ciudadanos, ind i vidualment e o e n gr upo , a l ma r ge n d e lo s pa r tido s políticos . L a resultant e serí a un nu evo marc o polític o co n meno s democraci a representat iva (l a d e lo s pa r tido s político s y lo s representante s electos) , q u e actualment e e s l a democraci a e xclus iva y e xclu y ent e en la s sociedade s política s a v anzadas , má s democraci a direct a (l a d e lo s ciudadano s qu e sin inte r mediario s v otaría n política s y n o sól o a su s representantes ) y u n nu evo espaci o polític o ocupad o po r lo s ciudadanos-actore s político s si n militanci a pa r tidista . E n cad a uno d e esto s tre s modelo s democrático s s e analiz a l a de f inició n de l modelo , e l escenari o que actualment e atr a vies a y la s propuesta s concreta s d e cambio. (shrink)

Este trabajo estudia el pensamiento teológico y filosófico de Francisco Suárez sobre la libertad. El problema de la Concordia entre gracia y libertad, suprime el concepto de naturaleza como quicio del pensamiento filosófico cristiano. La libertad se sitúa como causa metafísica formal en Suárez, no como fundamento a la manera moderna de un Yo afincado en sus solas fuerzas, sino como principio heurístico y creador de un ser lleno de posibilidades cuya afirmación: “soy libre”, sintetiza la filosofía suareciana, (...) y hace inteligibles las realidades dadas por la experiencia concreta para obtener una comprensión superior.Palabras llave: Francisco Suárez; teología neoescolástica; filosofía neoescolástica.This work studies Francisco Suárez’s theological and philosophical thought about freedom. The problem of agreement between grace and freedom suppresses the concept of nature as physis and its ethiology, as a referential shelf for Christian philosophical thought. In Suárez, freedom is placed as a formal metaphysical cause, not as a foundation in the modern manner of an “I” based on its sole forces, but as heuristic principle that creates a being full of possibilities, whose statement: “I am free”, synthesizes Suárez’s philosophy and makes intelligible the realities given by concrete experience in order to obtain a superior understanding.Palabras llave: Francisco Suárez; theology; liberty. (shrink)

La corrupción política presenta diversas definiciones en la doctrina según se enmarque en términos legales estrictamente o abarque a supuestos de moral pública. De ahí deriva también la mayor o menor extensión del abanico de tipos de corrupción política y sus causas. Objetivo central del artículo es señalar y explicar los remedios para la aminoración de la corrupción política: la independencia y autonomía de los poderes públicos, la conciencia y práctica de la moral pública ciudadana, la asunción de responsabilidades políticas, (...) la institucionalización de la moral pública por medio de la creación de órganos de supervisión y control en las instituciones públicas y los partidos y la limitación de la discrecionalidad administrativa. (shrink)

En este trabajo se indaga en la recepción del republicanismo clásico en España e Hispanoamérica, recepción que en ambos escenarios fue superficial y parcial. En España, es posible hallar huellas de esta tradición filosófico-política especialmente en el movimiento comunero cuyos integrantes esgrimían una ideología que recogía parte de la doctrina republicana y llegaron a poner en práctica, incluso, algunos de sus aspectos más destacables, si bien no surgió ninguna obra doctrinal importante. En Hispanoamérica, por su parte, todas las naciones, tras (...) su independencia, se enfrentaron al reto de organizar sus sociedades y sus Estados, lo que les llevó a bucear en las fuentes clásicas y renacentistas de la tradición republicana tanto como en las modernas de la tradición liberal. En cualquier caso, las tesis clásicas apenas llegaron a tener influencia real a pesar de que fueran esgrimidas, ni más ni menos que por el propio Simón Bolívar, entre otros. (shrink)

Los Anales de la Cátedra Francisco Suárez se han ganado a pulso, a lo largo de los años, sobre todo gracias a la tenacidad de Nicolás López Calera y al equipo formado en torno a él en la Facultad de Derecho de Granada, el mérito de ser la principal referencia bibliográfica de la Filosofía del Derecho en España junto al Anuario de Filosofía del Derecho en la etapa en que J. J. Gil Cremades fue su director. Otras revistas se (...) han ocupado menos del filosofar jurídico que, fundamentalmente, de lo que podríamos llamar problemas de teoría general y de interpretación del derecho. Y ahora, por la amistosa pero tenaz compulsión de M. Saavedra, me veo en la obligación de contribuir a esta entrega de una revista prestigiosa, con no poca vergüenza, con la descripción de mi más que modesta aportación a la reflexión jurídico-política en los últimos casi cincuenta años. Las páginas que siguen expresarán pues una autopercepción, que sin duda deberá ser corregida por el lector. No obstante, trataré de introducir datos que puedan rectificar lo que me parecen errores de algunas publicaciones sobre la filosofía del derecho española en general y sobre mi propio trabajo en particular. (shrink)

Me propongo caracterizar brevemente el marco histórico en que se ha producido el fenómeno de la globalización para destacar algunos de sus rasgos. A partir de ellos intentaré describir los principales cambios que ha determinado la globalización en las instituciones políticas de gobierno y apuntar algunos de los interrogantes que eso plantea al filosofar sobre la sociedad y sobre el derecho.

Contemporary biological research has suggested that some host–microbiome multispecies systems (referred to as “holobionts”) can in certain circumstances evolve as unique biological individual, thus being a unit of selection in evolution. If this is so, then it is arguably the case that some biological adaptations have evolved at the level of the multispecies system, what we call hologenomic adaptations. However, no research has yet been devoted to investigating their nature, or how these adaptations can be distinguished from adaptations at the (...) species-level (genomic adaptations). In this paper, we cover this gap by investigating the nature of hologenomic adaptations. By drawing on the case of the evolution of sanguivory diet in vampire bats, we argue that a trait constitutes a hologenomic adaptation when its evolution can only be explained if the holobiont is considered the biological individual that manifests this adaptation, while the bacterial taxa that bear the trait are only opportunistic beneficiaries of it. We then use the philosophical notions of emergence and inter-identity to explain the nature of this form of individuality and argue why it is special of holobionts. Overall, our paper illustrates how the use of philosophical concepts can illuminate scientific discussions, in the trend of what has recently been called metaphysics of biology. (shrink)

Bourrat and Griffiths :33, 2018) have recently argued that most of the evidence presented by holobiont defenders to support the thesis that holobionts are evolutionary individuals is not to the point and is not even adequate to discriminate multispecies evolutionary individuals from other multispecies assemblages that would not be considered evolutionary individuals by most holobiont defenders. They further argue that an adequate criterion to distinguish the two categories is fitness alignment, presenting the notion of fitness boundedness as a criterion that (...) allows divorcing true multispecies evolutionary individuals from other multispecies assemblages and provides an adequate criterion to single out genuine evolutionary multispecies assemblages. A consequence of their criterion is that holobionts, as conventionally defined by hologenome defenders, are not evolutionary individuals except in very rare cases, and for very specific host-symbiont associations. This paper is a critical response to Bourrat and Griffiths’ arguments and a defence of the arguments presented by holobiont defenders. Drawing upon the case of the hologenomic basis of the evolution of sanguivory in vampire bats, I argue that Bourrat and Griffiths overlook some aspects of the biological nature of the microbiome that justifies the thesis that holobionts are evolutionarily different to other multispecies assemblages. I argue that the hologenome theory of evolution should not define the hologenome as a collection of genomes, but as the sum of the host genome plus some traits of the microbiome which together constitute an evolutionary individual, a conception I refer to as the stability of traits conception of the hologenome. Based on that conception I argue that the evidence presented by holobiont defenders is to the point, and supports the thesis that holobionts are evolutionary individuals. In this sense, the paper offers an account of the holobiont that aims to foster a dialogue between hologenome advocates and hologenome critics. (shrink)

This article provides a state of the art review of the philosophical literature on scientific representation. It first argues that the topic emerges historically mainly out of what may be called the modelling tradition. It then introduces a number of helpful analytical distinctions, and goes on to divide contemporary approaches to scientific representation into two distinct kinds, substantive and deflationary. Analogies with related discussions of artistic representation in aesthetics, and of the nature of truth in metaphysics are pursued. It is (...) finally urged that the most promising approaches - and the ones most likely to feature prominently in future developments - are deflationary. In particular, a defence is provided of a genuinely inferential conception of representation. (shrink)

This article provides a state-of-the-art review of the philosophical literature on scientific representation. It first argues that the topic emerges historically mainly out of what may be called the modelling tradition. It then introduces a number of helpful analytical distinctions and goes on to divide contemporary approaches to scientific representation into two distinct kinds, substantive and deflationary. Analogies with related discussions of artistic representation in aesthetics and the nature of truth in metaphysics are pursued. It is finally urged that the (...) most promising approaches—and the ones most likely to feature prominently in future developments—are deflationary. In particular, a defense is provided of a genuinely inferential conception of representation. (shrink)

Computer simulations have conventionally been understood to be either extensions of formal methods such as mathematical models or as special cases of empirical practices such as experiments. Here, I argue that computer simulations are best understood as instruments. Understanding them as such can better elucidate their actual role as well as their potential epistemic standing in relation to science and other scientific methods, practices and devices.

In this paper I argue that Artificial Intelligence and the many data science methods associated with it, such as machine learning and large language models, are first and foremost epistemic technologies. In order to establish this claim, I first argue that epistemic technologies can be conceptually and practically distinguished from other technologies in virtue of what they are designed for, what they do and how they do it. I then proceed to show that unlike other kinds of technology (_including_ other (...) epistemic technologies) AI can be uniquely positioned as an epistemic technology in that it is primarily designed, developed and deployed to be used in _epistemic contexts_ such as inquiry, it is specifically designed, developed and deployed to manipulate _epistemic content_ such as data, _and_ it is designed, developed and deployed to do so particularly through _epistemic operations_ such as prediction and analysis. As has been shown in recent work in the philosophy and ethics of AI (Alvarado, AI and Ethics, 2022a), understanding AI as an epistemic technology will also have significant implications for important debates regarding our relationship to AI technologies. This paper includes a brief overview of such implications, particularly those pertaining to explainability, opacity, trust and even epistemic harms related to AI technologies. (shrink)

The hologenome concept of evolution is a hypothesis about the evolution of animals and plants. It asserts that the evolution of animals and plants was partially triggered by their interactions with their symbiotic microbiomes. In that vein, the hologenome concept posits that the holobiont (animal host + symbionts of the microbiome) is a unit of selection. -/- The hologenome concept has been severely criticized on the basis that selection on holobionts would only be possible if there were a tight transgenerational (...) host-genotype-to-symbiont-genotype connection. As our current evidence suggests that this is not the case for most of the symbiont species that compose the microbiome of animals and plants, the opportunity for holobiont selection is very low in relation to the opportunity for selection on each of the species that compose the host microbiome. Therefore, holobiont selection will always be disrupted ‘from below’, by selection on each of the species that compose the microbiome. -/- This thesis constitutes a conceptual effort to defend philosophically the hologenome concept. I argue that the criticism according to which holobiont selection requires tight transgenerational host-genotype-to-symbiont-genotype connection is grounded on a metaphysical view of the world according to which the biological hierarchy needs to be nested, such that each new level of selection includes every entity from below. Applied to hologenomes, it entails that the hologenome is a collection of genomes, and selection of hologenomes is assumed to entail cospeciation of the host with the species that constitute its microbiome. -/- Against that interpretation, I propose the ‘stability of traits’ account, according to which hologenome evolution is the result of the action of natural selection in a non-nested hierarchical world. In that vein, hologenome evolution does not entail cospeciation, and thus it does not require tight transgenerational host-genotype-to-symbiont-genotype connection. By embracing a multilevel selection perspective, I argue that hologenome evolution results from the simultaneous action of natural selection on each of the lineages that compose the microbiome, and on the assemblage composed by the host genome plus the functional traits of its microbiome. Hologenome selection occurs when the evolution of the traits of the microbiome result from their effects on the fitness of the host, and it can take the form of multilevel selection 1, or multilevel selection 2. In both cases, hologenome selection entails the evolution of microbiome traits, as well as evolution of the host genome, rather than cospeciation of lineages. (shrink)

Bioethics, Volume 36, Issue 2, Page 121-133, February 2022.

It is widely supposed that evolutionary debunking arguments against morality constitute a type of epistemological objection to our moral beliefs. In particular, the debunking force of such arguments is not supposed to depend on the metaphysical claim that moral facts do not exist. In this paper I argue that this standard epistemological construal of EDAs is highly misleading, if not mistaken. Specifically, I argue that the most widely discussed EDAs all make key and controversial metaphysical claims about the nature of (...) morality or the possibility of moral truth that belie their apparently epistemological character. I show that the debunking force of these EDAs derives largely from metaphysical claims about morality and their implications for the possibility of moral reduction, rather than from epistemological worries associated with the existence of an causal/non-moral explanation of our moral judgments. The paper briefly concludes with a dilemma that I believe confronts all EDAs such as those discussed in this paper: either such arguments are unsound, or else they prove too much, debunking our knowledge of science and the external world, as well as morality. (shrink)

A ‘companions in guilt’ strategy against moral error theory aims to show that the latter proves too much: if sound, it supports an implausible error-theoretic conclusion in other areas such as epistemic or practical reasoning. Christopher Cowie [2016 Cowie, C. 2016. Good News for Moral Error Theorists: A Master Argument Against Companions in Guilt Strategies, Australasian Journal of Philosophy 94/1: 115–30.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]] has recently produced what he claims is a ‘master argument’ against (...) all such strategies. The essence of his argument is that CG arguments cannot work because they are afflicted by internal incoherence or inconsistency. I argue, first, that Cowie's master argument does not succeed. Beyond this, I argue that there is no good reason to think that any such argument—one that purports to identify an internal incoherence in CG arguments—can succeed. Second, I argue that the main substantive area of disagreement between error theorists and CG theorists essentially concerns the conceptual profile of epistemic reasons—specifically, whether they are strongly categorical—not the ontological question of whether such reasons exist. I then develop an argument in favour of the CG theorist's position by considering the moral error theorist's arguments in support of the conceptual claim that moral reasons are strongly categorical. These include, notably, criticisms made by Joyce [2011] and Olson [2014] of Finlay's [2008] ‘end relational’ view of morality, according to which moral reasons are relative to some end or standard, hence not strongly categorical. Examining these criticisms, I argue that, based on what moral error theorists have said regarding the conceptual profile of moral reasons, there is a strong case to be made that moral reasons are strongly categorical if and only if epistemic reasons are. (shrink)

The rapid development of large language models (LLM’s) and of their associated interfaces such as ChatGPT has brought forth a wave of epistemic and moral concerns in a variety of domains of inquiry...

The rapid expansion of computational tools and of data science methods in healthcare has, undoubtedly, raised a whole new set of bioethical challenges. As Laacke and colleagues rightly note,...

The units or levels of selection debate concerns the question of what kind of biological systems are stable enough that part of their evolution is a result of the process of natural selection acting at their level. Traditionally, the debate has concerned at least two different, though related, questions: the question of the level at which interaction with the environment occurs, and the question of the level at which reproduction occurs. In recent years, biologists and philosophers have discussed a new (...) aspect of this debate, namely the possibility that certain multi-species consortia formed by a host and its microbiome may act as a unit of selection. This thesis, however, has not been without criticism, as it is doubtful that such consortia could meet the conditions required to achieve the degree of stability that would allow them to experience natural selection. The purpose of this paper is to systematically examine such criticisms and to defend the thesis that the holobiont/hologenome can act as a genuine level of selection both in the form of an interactor and in the form of a reproducer. To do so, it will be argued that the microbiome should be characterized in functional rather than taxonomic terms. (shrink)

Within the climate justice debate, the ‘beneficiary pays’ principle holds that those who benefit from greenhouse emissions associated with industrialization ought to pay for the costs of mitigating and adapting to their adverse effects. This principle constitutes a claim of inter-generational justice, and it is widely believed that the non-identity problem raises serious difficulties for any such claim. After briefly sketching the rationale behind ‘beneficiary pays,’ this paper offers a new way of understanding the claim that persons in developed societies (...) have benefited from industrialization. It argues that when we think of the claim in this new way, it evades the non-identity problem entirely. Some objections to this approach are then considered and rebutted. The paper concludes by comparing the present, relatively modest solution to the nonidentity problem with a much more ambitious attempt from the recent literature. (shrink)

The category of expressive speech acts has traditionally proven elusive of definition in contrast to other types of speech acts. This might explain why this group of speech acts has been less researched. The present paper aims to redress this imbalance by analysing the expressive speech acts performed by two groups of university students in two educational chats, carried out in English or in Spanish, respectively. The main purpose of the study is to find out if students express their emotions (...) when interacting online and, if the use of their mother tongue or not affects their performance of expressive speech acts in terms of frequency and type. To this purpose, Weigand’s taxonomy of speech acts was followed, since it provides a more systematic delimitation of the traditional category of “expressive acts”. Her distinction between emotives and declaratives was thus applied to the dataset under scrutiny. Results show that students opt for performing declarative acts but refrain from expressing their own emotions in an educational setting. As for the use of English or Spanish, no significant differences were observed, which reveals that the use of their mother tongue does not seem to affect the kind of acts performed. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to analyse Spanish conversational structure, more concretely, to investigate in depth the role of the third move, or follow-up, outside classroom discourse. Since first introduced by Sinclair and Coulthard, the follow-up move has attracted a great deal of attention, as proved by numerous studies. However, these studies have mostly focused on English while Spanish has been neglected. The present study intends to fill in this gap by analysing a corpus of 50 conversational exchanges in (...) Peninsular Spanish. The analysis is qualitative and based on Tsui’s conversational framework, which has proved methodologically useful. As results will show, the presence or absence of the third move in Spanish conversations seems to rely heavily on a gender-based distinction. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo pretendemos indagar la manera como ciertas lecturas resultan “interesadas” y están motivadas en necesidades que emergen del presente mismo de la lectura. Estas políticas de lectura recuperan o ignoran obras y autores dentro del canon cultural de una nación. Jorge Abelardo Ramos editó por primera vez a Manuel Ugarte en la Argentina, un libro que databa de 1910 (El porvenir de la América Latina). Le introduce un prólogo al que llama “Redescubrimiento de Ugarte”. La figura de (...) este socialista argentino le sirvió a Ramos para alcanzar una síntesis entre socialismo y nación latinoamericana. In this paper we intend to investigate how certain readings are “concerned” and motivated in needs that emerge of the present itself of the reading. These reading policies retrieve or ignore books and authors within a nation’s cultural canon. Jorge Abelardo Ramos edited by Manuel Ugarte first time in Argentina, a book dating from 1910 (El porvenir de la América Latina). Ramos introduces a prologue called “Redescubrimiento de Ugarte”. The figure of this argentine socialist helped Ramos to achieve a synthesis between socialism and Latin American nation. (shrink)