This essay has two parts: 1) a negative or destructive one, which consists of showing that there is no anomaly, even apparent, in the concept of ‘truth’ (and ‘falsehood’), so that the available theories of truth are not justified, either to solve or react to this alleged problem; 2) a positive or constructive one, which consists of proposing a characterization of truth (and falsehood) based solely on the “objective aspect” of this concept. Here, I will associate the concept of ‘truth’ (...) with the concept of ‘existence’, taking them as two different species of a common genus. Along the way, I will critically analyze the theories of truth “available on the market” and argue that truth only has an “objective aspect”. (shrink)

RESUMO De acordo com a teoria das funções de verdade, a verdade/falsidade de uma proposição é computável a partir da verdade/falsidade das suas proposições “internas”: para cada proposição há uma função entre valores de verdade. Aplicada a proposições modais, origina a semântica dos mundos possíveis e, aplicada a proposições normativas, origina uma semântica que reduz os conceitos normativos aos conceitos modais, a semântica modal. Esta redução fica posta em questão com a existência dos chamados ‘paradoxos da lógica deôntica’. Estes não (...) podem ser vistos como meras anomalias, mas devem ser vistos como indícios da incorreção da semântica modal. Em todos eles, a regra da necessitação, assim como o axioma da distribuição, “não batem certo”. Não obstante, o cumprimento/incumprimento das normas já é computável a partir da verdade/falsidade das proposições que expressam os estados de coisas devidos. ABSTRACT According to the theory of truth-functions the truth/falsehood of a proposition is computable from the truth/falsehood of its “internal” propositions: for each proposition there is a function between truth values. Possible world semantics arises from the application of that theory to modal propositions; modal semantics - the reduction of normative concepts to modal concepts - arises from its application to normative propositions. But the ‘paradoxes of deontic logic’, as they are called, undermine such reduction: they cannot be seen as mere anomalies but instead as evidence for the wrongness of modal semantics. In all these paradoxes, the necessitation rule, as well as the distribution axiom, fail. Nevertheless, the fulfillment/nonfulfillment of norms is computable from the truth/falsehood of the propositions which express the required states of affairs. (shrink)

The clarification of the relation between norm and value was historically one of the main philosophical concerns of the phenomenological current of the movement known as Philosophy of Values. One of its major characters, Nicolai Hartrnann, in his bookEthik, argues in favor of almost identifying one with the other. For him, the “ideal ought-to-be” (the one indifferent to the way reality is) already belongs to the nature of values, since they have an inherent tendency towards reality. In this communication, I’ll (...) criticize this thesis based on the meaning of the concepts involved. (shrink)

Os casos de fraqueza da vontade (incontinência) são tidos como paradoxais. Há, pelo menos, uma tensão entre tais casos e a lei psicológica que relaciona avaliações e volições: se julgamos que fazer x é melhor do que fazer y, então queremos fazer x; porém, por vezes, julgamos que fazer x é melhor do que fazer y e, ainda assim, queremos fazer y em vez de x. Como noutras propostas, defendo que a incompatibilidade é aparente. Porém, não rejeito que haja verdadeiros (...) casos de fraqueza da vontade. Proponho que, em tais casos, há uma cisão entre a força psicológica e o conteúdo axiológico das avaliações: o que o agente representa como mais valioso não é o que se encontra mais representado como valioso no agente e, portanto, aquilo que tem eficácia causal. Proponho, ainda, que o sistema volitivo desenvolveu um mecanismo de correção de tais anomalias, pelo qual o agente tem a capacidade de determinar volições de acordo com a avaliação do melhor. (shrink)

Regarding the selection of the legislative representatives, the elective system is the system that most democratic organizations have adopted. It has become so present nowadays that we take for granted the identification between elective system and representative democracy. But is this identification a correct one? I argue that it is not, since the meaning of 'representative democracy' has no reference to specific mode of selection of the representatives. And, since democracy and other methods of selection are compatible, it should adopted (...) the best one. The criteria of competence for the exercise of the political power ought to be the adopted method of selection, for it is the best one. I too argue that, in the context of division of labor into public and private labor, this is precisely what public representation aims: to leave to the experts the exercise of public labor. (shrink)

The title of the paper is an allusion to Philip K. Dick’s book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (which inspired the movie Blade Runner) and aims, at once, to highlight the (possible) relation between Criminal Law and Artificial Intelligence in its two dimensions of criminal protection (hence the reference to ‘electric crimes’) and criminal liability (hence the reference to the androids’ dreams), within the background problem of knowing whether Artificial Intelligence is truly mind. The purpose of this paper is, (...) precisely, to identify whether there is indeed such relation, in those two dimensions, and making use of a mediating concept, the concept of ‘mind (or ‘mentality’). I argue that Artificial Intelligence “specimens” do not have a mind and, therefore, its protection and regulation by Criminal Law is impaired. I conclude by presenting a choice between a total irrelevance model of Artificial Intelligence to Criminal Law and a model in which Artificial Intelligence emerges as object and subject of Criminal Law by analogy with persons. (shrink)

Porventura, o principal problema a enfrentar em Filosofia Normativa é aquele que designarei de ‘problema da compatibilidade’: as normas têm duas características essenciais, a necessidade e a violabilidade, que parecem ser incompatíveis. De acordo com a primeira das características intrínsecas das normas, se p é obrigatório, então p tem de ser verdadeira. De acordo com a segunda das características intrínsecas das normas, mesmo sendo p obrigatório, p pode não ser verdadeira. A capacidade para acomodar esta aparente natureza paradoxal das normas (...) constitui o teste derradeiro de verdade de uma tese em Filosofia Normativa. Defendo que só uma tese passa este teste: a semântica condicional, fortemente inspirada no que Husserl diz nas Investigações Lógicas. Esta tese rivaliza directamente com a semântica dos mundos ideais, surgida a par do desenvolvimento da Lógica Deôntica no século XX. Para a semântica dos mundos ideais, ‘p é obrigatório’ significa ‘p é uma verdade em todos os mundos possíveis que são os ideais’. Como o mundo atual não é um mundo ideal, fica explicado o facto de p poder não ser verdadeira no mundo atual, mesmo havendo necessidade. E se o mundo atual for um mundo ideal? Continua a não haver violabilidade: a verdade de ‘p é obrigatório’ no mundo atual garante a verdade de ‘p’ no mundo atual. Seguindo a semântica dos mundos ideais, as normas são invioláveis em todos os mundos ideais. Nesta dissertação, defendo que o termo ‘necessário’ é ambíguo e que, no contexto normativo, é usado de um modo particular: não designa o conceito modal de necessidade mas o conceito de indispensabilidade. Dizer que p é normativamente necessário é o mesmo que dizer que p é indispensável (para alguma coisa). Ora, é possível que ‘p’ seja indispensável e falsa simultaneamente. (shrink)

This book addresses the European Court of Human Rights’ fairness standards in criminal appeal, filling a gap in this less researched area of studies. Based on a fair trial immediacy requirement, the Court has found several violations of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights at the appellate level by at least eighteen States of the Council of Europe in a vast array of cases, particularly in contexts of first instance acquittals overturning and of sentences increasing on appeal. (...) -/- On the one hand, the book critically engages this case-law with the law revisions it has recently inspired in European countries, as well as with the critiques and difficulties that it continues to raise. On the other hand, it interweaves insight from criminal procedure theory with new discoveries in the field of cognitive sciences (neuroscience of memory, philosophy of knowledge, AI), shedding an interdisciplinary light on the (in)adequacy and limits of the Strasbourg Court’s jurisprudence. (shrink)

We respond in this paper to various counter arguments advanced against our stance on conscientious objection accommodation. Contra Maclure and Dumont, we show that it is impossible to develop reliable tests for conscientious objectors' claims with regard to the reasonableness of the ideological basis of their convictions, and, indeed, with regard to whether they actually hold they views they claim to hold. We demonstrate furthermore that, within the Canadian legal context, the refusal to accommodate conscientious objectors would not constitute undue (...) hardship for such objectors. We reject concerns that refusing to accommodate conscientious objectors would limit the equality of opportunity for budding professionals holding particular ideological positions. We also clarify various misrepresentations of our views by respondents Symons, Glick and Jotkowitz, and Lyus. (shrink)

A questão sobre Deus em Aristóteles aparece na teoria sobre o primeiro motor imóvel, demonstrada no livro XII da Metafísica. Tudo o que se move é movido por outro. Entende Aristóteles que no universo há uma série indeterminada de motores e movidos. Todos os movimentos têm uma causa anterior. Mas, não é possível regredir ao infinito, pois todos e cada um sempre dependeriam de outro. Por esta razão, conclui o Estagirita que é necessário que exista um primeiro motor imóvel que (...) não seja movido por nenhum outro. Ora, se não existisse um primeiro motor absoluto, seria impossível o movimento gerado nos outros motores que compõem o universo. Neste estudo sobre a teoria aristotélica, que se tornou tradicional na teodiceia, apresentamos determinados passos da Metafísica com o auxílio de alguns comentadores sem, contudo, entrar em aporias importantes que o texto aristotélico vem suscitando entre os pesquisadores. (shrink)

Blanchette and Dunbar have claimed that when participants are allowed to draw on their own source analogs in the service of analogical argumentation, retrieval is less constrained by surface similarity than traditional experiments suggest. In two studies, we adapted this production paradigm to control for the potentially distorting effects of analogy fabrication and uneven availability of close and distant sources in memory. Experiment 1 assessed whether participants were reminded of central episodes from popular movies while generating analogies for superficially similar (...) versus superficially dissimilar target situations. In Experiment 2, we modified this procedure to assess the retrieval of autobiographic memories, more familiar to participants than fictional episodes. Both studies revealed a strong effect of surface similarity on the retrieval of participants' own sources, thus suggesting that the superficial bias typically observed in experimental studies—and simulated by most computational models—does not originate in a lack of ecological validity. (shrink)

Certification of banana plantations is widely used as a device for protecting and improving socio-economic conditions of wageworkers, including their incomes, working conditions and—increasingly—voice [related to labour relations and workplace representation]. However, to date, evidence about the effectiveness of certification in these domains is scarce. We collected detailed field data on economic benefits for improving household income, social benefits for labour practices, and the voice of wageworkers focusing on identity and identification issues amongst wageworkers at Fairtrade certified banana plantations and (...) comparable, non-certified plantations in the Dominican Republic. We used different types of regression models to identify significant relationships. Econometrical analysis of survey results complemented by field observations and outcomes from in-depth stakeholder interviews indicate that the impact of Fairtrade certification on wageworkers’ economic benefits is rather limited. However, the impact on the voice of wageworkers, is more evident. On Fairtrade certified plantations workers are more satisfied with the course of life and better represented. Thus while the additional value of Fairtrade certification on primary wages seems limited, Fairtrade has relevant positive effects on the labour force, particularly by delivering in-kind benefits, offering a sense of job-security, improving voice and enabling private savings. Benefits of certification, but also other interventions with a similar purpose, might therefore not be discerned in terms of economic benefits such as wages or basic labour conditions that are under direct control of national law, but they should be identified in terms of social benefits and improved norms of conduct for wageworker engagement. (shrink)

The ´, or world's con flagration, followed by the restoration of an identical world seems to go against the rationality of the Stoic god. The aim of this paper is to show that Cleanthes, the second head of the School, can avoid this paradox. According to Cleanthes, the con flagration is an inevitable side-effect of the necessary means used by god to sustain the world. Given that this side-effect is contrary to god's sustaining activity, but unavoidable, god's rationality requires the (...) restoration of an identical world once the con flagration subsides. The paper also deals with the relation between Cleanthes and other early Stoics on the topic of con flagration. In particular, Cleanthes' position seems to diff er from Chrysippus'. For in contrast with the Cleanthean god, who causes the con flagration as a side-effect only, the Chrysippean god, according to an in fluential interpretation put forward by Jaap Mansfeld, causes the con flagration as his ultimate cosmological goal. (shrink)

In this article we will argue that given certain conditions for the evolution of bi- ological controllers, these will necessarily evolve in the direction of incorporating consciousness capabilities. We will also see what are the necessary mechanics for the provision of these capabilities and extrapolate this vision to the world of artifi- cial systems postulating seven design principles for conscious systems. This article was published in the journal Neural Networks special issue on brain and conscious- ness.

El objetivo de este trabajo es, por una parte, ofrecer una nueva interpretación de la teoría estoica de los universales a la luz del debate entre nominalismo, conceptualismo y realismo, y, por otra, desentrañar un paralelismo entre el análisis propuesto por los estoicos de enunciados cuyo sujeto gramatical son términos genéricos, y el análisis propuesto por Russell de enunciados como "El actual rey de Francia es calvo". Al final del trabajo se estudian las bases metafísicas de la teoría estoica de (...) los universales y se señala una posible tensión en su interior. The aim of this paper is to offer a new interpretation of the Stoic theory of universals in the light of the debate between nominalism, conceptualism and realism, and to bring out a parallel between the analysis proposed by the Stoic Chrysippus of statements whose grammatical subject is a generic term, and the analysis developed by Russell of statements such as "The current King of France is bald". At the end of the paper, the metaphysical basis of the Stoic theory of universals is examined and a possible contradiction in it is brought out. (shrink)

Peer review is a widely accepted instrument for raising the quality of science. Peer review limits the enormous unstructured influx of information and the sheer amount of dubious data, which in its absence would plunge science into chaos. In particular, peer review offers the benefit of eliminating papers that suffer from poor craftsmanship or methodological shortcomings, especially in the experimental sciences. However, we believe that peer review is not always appropriate for the evaluation of controversial hypothetical science. We argue that (...) the process of peer review can be prone to bias towards ideas that affirm the prior convictions of reviewers and against innovation and radical new ideas. Innovative hypotheses are thus highly vulnerable to being “filtered out” or made to accord with conventional wisdom by the peer review process. Consequently, having introduced peer review, the Elsevier journal Medical Hypotheses may be unable to continue its tradition as a radical journal allowing discussion of improbable or unconventional ideas. Hence we conclude by asking the publisher to consider re-introducing the system of editorial review to Medical Hypotheses. (shrink)

En este trabajo discuto el argumento de Crisipo a favor de la indestructibilidad del cosmos que aparece en Eusebio, Praeparatio Evangelica 15.18.1-3. Este argumento complementa al que aparece en Plutarco, De Stoicorum Repugnantiis1052C, pero descansa sobre una base distinta, a saber, la teoría de la disolución de los cuerpos complejos en los cuatro elementos y la teoría sobre cómo estos últimos se transforman los unos en los otros. Según veremos, existen antecedentes importantes de estas teorías en Anaxímenes y su teoría (...) del cambio. Al final, me ocupo de dos objeciones que los propios estoicos formularon en contra del argumento de Crisipo. (shrink)

Este artículo ofrece un análisis tentativo de los argumentos estoicos a favor de la racionalidad del cosmos agrupándolos en cuatro familias distintas e intentado rastrear sus antecedentes en Platón. La diferencia entre las familias radica en que los argumentos de cada una son lógicamente independientes de los de las otras. Los de las dos primeras descansan en la teleología estoica y en su teoría embriológica. Los de las otras dos, en cambio, recurren a ideas acerca de los componentes básicos del (...) cosmos y acerca de su estructura orgánica. Los antecedentes platónicos de estas familias de argumentos no se limitan a la cosmología de Platón, sino que se encuentran también en principios clave de su metafísica. (shrink)

Tradução anotada do Grego para o Português.

Science fiction has been an inexhaustible source for the creation of technoscientific imaginary that has marked certain historical periods and influenced the production of subjectivity. This imaginary evokes complex ontological, epistemological, political, social, environmental and existential questions on the present and the future. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize the cultural productions accessed by the public to form an opinion about the genetic manipulation of human beings. A survey about sources of information that influence opinions on (...) the genetic manipulation of human beings was applied to 360 medical students (70.8% female). Movies were the most commonly mentioned source of information, followed by books, documentaries, news programs, television series, informational videos, soap operas and videogames. Science fiction was the most frequent genre and dystopian views of the future of humanity predominated. (shrink)

In this chapter, the author presents and develops his views on the philosophy of action. One main theme is the problem of acrasia: how is it possible that a person sometimes acts freely and intentionally against his own better judgement? The author criticizes Donald Davidson’s solution to this problem for being unrealistic and exaggerating the rationality of the agent. He also presents his original way of reading Aristotle’s most famous text on this subject, in Ethica Nicomachea VII 3. The role (...) of desires and reasons in the motivation of action, the individuation of actions, and the possibility of mental causation are also discussed. (shrink)

The paper addresses two questions regarding the interpretation of akrasia among the Stoics, offered by Marcelo Boeri in his book Appearance and Reality in Greek Thought: On the one hand, can Chrysippus’s monistic adaptation of the Platonic model of the divided soul set forth in Book iv of the Republic provide a philosophically satisfactory explanation of the classical phenomenon of akrasia? On the other hand, is this phenomenon the true explanandum of this adaptation? The paper shows that the answer to (...) both these questions could be negative and thus different from the answer provided by Boeri in his book. The argument is based on the analysis of Plutarch vm 446f-447b and on the analysis of the classical problem of akrasia. (shrink)

Se formulan dos preguntas en torno a la interpretación que ofrece Marcelo Boeri en Apariencia y realidad en el pensamiento griego acerca del problema de la akrasía en el estoicismo: ¿puede la adaptación monista que hizo Crisipo del modelo platónico del alma dividida en República iv ofrecer una expli..

En este trabajo, propongo una reconstrucción del argumento de Aristótelesen el capítulo 5 de Metafísica Z y defiendo una nueva lectura de cómo lasobjeciones desarrolladas en 1030b14-36 en contra de la posibilidad dedefinir predicados no-substanciales se relacionan entre sí.

In 1876, Brazilian physical anthropologists De Lacerda and Peixoto published findings of detailed anatomical and osteometric investigation of the new human skull collection of Rio de Janeiro’s Museu Nacional. They argued not only that the Indigenous ‘Botocudo’ in Brazil might be autochthonous to the New World, but also that they shared analogic proximity to other geographically very distant human groups – the New Caledonians and Australians – equally attributed limited cranial capacity and resultant inferior intellect. Described by Blumenbach and Morton, (...) ‘Botocudo’ skulls were highly valued scientific specimens in 19th-century physical anthropology. A recent genomic study has again related ‘the Botocudo’ to Indigenous populations from the other side of the world by identifying ‘Polynesian ancestry’ in two of 14 Botocudo skulls held at the Museu Nacional. This article places the production of scientific knowledge in multidisciplinary, multiregional historical perspectives. We contextualize modern narratives in the biological sciences relating ‘Botocudo’ skulls and other cranial material from lowland South America to Polynesia, Melanesia, and Australia. With disturbing irony, such studies often unthinkingly reinscribe essentialized historic racial categories such as ‘the Botocudos’, ‘the Polynesians’, and ‘the Australo-Melanesians’. We conclude that the fertile alliance of intersecting sciences that is revolutionizing understandings of deep human pasts must be informed by sensitivity to the deep histories of terms, classification schemes, and the disciplines themselves. (shrink)

Notas para una fundamentación de lo que denominaremos conceptualmente: intervención "estético-pedagógica", comprendida desde el posible campo de una "estética aplicada". Nos remitiremos al contexto de producción áulico-curricular marcado por el vacío meta-institucional que se genera con la alteración del rol del estado históricamente constituido, al atravesar la actual coyuntura global en la época "post-nacional", tomando en consideración las demandas de nuevas formas de subjetividad emergentes y la necesidad de constituir "marcos institucionales" alternativos frente a la aparición y necesidades de nuevos (...) "actores sociales". (shrink)

In this work, we propose a computational approach to the triadic model of Peircean semiosis (meaning processes). We investigate theoretical constraints about the feasibility of simulated semiosis. These constraints, which are basic requirements for the simulation of semiosis, refer to the synthesis of irreducible triadic relations (Sign–Object–Interpretant). We examine the internal organization of the triad S–O–I, that is, the relative position of its elements and how they relate to each other. We also suggest a multi-level approach based on self-organization principles. (...) In this context, semiosis is described as an emergent process. Nevertheless, the term ‘emergence’ is often used in a very informal way in the so called ‘emergent’ computation, without clear explanations and/or definitions. In this paper, we discuss in some detail the meaning of the theoretical terms ‘emergence’ and ‘emergent’, showing how such an analysis can lead to improvements of the algorithm proposed. (shrink)

América Latina es un concepto, una construcción intelectual que intenta dar cuenta de un grupo de estados nacionales, variable en su composición pero con un núcleo estable, las ex colonias españolas y portuguesas del continente americano. Hoy no hay en América Latina un programa de desarrollo nacional alternativo a la integración al mundo capitalista global. Las experiencias nacionales que la izquierda dirige no constituyen una imagen como la que representó Cuba en los años sesenta, ni desde el punto de vista (...) de los programas ni desde el liderazgo. Lo que se construyó en las décadas de los cincuentas y sesentas fue una conciencia de la relevancia de un proyecto continental que merecía ser respaldado por una teorización del conjunto, la construcción de un objeto de conocimiento al mismo tiempo que un actor político colectivo. Como quiera que sea, esta conciencia se desarrolló alrededor de las instituciones internacionales y nacionales residentes en Santiago de Chile y comenzó a desvanecerse junto con el proyecto de Allende y la Unidad Popular. (shrink)