Este artículo analiza los diálogos posibles entre el pensamiento de Giorgio Agamben y la novela _Frankenstein_ de Mary Shelley. Así, el filósofo italiano describe aspectos centrales que indagan los modos en que el biopoder captura la nuda vida. En efecto, a través del concepto de _máquina_ –la antropológica, el lenguaje y la gubernamental– se describen los dispositivos capaces de volver la potencia de vida a los cálculos del poder. Por otro lado, _Frankenstein_ construye una serie de escenas en la que (...) la voz de la Cosa interpela a su creador, Víctor Frankenstein, en una dimensión ética por su negligencia y falta de cuidado. La interpelación se dirige a un personaje pero, tomando los términos de Agamben, Víctor Frankenstein forma parte de una maquinaria mayor de la que él mismo termina siendo víctima. La ficción explicita además la falla de la maquinaria biopolítica por cuanto su protagonista se afirma en la vida procurando hallar sentidos posibles de existencia. (shrink)

Aristotle's Ethics develops a complex theory of the qualities which make for a good human being and for several decades there has been intense discussion about whether Aristotle's theory of voluntariness, outlined in the Ethics, actually delineates what modern thinkers would recognize as a theory of moral responsibility. Javier Echeñique presents a novel account of Aristotle's discussion of voluntariness in the Ethics, arguing - against the interpretation by Arthur Adkins and that inspired by Peter Strawson - that he developed (...) an original and compelling theory of moral responsibility and that this theory has contributed in important ways to our understanding of coercion, ignorance and violence. His study will be valuable for a wide range of readers interested in Aristotle and in ancient ethics more broadly. (shrink)

This book, the last one written by Piaget, presents a new line of empirical studies based on a revised formulation of his theory of the development of logical reasoning. The amended theory overcomes many problems and criticisms of his earlier formulations by providing a fresh explanation for the origin of mental operations and mental organization based on the concept of meaning. It also offers a more elegant vision of the continuity in mental development from birth to adulthood. As the final (...) revision of Piaget's theory -- and one that opens up new areas of inquiry -- this book calls for a reinterpretation of his earlier work -- a task which will occupy scholars for decades to come. (shrink)

In this paper I will argue that the two main approaches to statistical mechanics, that of Boltzmann and Gibbs, constitute two substantially different theoretical apparatuses. Particularly, I defend that this theoretical split must be philosophically understood as a separation of epistemic functions within this physical domain: while Boltzmannians are able to generate powerful explanations of thermal phenomena from molecular dynamics, Gibbsians can statistically predict observable values in a highly effective way. Therefore, statistical mechanics is a counterexample to Hempel's (1958) symmetry (...) thesis, where the predictive capacity of a theory is directly correlated with its explanatory potential and vice versa. (shrink)

Traditional expressivists want to preserve a contrast between the representational use of declarative sentences in descriptive domains and the non-representational use of declarative sentences in other areas of discourse. However, expressivists have good reasons to endorse minimalism about representational notions, and minimalism seems to threaten the existence of such a bifurcation. Thus, there are pressures for expressivists to become global anti-representationalists. In this paper I discuss how to reconstruct in non-representationalist terms the sort of bifurcation traditional expressivists were after. My (...) proposal is that the relevant bifurcation can be articulated by appeal to the contrast between relativistic and non-relativistic assertoric practices. I argue that this contrast, which can be specified without appeal to representational notions, captures the core intuitions behind the expressivist bifurcation. (shrink)

Durante las cuatro últimas décadas, Javier Muguerza ha contribuido como nadie a la modernización del pensamiento español, dando a conocer y comentando lo mejor que se publicaba en otras lenguas, particularmente a lo tocante a la filosofía analítica, a la teoría crítica y a las corrientes morales y políticas anglosajonas y alemanas, además de tener muy en cuenta todo lo que se escribía en español y prestar una especial atención al espíritu del pensamiento práctico kantiano. La deuda que con (...) él tiene contraída la filosofía en castellano es muy difícil de calcular. En el libro Disenso e incertidumbre. Un homenaje a Javier Muguerza, un grupo de importantes filósofos analiza su obra en profundidad ofreciendo al lector la oportunidad única de conocerla desde múltiples puntos de vista. (shrink)

It is often thought that bets on the truth of known propositions become irrational if the losing costs are high enough. This is typically taken to count against the view that knowledge involves assigning credence 1. I argue that the irrationality of such extreme bets can be explained by considering the interactions between the agent and the bookmaker. More specifically, the agent’s epistemic perspective is altered by the fact that the bookmaker proposes that unusual type of bet. Among other things, (...) being willing to offer a bet with unnecessarily harmful losing costs is likely to undermine the baseline level of trustworthiness required for it to be rational to engage in betting exchanges. This sort of explanation does not require granting either that we assign credence lower than 1 to known propositions or that knowledge is sensitive to practical stakes. Moreover, I show that, in our ordinary lives, we frequently perform actions that we know would be disastrous if certain conditions did not obtain. This behaviour can be seen as a form of implicit extreme betting and, nevertheless, it is often rational. (shrink)

Mi objetivo en este texto es obtener ciertos rendimientos que sirvan para desarrollar una comprensión de la necesidad práctica dentro de la filosofía moral de Kant por medio de una discusión, principalmente, con la interpretación de Scarano. En esta última se busca establecer algún tipo de identidad entre necesidad práctica y necesidad teórica, con lo cual se reduce la primera a una forma puramente lógica, descuidando así el carácter propiamente práctico que también la constituye. Mi propuesta alternativa tiene como clave (...) la mención a la voluntad divina en la explicación por parte de Kant sobre qué significa que la ley moral sea válida para todo ente racional. Esta mención nos permite comprender, al menos en principio, que la necesidad práctica es aquella con la cual actuaría una voluntad divina de acuerdo con la ley moral. En nuestro caso, como además de la razón tenemos la inclinación como fundamento de determinación de la acción, no necesariamente actuamos de acuerdo con la ley moral, pero debemos hacerlo, de modo que la ley moral es constrictiva para nosotros. (shrink)

Lewis has objected to Armstrong's notion of a structural universal on the grounds that it violates the Principle of Uniqueness of Composition, which says that given some parts, there is only one whole that they compose. This paper reviews Armstrong's case for structural universals, and then attempts to reconcile structural universals with PUC by arguing for the existence of arrangement universals. The latter are not only a key to defending structural universals against Lewis' objection, but are in fact essential to (...) Armstrong's conception of structural universals in general. Three objections to my proposal are deflected, and two alternative proposals are shown to be inferior to it. (shrink)

In this paper, we argue that the Epicurean genealogy of justice and laws presuppose an analysis of the just as a modality of the useful, an approach that denies the conventional character of justice. This genealogical pattern differentiates the origin of justice from that of the law and refers to friendship as a relevant explanatory factor of the origin of justice. We maintain that the interpretations that underline the incoherence of this reference to friendship, in the framework of a hedonistic (...) theory, presuppose a non-Epicurean sharp distinction between altruism and selfishness. (shrink)

Most interpretations of Quantum Mechanics alternative to Copenhagen interpretation try to avoid the dualistic flavor of the latter. One of the basic goals of the former is to avoid the ad hoc introduction of observers and observations as an inevitable presupposition of physics. Non-Copenhagen interpretations usually trust in decoherence as a necessary mechanism to obtain a well-defined, observer-free transition from a unitary quantum description of the universe to classicality. Even though decoherence does not solve the problem of the definite outcomes, (...) it helps to explain why we do not observe superpositions and, according to Zurek’s existential interpretation, why a specific preferred basis emerges through system–environment interactions. The aim of this paper is to show why such interpretation ends up begging the question and provides little progress in understanding the quantum-to-classical transition; the ultimate reason being that preferred bases always correlate to human observation. Benefitting from the technical discussion, some remarks will be offered in the last section regarding the role of classical observations as a necessary condition to make workable the formalism of Quantum Mechanics and scientific activity itself. (shrink)

Se examinan las dificultades que tiene la propuesta de Jürgen Habermas sobre el papel de la religión en la esfera pública, para dilucidar y analizar sus presupuestos filosóficos. Una vez presentada la propuesta habermasiana, se presentan cinco objeciones, tomando como base el debate sobre los matrim..

The four books under review form part of a resurgent social science interest in elites as obligatory entry points in understanding changing relations of power and growing inequalities in a post-organized capitalism. All four books demonstrate, in differing but often complementary ways, that in an age of formal meritocracy, rising powers, government outsourcing, weightless information economies, financial deregulation, and increasingly dense digitized networked information and communication systems, elites have changed. Their mobile lives, their ability to feel at ease in almost (...) any situation, and their role as intermediaries connecting different spheres of cultural, economic and political life are defining features of the new, truly global elites. The four books demonstrate the enduring influence of Bourdieu as a theorist of elites and showcase methodological and conceptual innovations to further develop comparative research. (shrink)

In this paper I will evaluate whether some knowledge states that are interpretatively derived from statistical mechanical probabilities could be somehow relevant in actual practices, as famously rejected by Albert (2000). On one side, I follow Frigg (2010a) in rejecting the causal relevance of knowledge states as a mere byproduct of misinterpreting this theoretical field. On the other side, I will argue against Uffink (2011) that probability-represented epistemic states cannot be explanatorily relevant, because (i) probabilities cannot faithfully represent significant epistemic (...) states, and (ii) those states cannot satisfactorily account for why an agent should theoretically believe or expect something. (shrink)

This paper reports on the meeting of the Sounding Board of the EU Reprogenetics Project that was held in Budapest, Hungary, 6–9 November 2005. The Reprogenetics Project runs from 2004 until 2007 and has a brief to study the ethical aspects of human reproductive cloning and germline gene therapy. Discussions during The Budapest Meeting are reported in depth in this paper as well as the initiatives to involve the participating groups and others in ongoing collaborations with the goal of forming (...) an integrated network of European resources in the fields of ethics of science. (shrink)

We support the development of non-reductive cognitive science and the naturalization of phenomenology for this purpose, and we agree that the ‘relational turn’ defended by Gallagher is a necessary step in this direction. However, we believe that certain aspects of his relational concept of nature need clarification. In particular, Gallagher does not say whether or how teleology, affect, and other value-related properties of life and mind can be naturalized within this framework. In this paper, we argue that (1) given the (...) phenomenological standards recognized by Gallagher, his commitment to a naturalized phenomenology should entail a commitment to a naturalized concept of value; and (2) the kind of ‘relational nature’ described by Gallagher in his paper is insufficient for this purpose. (shrink)

Alonso, Ángel Castigo y derecho sin libre albedrío ni responsabilidad Punishment and law without free will and no responsibility López Corredoira, Martín De los metarrelatos a la "muerte de los intelectuales". Una mirada al "Humanismo impenitente" desde la reconstrucción neonietzscheana postmoderna From meta - reports to the "demise of intellectuals". A view of "impenitent humanism" from post-modern neo-Nietzschean deconstruction Mora García, José Pascual Kant y el método de trascender en la filosofía de Karl Jaspers Kant and the transcendental method in (...) the Karl Jaspers philosophy Portuondo Pajón, Gladys L. La creatio ex Nihilo y sus implicaciones fenomenológicas en Levitas La creatio ex Nihilo and it's phenomenology implications in Levinas Ramírez, Gustavo ¿Qué significa meditar? What does it mean to meditate? Ramis Muscato, Pompeyo Sobre la violencia: Orígenes y antídoto Regarding violence: Origens and antidotes Vasquez, Eduardo Interdisciplinares Louis Kahn: Filosofía, arte y arquitectura Louis Kahn: Philosophy, arte and architecture Arellano Spinetti, Leonardo La oligarquía venezolana en el siglo XXI: Del estereotipo al anacronismo The Venezuelan oligarchy in the XXI century: From the stereotype to the anachronism Varela Manrique, Luz Coromoto Traducciones El arte de pensar Maurois, André Friedrich Nietzsche. 1844-1900. (shrink)

The foundations of Horkheimer’s rational society are based on the premise that social philosophy could be a choice for the Critical Theory. Therefore [1] a dialectic interpretation of the social issue is developed between philosophy and social sciences theories, using the category of interdisciplinary materialism. [2] Characterizing an age in a state of indigence begins with the definition of Enlightenment as a process of disenchantment with the world that reduces human reality under the sign of domination. The liberator course of (...) the Enlightenment was marred from the beginning and ended up being a process of alienation and reification. [3] Hence, the moral sentiments of compassion and politic solidarity get to the stage in order to addressing a new ethical perspective in which it is posible to define an existential imperative that can view the human misery and the searching of happiness, in the purpose of overcoming the conditions and realities of the present age in state of indigence. (shrink)

El presente escrito tiene la motivación de arrojar algo de luz sobre una dificultad intrínseca a la función social que cumple el Derecho: el manejo de la diversidad. En particular, la diversidad psicosocial ha supuesto históricamente un obstáculo persistente a la configuración de un molde jurídico que permita incluir en él todo el espectro de la realidad. El argumento que vehicula la exposición es que el carácter irresoluble de esta tensión conduce a la criminalización de una subjetividad que escapa a (...) la pulsión normalizadora del sistema. Abordando las diferentes coyunturas que tratan, sin éxito, de disolver todas las diferencias en su seno se intentará demostrar la incompatibilidad de este proceso con la realización plena de los individuos. (shrink)

El pensamiento latinoamericano tiene una presencia cada d a m s clara en el contexto mundial contempor neo. Octavio Paz es ya reconocido como uno de los m s eminentes impulsores de una conciencia latinoamericana sin complejos. Este libro nos acompa a en un minucioso recorrido por las obsesiones del poeta: muerte y vida; siempre con la claridad y el esplendor que caracterizan la obra de Octavio Paz.

En los últimos 20 años el debate entre los Factores Comunes y los Tratamientos con Apoyo Empírico (TAE) ha sido uno de los más relevantes para la práctica clínica. El enfoque TAE con origen en la investigación sobre fármacos (Medicina Basada en la Evidencia), promueve el uso de técnicas específicas y protocolos de tratamiento. Los Factores Comunes, por el contrario, señalan la validez de múltiples psicoterapias, la cual estaría basada en dimensiones comunes a todo tratamiento, y no tanto en el (...) uso de técnicas específicas. El proceder médico y farmacológico encaja razonablemente dentro de un marco de acción instrumental, en el que el acto sanitario se ejerce a fin de modificar ciertos parámetros fisiológico-anatómicos. Pero la psicoterapia es mejor entendida como una relación entre sujetos, ya que el paciente, el objeto de la acción terapéutica, es también un sujeto, y no un parámetro. Por ello los protocolos como secuencias prefijadas de acciones del terapeuta (ideal para la investigación por su replicabilidad y pertinencia metodológica), implican una suerte de eliminación del sujeto. Cabe entonces entender el sentido de los protocolos de tratamiento como marcos de sentido, de problemas pertinentes, de soluciones indicadas. Como una forma de conocimiento flexible sobre el problema y su funcionamiento y manejo. (shrink)

In this paper I propose to question the Joshua Greene’s neuroethical thesis about the essentially emotional character of so-called “deontological moral judgments”. Frist, I focus on the dual process theory of moral judgment and I criticize that they are considered only and mainly intuitive and non reflective. Se condly, I question that the “utilitarian judgment” is linked to mathematical calculation and the deontological judgment is exclusively reduced to non-reflective factor of emotion. The main objection to Greene’s naturalism raised by me (...) is trying to eliminate the philosophical justification about the moral validity defended by Kant’s deontologism; meanwhile Greene reduces “deontological moral judgment” to exclusively psychological and neurophysiological factors associated with emotion. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es aclarar cuál es el fin último de la neurociencia educativa. Para ello nos adentramos en el fecundo y a veces controvertido diálogo entre neurociencia y educación que especialmente en la última década ha cobrado mayor importancia. La hipótesis que presentamos es que la introducción de la perspectiva ética contribuye positivamente a esclarecer el fin propio de la neuroeducación. A la luz de una neuroética no naturalista la educación puede abrirse a un nuevo enfoque evolutivo (...) que no reduzca el fin de la educación al simple valor adaptativo.This paper aims to clarify the main goal of neuroeducation. To do this, I focus on the fruitful but often controversial discussion between neuroscience and education, which has been especially relevant in the last decade. The hypothesis I present is that the introduction of the ethical perspective positively affects the clarification of neuroeducation´s proper end. In the light of the non-naturalistic approach to neuroethics that I hold, education could be opened up to a new evolutionary approach that does not reduce the end of education to mere adaptive value. (shrink)

Success semantics is a theory of content that characterizes the truth-conditions of mental representations in terms of the success-conditions of the actions derived from them. Nanay : 151-165, 2013) and Dokic and Engel have revised this theory in order to defend it from the objections that assailed its previous incarnations. I argue that both proposals have seemingly decisive flaws. More specifically, these revised versions of the theory fail to deal adequately with the open-ended possibility of unforeseen obstacles for the success (...) of our actions. I suggest that the problem of ignored obstacles undermines success semantics quite generally, including alternative formulations such as Blackburn’s. (shrink)

En este texto discutiremos dos elementos de la propuestas de Habermas sobre el rol de la religión en la esfera pública: la naturaleza especial del lenguaje religioso y las posibilidades de la traducción entre un lenguaje religioso y uno secular. Esto lo haremos a partir de las reflexiones de Wittgenstein sobre la naturaleza del lenguaje y sobre los diferentes sentidos de la comprensión. Mostraremos que estas últimas pueden ser valiosas para justificar por qué el lenguaje religioso necesita un análisis diferenciado (...) y para explicar por qué y cómo, a pesar de lo anterior, la traducción es posible. (shrink)

The article examines the difficulties posed by Jürgen Habermas’s proposal regarding the role of religion in the public sphere, in order to clarify and analyze its philosophical assumptions. The article then goes on to set forth five objections on the basis of the debate over same-sex marriage, and to relate those objections to Habermas’s philosophical assumptions, in order to show the need for a more detailed review of the problem.

En este trabajo se examinan las estrategias discursivas de la literatura de Cervantes y Gracián en torno a la formación del sí mismo y el estatuto del mundo en su sentido metafísico. Conceptos tales como «valor» y «corazón” debieran ser leídos desde una perspectiva ética que delimita esencialmente la constitución del ser humano y de su mundo. Estas estrategias muestran cómo se suelen abordar teóricamente los inicios de la Modernidad desde sus últimas consideraciones (propias del idealismo alemán) y cómo tal (...) vínculo debe ser reconsiderado. (shrink)

Ante la reciente publicación de la última obra sistemática del filósofo alemán J. Habermas titulada _Auch eine Geschichte der Philosophie_ (y su pronta traducción al español), el texto se propone mostrar las características fundamentales de la comprensión habermasiana sobre la misma actividad filosófica. Para esto, primero se describe la base teórica sobre la cual Habermas construye el sentido de sus reflexiones filosóficas, esto es, el sentido posmetafísico desde el cual Habermas desarrolla su pensamiento filosófico. Posteriormente, se exponen los tres roles (...) que Habermas asigna a la actividad filosófica y se concluye evidenciando las conexiones entre la filosofía posmetafísica de Habermas y la democracia; conexiones que nos permitirían caracterizar a la filosofía posmetafísica habermasiana como una filosofía democrática y, sobre esta base, leer mejor el supuesto «giro religioso» de la filosofía de Habermas. (shrink)

Este texto explora la problematica del desencuentro entre ciudadanos religiosos y no religiosos a la luz de la perspectiva posmetafísica de Habermas sobre el rol de la religión en la esfera pública. Como telón de fondo se tendrá el reciente debate en torno al concepto emitido por un profesor de la Universidad de la Sabana como parte de la discusión constitucional sobre la adopción de parte de parejas del mismo sexo. En la introducción del artículo se describirá la propuesta de (...) Habermas sobre el rol de la religión en la esfera pública. Posteriormente se indicará lo que Habermas entiende por metafísica para así señalar los roles que una filosofía posmetafísica puede asumir, así como los principales elementos de un acercamiento filosófico posmetafísico a la religión. Finalmente, se presentarán unas conclusiones. (shrink)

En el artículo se analiza la naturaleza dialéctica del libro III de la Metafísica de Aristóteles a la luz del contenido, procedimiento y utilidad del método dialéctico expuestos por el Estagirita en los Tópicos.

From XIX Century, the controversy over the authenticity of the Metaphysics’ Kappa has been a constant in the context of studies on the Metaphysics. In regard to the redaction of the aporias of K 1-2, the differences in style and content are remarkable. However, after analyzing the differences, we can assert quite safely that the author of K 1-2 is Aristotle. Indeed, K 1-2 do not contains non-Aristotelian philosophy in approach of the aporias nor in the doctrines involved in them. (...) In this sense, the differences may be explained by the renewed interest of Aristotle for the supersensible, in the face of its research on Λ 6-10. Secondly, with respect to the redaction of aporias, researches on style and morphometry show that the use of some expressions change significantly from one work to another, so differences in style, use of particles and unusual expressions in K 1-2 can be understood as normal. (shrink)

La puesta en escena del Laques es sencilla: el diálogo tiene lugar en la palestra, donde se han reunido Melesias y Lisímaco, ciudadanos atenienses y padres de dos jóvenes adolescentes, con los generales Laques y Nicias, a fin de debatir sobre la conveniencia del entrenamiento con armas del que un tal Estesíleo ofrece una exhibición. A ellos se les une Sócrates. A partir de allí el diálogo deriva hacia el tratamiento de otras importantes cuestiones, como son el objeto de la (...) educación, las características que debe reunir el buen educador, la naturaleza unitaria de la virtud o la naturaleza de la valentía. Y también, la importancia de la indagación y debate en común. En este sentido, el Laques constituye una potente herramienta propedéutica de la que Platón se sirve, no tanto en vista a transmitir doctrinalmente su propio pensamiento, cuanto a caracterizar cómo entiende la filosofía y a despertar en el lector la reflexión sobre cuestiones filosóficamente pertinentes y la revisión crítica de sus propias opiniones. (shrink)

This paper aims to rediscover, contextualize and call attention to a work of maghāzī commissioned by the Almohad caliph al-Murtaḍā, found in manuscript 296 of the Qarawiyyīn library, and hitherto unnoticed by the vast majority of researchers. This work should be seen and read in the framework of the Almohad historical context in which it was written. I will also highlight the intellectual project and the legitimizing interests shown by the caliph al-Murtaḍā who, in the context of the crisis of (...) the Almohad Empire, encouraged the revival of the Unitary movement through a new reading of the remembrance of the early days of Islam and of the Almohad movement, and of jihād. I will include the paleographic edition of the introduction to the manuscript as an annex. In this introduction one may already observe examples of some of the interesting points of this text. (shrink)