This paper reports a computer program to generate novel designs for the arrangement of furniture within a simulated room. It is based on the engagement-reflection computer model of the creative processes. During engagement the system generates material in the form of sequences of actions (e.g. change the colours of the walls, include some furniture in the room, modify their colour, and so on) guided by content and knowledge constraints. During reflection, the system evaluates the composition produced so far and, if (...) it is necessary, modifies it. We discuss the implementation of the system and some of its most salient features, especially the use of a computational model for creativity in the terrain of design. We argue that this kind of model opens new possibilities for the simulation of the design processes as well as the development of tools. (shrink)

Si de verdad somos una cultura heredera de los griegos, entonces Diego Quintana de Uña sería el Pitias moderno, donde su libro “El Síndrome de Epimeteo, Occidente la cultura del olvido” podría interpretarse como una suerte de oráculo de Delfos contemporáneo. Es fascinante e inquietante al mismo tiempo, la maestría con que el autor elabora una secuencia teorética a partir de lo que él denomina el “pensamiento único”, evidenciando en el trayecto, la recurrencia permanente de las crisis económic..

Resumo: Meu objetivo aqui é indagar como devemos entender a literatura das sagas, textos em prosa islandeses da Idade Medía; O ápice da produção de sagas ocorreu entre a segunda metade do século XIII e a primeira metade do XIV. Estou interessado de modo geral na representação que essas sagas produziram a respeito do período alto-medieval dos “vikings”, onde frequentemente sucede a ação contida em seus relatos; e pontualmente, na figura dos pagãos e dos magos do período pré-cristão ali apresentada.

El presente artículo propone un modelo de análisis para orientar el discernimiento y posicionamiento en torno al uso de la IA en educación superior. Analizaremos los cuatro posibles usos de la IA que más incidencia tendrán en esta si se considera el actual desarrollo de esta tecnología. Ellos son: la co-construcción de conocimiento, el uso de IA para tutoría o mentoreo, el auge de las plataformas adaptativas y la capacidad predictiva. Propondremos un ejercicio de análisis para cada uso apelando a (...) algunas de las dimensiones del modelo propuesto para orientar sobre su utilización. El resultado es fecundo, en tanto advierte sobre el riesgo de parcializar el análisis perdiendo de vista las implicancias y los compromisos más profundos que exige el discernimiento sobre el uso de la IA. (shrink)

In this paper I tried to find a harm based solution to the non-identity problem. I explore the view upon which future persons are harmed if we prevent them from having what it is required by the Principle of Utility.

In this paper, we argue for an instrumental form of existence, inspired by Hilbert’s method of ideal elements. As a case study, we consider the existence of contradictory objects in models of non-classical set theories. Based on this discussion, we argue for a very liberal notion of existence in mathematics.

Theories of emotional justification investigate the conditions under which emotions are epistemically justified or unjustified. I make three contributions to this research program. First, I show that we can generalize some familiar epistemological concepts and distinctions to emotional experiences. Second, I use these concepts and distinctions to display the limits of the ‘simple view’ of emotional justification. On this approach, the justification of emotions stems only from the contents of the mental states they are based on, also known as their (...) cognitive bases. The simple view faces the ‘gap problem’: If cognitive bases and emotions (re)present their objects and properties in different ways, then cognitive bases are not sufficient to justify emotions. Third, I offer a novel solution to the gap problem based on emotional dispositions. This solution (1) draws a line between the justification of basic and non-basic emotions, (2) preserves a broadly cognitivist view of emotions, (3) avoids a form of value skepticism that threatens inferentialist views of emotional justification, and (4) sheds new light on the structure of our epistemic access to evaluative properties. (shrink)

Philosophical accounts of moral responsibility are standardly framed by two platitudes. According to them, blame requires the presence of a moral defect in the agent and the absence of excuses. In this chapter, this kind of approach is challenged. It is argued that (a) people sometimes violate moral norms due to performance mistakes, (b) it often appears reasonable to hold them responsible for it, and (c) their mistakes cannot be traced to their moral qualities or to the presence of excuses. (...) In the end, the implications for discussions of moral responsibility are discussed. (shrink)

This paper introduces a body of research on Organizational Behavior and Industrial/organizational Psychology that expands the range of empirical evidence relevant to the ongoing character-situation debate. This body of research, mostly neglected by moral philosophers, provides important insights to move the debate forward. First, the OB/io scholarship provides empirical evidence to show that social environments like organizations have significant power to shape the character traits of their members. This scholarship also describes some of the mechanisms through which this process of (...) reshaping character takes place. Second, the character-situation debate has narrowly focused on situational influences that affect behavior episodically and haphazardly. The OB/io research, however, highlights the importance of distinguishing such situational influences from influences that, like organizational influences, shape our character traits because they are continuous and coordinated. Third, the OB/io literature suggests that most individuals display character traits that, while local to the organization, can be consistent across situations. This puts pressure on the accounts of character proposed by traditional virtue ethics and situationism and provides empirical support to interactionist models based on cognitive-affective processing system theories of personality. Finally, the OB/io literature raises important challenges to the possibility of achieving virtue, provides valuable and untapped resources to cultivate character, and suggests new avenues of normative and empirical research. (shrink)

This paper argues that habits, just like beliefs, can guide intentional action. To do this, a variety of real-life cases where a person acts habitually but contrary to her beliefs are discussed. The cases serve as dissociations showing that intentional agency is possible without doxastic guidance. The upshot is a model for thinking about the rationality of habitual action and the rationalizing role that habits can play in it. The model highlights the role that our history and institutions play in (...) shaping what actions become habitual for us. (shrink)

This is a draft of my chapter on Negligence for the forthcoming Oxford Handbook in Moral Psychology. It discusses philosophical, psychological, and legal approaches to the attribution of culpability in cases of negligent wrongdoing.

Scholars who favor shareholder primacy usually claim either that managers should not fulfill corporate duties of beneficence or that, if they are required to fulfill them, they do so by going against their obligations to shareholders. Distinguishing between structurally different types of duties of beneficence and recognizing the full force of the normative demands imposed on managers reveal that this view needs to be qualified. Although it is correct to think that managers, when acting on behalf of shareholders, are not (...) required to fulfill wide duties of charity, they are nevertheless required to fulfill a variety of narrow duties of beneficence. What is more, the obligation to fulfill these duties arises precisely because they are acting on behalf of shareholders. As such, this article 1) refines our understanding of the duties of corporate beneficence and 2) helps to identify which duties of beneficence are imposed on managers when they are acting on behalf of shareholders. (shrink)

Quentin Meillassoux es un joven filósofo al que ya algunos consideran una estrella en el firmamento del pensamiento contemporáneo. Es el cabeza de fila de una nueva concepción filosófica, el “Realismo Especulativo”, que se pretende una revolución respecto de toda o prácticamente toda la filosofía habida desde Kant. Su obra principal, hasta ahora, es el libro Après la finitude, lo que podríamos traducir por “Después de la finitud”, y que lleva por subtítulo “Ensayo acerca de la necesidad de la contingencia”. (...) Ha escrito, también, varios artículos, un libro sobre Mallarmé, en el que sostiene haber hallado la codificación numérica de un poema del críptico poeta francés, y un libro aún no publicado, pero que circula por ahí, titulado L’inexistence divine. Se le augura una obra futura de gran relevancia. Meillassoux tiene un estilo bastante sobrio, contundente, “cartesiano”, pero con pasajes, también, de gran belleza concentrada. Se respira en sus escritos una calurosa frialdad, un apasionado antidramatismo, una muy racionalizada prédica de la falta de razón de todas las cosas, una profunda intuición de la superficie. (shrink)

This paper defends a version of the Simple View, the claim that someone intentionally φs only if the person intends to φ. To do this, I raise a problem for Bratman’s classic argument (1984, 1987) against it. The problem brings into focus an evaluative dimension behind the View, whose recognition allows for an improved version of it. With this improved version, I then go on to answer other criticisms that have been raised to it.

In this paper, I put forth a novel interpretation of how the third categories under each heading in the table of categories are derived. Drawing on a passage from the first Critique and a letter to Schultz, I argue that in order to derive these categories, a special act of the understanding is required. I propose that we interpret this special act as consisting of an application of the third logical function under the corresponding heading that unites the combination of (...) the first and second categories so as to produce the third. (shrink)

In this article, I examine recent debates concerning the existence and the nature of basic actions. The discussion is structured around four theses, with which Arthur Danto introduced basic actions to contemporary theorists. The theses concern (i) the relationship between agency and causality, (ii) the distinction between basic and complex actions, (iii) the regress argument for basic actions, and (iv) the structure of practical knowledge in the light of these actions.

La discusión acerca de la capacidad de nuestra inteligencia de acceder al conocimiento de la realidad en sí es y sigue siendo una de las más antiguas y apasionantes de la filosofía. Piaget revolucionó la historia de la psicología y la pedagogía a partir de sus descubrimientos científicos relativos al modo en que el ser humano conoce. Sin embargo, por su misma inclinación filosófica, su constructivismo pedagógico quedó fuertemente arraigado en tradiciones filosóficas inmanentistas, a punto tal que la asociación entre (...) constructivismo pedagógico y antirrealismo constituye una suerte de lugar común y un cierto presupuesto dogmático. Lo cierto es que esta asociación no constituye la única alternativa posible y, hasta cierto punto, ni siquiera parece responder cabalmente a los principios o consecuencias últimas de los hallazgos del constructivismo de Piaget. Es posible justificar el constructivismo pedagógico desde posiciones realistas, siempre y cuando se revisen algunos supuestos que la modernidad ha instalado de manera no muy crítica en los círculos educativos y filosóficos. La revisión de la noción de representación, concebida según la tradición aristotélica y aggiornada por los aportes del constructivismo, permite abrir un camino de conciliación entre el constructivismo pedagógico y un tipo de realismo que sea, a la vez, robusto y plural. (shrink)

In this review, I discuss recent advances in philosophical and psychological approaches to self-control. The review is divided in 4 parts, in which I discuss: a) different conceptions of self-control; b) standard methods for studying it; c) some models of how self-control is exercised; and d) the connections between self-control and other relevant psychological constructs. The review was originally commissioned by the John Templeton Foundation to provide an informative overview that would knit together different strands of current debates in the (...) field. It is meant to be useful to well-informed audiences, as well as new-comers to the discussion. (shrink)

ABSTRACT:The distinction between what I call nonelective obligations and discretionary obligations, a distinction that focuses on one particular thread of the distinction between perfect and imperfect duties, helps us to identify the obligations that carry over from principals to agents. Clarity on this issue is necessary to identify the moral obligations within “shareholder primacy”, which conceives of managers as agents of shareholders. My main claim is that the principal-agent relation requires agents to fulfill nonelective obligations, but it does not always (...) require discharging discretionary obligations. I show that the requirement to fulfill nonelective obligations is more far-reaching than has been acknowledged by most defenders and critics of shareholder primacy. But I also show that managers are not bound by certain discretionary obligations like charity, showing that their moral obligations are more circumscribed than the obligations that apply to human beings in general. (shrink)

El viraje en la concepción sartreana de la poesía, ya comenzado en su Saint Genet y Orphée noir, se radicaliza en la biografía existencial que hace de la obra y la persona de Stéphane Mallarmé. Sartre plantea la posibilidad de que la poesía efectivamente pueda comprometerse debido a su altísima potencia negativa-destructiva, que conduce a una manifestación de la esencia negativa, conflictual y «fracasada» de la conciencia como ser-para-sí llamando a su libertad y dando lugar así a una poesía crítica, (...) hermana de la «literatura total». (shrink)

Todo el esfuerzo filosófico heideggeriano puede reducirse a su intento de pensar el ser en términos no metafísicos, efectuando mediante un «pensar poetizante» una Destruktion de la metafísica occidental. El ser, pensado en su sentido y verdad como “fundamento” del ente, es nombrado metafóricamente de diversas maneras, lo cual problematiza esta búsqueda de pureza conceptual y terminológica. Si, como señala Derrida, «el ser […] no puede ser dicho, no puede decirse más que en la metáfora óntica. Y la elección de (...) tal o cual metáfora es necesariamente significativa» (Derrida, 1994 [1972]: 169), el empleo de términos geológicos/geográficos para pensar la (des)fundamentación del Seyn no podrán jamás ser neutros, sino que ilustrarán de manera particularizada la forma de concebir la verdad del ser como acontecimiento abisal. Hay un correlato entre el “fundamento” expresado y construido en un discurso y entre una ontología, así como una sub-correlación esencial entre el sentido del fundamento y la metáfora que lo expresa. De este modo, abordando las figuras de la tierra [Erde], la fisuración [Zerklüftung] y el abismo [Abgrund], entre otras, veremos que estas funcionan como un a priori conceptual que condicionará totalmente el pensamiento heideggeriano, con límites y potencialidades específicos que permitirán una mejor comprensión de la fundamentación como estructura ontológica. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This work is about the imbrication between writing and testimony, based on the work Retrato calado [Silenced Portrait], by Luiz Roberto Salinas Fortes. Although “evident,” it is a relationship that carries a particularity: the person who writes does so, asking oneself questions about the role of enunciation, about the meanings that the language inscribes about itself and about violence. Based on the principles of the Anthropology of Enunciation, as Flores1 proposes, the analytical gesture carried out assumes linguistics as knowledge (...) about man in his loquens property, specifically at the moment in which one singularizes in/through discourse. RESUMO Este trabalho versa sobre a imbricação entre escrita e testemunho a partir da obra Retrato Calado, de Luiz Roberto Salinas Fortes. Embora “evidente”, trata-se de uma relação que carrega uma particularidade: aquele que escreve o faz questionando-se sobre o papel de sua enunciação, sobre as significações que a língua inscreve sobre si mesma e sobre a violência. Pautado nos princípios da Antropologia da Enunciação, tal como Flores1 a propõe, o gesto analítico levado a efeito assume a linguística como um conhecimento sobre o homem em sua propriedade loquens, especificamente no instante em que se singulariza no/pelo discurso. (shrink)

RESUMO Este trabalho versa sobre a imbricação entre escrita e testemunho a partir da obra Retrato Calado, de Luiz Roberto Salinas Fortes. Embora “evidente”, trata-se de uma relação que carrega uma particularidade: aquele que escreve o faz questionando-se sobre o papel de sua enunciação, sobre as significações que a língua inscreve sobre si mesma e sobre a violência. Pautado nos princípios da Antropologia da Enunciação, tal como Flores1 a propõe, o gesto analítico levado a efeito assume a linguística como um (...) conhecimento sobre o homem em sua propriedade loquens, especificamente no instante em que se singulariza no/pelo discurso. ABSTRACT This work is about the imbrication between writing and testimony, based on the work Retrato calado [Silenced Portrait], by Luiz Roberto Salinas Fortes. Although “evident,” it is a relationship that carries a particularity: the person who writes does so, asking oneself questions about the role of enunciation, about the meanings that the language inscribes about itself and about violence. Based on the principles of the Anthropology of Enunciation, as Flores1 proposes, the analytical gesture carried out assumes linguistics as knowledge about man in his loquens property, specifically at the moment in which one singularizes in/through discourse. (shrink)

Most human actions are complex, but some of them are basic. Which are these? In this paper, I address this question by invoking slips, a common kind of mistake. The proposal is this: an action is basic if and only if it is not possible to slip in performing it. The argument discusses some well-established results from the psychology of language production in the context of a philosophical theory of action. In the end, the proposed criterion is applied to discuss (...) some well-known theories of basic actions. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es compartir con la comunidad académica el resultado de investigación de la tesis doctoral de filosofía intitulada La parresía como heterotopía en el último Foucault: otro modo crítico y específico de ser, pensar, decir y vivir. En efecto, intento esbozar el itinerario de la obra del úlltimo Foucault como una genealogía de la parresía, que recoge las conclusiones más relevantes de cuatro años de indagación. Finalmente, resalto la retrospectiva y la prospectiva de la parresía foucaultiana (...) como un arte integral de vivir a partir del cuidado de sí, desarrollado por sus autores más estudiosos y otras corrientes contemporáneas afines a este tópico. Todo converge en la “heterotopía” como ese tetraédrico otro modo crítico y específico o línea de fuga: ser, pensar, decir y vivir, que culmina con una relectura desde el ámbito latinoamericano como una propuesta pertinente altermundialista focalizada en una “cuidadanía” —más que ciudadanía— ética en todos los ámbitos humanos, sobre todo el que más nos compete: el educativo. (shrink)

Desmond and Moore point out that the key to understanding Darwin’s The Descent of Man is his abolitionist motivation and his advocacy that races constitute subspecies. Roberta Millstein raises some doubts about the importance of this motivation. She points out that the inclusion of the extensive section devoted to non-human animals is not justified by Darwin’s treatment of humans per se, because his explanation of the origin of races is peculiar. In this sense, she argues that Darwin’s specific explanation of (...) the origin of races does not confirm the central importance that Desmond and Moore give to Darwin’s abolitionism. In this paper I have two different aims. On the one hand, to show that the human case actually is based on the treatment of nonhuman animals, and consequently, Darwin’s argument is not as poor as Millstein believes. My second goal, taking Millstein’s challenge seriously, is to show that Darwin’s explanation of the origin of races does confirm the Desmond and Moore thesis in a deeper sense than the one they propose themselves. For the anti-slavery motivation could not only explain the fact that Darwin sees all humans as forming the same species, but the specific explanation he gives for the origin of races. (shrink)

In the Doctrine of Virtue, Kant draws an analogy between the physical forces of repulsion and attraction and the moral forces of respect and love. I argue that we should interpret this passage as endorsing a moral version of the balancing argument from his natural philosophy. There, Kant argues that purely repulsive and attractive bodies respectively face problems of total dispersion and collapse. I argue that purely respectful and loving humans respectively face analogous problems of total moral dispersion and collapse. (...) I conclude by drawing some significant implications of this moral balancing argument for contemporary theorizing about moral interactions, relationships, and communities. (shrink)

:In this essay, I present an account of forgiveness as a process of emotional distancing. The central claim is that, understood in these terms, forgiveness does not require a change in judgment. Rationally forgiving someone, in other words, does not require that one judges the significance of the wrongdoing differently or that one comes to the conclusion that the attitudes behind it have changed in a favorable way. The model shows in what sense forgiving is inherently social, shows why we (...) should be pluralists about it, and provides a basis for arguing against the existence of necessary conditions of forgiving. (shrink)

Philosophers of perception are familiar with the argument from illusion, at least since Hume formulated it to challenge a naïve form of realism. In this paper, I present an analogous argument but in the domain of action. It focuses on slips, a common kind of mistake. But, otherwise, it is structurally similar. The argument challenges some contemporary views about the nature of action inspired by Wittgenstein. The discussion shows how thinking about these common mistakes helps illuminate aspects of human agency (...) that tend to be overlooked whenever too much emphasis is placed on the rationality of human actions. (shrink)

According to epistemological disjunctivism (ED), in paradigmatic cases of perceptual knowledge, a subject, S, has perceptual knowledge that p in virtue of being in possession of reasons for her belief that p which are both factive and reflectively accessible to S. It has been argued that ED is better placed than both knowledge internalism and knowledge externalism to undercut underdetermination-based skepticism. I identify several principles that must be true if ED is to be uniquely placed to attain this goal. After (...) that, I use those principles to formulate a diachronic skeptical argument. This argument yields the counterintuitive conclusion that understanding a global skeptical hypothesis is all it takes for a rational subject to lose all her perceptual knowledge of the world. Next, I show that a popular Austinian move must reject one or another of the principles that underlie ED. I close by delineating a novel strategy that can block the diachronic skeptical argument while preserving all the principles. The key idea is that perceptual knowledge is grounded in primitive, perceptual and recognitional abilities. This view sheds new light on some puzzling features of global skepticism that have been noted by Descartes and Hume, among others. (shrink)

RESUMEN: El tema de este trabajo es la reconstrucción de la teoría de la selección natural darwiniana. Me propongo esbozar la ley fundamental de esta teoría de manera informal a partir de sus aplicaciones en El origen de las especies de Darwin y presentar sus conceptos fundamentales. Presentaré la red teórica de leyes especiales que surgen de la especialización de esta ley fundamental. Supondré el estructuralismo como marco metateórico. Señalaré también algunas consecuencias que mi propuesta tiene sobre ciertas discusiones metateóricas (...) en torno a la teoría y, finalmente, relacionaré mi reconstrucción con otras reconstrucciones disponibles.ABSTRACT: This paper is about the reconstruction of the Darwinian Theory of Natural Selection. My aim here is to outline the fundamental law of this theory in an informal way from its applications in The Origin of Species and to make explicit its fundamental concepts. I will introduce the theory-nets of special laws that arisefrom the specialization of the fundamental law. I will assume the metatheoretical structuralist frame. I will also point out many consequences that my proposal has about a few metatheoretical discussions around the theory and, finally, I will relate my propose to other reconstructions available. (shrink)

The scholarship on meaningful work has approached the topic mostly from the perspective of the subjective experience of the individual worker. This has led the literature to under-theorize, if not outright ignore, the cultural and normative dimension of meaningful work. In particular, it has obscured that a person’s ability to find meaning in her life in general, and her work in particular, is typically anchored and dependent on shared institutions and cultural aspirations. Reflecting on the future of work, particularly on (...) the dangers posed by the threat of technological unemployment, helps us recognize this cultural and normative dimension of meaningful work. I argue that a world with few work opportunities is a world devoid of a core structuring ideal around which our society has organized itself and, as such, will strain our ability to make sense of what it means to find life meaningful. To make this case I show that work operates as a central organizing _telos_ around which our contemporary lives gravitate. Work touches everyone and everything, defining the rhythms of our days and weeks and providing a center of gravity around which our lives are structured. Work constitutes a central dimension of human flourishing. Through work we provide for our material needs, develop our skills and virtues, build community, and contribute to the common good. As such, work constitutes a central organizing ideal in contemporary Western societies, a fact has significant normative force and plays an important role in our finding work meaningful. (shrink)

For the past forty years, philosophers and critical theorists around the world have been fascinated by Clarice Lispector’s writing; her work, however, carries its own, unique theoretical dimension,...

Evidence from cognitive science supports the claim that humans and other animals see the world as divided into objects. Although this claim is widely accepted, it remains unclear whether the mechanisms of visual reference have representational content or are directly instantiated in the functional architecture. I put forward a version of the former approach that construes object files as icons for objects. This view is consistent with the evidence that motivates the architectural account, can respond to the key arguments against (...) representational accounts, and has explanatory advantages. I draw general lessons for the philosophy of perception and the naturalization of intentionality. (shrink)

This paper argues that “free will” is vague. The argument has two steps. First, I argue that free will is a matter of degrees and, second, that there are no sharp boundaries separating free decisions and actions and non‐free ones. After presenting the argument, I focus on one significant consequence of the thesis, although others are mentioned along the way. In short, considerations of vagueness help understand the logic behind so‐called manipulation arguments, but also show why these arguments are ultimately (...) flawed. (shrink)

If a thomist philosopher wonders how we get the idea of the infinite being, or why the act of being implies no limit, he will understand immediately what Polo intends by saying "mental limit" and its abandonment. The principles of such ab andonment are habitual and active thinking. That Theory of knowledge justifies the fact that we really know that the act (esse) is the fundamental of being (ens) and the judgements and discourses spreading out from the transcendental notion of (...) being. (shrink)

Este libro analiza y reconstruye una de las teorías científicas que más discusiones han provocado en el ámbito de la biología, de la filosofía y de la sociedad: la teoría de la selección natural. Esta teoría, que ocupa un lugar central en la biología evolutiva, se encuentra en el centro de la revolución darwiniana, uno de los cambios más radicales ocurridos en la historia de la ciencia y, sin dudas, uno de los que más consecuencias han tenido sobre la ciencia (...) en general, sobre la filosofía y sobre el mismo modo en que nos percibimos en el mundo. -/- Si bien se trata de una teoría que parece sencilla de comprender, ha sido especialmente elusiva a los intentos de reconstrucción, no hay acuerdo con respecto a su estructura ni a cuáles son sus conceptos fundamentales. En este trabajo, asumiendo el marco conceptual brindado por el estructuralismo metateórico, se propone una reconstrucción que permite no solo dar cuenta adecuadamente del modo en que la teoría funciona en la práctica científica actual, sino que, además, permite explicitar la importancia filosófica antes aludida. -/- Frente a los desacuerdos marcados en la filosofía de la biología, pero también en textos y manuales de los biólogos evolutivos, respecto del modo de presentación adecuado y la naturaleza de la teoría, la estrategia reconstructiva consiste en discutir la teoría en su origen, tal como apareció en los textos de uno de sus codescubridores, Charles Darwin. La intención del libro es, entonces, no solo explicitar la estructura de la teoría, sino, además, su lugar en el pensamiento de Darwin, en la revolución darwiniana y en la biología evolutiva. (shrink)