La escritura de Paul Valéry es un reto para la filosofía y en este artículo se toma nota del comentario de Karl Löwith para ejemplificar la dificultad. El artículo se divide en cuatro partes, de las cuales sólo la primera toma en cuenta la opinión de José María Valverde; las tres siguientes analizan la posición del filósofo K. Löwith para centrar el argumento básico del poeta. Se trata de ver cómo y hasta qué punto Valéry es cartesiano, tomando en (...) consideración que, como poeta, ha efectuado una disolución o rarefacción de la subjetividad. En este movimiento, el yo puro, al que se remite, designa el límite del mundo. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to provide a new system of logic for existence and essence, in which the traditional distinctions between essential and accidental properties, abstract and concrete objects, and actually existent and possibly existent objects are described and related in a suitable way. In order to accomplish this task, a primitive relation of essential identity between different objects is introduced and connected to a first order existence property and a first order abstractness property. The basic idea is (...) that possibly existent objects are completely determinate and that essentially identical objects are just different individuations of the same individual essence. Accordingly, essential properties are defined as properties that are invariant with respect to this kind of identity, while abstract objects are determined by being characterized by essential properties only. Once such ideas are implemented, a number of classical intuitions about objects, their essence, and their way of existence can be consistently interpreted. (shrink)

There is an affinity between Hegel’s philosophy and Neoplatonism that Hegel himself explicitly pointed out. We claim that this affinity is due to systematic reasons and involves theoretical and practical aspects of both philosophies. To argue in that direction, we address the thematization of Plotinus’s philosophy in the Hegelian Lessons on the history of philosophy. We seek to show that, according to Hegel, Plotinus elaborates in ancient times, for the first time, a complex synthesis of the philosophical principles that precede (...) his own thought, and for this reason Hegel’s speculative exposition ascribes to Neoplatonism the logical category of totality. In this synthesis of finite principles —which we will seek to determine in this paper—, Hegel recognizes tasks and problems close to those of his own philosophy. However, can it be asserted that Hegel’s philosophy is for this reason a modern Neoplatonism, or is there a point at which both projects are revealed to have a fundamental incompatibility? (shrink)

Se determina la posición y función primigenia del concepto de fin en Nuremberg. Además, se reconstruyen las modificaciones sistemático-arquitectónicas que dieron paso al surgimiento, en la Lógica, de la sección Objetividad y a la consecuente modificación de la posición del fin, que se insertará dentro de ésta como una forma específica de causalidad, diferenciada de los procesos mecánico-químicos. Con esta modificación, el tránsito del fin a la idea cesa de ser puro, perfilándose específicamente como un momento instrumental del concepto en (...) su proceso de realización en lo objetivo. (shrink)

More than 30 years after the fall of the soviet block and because of the social and political crisis that have occurred in various places of the world in recent years, there have been important political and academic debates about the meaning of the concept of communism. The current article attempts to contribute theoretically to this discussion by highlighting the different becomings within which communism can be understood in the actual context. Among those are the performative importance of the word (...) “communism” in political and symbolic terms; communism as a process that precedes and modulates capitalist development; communism as a specter and multiplicity; and the relationship of communism with new forms of capitalist exploitation and political subjectivity. (shrink)

More than 30 years after the fall of the soviet block and because of the social and political crisis that have occurred in various places of the world in recent years, there have been important political and academic debates about the meaning of the concept of communism. The current article attempts to contribute theoretically to this discussion by highlighting the different becomings within which communism can be understood in the actual context. Among those are the performative importance of the word (...) “communism” in political and symbolic terms; communism as a process that precedes and modulates capitalist development; communism as a specter and multiplicity; and the relationship of communism with new forms of capitalist exploitation and political subjectivity. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se analiza el relato sobre la supuesta correspondencia mantenida por Jesús y el rey Abgar V de Edesa, presente en la obra Historia Eclesiástica de Eusebio de Cesarea. Desde sus inicios, la leyenda gozó de mucha fama debido a la consideración de los fieles de que se trataba de uno de los pocos testimonios existentes sobre un texto escrito por el mismísimo Jesús. Este hecho provocó que esta tradición se tradujese a numerosas lenguas y recibiera varias (...) influencias distintas, lo que sin duda favoreció su desarrollo y su pervivencia en el tiempo. A pesar de los numerosos estudios sobre su popularidad y sobre las distintas versiones existentes, el origen de esta leyenda sigue sin estar claro y está lejos de llegar a un consenso académico. Por tanto, en este trabajo se estudian las distintas perspectivas sobre el inicio de esta tradición, analizando aquellas teorías que se centran en sugerir que la obra se trata de una invención del autor, pero también buscando algún matiz histórico que pudo servir como fuente de inspiración para Eusebio de Cesarea. (shrink)

In this article we argue for an extension of Pere Alberch’s notion of developmental morphospace into the realm of cognition and introduce the notion of cognitive phenotype as a new tool for the evolutionary and developmental study of cognitive abilities.

Despite the recent attention given to moral character in moral psychology and moral philosophy, there is little evidence on how the folk concept of character is structured. Virtue ethics literature...

The Mexican cult around the image of the Virgin of Tepeyac is commonly addressed in relation with creole nationalism, but that emphasis ignores the survival of its cult until today. Given that construction of identity through ‘miraculous’ images persists through technologies of iconic deployment, it is necessary to examine the original functions of its technologies. I investigate these problems by considering the construction of a newexhibition site for the Virgin of Tepeyac, and the modalities of reproducing the image until today. (...) The historical comparison of these contemporary techniques with those of the seventeenth century enables to appreciate the coherence of this visual tradition and its importance to the construction of social processes in Mexico. (shrink)

O que se pretende com este artigo é mostrar, seguindo o itinerário da sucessão das categorias, que é o mesmo das atitudes nas quais o homem se compreende, a relação entre as duas últimas categorias da Lógica da filosofia - Sentido e Sabedoria - e a ideia de cidada­nia. Com efeito, a tese de fundo deste texto consiste em dizer que uma das originalidades do pensamento de Eric Weil reside justamente no conceito de retomada, que é um conceito de compreensão, (...) e dizer, ao mesmo tempo, que ele é decisivo para a problematização da relação entre Sentido, Sabedoria e cidadania. (shrink)

This paper discusses historical-critical thought to address the problems of restoration and preservation of tape music, proposing viable solutions to the matter of digitizing the historically valuable data that exists on and is represented by magnetic tapes. A detailed program of research and restoration and some software for helping in creation of critical editions of the musical works are proposed. We also present some of the issues and controversies that must be considered and approaches we have applied in the preservation (...) of tape music, highlighting how these interpretations can impact later performances of these tape documents. Fundamentally, we argue that the act of tape music restoration has a parallel with the interpretation of the “Urtext score” in the performance of music from the Common Practice Era. (shrink)

This paper proposes an application of Enrique Dussel’s ethics of liberation to an issue of crucial importance to US minorities: the debate on affirmative action. Over the past fifty years, this debate has been framed in terms of the opposition between advocates of affirmative action who claim that it is needed in order to achieve the integration and participation of traditionally oppressed groups to society without which there is no equality of rights, and critics who argue that affirmative action violates (...) equality by enforcing a double standard that undermines the ideal of a color-blind society. In this paper, I show how the basic principles of Dussel’s ethical theory (which are best expounded in his book Ethics of Liberation) allow us to address what I take to be the main demands of both advocates and critics of affirmative action in a satisfactory way. (shrink)

In recent decades, philosophers of science have devoted considerable efforts to understand what models represent. One popular position is that models represent fictional situations. Another position states that, though models often involve fictional elements, they represent real objects or scenarios. Though these two positions may seem to be incompatible, I believe it is possible to reconcile them. Using a threefold distinction between different signs proposed by Peirce, I develop an argument based on a proposal recently made by Kralemann and Lattman (...) (in Synthese 190:3397–3420, 2013) that shows that the two aforementioned positions can be reconciled by distinguishing different ways in which a model representation can be used. In particular, on the basis of Peirce’s distinction between icons, indices and symbols, I argue that models can sometimes function as icons, sometimes as indexes and sometimes as symbols, depending on the context in which they are considered and the use that they are developed for because they all have iconic, indexical and symbolic features. In addition, I show that conceiving models as signs enables us to develop an account of scientific representation that meets the main desiderata that Shech (in Synthese 192:3463–3485, 2015) presents. (shrink)

The aim of this essay is twofold. First, it outlines the concept of ontological frame. Secondly, two models are distinguished on this structure. The first one is connected to Kant’s concept of possible object and the second one relates to Leibniz’s. Leibniz maintains that the source of possibility is the mere logical consistency of the notions involved, so that possibility coincides with analytical possibility. Kant, instead, argues that consistency is only a necessary component of possibility. According to Kant, something is (...) possible if there is a cause capable of bringing it into existence; to this end consistency alone is not sufficient. Thus, while the Leibnizian notion of consistency is at the root of the concept of analytical possibility, the Kantian notion of possibility is the source of real possibility. This difference plays an important role in the discussion of Gödel’s ontological proof, which can be formally interpreted on the ontological frame of the pure perfections. While this proof, under some emendation condition, is conclusive in the context of Leibniz’s ontological model, it is not so within the Kantian one. This issue will be the subject of the second part of the present essay. (shrink)

En este trabajo me propongo desarrollar un estudio crítico de la concepción mecanicista de la explicación científica. En primer lugar, argumento que la caracterización mecanicista de los modelos fenoménicos (no explicativos) es inadecuada, pues no ofrece un análisis aceptable de los conceptos de modelo científico y similitud, que son fundamentales para la propuesta. En segundo lugar, sostengo que la caracterización de los modelos mecanicistas (explicativos) es igualmente inadecuada, pues los análisis disponibles de la relación explicativa de relevancia constitutiva implican una (...) tesis metafísica que es rechazada por los mismos mecanicistas. Concluyo que el mecanicismo no ofrece todavía una elucidación aceptable de la explicación científica. In this paper, I offer a critical assessment of the mechanicist approach to scientific explanation. Firstly, I argue that the mechanicist characterization of (non explanatory) phenomenological models is inadequate, since it does not develop an explication of the concepts of scientific model and similarity, which are indispensable to the approach. Secondly, I claim that the mechanicist conception of (explanatory) mechanicist models is inadequate as well, since all the available analices of the explanatory relation of constitutive relevance imply a metaphysical thesis that is rejected by the mechanicists themselves. I conclude that mechanicism needs to be emended if it aims to be considered as a genuinely illuminating approach to scientific explanation. (shrink)

This paper examines the explanatory distinctness of wiring optimization models in neuroscience. Wiring optimization models aim to represent the organizational features of neural and brain systems as optimal (or near-optimal) solutions to wiring optimization problems. My claim is that that wiring optimization models provide design explanations. In particular, they support ideal interventions on the decision variables of the relevant design problem and assess the impact of such interventions on the viability of the target system.

This is a book review of "The Metaphysics of Sensory Experiencie" by David Papineau.

O presente estudo visa esclarecer os pontos de convergência entre Paulo Freire e Anísio Teixeira referentes aos temas da produção da democracia no Brasil de fins da década de 1950. Para tanto, são tomados como fonte os textos de Freire Educação e atualidade brasileira e Educação como prática da liberdade. O cotejo das idéias de Anísio e Freire permite observar importantes convergências entre ambos, quanto ao papel da educação na formação dos hábitos democráticos e da construção da sociedade democrática, por (...) meio de grandes esforços educativos. Tal proximidade é bastante perceptível até a segunda obra freireana, Educação como prática da liberdade, ficando menos evidente nas obras posteriores. À medida que Freire produz novos textos e participa de novas experiências políticas e educativas, no Chile, junto aos camponeses, suas reflexões priorizam temas como a ruptura entre opressores e oprimidos e a revolução como ação cultural. (shrink)

In this article I defend a form of classical possibilism with an actualist foundation. As a matter of fact, I believe that this position is more in keeping with the classical metaphysical tradition. According to this form of possibilism, I construe possible objects as possible non-existing objects of an existing producing power. Consequently, they are nothing vis-à -vis the modality of their own actual being, although they do exist with regard to the modality of the producing power’s being. The actualist (...) requirement prescribed by the Frege-Quinean criterion of the quantification domain is thus fulfilled; indeed, really possible objects are not actual objects, but their possibility is actual. (shrink)

In a recent paper, Ladyman (2011) has argued that the empirical stance, which has been championed by Van Fraassen (2002), and the materialist stance are compatible with each other –a thesis which is important for Ladyman since it paves the way for the project of developing a ‘radically naturalized metaphysics’ that he has defended along with Ross (2007). Though Ladyman puts forth a compelling case for the thesis that the two stances are compatible, I find his argument for the thesis (...) to be problematic. In this paper, I argue, pace Ladyman, that the two stances cannot be reconciled since there is an inconsistency between the epistemic requirements needed to adopt both stances. (shrink)

Van Fraassen has presented in Scientific Representation an attractive notion of measurement as an important part of the empiricist structuralism that he endorses. However, he has been criticized on the grounds that both his notion of measurement and his empiricist structuralism force him to do the very thing he objects to in other philosophical projects — to endorse a controversial metaphysics. This paper proposes a defense of van Fraassen by arguing that his project is indeed a ‘ metaphysical ’ project, (...) but one which is very similar to Strawson’s ‘ descriptive metaphysics ’; if this is the case, van Fraassen’s project may be taken, following recent suggestions made by Ney and Paul, as a form of metaphysics that can potentially make a crucial contribution to scientific inquiry. (shrink)

La interculturalidad es un concepto clave en el contexto actual a la hora de concebir un modelo educativo. Las diferentes culturas, así como las distintas sociedades que existen actualmente, suponen un sinfín de posibilidades y realidades que enriquecen la experiencia del ser humano. Conocer diferentes culturas desarrolla nuestro pensamiento y nos prepara para afrontar las situaciones desde otra perspectiva. Es por eso por lo que, teniendo clara la importancia de la interculturalidad, en este estudio vamos a plantear una propuesta educativa, (...) en la que el objetivo final será elaborar un método educativo, una propuesta de aplicación en el aula, situado dentro del primer ciclo educativo (primaria). (shrink)

Background: Benzodiazepines have been widely used in clinical practice for over four decades and continue to be one of the most consumed and highly prescribed class of drugs available in the treatment of anxiety, depression, and insomnia. The literature indicates that Benzodiazepine users at a significantly increased risk of Motor Vehicle accidents compared to non-users but the impact on injuries at workplace is not well-defined. We aimed to investigate whether use of benzodiazepine is associated with increased risk of occupational injuries.Methods: (...) PubMed, Embase, and Scopus databases were searched. A meta-analysis was performed to calculate odds ratio and 95% confidence interval among case controls, cross-sectional studies, either questionnaire or laboratory exams based.Results: A total of 13 studies met inclusion criteria, involving 324,168 OI from seven different countries, with an estimated occurrence of benzodiazepine positivity of 2.71%. A total of 14 estimates were retrieved. Of them, 10 were based on laboratory analyses, three on institutional databases, while one study was based on questionnaires. Regarding the occupational groups, three estimates focused on commercial drivers, that exhibited a reduced risk ratio for benzodiazepine positivity compared to other occupational groups. Eventually, no increased risk for benzodiazepine positivity was identified, either from case control studies, or cross sectional studies, when only laboratory based estimates were taken in account.Conclusions: Even though benzodiazepines have the potential to increase injury rates among casual and chronic users, available evidence are insufficient to sustain this hypothesis, particularly when focusing on laboratory-based studies. (shrink)

Integration policies are underpinned upon assumptions that are taken for granted but that condition both the causal diagnosis and the lines of action and programs devised to respond to social challenges associated with migration and refugees movements. The so-called “European refugees crisis” of 2015 is an example of how preconceived ideas affect the analysis of social problems and the design of solutions. This crisis is the context within which the paper, first, examines the root causes of the “problem”; then, explores (...) the notions of identity and participation and the implications they had for policy; and, finally, studies two cases of relative integration success where different assumptions inform different programs and strategies. (shrink)

This open access contributed volume examines the ethical and legal foundations of (future) policies on recommender systems and offers a transdisciplinary approach to tackle important issues related to their development, use and integration into online eco-systems. This volume scrutinizes the values driving automated recommendations - what is important for an individual receiving the recommendation, the company on which that platform was received, and society at large might diverge. The volume addresses concerns about manipulation of individuals and risks for personal autonomy. (...) From a legal perspective, the volume offers a much-needed evaluation of regulatory needs and lawmakers’ answers in various legal disciplines. The focus is on European Union measures of platform regulation, consumer protection and anti-discrimination law. The volume will be of particular interest to the community of legal scholars dealing with platform regulation and algorithmic decision making. By including specific use cases, the volume also exposes pitfalls associated with current models of regulation. Beyond the juxtaposition of purely ethical and legal perspectives, the volume contains truly interdisciplinary work on various aspects of recommender systems. (shrink)

Even thought the emancipating feat of Cuba obteined always the support of people this continent, los lack of governmental recognition on the Latin American countries during tl~ew ar of 1895, joined to the virtual English acceptance of North American hegemony in the region, it maked easy the idea of the U.S.A to take part in the conflict Hispanic- Cuban in 1898.

In this interview with ESPACIOS Magazine (CINDES in Ecuador), in which the author gives the first announcement of his new publication, he offers his critical opinion as to the future of Brazil and of Latin America in general, in the face of liberal reforms that capitalist society is implementi..

This paper examines the explanatory distinctness of wiring optimization models in neuroscience. Wiring optimization models aim to represent the organizational features of neural and brain systems as optimal (or near-optimal) solutions to wiring optimization problems. My claim is that that wiring optimization models provide design explanations. In particular, they support ideal interventions on the decision variables of the relevant design problem and assess the impact of such interventions on the viability of the target system.

El presente artículo se propone identificar, desde una perspectiva histórica, la recepción del pensamiento protagórico en las Historias de Heródoto. Para ello se efectuará un análisis de los pasajes en los que Heródoto remite a νόμος y φύσις, los cuales constituyen una antítesis conceptual en el marco de la sofística del siglo V a.C. A partir de este análisis se pretende mostrar que Heródoto retoma las discusiones intelectuales del siglo V a.C., pero realiza una recepción polémica de dichos conceptos poniendo (...) en evidencia el clima de conflictividad en el plano de lo simbólico. (shrink)

Rencontrer Dieu en Jésus Christ et vivre de la relation avec lui est ce que prétend faire tout chrétien, c'est ce qui fonde son identité. Mais quelle figure d'humanité propose celui qui déclare vivre en Jésus Christ ? Comment rencontrer le Seigneur, le connaître, le comprendre ? Est-il possible d'espérer une humanité meilleure que celle que nous connaissons ? Nous pouvons trouver les réponses à ces questions dans les textes bibliques, en particulier dans les récits évangéliques qui témoignent de l'expérience (...) des disciples de Jésus, qui abordaient des questions sensiblement analogues à celles que nous nous posons. (shrink)