Las críticas que brotan en un medio en que el debate epistemológico parece encabezar los problemas que competen al filosofar, tienen en el negar el sentido de verdad al discurso de índole religiosa la ratificación del estatus de cientificidad. Esta es la apuesta de teóricos inscritos a la tradición analítica surgida en el pasado siglo. No obstante, frente a los discursos neopositivistas y el radical evidencialismo vienen las posiciones de algunos filósofos y teólogos analíticos quienes paralelamente abogaron por la validez (...) y el sentido de lo religioso. (shrink)

La agregación del extranjero a la propia comunidad entre las tribus de cazadores recolectores paleolíticos, consiste en un rito de reconocimiento y aceptación recíproco entre la divinidad protectora de la tribu y el extranjero. Este sentido religioso del rito se mantiene en las sociedades neolíticas y posteriores. En el pueblo hebreo el extranjero se integra cuando acepta los valores supremos de la comunidad mediante los ritos correspondientes. Eso mismo ocurre cuando la comunidad integra a todos los pueblos conocidos, desde (...) la constitutio Antoniniana de Caracalla de 212 hasta la constitución de la Sociedad de Naciones de 1919. La forma suprema de hospitalidad es dar sepultura a los muertos, que se practica con los extranjeros de una manera bastante general. (shrink)

Tener miedo del más allá, sentirse amado incondicionalmente por un ser superior, avergonzarse de la condición imperfecta del ser humano, son algunos ejemplos de emociones que no dudaríamos en calificar como religiosas. Ahora bien ¿Cómo describir su estructura? ¿Por qué llamamos a estas emociones “religiosas”? ¿Cuálos son los rasgos distintivos que sirven para diferenciarlas de las emociones “no religiosas”? En este artículo se examinan los rasgos distintivos de las emociones religiosas. Para ello, se analizan tres elementos cruciales de la experiencia (...) emocional: su fenomenología, sus bases cognitivas y su relación con los valores. Se argumenta que las emociones religiosas poseen profundidad experiencial afectando totalmente a la persona, tienen un contenido religioso y responden a valores religiosos. Cada una de estas tres condiciones es necesaria para considerar a una emoción como religiosa, aunque por sí sola ninguna es suficiente. Son las tres condiciones conjuntas lo que explica el carácter religioso de una emoción. (shrink)

Las experiencias místicas y el conocimiento que producen son comunicados a través de un lenguaje religioso. En este texto presentaré un estudio de caso de una tradición yóguica del norte de la India, el Surat Shabdt Yoga, que se practica para obtener este tipo de experiencia. Desde el punto de vista de la teoría verificacionista del significado desarrollada por Alfred J. Ayer, el lenguaje religioso carece de significado.Mi objetivo es analizar y evaluar la teoría verificacionista y mostrar que no sólo (...) se auto refuta; sino que también exhibe ciertas inconsistencias lógicas, empíricas y cognitivas que la debilitan como un buen criterio para evaluar la significatividad del lenguaje religioso. Se argumentará que los instrumentos y métodos de verificación se constriñen a nuestras habilidades, límites, expectativas e intereses cognitivos específicos; por lo que el valor de verdad del contenido fáctico de los enunciados religiosos no puede ser decidido de forma indubitable. (shrink)

O autor recolhe, no interior da experiência cristã, perspectivas pertinentes e necessárias à concretização histórica do diálogo inter-religioso. Sua tese é a de que elementos básicos para essa práxis libertadora estão presentes na própria experiência religiosa de Jesus de Nazaré. O ponto de partida é o reconhecimento, pressuposto epocal, da legitimidade do pluralismo cultural e religioso. Na primeira parte, explicita a dimensão antropológica e os pressupostos críticos de compreensão de uma tradição religiosa. Na segunda, recolhe contribuições importantes da tradição judaico-cristã (...) para a efetivação do diálogo interreligioso: a estrutura dialógica da revelação divina, a universalidade do amor de Deus, a promoção da vida humana como valor central, a necessária encarnação histórica da experiência de Deus e a dimensão sacramental da religião diante da centralidade teológica do Reino de Deus. Por fim, utiliza a categoria inreligionação, de Torres Queiruga, para mostrar as maravilhas do possível e necessário diálogo inter-religioso. Palavras-chave: Diálogo inter-religioso; Pluralismo; Fundamentalismo; Reino de Deus; Inreligionação. ABSTRACT The author extracts from Christian experience perspectives associated with, and necessary to, the historical concretization of inter-religious dialogue. According to his thesis, basic elements of inter-religious dialogue are present in Jesus’ own religious experience. The starting point is the acknowledgment of the legitimacy of cultural and religious pluralism. In the first part, the article points out the anthropologic dimension and critical premises of the comprehension of a religious tradition. In the second part, important contributions from Jewish-Christian tradition to an effective inter-religious dialogue are presented: the dialogical structure of divine revelation, the universality of God’s love, the promotion of human life as a central value, the necessary historical incarnation of God’s experience and the sacramental dimension of religion in face of the theological centrality of God’s Kingdom. Finally, Torres Queiruga’s category of ‘inreligionation’ is used to show the wonderful results of inter-religious dialogue. Key words: Inter-religious dialogue; Pluralism; Fundamentalism; God’s Kingdom; ‘Inreligionation’. (shrink)

O tema sobre a cultura da mesa de refeição quer refletir o aspecto teológico-religioso da cultura do antigo Israel e apontar a relação entre cultura e teologia, costumes e valores espirituais, como experiências que apontam para o Transcendente e para a unidade de um grupo. Com isso, o texto quer resgatar tal reflexão para o mundo pós-moderno, no qual a cultura sustenta-se por uma dimensão que transcende a vida prática dos homens, assinala valores impregnados de religiosidade e espiritualidade (...) e, consequentemente, de crenças instaladas no mais íntimo de um corpo social. O fim último é o respeito e o reconhecimento da vida que vem de Deus. (shrink)

RESUMO: A partir de dois tópicos de Biologia, a Sistemática Filogenética - uma metodologia de análise da evolução orgânica - e a teoria da evolução Neo-Darwinista, questiona-se a atual abordagem educativa para o ensino de Ciências, especialmente em relação a temas conectados com o Ensino Religioso. Propõe-se que a utilização pouco criteriosa de metodologias, ainda que em si reconhecidas pela excelência, pode levar a distorções numa hierarquia de valores aplicada à Educação, promovendo conclusões enganosas com prejuízo do educando.

Este artigo oferece um breve panorama da jurisprudência canadense desde a promulgação da Carta Canadense dos Direitos e Liberdades, em 1982. Ao mesmo tempo em que busca consolidar mais firmemente a liberdade religiosa, a Carta também tem colocado limites explícitos sobre o direito dessa mesma liberdade. Os Tribunais canadenses se mostram dispostos a intervir no funcionamento interno das instituições religiosas. A proteção legal foi ampliada no sentido de incluir não apenas as religiões não cristãs, mas também as crenças não religiosas (...) em geral. O efeito cumulativo dessas decisões tem corroído efetivamente a separação de fato entre a Igreja e o Estado que tem se desenvolvido no Canadá. O valor relativo a um crescente respeito ao pluralismo religioso é potencialmente compensado pelo aumento de intervenção judicial e pela imposição de valores seculares. Os tribunais têm definido "religião" e "pluralismo religioso" em termos cada vez mais seculares. Palavras-chave: Lei; Pluralismo Religioso; Tribunais Canadenses.This paper offers a brief overview of Canadian case law since the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was enacted in 1982. At the same time that it has more firmly entrenched religious freedom, the Charter has placed explicit limits on the right of religious freedom. Canadian courts have shown themselves willing to intervene in the internal workings of religious institutions. Legal protection has been extended to include not only non-Christian religions but also non-religious beliefs more generally. The cumulative effect of these decisions has been to effectively erode the de facto separation between Church and State that has developed in Canada. The value of increased respect for religious pluralism is potentially offset by increasing judicial intervention and by the correlated effective imposition of secular values. The courts have been defining "religion" and "religious pluralism" in increasingly secular terms. Keywords : law; Religious Pluralism; Canadian Courts. (shrink)

On the basis of Lluís Duch’s idea that there is no specifically religious language, the article examines the kōan, a form of dialogue typical of Zen Buddhism used as a meditation technique and compiled in several written collections. Using the interpretations of the kōan carried out by some contemporary Japanese philosophers, the paper reflects on the expressive resources developed by Zen literature in order to account for the tension between the ineffability of the experience of an ultimate reality and the (...) infinite possibilities of linguistic articulation of reality. (shrink)

Análise dos principais desafios do pluralismo religioso para o contexto teológico latino-americano. Como resultado de nossa pesquisa, formulamos três eixos norteadores da temática: I. A importância pública das religiões para os processos de promoção da paz e da justiça, associada ao valor da mística e da alteridade na formação de espiritualidades ecumênicas e como elas incidirão nos processos religiosos e sociais, favorecendo perspectivas utópicas, democráticas e doadoras de sentido. II. A necessidade de mudança de lugar teológico a partir da (...) realidade das culturas religiosas afro-indígenas. III. A contribuição da teologia feminista da libertação para o debate do pluralismo religioso. Metodologicamente, reunimos a produção teológica latino-americana em torno das questões do pluralismo religioso, identificamos os aspectos principais, especialmente os que interpelam mais diretamente o método teológico e sistematizamos os pontos que consideramos mais desafiadores em torno dos três eixos já referidos. A pesquisa mostra que, diante do pluralismo religioso, faz-se necessária para a teologia das religiões uma atenção especial à articulação entre a capacidade de diálogo dos grupos religiosos e os desafios em torno da defesa dos direitos humanos e das lógicas inclusivas. Palavras-chave: Método teológico. Teologia das religiões. Pluralismo. Teologia da libertação.This paper analyses the main challenges of religious pluralism for the theological Latin American context. The research was formulated around three topics: (i) the public importance of religions for the peace processes and promotion of justice. It takes into account the way in which the ecumenical formation of spiritualities, in the middle of mysticism and alterity, affects religious and social processes, allowing the emergence of new utopian, democratic and meaningful perspectives; (ii) the necessity of rethinking theological locus, shifting to a starting point of afro-indigenous cultures; and (iii) the contribution of feminist liberation theology to the debate of religious pluralism. Our method was to bring together the principal questions around religious pluralism in Latin American theology, identifying its principal aspects, focusing mostly those aspects that directly interpellate the theological methodology. Those aspects were systematized around the three topics mentioned above. The paper shows that, concerning religious pluralism, it is necessary for the theology of religions special attention to the relationship between the capacity for dialogue of religious groups around the defense of human rights and inclusiveness. Keywords: Theological methodology. Theology of religions. Pluralism. Liberation Theology. (shrink)

In this introduction, I consider different problems posed by the use of singular terms in fiction (section 1), paying especial attention to proper names and, in particular, to names of real people, places, etc. As we will see (section 2), descriptivist and Millian theories of reference face different kinds of problems in explaining the use of fictional names in fiction-related contexts. Moreover, the task of advancing a uniform account of names in these contexts—an account which deals not only with fictional (...) names but also with “real” names—will prove to be very hard no matter whether we favour realist or antirealist intuitions about fictional discourse (section 3). Section 4 offers an overview of the content of this volume, with emphasis on the discussion between Manuel García-Carpintero and Stacie Friend about the meaning of “real” names in fiction-related contexts, the main topic of the Third Blasco Disputatio. (shrink)

Scientific literature on particular themes in ontology is extremely abundant, but it is often very hard for freshmen or sophomores to find a red thread between the various proposals. This text is an opinionated introduction, a preliminary text to research in ontology from the so called standard approach to ontological commitment, that is from the particular point of view that connects ontological questions to quantificational questions. It offers a survey of this viewpoint in ontology together with their possible applications through (...) a broad array of examples and open problems and, at the same time, essential references to the classics of philosophy, so as to allow non-specialists to understand the terms and analysis procedures characterizing the discipline. Its result is a wide-ranging overview of the issued tackled by ontology, with a particular focus on the most relevant problems of contemporary debate. (shrink)

One of the complications of a clear evaluation of different positions called “realism” in metaphysics and ontology is discrepancy in terminology and variance of basic intuitions inherent this notion. I recommend a taxonomy that distinguishes three kinds of variance: variance in the sets of conditions for a philosophical position to be acknowledged as actual realism, variance in strength and variance in conceptual frameworks. Within this last case, I propose to differentiate realism in epistemology, in ontology, and in metaphysics, intersecting these (...) three variants with the local/global realism dichotomy. The taxonomy here provided aims at being meta-philosophical; expressive enough for a fine-grained articulation of different philosophical positions in the recent debate, including the question of metaphysical grounding; and impartial, with no need to be connected to the defense of one form or another of the philosophical positions called “realism.”. (shrink)

According to the quantificational Quinean model in meta-ontology, the question of ontology boils down to the question of whether a sortal property is exemplified. I address some complications that arise when we try to build a philosophical reconstruction of the link between individuals and kinds displayed in the exemplification relation from the point of view of conceptualism about kinds and having in mind this stand in ontology. I distinguish two notions of resemblance, object-to- object and object-to- kind, and show the (...) problems with both of them. Finally, I argue for a better awareness of the implicit "bias" involved in the very notion of "resemblance," without indulging in Quine's veto toward this notion. (shrink)

Sustainable labels are considered the best way for consumers to identify brands with environmental or social attributes on the shelves, and therefore promoted as a means to develop the so-called “ethical markets”. However, little is known about how consumers use these brands. This paper tries to offer complementary theoretical insights on the determinants of sustainable label use by drawing on the economic model of information search; in particular, it examines the influence of two factors on the purchase of such labels: (...) motivation and knowledge. Information was gathered through a structured questionnaire in personal interviews with 289 primary buyers. The study found that education influences directly knowledge, while Motivation influences Label use both directly and indirectly, via Label knowledge. This study concludes that Motivation is the most powerful factor to explain Label use; knowledge is a necessary but not sufficient condition. Even more, consumers may not have a good understanding of sustainable labels and still use them in their purchasing decisions. This suggests that there is a dual processing mode of sustainable labels, both systematic and heuristic. (shrink)

This article introduces a novel theoretical framework for addressing epistemic injustice—a phenomenon where certain groups or individuals are systematically excluded from knowledge creation and dissemination processes—by employing ontological relativity and conceptual analysis. “Ontological relativity” refers to a philosophical perspective that posits our understanding of reality as being shaped by our toolbox of concepts, categories, language, and social practices; “conceptual analysis” is a method of inquiry that involves the rigorous examination and deconstruction of a particular concept or set of concepts in (...) order to uncover their constituent elements, relationships, and underlying assumptions. To exemplify the effectiveness of the ontology‐based approach, two paradigmatic applications are explored: (a) educational practices and (b) clinical practice and access to health care. Through the presentation of these applications and the step‐by‐step illustration of the applied methodology, the aim of the article is to showcase the efficacy of ontology in tackling epistemic injustices, suggesting innovative paths for future research in this domain. (shrink)

Managing the relationship with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) is a key capability for most companies, because dialogue with stakeholders is a requested feature of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This paper analyses the relationship between businesses and NGOs in Spain. By applying grounded theory, the authors summarize this relationship in the dynamics of conflict and cooperation. NGOs' strategies vis-à-vis companies are categorized and the variables explaining different approaches on both companies' and NGOs' side are examined. The paper concludes by placing the private (...) relationship with NGOs in a wider context (the public arena), dominated by the approach-withdrawal dynamics between firms and NGOs. Finally, this paper presents the theory that results from this research. (shrink)

Managing the relationship with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) is a key capability for most companies, because dialogue with stakeholders is a requested feature of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This paper analyses the relationship between businesses and NGOs in Spain. By applying grounded theory, the authors summarize this relationship in the dynamics of conflict and cooperation. NGOs' strategies vis‐à‐vis companies are categorized and the variables explaining different approaches on both companies' and NGOs' side are examined. The paper concludes by placing the private (...) relationship with NGOs in a wider context (the public arena), dominated by the approach‐withdrawal dynamics between firms and NGOs. Finally, this paper presents the theory that results from this research. (shrink)

General and Formal Ontology Paolo Valore The word ontology derives from tÕ Ôn ( tò òn), which is the neutral participle of e„m. ...