The author aims to sketch out a biographical and philosophical profile of Alberto Caracciolo, Italian philosopher in the second half of the twentieth century. In order to reach a better understanding of the philosopher's religious point of view, he believes it is necessary to emphasize both Caracciolo's juvenile friendship with Teresio Olivelli - martyr of the resistance against Nazism - and his critical engagement with the thought of great philosophers such as Croce, Leopardi, Kant, Troeltsch, Jaspers and (...) Heidegger. The author intends also to analyze how Caracciolo's renewal of religious tradition, reconsidered through the concept of Liberalität, connected with his restless and anxious way of considering the malum mundi, led towards an original interpretation of European nihilism. This involves an idea of philosophy, linked to an inexhaustible question and to an ethical and religious view of human life, grounded in a paradoxical way on the imperative of eternity. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to argue against the received view among Unamuno scholars that Miguel de Unamuno was defending a sort of pragmatic argument for religious faith and that his notion of religious faith as “querer creer” (“wanting to believe”) is to be identified with William James’s “the will to believe”. As I will show in this paper, one of the aspects that makes Unamuno’s reasoning philosophically relevant is his ability to formulate a non-pragmatist defense of religious faith (...) without a prior commitment to the truth of any religious or theological statement and grounded in our longing for an endless existence through God’s Salvation. (shrink)

We argue that, in certain circumstances, doctors might beprofessionallyjustified to provide abortions even in those jurisdictions where abortion is illegal. That it is at least professionally permissible does not mean that they have an all-things-considered ethical justification or obligation to provide illegal abortions or that professional obligations or professional permissibility trump legal obligations. It rather means that professional organisations should respect and indeed protect doctors’ positive claims of conscience to provide abortions if they plausibly track what is in the best (...) medical interests of their patients. It is the responsibility of state authorities to enforce the law, but it is the responsibility of professional organisations to uphold the highest standards of medical ethics, even when they conflict with the law. Whatever the legal sanctions in place, healthcare professionals should not be sanctioned by the professional bodies for providing abortions according to professional standards, even if illegally. Indeed, professional organisation should lobby to offer protection to such professionals. Our arguments have practical implications for what healthcare professionals and healthcare professional organisations may or should do in those jurisdictions that legally prohibit abortion, such as some US States after the reversal ofRoe v Wade. (shrink)

Este trabajo presenta un argumento en favor de la exigencia de verdad de las proposiciones descriptivas de los hechos en controversias que normalmente integran el contenido de las sentencias en el derecho contemporáneo. Esta exigencia es, de este modo, un criterio de justificación de las decisiones judiciales. Para desarrollar el argumento se recurre al análisis de las nociones de “decisión judicial”, de “aplicación” de normas generales y de “justificación normativa”. Se revisan, asimismo, diversas formas del escepticismo kelseniano acerca de esa (...) exigencia de verdad y se sostiene que no son exitosas. (shrink)

How can providing less textual information about a fictional character make his or her mind more transparent and accessible to the reader? This is the question that emerges from an empirical study of reader response conducted by Kotovych et al. Taking my cue from this study, I discuss the role of implied information in readers’ interactions with characters in prose fiction. This is the textual strategy I call ‘character-centered implicature.’ I argue that the inferential work cued by implicature creates an (...) intersubjective dynamic analogous to what philosophers Zahavi and Rochat discuss under the heading of ‘experiential sharing.’ Effectively, readers complement the textual evocation of mind by drawing on their own past experiences, which leads to a distinctive first-person plural perspective—a sharing of cognitive resources that is responsible for the perceived transparency of the character’s mind. While this experiential sharing may result in empathetic perspective-taking, not all instances of empathy for fictional characters involve sharing. (shrink)

This book develops a novel theory of intentionality. It argues that intentionality is an internal essential relation of constitution between an intentional state and an object or between such a state and a possible state of affairs as subsisting. The author's main claim is that intentionality is a fundamentally modal property, hence a non (scientifically) natural property in that it does not supervene, either locally or globally, on its nonmodal physical basis. This is the property, primarily for an intentional mental (...) state, to be constituted by the entities it is about. In the case of intentionality of reference, such constituents are objects, in the sense of individuals; in the case of intentionality of content, such constituents are possible states of affairs as subsisting. Constitution is meant in a mereologically literal sense: those constituents are essential parts of the relevant states. As a result, the theory claims not only that intentionality is relational, but also that is an internal, essential relation holding between an intentional state and its object or proposition-like content. Intentionality as Constitution will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of mind, philosophy of language, metaphysics, and cognitive science. (shrink)

Most of the existing studies on Bourdieu and the digital regards the social and class distinctions in the use of digital technologies, thus presupposing a certain transparency of technologies themselves. Our proposal is to refer to this attitude as “Bourdieu outside the digital.” Yet in this paper, another perspective called “Bourdieu inside the digital” is developed, which moves the focus on the effects of some emerging technologies on social distinctions and discrimination. The main hypothesis is that algorithms of machine learning (...) are producers and reproducers of habitus. Although their results present a greater granularity with respect to the standard techniques of the past, these algorithms still reduce individuals to categories, general trends, classes, and behaviors. Such a reduction has flattening effects on the individuals’ self-understanding, especially in terms of identity and interaction with the social world. This is the phenomenon described in the article as the “personalization without personality,” whose consequences are both existential and social-political. This idea will be illustrated through qualitative and comparative analysis between the correspondence analysis and the multiple correspondence analysis used by Bourdieu in his works and some of those techniques that are performed today in big data analytics. (shrink)

Este trabajo se propone, como un paso final, el examen del argumento de Carlos Nino a favor de la existencia de una obligación moral de obedecer al derecho producido por un gobierno democrático. Este argumento vendría a mostrar además que la democracia es la única forma de gobierno moralmente legítima. En la idea de Nino ambas cuestiones son equivalentes y una respuesta positiva es considerada necesaria para determinar la posibilidad de justificación de las decisiones de los jueces. La tesis en (...) cuestión se apoya en una compleja concepción acerca de dimensión justificatoria del derecho y su conexión con la moral, como una condición necesaria. Por ello, se revisa las nociones de las que depende esa propuesta de Nino, especialmente las ideas de razón para la acción, justificación, principio moral y norma jurídica y se formula un interrogante acerca del éxito del argumento, si se acepta esa concepción general. This paper attempts to examine Carlos Nino’s argument supporting the existence of a moral obligation to obey the law produced by a democratic government. This argument also goes on to show that democracy is the only morally legitimate form of government. In Nino’s conception, both issues are equivalent, and a positive response is considered necessary to determine the possibility to justify judges’ decisions. The thesis in question rests on a complex conception regarding the law’s justificatory dimension, and its connection with morality as a necessary condition. This is why the notions upon which Nino’s proposal rests are examined, above all the ideas of reason for action, justification, moral principle and legal norm. If we accept this general conception, then we should ask about the success of the argument. (shrink)

In the Sahara, there is a species of silver ants with coats precisely calibrated to adapt to the harsh landscape around them. Their tiny radiant armor is made of triangular, reflective hairs on their midsection that dissipate heat through thermal radiation, thus enabling them to survive in the greater than 150 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures during the twenty minutes or so each day when they leave their nests. By midcentury such examples of extreme adaptation may have increasing significance for us. How (...) we are able to become constituents of a broader landscape will gain more relevance as the earth warms and its population reaches the nine billion mark. Our deeply held values about individuality may even become... (shrink)