The aim of this paper is to discuss Kripkc?s reasons for declaring the existence of both necessary a posteriori as well as contingent a priori statements, thus breaking the traditional extensional coincidence of the two pairs of concepts:necessary?contingent and a priori?a posteriori. As I shall argue, there is no reason, from Kripke?s work at least, to reject the usual picture of the topic The appeal ot his arguments rests on the ambiguity with which his expressions are used and on the (...) introduction o\ new senses for old notions. This does not mean, however, that all Knpke?s and Putnam?s intuitions on singular terms and natural kind nouns are wrong. Once Kripke?s ideas are properly uudeistood, they are much moreharmless then they are presented to be and they do not pose a threat to traditional relations relations between modal and epistemological categories. (shrink)

El artículo ofrece una caracterización de las constantes lógicas, [CL], analizando el significado de las expresiones que son sus contrapartidas en el lenguaje natural. [CL] recoge los rasgos sintácticos, semánticos y pragmáticos individualmente necesarios y conjuntamente suficientes para que una expresión sea una constante lógica. Se obtendrá la siguiente conclusión: que la lista de las expresiones que habitualmente se consideran constantes lógicas no comparten rasgos relevantes desde el punto de vista del significado que justifiquen su tratamiento como un grupo homogéneo. (...) Sólo algunos usos del condicional, de la negación y de ciertos cuantificadores son constantes lógicas genuinas. (shrink)

Este artículo debate algunas de las cuestiones que el Profesor Puntel discute en su conferencia “‘verdad’ como concepto ontológico-semántico” (2007). La conferencia de Puntel toca numerosos aspectos de la noción de verdad; de entre ellos, hemos aislado dos conjuntos temáticos. El primero tiene que ver con cuestiones preliminares acerca de la verdad que el Prof. Puntel discute antes de presentar su posición. El segundo está relacionado con la posición particular que Puntel defiende y en concreto con su crítica a las (...) teorías pro-oracionales. El primer asunto tiene relevancia porque las cuestiones preliminares en teoría de la verdad constriñen el desarrollo posterior de la teoría de manera determinante; el segundo aspecto tiene relevancia porque la crítica de Puntel encierra ciertos malentendidos de fondo que desdibujan su propia posición y le impiden tener el alcance que el Prof. Puntel le atribuye. (shrink)

This paper deals with Ramsey's theory of truth and its aim is twofold: on the one hand, it will explain what position about truth Ramsey actually defended, and, on the other hand, we will pursue Ramsey's insight in the 20th Century. When the name of Frank Ramsey is mentioned, one of the things that comes to mind is the theory of truth as redundancy. In the following pages we will argue that Ramsey never supported such a theory, but rather an (...) analysis of truth noticeably similar to the prosentential account. In fact, the very word "pro-sentence" appears for the first time in the 20th Century in Ramsey's unfinished work "The nature of truth," written around 1929. Besides, we will show that the prosentential account of truth is a neglected trend throughout the history of analytic philosophy, even though relevant analytic philosophers, such as Prior, Strawson, Williams, Grover, and Brandom, have endorsed it. (shrink)

The background of this paper is what I call “pragmatic inferentialism,” a view that I attribute to Robert Brandom. Here, I develop Brandom’s view and argue that it is a kind of subject naturalism, in Price’s sense, and that the charge of idealism sometimes addressed against it is unwarranted. Regarding, I show that pragmatic inferentialism finds support from evolutionary psychology and developmental psychology. Regarding, I present what I call “level 0 expressivism,” which I take to be the semantic counterpart of (...) some aspects of evolutionary psychology and developmental psychology. Besides, I resort to Brandom’s defense of Hegel’s conceptual realism. The conclusion of the paper is a vindication of objective truth in the inferentialist framework. (shrink)

We identify two senses of ‘pragmatics’ and related terms that give rise to two different methods of propositional individuation. The first one is the contextualist approach that essentially acknowledges contextual information to take part in the determination of what is said by the utterance of a sentence. In this sense, Pragmatics relies on the Principle of Compositionality and interprets propositions as structured entities. It epitomises the Building-block Model of Propositional Individuation. The general approach that makes what the agents do the (...) grounding level of philosophical and linguistic analysis characterizes the second sense, Pragmatism. It finds its clearest expression in Peirce’s Pragmatist Maxim, and it relies on the Fregean Principle of Context, and supports a view of propositions as unstructured entities. This is the Organic Model of Propositional Individuation. There is a test, the Analytic Equivalence Test, that tells apart the two models. According to it, the answer to the question whether a theory makes room for different but analytically equivalent propositions determines the model the theory belongs in. A positive answer classifies the theory as belonging to the building-block model; a negative answer allocates the theory within the organic model. (shrink)

Frank Plumpton Ramsey (1903-1930), Cambridge mathematician and philosopher, was one of the most brilliant people of his generation. He lived in an extraordinarily stimulating milieu, surrounded by figures such as Russell, Whitehead, Keynes, Moore, and Wittgenstein. Ramsey's highly original papers on the foundations of mathematics, probability, economics, philosophy of science and the theory of knowledge were very influential in the 20th century and are still widely discussed in the 21st.

Frank Plumpton Ramsey (1903–30) made seminal contributions to philosophy, mathematics and economics. Whilst he was acknowledged as a genius by his contemporaries, some of his most important ideas were not appreciated until decades later; now better appreciated, they continue to bear an influence upon contemporary philosophy. His historic significance was to usher in a new phase of analytic philosophy, which initially built upon the logical atomist doctrines of Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein, raising their ideas to a new level of (...) sophistication, but ultimately he became their successor rather than remain a mere acolyte. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first we outline a version of non‐descriptivism, ‘minimal expressivism’, leaving aside certain long‐standing problems associated with conventional expressivist views. Second, we examine the way in which familiar expressivist results can be accommodated within this framework, through a particular interpretation that the expressive realm lends to a theory of meaning. Expressivist theories of meaning address only a portion of the classical problems attributed to this position when they seek to explain why the expressions they (...) deal with have a given meaning. A position can nevertheless be termed ‘expressivist’ – in the minimal sense that we favor – based simply on the following key features of the meaning of these expressions: they can be used as functions of propositions, and they are not used to describe the way the world is. (shrink)

La sección monográfica contiene las tres conferencias que Philip Kitcher impartió en el marco de la Primera Edición de las Conferencias Raimundus Lullius patrocinadas por la Sociedad de Lógica, Metodología y Filosofía de la Ciencia de España, el VII Congreso de la Sociedad, celebrado en Santiago de Compostela, del 18-20 de julio de 2012. Incluye también tres de los trabajos que se presentaron en el Symposium dedicado a la obra del Prof. Kitcher en ese congreso.

Despite many attempts to achieve an adequate definition of living systems by means of a set of necessary and sufficient conditions, the opinion that such an enterprise is inexorably destined to fail is increasingly gaining support. However, we believe options do not just come down to either having faith in a future success or endorsing skepticism. In this paper, we aim to redirect the discussion of the problem by shifting the focus of attention from strict definitions towards a philosophical framework (...) that allows conceiving of living systems as a natural kind, but whereby natural kinds are not to be defined by fixed necessary and sufficient conditions. We argue for a property-cluster kind approach according to which living systems constitute a natural kind with vague boundaries, capable of changing, and whose members do not need to instantiate every property. We draw from Boyd’s homeostatic property-cluster theory and introduce two modifications, one regarding homeostatic mechanisms and another related to the scientific role of kinds. Thus, our view overcomes some difficulties of Boyd’s theory and we are able to account for the natural kindhood of living things. We also emphasize the most appealing features of our approach for specific research fields and address three objections to this sort of approach. (shrink)

Durante más de 3000 años, las religiones patriarcales han simbolizado un sistema socio-político e ideológico, que dominó hasta hoy la historia universal. Sin embargo, desde hace por lo menos dos siglos, el pensamiento y la cultura vienen anunciando la muerte del Dios Padre e indagando el destino de la humanidad futura. El presente trabajo intentará mostrar por qué la Gran Diosa Madre simboliza el Otro Nombre, en el cual la subjetividad y la cultura han comenzado a pronunciarse.

Así como hay una lectura de la subjetividad posmoderna entendida en los términos de un nihilismo relativista y ateo, hay también otra lectura de la misma en los términos de una determinación absoluta y divina, inconmensurable e infnita, cuyo exceso de realidad supera los límites de la intelectualidad abstracta. Respecto de esta última interpretación, Kierkegaard constituye el pensador fundamental en el cual se inspiran varios autores posmodernos tales como J. Derrida, G. Deleuze, J. Caputo o M. Taylor. El recurso contemporáneo (...) a las categorías kierkegaardianas de repetición, singularidad, diferencia absoluta, posibilidad, paradoja, instante, religiosidad, fe o ser-en-el-medio-de prueba sobradamente la importancia y actualidad del flósofo danés. (shrink)

The present paper intends to describe the key ideas and concepts in which the Kierkegaardian concept of freedom is summarized.

Durante deacute;cadas, la historia de la filosofiacute;a ha separado a Kierkegaard de Hegel y a Hegel de Kierkegaard, en detrimento tanto de la grandeza especulativa del pensamiento kierkegaardiano como de la vena existencial del sistema de Hegel. En oposicioacute;n a esta desafortunada lectura, el presente artiacute;culo intenta mostrar la profunda convergencia que une internamente el estadio eacute;tico de Kierkegaard con las maacute;s importantes categoriacute;as loacute;gicas de Hegel. Ambos pensadores conciben la idea como el poder real del devenir subjetivo y la (...) existencia como la concrecioacute;n actual de lo ideal. Para ambos, la pura eneacute;rgeia de la libertad, que comienza en la posibilidad abstracta y esteacute;tica de la inmediatez subjetiva, se realiza a siacute; misma como la actual concrecioacute;n de la finitud, capaz de asumir lo temporal y contingente por la fuerza eterna y necesaria del deber. La repeticioacute;n kierkegaardiana no es nada sino el poder de lo ideal, capaz de mediar el flujo de las diferencias finitas en la eterna identidad del sujeto. Sin embargo, tanto para Kierkegaard como para Hegel existe una absoluta contradiccioacute;n, llamada a promover la superacioacute;n de lo eacute;tico. (shrink)

RESUMENDesde el trasfondo de la cultura, emerge cierto imaginario social que, asentado en la periodicidad biológica de la fecundidad femenina, proyecta a la mujer como un ser cíclico y mudable, por oposición a la linealidad e inmutabilidad masculinas. Este imaginario se remonta a la conciencia humana originaria y prehistórica, para la cual la madre constituía y simbolizaba una realidad cíclica, continuamente renacida de su seno. En el contexto del feminismo de la diferencia, el presente artículo se propone releer en términos (...) metafísicos la simbólica circular y cíclica de la madre, concebida en el origen de la conciencia primitiva, recuperada por la filosofía feminista, y repetida por gran parte del pensamiento moderno y contemporáneo.PALABRAS CLAVEDIFERENCIA SEXUAL–ARQUETIPO–REPETICIÓN–INMANENCIA–DEVENIR. ABSTRACTFrom the background of culture, it emerges a social imaginary that, settled on the biological basis of female fertility, projects woman as a cyclical and changeable being, as opposed to male linearity and immutability. This imaginary dates back to the original and prehistoric human consciousness, to which the mother constituted and symbolized a cyclical actually, continually reborn from her womb. In the context of Feminism of Difference, this article aims at rereading in metaphysical terms the circular and cyclic symbolic of the mother, conceived at the origin of the primitive consciousness, recovered by Feminist Philosophy, and repeated by a large branch of Modern and Contemporary Thought.KEYWORDSSEXUAL DIFFERENCE–ARCHETYPE–REPETITION–IMMANENCE–BECOMING. (shrink)

During decades, the history of philosophy has kept Kierkegaardrsquo;s and Hegelrsquo;s thought apart, and their long-standing opposition has swept through the speculative greatness of Kierkegaardian existentialism and the existential power of Hegelian philosophy. In contrast to such unfortunate misinterpretation, this article aims at showing the deep convergence that relates interiorly the Kierkegaardian ethical stage with the most important Hegelian logic categories. Kierkegaard and Hegel conceive of the idea as the real power of subjective becoming, and the existence as the actual (...) concretion of the ideal. To both of them, the pure emeneacute;rgeia/em of freedom, which starts in the abstract and aesthetical possibility of the subjective immediacy, realizes itself as the actual concretion of finitude, assuming time and contingency by the eternal and necessary force of duty. The Kierkegaardian repetition is nothing but this powerful idea, mediating the flux of finite differences in the eternal identity of subject. However, for Kierkegaard as well as for Hegel there is an absolute contradiction, which promotes the overcoming of ethics. (shrink)

Las presentes páginas se proponen abordar el concepto kierkegaardiano del instante (Oeieblikket) a la luz de algunas nociones históricas, ganadas por Soeren Kierkegaard a favor del existente singular. En efecto, tanto el pensamiento antiguo, como el cristiano y el moderno habrían contribuido a la idea de un instante personal, que niega y conserva en la eternidad la totalidad de la historia.

We study the dynamics and stability of the economics of crime and punishment game from an evolutionary perspective. Specifically, we model the interaction between agents and controllers as an asymmetric game exploring the dynamics of the classic static model using a replicator dynamics equation, given exogenous levels of monitoring and criminal sanctions. The dynamics show five possible equilibria, from which three are stable. Our results show that a culture of honest agents is never stable; however when the penalty is high (...) enough, the system will neutrally tend to an equilibrium of honest agents and a monitoring firm. By contrast, when the probability of detecting wrongdoing is small, the system, in some cases, will remain in a transient state, in which it is impossible to predict the proportion of honest agents. (shrink)

This study investigates priming in an implicit Word Stem Completion (WSC) task. A total of 305 participants performed a WSC task in two phases (study and test). The test phase included 63 unique-solution stems and 63 multiple-solution stems. After confirming the presence of priming (mean = 0.22), analysis revealed that it was stronger in the case of multiple-solution stems, indicating that the stems were not a homogeneous group of stimuli. Thus, further analyses were performed only for the data of the (...) unique-solution stems. The correlations between priming and a set of conceptual (familiarity, frequency of use, number of meanings) and non-conceptual (letters/blanks ratio and difficulty of completed) variables showed significant relationships between two conceptual variables (familiarity and frequency) and priming. Difficulty was also significantly correlated with priming. The most familiar and frequent words were those that produced a greater magnitude of priming. At the same time, the most difficult stems were those generating more priming. A regression analysis showed that the difficulty of completing a stem was the strongest predictor of priming. When difficulty was the dependent variable in the regression analysis, the significant variables in the regression were familiarity and letters-blanks ratio. Finally, a comparison was made between these results and those obtained in a previous study of WFC by Soler et al. (2009) in which the same words and procedure were employed. A comparison of results from these two sets of data suggested that the only relevant difference between the two tasks was the influence of the variable letters-blanks ratio. This perceptual variable had a significant correlation with priming only in the WFC task. These results highlight the importance of controlling the characteristics (conceptual and non-conceptual) of stimuli used in WFC and WSC tasks when exploring the nature of priming. (shrink)

El diálogo que aquí se transcribe discurre por Sevilla y el pensamiento de Ortega y Gasset. Se va hablando de la razón topográfica, de cosmopolitismo y de Don Juan, figura objeto de una reflexión filosófica que imita los métodos de dos escuelas antiguas: el diálogo socrático y el paseo peripatético. Partiendo del parque de María Luisa, la conversación recorre el centro de la capital hispalense hasta el barrio de la Macarena, sigue el curso del Guadalquivir, recala en Casa Robles y (...) termina frente a la Maestranza. En última instancia, no se hace sino poner en perspectiva o situación algunas meditaciones magistralmente escritas por Ortega y tirar del hilo. Con ello actualizamos dos claves orteguianas que consideramos fundamentales: la concepción de la vida como diálogo con el contorno y la condición dramática del pensar. (shrink)