https://revistes.uab.cat/enrahonar/article/view/v37-flichman.

I discuss some aspects of the epistemological distinction between laws of nature and accidental uniformities. In order that the exposition be self-contained I briefly provide a taxonomy proposed in another work for statements that appear in a scientific theory. Once this taxonomy has been presented I attempt to prove two very different types of accidental uniformities: hard and soft. The distinction is fundamental because the latter have frequently been confused with laws of nature. I try to justify why I believe (...) that these statements are accidental uniformities and not laws of nature. (shrink)

In this paper I will attempt to show how incommensurability between theories is usually manifested, framing this notion in a sense similar to the Kuhnian one in certain aspects, though very different in others. Further, I will show that it is possible, and desirable, to rid Kuhn’s thesis of the idea that in many important theories a certain part of the theoretical nucleus partially contains in a more or less vague sense, synthetic a priori or even analytic statements. Alternatively, I (...) present a motive for the change of meaning in the basic terms of a theory wherein fundamental laws maintain their synthetic a posteriori character. Incommensurability in this case has to do with the change of lexicon for internal properties, independently of whether or not there is a change in the meaning of the primitive terms of the theory. (shrink)

I present one specific way of creating problematic situations: generating perplexity. A teacher with a personal history marked by a struggle to conceptualise the words of the professor or of the book, will have paved his way. The teacher develops his subject clearly. When the students say they understand, it is time to show an apparently paradoxical situation. Perplexity appears. The teacher again explains the subject and all accept again that they understand perfectly. But the difficulty doesn't disappear. The debate (...) begins. The discussion creates murmuring, noise. The perfect moment has arrived. A silent classroom would have meant the teacher's failure. Second step: "rewinding". To go back and look for the failure. The students should discover the failure, helped by the teacher. The second step finishes. Perplexities cannot always be solved, especially in the case of philosophy. When they arise from diverse proposals for a solution, it would be bad teaching to present a single way of solving the problem. Students should know that in these cases the debates are open and the discussion continues. In other cases it is just a conceptual failure in construing the corresponding notion, so the discussion should be closed once the failure is found. (shrink)

I present one specific way of creating problematic situations: generating perplexity. A teacher with a personal history marked by a struggle to conceptualise the words of the professor or of the book, will have paved his way. The teacher develops his subject clearly. When the students say they understand, it is time to show an apparently paradoxical situation. Perplexity appears. The teacher again explains the subject and all accept again that they understand perfectly. But the difficulty doesn't disappear. The debate (...) begins. The discussion creates murmuring, noise. The perfect moment has arrived. A silent classroom would have meant the teacher's failure. Second step: "rewinding". To go back and look for the failure. The students should discover the failure, helped by the teacher. The second step finishes. Perplexities cannot always be solved, especially in the case of philosophy. When they arise from diverse proposals for a solution, it would be bad teaching to present a single way of solving the problem. Students should know that in these cases the debates are open and the discussion continues. In other cases it is just a conceptual failure in construing the corresponding notion, so the discussion should be closed once the failure is found. (shrink)

En A Letter Concerning Toleration John Locke argumenta en favor de la tolerancia religiosa afirmando que el Estado no puede mejorar la vida de las personas forzándolas a vivir de acuerdo con creencias que ellas no suscriben. Más recientemente, Ronald Dworkin y Will Kymlicka han desarrollado argumentos similares. En el caso del primero, contra ciertas políticas paternalistas; en el del segundo, en apoyo de la tesis liberal de la neutralidad estatal. Mi propósito en el presente artículo es analizar la plausibilidad (...) de dichos argumentos concebidos como una defensa de la tesis de la neutralidad estatal. Intentaré demostrar que ambas versiones del argumento fracasan. En la sección II, cuestionaré la capacidad de los argumentos para respaldar las conclusiones que aspiran establecer, sin objetar la plausibilidad de las premisas involucradas. En la sección III, desarrollaré tres objeciones contra la concepción del bienestar crítico que constituye el corazón de ambas versiones del argumento. In A Letter Concerning Toleration, John Locke argues in favor of religious toleration positing that the state cannot make a person's life better by forcing that person to live according to beliefs he refuses. More recently, Ronald Dworkin and Will Kymlicka have developed similar arguments. In the first case, against some paternalistic policies; in the second, in support of the liberal ideal of state neutrality. My aim in the present paper is to analyze the plausibility of these arguments conceived as a defense of liberal neutrality. I will prove that both versions of the argument fail. In section II, I will object the argument's capability to support the conclusions it attempts to establish, without raising doubts about the reliability of its premises. In section III, I will submit three objections against the conception of critical well-being that constitutes the core of both versions of the argument. (shrink)

El propósito de este ensayo es presentar una lectura de los pasajes principales en los que Aristóteles deja ver qué comprende por πειραστική: una noción que los intérpretes consideran que él recortó sobre el perfil filosófico de Sócrates y su élenchos. Frente a una cantidad de dificultades presentadas por perspectivas influyentes, argumentaré que no hay razones para considerar que Aristóteles habría diferenciado la peirástica de la dialéctica ni por la forma de sus silogismos ni porque sus puntos de partida tengan (...) una naturaleza diferente de los éndoxa. Por el contrario, defenderé la tesis de que la peirástica puede ser vista como un cierto conocimiento experto que en la práctica se hace manifiesto como un momento refutatorio exitoso de la dialéctica filosóficamente aplicada: aquel en el cual la dialéctica stricto sensu se vuelve reluctante a la pérdida del rumbo en la búsqueda de los principios del conocimiento experto que representa la amenaza sofística de la sabiduría aparente sobre un asunto dado. Intentaré mostrar cómo parte de la actividad – dialéctica a los ojos de Aristóteles – de Sócrates se ajustaba a varios requerimientos de su arte inferencial de Tópicos. Sugeriré que ello no significa que Aristóteles haya edificado la peirástica sobre el élenchos socrático, sino que parte de la actividad de Sócrates ha sido utilizada como evidencia filosófica de sus propias concepciones dialécticas fundamentales. (shrink)

In this essay I defend a reconstruction of the epistemological theory that, in a metaphorical way, Plato develops in Philebus 38b-39d. This theory explains how the human beings are capable of considering the experience’s facts. At the core of this theory, the soul is the intermediate point of a general process that allows to emit a statement related to objects of the world. So this theory also registers as a part of the history of the philosophical contemporary semantics. I will (...) argue that three analytically separable stages are distinguished in connection with this operational mediation of the soul. At the first stage, the human soul gets blindly the formal characters of those facts by means of a composite pathema, which corresponds to a hexis of doxazein (form an opinion) and produces a fundamental doxa-logos. The second stage is the moment of the doctrine that explains the reason why we are conscious of what we have grasped in the analytical previous level. At the third stage, one may emit the utterances of those facts. Every stage corresponds to a concept of doxa-logos which have different characteristics, and it is opportune that they are distinguished in the comprehension of that theory. I argue for this reading against a number of alternatives. (shrink)

Discutiré aquí algunos aspectos del problema de la distinción epistemológica entre leyes naturales y uniformidades accidentales Para estar en condiciones de exponerlo de modo auto-contenido, introduciré brevemente la taxonomía que propongo para los enunciados que aparecen en una teoría científica. Una vez repasada dicha taxanomía, intentaré mostrar dos tipos muy diferentes de uniformidades: las duras y las blandas. La distinción es fundamental, porque las segundas han sido confundidas muy a menudo con leyes. Trataré de justificar porque considero que dichos enunciados (...) son uniformidades y no leyes. (shrink)

A theory of magnitudes involves criteria for their equivalence, comparison and addition. In this article we examine these aspects from an abstract viewpoint, by focusing on the so-called De Zolt’s postulate in the theory of equivalence of plane polygons (“If a polygon is divided into polygonal parts in any given way, then the union of all but one of these parts is not equivalent to the given polygon”). We formulate an abstract version of this postulate and derive it from some (...) selected principles for magnitudes. We also formulate and derive an abstract version of Euclid’s Common Notion 5 (“The whole is greater than the part”), and analyze its logical relation to the former proposition. These results prove to be relevant for the clarification of some key conceptual aspects of Hilbert’s proof of De Zolt’s postulate, in his classicalFoundations of Geometry(1899). Furthermore, our abstract treatment of this central proposition provides interesting insights for the development of a well-behaved theory ofcompatiblemagnitudes. (shrink)

Strangers to Nature brings together many of the leading scholars who are working to redefine and expand the discourse on animal ethics. This volume will engage both scholars and lay-people by revealing the breadth of theorizing about the human/non-human animal relationship that is currently taking place.

A obra Eletric Waves foi o ponto de partida para a análise filosófico-metodológica das teorias científicas por parte de H. Hertz e a culminância dessa prática deu-se com a sua obra póstuma The Principles of Mechanics. Nas introduções a essas duas obras um tema metacientífico se apresenta como núcleo central. Nelas Hertz trata das diferentes representações, imagens ou modelos dos fenômenos físicos: no caso da primeira obra, dos fenômenos eletromagnéticos; no caso da segunda, dos fenômenos mecânicos. E a questão que (...) tenta resolver é a seguinte: qual é a origem da pluralidade de imagens nas teorias científicas? Seria ela inevitável? É sobre esse tipo de questões que se fixa o presente trabalho na intenção de apresentar o papel da noção de representação na concepção de ciência de Heinrich Hertz. (shrink)

La Lógica y la Filosofía de la ciencia constituyen disciplinas centrales en la filosofía de nuestro siglo. Y, aunque insuficientemente divulgadas entre el gran público en nuestro país, su peso específico en los ambientes académicos e investigadores va aumentando de día en día. Este volumen de homenaje a R. Carnap y H. Reichenbach, figuras centrales en la conformación de la filosofía de la ciencia, recoge las principales intervenciones de investigadores españoles y extranjeros en un encuentro que, en su honor, se (...) celebró a finales del año 1991. Incluye asimismo muestras significativas de investigaciones que se están realizando en España en la actualidad en los campos de la lógica clásica y multivariada. La teoría de la argumentación, la teoría de la probabilidad, la filosofía de la ciencia en general y en particular, la filosofía de la economía. Finalmente, debido al fallecimiento en aquel año de una de las personalidades más importantes de la filosofía española, J. Ferrater Mora, se incluye un pequeño homenaje que recuerda tanto el talante del filósofo como su obra. (shrink)

The origins and development of the problem of mental causation are outlined. The underlying presuppositions which give rise to the problem are identified. Possible strategies for solving, or dissolving the problem are examined.

Horizontal gene transfer advances bacterial evolution. To benefit from horizontally acquired genes, enteric bacteria must overcome silencing caused when the widespread heat‐stable nucleoid structuring (H‐NS) protein binds to AT‐rich horizontally acquired genes. This ability had previously been ascribed to both anti‐silencing proteins outcompeting H‐NS for binding to AT‐rich DNA and RNA polymerase initiating transcription from alternative promoters. However, we now know that pathogenic Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and commensal Escherichia coli break down H‐NS when this silencer is not bound to (...) DNA. Curiously, both species use the same protease – Lon – to destroy H‐NS in distinct environments. Anti‐silencing proteins promote the expression of horizontally acquired genes without binding to them by displacing H‐NS from AT‐rich DNA, thus leaving H‐NS susceptible to proteolysis and decreasing H‐NS amounts overall. Conserved amino acid sequences in the Lon protease and H‐NS cleavage site suggest that diverse bacteria degrade H‐NS to exploit horizontally acquired genes. (shrink)

Some recent literature [Hicks, M. T. and van Elswyk. P., (2015) pp. 433-443, 2015; Bhogal, H. (2017), pp. 447-460] has argued that the non-Humean conceptions of laws of nature have a same weakness as the Humean conceptions of laws of nature. That is, both conceptions face an explanatory circularity problem. The argument is as follows: the Humean and the non-Humean conceptions of laws of nature agree that the law statements are universal generalisations; thus, both conceptions are vulnerable to an explanatory (...) circularity problem between the laws of nature and their instances. In this paper, I argue that Armstrong’s necessitarian view of laws of nature is invulnerable to this explanatory circularity problem. (shrink)

James H. Cone is without question the most important Black Theologian of the last century in U.S. theology. This essay is an engagement with his work, focusing in particular on the shifts from European theology, in his Black Theology & Black Power, to Black Aesthetic Religious production, in The Spirituals & The Blues, to The Cross and the Lynching Tree. The core theme of this essay is the entanglement of spiritual/religious colonization with production/invention of racial hierarchies that then became the (...) crucibles for the forging of racist imaginaries that entailed, authorized, enshrined, and sacralized white supremacy. The Janus face of this alchemy, however, was the production of a black religion of liberation that entailed decolonizing the “blackness” invented by the modern project of religious racist colonization. The essay considers how Cone’s works empowers us to think through the analogies between the process of the colonization of the indigenous peoples of the so-called “New World” and the “enslavement” of African peoples. The similarities have to do with the coupling of the colonization of imaginaries with the imposition of racial imaginaries, i.e. religious conquest is also a racial conquest, and conversely, racial conquest is also a religious conquest. (shrink)

El presente proyecto de investigación se ubica en el marco del equipo Innova de la Universidad de Deusto. “El equipo Innova es un equipo de investigación interfacultaticio que tiene como propósito el desarrollo de la innovación desde una perspectiva multifocal, ya que trata aspectos tan diversos como: organizativos, formativos y estructurales.” En este contexto se espera que la presente investigación pueda realizar una aportación sustancial en lo relativo al papel que desempañan las Competencias Genéricas en los procesos de educación superior. (...) Se estima que los resultados por alcanzar en este trabajo habrán de responder a demandas que se presentan en el contexto educativo actual, en el marco de una sociedad caracterizada por la complejidad. Uno de los aspectos innovadores que define a esta indagación es, en el concierto de la interdisciplinariedad mencionada líneas arriba, el abordar cuestiones centrales del saber pedagógico bajo la perspectiva de la Hermenéutica filosófica. Puntualmente se toman aquí dos temas que son muy caros para la Pedagogía, el primero de ellos es ‘el problema de la comprensión’ y el otro lo concerniente a la ‘significatividad’. En la literatura preponderante en el ámbito pedagógico el abordaje de estas dos categorías se realiza recurriendo a los aportes de la psicología cognitiva. En el presente trabajo se asume este dato, pero se aborda sistemáticamente desde otro campo disciplinar como es la Hermenéutica filosófica. Las disciplinas filosóficas en general y en este caso particular la Hermenéutica, entran en diálogo con diversos campos científicos, como aquí lo hacen con la Pedagogía, bajo una perspectiva crítica y, a la vez, totalizante. Es decir, procuran reunir los aportes de los diversos campos científicos al tiempo de atender las articulaciones y las tensiones que entre ellos puedan surgir, al abordar el problema desde un horizonte más amplio que el que cae bajo el específico objeto de estudio de cada disciplina. Se busca, de este modo, una adecuada articulación entre los aportes específicos de cada campo científico bajo una lectura integradora que es propia de la Filosofía. Este posicionamiento es fundamental y, en este sentido innovador, al procurar enriquecer el campo de las Competencias Genéricas mediante las ‘Competencias Semánticas’, que se mueven en el ámbito de la significatividad y el sentido, requisitos imprescindibles para que un sujeto pueda posicionarse personal y comunitariamente en una sociedad compleja. Para lograr este cometido se ha recurrido a una metodología de investigación cualitativa de análisis de contenido, que se ha aplicado a una selección de obras que refieren a la hermenéutica de H-G. Gadamer y P. Ricoeur. (shrink)

The original article was published with errors. The corrections are provided here.

Th e a r ticl e e xplore s h o w globalizatio n i s assumin g a pr o g ress i v e emptyin g o f the s o v ereignt y o f natio n state s i n economic , political , institutional , social , cultura l an d l e gal aspects . Th e traditiona l l e ga l institution s ar e increasing ly g i vin g ris e (...) t o n ew non-stat e re- gulato r y source s (supranational , pr iv ate , technica l an d communitarian) . Th e resul t o f this po l ycentri c r e gulato r y compl e x i s th e co e xistenc e o f a d i v ersit y o f no r mat i v e order s and jurisdiction s i n v olvin g th e e xhaustio n o f th e l e ga l paradig m aroun d w hic h th e Stat e has st r ucture d it s institutions. (shrink)

This paper presents and discusses an authentic landmark in the history of science, namely H. v. Foerster’s Cybernetics of Cybernetics, 1974. This is a book rarely known even by many specialists. This paper argues that von Foerster’s book constitutes a unique achievement in the history of science. A thorough presentation is introduced that brings a complete panorama of concepts, problems and approaches.

El presente artículo, sin mayores pretensiones teóricas, intenta presentar tres coordenadas filosóficas sobre el sujeto moderno que se hicieron cargo de las consecuencias del debate en torno a la modernidad/postmodernidad desde Latinoamérica y Chile. Pablo Oyarzún, Martín Hopenhayn y Eduardo Sabrovsky, representan un intento por comprender esta situación en la perspectiva histórico- crítica de la filosofía contemporánea.

José Vasconcelos—lawyer, politician, writer, educator, philosopher, prophet, and mystic—was one of the most influential and controversial figures in the intellectual life of twentieth-century Mexico. Vasconcelos was driven by the desire to gain a complete and comprehensive vision of reality, employing his own aesthetic-emotive method and a poetic mode of expression. The complex philosophical system that resulted is what he called “aesthetic monism.” But this is only one side of the man. Vasconcelos was also vitally interested in both the proximate realities (...) and remote possibilities of Mexico, in the character of the “cosmic race” of his homeland, and in the relations between his own country and the others of this hemisphere. Soon after Vasconcelos’s death in 1959, Eduardo García Máynez spoke of him, in a moving tribute, as “without question the most inspiring intellectual and human figure that Mexico has produced.” Unhappily—and perhaps disgracefully—he has remained almost unknown outside the Spanish-speaking world. Histories of Mexico published in English usually give passing mention to his role as Minister of Public Education or his unsuccessful campaign for the presidency, but his aesthetic system and his socio-political ideas have been ignored by philosophers in the United States. Here, for the first time, is a unified, inclusive, and occasionally critical presentation of the entire range of Vasconcelos’s thought, from his metaphysics and theory of knowledge through his aesthetics and ethics to his social and political philosophy. It is enriched by an appendix in which the most significant passages from Vasconcelos’s own philosophical writings are presented in English translations. (shrink)