This book presents practical holism as a framework for understanding the ways in which our society and individual lives are affected by moral, legal, political, economic, and other considerations. Only nomadic thought is able to capture the interactions among all those crucial aspects.

: "We are invisible": this melancholic assertion alludes to the "non-place" that we occupy as Latin American philosophers or, in general, as philosophers in the Spanish or Portuguese languages. We tend to survive as mere ghosts teaching courses and writing texts, perhaps some memorable ones, which, however, seldom spark anybody's interest, among other reasons, because almost no one takes the time to read them. In saying this, I do not mean to call upon a useless pathos, nor do I mean (...) to complain, or thrust forth a challenge. I am simply confirming a fact, and a widely acknowledged one at that. I wish to inquire a little into this invisibility. Later I will look into how the experience of our much acclaimed essay may help in fighting it. (shrink)

This book offers an account of exile in terms of the perspectives of morality, politics, literature, anthropology, and history. It also explores the moral implications of exile and how it connects to the meaning of life.

En su libro Un lugar para la moral, Josep Corbí defiende un realismo moral particularista. En mi discusión enumero algunas dudas que me provoca su proyecto. La duda principal atañe la función que deben tener --si es que se considera que deben tener alguna función-- los principios universales en la vida moral. \\\ In his Un lugar para la moral, Josep Corbí argues for a particularist moral realism. In my discussion I express some doubts about the feasibility of his project. (...) My main point concerns the role that universal principies ought to play --if they play any role at all-- in moral life. (shrink)

The author explores some unexpected ramifications of Seel’s paper. Pereda considers what he believes may be reconstructed in Seel as an argument for the existence of free minds. He shapes this reconstruction in a somewhat extravagant way and strongly departing from Seel’s text, taking Moore’s external world argument as a model. Then he briefly considers the form of both arguments, to later take up again the concepts of deliberation and reason that Seel employs. Finally, Pereda returns to ask (...) in what sense Moore’s and Seel’s arguments may be defended and what consequences this would have. (shrink)

The German philosophical tradition has always been open to challenges that can be seen as a continuum. This text discusses Friedrich Nietzsche as a master of wild challenges and Martin Seel as a master of friendly challenges, often blurring the line between them. In doing so, it challenges traditional truth debates by raising questions about the circumstances of truth and the practical aspects of truth orientation. Because Seel uses challenges as hermeneutical resources, he conceives of challenge as a method for (...) encouraging new approaches in philosophical thought. (shrink)

1. Estrategia de las dos inculturas -- 2. Hay que defender la primacía de la moral? -- 3. La identidad personal en conflicto, el reconocimiento del otro, también en conflicto? -- 4. Historia y desprecio.

Las palabras no pocas veces embrollan, y llevan por el mal camino a creencias, deseos, emociones y, previsiblemente, a acciones. Así, con frecuencia, provocan sucesivos desastres en nuestras vidas. Por eso, a menudo antes de comenzar a discutir sobre cualquier cosa, hay que tener en cuenta la regla de prudencia que advierte.

En esta nota crítica (i) se hace una breve descripción de cada uno de los artículos que componen Orayen: de la forma lógica al significado, (ii) se señalan algunas cuestiones que no están claras en ellos o en las réplicas de Orayen y, (iii) en la medida de lo posible, se indica si los autores desarrollan ulteriormente los problemas abordados en sus artículos. The aim of this critical note is threefold: (i) it briefly describes and comments on each of the (...) articles of Orayen: de la forma lógica al significado; (ii) identifies some issues that may not be clear enough or not fully developed whether in the articles or even in Orayen's replies; (iii) as far as possible, it refers to further studies made by the authors themselves on the same, or quite related, subjects addressed by them in their papers. (shrink)

Las preguntas importantes, o que parecen importantes, no tienen por qué tener respuestas importantes, incluso no tienen por qué tener respuestas. Me propongo explorar qué respuestas, importantes o no importantes, puede recibir, si es que puede recibir alguna respuesta, la importante pregunta “¿qué es un buen argumento?”.Important questions, or questions that seem important, need not have important answers, moreover, they need not have answers at all. I propose to explore what answers, whether important or not, we could obtain, if some (...) answer can be obtained at all, to the important question “what is a good argument?”. (shrink)

No cabe duda: ha habido y hay muchas y muy diferentes culturas o, si se prefiere, porque las culturas se suelen constituir y desplegar en el tiempo, muchas y muy diferentes tradiciones. Por difusos que sean sus límites y por vagos que sean sus modos de organizarse internamente, en algún grado, cada cultura, cada tradición, condiciona y, no pocas veces, hasta conforma lo que los miembros de una o varias sociedades, incluso en muy largos períodos, desean, creen, sienten, esperan... y, (...) en consecuencia, actúan. Sin embargo, ¿cuáles son algunos de los efectos más persistentes de esta multiplicidad de culturas, de tradiciones: del tan ruidosamente aplaudido, y también no menos ruidosamente lamentado multiculturalismo? [Fragmento]. (shrink)

Partiendo de algunas reflexiones de L. Villoro se reconstruyen varios engaños-fetiches muy arraigados: la alternativa consensos/disensos, el entusiasmo nacionalista o los usos y costumbres como la última palabra, un concepto no razonable de razón. Respecto de este último engaño se enriquece la discusión con algunas observaciones de J. Muguerza.

Carlos Pereda califica mi concepción de la moral de realismo particularista y objeta a mi defensa tanto del realismo como del particularismo. En mi respuesta trato de mostrar cómo nuestras discrepancias en torno al papel de los principios en la deliberación moral es, excepto en un punto crucial, cuestión de énfasis. No ocurre lo mismo, sin embargo, con mi reivindicación del realismo moral, pues parte de lo que intento mostrar en el libro es que los programas constructivistas de (...) los que habla Pereda no pueden pensarse coherentemente. \\\ Carlos Pereda presents my view about morality as a sort of particularist realism and objects both to my defence of realism and that of particularism. In my reply, I argue that our discrepancies about the role of principies in moral deliberation is, except in a crucial respect, a matter of emphasis. Something quite different happens, however, with my vindication of moral realism. For part of what I try to show in my book is that constructivist programs like the one suggested by Pereda cannot be coherently thought. (shrink)

El pensamiento nómada de Carlos Pereda es un intento de escapar de la razón arrogante hacia la razón porosa a través de máximas que nos animan a hacer todo tipo de preguntas, incluso las que provocan escándalo. Objeto a Pereda con tres cuestionamientos. La primera interrogación se refiere a por qué si el pensamiento nómada se desplaza de un lugar a otro, no puede apartarse de sus propias máximas. La segunda pregunta si el modelo interactivo de resolución (...) de controversias es universal o particular y cómo este modelo interactivo puede resolver agravios históricos. Por último, la tercera interrogante atañe a cómo este panfleto nos puede hacer ver lo común en una forma de emancipación y resistencia política. (shrink)

Why do we remember the past and not the future? What does it mean for time to "flow"? Do we exist in time or does time exist in us? In lyric, accessible prose, Carlo Rovelli invites us to consider questions about the nature of time that continue to puzzle physicists and philosophers alike. For most readers this is unfamiliar terrain. We all experience time, but the more scientists learn about it, the more mysterious it remains. We think of it as (...) uniform and universal, moving steadily from past to future, measured by clocks. Rovelli tears down these assumptions one by one, revealing a strange universe where at the most fundamental level time disappears. He explains how the theory of quantum gravity attempts to understand and give meaning to the resulting extreme landscape of this timeless world. Weaving together ideas from philosophy, science and literature, he suggests that our perception of the flow of time depends on our perspective, better understood starting from the structure of our brain and emotions than from the physical universe. (shrink)

Minding Time: A Philosophical and Theoretical Approach to the Psychology of Time offers an innovative philosophical account of the most fundamental kinds of time representation.

Las grandes cuestiones de la metafísica se han tratado con un renovado impulso y orientaciones filosóficas originales en los últimos 50 años; entre estas grandes cuestiones está el problema de Dios, la libertad del hombre y el mal. Esta renovación de la teología filosófica ha cobrado particular protagonismo dentro de la tradición analítica: en círculos académicos internacionales son cada vez más frecuentes las discusiones sobre los atributos divinos y su relación con distintos aspectos de la existencia humana. En este libro (...) se recogen estudios sobre algunas de estas cuestiones, con la intención de presentar algunos de estos planteamientos novedosos al público académico de habla hispana. En concreto los temas que se tratan son tan variados como el origen y los fundamentos teóricos de la teología filosófica analítica, la eternidad y la presciencia de Dios en relación con la libertad humana, la providencia divina, el determinismo teológico, el problema del mal, la acción divina en la naturaleza, etc. Esperamos que este conjunto de ensayos sean la ocasión para fomentar la discusión en torno a estos temas y abrir nuevas perspectivas en el ámbito de la metafísica y la filosofía de la religión. (shrink)

This monograph addresses the question of the increasing irrelevance of philosophy, which has seen scientists as well as philosophers concluding that philosophy is dead and has dissolved into the sciences. It seeks to answer the question of whether or not philosophy can still be fruitful and what kind of philosophy can be such. The author argues that from its very beginning philosophy has focused on knowledge and methods for acquiring knowledge. This view, however, has generally been abandoned in the last (...) century with the belief that, unlike the sciences, philosophy makes no observations or experiments and requires only thought. Thus, in order for philosophy to once again be relevant, it needs to return to its roots and focus on knowledge as well as methods for acquiring knowledge. Accordingly, this book deals with several questions about knowledge that are essential to this view of philosophy, including mathematical knowledge. Coverage examines such issues as the nature of knowledge; plausibility and common sense; knowledge as problem solving; modeling scientific knowledge; mathematical objects, definitions, diagrams; mathematics and reality; and more. This monograph presents a new approach to philosophy, epistemology, and the philosophy of mathematics. It will appeal to graduate students and researchers with interests in the role of knowledge, the analytic method, models of science, and mathematics and reality. (shrink)

Many of the computing systems programmed using Machine Learning are opaque: it is difficult to know why they do what they do or how they work. Explainable Artificial Intelligence aims to develop analytic techniques that render opaque computing systems transparent, but lacks a normative framework with which to evaluate these techniques’ explanatory successes. The aim of the present discussion is to develop such a framework, paying particular attention to different stakeholders’ distinct explanatory requirements. Building on an analysis of “opacity” from (...) philosophy of science, this framework is modeled after accounts of explanation in cognitive science. The framework distinguishes between the explanation-seeking questions that are likely to be asked by different stakeholders, and specifies the general ways in which these questions should be answered so as to allow these stakeholders to perform their roles in the Machine Learning ecosystem. By applying the normative framework to recently developed techniques such as input heatmapping, feature-detector visualization, and diagnostic classification, it is possible to determine whether and to what extent techniques from Explainable Artificial Intelligence can be used to render opaque computing systems transparent and, thus, whether they can be used to solve the Black Box Problem. (shrink)

I am a theoretical physicist, and, following Aristotles' injunction (Aristotle, Physics III, 202b 34), I do consider it my responsibility to discuss the problem of the notion of infinity in the world--in particular, to "inquire whether there is such a thing or not." I will do so here by illustrating some aspects of the notion of infinity in the natural sciences.