En Libertad. Un panfleto civil, Carlos Pereda reconstruye una disyuntiva central en relación con las posibles interpretaciones del valor sobredeterminado de la libertad: o la libertad se entiende como autenticidad o se asume como autonomía. El modelo más simple de la primera alternativa postula una estructura jerárquica de deseos y habitualmente se lo vincula con la obra temprana de Harry Frankfurt. En el análisis que sigue, trataré de mostrar que la introducción de la noción de amor en la perspectiva frankfurtiana (...) permite considerarla una versión que supera la disyuntiva entre autonomía y autenticidad al avanzar por un tercer camino: la idea de libertad como autorrealización, es decir, como la puesta en práctica de la capacidad de amar que permite a las personas bosquejar y perseguir ciertos fines últimos. (shrink)

El Enfoque de las Capacidades de Sen se distingue en el terreno de la justicia distributiva porque ha intentado establecer criterios evaluativos que superen el atomismo de las teorías utilitaristas. Pero algunos pensadores críticos han señalado que el Enfoque aún mantiene una impronta individualista que limita su alcance a la hora de implementar políticas públicas tendientes a transformar estructuras injustas. Para estos críticos, los conceptos básicos de Sen deben complementarse con una noción de capacidad colectiva o común, irreductible a términos (...) individuales, que permita dar cuenta de los procesos intersubjetivos del desarrollo de la agencia y de la constitución de la identidad personal. En este artículo se analizarán algunas críticas comunitaristas al Enfoque y se intentará postular un candidato plausible a capacidad colectiva, que respete el núcleo vivo de los comentarios y que mantenga los conceptos de capacidad y de agencia centrales en la teoría de Sen. --- “Communities of Meaning as Collective Capabilities. A Communitarian Revision of Amartya Sen’s Theory”. Sen’s Capability Approach it is distinguished in the field of the distributive justice, because It has tried to set evaluatives terms that exceed the atomism of the Utilitarian theories. But some critical thinkers have pointed out that the Approach still keep an individualistic style that restrict its impact at the moment of implementing public policies. For these critics, Sen’s basic concepts must be complemented with the idea of collective capability, irreducible to indivudual terms, that allows to account to the intersubjective process of agency and the personal identity constitution. This paper will attempt to present a plausible candidate to the collective capability, that respects the live core of the communitarian comments and that keeps the capability and agency concepts, which are fundamental in Sen’s theory. (shrink)

In spite of being ubiquitous in life sciences, the concept of information is harshly criticized. Uses of the concept other than those derived from Shannon's theory are denounced as pernicious metaphors. We perform a computational experiment to explore whether Shannon's information is adequate to describe the uses of said concept in commonplace scientific practice. Our results show that semantic sequences do not have unique complexity values different from the value of meaningless sequences. This result suggests that quantitative theoretical frameworks do (...) not account fully for the complex phenomenon that the term “information” refers to. We propose a restructuring of the concept into two related, but independent notions, and conclude that a complete theory of biological information must account completely not only for both notions, but also for the relationship between them. (shrink)

The current crises put before us alternatives of action that require decision; for example, the decision of whether to deploy or investigate SRM geoengineering to counter global warming, which is here taken as the central example. Attending to the ontological richness of value in the elements of the world, of which scientific models and thought are a very particular and limited kind, can cast a different light into the decision process, which otherwise would almost unavoidably devolve into “infernal alternatives,” as (...) Isabelle Stengers calls them: impossible choices between two evils. (shrink)

The concept of biological information, and information in general, usually presupposes a purely quantitative view of reality. Even though actualist quantification has an important place in the description of the world, a nominalistic stance that tries to simplify reality in purely actualist terms inevitably runs into inconsistencies; these inconsistencies have been pointed out by the critical assessments of the notion of biological information. Rather than calling for an abandonment of the informational terminology, we try to rethink information as a part (...) of an event, the description of which cannot be exhausted by a physicalist, mechanistic, temporally static view of reality. Reconceptualizing the notion of biological information in terms of a process of interpretation rather than as an informational object allows us to transcend the limitations imposed by an analysis of reality that depends on a fixed, finite structure of outcome. Thus, we argue that measuring biological information is intrinsically problematic. (shrink)

El presente texto reflexiona acerca del concepto de atmósfera, en el contexto de la crisis climática actual, cuya complejidad se exacerba por su carácter global y urgente. Si bien dicha noción se puede entender a través de datos cuantitativos resultantes de la medición sobre un objeto corporal, la ontología que Félix Guattari desarrolló en sus últimos escritos nos provee de un sistema en el que cada entidad real presupone la convivencia de registros tanto corpóreos como incorpóreos, y tanto reales como (...) posibles, y por tanto un entendimiento puramente corporal sería insuficiente. El sistema de Guattari invita a aceptar la multiplicación de las manifestaciones y de las potencias del objeto atmosférico, y señala la dificultad de articular y conciliar distintos tipos de valores inherentes que presenta. (shrink)

A lo largo de la historia de la Iglesia, podemos comprobar cómo el magisterio agustiniano se convirtió en una constante, que perdura hasta nuestros días. Así, san Agustín ha sido una “inagotable fuente” de inspiración tanto para Pontífices como para numerosos documentos eclesiales. De esta forma, en el presente artículo analizamos —entre otros aspectos— tanto la encíclica Lumen Fidei como la Nueva edición del Directorio para la vida y ministerio de los presbíteros, ambos documentos influenciados e ilustrados con el (...) magisterio del santo obispo de Hipona, magisterio que —como bien señaló el beato Juan Pablo II en su encíclica Augustinum Hipponensem— debe continuar “en la Iglesia y en el mundo a beneficio de la cultura y de la fe”. (shrink)

Sin duda alguna, es San Agustín de Hipona el Padre de la Iglesia que mayor influjo ha ejercido —y continúa ejerciendo— en esta, así como en numerosos Pontífices. Uno de ellos, Benedicto XVI, será el objeto de nuestro estudio investigativo, estudio que —progresivamente— irá siendo completado, así como viendo la luz, a través de una serie de artículos. En este caso, serán ciertos documentos tales como Encíclicas, Exhortaciones Apostólicas y documentos en motu proprio, los que centren toda nuestra atención. (...) En estos, el lector podrá descubrir con una mayor fluidez cuántas influencias agustinianas, directas o indirectas, se hallan reflejadas en dichos documentos pontificios. Es por ello que invitamos a su lectura pausada y detenida reflexión. (shrink)

Enmarcados en el quinto centenario del nacimiento de Santa Teresa de Jesús, presentamos el siguiente trabajo, en donde se intenta poner de manifiesto las posibles influencias existentes entre San Agustín de Hipona y la primera Doctora de la Iglesia Universal. Para ello, se invita al lector a realizar un breve recorrido por la vida teresiana, desde su infancia hasta su muerte acaecida en Alba de Tormes la noche del 15 de Octubre del 1582. Así, ambos Doctores —con la eminencia (...) de sus doctrinas y la santidad de sus vidas— comunican al mundo que “quien a Dios tiene nada le falta”, pues “sólo Él es el bien que hace feliz a la criatura”. (shrink)

Es, sin duda, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo uno de los pintores sevillanos con más relevancia universal. Y precisamente este año, en el que nos hallamos celebrando el cuarto centenario de su nacimiento, presentamos este trabajo en el que deseamos mostrar cómo también en sus cuadros se plasmó la figura y el pensamiento de aquel gran santo y Doctor de la Iglesia que es conocido incluso por quienes ignoran el cristianismo o no tienen familiaridad con él. De esta forma, instamos al lector (...) a descubrir, a través de dicho trabajo, cómo el brillo de San Agustín de Hipona acrisola también los lienzos que el maestro sevillano pintara para el convento agustino de su ciudad natal. (shrink)

Es irrefutable que el hombre siempre ha mentido, algo que —sin duda— preocupa y ocupa nuestra atención. Y es éste el principal motivo que nos ha inducido a la elaboración del presente trabajo, trabajo que —tomando como puntos de apoyo, principalmente, a san Agustín y algunos documentos magisteriales— tan sólo pretende la reflexión y la reconsideración por parte del lector de tan humano “dilema”: la mentira. Por otro lado, es el obispo de Hipona la figura inevitable en el contexto (...) del cristianismo, figura que a través de dos tratados —De mendacio y Contra mendacium— nos ayudará a entender y comprender este “grave problema moral”. (shrink)

Agustín será un modelo de expresión del cambio que se operó en la filosofía profana convertida en teología, estableciendo una “ruptura epistemológica” con el mundo secular al condenarlo y asumiendo sólo la verdad en tanto verdad y conocimiento de Dios. Vuelve dentro de ti. La verdad habita en el interior del hombre, será una frase que San Agustín suscribirá y será eco de la postura que encontramos en todas las religiones de la intimidad pero también en la filosofía (...) helénica de Séneca, Cicerón, Marco Aurelio. Su terapia teológica se separa de la terapia filosófica (greco-latina), que fue por la que anduvieron la mayoría de todas las escuelas filosóficas que lo antecedieron. Nuestra investigación se dirige a mostrar cómo se desarrolla la filosofía enmarcada en un proyecto de salvación religiosa, sin dejar de pasar la importancia del concepto de dolor espiritual y pecado en este autor. Las obras que hemos escogido para ello son De la vida feliz y Las Confesiones. Palabras clave: filosofía; teología; iglesia; terapia; espíritu; sufrimiento; dolor; alma; pecado. Saint Augustine or Theological Therapy in the Face of PainAugustine will be a model of the change which took place in profane philosophy turned into theology. He will be so by establishing an “epistemological break” with the secular world, as a result of condemning it, thus assuming truth only as truth and knowledge of God. Turn to your inner self. Truth inhabits inside man will become a phrase which Saint Augustine will subscribe. It will echo the stance which we find in all the religions of intimacy and in the Hellenic philosophy of Seneca, Cicero and Marcus Aurelius as well. His theological therapy distances itself from philosophical therapy, which is the one embraced by most of all the philosophical schools which preceded him. Our inquiry aims to show how philosophy framed in a project of religious salvation unfolds, without disregarding the importance of the concepts of spiritual pain and sin in this author. The works we have chosen are The happy life and Confessions. Keywords: Philosophy; Theology; Church; Therapy; Spirit; Suffering; Pain; Soul; Sin. (shrink)

Coincidiendo con los cincuenta años del inicio del Concilio Vaticano II y con los veinte años de la promulgación del Catecismo de la Iglesia Católica, su Santidad el Papa Benedicto XVI, a través de la Carta Apostólica Porta Fidei, ha declarado un Año de la Fe que abarcaría desde el 11 de Octubre del presente año 2012 hasta el 24 de Noviembre del próximo año 2013. Se desea, en este tiempo, redescubrir el don de la fe, y para ello como (...) hará el propio Pontífice– no se encontrará mejor apoyo que la doctrina de San Agustín de Hipona. Les invito, pues, a atravesar “la puerta de la fe” (Hch. 14,27), que permitirá adentrarnos en la Iglesia para vivir en comunión con Dios, de la mano del “Doctor más universal y el genio más vigoroso que ha poseído la Iglesia”. (shrink)

A lo largo de la historia de la humanidad, siempre se ha planteado el problema del tiempo como algo constante y perenne. Así, autores como Ortega y Gasset, Heidegger o Unamuno, entre otros, ya intentaron ofrecer una respuesta sólida y convincente ante tan angustiosa cuestión. Pero, mucho antes, ya San Agustín atisbó en el Siglo IV una doble vertiente: por un lado, el tiempo puede ser visto desde el prisma del lamento, la angustia (pues todo –incluido el ser humano– (...) es “presa de las fauces temporales”) o bajo la esperanza y la expectación (pues a lo largo de su transcurso, el hombre puede ir creciendo y progresando). No obstante, la complejidad temporal es tal que –como ya bien se verá a lo largo de este artículo– hemos de estructurar su análisis en cuatro fases: 1) Tiempo psicológico; 2) Tiempo físico; 3) Tiempo moral y 4) Tiempo histórico. (shrink)

Para comprender íntegramente los diálogos redactados por San Agustín en la villa de Casicíaco, se hace necesario e imprescindibleentender previamente cómo se relacionan con las obras filosóficas que -ya anteriormente- había escrito Marco Tulio Cicerón. Así, podemos apreciar que el Contra Academicos agustiniano constituye una clara respuesta al Academica ciceroniano, o también el De beata vita al De finibus y Tusculanae disputationes. Asimismo, su De ordine lo será a la trilogía de obras que el Arpinate elabora sobre la providencia: (...) De natura deorum, De divinatione y De fato. Por otra parte, numerosos autores también señalan sus Soliloquios como un “nuevo diálogo de Casicíaco”, en donde el maestro de Hipona y la razón establecen una “edificante y sólida conversación”. Sin embargo, no está pensado para constituir una respuesta a ningún escrito ciceroniano en concreto. (shrink)

Sabemos que Plotino ejerció una notable influencia tanto en la vida como en la obra del gran doctor hiponense. De hecho, en dichas obras aparecen numerosos testimonios que dan buena fe de todo esto (conf. VII, 9,14). En el presente artículo, nos hemos centrado en el terreno místico, es decir, partiendo del conocido y popular "éxtasis de Ostia" (conf. IX, 10,23-26) hemos ido a la par caminando y observando los éxtasis plotinianos narrados en las "Enéadas". Comprobamos las numerosas coincidencias entre (...) uno y otro, aunque con la notable diferencia de que el maestro de Tagaste siempre parte de la fe, algo que, obviamente, Plotino deja de lado. (shrink)

This article explores the relational and motivational leadership behaviors that may promote stewardship in organizations. I conceptualize stewardship as an outcome of leadership behaviors that promote a sense of personal responsibility in followers for the long-term wellbeing of the organization and society. Building upon the themes presented in the stewardship literature, such as identification and intrinsic motivation, and drawing from other research streams to include factors such as interpersonal and institutional trust and moral courage, I posit that leaders foster stewardship (...) in their followers through various relational, motivational, and contextually supportive leadership behaviors. (shrink)

The topic of the relationship between the organism and its environment runs through the theories of Uexküll, Goldstein and Canguilhem with equal importance. In this work a counterpoint will be established between their theories, in the attempt to assess at which points the melodies are concordant and at which points they are discordant. As fundamental basis to his theory, Uexküll relies on the concept of conformity to a plan, which allows him to account for the congruity and perfect adjustment between (...) organisms and their Umwelten. For Goldstein and Canguilhem, the relationship between an organism and its environment resembles instead a debate or coming to terms, in which the organism, as to ensure the continuity of the state of health, must constantly create norms to maintain a productive relationship with its environment. The pinpointing of these conceptual frameworks allows to lay emphasis on that each theory relies on specific assumptions regarding teleology and sense in organisms, as well as on specific definitions of the concept of life in general. Ultimately, the view that organisms and their environments have an original and common source, a principle, or plan, which must possess all the creative characteristics of life, will be seen as prevailing. (shrink)

Impairments in pragmatic abilities, that is, difficulties with appropriate use and interpretation of language – in particular, non-literal uses of language – are considered a hallmark of Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC). Despite considerable research attention, these pragmatic difficulties are poorly understood. In this paper, we discuss and evaluate existing hypotheses regarding the literalism of ASC individuals, that is, their tendency for literal interpretations of non-literal communicative intentions, and link them to accounts of pragmatic development in neurotypical children. We present evidence (...) that reveals a developmental stage at which neurotypical children also have a tendency for literal interpretations and provide a possible explanation for such behaviour, one that links it to other behavioural, rule-following, patterns typical of that age. We then discuss extant evidence that shows that strict adherence to rules is also a widespread feature in ASC, and suggest that literalism might be linked to such rule-following behaviour. (shrink)

There is an ongoing debate about the meaning of lexical words, i.e., words that contribute with content to the meaning of sentences. This debate has coincided with a renewal in the study of polysemy, which has taken place in the psycholinguistics camp mainly. There is already a fruitful interbreeding between two lines of research: the theoretical study of lexical word meaning, on the one hand, and the models of polysemy psycholinguists present, on the other. In this paper I aim at (...) deepening on this ongoing interbreeding, examine what is said about polysemy, particularly in the psycholinguistics literature, and then show how what we seem to know about the representation and storage of polysemous senses affects the models that we have about lexical word meaning. (shrink)

Has science already answered the fundamental questions about the concepts of Life, Cosmos and Evolution? Has science not relegated these fundamental questions by following up on more immediate, “useful” and practical endeavors that ultimately ensure that the wheel of capitalism keeps spinning in its frantic search for material and economic progress? There is something terribly wrong with the current theory of evolution, understood as the Darwinian theory with its successive versions and extensions. The concept of natural selection, the cornerstone of (...) Darwinism, is logically inconsistent. This has been demonstrated in some of my latest academic publications. The entire conceptual framework of Darwinism is inadequate. Organisms do not compete with each other for the survival of the fittest. The fundamental relationship in Nature is not competition or confrontation, but interconnectivity, complementarity, and relational meaningfulness. A new theory of evolution is necessary to explain how it is possible that organisms as simple as bacteria, protozoa and diatoms could have generated organisms as complex as primates, and among them, the human being, a being capable of feeling and thinking, of suffering and enjoying, a being capable of having ideals and purposes. A theory that explains how it is possible that this being so complex, rich, and to some extent still unknown, has emerged from a single cell, an egg-cell, lacking all the capacities, riches and depths of human existence. Such a theory already exists. (shrink)

In this work the doctrine of organicism will be addressed, as explained and seen mainly by Bertalanffy. We will study how this doctrine represents and embodies the ambiguity of Kantian teleology as a regulative principle, and how this same problem leads to consider a real problem as a knowledge problem. It will be concluded that organicism, conceived in this way, does not represent a true holism, but what we will call a syn-holism, a synthesis or assembly, and that to obtain (...) a true holism we must resort to the concept of true form. Finally, it will be established that since the fundamental characteristic of an organism is its development, a historical theory of the organism is required for which the concept of field can be useful and necessary. (shrink)

The influence of Kurt Goldstein on the thinking of Georges Canguilhem extended throughout his entire work. This paper seeks to examine this relationship in order to conduct a study of the norm as a nexus or connection between the concept and life. Consequently, this work will be a reflection on the approach to life as a normative activity and self-realization. For this, it will be necessary to redefine the concepts of health and disease, and make a crossover between the two. (...) At the end of this trajectory, it will be found that these concepts can explain the identity between the concept and life, which leads to the unexpected conclusion that the cure is ultimately self-healing. (shrink)

What is the relation between science and ideology? Are they incompatible, complementary or the same thing? Should science avoid “contamination” from ideology? Is there an only way to do science? Does anyone of them lead to the same results and give us the same worldview? We will focus on the figure of Alexander Bogdanov, Russian physician and philosopher, in order to discuss these and other relevant topics. His theories gave birth to what may be called later “the theory of two (...) sciences”, which entitles this work. (shrink)

Martin Heidegger once wrote that the world had, in the age of modern science, become a world picture. For Rey Chow, the world has, in the age of atomic bombs, become a world target, to be attacked once it is identified, or so global geopolitics, dominated by the United States since the end of the Second World War, seems repeatedly to confirm. How to articulate the problematics of knowledge production with this aggressive targeting of the world? Chow attempts such an (...) articulation by probing the significance of the chronological proximity of area studies, poststructuralist theory, and comparative literature—fields of inquiry that have each exerted considerable influence but whose mutual implicatedness as postwar U.S. academic phenomena has seldom been theorized. Central to Chow’s discussions is a critique of the predicament of self-referentiality—the compulsive move to interiorize that, in her view, constitutes the collective frenzy of our age—in different contemporary epistemic registers, including the self-consciously avant-garde as well as the militaristic and culturally supremacist. Urging her readers to think beyond the inward-turning focus on EuroAmerica that tends to characterize even the most radical gestures of Western self-deconstruction, Chow envisions much broader intellectual premises for future transcultural work, with reading practices aimed at restoring words and things to their constitutive exteriority. (shrink)

Plotinus’ thought is generally viewed as a “system”, the One’s system, wich embraces and considers the Totality as such, as a whole, ruled by the metaphysical law of the unity. Scholars as É. Bréhier, J. Moreau, G. Reale, J. Igal, A. H. Armstrong... agree to it. The present study tries to make explicit and interpret it, examining some basic features, or general traits, wich reveal the Plotinian doctrine from this same point of view. Therefore, the systematic side of Plotinus’ thought (...) is here viewed as the really suitable mode, way or “mothodology” to think the Totality as a supreme unity, and to express the One’s ontology as a perfect whole. According to this interpretation, the system reflects the “synoptical” view of its same content, and shows it as the One’s “presence” in the whole reality and in the Plotinus’ intuitive mind, developed through an ordered series of concepts, in view of the mystical experience, to the union with the One, as the final goal. (shrink)