Ao mostrar que não existe ética independente dos interesses fundamentalmente econômicos dos homens, Marx admite que numa sociedade dividida em classes não existe uma ética acima dessas classes. Isso nos leva a inferir que em uma sociedade de classes antagônicas não existe uma noção de felicidade que sirva igualmente para todas essas classes. O que existe é um conceito de felicidade em forma de ideologia que expressa interesses da classe dominante. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho é discutir o conceito de (...) felicidade, dominante na sociedade capitalista contemporânea, à luz da obra de Karl Marx. Esperamos contribuir, dessa forma, para a constituição de uma noção de felicidade pautad em uma leitura crítica do pensamento de Marx, mesmo que não encontremos em seus escritos, referências explícitas a essa noção. (shrink)

If Unamuno had been able to choose how to be remembered, he would have wanted him to be a poet. This book wants to do justice to that happy possibility. But above all because Unamuno was a poet in the highest sense: he was while writing the same essay as a novel, or theater, letter or verse, and he was also a poet when he passionately lived all the facets of his intense existence. His intellectual work was poetic and his (...) personal relationships, as well as his political activity, also responded to that peculiar Unamunian aesthetic in which the vital horizon is inescapably confused with the tasks of thought." --Translated from back cover. (shrink)

The number of available legal documents has presented an enormous growth in recent years, and the digital processing of such materials is prompting the necessity of systems that support the automatic relevant information extraction. This work presents a system for ontology-based information extraction from natural language texts, able to identify a set of legal events. The system is based on an innovative methodology based on domain ontology of legal events and a set of linguistic rules, integrated through inference mechanism, resulting (...) in a flexible approach and scalable approach. A case study with the use of documents from the Superior Court in Brazil is related, with satisfactory results in precision and recall. (shrink)

As a compact representation of joint probability distributions over a dependence graph of random variables, and a tool for modelling and reasoning in the presence of uncertainty, Bayesian networks are of great importance for artificial intelligence to combine domain knowledge, capture causal relationships, or learn from incomplete datasets. Known as a NP-hard problem in a classical setting, Bayesian inference pops up as a class of algorithms worth to explore in a quantum framework. This paper explores such a research direction and (...) improves on previous proposals by a judicious use of the utility function in an entangled configuration. It proposes a completely quantum mechanical decision-making process with a proven computational advantage. A prototype implementation in Qiskit (a Python-based program development kit for the IBM Q machine) is discussed as a proof-of-concept. (shrink)

Apresentaremos as possíveis aplicações pedagógicas das suas reflexões, como a utilização da imprecisão científica de Heisenberg e da concepção de técnica em Heidegger, a partir da análise histórico-filosófica dos seus escritos, tomando-os como fundamentação a necessária e significativa melhoria da educação técnico-científica.

A presente Comunicação pretende analisar comparativamente alguns aspectos da definição de modernidade e pós-modernidade e sua aplicabilidade na análise do contexto religioso brasileiro. Partindo de autores como Giddens e Bauman, desenvolvemos a contextualização de suas teorias para uma realidade eminentemente européia. Depois, com autores como Canclini, Mariano e Prandi, dentre outros, que analisaram o contexto latino americano e, principalmente, brasileiro, procurou-se delinear o erro em se considerar que os conceitos de modernidade e pós-modernidade cabem à análise do cenário religioso brasileiro (...) irrestritamente, como se este cenário fosse equivalente ao europeu, lugar no qual esses conceitos surgiram e foram delineados. Palavras-chave : Modernidade; Pós-modernidade, Cenário Religioso Brasileiro, Cenário Religioso Europeu. (shrink)

The article addresses the treatment given to the notion of subject in Slavoj Žižek and Robert Kurz. Without aiming at a synthesis between the two radically opposed positions, they are played against one another in order to reveal the unidimensional stances and false steps in the field of the constitution of the struggle for a concrete negation of capitalist society.

Este livro é uma apresentação das teorias e sistemas da psicologia contemporânea articuladas numa visão de conjunto em que podem ser estabelecidas suas afinidades e incompatibilidades. O texto compõe-se de doze capítulos. O primeiro trata de como se formou o campo específico da psicologia. No segundo, mostra-se como este espaço foi ocupado por diferentes doutrinas cientificistas, românticas e pós-românticas. Os demais capítulos apresentam as matrizes do pensamento psicológico e as teorias de surgimento.

Em tempos em que os sistemas humanos aceleram as esferas de descuido, de caos, faz-se necessário buscar novos princípios que fundamentem as bases essenciais da existência e das relações humanas. Nesse viés, a reflexão sobre o caminho da pessoa que busca entender-se como ser de Cuidado torna-se cada vez mais urgente, haja vista que pode promover uma compreensão profunda sobre as próprias atitudes e ações em relação ao todo da vida existente. Dessa forma, toda ação humana para ser boa deve (...) adotar os princípios de Cuidado, e sua reflexão em nível de essência religiosa tem como base a narrativa da Criação na busca de encontrar fundamentos para uma ética necessária e essencial, e que seja norma de conduta responsável, visto que só pela moral do Cuidado com a terra a pessoa manifesta a sua realidade e assume o seu ser em imagem e semelhança ao Criador. (shrink)

Contra un presunto naturalismo de la filosofía de Nietzsche, este artículo reconstruye la noción nietzscheana de vida al hilo del tema de la interpretación. Se pretende mostrar que para este autor el problema de la vida excede todo marco estrictamente biologicista y se orienta en cambio hacia una dimensión ontológica, en tanto la interpretación representa la actividad configuradora de sentido, mediante la cual todo ser vivo genera y sostiene su realidad. El análisis de este proceso lleva a identificar varios niveles (...) de desarrollo de esta vida interpretante: la forma de vida meramente natural, la vida simbólica propia de los seres humanos y, en último término, la vida del conocimiento como forma de vida genuinamente filosófica. Desde este planteamiento diferenciado de la actividad interpretativa se pueden arrojar nuevas luces sobre la noción nietzscheana de perspectivismo. (shrink)

HAN, Byung-Chul. Sociedade do cansaço. Vozes, Petrópolis: 2017.

La filosofía, más que ser una tarea que busca crear e instaurar una teoría absoluta de la verdad, como fue el caso, en la historia de la filosofía misma, del pensamiento cartesiano, el hegeliano,el husserliano, entre otros, es una actividad, es decir, una praxis dialógica que se entiende como introducirse en el medio de un camino que ya otros han recorrido, lo cual presupone, inmediatamente, una concepción de la filosofía como un camino de experiencia siempre abierto. Así, el presente artículo (...) busca analizar el hacer filosófico como una práctica hermenéutica que no sólo se presenta como familiarización con la tradición, la cual se ejemplifica en el texto con la teoría de la reminiscencia platónica, sino también bajo la forma del rompimiento inherente a dicha familiarización. Por tanto, el artículo busca presentar el saber y el hacer filosófico desde una visión hermenéutica, lo que de suyo implica concebirlo como una acción dialógica mediante la cual se estimula el hacer filosófico como recuerdo, es decir, no sólo como mera aprehensión de conceptos e instauración de verdades totalizantes, sino como praxis humana, que es donde la filosofía y, en suma, la experiencia hermenéutica, encuentran su verdadero topos. (shrink)

Several countries maintain universal health coverage, which implies responsibility to organize delivery formats of healthcare services and products for citizens. In Brazil, the health system has a principle of universal access for more than 30 years, but many deficiencies remain and the country observes a day practice for those seeking judicial decisions to determine provision of healthcare.

Análise de aspectos do messianismo judaico no pensamento de Benjamin a partir da temática do caos e da redenção. Abordagem do conceito de história, crítica ao progresso, perda da experiência na modernidade e aspectos da linguagem em Benjamin desde a perspectiva das afinidades eletivas entre messianismo e utopia libertária.

O artigo visa identificar traços da fenomenologia de Max Scheler na obra de Henrique Cláudio de Lima Vaz. Pretende-se aprofundar a compreensão do pensamento deste filósofo brasileiro ainda pouco estudado através da aproximação de outras fontes filosóficas implícitas em sua sua escritura ética. No primeiro passo, trata-se de investigar a influência do personalismo moral de Scheler sobre a questão ética em Lima Vaz. No segundo passo, intenciona-se propugnar o ineditismo da Ética filosófica em relação ao pensamento scheleriano graças ao sistema (...) ético-filosófico do autor que faz com que seu pensamento possa ser situado numa esfera mais elaborada do saber filosófico. (shrink)

Este artigo visa analisar a gestão do processo de revisão do Plano Diretor de São Luís - MA, identificando os fatores responsáveis pela supressão e configuração, bem como a efetividade dos instrumentos institucionais de gestão participativa. A partir disso, foi feita a seguinte indagação: a revisão do Plano Diretor de São Luís atende a quais interesses? Os resultados extraídos dos registros escritos das reuniões do Conselho da Cidade constataram que os principais determinantes da dinâmica de conformação espacial de São Luís- (...) MA são os movimentos de expansão urbana em conjunto com a especulação imobiliária, agronegócio e atividades industriais conduzidos por políticas desenvolvimentistas. (shrink)

Per il papa e l'imperatore -- Francisco de Vitoria -- Domingo de Soto -- Luis de Molina -- Francisco Suárez.

En rédigeant, à partir des arguments des savants et des amateurs avec qui il était en relation, les Objectiones IIae et VIae aux Meditationes, Mersenne ne pose aucune question concernant le « scepticisme », ni ne voit, dans le doute hyperbolique et dans l’argument du Dieu trompeur, des thèses capables de renouveler ou radicaliser des arguments sceptiques : il n’y a pas, pour Mersenne, de « Descartes sceptique malgré lui ». Nous essayons de tracer quelques étapes du parcours des réflexions (...) de Mersenne autour de ces deux axes thématiques, Dieu trompeur et scepticisme, à partir des années 1620, avec la Vérité des sciences (1625) et la deuxième partie, restée inédite, des Quaestiones in Genesim, et dans les années 1630, avec les Harmonicorum Libri et l’ Harmonie universelle de 1636-1637, pour comprendre pourquoi, en 1641, Mersenne, sans aucune référence au scepticisme, pouvait considérer le problème du Dieu trompeur comme problème essentiellement exégétique qu’il proposait à Descartes en théologien, non « in persona impiorum ». Notre contribution vise à distinguer les sources et le contexte des problèmes discutés par Mersenne, du contexte et des – possibles – sources de Descartes. (shrink)

L’espace esthétiqueLe « renversement du cartésianisme » chez Deleuze et Merleau-PontyCet essai se propose de développer le rapport entre Deleuze et Merleau-Ponty à partir de la tentative des deux philosophes français d’aller au-delà du courantde pensée qu’on pourrait qualifi er, comme le fait Merleau-Ponty lui-même, de « cartésianisme ».Nous commençons notre itinéraire avec la critique que les deux philosophes adressent à la notion cartésienne de « ligne » – passage obligé pour penser, à travers Leibniz et sa notion de « (...) point », la ligne en tant qu’« ensemble de points ». On cherche ensuite à penser une ligne qui ne serait plus tracée dans un espace objectif présupposé, mais plutôt qui « se trace » dans un « espace expressif ».Un tel renversement de la « ligne cartésienne » produit, comme on le verra, des effets qui intéressent également la représentation de la ligne du temps. Émanciper cette dernière du modèle cartésien signifi e la penser par-delà toute référence chronologique, toute dépendance du temps de Kronos. On peut lire dans ce sens la tentative des deux philosophes pour penser le temps de l’événement, le temps de l’Aion. On verra enfin comment, d’un espace et d’un temps anticartésiens, doit naître, pour Merleau-Ponty et Deleuze, une nouvelle grammaire porteuse d’une nouvelle compréhension de la métaphore. Ni l’idée de métaphore proposée par Merleau-Ponty, ni le concept de devenir créé par Deleuze ne concernent une ressemblance fondée sur une identité donnée. Si la métaphore merleau-pontienne et le devenir deleuzien doivent être en mesure de restituer l’essence d’une chose, une telle essence se trouve, ou mieux se crée,à partir d’un mouvement vers « ce que la chose n’est pas ». C’est précisément dans ce sens que Merleau-Ponty lit la métaphore proustienne et que Deleuze cherche à rendre compte des ressemblances créées dans l’oeuvre de Gombrowicz.The Aesthetic SpaceThe “Reversal of Cartesianism” in Deleuze and Merleau-PontyThe present essay proposes to explore the relationship between Deleuze and Merleau-Ponty from the attempt they make to go beyond the current of thought thatwe may qualify, like Merleau-Ponty does it himself, as Cartesianism. We begin our itinerary with the critique that both philosophers direct at the Cartesian notion of the line. The passage through the Cartesian notion of the line is “obligated” in order to think – by means of Leibniz and his notion of point -- the line as a “set of points.” The Cartesian passage is obligated moreover in order to think a line which could no longer be drawn in a presupposed objective space but, rather, which would be “drawn” in an “expressive space.” Such a reversal of the Cartesian line, as we shall see, produces effects that concern also the representation of the line of time. To emancipate the line of time from the Cartesian model means we must think beyond all chronological references, beyond all dependence on the time of Chronos. We are able to read, in this way, both philosophers’ attempt to think the time of the event, the time of Aion. Finally we shall see how, for Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze, a new grammar carrying a new understanding of the metaphor must be born from an anti-Cartesian space and time. Neither the idea of metaphor proposed by Merleau-Ponty nor the concept of becoming created by Deleuze speaks of a resemblance founded upon an identity that is given ahead of time. If Merleau-Ponty’s idea of metaphor and Deleuze’s concept of becoming must be able to produce the essence of a thing, such an essence finds, or better, it iscreated on the basis of a movement toward “what the thing is not.” It is precisely in this sense that Merleau-Ponty reads Proust’s metaphors and that Deleuze will seek to give an account of created resemblances in the work of Gombrowicz. (shrink)

L’espace esthétiqueLe « renversement du cartésianisme » chez Deleuze et Merleau-PontyCet essai se propose de développer le rapport entre Deleuze et Merleau-Ponty à partir de la tentative des deux philosophes français d’aller au-delà du courantde pensée qu’on pourrait qualifi er, comme le fait Merleau-Ponty lui-même, de « cartésianisme ».Nous commençons notre itinéraire avec la critique que les deux philosophes adressent à la notion cartésienne de « ligne » – passage obligé pour penser, à travers Leibniz et sa notion de « (...) point », la ligne en tant qu’« ensemble de points ». On cherche ensuite à penser une ligne qui ne serait plus tracée dans un espace objectif présupposé, mais plutôt qui « se trace » dans un « espace expressif ».Un tel renversement de la « ligne cartésienne » produit, comme on le verra, des effets qui intéressent également la représentation de la ligne du temps. Émanciper cette dernière du modèle cartésien signifi e la penser par-delà toute référence chronologique, toute dépendance du temps de Kronos. On peut lire dans ce sens la tentative des deux philosophes pour penser le temps de l’événement, le temps de l’Aion. On verra enfin comment, d’un espace et d’un temps anticartésiens, doit naître, pour Merleau-Ponty et Deleuze, une nouvelle grammaire porteuse d’une nouvelle compréhension de la métaphore. Ni l’idée de métaphore proposée par Merleau-Ponty, ni le concept de devenir créé par Deleuze ne concernent une ressemblance fondée sur une identité donnée. Si la métaphore merleau-pontienne et le devenir deleuzien doivent être en mesure de restituer l’essence d’une chose, une telle essence se trouve, ou mieux se crée,à partir d’un mouvement vers « ce que la chose n’est pas ». C’est précisément dans ce sens que Merleau-Ponty lit la métaphore proustienne et que Deleuze cherche à rendre compte des ressemblances créées dans l’oeuvre de Gombrowicz.The Aesthetic SpaceThe “Reversal of Cartesianism” in Deleuze and Merleau-PontyThe present essay proposes to explore the relationship between Deleuze and Merleau-Ponty from the attempt they make to go beyond the current of thought thatwe may qualify, like Merleau-Ponty does it himself, as Cartesianism. We begin our itinerary with the critique that both philosophers direct at the Cartesian notion of the line. The passage through the Cartesian notion of the line is “obligated” in order to think – by means of Leibniz and his notion of point -- the line as a “set of points.” The Cartesian passage is obligated moreover in order to think a line which could no longer be drawn in a presupposed objective space but, rather, which would be “drawn” in an “expressive space.” Such a reversal of the Cartesian line, as we shall see, produces effects that concern also the representation of the line of time. To emancipate the line of time from the Cartesian model means we must think beyond all chronological references, beyond all dependence on the time of Chronos. We are able to read, in this way, both philosophers’ attempt to think the time of the event, the time of Aion. Finally we shall see how, for Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze, a new grammar carrying a new understanding of the metaphor must be born from an anti-Cartesian space and time. Neither the idea of metaphor proposed by Merleau-Ponty nor the concept of becoming created by Deleuze speaks of a resemblance founded upon an identity that is given ahead of time. If Merleau-Ponty’s idea of metaphor and Deleuze’s concept of becoming must be able to produce the essence of a thing, such an essence finds, or better, it iscreated on the basis of a movement toward “what the thing is not.” It is precisely in this sense that Merleau-Ponty reads Proust’s metaphors and that Deleuze will seek to give an account of created resemblances in the work of Gombrowicz. (shrink)

This article seeks to show that the work The Birth of Tragedy was received in Rio de Janeiro (the “Mecca of Northerners”, in José Veríssimo’s expression) from the end of the 19th century, in particular among some members of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and by the reputed music criticism Rodrigues Barbosa (in the dozens of articles about “Tolstoy and Nietzsche”, published in Jornal do Commercio ). In the same way, we intend to reconstruct with historiographic precision the sources (...) and the profile of the authors who read and published the respective work in our country in the first thirty years of its publication. (shrink)

Resenha do libro: ARENAS, Luis; DEL CASTILLO, Ramón; FAERNA, Ángel M. John Dewey: una estética de este mundo. Zaragoza: Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza, 2018, 447p. ISBN 978-84-17358-59-4.

Os heróis japoneses estão cada vez mais presentes no cotidiano brasileiro, influenciando o público infanto-juvenil e pré-adolescente. O animê ganhou força na década de 60 através de Osamu Tezuka. Os personagens são orientais, mas a narrativa é construída a partir da cultura pop. Hoje a preocupação se volta para Bey Blade -desenho atuante no inconsciente, colocando a razão em último plano, prevalecendo a alienação e a exclusão social.

Questiona-se, no artigo, a relevância de um método jurídico, em concepções de Direito pós-gadamerianas. O problema pode ser resumido como a identificação da relevância do método, mesmo ante a constatação de que o pensamento jurídico é, ao final, incompreensível. Tomada como correta a conclusão de Lenio Streck de que o método sempre chega tarde na compreensão, a pesquisa investiga se, ainda assim, aquele é de todo dispensável. A abordagem é qualitativa, e sustenta-se em fontes bibliográficas. Apresentam-se, sob a forma de (...) diversas figuras geométricas (linha, ângulo, círculo, elipse), as várias relações entre “o Direito” e “os fatos” — da total autonomia à recíproca pressuposição. Em especial no que se refere às concepções pós-gadamerianas, analisamse as teorias de Castanheira Neves, Lenio Streck e Friedrich Müller, para concluir-se que, ainda que longe da pretensão totalizante de “o método” juspositivista, o Direito como tarefa de realização concreta exige critérios prático-constitutivos que devem ser metodicamente problematizados. (shrink)

Escrito en tiempos pandémicos, socializamos en el artículo los diálogos del Grupo Voces de la Educación con los movimientos docentes latinoamericanos que realizan investigaciones desde la escuela y la comunidad. Defendemos la pluralidad, diversidad y potencia de tales experiencias en la producción de otros procesos formativos, que nos llaman a la construcción de solidaridades necesarias para afrontar la barbarie de los tiempos actuales.

We explore the possibility and some potential payoffs of using the theory of accessible categories in the study of categories of logics. We illustrate this by two case studies focusing on the category of finitary structural logics and its subcategory of algebraizable logics.

Partiendo del presupuesto que el lenguaje humano es forma y/o lugar de acción e interacción con el mundo y los otros, entendemos los procesos de lectura,interpretación y escritura como acciones cognitivo-sociales formadoras del sujeto del conocimiento. De ese modo, nos gustaría reflejar sobre los modos de leer y los modos de escribir practicados y enseñados durante la vida académica. Basados en nuestra experiencia docente, en un corpus de pesquisa en marcha en la UESB-Jequié, y en los enfoques teóricos adoptadas (Ingedore (...) Koch, Gustavo Bernardo, Mary Kato) este trabajo busca indagar la docentes y discentes cuáles los principales beneficios que la lectura y la producción de texto pueden proporcionar. (shrink)

Nos discursos das mulheres sobre maternidade, segundo escolaridade e raça/etnia, observa-se que se articulam posicionamentos discursivos diferenciados. Como tendência geral há uma aproximação de discursos relacionados a “constructos sociais modernos” sobre maternidade, característicos da modernidade. Constatamos diferenças nos discursos que destacam o grupo de mulheres negras de ensino médio dos demais grupos de escolaridade. É neste grupo de mulheres que são enfatizados, com maior recorrência, aspectos discursivos relativos às concepções “essencialistas” da maternidade, ou seja, naturalizados, rompendo a tendência de progressiva (...) “dessencialização”, à medida que se eleva a escolaridade das mesmas. As diferentes concepções de maternidade apresentadas, por mulheres negras e brancas, permitem-nos refletir acerca do peso e construção histórica do lugar ocupado na sociedade pelas mulheres negras e brancas e na transversalidade de gênero raça/etnia no campo da saúde reprodutiva. (shrink)

Luis de Molina was a leading figure in the remarkable sixteenth-century revival of Scholasticism on the Iberian peninsula. Molina is best known for his innovative theory of middle knowledge. Alfred J. Freddoso's extensive introductory essay clears up common misconceptions about Molina's theory, defends it against both philosophical and theological objections, and makes it accessible to contemporary readers.

The tendency to idealise artificial intelligence as independent from human manipulators, combined with the growing ontological entanglement of humans and digital machines, has created an “anthrobotic” horizon, in which data analytics, statistics and probabilities throw our agential power into question. How can we avoid the consequences of a reified definition of intelligence as universal operation becoming imposed upon our destinies? It is here argued that the fantasised autonomy of automated intelligence presents a contradistinctive opportunity for philosophical consciousness to understand itself (...) anew as holistic and co-creative, beyond the recent “analytic” moment of the history of philosophy. Here we introduce the concept of “crealectic intelligence”, a meta-analytic and meta-dialectic aspect of consciousness. Intelligent behaviour may consist in distinguishing discrete familiar parts or reproducible functions in the midst of noise via an analytic process of segmentation; intelligence may also manifest itself in the constitution of larger wholes and dynamic unities through a dialectic process of association or assemblage. But, by contrast, crealectic intelligence co-creates realities in the image of an ideal or truth, taking into account the desiring agent imbued with a sense of possibility, in a relationship not only with the Real but also with the creative sublime or “Creal”. (shrink)

Os anos que passamos na graduação geralmente costumam ser marcante em nossas vidas, afinal de contas, esses momentos formativos que compartilhamos com os colegas de curso e com os professores/as, ao longo de quatro anos, são fundamentais para nos tornarmos os profissionais que somos hoje. A leitura dos textos, as discussões em sala, as relações de afeto que construímos nesse período, o papo com os professores, a preparação e apresentação dos seminários, as madrugadas em claro fazendo os trabalhos das disciplinas, (...) as reflexões que guardamos na consciência após uma reunião dos grupos de estudo, as confraternizações que costumamos realizar no termino das disciplinas, isto é, todos essas vivências que um estudante universitário costuma ter marca de maneira definitiva a nossa história. E arrisco a dizer, sem receio de ser injusto, que essas experiências passam a ter um significado ainda maior quando nos tornamos efetivamente professores/as. (shrink)

In this article, we analyse the ontological import of adding classes to set theories. We assume that this increment is well represented by going from ZF system to NBG. We thus consider the standard techniques of reducing one system to the other. Novak proved that from a model of ZF we can build a model of NBG (and vice versa), while Shoenfield have shown that from a proof in NBG of a set-sentence we can generate a proof in ZF of (...) the same formula. We argue that the first makes use of a too strong metatheory. Although meaningful, this symmetrical reduction does not equate the ontological content of the theories. The strong metatheory levels the two theories. Moreover, we will modernize Shoenfields proof, emphasizing its relation to Herbrands theorem and that it can only be seen as a partial type of reduction. In contrast with symmetrical reductions, we believe that asymmetrical relations are powerful tools for comparing ontological content. In virtue of this, we prove that there is no interpretation of NBG in ZF, while NBG trivially interprets ZF. This challenges the standard view that the two systems have the same ontological content. (shrink)

As a result of the complexity inherent in some natural systems, mathematical models employed in ecology are often governed by a large number of variables. For instance, in the study of population dynamics we often find multiregional models for structured populations in which individuals are classified regarding their age and their spatial location. Dealing with such structured populations leads to high dimensional models. Moreover, in many instances the dynamics of the system is controlled by processes whose time scales are very (...) different from each other. For example, in multiregional models migration is often a fast process in comparison to the growth of the population.Approximate reduction techniques take advantage of the presence of different time scales in a system to introduce approximations that allow one to transform the original system into a simpler low dimensional system. In this way, the dynamics of the original system can be approximated in terms of that of the reduced system. This work deals with the study of that approximation. In particular, we work with a non-autonomous discrete time model previously presented in the literature and obtain different bounds for the error we incur when we describe the dynamics of the original system in terms of the reduced one. (shrink)

In this work we extend approximate aggregation methods in time discrete linear models to the case of time varying environments. Approximate aggregation consists in describing some features of the dynamics of a general system involving many coupled variables in terms of the dynamics of a reduced system with a few number of variables. We present a time discrete time varying model in which we distinguish two time scales. By using perturbation methods we transform the system to make the global variables (...) appear and build up the aggregated system. The asymptotic relationships between the general and aggregated systems are explored in the cases of a cyclically varying environment and a changing environment in process of stabilization. We show that under quite general conditions the knowledge of the behavior of the aggregated system characterizes that of the general system. The general method is also applied to aggregate a multiregional time dependent Leslie model showing that the aggregated model has demographic rates depending on the equilibrium proportions of individuals in the different patches. (shrink)

There are currently serious concerns that published scientific findings often fail to be reproducible, and that some solutions may be gleaned by attending the several methodological and sociological recommendations that could be found in the literature. However, researchers would also arrive at some answers by considering the advice of the philosophy of science, particularly semantics, about theses on truth related to scientific realism. Sometimes scientists understand the correspondence thesis of truth as asserting that the next unique empirical confirmation of a (...) hypothesis suffices to attribute truth to it provisionally. Such empiricist bias is not necessarily at the core of CTT, but Mario Bunge proposed the synthetic thesis of truth, based on CTT, to explicitly avoid the bias. STT requires considering a hypothesis corroborated, both by purely empirical confirmation and external consistency or compatibility with the bulk of existing background knowledge. While a capricious understanding of CTT could be rigged to recommend the “one shot game” in hypothesis testing, STT clearly demands the use of multiple approaches, empirical as well as theoretical, and it asserts that a scientific test is effective to the extent to which it is neither purely empirical, nor viewed in isolation. Pattern consistency together with an understanding of causal relations make confirmed hypotheses robust and more reliable. The militancy of the double mechanism of hypothesis control of STT can help mitigate the reproducibility crisis. Earl Werner’s research program in community ecology is an example of the use of STT criteria, which leads to the development of reliable, cross-checked, ecological results, with high predictive capacity. (shrink)

There are currently serious concerns that published scientific findings often fail to be reproducible, and that some solutions may be gleaned by attending the several methodological and sociological recommendations that could be found in the literature. However, researchers would also arrive at some answers by considering the advice of the philosophy of science, particularly semantics, about theses on truth related to scientific realism. Sometimes scientists understand the correspondence thesis of truth as asserting that the next unique empirical confirmation of a (...) hypothesis suffices to attribute truth to it provisionally. Such empiricist bias is not necessarily at the core of CTT, but Mario Bunge proposed the synthetic thesis of truth, based on CTT, to explicitly avoid the bias. STT requires considering a hypothesis corroborated, both by purely empirical confirmation and external consistency or compatibility with the bulk of existing background knowledge. While a capricious understanding of CTT could be rigged to recommend the “one shot game” in hypothesis testing, STT clearly demands the use of multiple approaches, empirical as well as theoretical, and it asserts that a scientific test is effective to the extent to which it is neither purely empirical, nor viewed in isolation. Pattern consistency together with an understanding of causal relations make confirmed hypotheses robust and more reliable. The militancy of the double mechanism of hypothesis control of STT can help mitigate the reproducibility crisis. Earl Werner’s research program in community ecology is an example of the use of STT criteria, which leads to the development of reliable, cross-checked, ecological results, with high predictive capacity. (shrink)

There are currently serious concerns that published scientific findings often fail to be reproducible, and that some solutions may be gleaned by attending the several methodological and sociological recommendations that could be found in the literature. However, researchers would also arrive at some answers by considering the advice of the philosophy of science, particularly semantics, about theses on truth related to scientific realism. Sometimes scientists understand the correspondence thesis of truth as asserting that the next unique empirical confirmation of a (...) hypothesis suffices to attribute truth to it provisionally. Such empiricist bias is not necessarily at the core of CTT, but Mario Bunge proposed the synthetic thesis of truth, based on CTT, to explicitly avoid the bias. STT requires considering a hypothesis corroborated, both by purely empirical confirmation and external consistency or compatibility with the bulk of existing background knowledge. While a capricious understanding of CTT could be rigged to recommend the “one shot game” in hypothesis testing, STT clearly demands the use of multiple approaches, empirical as well as theoretical, and it asserts that a scientific test is effective to the extent to which it is neither purely empirical, nor viewed in isolation. Pattern consistency together with an understanding of causal relations make confirmed hypotheses robust and more reliable. The militancy of the double mechanism of hypothesis control of STT can help mitigate the reproducibility crisis. Earl Werner’s research program in community ecology is an example of the use of STT criteria, which leads to the development of reliable, cross-checked, ecological results, with high predictive capacity. (shrink)