El artículo aborda la pandemia del covid-19 como elemento contingente y su efecto de develamiento respecto de algunas manifestaciones contemporáneas de la ideología neoliberal en Latinoamérica. De esta forma, en base a conceptos filosóficos y psicoanalíticos de orientación lacaniana planteados fundamentalmente por Slavoj Žižek, se examinan los usos críticos de la noción de ideología en sus diversas manifestaciones: miedo al otro, imposición de la lógica del empresario de sí, destrucción de lazos sociales, extractivismo de recursos naturales y fetichización de los (...) discursos de unidad frente a la pandemia. La hipótesis radica en que la pandemia presenta una oportunidad para repensar la subjetividad contemporánea, mediante la confrontación con el Real que bordea a la simbolización y, en definitiva, a la captura ideológica, a fin de poner en cuestión la afirmación de que no hay alternativa. (shrink)

Resumen El artículo muestra la relación estructural entre el testimonio y el juicio estético, y cómo la mentira estructural se implica irreductiblemente como la posibilidad de la verdad. Se explica la necesaria imposibilidad del testimonio como condición de su posibilidad, argumento anticipado por J. L. Borges: “No hay una sola hermosa palabra, con la excepción dudosa de testigo, que no sea una abstracción”. La argumentación se apoya en la teoría husserliana del syncategorema y en los deícticos ; asimismo, se toma (...) de I. Kant el papel de la imaginación y los efectos del “como si”.This essay demonstrates the structural relationship between testimony and aesthetic judgment. The implications of this discovery are several, the most important being the relationship between the lie and truth, implicating that lie indicates the irreducible possibility of truth. The essay explains the necessary impossibility of the testimony as a condition of its possibility, an argument anticipated in Jorge Luis Borges’ beautiful phrase, “There is not a single beautiful word, with the dubious exception of witness, that is not an abstraction”. The argument is based on Husserl’s theory of the syncategorem and on deictic words ; as well, it takes from Kant, the role of the imagination and the effects of the “as if”. (shrink)

This book presents some of the challenges bioethics in Latin America faces today. It considers them through the lenses of vulnerable populations, those incapable of protecting their own interests, such as the illiterate, women in societies disrespectful of their reproductive rights, and research subjects in contexts where resources are scarce.

Our memories elicit, in us, both beliefs about what the external world was like in the past, and beliefs about what our own past experience of it was like in the past. What explains the power of memories to do that? I tackle this question by offering an account of the content of our memories. According to this account, our memories are ‘token-reflexives’, in that they represent their own causal origin. My main contention will be that our memories are able (...) to provide us with evidence for the two types of beliefs due to the self-referential nature of their content. First, I will put forward a series of thought-experiments intended to raise several intuitions about the veridicality of memories. Next, I will introduce the view that memories are token-reflexives, and I will motivate it by pointing out that the view accommodates the relevant intuitions. And, then, I will return to the two types of beliefs prompted by our memories, and argue that conceiving memories as token-reflexives allows us to explain why memory has the power to elicit the two types of beliefs in us. (shrink)

This essay examines the construction of a symbolic figure who has worked to support the reordering of power relationships. It is the invention of a foreign enemy, Islamic radicalism from which United States has served its objectives of establishing a new hegemony. Since the terrorist threat, has extended a speech level that adulterated and showed us a world divided into two opposite poles: a virtuous and civilized axis that is forced to attack to defend itself, and a barbaric and evil (...) axis that threatens global security. But this process is fraudulent, that has been able to violate international law, has a political, historical and economic issues should be unmasked. (shrink)

Memories are mental states with a number of interesting features. One of those features seems to be their having an intentional object. After all, we commonly say that memories are about things, and that a subject represents the world in a certain way by virtue of remembering something. It is unclear, however, what sorts of entities constitute the intentional objects of memory. In particular, it is not clear whether those are mind-independent entities in the world or whether they are mental (...) entities of some kind. The purpose of this chapter is to map the different positions on this issue, and to highlight the virtues and difficulties for each of the options. In Section 2, I will specify the question of what the intentional objects of memory are by clarifying the relevant notions of memory and intentional object. In Section 3, I will motivate the significance of identifying the intentional objects of memory by exploring the relations between, on the one hand, the intentionality of memory and, on the other hand, the phenomenology and the epistemology of memory. In Section 4, I will consider two natural candidates for being the intentional objects of memory, namely, worldly entities and mental entities, and I will raise some concerns for each of the two candidates. A promising alternative will emerge, in Section 5, as preserving the virtues of the two original candidates while avoiding their difficulties. The alternative will concern a certain combination of worldly and mental entities; a combination that involves both causal and truth-making relations. I will conclude by sketching how the alternative candidate can shed some light on the phenomenological and epistemological issues raised in the third section. (shrink)

This chapter provides an overview of how existential phenomenology has influenced qualitative research methods across a range of disciplines across the social, health, educational, and psychological sciences. It focuses specifically on how the concepts of “existential structures,” or “existentials”—such as selfhood, temporality, spatiality, affectivity, and embodiment—have been used in qualitative research. After providing a brief introduction to what qualitative research is and why philosophers should be interested in it, the chapter provides clear, straightforward examples of how qualitative researchers have used (...) existentials to analyze qualitative data and design qualitative studies. The chapter is intended to introduce philosophers to existential approaches to phenomenological qualitative research, with the aim of facilitating interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration. (shrink)

El siguiente trabajo parte del análisis de dos obras literarias que vieron su aparición en el Siglo XXI: Historia de los abuelos que no tuve, de Ivan Jablonka, y El gueto interior, de Santiago Amigorena, dos novelas que toman como eje temático y vertebrador de las narraciones la búsqueda e indagación del pasado reciente a través de dos historias de vida que guardan una profunda conexión con los hechos acontecidos durante el Holocausto. El objetivo es abordar y analizar la construcción (...) de la voz narrativa en cada una de las obras propuestas a partir de su articulación con la figura del silencio. En la obra de Jablonka, se observa, hay una identificación entre el narrador y sus abuelos paternos, mecanismo que se despliega al anular toda inconsistencia o vacío memorial; el silencio dejado por Mates e Idesa es el silencio de su nieto. Por su parte, en el relato de Amigorena, la voz del narrador toma distancia respecto a los acontecimientos al adoptar un punto de vista externo; a la vez que ficcionaliza la historia de su abuelo Vicente y la envuelve de un silencio absoluto e impotente, deja entrever que ese silencio desolador que atraviesa su historia familiar puede ser resignificado desde el presente. (shrink)

The aim of the article is to introduce a new concept of “pain-related bodily doubt,” which complements current concepts currently in use, such as pain-related fear, pain catastrophizing, and pain self-efficacy. This new concept, adapted from recent philosophical work on illness experience, has the potential to positively contribute to pain research and clinical practice by providing a vocabulary for clinicians and patients to discuss implicit or tacit dimensions of pain-related experiences.

The poverty of stimulus argument is one of the most controversial arguments in the study of language acquisition. Here we follow previous approaches challenging the assumption of impoverished primary linguistic data, focusing on the specific problem of auxiliary (AUX) fronting in complex polar interrogatives. We develop a series of corpus analyses of child-directed speech showing that there is indirect statistical information useful for correct auxiliary fronting in polar interrogatives and that such information is sufficient for distinguishing between grammatical and ungrammatical (...) generalizations, even in the absence of direct evidence. We further show that there are simple learning devices, such as neural networks, capable of exploiting such statistical cues, producing a bias toward correct AUX questions when compared to their ungrammatical counterparts. The results suggest that the basic assumptions of the poverty of stimulus argument may need to be reappraised. (shrink)

En su sitio de Facebook, llamado “Fantasmas del Cordobazo”, Sebastián Cánepa, actualiza, por medio de la superposición de imágenes pasadas y presentes, la insurrección popular en las calles cordobesas. Aflora un tiempo superpuesto, condensado que se vuelve nítido con el contraste entre el color y las formas de las fotos actuales y el blanco y negro del año 69.

El artículo analiza algunas problemáticas centrales de la literatura caribeña, en particular de expresión francófona y anglófona, relacionadas, por un lado, con la falta de desarrollo y el funcionamiento colonial de sus sistemas literarios, y, por el otro, con el problema social, económico y político de la emigración en las Antillas. Como propongo, es la misma condición migrante de la literatura caribeña, en tanto sistema atravesado por el desplazamiento masivo de sus productores, la que en gran parte determina sus motivaciones (...) e intereses, enfocados a la identidad regional (y a la cultura regionalista) de modo recurrente. El artículo indaga, entre otros lugares-comunes (Glissant) del discurso literario caribeño, su estética geográficamente marcada que es enunciada aun desde un locus migrante (distante) con fines descolonizadores, los cuales se vinculan con la tradición anticolonialista, masculina y de sesgo militante del siglo pasado. Luego de una revisión de este legado a partir de dos aproximaciones críticas (Tinsley, Condé), se lee una serie de textos donde se observa la persistencia de la geoestética antillana, como A Small Place de Jamaica Kincaid, los cuales se apropian creativamente del discurso turístico desde una perspectiva geopolítica de resistencia a las dominaciones aún coloniales. (shrink)

In this article I examine several criticisms of the concept of vulnerability. Rather than rejecting the concept, however, I argue that a sufficiently rich understanding of vulnerability is essential to bioethics. The challenges of international research in developing countries require an understanding of how new vulnerabilities arise from conditions of economic, social and political exclusion. A serious shortcoming of current conceptions of vulnerability in research ethics is the tendency to treat vulnerability as a label fixed on a particular subpopulation. My (...) paper examines the role of this “label” metaphor in current statements of research ethics. In contrast to this prevailing “label” metaphor, my own positive account of vulnerability develops a dynamic way of understanding the structure of the concept of vulnerability based on the idea of “layers of vulnerability.” I examine several cases involving women, as they are sometimes labeled as a vulnerable population and sometimes not. My analysis demonstrates the essential role of this revised concept of vulnerability in bioethics and research ethics. (shrink)

The specialist literature has investigated extensively the link between Benjamin and German Romanticism and, less frequently, his relation to Kant. However, these contributions tend to take up these links separately, and therefore do not analyse in detail the process which begins with the theoretical sketches on Kant and concludes with the writing of the doctoral thesis on the Frühromantik. This paper argues that there is a marked continuity between the objectives which led Benjamin to plan, in the first place, his (...) doctoral investigation on Kant and those which were finally realized. I try to demonstrate that such continuity consists in a displacement of the problem of the justification of knowledge, from the field of the criticism of knowledge in general to a particular sphere: that of art criticism. In this shift the purpose of linking the justification of knowledge with a messianic philosophy of time and history is also preserved. (shrink)

In this paper I state that throughout Walter Benjamin’s writings a constant element can be found: the aim to ground knowledge on demand of redemption of the object. I show that in the four realms where the Benjaminian theory of knowledge is developed –philosophy, art criticism, translation and historical knowledge–, the principal categories of his conception stress this demand by a peculiar use of the suffix “barkeit”, present in the concepts of “solutionabiliy” of the philosophical task, the “criticizability” of the (...) artwork, the “translatability” of language and the “now of cognizability” of the past. (shrink)

ResumenEl trabajo investiga la relación entre las nociones de «imagen dialéctica» [dialektisches Bild] y de recuerdo [Erinnerung] en la obra tardía de Walter Benjamin. Parte de la hipótesis de que, para comprender dicho vínculo, es necesario recurrir a la categoría de «mímesis» como mediación entre ellas. El abordaje de la mímesis busca recuperar su íntima relación con lo figurativo y la experiencia sensible, relegada frente al énfasis que los estudios sobre el tema han puesto en la filosofía del lenguaje. Con (...) este objetivo, se indaga el diálogo velado de Benjamin con la tradición warburguiana, cuyo tema central es la imagen.Palabras claveBenjamin, Warburg, imagen dialéctica, recuerdo, mímesisAbstractIn this paper we research the connection between the concepts of «dialectical image» and «memory» in Walter Benjamin’s late work. We start from the hypothesis that, in order to understand this relationship, it is necessary to turn to the notion of «mimesis» as a link betweenthem. We draw attention to the intimate connection of mimesis with the figurative and sensible experience, generally left out by the studies that emphasize its relationship with the philosophy of language. To reach our aim we investigate the veiled dialogue between Benjamin and the Warburgian tradition, whose main topic is the image.KeywordsBenjamin, Warburg, dialectical image, memory, m. (shrink)

The Ancient Age introducesuncountless problems to the specialists of the same one. On one hand, wehave problems related with the direct sources, and, for other, with the indirectsources. Same Plato points out, in the Letter VII, that his dialogues don’tcontain the fundamental teachings, but it belon..

“Vulnerability” is a key concept for research ethics and public health ethics. This term can be discussed from either a conceptual or a practical perspective. I previously proposed the metaphor of layers to understand how this concept functions from the conceptual perspective in human research. In this paper I will clarify how my analysis includes other definitions of vulnerability. Then, I will take the practical‐ethical perspective, rejecting the usefulness of taxonomies to analyze vulnerabilities. My proposal specifies two steps and provides (...) a procedural guide to help rank layers. I introduce the notion of cascade vulnerability and outline the dispositional nature of layers of vulnerability to underscore the importance of identifying their stimulus condition. In addition, I identify three kinds of obligations and some strategies to implement them. This strategy outlines the normative force of harmful layers of vulnerability. It offers concrete guidance. It contributes substantial content to the practical sphere but it does not simplify or idealize research subjects, research context or public health challenges. (shrink)

It is widely assumed that language in some form or other originated by piggybacking on pre-existing learning mechanism not dedicated to language. Using evolutionary connectionist simulations, we explore the implications of such assumptions by determining the effect of constraints derived from an earlier evolved mechanism for sequential learning on the interaction between biological and linguistic adaptation across generations of language learners. Artificial neural networks were initially allowed to evolve “biologically” to improve their sequential learning abilities, after which language was introduced (...) into the population. We compared the relative contribution of biological and linguistic adaptation by allowing both networks and language to change over time. The simulation results support two main conclusions: First, over generations, a consistent head-ordering emerged due to linguistic adaptation. This is consistent with previous studies suggesting that some apparently arbitrary aspects of linguistic structure may arise from cognitive constraints on sequential learning. Second, when networks were selected to maintain a good level of performance on the sequential learning task, language learnability is significantly improved by linguistic adaptation but not by biological adaptation. Indeed, the pressure toward maintaining a high level of sequential learning performance prevented biological assimilation of linguistic-specific knowledge from occurring. (shrink)

According to Bronislaw Baczko, utopias may be considered as different forms—they are not linked to any precise literary genre—of critique of social reality and the quest for alternatives. Some consist of a detailed description of a new social order, whereas others confine themselves to an overall design, which solely defines a series of values and principles. They all contain an ideal of perfection: a utopian view of the world always stems from the awareness of a breach between what must be (...) and social reality, which is deemed to be in crisis and dominated by evil. There is, thus, no utopia without an ideal opposed to reality. That said, idealized as they may be, utopias do allow such reality to cease to be deemed.. (shrink)

Se trata de la reseña bibliográfica del libro de Emmanuel Biset et. al., Sujeto, una categoría en disputa.

It is widely assumed that language in some form or other originated by piggybacking on pre-existing learning mechanism not dedicated to language. Using evolutionary connectionist simulations, we explore the implications of such assumptions by determining the effect of constraints derived from an earlier evolved mechanism for sequential learning on the interaction between biological and linguistic adaptation across generations of language learners. Artificial neural networks were initially allowed to evolve “biologically” to improve their sequential learning abilities, after which language was introduced (...) into the population. We compared the relative contribution of biological and linguistic adaptation by allowing both networks and language to change over time. The simulation results support two main conclusions: First, over generations, a consistent head-ordering emerged due to linguistic adaptation. This is consistent with previous studies suggesting that some apparently arbitrary aspects of linguistic structure may arise from cognitive constraints on sequential learning. Second, when networks were selected to maintain a good level of performance on the sequential learning task, language learnability is significantly improved by linguistic adaptation but not by biological adaptation. Indeed, the pressure toward maintaining a high level of sequential learning performance prevented biological assimilation of linguistic-specific knowledge from occurring. (shrink)

Interpersonalist theories of testimony have the theoretical virtue of giving room to the characteristic interpersonal features of testimonial exchange among persons. Nonetheless, it has been argued that they are at a serious disadvantage when it comes to accounting for the way in which testimonial beliefs may be epistemically justified. In this paper, we defend the epistemological credentials of interpersonalism, emphasizing that it is inseparable from the acceptance of non-evidential epistemic reasons to believe, which demands proper conceptual elaborations on the notions (...) of epistemic reasons and of epistemic justification. We offer a proper reading of epistemic reason, and we defend non-purism on justification as the adequate way to conceive the epistemic proposal of interpersonalism on testimony, realizing that only this combination is capable of apprehending certain cases in which there seems to be no way to rule out the idea that the assurance offered by the testifier offers an epistemic reason to believe that it is not evidential. (shrink)

En este trabajo se analiza la tesis foucaultiana de la reducción de la filosofía a forma de conocimiento en Descartes y el consecuente abandono de la espiritualidad clásica, es decir, de la filosofía concebida como forma de vida basada en el cuidado de sí. A partir de aquí, además de observar que el propio Foucault matizará esta tesis, se demostrará que en Descartes la filosofía sigue esencialmente unida a la espiritualidad.

The goal of this paper is to show how culture – shared norms and values – is challenged and used to facilitate cooperative behavior within the context of farmer field schools (FFS) in central Luzon, Philippines. The success of the FFS is primarily associated with cultural norms that encourage experiential and collective learning and eventually lead to the adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) methods among the farmers. The study was conducted in central Luzon, the rice granary region of the (...) Philippines, from 1992 to 1995 and again in 1999. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed. Results indicate that a keen understanding of Filipino culture and values is essential if FFS is to be successful and if farmers are to successfully learn and practice IPM. (shrink)

Se analizará una aporía inherente al giro subjetivo del último Foucault causada por el sostenimiento simultáneo de dos sentidos incompatibles de la irreductibilidad del sujeto y, por lo tanto, de su posible emancipación: en unos casos es posible hacer referencia a procesos de subjetivación externos a las formas de subjetividad generadas por el poder ; pero, en otros, los procesos de emancipación no pueden ser pensados más allá de la resistencia al poder. La hipótesis del trabajo es que la aporía (...) está producida por la gradual marginación del problema del autoconocimiento en la temática del cuidado de sí, que, como resultado, pasa a ser comprendida exclusivamente desde las prácticas cínicas. Pero reducido el autoconocimiento, también es eliminada la problemática del cuidado de sí, que sostenía la noción fuerte de la subjetividad. Se mostrará que en el Barroco literario y neoestoico español se pueden encontrar elementos para recuperarla. (shrink)

ResumenEl trabajo investiga la relación entre las nociones de «imagen dialéctica» [dialektisches Bild] y de recuerdo [Erinnerung] en la obra tardía de Walter Benjamin. Parte de la hipótesis de que, para comprender dicho vínculo, es necesario recurrir a la categoría de «mímesis» como mediación entre ellas. El abordaje de la mímesis busca recuperar su íntima relación con lo figurativo y la experiencia sensible, relegada frente al énfasis que los estudios sobre el tema han puesto en la filosofía del lenguaje. Con (...) este objetivo, se indaga el diálogo velado de Benjamin con la tradición warburguiana, cuyo tema central es la imagen.Palabras claveBenjamin, Warburg, imagen dialéctica, recuerdo, mímesisAbstractIn this paper we research the connection between the concepts of «dialectical image» and «memory» in Walter Benjamin’s late work. We start from the hypothesis that, in order to understand this relationship, it is necessary to turn to the notion of «mimesis» as a link betweenthem. We draw attention to the intimate connection of mimesis with the figurative and sensible experience, generally left out by the studies that emphasize its relationship with the philosophy of language. To reach our aim we investigate the veiled dialogue between Benjamin and the Warburgian tradition, whose main topic is the image.KeywordsBenjamin, Warburg, dialectical image, memory, m. (shrink)

In this article I focus on two issues concerning bioethics in Argentina: reproductive health and ethics in research. Although these topics are quite dissimilar, they share a particular feature: their special relationship with context.

In this article, the authors focus on Argentina's activity in the developing field of regenerative medicine, specifically stem cell research. They take as a starting point a recent article by Shawn Harmon (published in this journal) who argues that attempts to regulate the practice in Argentina are morally incoherent. The authors try to show first, that there is no such ‘attempt to legislate’ on stem cell research in Argentina and this is due to a number of reasons that they explain. (...) Second, by examining the role played by different values, conflicting legal and moral views, and the influence of various actors, they attempt to show that the legislative silence regarding stem cell research may not necessarily be a manifestation of a legal/moral disconnection but rather a survival strategy for navigating the long and heated battle on the moral status of the embryo and the kind of treatment it deserves. (shrink)

Dentro de la academia los estudios sobre el juego suelen ser marginados o subestimados como cuestiones secundarias al pensamiento, o como espacios de discusión dirigidos solamente al ocio contemplativo. Sin embargo, en oposición a este tipo de inferencias nos dedicaremos enteramente a reivindicar el papel del juego como fenómeno existencial fundamental en la pregunta por el ser y su relación con el mundo. En el presente trabajo propondremos un cruce lúdico y metafísico entre dos reconocidos pensadores: Carlos Astrada, filósofo argentino, (...) y Eugen Fink, filósofo alemán. Ambos autores comparten la herencia heideggeriana que pondrán en discusión y que servirá como hilo conductor del diálogo teórico sobre el carácter ontológico del juego. (shrink)

This article examines the problems that research ethics confronts in developing countries and the impact that research in developing countries has had on research ethics. In order to show this it analyzes the first paradigmatic cases that gave rise to the ‘classic’ analysis of research ethics. Hence, in this article, many of the ethical concerns apply wherever research is conducted and are not particular to developing countries. Secondly, the article describes the complex process of research by analyzing different research actors (...) and their interests in the current research process. Thirdly, it sketches some of the recent cases that have prompted fierce ethical debate surrounding research in developing countries. (shrink)