We show that Bayesian ex post aggregation is unstable with respect to refinements. Suppose a group of Bayesians use ex post aggregation. Since it is a joint problem, each agent’s problem is captured by the same model, but probabilities and utilities may vary. If they analyze the same situation in more detail, their refined analysis should preserve their preferences among acts. However, ex post aggregation could bring about a preference reversal on the group level. Ex post aggregation thus depends on (...) how much information is used and may keep oscillating (‘‘flipping’’) as one keeps adding more information. (shrink)

Résumé La révolution einsteinienne – construction des théories de la relativité – repose sur la disparition du temps, au profit de l’espace-temps isotrope. Je la compare à la révolution newtonienne, vue comme une disparition de la verticale au profit de l’espace isotrope. J’analyse l’existence et la pertinence de notions à caractère temporel dans les théories relativistes ; en particulier temps et durées propres, et causalité.

Le point le plus crucial, à propos de la réalité des objets physiques, consiste sans doute à éclaircir la signification du terme « réel ». Je ne m’y risquerai pas ici. En tentant de ne pas sortir de mon rôle de physicien, j’adopterai plutôt une définition particulière et limitée du terme, qui correspond peu ou prou à ce que Arthur Fine qualifie d’« attitude ontologique naturelle ». L’« humble raisonnement » J’introduirai ici...

PIERRE REY. — Connaître personnellement un auteur, c’est un peu superposer une voix à une parole... Après son décès, les médias ont commenté votre relation avec Claude Nougaro. Pourriez-vous nous en dire un mot ?DOMINIQUE BAUDIS. — Le lien entre Claude et moi, c’est évidemment Toulouse. Pour l’anecdote, je l’ai connu au moment..

Anne-Lise Rey | : L’article montre qu’après la « révolution scientifique » opérée par l’introduction des idées de Newton en France, Émilie du Châtelet a construit un dispositif épistémique inventif qui lui permet d’articuler principes métaphysiques et experimental philosophy. Je cherche à exposer que, s’il y a bien une relative invisibilité du travail philosophique d’Émilie du Châtelet dans l’historiographie des Lumières, cela tient à la fois au statut de femme savante à cette époque, mais aussi à la situation philosophique d’Émilie (...) du Châtelet, qui ne peut se réduire à aucune filiation et qui élabore une philosophie naturelle originale. | : This paper shows that after the “Scientific Revolution” stemming from the introduction of Newton’s ideas in France, Émilie du Châtelet developed an innovative epistemic framework that allowed her to reconcile metaphysical principles with experimental philosophy. The author aims to show that the relative invisibility of Émilie du Châtelet’s philosophical work within the historiography of the enlightenment is due both to her status as a learned woman at that time and to the philosophical position of Émilie du Châtelet, which cannot be reduced to a single philosophical affiliation and which allows her to develop an original account of natural philosophy. (shrink)

Jeffrey conditioning allows updating in Bayesian style when the evidence is uncertain. A weighted average, essentially, over classically updating on the alternatives. Unlike classical Bayesian conditioning, this allows learning to be unlearned.

Je pensais, sans doute naïvement, que tous les physiciens contemporains croyaient en l’existence du temps. Après avoir lu cet ouvrage, je commence à en douter. Non seulement parce qu’à plusieurs reprises l’auteur affirme, d’une façon ou d’une autre, que « le message de l’impossibilité relativiste du temps n’est pas encore passé, même chez certains physiciens », , mais aussi parce que la manière très rigoureuse, tout en étant compréhensible pour u..

Zermelo’s Theorem that the axiom of choice is equivalent to the principle that every set can be well-ordered goes through in third-order logic, but in second-order logic we run into expressivity issues. In this note, we show that in a natural extension of second-order logic weaker than third-order logic, choice still implies the well-ordering principle. Moreover, this extended second-order logic with choice is conservative over ordinary second-order logic with the well-ordering principle. We also discuss a variant choice principle, due to (...) Hilbert and Ackermann, which neither implies nor is implied by the well-ordering principle. (shrink)

This paper introduces three new concepts: epistemic health, epistemic immunity, and epistemic inoculation. Epistemic health is a measure of how well an entity (e.g. person, community, nation) is functioning with regard to various epistemic goods or ideals. It is constituted by many different factors (e.g. possessing true beliefs, being disposed to make reliable inferences), is improved or degraded by many different things (e.g. research funding, social trust), and many different kinds of inquiry are relevant to its study. Epistemic immunity is (...) the robustness with which an entity is resistant to performing certain kinds of epistemic activity, such as questioning certain ideas, believing certain sources, or making certain inferences. Epistemic inoculation occurs when social, political or cultural processes cause an entity to become immune to engaging in certain epistemic activities. After outlining each of these concepts, we close by considering some of the risks associated with attempts to improve others’ epistemic health. (shrink)

Abductive problems have been widely studied in propositional logic. First order abduction, however, has been viewed as intractable, for the undecidability of logical consequence. In this paper, we propose a notion of abductive problem, N-abductive problem, which is relative to the cardinality of the minimal model satisfying the given theory. We use a notion of restricted satisfaction, also relative to a domain cardinality. Finally, we propose an effective procedure for the searching of abductive solutions, by means of a modification of (...) Beth's tableaux. (shrink)

Many people think there is something objectionable about ‘selective outrage’. After investigating how to best characterise what selective outrage is and what these objections target, this paper argues that many cases of supposedly selective outrage actually have important positive effects. Because we often have limited resources with which to enforce norms, it can be collectively prudent to prioritise enforcing norms that are well-established or collectively recognisable over those that are not. This will sometimes require responding to individual wrongs that seem (...) less immoral, outrageous or in need of attention than others. We argue that when we encounter agents who are outraged about a violation of a genuinely valuable norm but not another relevantly similar violation, we should generally refrain from objecting unless we have good independent evidence the agent’s outrage stems from objectionable motives. (shrink)

En este artículo se exploran algunas condiciones de posibilidad sobre un pensamiento bibliotecológico en América Latina. Para tales fines, se analizó la propuesta de una “Bibliotecología desde Abya Yala”, sobre todo por lo desafiante de sus pretensiones y porque exhibe algunos síntomas generalizados en esta clase de ideaciones (como inconsistencias conceptuales y metodológicas derivadas de prejuicios identitarios regionalistas). Se identificaron dos problemas básicos: “la identidad desde la exclusión” y el supuesto estado epistémico de “saber desde la inclusión”. La “identidad desde (...) la exclusión” se refiere al problema de intentar definir la identidad latinoamericana desde lo “no anglosajón”, y por el criterio de descarte de ideas ajenas como parte de las acciones para lograr, en modo artificial, el carácter “latinoamericano” auténtico (sin que exista de por medio una justificación epistémica). Por otro lado, el problema del supuesto “saber desde la inclusión” (que parte, más bien, desde la exclusión y la marginación hermenéutica) retoma los mismos prejuicios identitarios, y se posa, indirectamente, en el arcaico pensamiento funcionalista bibliotecológico. A pesar de esto, su rasgo más polémico resulta ser que se basa en estados epistémicos deterministas que no son sostenibles ni ética ni epistemológicamente (ni siquiera en la esfera práctica más inmediata). (shrink)

Speech Acts, Criteria and Intentions What makes a speech act a speech act? Which are its necessary and sufficient conditions? I claim in this paper that we cannot find an answer to those questions in Austin's doctrine of the infelicities, since some infelicities take place in fully committing speech acts, whereas others prevent the utterance from being considered as a speech act at all. With this qualification in mind, I argue against the idea that intentions—considered as mental states accomplishing a (...) causal role in the performance of the act—should be considered among the necessary conditions of speech acts. I would thus like to deny a merely ‘symptomatic’ account of intentions, according to which we could never make anything but fallible hypotheses about the effective occurrence of any speech act. I propose an alternative ‘criterial’ account of the role of intentions in speech acts theory, and analyse Austin's and Searle's approaches in the light of this Wittgensteinian concept. Whether we consider, with Austin, that speech acts ‘imply’ mental states or, with Searle, that they ‘express’ them, we could only make sense of this idea if we considered utterances as criteria for intentions, and not as alleged behavioural effects of hidden mental causes. (shrink)

The compliance-based approach and the integrity approach have been the mainstream responses to corporate scandals. This paper proposes that, despite each approach comprising necessary elements, neither offers a comprehensive solution. Compliance and integrity, far from being mutually exclusive, reinforce each other. Working together, in a correct relationship, they build a harmonized system that yields positive synergies and which also advocates prudence. It enables the generation of a culture of compliance that tends to minimize the technical and ethical errors in decision (...) making. In order to explore an applied harmonized approach, we analyze the audit committee, a specific and broadly accepted regulatory instrument. Formed by non-executive members, regulation requires these members to be dedicated, qualified, and independent as a guarantee of efficiency. We show how the compound of those elements produces positive effects in a context of solid governance. We conclude that it is the strong relationship between efficiency and prudence, in the creation of a culture of compliance, which enables the minimization of errors. (shrink)

Universities must transmit technically exploitable knowledge. That is, they must meet an industrial society's need for qualified new generations and at the same time be concerned with the expanded reproduction of education itself. In addition, universities must not only transmit technically exploitable knowledge, but also produce it. This includes both information flowing from research into the channels of industrial utilization, armament, and social welfare, and advisory knowledge that enters into strategies of administration, government, and other decision-making powers, such as private (...) enterprises. Thus, through instruction and research the university is immediately connected with functions of the economic process. (shrink)

Christopher Hookway has been influential in promoting engagement with pragmatist and naturalist perspectives from classical and contemporary American philosophy. This book reflects on Hookway’s work on the American philosophical tradition and its significance for contemporary discussions of the understanding of mind, meaning, knowledge, and value. -/- Hookway’s original and extensive studies of Charles S. Peirce have made him among the most admired and frequently referenced of Peirce’s interpreters. His work on classical American pragmatism has explored the philosophies of William James, (...) John Dewey, and Josiah Royce, and examined the influence of pragmatist ideas outside of the United States. Additionally, Hookway has participated in a number of celebrated exchanges with some of the most high-profile figures of twentieth- and twenty-first-century philosophy, including Karl-Otto Apel, Philip Pettit, Hilary Putnam, and W.V.O. Quine, through which his treatments of a large range of topics in epistemology and the philosophies of mind and language have been developed and promoted. The chapters in this book—which include contributions from several of Hookway’s former students and colleagues—include studies of Hookway’s engagement with the works of Peirce, James, and Dewey, his contributions to virtue epistemology, and his discussions of hope and pragmatist metaphysics. -/- Pragmatic Reason will be of interest to researchers and advanced students working on American philosophy, the history of analytic philosophy, and epistemology. (shrink)

El autor aprovecha el fallido debate que tuvo lugar entre John Searle y Jacques Derrida desde finales de los anos setenta, en torno a la teoria de los actos de habla de John L. Austin. Este desencuentro no solo es analizado minuciosamente sino que ofrece sendas visiones retrospectivas de las tradiciones de Searle y Derrida, al tiempo que aprovecha el episodio para retratar algunos momentos de la filosofia contemporanea y reflexionar sobre los grande problemas de la filosofia del lenguaje y (...) de la mente: la palabra como instrumento de comunicacion, la intencionalidad de la conciencia y la diferancia como aspecto constitutivo de todo texto. (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)

This paper draws a picture of how topics related to subjectivity have appeared in different psychological theories, such as psychoanalysis, Gestalt and post-structuralist approaches, discussing in depth a specific proposition from a cultural-historical standpoint. I argue that, in most of these theories, subjectivity has been used to refer to specific processes and phenomena without advancing a more general theory about it. The way in which subjectivity was treated within the Cartesian/Enlightenment tradition, taken together with the individualistic tradition of psychology, led (...) critical psychological theories to reject the concept. In this way, such critical theories have omitted the heuristic value of subjectivity to study processes that can neither be exhausted by language, nor by discourse. A new proposal of subjectivity is highlighted, based on the cultural-historical tradition in psychology. From this perspective, subjectivity is defined by units of emotions and symbolical processes generated throughout human experience. On the basis of such definition, I discuss how institutionalized orders can be subverted by subjective productions that represent new social pathways. Far from being a remnant of Modernity, in this way subjectivity is defined as a human production, capable of transcending the apparent objective limits of human existence. (shrink)

Suele considerarse que los ensayos de Montaigne contienen el germen del subjetivismo moderno: incapaz de superar su crisis escéptica, Montaigne habría iniciado el giro de la filosofía hacia la interioridad del yo, ensayándose a sí mismo en su escritura, replegándose sobre sí. Sin embargo, conviene no olvidar que los Ensayos carecieron del firme -y falaz- apoyo de la certeza; por ese motivo Montaigne no nos ofrece un decálogo a seguir por un sujeto solitario en el ejercicio autárquico de su razón. (...) Por el contrario, consciente de que la incertidumbre nunca podrá ser despejada, centra su reflexión en el ejercicio de la conversación asumiendo la relación y el comercio con el otro como elementos constitutivos de su propia identidad. (shrink)

El presente estudio busca describir fenomenológicamente la forma que exhibe la pena en el cuerpo, después de la pérdida de un ser querido. Para esto, se consideran las hipótesis de movimiento centrı́peto orientado a la autoafección, y movimiento centrı́fugo aludido a la ruptura de la intercorpereidad. Ambos movimientos, hacen referencia a la sensación ambigua que el cuerpo vive en la pena asociados a la presencia y ausencia del otro que ya no está, ya que el dolor provee un estado de (...) desincronización temporal que vuelve simultáneos el presente-pasado y presente-futuro. Esto trae como consecuencias, la contracción y extensión del cuerpo a partir de la maleabilidad de sus propios lı́mites. (shrink)

El problema central de este artículo es aproximarnos a la relación que se dio entre el accionar de la Gestapo, la generación y mantención de un orden que debía eliminar y neutralizar a los “enemigos” del “pueblo alemán”, comunistas y católicos de oposición, y el aseguramiento de “su bienestar” durante los primeros años de la dictadura nazi. La Gestapo fue uno de los instrumentos tempranos para asegurar la neutralización de las resistencias al proyecto nacionalsocialista. Involucraba un nacionalismo extremo, que se (...) movilizaba racial e ideológicamente en pos de la construcción de un orden social que asegurara las supuestas condiciones de vida y supremacía de los alemanes arios. Al mismo tiempo se busca recordar que históricamente la oposición existió, más allá de su incapacidad y fracaso. Si bien la dictadura tuvo aliados o cómplices en su camino de terror, también se debe mantener en la memoria histórica que hubo resistencias: no todos fueron cómplices de la dictadura nazi. (shrink)

This paper investigates the differences between ancient Greek and modern ethical naturalism, through the account of the whole classical tradition provided by Cicero in De finibus bonorum et malorum. Ever since Hume’s remarks on the topic, it is usually held that derivations of normative claims from factual claims require some kind of proper justification. It ́s a the presence of such justifications in the Epicurean, Stoic, and Academic-Peripatetic ethical theories (as portrayed in De finibus), and, after a negative conclusion, I (...) argue that we should conceive of this issue within a social-historical perspective: The radical difference between ancient and modern naturalistic ethics is due (in Weber’s terms) to the rationalization processes that generated the modern outlook on nature. (shrink)

Hume presenta su teoría estética en el ensayo Sobre el criterio del gusto [On the Standard of Taste], en el que propone la existencia de un criterio [standard] capaz de zanjar discusiones de gusto. Ese criterio se basa en la existencia de ciertas formas y cualidades que complacen naturalmente a todo ser humano. Hume asevera que tal criterio corresponde a la opinión del crítico: un hombre que ha desplegado particularmente sus facultades cognoscitivas, lo cual le permite percibir esas finas cualidades (...) que suscitan naturalmente el placer de lo bello en el ser humano. Con respecto a en qué consisten esas formas y cualidades universalmente placenteras, Hume guarda silencio. Pretendo mostrar cómo la teoría de la emoción en la música desarrollada por Leonard Meyer en su texto Emoción y significado en la música (Emotion and Meaning in Music) puede aportar inmensidades en ese aspecto. (shrink)

Vygotsky, at the end of his life, advanced a new representation of a psychological system that was ruled by a cognitive-emotional unity, a theorization that remains inconclusive due to Vygotsky's early death. This article discusses the advances made by Vygotsky in the comprehension of human motivation through his concepts of sense and perezhivanie at the end of his work. Through these concepts, he further advanced the discussion of motivation, despite the fact that these concepts have only very recently been considered (...) a relevant part of his legacy in both Russian and Western psychology. This paper discusses the departure from and the historical presentations of the concept of motive in the following two main approaches of Soviet psychology that were mistakenly equated in Western interpretations: Vygotsky's approach, mainly at the first as last moment of his work, and Leontiev's Activity Theory. Based on the final theoretical positions of Vygotsky and of other Soviet authors, and further developing this legacy, this article proposes a new definition of motivation as a specific quality of subjectively configured systems and defines motive as intrinsic to the functioning of all psychological function defines subjective functions as subjectively configured processes. This new proposal of human motivation within a new way of defining subjectivity defines new categories as subjective senses and subjective configurations on which the author bases a specific approach for advancing the topic of subjectivity and motivation within a cultural-historical framework. (shrink)

El papa Francisco, a través de la bula Misericordiae Vultus, ha convocado a toda la Iglesia para la celebración jubilar extraordinaria de la misericordia. Dicha celebración dará comienzo el próximo día 8 de diciembre del 2015 con la solemne apertura de la Puerta Santa o de la Misericordia en San Pedro. Una vez que todos los fieles la hayan atravesado experimentando “el amor de Dios que consuela, que perdona y ofrece esperanza”, se cerrará en la festividad de Jesucristo Rey del (...) Universo. Por tanto, es un año en el que se nos invita a reflexionar y meditar entorno a esta gran “virtud”. En este trabajo, pues, reflexionaremos sobre la identidad filosófica y teológica de la virtud de la misericordia. (shrink)

The end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century was an extraordinary period in terms of the formation of the modern philosophical spirit due to the opposing positions that arose in it. Characteristic of this period was the coexistence of an unbridled faith and enthusiasm for technological development together with a no less intense pessimism with respect to the future of society. Throughout the twentieth century several thinkers devoted their time to reflect on technology and its (...) social interrelations. This paper is divided into three parts. The first is intended to be a journey and an approach to the formation of the philosophy of technology as a discipline. The second part situates Habermas in the midst of a constellation of philosophers related to the Frankfurt School. The last part deals with the debate between Habermas and Sloterdijk on the limits of biotechnology facing the 21st century. (shrink)