Francisco Leocata propone una nueva reducción fenomenológica, que llama reducción vital, la cual nombra el centramiento del sujeto encarnado, la necesidad de sabernos traspasados por la historia y por los otros como punto de partida para la producción de conocimiento en el seno de nuestra experiencia de la vida. Esta reducción vital permite pensar al ser humano desde las diversas disciplinas científicas, en diálogo con la fenomenología y la metafísica. Si bien Leocata construye su fenomenología personalista sobre las bases de (...) la fenomenología trascendental de Edmund Husserl, en este trabajo queremos resaltar las posibilidades que se abren a partir de un diálogo más estrecho con Merleau-Ponty, quien ha subrayado el carácter interdisciplinar de la fenomenología. (shrink)

RESUMENEn el presente trabajo queremos mostrar cómo en Gabriel Marcel la existencia tan sólo puede ser reconocida a partir de la condición encarnada del hombre. Para ello, contrapondremos primeramente la existencia a la objetividad, gracias a las nociones capitales de presencia y de participación. En segundo lugar, mostraremos cómo el cuerpo propio es fundamento de nuestro ser en el mundo. Por último, veremos porqué la encarnación es el dato central de la reflexión metafísica, en tanto que gracias a ella puedo (...) yo acceder a lo ontológico.PALABRAS CLAVES MARCEL, EXISTENCIA, OBJETIVIDAD, ENCARNACIÓN, METAFÍSICAABSTRACTIn this paper we would like to show how existence can only be recognized from man’s incarnate condition. In order to accomplish this task, we will have to contrast, in the first place, existence to objectivity, thanks to the capital notions of presence and participation. In the second place, we will show how the body-qua-mine is the foundation of our being in the world. Finally, we will focus on why incarnation is the central datum of metaphysical reflection, for thanks to it we may access ontological dimension.KEYWORDSMARCEL, EXISTENCE, OBJECTIVITY, INCARNATION, METAPHYSICS. (shrink)

RESUMENEn el presente trabajo queremos mostrar cómo en Gabriel Marcel la existencia tan sólo puede ser reconocida a partir de la condición encarnada del hombre. Para ello, contrapondremos primeramente la existencia a la objetividad, gracias a las nociones capitales de presencia y de participación. En segundo lugar, mostraremos cómo el cuerpo propio es fundamento de nuestro ser en el mundo. Por último, veremos porqué la encarnación es el dato central de la reflexión metafísica, en tanto que gracias a ella puedo (...) yo acceder a lo ontológico.PALABRAS CLAVES MARCEL, EXISTENCIA, OBJETIVIDAD, ENCARNACIÓN, METAFÍSICAABSTRACTIn this paper we would like to show how existence can only be recognized from man’s incarnate condition. In order to accomplish this task, we will have to contrast, in the first place, existence to objectivity, thanks to the capital notions of presence and participation. In the second place, we will show how the body-qua-mine is the foundation of our being in the world. Finally, we will focus on why incarnation is the central datum of metaphysical reflection, for thanks to it we may access ontological dimension.KEYWORDSMARCEL, EXISTENCE, OBJECTIVITY, INCARNATION, METAPHYSICS. (shrink)

El presente trabajo intenta introducir al lector en la problemática de la intersubjetividad desde la perspectiva fenomenológica-hermenéutica de Paul Ricoeur, atendiendo a la necesidad de las mediaciones simbólicas en el orden del reconocimiento. El fenómeno de la intersubjetividad será abordado aquí desde una perspectiva gnoseológica, ética, sociológica y hermenéutica, intentando desentrañar cómo es posible el reconocimiento mutuo entre subjetividades extrañas en un mundo común. Una reflexión sobre la intersubjetividad debe tener siempre presente la irreductibilidad de la persona como tal, reconocimiento (...) que es posible, en última instancia, por el amor y la caridad, el cual se manifiesta en la dinámica del intercambio de dones. Por otra parte, esta irreductibilidad de la persona supone el rechazo de la postulación de una tercera sustancia diferente del yo y del tú, que los subsumiera en su entidad, tal como parece suceder en el estructuralismo y en el hegelianismo. Es nuestra intención mostrar que se trata en Ricoeur de una fenomenología genética que rastrea lo extraño desde lo propio, teniendo como núcleo pivotante de su reflexión el homo capax que somos cada uno de nosotros y que actúa siempre en un mundo compartido (Lebenswelt). The present work pretends to be an introduction to the problem of intersubjectivity from the phenomenological and hermeneutical point of view of Paul Ricoeur. The phenomenon of intersubjectivity will be studied from a gnoseological, ethical, sociological and hermeneutical perspective, trying to disclose how a mutual acknowledgment between strange subjects in a common world can be possible. Meditation upon intersubjectivity must always attend on the irreductibility of persona as such, acknowledgment made possible by love and charity, and that reveals it sense in the espirit of giveness. In the other hand, the irreducitibility of persona implies rejecting the possibility of building a third substance, different from the I and the Thou, and which would submit them to its reality, as structuralism and hegelianism seems to propose. We intend to show that Ricoeur's position is one of a genetic phenomenology that search for the strange from the own, stating the homo capax that acts always in a shared world (Lebenswelt) as its central idea. (shrink)

La historia que Agustín de Hipona nos cuenta de sí mismo en sus Confesiones nos confronta con la esencial ambivalencia del lenguaje y la textualidad. Por un lado, los textos son ocasión para que los hombres se pierdan en cuestiones vanas y para que alimenten su soberbia. Por otro lado, es a través de los textos que Agustín encuentra el camino hacia Dios y la Verdad: la lectura de Cicerón, de Plotino y, ante todo, de las Sagradas Escrituras, lo llevan (...) a la conversión. Sin embargo, la ambivalencia de las letras muestra su mayor tensión en que es el mismo texto de la Biblia el que, al mismo tiempo, lo aleja y lo acerca a Agustín a Dios. En última instancia, la ambivalencia de las letras se resuelve en el modo en que el lector hace uso de ellas, en el modo en que las toma y se las apropia al modo de ser apropiadas por ellas. Las Confesiones son la historia de un letrado, el drama de una lectura que puede condenarnos tanto como salvarnos. (shrink)

Although acoustic frequency is not a spatial property of physical objects, in common language, pitch, i.e., the psychological correlated of frequency, is often labeled spatially (i.e., “high in pitch” or “low in pitch”). Pitch-height is known to modulate (and interact with) the response of participants when they are asked to judge spatial properties of non-auditory stimuli (e.g., visual) in a variety of behavioral tasks. In the current study we investigated whether the modulatory action of pitch-height extended to the haptic estimation (...) of height of a virtual step. We implemented a HW/SW setup which is able to render virtual 3D objects (stair-steps) haptically through a PHANTOM device, and to provide real-time continuous auditory feedback depending on the user interaction with the object. The haptic exploration was associated with a sinusoidal tone whose pitch varied as a function of the interaction point’s height within (i) a narrower and (ii) a wider pitch range, or (iii) a random pitch variation acting as a control audio condition. Explorations were also performed with no sound (haptic only). Participants were instructed to explore the virtual step freely, and to communicate height estimation by opening their thumb and index finger to mimic the step riser height, or verbally by reporting the height in centimeters of the step riser. We analyzed the role of musical expertise by dividing participants into non musicians and musicians. Results showed no effects of musical pitch on high-realistic haptic feedback. Overall there is no difference between the two groups in the proposed multimodal conditions. Additionally, we observed a different haptic response distribution between musicians and non musicians when estimations of the auditory conditions are matched with estimations in the no sound condition. (shrink)

Theology and philosophy, as archaeo-logical discourses, share the same calling to ground human experience in giving our life-world a fundamental meaning. Thus, they tend to confuse with each other. However, I argue, whereas theology’s discourse is a constructive one, as it performs the ultimate meaning of the world by an axiomatic and paradigmatic analogical predication of what God is, philosophy, on the contrary, de-constructs what theology ultimately proposes. When philosophy advances a new interpretation of the world, it turns into theology, (...) just as theology becomes philosophy when it breaks down the foundation of the actual world-view. Neither of both could exist without the other, and every other science is unable to undertake the task of questioning the roots of our world-views, as they are incapable of building a whole new world-view at any given time. Without these archaeological discourses, worlds become meaningless. Only by this double-movement of hermeneutics and deconstruction can Philosophy and Theology be still meaningful in our present time, articulating sense in our life-world and enabling the deep questioning of this very sense. (shrink)

Este trabajo pretende introducir al lector en la problemática de la intersubjetividad desde la perspectiva de Paul Ricoeur, considerando el doble acceso, ético y gnoseológico, a la realidad del otro. Se estudiará en primer lugar cómo, a los ojos de Ricouer, la fenomenología husserliana debe enfrentar su prueba más definitoria, la de la explicitación del fenómeno de la intersubjetividad, y cómo puede superarla. En segundo lugar, se mostrará cómo Ricoeur no reduce el acceso al otro a la constitución egológica, sino (...) que, por el contrario, la subordina al a priori ético del respeto, que pone al otro como otro antes de cualquier tipo de constitución fenomenológica o de aproximación simpática. Es nuestra intención mostrar que no se trata en Ricouer de excluir ninguno de los dos accesos, sino que se trata de una fenomenología genética que rastrea lo extraño desde lo propio, atendiendo ante todo a la intencionalidad ética del hombre como lo definitorio en el orden intersubjetivo. (shrink)

Hermes es un dios de la mitología griega que fascina por sus ambivalencias y ambigüedades. Sin tener un lugar en el panteón griego, siendo un intermediario entre el Olimpo y la Tierra, es un patrono de quienes comparten su condición nómade. Es el dios de los mercaderes, de los viajantes, de los traductores y comunicadores... y es también patrono de los ladrones. Que el dios del lenguaje y de la mediación sea también el "dios de los ladrones" muestra algo que (...) es propio del lenguaje: su desapropiación. No pertenece a nadie y pertenece a todos, migra de unas manos a las otras. En este juego de robos, comercios, intercambios, deudas y ofertas, el lenguaje muestra su ambivalencia como espacio de comunión y de conflicto. En él se produce la disputa por los sentidos del mundo. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo intentaremos mostrar cómo la experiencia de la muerte pone en jaque la categoría metafísica de presencia, que se encuentra en el corazón de la obra de Gabriel Marcel. A diferencia de otras filosofías de la existencia, la significación metafísica de la muerte no la encontramos en la conciencia de la muerte propia, sino en el acontecimiento de la muerte de la persona amada. Por esta razón, el sentido de la muerte solo es inteligible en el marco (...) de la experiencia de la fidelidad y del amor, y su carácter trágico reside en que parece deslegitimar la promesa de eternidad en la comunión de los amantes y la consistencia ontológica de la existencia. Lejos de ser extraño al ritmo dramático de la filosofía marceliana, la reflexión en torno a la muerte subraya la necesidad de pensar la presencia en conjunción con la ausencia, lo cual nos abre a una filosofía que trasciende el ser entendido como presencia y apariencia, para abrazar lo inaparente como lo realmente significativo. De este modo, encontramos la radicalización de la fenomenología como hiperfenomenología en la propuesta de Gabriel Marcel, quien podría considerarse uno de los iniciadores de la tradición que hoy recibe el nombre de “giro teológico de la fenomenología”. (shrink)

Este trabajo muestra cómo una deconstrucción del cuerpo propio, desde la centralidad del tacto como autoafección (haptocentrismo), debe ser completada por una deconstrucción del aptocentrismo, es decir, de la comprensión del cuerpo propio como cuerpo del cual hago uso. Tanto el haptocentrismo como el aptocentrismo postulan al cuerpo propio como aquello que puede ser eminentemente apropiado por el viviente, una apropiación conceptualizada por el estoicismo como oikeiosis. En un recorrido que va desde el estoicismo hasta Michel Henry, pasando por Condillac, (...) Maine de Biran, Rosmini, Husserl, Bergson, Marcel y Merleau-Ponty, podrá advertirse cómo estas argumentaciones están motivadas por dicha necesidad de apropiación del cuerpo y, por tanto, cómo la autoafección debe comprenderse dentro del esquema de la autoapropiación del viviente. Este paradigma de la autoapropiación encuentra, sin embargo, su lugar aporético en el cuerpo propio, el cual no puede ser nunca apropiado del todo y se presenta como el lugar de la resistencia y de la expropiación. (shrink)

La filosofía ha encontrado en la literatura de Jorge Luis Borges un ámbito único para reflexionar en torno de sus propios problemas. En este ensayo examinaré las tensiones y contradicciones que afloran dentro del paradigma metafísico de la inmediación y de la intuición. El cuento de «Funes, el memorioso» ofrece la ocasión para pensar en la imposibilidad del hombre de afirmar un sistema de signos o una facultad perceptiva que ignore el inexorable resto que guarde la diferencia entre lo real (...) y lo representado. Una vida humana que se afirme en el ideal de un saber absoluto, de una visión ininterrumpida, es finalmente funesta. El hombre vive de las mediaciones y de las interrupciones, recuerda porque olvida, despierta porque sueña, conoce porque ignora: mira porque tiene párpados. (shrink)

In this paper we will try to show how Gabriel Marcel understands the junction between the self and the other as appears in his reflections on the opposition freedom-gift, on his critique of Sartre’s philosophy of freedom, and on metaphysical implications of love. These three approaches point out a way that leads to understand man’s tension between selfhood and alterity, in the heart of a fundamental communion which refer, ultimately, to the divine. Therefore, metaphysical and religious discourses are constantly crossing (...) but, instead of revoking value to Marcel’s philosophy, this double rapport teaches us a way of attending religious symbols and testimonies in order to get close to the meaning of human experience. (shrink)

Although Political Theology examined mainly the political dimension of the relationship between God-Father and God-Son, it is paramount to consider the political performance of the Holy Spirit in the Economy of Redemption. The Holy Spirit has been characterized as the binding cause and the principle of relationality both referring to God’s inner life and to God’s relationship with His creatures. As the personalization of relationality, the Holy Spirit performs a unique task: to bring together what is apart by means of (...) organisation. This power of the Spirit to turn a plurality into a unity is manifested in the Latin translation of oikonomía as disposition, that is, giving a special order to the multiple elements within a certain totality. Within this activity of the Spirit, Theodicy can be regarded as the way to depict God’s arrangement of the world and of history, bringing everything together towards the eschatological Kingdom of God. The paper aims at showing this fundamental activity of the Holy Spirit in Christian Theology, and intends to pose the question on how to think on a theology beyond theodicy, that is, how to think on a Trinitarian God beyond the categories of sovereignty and totalization. (shrink)

Rousseau est certainement un des écrivains français qui interroge le plus car la multiplicité de son oeuvre reflète une ambiguïté. C'est en effet l'homme du discours logique et de la rêverie, de l'oeuvre philosophique, politique, lyrique et intime: un long itinéraire ‘de la marche de la raison au tragique de la recherche d'un salut individuel’.1 Ce qui nous intéresse ici, c'est l'aspect intime, c'est Rousseau intimiste dans son rapport avec la culture ou les cultures; sa démarche et son interrogation sur (...) le monde sont au coeur de sa vie.Nous voudrions cerner dans quelle mesure les diaristes du XIXé siècle sont les héritiers de la révolution intérieure de Rousseau, révolution qui met en cause les cultures. Constate-t-on entre Rousseau et les grands intimistes un parallélisme fortuit, une influence, une donnée spécifique, intrinsèque à toute écriture intime? (shrink)

The idea of a self-organized system brings both political and biological discourses together, for they both aim at explaining how a certain compound can achieve self-unity out of plurality. Whereas biological metaphors in politics have been much examined, political metaphors in biology have not. In this paper I intend to show how political metaphors can enlighten biological discourses, taking the work of Aristotle as a case-study. The relationship between the main elements of a living-body could be better understood within a (...) political scheme: the soul rules over the body through pneuma, its prime minister. This scheme entails, thus, to re-examine Aristotle’s definition of soul in the light of the key concept of pneuma, and to replace the hylemorphic explanation with a triadic one. On the one hand, soul is the entelecheia of the body as it keeps both the form and the end of the organism, which is its unity. On the other hand, the moving-efficacious principle that performs unity by circulating through the body, and by linking the body to its environment is pneuma. Therefore, the political formula: “the king does not govern” could shed light upon the structure of the living body: whereas the soul rules the body, pneuma governs it. Although Aristotle does not build his biology upon political concepts, metaphors are already there, shaping his explanations, within the bio-theo-political paradigm of autarchy. (shrink)

Neste artigo argumento que o conceito de crise está no coração da Teologia Política, focalizando o trabalho principal de Agostinho de Hipona, A Cidade de Deus. A estratégia de Agostinho é reunir os significados médicos e teológicos da crise para defender a soberania única do Único Deus, o único que decide e julga ao longo do curso crítico da história e o Único que porá fim a tudo com Seu Juízo Final. O foco no tratado de Agostinho também mostrará como (...) a disputa teológica política entre Carl Schmitt e Erik Peterson deve ser examinada mais uma vez, principalmente para redefinir o conceito de soberania pelo conceito de crise, pois ser considerado um soberano é em si algo a ser decidido. (shrink)

ABSTRACTJurgen Moltmann is one of the most important theologians in the XXth century who intended to leave aside a rigid and impassible notion of God. However, although Moltmann opens new ways to consider God’s life by stressing God’s passivity and relationality, the concepts of activity and self-sufficiency are still structuring the whole theological argument. I intend to show how our understanding of life has been shaped by a bio-theo-political paradigm of autarchy that defines life by the use of the Greek (...) prefix ‘autos,’ and how this paradigm is still working on Moltmann’s theology, who is not able yet to overcome the metaphysical impassible God. I claim that only a radical deconstruction of this paradigm and the construction of a new way of defining life by the use of the Greek prefix ‘syn’ could enable to think seriously on God’s relationality and love. (shrink)

Describing his creative process, David Bowie stated: “I’ll take articles out of newspapers, poems that I’ve written, pieces of other people’s books, and put them all into this little warehouse, thi...

Human infants begin very early in life to take advantage of multisensory information by extracting the invariant amodal information that is conveyed redundantly by multiple senses. Here we addressed the question as to whether infants can bind multisensory moving stimuli, and whether this occurs even if the motion produced by the stimuli is only illusory. Three- to four-month-old infants were presented with two bimodal pairings: visuo-tactile and audio-visual. Visuo-tactile pairings consisted of apparently vertically moving bars (the Barber Pole illusion) moving (...) in either the same or opposite direction with a concurrent tactile stimulus consisting of strokes given on the infant’s back. Audio-visual pairings consisted of the Barber Pole illusion in its visual and auditory version, the latter giving the impression of a continuous rising or ascending pitch. We found that infants were able to discriminate congruently (same direction) vs. incongruently moving (opposite direction) pairs irrespective of modality (Experiment 1). Importantly, we also found that congruently moving visuo-tactile and audio-visual stimuli were preferred over incongruently moving bimodal stimuli (Experiment 2). Our findings suggest that very young infants are able to extract motion as amodal component and use it to match stimuli that only apparently move in the same direction. (shrink)

Breast cancer treatments have multiple adverse effects, including concerns about body appearance and function that are experienced by most patients. Altered body image negatively affects mental health, social, and relationship functioning. While the relationship with a partner is critical for patients’ psychological wellbeing and partners can promote positive body image, limited research has investigated individual and relational factors affecting the experience of both. This cross-sectional study aimed at exploring rates of body image concerns among breast cancer patients, and identifying dyadic (...) profiles among participating dyads. Couples composed by patients who had undergone surgery and their romantic partners were recruited from the Breast Unit of a hospital in northern Italy. Both partners completed measures of personality characteristics, psychological distress, coping flexibility, dyadic coping, and closeness. Body image and adjustment to cancer measures were completed by patients only. K-mean cluster analyses identified 2-cluster solution among patients and partners, respectively. “Active patients” reported low rates of body image concerns, anxious preoccupation, negative dyadic coping, and self-oriented stress communication, compared to “worried patients”. “Comfortable partners” reported lower anxiety and depression, self-oriented negative dyadic coping and closeness than “uncomfortable partners”. Three different dyadic profiles emerged: functional, dysfunctional, and ambivalent. Significant variations by anxiety, depression, and delegating dyadic coping existed. Results indicate there are groups of couples at greater risk for impaired psychological distress and body image concerns, which should be addressed in the context of dyadic psychosocial interventions. (shrink)

PurposeTo use the power of knowledge acquisition and machine learning in the development of a collaborative computer classification system based on the features of age-related macular degeneration (AMD).MethodsA vocabulary was acquired from four AMD experts who examined 100 ophthalmoscopic images. The vocabulary was analyzed, hierarchically structured, and incorporated into a collaborative computer classification system called IDOCS. Using this system, three of the experts examined images from a second set of digital images compiled from more than 1000 patients with AMD. Images (...) were annotated, and features were identified and defined. Decision trees, a machine learning method, were trained on the data collected and used to extract patterns. Interrelationships between the data from the different clinicians were investigated.ResultsSix drusen classes in the structured vocabulary were largely sufficient to describe all the identified features. The decision trees classified the data with 76.86% to 88.5% accuracy and distilled patterns in the form of hierarchical trees composed of 5 to 15 nodes. Experts were largely consistent in their characterization of soft, and to a lesser extent, hard drusen, but diverge in definition of other drusen. Size and crystalline morphology were the main determinants of drusen type across all experts.ConclusionsMachine learning is a powerful tool for the characterization of disease phenotypes. The creation of a defined feature set for AMD will facilitate the development of an IDOCS-based classification system. (shrink)