RESUMEN El presente trabajo busca demostrar cómo el reconocimiento y estudio de las narrativas exiliares de mujeres podrían otorgar nuevos registros analíticos y reflexivos al campo de trabajo filosófico sobre castigo político. Para ello, en principio, se lleva a cabo un recorrido por sus orígenes clásicos, griego y romano, destacando que, si bien el exilio ha variado a lo largo de los siglos, hay ciertos elementos constitutivos que se mantienen en sus aplicaciones contemporáneas. Esto lleva a observar el modo en (...) que estos elementos constitutivos del exilio se hacen presentes de una manera particular en la escritura narrativa exilar de mujeres -especialmente en las de las últimas dictaduras cívico-militares del Cono Sur latinoamericano-. Reconocer e incluir estas narrativas experienciales de mujeres en un corpus textual y analítico altamente masculinizado permitiría nuevos acercamientos y proyecciones reflexivas al campo de estudios filosóficos sobre el exilio. ABSTRACT This paper seeks to demonstrate how the recognition and study of women's exile narratives could bring new analytical and reflexive registers to the field of philosophical work on political punishment. In order to do this, first of all, a review of its classical, Greek and Roman origins is made, pointing out that, although the exile has varied over the centuries, there are certain constituent elements that are maintained in its contemporary applications. This leads us to observe the way that these constitutive elements of exile are present in a particular way in women's exile narrative writing -especially those of the last civil-military dictatorships of the Latin American Southern Cone. To recognise and include these women's experiential narratives in a highly masculinised textual and analytical corpus allows for new approaches and reflexive projections to the field of philosophical studies on exile. (shrink)

In this work we are going to study the political category of exile related to Southern Cone military dictatorships. It also will be introduced a kind of art state of the art of the principal problem in philosophy´s field, and the epistemological bases that support this research will be clarificated, specially the concept of a priori antropológico. In order to that, it will be an aproach to the notion of exile separating it from other similar categories. The next step is (...) introducing the exile´s problema in an specific histórico-political context, to finally seek for refugee’s voices, that through their testimonies will allow an experincial approach to the probleme. (shrink)

El presente artículo da cuenta de la reflexión de Hannah Arendt sobre los campos de concentración y exterminio de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, a los que considera la principal institución del poder organizado. Su análisis gira en torno a los campos como espacios en los que se experimenta con la vida de los hombres y donde se demuestra, a su vez, que todo es posible. Este artículo pone el acento en la mirada filosófica de la autora, que vislumbra estos espacios (...) de excepción como la aniquilación del ejercicio político a partir del quiebre de la esfera pública. This article deals with Hannah Arendt´s work on Second World War concentration and extermination camps, which she considers the main institution of organized power. Her analysis focuses on concentration camps as life-size experiments on human beings’ lives, whereby it is made clear that anything can happen. This article highlights the author’s philosophical perspective on this subject, which presents these spaces of exception as involving a hiatus in the public sphere and therefore annihilating the possibility of political practice. (shrink)

A partir de la consideración de la utopía como un ejercicio crítico de la realidad instituida, nos preguntamos por una posible relación entre el cuerpo y la utopía. Para llevar a cabo esta reflexión, hacemos uso de los trabajos de Arturo Andrés Roig en torno a la utopía y a sus funciones, lo que nos permitirá ver el rendimiento político que esta categoría tiene en Latinoamérica. Así, desde el análisis del discurso utópico que desarrolla Roig, buscamos mostrar el papel de (...) la dimensión corporal como portavoz de las demandas y de las reivindicaciones en un acontecimiento particular: las protestas Mapuche que tuvieron lugar en el territorio chileno en el año 2011. From the consideration of utopia as a critical exercise on instituted reality, we wonder about the possible relationship between the body and utopia. To carry out this analysis, we make use of Arturo Andrés Roig's works concerning to utopia and its functions, allowing us to see the political performance that this category has in Latin America. Thereby, from the analysis of the utopical discourse that Roig develops, we seek to show the role of the corporal dimension as an expression of the claims and demands in a particular event: the Mapuche's protest in Chile in 2011. (shrink)

El presente trabajo busca acercarse al problema del exilio como categoría jurídico-política. Con esta finalidad, se hace un recorrido sobre la noción misma de exilio en tanto pena desde sus orígenes en el derecho romano arcaico. Interesa de modo particular ver el lugar que esta institución punitiva ha tenido en la política latinoamericana, tanto en el momento de su constitución política bajo la forma de Estado-nación, como en las últimas dictaduras militares de la región. En vistas a desarrollar un análisis (...) filosófico situado, se revisará el modo en que se instituyó jurídicamente el exilio durante los últimos periodos dictatoriales, especialmente en el caso de Argentina y Chile. (shrink)

La Segunda consideration intempestiva delimita una relación funcional con la historia: esta beneficia a la vida cuando se posiciona desde una perspectiva ilusoria, disimulada y estratégica. Se analizan dos consecuencias: la crítica de la historia como ciencia objetiva y los matices que se desprenden de considerarla como relato. Si G. Agamben ha mostrado cómo la historia surge en el intersticio que hay entre lenguaje y discurso, el debate debe orientarse al proceso por el que la subjetividad adviene a un lenguaje (...) que debe "historizar". Esto implica explorar las relaciones entre felicidad e historia como depósito de sentido y de esperanza. The Second Untimely Meditation establishes a functional relation to history: the latter benefits life when it is considered from an illusory, dissimulated, and strategic perspective. The article analyzes two consequences of this: the critique of history as an objective science and the nuances entailed by considering it as a narrative. If G. Agamben has shown how history arises in the interstice between language and discourse, the debate should focus on the process through which subjectivity acquires a language that must be "historicized". This implies exploring the relations between happiness and history as a repository of meaning and hope. A Segunda consideração intempestiva delimita uma relação funcional com a história: esta beneficia a vida quando se posiciona a partir de uma perspectiva ilusória, disfarçada e estratégica. Analisam-se duas consequências: a crítica da história como ciência objetiva e as matizes que se desprendem de considerá-la como relato. Se G. Agamben tem mostrado como a história surge no interstício que há entre linguagem e discurso, o debate deve ser orientado ao processo pelo qual a subjetividade advém a uma linguagem que deve "historizar". Isso implica explorar as relações entre felicidade e história como depósito de sentido e de esperança. (shrink)

La Segunda consideración intempestiva delimita una relación funcional con la historia: esta beneficia a la vida cuando se posiciona desde una perspectiva ilusoria, disimulada y estratégica. Se analizan dos consecuencias: la crítica de la historia como ciencia objetiva y los matices que se desprenden de considerarla como relato. Si G. Agamben ha mostrado cómo la historia surge en el intersticio que hay entre lenguaje y discurso, el debate debe orientarse al proceso por el que la subjetividad adviene a un lenguaje (...) que debe “historizar”. Esto implica explorar las relaciones entre felicidad e historia como depósito de sentido y de esperanza. (shrink)

El siguiente trabajo tiene como objetivo desarrollar la forma a través de la cual Marx, Freud y Nietzsche han pensado las causas del pathos humano —entendido éste en su doble valencia de sufrimiento y pasión— a partir de un abordaje materialista de las nociones de sensibilidad y afectividad. En consecuencia, se hará énfasis en el concepto de «sensibilidad práctica», adoptado por el joven Marx de los Manuscritos económicos filosóficos de 1844, y en el de «voluntad de poder», presente en el (...) esbozo de «la teoría de los afectos» en losFragmentos póstumos del último Nietzsche. Un encuentro que, pese a las distancias biográficas, teóricas e históricas, es posible trazar a partir del concepto de sensibilidad y que incluye a Freud como intermediario, ya que desde su perspectiva psicoanalítica, él también se ocupó de comprender la naturaleza indomable de nuestra constitución psíquica. (shrink)

This article examines Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector’s contributions to the women’s pages of the newspapers Correio da Manhã and Diário da Noite between 1959 and 1961. While Lispector’s fictional output has spawned a steady flow of scholarly and academic studies from a wide array of disciplines and fields of study, her journalistic production, in particular the women’s pages she crafted under a pseudonym, has hardly received any critical attention. The “women’s page” is a fixed section in magazines and newspapers entirely (...) dedicated to women, addressed specifically to a female readership, and generally authored by a woman or a female persona. The purpose of this article is to redress this critical oversight and complement the only study so far of this corpus – Aparecida Maria Nunes’s Clarice Lispector Jornalista – by arguing that, in Lispector’s hands, these pages become spaces of potential cultural and political intervention. Through their nuanced parody of other comparable discursive spaces and their overemphasis on what is culturally constructed as feminine, Lispector’s pages perform a transvestite gesture that unsettles normative models of femininity and dislodges a heteronormative temporality predicated upon birth, marriage, reproduction, and death. (shrink)

Research agendas and academic evaluation are inevitably linked. By means of economic incentives, promotion, research funding, and reputation academic evaluation is a powerful influence on the production of knowledge; moreover, it is often conceived as a universal instrument without consideration of the context in which it is applied. Evaluation systems are social constructions in dispute, being the current focus of international debates regarding criteria, indicators, and their associated methods. A universalist type of productivity indicators is gaining centrality in academic evaluation (...) with profound effects on the content of research that is conducted everywhere. Specifically, evaluation systems based on this type of indicators are sending negative signals to scientists willing to conduct research on contextualized agendas, particularly those negotiated with non scientists. On the basis of theoretical and empirical studies documented on the specialized literature and extensive personal engagement with university research policy in Uruguay, we argue that the consolidation of evaluation practices of alleged universal validity deteriorates and discourages a type of research which is undeniably important in developing contexts. (shrink)

According to proponents of the continuity hypothesis, metaphors represent one end of a spectrum of linguistic phenomena, which includes various forms of loosening/broadening, such as category extensions and approximations, as well as hyperbolic interpretations. The continuity hypothesis is used to establish that the inferences derived from the set of linguistic expressions mentioned above result from the same or nearly similar pragmatic processes. In this paper, we want to challenge that particular aspect of the continuity hypothesis. We do so based on (...) considerations and analysis of an understudied linguistic phenomenon that we call the metaphorical uses of proper names (MPNs). We first explain how MPNs represent a unique linguistic class distinguishable from, for example, nicknames. In addition, we offer some remarks on how MPNs can be understood against the background of current debates between referentialists and predicativists about names. Our discussion leads us to conclude that MPNs are categorically different from literal interpretations of proper names. We spell out the consequences that the results of our analysis have for the continuity hypothesis. (shrink)

To make the case for non-conceptualism, Heck draws on an apparent dichotomy between linguistic and iconic representations. According to Heck, whereas linguistic representations have conceptual content, the content of iconic representations is non-conceptual. Based on the case of cartographic systems, the authors criticize Heck’s dichotomous distinction. They argue that maps are composed of semantically arbitrary elements that play different syntactic roles. Based on this, they claim that maps have a predicative structure and convey conceptual content. Finally, the authors argue that, (...) despite their differences, maps and sentences can logically interact with each other through heterogeneous inferences. These considerations not only challenge the view that conceptual content and inferential processes necessarily involve linguistic representations; furthermore, they provide a new perspective for thinking about maps, their semantics and syntax, and their interaction with linguistic systems. (shrink)

Since Tolman’s paper in 1948, psychologists and neuroscientists have argued that cartographic representations play an important role in cognition. These empirical findings align with some theoretical works developed by philosophers who promote a pluralist view of representational vehicles, stating that cognitive processes involve representations with different formats. However, the inferential relations between maps and representations with different formats have not been sufficiently explored. Thus, this paper is focused on the inferential relations between cartographic and linguistic representations. To that effect, we (...) appeal to heterogeneous inference with ordinary maps and sentences. In doing so, we aim to build a model to bridge the gap between cartographic and linguistic thought. (shrink)

It is often assumed that the capability to make inferences requires language. Against this assumption, I claim that inferential abilities do not necessarily require a language. On the contrary, certain cartographic systems could be used to explain some forms of inferences, and they are capable of warranting rational relations between contents they represent. By arguing that certain maps, as well as sentences, are adequate for inferential processes, I do not mean to neglect that there are important differences between maps and (...) sentences. Instead, the purpose of this paper is to highlight interesting distinctions that might affect the way that cartographic thinking works. (shrink)

This work is a qualitative, exploratory study, on how the organizational culture is communicated in a Multinational Mexican company (CEMEX). It specifically analyses the creation of common meanings?culture?through formal communication. Based on an interpretative symbolic approach and using a non?obtrusive method, as is the analysis of documents (nine annual reports, two speeches by the CEO and a corporate video), a culture is discovered and an interpretation of the same is offered. For the analysis, a model was designed whose basic components (...) proceed from the assumption that the organizational culture is composed essentially of cultural substance and forms (Harrison and Beyer, 1993). Also, the ideas of Bantz (1993) were incorporated, as well as his methodology for understanding organizations, by analyzing their messages. The analysis starts from the message emitting sources up to reaching the center or content of the same through their language. In other words, the analysis begins with the form or external manifestation, up to reaching the substance or organizational ideology. This, through an examination of the vocabulary, the metaphors, the slogans, the themes and the stories, among several aspects, in order to reach the inference of meanings that can be taken as the basis or support of its culture. The study offers a different form of approach to organizations and is a case study that explores a blossoming phenomenon (the multinational is very young), which emerges and reveals itself with the investigative process. So, this is not a research for about proving a hypothesis or quantifying data, this is a discovery study. Finally, the findings reflect a possible interpretation of the culture; a picture built thanks to the language that sustains that symbolic reality called organization. (shrink)

In this article, we defend that incorporating a rejection operator into a paraconsistent language involves fully specifying its inferential characteristics within the logic. To do this, we examine a recent proposal by Berto for a paraconsistent rejection, which — according to him — avoids paradox, even when introduced into a language that contains self-reference and a transparent truth predicate. We will show that this proposal is inadequate because it is too incomplete. We argue that the reason it avoids trouble is (...) that the inferential characteristics of the new operator are left unspecified, exporting the task of specifying them to metaphysicians. Additionally, we show that when completing this proposal with some plausible rules for the rejection operator, paradoxes do arise. Finally, we draw some more general implications from the study of this example. (shrink)

In this article, I argue that gender is a primary cultural frame for coordinating behavior and organizing social relations. I describe the implications for understanding how gender shapes social behavior and organizational structures. By my analysis, gender typically acts as a background identity that biases, in gendered directions, the performance of behaviors undertaken in the name of organizational roles and identities. I develop an account of how the background effects of the gender frame on behavior vary by the context that (...) different organizational and institutional structures set but can also infuse gendered meanings into organizational practices. Next, I apply this account to two empirical illustrations to demonstrate that we cannot understand the shape that the structure of gender inequality and gender difference takes in particular institutional or societal contexts without taking into account the background effects of the gender frame on behavior in these contexts. (shrink)

Introducción al número monográfico. Un estado de la cuestión y comentarios sobre los trabajos compilados.

El siguiente artículo se propone volver sobre el año 1973, con el objetivo de relevar analíticamente las posiciones de un sector disonante al interior del peronismo revolucionario: el alternativismo. Hemos propuesto analizar sus posturas en diferentes coyunturas: el período pre-electoral y la apertura democrática en el contexto del Gran Acuerdo Nacional (GAN); el triunfo del Frejuli, la “primavera camporista” y los sentidos revolucionarios que signaron a su programa de gobierno y, finalmente, su derrumbe. Nuestro interés radica en visibilizar las posiciones (...) de sus actores, comparativamente menos conocidos al interior del peronismo revolucionario, pero con propuestas diferentes tanto respecto de las elecciones de marzo, como del regreso del peronismo al gobierno y los primeros meses de gestión. (shrink)

1. Properties of mirror neurons in monkeys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . (...) . . . 000 1.1. Action types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 1.2. Context effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 2. Is there a human ‘mirror neuron system’? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 2.1. Monkeys versus humans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 2.2. Action understanding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 3. The development of mirroring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 3.1. Imitation in newborns? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 3.2. Effects of experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 000 3.3. Effects of sensorimotor experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. (shrink)

El presente trabajo se centra en identificar si, dentro del debate actual sobre el rol de la tecnología y sus implicancias en la vida de las personas, la filosofía de Langdon Winner indaga en la naturaleza y el significado de las construcciones artificiales desde una posición determinista. De modo que, buscaremos descubrir los caminos argumentales que propone Langdon Winner para explicar cómo se elige y se construye un sistema técnico que involucra a los humanos como partes de su funcionamiento. Entendiendo (...) que un sistema técnico es una forma de vida. En primer lugar, abordaremos el debate sobre sobre el papel de la tecnología y sus implicancias ético- políticas, para esto compararemos las principales teorías que son parte del debate antes mencionado: la teoría instrumental, la teoría sustantivista, la teoría crítica y el determinismo tecnológico. En segundo lugar, analizaremos el rol de la tecnología en el pensamiento de Langdon Winner. Podemos resaltar tres formas, que se relacionan entre sí, en que Winner considera a la tecnología como fenómeno político, como forma de vida y como técnica incontrolada. En tercer lugar, buscaremos demostrar que su teoría no pertenece al determinismo tecnológico. Para esto, abordaremos el determinismo como problema filosófico luego explicaremos en qué consiste el determinismo tecnológico y las condiciones que debe cumplir una teoría para ser enmarcada como determinista. Para, finalmente, contrastar estas condiciones con la teoría filosófica de Langdon Winner y definir si puede o no ser considerada determinista. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to provide a philosophical interpretation of bilateralism in terms of probabilism. In particular, to interpret the main concepts of bilateralism –acceptance, rejection and incoherence– in terms of the probabilistic notions of degree of belief and coherence. According to bilateralism, the meaning of logical connectives is determined by the acceptance and rejection conditions of the sentences in which they are involved, where acceptance and rejection cannot be reduced to one another. I will focus on a (...) variant of bilateralism that understands logical consequence as the statement that it is incoherent to accept all the premises of a valid argument while rejecting all its conclusions. On the other hand, probabilism states that it is possible to interpret our degrees of belief in terms of probabilities. The aim of this work is then to interpret the concept of incoherence in terms of probability functions and determine when it is coherent to accept or to reject a proposition according to some threshold defined in terms of degrees of belief. To achieve this goal, we need both an interpretation of the concept of incoherence coined by the bilateralists as well as an interpretation of acceptance and rejection. I will show that a good interpretation of coherence in probabilistic terms can already be found in the literature. Then, I will give an interpretation of acceptance and rejection in terms of degrees of belief. In particular, I will show that it is possible to interpret these concepts in accordance with Locke’s thesis, the thesis that states that there is some threshold r such that if you believe some sentence in degree equal or higher than r you should accept it, without falling into epistemic paradoxes. (shrink)

All through the literatura, the question about what is a logical constant has recieved many answers, from model-theoretic aproaches,, to answers that focus in the inferential practice as meaning,,. Detractors of the second tradition presented many ineludible incovenients, in particular, the logical constant named ‘tonk’. Inferentialist tryed many solutions, in particular they presented the concept of ‘harmony’. The goal of this paper is to show that the different criteria of ‘harmony’ used in the proof-theoretic semantics to determine what is and (...) what is not a logical constant fail to be necessary or sufficient. I will show the philosophical reasons that make this concept appear and then i will describe the different ways in wich the literatura understads the concept of ‘harmony’. Then I will show that they subgenerate or overgenerate connectives with some counterexamples. Finaly, I will explain some philosophical reasons that should delimitate where to go towards a satisfactory definition of ‘harmony’. (shrink)

Resumen De acuerdo con Barceló, la posibilidad de la negación pictórica constituye una prueba a favor del externismo lógico porque no depende de encontrar elementos internos en las imágenes que expresan la negación. Propongo analizar la negación pictórica en contextos de razonamiento para mostrar cómo el contenido de una imagen se determina por relaciones lógicas externas. Para ello, propongo restringir el análisis del dominio completo de relaciones lógicas externas a contextos específicos de razonamiento. Lejos de rechazar la variante externista de (...) Barceló, espero de esta forma poner a trabajar sus ideas.Since pictorial negation does not depend on internal elements, it can be conceived as an existential proof for logical externalism. This paper proposes to analyze pictorial negation in the context of reasoning by showing how external logical relations determine the content of images. I suggest for this a local externalism which narrows the analysis to specific reasoning contexts instead of the complete domain of logical relations. Far from rejecting Barceló's externalist alternative, my proposal aims to put his ideas to work. (shrink)

Background The ambulance service provides emergency care to meet the patient’s medical and nursing needs. Based on professional nursing values, this should be done within a caring relationship with a holistic approach as the opposite would risk suffering related to disengagement from the patient’s emotional and existential needs. However, knowledge is sparse on how ambulance personnel can meet caring needs and avoid suffering, particularly in conjunction with urgent and emergency situations. Aim The aim of the study was to explore ambulance (...) nurses’ experiences of relationships with patients in urgent and emergency situations. Methods Data collection was performed using individual open-ended interviews with six ambulance nurses. The data were analyzed using a thematic analysis. Results Relationships with patients during urgent and emergency assignments emerged as three themes: “ Ambiguous silence,” “ Professional competence” and “ Challenging inadequacy” comprising eight sub-themes in total. The result shows that the ambulance nurses found it difficult to prioritize between medical care and establishing a caring relationship with the patient. However, sometimes a wordless relationship was perceived sufficient and considered a first step towards a verbal relationship. Conclusions Ambulance nurses experience that a caring relationship cannot and does not need to be prioritized in the acute stage. This uncovers a dichotomy approach to medical care versus caring relationships that exclude a holistic approach. Thus, patients’ emotional, existential and physical needs are not considered as equally important. Clinical relevance: It is important to stimulate reflection on core ethical nursing values, in training and simulation exercises among clinically active ambulance nurses. (shrink)

Intersubjectivity impairment has been considered the main pathogenic nucleus of schizophrenia. Enriching this concept with references to Scheler’s phenomenology, our hypothesis is that schizophrenic subjects are affected by a deeper impairment: the inability to resonate with unipathic affectivity. Fragmentation of the Leibschema, valueception impairment, and the lack of vital impulse are, in our hypothesis, the original alterations of the schizophrenic bodily experience from which all relational impairments originate. Our proposal is, therefore, to enhance a psychotherapy that does not only focus (...) on the verbal level, but endeavors to touch the patient’s Leib, focusing on emotional sharing and on the development of a sense of cohesion of one’s body as the starting point for accessing intersubjectivity. (shrink)

In this article, our aim is to take a step towards a full understanding of the notion of paraconsistency in the context of metainferential logics. Following the work initiated by Barrio et al. [2018], we will consider a metainferential logic to be paraconsistent whenever the metainferential version of Explosion is invalid. However, our contribution consists in modifying the definition of meta-Explosion by extending the standard framework and introducing a negation for inferences and metainferences. From this new perspective, Tarskian paraconsistent logics (...) such as LP will not turn out to be metainferentially paraconsistent, in contrast to, for instance, non-transitive logics like ST. Finally, we will end up by defining a logic which is metainferentially paraconsistent at every level, and discussing whether this logic is uniform through translations. (shrink)

Synthetic biology is a cutting-edge area of research that holds the promise of unprecedented health benefits. However, in tandem with these large prospective benefits, synthetic biology projects entail a risk of catastrophic consequences whose severity may exceed that of most ordinary human undertakings. This is due to the peculiar nature of synthetic biology as a ‘threshold technology’ which opens doors to opportunities and applications that are essentially unpredictable. Fears about these potentially unstoppable consequences have led to declarations from civil society (...) groups calling for the use of a precautionary principle to regulate the field. Moreover, the principle is prevalent in law and international agreements. Despite widespread political recognition of a need for caution, the precautionary principle has been extensively criticized as a guide for regulatory policy. We examine a central objection to the principle: that its application entails crippling inaction and incoherence, since whatever action one takes there is always a chance that some highly improbable cataclysm will occur. In response to this difficulty, which we call the ‘precautionary paradox,’ we outline a deliberative means for arriving at threshold of probability below which potential dangers can be disregarded. In addition, we describe a Bayesian mechanism with which to assign probabilities to harmful outcomes. We argue that these steps resolve the paradox. The rehabilitated PP can thus provide a viable policy option to confront the uncharted waters of synthetic biology research. (shrink)

Cognitive gadgets are distinctively human cognitive mechanisms – such as imitation, mind reading, and language – that have been shaped by cultural rather than genetic evolution. New gadgets emerge, not by genetic mutation, but by innovations in cognitive development; they are specialised cognitive mechanisms built by general cognitive mechanisms using information from the sociocultural environment. Innovations are passed on to subsequent generations, not by DNA replication, but through social learning: People with new cognitive mechanisms pass them on to others through (...) social interaction. Some of the new mechanisms, like literacy, have spread through human populations, while others have died out, because the holders had more students, not just more babies. The cognitive gadgets hypothesis is developed through four case studies, drawing on evidence from comparative and developmental psychology, experimental psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. The framework employed – cultural evolutionary psychology, a descendant of evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory – addresses parallel issues across the cognitive and behavioural sciences. In common with evolutionary developmental biology and the extended evolutionary synthesis, cultural evolutionary psychology underlines the importance of developmental processes and environmental factors in the emergence of human cognition. In common with computational approaches, it emphasises the power of general-purpose mechanisms of learning. Cultural evolutionary psychology, however, also challenges use of the behavioural gambit in economics and behavioural ecology, and rejects the view that human minds are composed of “innate modules” or “cognitive instincts.”. (shrink)

This book investigates Hegel’s interpretation of the mystical philosophy of Jakob Böhme, considered in the context of the reception of Böhme in the 18th and 19th centuries, and of Hegel’s own understanding of mysticism as a philosophical approach. The three sections of this book present: the historical background of Hegel’s encounter with Böhme’s writings; the development of two different conceptions of mysticism in Hegel’s work; and finally Hegel’s approach to Böhme’s philosophy, discussing in detail the references to Böhme both in (...) published writings and manuscripts. According to Hegel, Böhme is “the first German philosopher”. The reason for placing Böhme at the very beginning of German philosophy is that Hegel considers him to be a profound thinker, despite his rudimentary education. Hegel’s fascination with Böhme mainly concerns the mystic’s understanding of the symbiotic relation between God and his opposite, the Devil: he considers this to be the true speculative core of Böhme’s thought. By interpreting Böhme, Hegel intends to free the speculative content of his thought from the limitations of the inadequate, barbarous form in which the mystic expressed it, and also to liberate Böhme from the prejudices surrounding his writings, placing him firmly in the territory of philosophy and detaching him from the obscurity of esotericism. Combining historical reconstructions and philosophical argumentation, this book guides the reader through an important phase in German philosophy, and ultimately into an inquiry about the relationship between mysticism and philosophy itself. (shrink)

Uno de los argumentos en favor de la dependencia entre lenguaje y conceptos descansa en la premisa de que la posesión de conceptos involucra pensamientos de segundo orden y éstos, a su vez, requieren lenguaje. Este trabajo se centra en una variante de este argumento formulada por José Luis Bermúdez. Sostendré que aun cuando el pensamiento de segundo orden suponga competencia lingüística, no es necesario aceptar esa premisa. Propondré, en cambio, dos condiciones alternativas para la posesión de conceptos, la identificación (...) y la generalidad. Si bien ninguna de ellas conlleva el pensamiento de segundo orden, en forma conjunta reflejan importantes aspectos del pensamiento conceptual. (shrink)