Hay una manera de hablar de los filósofos como de espíritus infantiles que preguntan y cuestionan lo que a los demás les parece obvio, y así se sitúan y nos colocan ante lugares antes insospechados. ¿Se puede ser aprendiz de algo que consiste en ser aprendiz de todo? ¿De todo o de casi todo? ¿También son los filósofos aprendices de lenguas? ¿Pero no las desaprenden porque las tenían ya aprendidas? Lo que parece es que ya hay algo en la pregunta (...) que nos impulsa a abordarla desde juegos en y con el lenguaje, desde viejos y nuevos usos lingüísticos con los que habitamos nuestras maneras de vivir, nuestros territorios, tan familiares y tan salvajes. ¿Hasta qué punto elegimos nuestros juegos de lenguaje, nuestros mundos y formas de vida en común? Quizás lo que hacen los filósofos aprendices o los aprendices de filósofos sea continuar el diálogo abierto entre incompetentes, entre investigadoras o personas poco hábiles con las respuestas dadas al respecto de cómo tenemos que actuar en nuestros entornos. En esta carta se trata de traer a la realidad lo que cuestionamos de ella: si se la podemos estar escribiendo a un aprendiz de filósofo. Es este un acto de creación con las palabras en el que acontece que andamos investigando cómo hacemos para saber hacer venir otras realidades usando lenguas. Cuando hacemos esto, también ocurre que cuestionamos los mundos de las educaciones, aproximándolos a los territorios donde habitamos ignorantes e infantiles, como niños recreadores de juegos que nos sorprenden y nos hacen filosofar: buscar. Interrogando a los modos de comunicarnos y educarnos, interrogamos la actitud filosófica misma, que es la actitud de interrogar lo que no habíamos interrogado o, al menos, como no lo habíamos interrogado. Parece que en ese poner en tela de juicio vamos errando por otras maneras de pensar, de habitar, de comunicar, de experimentar la vida como arte, pasión y encuentro con ella, con la vida que hacemos vivir y que merece más la pena como humana medida de personas entre personas. En este viaje con el aprendiz de filósofo, en este camino epistolar, transitamos por tres consideraciones, por tres paisajes. Por el primero, como sugiere la estrategia Protágoras, quizás no nos haga falta definir algo para ponernos a ello -lo que sería la ruina de la inversión epistemológica del mundo de la estrategia Platón-. Por el segundo paisaje, quizás no haya expertos para eso de saber cómo estamos deseando vivir, ni falta que nos hace. Quizás sea este el sentido más entrañable de los usos democráticos para la vida en sociedad: propiciar el deseo compartido de reconocimiento mutuo en las relaciones interpersonales, Y así, en la vida en común cultivaríamos el sentimiento de pertenencia a algo, a la demanda de humanidad, la de todos. Esa investigación bien puede llenar toda una vida. Por el tercero, quizás tenga cierto sentido enredarse diciendo que el para qué de la actitud de los aprendices de filósofo sea el de la utilidad humana: ¿para qué servimos las personas? (shrink)

En este trabajo realizo un examen crítico del reciente libro de Silvana Gabriela Di Camillo sobre la crítica de Aristóteles a la teoría platónica de las Ideas. El libro de Di Camillo es un trabajo muy serio cuya lectura recomiendo ampliamente. Sin embargo, considero que cuatro de las principales tesis que la autora defiende tienen varias dificultades y mi objetivo aquí es presentar argumentos detallados en contra de ellas: la interpretación de la distinción entre argumentos más y menos rigurosos del (...) tratado Sobre las Ideas; la tesis de que la separación es el blanco esencial de las críticas aristotélicas a las Ideas; la interpretación de las opciones que Platón tiene para responder al argumento del tercer hombre, y la tesis de que la separación de las Ideas debe entenderse como homonimia. In this paper I examine Silvana Gabriela Di Camillo's recent book on Aristotle's criticisms of Plato's theory of Ideas. Di Camillo's book is a very serious work that I highly recommend. Nevertheless, I consider that four of the main theses that the author defends face several difficulties and my aim here is to offer detailed arguments against them: the interpretation of the distinction between more and less accurate arguments of the treatise On Ideas; the thesis that separation is the essential target of Aristotle's criticisms against Plato's Ideas; the interpretation of the options available to Plato to reply to the third man argument; and the thesis that the separation of Ideas should be understood as homonymy. (shrink)

A partir de las interpretaciones de Peter Niesen y Reinhard Brandt, el presente estudio analiza el republicanismo kantiano en contraste con el republicanismo cívico, con el propósito de evaluar si el amoralismo metodológico de Kant resulta suficiente para motivar a un pueblo de demonios a establecer y conservar una constitución republicana. Las mejores razones parecen hablar a favor de Kant, no obstante, su propuesta requiere una mayor diferenciación de las motivaciones para aceptar tal constitución, así como de una mayor precisión (...) en cuanto a las condiciones para mantenerla. (shrink)

El autor trata en este artículo la problemática de la integración de la enseñanzadel conocimiento científico-tecnológico en la educación. Se analiza la forma de responder a las demandas por una “alfabetización científico- tecnológica”, que incluya la tecnología en los currículos educativos. El estudio propone fundamentar el diseño de los programas de estudio en base a un marco general para analizar la tecnología, sintetizado mediante los conceptos: práctica social, conocimiento y artefacto, enfoque que permite comprender el “fenómeno tecnológico” y el significado (...) del concepto moderno de tecnología. Esto daría las herramientas analíticas para una organización curricular que integre ciencia y tecnología ordenada desde dos perspectivas: la estructura lógico-epistemológica propia de los distintos campos: saber científico, científico-tecnológico, tecnológico-científico y de las formas en que opera la inteligencia del alumno que aprende, lo cual permitiría en la enseñanza, conjugar las distintas posibilidadesde desarrollar mecanismos de articulación de los conocimientos. The author treats in this problematic article of the teaching integra0tion of the technologic-scientific knowledge in education. The way of answering to the demands for an “alphabetization technologic-scientific” is analyzed, in which includes the technology in the educative curriculums. The survey proposes to establish the design of the study programs based to a general setting to analyzethe technology, synthesized by way of these concepts: social practice knowledge and device, approach which allows the understanding of the “technological phenomenon” and the meaning of the modern concept of the technology. Thiswould give the analytical instruments for a curricular organization, in which includes science and technology, ordered from two perspectives: the logic-epistemology structure typical of the different fields: scientific knowledge, scientific-technologic, technologic-scientific and the ways in which the intelligence of the pupil who learns operates, in which case would permit in teaching, conjugate the different possibilities to develop mechanisms of articulation of the knowledge. (shrink)

There is growing worldwide concern that the rampant spread of digital fake news via new media technologies is detrimentally impacting Democratic elections. However, the actual influence of this recent Internet phenomenon on electoral decisions has not been directly examined. Accordingly, this study tested the effects of attention to DFN on readers’ Presidential candidate preferences via an experimental web-survey administered to a cross-sectional American sample. Results showed no main effect of exposure to DFN on participants’ candidate evaluations or vote choice. However, (...) the perceived believability of DFN about the Democratic candidate negatively mediated evaluations of that candidate—especially amongst far-right ideologues. These results suggest that DFN may at worst reinforce the partisan dispositions of mostly politically conservative Internet users, but does not cause or induce conversions in these dispositions. Overall, this study contributes novel experimental evidence, indicating that the potential electoral impact of DFN, although concerning, is strongly conditional on a reciprocal interaction between message receptibility and a pre-existing right-wing ideological orientation. The said impact is, therefore, likely narrow in scope. (shrink)

Resumen En este trabajo evaluamos el impacto que la adopción de la relatividad del movimiento tiene en la metafísica de Leibniz. En particular argumentamos que el abandono de la comprensión absolutista del mismo anula su noción juvenil de sustancia corpórea. En primer lugar analizamos cómo entiende Leibniz las nociones de cuerpo y movimiento en el periodo juvenil y defendemos que la comprensión absolutista de este último constituye una piedra angular en su primera concepción de la sustancia corpórea. En segundo lugar (...) exponemos los argumentos leibnizianos a favor de la relatividad del movimiento durante el período parisino y mostramos su repercusión en el concepto juvenil de sustancia corpórea.In this paper we evaluate the impact of Leibniz's defense of relativity of motion on his metaphysics. We argue that the abandonment of the absolutist position makes void his first notion of corporeal substance. First, we analyze Leibniz's conception of body and movement in his youth and explain how the assumption of absolute motion during these years plays a role in his notion of corporeal substance. Second, we examine his arguments in favor of relativity of motion during the Parisian period and show the repercussion on his first conception of the corporeal substance. (shrink)

The mortality rate of patients affected with oral squamous cell carcinoma has been stable in recent decades due to several factors, especially diagnostic delay, which is often associated with a late stage diagnosis and poor prognosis. The aims of this paper were to: analyze diagnostic delay in OSCC and to discuss the various psychological factors of patients with OSCC, with particular attention to the patient’s fear of receiving news regarding their health; and the professional dynamics related to the decision-making processes (...) in cases of suspected OSCC. A preliminary review of literature focusing on OSCC diagnostic delay was performed. Seven articles were included with the diagnostic delay ranging from 45 days to approximately 6 months. Patients’ fears and, to a lesser degree, the concerns of dentists, were found to be still poorly investigated. On the basis of the authors’ professional experience, the development of oral lesions of unknown origin may generate different behaviors in the decision-making processes by patients and clinicians, and fear may play a key role in the distinct steps of this process. It is crucial to increase awareness and inform patients about the onset of OSCC, and contemporaneously encourage experimental studies on patients’ fear and professional behaviors with respect to communication regarding OSCC. (shrink)

En el trabajo evaluamos el impacto que la crítica de Leibniz a los números infinitos tiene en el desarrollo de su metafísica de los cuerpos. Luego de exponer el vínculo que el filósofo alemán traza entre el cuerpo, la extensión y las cantidades infinitas en su período juvenil (1663-1672), analizamos sus reflexiones del período parisino sobre las paradojas de los números infinitos (1672-1676) y argumentamos que la defensa de la inconsistencia de tales números constituye un punto de inflexión en su (...) comprension de los cuerpos y, asimismo, marca el inicio de su ofensiva contra la res extensa.In this paper we study the impact of Leibniz’s critique of infinite numbers in his metaphysics of bodies. After presenting the relation that the German philosopher establishes in his youth between the notions of body, extension and infinite quantities (1672-1673), we analyze his thoughts on the paradoxes of the infinite numbers (1672-1676) and we claim that his defense of the inconsistency of such numbers is an inflexion point in his conception of body and mark the beginning of his offensive against the res extensa. (shrink)

Disconcerting findings from nascent sociological research suggest that Western youth are developing subjectivities that reflect neoliberal discursive formations of self-interest, competitiveness, and materialism. However, propositions about: (1) the cognitive-affective mechanisms that explain how youth acquire and reproduce neoliberal ideology, or (2) the dispositions and behaviours that typify a neoliberal subject, remain vague. Therefore, this article provides a novel conceptualization of these two psychosocial facets that can help advance understandings and investigations of the emerging modes and societal consequences of neoliberal subjectification, (...) Specifically, it reviews major theoretical tenets from the respective literatures on neurocognitive development, social cognition, neoliberalism, and neoliberal hegemony. It then synthesizes these tenets within a modified habitus formulation to sketch a testable cognitive-sociological model to explain and explore some of the distinct dispositional values, attitudes, and practices that youth raised in societies with institutionally and culturally prevalent neoliberal norms and discourses potentially may develop and enact. (shrink)

Originally published in Mexico in 1970, _Indigenous and Popular Thinking in América _is the first book by the Argentine philosopher Rodolfo Kusch to be translated into English. At its core is a binary created by colonization and the devaluation of indigenous practices and cosmologies: an opposition between the technologies and rationalities of European modernity and the popular mode of thinking, which is deeply tied to Indian ways of knowing and being. Arguing that this binary cuts through América, Kusch seeks (...) to identify and recover the indigenous and popular way of thinking, which he contends is dismissed or misunderstood by many urban Argentines, including leftist intellectuals. _Indigenous and Popular Thinking in América_ is a record of Kusch's attempt to immerse himself in the indigenous ways of knowing and being. At first glance, his methodology resembles ethnography. He speaks with and observes indigenous people and mestizos in Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. He questions them about their agricultural practices and economic decisions; he observes rituals; he asks women in the market the meaning of indigenous talismans; he interviews shamans; he describes the spatial arrangement and the contents of shrines, altars, and temples; and he reproduces diagrams of archaeological sites, which he then interprets at length. Yet he does not present a "them" to a putative "us." Instead, he offers an inroad to a way of thinking and being that does not follow the logic or fit into the categories of Western social science and philosophy. In his introduction, Walter D. Mignolo discusses Kusch's work and its relation to that of other twentieth-century intellectuals, Argentine history, and contemporary scholarship on the subaltern and decoloniality. (shrink)

Populist representation is the process by which a body or set of bodies become the signifier of a powerful act of political transgression of the social order. We call this specific type of representative linkage ‘synecdochal representation’. In it, the leader’s body performs three key functions: it mirrors certain popular traits that are characterized as ‘low’, it displays marks of exceptionality, and it appropriates symbols of institutional power. These tasks are performed through particular ways of acting, dressing, talking, eating, and (...) the like, in public. Social media has become a key locus for bodily self-presentation because it is used to create the appearance of intimacy and spontaneity through the distribution of ‘candid’ pictures and videos. This paper will analyze how the self-presentation of populist and non-populist leaders are established through Twitter, what images they choose to disseminate, and how they are re-signified by the audience. To do so, we will focus on the two Latin American politicians: Cristina Fernández (with a populist style) and Mauricio Macri (with a technocratic one). (shrink)

This article aims to provide a brief overview of mental causation problem and its current proposed solutions. Indeed, mental causation turns out as one of the most difficult philosophical conundrums in contemporary philosophy of mind. In the first two sections, we offer an outline of the problem and the philosophical debate about it, and show that mental causation problem is pivotal within the contemporary philosophy of mind. In the third section, we focus on the most popular models of mental causation, (...) namely Kim's and Davidson's accounts, also discussing the objections raised against them. In the final section, we take into consideration some recent proposals poised to solve the mental causation problem, including powerism. Given the logical and metaphysical plausibility of almost all these different options, our conclusion is that mental causation is still an open problem and it is far from being resolved. (shrink)

En el presente artículo presentaremos dos posibles enfoques sobre la actividad analógica de la conciencia en L’imaginaire de Jean-Paul Sartre: el primero, centrado en la composición ontológica del analogon, distinguirá el “analogon psíquico” del “analogon físico” y deducirá a partir de allí las dificultades y limitaciones del planteo sartreano y planteará a su vez los medios para dar respuesta a tales problemas. El segundo intentará explicar la función analógica de la conciencia imaginante como el resultado de un proceso de emancipación (...) de la fenomenología de Husserl en la que la distinción material del analogon expresa el punto de partida de un desarrollo crítico que conducirá al abandono de la dimensión hylética del analogon a favor de la función analógica de la conciencia. Estas perspectivas nos brindarán un panorama de los límites legítimos de cada una, así como de la profundidad y el dinamismo del pensamiento sartreano.In this article we will present two possible approaches on the analogical activity of consciousness in L'imaginaire of Jean-Paul Sartre: the first one, focused on the ontological composition of the analogon, will distinguish the “psychological analogon” from “physical analogon” and will deduce the difficulties and limitations of Sartrean argument and the means to resolve them. The second one will try to explain the analogical function of imaginative consciousness as the result of a process of emancipation of Husserl's phenomenology in which the material distinction of the analogon expresses only the starting point of a critical development that will lead to the abandonment of the hyletic dimension of the analogon for the analogical function of consciousness. These perspectives will give us an overview of the legitimate limits of each one, as well as the depth and dynamism of Sartrean thought. (shrink)

En el presente artículo analizaremos cómo se produce un primer momento del giro subjetivo cartesiano a partir de la necesidad de dar una respuesta unitaria en el plano del conocimiento a una realidad ontológica irreductiblemente dualista, es decir, cómo se concibe un monismo gnoseológico a partir de un dualismo ontológico. A tal fin analizaremos cómo su mathesis universalis expresa el proyecto originario de las Regulae y establece las condiciones generales para su interpretación.nLuego, cómo esta mathesis, comprendida como exigencia epistémica, tiene (...) como correlato gnoseológico una psicología en la que la percepción y la facultad cognitiva conforman un mecanismo integral distinguible, ontológicamente, en cuerpo/mente. Finalmente analizaremos cómo este dualismo ontológico encubre un verdadero monismo gnoseológico en el que toda la realidad es reducida a una dimensión cognoscente en el que la corporalidad asume el papel de «corporalidad ideal». (shrink)

L’article présente les résultats d’une enquête qualitative réalisée pendant le premier confinement au Chili en 2020, dans laquelle 26 personnes de différentes caractéristiques sociales ont été interrogées à trois moments différents de la période, pour un total de plus de 70 entretiens. L’analyse de ce corpus oppose la rationalité techno-expérimentale sur laquelle se fonde la stratégie de confinement et qui réduit les temporalités à un temps objectif, standard et mesurable, aux expériences singularisées du temps social éprouvées par les individus au (...) Chili. Ces expériences du temps confiné ont été façonnées par les propriétés sociales des individus et de leur environnement. Ainsi, trois conditions sociales ont été identifiées – position sociale, activités et étapes du cycle de vie –, dont l’interaction a donné lieu à trois modalités de temporalisation : l’expérience du temps suspendu, l’expérience du temps exigé et l’expérience du temps réinvesti. Si chaque expérience peut fournir une représentation fixe des temporalités sociales pendant le confinement, l’article propose l’idée d’une transition des individus entre ces différentes expériences, en fonction de l’évolution de l’enfermement et des conditions sociales. (shrink)

Este artigo tem como objetivo discutir a Dualidade Onda-Partícula e o Princípio da Incerteza como expressões de uma ideia mais geral de natureza interpretativa: o Princípio de Complementaridade, formulado pelo físico dinamarquês Niels Bohr. Trata-se, conforme defenderemos, de uma interpretação antirrealista que é fundada na objetividade da Física. A impossibilidade de utilização simultânea das leis de conservação de energia e momento (asserção de causalidade) e da coordenação espaço-temporal será problematizada, analisando-se uma possível incompatibilidade desta complementaridade com o antirrealismo. Discute-se, ainda, (...) o processo de medição quântica numa perspectiva conceitual e epistemológica, e o significado da constante de Planck, enfatizando a ideia de que, nesta interpretação ortodoxa, o vetor de estado, que contém todas as informações do sistema, tem um significado meramente epistêmico. Assim, no que pese a extraordinária precisão com que a teoria quântica permite predizer e comunicar resultados de uma medida em um contexto experimental bem definido, a teoria não se ocupa de responder o que é o objeto quântico, no sentido ontológico, conferindo-lhe assim seu aspecto antirrealista e, ao mesmo tempo, objetivo. (shrink)

La evolución política latinoamericana, particularmente en el cono sur –Uruguay, Chile y Argentina- en los últimos 50 años ha experimentado cambios significativos, desde los tiempos en que los formalismos democráticos eran puestos a prueba por crisis económicas y sociales que desembocaban en crisis políticas, las que por lo general terminaban “resolviéndose” por la vía militar. Agotada esta instancia, los países han tendido a retomar los cauces democráticos. Hoy nos encontramos inmersos en la oleada transicional hacia la democracia. En este artículo (...) se aborda la evolución de un país, la República Oriental del Uruguay, en razón a las particulares características que ha asumido y cuyo rasgo más visible es el ascenso a la cúspide del poder político, la Presidencia de la República, de quien hace menos de 50 años fuera guerrillero, por la vía electoral. (shrink)

In this paper I intend to examine the notion of intermediate in Plato´s dialogues, especially Theaetetus and Symposium. In the first section, I investigate previously in Theaetetus the notion of to metaxy as the result of mixture between percipient and perceived, by which the realm of phenomenon can be explained by the third genre, identified as to metaxy, born from a certain kind of dynamis. In the second section, I examine the mentioned notion s Symposium, expressed by Diotima of Mantineia (...) on her encomium of Eros as daimon. My purpose in this last section is to demonstrate that the apprehension of Form of Beauty itself requires a new hermeneutic approach, which I call cultual hermeneutic, by which Plato conceives an inherent link between mythical and rational conceptions of Ideas. (shrink)

The idea of a probabilistic logic of inductive inference based on some form of the principle of indifference has always retained a powerful appeal. However, up to now all modifications of the principle failed. In this paper, a new formulation of such a principle is provided that avoids generating paradoxes and inconsistencies. Because of these results, the thesis that probabilities cannot be logical quantities, determined in an objective way through some form of the principle of indifference, is no longer supportable. (...) Later, the paper investigates some implications of the new principle of indifference. To conclude, a re-examination of the foundations of the so-called objective Bayesian inference is called for. (shrink)

Resumen En el presente trabajo analizo el concepto de cuerpo en los escritos maduros de Leibniz. En el marco del debate contemporáneo acerca del estatus de la sustancia corpórea examino el entramado de las tres nociones sobre las que se construye la metafísica leibniziana de los cuerpos, a saber, la de materia prima, la de cuerpo orgánico y la de extensión. En cada caso evalúo el estatus ontológico que Leibniz les reconoce así como el papel que cumplen en su metafísica.In (...) this paper I examine the concept of body in Leibniz’s mature writings. In the context of the contemporary debate on the status of the corporeal substance, I analyze the relation between the three notions from which he builds his metaphysics of bodies, namely, the primary matter, the organic body, and the extension. For each case I evaluate their ontological status and the role they play in his metaphysics. (shrink)

We pay attention to the concept of univocal connective. Considering the corresponding definition in the context of the sequent calculus a problem arises in a paper by Belnap. We provide an explanation by Belnap and finally give some examples and non-examples of univocal connectives.

Habermas ha elaborado una teoría jurídica a partir de su filosofía de acción comunicativa. Sin alejarse de los fundamentos tradicionales que sustentan al Estado democrático de derecho, ha innovado una posición de legitimación al derecho y a su ejercicio, incluso ofrece nuevas herramientas conceptuales para la función judicial, como es el caso de lo que podría llamarse la adecuación que sustituye a la conocida propuesta de la ponderación de los derechos. El presente artículo pretende servir de guía para adentrase en (...) el territorio de su propuesta. (shrink)

We show that a new interpretation of quantum mechanics, in which the notion of event is defined without reference to measurement or observers, allows to construct a quantum general ontology based on systems, states and events. Unlike the Copenhagen interpretation, it does not resort to elements of a classical ontology. The quantum ontology in turn allows us to recognize that a typical behavior of quantum systems exhibits strong emergence and ontological non-reducibility. Such phenomena are not exceptional but natural, and are (...) rooted in the basic mathematical structure of quantum mechanics. (shrink)

This paper is focused on the analysis of the relationship between Davidson’s classical essays in Philosophy of Language and the thesis he developed with the article “A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs”. I shall argue that the idea of language defended by Davidson in the eighties doesn’t present similarities with Wittgenstein’s approach, as it is assumed by some scholars. In this respect, I reject the idea according to which we should assume the existence of an “early” and a “later” Donald Davidson (...) after the publication of “A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs”. By analyzing his works, I will show that the main elements of his theory of meaning remain unchanged and that there are no radical changes in Davidson’s philosophical perspective on language and meaning. (shrink)

During the last century, most philosophers of science have tried to expunge teleological explanations from the fields of epistemology. They took for granted that the Darwinian concepts of natural selection and evolution effectively dispense us with any presence of goal-directedness in nature: based on an anti-metaphysical attitude, they hold purposes and goals to be of religious and spiritual nature, thereby obstacles to any effective comprehension of biological processes. Accordingly, teleological categories have been abandoned in many ways in favor of mechanical (...) causes and non-teleological processes: since Darwin demonstrated that no teleology is required in order to explain the natural world, causal explanations became the only tools to investigate natural processes. (shrink)

According to the thesis of powerism, our world is pervaded by causal powers which are metaphysically basic. The aim of this paper is to defend the existence of the self, defined as a substantial entity, and its mental powers. This claim, which may seem a bold one, should not be deemed as inconsistent with scientific evidence. In fact, this approach does not ignore empirical knowledge, but is not bound only to it in order to understand entities, properties, and the relationship (...) between them. Aristotelian powerism may show that the self, as the subject of one’s mental acts, is a substance that has an essential nature. Firstly, we shall analyze the immediate evidence we have in support of the existence of the self as a substantial entity. We will show that the self is a substance because it possesses an essential character, i.e. an individual essence. We will take into account the Aristotelian perspective of substance, trying to show how the presence of a necessary property that makes every subject identical to itself and the phenomenal features of one’s private experience point to the existence of a substantial entity that corresponds to the self. Secondly, we will try to justify the adoption of a metaphysical theory of causation based on powers, analyzing it in comparison with the main competing theories, namely hypotheticalism and nomism. Then, we shall proceed to show the causal properties of the substance in question, namely the mental powers. In fact, thirdly, we will embrace the thesis of powerism by defending the existence of a set of mental powers that should be attributed to the self. We will describe the main features of mental powers and we will show that they are conceivable as the pure intentional acts we perform by directing an intentional state towards an intentional object. In this way we show how a classic problem of philosophy of mind, relevant to science as well, can be addressed in an original way by a metaphysical approach involving powers. (shrink)

Interval Temporal Logic is a finite-time linear temporal logic with applications in hardware verification, temporal logic programming and specification of multimedia documents. Due to the logic's non-elementary complexity, efficient ITL-based verification tools have been difficult to develop, even for propositional subsets. MONA is an efficient implementation of an automata-based decision procedure for the logic WS1S. Despite the non-elementary complexity of WS1S, MONA has been successfully applied in problems such as hardware synthesis, protocol verification and theorem proving. Here we consider a (...) rich propositional subset of ITL, PITL, whose expressive power is equivalent to that of WS1S, and in turn to that of regular languages. PITL not only includes operators such as chop, star and projection, but also past operators such as previous, chop in the past and since. We provide an interpretation of PITL formulas in WS1S, which led us to a direct translation from PITL formulas to MONA specifications. We present the tool PITL2MONA as an implementation of such translation. With PITL2MONA acting as a front-end, MONA is used as a decision procedure for PITL. To our knowledge, this is one of the few implementations of a decision procedure for PITL, the first one based on automata, and the only one which handles both projection and past operators. We have tested our implementation on a number of examples; we show in this paper the application of PITL and its MONA-based decision procedure in solutions to the dining-philosophers and a multimedia synchronisation problem, together with some experimental results on these and some other examples. (shrink)

In the 1920s, Ludwig von Mises argued correctly that the problem of making economic calculations without market‐generated prices would be an insuperable difficulty for socialist systems of production. Bryan Caplan is right to argue that there is no theoretical way to infer the magnitude of this difficulty, but he is wrong to insist that the history of poor economic performance displayed by real‐world socialism should be attributed not to the “socialist calculation problem,” but to inadequate work incentives. A state that (...) had solved the calculation problem would have well within its means the solution to the incentives problem, too. (shrink)