This paper reports a computer program to generate novel designs for the arrangement of furniture within a simulated room. It is based on the engagement-reflection computer model of the creative processes. During engagement the system generates material in the form of sequences of actions (e.g. change the colours of the walls, include some furniture in the room, modify their colour, and so on) guided by content and knowledge constraints. During reflection, the system evaluates the composition produced so far and, if (...) it is necessary, modifies it. We discuss the implementation of the system and some of its most salient features, especially the use of a computational model for creativity in the terrain of design. We argue that this kind of model opens new possibilities for the simulation of the design processes as well as the development of tools. (shrink)
This paper reports a computer program to generate novel designs for the arrangement of furniture within a simulated room. It is based on the engagement-reflection computer model of the creative processes. During engagement the system generates material in the form of sequences of actions (e.g. change the colours of the walls, include some furniture in the room, modify their colour, and so on) guided by content and knowledge constraints. During reflection, the system evaluates the composition produced so far and, if (...) it is necessary, modifies it. We discuss the implementation of the system and some of its most salient features, especially the use of a computational model for creativity in the terrain of design. We argue that this kind of model opens new possibilities for the simulation of the design processes as well as the development of tools. (shrink)
Conceptual congruency effects are biases induced by an irrelevant conceptual dimension of a task (e.g., location in vertical space) on the processing of another, relevant dimension (e.g., judging words’ emotional evaluation). Such effects are a central empirical pillar for recent views about how the mind/brain represents concepts. In the present paper, we show how attentional cueing (both exogenous and endogenous) to each conceptual dimension succeeds in modifying both the manifestation and the symmetry of the effect. The theoretical implications of this (...) finding are discussed. (shrink)
Despite several positive features, such as extensive theoretical and empirical scope, aspects of Levelt, Roelofs & Meyer's theory can be challenged on theoretical grounds (inconsistent principles for phonetic versus phonological syllables, use of sophisticated homunculi, underspecification, and lack of principled motivation) and empirical grounds (failed predictions regarding effects of syllable frequency and incompatibility with observed effects of syllable structure).
Un grupo de especialistas se reunieron durante tres días en el XXII Seminario Interdisciplinar de Bioética organizado por la Cátedra de Bioética de la Universidad Pontificia Comillas de Madrid, no simplemente para abordar las cuestiones ...
In Portugal, as elsewhere, the rhetoric of managerialism in higher education is becoming firmly entrenched in the governmental policymakers’ discourse and has been widely disseminated across the institutional landscape. Managerialism is an important ideological support of New Public Management policies and can be classified as a narrative of strategic change. In this paper, we analyse how far the managerialism narrative has been injected into the discursive repertory of Portuguese academics in their role as the co-ordinators of the higher education institutions’ (...) teaching and academic middle levels. Based on an analysis of interview responses, it seems that most academics support traditional academic values such as autonomy and collegiality, and reject university or polytechnic governance based on corporate philosophy. (shrink)
Corpos de mulheres negras carregam não apenas marcas históricas de sofrimento e espoliação. Por eles também são contadas histórias de resistências, fé e ancestralidades. Enquanto construções sociais, tais corpos se apresentam como desenhos da diversidade cultural que perpassa identidades individuais e coletivas. Diante disso, este texto tem como abordagens o corpo para além do biológico e discute, além disso, marcas socioculturais em corpos feminismos negros, fazendo à literatura brasileira em que aparecem imagens e discursos acerca de tais corpos.
Descartes estabeleceu conceitos através dos quais explicaria sua tese geral para o movimento dos corpos. Em total desacordo, Newton realizou um ostensivo ataque a teoria cartesiana concluindo que o movimento assumido pelo filosofo francês não deveria ser considerado como um movimento real. O diálogo desenvolvido ao longo da discussão, fundamentada na teoria newtoniana referente à natureza física do mundo, demonstra de forma sutil e refinada as observações precisas feitas por Newton acerca das contradições a que levavam o desenvolvimento dos conceitos (...) propostos por Descartes. Imbuída de espírito físico-filosófico, este artigo tem por objetivo elucidar as “ficções” cartesianas, bem como demonstrar a forma pela qual Newton buscou refutá-las: contrapondo a referida teoria de movimento com a sua. (shrink)
Postmodernism isn't what it used to be. As a meaningful philosophical movement (rather than a vague term of disparagement), "postmodernism" primarily designated a diverse series of Heidegger inspired attempts to situate and guide our late modern historical age by uncovering and transcending its most destructive metaphysical presuppositions. Ironically, however, the only major contemporary philosophers still willing to call themselves "postmodernists" have renounced that "utopian" quest for a philosophical passage beyond modernity. From their perspective, the definitive Heideggerian hope for a "postmodern" (...) understanding of being looks like a retro futuristic fantasy, a quaint image of what the future might have been, which (like the Jetsons or Steampunk) has now been rendered obsolete. Unfortunately, when self described "postmodernists" abandon the attempt to identify and transcend the distinctive problems of modernity, they empty the philosophical movement of its primary meaning and purpose, allowing the label to degenerate into a vague shorthand many philosophers use merely to deride and dismiss.. (shrink)
(or not oveA-complete.) . Let * be a unary operator defined on the set F of formulas of the language £ (ie, if A is a formula of £, then *A is also a ...
Abstract: In Mind and World, McDowell conceives of the content of perceptual experiences as conceptual. This picture is supposed to provide a therapy for skepticism, by showing that empirical thinking is objectively and normatively constrained. The paper offers a reconstruction of McDowell's view and shows that the therapy fails. This claim is based on three arguments: 1) the identity conception of truth he exploits is unable to sustain the idea that perception-judgment transitions are normally truth conducing; 2) it could be (...) plausible only from an externalist point of view that is in tension with the view of normativity that motivates conceptualism; 3) the identity conception of truth is incompatible with McDowell's recent version of conceptualism in terms of ‘non-propositional intuitive contents’. (shrink)
Any theory of perceptual experience should elucidate the way humans exploit it in activities proper to responsible agents, like justifying and revising their beliefs. In this paper I examine the hypothesis that this capacity requires the positing of a perceptual awareness involving a pre-doxastic actualization of concepts. I conclude that this hypothesis is neither necessary nor sufficient to account for empirical rationality. This leaves open the possibility to introduce a doxastic account, according to which the epistemic function of perception is (...) fulfilled by perceptual beliefs. I develop this claim by showing that the doxastic account satisfies a series of intuitive requirements of justification and belief revision. (shrink)
Two main theories about metacognition are reviewed, each of which claims to provide a better explanation of this phenomenon, while discrediting the other theory as inappropriate. The paper claims that in order to do justice to the complex phenomenon of metacognition, we must distinguish two levels of this capacity—each having a different structure, a different content and a different function within the cognitive architecture. It will be shown that each of the reviewed theories has been trying to explain only one (...) of the two levels and that, consequently, the conflict between them can be dissolved. The paper characterizes the high-level as a rationalizing level where the subject uses concepts and theories to interpret her own behavior and the low-level as a controlling level where the subject exploits epistemic feelings to adjust her cognitive activities. Finally, the paper explores three kinds of interaction between the levels. (shrink)
The history of the classification of chemical elements is reviewed from the point of view of a bibliophile. The influence that relevant books had on the development of the periodic table and, conversely, how it was incorporated into textbooks, treatises and literary works, with an emphasis on the Spanish bibliography are analyzed in this paper. The reader will also find unexpected connections of the periodic table with the Bible or the architect Buckminster Fuller.
It is widely assumed that perception is a source of reasons (SR). There is a weak sense in which this claim is trivially true: even if one characterizes perception in purely causal terms, perceptual beliefs originate from the mind's interaction with the world. When philosophers argue for (SR), however, they have a stronger view in mind: they claim that perception provides pre- or non-doxastic reasons for belief. In this article I examine some ways of developing this view and criticize them. (...) I exploit these results to formulate a series of constraints that a satisfactory account of the epistemic role of perception should fulfil. I also make a positive suggestion: coherentists are right when they claim that only beliefs can be reasons for other beliefs. Nevertheless, I depart from traditional coherentism, for I do not buy its conception of perception as bare sensation, nor explicate the justificatory status of beliefs in terms of coherence. My point is rather that, when one invokes experience to justify a belief, the justifying state must have structural features of beliefs. (shrink)
This paper is about the reconstruction of the Darwinian Theory of Natural Selection. My aim here is to outline the fundamental law of this theory in an informal way from its applications in The Origin of Species and to make explicit its fundamental concepts. I will introduce the theory-nets of special laws that arise from the specialization of the fundamental law. I will assume the metatheoretical structuralist frame. I will also point out many consequences that my proposal has about a (...) few metatheoretical discussions around the theory and, finally, I will relate my propose to other reconstructions available. (shrink)
A Review of The Remains of Being: Hermeneutic Ontology after Metaphysics , by Santiago Zabala This essay offers a critical assessment of Santiago Zabala’s recent book, The Remains of Being: Hermeneutic Ontology After Metaphysics, with the intent of bringing to light Zabala’s most provocative claims about hermeneutics, post-Heideggerian ontology, and the future of philosophy in the postmetaphysical epoch. After reflecting on the aims (section II) and structure of Zabala’s book (section III), the essay attempts to make clear certain (...) tensions that emerge from Zabala’s basic terminology—specifically, the “remains” and “remnants” of Being—with respect to the “subjective” interpretation of Being Zabala defends (section IV). The paper concludes (section V) by pressing Zabala for a more thoroughgoing defense of his most ambitious claims about the primacy of hermeneutics in postmetaphysical thought, particularly regarding his reading of Heidegger’s works. (shrink)
To begin with the former, representation is as familiar as it is puzzling. The English sentence ‘Santiago is east of Sacramento’ represents the world as being a certain way. So does my belief that Santiago is east of Sacramento. In these examples, one item—a sentence or a belief—lays claim to something else, a state of affairs, which may be far removed in space and time. This is the phenomenon that naturalist theories of meaning aim to explain. (...) How is it possible for one thing to stand for something else in this way? (shrink)
Studies in the history, philosophy, sociology, and psychology of science and technology have gathered much information about important cases of scientific development. These cases usually concern the most successful scientists and inventors, such as Darwin, Einstein, and Edison. But case studies rarely address the question of what made these investigators more accomplished than the legions of scientific laborers whose names have been forgotten. This chapter is an attempt to identify many of the psychological and other factors that make some scientists (...) highly successful. I explore two sources of information about routes to scientific achievement. The first derives from a survey that Jeff Shrager conducted at the Workshop on Cognitive Studies of Science and Technology at the University of Virginia in March, 2001. He asked the participants to list “7 habits of highly creative people”, and after the workshop he and I compiled a list of habits recommended by the distinguished group of historians, philosophers, and psychologists at the workshop. My second source of information about the factors contributing to scientific success is advice given by three distinguished biologists who each won a Nobel prize: Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Peter Medawar, and James Watson. These biologists provide advice that usefully supplements the suggestions from the workshop participants. (shrink)
In this article, I re-evaluate critiques of Levinas's Eurocentrism by exploring his openness to decolonial theory. First, I survey Levinas's conceptual confrontation with imperialism, showing that his early Eurocentric work (1930s-1960s) is revised in his later writing (1970s-1980s). Second, I explore the contextual reasons that led him to take that path, such as his previously overlooked conversations with the liberationist South American intellectual Enrique Dussel. Finally, I present the case for a revisitation of the current theoretical frameworks of Jewish thought. (...) I explain how Levinas's encounter with Third World discourses helps to add a needed decolonial layer to contemporary Jewish intercultural conversations. (shrink)
: In this essay, Solis contemplates how queercrip—both homosexual and disabled—readings of four editions of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" might be used to destabilize "normative" sexual identities. His goal is to argue against secrecy and for disclosure; thus, a main question guides the analysis: How might we (for example, parents, teachers, counselors) use picture books to reevaluate human sexuality in all its varied manifestations to avoid condemning to the closet all those who do not approximate a prescribed "norm"?
Recent debates on mental extension and distributed cognition have taught us that environmental resources play an important and often indispensable role in supporting cognitive capacities. In order to clarify how interactions between the mind –particularly memory– and the world take place, this paper presents the “selection problem” and the “endorsement problem” as structural problems arising from such interactions in cases of mental scaffolding. On the one hand, the selection problem arises each time an agent is confronted with a cognitive problem, (...) since she has to choose whether to solve it internally or externally. How does she choose? On the other hand, when confronted with the internally or externally retrieved solution to a cognitive task, the subject has to decide whether to endorse the information. How does the subject decide whether to endorse it or not? The last section proposes a solution to each problem in terms of metamemory and metacognitive feelings. Metamemory evaluates memory each time the subject is confronted with a memory task and elicits either a positive or negative metacognitive feeling that guides the decision. (shrink)
Context: In 1974, Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela published De Máquinas y Seres Vivos Autopoiesis: La organización de lo vivo in Santiago, Chile as a little book. A second edition of this publication was proposed in 1994, and the present document is a recent translation of Maturana’s reflections “twenty years after.” Problem: The book clearly enunciates what it means to say that living systems are molecular autopoietic systems, and this Preface reflects on the shift of understanding from earlier notions (...) of self-referred or auto-referred systems to the concept of autopoiesis. Implications: The Preface describes the systemic quality that is human living and human sense-making. It marks what we can retrospectively see as the bridge between the explicitly biological studies of Maturana (and Varela), and the later, more anthropological and therapeutic work of Maturana with Gerda Verden-Zöller between 1989 and 1994 and, especially, with Ximena Dávila Yáñez since the year 1999. Results: The underlying understanding implicit in this document outlines in great clarity the implications of Maturana’s fundamental insights. It presents both a logical and passionately argued case for mutual respect, grounded in scientific findings in biology. The Preface is a clear vision of why Maturana’s work has been so influential for reflexivity and constructivism. (shrink)
The essays in this volume concern the topic of legal rights, how they are related to morality, the place of rights on moral theory, and the legal recognition of rights.
This book collects essays from the 2006 and 2007 International Philosophy Colloquia Evian, centred around a central problem in the philosophy of mind: the relationship between the human faculty of sensory experience and the faculty of conceptual reflection, that is self-consciousness. Containing articles by philosophers of eight nationalities, in three languages (English, French, German), and of "analytical" as well as "continental" provenance, it beautifully represents the spirit of the colloquia. Authors include Joshua Andresen (AU Beirut), Valérie Aucouturier (Kent U / (...) U Paris I), Karin de Boer (KU Leuven), Santiago Echeverri (U Genève), Roberto Farneti (LU Bolzano), Tim Henning (JLU Giessen), Felix Koch (Columbia U), Christophe Laudou (Madrid), David Lauer (FU Berlin), Jason Leddington (Bucknell U), Nicolas Monseu (UC Louvain), Soraya Nour (HU Berlin), Hans Bernhard Schmid (U Wien), Henning Tegtmeyer (U Leipzig). (shrink)
Celebrates the 50th anniversary of the publication of one of the most important philosophical works in the 20th century with essays by most of the leading figures in contemporary hermeneutic theory.
Introducción: Camagüey ocupa el cuarto lugar nacional en cuanto al número de infectados con VIH/SIDA, después de La Habana, Santiago de Cuba y Holguín. Camagüey se encuentra dentro de los 45 municipios con mayor prevalencia en Cuba. Objetivo: identificar las actitudes socioculturales frente a las infecciones de transmisión sexual en estudiantes de primer año de Medicina. Método: en noviembre de 2011 se realizó un estudio analítico, de corte transversal, a una muestra de estudiantes de la Universidad de Ciencias Médicas (...) "Carlos J. Finlay". Se utilizó una encuesta para recoger información. Con el método no paramétrico de Kruskal Wallis se determinó el nivel de conocimiento de los mismos en cada uno de los componentes relacionados con las actitudes socioculturales. Se utilizó la técnica no paramétrica de ji cuadrado para evaluar si existían diferencias significativas entre los distintos grupos de edades, el sexo y el estado civil. Resultados: se valoró que el componente conductual se encuentra fortalecido, entre otras actitudes, por la tendencia de los estudiantes a mantener parejas estables. En el componente cognitivo sólo un 46 % supo reconocer las vías de transmisión del VIH/SIDA, y un 13,2 % no identificó las manifestaciones clínicas relacionadas con las infecciones de transmisión sexual. En el componente afectivo se destacó un 12 % de los encuestados como grupo de riesgo a los que no les gusta usar el preservativo. Conclusiones: como resultado de la encuesta se lograron identificar algunas actitudes socioculturales frente a las infecciones de transmisión sexual en estudiantes de Medicina de primer año, en los componentes valorados. Background: Camagüey has the fourth national place in the number of persons infected with VHI/AIDS, after Havana, Santiago and Holguín. Objetive: the aim of this work is identifying socio-cultural attitudes to face of the infections of sexual transmission in first year Medicine students. Methods: in November 2011, a group of students participated in a questionnaire. The non-parametric test Kruskal Wallis was made to find significant differences in the answers given by persons with different age, sex or civil status, Frequency of answers to each question was found out. The non parametric technique of Ji square was used to evaluate if there were significant differences among the different groups of ages, the sex and the civil status. Results: it was valued that the behavioral component is strengthened, among other attitudes, for the tendency of the students to maintain stable couples, only a 46 % know most of transmission ways of STD and a 13,2 % know the clinical symptoms, a 12 % said they did not like condom use. Conclusions: it was possible to find with this survey some socio-cultural attitudes to face of the infections of sexual transmission in first year Medicine students. (shrink)
In this paper we study the Kolmogorov complexity for non-effective computations, that is, either halting or non-halting computations on Turing machines. This complexity function is defined as the length of the shortest input that produce a desired output via a possibly non-halting computation. Clearly this function gives a lower bound of the classical Kolmogorov complexity. In particular, if the machine is allowed to overwrite its output, this complexity coincides with the classical Kolmogorov complexity for halting computations relative to the first (...) jump of the halting problem. However, on machines that cannot erase their output –called monotone machines–, we prove that our complexity for non effective computations and the classical Kolmogorov complexity separate as much as we want. We also consider the prefix-free complexity for possibly infinite computations. We study several properties of the graph of these complexity functions and specially their oscillations with respect to the complexities for effective computations. (shrink)
During his historic Galápagos visit in 1835, Darwin spent nine days making scientific observations and collecting specimens on Santiago (James Island). In the course of this visit, Darwin ascended twice to the Santiago highlands. There, near springs located close to the island's summit, he conducted his most detailed observations of Galapagos tortoises. The precise location of these springs, which has not previously been established, is here identified using Darwin's own writings, satellite maps, and GPS technology. Photographic evidence from (...) excursions to the areas where Darwin climbed, including repeat photography over a period of four decades, offers striking evidence of the deleterious impact of feral mammals introduced after Darwin's visit. Exploring the impact that Darwin's Santiago visit had on his thinking - especially focusing on his activities in the highlands - raises intriguing questions about the depth of his understanding of the evolutionary evidence he encountered while in the Galápagos. These questions and related insights provide further evidence concerning the timing of Darwin's conversion to the theory of evolution, which, despite recent claims to the contrary, occurred only after his return to England. (shrink)
Among the phenomena that make up the mind, cognitive psychologists and philosophers have postulated a puzzling one that they have called ?epistemic feelings.? This paper aims to (1) characterize these experiences according to their intentional content and phenomenal character, and (2) describe the nature of these mental states as nonconceptual in the cases of animals and infants, and as conceptual mental states in the case of adult human beings. Finally, (3) the paper will contrast three accounts of the causes and (...) mechanisms of epistemic feelings: the doxastic account; the mental scanner account; and the heuristic mechanism account. The paper will argue in favor of the heuristic mechanism account. (shrink)
Although Heidegger thinks cybernetics is the “supreme danger,” he also thinks that it harbours within itself poiēsis, the “saving power.” This article providesa justification of this position through an analysis of its relation to Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela’s Santiago theory of cognition and James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis’ Gaia theory. More specifically, it argues that Maturana and Varela’s criticism of cybernetics and their concomitant theory of “autopoiesis” constitutes the philosophical disclosure of “Being itself,” and that the extension of (...)Santiago theory’s various different conceptualizations of poiēsis to Gaia theory makes possible the rise of the “saving power.”. (shrink)
We consider the question of randomness of the probability ΩU[X] that an optimal Turing machine U halts and outputs a string in a fixed set X. The main results are as follows: ΩU[X] is random whenever X is $\Sigma _{n}^{0}$-complete or $\Pi _{n}^{0}$-complete for some n ≥ 2. However, for n ≥ 2, ΩU[X] is not n-random when X is $\Sigma _{n}^{0}$ or $\Pi _{n}^{0}$ Nevertheless, there exists $\Delta _{n+1}^{0}$ sets such that ΩU[X] is n-random. There are $\Delta _{2}^{0}$ sets (...) X such that ΩU[X] is rational. Also, for every n ≥ 1, there exists a set X which is $\Delta _{n+1}^{0}$ and $\Sigma _{n}^{0}$-hard such that ΩU[X] is not random. We also look at the range of ΩU as an operator. We prove that the set {ΩU[X]: X ⊆ 2<ω} is a finite union of closed intervals. It follows that for any optimal machine U and any sufficiently small real r, there is a set X ⊆ 2<ω recursive in ∅′ ⊕ r, such that ΩU[X] = r. The same questions are also considered in the context of infinite computations, and lead to similar results. (shrink)
Political Freedom By George G. Brenkert Routledge, 1991. Pp. 278. ISBN 0?415?03372?1. £35 hbk. Wittgenstein: A Bibliographical Guide By Guido Frongia and Brian McGuinness Basil Blackwell, 1990. Pp. x + 438. ISBN 00631?13765?3. £60.00. Metaphysics By Peter van Inwagen Oxford University Press, 1993. Pp. xiii + 222. ISBN 0?19?8751400. £11.95 pbk. The Nature of Moral Thinking By Francis Snare Routledge, 1992. Pp. 187. ISBN 0?415?04709?9. £9.99 pbk. Filosofía analitica hoy: Encuentro de tradiciones Edited by Mercedes Torrevejano Servicio de Publications Universidade (...) de Santiago de Compostela, 1991. Pp. 284. ISBN 84?7191?722?X. $15.5 pbk. The Puzzle of Experience By J.J. Valberg Clarendon Press, 1992. Pp. 227. ISBN 0?19?824291?3. £25. Religion and Philosophy Edited by Martin Warner Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement: 31 Cambridge University Press, 1992. Pp. vi + 155. ISBN 0?521?42951?X. £10.95 pbk. The Uses of Philosophy By Mary Warnock Blackwell, 1992. Pp. 256. ISBN 0?631?18038?9. £35.00 hbk. £11.95 pbk. The Disappearance of Time: Kurt Godel and the Idealistic Tradition in Philosophy By Palle Yourgrau Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pp. x + 182. ISBN 0?521?41012?6. £27.50. (shrink)
Se indaga la relación que se da en la República entre los dos significados de ousia: como propiedad en el sentido de posesiones y riqueza, o en el sentido de esencia o sustancia. Aparte de las relaciones económicas asociadas al préstamo, al intercambio y al interés, se examina la función que, respecto de la ousia, cumple la moneda en la economía como recurso para disociar la riqueza de las posesiones, con lo cual logra un nivel de universalidad y equivalencia equiparable (...) al del propio ser. The article inquires into the relation established in the Republic between the two meanings of ousia: property in the sense of possessions and wealth, and essence or substance. Besides the economic relations associated with loans, exchange, and interest, the paper examines the role of currency in the economy, with respect to ousia, as a means of dissociating wealth from possessions, thus achieving a degree of universality comparable to that of being itself. (shrink)
This paper intends to show that our reception of Plato’s criticism of Anaxagoras’ philosophy of mind (noûs) is mediated by Thomas Aquinas’ conception of freedom. The Socratic-Platonic Metaphysical theory of mind as essentially connected to the best is transformed by Aristotle into a theory of the intelligence which, in its acting, necessarily records the possibility of performing the opposites or contraries. Therefore, ‘the (Platonic) best’ is now specifically understood as ‘the best possible’. Within this Metaphysical conception, Aquinas distinguishes two levels (...) (which are also to be found in ‘freedom’). In the first or more superfical one–here called ‘horizontal’–, the mind chooses to perform the best possible or not, that is, it can fulfill the science which is within the mind itself or not. In the second or more radical one –here called ‘vertical’–, the mind has to perform a reflexive act, by means of which it chooses willing or not its necessary possibility of performing the science that the mind possesses. (shrink)
El siguiente artículo fue presentado en las conferencias en Barcelona, España (Octubre 2011); Santiago, Chile (Octubre 2011) y Buenos Aires, Argentina (Noviembre 2011), celebrando el centenario de los Relatos del Padre Brown. Esta conferencia fue traducida al Catálan por la Dra. Silvia Coll-Vinent para la conferencia en la Facultad de Filosofía de la Universidad Ramon Llul en Barcelona. Traducción de Florencia Velasco-Suárez.
Aquest article del R. P. Ian Boyd fou presentat a les conferències de Barcelona, Espanya (octubre 2011); Santiago de Xile (octubre 2011) i Buenos Aires, Argentina (novembre 2011), per celebrar el centenari de les històries del Pare Brown. La conferència fou traduïda al català per a la sessió realitzada a la Facultat de Filosofia de la Universitat Ramon Llull de Barcelona. Traducción de Silvia Coll-Vinent.
The article deals with question 1st (chapter 1) of the Coimbra Jesuit Commentary on the Aristotelian ‘De Coelo’ (1593), “Whether the Universe is perfect”. The Author aims at reading anew the Portuguese question, pointing to the place the Universe has in man’s heart by underlining that the cosmos must have in man (“parvus mundus”) its conditions of legality.
The focus here will be on the tension between architecture’s symbolic role and its function as a space to house and present art. ‘Symbolic’ refers both to a building as an aesthetic or sculptural form and secondly to its role in expressing civic identity. ‘Function’ refers to the intended purpose or practical use apart from its role as a form of art. As an art form, it serves important symbolic purposes; its practical purposes are linked to serving individual and community (...) functions requiring the delineation of space. In the present context of museum architecture, certain museum buildings are more likely to be seen as a sculptural object than as functioning buildings. The reasons for this development derive in part from unresolved issues pertaining to the respective roles of symbolic and practicalfunction as is seen in the analysis of architecture provided by G. W. F. Hegel, Rudolf Arnheim and Nelson Goodman. The vocabularies of contemporary architects such Frank Gehry and Santiago Calatrava do not follow the abstract geometrical patterns of Le Corbusier or Louis Kahn who envisioned a universal vocabulary of architectural forms derived from industrial technical forms that underscored Modernist conventions in architecture.By looking at this issue in the contexts provided by the theoretical discussions of Hegel, Arnheim and Goodman, it is possible to see more clearly the importance of examining with a critical eye the relative place of symbolism and function in museum architecture, and to question whether current museum practice has gone astray in allowing the sculptural symbolism to become the dominant element. When either its symbolic or its practical aspects are out of balance the result is sure to be unsatisfactory architecture. If the past is a reliable guide, it works best when the symbolic (sculptural) and the practical in architecture are worked out in harmony with each other. (shrink)
Durante el año 2008, el Seminario de Sociedad y Cultura Contemporáneas de nuestra universidad quiso celebrar un ciclo de conferencias sobre la actualidad de lo trágico. Nuestra convicción era que la cultura contemporánea volvía a necesitar la voz y la energía del pensamiento de la tragedia, después de que estas hubieran sido interesadamente neutralizadas en los últimos tiempos. Para este proyecto, se contó con la presencia de toda una autoridad mundial en esta área, Sergio Givone, así como con reputados profesores (...) españoles como Luis Enrique de Santiago Guervós, Pilar López de Santamaría, Marco Parmeggiani o Celso Sánchez Capdequí; acompañados a su vez de jóvenes promesas del panorama nacional. El resultado de ese ciclo es este volumen, donde se recorre a ese respecto un trayecto tanto cronológico (que pasa por Schopenhauer, Dostoievski, Nietzsche, Unamuno, los futuristas) como temático (con asuntos tales que la libertad, el amor fati, el arte contemporáneo, la novedad y la educación). (shrink)
Pensamiento atrevido y nuevo, visión abierta, donde el lector hallará cuestiones clave del conocimiento, pero también del confundir y fundir, metafísica, física, antropología, sociedad. Desde la psicología a la reunión de los hombres en ciudades, la política, todo penetrado de la mirada estética, como si el saber fuera una de las bellas artes. Cuestiones como la Orden del Temple, la francmasonería, el ciber-arte, la clonación de obras artísticas o las bibliotecas digitales se convierten en ejemplos para una filosofía alternativa. Ilia (...) Galán, Titular de Estética y Teoría del Arte en la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid y profesor invitado en las universidades de Oxford, Harvard, la Sorbona, New Tork University, etc. Columnista habitual en El País, y otros periódicos. Entre sus libros, editados en varios idiomas, destacan: El Dios de los dioses (Ciencia del Arte) 1993, El romanticismo: Schelling o el arte divino Madrid, 1999, Actualidad del pensamiento de Sem Tob (filosofía hispano-hebrea del siglo XIV), 2003, 2004. Teorías del arte desde el siglo XXI, 2005, Sabiduría oculta en el Camino de Santiago, 2011. (shrink)
A pesar de que son numerosas las interpretaciones que, a veces con inusitada violencia, se han hecho de la filosofía de Friedrich Nietzsche, no se ha prestado siempre la debida atención a uno de los aspectos más importantes de su obra y sin el cual ésta perdería toda la tensión creativa que le es propia: la reflexión radical sobre el arte. Nietzsche se funda en la convicción de que el «arte y nada más que el arte» no sólo es un (...) «estímulo para la vida», sino también aquello que puede enseñar a vivirla y a que sea posible y soportable. El arte sería así la «actividad metafísica fundamental» del hombre, el epítome de todas sus facultades creativas, desplegadas frente a la «negación de vivir» y a las instancias que merman el sentido de la vida, expresadas en el cristianismo, el budismo y, en definitiva, el nihilismo. El presente ensayo, fruto de años de trabajo e investigación, trata de articular estas ideas para ofrecer una nueva lectura del pensamiento nietzscheano, y es la primera obra en castellano que aborda la cuestión del arte en Nietzsche en todas sus dimensiones y en todas las etapas de su producción filosófica. (shrink)
The platonic ideas attribution into God’s mind creates a problem, namely: how to speak about “divine attributes” without put multiplicity into the divine simple substance? From this problem, this paper aims to show how Luis de Léon is between Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus.
French epistemology of mathematics — Cavailles, Lautman, Herbrand — took a critical position about the project for a theory of science stated by the Vienna Circle. The opportunity was provided by the International Congress of Philosophy of Science celebrated in Prague in 1936. The position taken by Cavailles and Lautmann was surprisingly close to that taken by Tarski's introduction of semantics and to Wittgenstein's Tractatus. More specifically, to those parts of the Tractatus that were disqualified by Carnap. This criticism will (...) be a part of what would later constitute "mathematical philosophy". (shrink)
