Una consecuencia de la revolución digital es la aparición del big data, que puede ser considerado como un elemento fundamental para la constitución de eso que autores como Byung-Chul Han denominan “psicopolítica”. Según Han, la sociedad en que vivimos tiene dos fundamentales características que se complementan entre sí: la nuestra es una “sociedad de la transparencia” y también una “sociedad digital”. Estas dos características tienen negativas consecuencias para los humanos. Siguiendo a Foucault y Deleuze, Han considera que el ser humano (...) será capaz de escapar de la esclavitud impuesta por él mismo si logra transformar el peso cualitativo de sus acciones. Es decir, si consigue que estas, en lugar de ser perfectamente predecibles y calculables, pasen a ser acontecimientos, en el pleno sentido de esta palabra: creaciones impredecibles que contribuyan, en términos nietzscheanos, a su autosuperación y, por ende, a hacer de su vida una obra de arte. (shrink)

The radical posthumanism of Kurzweil aims to achieve immortality. Fukuyama and Habermas criticize posthumanism defending the idea of an inalterable human nature. Pinker, for his part, considers that there is a human nature, but susceptible to modifications. There is a limit to human nature: it is found in the mortal nature of each member of the human species. Sloterdijk will introduce a nuance and insist on the natality of the creative acts of man, standing in continuity with the Nietzschean concept (...) of overman. (shrink)

Nietzsche ha sido considerado como un autor que defiende los derechos de lo auditivo frente al dominio de lo visual, subrayándose sus reflexiones en torno a la música. El artículo defiende la siguiente tesis: la crítica de Nietzsche al ocularcentrismo no tiene como consecuencia la sustitución de éste por un audiocentrismo excluyente. La crítica nietzscheana a la primacía de lo visual se limita a la concepción de lo visual presentada por la metafísica, mientras que su defensa de lo auditivo va (...) acompañada de una concepción de la visión a la que se podría denominar dionisíaca. (shrink)

This paper is an invitation to reflect on the advisability of analysing philosophy from a naturalistic perspective. That is, from a perspective that considers philosophy as if it was one more cultural object, which can be studied using the tools that we have available to us today and that are provided by disciplines such as evolutionary psychology or anthropology oriented by a distinctly cognitivist approach. A central concept in the analysis is that of “intuitive ontology” – closely linked to intuitive (...) (or folk-) philosophy or the spontaneous, naïve (natural) way of thinking that is associated with common sense – which is a result of the evolutionary process and a source of metaphysical prejudices such as dualism. A metaphilosophical reflection, such as that proposed here, identifies the “natural” character of a transcendent metaphysics that is still too close to intuitive philosophy, and the interest of constituting a naturalistic philosophy that is fully conscious of its “unnatural” or “counterintuitive” character. (shrink)

Nietzsche utiliza gran parte de los argumentos empleados por él mismo contra la metafísica en general para criticar el cogito cartesiano. La afinidad señalada por el propio Descartes entre el cogito y la conciencia hace que el estudio se centre en el análisis nietzscheano del problema de la conciencia, prestando especial atención a sus implicaciones antropológicas. Frente al raciocentrismo cartesiano, Nietzsche sostiene que, dado que la conciencia no es una entidad ajena al mundo natural, es posible presentar una antropología estrictamente (...) naturalista, que no necesita recurrir a hipótesis dualistas tribu-tarias de la metafísica o de la teología. (shrink)

Frente a Descartes, y de acuerdo con autores como Nietzsche, Darwin o Chomsky, Pinker sostiene que el lenguaje es un instinto más de la naturaleza humana. Pero se separa de Chomsky al afirmar que el lenguaje es también el resultado del mecanismo de la selección natural. Recientes descubrimientos parecen respaldar la tesis de Pinker, en la medida en que se ha podido establecer una vinculación entre el gen FOXP2 y el lenguaje. La filosofía debería tomar buena nota de estos esultados, (...) pues afectan de lleno al estatuto del lógos: en adelante, es posible, sin necesidad de recurrir a ninguna instancia... (Leer más) trascendente, considerar al lenguaje como constitutivo de la sigularidad humana con respecto a las demás especies y, al mismo tiempo, como un avatar más de la evolución del mundo natural. (shrink)

El hombre es el único animal que cree haber comprendido el mecanismo que le ha llevadohasta su presente como especie. Comprender este proceso es el primer paso, al que le puedeseguir la consideración de la posibilidad de actuar sobre él de manera consciente. Al hombrese le abre la posibilidad de actuar, mediante la biotecnología, sobre el proceso evolutivo paratratar de «mejorar» sus prestaciones biológicas, atravesando el umbral de la humanidad conel fin de lograr una condición «posthumana». La cuestión del posthumanismo (...) es objeto deun encendido debate que el artículo trata de reflejar. (shrink)

Nietzsche uses many of the arguments used by himself against metaphysics in general to criticize the Cartesian cogito. The affinity indicated by Descartes himself between cogito and conscience means that the study focuses on the Nietzschean analysis of the problem of conscience, paying special attention to its anthropological implications. Faced with Cartesian reasoncentrism, Nietzsche maintains that, given that conscience is not an entity removed from the natural world, it is possible to present a strictly naturalist anthropology, eliminating the need to (...) resort to dualist hypothesis drawn from metaphysics or theology. (shrink)

This book explores the epistemic side of racial and sexual oppression. It elucidates how social insensitivities and imposed silences prevent members of different groups from listening to each other.

This paper provides a detailed analysis of how, according to Kant, the moral badness of some third parties’ actions can be established with certainty (by anyone, not only by the agent’s own conscience or by God). This account helps clarify why Kant affirms that some forms of wrongdoing (of which there are a “multitude of woeful examples”) can be demonstrated to be immoral, while excluding the possibility of proving the moral goodness of any action. The paper concludes by arguing that (...) the possible certainty of judgements imputing immorality to actions of others is not rational but rather moral. (shrink)

The Gamer's Dilemma challenges us to find a distinction between virtual murder and virtual pedophilia. Without such a distinction, we are forced to conclude that either both are morally acceptable or that both should be morally illicit. This paper argues that the best way to solve the dilemma is, in one sense, to dissolve it. The Gamer's Dilemma rests on a misunderstanding in the sense that it does not distinguish between the form of a simulation and its surface content. A (...) greater appreciation of the way structural features of a simulation affect subject experience will help us see why only simulations of murder and pedophilia generating virtually real experiences are likely to be seen as wrong. I argue that a simulation’s structural elements powerfully affect how subjects experience simulated content and hence is an important, and previously neglected, variable necessary to dissolve the Gamer's Dilemma. Properly understood, virtually real simulations of murder and pedophilia are both likely to be treated by players as morally wrong. Similarly, virtually unreal murder and pedophilia will be less likely to be judged as wrong. Subject judgments are thus consistent once a simulation’s structural variables are accounted for. The Gamer's Dilemma dissolves as a dilemma once we acknowledge these structural features of simulations and how they affect experience and moral judgment. (shrink)

In this concise, witty critical study, Merquior examines Foucault's work on madness, sexuality, and power and offers a provocative assessment of Foucault as a "neo-anarchist." Merquior brings an astonishing breadth of scholarship to bear on his subject as he explores Foucault using insights from a range of fields including philosophy, sociology, and history.

This paper argues that, while there is a difference between personal and sub-personal explanation, claims of autonomy should be treated with scepticism. It distinguishes between horizontal and vertical explanatory relations that might hold between facts at the personal and facts at the sub-personal level. Noting that many philosophers are prepared to accept vertical explanatory relations between the two levels, I argue for the stronger claim that, in the case of at least three central personal level phenomena, the demands of explanatory (...) adequacy require postulating horizontal explanatory relations. (shrink)

Corporate America is institutionalizing ethics through a variety of structures, systems, and processes. This study sought to identify managerial perceptions regarding the institutionalization of ethics in organizations. Eighty-six corporate level marketing and human resource managers of American multi-national corporations responded to a mail survey regarding the various implicit and explicit ways by which corporations institutionalize ethics. The results revealed that managers found ethics to be good for the bottom line of the organizations, they did not perceive the need for additional (...) formalization of ethics, and that they perceived implicit forms of institutionalizing ethics (e.g., leadership, corporate culture, top management support) to be more effective than the explicit forms of institutionalizing ethics (e.g., ethics ombudspeople, ethics committees, ethics newsletters). Implications of the survey and future research directions conclude the paper. (shrink)

v. 1. Edad Media. 4. ed. -- v. 2. La época del Renacimiento. 2. ed. -- v. 3. El siglo del Barroco. 3. ed.

This paper aims to outline an analysis and interpretation of the process that led to First-Order Logic and its consolidation as a core system of modern logic. We begin with an historical overview of landmarks along the road to modern logic, and proceed to a philosophical discussion casting doubt on the possibility of a purely rational justification of the actual delimitation of First-Order-Logic. On this basis, we advance the thesis that a certain historical tradition was essential to the emergence of (...) modern logic; this traditional context is analyzed as consisting in some guiding principles and, particularly, a set of exemplares (i.e., paradigmatic instances). Then, we proceed to interpret the historical course of development reviewed in section 1, which can broadly be described as a two-phased movement of expansion and then restriction of the scope of logical theory. We shall try to pinpoint ambivalencies in the process, and the main motives for subsequent changes. Among the latter, one may emphasize the spirit of modern axiomatics, the situation of foundational insecurity in the 1920s, the resulting desire to find systems well-behaved from a proof-theoretical point of view, and the metatheoretical results of the 1930s. Not surprisingly, the mathematical and, more specifically, the foundational context in which Firs-Order-Logic matured will be seen to have played a primary role in its shaping. (shrink)

t. 1. La moral teológica y su acción en el paganismo. La moral teológica y su acción en el judaismo.--t. 2. La moral teológica y su acción en el cristianismo.

Tarski's 1936 paper, “On the concept of logical consequence”, is a rather philosophical, non-technical paper that leaves room for conflicting interpretations. My purpose is to review some important issues that explicitly or implicitly constitute its themes. My discussion contains four sections: terminological and conceptual preliminaries, Tarski's definition of the concept of logical consequence, Tarski's discussion of omega-incomplete theories, and concluding remarks concerning the kind of conception that Tarski's definition was intended to explicate. The third section involves subsidiary issues, such as (...) Tarski's discussion concerning the distinction between material and formal consequence and the important question ofthe criterion for distinguishing between logical and non-logical terms.§1. Preliminaries. In this paper an argument is a two-part system composed of a set of propositions P and a single proposition c. The expression ‘c is a [logical] consequence of P’ is used with the same meaning as the expression ‘c is [logically] implied by P’. The expressions ‘is a logical consequence of’ and the converse ‘implies’ are relational. Often, I shall be talking in the same sense of validity of an argument. Validity is a property of arguments; an argument with premise-set P and conclusion c is valid if and only if P implies c; i.e., c is a logical consequence of P. Notice that this notion of argument is strictly ontic; it does not involve any agent that thinks, determines or establishes that a given proposition is or is not a consequence of a given set of propositions. (shrink)

Las tesis que aquí se presentan han sido elaboradas a partir del análisis del ensayo de Jan Mukarovsky: “Función, norma y valor estético como hechos sociales”. (Cfr. Jan Mukarovsky. Escritos de estética y semiótica del arte, pp. 44-121). Las mismas han sido enriquecidas como resultado del debate que, generación tras generación, sobre ellas hemos sostenido con los estudiantes —la mayoría de ellos hoy egresados del posgrado en Estética y Arte de la BUAP—. Es un trabajo que lleva su huella y (...) ningún marco mejor para incluirlo que el de este libro de la serie Academia y Egresados de la Colección La Fuente. Sirva su publicación, entonces, como reconocimiento a la participación activa y creativa de todos ellos en esos siempre gratificantes cursos de Estética y Teoría del Arte III. (shrink)

Despite frequent calls for the overhaul of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST), this controversial procedure remains ubiquitous in behavioral, social and biomedical teaching and research. Little change seems possible once the procedure becomes well ingrained in the minds and current practice of researchers; thus, the optimal opportunity for such change is at the time the procedure is taught, be this at undergraduate or at postgraduate levels. This paper presents a tutorial for the teaching of data testing procedures, often referred to (...) as hypothesis testing theories. The first procedure introduced is Fisher's approach to data testing—tests of significance; the second is Neyman-Pearson's approach—tests of acceptance; the final procedure is the incongruent combination of the previous two theories into the current approach—NSHT. For those researchers sticking with the latter, two compromise solutions on how to improve NHST conclude the tutorial. (shrink)

One of the key debates in the literature on small and medium enterprises and corporate social responsibility in developing countries has to do with the role that local industrial districts, or so-called industrial clusters, play in the promotion of CSR in those countries. While there is now an embryonic literature on this subject, we lack systematic, integrated analytical frameworks that can improve our understanding of the role that governance of clusters play in addressing CSR concerns in SMEs in developing countries. (...) This article develops such a conceptual framework drawing on the literatures on cluster governance, CSR, SMEs, and environmental management as they relate to the developing countries. The authors argue that environmental improvements in SME clusters can be achieved through three basic types of cluster governance: legal enforcement, supply chain pressure, and voluntary engagement in CSR. The proposed framework is an attempt to show how each type of cluster governance is likely to induce different responses in cluster-based SMEs. These responses are related to stages of CSR in which SMEs engage, the barriers to EM they face, the types of EM practices they use, the climate change strategy types they use, and the kinds of benefits that accrue to SMEs from engagement in CSR. The authors put foward a framework that can be useful for both academics and practitioners as they seek to reflect on the interconnectedness of these themes from a research, policy, and practice perspective. (shrink)

This paper explores the relation between two ways of thinking about the sources of self-consciousness. We can think about the sources of self-consciousness either in genetic terms (as the origins or precursors of self-conscious thoughts) or in epistemic terms (as the grounds of self-conscious judgements). Using Christopher Peacocke's account of self-conscious judgements in Being Known as a foil, this paper brings out some important ways in which we need to draw upon the sources of self-consciousness in the genetic sense for (...) a proper understanding of the sources of self-consciousness in the epistemic sense. (shrink)

How precisely to understand and evaluate counterfactuals can be an intricate issue. The aim of this article is to examine a new set of difficulties for evaluating counterfactuals that arise in the context of the dynamical spacetimes described by the theory of general relativity (GR). The initial value formulation provides us with a methodology to pin down the specific combination of features of the theory at the origin of the difficulties, namely, non-linearity and certain non-local aspects (typically captured by ellipticity (...) at the analytical level), in particular when combined with the global and/or quasi-local character of physical quantities in GR. Finally, we connect the philosophical question about counterfactuals with concrete applied physical issues in GR about extracting meaningful predictions by constructing appropriate initial data sets, leading us to question the very suitability of the Cauchy approach to fully account for the explanatory power of the theory. (shrink)

Este trabajo tiene el objetivo de mostrar que actualmente la bioética, si bien requiere de la aplicación de conocimientos de disciplinas heterogéneas, afronta diversas polémicas que tienen una estructura filosófica. Para sustentar una perspectiva filosófica como problema central, el método de abordaje de la presente propuesta contempla un análisis acerca del tipo de indagaciones que caracterizan a la bioética, la delimitación del objeto que estudia, las propuestas metodológicas más relevantes y aquellas alternativas de búsqueda que pretenden tomar distancia de la (...) reflexión filosófica, paralelamente a las variadas conceptualizaciones que parten de la moral y desembocan en la casuística. El argumento central es que la bioética atiende a incertidumbres morales que surgen en la interacción con la vida, estas son el objeto sobre el que reflexiona la ética, y si la ética es una disciplina que se resuelve apelando a los métodos de la filosofía, con este trabajo se pretende concluir que la bioética necesariamente ha de tener una estructura filosófica. (shrink)

In this paper we analyze some aspects of the question of using methods from model theory to study structures of functional analysis.By a well known result of P. Lindström, one cannot extend the expressive power of first order logic and yet preserve its most outstanding model theoretic characteristics (e.g., compactness and the Löwenheim-Skolem theorem). However, one may consider extending the scope of first order in a different sense, specifically, by expanding the class of structures that are regarded as models (e.g., (...) including Banach algebras or other structures of functional analysis), and ask whether the resulting extensions of first order model theory preserve some of its desirable characteristics.A formal framework for the study of structures based on Banach spaces from the perspective of model theory was first introduced by C. W. Henson in [8] and [6]. Notions of syntax and semantics for these structures were defined, and it was shown that using them one obtains a model theoretic apparatus that satisfies many of the fundamental properties of first order model theory. For instance, one has compactness, Löwenheim-Skolem, and omitting types theorems. Further aspects of the theory, namely, the fundamentals of stability and forking, were first introduced in [10] and [9].The classes of mathematical structures formally encompassed by this framework are normed linear spaces, possibly expanded with additional structure,e.g., operations, real-valued relations, and constants. This notion subsumes wide classes of structures from functional analysis. However, the restriction that the universe of a structure be a normed space is not necessary. (This restriction has a historical, rather than technical origin; specifically, the development of the theory was originally motivated by questions in Banach space geometry.) Analogous techniques can be applied if the universe is a metric space. Now, when the underlying metric topology is discrete, the resulting model theory coincides with first order model theory, so this logic extends first order in the sense described above. Furthermore, without any cost in the mathematical complexity, one can also work in multi-sorted contexts, so, for instance, one sort could be an operator algebra while another is. say, a metric space. (shrink)

José L. Zalabardo defends a pragmatist account of what grounds the meaning of central semantic discourses--ascriptions of truth, of propositional attitudes, and of meanings. He argues that it is the procedures that regulate acceptance and rejection that give the sentences of these discourses their meanings, and explores the application of the pragmatist template to ethical discourse. The pragmatist approach is presented as an alternative to representationalist accounts of the meaning grounds of declarative sentences, according to which a sentence has (...) the meaning it has as a result of links with the bits of the world that it purports to represent. Zalabardo develops a version of the open-question argument to support the claim that the meaning grounds of the discourses he focuses on cannot receive representationalist accounts. It is generally assumed that a declarative sentence cannot perform the function of representing the world unless it has a representationalist meaning ground. Zalabardo rejects this assumption, arguing that sentences with pragmatist meaning grounds can represent the world in exactly the same sense that sentences with representationalist meaning grounds do. This requires that there are states of affairs that the target sentences represent as obtaining, and Zalabardo develops an account of the nature of the states of affairs that can play this role for sentences with pragmatist meaning grounds. Pragmatist Semantics concludes by developing the suggestion that the meaning grounds of all our representational discourses might be ultimately pragmatist. (shrink)

Background The Regional Committee for Africa of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2001 expressed concern that some health-related studies undertaken in the Region were not subjected to any form of ethics review. In 2003, the study reported in this paper was conducted to determine which Member country did not have a national research ethics committee (REC) with a view to guiding the WHO Regional Office in developing practical strategies for supporting those countries. Methods This is a descriptive study. The (...) questionnaire was prepared and sent by diplomatic pouch to all the 46 Member States in the WHO African Region, through the WHO country representatives, for facilitation and follow up. The data were entered in Excel spreadsheet and subsequently exported to STATA for analysis. A Chi-Squared test (χ 2) for independence was undertaken to test the relationship between presence/absence of Research Ethics Committee (REC) and selected individual socioeconomic and health variables. Results The main findings were as follows: the response rate was 61% (28/46); 64% (18/28) confirmed the existence of RECs; 36% (10/28) of the respondent countries did not have a REC (although 80% of them reported that they had in place an ad hoc ethical review mechanism); 85% (22/26) of the countries that responded to this question indicated that ethical approval of research proposals was, in principle, required; and although 59% of the countries that had a REC expected it to meet every month, only 44% of them reported that the REC actually met on a monthly basis. In the Chi-Squared test, only the average population in the group of countries with a REC was statistically different (at 5% level of significance) from that of the group of countries without a REC. Conclusion In the current era of globalized biomedical research, good ethics stewardship demands that every country, irrespective of its level of economic development, should have in place a functional research ethics review system in order to protect the dignity, integrity and safety of its citizens who participate in research. (shrink)

O livro Infocracia. Digitalização e a crise da democracia, do filósofo sul-coreano Byung-Chul Han, traduzido por Gabriel Salvi Philipson e publicado pela Editora Vozes em 2022, retoma e aprofunda alguns dos problemas característicos do pensamento do autor tratados em obras anteriores, particularmente ligados à crítica das novas configurações da vida e da subjetividade na sociedade da informação. Suas publicações podem ser lidas como uma radiografia da contemporaneidade, um dos motivos, associado ao seu estilo de escrita, para a celebridade do autor (...) e o sucesso de venda dos seus livros [...]. (shrink)