The Sophistry, not a school in any ordinary sense, set new pedagogical standards in Greek educational practice, being as it were the highest stage of educational system. Two innovations of the sophistic education are of special interest: first, its professionalism, which presupposes a systematic transfer of specialized knowledge and includes such forms of “in-calls” learning as lectures and discussion in small groups and, second, the appearance of special rhetorical handbook or written manuals, actively used in the class.

The philosophical nature of the two versions of paraphrasing the Gorgias’ treatise On Non-Being — the skeptical version by Sextus Empiricus and the peripatetic version by an anonymous author — are discussed. The paper gives a comparative analysis of the arguments upheld by the informants enunciating Gorgias’ thoughts, demonstrates the range of philosophical problems, which Gorgias considered, judging by the reports of his speech, and shows how both versions add to and clarify each other in terms of philosophical issues. The (...) work provides insights as to how Gorgias modernizes and transforms the initial attitudes of Parmenides, shifting the reasoning plan: from how thought can be directed to an object and the qualities of this object to how thought can be directed to the non-existent. Accordingly, the problems of intentionality in the Gorgias’ teaching are considered as well as the privileged status of any of mental states, the nature of word or speech as an autonomous way to develop knowledge about external objects, the issue of meaning as a reference, and inter-subjectivity in cognition. A conclusion is reached that giving preference to one of the paraphrasing versions impoverishes our understanding of the Gorgias’ teaching considerably, while the joint analysis of both versions demonstrates the engagement of the sophistic issues raised by Gorgias, in the philosophical and, particularly, the epistemological paradigm of the ancient as well as modern philosophy. (shrink)

The paper discusses the peculiarities of the analytic approach to the history of Ancient philosophy in the context of other, more popular approaches and genres. This approach is based on finding out an implicit argumentation and problems in the philosophical texts, and establishing logical connections between them. The paper also considers the perspectives of application of this approach to patristic texts. In addition, it shows the necessity of formalization and symbolization in the analytic history of philosophy.

In the present meta-analysis, we examined the effect of cognitive training on the Executive Function (EF) of preschool children (age range: 3-6 years). We selected a final set of 32 studies from 27 papers with a total sample of 123 effect sizes. We found an overall effect of cognitive training for improving EF (g =.352; k = 123; p <.001), without significant difference between near and far transfer effects on executive domains. No significant additional outcome effects were found for behavioral- (...) and learning-related outcomes. Cognitive training programs for preschoolers are significantly more effective for developmentally at-risk children (ADHD or low socio-economic status) than for children with typical development and without risks. Other significant moderators were computerized versus non-computerized training, individual versus group sessions, and length of training. The number of sessions was not a significant moderator. This is the first demonstration of cognitive training far transfer effects among different executive processes. We discuss this result in relationship with the lower level of modularization of EFs in younger children. (shrink)

Herrera Restrepo, Daniel. José Félix de Restrepo 1760-1832. Nuestro filósofo Ilustrado. Cali: Programa Editorial de la Universidad del Valle, 2003.

The categorical dualities presented are: (first) for the category of bi-algebraic lattices that belong to the variety generated by the smallest non-modular lattice with complete (0,1)-lattice homomorphisms as morphisms, and (second) for the category of non-trivial (0,1)-lattices belonging to the same variety with (0,1)-lattice homomorphisms as morphisms. Although the two categories coincide on their finite objects, the presented dualities essentially differ mostly but not only by the fact that the duality for the second category uses topology. Using the presented dualities (...) and some known in the literature results we prove that the Q-lattice of any non-trivial variety of (0,1)-lattices is either a 2-element chain or is uncountable and non-distributive. (shrink)

The aim of the study was to assess the effects of visual aesthetic perception on event-related potentials . Eight subjects assigned an aesthetic judgment and a 10-step beauty estimation to the target stimuli, consisting of famous artistic pictures and geometric shapes. In a further task, the subjects performed a motor response to the previously judged pictures and geometric shapes. ERPs were recorded through 54 scalp electrodes during both tasks. The P3b amplitude was increased during the categorization of the geometric shapes (...) compared to the artistic figures and during the vision of the beautiful targets preceding the motor response. The categorization of the aesthetic qualities of geometrical shapes seems to induce a higher level of attention, while a higher arousal variation was elicited by the recognition of beauty, in any form that was presented. (shrink)

En la España de los siglos XVI y XVII se desarrolla la Escolástica española. Un tiempo en el que las Universidades no contaban con programas oficiales de estudios y, por tanto, la enseñanza del Derecho era distinta en cada una de ellas. Asimismo, imperan dos corrientes doctrinales distintas: el humanismo jurídico y el mos italicus tardío. El estado de la ciencia jurídica de ese momento provoca que proliferen tratados didácticos para la enseñanza de Leyes. Uno de ellos, muy desatendido por (...) la historiografía jurídica, es Nueva Filosofía de la natvraleza del hombre, no conocida ni alcançada de los grandes filosofos antiguos, que analizamos en este trabajo en aras a contribuir con el estudio del Derecho de la Edad Moderna, pues su autor, Miguel Sabuco, se caracteriza por exponer el estado de la ciencia jurídica en ese momento y formular propuestas de mejora. (shrink)

Autoritarismo, particularismo, fanatismo, catastrofismo, terrorismo, solucionismo... son las caras de una amplia reaccion antiilustrada a la actual crisis de civilizacion. Nuestro presente se ve atrapado en una disyuntiva radical: o condenarse o salvarse. Tras esta alternativa se esconde una rendicion. Temiendo el apocalipsis o anhelando un salvador, sea un lider, un dios o un robot, estamos renunciando a la libertad y a la dignidad de la experiencia humana, estamos renunciando a la emancipacion. La pregunta que late en este ensayo es: (...) por que nos creemos tan facilmente estos relatos? Y la cuestion que se plantea es: como combatir esta fe ciega y sus formas de opresion? Desde este doble interrogante, se apuesta por una nueva ilustracion radical, es decir, por luchar contra las credulidades de nuestro tiempo y contra el temor y el oportunismo que las alimentan."--Amazon.com. (shrink)

In this essay, we argue that there exist obvious parallels between questions that inform philosophy of chemistry and the so-called hard problem of consciousness in philosophy of mind. These include questions regarding the emergence of higher-level phenomena from lower-level physical states, the reduction of higher-level phenomena to lower-level physical states, and 'downward causation'. We, therefore, propose that the 'hard problem' of consciousness should be approached in a manner similar to that used to address parallel problems in philosophy of chemistry. Thus, (...) our contribution begins by scrutinizing the ways chemists and quantum chemists think about and use different levels of organization and chemical relations and relata and then investigates the problem of 'downward causation' as it relates to the question of emergence. We demonstrate that the science of the transformation of 'substances', namely chemistry, enables us to go beyond substantialism and to develop, instead, a non-substantialist account of levels of reality. Similarly, the 'hard problem' of consciousness will require that we transcend traditional emergentism and its substantialist conception of mind. As with chemical phenomena, mental phenomena must be examined in terms of the relationality of wholes and parts, and this will require the development of a mereology that explains how parts and wholes may co-define each other. Like the non-classical and non-transitive mereology that has been proposed for quantum chemistry, an extended mereology for philosophy of mind must be one that entangles the whole, its parts, and the environment, thus rendering 'downward causation' into a relational concept. This proposal is neither a reductionist analysis that only needs the parts to define the whole, nor a merely holistic description within which the whole is necessary to define the parts. Rather, we propose that the parts, the whole, and the environment co-define each other so that our understanding of parts, wholes, and environment as independent concepts must itself be altered. (shrink)

Resumen: En el presente artículo me propongo elucidar el significado del concepto “pathos de la distancia” y sus implicaciones ético-políticas, destacando, además, su sentido y coherencia con el conjunto del pensamiento nietzscheano. La tesis fundamental es que el pathosde la distancia, como característica básica del ideal noble, muestra cómo el concepto de preeminencia política en Nietzsche se diluye siempre en un concepto de preeminencia anímica. La reflexión se enmarca dentro de la crítica nietzscheana de la cultura, la política y la (...) educación, y su propuesta de reforma de los valores dominantes de la sociedad, entre ellos, los que configuran la subjetividad y la individualidad. Se estudian las diversas dimensiones del pathos de la distancia: como articulación jerárquica, como principio de individuación, como parte la Gran Política y como elemento del pensamiento de la cría. Palabras clave: Pathos de la distancia, Valor, Moral, Gran Política, Cría. (shrink)

This essay offers a novel approach for understanding the poetry of negritude and its role in the struggle for black liberation by appealing to Giambattista Vico’s insights on the historical, cultural, and myth-making function of poetry and of the mythopoetic imagination. The essay begins with a discussion of Vico’s aesthetic historicism and of his ideas regarding the role of imagination, poetry, and myth-making and then brings these ideas to bear on the discussion of the function of negritude poetry, focusing primarily (...) on the writings of Aimé Césaire and on Jean-Paul Sartre’s essay, Black Orpheus. (shrink)

Mi problema es como reconciliar una fundamentación racional de instituciones democráticas, que en nuestras sociedades tienden a ser de índole liberal, con la creciente complejidad demográfica de las sociedades contemporáneas. Mi punto de vista es que esta fundamentación debería ser deliberativa y discursiva, es decir, debería garantizar una participación reflexiva de todos los ciudadanos en el diseño y sostenimiento de sus instituciones públicas. Ahora bien, ¿cómo alcanzar este ideal en sociedades cuyas complejidades dificultan la coordinación de intereses y la participación (...) discursiva, lo que vuelve a sus ciudadanos dispuestos a sacrificar sus libertades para rendirlas a un poder político despótico y totalitario? Palabras claves: instituciones democráticas y sociedades complejas; democracia deliberativa. The constitution of democratic citizenship and the problem of the foundation of knowledge in complex societiesMy problem is how to reconcile a rational foundation of democratic institutions, which in our societies tend to be of a liberal nature, with the increasing demographic complexity of contemporary societies. My contention is that this rational and liberal foundation ought to be deliberative and discursive, that is to say, it must guarantee a reflective participation of all citizens in the design and maintenance of their public institutions. However, how could this ideal be achieved within societies with such complexities that make coordination of interests and discursive participation difficult, thus making their citizens willing to sacrifice their liberties, in order to surrender them to a despotic or totalitarian political power? Keywords: Democratic institutions and complex societies; Deliberative democracy. (shrink)

This essay is on the nature and roles of sense impressions and objects in Hume’s account of perception in the Treatise of Human Nature. I start by considering how Hume introduces sense impressions at the beginning of the Treatise and show that, although he explains the distinction between impressions and ideas on the basis of their different strength and liveliness, the crucial difference between them is in fact that ideas are copies of impressions, while impressions do not, in turn, copy (...) anything. They are what ideas represent, the objects of our thought. But if impressions are non-representative, how can Hume talk about ‘objects’ at all — in fact, what are Humean ‘objects’? This problem is the subject of the present discussion. (shrink)

The 16th and 17th centuries marked a period of transition from the vitalistic ontology that had dominated Renaissance natural philosophy to the Early Modern mechanistic paradigm endorsed by, among others, the Cartesians and Newtonians. This paper focuses on how the tensions between vitalism and mechanism played themselves out in the context of 16th and 17th century chemistry and chemical philosophy. The paper argues that, within the fields of chemistry and chemical philosophy, the significant transition that culminated in the 18th century (...) Chemical Revolution was not a transition from vitalism to full-blown mechanism. Rather, chemical philosophy shifted from a vitalistic theory of matter and spirits to a naturalistic, physicalistic, and corpuscularian conception of chemical properties and reactions. Despite being naturalistic, physicalistic, and corpuscularian, however, this theory was not fully mechanistic. Special attention is paid to the contributions made by Paracelsus, Sebastien Basso, Jan Baptista van Helmont, and Robert Boyle to this ontological transition. (shrink)

This book examines the way in which Robert Boyle seeks to accommodate his complex chemical philosophy within the framework of a mechanistic theory of matter. More specifically, the book proposes that Boyle regards chemical qualities as properties that emerged from the mechanistic structure of chymical atoms. Within Boyle’s chemical ontology, chymical atoms are structured concretions of particles that Boyle regards as chemically elementary entities, that is, as chemical wholes that resist experimental analysis. Although this interpretation of Boyle’s chemical philosophy has (...) already been suggested by other Boyle scholars, the present book provides a sustained philosophical argument to demonstrate that, for Boyle, chemical properties are dispositional, relational, emergent, and supervenient properties. This argument is strengthened by a detailed mereological analysis of Boylean chymical atoms that establishes the kind of theory of wholes and parts that is most consistent with an emergentist conception of chemical properties. The emergentist position that is being attributed to Boyle supports his view that chemical reactions resist direct explanation in terms of the mechanistic properties of fundamental particles, as well as his position regarding the scientific autonomy of chymistry from mechanics and physics. (shrink)

The Republic presents the sophist in three ways: through an example, an abstract description in Book Six, and an image. Thrasymachus presents a coherent understanding of justice and is not inconsistent, as some commentators have argued. Both the philosopher and the sophist are intellectuals who value wisdom, but on Socrates’ account, the sophist equates the necessary with the good. The philosopher separates the necessary and the good, and orients himself to a truth outside of himself. However, the Republic suggests that (...) there is no meta-philosophical position by which the philosopher and the sophist can be judged. The separation of the philosopher from the sophist makes sense only from the viewpoint of the philosopher. Socrates’ emphasis on the incompleteness of wisdom also suggests that the philosopher’s understanding of his own activity must remain open to change. (shrink)

Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) argues that social contracts must be recreated if they are to fulfil the promise of human rights. In The Remaking of Social Contracts, leading thinkers and activists address a wide range of concerns - global economic governance, militarism, ecological tipping points, the nation state, movement-building, sexuality and reproduction, and religious fundamentalism. These themes are of wide-ranging importance for the survival and well-being of us all, and reflect the many dimensions and inter-connectedness (...) of our lives. Using feminist lenses, the book puts forward a holistic and radical understanding of the synergies, tensions and contradictions between social movements and global, regional and local power structures and processes, and it points to other alternatives and possibilities for this fierce new world."--Publisher's description. (shrink)

Los constantes cambios que sacuden el mundo actual han hecho entrar en una situación organizacional de ruptura paradigmática; hoy los viejos lenguajes son insuficientes para llegar a ser éticos, sensitivos y rentables en el día a día. Las organizaciones que aprenden, concebidas como sistemas complejos, deben ser autoconscientes y estar en proceso de construcción y deconstrucción permanente que posibiliten el desarrollo de valores para un ambiente de trabajo dinámico y potenciador. Se propone el concepto de “fárbices caórdicas” como elemento esencial (...) de un conjunto que resulta parte indeclinable de la composición de otros elementos que coinciden en resonancia sinérgica, en un todo llamado globalización. (shrink)