D’une constatation générique du platonisme chez Descartes, l’auteur passe à la considération de cette direction platonicienne dans les éléments analysés du cartésianisme. Les éléments maîtres du cartésianisme sont le cogito, l’innéisme, le nouveau critère de vérité, la démonstration de l’existence de Dieu et de la Nature, le binôme res cogitans et res extensa, enfin le mécanisme. L’auteur, quoique brièvement, passe une revue analytique de ces éléments, pour montrer qu’en chacun d’eux on constate et retrouve des thèmes du platonisme, de sorte (...) que la direction platonicienne chez Descartes s’en manifeste plus déterminée et plus concrète. (shrink)

Esta ponencia es una reflexión acerca de la relación problemática entre Arte y Verdad. Postula ideas sobre el sentido afirmativo de la experiencia estética, a partir de lecturas de Federico Nietzsche. A su vez, intenta iluminar nexos originales entre la experiencia estética y las valoraciones y verdades que nacen en el seno de aquella. Este doble desarrollo se hace en diálogo con aportes de Teodoro Adorno sobre el carácter enigmático de las obras de arte, y con ideas de la fenomenología (...) de Maurice Merleau-Ponty acerca de la evidencia y su conexión con el nacimiento de verdades. El esfuerzo crítico culmina con la consideración del filme: "Secretos del corazón", para proyectar y concretar los planteamientos filosóficos sobre Arte y Verdad. (shrink)

Italian political thinker Paolo Virno argues that the category of "multitude" is a far better tool to analyze contemporary issues than the Hobbesian concept of "people." Globalization is forcing us to rethink some of the categories—such as "the people"—that traditionally have been associated with the now eroding state. Italian political thinker Paolo Virno argues that the category of "multitude," elaborated by Spinoza and for the most part left fallow since the seventeenth century, is a far better tool to (...) analyze contemporary issues than the Hobbesian concept of "people," favored by classical political philosophy. Hobbes, who detested the notion of multitude, defined it as shunning political unity, resisting authority, and never entering into lasting agreements. "When they rebel against the state," Hobbes wrote, "the citizens are the multitude against the people." But the multitude isn't just a negative notion, it is a rich concept that allows us to examine anew plural experiences and forms of nonrepresentative democracy. Drawing from philosophy of language, political economics, and ethics, Virno shows that being foreign, "not-feeling-at-home-anywhere," is a condition that forces the multitude to place its trust in the intellect. In conclusion, Virno suggests that the metamorphosis of the social systems in the West during the last twenty years is leading to a paradoxical "Communism of the Capital.". (shrink)

The philosophical analysis of mathematical explanations concerns itself with two different, although connected, areas of investigation. The first area addresses the problem of whether mathematics can play an explanatory role in the natural and social sciences. The second deals with the problem of whether mathematical explanations occur within mathematics itself. Accordingly, this entry surveys the contributions to both areas, it shows their relevance to the history of philosophy and science, it articulates their connection, and points to the philosophical pay-offs to (...) be expected by deepening our understanding of the topic. (shrink)

At the same time, the book is a contribution to recent philosophical debates, in particular on the prospects for a successful nominalist reconstruction of .

The period from 1900 to 1935 was particularly fruitful and important for the development of logic and logical metatheory. This survey is organized along eight "itineraries" concentrating on historically and conceptually linked strands in this development. Itinerary I deals with the evolution of conceptions of axiomatics. Itinerary II centers on the logical work of Bertrand Russell. Itinerary III presents the development of set theory from Zermelo onward. Itinerary IV discusses the contributions of the algebra of logic tradition, in particular, Löwenheim (...) and Skolem. Itinerary V surveys the work in logic connected to the Hilbert school, and itinerary V deals specifically with consistency proofs and metamathematics, including the incompleteness theorems. Itinerary VII traces the development of intuitionistic and many-valued logics. Itinerary VIII surveys the development of semantical notions from the early work on axiomatics up to Tarski's work on truth. (shrink)

The temporality of intentions and actions in situations of social interaction can sometimes be paradoxical. I argue that in these situations it may sometimes be possible to conceive of individual acts that can, in a strong sense, be intended retroactively. This could happen when the relational patterns in social interaction literally alter the virtual structure of a participant's past corporeal intentions resulting in an odd experience of having intended something all along without knowing it. I propose that this possibility should (...) be interpreted as more than just a narrowly epistemic phenomenon. Examining this claim involves clarifying the enactive perspective on intentionality, which I do here. The enactive approach rejects the model of a causal relation between intention and action for one of an intrinsic qualitative relation between the two as facets of sense-making. I develop this idea and compare it with Merleau-Ponty's Fundierung model of the mutual relation between corporeal and reflexive intentionality to show that co-regulated moves/affections during social interaction may modulate both arcs of this relation, creating the possibility of a re-signification that alters not the actuality but the virtual tendencies that preceded the social act. (shrink)

This paper explores the epistemology of extrapolation from model organisms to humans in molecular medicine. We take into account two common views on the issue, the homology view and the disanalogy view. In response to both interpretations, we argue that the foundational basis of extrapolations cannot simply be provided by homology and that relevant disanalogies can, thanks to the techniques of molecular biology, be experimentally controlled and exploited to allow useful and reliable extrapolations. The case of "humanised mice" in the (...) context of cancer stem cell research provides evidence of how animal models can be construed to approximate bona fide causal analogue models of human diseases. To supplement this view we show how the epistemology of model organisms needs to take into account the engineering side of molecular medicine. Model organisms are often manipulated to create analogies or remove disanalogies with the target system. We maintain that highlighting this feature is fundamental to explain what warrants extrapolation in the search for the molecular causes of disease. (shrink)

Christ as symbol in Kant¿s religion -- Hegel's conception of God -- The reality of religion in Hegel's idealist metaphysics -- Hegel's version of the ontological argument for the existence of God -- The trinity and the I -- The death of God and recognition of the self -- Beyond subjectivism -- The relevance of Hegel's philosophy of religion today.

Diante da crise dos refugiados observada na Europa nos últimos anos, a ideia de diáspora entrou novamente em evidência. Produções acadêmicas e pesquisas sobre a temática ganharam visibilidade, em um processo que, apesar dos acontecimentos recentes, já vem em crescente há décadas. Torna-se, assim, uma necessidade a observação do estado da arte, uma discussão sobre os avanços e os limites que a abordagem das diásporas encontrou nesses últimos anos e, particularmente, as possibilidades que ela nos reserva. Epistemologicamente, portanto, é necessário (...) lançar uma visão crítica sobre as principais abordagens e sobre os resultados das pesquisas sobre as diásporas, levantando debates e perspectivas e avanços nesse campo. O impacto e as reflexões que a temática nos abre também se tornam objeto deste ensaio, que, não pretendendo esgotar a produção acerca das diásporas, apresenta e revisita o núcleo duro dessas pesquisas. (shrink)