Memories are mental states with a number of interesting features. One of those features seems to be their having an intentional object. After all, we commonly say that memories are about things, and that a subject represents the world in a certain way by virtue of remembering something. It is unclear, however, what sorts of entities constitute the intentional objects of memory. In particular, it is not clear whether those are mind-independent entities in the world or whether they are mental (...) entities of some kind. The purpose of this chapter is to map the different positions on this issue, and to highlight the virtues and difficulties for each of the options. In Section 2, I will specify the question of what the intentional objects of memory are by clarifying the relevant notions of memory and intentional object. In Section 3, I will motivate the significance of identifying the intentional objects of memory by exploring the relations between, on the one hand, the intentionality of memory and, on the other hand, the phenomenology and the epistemology of memory. In Section 4, I will consider two natural candidates for being the intentional objects of memory, namely, worldly entities and mental entities, and I will raise some concerns for each of the two candidates. A promising alternative will emerge, in Section 5, as preserving the virtues of the two original candidates while avoiding their difficulties. The alternative will concern a certain combination of worldly and mental entities; a combination that involves both causal and truth-making relations. I will conclude by sketching how the alternative candidate can shed some light on the phenomenological and epistemological issues raised in the third section. (shrink)

This chapter provides an overview of how existential phenomenology has influenced qualitative research methods across a range of disciplines across the social, health, educational, and psychological sciences. It focuses specifically on how the concepts of “existential structures,” or “existentials”—such as selfhood, temporality, spatiality, affectivity, and embodiment—have been used in qualitative research. After providing a brief introduction to what qualitative research is and why philosophers should be interested in it, the chapter provides clear, straightforward examples of how qualitative researchers have used (...) existentials to analyze qualitative data and design qualitative studies. The chapter is intended to introduce philosophers to existential approaches to phenomenological qualitative research, with the aim of facilitating interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration. (shrink)

Our memories elicit, in us, both beliefs about what the external world was like in the past, and beliefs about what our own past experience of it was like in the past. What explains the power of memories to do that? I tackle this question by offering an account of the content of our memories. According to this account, our memories are ‘token-reflexives’, in that they represent their own causal origin. My main contention will be that our memories are able (...) to provide us with evidence for the two types of beliefs due to the self-referential nature of their content. First, I will put forward a series of thought-experiments intended to raise several intuitions about the veridicality of memories. Next, I will introduce the view that memories are token-reflexives, and I will motivate it by pointing out that the view accommodates the relevant intuitions. And, then, I will return to the two types of beliefs prompted by our memories, and argue that conceiving memories as token-reflexives allows us to explain why memory has the power to elicit the two types of beliefs in us. (shrink)

En este trabajo se analiza la tesis foucaultiana de la reducción de la filosofía a forma de conocimiento en Descartes y el consecuente abandono de la espiritualidad clásica, es decir, de la filosofía concebida como forma de vida basada en el cuidado de sí. A partir de aquí, además de observar que el propio Foucault matizará esta tesis, se demostrará que en Descartes la filosofía sigue esencialmente unida a la espiritualidad.

Se analizará una aporía inherente al giro subjetivo del último Foucault causada por el sostenimiento simultáneo de dos sentidos incompatibles de la irreductibilidad del sujeto y, por lo tanto, de su posible emancipación: en unos casos es posible hacer referencia a procesos de subjetivación externos a las formas de subjetividad generadas por el poder ; pero, en otros, los procesos de emancipación no pueden ser pensados más allá de la resistencia al poder. La hipótesis del trabajo es que la aporía (...) está producida por la gradual marginación del problema del autoconocimiento en la temática del cuidado de sí, que, como resultado, pasa a ser comprendida exclusivamente desde las prácticas cínicas. Pero reducido el autoconocimiento, también es eliminada la problemática del cuidado de sí, que sostenía la noción fuerte de la subjetividad. Se mostrará que en el Barroco literario y neoestoico español se pueden encontrar elementos para recuperarla. (shrink)

Self-injury is a perilous and increasingly common behavior that is particularly prevalent among youth. Nonetheless, there is a deep-rooted public stigma towards people who self-injure. Consequently, people who engage in self-injury are reluctant to seek professional help or disclose their experiences to others. This article aims to combat stigma and promote help-seeking behavior by debunking the common myths surrounding self-injury in the Malaysian context. Specifically, this article aims to serve as an eye-opener for Malaysian counselors and other mental health professionals (...) to improve their multicultural knowledge, skills, and attitudes when working with those who self-injure. (shrink)

Cultura escrita, alfabetização e escolarização assinalam uma longa Modernidade de mais de quatro séculos na História do Mundo Ocidental. A cultura escrita congrega informação, conhecimento, pensamento, acção. A aculturação escrita constituiu condição e factor de conhecimento, cidadania e humanitude. Desde finais da Idade Média com a difusão do papel e a mecanização da tipografia, o mundo da leitura alterou-se, em reflexo da maior divulgação do livro impresso. Na transição do Antigo Regime a leitura e a escrita eram práticas usuais na (...) esfera do Estado e da administração pública e tornavam-se condição de cidadania. No decurso de Oitocentos a progressiva universalização da alfabetização escolar e a constituição da esfera pública beneficiaram de novos avanços técnicos no mundo editorial, na vulgarização do livro, na disseminação de periódicos, na criação de bibliotecas. No decurso do século XX, a cultura de massas através do livro do áudio e do cinema trouxe a omnipresença da leitura. Os índices de leitura cresceram até final do século, mas desde as décadas de oitenta que o digital e os novos modos de ler só em parte vêm suprindo a desvalorização das formas tradicionais de cultura e leitura. Traçarei uma panorâmica destes quatro séculos de aculturação e sociabilidade pela leitura e pela escrita. (shrink)

O fator religioso foi uma componente fundamental da educação tradicional. Nas sociedades tradicionais, a mulher assumiu a delicada função de preservar as memórias e as práticas tradicionais de educação das gerações jovens. Assim, a vigilância do comportamento religioso da mulher foi muito rigorosa. As congregações religiosas, designadamente a Congregação das Ursulinas, assumiram a partir do Concilio de Trento a principal função de ensinar e educar as mulheres. Com efeito, quando se instalaram em Portugal no século XVIII, as Ursulinas tinham já (...) uma longa experiência noutros países europeus. Esta Congregação foi criada em França, no contexto histórico da Reforma Católica. A sua principal estratégia para educar e converter as populações ao Cristianismo foi ensinar as mulheres a ler e escrever. A alfabetização feminina foi uma via para combater a Reforma Protestante e para consolidar um texto religioso no interior da sociedade, uma vez que as mulheres eram o suporte principal da tradição oral religiosa. A Congregação das Ursulinas desenvolveu um importante método para ensinar as mulheres a ler e escrever. Na sua Constituição, a alfabetização e as demais dimensões educacionais eram fundamentais. Este texto é um contributo para a história da educação tradicional das mulheres em Portugal, através do estudo da ação das Ursulinas. (shrink)

A representação da educação envolve uma noção sistémica e os intelectuais podem funcionar como sistema. Eles configuram e demarcam o campo educacional. O intelectual constitui um conceito que pode ser trabalhado enquanto categoria epistémica com educabilidade e historicidade. Os Intelectuais cedo percepcionam o que está ‘de novo’ em crise e o que deverá permanecer. Entre estes emergem os Escolares; combinando as dimensões de intelectualidade e educabilidade, são intelectuais envolvidos institucionalmente e que estabelecem o cruzamento entre educação e sociedade, são instituintes. (...) Reconhecidos como mestres, são, em regra, autores de textos doutrinários e livros escolares; têm especial relevância na constituição do cânone escolar, literário, científico, artístico. Nada do que é humano lhes é indiferente; sabem fazer uso do poder simbólico e material que o institucional e o normativo lhes conferem. Será sobre os Escolares que procurarei desenvolver o meu texto. Tomarei como referência fundamental os intelectuais portugueses e a história da educação em Portugal. Palavras-chave: História da educação. Cânone. Intelectuais. Educabilidade. Escolares. (shrink)

The main aim of this paper is to introduce an approach for understanding social cognition that we call the normative approach to social cognition. Such an approach, which results from a systematization of previous arguments and ideas from authors such as Ryle, Dewey, or Wittgenstein, is an alternative to the classic model and the direct social perception model. In section 2, we evaluate the virtues and flaws of these two models. In section 3, we introduce the normative approach, according to (...) which human, socio-cognitive competences rely on a myriad of social norms and routines that mediate our social interactions in such a way that we can make sense of each other without taking into consideration their mental states. In sections 4 and 5, we find some common premises shared by the two prior models and offer some arguments against them. In section 6, we advance some possible arguments against our approach and offer some responses against them. (shrink)

Recently, several scholars have argued in support of the idea that folk psychology involves a primary capacity for regulating our mental states and patterns of behavior in accordance with a bunch of shared social norms and routines :259–281, 2015; Zawidzki, Philosophical Explorations 11:193–210, 2008; Zawidzki, Mindshaping: A new framework for understanding human social cognition, MIT Press, Cambridge, 2013). This regulative view shares with the classical Dennettian intentional stance its emphasis on the normative character of human socio-cognitive capacities. Given those similarities, (...) it makes sense to assess the regulative view by considering some of the classical arguments against the normative nature of the intentional stance :76–100, 1985; Stich, Philosophical Topics 12:39–62, 1981; Stich, The fragmentation of reason: Preface to a pragmatic theory of cognitive evaluation, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1990). The aim of this paper is to argue that the priority that the regulative view lays on the pluralistic and regulative character of folk psychology leaves the theory well-placed to resist these arguments. In this sense, the regulative view possesses better theoretical options to defend the normative character of human social cognition. (shrink)

Análisis estético, sociológico y político de la obra de Goethe Las desventuras del joven Werther, partiendo de las tesis estético-literarias de Georg Lukács, claramente influenciadas por Friedrich Schiller, y de las consideraciones que el mismo Goethe realizó posteriormente acerca de su vida y obra en su inconclusa autobiografía Poesía y verdad . El objetivo es realizar un pequeño estudio de la obra pero, en especial, del tipo de sujeto que ejemplifica su personaje principal: el sujeto del humanismo burgués revolucionario , (...) un sujeto que podemos caracterizar en palabras de Lukács como demoníaco y que, por su estructura constitutiva, está condenado al fracaso de sus expectativas vitales. (shrink)

The dichotomy between the qualitative and the quantitative has been a classic throughout the history of science. As will be seen, this dichotomy permeates all ontological levels of reality. In this work, phenomenological examples potentially related to semiosis are presented at the different levels established by Mario Bunge and Josep Ferrater Mora, contrasting the qualitative categorizations with the quantifiable physical reality. Likewise, the need to continue in the quantification of the biosemiotic and linguistic studies will be presented, while, in contrast, (...) the need to establish a qualitative framework in the little-addressed study of technosemiotics will be raised, of potential interest given the notable advances that are expected in communication systems for inert artifacts in the next years. In short, in the thesis defended here the qualitative precedes the quantitative in the defining path of science. (shrink)

Varios recursos empleados en la construcción de un grupo de parábolas coinciden con puntos que la ciencia actual enfoca. 1) El hecho de que la situación ajena es percibida de un modo más objetivo, con menos sesgos, que la situación propia. 2) El “altruismo espontáneo”, que empuja a conductas automáticas de ayuda. 3) La enorme influencia que el lenguaje puede ejercer para modular la atención, tanto la ajena como la propia. 4) La coherencia cognitiva, que interviene en el autocontrol, tanto (...) el autocontrol moral como el que está al servicio de los propios intereses del sujeto. Al analizar el efecto de esos puntos en las parábolas en cuestión, intento mostrar que las capacidades comunicativas humanas están allí funcionando al máximo para facilitar la decisión del oyente, y que esa facilitación o ayuda es diferente por completo a las manipulaciones de cualquier tipo. (shrink)

La obra de Karl Marx ha sido objeto de examen en relación con su posible perspectiva ética. Los distintos académicos han divergido en gran manera en tal análisis, resultando que en unos supuestos se ha rechazado cualquier tipo de propósito normativo en Marx y en otros, en cambio, se ha destacado su fuerte compromiso moral. Para contrastar los resultados de unos y otros en sus investigaciones, el presente artículo ha hecho balance de los principales títulos, panfletos y volúmenes del pensador (...) alemán a lo largo de toda su trayectoria, concluyendo que no disponía de ningún tipo de teoría normativa en su obra, pero que no por ello ha de deducirse inmoralismo alguno en su escritura. Por el contrario, en ella residen una serie de elementos fundamentales para entender su visión de la Historia y de la actuación humana en su seno. (shrink)

Philosophers of science typically focus on the epistemic performance of scientific models when evaluating them. Analysing the effects that models may have on the world has typically been the purview of sociologists of science. We argue that the reactive (or “performative”) effects of models should also figure in model evaluations by philosophers of science. We provide a detailed analysis of how models in financial economics created the impetus for the growing importance of the phenomenon of “passive investing” in financial markets. (...) Considering this case motivates the position that we call contextualism about model evaluation, or _model contextualism_ for short. Model contextualism encompasses standard analyses of the epistemic performance of the model, but also includes their reactive aspects. It entails identifying the _epistemic and contextual import of the model_, the ways in which a model can engender change in the world (which we call the _channels of transmission_), and the _interactions between the epistemic and reactive import of a model_. (shrink)

Phenomenology has been adapted for use in qualitative health research, where it’s often used as a method for conducting interviews and analyzing interview data. But how can phenomenologists study subjects who cannot accurately reflect upon or report their own experiences, for instance, because of a psychiatric or neurological disorder? For conditions like these, qualitative researchers may gain more insight by conducting observational studies in lieu of, or in conjunction with, interviews. In this article, we introduce a phenomenological approach to conducting (...) this kind of observational research. The approach relies on conceptual grounding to focus a study on specific aspects of the participants’ experiences. Moreover, the approach maintains the openness to novel discoveries that qualitative research requires while also providing a structured framework for data collection and analysis. To illustrate its practical application, we use examples of hemispatial neglect—a neurologic disorder in which patients characteristically lack awareness of their own illness and bodily capacities. However, the approach that we describe can be applied more broadly to the study of complex illness experiences and other experiential alterations. (shrink)

El autor realiza una lectura en clave perspectivista de la neurofenomenología, enfoque transdisciplinar y metodológico iniciado a mediados de los 90 por el neurobiólogo Francisco J. Varela desde el ámbito experimental de las ciencias de la mente. La originalidad del artículo reside en que estudia comparativamente el problemático entrecruce de la neurofenomenología de Varela con el perspectivismo científico de Ronald N. Giere, mostrándonos que la neurofenomenología no sólo lo antecedió cronológicamente, sino que fue mucho más radical al tener en cuenta (...) la la dimensión fenomenológica y trascendental de la experiencia vivida humana y al aplicarla en los protocolos de las neurociencias cognitivas. // The author makes a perspectivist reading of neurophenomenology, a transdisciplinary and methodological approach pioneered in the 90’s by the neurobiologist Francisco J. Varela, who worked in the experimental field of the science of mind. The originality of the article consists in studying with a comparative method the problematic intertwine of Varela’s neurophenomenology and the scientific perspectivism recently defended by Ronald N. Giere. In this way, the autor shows how neurophenomenology notonly came before Giere’s proposal but also how it was more radical in considering the phenomenological and transcendental human dimension and in trying an implementation in cognitive neuroscience protocols. (shrink)

Los avatares de Antoniana Margarita y el Endecálogo de Francisco de Sosa.