We argue for an account of chemical reactivities as chancy propensities, in accordance with the ‘complex nexus of chance’ defended by one of us in the past (Suárez, 2017, 2020). Reactivities are typically quantified as proportions, and an expression such as “A + B → C” does not entail that under the right conditions some amounts of A and B react to give the amount of C that theoretically would correspond to the stoichiometry of the reaction. Instead, what is produced (...) is a fraction α < 1 of this theoretical amount, and the corresponding percentage is usually known as the yield, which expresses the relative preponderance of its reaction. This is then routinely tested in a laboratory against the observed actual yields for the different reactions. Thus, on our account, reactivities ambiguously refer to three quantities at once. They first refer to the underlying propensities effectively acting in the reaction mechanisms, and which in ‘chemical chemistry’ (Schummer, 1998) are commonly represented by means of Lewis structures. Besides, reactivities represent the probabilities that these propensities give rise to, for any amount of the reactants to combine as prescribed. This last notion is hence best understood as a single case chance and corresponds to a theoretical stoichiometric yield. Finally, reactivities represent the actual yields observed in experimental runs, which account for and provide the requisite evidence for / against both the mechanisms and single case chances ascribed. (shrink)

We argue for an account of chemical reactivities as chancy propensities, in accordance with the ‘complex nexus of chance’ defended by one of us in the past. Reactivities are typically quantified as proportions, and an expression such as “A + B → C” does not entail that under the right conditions some given amounts of A and B react to give the mass of C that theoretically corresponds to the stoichiometry of the reaction. Instead, what is produced is a fraction (...) α < 1 of this theoretical amount, and the corresponding percentage is usually known as the yield, which expresses the relative preponderance of its reaction. This is then routinely tested in a laboratory against the observed actual yields for the different reactions. Thus, on our account, reactivities ambiguously refer to three quantities at once. They first refer to the underlying propensities effectively acting in the reaction mechanisms, which in ‘chemical chemistry’ (Schummer in Hyle 4:129–162, 1998) are commonly represented by means of Lewis structures. Besides, reactivities represent the probabilities that these propensities give rise to, for any amount of the reactants to combine as prescribed. This last notion is hence best understood as a single case chance and corresponds to a theoretical stoichiometric yield. Finally, reactivities represent the actual yields observed in experimental runs, which account for and provide the requisite evidence for/against both the mechanisms and single case chances ascribed. (shrink)

Convocada por diferentes estudiosos de los Padres de la Iglesia y del cristianismo antiguo en Latinoamérica, a saber, los profesores Ana Cristina Villa Betancourt, Andrés Mauricio Quevedo Rodríguez y Estiven Valencia Marín, de Colombia; Alejandro Nicola y Francisco Basttita-Harriet, de Argentina; Bruno Gripp, de Brasil; Pamela Chávez Aguilar, de Chile; y Jesús Ma. Aguiñaga Fernández, de México.

RESUMEN El presente artículo resalta los aspectos constitutivos del Dasein expuestos por Heidegger en Ser y tiempo, con el propósito de referirlos a un personaje literario como ejemplo de una posible aplicación de la analítica existenciaria al ámbito literario. Con ello se pretende relacionar la concepción de existencia y muerte del pensamiento filosófico de Heidegger con la representación literaria de Vallejo. Para este objetivo se analizan los términos peculiares de los ámbitos y autores elegidos, y se contrastan en busca de (...) afinidad. Finalmente, el texto cierra con la coincidencia entre el pensar del filósofo y el literato. ABSTRACT This article brings into prominence the constitutive aspects of Dasein exposed by Heidegger in Being and Time, which will be referred to a literary character as an example of one possible application from the existential analytics to the literary field. Whit it pretends to relate the conception of existence and death from Heidegger's philosophical thought with Vallejo's literary representation. To this target are analyzed the peculiar terms from fields and authors chosen and are contrasted in search for affinity. Finally, the text concludes with a coincidence between the thinking of the philosopher and litterateur. (shrink)

Diversos estudios vienen encontrando asimetrías de género en el ámbito del conocimiento y la ciencia. Esta investigación se propone comprobar si existen brechas de género en la autoría de libros en las editoriales científicas de mayor prestigio en el ámbito de la Comunicación en España. A partir de un análisis bibliométrico sobre las colecciones de libros de las 14 primeras editoriales españolas según el ranking Scholarly Publication Index (Q1) se han contabilizado las autorías principales de hombres y mujeres. Se comprueba (...) que, de media, las mujeres son autoras principales en menos de un 24% de los libros y primera firma en menos de un 18% de los títulos a la venta. Se constata también que la situación no evoluciona hacia una progresiva paridad en los últimos años. El estudio pone su foco de análisis en algunas de las ramificaciones del androcentrismo del sistema científico, como son el estatus del sujeto varón emisor en la producción de sentido, la cuestión del poder cultural androcéntrico y la asociación prestigio-masculinidad en la producción editorial. La investigación abre el debate sobre los criterios de calidad editorial sostenidos sobre un déficit democrático como es la falla en el principio de igualdad. Se señala la especial relevancia de esta circunstancia en el ámbito de la comunicación y los medios, por su rol prioritario en la eliminación de las discriminaciones de género. (shrink)

En el artículo se aborda la exégesis bíblica agustiniana presente en los libros XV a XVII del De ciuitate Dei. Con relación al libro XV se analiza la autoridad que el Hiponense les confiere a las Escrituras. Posteriormente se destaca el tema de la inspiración de la Sagrada Escritura, como obra del Espíritu Santo. En vista de que en el libro XV del De ciuitate Dei san Agustín da una gran importancia a las diferentes versiones bíblicas, el artículo hace una (...) breve presentación de las versiones bíblicas mencionadas por san Agustín, para exponer la autoridad y validez que les confería a las mismas. Se expone la interpretación exegética de los nombres de los personajes del Antiguo Testamento. Se hace asimismo referencia a las consideraciones intratextuales que san Agustín hace dentro del libro XV, particularmente las relativas al Contra Faustum y sus implicaciones exegéticas. Con relación a los libros XVI y XVII se hace la presentación de los principales elementos exegéticos que el obispo de Hipona desarrolla dentro de los libros XVI y XVII del De ciuitate Dei- Se destacan, en primer lugar, los principios generales exegéticos que san Agustín ofrece en los dos libros anteriormente mencionados. Posteriormente el artículo presenta el vocabulario utilizado por el Obispo de Hipona para designar la labor exegética hecha por él, así como las diversas implicaciones y aplicaciones de la hermenéutica bíblica. En tercer lugar se ponen de manifiesto las diversas interpretaciones e implicaciones espirituales que tienen para san Agustín los nombres de personajes y lugares del Antiguo Testamento mencionados en estos dos libros. (shrink)

Altruism (a costly action that benefits others) and reciprocity (the repayment of acts in kind) differ in that the former expresses preferences about the outcome of a social interaction, whereas the latter requires, in addition, ascribing intentions to others. Interestingly, an individual’s behavior and neurophysiological activity under outcome- versus intention-based interactions has not been compared directly using different endowments in the same subject and during the same session. Here, we used a mixed version of the Dictator and the Investment games, (...) together with electroencephalography, to uncover a subject’s behavior and brain activity when challenged with endowments of different sizes in contexts that call for an altruistic (outcome-based) versus a reciprocal (intention-based) response. We found that subjects displayed positive or negative reciprocity (reciprocal responses greater or smaller than that for altruism, respectively) depending on the amount of trust they received. Furthermore, a subject’s late frontal negativity differed between conditions, predicting responses to trust in intentions-based trials. Finally, brain regions related with mentalizing and cognitive control were the cortical sources of this activity. Thus, our work disentangles the behavioral components present in the repayment of trust, and sheds light on the neural activity underlying the integration of outcomes and perceived intentions in human economic interactions. (shrink)

El auge de los populismos de extrema derecha en el último tiempo amerita una indagación acerca de las características de la ideología reaccionaria. Una forma de aproximarse a esta es a través del pensamiento de sus principales autores. Nicolás Gómez Dávila es el mejor representante del pensamiento reaccionario en la filosofía latinoamericana, de modo que, a partir del análisis de algunos de sus escritos y siguiendo la propuesta de Richard Shorten para identificar lo reaccionario con base en tres pilares retóricos: (...) decadencia (_logos_), conspiración (_ethos_) e indignación (_pathos_), este artículo enfatiza algunas características propias de la ideología reaccionaria que la distinguen del conservadurismo, ilustrando esas diferencias con la retórica de algunos líderes reaccionarios que antecedieron a Nicolás Gómez Dávila en la Colombia del siglo XX. (shrink)

This book examines the human ability to participate in moments of joint feeling. It presents an answer to the question concerning the nature of our faculty to share in what might be called episodes of collective affective intentionality. The proposal develops the claim that our capacity to participate in such episodes is grounded in an ability central to our human condition: our capacity to care with one another about certain things. The author provides a phenomenologically adequate account of collective affective (...) intentionality that takes seriously the idea that feelings are at the core of our emotional relation to the world. He details a form of group emotional orientation that relies on the fact that the participating individuals have come to share a number of concerns. Readers will learn that at the heart of a collective affective intentional episode, one does not merely find a set of shared concerns, but also a particular mode of caring. In the end, the argument presented in this monograph makes plausible the idea that the emotions through which humans participate in moments of affective intentional community express our nature. In addition, it shows that the debate on collective affective intentionality also permits us to better understand the relationship between two conflicting philosophical pictures of ourselves: the idea that we are essentially social beings and the claim that we are creatures for whom our personal existence is an issue. Thus, aiming at an elucidation of the nature of our ability to feel together, the book offers a detailed account of what it is to situationally express our human nature by caring about something in a properly joint manner. (shrink)

Emotions are complex reactions that allow individuals to cope with significant positive and negative events. Research on emotion was pioneered by Darwin’s (1871) work on emotional expressions in humans and animals. But Darwin was concerned mainly with facial and bodily expressions of significance for humans, citing mainly examples from mammals (e.g., apes, dogs, and cats). In birds, emotional expressions are less evident for a human observer, so a different approach is needed. Understanding avian emotions will provide key evolutionary information on (...) the evolution of related behaviors and brain circuitry. Birds and mammals are thought to have evolved from different groups of Mesozoic reptiles, theropod dinosaurs and therapsids, respectively, and therefore their common ancestor is likely to be a basal reptile living about 300 million years ago, during the Carboniferous or Permian. Yet, birds and mammals exhibit extensive convergence in terms of relative brain size, high levels of activity, sleep/wakefulness cycles, endothermy, and social behavior, among others. This article focuses on two basic emotions with negative valence: fear and frustration. Fear is related to the anticipation of dangerous or threatening stimuli (e.g., predators or aggressive conspecifics). Frustration is related to unexpected reward omissions or devaluations (e.g., loss of food or sexual resources). These results have implications for an understanding of the conditions that promote fear and frustration, and for the evolution of supporting brain circuitry. (shrink)

The author interprets the dialogues belonging to Plato’s first Tetralogy, i. e. Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo, as a coherent whole, in which the concept of ‘gratuitousness’ plays the leading role. The expression ‘gratuitous’ does not mean here, however, ‘arbitrary’ or ‘as someone likes’ but rather ‘free’, ‘gratis’, ‘for nothing’. Based on such an interpretation the author discusses then the important similarities existing between – on the one hand – Plato’s metaphysics of ‘gratuitousness’ and – on the other hand – (...) Meister Eckhart’s ‘mystics’ and Schelling’s Philosophy of Identity. These three thinkers are all interested in the world as it is not merely for us or for something else – that is not in the world as it merely appears to someone under particular given conditions –, but in the world as it is in itself. However, this distinction between ‘appearances’ and ‘things-in-themselves’ is not to be thought as an epistemological but rather as an ethical or existential one, which is not related to the way how we ‘can know’ the world but rather to the way how we ‘should live’ in it. (shrink)

The article presents Plato’s Republic as a work arguing for the fundamental principles which constitute not - as Popper thought - a totalitarian state, but rather our own state, based on the rule of law. Plato is trying to develop here a new form of ‘Enlightenment’ which we should see as a ‘revitalisation’ of traditional positions, which Plato thinks should be regenerated according to rational principles.

Spanish translation of Henry of Ghent’s Sum, article 32, q. 4, the most important place in his work with regard to his opinion about Maimonides’ theory of the divine attributes.

This article shows firs that the text hitherto known as the Prologue to the Works of Propositions by Meister Eckhart is in fact his treatise On Being, What is, and Nothing, to which he himself refers in his Sermons and Lectures on the Twenty-fourth Chapter of «Ecclesiasticus». The article also analyses the relationship between the two extant commentaries on Genesis by Eckhart: the Expositio on Genesis and the Book of the Parables of Genesis.

Mysticism played an important role in the works of Schelling, not only after 1806, that is not only after he went to Munich and came into contact with Franz von Baader, but already at the beginning of his literary career in the 1790s. It seems that he already knows Meister Eckhart’s German Sermons in 1795, namely as he writes the Philosophical Letters on Dogmatism and Criticism, because he uses the concepts ‘grundlos’ and ‘unmittelbar’ in a way we also find in (...) Eckhart’s works. The Mystical thought is crucial to understand not only Schelling’s Identity philosophy, but even his reception of Kant, Spinoza and Fichte’s Doctrine of Science. Yet, these conclusions do not show that Eckhart’s mysticism had paved the way for modern thought, but rather that German Idealism means an attempt at redefinition of modernity, which has his roots in mystical thought. (shrink)

The article seeks to investigate the role that censorship had in the history of modern Colombian theater during the decades from 1950 to 1980, on the basis of a journey through the trajectory of groups such as Candelaria, TEC and Escuela Municipal de Teatro, as well as its directors Santiago García, Enrique Buenaventura and Gilberto Martínez. The censorship usually came from government institutions, Church ministers, or educational institutions such as universities and colleges. In addition to the analysis of direct censorship (...) phenomena such as the prohibition of performances and the expulsion of members of theater formations, or more indirect ones such as red tape or excessive tax collection, we are interested in highlighting the strategies and practices of resistance and opposition generated by playwrights and theater groups during this time before the censorial actions and speeches. Among these strategies to fight censorship, we highlight the collectivization of structured cultural formations or guilds that brought together various theater groups at the national level, as was the case with the formation of the Colombian Theater Corporation. Collectivization was the strategy against power through which the theater guild fought to resist the repressive effects of censorship. It is necessary to shed light on the role that censorship played in the life of Colombian groups and theater in general. This approach will allow us to see the history of modern theater in Colombia as the history of resistance strategies against censorship and power. (shrink)

A partir del marco teórico de la fenomenología husserliana —afín al reciente enfoque dimensional de clasificación psicopatológica—, este escrito propone un análisis comparativo de la depresión y la esquizofrenia. Tras desarrollar algunas ideas básicas de Husserl sobre la descripción fenomenológica de la consciencia temporal, se profundiza en cómo estas bases teóricas pueden fundar una concepción de las mencionadas enfermedades mentales. En este sentido, se apela principalmente a Fuchs y Ratcliffe, quienes consideran que una anomalía en la experiencia de posibilidad daría (...) la clave para precisar tanto la experiencia depresiva como la esquizofrénica. El resultado de este análisis comparativo señala que la diferencia entre las psicopatologías en cuestión recae sobre el carácter de la anomalía de la experiencia de posibilidad: mientras la depresión apunta a una reducción de experiencias de posibilidad práctica, la esquizofrenia refiere a una fragmentación de la consciencia temporal debido a una disfunción protensional. (shrink)

Traducción española de la cuestión 4 del articulo 32 de la Suma (Cuestiones ordinarias) de Enrique de Gante (t 1293), el lugar más importante en su obra referente a su posición respecto a la doctrina de los atributos divinos de Maimónides.

La metafísica del Maestro Eckhart puede ser comprendida como una metafísica de la libertad, bien que teniendo en cuenta que Eckhart no concibe la libertad como aquello que acontece mediante la realización del ser propio del hombre (esse proprium), sino lo contrario: el ser en sentido propio del hombre (esse proprie) acontece en la medida en que el hombre deja de ser lo que -creaturalmente- era, para dejar ser al ser (en sentido absoluto): en sí mismo (hombre) y en todo (...) lo que le rodea (mundo). Se trata de una concepción característica de toda metafísica idealista, que presenta analogías importantes con los sistemas post-kantianos y frente a la que reaccionó la Bula In agro dominico (1329) desde una posición realista. (shrink)

A similarity index allowing comparisons of human populations has been defined as the common “Percentage of Isoactive Genes” or PIG, which can be calculated from any gene frequency distribution characterizing two populations. The complement to one of this value has been proved to be a distance, a measure which can be used in most techniques of cluster analysis as well as in usual representations of multivariated data (dendrograms, etc...). Furthermore, the formula can be generalized to a set of populations. From (...) a biological point of vue, PIG values are particularly meaningful, whereas other previously defined indices which tend to measure similarity or difference between populations neither have such an advantage, nor can they be expressed by a single and clear number like a percentage. Moreover,comparisons using PIG indices depend at first on the fluctuations of the most frequent genes of a distribution; on the other hand, different measures principally reflect the variations of low frequency genes, which unfortunately are nearly always poorly estimated, due to weak samples of populations.Interestingly, PIG values can be applied to any frequency distribution of any kind of objects. They can also extend to a whole set of distributions by using a mean value. When applying these measures to a series of polymorphic genetical systems such as ABO, Rhesus, MNSs, Gm and HLA, one can account for the variability or the homogeneity particular to the different human groups, with simple and objective criteria. (shrink)

This paper shows that the interpretation of the ‘Bochumer Schule’, which sees a fundamental continuity from the philosophy of Averroes and Albert the Great to that of Theodoric of Freiberg and Master Eckhart, is not right, both from a merely historical and a strictly philosophical point of view.

En este texto se desarrollará una temática problemática y dilemática en tanto que se hará una reflexión sobre los efectos de la pandemia para las personas. Se afirmará que esta pandemia ha dejado enfermedades por tratar y curar; estas enfermedades no son solo del cuerpo; nos ha dejado entender la necesidad de cuidado de sí como un cuidado también del otro. Por esto, planear y proponer algunas virtudes que orienten dicha búsqueda de sabiduría. El texto consta de seis partes donde (...) se enmarcará la pandemia como el problema a abordar, luego se tratará el asunto de la acción humana y sus implicaciones para sí mismo y para el otro; estas acciones provienen de la autonomía y del cuidado de sí que requiere unas virtudes con las cuales se transforma a la persona y a la comunidad. (shrink)

Master Eckhart’s metaphysics is an idealistic one: Being is not what there is, but only and exclusively what is truthful, i. e. the normativity which reason sets. Further: What is truthful comes about by negation of what there is, because this is itself nothing, pure negation as such. What is truthful is therefore the negation of negation. This is an idealistic thesis which cannot be described as being thomistic, but rather which corresponds to the metaphysics of German Idealism, especially of (...) Fichte. This essay shows that the thesis that Eckhart was thomistic until his Parisian idealistic turn at the beginning of the 14th century is not correct. It argues that Eckhart’s metaphysics is unambiguously idealistic, i. e. non-thomistic, and that this is also the case in works which he certainly wrote before the Parisian Questions. This applies especially to the Rede der underscheidunge und the Tractatus super oratione dominica. (shrink)

We study whether the probabilistic postulate could be derived from basic principles. Through the analysis of the Strong Law of Large Numbers and its formulation in quantum mechanics, we show, contrary to the claim of the many-worlds interpretation defenders and the arguments of some other authors, the impossibility of obtaining the probabilistic postulate by means of the frequency analysis of an ensemble of infinite copies of a single system. It is shown, though, how the standard form of the probability as (...) the square of the scalar product follows from Gleason's theorem. (shrink)

The assembly of products or components by operators in industries is a complex task with recurring problems. In these processes, operators often make errors that can lead to defective products. Therefore, they need to be inspected later to verify their correct assembly. The main problems are caused by several reasons including high employee turnover, lack of experience in manufacturing specific products or confusion in interpreting instructions to assemble similar components. In this paper, a novel structured language aimed to describe the (...) required actions to manufacture a product in industrial assembly environments is presented. The main contribution is to provide a formal language to feed automatic systems that can verify through visual control whether the actions performed by the operator are carried out following the standard described by this language. In general, the use of this formal language will allow to minimize the negative impact of errors during assembly and to reduce waste in many forms in the industry. (shrink)