In actuarial parlance, the price of an insurance policy is considered fair if customers bearing the same risk are charged the same price. The estimate of this fair amount hinges on the expected value obtained by weighting the different claims by their probability. We argue that, historically, this concept of actuarial fairness originates in an Aristotelian principle of justice in exchange (equality in risk). We will examine how this principle was formalized in the 16th century and shaped in life insurance (...) during the following two hundred years, in two different interpretations. The Domatian account of actuarial fairness relied on subjective uncertainty: An agreement on risk was fair if both parties were equally ignorant about the chances of an uncertain event. The objectivist version grounded any agreement on an objective risk estimate drawn from a mortality table. We will show how the objectivist approach collapsed in the market for life annuities during the 18th century, leaving open the question of why we still speak of actuarial fairness as if it were an objective expected value. (shrink)

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)

In the so-called digital culture, there is a constant presence of radical transformations on the cognitive and affective dimensions of the relations established among teachers and students. Upon this ubiquitous accessibility of information, the very historical and hierarchically verticalized relation between teachers and students has been increasingly questioned. Upon this situation, the authors in this article aim at stating that the revitalization of concepts developed by Paulo Freire, mainly the ones discussed in the books: ‘Pedagogy of Hope’, that sought a (...) re-encounter with ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’, ‘Extension or Communication’ and ‘Pedagogy of Freedom’ became essential to understanding how the relationship between teachers and students can be mutually re-signified. In these times of digital culture, we argue that the revitalization of the critical thinking proposed by Freire is able to foment a dialogical communication both in the pedagogical link shared by teachers and students and in the transformation of information into substantially and ethically experienced concepts. Such substantial and ethical experiences are the ones able to attest that the pedagogy of hope and the pedagogy of freedom are possible, provided they are constituted with the students and not for them. (shrink)

We defend, from a contractarian perspective, that the fair price of an insurance policy is the amount that the contracting parties agree when they are both equally uncertain about the insured event. Drawing on the approach developed by R. Sugden in _The Community of Advantage_, we answer two standard objections raised against contractarianism in the actuarial sciences: (1) people are not wise enough to assess their actuarial risks; (2) they are not rational enough to decide which insurance policy suits them (...) better. We show under which circumstances people can make fair actuarial agreements, without presupposing any objective risk or rationality benchmarks. (shrink)

Schizophrenia is characterised by marked language deficits, but it is not clear how these deficits arise from the alteration of genes related to the disease. The goal of this paper is to aid the bridging of the gap between genes and schizophrenia and, ultimately, give support to the view that the abnormal presentation of language in this condition is heavily rooted in the evolutionary processes that brought about modern language. To that end we will focus on how the schizophrenic brain (...) processes language and, particularly, on its distinctive oscillatory profile during language processing. Additionally, we will show that candidate genes for schizophrenia are overrepresented among the set of genes that are believed to be important for the evolution of the human faculty of language. These genes crucially include (and are related to) genes involved in brain rhythmicity. We will claim that this translational effort and the links we uncover may help develop an understanding of language evolution, along with the aetiology of schizophrenia, its clinical/linguistic profile, and its high prevalence among modern populations. (shrink)

Exploramos aquí la conexión entre los conceptos de riesgo e igualdad en el argumento del observador imparcial. La concepción de la justicia que elegiría un observador imparcial se justifica por la pureza del procedimiento de elección. Sin embargo, si modelizamos esta decisión utilizando medidas del riesgo habituales en matemática financiera, veremos cómo el criterio de elección del observador bajo el velo de la ignorancia contiene una preferencia implícita por el grado de desigualdad resultante. Esto nos obliga a reconsiderar la pureza (...) procedimental de la elección. (shrink)

Background Neuroimaging and lesion studies suggested that the dorsolateral prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices mediate visual metacognitive awareness. The causal evidence provided by non-invasive brain stimulation, however, is inconsistent. -/- Objective/hypothesis Here we revisit a major figure discrimination experiment adding a new Kanizsa figure task trying to resolve whether bilateral continuous theta-burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (cTBS) over these regions affects perceptual metacognition. Specifically, we tested whether subjective visibility ratings and/or metacognitive efficiency are lower when cTBS is applied to these two (...) regions in comparison to an active control region. -/- Methods A within-subjects design including three sessions spaced by one-week intervals was implemented. In each session, every participant was administered bilateral cTBS to either prefrontal, control or parietal cortices. Two concurrent tasks were performed, a real and an illusory figure task, stabilising objective performance with use of an adaptive staircase procedure. -/- Results When performing the replicated task, cTBS was found insufficient to disrupt neither visibility ratings nor metacognitive efficiency. However, with use of Kanizsa style illusory figures, cTBS over the dorsolateral prefrontal, but not over the posterior parietal cortex, was observed to significantly diminish metacognitive efficiency. -/- Conclusion(s) Real and illusory figure tasks demonstrated different cTBS effects. A possible explanation is the involvement of the prefrontal cortex in the creation of expectations, which is necessary for efficient metacognition. Failure to replicate previous findings for the real figure task, however, cannot be said to support, conclusively, the notion that these brain regions have a causal role in metacognitive awareness. This inconsistent finding may result from certain limitations of our study, thereby suggesting the need for yet further investigation. (shrink)

Esse texto é um escrito que, ao final, é um termo médio entre um Artigo e um Ensaio. O objetivo é expor nossa compreensão sobre o sentido d“o material” e as implicações onto(epistemo)lógicas desta concepção no pensamento de Karl Marx. Em plano geral, primeiramente, nosso texto discorre sobre o que nomeamos de “a questão primeira”, qual seja: o que é “o material” no interior e no contexto dos escritos de Marx? Para cumprir essa tarefa procedemos com leituras de textos marxianos (...) visando identificar, neles, passagens importantes aonde o conceito de “material” é pressuposto, citado ou implicado. No segundo momento do texto, afirmamos que os resultados das análises do sentido d“o material” nos possibilitam induzir e/ou deduzir que o materialismo de Marx é dialético. Por fim, apresentamos algumas conclusões que decorrem do aceite da validade e veracidade da tese de que Marx pensa dialeticamente, de que seu materialismo é dialético. (shrink)

Este trabajo presenta los resultados preliminares obtenidos en la conformación del Atlas Iberoamericano en Bioética que ha desarrollado el Centro Anáhuac de Desarrollo Estratégico en Bioética (CADEBI) respecto a la identificación y análisis de las instituciones de Bioética existentes en la Región. Se realizó una revisión documental a través de motores de búsqueda, bases de datos, redes sociales y otras fuentes. La información obtenida se agrupó en seis diferentes categorías de acuerdo con la estructura, objetivos y actividades que desarrollan. De (...) esta manera, se realizó un diagnóstico inicial con base en las fuentes documentales disponibles en la Web. Como parte de los resultados, se identificaron 157 instituciones en 25 países; así como la variación en la densidad institucional, concentrándose principalmente en España (29 instituciones), México (26 instituciones), Argentina (17 instituciones), Brasil (13 instituciones), Chile (11 instituciones) y Colombia (8 instituciones). Además, se resalta la importancia de las comisiones nacionales de bioética en el desarrollo institucional, señalando la relación entre el avance científico y tecnológico de los países y el desarrollo de la bioética. El texto concluye con la propuesta de crear un Observatorio de la Red Iberoamericana de Bioética para documentar y promover el intercambio institucional y científico en la Región, así como algunas recomendaciones derivadas del desarrollo de este trabajo. (shrink)

Resumo: Os processos avaliativos, na universidade, são perpassados por um ethos que prima pela quantificação e pelo ranqueamento. Em decorrência, observa-se cada vez mais a descaracterização da avaliação na sua acepção qualitativa e, consequentemente, formativa. A afirmação desse ethos, na universidade, bem como na sociedade, é facilitada pelos algoritmos de big data, os quais estão na base da constituição da chamada “sociedade métrica”, em que há uma tendência geral para utilizar formas quantitativas para realizar classificações sociais. Neste texto, com respaldo (...) em revisão de literatura, objetiva-se refletir sobre dois processos de avaliação de docentes que atuam no ensino superior e que ultrapassam o espaço acadêmico pela sua dimensão pública espetacularizada: a) o ranqueamento da produção docente, por meio do índice h; e b) a avaliação realizada por estudantes em sites públicos, neste caso específico, o site de avaliação docente ratemyprofessors.com. A partir destas duas estratégias de avaliação, professores, pesquisadores e alunos envolvem-se em uma espécie de certame onde se mostrar, ser visto, monitorado, classificado passa a ser critério de aprovação (percebido) ou, no limite, perda de financiamentos e do próprio trabalho (cancelado). Palavras-chave: Avaliação Docente; Algoritmos; Sociedade Métrica; Cultura Digital. Entre el ranking y el rating: La evaluación digital del profesor en la era de la sociedad métrica Resumen: Los procesos de evaluación en la universidad están impregnados de un ethos que busca la cuantificación y el ranqueo. Como resultado, se observa cada vez más la descaracterización de la evaluación en su sentido cualitativo y, en consecuencia, formativo. La afirmación de este ethos, tanto en la universidad como en la sociedad, se ve facilitada por los algoritmos de big data, que están en la base de la constitución de la llamada “sociedad métrica”, en la que existe una tendencia generalizada a utilizar formas cuantitativas para realizar clasificaciones sociales. En este texto, apoyado en una revisión de la literatura, el objetivo es reflexionar sobre dos procesos de evaluación de profesores que laboran en la educación superior y que van más allá del espacio académico por su dimensión pública espectacularizada: a) el ranking de la producción docente, a través del índice h, b) la evaluación realizada por los estudiantes en los sitios web públicos, en este caso concreto, el sitio web de evaluación del profesorado ratemyprofessors.com. A partir de estas dos estrategias de evaluación, docentes, investigadores y estudiantes se involucran en una especie de certamen en el que mostrarse, ser visto, monitoreado, clasificado se convierte en un criterio de aprobación (percibido) o, en última instancia, pérdida de financiamiento y trabajo propio (cancelado). Palabras-clave: Evaluación Docente; Algoritmos; Sociedad Métrica; Cultura Digital. Between ranking and rating: Digital evaluation of professors in the metric society Abstract: Evaluation processes at universities are permeated by an ethos that emphasizes quantification and ranking. As a result, an increasing discharacterization of the qualitative and thus educational sense of evaluation is observed. The affirmation of this ethos in universities, and in society as a whole, is facilitated by big data algorithms, which are at the foundation of the constitution of the so-called ‘metric society’, in which there is a general trend to use quantitative forms to conduct social classifications. This text, supported by a review of the literature, reflects on two processes of evaluation of professors of higher education that go beyond the academic space because of their spectacularized public dimension: the ranking of professor production, by the “h index” and b) evaluations conducted by students on public online sites, in this case, the ratemyprofessors.com site. Based on these two evaluation strategies, professors, researchers, and students are involved in a dispute in which displaying oneself, being seen, monitored, and classified become criteria for (perceived) approval, or, at the limit, for a loss of financing for one’s work (canceling). Keywords: Evaluation Of Professors; Algorithms; Metric Society; Critical Theory; Digital Culture. Data de registro: 15/04/2022 Data de aceite: 13/12/2022. (shrink)

The debate concerning human rationality has been revolving around four main standpoints: 1) Unbounded rationality, 2) Optimization under constraints, 3) Heuristics and biases, and 4) Ecological rationality. Typically, proponents of 3) and 4) criticize models 1) and 2) for their cognitive unrealism. However, many ethologists contend that it makes sense to account for data gathered in animal behaviour research along the lines defined by the latter models. Elaborating upon this contention, Stanovich suggested recently a fifth standpoint in this debate – (...) I’ll call it ‘Brute Rationality’. According to it, traditional rational choice models are more appropriate to account for the behaviour of creatures endowed with simple cognitive architectures rather than to account for human behaviour. In my talk, I´ll contend that the term ‘rationality’ is being used in this debate to cover too wide a semantic area. In fact, once one distinguishes the different meanings associated with it, the positions defining this debate reveal themselves to be much less clear than what is usually taken to be the case. (shrink)

Classification learning is a preeminent human ability within the animal kingdom but the key mechanisms of brain networks regulating learning remain mostly elusive. Recent neuroimaging advancements have depicted human brain as a complex graph machinery where brain regions are nodes and coherent activities among them represent the functional connections. While long-term motor memories have been found to alter functional connectivity in the resting human brain, a graph topological investigation of the short-time effects of learning are still not widely investigated. For (...) instance, classification learning is known to orchestrate rapid modulation of diverse memory systems like short-term and visual working memories but how the brain functional connectome accommodates such modulations is unclear. We used publicly available repositories (openfmri.org) selecting three experiments, two focused on short-term classification learning along two consecutive runs where learning was promoted by trial-by-trial feedback errors, while a further experiment was used as supplementary control. We analyzed the functional connectivity extracted from BOLD fMRI signals, and estimated the graph information processing in the cerebral networks. The information processing capability, characterized by complex network statistics, significantly improved over runs, together with the subject classification accuracy. Instead, null-learning experiments, where feedbacks came with poor consistency, did not provoke any significant change in the functional connectivity over runs. We propose that learning induces fast modifications in the overall brain network dynamics, definitely ameliorating the short-term potential of the brain to process and integrate information, a dynamic consistently orchestrated by modulations of the functional connections among specific brain regions. (shrink)

Em tempos de cultura digital, observa-se o acesso a uma quantidade incomensurável de informações sem que sejam feitas relações que poderiam transformá-las em conceitos. Uma vez que prevalece o uso instrumental de tais informações, arrefece concomitantemente a postura ética que o questiona. É nesse contexto que o professor ocupa um posto decisivo no que diz respeito à organização e à discussão de tais informações com seus alunos. Este artigo tem como objetivo argumentar que a postura de Pedro Goergen como educador (...) oferta aos alunos um tipo de relação que faz com que a própria figura do professor seja eticamente ressignificada nessa sociedade de cultura digital. (shrink)

Las siguientes líneas presentan un análisis de las connotaciones de la utopía, a través del cual es posible un cuestionamiento certero acerca de si, hasta el momento, por medio de lo institucional/académico, se ha estado considerando, y con ello, proyectándose didácticamente, una utopía que, lejos de la ambigüedad, no es el mismo sueño para estamentos privilegiados que para la mayoría de las personas que no ostentan dichos privilegios. Desde el pasado a la más rabiosa actualidad, se trata de mostrar cómo (...) hay otra forma de enseñar la utopía, que puede ser un pensamiento racional, y algo más pragmático, de lo que quizás nos inculcaron, algo con una vigencia y una potencialidad que diversas fuentes, desde la investigación social, y educativa, pueden atestiguar. (shrink)

Every now and then when watching a movie, we come across faces in which we recognize a significant value, because they represent some important cultural models we use to assign meaning to our experience of the world. By way of example, I will discuss the faces of the protagonists of two recent films, Abdellatif Kechiche’s La vie d’Adele. Chapitres 1 & 2 (2013; English title Blue Is the Warmest Colour) and Leonor Serraille’s Jeune femme (2017), comparing them with the faces (...) of the protagonists of some older movies, such as Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson’s Shrek (2001) and James Cameron’s Avatar (2009). I will argue that the way in which the faces are portrayed is similar to the narrative structure of the stories of the characters they belong to, and that the signs and narrative structures used to construct the discourses about the world in those films are at the same time similar to those of two important cultural models of what it means to be young men and women in our times. As these cultural models are different, yet interconnected, I will argue that the most meaningful faces in cinema change due to the transformation of the cultural models they derive from and that a sociosemiotic method based on a structuralist vision of culture can help identify the most culturally significant symbolic faces on screen, and elsewhere. (shrink)

Cet article se propose d'analyser les relations entre l'anthropologie et l'indigénisme au Brésil. Pour cela, il retrace le processus de migration des savoirs indigénistes depuis leur contexte d'origine au Mexique jusqu'au Brésil, et les transformations qu'ils connaissent au cours de leur trajectoire jusqu'à aujourd'hui, en s'appuyant sur la notion de « traditions de savoirs » pour la gestion des populations qui se sont développées à partir de l'époque coloniale. Cette approche participe d'une anthropologie du colonialisme, en ce qu'elle étudie les (...) conceptions de la diversité culturelle des populations dans les administrations publiques brésiliennes et les façons de gouverner celles-ci. (shrink)

Technological unemployment is a subset of historically recurring problems related to jobs in general and unemployment in particular, which are now of global importance. The typical difficulties of...

Vico e Wittgenstein apresentam concepções diferentes a respeito da relação entre linguagem e mundo. Essa diferença resulta no modo como julgam a possibilidade da ética ser tratada dentro da linguagem, portanto, de possuir sentido. Enquanto Wittgenstein, no Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, apresenta uma concepção da relação linguagem-mundo pautada no isomorfismo da forma lógica das sentenças com a forma lógica dos fatos, Vico, na Ciência Nova, a concebe por meio das experiências e condições de existência humanas, na qual a linguagem diz do mundo (...) através de relações metafóricas que estabelecem ligações entre o diverso. Por conta disso, o primeiro julga que sentenças éticas seriam desprovidas de sentido, pois não refletem a forma lógica de fato algum. Já o segundo, ao notar que elementos como as fábulas contribuem para dispor os homens favoravelmente para a vida civil, julga que cumprem efetivamente uma função ética. (shrink)

The article analyses the concept of actual infinity in William of Ockham’s thought, thanks to a close reading of his writings, first those on physics, where he argues more than once the existence of the actual infinity, intended as a set of infinite parts in act present in a continuum. By virtue of this representation of infinity, Ockham also states that two sets with infinite parts are not necessarily equal, but one of the two can be greater than the other, (...) as would happen with the revolutions of the moon and the sun in an endless time. Nonetheless, in the theological works, the Franciscan seems to have apparently a different position, since he denies the possibility of the actual infinity, either as a set of infinite entities existing all simultaneously, or as an infinite entity, since in both cases a limit would be placed on God’s omnipotence. Ockham instead demonstrates that he has a double vision of the actual infinity, similar to that of Cantor, as already proposed by Annaliese Maier. The essay will therefore show the compatibility of Ockham’s physics and theological writings by virtue of the different meanings of infinity. (shrink)

This paper introduces a formal concept of ideology and ideological system. The formalization takes ideologies and ideological systems to be situated in agent societies. An ideological system is defined as a system of operations able to create, maintain, and extinguish the ideologies adopted by the social groups of agent societies. The concepts of group ideology, ideological contradiction, ideological dominance, and dominant ideology of an agent society, are defined. An ideology-based concept of social group is introduced. Relations between the proposed formal (...) concept of ideology and the classical concepts of ideology elaborated in social sciences are examined. A computational notation is presented, to support the realization of ideological systems in computationally implemented agent societies. The adequacy of the approach for the formal modeling and analysis of ideological issues is illustrated through three case studies. (shrink)

Essa pesquisa teve como proposta realizar um estudo acerca da angústia na obra do escritor Haruki Murakami (1949-), tendo como ponto de apoio secundário a teoria de Sigmund Freud (1858-1939) da angústia. Visamos, com esse estudo, lançar luz sobre a literatura como modelo de leitura da vida humana, em nosso caso, uma leitura das angústias humanas a partir da literatura. Para isso, iremos abordar o próprio gênero literário em que a obra de Murakami está circunscrita, os principais conceitos que dão (...) suporte a esse caráter angustiante, presentes no texto murakamiano, e a influência de concepções e ideias filosóficos em sua obra. Como por exemplo, a teoria da Vontade de Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) e a ideia do lugar do pensamento, postulado por Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) no quarto capítulo da obra “A vida do espírito". (shrink)

El artículo busca demostrar que el Budismo Zen conlleva una relación entre espiritualidad y corporalidad que Žižek no considera en su crítica del mismo como un instrumento más de adaptación al capitalismo. En respuesta a esta crítica, argumentaré que el criterio para entender apropiadamente el budismo está en la propia tradición, particularmente en la disciplina de la práctica. En el Zen, la doctrina se realiza a través de la práctica disciplinada y metódica, la cual se arraiga en el cuerpo. En (...) rigor, la crítica de Žižek es válida solo para aquel budismo que carece de disciplina y se preocupa únicamente por obtener resultados inmediatos, reforzando así el individualismo y haciendo de la e espiritualidad un producto capitalista más al servicio de la conformidad al mercado. (shrink)

A collection of essays exploring the nature and experience of love, its contradictions and limits, and its material and ideal forms. Drawing from leading contemporary Continental philosophers, contributors focus on love as it relates to such phenomena as trust, abuse, grief, death, hatred, politics, and desire"--Provided by publisher.

La normalización de la precariedad entre las personas jóvenes está entrando en lo que parece una nueva fase. De la mano de, entre otros factores, los discursos empresariales y la teoría del capital humano, estamos asistiendo a una vuelta de tuerca en la presión sobre la juventud: ya no basta con la búsqueda «activa» de empleo, ahora hay que invertir en uno mismo como «empresario de sí mismo» y, en esta lógica, si es preciso hay que optar por la «movilidad (...) internacional». Presentamos una revisión teórica y conceptual alrededor de lo que se conoce como fuga de cerebros y su justificación discursiva. Estamos ante un proceso que probablemente dejará una marca importante en una generación que ha visto truncadas sus posibilidades de transición a situaciones estables, idealmente identificadas con el mundo adulto.Normalization of precariousness among young people is entering in a new phase. Led by, among other factors, the human capital theory, we are witnessing a twist in pressure on young people: it is no longer enough with «active» job search, now you have to invest in yourself as entrepreneur of yourself’ and in this logic, maybe young people must choose for the «international mobility», which is represented as a cosmopolitan option. We present a theoretical and conceptual review around what is known as brain drain and its discursive justification. We are facing a process that will probably leave a significant mark on a generation whose chances of transition to stable situations have been truncated, ideally identified with the adult world. (shrink)

One of the most common ways of morphological marking is affixation, morphemes are classified according to their position. In languages with affixal morphology, suffixes and prefixes are the most common types of affixes. Despite several proposals, it has been impossible to identify solid generalisations about the behaviour of prefixes, in opposition to suffixes. This article argues that the reason is that our traditional definitions of suffix and prefix are based on pre-theoretical, surface criteria that have been given up in other (...) areas of linguistics: defining a morpheme as a prefix does not tell us anything about its grammatical nature, as that label does not take into consideration the structural configuration underlying the morpheme. Once the structural configuration is taken into account, solid generalisations begin to emerge. The article illustrates the advantages of this approach through a study of the interaction between vowel harmony and affixes. (shrink)

What is Aristotle's considered view of animal self-motion? According to several scholars, Aristotle ends up rejecting this very notion as a result of his criticism of Plato's theory of a self-moving soul. Contrary to this still widespread assumption, the present study argues that his critical engagement with Plato is not confined to negative results, but achieves largely positive outcomes, which add up to a rich and nuanced picture of self-motion. Ferro makes his case by offering a novel reading of a (...) handful of controversial passages from De Anima and Physics VIII, where Aristotle reacts to three aspects of Plato's theory of self-motion: the claim that soul itself is a self-mover, the assumption that self-movers enjoy strong causal autonomy, and the link between motion, desire and soul partition. Through a careful reading of the relevant passages, which does justice to their proper context and significance, Ferro shows that Aristotle's critical re-appropriation of self-motion results in a largely coherent doctrine with major repercussions for Aristotelian psychology and philosophy of nature. (shrink)