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)

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)

The proposal of moral enhancement as a valuable means to face the environmental, technological and social challenges that threaten the future of humanity has been criticized by a number of authors. One of the main criticisms has been that moral enhancement would diminish our freedom. It has been said that moral enhancement would lead enhanced people to lose their ‘freedom to fall’, that is, it would prevent them from being able to decide to carry out some morally bad actions, and (...) the possibility to desire and carry out these bad actions is an essential ingredient of free will, which would thus be limited or destroyed—or so the argument goes. In this paper we offer an answer to this criticism. We contend that a morally enhanced agent could lose the ‘freedom to fall’ without losing her freedom for two reasons. First, because we do not consider that a morally well-educated person, for whom the ‘freedom to fall’ is a remote option, is less free than an evildoer, and there is no reason to suppose that bioenhancement introduces a significant difference here. Second, because richness in the amount of alternative possibilities of action may be restored if the stated loss is compensated with an improvement in sensitivity and lucidity that can lead to seeing new options and nuances in the remaining possible actions. (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)

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)

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...

In this article we will focus our attention on the variety of distributive bisemilattices and some linguistic expansions thereof: bounded, De Morgan, and involutive bisemilattices. After extending Balbes’ representation theorem to bounded, De Morgan, and involutive bisemilattices, we make use of Hartonas–Dunn duality and introduce the categories of 2spaces and 2spaces\. The categories of 2spaces and 2spaces\ will play with respect to the categories of distributive bisemilattices and De Morgan bisemilattices, respectively, a role analogous to the category of Stone spaces (...) with respect to the category of Boolean algebras. Actually, the aim of this work is to show that these categories are, in fact, dually equivalent. (shrink)

We continue the investigation, initiated in Salibra et al. (Found Sci, 2020), of Boolean-like algebras of dimension n (nBA\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$n\textrm{BA}$$\end{document}s), algebras having n constants e1,⋯,en\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\mathsf e_1,\dots,\mathsf e_n$$\end{document}, and an (n+1)\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$(n+1)$$\end{document}-ary operation q (a “generalised if-then-else”) that induces a decomposition of the algebra into n factors through the so-called n-central elements. Varieties of nBA\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} (...) \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$n\textrm{BA}$$\end{document}s share many remarkable properties with the variety of Boolean algebras and with primal varieties. Putting to good use the concept of a central element, we extend the Boolean power construction to that of a semiring power and we prove two representation theorems: (i) Any pure nBA\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$n\textrm{BA}$$\end{document} is isomorphic to the algebra of n-central elements of a Boolean vector space; (ii) Any member of a variety of nBAs with one generator is isomorphic to a Boolean power of this generator. This yields a new proof of Foster’s theorem on primal varieties. (shrink)

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)

Proposition 5.122 of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus has been the source of much puzzlement among interpreters, so much so that no fully satisfactory account is yet available. This is unfortunate, if only because the containment account of logical consequence has a venerable tradition behind it. Pasquale Frascolla’s interpretation of proposition 5.122 is based on a valid argument and one true premise. However, the argument explains sense containment only in an indirect way, leaving some crucial questions unanswered. Besides, Frascolla does not address the (...) issue of how to make sense containment notationally perspicuous, an essential theme in Wittgenstein’s reflections. In this paper, we elaborate on Frascolla’s account by looking at the issue through the Tractarian notion of logical space. Our analysis shows that, for containment to be fully appreciated, one should adopt a negative perspective on the notion of sense, in line with the exclusionary theory of conceptual content, as labelled by Ian Rumfitt. Besides this, we introduce and discuss two methods—one envisaged by Wittgenstein himself—for making sense containment notationally perspicuous. (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)

El presente ensayo indaga en el habitar como acción colectiva y su relación con la materia con que se construye el objeto habitado, proponiendo el término “xeno-metamórfico” para designar posibles estrategias que permitan nuevas formas de habitar basadas en la construcción en bahareque. En primer lugar, se hace una aproximación a los términos de espacio, territorio, lugar y paisaje como categorías que permiten clasificar aquello que habitamos para, en segundo lugar, indagar en cómo habitamos estas categorías. Finalmente, se aborda el (...) lugar-casa para explorar la importancia de la relación habitar-construir. (shrink)

Recent neuro-psychoanalytic literature has emphasized the view that our subjective identity rests on ancient subcortical neuro-psychic processes expressing unthinking forms of experience, which are “affectively intense without being known” (Solms and Panksepp, 2012). Devoid of internal representations, the emotional states of our “core-Self” (Panksepp, 1998b) are entirely “projected” towards the external world and tend to be discharged through instinctual action-patterns. However, due to the close connections between the subcortical and the cortical midline brain, the emotional drives may also find a (...) way to be reflected within an intrinsic self-referential processing, evident when the organism is not actively engaged with the external world. Thanks to such endogenous functioning, the core-Self emotional dispositions are not overtly executed, but they are organized within coherent dynamic mental structures, called “feeling-toned complexes” by C.G. Jung and “unconscious phantasies” by Melanie Klein. The intrinsic self-referential dynamism of the ‘brainmind’ originated from REM sleep arousal and then evolved in the resting-state activity of a complex of cortico-limbic midline brain structures (CMS), also called Default Mode Network (DMN). From our neuro-ethological perspective, it is sustained by an “introverted” SEEKING activity leading to the subjective exploration of internally constructed virtual scenarios. This “mind wandering” function, implicated in dreaming, fantasy processing, remembering and thinking, is the essence of the imaginative function and constitutes the first form of reflection, where intentions and drives gain a primordial form of conscious (but not self-conscious) representation. During postnatal development, this original (“archetypal”) imaginative function is slowly attuned in a relational “transitional” space and may be expressed first in non-verbal and eventually in abstract-verbal social communicative patterns. Our view has noticeable implications for psychotherapy. Instead of trying to directly modify interpersonal, extrinsic relationships (a top-down approach), dysfunctional emotional-relational patterns may be modified by a process in which the patient is helped to let-go of the perceived feeling-objects in favor of an immersion, via the actual feeling, from the superficial level of perception towards a void feeling-state, empty of images. Only starting from this “anoetic” feeling-state, the deep imaginal creative and re-structuring self-referential activity may be reactivated by a process of spontaneous imagination. (shrink)

El debate en torno a la cuestión del estatuto del embrión humano ha llegado hasta nuestra ciudadanía a través del problema del aborto, en el que detractores y defensores forman dos bandos opuestos y beligerantes, donde el diálogo se ha tornado prácticamente imposible: son las llamadas posturas _pro-life _y_ pro-choice_. Para intentar dar una solución al conflicto, nuestro objetivo será revisar los conceptos de «potencialidad» y «suficiencia constitucional», ambos procedentes de la filosofía, gracias a los cuales pensamos que podrá aclararse (...) la problemática que sobre el estatuto del embrión surge en nuestros días. Una vez revisados ambos conceptos, propondremos una solución a esta cuestión acudiendo a la ciencia, concretamente, a la neonatología y a su concepto de «viabilidad fetal», con el fin de completar una posible argumentación que aporte alguna luz al problema planteado. (shrink)