Tissues are shaped and patterned by mechanical and chemical processes. A key mechanical process is the positioning of the mitotic spindle, which determines the size and location of the daughter cells within the tissue. Recent force and position-fluctuation measurements indicate that pushing forces, mediated by the polymerization of astral microtubules against­ the cell cortex, maintain the mitotic spindle at the cell center in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos. The magnitude of the centering forces suggests that the physical limit on the accuracy and (...) precision of this centering mechanism is determined by the number of pushing microtubules rather than by thermally driven fluctuations. In cells that divide asymmetrically, anti-centering, pulling forces generated by cortically located dyneins, in conjunction with microtubule depolymerization, oppose the pushing forces to drive spindle displacements away from the center. Thus, a balance of centering pushing forces and anti-centering pulling forces localize the mitotic spindles within dividing C. elegans cells. We discuss microtubule-based mechanisms of the mitotic spindle positioning, a key mechanical process that shapes and patterns tissues. The magnitude of the centering forces indicates that the physical limit on the accuracy and precision of centering is set by the number of contributing microtubules rather than by thermally driven fluctuations. (shrink)

Tissues are shaped and patterned by mechanical and chemical processes. A key mechanical process is the positioning of the mitotic spindle, which determines the size and location of the daughter cells within the tissue. Recent force and position-fluctuation measurements indicate that pushing forces, mediated by the polymerization of astral microtubules against­ the cell cortex, maintain the mitotic spindle at the cell center in Caenorhabditis elegans embryos. The magnitude of the centering forces suggests that the physical limit on the accuracy and (...) precision of this centering mechanism is determined by the number of pushing microtubules rather than by thermally driven fluctuations. In cells that divide asymmetrically, anti-centering, pulling forces generated by cortically located dyneins, in conjunction with microtubule depolymerization, oppose the pushing forces to drive spindle displacements away from the center. Thus, a balance of centering pushing forces and anti-centering pulling forces localize the mitotic spindles within dividing C. elegans cells. We discuss microtubule-based mechanisms of the mitotic spindle positioning, a key mechanical process that shapes and patterns tissues. The magnitude of the centering forces indicates that the physical limit on the accuracy and precision of centering is set by the number of contributing microtubules rather than by thermally driven fluctuations. (shrink)

En un escrito de juventud de Peirce publicado en 1868 para el Journal of Speculative Philosophy, titulado “Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimen for Man”, el autor norteamericano intenta mostrar por qué carecemos de la capacidad para reconocer cogniciones inmediatas y por qué, a falta de tal facultad, no es posible sostener la existencia de ese tipo de cogniciones; de ahí se desprende su postura anticartesiana y antifundacionista: si no hay cogniciones inmediatas, entonces todas las cogniciones están determinadas por cogniciones previas (...) y, en consecuencia, no hay cogniciones infalibles. Esta concepción del joven Peirce según la cual toda cognición está lógica o inferencialmente determinada por una cognición previa implicaría, entonces, que toda cognición, a su vez, determinaría lógicamente a una cognición posterior. Al seguir esta tesis obtenemos, en consecuencia, una doble determinación, a saber, la de una cognición(n) siendo determinada por otra cognición(n-1) anterior, y la de esa misma cognición(n) determinando a una cognición(n+1) posterior. La tesis de la doble determinación daría lugar, por tanto, no solo a una regresión infinita de determinaciones, sino también a una progresión infinita de determinaciones. [...] Aún hoy sigue abierta la discusión acerca de si en su madurez intelectual y en los albores de su vejez Peirce continuó sosteniendo sus tesis anticartesiana y antifundacionista, de sus escritos de juventud, en relación con la determinablidad de las cogniciones previas, y si aún, en sus escritos de madurez, renunció a la tesis de la progresión infinita de determinaciones. Pero no es mi interés aquí tomar partido en esta discusión. En este escrito me concentraré solamente en dos problemas: a saber, la indeterminabilidad del significado y la explicación del error, y mostraré cómo podría ser posible enfrentarlos adoptando algunos conceptos del pragmaticismo. (shrink)

Presentation of issue No 66 about epistemic injustices.

Los distintos intentos por aclarar el concepto de justificación epistémica han dado lugar a los más intrincados debates en la epistemología analítica contemporánea. Da cuenta de ello la controversia entre el internismo y el externismo de la justificación, y las discusiones que han surgido allí entre el fiabilismo y la epistemología de la virtud. Estas disputas han tomado un nuevo aire tras el surgimiento de la tesis de la mente extendida propuesta por Clark y Chalmers (1998), que sugiere la posibilidad (...) de conocimiento extendido más allá de la mente o el cerebro individual del sujeto. El objetivo de este capítulo es mostrar y evaluar cómo un debate que en su origen fue epistemológico ha recibido influencia de una tesis metafísica, proveniente de la filosofía de la mente. En la primera parte de este capítulo identificaremos las principales corrientes que surgieron en el marco del debate sobre el internismo y el externismo de la justificación, esto es, grosso modo, el debate acerca de si la justificación de una creencia debe estar al alcance del sujeto (internismo) o si esa justificación se determina independientemente de tal alcance (externismo). Seguidamente, abordaremos este debate desde el punto de vista del fiabilismo y la epistemología de la virtud, y finalmente presentaremos las tesis de la mente extendida y la cognición distribuida para mostrar cómo estas tesis pueden ser influyentes en las discusiones epistemológicas entre posturas internistas y externistas. (shrink)

En este texto se analizan los motivos gastronómicos de la obra del escritor japonés Junichiro Tanizaki, con el fin de discutir sus implicaciones estéticas y metafísicas. Para ello, se ofrece una breve semblanza del autor y se plantea la problemática de cómo interpretar sus textos, en un marcado contraste con la hermenéutica filosófica de corte occidental, y en función de una digresión filosófica sobre las nociones de utopía y heterotopía de Paul Ricœur y Michel Foucault.

En este artículo se presentan algunas variaciones del problema del regreso epistémico de la justificación. Con base en las distinciones entre justificación proposicional y justificación doxástica, por un lado, y la diferencia entre actividad de justificar y estatus de justificación, por otro, se distinguen cuatro formas de entender el problema del regreso epistémico. El objetivo es mostrar cómo pueden surgir distintas clases de teorías sobre la estructura de la justificación epistémica en función del modo como se entienda el problema del (...) regreso en alguno de esos cuatro modos. Se sostiene que, al haber por lo menos cuatro modos de regreso y, por lo menos, cuatro formas generales de enfrentarlo, habría a lo sumo dieciséis subclases posibles para lidiar con el problema. (shrink)

Abstract:This paper presents a model of the continuous structure of Cognition based on several theses proposed by Charles S. Peirce in his youth and in his mature period. In this model, cognitions are discontinuous parts on a continuum and a cognitive process becomes “individually-synthetic,” as a hypostatic abstraction from discontinuous transformations of informational fluxes in the continuous course of experience. That is, they are salient regions or neighborhoods on a continuum rather than points, and the relations of succession and precession (...) among them are inferential, fluid, time sensitive, and goal-directed. First, this paper will outline the theses found in the young Peirce’s work, which inspire a conception of continuous Cognition. Two questions will be raised regarding such a conception: (1) at what point does a particular act of cognition conclude? and (2) how should we characterize individual cognitions? To address these questions, the paper will later introduce the concept of continuity that Peirce developed in his mature years. The synthetic character of the continuum leads to the formulation of the concepts of neighborhood and synthetic individuality. These notions support the conception of a continuous model of Cognition in which the relations of succession and precession between individual finite cognitions are explained. The paper ends with a brief reflection regarding the possibility of developing this model of continuous Cognition as a theory of extended cognition. (shrink)

En este escrito se presentan las bases de una estrategia pragmática, contextualista e inferencialista para articular una teoría que dé cuenta de los grados de justificación de nuestras aserciones. Se arguye que hay contextos de emisión de aserciones configurados con ciertos criterios inferenciales, los cuales responden a propósitos prácticos o teóricos, y conforman, en consecuencia, diferentes estándares de justificación en esos contextos. Finalmente, a partir de una caracterización de tipos de proposiciones, inferencias, compromisos asertivos y esquemas de justificación, se muestra (...) cómo determinar el grado de justificación alto, medio o bajo de una aserción con respecto a un contexto de emisión de aserciones dado. (shrink)

The position of the spindle determines the position of the cleavage plane, and is thus crucial for cell division. Although spindle positioning has been extensively studied, the underlying forces ultimately responsible for moving the spindle remain poorly understood. A recent pioneering study by Garzon‐Coral et al. uses magnetic tweezers to perform the first direct measurements of the forces involved in positioning the mitotic spindle. Combining this with molecular perturbations and geometrical effects, they use their data to argue that (...) the forces that keep the spindle in its proper position for cell division arise from astral microtubules growing and pushing against the cell's cortex. Here, we review these ground‐breaking experiments, the various biomechanical models for spindle positioning that they seek to differentiate, and discuss new questions raised by these measurements. (shrink)

A descriptive-exploratory analysis of assurance practices is presented in this paper, by analysing the patterns of sustainability assurance reporting in two national contexts with different levels of assurance activity over a period of 11 years. The study is based on theoretical insights drawn from institutional sociology and normativity production. It is framed both in the Italian situation, where assurance statements consistently include a narrow set of formal and procedural communications, and in an unsettled situation in the U.S., where assurance activity (...) is more incipient, but where experimentation in substantial assurance disclosure practices has more room to develop. Its main implication is that the diffusion of sustainability assurance and the creation of sustainability assurance disclosure norms are not without its cost: information quality does not increase with patterned practice. The results also point towards the noteworthy role of specific professionals in the earlier and later stages of assurance practice norms. They reveal a significant influence of non-Big4 firms in the diffusion of sustainability assurance disclosure norms. In contrast, the Big4 firms appear to be positively associated with the narrowing down of the assurance focus to a selected subset of this activity in later stages of the development of the assurance norm. In this regard, this study provides insight into the circumstantial—but relevant—carrier role of the Big4 firms in determining what “assurance” means. (shrink)

Minding Time: A Philosophical and Theoretical Approach to the Psychology of Time offers an innovative philosophical account of the most fundamental kinds of time representation.

Este artículo plantea que el concepto de solidaridad, usualmente exaltado en tiempos de crisis, contiene en sí mismo el conjunto de límites que lo debilitan y lo convierten, paradójicamente, en una sutil manifestación del egoísmo. Para analizar esta contradicción, se abordan las posiciones emblemáticas de cinco autores contemporáneos: John Rawls, Richard Rorty, Jürgen Habermas, Charles Taylor y Hannah Arendt. A través de este análisis puede mostrarse que los grandes desafíos de nuestra civilización permiten advertir los dilemas y las contingencias que (...) afectan el nexo entre el liberalismo y la solidaridad. (shrink)

According to the Principle of Alternative Possibilities, an agent is morally responsible for an action of hers only if she could have done otherwise. The notion of a robust alternative plays a prominent role in recent attacks on PAP based on so-called Frankfurt cases. In this paper I defend the truth of PAP for blameworthy actions against Frankfurt cases recently proposed by Derk Pereboom and David Widerker. My defence rests on some intuitively plausible principles that yield a new understanding of (...) the concept of a robust alternative. I will leave aside whether PAP also holds for praiseworthy actions -/- Según el Principio de Posibilidades Alternativas, un agente es moralmente responsable de una acción sólo si hubiera podido actuar de otro modo. La noción de alternativa robusta desempeña un papel prominente en ataques recientes al PPA basados en los llamados casos Frankfurt. En este artículo defiendo el PPA para la culpabilidad moral frente a casos Frankfurt propuestos recientemente por Derk Pereboom y David Widerker. Mi defensa descansa en algunos principios intuitivamente plausibles que dan lugar a una comprensión nueva del concepto de alternativa robusta. No trataré la cuestión de la verdad del PPA para acciones moralmente laudables. (shrink)

Expressivists claim that normative judgments (NJ) are non-cognitive states. But what kind of states are they, exactly? Expressivists need to provide us with an adequate account of their nature. Here, I argue that there are structural features that render this task rather daunting. The worry takes the form of a looming dilemma: NJ are either conative states (i.e. states with a world-to-mind direction of fit) or they are not. If they are, then they are either attitudes de se (i.e. attitudes (...) about oneself) or they are not. If they are, then they’re unable to account for disagreement. If they are not, then they're unable to account for agent-relative NJ. So NJ cannot be conative states (they cannot have a world-to-mind direction of fit). On the other hand, however, if NJ are not conative states (if they are states without a direction of fit, like affective or other sui generis non-cognitive, non-conative attitudes) then it remains a mystery how they support relations of disagreement. (shrink)

Teniendo como punto de partida el importante intercambio crítico entre John Rawls y Jürgen Habermas desplegado en The Journal of Philosohy en marzo de 1995, el presente escrito tiene por objetivo explorar el lugar que ocupa el consenso en la fundamentación del pensamiento político de ambos autores. De modo tal que pueda ponerse en evidencia el carácter intersubjetivo que subyace tanto en los planteos de la teoría de la justicia de Rawls como en la ética del discurso habermasiana. Lo anterior, (...) en efecto, implica un ejercicio conceptual que decanta en el esclarecimiento de dos sendas argumentativas, ambas herederas de una interpretación de Kant, encauzadas a dar solución a la fundamentación de principios morales en las sociedades plurales contemporáneas. (shrink)

RESUMENEl trabajo critica la fundamentación liberal del a democracia. Por dos razones: la primera, por la imposible defensa de un modelo neutral del estado; y la segunda, por el componente individualista tanto de su epistemología como de su filosofía moral y política, que reduce de modo significativo las posibilidades emancipadoras del proyecto democrático. por último, señala que estos rasgos básicos del a fundamentación liberal se mantienen incluso en una de las versiones del liberalismo social más acordes con la democracia constitucional; (...) el liberalismo político de John Rawls. PALABRAS CLAVELIBERALISMO-DEMOCRACIA LIBERAL- HOBBES-RAWLS- ARENDTABSTRACTThe paper critiques the liberal foundation of democracy. For two reasons: the first, because of the imposible defense of a neutral model of the state; and the second, because of the individualist element both of its epistemology and of its moral and political phiosophy, that reduces significantly the emancipatory chances of the democratic project. Lastly, it points out that these basic features of the liberal foundation even remain in one the versions of liberalism more akin to constitutional democracy: John Rawls' political liberalism.KEYWORDSLIBERALISM-LIBERAL DEMOCRACY-HOBBES-RAWLS-ARENDT. (shrink)

La conquista del poder por la izquierda ha tenido un carácter internacional desde su génesis en el siglo XIX. Esta aproximación colaborativa permite contextualizar lo que significó el Foro de São Paulo a finales del siglo XX para la izquierda latinoamericana tras la desintegración de la URSS. Por lo que se analiza al Socialismo del siglo XXI como su principal producto, explicando las circunstancias que permitieron su surgimiento en Venezuela, así como su proceso de expansión y crisis, que se vería (...) acentuada por la muerte de los líderes históricos de la izquierda latinoamericana. Finalmente, se presenta al Grupo de Puebla como una respuesta a la iniciativa articuladora de la derecha en América Latina, el Grupo de Lima, indicando por medio de ello los elementos de continuidad y disrupción con el Foro de São Paulo, sirviendo como instancia articuladora de la izquierda en la región. (shrink)

The article develops, in a Hegelian key, a possible explanation of the role that the Protestant idea of subjective autonomy plays in the shaping of the American political imaginary, and its respective paradigm of democracy. The starting point is an important indication by James Doull, later developed by David Peddle, on the notion of internal consent for the acceptance of political institutions, originally formulated within the Calvinist tradition of the Covenant. In my opinion, this observation is correct but insufficient to (...) fully explain the conformation of the imaginary of the sovereignty of the Demos. Following Doull's own line, whose examination projects Hegelian philosophy, what is required, in my opinion, is to investigate the specific type of experience of American consciousness in the colonial period from the perspective of analysis that Hegel develops in the Phenomenology of the Spirit. (shrink)

The original article was published without open access and with the copyright notice indicating © Springer Nature B.V. The article is now open access with the copyright residing with the authors.

Evaluation processes are a basic component of creativity. They guide not only the pure judgement about a new artefact but also the generation itself, as creators constantly evaluate their own work. This paper proposes a model for automatic story generation based on the evaluation of stories. A model of how quality in stories is evaluated is presented, and two possible implementations of the generation guided by this evaluation are shown: exhaustive space exploration and constrained exploration. A theoretical model and its (...) implementation are explained and validation of the evaluation function through comparison with human criteria is described. (shrink)

A indústria cultural tem nos aniversários mais diversos oportunidades de (auto) celebração com virtualidades cada vez mais exploradas. Neste caso interessa-nos a celebração dos 150 anos do nascimento de Freud, embora outros exemplos, à primeira vista até mais originais, fossem possíveis (como a ainda recente azáfama em torno dos 250 anos do terramoto de Lisboa). O que torna o caso dos 150 anos de Freud tão interessante é ver como em seu torno se procedeu à habitual evocação festiva, típica da...

This paper makes the case for the relevance of C. G. Hempel’s 1942 proposal of the usage of «covering laws» in History. To do so, it argues that such a proposal reflects how 18 and 19th centuries «philosophy of History» became methods or epistemology of History. This carried a change in meaning of «History»: no longer a succession of past events but the study of documented human action (including of scientific kind in general), its distinction vis-à-vis philosophy, sociology etc., becomes (...) a minor matter as far as logic of research is concerned. Also present in this paper is the conception of theory as a conceptual mode of narrative, and the defense of a development of theories alongside their practice, not apart from them. Authors considered besides Hempel range from Max Weber to Sigmund Freud, from Arthur C. Danto to Albert O. Hirschmann. (shrink)

t. 1. Parte general. Confesión y interrogatorio -- t. 2. Juramento y prueba escrita.

Until recently emotion and emotional processing have been largely neglected by experimental psychology and neuroscience more generally. This paper reviews the substantial psychological and neuroscientific evidence that each emotion is localized in specific neural structures, and thus that it is not necessary to invoke souls or spirits to explain emotions or emotional processing often held to be distinctive of a soul. In addition, the paper aims to demonstrate the adaptive and biological value of emotion for humans and other animals. It (...) closes by focusing on recent research on neural processing of emotions and emotional words. -/- 1. Introduction -- 2. What are Emotions and How Many Emotions Exist? -- 3. Emotions and the Body -- 4. The Neural Substrates of Emotions and How We Know Them -- 5. Fear, Sadness, and the Amygdala -- 6. Pleasure, Happiness, and the Orbitofrontal Cortex -- 7. Conclusion. (shrink)