The Conventionality of Simultaneity espoused by Reichenbach, Grunbaum, Edwards, and Winnie is herein extended to mechanics and electrodynamics. The extension is seen to be a special case of a generally covariant formulation of physics, and therefore consistent with Special Relativity as the geometry of flat space-time. Many of the quantities of classical physics, such as mass, charge density, and force, are found to be synchronization dependent in this formulation and, therefore, in Reichenbach's terminology, "metrogenic." The relationship of these quantities to (...) 4-vectors and their physical significance is discussed. (shrink)

Within Special Relativity accelerated systems can be described as those systems in which standard clock synchronism does not hold. Therefore, the ε -generalized Lorentz equations derived by Winnie are the equations governing accelerated systems. The ε -generalized equation for time is used in analyzing two cases of the clock paradox: (1) the case in which a clock travels in a straight line, stops, and returns, and (2) the case in which a clock travels with uniform velocity in a circular path. (...) The treatment of case (1) of the paradox within this generalization of the Special Theory is compared with Møller's treatment of it within the General Theory. (shrink)

After a consideration of Reichenbach's and Winnie's axiomatizations of Special Relativity, three synchrony-free axioms which can be used to simultaneously axiomatize Special Relativity, Classical Aether Theory, and a threefold continuum of theories in between are suggested. The specific theory obtained from the axioms depends on the value of a parameter in each axiom. It is shown that the values of the three parameters are empirically determined by the Michelson-Morley, Kennedy-Thorndike, and Ives-Stilwell experiments.

No detailed description available for "Conventionalism in logic".

We consider a sequence of absolute-space kinematical theories which differ more or less from the special theory of relativity (STR) in the amount of clock retardation which they predict, but which agree with STR with respect to roundtrip light experiments, such as Michelson-Morley and Kennedy-Thorndike. This sequence of theories is imbedded in the synchrony-free formulation of STR developed by Winnie by modifying the equal passage time principle. The paper has bearing on the relationship between the slow clock transport behavior of (...) clocks and the one-way velocity of light. Experiments which claim to measure the latter are discussed. (shrink)

In their recent paper, Jackson and Pargetter have attempted to prove that simultaneity is not a matter of convention. They attempt to show that it is an empirical fact whether or not a moving rod A′B′ is perpendicular to a plane XY. If it is an empirical fact, then such a perpendicular rod can be used to synchronize clocks. We shall show that it is not an empirical fact, but it is in fact synchronization dependent.

Robert Torretti's objection is verificationism writ large. We reply that verificationism is to be rejected. Carlo Giannoni's objection is that our test for tilting fails because the rod might tilt and yet no current flow through its mid-point. We reply that nevertheless we can test for tilting because there would still be differences detectable with a glavanometer.

In his early essay, "Truth by Convention," W.V.O. Quine scraps a programme for a conventionalistic account of logic on finding that the very logic which he wishes to stipulate by conventional truth assignments is presupposed in the stipulation of his conventions. Recently, however, Carlo Giannoni has offered us a variant of the Quine programme which, he maintains, avoids Quine's initial pitfall by shifting the emphasis from truth assignment to the conventional stipulation of inference rules. In the following essay I (...) argue that Quine and, hence, also Giannoni have misconceived the problem of conventionalism in their accounts and that the Giannoni reconstruction is consequently to no avail. The alternative account of Quine's initial difficulties which I offer is both incompatible with a classical conventionalism and Quine's own Duhemian conventionalism, while explaining these difficulties far more adequately than his account of them does. (shrink)

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)

Montaigne never got to think that Cicero was a teacher of thought and life. First, Montaigne held a very negative position with respect to Cicero. Later than 1588, he arrived at one more balanced position. According Montaigne Cicero belongs to one world that separate the culture from the life, which represents the field where the truth of a being is pronounced and the ethical values are made concretely. Montaigne did not want to admit that Cicero also rejected the separation of (...) word, thought and action. When after 1588 Cicero is used by Montaigne extensively, the Cicero’s appointments are interpreted in a very personal way. For Montaigne, Cicero was simultaneously an egocentric and a republican orator, while the author of the Essais preferred an aristocratic ethics and praised the authoritarian regimes. (shrink)

In a context of pervasive digitalization of the social world, both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the field of education has undergone major changes with the development of digital practices and settings. However, the physical presence of the subjects and the body remain something primordial and irreplaceable in traditional educational processes. Thus, it is often assumed that virtuality is opposed to the corporeal reality of the subjects involved in teaching, learning and studying. In this paper we aim to critically (...) challenge this assumption by addressing the phenomenon of virtuality in a more original sense: as a fundamental dimension of corporeality itself. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological insights, we argue that the experience of the virtual is inherently embodied and fully real. We understand corporeality and virtuality as entangled and multidimensional phenomena. At the same time, this leads us to rethink the digital as only one possible medium in which virtuality can appear as inherent to embodied experience. We develop our phenomenological approach in three instances. First, we question and bracket two common assumptions about corporeality. From our critical perspective, assumptions about a disembodied digitality and a devirtualized corporeality represent extremes within which educational discourses currently move. Second, we address the inherent virtuality of embodied experience. We outline the heuristic concept of the virtual body to describe corporeality and virtuality as entangled and multidimensional phenomena that encompass extension, intercorporeality and intermediality. Finally, we make some remarks on the relationships of corporeality and virtuality considering the challenges of digital education. (shrink)

In this article, I review a recent book edited by Gregory R. Smulewicz-Zucker that presents novel frameworks and refreshing perspectives on the issue of the ethical treatment of nonhuman animals.

Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabela normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} ampliaçáo da idéia de “auto-reflexáo da consciência” assume um importante papel na fenomenologia transcendental. O exercício do método adotado pela fenomenologia desloca a atençáo para a auto-reflexáo transcendental dentro da qual e a partir da qual os objetos seriam apreendidos e constituídos intuitivamente. Deparamo-nos, entáo, com uma reflexividade empírica (...) e com uma reflexividade transcendental. Tal ampliaçáo desta auto-reflexáo da consciência remete-nos para a influência que a leitura de Kant exercerá, na primeira década do século XX, sobre o projeto filosófico husserliano. Remete-nos para a distinçáo que Kant nos apresenta entre “apercepçáo empírica” (ou “psicológica”) e “apercepçáo transcendental”. (shrink)

The present paper focuses on the theme of crisis and more specifically on the crisis of the science in Husserl. Divided into two parts, the paper initially approaches the subject in question through Husserl's critique of the presuppositions of the naturalist doctrine, the ground on which the positive sciences of nature are based. In a second moment, the paper shows that the crisis of the sciences would result from a slippage in the meaning of Geometry and more particularly from a (...) fundamental forgetfulness of the pre-scientific world, through which the sciences would lose sight of their original relationship with the world, leaving behind the forgotten foundation of meaning of the natural science. (shrink)

Multisensory Experiences: Where the senses meet technology takes you on a journey that goes from the fundamentals of multisensory experiences, through the relationship between the senses and technology, to what the future of those experiences may look like, and our responsibility in it.

Quantified hybrid logic is quantified modal logic extended with apparatus for naming states and asserting that a formula is true at a named state. While interpolation and Beth's definability theorem fail in a number of well-known quantified modal logics , their counterparts in quantified hybrid logic have these properties. These are special cases of the main result of the paper: the quantified hybrid logic of any class of frames definable in the bounded fragment of first-order logic has the interpolation property, (...) irrespective of whether varying, constant, expanding, or contracting domains are assumed. (shrink)

Introducción a la lectura del De aeternitate mundi El De aetemitate de Siger es un texto polémico, origen y parte de diversos equívocos producidos en un escenario de importantes contiendas doctrinales y profundos cambias históricos. Como introducción a su lectura intentaré caracterizar muy brevemente algunos de dichos equívocos y después, aun más brevemente, las líneas generales de la contienda en la que se encuadran. Al fin, expondré sinteticamente los criterios adaptados para la traducción, agregando en último término uma bibliografia básica (...) organizada por temas. Ya en el título encontramos un primer equívoco, porque no se trata de um Tractatus, como lo conoce la tradición, sino de una Reportatio, es decir, uma versión escrita basada en una exposición oral. Un segundo equívoco se encuentra también en el título. El escrito no trata de la eternidad del mundo sino de otro tema, mucho más acatado: la eternidad de la especie humana. Esto podría parecer una diferencia menor, pero no lo es: este texto le valieron a Siger la acusación de herejía y la consecuente reclusión en la corte papal donde fue asesinado. Dicha herejía consistia en negar, siguiendo rigurosamente la filosofia aristotélica, el carácter creado del mundo, negación que ninguna lectura atenta podrá encontrar en este escrito. El lector encontrará en cambio el tratamiento de un tema puntual en un detallado trabajo erudito, conciso, claro y sagaz que desarrolla sólo uno de los modos de producción de los seres expuestos por Aristóteles en Metafísica Z, VII. Por lo que la acusación, más allá de los fines que persiguiera en su momento, constituye uma clara tergiversación de los términos en que este escrito plantea el problema. (shrink)

El presente artículo indaga los orígenes de una valoración positiva de toda la condición humana en el incipiente Renacimiento. Centrándonos en _De dignitate et excellentia hominis_ de Gianozzo Mannetti situamos su pensamiento frente a la tradición, mostrando la radical originalidad de su enfoque, fuertemente influenciado por el aristotelismo. Con tal fin, mostramos dos tradiciones que dignifican la condición del hombre: una griega, que se ordena en torno al concepto de microcosmos, y otra latina, edificada sobre el término _dignitas_. Proponemos que (...) abandonando la tradición griega, se conduce la tradición latina a un horizonte muy distinto, transformando el término clásico de _dignitas_ de un término equívoco a uno análogo. (shrink)

Neste trabalho, a concepção hegeliana de futuro como criação contrapõe-se ao "fim da história" de Fukuyama. A ideologia do progresso continua perpetuando a cisão radical de presente e passado que dá início à modernidade européia, a partir da qual o desenraizamento histórico e social do sujeito racional puro reforça o desprestígio da tradição. É preciso restituir à tradição seu caráter de genuína experiência através da destruição apropriadora que quebra o supraentendimento negativo que a circunda há quatro séculos. Ante a supervalorização (...) do futuro em que vivemos, é preciso retornar ao respeito pelo presente, através da paciente atenção ao passado: o presente é o lugar da práxis humana, em que se mesclam passado e futuro na produção da nova realidade, sob pressupostos cada vez maiores. Palavras-chave: História, Progresso, Tradição, Consciência histórica, Contingência. (shrink)

This paper has the purpose of showing the way the concept of narrative identity, suggested by Ricoeur, enables us to re-evaluate the paradoxes resulting from the two classic criteria used to solve the problem of personal identity.

Aproximarse a una teoría de la novela es aproximarse igualmente a una teoría del hombre occidental moderno. Desarrollar una argumentación en defensa de esta tesis constituye el propósito central de este texto. Se partirá de unos planteamientos generales que expresan el espíritu de la modernidad y que van en contraste con otras lógicas y cosmovisiones que pueden haber sintetizado las maneras de ser, pensar y actuar en otros momentos del devenir de la cultura europea y occidental. Desde tales perspectivas se (...) espera poder aportar algunas explicaciones sobre lo que implica la forma novela en cuanto síntesis y expresión de los procesos sociales, económicos, políticos y culturales en occidente y cómo gracias a ella se pueden comprender amplia y claramente los problemas, imaginarios y cuestiones trascendentales que han marcado la vida occidental. Finalmente, se especulará un poco respecto de la tesis según la cual la novela es un género en extinción dado que los tiempos que corren no son los más propicios a la expresión de su finalidad. (shrink)

This paper pretends to give elements for the urgent dialogue between Gadamer is hermeneutic philosophy and Nietzsche is work. From the version given by Gadamer of the initial disencounter with the Zarathustra, we move on to the count made by him of the growing height of interpretation, term that..