Providing the first English translation of Análisis del ser del mexicano, this book features a full biography of Uranga, a detailed overview of the translated text, and discussion of Uranga's relevance to contemporary debates in the phenomenology of culture, the philosophy of liberation, Latin American philosophy and phenomenology itself. Reading Uranga's brilliant words expertly translated and introduced by Carlos Alberto Sánchez finally allows us to understand why this Mexican philosopher is considered one of the most fearless and original thinkers of (...) the 20th century. (shrink)

La noción de emergencia acompaña a la Filosofía de la Biología desde finales del siglo XIX, afirmando que las propiedades de los sistemas biológicos no pueden deducirse de las de sus componentes. A lo largo del siglo XX las caracterizaciones de este concepto se han apoyado en cuatro pilares, impredecibilidad, novedad, restricción y causación descendente, pilares ligados a la asunción de una jerarquización de la realidad en niveles de organización. En este trabajo intento demostrar que puede explicarse la naturaleza de (...) las propiedades biológicas sin hacer referencia a la emergencia utilizando como herramienta la noción de cuasi-descomponibilidad propuesta originariamente por Herbert Simon. (shrink)

En este trabajo analizamos críticamente el enfoque mecanicista de explicación científica centrándonos principalmente en la forma en la que este da cuenta de los fenómenos biológicos. Nos proponemos complementar esta perspectiva con una concepción de nivel como intervalo de cuasi-descomponibilidad que nos permite fundamentar metafísicamente las propuestas mecanicistas clásicas en las propiedades sistémicas características de las entidades biológicas. A través del análisis de ejemplos concretos, demostraremos cómo nuestra propuesta permite superar algunas de las limitaciones de los enfoques predominantes de explicación (...) mecanística. (shrink)

Includes articles about Origen, Thomas Aquinas, Hegel, Schleiermacher, Blondel, Teilhard de Chardin, Barth, Heidegger, Gadamer, postmodernism.

The ageing society poses significant challenges to Europe’s economy and society. In coming to grips with these issues, we must be aware of their ethical dimensions. Values are the heart of the European Union, as Article 1a of the Lisbon Treaty makes clear: “The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity…”. The notion of Europe as a community of values has various important implications, including the development of inclusion policies. A special case of exclusion concerns the (...) gap between those people with effective access to digital and information technology and those without access to it, the “digital divide”, which in Europe is chiefly age-related. Policies to overcome the digital divide and, more generally speaking, e-inclusion policies addressing the ageing population raise some ethical problems. Among younger senior citizens, say those between 65 and 80 years old, the main issues are likely to be universal access to ICT and e-participation. Among the older senior citizens, say those more than 80 years old, the main issues are mental and physical deterioration and assistive technology. An approach geared towards the protection of human rights could match the different needs of senior citizens and provide concrete guidance to evaluate information technologies for them. (shrink)

The act of iudicare hostes (‘declare public enemy’) was a formal pronouncement of the Roman Senate, voted for the first time in 88 BCE following a proposal by L. Cornelius Sulla after his first march on Rome. Legal historians have generally interpreted it as an emergency measure intended to preserve legality in a situation of civil strife and viewed it as a consistently defined institutional framework throughout the final decades of the Republic. Through an analysis of Sulla’s performative political communication, (...) before, during and in the immediate aftermath of the march, this paper argues that the act of judging (iudicare) someone a public enemy (hostis publicus) was first deployed as a political action, void of legal effects. Later instances of iudicare suggest that this act underwent a process of institutionalization after 63 BCE. (shrink)

According to a popular aphorism, biometrics are turning the human body into a passport or a password. As usual, aphorisms say more than they intend. Taking the dictum seriously, we would be two: ourself and our body. Who are we, if we are not our body? And what is our body without us? The endless history of identification systems teaches that identification is not a trivial fact but always involves a web of economic interests, political relations, symbolic networks, narratives and (...) meanings. Certainly there are reasons for the ethical and political concerns surrounding biometrics but these reasons are probably quite different from those usually alleged. (shrink)

The anticipation of the typical under the assumption of the non-occurrence of the atypical is the experiential schema governing the individuation of ordinary enduring objects and their properties. Against this background, a primitive form of “if-and-only-if” consciousness is implicit in our everyday perceptual intentions. The thematization of the fact that perception operates under this proto-tentative structure occurs at the level of reflection and is expressed by defeasible judgments of the form “if p, then q, unless r,” or “if p, then (...) q provided that not-r”. Here I will argue that what is made thematic by judgments containing such restrictive clauses is the structure of unpredictability inherent in what Husserl calls the horizon of latency and, indirectly, the world as background of normality. (shrink)

This chapter looks closely at the reception of Hume's ideas in the 18th-century ‘coterie de Milan’: Alessandro and Pietro Verri and Cesare Beccaria. Alessandro, a traveller to Paris and London in 1766–8, sees his own dispute with Beccaria reflected in Hume's dispute with Rousseau, and champions Hume's ‘meek’ (religious) thought against the radical views of the French ‘philosophes’ supported by his brother. Alessandro's interpretation of Hume's philosophical stance and of the Natural history of religion are used here to cast a (...) new light on Hume's alleged denial of ever having met an atheist and on his refusal to write an Ecclesiastical History. The way Alessandro was ‘cutting off the noble parts’ of Hume's work in order to make it religiously mild reminds us of some present-day appropriations and mis-readings. (shrink)

Nuclear warfare threat has been one of the main driver for cultural, political, economical and social changes in the late twentieth century, biological warfare threat is about to take it over. However, while nuclear warfare was a concrete possibility, biological warfare is just an elusive risk. This paper will explore some reasons for this apparent inconsistency by discussing biowarfare from a symbolic point of view, looking for its inner meanings and philosophical implications.

In its broadest sense, cohesion is an ultimate goal for Europe. In a study about long term future scenarios for Europe it appears that deepening of the integration process may induce decreasing cohesion, unless measures are taken to promote regional diversity as a vector of development. The widening of Europe also raises threats to cohesion, but a well prepared scenario for a Development Belt surrounding the EC may positively enhance the cohesion process.

Este trabajo analiza las estructuras políticas y económicas de México para identificar y describir el fenómeno del postfeudalismo. A partir de un marco teórico de raíz sociohistórica, que recoge los elementos esenciales del feudalismo, el autor realiza una crítica directa al poder y sus engranajes políticos. Lo que se descubre es un sistema basado en el clientelismo, donde se impone el fraude y la compra de voluntades. El resultado es una situación de quiebra de la democracia, cuyo último capítulo ha (...) sido el dudoso proceso electoral de julio de 2006.This work analyzes the political and economic structures of Mexico to identify and to describe the phenomenon of the postfeudalism. From a theoretical frame of root sociohistórica, that gathers the essential elements of the feudalism, the author realizes a direct critique to the power and his political gears. What is discovered is a system based on the clientelism, where there is imposed the fraud and the buy of wills. The result is a situation of bankruptcy of the democracy, which last chapter has been the doubtful electoral process of July, 2006. (shrink)

Hailed by the Journal of the History of Astronomy as "charming and witty," this chronicle by a renowned physicist traces the development of scientific thought from the works of the "founding fathers" — Galileo, Huygens, and Newton — to the more recent discoveries of Maxwell, Boltzmann, and Gibbs. 1984 edition.

Pulcinella is one of the most ancient comic characters of the Commedia dell’Arte.1 He is the stereotypical lazy servant, insolent and chauvinist, sometimes stupid, sometimes clever, always penniless, and absolutely unable to keep any secret. In a typical Commedia dell’Arte plot, the master reveals a secret to Pulcinella, who is under oath never to disclose it. Needless to say, after swearing that he will never divulge it, Pulcinella soon acts in a very different way, telling the secret to everybody he (...) meets. Yet each time Pulcinella discloses the secret, he asks for total confidentiality, pretending that no one else knows it. Sooner or later all characters on the stage know the secret but none of them know that all the others know it. Eventually each one behaves as though she were the sole repository of the secret while the only secret is that there is no secret at all. I often think of the Pulcinella’s secret nowadays, when someone evokes the ‘medical secret’. (shrink)

Pensar en el cine como ocasión y potencia del pensamiento significa en efecto, en primer lugar, sustraer la imagen contemporánea del dominio de los estudios especializados y, en segundo lugar, pensar a partir de aquello que el cine crea (como recordaba Deleuze): esto es, las imágenes mismas. El cine redescubre su potencia a través de sus propias formas. Entrevistas de la revista italiana Fata Morgana con: Jacques Rancière, Roberto Esposito, Jean-luc Nancy, Slavoj Zizek, Julia Kristeva, Werner Herzog, Raúl Ruiz, Yervant (...) Gianikian, Ángela Ricci Lucchi, Edgar Reitz, Paul Schraoer, Georges Didi-Huberman, Jean-Louis Comolli, Nuccio Ordine. (shrink)

El presente trabajo aborda el problema de la justificación de la normatividad de los imperativos instrumentales. Husserl critica la pretensión kantiana de justificar la fuerza normativa de este tipo de requerimientos de racionalidad con recurso a un mero análisis semántico de lo que significa querer un fin. La constitución genética de la noción de medio y, derivadamente, de los imperativos instrumentales supondría, por el contrario, la cooperación de actos lógicos y afectivos, y sólo a partir de su convergencia se volvería (...) comprensible la estructura funcional de la razón volitiva, en cuanto facultad referible a intenciones prácticas con pretendida eficacia causal. The paper addresses the problem of the justification of the normativity of instrumental imperatives. Husserl criticizes the Kantian attempt to justify the normative force of this type of rationality requirements through a mere semantic analysis of what willing an end means. The genetic constitution of the concept of means and, derivatively, of instrumental imperatives, would, on the contrary, involve the cooperation of logical and emotional acts. Thus, the paper argues that the functional structure of volitional reason becomes intelligible only on the basis of the convergence of those two elements, insofar as it is a faculty that can be referred to practical intentions with alleged causal eficacy. (shrink)

El presente trabajo aborda el problema de la justificación de la normatividad de los imperativos instrumentales. Husserl critica la pretensión kantiana de justificar la fuerza normativa de este tipo de requerimientos de racionalidad con recurso a un mero análisis semántico de lo que significa querer un fin. La constitución genética de la noción de medio y, derivadamente, de los imperativos instrumentales supondría, por el contrario, la cooperación de actos lógicos y afectivos, y sólo a partir de su convergencia se volvería (...) comprensible la estructura funcional de la razón volitiva, en cuanto facultad referible a intenciones prácticas con pretendida eficacia causal. (shrink)

Ethical questions about information and communications technologies have been debated since World War II. Western democracies have had more than 50 years of experience in addressing and organising the ethical, social and legal aspects of scientific and technological developments. However, this expertise, tradition and experience are not enough to manage the most urgent ethical and social issues and contemporary challenges involving ICT. A systematic and institutional organisation of social values in the context of modern ICT tools is needed.This paper focuses (...) on four major areas: developing a specific approach to ethical issues raised by ICT; describing in more detail the age-related digital divide in Europe; identifying technology trends and emerging challenges; and defining the legal framework for inclusion of senior citizens in the digital society. The paper then concludes with a summary of its key points on the basis of which it makes three proposals as a contribution to efforts aimed at overcoming the exclusion of senior citizens from today's Information Society. (shrink)

Cet ouvrage important reflète le dynamisme actuel en Espagne de la recherche en histoire des femmes, tout en vérifiant la diversité théorique, méthodologique et thématique de ce courant historiographique. Afin de faciliter la présentation nous regroupons par thèmes les 24 travaux inclus dans cette vaste publication. En premier lieu, distinguons les contributions orientées vers l’analyse théorique. Mª Isabel del Val Valdivieso dans « A modo de introducción. La historiografía en los albores del...

One of the more controversial articles published in the philosophy of criticism during the past twenty-five years is “The Intentional Fallacy” by W. K. Wimsatt, Jr. and Monroe Beardsley. Scholars from a variety of disciplines have expended a lot of energy in attacking and defending the Wimsatt-Beardsley position. Their efforts fall mainly into two classes. Either they have been exploratory with respect to the nature of the concept ‘intention’, but so exploratory as to present no tangible discovery; or they have (...) merely been occasions to air the author’s own views, views which take sides, but views which in the end only serve to define what positions may be taken without really convincing anyone whether one position is clearly better than the other. This dilemma is really rather odd because in a certain sense it is pitifully easy to understand what the intentional fallacy amounts to. There is a kind of minimal meaning to it, and I suspect that introductory students in courses in Aesthetics and Criticism have little difficulty in understanding it. ‘Difficulties’ seem to arise primarily in connection with its implications and general scope within the totality of criticism. However, it would be wrong to conclude that these difficulties have nothing to do with the intentional fallacy. They do. And the reason is this: the way in which one argues for, that is, establishes, the intentional fallacy has much to do with its implications and general scope within the realm of criticism. (shrink)

The parallel distributed processing (PDP) perspective brings forward the important point that all semantic phenomena are based on analog underlying mechanisms, involving the weighted summation of multiple inputs by individual neurons. It falls short of indicating, however, how the essentially discrete nature of semantic processing may emerge at the cognitive level. Bridging this gap probably requires attractor networks.

To think a Deleuzian politics requires to understand the philosophical markleft in his work by Spinoza. Both philosophers’ paths crisscross in their problems, questions and consequences. In this paper three concepts will be put in relation: critique, right and crowd. The aim is to elucidate how man can open new ways of political experience from the conjunction of two philosophies articulated upon a common ground: immanence and life.

The aim of this text is to develop an epistemological-technique approach which permit analyze the work of Juan Downey, and his use of technical medias and also include the struggle against the State in the political and cultural model of the primitive societies of the Yano- mani, particularly by the work of Pierre Clastres and Jacques Lizot, and also their point of view of the methods of production in the societies of abundance, as theorized the anthropologist Marshall Sahlins, considering these (...) anthropological paradigms as a medium to understand the mediatic interaction and the technique development in the works of Juan Downey. (shrink)

The aim of this text is to develop an epistemological-technique approach which permit analyze the work of Juan Downey, and his use of technical medias and also include the struggle against the State in the political and cultural model of the primitive societies of the Yano- mani, particularly by the work of Pierre Clastres and Jacques Lizot, and also their point of view of the methods of production in the societies of abundance, as theorized the anthropologist Marshall Sahlins, considering these (...) anthropological paradigms as a medium to understand the mediatic interaction and the technique development in the works of Juan Downey. (shrink)

Post‐translational modifications regulate each step of DNA replication to ensure the faithful transmission of genetic information. In this context, we recently showed that deubiquitination of SUMO2/3 and SUMOylated proteins by USP7 helps to create a SUMO‐rich and ubiquitin‐low environment around replisomes that is necessary to maintain the activity of replication forks and for new origin firing. We propose that a two‐flag system mediates the collective concentration of factors at sites of DNA replication, whereby SUMO and Ubiquitinated‐SUMO would constitute “stay” or (...) “go” signals respectively for replisome and accessory factors. We here discuss the findings that led to this model, which have implications for the potential use of USP7 inhibitors as anticancer agents. (shrink)