Investigo as consequências metafísicas da teoria e do fenômeno quântico. Delineando alguns dos principais aspectos do debate filosófico contemporâneo acerca da interpretação da teoria quântica. Analisando três importantes obras recentes: Quantum Ontology: A Guide for the Metaphysics of Quantum Mechanics (2016) de Lewis; Philosophy of Physics (2019) de Maudlin; e The Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (2019) de Barrett. Reivindicando, a partir de The Grand Design de Hawking e Mlodinow (2010), que uma interpretação realista da teoria quântica, e de sua (...) influência no estado atual da teoria física, sugere que o princípio metafísico da unidade das leis físicas, e a busca por uma teoria física unificada, é empiricamente injustificado. Defendendo a hipótese de leis e teorias físicas parciais. (shrink)

The author- following his own research on the subject- argues that Wittgenstein ignores argumentation theory and in general, the problems of rhetoric and argumentation. From this point of view, he frames Stephen Toulmin’s reading of Wittgenstein, arguing that the British philosopher- who was a student of the Austrian- advocates precisely the same thesis. He explains that this happens in a very peculiar (rhetorical) context on Toulmin’s part; a context in which, in essence, Wittgenstein’s philosophy is being rehabilitated.

This article aims to make public part of the research on the concept of ‘light’ in the theological and, above all, liturgical tradition of the Greek Orthodox Church, based on its representation of the concept of ‘hypostasis’. Taking as a point of departure the interpretation of the expression ‘light of light’ [φῶς ἐκ φωτός (phôs ek phōtos)] of the text of the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Symbol, the article presents a proposal for the interpretation of the concept of ‘representation’ for this specific case, (...) based on the idea of apomímesis, and applies this concept to a reading of the place of ‘light’ in the Holy Scripture, in the Patrology and in the Greek Eastern Liturgies. (shrink)

Perceptual experience and visual imagination both offer a first-person perspective on visible objects. But these perspectives are strikingly different. For it is distinctive of ordinary perceptual intentionality that objects seem to be present to the perceiver. I term this phenomenal property of experience ‘presence’. This paper introduces a positive definition of presence. Dokic and Martin (2017) argue that presence is not a genuine property of perceptual experience, appealing to empirical research on derealisation disorders, Parkinson’s disease, virtual reality and hallucination. I (...) demonstrate that their arguments fall short of establishing that presence is not perceptual. (shrink)

In this paper I consider an understudied form of the design argument which focuses on the beauty of the natural world and which argues, on that basis, that the world requires a divine Artist in order to explain its beauty. Against this view, one might raise a question concerning the beauty of, and in, this divine Artist. What explains the divine beauty? This kind of explanatory regress objection is exactly like that used by Philo in Hume’s Dialogues to undercut standard (...) versions of the design argument focused on the orderliness of the world. Here I argue that Philo’s explanatory regress objection likewise significantly undercuts versions of the design argument focusing on the beauty of the world. (shrink)

In a recent paper (in Argumentation, 2006) Robert Talisse and Scott Aikin suggest that we ought to recognize two distinct forms of the straw man fallacy. In addition to misrepresenting the strength of an opponent’s specific argument (= the representation form), one can also misrepresent the strength of one’s opposition in general, or the overall state of a debate, by selecting a (relatively) weak opponent for critical consideration (= the selection form). Here I consider whether we as philosophy professors could (...) be seen as sometimes committing the selection form of the straw man through the performance of our regular teaching duties. (shrink)

Background Ethical decision making in intensive care is a demanding task. The need to proceed to ethical decision is considered to be a stress factor that may lead to burnout. The aim of this study is to explore the ethical problems that may increase burnout levels among physicians and nurses working in Portuguese intensive care units . A quantitative, multicentre, correlational study was conducted among 300 professionals.Results The most crucial ethical decisions made by professionals working in ICU were related to (...) communication, withholding or withdrawing treatments and terminal sedation. A positive relation was found between ethical decision making and burnout in nurses, namely, between burnout and the need to withdraw treatments , to withhold treatments and to proceed to terminal sedation . This did not apply to physicians. Emotional exhaustion was the burnout subdimension most affected by the ethical decision. The nurses' lack of involvement in ethical decision making was identified as a risk factor. Nevertheless, in comparison with nurses , it was the physicians who more keenly felt the need to proceed to ethical decisions in ICU.Conclusions Ethical problems were reported at different levels by physicians and nurses. The type of ethical decisions made by nurses working in Portuguese ICUs had an impact on burnout levels. This did not apply to physicians. This study highlights the need for education in the field of ethics in ICUs and the need to foster inter-disciplinary discussion so as to encourage ethical team deliberation in order to prevent burnout. (shrink)

Recent literature on skepticism has raised a nearly univocal voice in condemning skeptical argumentation on the grounds that such argumentation necessarily involves our adopting some nonordinary or unnatural perspective. Were this really so, then skeptical conclusions would not speak to us in the way in which skeptics think they do: We would be "insulated" from any such conclusions. I argue that skeptical argumentation need not rely on any nonordinary or unnatural standards. Rather, the skeptic's procedure is to offer a critique (...) from within. Having given my argument for this claim (which I call the 'continuity argument'), I consider and respond to two important objections. I conclude that the skeptic has a powerful meta-argument to be deployed in defending the legitimacy of his skeptical conclusions against the slings and arrows of (those I call) the half-true theorists. (shrink)

Este trabajo utiliza el rastro analítico y hermenéutico producido por la resolución del “sofisma de los tres prisioneros”, que Lacan incluyó en su artículo de 1945 “El tiempo lógico y el aserto de certidumbre anticipada. Un nuevo sofisma” . Lo que con ello nos propusimos, fue mostrar la importancia de la alteridad como un elemento crucial para reflexionar sobre el deseo. La relevancia del “otro” aparece, así, no sólo como un complemento esencial para la constitución del sujeto, sino también como (...) el fundamento ontológico que hace de este sujeto un ser deseante, con el poder del lenguaje y volcado a la acción, es decir, un ser humano atado a la red social. (shrink)

In this study, we evaluate how individual virtues and inter-organizational management control systems influence buyer–supplier performance through relationship quality. Results from a sample of 232 firms confirm that virtues and IOMCS relate positively to relationship quality and performance, respectively. However, IOMCS lose their positive influence on relationship quality when considered along with virtues. That is, when both variables enter the regression model simultaneously, virtues win. This interesting finding has particular resonance at a time when research on ethics still needs to (...) reinforce its positive effects on the practice of management. (shrink)

Supposing you were convinced by certain radical skeptical arguments that many of your beliefs were not justifiably believed by you, what stance could/should you adopt with regard to those skeptically-problematized beliefs? This paper explores a range of possible reactions, aiming to be reasonably comprehensive in coverage though admittedly suggestive rather than decisive in its treatment of each individual reaction. In considering this variety of responses we begin to see suggestive intimations of the ways in which radical skepticism could represent a (...) threat to our notions of cognitive self-mastery. (shrink)

I analyse the case of three Japanese-Portuguese interpreters who have given support to technology transfer from a steel company in Japan to one in Brazil for more than thirty years. Their job requires them to be ‘interactional experts’ in steel-making. The Japanese–Portuguese interpreters are immersed in more than the language of steel-making as their job involves a great deal of ‘physical contiguity’ with steel-making practice. Physical contiguity undoubtedly makes the acquisition of interactional expertise easier. This draws attention to the lack (...) of empirical work on the exact way that the physical and the linguistic interact in the acquisition of interactional expertise, or any other kind of expertise.Keywords: Interactional expertise; Technology transfer; Interpreting; Physical contiguity; Linguistic socialization. (shrink)

This paper argues that the idea of inclusion is linked to the democratic tradition rather than to the republican one. By analyzing the origins and meaning of these two concepts, the author holds that democracy is rather linked to desire and republic to will (and to the expression of desire), and concludes that, since North Atlantic political tradition has not given a key role to desire, democracy, in order to overcome the difficulties it has been encountering in all parts of (...) the world, should take more account of desire and of the social struggles it brings to the fore. (shrink)

Imagination and memory are often distinguished as fiction and reality, but classical authors, such as Hobbes, have been well aware of their similitudes. And the French writer Stendhal (acknowledging his debt to Hobbes, whose works he read in his youth) is perhaps the novelist to have shown most accurately how, from the moment love became amour passion in the beginning of the 19th century, the power of imagination inside memory began to grow – until it was able to undermine and (...) even cut the link between memory and reality. But the emergence of passionate love creates a new challenge: can we control the powers of passion that we have identified? How can we accept the ideal of freeing the emotions, and simultaneously aim to control them, in order to attain a better life than human beings have had until now? (shrink)

Este artigo objetiva pensar o debate envolvendo a questão da literalidade na obra de Gilles Deleuze, mormente naquela escrita em parceria com Félix Guattari, a partir de um recuo pelo pensamento do filósofo Henri Bergson. Apresentada como um modo singular de operar com a escrita, a literalidade deleuze-guattariana exigiria que determinadas formulações, mormente aquelas de teor imagético fossem lidas ao pé da letra (a la lettre) ao invés de interpretadas como metáforas. Tendo adentrado em nosso país por meio do dossiê (...) Entre Deleuze e a Educação, publicado em 2005 no periódico Educação & Sociedade, a questão da literalidade fomentou uma discussão acalorada, nomeadamente no campo educacional – dado o fato de um dos participantes, François Zourabichvili, propor uma pretensa teoria de ensino deleuzeana a partir dessa noção. Longe de querer encerrar tal debate, almejamos pensá-lo sob a égide do pensamento bergsoniano, a fim de propor um escape do binarismo estabelecido. (shrink)

A professora Pórcia Guimarães Alves teve formação educacional diferenciada e, concluindo o ensino superior, continuou sua formação com cursos e encontros científicos no Brasil e em outros países. Durante as viagens, trocava missivas com seus familiares, que foram mantidas em arquivo pessoal em plástico denominado “Cartas enviadas ao meu pai”. Procurou-se analisar: qual a escrita de si de Pórcia contida nas cartas trocadas com seus familiares entre 1946 e 1958? Listaram-se os objetivos específicos: mapear os familiares mencionados nas cartas; analisar (...) a materialidade do suporte epistolar procurando aspectos subjetivos em seus registros autobiográficos; e identificar temas narrados nessa escrita. (shrink)

A reflexão que se desenvolve, aqui, reporta-se ao contexto de um período caracterizado por questionamentos profundos, no que tange à tensão entre as diferentes concepções de ciência, verdade, método, ética científica. O eixo da discussão incide sobre o lugar da ética neste século, exercendo o papel de problematizadora de uma vinculação fetichista a determinada visão acerca da verdade, visão esta que tem mantido as Ciências Humanas refém de um olhar cético em relação à legitimidade do conhecimento que produz. O objetivo (...) principal, aqui, é provocar um debate que instigue a uma visão que venha a transcender a oposição excludente entre Ciências Humanas e Naturais, cuja polêmica se assenta na tensão entre os conceitos de verdade e verdade científica. Neste sentido, consideram-se como resultados da discussão, a proposta de que o problema fundamental na pesquisa científica, atualmente, consiste em assumir o desafio de ressignificar a visão sobre a fonte do conhecimento e, em consequência, os meios de deliberar sobre o que distingue verdade de verdade científica. Embora não seja uma questão nova, pois segue peregrina desde a sua origem, precisa ser conjecturada sob a emergência de uma nova mentalidade. Desta vez, desestabilizando-se da visão de que a verdade científica estaria ou no sujeito ou no objeto, e sendo a fonte do conhecimento um lugar de onde fala um sujeito que conhece e um objeto que é conhecido, em posição de equidade epistemológica, a verdade poderia estar na relação entre eles e, em consequência, no princípio da complementaridade entre as ciências. Palavras-chave: Ética. Verdade. Método. Ciências Humanas. (shrink)

Essential philosophical question according to Paul Ricœur: the ontological and epistemological possibility of the understanding of the self. Philosophy as reflection, ethics and herrneneutics; reflection taken as a task of position, interpretation and appropriation of the self; ethics as the effort of emancipation is required; hermeneutics as ontic-existential investigation which deals with the situation of sharing belonging (pre-understanding) and the critical distanciation which come with or judge rival or opposing interpretations; understanding of the self as a consequence an a unfinished (...) interpretation of the envolving significant signs (symbols and texts); interpretation as dialectic relation between understanding (synthesis, truthful guess and appropriation as far as reference is concemed) and explanation (analysis, clarification and methodological validation as far as sense is concemed) in the dynamic process of reading. Ricœur’s perspective – framed in reflexive philosophy and as a hermeneutic variation of Husserl’s phenomenology starting from the epistemology to the ontology of the understanding. (shrink)

Bertrand Russell has been traditionallly identified with logical positivism. The author of this paper holds that this identification has no historical basis in Russell's philosophy, and he suggests that, since the logical positivists themselves, it has been used metahistorically and metaphilosophically as an instrument of the legitimacy of analytical practice along the different contexts of analytical philosophy. He shows that when logical positivism emerged in the international scene, during the 1930's, Russell was one of the first philosophers (if not the (...) first), long before the anti-positivist criticism of Popper, Quine, Kuhn an others, to oppose to it and to criticize systematically it from a purely philosophical perspective. Furthermore, he holds that Russell's criticism is an anticipation of the central thesis of contemporary historiography, according to which the most known logical positivists. from the beginning of their career, clearly had an holistic attitude concerning philosophical problems in general. /// Bertrand Russell tern sido tradicionalmente com o positivismo lógico. O autor deste trabalho defende que esta identifiçãc. ao não tern uma base histórica na filosofia de Russell, e sugere que esta, desde os próprios positivistas lógicos. foi usada meta-histórica e meta-filosoficamente como um instrumento de legitimação da prática análitica ao longo dos diferentes contextos da filosofia analitica. Ele mostra que quando o positivismo lógico emergiu na cena internacional, durante os anos trinta, Russell foi um dos primeiros filósofos (senão o primeiro). muito antes das criticas anti-positivistas feitas por Popper, Quine, Kuhn e outros, a opor-se-lhe e a critica-lo sistematicamente de um perspectiva puramente filosófica. Além disso, o autor defende que essa crítica é claramente uma anticipação da tese central da historiografia contemporânea, de acordo com a qual os mais conhecidos positivistas lógicos tiveram. desde o principio da sua carreira. uma atitude claramente holista a respeito dos problemas filósoficos em geral. (shrink)

The distribution pattern of the meiotic machinery in known eukaryotes is most parsimoniously explained by the hypothesis that all eukaryotes are ancestrally sexual. However, this assumption is questioned by preliminary results, in culture conditions. These suggested that Acanthamoeba, an organism considered to be largely asexual, constitutively expresses meiosis genes nevertheless—at least in the lab. This apparent disconnect between the “meiosis toolkit” and sexual processes in Acanthamoeba led to the conclusion that the eukaryotic ancestor is asexual. In this review, the “meiosis (...) toolkit” is rigorously defended, drawing on numerous research articles. Additionally, the claim of constitutive meiotic gene expression is probed in Acanthamoeba via the same transcriptomics data. The results show that the expression of the meiotic machinery is not constitutive in Acanthamoeba as claimed before. Furthermore, it is argued that this would have no implications for understanding the nature of the eukaryotic ancestor, regardless of the result. (shrink)

Resenha de SÀLÁMÌ, Síkírù ; RIBEIRO, Ronilda Iakemi. Exu e a ordem do universo. 2. Ed. São Paulo: Oduduwa, 2015. 483 p.

Este artigo discute a crítica de Hans Jonas ao uso da técnica afastada da racionalidade moral, bem como a proposta ética por ele apresentada que tem como máxima a inclusão da técnica e da natureza na reflexão moral. À luz da ética da responsabilidade serão analisadas duas questões: Por que Jonas afirma ser a ética tradicional como a kantiana, por exemplo, incapaz de mediar a relação homem-natureza-técnica? A reflexão moral jonasiana possibilita ao homo tecnologicus uma conduta ética viável em relação (...) à natureza e à técnica? (shrink)

‘Interactional expertise’ is developed through linguistic interaction without full scale practical immersion in a culture. Interactional expertise is the medium of communication in peer review in science, in review committees, and in interdisciplinary projects. It is also the medium of specialist journalists and of interpretative methods in the social sciences. We describe imitation game experiments designed to make concrete the idea of interactional expertise. The experiments show that the linguistic performance of those well socialized in the language of a specialist (...) group is indistinguishable from those with full blown practical socialization but distinguishable from those who are not well socialized. The imitation game can also be used to indicate whether an individual can enter an esoteric domain and master the interactional expertise, a skill required by interpretative sociologists of science, anthropologists, ethnographers, and the like.Keywords: Expertise; Interactional expertise; Imitation game; Turing test; Colour blindness; Interpretative methods. (shrink)

Mohan Matthen holds that visual perceptual content is divided into descriptive and referential elements. Descriptive content is our awareness of sensory features belonging to objects located in the visual field. Matthen conceives of this in terms of an image. The referential element is a demonstrative form of content, by which we pick out those objects as particulars and assert their physical presence. Matthen terms this ‘the feeling of presence’. Together, they make up the ‘assembled message’ that visual states present to (...) the perceiver in perceptual experience. I argue that the two elements cannot play together as Matthen envisages. Beginning with the referential element, I show that the feeling of presence is unable to both provide demonstrative reference and assert that the visual state reflects how things are. Turning to the descriptive element, I argue that Matthen is committed to a view on which descriptive (or image) content is a mental entity, a reified image. This is a common element across perceptual experience, episodic memory and visual imagination. The mental entity proves a defective ingredient in assembling perceptual content that purports to present reality. There are problems integrating the depicted viewpoint with the subject’s actual viewpoint, and problems maintaining a coherent notion of assertion. I argue that the project of assembling perceptual experience from descriptive and referential elements is unworkable. (shrink)

Este texto contém um recorte da pesquisa de mestrado do primeiro autor, sob a orientação da segunda. Nele, temos como objetivo apresentar e analisar as formas com que a ideologia da certeza se manifesta em livros didáticos de Matemática brasileiros, em particular, nos capítulos de Geometria. Apesar de ser uma discussão antiga no campo da Educação Matemática, a ideologia da certeza se caracteriza, principalmente, pela compreensão do discurso matemático como puro, generalizador e rico em aplicações, o que vemos como uma (...) discussão ainda atual. Escolhemos analisar a Geometria presente nos livros didáticos por se tratar de um tema de interesse do nosso grupo de pesquisa, e ainda porque na revisão de literatura empregada na pesquisa de mestrado, nenhuma investigação semelhante a essa foi encontrada. Partindo de uma análise documental, investigamos os capítulos de Geometria de duas coleções de livros didáticos destinados ao Ensino Médio brasileiro, buscando estudar todo o seu conteúdo. Nesses livros há tanto o conteúdo destinado aos estudantes, com os conceitos, os exemplos, os exercícios, entre outros, quanto as orientações didáticas para os professores, que abarcam aspectos sobre a utilização do material, textos informativos, respostas dos exercícios etc. Ao interpretar os dados, identificamos que a ideologia da certeza se manifesta nos capítulos escolhidos por meio da estrutura elaborada por seus autores, em que a partir da exposição de um conceito geométrico, exemplos de aplicação são inseridos, sendo seguidos por exercícios. Esse padrão ‘conceito, exemplo e exercício’, em nossa visão, encontra respaldo na construção do próprio conhecimento geométrico. Também identificamos que a partir de contradições entre o que se espera do estudante e o que é apresentado ao professor, o desenvolvimento do discurso dado pela ideologia da certeza é ainda mais reforçado. Entendemos que questionar e enfraquecer a ideologia da certeza torna-se um desafio que não fica limitado ao exposto pelos livros didáticos, mas deve fazer parte da agenda política, social e cultural da Educação Matemática. Desse modo, críticas e reflexões para com o conhecimento matemático discutido em sala de aula carecem de considerar de que maneiras a ideologia da certeza se manifesta e de que formas ela pode ser enfrentada. (shrink)

Moral and financial scandals emerging in recent years around the world have created the momentum for reconsidering the role of virtuousness in organizational settings. This empirical study seeks to contribute toward maintaining this momentum. We answer to researchers’ suggestions that the exploratory study carried out by Cameron et al. :766–790, 2004 ), which related organizational virtuousness and performance, must be pursued employing their measure of OV in other contexts and in relation to other outcomes :928–958, 2007 ). Two hundred and (...) sixteen employees reported their perceptions of OV and their affective well-being at work, their supervisors reporting their organizational citizenship behaviors. The main finding is that the perceptions of OV predict some OCB both directly and through the mediating role of AWB. The evidence suggests that OV is worthy of a higher status in the business and organizational psychology literatures. (shrink)