RESENHA: CAMAROTTI, Gerson. Segredos do Conclave: os bastidores da eleição do papa Francisco e a operação do Vaticano para estancar a hemorragia de fiéis na América Latina. 1ª ed. São Paulo: Geração Editorial, 2013.

Of all the themes running through the Sophist, in this paper I am interested in focusing on the definitions, particularly on the seventh of these, as in its attempt to hunt the sophist and distinguish his own particular activity, Plato may therein make important references to the "technique of producing images" (eidolopoiike techne). It is in the context of this seventh definition of the sophist as a 'wizard' (goes) and 'imitator' (mimetes), belonging to the "genre of the illusionists" who perform (...) illusions in their discourses, where Plato mentions the examination of such a productive human technique of an imitative nature (mimetike) and, what interests me, the explanation of its potential divisions (eikastike and phantastike) in order to include the sophist in one of these. The drama of the original and the image that the Sophist stages, and whose inclusion leads to a new reworking in the domain of mimetics, will allow us, in making it extensive in the specific case of poetic mimesis, to corroborate from another perspective the counterpoint between poetic paradigms (traditional and platonic) which can be deduced from books II, III and X of The Republic. (shrink)

Pensar a técnica e a tecnologia com Álvaro Vieira Pinto: contribuições para o ensino da filosofia no ensino médio profissional Resumo: Este artigo apresenta uma análise do processo de fabricação dos conceitos relacionados à técnica e à tecnologia na obra “O conceito de Tecnologia” (Vol. 1) de Álvaro Vieira Pinto. Primeiramente aborda-se os conceitos de máquina e de técnica e o modo como esses conceitos se conectam com o problema do “desenvolvimento” nacional. Em seguida explora-se o problema da ideologização da (...) noção de “era tecnológica” e a relação do conceito de tecnologia com a ideologia dominante. Por fim a partir da metodologia do ensino de filosofia por problemas, propõe caminhos possíveis para a introdução do ensino da filosofia da técnica e da filosofia da tecnologia no ensino médio profissional. Palavras-chave: Álvaro Vieira Pinto; Filosofia da Tecnologia; Ensino Médio Profissional; Filosofia Brasileira. Thinking about technique and technology with Álvaro Vieira Pinto: contributions to the teaching of philosophy in Technical High School Abstract: This paper analyzes the conceptualization of techcnique and technology in the book “The Concept of Technology” (Vol.1) of Álvaro Vieira Pinto. The first section focus on the concepts of machine and technique and the connections with the “national developlment problem” in Vieira Pinto work. Then the text explores the ideological treatment of the concept of “Technological Era” and the relationship between technology and dominant ideology. In the end, guided by the methodology of teaching philosophy through problems, the last section proposes some paths to introduce the philosophy of technique and techonology in the practice of teaching Philosophy in the Technical High School. Key-words: Álvaro Vieira Pinto; Philosophy of Technology; Technical High School; Brazilian Philosophy. Penser la technique et la technologie avec Álvaro Vieira Pinto : contributions à l'enseignement de la philosophie dans l'enseignement technique secondaire Résumé: Cet article présente une analyse de les méthodes de fabrication de concepts liés à la technique et à la technologie dans l'ouvrage « Le concept de la Technologie » (Vol. 1) d'Álvaro Vieira Pinto. D’abord, les concepts de machine et de technique sont discutés, ainsi que la manière dont ces concepts sont liés au problème du « développement national». Ensuite, les problèmes de l'idéologisation de la notion d'« âge technologique » et de la relation du concept de technologie avec l'idéologie dominante sont explorés. Enfin, à partir de la méthodologie de l'enseignement de la philosophie par problèmes, on propose des pistes possibles pour introduire la philosophie de la technique et la philosophie de la technologie dans l'enseignement secondaire technique. Mots-clés: Álvaro Vieira Pinto; Philosophie de la Technologie; Enseignement Secondaire Technique; Philosophie Brésilienne. Data de registro: 13/10/2021 Data de aceite: 15/03/2022. (shrink)

The Platonic reevaluation of traditional poetry in positive terms that we read in the Phaedrus, in as much as it is conceived therein as a valuable educational resource for posterity, does not strictly imply anything new in the Platonic corpus, but rather a systemization and complementation of a set of ideas about the origin and function of poetry that Plato had already shared in some of his early, transitional and late dialogues. From this broad set of ideas, I am interested (...) in this study in concentrating especially on a series of passages taken from the Symposium, in order to compile two lines of analysis in this paradigmatic late dialogue which, I understand, constitute a clear precedent for the positive conception that Plato finally assumes about traditional poetry in the Phaedrus. (shrink)

The týpos of alternative poetry that Plato starts to delineate in the last part of Republic II can be reduced to two general norms (nómoi) that aim to regulate the treatment of religious aspects in poetic narrations and at the same time establish the bases of a non-anthropomorphic theology that inst..

La frase del poeta inglés Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “todos los hombres nacen aristotélicos o platónicos”, traída a colación por Borges en diversas ocasiones, es harto conocida y citada. Pero lo que a mi modo de ver no ha sido tan explorado es el sentido que la disyunción implicada en dicha frase asume en la obra borgeana. Analizar cómo juega en ella tal disyunción entre Platón y Aristóteles, a la luz de las referencias que Borges hace de ellos a lo largo (...) de su obra, es el propósito de este trabajo. Para ello me interesa relevar algunos motivos platónicos y aristotélicos empleados por aquel en función de su universo ficcional, a fin de evaluar el sentido y alcance de dicha disyunción. Mi hipótesis es que ella asume en la obra de Borges un sentido débil e incluyente, que posiciona a este autor en una vía entre Platón y Aristóteles. (shrink)

En este trabajo me interesa abordar la figura del poeta legislador Solón, a fin de examinar la influencia que sus escritos pudieron haber ejercido sobre la concepción de la poesía forjada por Platón en _Leyes_. No se trata tanto de la poesía de Solón en sí misma como de lo que Platón supo leer en ella en términos de posibilidad para la conformación de un nuevo linaje poético. Partiendo de un breve examen de la figura de Solón y de algunos (...) de sus escritos, procuro dar cuenta de la influencia que aquel célebre legislador pudo haber ejercido sobre la figura platónica del poeta legislador. (shrink)

Platón procura establecer en el Fedro una estrecha vinculación entre la poesía y el ámbito eidético propio del saber filosófico, o al que accede el filósofo mediante una ejercitada captación sinóptico-dialéctica. Tal tipo de poesía filosófica aparece ilustrada a la perfección en la propia palinodia socrática, la cual erige a Sócrates – y en última instancia a Platón – como paradigma de filósofo poeta, palinodia que ha sido obligada a pronunciarse “con ciertos términos poéticos”. Partiendo de esa palinodia como modelo, (...) Platón se propone abordar el tema del éros con discursos filosóficos que se nutran de términos poéticos, o sea, a través de una explícita mixtura de elementos filosóficos y poéticos, cuyo ejemplo más claro es el Fedro en su conjunto, o, en términos más generales, el género dialógico platónico en tanto este pone en escena una interacción entre los registros filosófico y poético. Teniendo en cuenta esta relación de compatibilidad que Platón establece en el Fedro entre su paradigma poético-filosófico y el de tipo tradicional – paradigmas que en los libros II, III y X de la República aparecían claramente en tensión –, en este artículo me interesa apoyar tal relación en la anécdota del sueño relatada por Sócrates al comienzo del Fedón, en la cual el filósofo confiesa ante Simmias y Cebes haber compuesto desde su encierro en la cárcel – ya que anteriormente jamás lo había hecho – poemas basados en la versificación o musicalización de las fábulas de Esopo y un himno a Apolo. (shrink)

Este trabalho analisa a estrutura do romance Como se estivéssemos em palimpsesto de putas, de Elvira Vigna como também, as relações sexistas às quais as personagens estão submetidas. Retratados por meio de uma narradora não revelada, estratégia estética realçadora da invisibilização da mulher dentro da sociedade, os causos de João, um profissional cujo único prazer é o sexo com garotas de programa, servem de retrato da construção da masculinidade e da dimensão patriarcal. Utilizando-se do artifício do palimpsesto como crítica ao (...) patriarcado, o seguinte trabalho denuncia, a partir das leituras de textos de Monique Wittig e Gerda Lerner, como as diversas expressões do machismo se comportam através das sobreposições de vozes que emergem da narrativa.Palavras-chave: Elvira Vigna. Palimpsesto. Patriarcado. Crítica Feminista. Memória. AbstractThis article analyzes the structure of Elvira Vigna’s novel Como se estivéssemos em palimpsesto de putas as well as the sexist relations to which the characters are submitted. Portrayed through an undisclosed female narrator, an aesthetic strategy that enhances the invisibility of women within society, the stories of João, a professional whose only pleasure is having sex with prostitutes, serve as a portrait of the construction of masculinity and the patriarchal dimension. Using the palimpsest as a criticism for patriarchy, Vigna’s work denounces, from the readings of texts by Monique Wittig and Gerda Lerner, the various expressions of sexism behavior through the overlapping voices that emerge from the narrative.Keywords: Elvira Vigna. Palimpsest. Patriarchy. Feminist Critique. Memory. (shrink)

En este artículo me interesa sostener que en la República la posibilidad de una buena koinōnía se ve obstaculizada por la potencia emocional y perversión psicológica de la poesía mimético-placentera, la cual estimula y fortalece la parte irracional del alma de sus receptores mediante la imitación de personajes ligados al deseo y la ira. Para tal fin examino, en primer lugar, algunos de los pasajes de República IV en los que es posible suscribir la prioridad que tiene la tripartición psíquica (...) por sobre la tripartición política. En segundo lugar, señalo algunos de los rasgos centrales de la crítica psicológica de la poesía mimético-placentera en República X. (shrink)

In Republic 436a-c Plato introduces, for the first time, the problematic postulate of the tripartition of the species-functions of the soul to pass on to justify it by starting from the so-called “Principle of conflict” or “of the impossibility of opposites”. To reach this point in the dialogue, we will firstly place this passage in the conceptual architecture of the work, taking the topic of stasis (sedition, revolt, civil war) as the thread for the reconstruction of the argumentative sequence that (...) leads into the psychological model of the parts in conflict. We actually start from the hypothesis that Plato gets to the tripartition of the soul from the evidence that in the psychological reality of the individual there exists a stasis that is produced in the soul due to injustice, contrasting to the concord and friendship that is a result of justice. On the basis of the psychological model of the parts in conflict, the psycho-political objective looked for in Republic, points to the achievement of the psychic unity as a condition for the political unity; since Plato’s political objective is to make citizens become better, which can only be reached through an improvement of the individual soul. Through the topic of stasis and the lexis of the conflict that derives from it, we uphold that Plato intends to prove not only the political and tripartite constitution of the soul, but first and foremost the priority that the psychic tripartition holds over the political order. (shrink)

Plato seeks to establish in _Phaedrus_ a close link between poetry and the eidetic sphere to which philosophical knowledge belongs, or which the philosopher accesses through a practiced synoptic-dialectic understanding. This type of philosophical poetry is perfectly illustrated in the Socratic palinode itself, which Socrates –and ultimately Plato – establishes as a paradigm of the poet philosopher, a palinode by necessity must be uttered “with certain poetic terms”. Working from that palinode as a model, Plato seeks to approach the subject (...) of _éros_ with philosophical discourses fed with poetical terms, that is, through an explicit blend of philosophical and poetic elements, the clearest example of which is the _Phaedrus_ as a whole, or, in more general terms, the Platonic dialogical genre in as much as this puts forward an interaction between the philosophical and poetic registers. Taking into account this relationship of compatibility that Plato establishes in _Phaedrus _between the poetic-philosophical paradigm and the traditional paradigm – which in books I, III and X of the _Republic_ clearly appeared in tension–in this paper I’m interested in supporting such a relationship in the dream anecdote as told by Socrates at the start of the _Phaedo_. In this anecdote, the philosopher confesses to Simmias and Cebes that since his time in prison, although he had never done such a thing before before, he has been composing poems based on the versification and musicalization of Aesop’s fables and a hymn to Apollo. (shrink)

resumo: Este artigo tem como foco a influência e o domínio da tecnologia no nosso mundo atual. Através de um acompanhamento da reflexão de Heidegger sobre a técnica, buscamos responder a seguinte questão: o mundo, tomado como subsistência, é ele próprio o resultado de uma visão de mundo? Para alcançar uma resposta, primeiramente interrogamos os delineamentos de mundos, a partir do tema das visões de mundo. Encontramos, assim, o tema da postura humana enquanto elemento principal. Em segundo lugar, acompanhamos a (...) crítica de Heidegger à ciência moderna e à técnica, na qual constatamos uma ambiguidade fundamental na postura da Serenidade. Diante desse contexto, a resposta para o questionamento principal é afirmativa: o mundo enquanto subsistência é o resultado de uma visão de mundo. Contudo, uma inevitável participação do homem na atividade de “armazenamento”, conduz a uma esperança de reversão no processo de dominação da técnica. abstract: This article focuses on the influence and dominance of technique in our world today. By an incursion in Heidegger’s reflection on technique, we seek to answer the following question: is the world itself, taken as subsistence, the result of a worldview? To reach an answer, first, we question the outlining of worlds from the matter of worldviews. We find thus the theme of human posture as the main element. Secondly, we follow Heidegger’s critique of modern science and technique, where we see a fundamental ambiguity in the position of Serenity. In this context, the answer to the main question is affirmative: the world as subsistence is the result of a worldview. However, an inevitable human participation in the activity of “storage” leads to a hope of reversing technique’s domination process. (shrink)

Estudo qualitativo exploratórios de literatura cientifica sobre ansiedade em estudantes brasileiros, objetivando identificar fatores relacionados ao desenvolvimento da ansiedade patológica. Os textos foram analisados e agrupados de acordo com análise de conteúdo. Entre os resultados encontramos o enfoque relacional que impacta o self e surge no contexto socioeconômico. Destacamos como agentes que contribuem para a ansiedade: exigência de responsabilidade e autonomia; preocupações com o futuro; não ter tempo para o lazer, ausência de familiares; ser mulher e ser homossexual. Concluímos que (...) o modelo de ensino praticado na universidade causa pressão psicológica pela grande diferença da experiência pedagógica no secundário. Completamos que a Universidade requer promover intervenções que visem o desenvolvimento emocional e cognitivo dos estudantes para que desenvolvam seu método de estudar mais eficiente, lidar melhor com suas dificuldades, e gerar estratégias para lidar com elas, além de organizar o planejamento tempo reservando horas para atividades de lazer e de interação social. (shrink)

Pouca atenção foi dada pelos estudiosos para a função da Palavra de Deus no relato da pesca milagrosa em Lucas, tanto em nível literário, quanto teológico. Diante disso, o objetivo deste trabalho foi analisar a perícope de Lc 5,1-11, com enfoque na Palavra de Deus, proclamada em Jesus e por ele. A metodologia utilizada foi a análise e interpretação de textos, privilegiando o método histórico-crítico e os seus elementos essenciais, além do uso de outros métodos, baseados na ciência da (...) linguagem. Pode-se dizer que a Palavra de Deus ocupa um lugar central na trama, dando cadência ao relato e elucidando o sentido teológico que Lucas pretende imprimir, o que fica evidente pelas alterações feitas pelo autor no relato original. Na perícope da pesca milagrosa, a Palavra é proclamada por Jesus em caráter performativo, faz o milagre acontecer, conduz Pedro à conversão e dá a ele uma nova missão. Na teologia de Lucas ouvimos o eco das comunidades primitivas, nascidas ao redor da Palavra do Senhor. Palavras-chave : Lucas. Pesca. Milagre. Pedro. Palavra.The scholars haven’t given too much attention to the function of the Word of God in the report of the miraculous catch of fish in Luke, at the literary and theological level. Thus, the objective of this paper was to analyze the pericope of Luke 5:1-11, with emphasis on the Word of God proclaimed in Jesus and through Him. The methodology used was the analysis and interpretation of texts, focusing on the historical-critical method and its essential elements, besides the use of other methods, based on the science of language. It’s possible to say that the Word of God occupies a central place in the plot, giving cadence to the report and elucidating the theological sense that Luke wanted to print, which is evidenced by the changes he has made in the original report. In the pericope of the miraculous catch of fish, the Word is proclaimed by Jesus in a performative way; it makes the miracle happen, leads Peter to conversion and gives him a new mission. In Luke's theology, one hears the echo of primitive communities, born around the word of the Lord. Key-words: Luke. Fishing. Miracle. Peter. Word. (shrink)

An old and well-known objection to non-classical logics is that they are too weak; in particular, they cannot prove a number of important mathematical results. A promising strategy to deal with this objection consists in proving so-called recapture results. Roughly, these results show that classical logic can be used in mathematics and other unproblematic contexts. However, the strategy faces some potential problems. First, typical recapture results are formulated in a purely logical language, and do not generalize nicely to languages containing (...) the kind of vocabulary that usually motivates non-classical theories—for example, a language containing a naïve truth predicate. Second, proofs of recapture results typically employ classical principles that are not valid in the targeted non-classical system; hence, non-classical theorists do not seem entitled to those results. In this paper, we analyze these problems and provide solutions on behalf of non-classical theorists. To address the first problem, we provide a novel kind of recapture result, which generalizes nicely to a truth-theoretic language. As for the second problem, we argue that it relies on an ambiguity and that, once the ambiguity is removed, there are no reasons to think that non-classical logicians are not entitled to their recapture results. (shrink)

These are commentaries to the translation into Portuguese of Nicomachean Ethics VI, found in the same volume of Dissertatio.

Tradução para o Português de Ethica Nicomachea VI.

I discuss Aristotle's treatment of essence and definition in Metaphysics VII.4. I argue that it is coherent and perfectly in accord with its broader context. His discussion in VII.4 offers, on the one hand, minimal criteria for what counts as definition and essence for whatever kind of object, but also, on the other hand, stronger criteria for a primary sort of definition and essence—and thereby it serves the interest of book VII in pointing to the explanatory power of the essence (...) of composite substances. (shrink)

Genetic explanation of complex human behavior presents an excellent test case for pluralism. Although philosophers agree that successful scientific investigation of behavior is pluralistic, there remains disagreement regarding integration and elimination—is the plurality of approaches here to stay, or merely a waystation on the road to monism? In this paper we introduce an issue taken very seriously by scientists yet mostly ignored by philosophers—the missing heritability problem—and assess its implications for disagreement among pluralists. We argue that the missing heritability problem, (...) which isn’t going anywhere any time soon, implies that pluralism in behavior genetics is both practically ineliminative and theoretically non-integrative. (shrink)

Joint attention customarily refers to the coordinated focus of attention between two or more individuals on a common object or event, where it is mutually “open” to all attenders that they are so engaged. We identify two broad approaches to analyse joint attention, one in terms of cognitive notions like common knowledge and common awareness, and one according to which joint attention is fundamentally a primitive phenomenon of sensory experience. John Campbell’s relational theory is a prominent representative of the latter (...) approach, and the main focus of this paper. We argue that Campbell’s theory is problematic for a variety of reasons, through which runs a common thread: most of the problems that the theory is faced with arise from the relational view of perception that he endorses, and, more generally, they suggest that perceptual experience is not sufficient for an analysis of joint attention. (shrink)

Aristotle contrasts episteme and doxa through the key notions of universal and necessary. These notions have played a central role in Aristotle’s characterization of scientific knowledge in the previous chapters of APo. They are not spelled out in APo I.33, but work as a sort of reminder that packs an adequate characterization of scientific knowledge and thereby gives a highly specified context for Aristotle’s contrast between episteme and doxa. I will try to show that this context introduces a contrast in (...) terms of explanatory claims: on the one hand, episteme covers those claims which capture explanatory connections that are universal and necessary and thereby deliver scientific understanding; on the other hand, doxa covers the explanatory attempts that fail at doing so. (shrink)

Trata-se de tradução do Hípias Maior de Platão para o Português, com algumas notas de elucidação e justificação das opções.

I discuss the methodological passage in the begin- ning of Ethica Eudemia I.6 (1216b26-35), which has received attention in connection with Aristotle’s notion of dialectic and his methodology in Ethics. My central focus is not to discuss whether Aristotle is prescribing and using what has been called the method of endoxa. I will focus on how this passage coheres with the remaining parts of the same chapter, which also are advancing methodological remarks. My claim is that the meth- od of (...) Ethica Eudemia I.6 is in agreement with many features of Aristotle’s theory of explanation as presented in the Posterior Analytics: Aristotle’s main concern is a warning against misuses of explanatory arguments. (shrink)

Public participation in scientific research has gained prominence in many scientific fields, but the theory of participatory research is still limited. In this paper, we suggest that the divergence of values and goals between academic researchers and public participants in research is key to analyzing the different forms this research takes. We examine two existing characterizations of participatory research: one in terms of public participants' role in the research, the other in terms of the virtues of the research. In our (...) view, each of these captures an important feature of participatory research but is, on its own, limited in what features it takes into account. We introduce an expanded conception of norms of collaboration that extends to both academic researchers and public participants. We suggest that satisfying these norms requires consideration of the two groups' possibly divergent values and goals, and that a broad characterization of participatory research that starts from participants' values and goals can motivate both public participants’ role in the research and the virtues of the research. The resulting framework clarifies the similarities and differences among participatory projects and can help guide the responsible design of such projects. (shrink)

I discuss the argument Aristotle ascribes to Parmenides at Physics 186a23-32. I discuss (i) the reasons why Aristotle considers it as eristic and inconclusive and (i) the solution (lusis) Aristotle proposes against it.

Proceedings of the international colloquium held at the âEcole pratique des hautes âetudes, Section des sciences religieuses, Paris, France, October 25-26, 2013.

This paper attempts to clarify the nature and the importance of a third kind of sophistic argument that is not always found in the classification of those arguments in the secondary literature. An argument of the third kind not only is a valid one, but is also constituted of true propositions. What makes it a sophistic argument is the fact that it produces a false semblance of scientific explanation: its explanation seems to be appropriate to the explanandum without being so. (...) Evidence from this kind of argument comes from Sophistic Refutations 11, and Brison’s attempt to square the circle should be counted as one of its instances. (shrink)

This paper discusses some issues concerning the definition of moral virtue in Nicomachean Ethics 1106b 36- 1107a 2. It is reasonable to expect from a definition the complete enumeration of the relevant features of its definiendum, but the definition of moral virtue seems to fail in doing this task. One might be tempted to infer that this definition is intended by Aristotle as a mere preliminary account that should be replaced by a more precise one. The context of the argument (...) Aristotle develops in Book II of his NE give us some help. I argue that the definition of moral virtue, once considered in the light of its context, is far from being an incomplete and provisional account: it rather introduces coherently the same notion of moral virtue that Aristotle employs in other texts (as in Nicomachean Ethics VI 13). My main proposal is that the way in which "hexis" is understood in the context of previous chapters allows Aristotle to encode in it the notion of an ability to do the right things regularly. Thus, moral virtue is a "hexis prohairetike etc.", but the ability to do the right things regularly is already encoded in the occurrence of "hexis" in the definiens account of moral virtue, as if Aristotle meant "hexis [praktike] prohairetike". (shrink)

This paper discusses the contrast between scientific knowledge and opinion as it is presented by Aristotle in Posterior Analytics A.33. Aristotle's contrast is formulated in terms of understanding or not understanding some "necessary items". I claim that the contrast can only be understood in terms of explanatory relevance. The "necessary items" are middle terms (or explanatory factors) that are necessary for the fully appropriate explanation. This approach gives a coherent interpretation of each step in the chapter.

Event concepts are unstructured atomic concepts that apply to event types. A paradigm example of such an event type would be that of diaper changing, and so a putative example of an atomic event concept would be DADDY'S-CHANGING-MY-DIAPER.1 I will defend two claims about such concepts. First, the conceptual claim that it is in principle possible to possess a concept such as DADDY'S-CHANGING-MY-DIAPER without possessing the concept DIAPER. Second, the empirical claim that we actually possess such concepts and that they (...) play an important role in our cognitive lives. The argument for the empirical claim has the form of an inference to the best explanation and is aimed at those who are already willing to attribute concepts and beliefs to infants and nonhuman animals. Many animals and prelinguistic infants seem capable of re-identifying event-types in the world, and they seem to store information about things happening at particular times and places. My account offers a plausible model of how such organisms are able to do this without attributing linguistically structured mental states to them. And although language allows adults to form linguistically structured mental representations of the world, there is no good reason to think that such structured representations necessarily replace the unstructured ones. There is also no good reason for a philosopher who is willing to explain the behavior of an organism by appealing to atomic concepts of individuals or kinds to not use a similar form of explanation when explaining the organism's capacity to recognize events. -/- We can form empirical concepts of individuals, kinds, properties, event-types, and states of affairs, among other things, and I assume that such concepts function like what François Recanati calls ‘mental files’ or what Ruth Millikan calls ‘substance concepts’ (Recanati 2012; Millikan 1999, 2000, 2017). To possess such a concept one must have a reliable capacity to re-identify the object in question, but this capacity of re-identification does not fix the reference of the concept. Such concepts allow us to collect and utilize useful information about things that we re-encounter in our environment. We can distinguish between a perception-action system and a perception-belief system, and I will argue that empirical concepts, including atomic event concepts, can play a role in both systems. The perception-action system involves the application of concepts in the service of (often skilled) action. We can think of the concept as a mental file containing motor-plans that can be activated once the individual recognizes that they are in a certain situation. In this way, recognizing something (whether an object or an event) as a token of a type, plays a role in guiding immediate action. The perception-belief system, in contrast, allows for the formation of beliefs that can play a role in deliberation and planning and in the formation of expectations. I distinguish between two particular types of belief which I call where-beliefs and when-beliefs, and I argue that we can model the formation of such perceptual beliefs in nonlinguistic animals and human infants in terms of the formation of a link between an empirical concept and a position on a cognitive map. According to the account offered, seemingly complex beliefs, such as a baby's belief that Daddy changed her diaper in the kitchen earlier, will not be linguistically structured. If we think that prelinguistic infants possess such concepts and are able to form such beliefs, it is likely that adults do too. The ability to form such beliefs does not require the capacity for public language, and we can model them in nonlinguistic terms; thus, we have no good reason to think of such beliefs as propositional attitudes. Of course, we can use sentences to refer to such beliefs, and thus it is possible to think of such beliefs as somehow relations to propositions. But it is not clear to me what is gained by this as we have a perfectly good way to think about the structure of such beliefs that does not involve any appeal to language. (shrink)

I examine Aristotle’s definition of scientific knowledge in Posterior Analytics 71b 9-12 and try to understand how it relates to the sophistical way of knowing and to "kata sumbebekos knowledge". I claim that scientific knowledge of p requires knowing p by its appropriate cause, and that this appropriate cause is a universal (katholou) in the restricted sense Aristotle proposes in 73b 26-27 ff., i.e., an attribute coextensive with the subject (an extensional feature) and predicated of the subject in itself (an (...) intensional feature). Kata sumbebekos knowledge, on the other hand, can occur even when the predicate of a conclusion is coextensive with its subject and is proved by a convertible meson which is not the most appropriate from an explanatory standpoint. (shrink)

Non‐classical logicians do not typically reject classically valid logical principles across the board. In fact, they sometimes suggest that their preferred logic recovers classical reasoning in most circumstances. This idea has come to be known in the literature as ‘classical recapture’. Recently, classical logicians have raised various doubts about it. The main problem is said to be that no rigorous explanation has been given of how is it exactly that classical logic can be recovered. The goal of the paper is (...) to address this problem. First, I discuss a number of different ways to characterize the idea of classical recapture and I examine how far it can be pushed. Secondly, I argue that a palatable form of classical recapture is given by the thought that classical logic can be retained for statements that are grounded (in Kripke’s sense). To substantiate this view I provide a formal fixed‐point semantics for a language containing a predicate standing for the concept of groundedness and I address a couple of objections that have been deployed against the claim that classical recapture can aid the non‐classical logician’s cause. (shrink)

Bietti, Tilston and Bangerter take an evolutionary approach towards memory transmission and storytelling, arguing that storytelling plays a central role in the creation and transmission of cultural information. They suggest that storytelling is a vehicle to transmit survival‐related information that helps to avoid the costs involved in the first‐hand acquisition of that information and contributes to the maintenance of social bonds and group‐level cooperation. Furthermore, Bietti et al. argue that, going beyond storytelling’s individualist role of manipulating the audience to enhance (...) fitness of the narrator, that these adaptive functions of storytelling may well be assigned to other forms of language use besides narration (e.g., instructional discourse and argumentation). Based on this evidence, Bietti and colleagues claim that the specific adaptive function of storytelling lies in making sense of non‐routine, uncertain, or novel situations, thereby enabling collective sensemaking. (shrink)

John Danaher and Sven Nyholm have argued that automation, especially of the sort powered by artificial intelligence, poses a threat to meaningful work by diminishing the chances for meaning-conferring workplace achievement, what they call “achievement gaps”. In this paper, I argue that Danaher and Nyholm’s achievement gap thesis suffers from an ambiguity. The weak version of the thesis holds that automation may result in the appearance of achievement gaps, whereas the strong version holds that automation may result on balance loss (...) in possibilities for workplace achievements, i.e., in the appearance of an overall gappier work landscape. Against the strong version of the achievement gap thesis, I characterize situations where automation may result in boons to meaning-conferring workplace achievements: the appearance of what I call achievement spread and achievement swaps. Nevertheless, Danaher and Nyholm are right to worry about some uses of automation whereby human workers become subservient to AI. But these situations are better framed, I argue, as autonomy gaps rather than achievement gaps. (shrink)

I discuss the notion of education or educatedness (paideia) involved in the ‘educated human being’ (pepaideumenos), which Aristotle presents at the beginning of his Parts of Animals and a few other passages. The competence of educated human beings makes them able to evaluate some aspects of the explanations in a given domain without having a determinate knowledge about the specific subject-matter in that domain. I examine how such a competence is possible and how it is related to other critical abilities (...) which Aristotle usually ascribes to the science of being qua being. Discuto a noção de educação ou cultura (paideia) envolvida na figura do ser humano cultivado (pepaideumenos), que Aristóteles apresenta no início do tratado As Partes dos Animais e em algumas outras passagens. A competência do ser humano cultivado o habilita a avaliar certo aspecto das explicações propostas em um dado domínio, sem requerer dele um conhecimento determinado sobre o assunto específico do mesmo domínio. Examino de que modo essa competência é possível e como ela se articula a outras habilidades críticas que Aristóteles geralmente associa à ciência do ser enquanto ser. (shrink)

Davidsonian event semantics is often taken to form an unhappy marriage with compositional semantics. For example, it has been claimed to be problematic for semantic accounts of quantification Proceedings of the 16th Amsterdam Colloquium, 2007), for classical accounts of negation Semantics and contextual expression, 1989), and for intersective accounts of verbal coordination. This paper shows that none of this is the case, once we abandon the idea that the event variable is bound at sentence level, and assume instead that verbs (...) denote existential quantifiers over events. Quantificational arguments can then be given a semantic account, negation can be treated classically, and coordination can be modeled as intersection. The framework presented here is a natural choice for researchers and fieldworkers who wish to sketch a semantic analysis of a language without being forced to make commitments about the hierarchical order of arguments, the argument-adjunct distinction, the default scope of quantifiers, or the nature of negation and coordination. (shrink)

‘Futility’ is a contentious term that has eluded clear definition, with proposed descriptions either too strict or too vague to encompass the many facets of medical care. Requests for futile care are often surrogates for requests of a more existential character, covering the whole range of personal, emotional, cultural and spiritual needs. Physicians and other practitioners can use requests for futile care as a valuable opportunity to connect with their patients at a deeper level than the mere biomedical diagnosis. Current (...) debate around Canada’s changing regulatory and legal framework highlights challenges in appropriately balancing the benefits and burdens created by requests for futile care. (shrink)

I argue that Topics VI does not contain any serious theory about definitions, but only a collection of advices for formulating definitions in a dialectical context, namely, definitions aiming to catch what the opponent means. Topics VI is full of inconsistencies that can be explained away by this approach: the inconsistencies reflect "acceptable opinions about definitions" that distinct groups of interlocutors accept. I also argue that the "topoi" need not be pieces of serious theory Aristotle is commited to. The "topoi" (...) must also be considered as "endoxa", namely, as accepted opinions about how it is legitimate to draw an inference. (shrink)