The relationship between aesthetic value and other moral and cognitive values has been a key theme within contemporary aesthetic discussion. In this article, I explore once again the implications of this relationship, but from what I think might be a different angle. With few exceptions, notably Dominic Lopes, most of the contributions to this issue have dealt with the impact that moral or cognitive values could possibly have on the overall aesthetic value of a work of art. In this article, (...) I explore instead how aesthetic properties or merits could play a role in explaining moral and cognitive properties. To do so, I first offer some examples that I think may reasonably exemplify the phenomenon we are considering. Second, I argue that a proper account of interactionism should meet at least two constraints: the relevance constraint and the autonomy constraint. Finally, I try to clarify how it is possible that aesthetic properties substantially contribute to other values by appealing to the notions of expression and the affective character of aesthetic properties. (shrink)

Recent debates on the validity of Aesthetic Testimony and the centrality of the so-called Acquaintance Principle suggest that there is more to the proper exercise of aesthetic judgement than mere endorsement of allegedly correct aesthetic judgements. For example, although it is reasonable to follow experts’ judgements in certain matters of fact, it seems less acceptable to simply endorse or adopt experts’ judgements in the aesthetic domain. That reliance on testimony, by contrast to some other areas of judgement, is not sufficient (...) for aesthetic judgement has encouraged scholars to focus in turn on the importance of the personal involvement and autonomy of the aesthetic agent. This special issue focuses on phenomena related to failed exercises of aesthetic judgement. The choice of the theme is motivated by the belief that a careful analysis of failures in aesthetic judgement can reveal significant aspects of the nature of aesthetic experience itself as well as the roles that perception, imagination, and learning have in its proper exercise. (shrink)

Two seemingly contradictory aspects have marked art’s appreciation – and aesthetic appreciation in general. While an experience of pleasure seems to ground judgments of aesthetic value, some artworks seem to gain our praise by the very negative – unpleasant – experience they provoke. Known as the paradox of negative emotions, aestheticians have, at least since Aristotle, tried to deal with these cases and offer different explanations of the phenomenon. In this article, María José Alcaraz León does not directly (...) offer an alternative explanation; rather she focuses on the apparent tension between an understanding of aesthetic experience in terms of a certain kind of pleasure and the negative aspect that is necessarily involved in our appreciation of painful art. The purpose of her article is to show that cases of artistic appreciation that involve negative emotions do not need to give up on the idea that aesthetic value is ultimately grounded upon an experience of pleasure. (shrink)

As aesthetic appreciators of the environment, we often encounter cases where our environmental commitments and our aesthetic responses do not seem to match. Some highly altered or contaminated environments may occasion powerful and insightful aesthetic experiences. In this article, I discuss some arguments that have been offered in favor of the view that this mismatch is not possible when we appreciate a particular environment with full awareness of its damaged or altered condition. I show that these arguments are not conclusive (...) and that there is room for valuable experiences of damaged or highly altered environments. Our knowledge of the damaged condition of an environment, while perceptually significant, does not necessarily make the resulting aesthetic experience to be negative. Finally, I show that these cases do not necessarily diminish the role that aesthetics can play in shaping our environmental sensibility and commitments. (shrink)

In this article I start by assuming that positive aesthetic experiences of damaged nature are possible and I argue for the idea that the aesthetic pleasure derived from that contemplation might reveal something of the environment’s overall character. I hope to show that positive aesthetic experiences sometimes help to promote emotional attitudes that can lead to insight into the configuration of other non-aesthetic attitudes. In order to do so, I critically appeal to some of the thoughts Kant articulated about the (...) notion of aesthetic experience and its relationship to cognition and morality. I think that the sort of experience I am after in this article cannot be easily accommodated within a Kantian framework and that the possibility of positive aesthetic experience of damaged nature will show that the relationships between the aesthetic and the cognitive or the moral are more complex and enriching than they have so far been acknowledged to be. (shrink)

In this paper I would like to address the problem of the aesthetic value of damaged nature. A variety of arguments have been offered in order to ground the view that we cannot perceive damaged nature as beautiful, at least as soon as we are aware of its damaged condition. These arguments are usually offered in tandem with a view about what the correct appreciation of nature involves and, hence, are often supported by this view. I will try to show (...) that none of these arguments are compelling and that there seems to be a way of explaining how damaged nature can be beautiful without disposing of the intuition that the awareness of its damaged condition penetrates our perception. (shrink)

Playing traditional games has a direct impact on the mood states of the players, and this is the reason why physical education is an ideal setting for teaching how to recognize them and be aware about how they can swing. The objective of the study was to determine if participating in traditional opposition games causes changes to the participants' mood states. A total of 102 students participated. Each participant recorded the intensity of the mood state experienced at the beginning and (...) at the end of the sessions, using the validated Profile of Mood States instrument. The pedagogical experience was planned as 4 sessions with 6 and 5 opposition games each: with competition in mixed groups, equally and unequally mixed; without competition in mixed groups, equally and unequally mixed; with competition in same-gender groups; and without competition in same-gender groups. When comparing the different mood states according to session, the mood states of the depression, fatigue, and vigor dimensions were significantly different, with higher scores in the sessions with competition for the mood states of vigor and fatigue. Also, when comparing the mood states depending on session grouping and group type, the results showed differences in the scores obtained for the dimensions fatigue and anger, and general mood state. These differences were found at the start of the session and at the end, with the dimension fatigue being the only one with differences in both situations when comparing the same-gender, equally-mixed, and unequally-mixed groups for the two types of traditional opposition games compared. In addition, after an analysis of the mood states depending on gender was performed, the results and therefore the significant differences found, were very similar to those obtained according to group type. Lastly, it was concluded that the type of group, and gender were decisive, causing variations in the mood states of the students. This provides valuable information for teaching professionals about the structuring and organization of PE sessions, aiming to promoting positive motor experiences. (shrink)

Esta propuesta se inscribe en el marco de análisis y comprensión de los procesos de subjetivación contemporáneos como maneras de imponer una esencia a una existencia. Puesto que hemos sido edificadas con las imágenes de otros, las mujeres hemos debido construirnos cada una con ellas. Siendo muy diversos los desenlaces de esta construcción, somos sin embargo parecidas al compartir una particular manera de vínculo: la experiencia que denomino del deseo de ser. Estando siempre sin hacer, somos siempre siendo y, aunque (...) dadas ya por hechas, cada mujer es el resultado de un tremendo esfuerzo y paciencia cuya resolución permite vivir. (shrink)

This monograph is a defence of the Fregean take on logic. The author argues that Frege ́s projects, in logic and philosophy of language, are essentially connected and that the formalist shift produced by the work of Peano, Boole and Schroeder and continued by Hilbert and Tarski is completely alien to Frege's approach in the Begriffsschrift. A central thesis of the book is that judgeable contents, i.e. propositions, are the primary bearers of logical properties, which makes logic embedded in our (...) conceptual system. This approach allows coherent and correct definitions of logical constants, logical consequence, and truth and connects their use to the practices of rational agents in science and everyday life. (shrink)

Este artículo presenta las difíciles relaciones entre perspectivas atentas al género y la bioetica. Tanto la ética como la ciencia, y en concreto la medicina, han sido objetadas desde enfoques feministas con el fin de revelar su sesgo androcéntrico. La bioética, no obstante, hasta hace bien poco, se ha mostrado reticente a considerar como categoría analítica el factor genero. Aludimos aquí a las causas de este desencuentro así como, posteriormente, a las posibilidades abiertas por una bioética feminista.This paper focuses on (...) the difficult relationship between bioethics and gender. Ethics and science, especially medicine, have been rejected from feminist perspectives revealing the androcentric bias. Bioethics, nevertheless, has resisted the option of consider gender as an analytic category. We point out the reasons of this resistance and also the open possibilities ofan feminist bioethics. (shrink)

En un momento de tensión y polémica por la situación que tiene la enseñanza de la filosofía dentro de la l. o. g. s. e., es útil hacer una reflexión comparativa con el modo en el que se esta dando respuesta a la didáctica de la filosofía en otro país europeo, en Italia.

The subversion of tradition of ethics carried out by Kant in his Critique of Practical Reason is, according to Lacan, the intelligibility background on which it is possible a science of the subject as developed by Freud. This would be shown up in a particularly effective way if comparing Kant’s moral theory with Sade’s antimoral one. It is not difficult to show the formal-structural identity of the state of affairs established by inconditionality of law in both theoretical systems, and thus (...) expose the possibility of that anti-moral as a kind of Kantian variation. Moreover, Lacan holds, it is necessary to recognize in Sade’s Philosophy in the Bedroom the truth of Critique of Practical Reason. Our study proposes an examination of this well-known Lacanian thesis. On the one hand, we seek to establish the exact content of this thesis and the diagnosis of the relationship that it involves between Kant and Freud (between Enlightenment and psychoanalysis). On the other hand, we seek to confront that diagnosis with the reconstruction of the specific terms of the practical subject question in Kant’s philosophy. The ultimate aim is at least to raise a question about the place of the concept of “Reason” in psychoanalysis, that is, about the margin that the truth of the subject discovered by this theory leaves for making the difference (at least de iure) between the weight of reason and the illusions of moral masochism, and about the very conditions of psychoanalysis as a theory. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first we outline a version of non-descriptivism, ‘minimal expressivism’, leaving aside certain long-standing problems associated with conventional expressivist views. Second, we examine the way in which familiar expressivist results can be accommodated within this framework, through a particular interpretation that the expressive realm lends to a theory of meaning. Expressivist theories of meaning address only a portion of the classical problems attributed to this position when they seek to explain why the expressions they (...) deal with have a given meaning. A position can nevertheless be termed ‘expressivist’ – in the minimal sense that we favor – based simply on the following key features of the meaning of these expressions: they can be used as functions of propositions, and they are not used to describe the way the world is. (shrink)

Resumen Este trabajo analiza los anuncios de televisión y prensa de la compañía española de telefonía móvil Yoigo para explorar cómo la publicidad usa la apelación emocional para persuadir al consumidor a adquirir un servicio. El marco teórico se basa, por una parte, en el concepto de efecto social del acto comunicativo : 577–603) y el de actividad de imagen : 175–198), entendiendo la imagen social desde las categorías básicas de autonomía y afiliación con sus manifestaciones grupal e individual, Actos (...) de habla y cortesía en el español. Munich: Lincom Europa). Por otro lado, se parte de las propuestas de identidad de Spencer-Oatey, Face, Communication and Social Interaction ) y los tipos de valores centrales e individuales de los que se nutren tanto la imagen social como la identidad, 268-290). Los resultados de los análisis demuestran que en los anuncios de Yoigo los valores de honestidad y originalidad están presentes en las estrategias comunicativas elegidas, lo que supone una serie de actividades de imagen donde la afiliación y la autonomía – tanto de grupo como individual – se ponen de manifiesto. Así, las estrategias realizadas por los anuncios utilizan atributos conocidos de la identidad del consumidor español y de su imagen social para lograr su propósito persuasivo: convencerle para contratar el servicio ofrecido. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to analyze the variation of the second-person object clitic te [‘you’] and the clitic se [lit. ‘it’] in advertising discourse from a cognitive viewpoint. The main explanatory notion will be cognitive salience; both clitics, te and se, exhibit this to varying degrees. The second-person te is more salient than the clitic se; therefore, the meanings conveyed by each in media discourse will be notably different. Results indicate that the distribution and usage of the clitics (...) te vs. se constitutes a different strategy of persuasion in advertising discourse. In general terms, te is used when a special deictic stance is needed, such as indexing a second-person as a potential consumer of the product or idea, whereas se tends to appear in utterances that describe the general and objective benefits of the product or idea advertised, denoting a desubjectivizing stance. The sociosituational distribution of this variation according to the target consumers will be analyzed. (shrink)

This volume comprises a lively and thorough discussion between philosophers and Tyler Burge about Burge's recent, and already widely accepted, position in the theory of meaning, mind, and knowledge. This position is embodied by an externalist theory of meaning and an anti-individualist theory of mind and approach to self-knowledge. The authors of the eleven papers here expound their versions of this position and go on to critique Burge's version. Together with Burge's replies, this volume offers a major contribution to contemporary (...) philosophy. (shrink)

In this Interview, Professor Robert B. Brandom answered ten detailed questions about his philosophy of Rational Pragmatism and Semantic Expressivism, grouped into four topics. 1. Metaphysics and Anthropology, 2. Pragmatics and Semantics, 3. Epistemic Expressivism and 4. Philosophy of Logic. With his careful answers Professor Brandom offers many additional insights into his rigorously constructed account of the relationship “between what we say and think, and what we are saying and thinking about” around the human practice of asking for and giving (...) reasons. A final, additional question pointed at a principal motivation for putting together the present issue: how to reconcile Wittgenstein’s assertion that philosophy must not proffer any theories with the very explicit system of explanations Brandom has constructed. This same issue is addressed to some extent already in Professor Brandom’s new article contained in this issue, but his answer, asserting that he does not proffer a theory but only makes explicit what is already there, might be seen as an unambiguous statement of the continuous presence of a contested Wittgensteinian principle in Brandom’s work. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es proponer cuatro condiciones éticas para la regulación de la pornografía en un Estado con tendencia liberal democrática: las dos primeras se relacionan con la producción del material pornográfico, la tercera con el contenido de dicho material y la cuarta con su repercusión social. De acuerdo con ello, en primer lugar, se presenta una definición de pornografía que incluye las perspectivas de las feministas radicales y liberales. En segundo lugar, se desarrolla un marco normativo para (...) determinar cuándo un material pornográfico es éticamente permisible y cuándo no. Finalmente, se sugiere una recomendación en relación a lo que el Estado debería hacer en cada caso y se hace una distinción entre tres ámbitos: las condiciones bajo las cuales es producido el material pornográfico, el contenido de lo que representa o describe, y sus consecuencias sociales. Se concluye que el Estado no debería censurar todos los materiales pornográficos, como las feministas radicales insisten, sino sólo prohibir y castigar aquellos que no cumplan con las condiciones éticas que se proponen. (shrink)

Comentamos y discutimos, en esta nota, algunas de las reconceptualizaciones normativas y aplicaciones diversas del paradigma de la Justicia Global. Los trabajos de Pogge compilados en Hacer justicia a la humanidad proporcionan una visión de conjunto del objetivo pragmático de su pensamiento: erradicar la pobreza severa. Discutimos, en primer lugar, su operación de otorgar carácter negativo a los derechos económicos y sociales por considerarlo erróneo y desencaminado tanto en la teoría como en sus repercusiones prácticas. Finalmente, enjuiciamos favorablemente su reflexión (...) acerca de la Equidad de Género en el contexto de los debates en torno a la medición de la pobreza y la analítica de las desigualdades. Su problematización a este respecto, permitiría una fructífera intersección con la crítica feminista a los marcos teóricos hegemónicos del desarrollo humano y a los impactos de la globalización sobre las mujeres. (shrink)

El objeto de este artículo es presentar las dimensiones intersubjetivas y objetivas de la responsabilidad que formularon Hannah Arendt y Hans Jonas. La versión jurídica e individual de la responsabilidad como mero correlato de la libertad ha quedado sobrepasada por la magnitud de las consecuencias de la acción humana consignadas en el siglo XX. A título de ejemplo, señalaremos a los totalitarismos, a la crisis ecológica o al impacto de las biotecnologías. Una escala de acción de tales magnitudes exige pensar (...) una responsabilidad «ampliada». Conectar las dimensiones intersubjetivas y objetivas de la responsabilidad con el juicio moral en un modelo complejo y multifactorial es nuestra propuesta aquí. (shrink)