Television commercials are often thought of as bothersome multimedia artefacts that by their very existence spoil our viewing pleasure at regular intervals. Not only that, but they seem to have the habit of ordering us around. This aspect of TV ads has often been commented on by experts and laypersons alike. Therefore, we decided to tackle this issue and look at the prototypical expression of directives, that is, imperatives in voice-overs in television commercials. To this end we have carried out (...) an empirical analysis of imperatives in voice-overs in the MATVA corpus which contains transcriptions of nearly 800 voice-overs in British TV ads recorded on six days during 2009, 2010 and 2011. We provide an exhaustive quantitative and qualitative profile of imperatives in contemporary TV advertising. This includes information on the distribution of imperatives, the most common verbs in imperative clauses, and their discourse function. We are also able to show conclusively that the directive force of imperatives in TV ads is more akin to advice or recommendation than commands, and explain from a discourse-pragmatic perspective why this is so. (shrink)

Hotel websites display textual and non-textual strategies with the aim of turning online visitors into customers. This article focuses on two related textual aspects: how consumers are discursively construed and how conditional constructions are used in order to persuade and convince consumers of the adequacy of the hotel. The framework adopted for the analysis combines Stern’s notion of ‘implied consumer’ with a corpus-driven approach. The corpus data comprises 114 British hotel websites and totals half a million words. This is a (...) subcorpus of COMETVAL, a database compiled at the University of València. The results reveal the importance of a number of words that address consumers directly or indirectly. These words intertwine with others to form patterns that help establish a bond between hoteliers and their clients. Further exploration of the corpus confirmed that some conditional sequences such as if you and should you are used by advertisers to speculate about the needs and wishes of consumers that the hotel can fulfil for them. The analysis suggests that conditional structures are a distinctive discursive characteristic strongly associated with the dialogic nature of the discourse hotel websites. (shrink)

Corporate social responsibility is increasingly viewed as a strategic management tool for companies to draw in candidates. In this arena, international responsible rankings such as ‘The Great Place to Work’, ‘Family Responsible Employer Index ’ or ‘The Best Companies for Working Mothers’ put emphasis on the value of responsible behaviours, not only for surviving in the market, but also to ‘win the war for talent’. Using a sample of Spanish University students, this research aims to analyse the process of selecting (...) responsible organizations to work and whether there is a possible future conflict of interest by students between their own and organizational values. Surprisingly, the university students assessed two opposing situations with the highest values: of looking to change employer and of letting time pass in order to ignore the conflict. The implications of the students’ assessments and the related factors which affect their decision-making criteria are explored in this article. (shrink)

Los estudios sociológicos permiten en La aventura de Miguel Littín clandestino en Chile (1986) de Gabriel García Márquez revelar una dinámica existente entre dos elementos: el primero, la configuración de la obra literaria sobre la base de referentes históricos que construyen la memoria colectiva y el imaginario de la sociedad chilena; el segundo, el cuestionamiento del concepto de democracia en función de un periodo dictatorial chileno necesario (golpe de Estado de 1973, exilio y violación de los derechos humanos) (...) para el desarrollo trascendental de una nación, apoyada con la Dina, la CNI, las Fuerzas Armadas y otros organismos anticriminales. (shrink)

En este trabajo, se toma en cuenta el manuscrito de Gabriel García Márquez, Noticia de un secuestro (1996), el cual tiene una configuración narrativa muy peculiar. Su género os- cila entre la novela y la crónica periodística. Eso permite que se ausculten algunos rasgos inherentes en su composición, como el hecho de abordar temas sociológicos e históricos que comprenden el periodo finisecular del siglo XX en Colombia. Frente a ese contexto, lo que concierne en esta investigación es tratar lo (...) macrocriminal desde la perspectiva de lo transgresor, como el que se justifique desde lo ilegal cualquier acción por la ineficacia del mismo Gobierno. Este tópico, entre otros afines, serán corroborados con esta obra literaria. (shrink)

Este artículo explora desde una perspectiva filosófica la forma como la rostricidad está asociada al deseo y producción de subjetividad. De ahí que el campo de interés se centre en cómo dichas categorías tensionan la constitución subjetiva de los sujetos, a tal punto que inciden en la proyección de su propio trayecto biográfico. Esto a partir de algunos planteamientos teóricos acuñados por filósofos como Foucault, Deleuze y Guattari, con respecto al papel del rostro como productor de significado cultural en la (...) gestión de la economía del deseo. Con miras a ambientar el texto, se tomará como recurso a Catarino, personaje de la novela Cien años de soledad, de Gabriel García Márquez. (shrink)

Noticia de un secuestro (1996), del Premio Nobel de Literatura Gabriel García Márquez, representa a la sociedad colombiana que atraviesa por un período caracterizado por el desarrollo de actos narcoterroristas, del cual se detecta el funcionamiento de Pablo Escobar —jefe del Cartel de Medellín— hacia el Gobierno. El presente artículo tiene como finalidad hallar aquellos referentes que permiten ubicar esta obra literaria en lo histórico y lo social —definidos desde la percepción del criminólogo Luis Rodríguez Manzanera al precisar sobre (...) la forma delictiva y la tensión provocada en la ciudadanía para denominarlas como macrocriminalidad—, junto con lo político-filosófico (el capitalismo definido desde el marxismo-leninismo) y lo literario —considerando el posboom como una manifestación artística que permite la incorporación de elementos propios de los Estudios Culturales; como, por ejemplo, la articulación de lo nacional y la crítica ideológica al sistema que los impera. (shrink)

Esta investigación retoma la obra de Gabriel García Márquez, Noticia de un secuestro (1996), con la volición de cuestionar la idea de Estado nación que está inmersa en el libro. Para ello, es necesario entender que la naturaleza del texto exige un conocimiento amplio al lector o al intérprete, puesto que su contenido revela datos multidisciplinarios. Además, es insoslayable realizar un análisis discursivo de la historia de ese contexto y cotejar con pasajes del mismo libro. Para facilitar esta labor, (...) la extrapolación de conceptos del teórico Luis Rodríguez Manzanera será de utilidad, ya que él despliega definiciones de Criminología, un tema frecuente en la obra. Verbigracia, la macrocriminalidad, una noción que él postula, permite que se comprenda la complexión del periodo histórico finisecular del siglo XX en Colombia, etapa que le corresponde a Noticia de un secuestro. Por otro lado, es menester dilucidar que este estudio no se reduce a lo literario, lo histórico y lo criminológico, sino que abarca distintas disciplinas, por lo que la exigencia en la consolidación epistemológica e interpretativa estará demostrada consuetudinariamente, sin obviar la inmanencia de la obra. Este tipo de análisis interdisciplinarios ya ha sido trabajado desde los Estudios Culturales, tal como se constata en las investigaciones de Richard Johnson (2000) o Néstor García Canclini (1997). De igual modo, el intento de establecer lineamientos y conexiones entre disciplinas como las de Literatura y Derecho ya ha sido desarrollado por Stanley Fish (1986), Faustino Martínez (2005), Carlos Pérez (2006) y Denise Schalet (2014). A diferencia de estos abordajes ya estudiados, el objetivo de esta investigación es detectar y fundamentar cómo se articula una propuesta ideológica desde una configuración que reanuda elementos históricos y literarios. En específico, lo que se busca es argumentar por qué fracasó implícitamente un proyecto sociopolítico de democracia y progreso, a partir de un panorama de violencia, narcoterrorismo, corrupción, negociaciones ilícitas, transgresión a los derechos humanos e inseguridad ciudadana. Con todo ello, esta tesis de maestría terminará siendo fructuosa para análisis postremos de discursos que tienen como esencia un soporte multidisciplinario. (shrink)

Tomando como referencia la novela periodística Noticia de un secuestro (1996) del Premio Nobel de Literatura de Colombia, Gabriel García Márquez, indago sobre el concepto de víctima, articulado por Olga Islas de González, con la intención de plantear la necesidad que requiere el texto sobre la búsqueda de un Estado nación, justificado en la práctica de la democracia, la libertad de expresión, el cumplimiento de las leyes y la Constitución: en oposición a lo expuesto en el período macrocriminal de (...) los últimos dos decenios del siglo XX en Colombia. Todo ello se muestra con el propósito de identificar el rol de los organismos encargados de contrarrestar las deficiencias de la sociedad colombiana, a través de la Policía (como el hecho de resguardar la seguridad ciudadana, que sería posible con una mayor investigación de su parte y una mejoría en el ámbito de la Criminalística). Asimismo, es de utilidad la extrapolación de las leyes (Decretos 2047/1990, 3030/1990 y 303/1991) que se establecen para aminorar el narcoterrorismo en ese país, sobre todo, para solicitar la extradición de los miembros del Cartel de Medellín a Estados Unidos, donde las sanciones para estos delitos relacionados era la pena de muerte. (shrink)

Noticia de un secuestro (1996), novela periodística del Premio Nobel de Literatura Gabriel García Márquez, ha permitido que se realicen trabajos hermenéuticos en función de los Estudios Culturales, ya que su contenido abarca períodos históricos de Colombia, la Sociología, la Criminología y la política: todo ello vinculado con la prosa literaria del escritor. En esta oportunidad, lo que represento son tres vertientes de investigación que se han desarrollado sobre la base del estudio de esta obra, las cuales son la (...) manifestación intencionada de la violencia social en Colombia, la constitución del compromiso político-ciudadano y la fidelidad autoral por la exposición histórica en la misma novela. La finalidad de la confrontación y el diálogo intertextual con la crítica literaria es la de establecer un panorama hermenéutico con respecto a lo determinado en Noticia de un secuestro (1996). (shrink)

Para el desarrollo de este estudio, tomo en cuenta la novela periodística de Gabriel García Márquez, titulada Noticia de un secuestro (1996), la misma que sirve como referente para abordar una etapa crítica por la que atravesaba Colombia durante los dos últimos decenios del siglo XX. Este lapso se caracterizó por la presencia de corrupción gubernamental, el tráfico de drogas y la lucha armada. Ante esta situación social y política, se plantea como solución legal la incorporación de una política (...) criminológica, la cual es posible transferir en dos áreas específicas: las entidades del orden y los miembros de grupos narcoterroristas. En este proceso de menoscabar las deficiencias que provocan el Estado y sus opositores, los textos La arqueología del saber, Microfísica del poder y Vigilar y castigar de Michel Foucault son de utilidad por postular una nueva modalidad de afrontar la forma de sancionar a un reo, basada en la disciplina y proyectada hacia su reinserción eficaz en la sociedad. (shrink)

Noticia de un secuestro (1996) desarrolla una temática diferente a la obra literaria general de Gabriel García Marquez (quien de hecho la publicó en vida) debido a que representa un contexto propio de los Estudios Culturales. Para esta propuesta utilizaremos el método hermenéutico propuesto por Gadamer, el cual está basado en la mención de las investigaciones hechas hasta el momento por la crítica literaria junto con la sistematización que se hace de las mismas. Presentaremos en este artículo tres focalizaciones que (...) la crítica literaria ha desarrollado (entendiendo por esta el concepto de hermenéutica) sobre el texto ya aludido. La primera se basa en asumir que la novela sería una alegoría de Colombia; mientras que la segunda, la cuestionaría en tanto género literario, pues podría ser “novela periodística”, “novela histórica”, “novela documental”, etc. Finalmente, se expondrán las nociones teóricas y los métodos interpretativos que han usado los críticos para abordarla. El objetivo de este artículo es confrontar y promover el diálogo intertextual con los aportes manifestados para que se instaure un panorama hermenéutico sobre la base de la novela. (shrink)

Para la construcción teórica que permitirá el análisis de Noticia de un secuestro (1996), me baso en el establecimiento del carácter sociológico que poseen las disciplinas de la Literatura y la Criminología (la manera de organizar la sociedad, mediante determinadas leyes y normas), además de poseer otras similitudes (dimensiones artística, interpretativa y escrita), tal como las señala Pérez (2006). El modo de articular estas propuestas resulta algo problemático, pues no hay un nexo interdisciplinario que esté total e intelectualmente elaborado, según (...) lo sostienen Nelson, Treichler y Grossberg: dificultad que no permitiría contextualizar, teorizar y cuestionar las bases con las que se trabajan. Por tal motivo, los Estudios Culturales tienen una funcionalidad necesaria: su metodología no cuenta con garantías sobre el privilegio que se les otorga a las estructuras internas de lo interdisciplinario. Para ello, he desarrollado dos orientaciones que explican ese fenómeno: los abordajes literario y criminológico. (shrink)

Este artículo aborda dos temáticas de la novela La muerte es una vieja historia de Hernán Rivera Letelier: la construcción de la identidad de la mujer pentecostal y el uso de la música tanto en el templo como en la vida de un fiel pentecostal. En el primer apartado abordamos tres aspectos del primer tema relacionados con la mujer pentecostal: la inteligencia social y cognitiva, la corporalidad y sensualidad, y la violencia sexual. En el segundo apartado hacemos referencia a la (...) importancia que tiene la música en los templos y la vida cotidiana de los pentecostales, que en la novela se refleja en las anécdotas y experiencias que se cuentan de la protagonista, la hermana Tegualda. (shrink)

The concept of “magic realism” raises many problems, both theoretical and historical. I first encountered it in the context of American painting in the mid-1950s; at about the same time, Angle Flores published an influential article in which the term was applied to the work of Borges;1 but Alejo Carpentier’s conception of the real maravilloso at once seemed to offer a related or alternative conception, while his own work and that of Miguel Angel Asturias seemed to demand an enlargement (...) of its application.2 Finally, with the novels of Gabriel García Márquez in the 1960s, a whole new realm of magic realism opened up whose exact relations to preceding theory and novelistic practice remained undetermined. These conceptual problems emerge most clearly when one juxtaposes the notion of magic realism with competing or overlapping terms. In the beginning, for instance, it was not clear how it was to be distinguished from that vaster category generally simply called fantastic literature; at this point, what is presumably at issue is a certain type of narrative or representation to be distinguished from realism. Carpentier, however, explicitly staged his version as a more authentic Latin American realization of what in the more reified European context took the form of surrealism: his emphasis would seem to have been on a certain poetic transfiguration of the object world itself—not so much a fantastic narrative, then, as a metamorphosis in perception and in things perceived . In García Márquez, finally, these two tendencies seemed to achieve a new kind of synthesis—a transfigured object world in which fantastic events are also narrated. But at this point, the focus of the conception of magic realism would appear to have shifted to what must be called an anthropological perspective: magic realism now comes to be understood as a kind of narrative raw material derived essentially from peasant society, drawing in sophisticated ways on the world of village or even tribal myth. Recent debates, meanwhile, have complicated all this with yet a different kind of issue: namely, the problem of the political or mystificatory value, respectively, of such texts, many of which we owe to overtly left-wing revolutionary writers .3 In spite of these terminological complexities—which might be grounds for abandoning the concept altogether—it retains a strange seductiveness which I will try to explore further, adding to the confusion with reference points drawn from the work of Jacques Lacan and from Freud’s notion of the “uncanny,” and compounding it by an argument that magic realism is to be grasped as a possible alternative to the narrative logic of contemporary postmodernism.4 1. See Angel Flores, “Magical Realism in Spanish American Fiction,” Hispania 38 : 187-92.2. See Alejo Carpentier, “Prólogo” to his novel El Reino de este mundo ; the most useful survey of the debate remains Roberto Gonzalez Echeverria, “Carpentier y el realism magico,” in Otros Mundos, otros fuegos, ed. Donald Yates, Congreso International de Literature Iberoamericana 16 , pp. 221-31.3. See Angel Rama, La Novel en America Latina , and especially Carlos Blanco Aguinaga, De Mitólogos y novelistas , in particular the discussions of Gabriel García Márques and Alejo Carpentier.4. My own general frame of reference for “postmodernism” is outlined in my “Postmodernism; or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,” New Left Review 146 : 53-92. Frederic Jameson, William A. Lane Professor of Comparative Literature at Duke University, is the author of The Prison-House of Language and The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act. He is also a member of the editorial collective of Social Text. His previous contributions to Critical Inquiry are “The Symbolic Inference; or, Kenneth Burke and Ideological Analysis” and “Ideology and Symbolic Action”. (shrink)

Existentialism, 2/e, offers an exceptional and accessible introduction to the richness and diversity of existentialist thought. Retaining the focus of the highly successful first edition, the second edition provides extensive material on the "big four" existentialists--Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre--while also including selections from twenty-four other authors. Giving readers a sense of the variety of existentialist thought around the world, this edition also adds new readings by such figures as Luis Borges, Viktor Frankl, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Keiji Nishitani, and Rainer (...) Maria Rilke. Existentialism, 2/e, also features: New translations of Kierkegaard, Heidegger, and Buber More extensive selections from Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre New selections by Hazel E. Barnes, Miguel de Unamuno, Joseph Heller, Philip Roth, and Colin Wilson The Grand Inquisitor (from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov) Ideal for undergraduate courses in existentialism and Continental philosophy, Existentialism, 2/e, is fascinating reading for anyone interested in the subject. (shrink)

Philosophers of mathematics commonly distinguish between explanatory and non-explanatory proofs. An important subclass of mathematical proofs are proofs by induction. Are they explanatory? This paper addresses the question, based on general principles about explanation. First, a recent argument for a negative answer is discussed and rebutted. Second, a case is made for a qualified positive take on the issue.

Reseña Richard Shusterman (2021). Ars Erotica: Sex and Somaesthetics in the Classical Arts of Love. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

This article deals with the reception of phenomenology by Xavier Zubiri, one of the most important figures of 20th century Spanish philosophy. During his lifetime Zubiri published few books, but he left an immense legacy of courses and manuscripts. Among the most important published works is the book Naturaleza, Historia, Dios. Zubiri explains there his critical reception of phenomenology: he subscribes to it, insofar as it is a philosophy of things themselves. But this evaluation of phenomenology is at the same (...) time a farewell to her. Zubiri’s philosophical project consists in giving a reason not for things as objects of consciousness, but rather for their entitary or real structure. Thus, his purpose is to establish a logic of reality or new metaphysics that is at the same time different from the old ontology and whose sources of inspiration are Heidegger and Aristotle. To the author of this essay seems also highly probable that Alfred N. Whitehead influenced decisively certain prominent features of Zubiri’s ontological program. Husserl’s treatment of the theory of wholes and parts in Logical Investigations III pertains also to the intellectual basis of Zubiri. The article raises the question of the traces of phenomenology that are still present in Naturaleza, Historia, Dios, and critically assesses their importance for phenomenological philosophy today. The article shows above all how Zubiri’s perspective vindicates phenomenologically the traditional concept of Man and his experience of religious connection (religatio) with a transcendent Grund. As a consequence, the traditional notions of spiritual reality, eros and agape are given a new meaning. (shrink)

The fundamental problem proponents of truth conditional semantics must face is to specify what role a truth theory is supposed to play within a meaning theory. The most detailed proposal for tackling this problem is the account developed by Ernest Lepore and Kirk Ludwig. However, as I will show in this paper, theories along the lines of Lepore and Ludwig do not suffice to put someone into the position to understand the objectlanguage. The fundamental problem of truth conditional semantics thus (...) remains unsolved. (shrink)

In this article, I claim that the Antinomy of pure reason emerges as the result of synthetic activities that require succession. In this regard, I show that cosmological conflicts involve different kinds of representations: cosmological ideas, purely conceptual representations of the unconditioned and the product of non-temporal synthetic activities; and putative complete series of spatiotemporal conditions, which require temporal synthetic activities. As I show, purely conceptual representations cannot produce cosmological conflicts: The Antinomy requires the interaction of reason, understanding, and sensibility. (...) I also discuss the maxim and principle of pure reason, how they lead to the unconditioned, and how the cosmological syllogism produces the Antinomy. (shrink)

This paper follows Derrida’s criticism, in The Voice and the Phenomenon, of Husserl ‘s conception of meaning as ideality and identity. The french author contests the ideality and supratemporality·of meaning, its separation from the meaning conferring act, and defends the inclusion of the following indicative dimensions of the last in the former: 1) the sensible element of the linguistic sign (namely in the ideal form of the word, that is in the expression) 2) the manifestation and communication of the experience (...) or act (in the conscience as such) 3) the sensible and empirical content of experience, be it sensational, perceptive, imaginative or potentially and mediatelly intended (in the meaning itself). He questions, moreover, having asserted its temporal condition, which also derives, nevertheless, from some assertions by Husserl, the possibility of constitution of a «strict» and «true» identity, stating that intuitive presence is unable to form both the total covering between the intended and the fulfilling meaning, and the abstract ideality that would be function of the possibility of an infinite repetition, instead of conditioned by a “finite-infinite” one. Finally, he explains better the relation between the sensible face of sign and the ideality of meaning, the former’s place and role within the differentiation and repetition process. He notes that it is an ‘originary’ lack in thinking and meaning itself that claims for the linguistic sign (‘supplement of origin’), “in succession” for its ideal form and its sensible oral and written elements, without ever reaching any completion (‘ supplementarity’, ‘differe(a)nce’). We also attend the derridean hypothesis of writing as the consummation of the link between ideality and death, the last one being considered as having a special relation to sensibility and difference. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyse how the discourse of CEO letters and other factors influence community involvement and Social Licence to Operate (SLO) in the mining industry. The analysis is based on qualitative information disclosed in sustainability reports and CEO letters from 32 mining firms. Content analysis was undertaken to obtain data for the study, and then a regression analysis and a multiple correspondence analysis were used to test the hypotheses defined in the study. The results indicate that the CEO (...) discourse influences how a firm expresses the importance of gaining its SLO, the philanthropic activities in which companies become involved and the destinations of the investments in the communities in which they operate. The results also show changes in the discourse between 2011 and 2015, which are, in part, explained by the difficult situation experienced by the sector during this period. The paper contributes to the Corporate Social Responsibility literature by integrating different theories from this field into the SLO framework. The analysis carried out and the results obtained are useful for both CEOs and Sustainability Managers, especially in managing their relationships with the communities where they operate or intend to operate. (shrink)

Donald Davidson suggested that, in attempting to give meaning theories, we should proceed via giving truth theories. For the programme of truth-theoretic semantics to be successful, two tasks need to be accomplished. First, it has to be shown that natural languages are actually amendable to truth theoretic treatment. The second task is to show how we can bridge the gap between a truth theory and a genuine meaning theory. This second task is necessitated by the simple fact that truth theories (...) by themselves are too weak to satisfy the central desideratum for a meaning theory. In a recent paper, Greg Ray suggests that the goal of giving meaning theories can easily be achieved, not by supplementing the truth-theoretic apparatus, but by doing away with it altogether. In particular, he proposes that what he calls means-that theories meet all the desiderata on meaning theories, and that ‘anyone with basically Davidsonian commitments must accept the means-that approach as viable and that it has certain evident virtues’. This paper argues that theories along Ray's lines do not satisfy the central desideratum for meaning theories. Ray's belief to the contrary rests on a common misunderstanding of what this desideratum amounts to. As I indicate in the final section of the paper, there perhaps is a way of substantially amending Ray's approach in order to meet the central desideratum. However, in an ironic twist, this will require giving a full-fledged truth theory for the metalanguage, including its intensional constructions like ‘means that’ – precisely the project Ray attempted to avoid. (shrink)

This paper aims to analyse how the discourse of CEO letters and other factors influence community involvement and Social Licence to Operate (SLO) in the mining industry. The analysis is based on qualitative information disclosed in sustainability reports and CEO letters from 32 mining firms. Content analysis was undertaken to obtain data for the study, and then a regression analysis and a multiple correspondence analysis were used to test the hypotheses defined in the study. The results indicate that the CEO (...) discourse influences how a firm expresses the importance of gaining its SLO, the philanthropic activities in which companies become involved and the destinations of the investments in the communities in which they operate. The results also show changes in the discourse between 2011 and 2015, which are, in part, explained by the difficult situation experienced by the sector during this period. The paper contributes to the Corporate Social Responsibility literature by integrating different theories from this field into the SLO framework. The analysis carried out and the results obtained are useful for both CEOs and Sustainability Managers, especially in managing their relationships with the communities where they operate or intend to operate. (shrink)

Identifies immanence as the original impetus and the driving force behind Deleuze's philosophy In 5 chapters dealing with the status of thought itself, ontology, logic, ethics and aesthetics, de Beistegui reveals how immanence is realised in each of these classical domains of philosophy. Ultimately, he argues, immanence is an infinite task, and transcendence the opposition with which philosophy will always need to reckon.

Donald Davidson contributed to the discussion of logical form in two ways. On the one hand, he made several influential suggestions on how to give the logical forms of certain constructions of natural language. His account of adverbial modification and so called action-sentences is nowadays, in some form or other, widely employed in linguistics (Harman (forthcoming) calls it "the standard view"). Davidson's approaches to indirect discourse and quotation, while not as influential, also still attract attention today. On the other hand, (...) Davidson provided a general account of what logical form is. This paper is concerned with this general account. Its foremost aim is to give a faithful and detailed picture of what, according to Davidson, it means to give the logical form of a sentence. The structure of the paper is as follows. (1) I will first informally introduce a notion of logical form as the form that matters in certain kinds of entailments, and indicate why philosophers have taken an interest in such a notion. (2) The second section develops constraints that we should arguably abide by in giving an account of logical form. (3) I then turn to Davidson’s view of what is involved in giving such an account. To this end, I will try to reconstruct Davidson’s view of the connection between an assignment of logical forms, a truth theory and a meaning theory. (4) Finally, I will briefly discuss possible problems of Davidson’s account as developed in this paper. (shrink)

Should we use human germline genome modification only when serious diseases are involved? This belief is the underlying factor in the article written by Kleiderman, Ravitsky and Knoppers to which I now respond. In my opinion, the answer to this question should be negative. In this paper, I attempt to show that there are no good reasons to think that this technology should be limited to serious diseases once it is sufficiently proven to be safe and efficient. In fact, opting (...) otherwise would negatively harm human beings’ right to the highest standard of health that unmodified embryos could promote. Therefore, the issue should not be so much to define adequately what a serious disease is, but rather to elucidate whether this concept should play any role beyond the context of preimplantation genetic testing. This paper argues that we should not accept the similarity between technologies such as PGT and HGGM because they face different challenges and offer totally different possibilities. Therefore, we are in urgent need to build a completely new ethical architecture that covers the application of germline editing in human embryos. As a part of that process, a much deeper debate on the necessity of distinguishing different disease types is required. (shrink)

RESUMEN Se explora la relación entre las dimensiones proposicional y no proposicional de la creencia religiosa para mostrar que la última dirige el proceso de justificación y representa su límite. Se defiende que la no proposicional también tiene valor cognitivo, porque constituye una suerte de elección epistémica preteórica que no es exclusiva de la fe religiosa. Se explora la noción de ambigüedad religiosa, tanto a nivel intelectual como experiencial, y se sostiene que la relación entre la dimensión proposicional y la (...) no-proposicional de la fe está mediada por la función directiva de las presuposiciones metafísicas instauradas por la experiencia religiosa. ABSTRACT The article explores the relation between the propositional and non-propositional dimensions of religious belief in order to show that the latter guides the process of justification and represents its limit. It argues that the non-propositional dimension also has cognitive value because it constitutes a sort of pre-theoretical epistemic election that does not pertain exclusively to religious faith. The article also delves into the notion of religious ambiguity, both in its intellectual and experiential interpretations, and argues that the relationship between the propositional and the non-propositional dimensions of faith is mediated by the guiding role of the metaphysical presuppositions established by religious experience. (shrink)

En el Canto V del Infierno, uno de los pasajes más universalmente conocidos de la Divina Comedia, Dante sugiere la fuerza corruptora de la literatura, desencadenante del adulterio de Paolo y Francesca. Este esquema en que lo literario se convierte en motivo de perdición, reaparece en casos tan conocidos como el de Don Quijote y otros menos conocidos como el dickensiano Nicodemus Boffin de Nuestro común amigo. Estos escritores dejan traslucir en sus obras sus inquietudes respecto a una influencia que (...) simultáneamente buscan y temen sobre los lectores. Sus «libros dentro de los libros» pueden ser interpretados como una vacuna con la que el escritor quiere proveer al lector de las herramientas para protegerse de los efectos perversos de una literatura recibida en clave romántica. Proponemos, siguiendo especialmente a Renato Poggioli, John Freccero o René Girard, una interpretación antirromántica que subraya la actualidad de la arquitectura moral de la Divina Comedia y su ascendencia sobre varios clásicos de la literatura moderna posterior. (shrink)

Many Christian thinkers have embraced the notion “art for art’s sake.” Chesterton did not. To the contrary, he saw such an idea as deeply problematic for a Christian aesthetic. In the following article, I will explore some philosophical aspects of the “art for art’s sake” movement and then explain why Chesterton parted company with it.

En la Ciencia de la lógica, Hegel toma distancia del sistema axiomático por diversas razones. En el presente trabajo, me propongo estudiar dichas razones y evaluar qué podemos aprender sobre la Lógica en función de esta discusión con la axiomática. Mostraré que Hegel toma distancia de la axiomática por (1) el carácter relativo de sus axiomas; (2) el carácter unidireccional de su inferencia; (3) el carácter limitado de la forma judicativa; (4) la arbitrariedad de sus definiciones y la suposición de (...) la dicotomía forma y contenido. Todo esto mostrará la inadecuación del método axiomático para la Lógica y revelará que la autoindagación de la razón exige suponer un condicionamiento multidireccional que evite el regreso al infinito y que permita pensar lo absoluto bajo una dinámica no lineal; además se advertirá la necesidad de recurrir a la forma del silogismo así como admitir una codeterminación de forma y contenido. (shrink)

(2005). Science and Ontology. Angelaki: Vol. 10, continental philosophy and the sciences the french tradition issue editor: andrew aitken, pp. 109-122.

En los escenarios universitarios cada vez resulta menos extraño toparse con investigaciones que indagan por la escritura filosófica proveniente de centros no hegemónicos de producción de conocimiento. Nosotros, que hemos tenido la oportunidad de acercarnos al pasado del ejercicio de la filosofía en el actual territorio colombiano, quisimos hacer una convocatoria pública de escritos dedicados a identificar temas, preguntas y formas en que la variopinta comunidad de la filosofía local está escribiendo su propia historia.

How to transcend the conceptual walls of war? How to bring together former enemies? This paper looks at Victus, a theatre group in which victims and former combatants of different armed groups in Colombia (guerrilla, paramilitary, army) united in and off the stage, in a reconciliation process mediated through art. It will sustain that this configures a sort of micro-“laboratory” of reconciliation: a common space of interaction that has allowed different actors to transcend the borders of armed conflict, to humanize (...) the “other”, and to generate multiple processes of transformation and peacebuilding, which, despite being imperfect, are meaningful. (shrink)