Evolution and Story: Beyond Neo-Darwinism and Intelligent Design This article analyses evolution from a philosophical perspective, contrasting the problems raised by both Neo-Darwinism and Intelligent Design theory. First, I discuss some of the problems that Synthetic theory presents from a scientific point of view, as well as the philosophical problems involved in the Neo-Darwinism of Dawkins, Dennett, Monod and Ruse. I argue that Neo-Darwinism, although presented as a scientific doctrine, is in fact fundamentally philosophical, and presents some important problems that (...) make it difficult to believe. On the other hand, I discuss the scope of intelligent design as a philosophical stance on the evolution of living beings, showing its problems. Finally, I propose a credible philosophical account of evolution that seeks to go beyond a scientific reading of the data of experience. (shrink)

Mariano Artigas and the relationship of philosophy to fundamental theology. Evocation and debate: The first point of the paper evoques the autor’s personal relation with Prof. Mariano Artigas. Draw the convergent and divergent lines of thought between them. The second point summarizes the main thesis of the book The unexplained conciousness, debates with proyects of naturalization of conciousness and studies the alternatives offered by aristotelian and cartesian philosophies in order to clarify the concept.

The practice of theoretical research in chemistry largely consists in the construction of models without which experimentation would be impossible. The best-known theoretical models in chemistry are those of the molecular structures of chemical compounds. What is the correspondence between these models and the unobservable entities that they are meant to explain? What is the ontological status of molecular models? The anti-realists question the basis of the realists’ belief in these entities and the truth claims regarding them. Ultimately, the realist/anti-realist (...) debate points to the question of the scope of scientific knowledge. In this paper, I shall show that the description of natural entities offered by the contemporary scientific worldview reveals that molecular modeling presupposes a realistic epistemology that recognizes the limits of scientific objectification. (shrink)

Realism and scientific rationality: A journey from logic to ethics Mariano Artigas’s relationship with the work and person of Karl Popper went through three phases. The first one ends with Artigas’s book entitled Karl Popper: búsqueda sin término. Artigas found in Popper a powerful source of inspiration. But he also stated several discrepancies with Popper, especially in regard to the thesis of the conjectural nature of knowledge. However, Artigas saw the possibility of a fruitful dialogue with Popper. The second phase (...) begins with the correspondence between Artigas and Popper, and culminates with the publication by Artigas of a book entitled El desafío de la racionalidad. Here, some affinities and differences appear in regard to the theory of rationality of both authors. The third phase was opened precisely in 1994, with the reading by Artigas of several Popperians hitherto unpublished texts. These texts revealed themselves crucial to the understanding of the Popper’s position on the problem of rationality. It became clear that the Popperian idea of critical rationality has its support and inspiration more in the field of ethics than in the domain of logic. This finding left open a path of greater proximity and sympathy between them, as it is stated in Artigas’ book Lógica y ética en Karl Popper ; a path that, for biographical reasons, they were unable to travel together, but that represents a challenging invitation for today’s philosophers. (shrink)

The debate between science and Christianity about the origin of man in the thought of Mariano Artigas: One of the main intelectual concerns of Professor Artigas was to make clear the relationships between science and faith in bordering fields such as the nature and the origin of mankind. At this point, there are some researchers who have seen in science the intelectual basement of nowadays unbelief, the legitimous basement of modern atheism, which would find support in the objectivity of the (...) scientific knowledge; especially the evolution theory, which would have been useful, from Darwin’s times, to prove that it was legitimate intelectually speaking to be an atheist. I mean, science would have made useless the hypothesis of the existence of God. Artigas dedicated a lot of extensive essays to refute this modern affirmation, explaining how the terms of evolution and creation are not opposite, and how the existence of chance in nature doesn´t deny the theology through the action of a divine plan, in a way that there’s no contradiction in reassure a biological origin for mankind with the existence of espiritual faculties which lead to transcendency. Once reported the ideologic manipulation of the theory of evolution for spurious objectives, Artigas deals with the same honesty and braveness the complicated questions of monogenism and poligenism. Our brief article presents a concise review on the development of all these questions based on his thoughts. (shrink)

: The change of territory from religion to spirituality in our secular societies has given rise to the so-called naturalized spirituality within the naturalist tradition. We critically discuss O.W. Flanagan and S. Harris’ proposals and the contemporary naturalist ethos in which they appear.

Este artículo hace una aproximación teórica de la relación existente entre filosofía, ciencia y religión dentro del devenir de la historia de la humanidad y la cultura postmoderna. Mediante una investigación de teoría fundamentada contenida en los textos Supuestos e implicaciones del progreso científico del filósofo español Mariano Artigas, así como Pensar la ciencia y La influencia de las concepciones filosóficas en las teorías científicas del historiador ruso Alexandre Koyré, se expone la idea de que un triángulo armónico entre Dios, (...) filosofía y ciencia no solo es compatible con el devenir de los avances científicos contemporáneos, sino que también es necesario para restablecer una etapa histórica que podríamos denominar nuevo renacimiento, vinculado, tal como dijera Artigas, a tres componentes altamente simbióticos entre sí: dimensión espiritual de la vida humana, la búsqueda objetiva de la verdad y la existencia de valores éticos al servicio de la humanidad. (shrink)

This paper presents some schematically steps which Mariano Artigas thinks are necessary for building strong bridges between science and theology: First, the philosophical nature of these bridges is identified. Second, the paper highlights the compromise with some form of scientific realism as an essential commitment for this bridge-building. Third, some proposals which Artigas consideres unsuitable to serve as bridges between science and theology are mentioned, and finally some aspects he believes that can actually serve to build those bridges are pointed.

The argument from design and Aquinas’ fifth way: In scientific literature it is common to make equivalence between the so-called argument from design and the fifth way of Thomas Aquinas. It is commonly assumed that both demonstrations for the existence of God are based on the concept of finality to proof the need for an intelligent being capable of causing order in nature. However, we think that the differences between the two arguments have great significance: each of them have as (...) starting point a different type of order, are based on a different kind of finality, and the way in which they use the principle of causality is also different. We believe that such differences permit us to say that the two arguments are not at all comparable and may even be seen as opposite arguments. (shrink)

This article is a philosophical elucidation about the concept of nature in relation to man. The question is not idle: is there something such as nature, or is it only a way of stringing together everything that is not man-made? Given that the ethical, political and instrumental dimension that will be adopted depends on the way in which this concept is constructed. The concept of life is also analyzed. It is concluded that the solutions for biosphere sustainability must be radical (...) and that there is no need to depend on the ghost of our disappearance as a species to make definitive and long-term decisions. (shrink)