In this essay we argue for the Janus-faced nature of hope. We show that attempts to sanitise the concept of hope either by separating it conceptually from other phenomena such as wishful thinking, or, more generally, by seeking to minimise the negative aspects of hope, do not help us to understand the nature of hope and its functions as regards religion. Drawing on functional accounts of religion from Clifford Geertz and Tamas Pataki, who both—in their different ways—see the function of (...) religion in terms of its capacity to satisfy deep psychological needs, we demonstrate that religion uniquely positions itself with regard to hope’s two faces, simultaneously exploiting positive and negative aspects of hope. (shrink)

El objetivo de esta investigación es presentar una propuesta para reivindicar el cuerpo retomando las reflexiones filosóficas sobre la técnica de José Ortega y Gasset. Si bien el filósofo español no lo abordó dentro de su quehacer filosófico, es relevante ponerlo a dialogar con debates contemporáneos sobre tecnología para ver si hay alguna respuesta novedosa que se pueda obtener. La propuesta esbozada en esta investigación se sitúa en el marco del debate entre transhumanistas y bioconservadores al respecto de las tecnologías (...) que descorporizan, tomando como ejemplos principales el mind-uploading y la realidad virtual. De igual manera, ubica al cuerpo dentro del giro que trajo consigo el surgimiento y desarrollo de la cibernética. Para llevar a cabo tal reivindicación, propongo el argumento del proyecto vital —retomando terminología orteguiana— para sostener la tesis de que la realización tecnológica de las fantasías sobre el cuerpo no sólo depende del acceso a los materiales, sino del proyecto vital de una determinada época. Es así como, a través de uno de los autores canónicos de la filosofía de la tecnología, se puede repensar la importancia del cuerpo dentro del desarrollo e impacto de la tecnología contemporánea, así como poner a dialogar su propuesta con proyectos contemporáneos como el transhumanismo. Esto último con la intención de proporcionar otra lectura a problemas que son de interés para el debate entre transhumanistas y bioconservadores. -/- This research paper aims to present a proposal for reclaiming the body using José Ortega y Gasset’s philosophical reflections on technique. Although the Spanish philosopher does not address this issue directly in his philosophical work, it is relevant to establish a dialogue between these ideas and current discussions on technology. This paper’s proposal is situated within the framework of the debate between transhumanists and bioconservatives regarding technologies that “disembody”, such as mind-uploading and virtual reality. Likewise, this paper places the body in the context of the emergence and development of cybernetics. To support such a claim, I use the concept of the vital project taken from Orteguian terminology- to argue that the technological realization of fantasies about the body does not only depend on the access to materials, but also on the vital project of a given era. Thus, through the work of one of the main authors of the philosophy of technology, it is possible to rethink the importance of the body in the development and impact of contemporary technology and connect this proposal to contemporary projects such as transhumanism,. (shrink)

El objetivo del presente artículo es problematizar conceptualmente la instrucción y la educación a partir del análisis filosófico de tres ideales subjetivos fundamentales dentro de la educación femenina en México: la monja, la madre y la maestra. El análisis se desarrolla a través del método genealógico foucaultiano y del concepto de interseccionalidad entre raza, clase, género y sexualidad de María Lugones. Se propone introducir la instrucción como categoría inseparable de la raza, la clase, el género y la sexualidad, para entender (...) la construcción de los ideales subjetivos de una sociedad con necesidades e intereses específicos. (shrink)

By definition, pain is a sensory and emotional experience that is felt in a particular part of the body. The precise relationship between somatic events at the site where pain is experienced, and central processing giving rise to the mental experience of pain remains the subject of debate, but there is little disagreement in scholarly circles that both aspects of pain are critical to its experience. Recent experimental work, however, suggests a public view that is at odds with this conceptualisation. (...) By demonstrating that the public does not necessarily endorse central tenets of the “mental” view of pain (subjectivity, privacy, and incorrigibility), experimental philosophers have argued that the public holds a more “body-centric” view than most clinicians and scholars. Such a discrepancy would have important implications for how the public interacts with pain science and clinical care. In response, we tested the hypothesis that the public is capable of a more “mind-centric” view of pain. Using a series of vignettes, we demonstrate that in situations which highlight mental aspects of pain the public can, and does, recognize pain as a mental phenomenon. We also demonstrate that the public view is subject to context effects, by showing that the public’s view is modified when situations emphasizing mental and somatic aspects of pain are presented together. (shrink)

With increasing publication and data production, scientific knowledge presents not simply an achievement but also a challenge. Scientific publications and data are increasingly treated as resources that need to be digitally ‘managed.’ This gives rise to scientific Knowledge Management : second-order scientific work aiming to systematically collect, take care of and mobilise first-hand disciplinary knowledge and data in order to provide new first-order scientific knowledge. We follow the work of Leonelli, Efstathiou and Hislop in our analysis of the use of (...) KM in semantic systems biology. Through an empirical philosophical account of KM-enabled biological research, we argue that KM helps produce new first-order biological knowledge that did not exist before, and which could not have been produced by traditional means. KM work is enabled by conceiving of ‘knowledge’ as an object for computational science: as explicated in the text of biological articles and computable via appropriate data and metadata. However, these founded knowledge concepts enabling computational KM risk focusing on only computationally tractable data as knowledge, underestimating practice-based knowing and its significance in ensuring the validity of ‘manageable’ knowledge as knowledge. (shrink)

In this paper, I delve into the methodologies employed by scholars such as Otto Schrader, Krishna Belvalkar, Franklin Edgerton, and Vishwa Adluri to substantiate the potential existence of a Kashmiri recension of the Bhagavad Gita through the application of the lectio principle. The lectio difficilior, or "harder reading," posits that a more complex and challenging reading in a text is likely to be the older and superior one, as scribes tend to simplify intricate passages into more straightforward forms, known (...) as the lectio facilior, in later versions of a text. The lectio principle prominently shapes the discourse of these scholars regarding the plausibility of a Kashmiri recension of the Bhagavad Gita. (shrink)

Like any social science, management and organization sits astride two literary and epistemic disciplines; the empirical and the conceptual. I argue that emphasizing the former to the detriment of the latter, as is often the case in management and organization research, creates a conceptual blindness that compromises progress in the field. I show how adopting a more philosophically attuned methodology buttresses the conceptual tools of management and organization research via deduction, induction, normative grounding, and overcoming the illusion of unanimity.

Few commentators (if any) would question Schrader's poignant obser­vation that 'the doctrine of the thing in itself presents the single greatest stumbling block in the Kantian philosophy' [S5:49]. Understanding what Kant meant by the doctrine i.e., the role it plays both in his overall System and in his transcendental idealism can help prevent it from being discarded 'as a per­versity' [49], inasmuch as it can be interpreted in such a way that it makes quite good sense [see VI.2]. Yet (...) even the most coherent interpretation could not prevent the philosopher who demands knowledge from 'stumbling' over it; for, accord­ing to Kant, the thing in itself is by definition unknow­able. In V.3 we saw, however, that there is one alternative to faith as the ultimate jus­tification for its employment which, if successful, would satisfy even the most persistent skeptic: viz., to justify the thing in itself by constructing a valid transcendental argument for the necessity of its existence. Since any ap­peal to faith would thereby be rendered superflu­ous, we must now examine more carefully the possibility of realizing this goal. For, although Kant him­self did not believe he required such a transcendental argu­ment, it may be pos­sible to reconstruct his System on the basis of a slightly different presup­posi­tion, such as that the thing in itself can, in fact, be proved to exist and to have certain knowable characteristics. Hence, in this Appendix I shall analyze the logical consistency of an affirmative answer to the meta­critical question: Is the thing in itself knowable? Our answer to this question will inevitably determine to a large extent how we should approach the task of interpreting the elements of Kant's Critical philosophy (as in Part Three), so it is important to deal with it seriously. (shrink)