The complex world of thought and sensitivity in the sphere of contemporary art has entailed the revision and exclusion of disciplines aimed at providing a model to explain and conceptualize reality. Art history, as one such discipline, has had many of its contributions questioned from Gombrich’s epistemological reformulation to the postmodern discourses, which extol the death of the author, the post-structuralist idea of tradition as a textual phenomenon, and the declaration of the death of history as a consequence of the (...) hybridization of disciplines and of other bran- ches of human knowledge. Nevertheless, it can be demonstrated that proposals as those by Julius von Schlosser and Giulio Carlo Argan enclose reflections and methodological aspects which can help us face the task of understanding and visualizing the mediating role of historians in the culture of sensitivity, and the art modulations that have resulted from the blows of history and that, in turn, have shaped both art and art history into what they are or can be to us today. (shrink)

Si no me falla la memoria, fue el dibujante Álvaro Barrios quien afirmó que el trabajo del artista contemporáneo colombiano se desarrolla según una agenda de trabajo. Si miramos algunos fenómenos del arte último en Colombia, podemos señalar que su agenda está determinada por el intento de comprensión de los procesos de la violencia en el país, a partir de una amplia gama de aproximaciones al concepto de memoria que ha tenido resonancia en las disciplinas humanísticas, las investigaciones académicas, el (...) uso político del concepto por parte de la legislación estatal, y una gran diversidad de eventos artísticos. Desde el ámbito del arte, exposiciones como Destierro y reparación (2008), Tapices de Mampuján (2010), La guerra que no hemos visto (2009) o La piel de la memoria (2011), han discutido sobre la violencia en Colombia desde la aproximación a los procesos de comprensión de la memoria y nuestro pasado reciente. Así, la imbricación de violencia y memoria se manifiesta en la visión del pasado y en los efectos que este puede desplegar sobre el presente, en tanto se ha considerado, incluso, a la memoria como una instancia de reconciliación social. (shrink)

Desde Platón el arte ha sido deslegitimado filosóficamente porque su elemento y su medio es la apariencia. De tal manera que, el ser y la verdad, según la antigua teoría, se encuentran en las ideas y no en las apariencias sensibles. Hegel está lejos de este platonismo en sus Lecciones sobre estética y, por el contrario, va a realizar una reivindicación de la apariencia en el arte. El interés de este artículo es indagar por la distinción entre apariencia que engaña, (...) vinculada al no–ser, y la apariencia necesaria de las obras de arte que, para Hegel, es la apariencia de la esencia. El artículo aprovecha tanto la oposición planteada por Hegel entre belleza natural–belleza espiritual, como el modo de ser del arte como ideal, para indicar que es la apariencia del arte una de las formas donde el espíritu se hace concreción, donde revela su conciencia activa, pensante, y puede manifestar sensiblemente las determinaciones e intereses más altos para su cultura. (shrink)

En medio de tanta charla irresponsable que inunda los diversos medios de comunicación y las tribunas gubernamentales sobre la educación, en el que se figura la viabilidad del país desde lo económico y no desde lo civilizado, recordé las “uvas verdes”, esa referencia que Gombrich utilizó en una de sus tantas conferencias sobre las humanidades. La fábula de Esopo da qué pensar sobre la valoración de las humanidades en la malla de las instituciones de educación superior. Los juicios despreciables que (...) aparecen bajo la forma de la innovación, a partir de indicadores y criterios de examinabilidad que promueve el gobierno, los ministerios y Colciencias, son solo una muestra de cómo esa charla fácil pretende circunscribir a las humanidades en el nuevo paraíso medible del ámbito académico. (shrink)

American writer William Carlos Williams (1883-1963 studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Following the completion of his fellowships, he traveled to Germany to specialize in pediatrics. Upon returning to America, he established an independent medical practice. The experiences Williams acquired through his medical career provided a valuable source for his literary work, which focused on ordinary people and everyday situations. Williams endeavored to create a form of literature that accurately represented the American experience and he innovatively utilized vernacular language. (...) His literary output encompassed poetry, short stories, novels, essays, and plays, though he is primarily recognized as a poet. Among his significant works are Kora in Hell (1920), Spring and All (1923), Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962), the five-volume Paterson (1963, 1992), and Imaginations (1970). 'The Use of Force,' presented in translation here, originally appeared in the short story collection Life along the Passaic River. -/- [In Dutch: De Amerikaanse schrijver William Carlos Williams (1883-1963) studeerde geneeskunde aan de Universiteit van Pennsylvania. Na zijn coschappen ging hij naar Duitsland om zich in de kindergeneeskunde te specialiseren. Eenmaal terug in Amerika vestigde hij zich als zelfstandig arts. De ervaringen die Williams in zijn artsenpraktijk opdeed, vormden een dankbare bron voor zijn literaire werk waarin gewone mensen en alledaagse situaties centraal staan. Williams streefde naar een vorm van literatuur die recht deed aan de Amerikaanse ervaring en maakte op inventieve wijze gebruik van de taal van de straat. Hij schreef gedichten, verhalen, romans, essays en toneelstukken, maar staat voornamelijk bekend als dichter. Tot zijn belangrijkste werken horen Kora in Hell (1920), Spring and All (1923), Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962), het vijfdelige Paterson (1963, 1992) en Imaginations (1970). 'Het gebruik van geweld' ('The Use of Force'), dat hier is afgedrukt, komt oorspronkelijk uil de verhalenbundel Life along the Passaic River.]. (shrink)

Animal ethics has reached a new phase with the development of animal ethical thinking. Topics and problems previously discussed in terms of moral theories and ethical concepts are now being reformulated in terms of political theory and political action. This constitutes a paradigm shift for Animal Ethics. It indicates the transition from a field focused on relations between individuals (humans and animals) to a new viewpoint that incorporates the political dimensions of the relationships between human communities and non-human animals. Animals (...) are no longer seen as a heterogeneous group of sentient beings or simply as species, but as part of a common good that is simultaneously human and animal. In order to participate in this new phase, bioethics will have to face a series of challenges that have hindered the integration of animal ethics within its field. It will also need the development of a new theoretical framework based on relations between communities of individuals. This framework will be able to highlight the ethical and political dimensions that arise from interactions between human communities, non-human animals and the ecosystem. (shrink)

In this article I will begin by discussing recent criticism, by Mauro Antonelli and Werner Sauer, of the ontological interpretation of Franz Brentano’s concept of intentionality, as formulated by i.a. Roderick Chisholm. I will then outline some apparent inconsistencies of the positions advocated by Antonelli and Sauer with Brentano’s formulations of his theory in several works and lectures. This new evaluation of (unpublished) sources will then lead to a sketch of a new approach to Brentano’s theory of intentionality. Specifically, it (...) will be argued that the notion of “intentional object” is inherently and un- avoidably ambiguous in every act of external perception, due to the fact that we can only have improper intentions directed at the external world. (shrink)

Nossa meta é caracterizar alguns aspectos da metodologia científica utilizada por Aristóteles em algumas passagens dos dois primeiros livros do Sobre o Céu e averiguar quais são os principais recursos a que Aristóteles recorre para descobrir os princípios de sua astronomia e para coletar os dados iniciais astronômicos relevantes. Procuraremos mostrar que, para Aristóteles, embora escassos e imprecisos, os dados observacionais ainda têm preferência em relação aos endoxa astronômicos, o que não impede, porém, o emprego de alguns testes dialéticos para (...) o estabelecimento do conhecimento preliminar relevante para a astronomia. (shrink)

This paper explores various notions of aesthetic affordance recently developed through embodied, situated and enactive approaches to aesthetic experience by Maria Brincker and Shaun Gallagher, and the similarities and differences between them and the idea of affective affordance put forward by Joel Krueger and Giovanna Colombetti. This discussion is a way to try to offer some answers to the question of what aesthetic affordances particularly afford compared to affective affordances. I will focus on the affordances that we perceive during various (...) aesthetic experiences in which we find ourselves more moved by the object, event or person(s) causing the experience than we had anticipated. I will argue that these experiences emerge as opportunities to carry out an active exploration of aspects of the narrative self that we feel is related to features of the experience; and that one particular brain network likely to be involved in these experiences – i.e. the default network – might help us to understand how these experiences meaningfully change our relationship with ourselves and with the social context of which we are a part. (shrink)

The authors reflect on the conceptual slippage of the Baroque from the philosophy and history of Latin American art. They appreciate the use and appropriation of its formal and aesthetic strategies in some artists of contemporary art, from which we can think about the current historical processes of the region. -/- Keywords: Latin American Baroque, Contemporary art, appropriation, theatricalization, philosophy and art history.

Comunicación realizada el 10 de abril de 2024, en la Universitat Abat Oliba CEU (Barcelona), en el marco de la jornada «Una visión actual del pensamiento de Jaime Balmes», organizada por el Centro de Estudios, Formación y Análisis Social (CEU-CEFAS).

Many moral philosophers have criticized intensive animal farming because it can be harmful to the environment, it causes pain and misery to a large number of animals, and furthermore eating meat and animal-based products can be unhealthful. The issue of industrially farmed animals has become one of the most pressing ethical questions of our time. On the one hand, utilitarians have argued that we should become vegetarians or vegans because the practices of raising animals for food are immoral since they (...) minimize the overall happiness. Deontologists, on the other hand, have argued that the practices of raising animals for food are immoral because animals have certain rights and we have duties toward them. Some virtue ethicists remain unconvinced of deontic and consequentialist arguments against the exploitation of animals and suggest that a virtue-based approach is better equipped to show what is immoral about raising and using animals for food, and what is virtuous about ethical veganism. (shrink)

The philosophical conception of mechanistic explanation is grounded on a limited number of canonical examples. These examples provide an overly narrow view of contemporary scientific practice, because they do not reflect the extent to which the heuristic strategies and descriptive practices that contribute to mechanistic explanation have evolved beyond the well-known methods of decomposition, localization, and pictorial representation. Recent examples from evolutionary robotics and network approaches to biology and neuroscience demonstrate the increasingly important role played by computer simulations and mathematical (...) representations in the epistemic practices of mechanism discovery and mechanism description. These examples also indicate that the scope of mechanistic explanation must be re-examined: With new and increasingly powerful methods of discovery and description comes the possibility of describing mechanisms far more complex than traditionally assumed. (shrink)

This article explores the influence of Simmel and Pareto on the social theory of J. Freund (1921-1993). Recognized as an interpreter and promoter of the sociology of both authors in the French academic context of the last third of the past century, both play a fundamental role in the construction of his social philosophy, a central part of which is his theory of essences, developed especially in L’essence du politique (1965). However, this influence has not been yet sufficiently studied. This (...) article proposes a preliminary approach, highlighting the presence of both authors in the definition of what I will be described here as Freundian “dialectical interactionism”, his methodological perspective for the study of dynamics and social equilibrium. (shrink)

The frame problem, a long-standing issue in Artificial Intelligence (AI), revolves around determining the relevance of information in an ever-changing array of contexts, posing a formidable challenge in modeling human reasoning. The purpose of this paper is to explore the hypothesis that emotions are able to solve, or at least enable a substantial step towards a solution. I argue that, while emotions are integral to cognitive processes, they do not offer a solution to the frame problem, nor can they play (...) a significant role in a solution. In the course of the argument, I’ll show why some previous claims that emotions could be helpful towards a solution rely on a problematic analysis of what the frame problem is. Ultimately, the conclusion is that no context-dependent feature can play a non-trivial role in solutions to the frame problem, and that is the case of emotions. (shrink)

Autores como Lukács o Adorno, por solo mencionar algunos nombres del siglo XX, han visto en el ensayo uno de los géneros literarios fundamentales para la expresión y exposición de ideas, con el bemol de que el ensayo siempre está en conflicto con otras plataformas de conocimiento, como las del orden establecido por la institución y la academia. Desde una postura compartida, el ensayista y crítico Efrén Giraldo se ha preocupado por la reinvindicación del ensayo literario, como una fuente de (...) figuración de la realidad, en el ámbito intelectual colombiano. (shrink)

Some metaphysicians believe that metaphysical modality is explainable by the essences of objects. In §II, I spell out the definitional view of essence, and in §III, a working notion of metaphysical explanation. Then, in §IV, I consider and reject five natural ways to explain necessity by essence: in terms of the principle that essential properties can't change, in terms of the supposed obviousness of the necessity of essential truth, in terms of the logical necessity of definitions, in terms of Fine's (...) logic of essence, and in terms of the theory of real definitions. I will conclude that the present evidence favours rejecting the hypothesis that modality is explainable by essence. (shrink)

This article presents what I call the Central Normative Proposal of Luis Villoro. This proposal is based on an interpretation of the principle of non-exclusion in ethics and epistemology. The core argument of the paper is based on a linguistic analogy that demonstrates the importance of reasonable communication for non-exclusion in epistemology, which is assumed in various theses of Villoro. A consequence of this analogy for non-exclusion in ethics is that Villoro defends basing what is reasonable on the concrete possibilities (...) of mutual understanding, starting with asymmetries and injustices that are obfuscated or eliminated in a contractualist analysis, or one that begins with strictly egalitarian principles. This criticism is compatible with egalitarian views, but it assumes a radically different point of departure. Although various theses by Villoro are compatible with egalitarian notions, given this point of departure based on asymmetries of power his proposal should be understood based on our cognitive capacities to understand and appreciate such asymmetries. For this reason, the paper concludes with an analysis of the notion of reasonableness, which under my interpretation Villoro defines in terms of our capacities for attention, that are not reducible to beliefs or systems of beliefs. In this way, the Central Normative Proposal of Villoro depends on the convergence between truth and the dignity of the members of communities in which as matter-of-fact asymmetries exist and must be eliminated through concrete communicative efforts. (shrink)

One challenge faced by aesthetics is the development of an account able to trace out the continuities and discontinuities between general experience and aesthetic experiences. Regarding this issue, in this paper, I present an enactive model of some raw cognitive dynamics that might drive the progressive emergence of aesthetic experiences from the stream of general experience. The framework is based on specific aspects of John Dewey’s pragmatist philosophy and embodied aesthetic theories, while also taking into account research in ecological psychology, (...) cognitive sciences, and dynamic systems theory. The model focuses on dynamically relevant nodes at the pre-reflective and the reflective side of experience that would work as nested rhythmic constraints at different cognitive timescales with the potential to shunt experiences toward the aesthetic in everyday situations. My proposal constitutes a way to explore aesthetic experiences from an enactive perspective that regards them as transformative events in which cognitive processes entrain and are entrained by changes taking place in the environment, the brain, and the body. (shrink)

Evolutionary adaptation has been suggested as the hallmark of life that best accounts for life’s creativity. However, current evolutionary approaches still fail to give an adequate account of it, even if they are able to explain both the origin of novelties and the proliferation of certain traits in a population. Although modern-synthesis Darwinism is today usually appraised as too narrow a position to cope with all the complexities of developmental and structural biology—not to say biosemiotic phenomena—, Darwinism need not be (...) if we separate metaphor from reality in natural selection in order to show the axiological complexity of this concept. This can shed light on the relationship between biosemiotics and biological evolution. (shrink)

Many pragmatist and non-representational approaches to cognition, such as the enactivist, have focused on the relations between actions, affectivity, and habits from an intersubjective perspective. For those adopting such approaches, all these aspects are inextricably connected; however, many questions remain open regarding the dynamics by which they unfold and shape each other over time. This paper addresses a specific topic that has not received much attention: the impact on future behavior of not fulfilling possibilities for social interaction even though their (...) fulfillment is desirable within a given context. Inspired by Gibson’s theory of affordances and Dewey’s account of habits, these situations will be characterized as events where an agent does not act upon an inviting affordance for social interaction due to a conflict which he or she experiences between given concerns, needs, and social norms. This conflict leads to a sense of unfulfillment that may eventually bring about a crisis and revision of habits. Through specific examples, this work presents the potential impact of the connection between affordances, habits, and affectivity on everyday situations. It therefore represents an exploration of the common ground between pragmatism and enactivism and an attempt to contribute to a process-based approach to social interaction. (shrink)

Julien Freund's political theory, particularly known for his 1965 opus magnum "L'essence du politique", rests on epistemological and philosophical foundations that he himself condensed into his "theory of essence." Although he first applied this theoretical model to politics, he conceived it as a tool for the global analysis of social phenomena from an onto-phenomenological and, in this same sense, anthropological perspective. However, there has not yet been a complete exposition of this theory, to which we now aim to dedicate a (...) first systematic study, focusing especially on two problems: the historical context in which the theory was forged and its general epistemological intent, which can only be adequately understood in its original metaphysical significance. (shrink)

Kant’s argument against suicide is widely dismissed by scholars and often avoided by teachers because it is deemed inconsistent with Kant’s moral philosophy. This paper attempts to show a way to make sense of Kant’s injunction against suicide that is consistent with his moral system. One of the strategies adopted in order to accomplish my goal is a de-secularization of Kant’s ethics. I argue that all actions of self-killing (or suicide) are morally impermissible because they are inconsistent with God’s established (...) nature and order. It is argued that the existence of God as the locus of moral value and duty in Kant’s moral system, and not belief in God, can explain the consistency of Kant’s injunction against suicide. A synergistic view is offered, which rests on three arguments: First, suicide goes against God’s authority. Second, suicide is inconsistent with our self-perpetuating nature. Third, suicide goes against the rational will. (shrink)

This is the introduction to the special issue of Crítica on the metaphysics of physics, featuring papers by Valia Allori, Tim Maudlin and Gustavo Esteban Romero.

The Whorfian hypothesis has received support from recent findings in psychology, linguistics, and anthropology. This evidence has been interpreted as supporting the view that language modulates all stages of perception and cognition, in accordance with Whorf’s original proposal. In light of a much broader body of evidence on time perception, I propose to evaluate these findings with respect to their scope. When assessed collectively, the entire body of evidence on time perception shows that the Whorfian hypothesis has a limited scope (...) and that it does not affect early stages of time perception. In particular, all the available evidence shows that the scope of language modulation is limited in the case of time perception, and that the most important mechanisms for time perception are cognitive clocks and simultaneity windows, which we use to perceive the temporal properties of events. Language modulation has distorting effects, but only at later stages of processing or with respect to specific categorization tasks. The paper explains what is the role of these effects in the context of all the available evidence on time cognition and perception. (shrink)

Franz Brentano is not usually associated with mathematics. Generally, only Brentano’s discussion of the continuum and his critique of the mathematical accounts of it is treated in the literature. It is this detailed critique which suggests that Brentano had more than a superficial familiarity with mathematics. Indeed, considering the authors and works quoted in his lectures, Brentano appears well-informed and quite interested in the mathematical research of his time. I specifically address his lectures here as there is much less to (...) be found about mathematics in his published works. Besides Brentano’s own work, it is quite remarkable to see that practically all of his better-known students sooner or later produced a work on the philosophy of mathematics. This also encourages the supposition not just of a common interest in the matter, but of a common theoretical core. All this prompts the question: Can we speak of a Brentanist philosophy of mathematics? (shrink)

The evolution of language represents one of the main complex systems investigated by different scientific domains and philosophy. The phylogeny of the trait is analyzable from different perspectives, which make evident its weaved and multilayered nature. In the present essay it is presented the dialogue between some researchers from different disciplines who propose original views regarding the analysis of the evolutionary perspective, in an inclusive and hybrid horizon. Secondly, it is exposed the theoretical frontier which identifies in language not only (...) a decisive feature in social contexts, but also an environment itself. (shrink)

According to the Principle of Alternative Possibilities, an agent is morally responsible for an action of hers only if she could have done otherwise. The notion of a robust alternative plays a prominent role in recent attacks on PAP based on so-called Frankfurt cases. In this paper I defend the truth of PAP for blameworthy actions against Frankfurt cases recently proposed by Derk Pereboom and David Widerker. My defence rests on some intuitively plausible principles that yield a new understanding of (...) the concept of a robust alternative. I will leave aside whether PAP also holds for praiseworthy actions -/- Según el Principio de Posibilidades Alternativas, un agente es moralmente responsable de una acción sólo si hubiera podido actuar de otro modo. La noción de alternativa robusta desempeña un papel prominente en ataques recientes al PPA basados en los llamados casos Frankfurt. En este artículo defiendo el PPA para la culpabilidad moral frente a casos Frankfurt propuestos recientemente por Derk Pereboom y David Widerker. Mi defensa descansa en algunos principios intuitivamente plausibles que dan lugar a una comprensión nueva del concepto de alternativa robusta. No trataré la cuestión de la verdad del PPA para acciones moralmente laudables. (shrink)

The project of growing meat artificially represents for some the next best thing to humanity. If successful, it could be the solution to several problems, such as feed- ing a growing global population while reducing the environmental impact of raising animals for food and, of course, reducing the amount and degree of animal cruelty and suffering that is involved in animal farming. In this paper, I argue that the issue of the morality of such a project has been framed only (...) in terms of the best conse- quences for the environment, animals, and humans, or in terms of deontic princi- ples. I argue that to appreciate how deep and difficult this issue is, it is necessary to consider it in terms of a virtue-oriented approach. Such an approach will reveal aspects that are not apparent, not contemplated by typical approaches, but are essen- tial to our understanding of the morality of lab-grown meat. As I argue, evaluating the issue from a virtue-oriented perspective suggests that the project of in vitro meat should not be supported because it stems from unvirtuous motivations. (shrink)

Marcus William Hunt argues that when co-parents disagree over whether to raise their child (or children) as a vegan, they should reach a compromise as a gift given by one parent to the other out of respect for his or her authority. Josh Millburn contends that Hunt’s proposal of parental compromise over veganism is unacceptable on the ground that it overlooks respect for animal rights, which bars compromising. However, he contemplates the possibility of parental compromise over ‘unusual eating,’ of animal-based (...) foods obtained without the violation of animal rights. I argue for zero parental compromise, rejecting a rights-oriented approach, and propose a policy that an ethical vegan parent and a non-vegan co-parent should follow to determine how to raise their children. (shrink)

Conocido sociólogo, escritor extraordinariamente prolífico en el ámbito de la teoría y el análisis político, la polemología, la historia, epistemología y metodología de las ciencias sociales, Julien Freund fue, sin embargo, como dedicación fundamental, filósofo. No obstante, su filosofía apenas ha recibido atención por parte de los especialistas. Pretendemos mostrar en este artículo la relevancia de esta aproximación filosófica como clave de lectura del conjunto de la obra del autor francés, y de qué manera él mismo concibió su atención a (...) los problemas específicos de las ciencias sociales como una mediación a un marco más amplio de comprensión de problemas siempre presentes en la existencia humana, esto es, como una mediación metafísica. (shrink)

Abstract: This paper is a response to Park Seungbae’s article, “Defence of Cultural Relativism”. Some of the typical criticisms of moral relativism are the following: moral relativism is erroneously committed to the principle of tolerance, which is a universal principle; there are a number of objective moral rules; a moral relativist must admit that Hitler was right, which is absurd; a moral relativist must deny, in the face of evidence, that moral progress is possible; and, since every individual belongs to (...) multiple cultures at once, the concept of moral relativism is vague. Park argues that such contentions do not affect moral relativism and that the moral relativist may respond that the value of tolerance, Hitler’s actions, and the concept of culture are themselves relative. In what follows, I show that Park’s adroit strategy is unsuc-cessful. Consequently, moral relativism is incoherent. (shrink)

Abstract Nowadays, there is a deep and widespread feeling of discomfort among academics due to the psychological and labor pressures that universities exert upon their researchers by demanding endless publications. In this paper, I offer numerous pieces of evidence of this crisis, which affects primarily those who inhabit academic ecologies. First, I argue that it is convenient to understand the current situation as an expression of technologies and individual apparatuses shaped by subjectivizing ideologies, and mechanisms of exclusion, stigmatization, and replacement. (...) Second, I examine two proposals against the crisis produced by the pace of academic production framed by the Slow movement. Lastly, after making explicit some of the assumptions that undergird the university’s epistemological machine, I propose to complement Ulmer and Mountz’s project with two suggestions. On the one hand, I extend an invitation to reflect on and with students as a means to redirect the university’s teleology. On the other hand, I suggest incorporating an ontogogic approach as a resistance apparatus against the pressure from the university’s production machine. The article’s point of departure is anti-dicotonegative because it is based on a summative approach rather than in an agonistic procedure. In other words, I propose two additional tools that can be put to the test to contribute to solving the university publication crisis. (shrink)

On a highly influential way to think of modality, that I call ‘relationalism’, the modality of a state is explained by its being composed of properties, and these properties being related by a higher-order and primitively modal relation. Examples of relationalism are the Dretske-Tooley-Armstrong account of natural necessity, many dispositional essentialist views, and Wang’s incompatibility primitivism. I argue that relationalism faces four difficulties: that the selection between modal relations is arbitrary, that the modal relation cannot belong to any logical order, (...) that to explain how the modal relation can relate properties of different adicities additional ideological complexity has to be introduced, and that not all modal constraints are relational. From the discussion, I will extract desiderata for a successor theory of modality. (shrink)

Zarpó del puerto de Lisboa con destino a las costas de Inglaterra. La «Grande y Felicísima Armada» de Felipe II comenzó -oro y hierro- su majestuosa marcha. Lenta, pesada, con más reveses que fortuna, la empresa al mando del duque de Medina-Sidonia dio abundantes indicios antes de arribar a tierra inglesa de lo que en escasos meses se convertiría en una colosal derrota. Todo augurio de su final. Pareció cumplirse en Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, su almirante trémulo, aquello de Mariana (...) de que «el temor y el recato demasiado nunca hicieron cosa honrosa; a los valientes ayuda Dios, a los cobardes todo se les deshace entre las manos». Con todo, nada impidió que la amenaza, que suele representarse mayor que el daño cuando se produce. se fuera dando a conocer a los ingleses con un temor creciente. Con un temor tal que en el amanecer del día 5 de abril de aquel año de 1588, una mujer de la pequeña aldea de Malmesbury, al suroeste de la Isla, alumbrará gemelos. Pues «al difundirse por nuestras plazas -contará uno de esos retoños, T. Hobbes- el rumor de que con la flota se acercaba el último día para nuestro pueblo, tanto miedo concibió mi madre que parió gemelos: a mí y al miedo al mismo tiempo». Es verdad. Pocas cosas le están tan hermanadas al hombre y le son tan reveladoras como sus propios miedos; al menos en su presente estado. Y pocas cosas como sus miedos ayudan a caracterizar mejor sus formas de organización social. De ahí que ame la paz y se goce con la compañía afable, como a renglón seguido también el propio Hobbes apunta. (shrink)

Vivimos en un mundo poblado de significados. Eso hace que para nosotros estar en el mundo implique un modo muy específico de estar, que es comprensivamente. Nuestra incorporación al mundo no es a un complejo simplemente fáctico de realidades naturales y artificiales, sino a un mundo organizado, y es por eso, en cuanto tal, una incorporación simbólica también, intencional. Todo cuanto nos rodea vehicula estructuras de conocimiento —valores, creencias, normas, aspiraciones comunes…— que hacen que vivir la realidad suponga para cada (...) uno de nosotros vivirla significativamente, vivirla de acuerdo con algún sentido, y no poder vivirla más que así. (shrink)

Our purpose is to study Aristotle?s solution, in the second book of the Posterior Analytics, for the problem of the apprehension of the principles of science. We attend to the relations between the concepts of induction (epagoge) and intelligence (nous) found in the chapter 19, which seems to confirm that the acquisition of the principles is reached by a process of empirical observation. We examine the method, proposed in chapters 13 to 17, for the right formulation of definitions, which seems (...) to attribute to dialectics the task of finding the principles. Aristotle seems to indicate two different methods ? on one hand, the empirical observation followed by intelligence, on other, the dialectics ? for the apprehension of the principles. Our purpose is to study possible solutions for the problem of the concurrence between these two methods in order to refute as much a strictly empiricist interpretation as a strictly dialectical one. (shrink)

Un reciente artículo de Alain Raison aparecido en Les Épées, revista de orientación regalista en la que el autor es colaborador frecuente, dirigido en contra de lo que ahí llama el "comunitarismo católico", ha suscitado un revuelo que quizá aquí se nos antoje un tanto estéril y lejano, pero que, como buena parte de lo que nace en Francia, puede que en no más de veinte años también se produzca a nuestro modo entre nosotros.

20th century physics has revealed a pervasive relational aspect of the physical world. This fact is relevant in view of some of the motivations for panpsychism. In facts, it may be seen as a vindication of the panpsychist idea of a monist continuity where some aspects of the consciousness’ perspectivalism are universal. But this same fact undermines the motivations for genuine forms of panpsychism.