Desde una visión holística abordamos la comprensión lectora en el aula a fin de dar respuestas puntuales y aportar soluciones. Producto de una investigación cualitativa, Investigación-Acción en el aula, damos cuenta de los diversos factores que intervienen en dicho proceso y cómo lo modifican: el clima de aula, el aprendizaje cooperativo, el aprender haciendo, aprendizaje significativo y la metacognición, los cuales hemos denominado estrategias interactivas. Estas estrategias consolidan la comprensión lectora de los participantes y, al mismo tiempo, pueden ser aplicadas (...) por los participantes en su praxis educativa en el subsistema de primaria. Asimismo, se estudian los elementos que entran en juego: el texto, el lector y el contexto, e intentamos redimensionarlos en estrecha relación con las estrategias propuestas. A partir de este análisis proponemos un holos de la comprensión lectora y, en su conjunto, la interacción de los aspectos que lo conforman constituye una holopraxis, y una solución para el aula. Concluimos que la comprensión lectora es relativa y progresiva, producto de la interacción cognitiva, afectiva y social entre textos, lectores y contextos. (shrink)

This book brings together a number of researchers of different nationalities to reflect on religion and philosophy in ancient Greece. These scholars have been convened by the Brazilian research group Delphos and discuss, in particular, how religious and philosophical thought intertwined during this period. Among the papers collected here, several are devoted to epic and philosophical literature before Plato. The others deal, alongside this great classical philosopher, with Aristotle and Philo of Alexandria. These contributions allow us to recognise how the (...) vision of the cosmos, metaphysics and human life are intertwined in Greek thought. A journey is made from traditional Greek religion to its philosophical reinterpretations, reaching as far as the monotheistic God of Judaism made known in the Hellenic language. The nature of the cosmos, investigated scientifically, is no stranger to the Greeks' view of the divine, but neither is ethics, with all its demands. Thus, these studies provide a kaleidoscopic view of the various points of view from which nature, the human condition and divinity are approached through the eyes of ancient Greek literature. (shrink)

Hablar de tradición cualitativa tiene un doble sentido, una doble vía. Primero, significa que después de múltiples polémicas, el paradigma crítico reflexivo se ha consolidado sobre la base de argumentos epistemológicos y empíricos sólidos. Segundo, que comienza un camino de anquilosamiento, aparición de recetarios que serían el propio espejo de lo criticado al positivismo. Ya existen atisbos, síntomas de ese proceso en la elaboración de trabajos de grado y/o tesis. Este posible estancamiento de las investigaciones cualitativas, en ocasiones obedece a (...) la buena intención de mantener un estándar de rigurosidad científica, rigurosidad que se confunde con el endurecimiento en la forma, el recorrido y estructuración del informe final, en oposición a la flexibilidad que toda investigación dentro de este paradigma posee de suyo. En nuestra opinión, una de sus mayores fortalezas es la posibilidad que brinda para echar mano de distintos métodos producto de la necesidad misma de la investigación, cuando esta nos exige la revisión de formas alternativas para poder descubrir y describir el fenómeno estudiado. Es el río de Heráclito, o mejor, el de Cratilo (Aristóteles, IV, p. 191): no podremos bañarnos en el mismo río “ni siquiera una vez”. (shrink)

This paper addresses the relationship between logic and phenomenology at a historical moment that precedes the big divide between analytic philosophy and phenomenology. In analysing alternative derivations of phenomenological logic, the discussion focuses on the case of two notorious neo-Kantian Mexican philosophers from the first half of the XXth century: Adalberto García de Mendoza and Francisco Larroyo. It is argued that both García de Mendoza and Larroyo made an original contribution to the discussion on the relationship between phenomenology and logic. (...) Further, this paper attempts to present a charitable portrait of both García de Mendoza and Larroyo in contrast to underrating approaches to both Mexican philosophers. In so doing, this paper adopts a historical—though not strictly biographical— perspective. While it is true that neither García de Mendoza nor Larroyo could be considered “phenomenologists” or “Husserl scholars” according to contemporary standards it is worth noticing that they engage in the discussion of phenomenological logic. Both authors had the project of developing a grounding logic for science and, as the article argues, both attempts could be even linked. Their project, however, was unfinished. The plan of this paper is as follows. The first section addresses the problem of the relationship between logic and phenomenology. The second one focuses on García de Mendoza’s contributions. The third one elaborates on Larroyo’s Logic of Sciences. And, finally, the fourth section elaborates on these Mexican philosophers’ contributions to education, making as well further observations concerning the similarities and differences between both authors. (shrink)

Philosophical discussions on cognition (ranging from computational and representational approaches to the 4E fra-mework), on the one hand, and those on sound and auditory per-ception, on the other, have hitherto remained apart. In this paper, the author addresses the concept of “auditory cognition”. While committing to the conceptual analysis of the latter, the author in-troduces the discussion of modality-specif ic approaches. Since the contributions made so far in the domain of the philosophy of sound and auditory perception are prone to (...) favor computational-repre-sentational approaches —e.g., the perceptual coherence model (Méndez-Martínez, 2022)—, the exploration of 4E possibilities will lay down a series of questions aimed to encourage future developers from that viewpoint. In that sense, the author explores conceptual entailments and connections between the genealogy of theories within the philosophy of sound and auditory perception, and the hypothesis of the extended cognition (EX). (shrink)

Esta obra hace referencia a una serie de reflexiones sobre diferentes enfoques de investigación, algunos clasificables como “cualitativos” otros no, y que se encuentran en pleno proceso de elaboración; otras, a falencias ya señaladas en la literatura tradicional sobre las limitaciones de la investigación positivista, aunque actualizadas a los conocimientos que ahora tenemos hoy en día. Cubre, por tanto, aspectos metodológicos (con recomendaciones para la acción) y epistemológicos, o sea, ejemplos sobre cómo se debe proceder en determinadas situaciones o como (...) pensarlos desde una perspectiva epistemológica. Ha sido pensada para roles tan diversos como el de educador, líderes sociales, directores de escuela o especialistas, y aunque nos hubiese complacido dedicar más páginas a unos y otros, la centralización en las tradiciones investigativas parecía más conveniente. Pensamos que, de esta manera, el lector puede conseguir lecturas más frescas sobre diferentes tópicos que son de aplicación múltiple para diferentes campos. (shrink)

Both Franz Brentano and Edmund Husserl addressed sound while trying to explain the inner consciousness of time and gave to it the status of a supporting example. Although their inquiries were not aimed at clarifying in detail the nature of the auditory experience or sounds themselves, they made some interesting observations that can contribute to the current philosophical discussion on sounds. On the other hand, in analytic philosophy, while inquiring the nature of sounds, their location, auditory experience or the audible (...) qualities and so on, the representatives of that trend of thought have remained silent about the depiction of sound and the auditory phenomena in the phenomenological tradition. The paper’s intention is to relate both endeavours, yet the perspective carried out is that of analytic philosophy and, thus, I pay special attention to conceptual analysis as a methodological framework. In this sense, I first explain what sound ontology is in the context of analytic philosophy and the views that it encompasses— namely, the Property View (PV), the Wave View (WV) and the Event View (EV)—. Secondly, I address the problems it entails, emphasising that of sound individuation. In a third section, I propose the possibly controversial conjunction of a “Brentano-Husserl Analysis of the Consciousness of Time” (for short “Brentano-Husserl analysis”) and outline the commonalities of both authors, without ignoring its discrepancies. My main focus is Husserl’s 1905 Vorlesungen zur Phänomenologie des Inneren Zeitbewusstseins. While addressing the Brentano-Husserl analysis, I elaborate on the problem of temporal and spatial extension (Raumlichkeit and Zeitlichkeit, respectively) of both consciousness and sound. Such comparison is a key one, since after these two developments, one can notice some theoretical movements concerning the shift of attention from sounds to the unity of consciousness, and how they mirror each other. After examining the controversial claims concerning the temporal and spatial extension of both consciousness and sound, I argue in the concluding paragraphs that while considering the accounts of sound ontology, the Brentano-Husserl analysis would probably endorse a Property View and that this could have interesting consequences for the issue of Sound Individuation. (shrink)

This paper proposes some guidelines for the undeveloped discussion of auditory epistemology. Auditory epistemology is an approach concerned with the perceptual basis for knowledge and belief, specifically around audition. The article pursues two goals. Firstly, it claims that addressing auditory perception from the viewpoint of epistemology is more fruitful than the discussion on phenomenology which has thus far dominated the debates in the literature on sound. Secondly, it elaborates a concrete proposal pertaining to the cooperation of sense-modalities. In so doing, (...) a model for “Perceptual Coherence” is suggested. The first section of the paper critically reviews the problem of perception as it is usually understood in traditional epistemology. An ensuing section outlines the model of perceptual coherence. (shrink)

In the realm of the philosophy of sounds and auditory experience there is an ongoing discussion concerned with the nature of sounds. One of the contestant views within this ontology of sound is that of the Property View, which holds that sounds are properties of the sounding objects. A way of developing this view is through the idea of dispositionalism, namely, by sustaining the theory according to which sounds are dispositional properties (Pasnau 1999; Kulvicki 2008; Roberts 2017). That portrayal, however, (...) is not sufficient, as it has not inquired the metaphysical debates about dispositions beyond the conditional analysis. In this paper, I try to advance this view by including recent developments (for instance Bird 2007; Vetter 2015) in the field of dispositionalism and I analyse whether this new version can sort out known and new objections to Property View. (shrink)

This paper addresses the problem of sound individuation (SI) and its connection to sound ontology (SO). It is argued that the problems of SI, such as aspatiality, extreme individuation, indexical perplexity and duration puzzles are due to SO’s uncertainties. Besides, I describe the views in SO, including the wave view (WV), the property view (PV), and the event view (EV), as Casey O’Callaghan defends it. According to O’Callaghan, EV offers clear standards to individuate sounds. However, this claim is countered by (...) the consideration that any view could also defend the standards in SO, and thus, EV does not solve any of the problems mentioned above. As a way of showing the difficulties inherited by sound’s inner ontology, the problem of its linguistic representation is also addressed. The problem of SI can be developed within the frame of the philosophy of language and, specifically, regarding the discussion about mass vs count-­sortal terms. Is the term sound a mass or a count­-sortal? It is shown that, for reasons pertaining SO, the decision regarding the case of sound as a mass or count-­sortal term remains open. SI is, thus, covered from the SO to the philosophy of language. (shrink)

The sixteenth century witnessed a major intellectual event: the birth of modernity. This book presents the School of Salamanca as the "first version of modernity", a modernity developed with a peculiarly Hispanic stamp. The Salamancans confronted the problems of a singular historical moment, in which Spain was playing a leading role in the encounter between Europe and America. The thinkers of Salamanca tackled crucial issues such as the right to property, economic ethics, freedom and slavery, the justice of war... In (...) the matrix of the Salamanca university, international law and the elements of reflection that would provide arguments for the abolition of slavery were born. This book brings together scholars from different geographical areas: several authors from Latin America, as well as from different European countries, sign their contributions. These diverse origins reflect the rich universality of the Hispanic project that had its heart in the reflections of the School of Salamanca. The diversity of topics addressed, ranging from the more practical questions of trade and the freedom of the American Indians to the subtleties of metaphysics or theology, is a good example of the richness of the issues addressed by those intellectuals who initiated modernity. (shrink)

La comprensión lectora constituye un tema de estudio y preocupación en todo el sistema educativo venezolano, desde la primaria hasta el postgrado. A partir de diferentes enfoques y con diferentes métodos y estrategias se han buscado alternativas para mejorar las competencias que tienen los estudiantes. En el caso de este estudio se partió de las teorías constructivistas y de la metodología investigación acción en el aula para que los estudiantes desarrollaran la comprensión de la lectura a través de un conjunto (...) de estrategias interactivas. En cuanto a las técnicas para la recolección y análisis de la información, se utilizaron cuantitativas y cualitativas, como la observación participante, el diario de clase y la triangulación, entre otros. La investigación se efectuó en dos ciclos con estudiantes del Programa Educación, Proyecto Educación Integral, de la Universidad Nacional Experimental “Rafael María Baralt”. Los resultados evidencian mejoras sustantivas en los niveles de comprensión de la lectura del grupo, sobre todo en la lectura inferencial. Se evidencia que los aspectos como el clima del aula, aprendizaje cooperativo, aprender haciendo, aprendizaje significativo, las estrategias para la mediación de aprendizaje y los procesos metacognitivos en el proceso de aprendizaje son importantes para desarrollar la comprensión de la lectura. Asimismo, se consideran relevantes los elementos afectivos y sociales en el diseño de las estrategias. Por último, se concluye que más que consolidar la comprensión de la lectura, se consolidan los procesos cognitivos que posibilitan la comprensión. (shrink)

Are philosophy and literature allies or enemies in Jorge Luis Borges's fictions? In this paper, I argue that Borges can satisfy membership in the allies camp because his fictions provide the imaginative scenarios the allies believe are so necessary to this coalition; however, because his stories question philosophy's hold on reality, they can also seem to fall into the enemies camp by countervailing any claim philosophy has on reality and truth; although, ultimately, the manner in which Borges forges (...) an alliance between philosophy and literature will be for reasons not traditionally accepted by those in either the allies or enemies camps. (shrink)

The objective of the research is to carry out a review of the literature about suicide risk factors in young university students. The methodology used is quantitative descriptive with a bibliometric approach, under the PRISMA method. The search was carried out in three databases: Clarivate Web of Science, MDPI and Taylor and Francis that had the variables of suicide risk factors. Inclusion criteria were used such as: study variables, years 2019 to 2022, published in Spanish and English,scientific reports research results, (...) research with clinical and non-clinical population. After the application of the Boolean operators, the total sample is (n=10360) and after screening with the PRISMA method (n=45). Results: The United States, followed by China and Bangladesh, are the countries that produce the most on the subject. The most frequent risk factors are: depression, anxiety, stress, academic commitments, lack of opportunities, low income and race. The students with the highest suicide rates are in the health area such as medicine and nursing, in addition, there is more suicide intent in women than in men. (shrink)

The year of the centennial of the Argentinean writer Jorge Luis Borges is probably the right time to exhume one of the links that this universal writer had with William James. In 1945, Emece, a publisher from Buenos Aires, printed a Spanish translation of William James’s book Pragmatism, with a foreword by Jorge Luis Borges.

Within ordinary ---unitary--- quantum mechanics there exist global protocols that allow to verify that no definite event ---an outcome to which a probability can be associated--- occurs. Instead, states that start in a coherent superposition over possible outcomes always remain as a superposition. We show that, when taking into account fundamental errors in measuring length and time intervals, that have been put forward as a consequence of a conjunction of quantum mechanical and general relativity arguments, there are instances in which (...) such global protocols no longer allow to distinguish whether the state is in a superposition or not. All predictions become identical as if one of the outcomes occurs, with probability determined by the state. We use this as a criteria to define events, as put forward in the Montevideo Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. We analyze in detail the occurrence of events in the paradigmatic case of a particle in a superposition of two different locations. We argue that our approach provides a consistent single-world picture of the universe, thus allowing an economical way out of the limitations imposed by a recent theorem by Frauchiger and Renner showing that having a self-consistent single-world description of the universe is incompatible with quantum theory. In fact, the main observation of this paper may be stated as follows: If quantum mechanics is extended to include gravitational effects to a QG theory, then QG, S, and C are satisfied. (shrink)

In this paper I discuss how Borges uses his ideas on selfhood to explore the “central problem of literature” that Andre Maurois highlighted and how in the process projects to the reader his idea of reality. I argue also that the self that Borges tries to present in his work may nevertheless not be always congruent with the self he may have wanted to convey. This is because his quest is influenced by a number of factors, not least the fact (...) that the self-creation process is affected by our interplay with the external world. (shrink)

Jorge Luis Borges displays an ambivalence in his writings towards the reality of time’s flow. On the one hand, he seems to accept arguments from various thinkers refuting the reality of time. “And yet, and yet…” Borges appears unable to feel completely reconciled to such a view of time. I argue that this is because a view that refutes time denies the observer too along with it. I conclude with demonstrating how Borges, by trying to identify a reconciliation (...) between a refutation of time and acknowledgment of its reality, addressed this problem. (shrink)

In this work we study dimensional theoretical properties of some a±ne dynamical systems. By dimensional theoretical properties we mean Hausdor® dimension and box- counting dimension of invariant sets and ergodic measures on theses sets. Especially we are interested in two problems. First we ask whether the Hausdor® and box- counting dimension of invariant sets coincide. Second we ask whether there exists an ergodic measure of full Hausdor® dimension on these invariant sets. If this is not the case we ask the (...) question, whether at least the variational principle for Haus- dor® dimension holds, which means that there is a sequence of ergodic measures such that their Hausdor® dimension approximates the Hausdor® dimension of the invariant set. It seems to be well accepted by experts that these questions are of great importance in developing a dimension theory of dynamical systems (see the book of Pesin about dimension theory of dynamical systems [PE2]). Dimensional theoretical properties of conformal dynamical systems are fairly well understood today. For example there are general theorems about conformal repellers and hyperbolic sets for conformal di®eomorphisms (see chapter 7 of [PE2]). On the other hand the existence of two di®erent rates of expansion or contraction forces problems that are not captured by a general theory this days. At this stage of de- velopment of the dimension theory of dynamical systems it seems natural to study non conformal examples. This is the ¯rst step to understand the mechanisms that determine dimensional theoretical properties of non conformal dynamical systems. A±ne dynamical systems represent simple examples of non conformal systems. They are easy to de¯ne, but studying their dimensional theoretical properties does never- theless provide challenging mathematical problems and exemplify interesting phe- nomena. We consider here a special class of self-a±ne repellers in dimension two, depending on four parameters (see 2.1.). Furthermore we study a class of attractors of piecewise a±ne maps in dimension three depending on four parameters as well. The last object of our work are projections of these maps that are known as gener- alized Baker's transformations (see 2.2.). The contents of our work is the following: In chapter two we give an overview about some main results in the area of di- mension theory of a±ne dynamical systems and de¯ne the systems we study in this work. We will explain, what is known about the dimensional theoretical properties of these systems and describe what our new results are. In chapter three we then apply symbolic dynamics to our systems. We will introduce explicit shift codings 4 and ¯nd representations of all ergodic measures for our systems using these codings. From chapter four to chapter eight we study dimensional theoretical properties, which our systems generally or generically have. In chapter four we will prove a formula for the box-counting dimension of the repellers and the attractors (see the- orem 4.1.). Then in chapter ¯ve we apply general dimensional theoretical results for ergodic measures found by Ledrappier and Young [LY] and Barreira, Schmeling and Pesin [BPS] to our systems. These results relate the dimension of ergodic measures to metric entropy and Lyapunov exponents. Using this approach we will be able to reduce questions about the dimension of ergodic measures in our context to ques- tions about certain overlapping and especially overlapping self-similar measures on the line. These overlapping self-similar measures are studied in chapter six. Our main theorem extends a result of Peres and Solomyak [PS2] concerning the absolute continuity resp. singularity of symmetric self-similar measures to asymmetric ones (see theorem 6.1.3.). In chapter seven we bring our results together. We prove that we generically (in the sense of Lebesgue measure on a part of the parameter space) have the iden- tity of box-counting and Hausdor® dimension for the repellers and the attractors. (see theorem 7.1.1. and corollary 7.1.2.). This result suggest that one can expect that the identity of box-counting dimension and Hausdor® dimension holds at least generically in some natural classes of non conformal dynamical systems. Furthermore we will see in chapter seven that there generically exists an ergodic measure of full Hausdor® dimension for the repellers. On the other hand the vari- ational principle for Hausdor® dimension is not generic for the attractors. It holds only if we assume a certain symmetry (see theorem 7.1.1.). For generalized Baker's transformations we will ¯nd a part of the parameter space where there generically is an ergodic measure of full dimension and a part where the variational principle for Hausdor® dimension does not hold (see theorem 7.1.3.). Roughly speaking the reason why the variational principle does not hold here is, that if there exists both a stable and an unstable direction one can not generically maximize the dimension in the stable and in the unstable direction at the same time. In an other setting this phenomenon was observed before by Manning and McCluskey [MM]. In chapter eight we extend some results of the last section to invariant sets that correspond to special Markov chains instead of full shifts (see theorem 8.1.1.). In the last two chapters of our work we are interested in number theoretical excep- tions to our generic results. The starting point of our considerations in section nine are results of ErdÄos [ER1] and Alexander and Yorke [AY] that establish singularity and a decrease of dimension for in¯nite convolved Bernoulli measures under special conditions. Using a generalized notion of the Garsia entropy ([GA1/2]) we are able 5 to understand the consequences of number theoretical peculiarities in broader class of overlapping measures (see theorem 9.1.1.). In chapter ten we then analyze number theoretical peculiarities in the context of our dynamical systems. We restrict our attention to a symmetric situation where we generically have the existence of a Bernoulli measure of full dimension and the identity of Hausdor® and box-counting dimension for all of our systems. In the ¯rst section of chapter ten we ¯nd parameter values such that the variational principle for Hausdor® dimension does not hold for the attractors and for the Fat Baker's transformations (see theorem 10.1.1.). These are the ¯rst known examples of dynamical systems for which the variational principle for Hausdor® dimension does not hold because of number theoretical peculiarities of parameter values. For the repellers we have been able to show that under certain number theoretical conditions there is at least no Bernoulli measure of full Hausdor® dimension; the question if the variational principle for Hausdor® dimension holds remains open in this situation. In the second section of chapter ten we will show that the identity for Hausdor® and box-counting dimension can drops because there are number theoretical pecu- liarities. In the context of Weierstrass-like functions this phenomenon was observed by Przytycki and Urbanski [PU]. Our theorem extends this result to a larger class of sets, invariant under dynamical systems (see theorem 10.2.1). At the end of this work the reader will ¯nd two appendices, a list of notations and the list of references. In appendix A we introduce the notions of dimension we use in this work and collect some general facts in dimension theory. In appendix B we state the facts about Pisot-Vijayarghavan number, we need in our analysis of number theoretical peculiarities. The list of notations contains general notations and a table with a summary of notations we use to describe the dynamical systems that we study. Acknowledgments I wish to thank my supervisor JÄorg Schmeling for a lot of valuable discussion and all his help. Also thanks to Luis Barreira for his great hospitality in Lisboa and many interesting comments. This work was done while I was supported by "Promotionstipendium gem. NaFÄoG der Freien UniversitÄat Berlin". (shrink)

En 1986, Luis Muro publicó una compilación bibliográfica en Historia Mexicana; en ella, se hace una documentada exposición sobre la producción literaria de José Fuentes Mares. El recuento sobresale por listar ediciones, reimpresiones y reediciones de cada título aparecido hasta entonces; además, describe características distintivas de los trabajos, tales como número de páginas, clase de índices, formato (libro, artículo, prólogo y tesis de grado) y tipo de ilustraciones que algunos contienen. L. Muro divide su estudio en secciones, a saber: (...) libros, artículos, crítica, prólogos y addenda. El autor aclara que hay otros escritos no incluidos en su crestomatía, los suprime debido a la complejidad de reunir un catálogo íntegro de todos ellos. (shrink)

Let (leeway) incompatibilism be the thesis that causal determinism is incompatible with the freedom to do otherwise. Several prominent authors have claimed that incompatibilism alone can capture, or at least best captures, the intuitive appeal behind Jorge Luis Borges's famous “Garden of Forking Paths” metaphor. The thought, briefly, is this: the “single path” leading up to one's present decision represents the past; the forking paths that one must decide between represent those possible futures consistent with the past and (...) the laws of nature. But if determinism is true, there is only one possible future consistent with the past and the laws and, hence, only one path to choose from. That is, if determinism is true, then we are not free to do otherwise. In this paper, I argue that this understanding of the Garden of Forking Paths faces a number of problems and ought to be rejected even by incompatibilists. I then present an alternative understanding that not only avoids these problems but still supports incompatibilism. Finally, I consider how various versions of (leeway) compatibilism fit with the Garden of Forking Paths as well as the broader question of whether metaphors, however intuitive, have any dialectical force in the debates over freedom. (shrink)

This paper makes two criticisms of the book Key Concepts in Social and Cultural Anthropology, by Nigel Rapport and Joanna Overing. The second criticism is that they do not acknowledge the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges as the conceiver of the fictional Chinese encyclopaedia. What they say raises the worry that anthropologists have not moved on much from being the handmaiden of colonialism.

References to Heraclitus and the simile of the ever-flowing river into which one cannot step twice occur frequently in the poetry of Jorge Luis Borges. Borges understood the constantly flowing river to represent both the inevitable passage of time and the constantly changing nature of human existence. On occasion, however, Borges indicates that a Heraclitean identification of our personal existence with an ever-flowing river cannot be the whole story. As he suggests in ‘Year’s End’, ‘There is something in (...) us that endures:/something unbudgeable/ that didn’t find what it was looking for’. The temporal character of human existence justifies the likening of our reality to the flow of a stream, but not everything passes away. The poetic art, for one thing, endures. And if poetry has a claim on immortality, then so does the poet. Thus, while Borges embraced Heraclitus as his alter ego he stoutly resisted his doctrine of flux. -/- . (shrink)

What happens to the inner light of consciousness with the death of the individual body and brain? Reductive materialism assumes it simply fades to black. Others think of consciousness as indicating a continuation of self, a transformation, an awakening or even alternatives based on the quality of life experience. In this issue, speculation drawn from theoretic research are presented. -/- Table of Contents Epigraph: From “The Immortal”, Jorge Luis Borges iii Editor’s Introduction: I Killed a Squirrel the Other (...) Day, Gregory M. Nixon iv-xi Research Essays The Tilde Fallacy and Reincarnation: Variations on a "Skeptical" Argument Teed Rockwell 862-881 Death, Consciousness, and Phenomenology, Steve Bindeman 882-899 The Idealist View of Consciousness After Death, Bernardo Kastrup 900-909 Consciousness, a Cosmic Phenomenon—A Hypothesis, Eva Déli 910-930 The Theory of a Natural Afterlife: A Newfound, Real Possibility for What Awaits Us at Death, Bryon K. Ehlmann 931-950 Near-Death Cases Desegregating Non-Locality/Disembodiment via Quantum Mediated Consciousness: An Extended Version of the Cell-Soul Pathway, Contzen Pereira & J Shashi Kiran Reddy 951-968 On the Possible Existence of Quantum Consciousness After Brain Death, Massimo Pregnolato & Alfredo Pereira Jr. 969-991 Science and Postmortem Survival, Edward F. Kelly 992-1011 Explorations ISS Theory: Cosmic Consciousness, Self, and Life Beyond Death in a Hyperdimensional Physics, Chris H. Hardy 1012-1035 Does the Consciousness End, Remain Awake, or Transform After Death? Radivoj Stankovich (with Micho Durdevich) 1036-1050 Big Bang Spirituality, Life, and Death, Ken Bausch 1051-1063 Death, Consciousness and the Quantum Paradigm, Ronald Peter Glasberg 1064-1077 Living With Limits: The Continuum of Consciousness, Donald Brackett 1078-1098 Mysticism, Consciousness, Death, Mike Sosteric 1099-1118 What Dies? Eternalism and the Afterlife in William James, Jonathan Bricklin 1119-1140 Theories of Consciousness and Death: Does Consciousness End, Continue, Awaken, or Transform When the Body Dies? Roger Cook 1141-1153 It’s the Other Way Around: Matter is a Form of Consciousness and Death is the End of the Illusion of Life in the World, James P. Kowall & Pradeep B. Deshpande 1154-1208 Statements A Feminine Vision for the World Consciousness, & a New Outrageous Ontology, Lorna Green 1209-1217 The Mask of Eternity: The Quest for Immortality and the Afterlife, Iona Miller 1218-1228 Are We Really “such stuff as dreams are made on”? Chris Nunn 1229-1225 Is the Afterlife a Non-Question? (Let's Hope Not), Deepak Chopra 1226-1230 Life After Death? An Improbable Essay, Stuart Kauffman 1231-1236. (shrink)

Davies presents the reader with a sterling review of the literature--the recent history of the interest in defining "art" through the writings of Anglo-American philosophers that follow Morris Weitz' well-known 1956 essay, "The Role of Theory in Aesthetics"--and a stimulating discussion of the role of conventions in the making and appreciating of contemporary art. His emphasis on the social nature of art leads one to wonder how other recent inquiries into the multilayered contextually of the artistic enterprise might fare under (...) his perusal, for example, feminist critiques of traditional definitions of "art," challenges to the elitist makeup of the Artworld, . . . and opposition to his very choice of paradigms: in addition to Duchamp, the "hard cases" include works by John Cage, Andy Warhol, Olivier Messiaen, Jorge Luis Borges, and Gerald Hoffnung. Definitions of Art is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of aesthetics and as it informs the current dialectic on art. (shrink)

Resumen: Resulta incuestionable la importancia que el filósofo francés Gilles Deleuze otorga al cinematógrafo. Conforme a su teoría del conocimiento, si la filosofía "piensa" mediante conceptos, el cine "piensa" mediante imágenes: se trata de un medio de creación artística a la vez que de reflexión (distinta de otras formas de "escritura") acerca de los problemas de la condición humana. De hecho, afirmamos que el propio pensamiento de Deleuze guarda mucho en común con las técnicas cinematográficas, al igual que sucedería en (...) la literatura del siglo XX, por ejemplo en James Joyce (en lengua anglosajona) y Jorge Luis Borges (en lengua castellana). -/- Abstract: There is no doubt as to the importance that cinematography has for the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. According to Deleuze's theory of knowledge, just as philosophy "reasons" through concepts, cinema "reasons" by means of images. Cinema is a means of artistic creation and at the same time reflects in a way distinct from writing on the problems of the human conditions. In fact, this essay argues that Deleuze's own thought had much in common with cinematographic techniques, a relation which occurred in the twentieth century literature of James Joyce (in the English language) and Jorge Luis Borges (in the Spanish language). (shrink)

According to a recent philosophical claim, “works of fiction are thought experiments” (Elgin 2007: 47), though there are relevant differences, as the role of spoilers shows—they can ruin a novel but improve the understanding we can gain through a thought experiment. In the present article I will analyze the role of spoilers and argue for a more differentiated perspective on the relation between literature and thought experiments. I will start with a short discussion of different perspectives on thought experiments and (...) argue that the mental-model view and the conception of games of make-believe are most promising for developing the present analogy. Then I will assess the similarities and differences between thought experiments and other works of fiction. I will focus on the role of spoilers and, more generally, on the foretaste context, of which they are part. This context guides readers of literary works of art to draw their attention to the literary and aesthetic quality of the text. In the case of thought experiments, on the other hand, it (i) prompts them to accept the presence of fictional elements in worldly-cognitive works and (ii) draws their attention towards cognitively relevant elements of the story. A discussion of Borges’ Pierre Menard in the last part will show that literary works of art become thought experiments if they are embedded in an appropriate foretaste context. Spoilers, thus, unveil that even works which—due to their length or plenty of detail—usually are not considered thought experiments, can perform similar cognitive functions. (shrink)

Los trabajos reunidos en este libro tienen un propósito en común. Aspiran a clarificar las principales tesis de Mainländer y su relación con otros pensadores, por ejemplo, Freud, Schopenhauer, Albert Caraco, Manlio Sgalambro, Emil Cioran, Jorge Luis Borges, entre los más destacados. Enmarcado en sus aportes valiosos, este volumen es un hito cuya vasta sapiencia y rigurosidad resulta más que favorable para la recuperación y difusión de este pensador.

Los desencuentros de la filosofía latinoamericana con Nietzsche pueden entenderse como un síntoma de algo más que un problema de legibilidad o malentendido. En tanto pensamiento de lo uno, la filosofía latinoamericana (mayoritaria) no puede servirse del pensamiento nietzscheano: es imposi-ble construir un pensamiento del origen y la unidad desde un pensamiento de lo múltiple, como el de Nietzsche. La identidad, tan buscada por esa filosofía latinoamericana mayoritaria, es una ansiedad antigenealógica. En ese sentido, esa filosofía y su procedencia no (...) es solo eurocéntrica, como ya ha sido expuesto por otros comentaristas, sino reactiva, y esto vale para tres de sus tendencias principa-les: la filosofía normalizadora, la corriente historicista y la filosofía latinoamericana de la liberación. De ahí, de paso, la fascinación de dicho pensamiento con la idea de carencia —nunca hemos sido lo suficientemente civilizados—. Esto ha instaurado un cuerpo sufriente en América Latina, atrapado en la dialéctica de la víctima y el victimario. Se trata entonces de pensar con Nietzsche para intentar pensar sin resentimiento desde América Latina y sobre esta. ¿Nietzsche en América Latina? Sí, pero más allá de los estudios de recepción e influencia: Nietzsche como aquel estruendo capaz de infundirle una dimensión geológica al pensamiento. (shrink)

Las relaciones entre Nietzsche y América Latina están marcadas por el desencuentro. Lo cual no implica que Nietzsche no haya sido leído en Latinoamérica; pero es diferente aludir a Nietzsche, a asumir una perspectiva nietzscheana. Por eso, en vez de usar a Nietzsche para analizar su moral, para desplazar el punto de vista, en América Latina se moraliza a Nietzsche al ponerlo al servicio de esa moral, dejándola indemne. El caso de la filosofía latinoamericana es síntoma de ese desencuentro: en (...) tanto pensamiento de lo uno, no puede servirse del pensamiento nietzscheano, ya que es imposible construir un pensamiento del origen y la unidad desde un pensamiento de lo múltiple, como el de Nietzsche. Explorar y explotar al máximo ese desencuentro, sin intentar subsanarlo, permite construir la relación entre Nietzsche y América Latina en términos nietzscheanos, lo que implicaría deshacerse de la idea misma de América Latina en tanto sujeto, para concentrarse en la disección de sus fuerzas y en la potencia y miseria de sus pasiones. (shrink)

Los desencuentros de la filosofía latinoamericana con Nietzsche pueden entenderse como un sínto-ma de algo más que un problema de legibilidad o malentendido. En tanto pensamiento de lo uno, la filosofía latinoamericana (mayoritaria) no puede servirse del pensamiento nietzscheano: es imposi-ble construir un pensamiento del origen y la unidad desde un pensamiento de lo múltiple, como el de Nietzsche. La identidad, tan buscada por esa filosofía latinoamericana mayoritaria, es una ansiedad antigenealógica. En ese sentido, esa filosofía y su procedencia no (...) es solo eurocéntrica, como ya ha sido expuesto por otros comentaristas, sino reactiva, y esto vale para tres de sus tendencias principa-les: la filosofía normalizadora, la corriente historicista y la filosofía latinoamericana de la liberación. De ahí, de paso, la fascinación de dicho pensamiento con la idea de carencia —nunca hemos sido lo suficientemente civilizados—. Esto ha instaurado un cuerpo sufriente en América Latina, atrapado en la dialéctica de la víctima y el victimario. Se trata entonces de pensar con Nietzsche para intentar pensar sin resentimiento desde América Latina y sobre esta. ¿Nietzsche en América Latina? Sí, pero más allá de los estudios de recepción e influencia: Nietzsche como aquel estruendo capaz de infundirle una dimensión geológica al pensamiento. -/- . (shrink)

Composta attorno al 1065-1067, la lettera "Sull’onnipotenza divina" di Pier Damiani si apre con una questione posta da Desiderio, abate di Montecassino: «Sebbene Dio possa ogni cosa, non può restituire la verginità a colei che l’ha perduta. Egli ha certamente il potere di liberarla dalla pena, ma non può ridarle la corona della verginità che ha perduto». Il problema, che Pier Damiani riprendeva dalla lettera XXII di san Gerolamo, è solo in apparenza ozioso: il monaco ravennate ne fa un’autentica questione (...) filosofica, un “esperimento mentale” che solleva domande cruciali sulla natura del tempo e sul rapporto tra necessità e contingenza, leggi divine e princìpi logici, natura divina e natura umana. Il volume, a cura di Roberto Limonta, presenta la traduzione del De divina omnipotentia con note e testo latino a fronte. La prefazione di Mariateresa Fumagalli Beonio Brocchieri e il saggio introduttivo di Roberto Limonta ricostruiscono la lunga durata della questione posta da Pier Damiani, dai dibattiti teologici dei secoli medievali sino alle sue fortune nella filosofia, teologia e letteratura contemporanea. (shrink)

En los últimos tiempos el derecho ambiental ha ganado un puesto importante en el ámbito jurídico, hecho que refleja la preocupación que hoy se tiene por la relación del hombre con su entorno. Desde hace quince años, la Universidad Colegio Mayor de Nuestra señora del Rosario, por intermedio de su Facultad de Jurisprudencia y concretamente de la Especialización y la línea de investigación en Derecho Ambiental, ha propuesto a través de diversos proyectos avanzar en el conocimiento y análisis del ordenamiento (...) jurídico ambiental, aportando así al desarrollo, estructura y consolidación de esta rama jurídica. Bajo estos parámetros, el objetivo de esta publicación es hacer algunas reflexiones en torno a distintos temas que dentro del derecho público impactan o influyen al derecho ambiental y responder a los enormes desafíos que se presentan en la materia. Por tanto, el programa quiere contribuir desde la academia al diálogo crítico y propositivo que permita dar solución a los problemas encontrados en la aplicación del derecho ambiental. En el primer capítulo, Gloria Amparo Rodriguez describe los ordenamientos jurídicos constitucionales de Colombia, Ecuador y Bolivia a fin de analizar la forma en que cada uno de ellos consagra el derecho a un ambiente sano. A continuación, Martha Ovalle y Zelba Nidia Castro de Perez realizan un estudio de los principios de precaución y prevención, exponiendo su alcance, su fundamento desde el derecho internacional y cómo vienen siendo entendidos por nuestro ordenamiento jurídico, tanto jurisprudencial como legal. Luis Adolfo Diazgranados se ocupa de la responsabilidad de los funcionarios públicos en materia ambiental, para lo cual realiza un análisis de los deberes consagrados en la normatividad vigente. Continuando con esta temática, el profesor Jorge Agudo Gonzalez, de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, explora la incidencia del ambiente y los recursos naturales en los procesos contractuales, a fin de mostrar cómo estas materias se han constituido en variable fundamental en el devenir de la formación, celebración y ejecución de los contratos, desde un punto de vista crítico, los aspectos importantes del proceso sancionatorio ambiental, evidenciando las falencias y vacios del a Ley 1333 de 2009. Jairo Cabrera plantea algunas reflexiones sobre la responsabilidad, valiéndose de la doctrina internacional, sobre la problemática de la reparación por daño ambiental. Por su parte, Leonardo Güiza Suárez explica el régimen general de la responsabilidad ambiental en el ordenamiento jurídico a partir del daño de los bosques naturales y su incidencia sobre los derechos humanos. Andres Gomez Rey, desde la teoría del acto administrativo, desarrolla el análisis crítico del régimen jurídico de las aguas superficiales en el derecho ambiental. Giovani J. Herrera Carrascal realiza una disertación sobre los recursos naturales y el ambiente como elementos del espacio público que a su vez constituye en un componente del medio ambiente urbano a partir de la jurisprudencia y de las competencias respectivas. Por último, Marybell Ochoa Miranda trate el tema de los residuos hospitalarios en Colombia, exponiendo su régimen jurídico, las competencias de las autoridades ambientales, los deberes que en estos asuntos tienen los ciudadanos, proponiendo lineamientos para avanzar en la consolidación de la gestión integral de residuos hospitalarios y similares. (shrink)

This paper aims at providing an epistemic defense of democracy based on John Dewey’s idea that democracies do not only find problems and provide solutions to them but they also articulate problems....

Ultimately this book provides a theory of intergenerational justice that is both intellectually robust and practical with wide applicability to law and policy.

En el artículo se defiende que si se acepta la superación entre fundacionismo y coherentismo que plantea Ernest Sosa y se sostiene una teoría de la justificación epistémica basada en el ejercicio de virtudes intelectuales, esta no es condición suficiente para usar el razonamiento analógico en la investigación arqueológica. Por ende, aunque se puede sostener su necesidad para utilizar la analogía, no es suficiente a menos que se recurra a la virtud de la responsabilidad (Code) como eje de la justificación (...) epistémica. Finalmente se discute su viabilidad e importancia para el caso de la arqueología en México. (shrink)

We argue that philosophers are competent to facilitate public discussion concerning restrictions on human migration across political borders. We also argue that presenting public audiences with a prima facie case for open borders offers a unique opportunity to elucidate important aspects of philosophical reasoning. Finally, we share resources and a lesson plan for those keen to examine the case for open borders with students, or to facilitate public discussion on these issues.

Foundational ontologies, central constructs in ontological investigations and engineering alike, are based on ontological categories. Firstly proposed by Aristotle as the very ur- elements from which the whole of reality can be derived, they are not easy to identify, let alone partition and/or hierarchize; in particular, the question of their number poses serious challenges. The late medieval philosopher Dietrich of Freiberg wrote around 1286 a tutorial that can help us today with this exceedingly difficult task. In this paper, I discuss (...) ontological categories and their importance for foundational ontologies from both the contemporary perspective and the original Aristotelian viewpoint, I provide the translation from the Latin into English of Dietrich's De origine II with an introductory elaboration, and I extract a foundational ontology–that is in fact a single-category one–from this text rooted in Dietrich's specification of types of subjecthood and his conception of intentionality as causal operation. (shrink)

Ontologies are some of the most central constructs in today's large plethora of knowledge technologies, namely in the context of the semantic web. As their coinage indicates, they are direct heirs to the ontological investigations in the long Western philosophical tradition, but it is not easy to make bridges between them. Contemporary ontological commitments often take causality as a central aspect for the ur-segregation of entities, especially in scientific upper ontologies; theories of causality and philosophical ontological investigations often go hand-in-hand, (...) and were essentially inseparable in medieval thought. This constitutes the foundation for a bridge, and this article analyzes the causality-based ontology of the late medieval philosopher Dietrich of Freiberg from the viewpoint of today's upper-ontology engineering. In this bridging attempt, it offers a translation into English of the first part of Dietrich's De origine (abbreviated title) that is a compromise between traditional scholarly translations of medieval Latin philosophical texts and contemporary ontology. (shrink)

Arguably the most foundational principle in perception research is that our experience of the world goes beyond the retinal image; we perceive the distal environment itself, not the proximal stimulation it causes. Shape may be the paradigm case of such “unconscious inference”: When a coin is rotated in depth, we infer the circular object it truly is, discarding the perspectival ellipse projected on our eyes. But is this really the fate of such perspectival shapes? Or does a tilted coin retain (...) an elliptical appearance even when we know it’s circular? This question has generated heated debate from Locke and Hume to the present; but whereas extant arguments rely primarily on introspection, this problem is also open to empirical test. If tilted coins bear a representational similarity to elliptical objects, then a circular coin should, when rotated, impair search for a distal ellipse. Here, nine experiments demonstrate that this is so, suggesting that perspectival shapes persist in the mind far longer than traditionally assumed. Subjects saw search arrays of three-dimensional “coins,” and simply had to locate a distally elliptical coin. Surprisingly, rotated circular coins slowed search for elliptical targets, even when subjects clearly knew the rotated coins were circular. This pattern arose with static and dynamic cues, couldn’t be explained by strategic responding or unfamiliarity, generalized across shape classes, and occurred even with sustained viewing. Finally, these effects extended beyond artificial displays to real-world objects viewed in naturalistic, full-cue conditions. We conclude that objects have a remarkably persistent dual character: their objective shape “out there,” and their perspectival shape “from here.”. (shrink)

Comment l’oeuvre de Dewey nous aide-t-elle à rendre compte du potentiel de démocratisation des luttes sociales, tout en mettant l’accent sur leurs activités d’enquête* ? Au-delà des approches délibératives, une approche deweyenne montre comment les mobilisations collectives, qui visent à produire des « cadres d’injustice » et à promouvoir des « relations justes », ont le potentiel d’approfondir la pratique démocratique. Mon argumentation s’organise en trois temps. Tout d’abord, elle montre comment, pour Dewey, les « pratiques épistémiques » – d’identification, (...) de définition et de résolution de problèmes sociaux – conduisent au changement des normes de participation et d’inclusion de façon extensive et intensive. Ensuite, elle examine la manière dont le modèle expérimentaliste de Dewey médiatise l’approfondissement de la démocratie et la lutte pour la justice : le besoin d’intégrer le maximum de perspectives et de les rendre compatibles les unes avec les autres que l’on éprouve la nécessité d’explorer les normes hégémoniques de la pratique politique. Enfin, elle identifie des éléments d’expérimentalisme démocratique dans trois pratiques d’enquête : « consciousness-rising », « testimonio » et « conricerca », et tente de montrer leur potentiel de changement de notre compréhension de la pratique politique. (shrink)

This paper introduces the theory QST of quasets as a formal basis for the Nmatrices. The main aim is to construct a system of Nmatrices by substituting standard sets by quasets. Since QST is a conservative extension of ZFA (the Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with Atoms), it is possible to obtain generalized Nmatrices (Q-Nmatrices). Since the original formulation of QST is not completely adequate for the developments we advance here, some possible amendments to the theory are also considered. One of the (...) most interesting traits of such an extension is the existence of complementary quasets which admit elements with undetermined membership. Such elements can be interpreted as quantum systems in superposed states. We also present a relationship of QST with the theory of Rough Sets RST, which grants the existence of models for SQT formed by rough sets. Some consequences of the given formalism for the relation of logical consequence are also analysed. (shrink)

Dynamic Theodicy (DT) is a broad concept we bring up to designate some modern Philosophical Theology attempts to reconcile the necessary and perfect existence of God with the contingent characteristics of human life. In this paper we analyze such approaches and discuss how they have become incomprehensible because the metaphysical assumptions implicit in these explanations have lost their intrinsic relation to the natural human desire for salvation. In the first part we show Charles Hartshorne's DT-model, arising from the modal logic (...) of perfection, and the modern rational problems of this position in making infinite-necessary Being (God) and finite-contingent being (human) compatible. We note that at the heart of the contradictions in this DT account is a dialectical mode of thinking that makes it difficult to find a correct solution to this dichotomy, and to assume a human desire that could be considered related to lifelong goals. In the second part, supported by the proposal of Hans Urs von Balthasar's DT, we develop the concepts of bodily vulnerability, corporeal intentionality, and natural desire for salvation, which come from an Aristotelian-Thomistic thought. This theory is established in order to build an argument, following Alasdair MacIntyre’s ethical framework, on how to make possible the recovery of a metaphysical and anthropological desire that transcends natural aging and goes beyond death. We conclude that both human dependence and the virtues that arise naturally when human beings decide to seek the good of their transcendent condition, make it possible to recover the natural desire for salvation through divine and human love. (shrink)

The gulf between philosophical and formal ontology can and should be bridged. In this Editorial, I elaborate briefly on this subject.

Why should we avoid incoherence? An influential view tells us that incoherent combinations of attitudes are such that it is impossible for all of those attitudes to be simultaneously vindicated by the evidence. But it is not clear whether this view successfully explains what is wrong with certain akratic doxastic states. In this paper I flesh out an alternative response to that question, one according to which the problem with incoherent combinations of attitudes is that it is impossible for all (...) of those attitudes to be simultaneously knowledgeable. This alternative response explains what is wrong with akratic combinations of attitudes using commonly accepted epistemological theses. The paper still shows how this proposal is able to explain the badness of incoherent combinations involving the absence of attitudes, suspended judgment and credence. These explanations deploy the notions of knowledge and being in a position to know, instead of the notion of responding properly to the evidence. Finally, I suggest that this picture can be generalized to the realm of practical rationality as well. (shrink)

The aim of this work is to expose the Cartesian Model of the mind in Cognitive Archaeology and point out how it relates to the questions behind this branch of archaeology. Based on this, some of the premises assumed by the Cartesian Model and how they influence the formulation to the problem of epistemological relativism in the branch are explained. According to this problem, since there is no way to evaluate hypotheses in this research area, the investigations on cognition, based (...) on archaeological evidence, are unjustified. Finally, some alternative approaches to the Cartesian Model and its research agendas are summarized. (shrink)

When a circular coin is rotated in depth, is there any sense in which it comes to resemble an ellipse? While this question is at the center of a rich and divided philosophical tradition (with some scholars answering affirmatively and some negatively), Morales et al. (2020, 2021) took an empirical approach, reporting 10 experiments whose results favor such perspectival similarity. Recently, Burge and Burge (2022) offered a vigorous critique of this work, objecting to its approach and conclusions on both philosophical (...) and empirical grounds. Here, we answer these objections on both fronts. We show that Burge and Burge’s critique rests on misunderstandings of Morales et al.’s claims; of the relation between the data and conclusions; and of the philosophical context in which the work appears. Specifically, Burge and Burge attribute to us a much stronger (and stranger) view than we hold, involving the introduction of “a new entity” located “in some intermediate position(s) between the distal shape and the retinal image.” We do not hold this view. Indeed, once properly understood, most of Burge and Burge’s objections favor Morales et al.’s claims rather than oppose them. Finally, we discuss several questions that remain unanswered, and reflect on a productive path forward on these issues of foundational scientific and philosophical interest. (shrink)

Our pains can be more or less intense, our mental imagery can be more or less vivid, our perceptual experiences can be more or less striking. These degrees of intensity of conscious experiences are all manifestations of a phenomenal property I call mental strength. In this article, I argue that mental strength is a domain-general phenomenal magnitude; in other words, it is a phenomenal quantity shared by all conscious experiences that explains their degree of felt intensity. Mental strength has been (...) largely overlooked in favor of mental states’ type, representational contents, domain-specific phenomenology, or processes such as attention. Considering mental strength in our reflections about the mind illuminates debates about the relation of representational contents and phenomenal character, and it also helps address questions about the structure and functions of consciousness. Mental strength provides a unifying construct to model what is shared in the phenomenology of different types of conscious experiences. (shrink)

In this chapter, we discuss a selection of current views of the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). We focus on the different predictions they make, in particular with respect to the role of prefrontal cortex (PFC) during visual experiences, which is an area of critical interest and some source of contention. Our discussion of these views focuses on the level of functional anatomy, rather than at the neuronal circuitry level. We take this approach because we currently understand more about experimental (...) evidence at this coarse level and because these results are appropriate for arbitrating between current theoretical frameworks. We discuss the Two-Visual-Systems Hypothesis (Milner & Goodale 1995; 2006), Local Recurrency (Lamme 2010; Lamme 2006), Higher Order (Lau 2008; Lau & Rosenthal 2011) and Global Workspace theories (Baars 1997; Baars 2005; Dehaene & Naccache 2001; Dehaene 2014). Despite the apparent stark differences between conscious and unconscious perceptual processing, available evidence suggests that their neural substrates must be largely shared. This indicates that the difference in neural activity between conscious and unconscious perceptual processing is likely to be subtle and highly specialized. We argue that current experimental evidence about the involvement of specific activity in prefrontal cortex supports the higher order neural theory of consciousness. In consequence, imaging techniques that focus only on marked differences between conscious and unconscious level of activity are likely to be insensitive to the relevant neural activity patterns that underlie conscious experiences. Finally, it follows from the evidence we discuss that the functional advantages of conscious over unconscious perceptual processing may be more limited than commonly thought. (shrink)