The work presented has the following approach: starting from the Pope's reflection on the planet and ecological problems, it is intended to show the philosophical influences that underlie Francisco's exposition. These influences make it possible to describe a philosophical profile present in the encyclical Laudato si’. In addition, since philosophy claims to know, it is not exhausted only in knowledge, but tries to know in order to act; therefore, the presence of an ethical proposal follows; and since all ethics leads (...) to action, it follows that action cannot be without some indicators, without an axiology on which human action on the planet revolves. The result is that Francisco offers an ethic of otherness that feels the other as an authentic neighbor, even those who are in the future. It is an ethic of common benefit and caring for the other whose fundamental axis is the person and for this reason he reflects the phenomenon of human life within life on Earth, with which its philosophical approach seems personalist, from a point of Christian view. (shrink)

The work then develops attempts to present the most relevant aspects of the philosophical thought of John Stuart Mill in relation to religion. The work consists of two parts: the first part, w e develop below, theological reflection on the most important aspects about religión, the debate on the arguments that justify the existente of God; the attributes of God; the occurrence of evil in the World; and, finally, the M ill's assesment about Christ. The second part, will focus on (...) aspects about utilitarian morality and the Christian religion; the proposal about new religión, M ankind's Religion; the happiness in your relationship with utilitarianism, happiness relates to Christianity and the common ground between Christian doctrine and utilitarian doctrine. (shrink)

El presente artículo trata, desde una perspectiva histórica, mostrar el debate entre la Razón y la Fe en la Historia de la Filosofía.

El presente texto muestra, dentro del pensamiento de John Stuart Mill, una idea de ser humano diverso y distinto que vive en una realidad también diversa. La convivencia de seres diversos en las distintas sociedades requiere de una organización política en la que la democracia representativa juega un papel importante, pero también unida a la política está la ética, la cual en Stuart Mill ha de ser una ética cívica, esto es, una ética en la que los ciudadanos, sujetos de (...) derechos y de deberes, desplieguen sus capacidades de modo libre, sin más freno que el perjuicio al semejante. (shrink)

El trabajo que se presenta intenta mostrar, por un lado y siguiendo a Ortega y Gasset, la complejidad del fenómeno de la política; y por otro lado, a partir de la constatación anterior, la necesidad de una ética que haga de la política una actividad presidida por el diálogo, la integración y la búsqueda de soluciones a las complejidades de la sociedad actual. Son relevantes en este aspecto Apel y Habermas.

El artículo trata de mostrar las influencias de los ideales de la Ilustración en el pensamiento de John Stuart Mill. Así, puede comprobarse como en esos ideales de libertad, igualdad, tolerancia, respeto a la diferencia que propugna la Ilustración están presentes en el pensamiento de Mill y vertebran su filosofía.

El presente artículo es un extracto de la Tesis Doctoral leída en la Facultad de Filosofía de la Universidad de Oviedo el 16 de abril de 2010 titulada Educación para la Libertad en el pensamiento de John Stuart Mill. Este artículo recoge de forma resumida, a lo largo de sus páginas, los aspectos más destacables de dicha Tesis Doctoral. Se subraya el aspecto de la educación como elemento fundamental en el pensamiento del filósofo inglés John Stuart Mill, en el sentido (...) de mostrar la educación como aquello que permite sacar al exterior las capacidades, talentos, destrezas que la persona posee. Al mismo tiempo es la educación, en el marco de la cultura, la que afina y refina a la persona, ayudándola a construirse como una persona que se incorpore a la ciudadanía con derechos y deberes y que ejerza esa ciudadanía responsablemente en aras del bien común. La educación hace al ser humano más libre, y la libertad es la esencia de la persona en el pensamiento de Stuart Mill. (shrink)

Este artículo trata de mostrar la idea de sociedad y de convivencia política de los ciudadanos en el pensamiento de John Stuart Mill desde su perspectiva utilitarista, en la cual el objetivo es la felicidad de las personas.

El artículo de investigación rememora en 2019 el 150 aniversario de la publicación de John Stuart Mill titulada La Esclavitud Femenina (1869). Recorre los principales ejes temáticos del autor acerca de su idea de mujer, de la necesidad de liberar a la mujer e igualarla al varón en los terrenos de la familia, laboral, educativo y político.

El presente artículo muestra, dentro del pensamiento filosófico de John Stuart Mill, su enfoque de sociedad avanzada, apoyada en la libertad del individuo como soporte básico, en el marco de estados democráticos, y que se desarrolla y avanza gracias a la educación. Las implicaciones beneficiosas para la humanidad, que se siguen, de ello son relevantes.

Introducción a los escritos de san Juan. Evangelio, Cartas y Apocalipsis es el título del libro editado por Juan Chapa, profesor de la Facultad de Teología de la Universidad de Navarra, publicado en el 2011 por la editorial EUNSA. En este texto, el editor nos presenta una revisión sobre el estado de la investigación sobre los escritos de san Juan, apoyándose en la misma Sagrada Escritura, así como en los datos de la Tradición de la Iglesia Católica.

The Catholic Church is a field hospital with medics that help to spiritually heal those who recognize that they are in need of healing and who are willing to accept the cure being offered. Many of these medics seek intimacy, closeness, and compassion with those in need, which they are unable to obtain simply by creating and executing pastoral activities. For this reason, we emphasize the work of spiritual medics as a key element for a missionary Church; We can use (...) the work of Saint John Climacus to help describe the principal characteristics of this missionary Church. His contributions are of great relevance for us today because they are grounded in the living out of the virtues that all Christians are called to live, with the goal to give personalized attention. -/- La Iglesia católica es un hospital de campaña con médicos que ayudan a sanar espiritualmente a quienes reconociéndose enfermos aceptan la cura ofrecida.Muchos de estos piden cercanía, proximidad y compasión, realidades que no se logran ofrecer simplemente impulsando la realización de actividades pastorales. Poresta razón, destacamos la labor del médico espiritual como pieza clave para unaIglesia en salida; describimos sus principales características apoyándonos en la obra de San Juan Clímaco. Sus aportes son de gran actualidad porque se apoyan en la vivencia de las virtudes con el fin de brindar una atención personalizada. (shrink)

"God wants to marry us" (p. 14, 97, 122), es decir, Dios quiere casarse con nosotros, es el tema central del presente libro, y según otros autores, es también el sentido real de la Biblia. La Biblia no es un libro que nos enseña cómo encontrar a Dios, sino el libro que nos revela cómo Dios nos busca incansablemente y nos relata las innumerables veces y maneras en las que Dios trata de hacerse el encontradizo para que el ser humano (...) lo acoja en su corazón. Pues bien, este es el principal argumento del autor de este libro. La obra de Christopher West es a todas luces teológica, y nos deja ver, con sencillas palabras, la profundidad de la teología del cuerpo propuesta por el Papa Juan Pablo II. Aquí encontraremos que el significado de la vida del ser humano está impreso en su propio cuerpo, en su sexualidad. Cabe anotar que se requiere algún mínimo de conocimiento teológico para leer este libro con facilidad, y da por sentado un cierto conocimiento de la Sagrada Escritura, la cual es citada 213 veces, además de las veces que hace referencia al capítulo quinto de la carta de San Pablo a los Efesios. De todas maneras, el estilo fluido y cercano del autor, así como la mención a algunos ejemplos de la vida cotidiana, permite que el contenido del libro se vaya asimilando poco a poco. (shrink)

Men, Women, and the Mystery of Love es el libro escrito por Edward Sri, profesor del Augustine Institute de Denver, Colorado, publicado en el 2015 por la editorial Servant, en el cual toma las enseñanzas de la obra del papa Juan Pablo II titulada Amor y responsabilidad pre-sentándolas como una guía práctica, sin ser un manual seco sobre ética sexual o un tratado abstracto sobre el amor, que ayuda a los lectores a comprender la visión de Juan Pablo (...) II sobre las relaciones entre el hombre y la mujer, y las puedan aplicar en sus propias vidas. (shrink)

Naturalism, construed as the idea that philosophy should be continuous with science, is a highly influential view. Its consequences for epistemology, however, are rather odd. Many believe that naturalized epistemology allows eschewing traditional skeptical challenges. This is often seen as an advantage; but it also calls into question its claim of belonging to the philosophical inquiry into knowledge. This paper argues that skeptical challenges can be stated to defy epistemic optimism within naturalized epistemology, and that there are distinctively naturalistic forms (...) of skepticism. To that end, it outlines some assumptions underlying many attempts to naturalize epistemology. It contrasts these approaches to traditional epistemology and identifies the reasons offered by naturalistic epistemologists to dismiss traditional skeptical challenges. Next, it argues that the problem of skepticism can be sensibly stated within a naturalistic setting. Finally, it contends that there are distinctively naturalistic strategies to argue for skepticism and diagnoses the prospects of naturalism vis-à-vis these kinds of skeptical challenges. (shrink)

Reactivity, or the phenomenon by which subjects tend to modify their behavior in virtue of their being studied upon, is often cited as one of the most important difficulties involved in social scientific experiments, and yet, there is to date a persistent conceptual muddle when dealing with the many dimensions of reactivity. This paper offers a conceptual framework for reactivity that draws on an interventionist approach to causality. The framework allows us to offer an unambiguous definition of reactivity and distinguishes (...) it from placebo effects. Further, it allows us to distinguish between benign and malignant forms of the phenomenon, depending on whether reactivity constitutes a danger to the validity of the causal inferences drawn from experimental data. (shrink)

In what ways and how far does virtue shield someone against suffering evils? In other words, how do non-moral evils affect the lives of virtuous people and to what extent can someone endure evils while staying happy? The central purpose of this chapter is to answer these questions by exploring what Aristotle has to say about the effects of evils in human well-being in general and his treatment of extreme misfortunes.

Plurality implies a public sphere in which different worldviews (e.g. Secular Humanist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim and others) coexist respecting each other. Banning the presence of one or several of them from the public sphere is questionable in principle, and divisive in practice.

Brexit has been widely covered in the news. Much of the attention of the press in English has gone to the British perspective. This piece seeks to present a holistic view of this event, including the European perspective. It argues that, notwithstanding this break-up and the problems it highlights (especially the tiredness of citizens with traditional party politics), the European project can survive this crisis and forge ahead into the future.

MacIntyre's is one approach among many to explain what philosophy ought to be. For Pieper (in: "Defence of Philosophy"), just to cite another one, "to engage in philosophy means to reflect on the totality of things we encounter, in view of their ultimate" or fundamental truth. And there are others. But my interest here is to explore the circumstances under which philosophers could claim a place in society due to a service they provide, as valuable as that of a mechanical (...) engineer in a factory, a waiter in a hotel or a pilot on an airplane. The circumstances, this is, which would make society see philosophers not (or not only) as oddly useless figures addressing intellectually engaging puzzles and uttering obscure conclusions, but as valuable contributors to the common good. (shrink)

The paper reviews the foundational ideals that gave “Europe”, an integration project with continental ambitions, its initial meaning or identity. “Europe” meant reconciliation and peace, reconstruction and widespread prosperity, and the mitigation of nationalism through the creation of supranational communities. A broad cultural consensus made it easier to trust each other and work together. The enterprise received a tacit approval from Europeans throughout the initial stages. More than 60 years and 20 member states later the project is under strain in (...) the social, economic, political and cultural fields. Today, as Europeans (now continental citizens) experience not only the advantages, but also the sacrifices of belonging to “Europe” (in the form of a Union), their allegiance to, and indeed the identity of the whole project are in question. I will submit that the original identity of “Europe” should be revived, and revisited for it to evolve in response to the present challenges. If its future identity is that of an intercultural, inclusive, flexible, and analogical polity, Europe will be still worth fighting for. (shrink)

Este trabajo analiza los patrones de desambiguación de presuposiciones que se pueden considerar anafóricas y son generadas por partículas indexicales. En contraste con teorías recientes sobre la presuposición que privilegian la información lexical proponemos un análisis perspectivo de la presuposición según el cual la inferencia por defecto sobre este tipo de información hace uso de la perspectiva de los hablantes. En dos estudios exploramos el patrón de desambiguación de oraciones que contienen la palabra ‘también’ en contextos donde se usa el (...) indéxico ‘yo’. Los resultados confirman nuestra hipótesis y se discuten a la luz las principales ideas sobre presuposición y anáfora. A partir de estos resultados sugerimos algunas direcciones futuras de investigación. (shrink)

Una de las bifurcaciones en el debate contemporáneo sobre la legitimidad de la democracia explora si ésta ofrece ventajas distintivamente epistémicas frente a otras alternativas políticas. Quienes defienden la tesis de la democracia epistémica afirman que la democracia es instrumentalmente superior o equiparable a otras formas de organización política en lo que concierne a la obtención de varios bienes epistémicos. En este ensayo presento dos (grupos de) argumentos a favor de la democracia epistémica, que se inspiran en resultados formales: el (...) teorema del jurado de Condorcet [TJC] y el teorema ‘diversidad supera habilidad’ [DSH]. Pese a su gran atractivo, sostengo que estos argumentos son incapaces de respaldar dicha tesis: no brindan razones para considerar que la democracia es epistémicamente superior (o equiparable) a algunas alternativas políticas no democráticas. En su lugar, sugiero que, sin requerir un cambio radical en nuestras formas de organización política, la epistemología democrática –el estudio de las ‘circunstancias epistémicas de la democracia’– puede ofrecer valiosas lecciones de sobre cómo optimizar, en nuestra situación, instituciones y procedimientos de toma de decisiones. Para ello, primero distingo entre varias maneras de evaluar procedimientos de toma de decisión colectiva. Argumento que, al considerarlos como formas de organización política, un factor importante en la evaluación de tales procedimientos involucra asuntos fácticos sobre los cuales puede aspirarse a obtener o promover algunos bienes epistémicos. En este contexto, presento algunos de los argumentos más importantes a favor de la democracia epistémica. A continuación, reúno algunas de las objeciones sobre la aplicabilidad de dichos argumentos y ofrezco razones independientes para dudar de que ofrezcan apoyo a la tesis de la democracia epistémica. Finalmente, defiendo que la epistemología democrática puede desempeñar un papel significativo en la legitimación de formas de organización colectiva que podrían denominarse ‘democráticas’. (shrink)

The increasing number of residents and citizens with non-Western cultural backgrounds in the European Union (EU) has prompted the question of whether EU member states (and other Western democracies) can accommodate the newcomers and maintain their free polities (‘liberal democracies’). The answer depends on how important – if at all – cultural groundings are to democratic polities. The analysis of a fascinating Habermas-Ratzinger debate on the ‘pre-political moral foundations of the free-state’ suggests that while legitimacy originates on the will of (...) the citizens that conform the political community, liberal democracies might not be completely free from moral principles implicit in their political culture. This possibility has normative implications for the political future of the EU - and of the West in general - particularly regarding immigration, integration and citizenship policies. (shrink)

This book addresses key conceptual issues relating to the modern scientific and engineering use of computer simulations. It analyses a broad set of questions, from the nature of computer simulations to their epistemological power, including the many scientific, social and ethics implications of using computer simulations. The book is written in an easily accessible narrative, one that weaves together philosophical questions and scientific technicalities. It will thus appeal equally to all academic scientists, engineers, and researchers in industry interested in questions (...) related to the general practice of computer simulations. (shrink)

Postnationalists like Habermas have suggested EU citizenship as a way to overcome nationalisms, grounding political belonging on the body of laws that members of the postnational polity generate in the public sphere. Cosmopolitan communitarianist like Bellamy think that EU citizens should form a mixed-commonwealth, with political belonging based on their nations. I will argue that the second option is more desiderable and submit the analogical character of the ensuing ideas of the citizenship, identity and polity. Cosmopolitan communitarianist citizenship promises to (...) better foster the great richness of European national cultural, religious, historical, political, legal and linguistic diversity while still maintaining a certain unity to form a "mixed" polity. (shrink)

This article analyses the epistemic status of law and its presumption of being a science in relation with the so-called demarcation criterion proposed by different philosophers of science. Such criteria are the main analytical elements to differentiate scientific discourses from those who are not and the ones who pretend to be. In relation to those, pseudoscience and law are treated, to finally conclude with the exposition of the case of Daubert v. Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, in which a judicial process defined (...) demarcation criteria. This paper shows how the demarcation criteria of science and the concept of pseudoscience cannot be applied to law science given its own rationality. (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)

As the euro crisis unfolds, political discourse on both sides of the European Union (EU)’s internal divide—“North” and “South”—becomes ever more exasperated, distant and untranslatable. At the root lies a weak pan-European sense of belonging—a common political identity thanks to which European citizens may regard each other as equals, and therefore as deserving recognition, trust, and solidarity. This paper describes some of the culture-related problems that impact directly on the formation of an eventual political identity for EU citizens. It then (...) suggests that the enacting of an interculturalist paradigm can help untie some of the nuts—political but also cultural—that Europe faces in order to solve the economic crisis. A few remarks are dedicated in the conclusive part to cultural pluralism in Singapore, a key player in any future progress towards the integration of the Asia Pacific Region. (shrink)

The specific role of empeiria in Aristotle’s ethics has received much less attention than its role in his epistemology, despite the fact that Aristotle explicitly stresses the importance of empeiria as a requirement for the receptivity to ethical arguments and as a source for the formation of phronêsis.1 Thus, while empeiria is an integral part of all explanations that scholars give of the Aristotelian account of the acquisition of technê and epistêmê, it is usually not prominent in explanations of the (...) acquisition of phronêsis.2 The abundant mentions of empeiria in Aristotle’s ethical treatises are often eclipsed in the secondary literature... (shrink)

Citizenship is the cornerstone of a democratic polity. It has three dimensions: legal, civic and affiliative. Citizens constitute the polity's demos, which often coincides with a nation. European Union (EU) citizenship was introduced to enhance ‘European identity’ (Europeans’ sense of belonging to their political community). Yet such citizenship faces at least two problems. First: Is there a European demos? If so, what is the status of peoples (nations, demoi) in the Member States? The original European project aimed at ‘an ever (...) closer union among the peoples of Europe.’ Second: Citizens are members of a political community; to what kind of polity do EU citizens belong? Does the EU substitute Member States, assume them or coexist alongside them? After an analytical exposition of the demos and telos problems, I will argue for a normative self‐understanding of the EU polity and citizenship, neither in national nor in federal but in analogical terms. (shrink)

The focus of Australia-US relations is most often on mutual security and economic ties. But it is also important to acknowledge the significant role that educational linkages and exchanges have played in furthering the bond between the two countries.

The economic crisis in Europe exposes the European Union’s political fragility. How a polity made of very different states can live up to the motto “Europe united in diversity” is difficult to envisage in practice. In this paper I attempt an “exegesis”—a critical explanation or interpretation of a series of published pieces (“the Series”) which explores, first, if European unity is desirable at all. Second, it presents a new methodology—analogical hermeneutics—used throughout the Series to approach the problem of unity. Third, (...) it conceptualises the source of unity as political identity. Fourth, it advances that the vehicle to share such identity is an analogical language: the political culture of human rights. Fifth, it submits the conditions under which such political culture could ground political identity through an open public sphere. Finally, it presents a way in which solidarity can grow as the increasingly diverse citizens of the European Union interact with each other. Even though the economic crisis can be solved by means of sound economic strategy (which is not the main object of my work), any successful economic strategy requires—as a precondition—a certain degree of political unity (the central concern of my research). (shrink)

Have you ever kept a diary of your personal life? For many people, keeping a written record of their experiences, thoughts, feelings, travels or encounters with people is a common practice. For others, it is not. Perhaps for some it is something completely foreign. For Russian Orthodox priest Alexander Schmemann it was clearly not. His diary, two volumes of almost 600 pages each, has given an insight into the life, worries, joys and even disappointments of one of the most influential (...) theologians of the 20th century. On this occasion we would like to refer to the first volume and scrutinize a little of what this work brings to the world today. ¿Ha llevado usted un diario de su vida personal? Para muchas personas, llevar un registro escrito de sus vivencias, pensamientos, sentimientos, viajes o encuentros con personas es una práctica común. Para otros no. Quizá para algunos esto es algo completamente ajeno. Es evidente que para el sacerdote ortodoxo ruso Alexander Schmemann no lo fue. Su diario, dos tomos de casi 600 páginas cada uno, ha dejado ver a fondo la vida, preocupaciones, alegrías, e incluso desilusiones de uno de los teólogos más influyentes del siglo XX. En esta ocasión queremos referirnos al primer tomo y escudriñar un poco qué aporta esta obra al mundo de hoy. (shrink)

Thomas Bonk has dedicated a book to analyzing the thesis of underdetermination of scientific theories, with a chapter exclusively devoted to the analysis of the relation between this idea and the indeterminacy of meaning. Both theses caused a revolution in the philosophic world in the sixties, generating a cascade of articles and doctoral theses. Agitation seems to have cooled down, but the point is still debated and it may be experiencing a renewed resurgence.

In this paper, I develop a criticism to a method for metaontology, namely, the idea that a discourse’s or theory’s ontological commitments can be read off its sentences’ truth- conditions. Firstly, I will put forward this idea’s basis and, secondly, I will present the way Quine subscribed to it. However, I distinguish between two readings of Quine’s famous ontological criterion, and I center the focus on the one currently dubbed “ontological minimalism”, a kind of modern Ockhamism applied to the mentioned (...) metaontological view. I show that this view has a certain application via Quinean thesis of reference inscrutability but that it is not possible to press that application any further and, in particular, not for the ambitious metaontological task some authors try to employ. The conclusion may sound promising: having shown the impossibility of a semantic ontological criterion, intentionalist or subjectivist ones should be explored. (shrink)

The human person has been analyzed from several points of view throughout the history. Great theologians, philosophers, anthropologists and sociologists and other specialists have written extensively on the subject. The philosophical contribution centered on the human person has been significant throughout history. In the last century, Romano Guardini, who received the Erasmus Prize for Best European Humanist and called "Master of Life" offers a view of reality man-centered, through a thin, deep and coherent approach on the individual. His work has (...) been labeled by some philosophers within the personalist current, and although his contributions were many, we want to highlight the elements of the meeting, the language and the self-acceptance. In this paper we propose how this approach to the human person can become an intinerary embodied in reality, that can help today to seek clarification and start delving into own personal knowledge enlightened by faith. -/- La persona humana ha sido analizada desde varios puntos de vista a lo largo de la historia. Grandes teólogos, filósofos, antropólogos y sociólogos entre otros especialistas han escrito profusamente acerca del tema. El aporte de una filosofía centrada en la persona humana ha sido significativo a lo largo de la historia. En el último siglo, Romano Guardini, quien recibió el Premio Erasmo al Mejor Humanista Europeo y llamado “Maestro de Vida”, propone una visión de la realidad centrada en el hombre, a través de una aproximación fina, profunda y coherente sobre la persona humana. Su trabajo ha sido catalogado por algunos filósofos dentro de la corriente personalista, y si bien sus aportes fueron muchos queremos resaltar los elementos del encuentro, el lenguaje y la aceptación de sí mismo. En este trabajo proponemos cómo dicha aproximación a la persona humana se puede convertir en un itinerario encarnado en la realidad que puede ayudar hoy en día a quienes buscan esclarecer y comenzar a ahondar en el propio conocimiento personal iluminados por la fe. (shrink)

This paper looks into two Scottish Philosophical Societies of the Eighteenth century: The Philosophical Society of Edinburgh, and the Select Society of Edinburgh. I intend to show that they were planned, constructed, and carried out according to the experimental method of natural philosophy, and that it was this factor that enhanced the influence they had in the development of the country. An examination of the minute books, discourses, abstracts and question lists of these societies will provide enough evidence to support (...) the claim that experimental philosophy and its method were the decisive factors for the developing and huge success of these societies. (shrink)

El estudio que se desarrolla aquí muestra los aspectos generales del pensamiento de John Stuart Mill relacionados con la religión, tales como la existencia de Dios, los atributos de Dios, características del Cristianismo y cuestiones similares. Igualmente muestra la hipótesis de la utilidad de la religión para las personas.

Our philosophical understanding of mental illness is being shaped by neuroscience. However, it has the paradoxical effect of igniting two radically opposed groups of philosophical views. On one side, skepticism and denialism assume that, lacking clear biological mechanisms and etiologies for most mental illnesses, we should infer they are constructions best explained by means of social factors. This is strongly associated with medical nihilism: it considers psychiatry more harmful than benign. On the other side of the divide, naturalism and reductionism (...) are on the look for failures in the biological functioning of the organism whenever a genuine mental illness occurs. Psychiatry as currently practiced, accordingly, exhibits the gaps of an ongoing research programme; a yet to be completed neuroscience would link mental illnesses with identifiable biological mechanisms. Both sides of this divide claim to be fostered by scientific discoveries and advances in neuroscience, when taken at face value. Against this background, we argue instead for a modest view. To that end, we draw attention to some nuances in the scientific realism debate. While contending that neuroscientific theories and models aim to provide true representations of their target systems, and can justifiably claim to have attained some, we argue that our confidence should not be placed beforehand in specific features of these scientific representations. Hence, it would be unwarranted to extract morals for psychiatry from posits (or their absence) in neuroscientific explanations of mental illnesses. To illustrate our position, we examine some recent discoveries in neuroscience concerning bipolar disorder. We conclude by linking our topic to a broader issue in the philosophy of medicine: insofar as psychiatry is a biomedical specialty, its classifications of health and disease are guided by pragmatic concerns, as well as by scientific discoveries. (shrink)

The human person is an open book which should first be read by oneself in order to later be read by others. Throughout history we have seen many spoken and written narratives in different parts of the world, that along with having a historical value contribute to self-knowledge looking up ones life reflected in that who narrates its own life; within many others, we could point out the narratives of spiritual experiences, such as the Confessions of St. Augustine. This kind (...) of narrative work helps to come to the surface certain elements of oneself life that have been accumulated in the unconscious. For this reason, in the present we put emphasis on the value of the narrative work and in particular of spiritual experiences which we propose that helps to be aware of one’s own reality. We present the results of some online interviews from a religious movement which helps to clarify the influence of spiritual narratives in the awareness of one’s own life and a closer approach to God. -/- La persona humana es un libro abierto que en primer lugar debe ser leído por sí misma para luego ser leído por los demás. A lo largo de la historia se han visto numerosas narraciones orales y escritas en distintas partes del mundo que, además de tener un valor histórico, contribuyen al autoconocimiento viendo muchas veces reflejada la propia vida en la de quien la narra; entre muchas otras podríamos destacar las narraciones de experiencias espirituales, como las Confesiones de San Agustín. Este tipo de narraciones ayudan a aflorar algunos elementos de la propia vida que han quedado en el inconsciente. Por esta razón, en el presente trabajo se resalta el valor de la narración y en particular de la narración de experiencias espirituales para lograr una toma de conciencia de la propia realidad. Se presentan resultados de una encuesta realizada a jóvenes de un movimiento religioso que ayudan a esclarecer cómo la narración de las experiencias espirituales influye en la toma de conciencia de la propia vida y de su acercamiento a Dios. (shrink)

From our everyday commuting to the gold medalist’s world-class performance, skillful actions are characterized by fine-grained, online agentive control. What is the proper explanation of such control? There are two traditional candidates: intellectualism explains skillful agentive control by reference to the agent’s propositional mental states; anti-intellectualism holds that propositional mental states or reflective processes are unnecessary since skillful action is fully accounted for by automatic coping processes. I examine the evidence for three psychological phenomena recently held to support anti-intellectualism and (...) argue that it supports neither traditional candidate, but an intermediate attention-control account, according to which the top-down, intention-directed control of attention is a necessary component of skillful action. Only this account recognizes both the role of automatic control in skilled action and the need for higher-order cognition to thread automatic processes together into a unified, skillful performance. This applies to bodily skillful action in general, from the world-class performance of experts to mundane, habitual action. The attention-control account stresses that, for intentions to play their role as top-down modulators of attention, agents must sustain the intention’s activation; hence, the need for reflecting throughout performance. (shrink)

The enactive approach to cognition and the phenomenological tradition have in common a wide conception of ‘intentionality’. Within these frameworks, intentionality is understood as a general openness to the world. For classical phenomenologists, the most basic subjective structure that allows for such openness is time-consciousness. Some enactivists, while inspired by the phenomenological tradition, have nevertheless argued that affectivity is more basic, being that which gives rise to the temporal flow of consciousness. In this paper, I assess the relationship between temporality (...) and affectivity from both a phenomenological and an enactive perspective. I argue that, as opposed to the classical phenomenological view (which favours temporality), and to the enactive view (which favours affectivity), we must take affectivity and temporality as co-emergent. Jointly, affectivity and temporality constitute the basic structures of intentionality. Additionally, using examples from phenomenological psychopathology, I conclude that all intentionality is defined by an anticipatory and affective structure that gives rise to general feelings related to our bodily possibilities in the world. (shrink)

I discuss Turri's puzzle about withholding. I argue that attention to the way in which evidence can justify withholding dissolves the puzzle.

No es usual leer un libro de un gran teólogo y a la vez de un gran artista. Ubicándonos en el siglo XXI, es fácil reconocer al personaje del cual estamos hablando: Marko I. Rupnik. La sensibilidad artística, unida a la profundidad teológica y a su ascendencia espiritual católica oriental, hacen de los escritos del padre Rupnik grandes novedades para la teología occidental actual. En su libro According to the Spirit, el padre Rupnik propone, siguiendo los lineamientos del papa Francisco, (...) que será una teología espiri-tual que exprese la renovación de la vida eclesial, la que podrá afrontar el periodo épico de transición en el cual nos encontramos. La Iglesia Católica necesita una nueva mentalidad que corresponde a una vida nueva, pero basada en una vida según el Espíritu, una vida espiritual que le haga espacio interior al Espíritu, recibiéndolo como un don, que nos libere del apego a nosotros mismos. Las aproximaciones exis-tenciales, así como la profundidad teológica y los matices fruto de la sensibilidad espiritual del padre Rupnik, hacen del libro una aguda, dura y muy acertada crítica a la situación actual de la Iglesia Católica, en sus métodos teológicos, evangelización y respuesta a las necesidades del mundo de hoy. (shrink)

La migración internacional nos enfrenta con problemas irresolubles desde la figura moderna del Estado nacional, su concepto de ciudadanía y su noción de justicia. Juan Carlos Velasco critica las limitaciones y la orientación de las políticas contemporáneas que nos hacen percibir a la migración como una “invasión”, y propone un modo radicalmente diferente de entender e intervenir el fenómeno desde lo trasnacional. Nacer de uno u otro lado de una línea divisoria es un evento azaroso, no obstante delimitar la (...) frontera es una construcción histórico-política: la desigualdad en las oportunidades que ofrecen las naciones es una situación estructural de injusticia que se perpetúa con las políticas de exclusión de los migrantes y la deslegitimación de su derecho a buscar una vida mejor. Esa circunstancia genera fracturas sociales, injustificables pero normalizadas, que imposibilitan alcanzar la justicia global. Velasco presenta un análisis completo que abarca las dimensiones política, jurídica y moral del tema, en el que lleva a la filosofía política a un terreno práctico del que se desprenden las claves para entender y actuar en esta nueva era en la que, debido a los conflictos sociales y políticos, la migración vuelve a ser argumento de discusión relevante. (Texto de la CONTRAPORTADA del libro). (shrink)

Does self-control require willpower? The question cuts to the heart of a debate about whether self-control is identical with some psychological process internal to the agents or not. Noticeably absent from these debates is systematic evidence about the folk-psychological category of self-control. Here, we present the results of two behavioral studies (N = 296) that indicate the structure of everyday use of the concept. In Study 1, participants rated the degree to which different strategies to respond to motivational conflict exemplify (...) self-control. Participants distinguished between intra-psychic and externally-scaffolded strategies and judged that the former exemplified self-control more than the latter. In Study 2, participants provided various solutions to manage motivational conflict and rated their proposals on effectiveness. Participants produced substantially more intra-psychic strategies, rated them as more effective, and advised them at a higher rate than externally-scaffolded strategies. Taken together, these results suggest that while people recognize a plurality of strategies as genuine instances of self-control, purely internal exercises of self-control are considered more prototypical than their externally-scaffolded counterparts. This implies a hierarchical structure for the folk psychological category of self-control. The concept encompasses a variety of regulatory strategies and organizes these strategies along a hierarchical continuum, with purely intra-psychic strategies at the center and scaffolded strategies in the periphery. (shrink)

El libro de María González Navarro se presenta a sí mismo como una “nueva hermenéutica” (23). La novedad involucra dos aspectos: uno que llamaremos metateórico y otro hermenéutico en propiedad. Hablando metateóricamente, el libro presenta una hermenéutica gadameriana vigorizada y robustecida por las teorías pragma-dialécticas de la argumentación. Desde el punto de vista hermenéutico propiamente dicho, la novedad reposa en que se considera que la interpretación correcta está indesligablemente vinculada a la argumentación abductiva.

Many philosophers hold that if an agent acts intentionally, she must know what she is doing. Although the scholarly consensus for many years was to reject the thesis in light of presumed counterexamples by Donald Davidson, several scholars have recently argued that attention to aspectual distinctions and the practical nature of this knowledge shows that these counterexamples fail. In this paper I defend a new objection against the thesis, one modelled after Timothy Williamson’s anti-luminosity argument. Since this argument relies on (...) general principles about the nature of knowledge rather than on intuitions about fringe cases, the recent responses that have been given to defuse the force of Davidson’s objection are silent against it. Moreover, the argument suggests that even weaker theses connecting practical entities with knowledge are also false. Recent defenders of the thesis that there is a necessary connection between knowledge and intentional action are motivated by the insight that this connection is non-accidental. I close with a positive proposal to account for the non-accidentality of this link without appeal to necessary connections by drawing an extended analogy between practical and perceptual knowledge. (shrink)