Our world is under going an enormous digital transformation. Nearly no area of our social, informational, political, economic, cultural, and biological spheres are left unchanged. What can philosophy contribute as we try to under- stand and think through these changes? How does digitization challenge past ideas of who we are and where we are headed? Where does it leave our ethical aspirations and cherished ideals of democracy, equality, privacy, trust, freedom, and social embeddedness? Who gets to decide, control, and harness (...) the powers of digitization and for which purposes? Epistemologically, do most of us understand these new mediations – and thus fabrics – of our new world? Lastly – how is the new technological landscape shaping not only our living conditions but also our collective imaginary and our self-identities? (shrink)

Nosotres, biólogues, ecologistas y otres profesionales dedicados a proteger la vida, les escribimos con una solicitud urgente. Les pedimos muy comedidamente que su organización o institución emita un comunicado oficial condenando la crisis en curso y abordando los impactos ambientales y humanitarios en Palestina.

This chapter surveys essentialist and anti-essentialist theories of sex and gender. It does so by engaging three approaches to sex and gender: externalism, internalism, and contextualism. The chapter also draws attention to two key debates about sex and gender in the feminist literature: the debate about the sex/gender distinction (the distinction debate) and the debate about whether sex and gender have essences (the essentialism/anti-essentialism debate). In addition, it describes three problems that theories of sex and gender tend to face: the (...) Inclusion Problem, the Definition Problem, and the Exclusion Problem. Lastly, the chapter highlights why the division between essentialist and anti-essentialist accounts of sex and gender is not clear. (shrink)

Is it possible ontologically to think about education? Can the ontological category of “being” allow us to think of an educational human being? How can the ontological category of “being there” contextualize the educational reality in Latin America? These questions will guide an ontological reflection based on Latin-American philosophical categories “being” and “being there” for thinking about education. This reflection will propose an ontological presence of the symbol from the analogy and the educational experience, as a reality that opens to (...) new experiences in teaching and learning. (shrink)

Is it possible to think about an education that responds to contemporary needs? Is there a new way to think for an emerging education? This paper invites the reader to reflect philosophically about the educational challenges from a new emerging rationality. Besides the logic and instrumental reason of Modernity, the emerging rationality appears in education as an inclusive, colloquial and integrative new way to think.

Desarrollar el recuento de la producción filosófica contemporánea no es una tarea sencilla. Más en nuestro país, donde se hacen pocos esfuerzos para comprender la dimensión real del pensamiento mexicano. Ello se debe a varios factores, entre los que pueden señalarse la apatía por conocer las reflexiones alrededor de temas nacionales, el poco interés que despiertan pensadores locales, la casi nula difusión que tienen algunas propuestas filosóficas y los esfuerzos aislados por componer una historia de la “filosofía de provincia”. En (...) la mayoría de los estados de la república, no existe una tradición sólida para publicar y debatir sistemáticamente la filosofía; tan lamentable carencia deviene con regularidad en la alimentación de una filosofía ficticia o en aislamiento de meditaciones originales y novedosas que no tienen la difusión que merecen. Para comprender parte de las causas de este problema, se propone, como experimento historiográfico, hacer una revisión de cuatro tesis vinculadas con la filosofía presentadas en el estado de Chihuahua entre 1968 y 1993; se incluye también la de José Fuentes Mares, defendida en la unam en 1944. Se parte del supuesto que en trabajos de esta naturaleza puede verse con cierta claridad la vocación, talento y disposición filosófica de los autores. Dado que no participa un comité editorial o un corrector de estilo, más allá de la guía del director de tesis, es poco el mejoramiento metodológico y estilístico que reciben las tesis, con lo que se evidencian carencias y fortalezas de los sustentantes. Se revisará tan sólo una muestra; sin embargo, estos trabajos son clave porque dos de ellos son de filósofos con reconocimiento nacional (Fuentes Mares y Rico Bovio), una es la primera tesis de la extinta maestría en Filosofía de la Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez (David Mariscal). Dos más fueron escritas por profesores que no se han dedicado a la investigación filosófica (Gilberto Vargas y Rubén Lau), y otras dos fueron escritas por exrectores de universidades chihuahuenses (Rubén Lau y Fuentes Mares). Los temas tocados (filosofía del derecho, antropología filosófica, filosofía griega e historia de la filosofía mexicana) brindan una panorámica de intereses y líneas de investigación –si así pudiera llamárseles– a los que se asoman los tesistas chihuahuenses. De esta manera, se está en condiciones de esbozar un “mapa intelectual” superficial en el que también podrán visualizarse ciertas tendencias en la docencia dentro del estado. Palabras clave: historiografía de la filosofía, filosofía mexicana, filosofía contemporánea del norte de México. (shrink)

Resumen: En este trabajo se revisa el contenido de dos libros de homenaje acerca de dos profesores chihuahuenses de Filosofía: Enrique Pallares Ronquillo y Arturo Rico Bovio. Ambos reconocidos por su labor pedagógica y sus ideas. Sin embargo, existen varios cuestionamientos historiográficos que quedan sin resolver a lo largo de la mayor parte de los capítulos. ¿Cómo ha de describirse y comprenderse el trabajo filosófico de ambos?, ¿cuál es el medio político, social, intelectual y cultural en el que surgieron y (...) se desarrollaron sus filosofías?, ¿qué vínculo tiene cada autor, que participó en los libros de homenaje, con Rico y Pallares?, ¿de qué manera contribuyen ambos textos con la flaca memoria de la filosofía local? Palabras clave: filosofía de la actualidad, filosofía del norte de México, historiografía de la Filosofía, memoria, pensamiento contemporáneo. Abstract: In this article we study a pair of collective books about a two Chihuahuan Philosophy professors, Enrique Pallares Ronquillo and Arturo Rico Bovio. Both recognized for their teaching and thought. However, some historiographical questions are unsolved through the main part of the chapters. How it can be described and understand the philosophical work of each one? Which is the social, political, intellectual and cultural context in which their philosophies were born and had been developed? Which connection had each acknowledgment book author with Pallares and Rico? In which way contribute both texts to nourishing the weak local philosophy’s memory? Keywords: contemporary thought, historiography of Philosophy, memory, Northern Mexican philosophy, today’s philosophy. (shrink)

It is widely thought that knowledge is factive – only truths can be known. However, this view has been recently challenged. One challenge appeals to approximate truths. Wesley Buckwalter and John Turri argue that false-but-approximately-true propositions can be known. They provide experimental findings to show that their view enjoys intuitive support. In addition, they argue that we should reject the factive account of knowledge to avoid widespread skepticism. A second challenge, advanced by Nenad Popovic, appeals to multidimensional geometry to build (...) a case where it seems intuitive that a person knows p even though p is false. In addition, Popovic argues that we should reject the factive account of knowledge because most of us would not become widespread skeptics if we discovered that ordinary objects in our world are actually four-dimensional. In this paper, we defend the factive account of knowledge against these arguments by challenging the intuitive appeal of the cases and arguing that there is no real threat of widespread skepticism for the factive account of knowledge. (shrink)

Whether mathematical truths are syntactical (as Rudolf Carnap claimed) or empirical (as Mill actually never claimed, though Carnap claimed that he did) might seem merely an academic topic. However, it becomes a practical concern as soon as we consider the role of questions. For if we inquire as to the truth of a mathematical statement, this question must be (in a certain respect) meaningless for Carnap, as its truth or falsity is certain in advance due to its purely syntactical (or (...) formal-semantical) nature. In contrast, for Mill such a question is as valid as any other. These differing views have their consequences for contemporary erotetic logic. (shrink)

The historical-historiographical labor of José Fuentes Mares bases on specific definitions that try to room essential concepts, in order to response ground-philosophical questions like: What is the Man? What is the History? How could we read the presence of man in this world? What is the Estate? What are the purposes of Politics? Is there any relations between peoples´ indentity and their history? How do they live their own history? What is the West, and how is history built in this (...) zone This last question has special meaning, enough reason to write our article. (shrink)

In this paper we analyses the work of the first century Chinese philosopher Wang Chong as in part grappling with epistemology of testimony. Often portrayed as a curmudgeonly skeptic, Wang Chong actually best seen as a demanding piecemeal non-reductionist, which is to say he believed that testimony was a basic source of evidence unless subject to a defeater (non-reductionism), but also that we should evaluate testimony on a claim-by-claim basis (piecemeal) rather than accepting a whole source on the strength of (...) its reputation or authority, and finally he thought one has a strong duty to search for defeaters (demanding). We defend each of these claims as well as the fruitfulness of applying such anachronistic terminology to an ancient thinker. We end with a discussion of how Wang Chong's epistemology relates to his rhetorical method and then consider some problems he faces because of his epistemic commitments. (shrink)

El pensamiento de los pueblos de la Antigüedad se compuso de lenguajes, sistemas de valores y planteamientos que escapan no sólo a los convencionalismos lingüísticos actuales, también resultan ajenos a las categorías propias de la filosofía, la religión y la mitología misma. Un caso revelador es la (hek3) egipcia, traducida a lenguas contemporáneas como magia, magic, Zauber o Magie; en dicho traslado, se le adhiere una serie de connotaciones propias de la mentalidad judeocristiana y evolucionista. Una magia sin más, producto (...) del hombre crédulo, perezoso de mente y supersticioso. Sin embargo, tal reducción no se preocupa en estudiar aspectos de gran trascendencia como el proceso de transmisión que la palabra sufrió al cabo de los siglos, omitiendo el papel que jugó la magia persa dentro de la reflexión de filósofos, historiadores y poetas de la Hélade. La (hek3)fue una manera de concebir el universo que no puede reducirse sólo a creencias pseudoreligiosas, fue una sofisticada estructura para entender las cosas que, sencillamente, desconocemos. El presente artículo es una invitación a revisar los productos culturales de siglos lejanos, sin perder de vista que la incomprensión no se da exclusivamente con lo distante, sino en las entrañas mismas de nuestro tiempo. (shrink)

This article has as aim to recover the sense of Politics in order to find new ways for the political action. From different stages this research redefines the concept of Politics through Latin American Philosophy, and this new political definition will lead to social consciousness and citizen willingness, and to propose a new political culture through education.

This article argues that Macmurray’s work on education is deserving of serious consideration, because it offers an account of the person that highlights the significance of the emotions and the arts. In particular, the article examines and teases out the areas of Macmurray’s concept of the person that are pertinent to the philosophy of education, which includes the contention that the emotions can and should be educated. Furthermore, on the basis of Macmurray’s work, this article argues that emotional competency is (...) bound up with an education in the creative arts. Consequently engagement with the arts, which is often considered to be a luxury and a hobby, becomes an essential component in the development of human nature and the ability to live well. Finally, by analysing Macmurray’s description of a work of art and bringing Macmurray into conversation with contemporary views regarding the arts and the education of the emotions, in both a critical and a supportive manner, this article concludes that education in the emotions and the arts are key aspects of human well-being. (shrink)

In philosophical methodology, intuitions are used as evidence to support philosophical theories. In this paper, I evaluate the skeptical argument that variation in intuitions is good evidence that our intuitions are unreliable, and so we should be skeptical about our theories. I argue that the skeptical argument is false. First, variation only shows that at least one disputant is wrong in the dispute, but each disputant lacks reason to determine who is wrong. Second, even though variation in intuitions shows that (...) at least one disputant has the wrong intuition in the thought experiment, it is not evidence of unreliability of any disputant’s intuition regarding the philosophical theory being tested. So, variation in intuitions is not good evidence that one’s own intuitions are unreliable. One reply from the literature in peer disagreement is that we should conciliate if we cannot determine who is wrong. I argue that these disagreements are instead unconfirmed peer disagreements (i.e., no good reason to take or dismiss disputants as an epistemic peer, inferior or superior). I argue that if you have a strong intuition about a case, then it is rational for you to remain steadfast. Thus, variation in intuitions does not call for skepticism. (shrink)

This paper deals with the concept of religiousness and religion in the context of Krause´s panentheist metaphysics, understood as a life of union, as intimacy of and with God, particularly on the part of human beings and also in relation to the rest of the existing. An evolutionary review of this conception of religion is undertaken throughout Krause´s work, and the program of a philosophy of religion is traced, which, besides a metaphysical and anthropological substantiation, would address an understanding of (...) the history of religions and especially of Christianity, proposing a vision of reciprocal illumination between religion, knowledge, feeling and morality, as well as the possibility of an appealing notion of religious freedom, the hallmark of Krausism in its historical development. (shrink)

Examining previous discussions on how to construe the concepts of gender and race, we advocate what we call strategic conceptual engineering. This is the employment of a (possibly novel) concept for specific epistemic or social aims, concomitant with the openness to use a different concept (e.g., of race) for other purposes. We illustrate this approach by sketching three distinct concepts of gender and arguing that all of them are needed, as they answer to different social aims. The first concept serves (...) the aim of identifying and explaining gender-based discrimination. It is similar to Haslanger’s well-known account, except that rather than offering a definition of ‘woman’ we focus on ‘gender’ as one among several axes of discrimination. The second concept of gender is to assign legal rights and social recognitions, and thus is to be trans-inclusive. We argue that this cannot be achieved by previously suggested concepts that include substantial gender-related psychological features, such as awareness of social expectations. Instead, our concept counts someone as being of a certain gender solely based on the person’s self-identification with this gender. The third concept of gender serves the aim of personal empowerment by means of one’s gender identity. In this context, substantial psychological features and awareness of one’s social situation are involved. While previous accounts of concepts have focused on their role in determining extensions, we point to contexts where a concept’s role in explanation and moral reasoning can be more important. (shrink)

John Macmurray (1891-1976) was born in Scotland and began his philosophical education in a Scottish university. As an academic philosopher, following in the footsteps of Caird’s Scottish idealism - a reaction against the debate between Hume’s scepticism and Reid’s ‘commonsense’ – Macmurray holds that a university education in moral philosophy is essential for producing virtuous citizens. Consequently, Macmurray’s philosophy of human nature includes a ‘thick’ description of the person, which is more holistic that Cartesianism and emphasizes the relation of persons. (...) Hence, Macmurray focuses on community, but, as this chapter reveals, he is not a communitarian in the contemporary sense; rather, he shares Caird’s focus on philosophy as the means to living well. Thus, he opposes increasing specialization in university education and highlights the limits of science, which, Davie notes, is representative of the Scottish metaphysic of Macmurray’s era. Macmuray is the last in this line of the Scottish philosophical tradition. (shrink)

This study assessed administrative networking strategies and principals’ supervisory effectiveness in assessing teachers’ notes of lessons, teachers’ instructional delivery, students’ records, and non-academic activities in Cross River State, Nigeria. Three null hypotheses were formulated accordingly to direct the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Census technique was adopted in selecting the entire population of 667 secondary school administrators in Cross River State. The instruments used for data collection were two set of questionnaires designed by the researchers including: Administrative (...) Networking Strategies Questionnaire (ANSQ)”, and “Principals’ Supervisory Effectiveness Questionnaire (PSEQ)” respectively. The reliability of the instruments was established through Cronbach Alpha, and reliability estimates of .89 and .92 were obtained for the two instruments respectively. The null hypotheses were all tested at .05 level of significance using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis with the aid of SPSS v21. Findings from the study revealed that; there is a significant relationship between principals’ effective communication, school-community relationship, and teachers’ involvement in decision-making, with their supervisory effectiveness respectively. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended amongst others that; secondary school principals should endeavour to communicate relevant ideas, messages, and information to both teaching and non-academic staff of the school; and ensure that appropriate feedback mechanisms are provided based on such information. (shrink)

The purpose of this essay is to articulate a specific desideratum for any theory of Latinidad, namely, that there is no adequate conception of Latinx without an attendant conception of Afro-Latinx. In order to be reflective of those whom it purports to describe in the U.S. and elsewhere in the hemisphere, the term Latinx must be plastic enough to encompass the many internal differences, and even antagonisms, between its different constituent parts. Within it, we argue here in particular, it must (...) include its Afro-descended history, which includes not just African-descended people but also a denial of the influences of African-descended culture writ large. Our central claim here, then, is that a certain African-descendedness is constitutive of Latinidad in multiple registers, including history, cultural practices, and social identificatory processes despite Latinidad’s pernicious exclusionary history. (shrink)

Für Simone de Beauvoir ist der Existentialismus die einzige Philosophie, die der Aufgabe gewachsen ist, eine ethische Verhaltensweise, die sich auch unmittelbar in die Praxis umsetzen lässt, zu entwerfen. Die Werke, in denen Beauvoir eine existentialistische Ethik formuliert und deren Umsetzbarkeit veranschaulicht, sind allen voran ihr Essay Für eine Moral der Doppelsinnigkeit und ihr Theaterstück Die unnützen Mäuler. Mit der dramaturgischen Darstellung einer Grenzsituation ist es der Philosophin und Schriftstellerin gelungen, eine Synthese von Werten umrisshaft zu erläutern, aus denen sich (...) praktische Handlungshinweise, ohne die Notwendigkeit eines universellen Wertesystems vorzusehen, ableiten lassen. Einer kurzen Einführung, die auf die Umstände bzw. auf die historischen Hintergründe, die Simone de Beauvoir Beauvoir dazu bewogen haben, als engagierte Intellektuelle dezidiert zu sozialen und politischen Fragen Stellung zu beziehen, wird eine prägnante Analyse von Beauvoirs Ethikentwurf folgen. Da vorliegender Beitrag für die Aktualität von Beauvoirs Die unnützen Mäuler plädiert, werden parallele Verhaltensmuster der Vergangenheit und der Gegenwart ans Licht geführt werden, um praktische Möglichkeiten aufzuzeigen, wie es heute gelingen kann, sich für eine ethisch vertretbare Lebensweise zu entscheiden. Wohlgemerkt handelt es sich dabei – ganz in Beauvoirs Sinne – um einen Versuch bzw. um einen Entwurf. (shrink)

This introduction to this collection of essays presents diverse perspectives on social identities, inviting readers to reconsider established notions and explore new approaches to understanding these complex social phenomena. The contributions challenge traditional philosophical boundaries, intersecting ontological, epistemological, ethical, and political considerations. // The authors situate different views on the ontology of social identities within some extant options. Thus, they contrast their "social identity affordance view" with two alternative approaches: the Cambridge Social Ontology group's positioning theory and Weichold & Thonhauser's (...) broad conception of social identities. Their view understands social identities as realities that structure social life and shape individuals' self-conceptions, emphasizing the importance of historical contingency and social context. // The introduction then proceeds to review the contributions to the volume. The volume comprises three sections: "Experiences of Social Identities," exploring how specific identities are understood and experienced; "Horizons of Social Identities," examining how identities develop and change over time; and "Some Frameworks of Social Identities," presenting alternative frameworks for conceptualizing social identities. (shrink)

Interview with the author of "why We are in Need of Tails." Iguana Books, Toronto, Canada.

Alvin Plantinga has famously responded to the logical problem of evil by appealing to the intrinsic value of significant free will. A problem, however, arises because traditional theists believe that both God and the redeemed who go to heaven cannot do wrong acts. This entails that both God and the redeemed in heaven lack significant freedom. If significant freedom is indeed valuable, then God and the redeemed in heaven would lack something intrinsically valuable. However, if significant freedom is not intrinsically (...) valuable, then Plantinga’s reply to the logical problem of evil fails. In this paper, we assess three contemporary solutions to the dilemma above. The first is the love solution, which proposes that significant freedom is necessary for agents to love, and loving others is intrinsically good. The second is the soul-making solution, which argues that significant freedom is necessary for self-developing one’s moral character, and having a self-developed moral character is intrinsically good. The third is the derivative free will solution, which argues that significant freedom is necessary for derivative free will in heaven, and derivative free will is intrinsically good. We raise problems against all three solutions and instead defend a fourth solution – the ultimate responsibility solution. That is, significant freedom is instrumentally valuable as it gives agents ultimate responsibility with regards to morally significant acts. Finally, we defend the ultimate responsibility solution against two major objections. (shrink)

The study investigated principals’ supervisory techniques for combating corruption and the attainment of quality school governance. Two null hypotheses were formulated. The ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. Census technique was used to draw the entire population of 81 principals from all the public secondary schools in Aba Education Zone of Abia State. Data collection was carried out with the use of a research instrument titled: “Principals’ Supervisory Techniques for Combating Corruption and Attainment of Quality School Governance (...) Questionnaire (PSTCCAQSGQ)”. The instrument was validated by two experts of Test and Measurement in the Department of Educational Foundations, University of Calabar. The reliability value obtained was .88 using Cronbach Alpha technique. One-way analysis of variance was used in testing the null hypotheses at .05 level of significance. Findings revealed that there is a significant influence of principals’ clinical and demonstration techniques of supervision for combating corruption on quality school governance. Based on the findings, it was concluded that school governance should be enhanced with supervisory techniques by principals for the attainment of anti-corruption culture in Aba education zone of Abia State, Nigeria. (shrink)

Readers are awaiting a new encounter with stories united under the common title Why We Are in Need of Tales. Let me remind you that these deep philosophical books were written by Maria daVenza Tillmanns, a professional philosopher dedicated to the study of philosophizing with children, who has gained valuable experience in this field. Maria’s books are inspired by her work with her students at El Toyon Elementary School in National City (California), with whom Maria held philosophy with children classes (...) for three years before COVID-19. With parental permission, the children provided their drawings, which are used as illustrations for the books. I read Why We Are in Need of Tales, Part III with great pleasure. The focus of this book is on making decisions, sometimes very hard decisions. In Part II, the focus is on dreams — hopes and wishes we have for life. This book looks at how we may best decide how to make those hopes and wishes come true. And the answer Huk and Tuk suggest is deceptively easy: by making decisions “with your eyes wide open.” (5, p. ix). The author of this excellent book managed to describe how to make decisions with your eyes wide open through the playful dialogue between Huk and Tuk. The books are written in dialogue so the reader immediately plunges into the context of a lively conversation. Dialogue not only sharpens attention, but also invites the reader to participate in the conversation. In this way, the reader becomes a listener at the same time. (shrink)

É condição do homem medir a sombra do sol por seu próprio pé. A discussão histórico-filosófica sobre a relação objetividadesubjetividade é mais um tema da condição ôntico-existencial que epistemológica. Trata-se de uma questão insolúvel em última análise, dado que é impossível erradicar prenoções e preconceitos enquistados no espírito de qualquer investigador. Expressamos e interpretamos o mundo a partir do eu1 – da mais angustiante solidão interna ou de uma identidade coletiva ditada pela genética, história comum e tradições. A história universal (...) da cultura e das ideias deve registrar, sem hesitar, as diversas definições de “Ocidente” elaboradas desde o século XVIII; para o mal ou para o bem, formam parte do legado espiritual da humanidade. (shrink)

Human nature has always been a foundational issue for philosophy. What does it mean to have a human nature? Is the concept the relic of a bygone age? What is the use of such a concept? What are the epistemic and ontological commitments people make when they use the concept? In What’s Left of Human Nature? Maria Kronfeldner offers a philosophical account of human nature that defends the concept against contemporary criticism. In particular, she takes on challenges related to social (...) misuse of the concept that dehumanizes those regarded as lacking human nature (the dehumanization challenge); the conflict between Darwinian thinking and essentialist concepts of human nature (the Darwinian challenge); and the consensus that evolution, heredity, and ontogenetic development results from nurture and nature. After answering each of these challenges, Kronfeldner presents a revisionist account of human nature that minimizes dehumanization and does not fall back on outdated biological ideas. Her account is post-essentialist because it eliminates the concept of an essence of being human; pluralist in that it argues that there are different things in the world that correspond to three different post-essentialist concepts of human nature; and interactive because it understands nature and nurture as interacting at the developmental, epigenetic, and evolutionary levels. On the basis of this, she introduces a dialectical concept of an ever-changing and “looping” human nature. Finally, noting the essentially contested character of the concept and the ambiguity and redundancy of the terminology, she wonders if we should simply eliminate the term “human nature” altogether. (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)

This paper advances the view that the history of philosophy is both a kind of history and a kind of philosophy. Through a discussion of some examples from epistemology, metaphysics, and the historiography of philosophy, it explores the benefit to philosophy of a deep and broad engagement with its history. It comes to the conclusion that doing history of philosophy is a way to think outside the box of the current philosophical orthodoxies. Somewhat paradoxically, far from imprisoning its students in (...) outdated and crystallized views, the history of philosophy trains the mind to think differently and alternatively about the fundamental problems of philosophy. It keeps us alert to the fact that latest is not always best, and that a genuinely new perspective often means embracing and developing an old insight. The upshot is that the study of the history of philosophy has an innovative and subversive potential, and that philosophy has a great deal to gain from a long, broad, and deep conversation with its history. (shrink)

In 1969 Harry Frankfurt published his hugely influential paper 'Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility' in which he claimed to present a counterexample to the so-called 'Principle of Alternate Possibilities' ('a person is morally responsible for what he has done only if he could have done otherwise'). The success of Frankfurt-style cases as counterexamples to the Principle has been much debated since. I present an objection to these cases that, in questioning their conceptual cogency, undercuts many of those debates. Such cases (...) all require a counterfactual mechanism that could cause an agent to perform an action that he cannot avoid performing. I argue that, given our concept of what it is for someone to act, this requirement is inconsistent. Frankfurt-style alleged counterexamples are cases where an agent is morally responsible for an action he performs even though, the claim goes, he could not have avoided performing that action. However, it has recently been argued, e.g. by John Fischer, that a counterexample to the Principle could be a 'Fischer-style case', i.e. a case where the agent can either perform the action or do nothing else. I argue that, although Fischer-style cases do not share the conceptual flaw common to all Frankfurt-style cases, they also fail as counterexamples to the Principle. The paper finishes with a brief discussion of the significance of the Principle of Alternate Possibilities. (shrink)

Escribir hoy en día un libro sobre hermenéutica, que tal hermenéutica se refiera a la desarrollada por G. Gadamer en su conocido Verdad y método y que se pretenda añadir algo nuevo a lo mucho escrito sobre el tema parecería, a primera vista, empresa irrealizable. Que ambas pretensiones inspiren la sólida monografía de María G. Navarro —titulada Interpretar y argumentar— constituye empresa audaz y arriesgada, plena de coraje innovador, que provoca admiración, curiosidad e interés. Contra lo que pudiera parecer (...) a primera vista, el libro contiene un alto componente de originalidad y creatividad, debido a la estratagema metodoló-gica de que se sirve la autora. A saber, una hermenéutica in obliquo, estrategia consistente en interpretar a la hermenéutica gadameriana a través del prisma de la lógica de la argumentación. (shrink)

La actividad de extensión que se presenta está vinculada al Teatros Solís, principal referente de la cultura montevideana. Trata sobre el estudio de la conducta del usuario al momento de la visita al sitio web del Teatro. El análisis se efectúa por medio de Web Usage Mining que consiste en la aplicación de técnicas de Data Mining para la identificación de patrones de uso de dicho sitio web. Se utiliza software de uso público y se diseña e implementa en R (...) el paquete RWeb Sessionizer para contar con un sesionador, siguiendo la metodología propuesta inicialmente por R. Cooley, y que ha tenido varios refinamientos posteriores. (shrink)

The University of the Republic established the objective of diversifying the teaching modalities. Within these, videoconferencing is shown as fundamental tool within the framework of new technologies. The advantages offered by videoconferencing are real-time interaction, teacher control of student activity, the possibility for the teacher to make presentations and integrate questionnaires to assess student understanding, being able to incorporate similar advantages to the teacher-student interaction in face-to- face classes, such as dialoguing with students. In addition, the videoconfere avoids transfers and (...) allows the recording of the class and its reuse. This article shows the first advances of a research that aims to develop videoconferences as a teaching-learning methodology. (shrink)

On the Philosophy of Our Moment. The relationship between philosophy and its history has been—and still is—a topic that calls for not only an extensive knowledge of sources and traditions, but also a deep reflective exercise in which historiography, philology, and the philosophical review of philosophy itself complement one another in an interrelated whole. In this text I propose to meditate on the modalities that today can have as a framework in which philosophy develops and, at the same time, as (...) a point of departure for a philosophy of “this moment.” The present, contemporariness, the philosophy of our time, current philosophy and the philosophical avant–garde cannot be understood as synonyms because each term situates itself differently in the circumstances. The philosophy of today can be a topic of interest for Latin America, a region with a vocation and realities that are very different from those of Europe. (shrink)

Se analizó la relación entre literatura, historia y filosofía en la obra de José Fuentes Mares. Se hizo énfasis en el análisis del discurso usado por el autor, cuya logra adentrarse en recovecos del pensamiento mediante métodos convencionales de reflexión. En especial, se revisaron algunas de las narraciones que el intelectual escribió sobre aspectos de la vida de filósofos mexicanos, plasmados en artículos periodísticos, memorias y ensayos. Se determinó que la categoría ‘estampas’ era la más adecuada para definir estos relatos (...) donde se describe la personalidad de los personajes, acentuando pasiones y obsesiones, amistades y odios. Finalmente, se concluyó que tales textos constituyen un complemento importante para la historia de la filosofía mexicana, ya que destacan la obra de sus protagonistas, pero también su lado más humano. (shrink)

Martin Heidegger has become one of the "go-to" philosophers in the world today. His interpretation of phenomenology has spread around the globe, and in some circles his ideas are philosophy, period. Among the pillars sustaining Heideggerian thought is the version of the Greek world that he constructed, of Aristotle in particular. This article offers a concise review of the conception of Antiquity that he set forth in one of his university courses in 1926. The reader is invited to consider the (...) lines of questioning that are presented, intended to verify the solidity of the arguments --if they deserve to be called arguments-- advanced by Heidegger to limit the panorama of ancient thought to the famous Stagirite and to a poor, if not non-existent, historiography of philosophy. The fundamental concepts of ancient philosophy mesh perfectly with the Heideggerian system, which does not absolve them of arbitrariness or of a marked ideological-political slant. There is no such thing as a clear-eyed exposition of the ancient world: there will always be tendencies and biases. The trouble with Heidegger is his scrubbing of dogmas, trying to pass them off as reasoned statements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]. (shrink)

The self-definition of ancient empires is based on the strong conviction of being God’s chosen one. In this way, Greeks, Persians, Assyrians, Sumerians, Indians, Hebrews and Egyptians built their religions, rituals, thought and wisdom. Greece was not the creator of the xenophobic idea consisted in refusing systematicly stranger modes of life; in oriental vocabularies we could find a lot of words to refer non-local traditions. Various questions rise about the relationship between Greece and other ancient people. Are the difference only (...) on religious stuff? What was the global meaning of ritual characters in each ancient mediterranean-oriental land? How each ancient culture/ empire/people/land abstract identity was built? What happens with ancient History of European Culture? Exists any relationship between the “Culture” (greeks) and “other” European barbarians? (shrink)

El artículo muestra la importancia para las organizaciones culturales de conocer como el “cliente” o consumidor utiliza su sitio web. Para ello un sesionador web (Web Sessioner) resulta de fundamental importancia en Web Usage Mininq. Consiste en la aplicación de técnicas de Data Mining para la identificación de patrones de uso de un sitio web. Se ejemplifica con un análisis aplicado a un teatro público, utilizando el paquete RWeb Sessionizer donde se implementó en R la metodología propuesta inicialmente por R. (...) Cooley, y que ha tenido varios refinamientos posteriores . (shrink)

A lo largo de la historia de nuestro país se han ensayado múltiples respuestas a la pregunta ¿qué o quién es el mexicano? La teología, el derecho, la política, la sociología, la psicología, la antropología en su conjunto, la historia y la filosofía han esgrimido diferentes explicaciones. Sin lugar a dudas, una cuestión de tal calibre no caduca. Aunque logren satisfacerse las inquietudes de quienes la plantean en una época específica, surge de nuevo al cabo de las décadas, exigiendo que (...) se le trate con instrumentos conceptuales más agudos. José Fuentes Mares aborda la pregunta de la identidad del mexicano a partir de la filosofía de la cultura apuntalada con elementos tomados de la historia y la antropología científica. El presente ensayo busca exponer los componentes fundamentales de una antropología del mestizaje (el hombre barroco) cuyos resultados más palpables pueden verse en la construcción de América Latina; laboratorio espiritual de la humanidad cuya contribución a la civilización de todos los tiempos es, simplemente, indispensable. (shrink)

The philosophy of José Fuentes Mares is a complex structure constructed of different materials, whose main goal is comprehension of mankind, specifically Hispanic American men (a wide universe distributed all over the Iberian Peninsula and America). Fuentes Mares develops a particular way of philosophizing, linking the historical context of the countries with their taste, exposed in their culinary traditions. For instance, the different ways of living, thinking, fighting, conquering, loving and eating that Anglo-Saxons and Hispanic Americans have, that make them (...) be inhabitants of opposed realities. Refined cuisine is a kind of art that must be subject to the categories, methods and concepts of aesthetics. To make this project possible, Fuentes Mares works with a full picture of aesthetics, composed of the articulated unity of philosophy of culture, the philosophical anthropology and philosophy of culture. (shrink)