Aphantasia is a condition that is often characterized as the impaired ability to create voluntary mental images. Aphantasia is assumed to selectively affect voluntary imagery mainly because even though aphantasics report being unable to visualize something at will, many report having visual dreams. We argue that this common characterization of aphantasia is incorrect. Studies on aphantasia are often not clear about whether they are assessing voluntary or involuntary imagery, but some studies show that several forms of involuntary imagery are also (...) affected in aphantasia (including imagery in dreams). We also raise problems for two attempts to show that involuntary images are preserved in aphantasia. In addition, we report the results of a study about afterimages in aphantasia, which suggest that these tend to be less intense in aphantasics than in controls. Involuntary imagery is often treated as a unitary kind that is either present or absent in aphantasia. We suggest that this approach is mistaken and that we should look at different types of involuntary imagery case by case. Doing so reveals no evidence of preserved involuntary imagery in aphantasia. We suggest that a broader characterization of aphantasia, as a deficit in forming mental imagery, whether voluntary or not, is more appropriate. Characterizing aphantasia as a volitional deficit is likely to lead researchers to give incorrect explanations for aphantasia, and to look for the wrong mechanisms underlying it. (shrink)

Arthur C. Danto did not live to witness the proliferation of AI in artistic creation. However, his philosophy of art offers key ideas about art that can provide an interesting perspective on artwork generated by artificial intelligence (AI). In this article, I analyze how his ideas about contemporary art, intention, interpretation, and authorship could be applied to the ongoing debate about AI and artistic creation. At the same time, it is also interesting to consider whether the incorporation of AI into (...) artistic creation marks a new chapter in the narrative, which seems to have reached its end, or if it represents a significant rupture with past artistic traditions. (shrink)

According to a common view, conscious thoughts necessarily involve quasi-perceptual experiences, or mental images. This is alleged to be the case not only when one entertains conscious thoughts about perceptible things, but also when one thinks about more abstract things. In the case of conscious abstract propositional thoughts, the idea is that they occur in inner speech, which is taken to involve imagery (typically auditory) of words in a natural language. I argue that unsymbolized thinking and total aphantasia cast doubt (...) on this common view. Unsymbolized thinking is the experience of thoughts that does not involve imagery. Total aphantasia is the inability to produce mental images of all sensory modalities. I consider and reject the objection that these individuals are mistaken either because their thoughts do involve images, or because those thoughts are not conscious. Thus, unsymbolized thinking and aphantasia provide evidence that conscious thoughts can occur without imagery. (shrink)

My goal here is to assess whether Wittgenstein’s metaphilosophical conception of a descriptive philosophy is in accordance with his philosophical practice. I argue that Wittgenstein doesn’t really limit himself to description when he criticizes Moore’s use of the verb “to know”. In On Certainty, Wittgenstein argues that Moore’s claims of knowledge are at odds with the everyday use of the verb “to know”, because, among other things, they don’t allow the possibility of justification. That is, Wittgenstein considers that proper, everyday (...) claims of knowledge require the possibility of justification. What I try to show is that this idea cannot be derived from the mere observation and description of knowledge claims in ordinary language. I conclude that Wittgenstein’s treatment of the verb “to know” constitutes an inconsistency between his metaphilosophical posture and his philosophical practice. (shrink)

I address the question of whether differences in color terminology cause differences in color experience in speakers of different languages. If linguistic representations directly affect color experience, then this is a case of what I call the linguistic penetrability of perception, which is a particular case of cognitive penetrability. I start with some general considerations about cognitive penetration and its alleged occurrence in the memory color effect. I then apply similar considerations to the interpretation of empirical studies of color perception (...) in speakers of different languages. I argue that findings such as differences in categorical perception in speakers of different languages do not show that language affects color experience. They therefore do not support the claim that color experience is linguistically penetrable. But even if we grant that color experience is different in speakers of different languages, I argue that this might still not be a case of linguistic penetration. Finally, I consider some epistemological consequences of the assumption that speakers of different languages have different color experiences. (shrink)

Raquel Cascales and Luis Echarte focus on the development of practical wisdom and what they call ‘seeing with the heart’ for science students by means of reading science fiction literature. They argue that literature can bring the student into contact with the reality of moral life as moral dilemmas are made concrete by the characters and circumstances in a novel. They provide an analysis of how Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World can be read in the classroom and show how (...) the novel invites students to think about the role of science in society, the evolutionary paradigm, advances in genetic and psychological manipulation, as well as questions concerning human emotions,suffering, and friendship. (shrink)

The ideal of “freedom-as-omnipotence” pointed out by Daya Krishna in his interpretation of the Yogasūtra is undoubtedly present throughout the history of yoga. This ideal of omnipotence is also at the basis of the contemporary transhumanist program through the ideal of human perfection, and there are already transhumanist versions that defend the use of meditative techniques from India as complements to a program of human enhancement. In this essay I argue that transhumanism and bioliberalism seek to free us from biological (...) conditioning at the cost of making us more and more dependent on science and technology, presenting a sort of “derivative freedom” that many premodern yogas would never accept. Instead, contemporary yogas, which no longer contemplate the ideal of yogic powers, are much more amenable to the idea of human enhancement through external devices, partly because they have adopted diluted versions of the models of freedom advocated in premodern yogas. We are already witnessing the evolution of a trans-human yoga in which technological devices are incorporated into the practice and virtual practice communities are created, some even made up of avatar-practitioners, in which the human factor is progressively lost. (shrink)

El Romanticismo miró la Ilustración como una época que, al apostar por la racionalidad de manera casi exclusiva, rompió la unidad entre distintos ámbitos del saber. La conciencia de esa falta de unidad impulsa la reflexión de muchos intelectuales sobre cómo volver a alcanzarla, tarea que al principio los románticos hacen recaer en el arte. En concreto, el grupo de los Nazarenos, muy ligado al Athenäum, apostó por recuperar esta unidad, que pronto adquirió tintes políticos, mediante la “religión del arte”. (...) También otros autores idealistas, como Schelling, consideraron que el arte debía ocupar el lugar primordial en el sistema filosófico. Frente a ellos destaca la figura de Hegel, que rechazará cada vez con más fuerza la mistificación romántica del arte. Aunque, como se verá, en un inicio Hegel también habla de la “religión del arte”, en su obra de madurez distingue entre arte, religión y filosofía, dejando claro el lugar primordial que ocupa la racionalidad filosófica en su sistema. Revisando estas cuestiones desde la perspectiva más contemporánea, Inciarte considera que, a pesar de la rotundidad del pensamiento hegeliano, estas tensiones no pueden quedar resueltas desde un enfoque meramente reflexivo, sino que sólo encuentran una salida cuando se tratan en el nivel práctico de la vida. (shrink)

Durante los últimos decenios la utilidad se ha convertido en uno de los elementos más importantes de nuestra sociedad, hasta el punto de medir no sólo las cosas, sino a los seres humanos por su utilidad. No se trata de demostrar la utilidad de la cosas “inútiles”, sino de reivindicar que hay cosas que son valiosas por sí mismas. Esta es la perspectiva que me gustaría tratar en este artículo. Para ello, en primer lugar me detendré en explicar brevemente el (...) auge y expansión de la utilidad desde la modernidad hasta nuestros días, centrándome en una de sus vertientes contemporáneas: el transhumanismo. En segundo lugar, frente a esta corriente presentaré una defensa de lo inútil como aquello que nos caracteriza como humanos. Por último, me centraré en exponer cómo el arte nos enseña, por excelencia, a valorar lo inútil y, en este sentido, nos ayuda a comprender mejor al ser humano. (shrink)

The striking title The End of Art managed to draw attention to the philosophical work of Arthur Danto. However, the lack of a systematic development which could support this thesis made him face harsh criticism. However, strong foundations for his statements can be deduced from his writings. In this paper, I analyse how to understand the thesis of the ‘end of art’. It should be approached not as a monolitical notion but as a complex concept that combines three different senses: (...) 1) the ‘end of art’ in the Hegelian sense: the conversion of art into philosophy, 2) the ‘end of art’ in the historiographical sense: as the end to the narratives of the history of art, and 3) the ‘end of art’ as the beginning of a new period in history, where Danto’s philosophy of art would be fully valid. (shrink)

The goal of this paper is to present some advantages of the representational and computational theories of mind when compared to other views, especially behaviorism. The idea is that representational and computational theories allow us to conceive propositional attitudes in a way that preserves two essential features we take them to have in common sense psychological explanations: semantic evaluability and causal efficacy. Behaviorism reconceives mental states in a way that doesn’t preserve these essential features. In so doing, it makes a (...) mystery of the success of common sense psychology. I illustrate some of the difficulties that behaviorism faces by considering and criticizing Wittgenstein’s approach to linguistic understanding. The upshot is that representational and computational theories of mind do a better job at vindicating common sense psychology, and so are to be preferred when compared to behaviorism. (shrink)

While Hegel’s influence on Arthur Danto has been examined in relation to specific parts of his thought, an overall analysis of said influence is still wanting. In this article, I analyze the presence of Hegelian influence in Danto’s complete thought from three perspectives: (1) Danto’s acceptance of Hegelian assumptions when it comes to the conception of history, narrative realism and historical progress, which allows him to combine timeless essentialism with historicism, (2) the cognitive aspect of art and the conception of (...) art as an embodied symbol, as well as the historical quality of said embodiment, and (3) the assumption that art’s trajectory coincides with the Hegelian prophecy that art will give way to philosophy, on which Danto’s “end of art” thesis is based. This examination not only illuminates the interrelation between the different parts of Dantian philosophy, but also reveals its systematic character. (shrink)

In this paper I critically address some ideas presented in Patrick Duffley’s book Linguistic Meaning Meets Linguistic Form. Duffley adopts the semiological principle that linguistic signs have stable meanings. I argue that this principle leads Duffley to an artificial description of the meaning of the preposition for, in attempting to avoid the charge of polysemy. Another issue is that the principle is not consistently followed throughout the book, such as in Duffley’s analysis of the meaning of start, or in his (...) acceptance of words with encyclopedic meanings. I also point out that the proposed meaning of start and the view that the meaning of some words is encyclopedic have problems of their own. (shrink)

Jerry Fodor has claimed to have a solution to the traditional problem of what comes first, thought or language. Compositionality, he says, will give us the answer, for at least one must be compositional, and if only one of them is, that is the one that has underived semantic content. He argues that natural languages are not compositional, and therefore that the content of language is derived from the content of thought. I will argue that the idea that language is (...) not compositional conflicts with his productivity and systematicity arguments for the existence of a language of thought. I will also show that Fodor’s solution to the problem fails, as his main argument is circular. Finally, I suggest that Fodor’s argument against the compositionality of language is not decisive, and that we can still attribute at least some degree of compositionality to language. (shrink)

To get a comprehensive understanding of the core concept of “the end of art”, this book analyses the intellectual trajectory of Arthur Danto, highlighting his successive achievements in philosophy of action, philosophy of history and philosophy of art. If, as Danto says, everything is extensively associated with everything else, it is impossible to avoid putting the philosophy of art in relation with his whole philosophical system. -/- .

BackgroundViral pandemics present a range of ethical challenges for policy makers, not the least among which are difficult decisions about how to allocate scarce healthcare resources. One important question is whether healthcare workers should receive priority access to a vaccine in the event that an effective vaccine becomes available. This question is especially relevant in the coronavirus pandemic with governments and health authorities currently facing questions of distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.Main textIn this article, we critically evaluate the most common ethical (...) arguments for granting healthcare workers priority access to a vaccine. We review the existing literature on this topic, and analyse both deontological and utilitarian arguments in favour of HCW prioritisation. For illustrative purposes, we focus in particular on the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine. We also explore some practical complexities attendant on arguments in favour of HCW prioritisation.ConclusionsWe argue that there are deontological and utilitarian cases for prioritising HCWs. Indeed, the widely held view that we should prioritise HCWs represents an example of ethical convergence. Complexities arise, however, when considering who should be included in the category of HCW, and who else should receive priority in addition to HCWs. (shrink)

In On Certainty, Wittgenstein formulates several criticisms against skepticism about our knowledge of the external world. My goal is to show that Wittgenstein does not here offer a convincing answer to the skeptical problem. First, I will present a strong version of the problem, understanding it as a paradoxical argument. In the second part, I will introduce and raise problems for two pragmatic responses against skepticism that appear in On Certainty. Finally, I will present some of Wittgenstein’s logical criticisms against (...) skepticism, which may initially be considered strong, because they seem to refute some skeptical assumptions. They concern Wittgenstein’s ideas that it is logically impossible to doubt and to be mistaken about Moorean propositions, and that these propositions don’t have a truth-value. But even these, I intend to show, do not really challenge skepticism, for they are not well grounded. (shrink)

Both the itihāsa-s of the Mahābhārata and the Platonic philosophical ‘epode’ are often used to persuade in conditions where emotion threatens to incapacitate the person for argumentative discourse. Narrative reason has its own conditions of success and failure, opening up a discursive arena in which all kinds of utterances are welcome. Emphasizing the psychagogic function of the ‘once-upon-a-time’ reason, it is worth asking who the real protagonist of the story is and whether the story has a duty or a dharma (...) of its own to fulfill. Dharma and all the dilemmas it brings along with it constitute one of the fundamental problems that make up the whole Mahābhārata. In this essay I wonder about the dharma of the Mahābhārata itself—a literary work which gives itself the name ‘triumph’ (jaya)—and the cultural mission it fulfills in the lives of those who hear it, read it, study it, and share it with others. (shrink)

La pedagogía es un tema crucial en el pensamiento de Rancière y juega un rol principal en su obra El maestro ignorante, texto que el presente escrito analiza y cuestiona. Su propuesta emancipadora establece como punto de partida una igualdad de inteligencias que en este escrito hemos denominado «isonousía», y según nuestra hipótesis, esta igualdad lleva aparejada una desigualdad de las voluntades (anisothelema). En consecuencia, la propuesta de Rancière no altera en absoluto “el orden explicador” que denuncia, pues el maestro (...) emancipador ya no tiene que corregir la ignorancia, pero sí la pereza; no ha de impartir un conocimiento superior, pero sí imponer una voluntad superior. (shrink)

Clearings of the Forest (Claros del Bosque, 1977), one of the most poetic and challenging works of María Zambrano’s thought, cannot be approached from a breathless paradigm. For the immersion in these clearings take us into the breathing of being that we contemplate alongside the more obvious physiological breathing, the breathing of life. In this work, Zambrano proposes a poetic and mystical phenomenology of the breathing of being through the breathing of its word. Thus, to recover contact with this inner (...) breathing could be to recover the lost chant of the word. This essay does not pretend to be a detailed analysis of Zambrano’s thought as a whole, nor of the vibrant mystery that her clearings reveal. The purpose is to uncover the fundamental role that breathing plays in this poetic-philosophical journey, along with other symbols such as light or love, with the question of what place this type of philosophical exercise occupies today in the classrooms of contemporary universities. (shrink)

Os problemas da lei e da autoridade marcaram fortemente o pensamento políticomedieval ocidental, e em especial o desenvolvimento da noção de soberania, ponto deconvergência dos grandes conflitos de jurisdição no período. O debate acerca dadistribuição das jurisdições constituiu um dos momentos importantes para a construção damoderna idéia de soberania. Na medida em que se tomava a lei como dada, o sentido daautoridade tinha necessariamente de ser vinculado à idéia de comissão: a autoridade eraum atributo daquele que podia fazer cumprir a (...) lei em nome do legislador divino. Outromomento relevante foi o da emergência do problema do poder legislativo, tal como entendidomodernamente. Jurisdição, a partir daí, passaria a incluir também o direito de criar ede impor as normas válidas para toda a comunidade por um legislador agora humano. Aospoucos, a vontade do príncipe, que não se limita mais pelo rigor da razão e da moralidade,passa a ser entendida como fonte criadora, transformadora e revogadora da lei. Mostrar aslinhas gerais deste percurso constitui o objetivo imediato deste artigo. (shrink)

Monográfico: Yoga: Historia, Filosofía y Prácticas. Aposta. Revista de Ciencias Sociales, 94 (2022) .

In his autobiography The Space within the Heart (1970), the writer Aubrey Menen shares the experiment in self-inquiry he conducted in the 1960s in the Piazza Farnese in Rome. Relying on the reading of two Upaniṣads, he decided to retreat to a room and not abandon the experiment until he had achieved the experience of his true self, the ātman. Employing only intellectual analysis, Menen distances himself, one by one, from all the narratives that make up his empirical identity. In (...) this essay, I propose to interpret his experiment from classical Sāṃkhya philosophy, reading it as a contemporary practice of tattva-abhyāsa that proceeds through a methodic disenchantment and entails a cognitive and emotional nakedness that might be interpreted as the nakedness of prakṛti. This case study raises questions about the application of Sāṃkhya philosophy in contexts other than renunciation and outside of any tradition, as well as on the role that emotions play in the process of the negation (pratiṣedha) of tattva-s, for the latter are not abstract entities, but shape our various empirical identities through emotional knots that the seeker will have to undo in the exercise of coming to affirm their identity as puruṣa. (shrink)

El estudio de los grafitis de Antoni Tàpies que se lleva a cabo en este artículo pretende profundizar en un aspecto poco considerado de la obra del autor y, sin embargo, crucial para comprender el conjunto de su obra. Esta perspectiva permite destacar el interés del artista por superar la separación entre arte y vida, recontextualizándolo más allá de la corriente informalista en las que se le ha encasillado y acercándolo a los movimientos internacionales del arte de acción. Para explicar (...) esta recontextualización se examinará, en primer lugar, la aparición del muro en su obra, para poder ver, posteriormente, cómo surge el grafiti. Dentro del segundo apartado se diferenciarán dos etapas distintas que ayudan a ver cómo el desarrollo de los grafitis de Tàpies está en relación con las transformaciones acontecidas en el terreno del grafiti a nivel internacional. De este modo, el artículo pretende ampliar el marco interpretativo de la obra de Tàpies, que adquiere así una coherencia mayor y abre su obra a nuevos significados. (shrink)

El proyecto transhumanista de mejoramiento humano viene proponiendo ya desde hace tiempo una superación de los límites humanos que nos permita convertirnos en una nueva especie. A pesar de que dicha posibilidad es todavía lejana en la práctica, las hipótesis han invadido la ciencia ficción y están generando la imagen colectiva de lo que se considera posible o, incluso, deseable. Al mismo tiempo en la ciencia ficción esos desarrollos artificiales se llevan hasta sus últimos límites y se ponen en cuestión. (...) En el presente estudio se revisan las tensiones en relación con el posthumanismo que aparecen en la serie de ficción Westworld. En concreto, el artículo estudia cómo se desarrolla en ella el concepto de identidad, uno de los que más están cambiando en nuestra época. El análisis revela la necesidad de abordarlo desde un punto de vista complejo, en el que se dé una importancia especial a la vivencia personal, tanto desde el punto de vista corporal como psicológico para el despertar de la conciencia. A su vez, dichos elementos se mostrarán esenciales para comprender la propuesta de identidad narrativa que subyace en la serie. Por todo ello, los planteamientos de Westworld suponen una interesante reflexión sobre cómo se concibe la identidad hoy en día. (shrink)

The Pastoral Constitution, Gaudium et Spes, is a key document for fundamental theology. In it, for the first time, the Church openly discusses the anthropological question as a specific theme. It explains what Christian anthropology is and in what way the mystery of Christ sheds light on the mystery of man. From the point of view of fundamental theology, the document shows how theological reason is closely related to anthropological meaning. It takes note of the potential mediatory role of anthropology (...) in a dialogue between faith and reason in the modern world. (shrink)

En este artículo abordamos los conceptos de «salud» y «enfermedad» tal y como han sido entendidos en el seno de la Logoterapia del psiquiatravienés Viktor Frankl, uno de los métodos psicoterapéuticos más importantes del siglo XX. Esta psicoterapia existencial otorga preeminencia a la dimensión noética o espiritual de la salud, que ha sido, sin embargo, totalmente obviada en el debate naturalismo/normativismo propio de la filosofía de la medicina. Por ello, en este escrito tratamos de mostrar de qué modo las aportaciones (...) teóricas de Viktor Frankl pueden contribuir a la discusión filosófica acerca del estatuto ontológico de la enfermedad, especialmente en el ámbito polémico dela psiquiatría. (shrink)

The present work consists of a discussion about the concept of real number in Frege. It is intended to explain how Frege tries to define the real numbers, highlighting the importance that the notion of “magnitude-ratio” plays in this definition. In Part III, in Volume II of the Grundgesetze der Arithmetik (1903) (from now on only: Grundgesetze), Frege presents his theory of real numbers, which is followed by a long criticism of the real number theories in force at that time, (...) such as by Cantor, Dedekind, Thomae and Weierstrass. In view of this, to fulfill our purpose, we will examine the text only where Frege presents his own theory of real numbers (the informal presentation) (§§156-164). Frege's criticisms of previous theories will not be examined in detail, unless an introduction to his criticism of formalism, in order to elucidate such criticism. Thus, only the part in which the philosopher presents his own conception of real numbers will be analyzed. To support the discussion, authors Peter Simons, Eric Snyder and Stewart Shapiro will be used. (shrink)

In this paper, I show that Polleit and Mariano (2011) are right in concluding that Credit Default Swaps (CDS) are per se unobjectionable from Rothbard’s libertarian perspective on property rights and contract theory, but that they fail to derive this conclusion properly. I therefore outline the proper explanation. In addition, though Polleit and Mariano are correct in pointing out that speculation with CDS can conceivably hurt the borrowers’ interests, they fail to grasp that this can be the case only in (...) some peculiar circumstances that I identify. In other words, they miss the bigger picture, the one outside special circumstances, in which CDS trading has the opposite effect. That is, CDS facilitate debt accumulation, including government debt accumulation. Finally, I point out how this can precipitate the collapse of fiat money regimes. An incidental goal of the analysis is to provide a better account than Polleit and Mariano of recent government interventions in and around CDS markets. (shrink)

This article examines the British colonial theft of Indigenous sovereignty and the particular obstacles that it presents to establishing just social relations between the colonizer and the colonized in settler states. In the first half, I argue that the particular nature of the crime of sovereign theft makes apologies and reparations unsuitable policy tools for reconciliation because Settler societies owe their very existence to the abrogation of Indigenous sovereignties. Instead, Settler states ought to return sovereignty to the land’s Indigenous peoples. (...) In the second half of this paper, I take up some of the practical questions of how this might be done and anticipate a number of objections. Giving up sovereignty would not mean dispossessing the millions of colonists who currently reside in these countries of their homes and property – but it does mean rethinking the constitutional makeup of a country and how that serves to benefit the different peoples who make their homes there. (shrink)

El objetivo de este artículo es brindarle un modesto homenaje a Lalla, una de las poetas místicas más admiradas del Śivaismo tántrico medieval, también conocida como Lal Dêd, Lalita o Lalleśvarī. Asceta renunciante y yoguini śivaita, vivió en el primer período del siglo XIV d.C. en el valle de Cachemira, enclave desde el que inspiró con su sabiduría poética tanto a hindúes como a sufíes, teniendo entre sus principales seguidores al fundador de la Orden de Rishis del Sufismo cachemir, Nund (...) Rishi (s.XIV d.C.). A través de sus poemas, Lalla nos deja un extraordinario legado místico, pero también humano, en el que se refleja la lucha de una mujer comprometida con la liberación espiritual, en el contexto de una sociedad profundamente patriarcal, y de una tradición ascética mayoritariamente masculina. (shrink)

This article explores the psychological dimension of classical Sāṃkhya philosophy, on the basis of its canonical treatise, Sāṃkhyakārikā of Īśvarakṛṣṇa (4th Century AD). The strong dualism defended by this ancient metaphysics establishes a division between what we will designate as the phenomenon of consciousness (puruṣa) and the cognitive phenomena (prakṛti). According to our approach, Sāṃkhya seems to offer a mechanical model of mind by means of an introspective self-research. In fact, we will argue that in this system of thought, mind (...) is regarded as an artificial extension of consciousness. Considering the Sāṃkhya classical treatise as the report of a meditative experience, our main purpose is to examine some key points of this dualism. To this end, we also take account of certain Western theories of mind, as well as certain aspects included in another Indian philosophy greatly influenced by the Sāṃkhya system, namely, the classical Yoga of Patañjali. (shrink)

El yoga supramental nunca será un yoga mainstream, ni está diseñado para serlo. No puede subsumirse en una clase de hora y media, ni se presta a ser encerrado en una sala de yoga. Se trata de un compromiso existencial que requiere de toda una vida de dedicación. En estas páginas indago en la vida de su fundador, el yogui, poeta y filósofo Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950). Educado en Cambridge, activista político en pos de la independencia de India y nominado al (...) Premio Nobel de literatura y de la paz, Sri Aurobindo fue sobre todo un experimentador de las profundidades de la conciencia, cuyo yoga se inspira en la enseñanza de Sri Ramakrishna, tal y como algunos investigadores contemporáneos están reivindicando en nuestros días. En este texto enfatizo esa influencia de Sri Ramakrishna, bosquejo la sādhanā que propone el yoga supramental tal y como se refleja en la correspondencia que Sri Aurobindo mantuvo con sus discípulos, e indago en el papel que cumplen la emoción y el fuego anímico en un yoga que tiene como finalidad la espiritualización de la materia. (shrink)

This thesis is a sceptical investigation into the notion that the metaphorical wave-particle binary of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse is related to quantum physics. Indeed, the field of literature and science has employed conceptual similarities as the main means of connecting quantum concepts to novels, however, this has led to a host of scholarly difficulties, prompting the need for a re-examination of analogical linkages. Woolf is the model candidate for such a re-examination, given her historical and philosophical proximity with (...) the developments of quantum mechanics. To the Lighthouse, in particular, was written between 1925 and 1927: precisely when quantum physicists were attempting to resolve the wave-particle duality, leading to Niels Bohr's complementarity. This parallel has been noted by researchers as relevant to the novel, as it too displays a general binary that can be read as wave-particle-like, which the author also attempts to resolve along similar philosophical lines. Nevertheless, other than proximity and similarity, there are no reasons to affirm that the science is related to the novel; hence, it is an ideal case study to examine in order to ascertain the value of conceptual similarities in literature and science. To do so, To the Lighthouse's binary and its resolution are interpreted in a thesis-long close reading, in order to compare aspects of it firstly to Woolf's personal thought, and secondly to various non-quantum intellectual contexts that preceded and surrounded her. In doing so, it becomes clear not only that invoking quantum physics serves no clear purpose in better understanding the novel, but also that the notion of resolving wave- particle-like binaries was a widespread philosophical procedure at the turn of the century, decades before Bohr's concept. This negative conclusion interrogates what the scholarly value of interpreting similarities is, though a hypothetical solution can be found in conceptual metaphor theory. (shrink)

In a recent work entitled You must change your life, Peter Sloterdijk explores the practising nature of philosophy and predicts the return of the “immunological”. There is currently a growing demand for anthropotechnics able to strengthen our immune-symbolic system (i.e. mental and physical methods that protect us against uncertainty, anguish, and death). The anthropotechnics that are being practiced worldwide, such as Yoga or Mindfulness, come originally from Indian philosophies and not from ancient Greek or Roman philosophy. Despite the work of (...) historians of philosophy such as Pierre Hadot, the spiritual exercises of ancient Greco-Roman philosophy continue to be studied as fossilized specimens inside university classrooms. This could be due to the pact of indifference, the tacit agreement that lies behind the functioning of contemporary Institutional Philosophy. Thanks to this pact there is no longer any possible contradiction between life and work, because there is, to begin with, no vital commitment to the genuine exercise of philosophy. We assume that philosophy is an exclusively rhetorical exercise and that the task of the professional philosopher is to publish as many papers as possible in prestigious journals that tend to privatize knowledge. Following a different daimon, this essay was conceived as an exercise in thinking outside the academic standards of professional philosophy. The resulting literary experiment has been intentionally kept as natural as possible, without disguising the crossroads of ideas, thinkers, doubts and new problems that arose spontaneously during the exercise. (shrink)

En este artículo investigamos el pensamiento de Kierkegaard y Nietzsche al respecto de un concepto teológico que aparece formulado, por primera vez, en la carta de Pablo a los Filipenses, a saber: la kénosis o el «anonadamiento» de Jesús de Nazaret. Este concepto juega un papel determinante en la crítica que ambos pensadores dedican al cristianismo. Sin embargo, nuestro propósito es mostrar cómo “la nada” de Jesús, adquiere, en sus respectivas filosofías, una significación tan importante como irreconciliable.

In this essay, I look at the significant portion of vegans who are vegan because they care about harm to animals. I investigate what lifestyle is in fact consistent with caring about harm to animals, which I begin by calling consistent veganism. I argue that the lifestyle that consistently follows from this underlying conviction behind many people’s veganism is in fact distinct from a vegan lifestyle.

La mente es un cadáver que mata y da vida, un destello (churita) del poder de la conciencia (cit-śakti), creadora y destructora de universos, temporalidades y realidades. El Mokṣopāya (s. X), mejor conocido como Yogavāsiṣṭha, nos invita a cuestionar todas nuestras creencias ontológicas a través de historias extraordinarias, narradas por Vasiṣṭha a su discípulo Rāma. Leyendo este voluminoso texto sánscrito a la luz de una de las obras más célebres del teatro español del Siglo de oro, La vida es sueño (...) de Pedro Calderón de la Barca, este ensayo querría apaciguar la angustia existencial de Segismundo, que duda constantemente sobre si está dormido o despierto y padece el carácter efímero de los valores del mundo. Si se hiciese discípulo de Vasiṣṭha, este príncipe cristiano abandonaría enseguida sus preocupaciones y aprendería que la respuesta a todas sus inquietudes está únicamente en su conciencia (cit-mātra). (shrink)