We intend to demonstrate that human perception is better understood when thought from the perspective of Aristotelian-Thomistic Philosophy. After concluding for its existence, Descartes, in the 17th century, concludes that there are ideas that we all possess, such as the idea of “perfection”. This idea cannot result from experience, and it’s God the source of the idea of perfection in us, and the one who guarantees the existence not only of external reality but also of our own correct reasoning. Very (...) far from the God of Thomas Aquinas who is Alpha and Omega, Descartes' god is a god situated and secondary between the subject and reality which, in turn, is guaranteed by God, in a vicious circle between God and the subject. It’s a subjective or logical God, such as Kant's, but not a real God. Reality is, therefore, subjectively intelligible and truth objectively achieved, and the principle of causality is, in this way, subjectively valid. Reality is intelligible not because it’s provided by intelligible forms — by intelligible (and not only sensitive matter) that we, in fact, perceive — but because it is a reality presented by extension that is nothing more than a reflection of the logical-mathematical universe, thought by Modernity and which, with this thinker, is innate to the subject. This is a pure and finished reason. The extensive reality is purged of subjective elements; it is logical-mathematical (therefore, it is thought). It’s a kind of idealism and not realism and which results in a physicalist and materialist view of reality. Materialism, called physicalism in mainstream culture, consists of the idea that there is a world out there that is not experiential. It is material, but the way the word is used here has a strict conceptual definition. Matter is something that can be specifically described by numbers. It's a world without qualities. The world is purely quantitative and, because we are part of this world, we are also quantitative. The entire world of qualities that, deep down, constitutes our reality, is generated, according to materialism, in a not very well specified way and by a brain inside our head. The world outside has no flavors, colors, smells or sounds. We cannot see it because it has no qualities. The best we can do is imagine it as some kind of set of mathematical equations floating in the void. (shrink)

Any plausibly just market exchange must balance two conflicting moral considerations: non-worseness (Wertheimer, 1999) and euvoluntariness (true voluntariness; Munger, 2011). We propose an analytical theory of just market exchange that partly resolves this conflict.

Es difícil imaginar una sociedad del buen vivir sin arte. Por ello, la creatividad artística es reconocida como derecho en la Constitución del Ecuador, y como derecho humano en los intrumentos internacionales relevantes. Partiendo de esta reflexión, los artículos de este libro argumentan que siendo el arte un derecho, le corresponde al Estado la provisión de condiciones para su garantía por medio de políticas públicas, que deben tomar en cuenta tanto las especificidades de las personas, y los pueblos y nacionalidades, (...) como el contexto tecnológico de la era digital, que brinda las bases para una sociedad abierta donde el conocimiento sea libre. (shrink)

In this essay, I focus on Lugones’s relatively lesser explored notion of playfulness. I weigh in on the debate about whether playfulness is necessary for what Lugones calls “world-traveling,” which enables one to recognize another person as a full subject. I argue that although the attribute of playfulness may not be necessary for world-traveling, it is necessary for collaborative world-making––creating a new, shared world that is opened through the activity of play.

Panentheism has seen a revival over the past two decades in the philosophical literature. This has partially triggered an interest in Indian models of God, which have traditionally been seen as panentheistic. On the other hand, panentheism has been often associated with panpsychism, an old ontological view that sees consciousness as fundamental and ubiquitous in the natural world and which has also enjoyed a renaissance in recent decades. Depending on where one places fundamentality (whether on the microlevel or on the (...) cosmic-level) there will be two types of panpsychism: micropsychism and cosmopsychism. Despite the apparently rich connection between Indian traditions and panpsychism, especially in its cosmopsychist version, recent work within cross-cultural analytic philosophy of mind seems to be mostly focused on atheistic traditions, such as Advaita Vedānta and Buddhism. My goal in this paper is to contribute to the cross-cultural debate over panentheism and Indian models of God, as well as to the debate on the connections between panpsychism, cosmopsychism and Indian traditions, by examining one of the most important and often quoted texts in Indian religious and philosophical traditions: the theistic Bhavagad Gītā. From a more specific standpoint, the paper has a threefold goal: to offer a panentheistic reconstruction of the Gītā’s concept of God, to show how this panentheistic model of God entails a form of theistic cosmopsychism, and to locate the Gītā’s cosmopsychism within a broader map of cosmopsychist views. Based on this reconstructive analysis of the Gītā’s cosmopsychism, I also outline some few reflections on the philosophical prospects of theistic cosmopsychism. (shrink)

Ao longo da trajetória intelectual de Merleau-Ponty, as reflexões sobre arte cumprem um papel crucial em sua preocupação de restituir o espetáculo do mundo, através da volta ao brotamento do sentido do ser na experiência antepredicativa do ser humano dada na percepção. Um sinal disso é que, em cada um dos momentos de seu pensamento, ele escreveu um ensaio no qual o tema central é a contribuição da expressão artística para uma reflexão filosófica interessada na abertura humana corporal no mundo. (...) Este artigo tem como propósito realizar uma aproximação de tais ensaios – recorrendo a uma abordagem cronológica – com vistas a demarcar como eles auxiliam no reconhecimento de certas nuances e articulações de seu pensamento, enfatizando a constante ontológica presente em suas discussões sobre arte. Assim, o trabalho realiza uma visão horizontal sobre o percurso merleau-pontiano de pensamento – transitando da fenomenologia da percepção à ontologia da carne –, com incursões verticais sobre as relações entre percepção, expressão e instituição nos ensaios. A hipótese é que tais temas fornecem a base para a compreensão da arte como experiência de fundação do ser. (shrink)

We consider Baars’ "Global Workspace" theory of consciousness and discuss its possible representation within a model of intelligent agents. We first review a particular agent implementation that is given by an abstract machine, and then identify the extensions that are required in order to accommodate the main aspects of consciousness. According to Baars’ theory, this amounts to unconscious process coalitions that result in the creation of contexts. These extensions can be formulated within a reified virtual machine encompassing a representation of (...) the original machine as well as an additional introspective component. This computational framework is illustrating throughout using a simple working example. (shrink)

O último livro escrito por Nietzsche, Ecce homo: como alguém se torna o que se é, é uma de suas obras mais controversas, tendo sido tomada como sinal de prepotência, como autoexposição egocêntrica e como prenúncio do colapso que interrompeu sua trajetória intelectual em janeiro de 1889. As controvérsias foram alimentadas, em parte, pela peculiar narrativa encontrada no livro – ele conta a si sua vida e obra em tom elogioso e hiperbólico –, em parte, pelo fato de que a (...) tardia publicação de Ecce homo, ocorrida apenas em 1908, favoreceu o contraste com o apócrifo A vontade de poder – reunião de anotações publicada em 1901 como ‘obra principal’ de Nietzsche. Nosso propósito neste artigo é refletir sobre as possíveis contribuições do teor ‘autobiográfico’ e ‘autocrítico’ de Ecce homo para o caminho de pensamento do filósofo alemão. Nossa hipótese é que a narrativa experimentada no livro possui uma íntima relação com temas precedentes da obra nietzschiana e com a tarefa da transvaloração de todos os valores. Por meio de uma autoencenação, da colocação de um certo ‘Nietzsche’ em cena, o filósofo avança em sua crítica à metafísica – e à sua versão popular, a moral cristã – enquanto realça a mundanidade de sua perspectiva, seu caráter contingente e seu condicionamento pelas “pequenas coisas”, decisão que nos parece carregar uma relevante dimensão filosófica: Nietzsche assume a parcialidade e explicita o interesse envolvido em sua tomada de posição no seio da cultura. (shrink)

El Realismo Científico Estándar sostiene el enfoque metafísico de que el mundo es como es independiente de la mente. Sin embargo, el presente artículo demuestra cómo esta postura es incompatible con todas las teorías no-eliminativistas sobre la mente, lo cual hace que la postura sea inconsistente, incompatible con la ciencia, elimina la consciencia, la intencionalidad, la causación mental y la ética. Se propone una tesis realista alternativa que conserva la idea de que el mundo en general es de la forma (...) que es, independiente de lo que pensemos sobre él, compatible con la mente como parte real del mundo. Este cambio restaura la posibilidad de consistencia, la mente, la consciencia, la intencionalidad, la ciencia y la ética. -/- Standard Scientific Realism holds the metaphysical view that the world is the way it is independent of the mind. However, this paper demonstrates how this view is incompatible with all non-eliminativist theories of mind, leading it to be inconsistent, incompatible with science, and eliminating consciousness, intentionality, mental causation and ethics. An alternative realist thesis is proposed which preserves the idea that generally the world is the way it is independent of what we think of it, compatible with mind as a real part of the world. This reform restores the possibility of consistency, mind, consciousness, intentionality, science and ethics, while at the same time preserving the theoretical advantages over non-realist competitors. (shrink)

This work, in English "Struggle for power, organic crisis and judicial independence", has its origin in research academics of the IAEN carried out to provide expert advise to the Inter American Court of Human Rights in the case Quintana and others (Supreme Court of Justice) vs the State of Ecuador. The research is about the nature of the evolution of the ecuadorian state, the dynamics of its institutions, its players, parties, laws, its factors of instability, the way rights have been (...) deployed since the return to democracy in 1979, those who have benefited from neoliberal democracy and those who have paid the costs, and where in all this was the Supreme Court of Justice. The Introduction takes a look at this origin of the work and its intellectual import, provides a brief characterization of the Inter American Sistem of Human Rights Protection, how the Quintana Case fits within it, and an overview of the chapters and their logic. The first chapter analyzes the institutional and sociological factors that have contributed to Ecuador's historically unstable state, based primarily in an antagonistic struggle for power between the Executive and Legislative branches. The second chapter analyzes the economic and political factors that provoked an organic crisis, or crisis of hegemony, between 1997 and 2007 in Ecuador. The third chapter analyzes the evolution of the way in which judges are selected in Europe, the outcomes they have generated, and how they compare with the ecuadorian systems of judge selection in terms of securing judicial independence. The fourth chapter develops a theory of judicial independence in democracy and analyzes how Ecuador measures up to that standard, from when it became a neoliberal minimal democracy in 1981, to when it became a neoliberal false democracy as a consequence of instalation of a system evidently lacking in the people's support under the guise of the 1998 Constitution and its system of judge selection, and the new democratic horizons set by the 2008 Constitution, and the judicial system that springs from it. (shrink)

Inspired by the early Wittgenstein’s concept of nonsense (meaning that which lies beyond the limits of language), we define two different, yet complementary, types of nonsense: formal nonsense and pragmatic nonsense. The simpler notion of formal nonsense is initially defined within Tarski’s semantic theory of truth; the notion of pragmatic nonsense, by its turn, is formulated within the context of the theory of pragmatic truth, also known as quasi-truth, as formalized by da Costa and his collaborators. While an expression will (...) be considered formally nonsensical if the formal criteria required for the assignment of any truth-value (whether true, false, pragmatically true, or pragmatically false) to such sentence are not met, a (well-formed) formula will be considered pragmatically nonsensical if the pragmatic criteria (inscribed within the context of scientific practice) required for the assignment of any truth-value to such sentence are not met. Thus, in the context of the theory of pragmatic truth, any (well-formed) formula of a formal language interpreted on a simple pragmatic structure will be considered pragmatically nonsensical if the set of primary sentences of such structure is not well-built, that is, if it does not include the relevant observational data and/or theoretical results, or if it does include sentences that are inconsistent with such data. (shrink)

The semantic paradoxes are a family of arguments – including the liar paradox, Curry’s paradox, Grelling’s paradox of heterologicality, Richard’s and Berry’s paradoxes of definability, and others – which have two things in common: first, they make an essential use of such semantic concepts as those of truth, satisfaction, reference, definition, etc.; second, they seem to be very good arguments until we see that their conclusions are contradictory or absurd. These arguments raise serious doubts concerning the coherence of the concepts (...) involved. This article will offer an introduction to some of the main theories that have been proposed to solve the paradoxes and avert those doubts. Included is also a brief history of the semantic paradoxes from Eubulides to Tarski and Curry. (shrink)

This text aims to theoretically think on the performative work devel-oped in the region of Belém, Pará, as attempts to understand its modes of subjectivation related to the narratives of Amazonian culture and identities of the ancestral past that molds the present of the islands around the city, more specifically the Island of Cotijuba. Experiencing these liveliness territories, I absorb myself to comprehend both the imagetic production of this research and the potentialities that emerge when connected through the intentional intervention (...) of the narrative. (shrink)

Most words in natural language are vague, that is to say, they lack sharp boundaries and, hence, they have (actual or potential) borderline cases, where the word in question neither definitely applies nor definitely fails to apply. Vagueness gives rise to paradoxes, the best known of which is the sorites (concerned with how many grains of sand are needed to make a heap). Besides offering a solution to such paradoxes, a theory of vagueness should systematically describe how the truth conditions (...) of sentences with vague terms are determined; and it should also define the right logical principles for reasoning with such sentences. This article offers an introduction to the main theories of vagueness and to the problems they have to face. (shrink)

Este artigo objetiva discutir o tema da autoficção e apresentar a possibilidade de utilizá-lo para a interpretação de obras filosóficas, destacadamente o livro Ecce homo de Friedrich Nietzsche e, secundariamente, Testo junkie de Paul B. Preciado. Para tanto, primeiro, abordarei a relação entre filosofia e literatura no contexto que alguns pensadores contemporâneos têm nomeado cultura literária. Em um segundo momento, traçarei uma breve história da formação da noção de autoficção e da consolidação do termo para demarcar um subgênero literário. Em (...) seguida, apresentarei elementos de Ecce homo que me parecem permitir enquadrá- lo no campo da autoficção. Na última parte, serão retomadas as articulações entre literatura e filosofia, analisando- se brevemente um exemplar de autoficção no pensamento contemporâneo, Testo junkie, para sugerir que a aproximação de tal subgênero contribui para a compreensão tanto do lugar da filosofia na cultura literária quanto aspectos de nosso tempo. (shrink)

This paper aims at examining the issue of the role of supreme being theology in non-Abrahamic traditions. According to the dominant view in contemporary philosophy of religion, the philo-sophical project of inferring divine properties from the concept of God as a maximally perfect being, usually called supreme being theology, is an exclusivity of the Abrahamic traditions. In attempting to question this view, I investigate the developments of two key-concepts of Vedāntatradition –the concepts of Brahman (literally, the greatest) and Bhagavān (literally, (...) the possessor of all excellences) –in thethought of three famous vedantins: Śaṅkara, Rāmānuja and Jīva. (shrink)

Cette étude défend l’idée que, contrairement à l’opinion de Latour sur la nécessité de laisser de côté l’épistémologie pour traiter de tout ce qui a de la valeur pour la science, Mario Bunge a systématiquement construit une épistémologie détaillée et approfondie. La stratégie argumentative consistera à montrer (a) qu’il est faux que nous n’avons jamais été modernes (b) que l’épistémologie est là pour de bon et (c) que Mario Bunge soutient un réalisme scientifique fort, une version du matérialisme, du systémisme (...) et de l’émergentisme, comportant une dimension morale (il existe des valeurs objectives comme la vérité, la paix et la justice qui méritent d’être étudiées). Ensuite, le réalisme de Bunge rejette la neutralité axiologique rendant les scientifiques responsables de leurs actions. Bunge a toujours été moderne et continue à enrichir ses propres positions. (shrink)

This review article takes up the issue of race in Latin American philosophy and Susan Nuccetelli's analysis of it by asking how we think the place of race in Latin American philosophy given that she argues that race is both an internal factor (in the sense that Latin American philosophy theorizes race) as well as an external factor (in the sense that racism and raciality have significantly determined the production of Latin American philosophy)? The article thematizes white supremacy in Latin (...) American philosophy in order to ask to what degree Latin American philosophy can respond to white supremacy in philosophy without questioning its own grounds and relation to white supremacy. (shrink)

Since its inception, a core aspiration of deliberative democracy has been to enable more and better inclusion within democratic politics. In this article, we argue that deliberative democracy can achieve this aspiration only if it goes beyond verbal forms of communication and acknowledges the crucial role of non-verbal communication in expressing and exchanging arguments. The article develops a multidimensional approach to deliberative democracy by emphasizing the visual, sonic and physical dimensions of communication in public deliberation. We argue that non-verbal modes (...) of communication can contribute to public deliberation when they (1) are used as part of reason-giving processes, (2) enable the inclusion of marginalized actors in public debates and (3) induce reflection and encourage new ways of thinking about the public controversies at hand. (shrink)

In this paper I try to answer four basic questions: (1) How the concept of God is to be represented? (2) Are there any logical principles governing it? (3) If so, what kind of logic lies behind them? (4) Can there be a logic of the concept of God? I address them by presenting a formal-logical account to the concept of God. I take it as a methodological desideratum that this should be done within the simplest existing logical formalism. I (...) start with first-order logic (FOL) with identity, and then show that its simplest modal extension (SQML, or the simplest quantified modal logic) is enough for us to formalize a minimally satisfactory theory of the concept of God. I focus exclusively on the monotheistic concept of God. (shrink)

In his debut book, The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche presents what he understands as a metaphysics of art or metaphysics of the artist. As it becomes clear throughout the argument developed in the work, his aim is to favor a justification of the world and of existence as an aesthetic phenomenon. The path to his metaphysics passes through the interaction with Kantian and, mostly, Schopenhauerian formulations, and through a deep dialogue with Greek culture in general and, indirectly, with Pre-Socratic thought. (...) The objective of this article is to delimit the retentions and displacements of the critical tradition in his book from 1872, and highlight the importance of the interlocution with the Greek cultural repertoire in the conformation of his metaphysics of the artist. In particular, the working hypothesis is that Nietzsche, in these approaches and appropriations of critical and archaic philosophical tradition, finds the possibility of an immanent metaphysics in the post-Kantian context, conceived as a physiology (in the antique sense) of aesthetic bias. (shrink)

The importance of The Origin of The Work of Art in Heidegger’s path of thought is notorious. Besides adding to the framework of the thematization of the question of being a reflection on art, the conference is considered a landmark of the displacement from the existential analytic of Dasein to the problem of history of being. Divided in three parts, this paper connects such a displacement to the relationship between art and truth established in the conference. In the first part, (...) it indicates how the criticism of aesthetic tradition is inserted in the project of overcoming metaphysics through the problematization of subjectivism. The second is dedicated to the theme of the origin of the work of art in its nexus to the notions of history and institution. In the third part, it discusses the idea of art as a setting-itself-into-work of truth as alétheia, bound to the tension between world and earth that would expose itself in art. In the final remarks, I suggest that, going beyond the Greek paradigm and Heidegger’s hesitations, the association between art and alétheia also applies to the experience offered by modern and contemporary works. (shrink)

This paper introduces the special issue on Formal Approaches to the Ontological Argument of the Journal of Applied Logics (College Publications). The issue contains the following articles: Formal Approaches to the Ontological Argument, by Ricardo Sousa Silvestre and Jean-Yves Béziau; A Brief Critical Introduction to the Ontological Argument and its Formalization: Anselm, Gaunilo, Descartes, Leibniz and Kant, by Ricardo Sousa Silvestre; A Mechanically Assisted Examination of Begging the Question in Anselm’s Ontological Argument, by John Rushby; A Tractarian Resolution (...) to the Ontological Argument, by Erik Thomsen; On Kant’s Hidden Ambivalence Toward Existential Generalization in his Critique of the Ontological Argument, by Giovanni Mion; The Totality of Predicates and the Possibility of the Most Real Being, by Srećko Kovač; An Even More Leibnizian Version of Gödel’s Ontological Argument, by Kordula Świętorzecka and Marcin Łyczak; A Case Study On Computational Hermeneutics: E. J. Lowe’s Modal Ontological Argument, by David Fuenmayor. (shrink)

Simônides de Ceos foi um poeta lírico grego cuja obra é marcada pela atenção à problemática da existência humana e cuja distinção é a visão do fazer poético como atividade propriamente humana. Nietzsche nutria grande admiração por Simônides desde o tempo de sua formação intelectual, como revela sua correspondência dos anos sessenta. Além disso, em seus cadernos e em dois aforismos de sua obra publicada, o filósofo apresenta interessantes reflexões sobre o poeta. Em uma delas, afirma que Simônides aconselhava os (...) gregos a tomarem a vida como um jogo. Tal compreensão é um dos temas abordados neste ensaio. O outro tema é a discussão sobre certa proximidade entre as concepções de Simônides e Nietzsche acerca da arte como ofício, derivadas da interlocução crítica deles, respectivamente, com a tradição poética arcaica e a tradição estética e filosófica. A convergência de ambos sobre tais temas liga-se a um traço comum: o enraizamento da existência humana na aparência. (shrink)

Nietzsche apresenta, no decorrer de sua obra, um persistente interesse pelo problema da linguagem, abordando sua origem terrena e sua dimensão demasiado humana, sua ligação ao âmbito instintivo de uma espécie animal e seu caráter artificial e plástico. O objetivo deste artigo é sugerir que tal tema relaciona-se à tentativa nietzschiana de superação da metafísica, em duas frentes. Negativamente, no reconhecimento dos limites da linguagem e da influência de certas seduções gramaticais em nossas concepções do que seria a estrutura fundamental (...) do mundo. Positivamente, na elaboração de uma sintomatologia e de sua arte do estilo, elementos importantes de sua crítica da cultura e postura filosófica. Pretendemos, assim, indicar que a tematização e uso nietzschiano da linguagem possui papel central na elaboração de sua tarefa filosófica de intervenção cultural. (shrink)

The so-called theory of karma is one of the distinguishing aspects of Hinduism and other non-Hindu south-Asian traditions. At the same time that the theory can be seen as closely connected with the freedom of will and action that we humans supposedly have, it has many times been said to be determinist and fatalist. The purpose of this paper is to analyze in some deepness the relations that are between the theory of karma on one side and determinism, fatalism and (...) free-will on the other side. In order to do that, I shall use what has been described as the best formal approach we have to indeterminism: branching time theory. More specifically, I shall introduce a branching time semantic framework in which, among other things, statements such as “state of affairs e is a karmic effect of agent a”, “a wills it to be the case that e” and “e is inevitable” could be properly represented. (shrink)

In this chapter, Ricardo Silvestre and Alan Herbert offer a reconstruction of the Gītā’s concept of God with a focus on the relationship between God and the world. They try to explain the claim that the Gītā is panentheistic. This is done with the help of some key notions of contemporary metaphysics (such as ontological dependence and fundamentality) along with the Indic notion of prakṛti, considered as a metaphysical primitive denoting the intimate relationship that exists between matter and conscious (...) living beings on the one hand, and God on the other. (shrink)

This is the handbook of abstracts of the 1st World Congress on Logic and Religion, which took place in João Pessoa, Brazil, April 01-05, 2015. -/- .

ENSAIO DISPONIBILIZADO NA REVISTA GUARU (2021): A luz adentra as cavernas e mostra imagens nas pedras. A mera aparência, quimera. Vemos no fundo perfis da verdadeira experiência da necessidade da caça em uma natureza vivida na nudez de seus ciclos e humores, sem controle. Nossos olhos aterram-se em javalis, búfalos-anões, bisões, cavalos, humanos-bichos, contornos de mãos – rastros de animais mágicos cujo vigor permanece nos traços gravados em pigmentos pretos e avermelhados. Temos diante de nós a descoberta de uma forma (...) de expressão a perdurar nas paredes que guardam o exercício nascido antes das coisas terem nomes, exercício agora chamado arte rupestre. No janeiro de um ano em que uma humanidade recolhida entre suas paredes finas experimenta a dureza de uma natureza alheia – a colocar no espelho a hostilidade secular a ela imposta –, tomamos ciência do encontro das mais antigas expressões figurativas produzidas por nossos antepassados em uma caverna na Indonésia. Em meio à perplexidade, apenas de posse de uma tecnologia que já não apazigua a ausência de controle, descobrimos na ilha de Sulawesi, na caverna de Leang Tedongnge, pinturas de cerca de 45 mil anos que fazem a história da arte deslocar-se e recuar. (shrink)

Este artigo apresenta a teoria supervalorativista da vagueza e discute a objecção, que frequentemente lhe é dirigida, segundo a qual essa teoria não consegue dar conta do fenómeno da vagueza de ordem superior.

This paper introduces the special issue on Logic and Philosophy of Religion of the journal Sophia: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions (Springer). The issue contains the following articles: Logic and Philosophy of Religion, by Ricardo Sousa Silvestre and Jean-Yvez Béziau; The End of Eternity, by Jamie Carlin Watson; The Vagueness of the Muse—The Logic of Peirce’s Humble Argument for the Reality of God, by Cassiano Terra Rodrigues; Misunderstanding the Talk(s) of the Divine: Theodicy in the Wittgensteinian Tradition, by (...) Ondřej Beran; On the Concept of Theodicy, by Ricardo Sousa Silvestre; The Logical Problem of the Trinity and the Strong Theory of Relative Identity, by Daniel Molto; Thomas Aquinas on Logic, Being, and Power, and Contemporary Problems for Divine Omnipotence, by Errin D. Clark. -/- . (shrink)

POLITICO Studio speaks with Ricardo Marek, President Europe and Canada at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, on why rare diseases need to be a public health priority, and how Europe can remain a leader in life sciences.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it aims at introducing the ontological argument through the analysis of five historical developments: Anselm’s argument found in the second chapter of his Proslogion, Gaunilo’s criticism of it, Descartes’ version of the ontological argument found in his Meditations on First Philosophy, Leibniz’s contribution to the debate on the ontological argument and his demonstration of the possibility of God, and Kant’s famous criticisms against the (cartesian) ontological argument. Second, it intends to critically examine (...) the enterprise of formally analyzing philosophical arguments and, as such, contribute in a small degree to the debate on the role of formalization in philosophy. My focus will be mainly on the drawbacks and limitations of such enterprise; as a guideline, I shall refer to a Carnapian, or Carnapian-like theory of argument analysis. (shrink)

O presente artigo tem como objetivo perscrutar a tarefa nietzschiana de ver a arte com a ótica da vida, apresentada pelo filósofo, em 1886, como signo da unidade de sua obra. Para tanto, realizamos uma leitura panorâmica das reflexões de Nietzsche sobre a arte, buscando salientar – em meio às tensões próprias de um pensamento assistemático – os elementos que permitem que o filósofo afirme a existência de uma coerência interna a seus escritos. Nossa hipótese é que a mesma pode (...) ser vista em algumas relações entre fisiologia e estética estabelecidas por ele ao longo de sua trajetória, principalmente, na interpretação da arte e da cultura em geral como expressões de um certo sentido – como direção ascendente ou decadente – da vida. Interessa-nos o fato dessa perspectiva fazer-se presente no período final de sua produção intelectual na ideia de fisiologia da arte, com a distinção entre criação na abundância e no empobrecimento. Além de sintetizar a problemática presente no pensamento nietzschiano desde seus escritos dos anos setenta, tal distinção é importante, sobretudo, por possibilitar que o filósofo apresente-se como alguém capaz de ver, através das expressões culturais, vida forte e fraca, ascendente e decadente, abundante e empobrecida. E é notável – como sugerimos no encerramento do trabalho – que, para fazê-lo, Nietzsche autoencena-se como um décadent que foi capaz de cura e, por isso, conquistou olhos para distinguir, o que pode ser interpretado como estratégia vinculada a seu empreendimento de crítica e transformação da cultura. (shrink)

This paper suggests the democratic direction in which the right of freedom of expression should be conceived and applied. In the first two sections it suggests some counter-examples to, and diagnoses of, the libertarian and liberal conceptions of freedom of expression, taking Scanlon (1972) and Scanlon (1979), respectively, to be their chief proponents. The paper suggests that these conceptions cannot take into account clear examples, like fraudulent propaganda, which should not be legal. The democratic conception takes it to heart that (...) the pillars upon which the right of freedom of expression is founded are individual and collective autonomy, the right to know facts of public interest and information necessary for effective democratic control of government. The paper suggests that in a time when private powers seriously threaten these pillars, it is correct for the government to step in to provide the framework in which genuine discussion geared toward fulfilling the objectives of these pillars can take place. (shrink)

This paper is a follow-up of the first part of the persons reply to the Chinese Room Argument. The first part claims that the mental properties of the person appearing in that argument are what matter to whether computational cognitive science is true. This paper tries to discern what those mental properties are by applying a series of hypothetical psychological and strengthened Turing tests to the person, and argues that the results support the thesis that the Man performing the computations (...) characteristic of understanding Chinese actually understands Chinese. The supposition that the Man does not understand Chinese has gone virtually unquestioned in this foundational debate. The persons reply acknowledges the intuitive power behind that supposition, but knows that brute intuitions are not epistemically sacrosanct. Like many intuitions humans have had, and later deposed, this intuition does not withstand experimental scrutiny. The second part of the persons reply consequently holds that computational cognitive science is confirmed by the Chinese Room thought experiment. (shrink)

Detractors of Searle’s Chinese Room Argument have arrived at a virtual consensus that the mental properties of the Man performing the computations stipulated by the argument are irrelevant to whether computational cognitive science is true. This paper challenges this virtual consensus to argue for the first of the two main theses of the persons reply, namely, that the mental properties of the Man are what matter. It does this by challenging many of the arguments and conceptions put forth by the (...) systems and logical replies to the Chinese Room, either reducing them to absurdity or showing how they lead, on the contrary, to conclusions the persons reply endorses. The paper bases its position on the Chinese Room Argument on additional philosophical considerations, the foundations of the theory of computation, and theoretical and experimental psychology. The paper purports to show how all these dimensions tend to support the proposed thesis of the persons reply. (shrink)

A tarefa que assumimos nesta dissertação foi colocar a pergunta: como as reflexões de Nietzsche sobre arte puderam, ao menos em parte, terem vindo a ser realizadas por meio de uma fisiologia da estética (cf. GM III 8; CW 7; NW, Objeções)? Antes de pretendermos esgotar o assunto, tentamos compreender a possibilidade de elaboração coerente desse problema ao longo do caminho de pensamento nietzschiano. Mas, para tanto, precisamos lidar com as variações de perspectiva próprias de uma filosofia que não se (...) pretende sistemática e assume suas tensões; e 1886 parece-nos ser um momento chave para vermos essas nuances, em particular no que diz respeito à arte. Naquele ano, Nietzsche escreveu novos prefácios para seus cinco livros publicados até então – O Nascimento da Tragédia (1872), Humano, demasiado humano I (1878) e II (1879-1880), Aurora (1881) e A Gaia Ciência (1882) –, buscando ressaltar o caráter unitário de sua obra, ou, como ele mesmo afirma em uma carta, apresentar a “história de um desenvolvimento”. E justamente a seu livro de estreia, ele adicionou um prefácio intitulado Tentativa de Autocrítica, no qual aponta para os aspectos que o inserem no todo de sua obra, mas, ao mesmo tempo, se distancia das concepções que ali configurariam uma “metafísica de artista”. Essa tensão é tratada no Capítulo I desta dissertação a partir de um contraste entre O Nascimento da Tragédia e a posterior Autocrítica. Após esse primeiro passo, procuramos mostrar no Capítulo II como, já em Humano, Nietzsche apresenta uma reorientação de sua estética, o que em Aurora e A Gaia Ciência se consolida com o enraizamento da moral, da filosofia e das artes na fisiologia, a qual argumentamos poder ser lida como logos da physis. No Capítulo III, indicamos como o ganho do âmbito fisiológico constitui o solo sobre o qual Nietzsche pensa o problema da inferência regressiva que o leva à sua distinção dos valores artísticos entre empobrecimento e abundância (cf. GC 370), que parece orientar sua fisiologia da estética. Por fim, discutimos como o exercício autocrítico nietzschiano e a inferência regressiva convergem em O Caso Wagner na antinomia entre os músicos Wagner e Bizet e na autoencenação nietzschiana como décadent que reconheceu sua doença, seu wagnerismo, e experimentou uma nova saúde. (shrink)

A filosofia mundana de Nietzsche. O título da presente tese sintetiza a concepção geral apresentada neste trabalho: o pensamento nietzschiano, em suas distintas facetas, é marcado por uma orientação ao mundo, o que dizemos em um duplo sentido. Em primeiro lugar, a filosofia de Nietzsche visa dar uma nova dignidade àquilo que compõe o enraizamento mundano do ser humano: sua existência transitória e errática, sua naturalidade, sua animalidade, seu corpo. Em segundo, o voltar-se ao mundo de seu pensamento aparece também (...) na relação do filósofo com sua época, reconhecendo-se como “filho” e “má consciência” dela a partir de um diálogo profundo – constituído por aproximações e distanciamentos – com o ambiente cultural e intelectual em que está imerso. Nossa hipótese é que na elaboração dessa filosofia mundana um aspecto é particularmente relevante: o estabelecimento de entrelaçamentos fisiológico-estéticos em momentos cruciais de sua obra, responsáveis por desenhar uma postura antimetafísica – com contraposições que pendulam entre tentativas de equiparação (de oferecer uma ontologia alternativa) e de superação da tradição metafísica. Nos três capítulos que conformam este trabalho, tal hipótese será desenvolvida indicando-se como tais entrelaçamentos participam na composição de sua metafísica de artista, de seu filosofar histórico e, por fim, da hipótese da vontade de poder e da autoencenação que marcam os últimos passos de seu caminho de pensamento. Portanto, o propósito desta tese é argumentar que, apesar dos desvios e nuances que integram o percurso nietzschiano, é possível identificar-se um motivo e postura contínua que delineiam uma filosofia mundana. (shrink)

In this paper, we will argue that, while Big Data enthusiasts imply that the analysis of massive data sets can produce serendipitous (that is, unexpected and fortunate) discoveries, the way those models are currently designed not only does not create serendipity so easily but also frequently generates zemblanitous (that is, expected and unfortunate) findings.

Our purpose in this paper is to contribute to the project of meta-theodicy, understood here as the elucidation of the concept of theodicy through the analysis of its adequacy. In our case, the analysis shall be made inside a framework including a taxonomical view of the theodical adequacy conditions which allows for a rigorously acceptable description of them as well as for a natural appraisal of the role, importance and intra-logical relations holding between them. The result of the analysis shall (...) be used to introduce definitions minimally precise of the notions of theodicy, satisfactory theodicy, plausible theodicy, ideal theodicy, and the like. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that the cleavage between the theory of reference and the theory of meaning, which under the influence of Quine has dominated a large part of the philosophy of language of the last fifty years, is based on a misrepresentation of Tarski's achievement and on an overestimation of the scope and value of disquotation. In particular, I show that, if we accept Davidson's critique of disquotation, the same kind of reasons that Quine offered in opposition to (...) the Carnapian theory of meaning also apply, mutatis mutandis, to the Tarskian theory of reference. (shrink)

Em analogia com outras discriminações, como o racismo ou o sexismo, o especismo é concebido como uma forma de discriminação moral com base na espécie. Em grande medida, a discussão contemporânea sobre a importância moral dos animais surgiu e desenvolveu-se em torno da crítica e da defesa do especismo. Este artigo oferece uma visão da discussão filosófica contemporânea sobre o especismo. Após uma breve introdução, apresenta-se uma definição de especismo e caracterizam-se vários tipos de especismo, sendo o Antropocentrismo o mais (...) relevante. Depois, expõe-se um argumento proeminente contra o Antropocentrismo: o argumento dos casos marginais. Por fim, algumas posições antropocêntricas são criticamente discutidas. (shrink)