In this paper I review the problematic relationship between science and philosophy; in particular, I will address the question of whether science needs philosophy, and I will offer some positive perspectives that should be helpful in developing a synergetic relationship between the two. I will review three lines of reasoning often employed in arguing that philosophy is useless for science: philosophy’s death diagnosis ; the historic-agnostic argument/challenge “show me examples where philosophy has been useful for science, for I don’t know (...) of any”; the division of property argument. These arguments will be countered with three contentions to the effect that the natural sciences need philosophy. I will: point to the fallacy of anti-philosophicalism and examine the role of paradigms and presuppositions ; point out why the historical argument fails ; briefly sketch some domains of intersection of science and philosophy and how the two can have mutual synergy. I will conclude with some implications of this synergetic relationship between science and philosophy for the liberal arts and sciences. (shrink)

Mi ensayo trata de mostrar que es insostenible la ficción de Rorty de una civilización avanzada científicamente cuyos habitantes no sintieran el dolor como una vivencia sufrida en primera persona y que únicamente lo captaran como una excitación objetiva de su sistema nervioso. Entre otras dudas relativas a que esa captación objetiva y exacta se hallaría en indefinida reconstrucción teórica y a que ella no puede ser la experiencia primera del dolor ni siquiera en esa otra galaxia, aduzco que tener (...) un estado fisiológico no equivale por principio a captarlo y que captar determinados rasgos objetivos no puede equivaler por principio a sufrir, a padecer. Concluyo señalando que Rorty, en su empeño por impugnar las representaciones mentales, pierde de vista cómo la experiencia del dolor manifiesta sobre todo la condición originaria del cuerpo vivido.My paper tries to show that Rorty’s fiction of a scientifically developed civilization whose inhabitants should not feel pain as a first-person experience, but would grasp it rather as an objective state of their nervous system, is unsustainable from a phenomenological point of view. I point out several doubts concerning the facts that such an objective apprehension would be in an indefinite process of theoretical reconstruction, and that even in that other galaxy it could not be valid as the original pain situation. But then I focus on the principles that to have a physiological state cannot be equiva-lent to grasping it, and second that to grasp several objective features cannot be equivalent to suffering or to undergoing pain. I conclude by suggesting that Rorty’s eagerness to discard mental representations made him neglect the lived body as implied in everyday experience: the body, not the mind, comes to the fore in the experience of pain. (shrink)

El autor evoca sus encuentros con Julia Iribarne, y las conversaciones y motivaciones intelectuales que de ellos se siguieron. Apunta su impresión de que el pensamiento de Husserl confirió una hondura más humana y entrañable a la reflexión de Julia Iribarne. En su caso, el verde de la vida no sufrió menoscabo por el gris de la teoría.The author recalls his encounters with Julia Iribarne, and the talks and intellectual motivations that followed them. He mentions the impression that Husserl’s thought (...) gave a more human depth to Julia Iribarne´s reflections. The green of life suffered by her no prejudice from a gray theory. (shrink)

In this paper I develop a framework for relating dualities and emergence: two notions that are close to each other but also exclude one another. I adopt the conception of duality as 'isomorphism', from the physics literature, cashing it out in terms of three conditions. These three conditions prompt two conceptually different ways in which a duality can be modified to make room for emergence; and I argue that this exhausts the possibilities for combining dualities and emergence. I apply this (...) framework to gauge/gravity dualities, considering in detail three examples: AdS/CFT, Verlinde's scheme, and black holes. My main point about gauge/gravity dualities is that the theories involved, qua theories of gravity, must be background-independent. I distinguish two senses of background-independence: minimalistic and extended. I argue that the former is sufficiently strong to allow for a consistent theory of quantum gravity; and that AdS/CFT is background-independent on this account; while Verlinde's scheme best fits the extended sense of background-independence. I argue that this extended sense should be applied with some caution: on pain of throwing the baby out with the bath-water. Nevertheless, it is an interesting and potentially fruitful heuristic principle for quantum gravity theory construction. It suggests some directions for possible generalisations of gauge/gravity dualities. The interpretation of dualities is discussed; and the so-called 'internal' vs. 'external' viewpoints are articulated in terms of: epistemic and metaphysical commitments; parts vs. wholes. I then analyse the emergence of gravity in gauge/gravity dualities in terms of the two available conceptualisations of emergence; and I show how emergence in AdS/CFT and in Verlinde's scenario differ from each other. Finally, I give a novel derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy formula based on Verlinde's scheme; the derivation sheds light on several aspects of Verlinde's scheme and how it compares to Bekenstein's original calculation. (shrink)

The Birth of String Theory by Cappelli et al. tells the story of the beginnings of string theory and of the evolutionary process it has undergone from its origins in S-matrix theory to its current status as a candidate unification theory. The book is intended for an audience of students and researchers in physics, as well as historians and philosophers of science with some background in quantum field theory.In the 50s and early 60s, theoretical particle physics focused on formulating a (...) theory to explain the strong interactions. Due to issues with the application of perturbative quantum field theory to the strong interactions, theoretical particle physicists shifted their attention to Heisenberg’s ‘S-matrix’ theory, which focused solely on observable quantities. This endeavour led in 1968 to the breakthrough of the famous ‘Veneziano amplitude’, which along with the Dolen–Horn–Schmid duality between the s- and the t-channels led to the dual resonance model . Following Ve .. (shrink)

In this paper I analyse two closely related examples of duality and of emergence of gravity, namely AdS/CFT and Verlinde's scheme. Based on the notion of duality introduced in Dieks et al., I here elaborate on the conditions necessary for AdS/CFT to be a duality, in particular the condition of completeness. I also address what is usually seen as a desideratum for any candidate theory of quantum gravity: the background-independence of the theory and the diffeomorphism invariance of the observables. Then (...) I discuss Verlinde's scheme and the extent to which it gives a clear case of emergence of gravity. Finally, I give a novel derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy formula based on Verlinde's scheme. (shrink)

This essay, written on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Mariano Artigas’s death, examines Artigas’s engagement with analytic philosophy in his philosophy of science. I argue that, overall, Artigas’s project in the philosophy of science is one of—using his own metaphor—‘building bridges’ between distinct areas of knowledge. After reviewing the function of Artigas’s philosophy of science as a bridge between science and philosophy, I analyse how he moved from classical to analytic philosophy. I then assess the extent to which (...) Artigas’s work conforms to reasonable analytic standards of clarity and precision, which can be expected from work in the philosophy of science. I conclude that, while Artigas’s dedication and production were admirable, his work remains essentially unfinished, thus inviting further research that should develop and clarify his conception of science, of its aims, its methods, progress, and of how science leads to knowledge. I attempt to assess Artigas’s philosophy of science from an objective and detached perspective. Thus the essay should be of interest to both scholars in the philosophy of science, as well as to those generally interested in Artigas-scholarship. (shrink)

My essay is devoted to the very early and attractive understanding of the lived body in Ortega y Gasset’s thought. I focus especially on the text “Vitality, Soul, Spirit” of 1925, which can be considered a proto-phenomenological approach to the issue of embodiment. Ortega identifies “vitality” with “the intrabody” and makes the latter the founding dimension of subjectivity, at the basis of the affective sphere (“soul”) and at the basis of the intellectual and volitional sphere (“spirit”). In a manner very (...) close to Husserl’s unpublished manuscripts, he also shows how the body is the only reality of which there is simultaneously external perception, as if it were just another thing in the world that everyone else can see, and internal perception, which only the self can have and feel. The study also points out, however, the two major difficulties that I detect in Ortega’s precocious attempt. A first doubt concerns the too sharp stratification of vitality, soul and spirit, as can be seen in the analysis of the experiences of pain and of mobility. A second doubt concerns the ontological hesitations surrounding Ortega’s position, which is torn between a coherent phenomenological perspective and a vitalist position in which my body is only an emanation of the lifestream of the universe. (shrink)

Theoretical equivalence and duality are two closely related notions: but their interconnection has so far not been well understood. In this paper I explicate the contribution of a recent schema for duality to discussions of theoretical equivalence. I argue that duality suggests a construal of theoretical equivalence in the physical sciences. The construal is in terms of the isomorphism of models, as defined by the schema. This construal gives interpretative constraints that should be useful for discussions of theoretical equivalence more (...) generally. I illustrate the construal in various formulations of Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory. (shrink)

This is a review of Nicola Mößner’s Visual Representations in Science. Concept and Epistemology.

Ortega y Gasset’s old lament that no one had so far attempted a rigorous phenomenology of pain no longer holds since the appearance of Christian Grüny’s recent monograph Zerstörte Erfahrung. Eine Phänomenologie des Schmerzes. Grüny argues for the use of phenomenological categories from Merleau-Ponty in order to understand physical pain as a “blocked escape-movement” , concluding that corporeal suffering makes impossible both a clean distinction and a pure identification between the lived body and the physical body that I am. In (...) my paper, I would like to suggest some improvements to Grüny’s approach through the utilization of the category of self-affection, as the material phenomenology of Michel Henry has developed it. In addition to the radical immanence in which hyle, noesis, and noema are unified into a “carnal cogito,” however, I argue that it is necessary to describe the painful self-affection not only in terms of any sensitive excess whatever , as Grüny posits, but also in terms of a mutation of the sensitive excess into the intra-tactile sphere of sensibility. Thus I endorse the Husserlian insight that makes tactility the primordial structure of sensibility. (shrink)

Phenomenology is supposed to provide an intrinsic account of the possible types of conscious acts and of their relationship to each other. Husselr's enduring frame on this subject rests on the distinction between "objectifying acts" –representations– and "non-objectifying acts" –emotions and volitions–. But the sense of the dependence of every act on representations, suffered a deep change from Logical Investigations –the intentional reference of non-objectifying acts proceeds completely from cognitive reference– to Ideas –the peculiar emotional reference to values needs preferably (...) a doxic-objectifying modality–. Both theories remain, in the end, problematic. (shrink)

Resumen: Las siguientes páginas versan sobre la contribución del filósofo español José Ortega y Gasset al campo de la epistemología antropológica. Ortega conocía los avances que se estaban produciendo en el campo de la antropología desde los inicios de esta disciplina en el siglo XIX, que vio la disputa que entonces se producía entre las ciencias sociales y las ciencias naturales. Frente a la razón moderna naturalista y físico/matemática y el método intelectual o el pensamiento claro, lógico o racional, que (...) prevalecía en sus escritos de mocedad, en un segundo momento, Ortega, corrigiendo su punto de vista inicial, se decanta por un tipo de razón histórico-narrativa que convierte en razón antropológica que rescata la idea del “sentido histórico” a partir del cual aborda la pluralidad cultural y el método visionario, místico o fantastical propio de otros grupos humanos, frente al método intelectual por el que se ha decantado el llamado “hombre civilizado” y característico de la cultura occidental. Ortega acabará relativizando la importancia del método lógico y racional que somete al método propio de nuestra ciencia histórica. Según Ortega, progresa ésta en la medida en que sepamos negar metódicamente, ficticiamente, el exclusivismo de nuestra cultura.: The following pages deal with the contribution of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset to the field of anthropological epistemology. Ortega was aware of the advances that were taking place in the field of anthropology since the beginning of this discipline in the nineteenth century, which saw the dispute that then took place between the social sciences and the natural sciences. Faced with the modern naturalistic and physical / mathematical reason and the intellectual method or clear, logical or rational thought, which prevailed in his early writings, in a second moment, Ortega, correcting his initial point of view, opts for a type of historical-narrative reason that turns into anthropological reason that rescues the idea of the "historical sense" from which it addresses cultural plurality and the visionary, mystical or fantasy method typical of some human groups, as opposed to the intellectual method by which it is has chosen the so-called "civilized man" characteristic of Western culture. Ortega will end up relativizing the importance of the logical and rational method that he submits to the method of our historical science. According to Ortega, it progresses to the extent that we know how to deny methodically, fictitiously, the exclusivism of our culture. (shrink)

This is a review of Nicola Mößner’s Visual Representations in Science. Concept and Epistemology.

The following pages deal with the Ortega’s anthropology. I’m going to offer the Ortega’s contribution to modern’s ethnography. Ortega knew and debated the anthropological ideas of his time: evolutionist, particularist, difusionist, functionalist. Adopting a historical point of view, Ortega set out the reasons for his disagreement about the dogmatic, ethnocentric, evolutionist and progressive vision of the Western Europe in connection with of the universal history. He awards enormous importance in his writings to the recognition of ethnic and cultural horizons, which (...) have been historically and traditionally forgotten, which turns him into the rigorous anthropologic theoretical one. These contributions that Ortega y Gasset realizes to the field of the anthropology in his social and cultural domain complete his reflections on the historical sense of the life and the purely vital perspective of every man and cultural society with which there deals specifically his historical and rational vital anthropology. (shrink)

This paper deals with the dialectic “nature/culture” in the thought of José Ortega y Gasset and related to the ideas of salvation and tragedy. Justify the elaboration of his article in the fact that this topic has not been studied in-depth through the complete works of the philosopher of the vital reason. The results/conclusions are the following ones: In a first period, it stands out the primate of culture in Ortega´s thought, who considers the last one as saviour and also (...) as something antagonistic in relation to the more instinctive and irrational nature of the individual human being as a member of humanity. We can say that submission to natural inclinations, that symbolize our barbarous, irrational and savage side, appears in Ortega’s early writings as a form of tragedy or “radical evil” ; on the other hand, in his latter thought those ones will be interpreted by Ortega not in negative terms, but as something in continuity with culture, which can became a form of tragedy. (shrink)

Introduction to the Spanish Universalist School offers a presentation of the main concepts, works and authors of the Spanish Universalist School, formed mostly by ex-Jesuits exiled to Italy at the end of the 18th century. The Universalist School is a Hispanic Enlightenment of great singularity, one that is not political but humanistic and scientific, with a cultural and educational orientation. In their different disciplinary fields, Juan Andrés, Lorenzo Hervás and Antonio Eximeno are the most relevant universalists of a School, whose (...) recent reconstruction has entailed an important contribution to the History of European Sciences and Letters, as well as to the History of Ideas and to the ideas of Universality and Globalization. (shrink)

'Holographic' relations between theories have become a main theme in quantum gravity research. These relations entail that a theory without gravity is equivalent to a gravitational theory with an extra spatial dimension. The idea of holography was first proposed in 1993 by Gerard 't Hooft on the basis of his studies of evaporating black holes. Soon afterwards the holographic 'AdS/CFT' duality was introduced, which since has been heavily studied in the string theory community and beyond. Recently, Erik Verlinde has proposed (...) that even Newton's law of gravitation can be related holographically to the thermodynamics of information on screens. We discuss inter-theoretical relations in these scenarios: what is the status of the holographic relation in them and in what sense is gravity, or spacetime, emergent? (shrink)

In order to make strategic decisions and improve their firm’s performance, top management teams must have information on the competitive context in general, and the firm’s competitors in particular. During the decision-making process, top managers can have access to “privileged information”—i.e., information of a confidential and potentially strategic nature that could ultimately confer a decisional advantage over competing parties. However, obtaining and using privileged information in a business context is often illegal—and if not, is usually deemed unethical or “against the (...) rules.” Using a quasi-experimental design, this study explores the reasons why an individual might engage in such unethical behavior. We assess the extent to which managers use privileged information with respect to perceived team cohesion and peers’ ethicality. More specifically, our results show that the use of privileged information is predicted by the decision-maker’s perceptions of their team cohesion and their peers’ ethicality. Moreover, we find that team performance, as a group-level nonself-reported factor, moderates the relationship between cohesion and the use of privileged information. The relationship between cohesion, ethical behavior, and team performance is also discussed. We draw on these findings to make some practical suggestions on how to incorporate practices that could better prevent the unethical use of privileged information in strategic decision-making processes. (shrink)

Resumen El liberalismo de Ortega no se ha estudiado atendiendo a sus fundamentos filosóficos y en lo que serían las diferentes etapas del pensamiento del filósofo español. Desde el neokantismo de mocedad, Ortega entiende el liberalismo como “ideal” o ley de la moralidad. Posteriormente, desde la “fenomenología” y en la génesis del raciovitalismo, a la altura de 1914, la libertad no responderá ya a la idea del deber moral, sino del tener que ser personal en un “mundo vital”. En un (...) tercer periodo de su obra, desde 1929 en adelante, Ortega concibe la libertad como un sentimiento o idea radical sobre la vida en el contexto de su metafísica de la vida humana como realidad radical, primera y primordial.Ortega’s liberalism has not been studied taking into consideration its philosophical foundations and in the different phases of Ortega´s thought. From neokantism, Ortega thinks about liberalism as an ideal or law of morality. Later on, from “phenomenology” and in the origins of ratiovitalisms, in the period of 1914, Ortega did not conceive of freedom as a moral duty but as something related to the idea of having to be a person in a vital world. In a third period, from 1929 on, Ortega thinks about freedom as a sentiment or radical idea about life in the context of his metaphysics of human life as radical reality, the first one and essential. (shrink)

This case examines how IBERDROLA, Spain’s leading electricity supplier, shifted the company’s strategic focus to concentrate on sustainability and turned it into a source of competitive edge in a liberalized market. Largely pre-empting the industry obligations that came out of the Kyoto agreement, IBERDROLA decided to put sustainability at the heart of the company’s decision-making processes. IBERDROLA sold off its most polluting facilities and all non-core activities to concentrate on becoming the greenest player on the market. Its success was due (...) to its willingness to walk the talk, to get stakeholders on side, and to demonstrate its determination to be a corporate citizen. An important element of the strategy was to establish a working relationship with important NGOs and effect their involvement with IBERDROLA’s activities. An early and uneasy partnership with WWF/Adena over the production of green energy proved a sharp learning curve for both parties. Then in 2004 a relatively minor event triggered a chain of reactions that led to a revolution in the company’s policy of stakeholder integration. A small group of protected birds was killed when they flew into the blades at one of IBERDROLA’s wind power facilities. When previous similar crises had occurred, IBERDROLA had dealt with them through the time-honoured methods of dialogue and confrontation. This time, IBERDROLA decided to initiate a new approach. They invited SEO/BirdLife (the Spanish Ornithology Society), the oldest Spanish NGO dedicated to the environment, to undertake a study into the implications of similar installations on bird conservation and the environment. The intention is for this collaboration to lead to a strategic agreement between both parties. (shrink)

Resumen En este artículo se examina el Darwinismo Neural en su explicación de la evolución de la conciencia humana, contrastando su metodología con la utilizada por Richard Lewontin, Richard Levins y Steven Rose, quienes han hecho importantes aportaciones en el estudio de los sistemas vivos desde un punto de vista dialéctico. Concluimos que la explicación interaccionista de la evolución de la conciencia planteada en el DN, supera muchas de las deficiencias del determinismo biológico; sin embargo, al compartir algunos lineamientos con (...) el cartesianismo, mantiene un carácter a-histórico insuficiente para la explicación de la conciencia humana. Finalmente, proponemos la adopción de una teoría explicativa de la conciencia humana que considere las relaciones existentes en ella, no sólo como interacciones sino también como interpenetraciones ontogénicas y filogenéticas.This article examines Neural Darwinism proposed as an explanation of evolution of human consciousness. His methodology is contrasted with that used by Richard Lewontin, Richard Levins, and Steven Rose, who made important contributions to the study of living systems from a dialectical point of view. We conclude that the interactionist explanation of the evolution of conscience put forward in ND overcomes many of the deficiencies proper to biological determinism. However, as ND also shares many of the foundations of the Cartesian approach, it maintains a non-historical character, insufficient for the account of human consciousness. We suggest the adoption of an alternative theory, able to fully explain human conscience which must consider the whole of existing relations in it, and, instead of merely considering them as interactions, they have to be observed as dialectical interpenetrations. (shrink)

In this paper we present a schema for describing dualities between physical theories, and illustrate it in detail with the example of bosonization: a boson-fermion duality in two-dimensional quantum field theory. The schema develops proposals in De Haro : these proposals include construals of notions related to duality, like representation, model, symmetry and interpretation. The aim of the schema is to give a more precise criterion for duality than has so far been considered. The bosonization example, or boson-fermion duality, (...) has the feature of being simple, yet rich enough, to illustrate the most relevant aspects of our schema, which also apply to more sophisticated dualities. The richness of the example consists, mainly, in its concern with two non-trivial quantum field theories: including massive Thirring-sine-Gordon duality, and non-abelian bosonization. This prompts two comparisons with the recent philosophical literature on dualities:--- Unlike the standard cases of duality in quantum field theory and string theory, where only specific simplifying limits of the theories are explicitly known, the boson-fermion duality is known to hold {\it exactly}. This exactness can be exhibited explicitly. The bosonization example illustrates both the cases of isomorphic and {\it non-isomorphic} models: which we believe the literature on dualities has not so far discussed. (shrink)

Las siguientes páginas versan sobre la idea del Estado en la obra de José Ortega y Gasset, mostrando los cambios que en torno a aquella idea se producen en su pensamiento. En un primer periodo de mocedad, Ortega idealiza el papel de Estado influido por la tradición del pensamiento clásico y germano. En un segundo momento, a partir de la programática fecha de 1914, se producirá un giro en su pensamiento, quedando el Estado al servicio de la sociedad o la (...) realidad nacional, y por lo tanto en una posición “subalterna” frente a la posición dominante que Ortega le concedía en sus primeros años como intelectual. (shrink)

In this paper we have two aims: first, to draw attention to the close connexion between interpretation and scientific understanding; second, to give a detailed account of how theories without a spacetime can be interpreted, and so of how they can be understood. In order to do so, we of course need an account of what is meant by a theory ‘without a spacetime’: which we also provide in this paper. We describe three tools, used by physicists, aimed at constructing (...) interpretations which are adequate for the goal of understanding. We analyse examples from high-energy physics illustrating how physicists use these tools to construct interpretations and thereby attain understanding. The examples are: the ’t Hooft approximation of gauge theories, random matrix models, causal sets, loop quantum gravity, and group field theory. (shrink)

This paper explores the options available to the anti-realist to defend a Quinean empirical under-determination thesis using examples of dualities. I first explicate a version of the empirical under-determination thesis that can be brought to bear on theories of contemporary physics. Then I identify a class of examples of dualities that lead to empirical under-determination. But I argue that the resulting under-determination is benign, and is not a threat to a cautious scientific realism. Thus dualities are not new ammunition for (...) the anti-realist. The paper also shows how the number of possible interpretative options about dualities that have been considered in the literature can be reduced, and suggests a general approach to scientific realism that one may take dualities to favour. (shrink)

Este artículo expone los argumentos de Kant y Fichte a favor del deber ético de la beneficencia. De manera concreta, se evalúan las razones para que este deber, en sus respectivos sistemas de deberes morales, obtenga un posicionamiento particular y requiera consideraciones aparte de los criterios que, en general, estructuran dichos sistemas. Además, se hacen comentarios comparativos respecto al papel que juega la facultad de juzgar ante el margen de latitud o de juego que, en particular, implica este deber ético (...) en uno y otro autor. (shrink)

I begin to develop a framework for emergence in the physical sciences. Namely, I propose to explicate ontological emergence in terms of the notion of ‘novel reference’, and of an account of interpretation as a map from theory to world. I then construe ontological emergence as the “failure of the interpretation to mesh” with an appropriate linkage map between theories. Ontological emergence can obtain between theories that have the same extension but different intensions, and between theories that have both different (...) extensions and intensions. I illustrate the framework in three examples: the emergence of spontaneous magnetisation in a ferromagnet, the emergence of masslessness, and the emergence of space, in specific models of physics. The account explains why ontological emergence is independent of reduction: namely, because emergence is primarily concerned with adequate interpretation, while the sense of reduction that is relevant here is concerned with inter-theoretic relations between uninterpreted theories. (shrink)

We advocate an account of dualities between physical theories: the basic idea is that dual theories are isomorphic representations of a common core. We defend and illustrate this account, which we call a Schema, in relation to symmetries. Overall, the account meshes well with standard treatments of symmetries. But the distinction between the common core and the dual theories prompts a distinction between three kinds of symmetry: which we call ‘stipulated’, ‘accidental’ and ‘proper’.

I conceptualise the role of dualities in quantum gravity, in terms of their functions for theory construction. I distinguish between two functions of duality in physical practice: namely, discovering and describing ‘equivalent physics’, versus suggesting ‘new physics’. I dub these the ‘theoretical’ versus the ‘heuristic’ functions of dualities. The distinction seems to have gone largely unnoticed in the philosophical literature: and it exists both for dualities, and for the more general relation of theoretical equivalence. The paper develops the heuristic function (...) of dualities: illustrating how they can be used, if one has any luck, to find and formulate new theories. I also point to the different physical commitments about the theories in question that underlie these two functions. I show how a recently developed schema for dualities articulates the differences between the two functions. (shrink)

We discuss some aspects of the relation between dualities and gauge symmetries. Both of these ideas are of course multi-faceted, and we confine ourselves to making two points. Both points are about dualities in string theory, and both have the ‘flavour’ that two dual theories are ‘closer in content’ than you might think. For both points, we adopt a simple conception of a duality as an ‘isomorphism’ between theories: more precisely, as appropriate bijections between the two theories’ sets of states (...) and sets of quantities. The first point is that this conception of duality meshes with two dual theories being ‘gauge related’ in the general philosophical sense of being physically equivalent. For a string duality, such as T-duality and gauge/gravity duality, this means taking such features as the radius of a compact dimension, and the dimensionality of spacetime, to be ‘gauge’. The second point is much more specific. We give a result about gauge/gravity duality that shows its relation to gauge symmetries to be subtler than you might expect. For gauge theories, you might expect that the duality bijections relate only gauge-invariant quantities and states, in the sense that gauge symmetries in one theory will be unrelated to any symmetries in the other theory. This may be so in general; and indeed, it is suggested by discussions of Polchinski and Horowitz. But we show that in gauge/gravity duality, each of a certain class of gauge symmetries in the gravity/bulk theory, viz. diffeomorphisms, is related by the duality to a position-dependent symmetry of the gauge/boundary theory. (shrink)

We give an introductory review of gauge/gravity duality, and associated ideas of holography, emphasising the conceptual aspects. The opening sections gather the ingredients, viz. anti-de Sitter spacetime, conformal field theory and string theory, that we need for presenting, in Sect. 5, the central and original example: Maldacena’s AdS/CFT correspondence. Sections 6 and 7 develop the ideas of this example, also in applications to condensed matter systems, QCD, and hydrodynamics. Sections 8 and 9 discuss the possible extensions of holographic ideas to (...) de Sitter spacetime and to black holes. Section 10 discusses the bearing of gauge/gravity duality on two philosophical topics: the equivalence of physical theories, and the idea that spacetime, or some features of it, are emergent. (shrink)

También el dolor se dice de múltiples modos, se presenta de maneras muy diversas, adopta aspectos heterogéneos. Tantos que parece imposible su reducción a un único tipo básico o su dependencia genérica respecto de una forma fundamental que el pensamiento pudiera aprehender con ayuda de un solo concepto abarcador. Pero, por otra parte, en esta multiplicidad, en su dispersión prolífica, los muchos tipos de dolores tampoco llegan a fracturar una poderosa unidad de sentido, una inmediata afinidad interna entre ellos, que (...) reaviva el interés del pensamiento por habérselas con el dolor. (shrink)

Este artículo científico tiene como principal objetivo ofrecer las claves ético-filosóficas y antropológicas de Meditaciones del Quijote. Para lograr tal fin, recurriremos a la teoría del amor que Ortega, siguiendo toda una tradición, elabora y que vertebra su primera gran obra. Ortega meditó, y mucho, sobre el amor. El eterno insatisfecho, como Ortega define el amor en Estudios sobre el amor recorre sus páginas desde sus inicios hasta el final de su producción, pues no en vano Ortega fue un filósofo, (...) siendo para él la filosofía, como ya aclara desde 1914, la ciencia general del amor; dentro del globo intelectual representa el mayor ímpetu hacia una omnímoda conexión. Justificamos la elaboración de este trabajo en el hecho de que su reflexión sobre el amor y también el odio no se ha estudiado atendiendo a la teoría ético-filosófica y antropológica contenida en Meditaciones del Quijote, en el contexto de la cual Ortega dialoga con autores como Sócrates o Platón, Spinoza, Nietzsche o Scheler. Nos ocuparemos asimismo de las interferencias político-sociales de su meditación sobre el amor en la España de la Restauración. (shrink)

Mi ensayo revisa la ordenación de las experiencias aflictivas que elaboró Buytendijk con la mirada puesta en el dolor físico. Esta clasificación cuatripartita permite distanciarse del enfoque de Scheler en que el dolor físico se reduce a un estado afectivo más bien amorfo que sólo de manera mediata incumbe al yo. Las convergencias entre las cuatro formas de penalidad que distingue Buytendijk apoyan la determinación propuesta por García-Baró del dolor como experiencia del mal.

In this essay I begin to lay out a conceptual scheme for: analysing dualities as cases of theoretical equivalence; assessing when cases of theoretical equivalence are also cases of physical equivalence. The scheme is applied to gauge/gravity dualities. I expound what I argue to be their contribution to questions about: the nature of spacetime in quantum gravity; broader philosophical and physical discussions of spacetime. - proceed by analysing duality through four contrasts. A duality will be a suitable isomorphism between models: (...) and the four relevant contrasts are as follows: Bare theory: a triple of states, quantities, and dynamics endowed with appropriate structures and symmetries; vs. interpreted theory: which is endowed with, in addition, a suitable pair of interpretative maps. Extendable vs. unextendable theories: which can, respectively cannot, be extended as regards their domains of application. External vs. internal intepretations: which are constructed, respectively, by coupling the theory to another interpreted theory vs. from within the theory itself. Theoretical vs. physical equivalence: which contrasts formal equivalence with the equivalence of fully interpreted theories. I will apply this scheme to answering questions - for gauge/gravity dualities. I will argue that the things that are physically relevant are those that stand in a bijective correspondence under duality: the common core of the two models. I therefore conclude that most of the mathematical and physical structures that we are familiar with, in these models, are largely, though crucially never entirely, not part of that common core. Thus, the interpretation of dualities for theories of quantum gravity compels us to rethink the roles that spacetime, and many other tools in theoretical physics, play in theories of spacetime. (shrink)

O artigo pretende formular cinco leis essenciais que possam servir para caracterizar a temporalidade imanente peculiar da dor física. As três primeiras leis são comuns a inúmeras experiências de consciência: natureza cursiva da dor, ou não instantaneidade do fenómeno; natureza atual da dor, no sentido em que o decurso anterior de retenção não é adicionado de forma cumulativa à impressão de sofrimento; caráter mutável de todo processo doloroso, que nunca pára. A quarta lei refere-‑se a como o presente doloroso não (...) se integra ao seu próprio passado numa manifestação coerente, mas resulta num longo agora que flui desajeitadamente, ora estagnando sobre si mesmo ora excitando ou persistindo. A dor não carece de uma “figura de tempo”, mas decompõem-‑na a todo o momento e é essencialmente arrítmica. A quinta lei assume uma contingência particular na duração efetiva da dor, que pode ser de curta duração, breve ou interminável. As duas últimas leis, profundamente “antimusicais”, permitem falar de uma temporalidade amorfa do sofrimento. (shrink)

Based on new textual resources, the article reconstructs and analyses St. Augustine’s interpretation of time made by Heidegger. Two moments are to be distinguished: Whereas the first one is basically critical and epitomizes the Augustinian analysis as an analysis of “vulgar time”, the second one reconsiders this judgement. This result is more accurate but also more condescendential with Heidegger’s own approach on time. However, it distorts some Augustinian concepts, which are reviewed in detail.

Entre los elementos básicos de la ética de Immanuel Kant destacan el imperativo categórico como fundamento de determinación de la ética, su apelación a la facultad de juzgar y la posibilidad de considerar a la ética kantiana del deber como un modelo de formación de carácter, y por tanto, como una ética de la virtud. El planteamiento de Kant es fecundo incluso en propuestas éticas que difieren de él, específicamente en lo que podría llamarse su "ética material". Finalmente, se muestra (...) cómo la discusión ética contemporánea no puede prescindir de las luces que ofrece el filósofo de Königsberg. (shrink)

Review of Nicola Möβner’s 'Visual Representations in Science. Concept and Epistemology'. Forthcoming in Grazer Philosophische Studien.

Las siguientes páginas versan sobre el pensamiento político de José Ortega y Gasset, mostrando –entre otras cosas– su evolución desde lo que sería el neokantismo de mocedad de Ortega hasta su madurez. Para cumplir con nuestro objetivo se ha recurrido a los escritos de Ortega, así como a autores especializados en su pensamiento. La historia del pensamiento político contemporáneo tiene una deuda contraída con Ortega que desde sus primeros escritos manifestó un claro interés por la política concebida ésta como pedagogía (...) social y cuyo fin debía ser, en primer lugar, solventar los problemas de la vida pública nacional. El pensamiento político de Ortega se define asimismo por la defensa de los valores liberales compatibles con los principios socialistas, que en una primera época de juventud idealista neokantiana adquieren un significado eminentemente cultural aunque también moral, que no se perderá completamente en su madurez o época de plenitud vital, aunque bien es verdad que aquellos dos conceptos, así como también su idea de democracia, irán respondiendo a la evolución de su pensamiento. (shrink)

I examine the relationship between \\)-dimensional Poincaré metrics and d-dimensional conformal manifolds, from both mathematical and physical perspectives. The results have a bearing on several conceptual issues relating to asymptotic symmetries in general relativity and in gauge–gravity duality, as follows: I draw from the remarkable work by Fefferman and Graham on conformal geometry, in order to prove two propositions and a theorem that characterise which classes of diffeomorphisms qualify as gravity-invisible. I define natural notions of gravity-invisibility that apply to the (...) diffeomorphisms of Poincaré metrics in any dimension. I apply the notions of invisibility, developed in, to gauge–gravity dualities: which, roughly, relate Poincaré metrics in \ dimensions to QFTs in d dimensions. I contrast QFT-visible versus QFT-invisible diffeomorphisms: those gravity diffeomorphisms that can, respectively cannot, be seen from the QFT. The QFT-invisible diffeomorphisms are the ones which are relevant to the hole argument in Einstein spaces. The results on dualities are surprising, because the class of QFT-visible diffeomorphisms is larger than expected, and the class of QFT-invisible ones is smaller than expected, or usually believed, i.e. larger than the PBH diffeomorphisms in Imbimbo et al. :1129, 2000, Eq. 2.6). I also give a general derivation of the asymptotic conformal Killing equation, which has not appeared in the literature before. (shrink)

En Self-Constitution. Agency, Identity, and Integrity (2009), Christine Korsgaard defiende la conclusión de que el imperativo categórico rige la acción humana porque es el único principio que permite alcanzar la unidad psíquica plena, la cual, según Korsgaard, es un prerrequisito esencial para la acción efectiva. Para los agentes humanos, alcanzar esa unidad -que consiste en hacer coherentes distintos impulsos hacia la acción- es una actividad constante, denominada "autoconstitución". De acuerdo con Korsgaard, ésta es la fuente originaria de la normatividad y (...) de las identidades prácticas e incluso de la identidad personal. Después de exponer las ideas centrales del libro, presento dos objeciones: primero, critico la equiparación del imperativo categórico con la autoconstitución exitosa, pues no toda falla de auto-constitución es una falla moral. Segundo, argumento que la tesis de que la identidad personal es producto de la autoconstitución es problemática y que, al defenderla, Korsgaard confunde identidad práctica con identidad personal. In Self-Constitution. Agency, Identity, and Integrity (2009), Christine Korsgaard argues that the categorical imperative rules human action because it is the sole principle that allows us to reach the complete psychic unity that, Korsgaard thinks, is an essential prerequisite for effective action. Reaching this unity -which consists in making cohere diverging impulses for action- is for human agents a constant activity called "self-constitution." According to Korsgaard, this activity is the source of normativity, of human practical identities and even of personal identity. After explaining the main ideas of the book, I present two objections. First, I criticize the linkage of the categorical imperative to successful self-constitution, for not every failure of the latter counts as a moral failure. Second, I argue that the thesis that personal identity is a product of self-constitution is problematic and that it betrays a confusion between practical identity and personal identity. (shrink)