Este artículo investiga dos problemas principales en los conocidos argumentos de San Agustín en pro de la certeza, contra los escépticos. En realidad, son más bien dos niveles de una misma cuestión "metodológica": la interioridad del conocimiento y la reflexión, como vía de certeza. Conclusión principal de este estudio es que ambas dimensiones son correlativas: la reflexión supone interioridad, N la interioridad exige reflexión, como ría de certeza. La última parte del artículo examina la doctrina agustiniana de la reflexión, en (...) el contexto de su "filosofía del espíritu". La presente investigación intenta mostrar en este punto que, de hecho, San Agustín tematiza o supone, a lo largo de su obra tres grandes modos de reflexión, correspondientes a otros tantos modos de autoconocimiento del alma: el noticial, el cogitativo y el fenomenológico. (shrink)

Las Confesiones de San Agustín son una obra muy peculiar. Lectores e investigadores convienen en ello. No es fácil ‘definir’ ni comprender ese escrito. El presente estudio intenta una aproximación a su contenido mediante un examen de ciertos rasgos característicos de la obra que derivan de su propia singularidad. Y denunciamos también algunos impedimentos de comprensión y lectura. Confiemos en que esta mirada pueda ofrecer una guía inicial, pero orientadora, a la misma. Además, el estudio formal y temático revela una (...) dinámica interna, de su estructura misma, que va del relato autobiográfico a la reflexión , de lo narrativo al pensamiento. Este avance tendencial culmina al concluir el libro IX, donde la dimensión narrativa de la obra termina. Razón por la cual los libros X-XI alcanzan el vértice teorético de las Confesiones, con su investigación de la memoria y del tiempo. El presente estudio concluye con una breve exposición del problema agustiniano de la subjetividad o el yo, en la base de esos dos libros.t. Augustine’s Confessions is a very particular work. Readers and Scholarsagree upon it. Therefore, it’s ‘definition’ and understanding are not so easy. These paper tries to provide an approach to the contents of this difficult writing, by means of an examination of some main special traits, arising from the particular work’s kind. And we betray also some new difficulties for it’s reading and understanding. It is hoped that these brief look to the famous Augustinian writing could offer an initial but adviser guide to it. Moreover, the formal and thematic inquiry reveal an internal dynamics of it’s structure, which moves from the autobiographycal account to the reflection , from the story to the thinking. This aimed advance culminates at the end of the book IX, where the work’s narrative side concludes. That’s why the books X and XI reach the theoretical summit of the Confessions through their search for memory and time. Our paper ends with an exposition of the Augustinian inquiry on the human subiectivity, underlying both these books. (shrink)

Distensión de la finitud y belleza son paralelas en Agustín, su deducción y su calificación estética. Ontología de lo finito es, por ello, a la vez, discurso estético en tres grandes dimensiones: a) fundación y estructura de lo finito; b) sucesión temporal ; c) devenir histórico . Podríamos, sin reduccionismo alguno, interpretar su doctrina estética como >?.Distension of the finiteness and beauty are parallel in St. Augustine, its deduction and its aesthetic qualification. Ontology of finiteness is therefore, at the same (...) time, aesthetic thought in three dimensions: a) foundation and structure of the finetenesss; b) temporal succession ; c) historic becoming . Could we, with no reduction, interpret his aesthetic doctrine as >? (shrink)

Whether or not we achieve absolute generality in philosophical inquiry, most philosophers would agree that ordinary inquiry is rarely, if ever, absolutely general. Even if the quantifiers involved in an ordinary assertion are not explicitly restricted, we generally take the assertion’s domain of discourse to be implicitly restricted by context.1 Suppose someone asserts (2) while waiting for a plane to take off.

Se realiza la investigación con el objetivo de perfeccionar la obtención del consentimiento informado en las amputaciones mayores de causa vascular en el Servicio de Angiología del Hospital Universitario Manuel Ascunce Domenech. Se constató debilidades en la institucionalización del consentimiento informado y específicamente en el caso de tales amputaciones. Se utilizaron métodos y técnicas del nivel empírico: encuestas a 30 pacientes con riesgo inminente de amputación. El 64% eran mayores de 65 años, 73 % femeninos, todos escolarizados y 73% residentes (...) urbanos. Los resultados más relevantes fueron: que el 54% de los pacientes manifestaron debe existir consentimiento en la aceptación de la amputación, aunque un grupo no despreciable el 37% declinó este derecho a favor de sus familiares. A los médicos se les realizó una entrevista y aunque no hubo unanimidad de criterios, todos coincidieron en que debía legislarse este consentimiento, como parte del perfeccionamiento de los servicios de salud. Research is conducted to improve the process of obtaining informed consent for major amputations due to vascular causes in the Angiology Service of the Manuel Ascunce Domenech Teaching Hospital. Deficiencies were identified in the institutionalization of informed consent protocols, most specifically as they relate to major lower limb amputations. Empirical methods and techniques were used. Thirty patients at imminent risk of amputation were surveyed by questionnaire methods; 64% of those surveyed were of 65 years of age, 73% were female, all of them had an average educational level, and 73% were urban residents. The results indicated that 54% of patients recognized the importance of informed consent in cases of amputation, although a rather considerable group declined this right for their families. Physicians were also interviewed and, although there was no unanimity of criteria, all of them considered that this consent should be legislated as part of the improvement of health services. (shrink)

The target article effectively assesses multiple hypotheses for human sexuality, demonstrating support for a complex, integrated perspective. However, care must be taken when extrapolating human universal patterns from specific cultural subsets without appropriate ethnographic contexts. Although it makes a strong contribution to the investigation of human sexuality, the basal reliance on a reductionist perspective constrains the full efficacy of this research.

The adaptationist and exaptationist programs overlap in their need for a pluralistic approach to understanding evolutionary change, and Andrews et al. effectively illustrate the methodological confounds of these approaches. However, the current critique of adaptationism, especially in the arena of human behavior, rests on the tendency to rapidly reify adaptationist hypotheses prior to broad evidentiary consensus across relevant disciplines.

Introducción: La ablación o mutilación genital femenina incluye una amplia variedad de prácticas que suponen la extirpación total o parcial de los genitales externos o su alteración por razones que no son de índole médica. Causa daños irreversibles y pone en peligro la salud, e incluso la vida de la mujer o niña afectada. Objetivo: Caracterizar la mutilación genital femenina y sus complicaciones a largo plazo en la comunidad de Fajikunda, Gambia, entre marzo y septiembre de 2012. Método: Se realizó (...) un estudio descriptivo prospectivo a 117 mujeres que asistieron al centro de salud por cualquier motivo que requiriera examen ginecológico y se estudiaron las variables grupo de edades, tipo de mutilación, grupo étnico y complicaciones. Resultados: Del total, 98 mujeres eran de 45 años de edad o menos; la clitoridectomía fue la práctica más frecuente; la inflamación pélvica crónica y el dolor en los genitales fueron las complicaciones a largo plazo que mayor asociación estadística demostraron con relación a la mutilación. La anorgasmia presentó una alta incidencia en la población estudiada. Conclusiones: La prevalencia de la mutilación genital femenina en Fajikunda es aproximadamente la misma que en Gambia, la tipo I es la más practicada y generalmente en jóvenes de la etnia Mandinga. Introduction: The ablation or female genital mutilation includes a wide variety of practices dealing with total or partial extirpation of the external genitalia or its alterations for reasons other than of medical nature. It causes irreversible damages and puts in danger the health or even the life of the woman or child involved. Objective: The aim of the present study is to characterize female genital mutilation and its long-term complications in Fajikunda community, Gambia, between March and September 2012. Method: A descriptive prospective study was performed to 117 women that attended the health unit for reasons requiring gynecological examination and the variables age group, mutilation type, ethnic group and complications were studied. Results: Of the total, 98 women were 45 years old or less; the clitoridectomy was the most frequent practice; cronical pelvic and genital pains were the long-term complications that showed a major statistical association with relation to mutilation. Conclusions: The prevalence of female genital mutilation in Fajikunda is approximately the same as in Gambia, the type I is the most performed and generally within young women belonging to Mandinga ethnic group. (shrink)

Basado en Las Confesiones de la carne, cuarto y último volumen de la Historia de sexualidad de Michel Foucault, este artículo interroga el alcance de la noción de “hombre de deseo” que Foucault pone el centro de las modificaciones introducidas por El uso de los placeres al proyecto general de la Historia de la sexualidad. El artículo discute la hipótesis de Foucault según la cual el cristianismo habría forjado una “hermenéutica del deseo” cuyo objetivo es descubrir, a través del análisis (...) del deseo, la verdad oculta del individuo. A partir de las investigaciones que Las Confesiones de la carne proponen sobre la teoría de la libido de San Agustín y la ascesis de la castidad desarrollada por Casiano, el artículo pone en evidencia los problemas que tal hipótesis supone y analiza su impacto para el proyecto general de la Historia de la sexualidad. (shrink)

The problem of absolute generality has attracted much attention in recent philosophy. Agustin Rayo and Gabriel Uzquiano have assembled a distinguished team of contributors to write new essays on the topic. They investigate the question of whether it is possible to attain absolute generality in thought and language and the ramifications of this question in the philosophy of logic and mathematics.

Modal logicism is the view that a metaphysical possibility is just a non-absurd way for the world to be. I argue that modal logicists should see metaphysical possibility as "open ended'': any given possibilities can be used to characterize further possibilities. I then develop a formal framework for modal languages that is a good fit for the modal logicist and show that it delivers some attractive results.

In this article I attempt to systematically reconstruct Theodor Adorno’s account of the relationship between the processes of authoritarian subject formation and the processes of political formation of the democratic common will. Undertaking a reading that brings Adorno into dialogue with contemporary philosophical perspectives, the paper asks the question of whether it is possible to think of a “democratic We” in nihilistic times. In order to achieve this aim, I will analyze in reverse the modifications that the concept of narcissism (...) has undergone, from Adorno’s use of it to account for the symbolic obstacles to the formation of democratic subjectivities after the Holocaust, to the initial formulations of Freudian psychoanalysis. Finally, I will attempt to outline an affirmative answer to the initial question, formulating the potentials and merits of what I will call a politics of negativity. (shrink)

Resumen: Heidegger practica un abordaje de la noción de discurso que, por la magnitud de su obra y por el carácter más o menos marginal que esta noción tiene en ese conjunto, no ha merecido todavía un tratamiento sistemático. En esta comunicación intentamos recoger algunos elementos relevantes de esa tematización y enfatizamos la relación que ella manifiesta con su temprana concepción de la significación. Concluimos que la tematización del discurso que Heidegger desarrolla se adelanta en décadas a lo que es (...) hoy la teoría contemporánea del discurso.: Heidegger makes an approach to the notion of discourse which, to de magnitude of his work and the more or less marginal character that this notion has in that group, has not yet deserved systematic treatment. In this communication we try to collect some relevant elements of this thematization and emphasize the relationship that it manifests with its early conception of meaning. We concluded that the discourse thematization that Heidegger develops is decades ahead of what contemporary discourse theory is today. (shrink)

Part of the task in studying human evolution is developing a deep understanding of what we share, and do not share, with other life, as a mammal, a primate, a hominin, and as members of the genus Homo. A key aspect of this last facet is gained via the examination of the genus Homo across the Pleistocene. By at least the later Pleistocene members of the genus Homo began to habitually insert shared meaning into and onto their world forming one (...) of the bases of contemporary human abilities to develop a distinctive human niche and human culture. Meaning-laden cultural dynamics constitute the core of a ubiquitous semiotic ecosystem, which in turn structures the architecture of the complex niches and niche construction processes that characterize humanity today. Here, I offer a summary of Pleistocene evolution of the genus Homo and an argument for when and how that extensive and distinctive capacities for shared meaning-making and a particularly dynamic niche construction emerged. (shrink)

There is an ongoing debate about the meaning of lexical words, i.e., words that contribute with content to the meaning of sentences. This debate has coincided with a renewal in the study of polysemy, which has taken place in the psycholinguistics camp mainly. There is already a fruitful interbreeding between two lines of research: the theoretical study of lexical word meaning, on the one hand, and the models of polysemy psycholinguists present, on the other. In this paper I aim at (...) deepening on this ongoing interbreeding, examine what is said about polysemy, particularly in the psycholinguistics literature, and then show how what we seem to know about the representation and storage of polysemous senses affects the models that we have about lexical word meaning. (shrink)

Heidegger practica un abordaje de la noción de discurso que, por la magnitud de su obra y por el carácter más o menos marginal que esta noción tiene en ese conjunto, no ha merecido todavía un tratamiento sistemático. En esta comunicación intentamos recoger algunos elementos relevantes de esa tematización y enfatizamos la relación que ella manifiesta con su temprana concepción de la significación. Concluimos que la tematización del discurso que Heidegger desarrolla se adelanta en décadas a lo que es hoy (...) la teoría contemporánea del discurso. (shrink)

Evolution of Human Behavior is the first text to synthesize and compare the major proposals for human behavioral evolution from an anthropological perspective. Ideal for courses in the evolution of human behavior, human evolutionary ecology, evolutionary psychology, and biological anthropology, this unique volume reviews a wide array of approaches on how and why humans evolved behaviorally.

Polo es un nombre que describe la Universidad de Navarra en su comienzo. Es un ejemplo señero de pensamiento, ejemplo de universitario, inconformista; un filósofo teórico y práctico que busca la verdad que encamina a la Verdad; un maestro de vida coherente con esa búsqueda, siempre con buen humor.

Here is an account of logical consequence inspired by Bolzano and Tarski. Logical validity is a property of arguments. An argument is a pair of a set of interpreted sentences (the premises) and an interpreted sentence (the conclusion). Whether an argument is logically valid depends only on its logical form. The logical form of an argument is fixed by the syntax of its constituent sentences, the meanings of their logical constituents and the syntactic differences between their non-logical constituents, treated as (...) variables. A constituent of a sentence is logical just if it is formal in meaning, in the sense roughly that its application is invariant under permutations of individuals.1 Thus ‘=’ is a logical constant because no permutation maps two individuals to one or one to two; ‘∈’ is not a logical constant because some permutations interchange the null set and its singleton. Truth functions, the usual quantifiers and bound variables also count as logical constants. An argument is logically valid if and only if the conclusion is true under every assignment of semantic values to variables (including all non-logical expressions) under which all its premises are true. A sentence is logically true if and only if the argument with no premises of which it is the conclusion is logically valid, that is, if and only if the sentence is true under every assignment of semantic values to variables. An interpretation assigns values to all variables. (shrink)

According to an increasing number of authors, the best, if not the only, argument in favour of physicalism is the so-called 'overdetermination argument'. This argument, if sound, establishes that all the entities that enter into causal interactions with the physical world are physical. One key premise in the overdetermination argument is the principle of the causal closure of the physical world, said to be supported by contemporary physics. In this paper, I examine various ways in which physics may support the (...) principle, either as a methodological guide or as depending on some other laws and principles of physics. (shrink)

A bold new synthesis of paleontology, archaeology, genetics, and anthropology that overturns misconceptions about race, war and peace, and human nature itself, answering an age-old question: What made humans so exceptional among all the species on Earth? Creativity. It is the secret of what makes humans special, hiding in plain sight. Agustín Fuentes argues that your child's finger painting comes essentially from the same place as creativity in hunting and gathering millions of years ago, and throughout history in making war (...) and peace, in intimate relationships, in shaping the planet, in our communities, and in all of art, religion, and even science. It requires imagination and collaboration. Every poet has her muse; every engineer, an architect; every politician, a constituency. The manner of the collaborations varies widely, but successful collaboration is inseparable from imagination, and it brought us everything from knives and hot meals to iPhones and interstellar spacecraft. Weaving fascinating stories of our ancient ancestors' creativity, Fuentes finds the patterns that match modern behavior in humans and animals. This key quality has propelled the evolutionary development of our bodies, minds, and cultures, both for good and for bad. It's not the drive to reproduce; nor competition for mates, or resources, or power; nor our propensity for caring for one another that have separated us out from all other creatures. As Fuentes concludes, to make something lasting and useful today you need to understand the nature of your collaboration with others, what imagination can and can't accomplish, and, finally, just how completely our creativity is responsible for the world we live in. Agustín Fuentes's resounding multimillion-year perspective will inspire readers—and spark all kinds of creativity. (shrink)

In this paper we address the question of what determines the content of our conscious episodes of thinking, considering recent claims that phenomenal character individuates thought contents. We present one prominent way for defenders of phenomenal intentionality to develop that view and then examine ‘sensory inner speech views’, which provide an alternative way of accounting for thought-content determinacy. We argue that such views fare well with inner speech thinking but have problems accounting for unsymbolized thinking. Within this dialectic, we present (...) an account of the nature of unsymbolized thinking that accords with and can be seen as a continuation of the activity of inner speech, while offering a way of explaining thought-content determinacy in terms of linguistic structures and representations. (shrink)

The renewed interest in concepts and their role in psychological theorizing is partially motivated by Machery’s claim that concepts are so heterogeneous that they have no explanatory role. Against this, pluralism argues that there is multiplicity of different concepts for any given category, while hybridism argues that a concept is constituted by a rich common representation. This article aims to advance the understanding of the hybrid view of concepts. First, we examine the main arguments against hybrid concepts and conclude that, (...) even if not successful, they challenge hybridism to find a robust criterion for concept individuation and to show an explanatory advantage for hybrid concepts. Then we propose such a criterion of individuation, which we will call ‘functional stable coactivation’. Finally, we examine the prospects of hybridism to understand what is involved in recent approaches to categorization and meaning extraction. 1 The Heterogeneity of Conceptual Representations2 Two Challenges for Hybrid Concepts: Individuation and Explanation2.1 The coordination criterion2.2 Concepts as constituents of thoughts3 Individuating Hybrids: Functional Stable Coactivation4 The Explanatory Power of Hybrid Concepts4.1 Categorization4.2 Meaning extraction4.2.1 Linguistic comprehension and rich lexical entries4.2.2 Polysemy and hybrid concepts5 Conclusion. (shrink)

The capacities required for both peace and war predate 100,000 years ago in the genus Homo are deeply entangled in the modes by which humans physically and perceptually construct their worlds and communities, and may not be sufficiently captured by economic models.

Life is the center of our existence. One would be tempted to say that first of all we live. However, our existence does not seem to pass in that modality. The exacerbated materialism in which our existence takes place, displaces life from the center of the scene. Our society is organized around production, consumerism, exploitation, efficiency, trade and propaganda. That is to say, our existence seems to have economy as the center of organization of our activities. The struggle of this (...) century that is beginning is to put life at the center of our existence, and to put economy in its proper place, that is, in the service of life. (shrink)

In this paper I try to show that semantics can explain word-to-world relations and that sentences can have meanings that determine truth-conditions. Critics like Chomsky typically maintain that only speakers denote, i.e., only speakers, by using words in one way or another, represent entities or events in the world. However, according to their view, individual acts of denotations are not explained just by virtue of speakers’ semantic knowledge. Against this view, I will hold that, in the typical cases considered, semantic (...) knowledge can account for the denotational uses of words of individual speakers. (shrink)