El texto expone diversos modos de articular las nociones de tradición y modernidad en el arte y la arquitectura según los contenidos aparecidos en el número 11 de la Revista de Arte dedicado a Argentina. El análisis se centra en dos artículos. El primero: “Emilio Pettoruti: brújula de la pintura argentina”, de Leonardo Estarico. El segundo: “América y la nueva arquitectura”, de Martín Noel. Mientras Estarico postula los conceptos de forma y de plástica como territorios universales, Noel establece al continente (...) americano como fuente para el arte y la arquitectura local. (shrink)

La reflexión sobre los derechos en cuanto a su naturaleza y límites nos instala habitualmente en un campo muy complejo. Podemos abordar esta reflexión ya sea afirmando la existencia de ciertas propiedades innatas de las personas o de ciertas cualidades morales que les son propias; o bien podemos simplemente limitarnos a señalar la presencia de un campo normativo que es el producto de un acuerdo social. En ambos casos los derechos se aplican a personas dotadas tanto de razón como de (...) capacidade.. (shrink)

The ERN-Ne of the event-related potential indicates error monitoring. Even though enlarged ERN-Ne amplitudes have often been related to higher anxiety scores, a recent meta-analysis provided very small effect sizes for the association of trait-anxiety with the ERN-Ne. Conditions modulating this association were investigated in the present study: The generality of the trait-anxiety factor, gender, and experimental conditions, i.e., worry induction and error aversiveness. Participants completed a flanker task. Worries were induced before the task by giving participants a bogus feedback (...) claiming their responses were slower than the average responses of participants, whereas other participants got the feedback that they responded as fast as other participants. Aversiveness of errors was varied by playing sinus tones after too slow responses in one part of the task and aversive screams after too slow responses in another part. Increased ERN-Ne amplitudes of response time errors occurred for individuals higher on trait-anxiety in the condition with induced worries and screams. A multiple group model for women and men indicated that women are more sensitive to conditions altering the association of trait-anxiety with the ERN-Ne. (shrink)

El presente trabajo lleva a cabo una interpretación conjunta de dos pasajes del diálogo platónico Teeteto (cf. 182d8-e11; 184d1-5). En específico, busca mostrar el trasfondo temporal que yace a la postura de Platón según la cual es necesario que el agente de percepción cumpla un rol unificante, rol sin el cual la propia experiencia perceptiva no podría ser tal como es. Dicho trasfondo temporal consiste, en un caso (cf. 182d8-e11), en mostrar que las percepciones simultáneas necesitan convergen en un “lugar” (...) común que las sintetice, mientras que, en otro caso (cf. 184d1-5), radica en poner de relieve que, a pesar de que la percepción acontece a la manera de un cierto flujo, es menester que en ella haya cierta permanencia, no sólo para que las cosas percibidas muestren alguna estabilidad en el tiempo para uno mismo, sino también para que pueda haber un “sí mismo” al cual esas cosas puedan comparecerle. (shrink)

O contexto da educação básica brasileira caracteriza-se, de modo geral, na atuação de docentes com descompassos formativos, que ministram aulas de diversas disciplinas, no caso dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental, ou que lecionam disciplinas diversas de sua área de formação, no caso das séries finais e ensino médio. Nessa linha, diversos estudos apontam para a evidência de lacunas e imprecisões conceituais no planejamento de intervenções didáticas, devido ao precário desenvolvimento profissional. Desse modo, o presente artigo traz uma revisão teórica (...) sistemática sobre o tema relacionado aos conhecimentos profissionais do magistério e busca contribuir com tal debate, trazendo como resultado a proposta de uma visão do processo de construção de saberes docentes com base em modelos do conhecimento pedagógico de conteúdo articulados com os processos de criação vigotskianos. Tal proposta possibilitou possíveis implicações das articulações apresentadas em associação com as pesquisas relacionadas à formação docente, bem como com propostas formativas, que levem em consideração o contexto cultural do professor, especificamente seus esquemas repertoriais, aqui representados pelo espectro criativo. Desse modo, pretende-se que os contextos formativos utilizem e incrementem o repertório professoral, repertório este fundamental para o desenvolvimento de novos Conhecimentos Pedagógicos de Conteúdo em um caráter transformativo, possibilitando práticas que permitam o desenvolvimento profissional docente. (shrink)

The aim of this research was to establish linear relations (association and prediction) and inferential relations between three constructs at different levels of psychological research –executive dysfunction(microanalysis),self-regulation(molecular level), andself-vs.external regulation(molar level), in the prediction of emotion regulation difficulties. We hypothesized that personal and contextual regulatory factors would be negatively related to levels of executive dysfunction and emotion regulation difficulties; by way of complement, non-regulatory and dysregulatory personal, and contextual factors would be positively related to these same difficulties. To establish relationships, (...) we used a retrospective,ex postfacto design, where 298 university students voluntarily participated by completing standardized self-reports. Linear and structural correlational, predictive analyses were performed, as well as inferential analyses. Results were consistent and validated the proposed hypotheses, for both association and prediction. The most important result refers to the discriminant value of the five-level combination heuristic for predicting Executive Function and External (contextual) Dys-Regulation. In conclusion: (1) both personal and contextual regulation factors must be analyzed in order to better understand the variation in executive functions and emotion regulation difficulties; (2) it is important to continue connecting the different levels of the constructs referring to self-regulation, given their complementary role in the behavioral analysis of regulation difficulties. (shrink)

La bioética ha cobrado autonomía académica y difusión social, al abordar los problemas relacionados con el origen y final de la vida humana y las exigencias morales derivadas de su protección. Su repercusión sobre el derecho plantea exigencias específicas, relacionadas con el aborto, la posibilidad de disponer para unos u otros fines de embriones humanos o la eutanasia. Ha surgido así el bioderecho, que se verá urgido por la biopolítica, para que le sirva de instrumento convirtiendo en socialmente normales determinados (...) planteamientos moralmente cuestionados. Andrés Ollero es catedrático de Filosofía del Derecho en la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Entre sus obras más relevantes, particularmente atentas a la jurisprudencia constitucional española, pueden citarse: Derechos humanos y metodología jurídica, Discriminación por razón de sexo, Igualdad en la aplicación de la ley y precedente judicial, Derecho a la verdad, España ¿un Estado laico? y ¿Tiene razón el derecho?. (shrink)

El problema que se pretende resolver en este texto es el aporte del diálogo filosófico como unaaventura y experiencia que cura. El texto se justifica toda vez que ante una experiencia filosófica enla que las preguntas fundamentales parecen ser la fuente del quehacer filosófico, aparece el diálogocomo una excelente oportunidad de transformar la existencia y curar los males que aquejan alhombre postmoderno. El objetivo del texto se enmarca en la experiencia vital del filósofo quese ha dedicado toda su vida a (...) dar respuesta a inquietudes existenciales pero que en los actualesmomentos le apuesta al diálogo como la mejor manera de curar los males que nos aquejan. Laexperiencia curativa desde el filosofar transforma al ser humano y lo prepara para enfrentarlas grandes problemáticas de su quehacer cotidiano. La metodología utilizada fue de enfoquedescriptivo en la que las fuentes permitieron acercarse a la argumentación dialógica del filosofar.La experiencia íntima de la filosofía se da gracias al diálogo filosófico que, más que método, es unaexperiencia que posibilita la relación conmigo mismo, con los otros y con las cosas a través de lapalabra, la razón y la sensación que surge en el devenir mismo del diálogo; esto es lo que lleva aentender el diálogo como una experiencia que cura y transforma. Por medio del diálogo filosófico,se logra un autoconocimiento que tiene el poder de curar, sanar, reparar y transformar a la personahumana, al “hombre de carne y hueso”. (shrink)

This paper critically examines the forays into metaphysics of The Dual Nature of Technical Artifacts Program (henceforth, DNP). I argue that the work of DNP is a valuable contribution to the epistemology of certain aspects of artifact design and use, but that it fails to advance a persuasive metaphysic. A central problem is that DNP approaches ontology from within a functionalist framework that is mainly concerned with ascriptions and justified beliefs. Thus, the materiality of artifacts emerges only as the external (...) conditions of realizability of function ascription. The work of DNP has a strong programmatic aspect and much of its foray into metaphysics is tentative, so the intent of my argument is partly synthetic: to sum up these issues as they are presented in the literature and highlight some recognized problems. But I also go beyond that, suggesting that these problems are foundational, arising from the very way in which DNP poses the question of artifact metaphysics. Although it sets out to incorporate objective aspects of technology, DNP places a strong focus on the intentional side of the purported matter-mind duality, bracketing off materiality in an irretrievable manner. Thus, some of the advantages of dualism are lost. I claim that DNP is dualistic, not merely based on “duality”, but that its version of dualism does not appropriately account for the material “nature” of artifacts. The paper ends by suggesting some correctives and alternatives to Dual Nature theory. (shrink)

Este texto busca ahondar en algunos de los ejes que articulan la discusión filosófica sobre la noción de archivo. Dicha discusión se ha subsumido en el denominado “ archival turn ” que recorrería el campo de estudios de las humanidades y las ciencias sociales durante las últimas tres décadas. Sin embargo, en este trabajo mostraremos que la reflexión filosófica previa, llevada a cabo por autores como Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault y Jacques Derrida, entre otros, transforma el sentido convencional de la (...) noción de archivo en el transcurso del siglo XX, hasta el punto de volver paradójico el propio diagnóstico sobre el actual giro del archivo. A partir de aquí, el texto propone ahondar en cuatro dimensiones que atraviesan, de un modo u otro, la discusión filosófica sobre el archivo: 1) el carácter inorgánico latente en todo archivo; 2) el desbordamiento del lugar del archivo, 3) el vínculo del archivo con una economía general de poder, y 4) el problema del acceso al archivo. El análisis de estas cuatro dimensiones, derivadas de su problematización filosófica, nos obliga a sostener el carácter irresoluble de la propia cuestión del archivo y, al mismo tiempo, el ineludible vínculo entre sus aspectos teóricos y políticos. (shrink)

Value is an inescapable part of the human experience and what life must be like for a conscious and feeling person. Philosophical questions about value are therefore naturally invited: What sort of thing would value be if it were part of the furniture of the world? How should we understand the relations that value is thought to stand in to other things? In a broad sense, these are formal questions calling for philosophical studies into the understanding of value notions. The (...) following work represents one such study. Its main concern lies specifically with the notion of final value, the idea that things can be good or bad for their own sakes. (shrink)

The idea of inclusive collective decision-making is important in establishing democratic legitimacy, but it fails when citizens are excluded. Stated-preference methods of valuation, which are commonly used in economics, have been criticised because the principle of willingness to pay may exclude low-income earners who do not have the capacity to pay. Deliberative valuation has been advocated as a way to overcome this problem, but deliberation may also be exclusive. In this review, two deliberative valuation frameworks are compared. The first is (...) grounded on the idea of rational discourse that emphasises argument at the expense of other communicative strategies. It seeks to secure inclusion through procedural rules and prerequisites, but fails to address the underlying democratic limitation of argumentation. The second does not rely on the distinction between rational and rhetorical speech, and therefore admits alternative forms of communication. This approach recognises differences in the communicative capacities and practices of those who take part in deliberation, and so is better equipped to improve, though not to guarantee, inclusion. (shrink)

Philosophers have applied the framework of constitutive grounds to make sense of the disagreement between subjectivism and objectivism. The framework understands the two theories as being involved in a disagreement about the extent to which value is determined by attitudes. Although the framework affords us with some useful observations about how this should be interpreted, the question how value can be determined by attitudes in the first place is left largely unanswered. Here we explore the benefits of a positive interpretation (...) which aims to address this oversight and make the framework more informative. This interpretation, which is inspired by the recent work of Schroeder and Sobel, claims that the relevant sense in which value can be determined by attitudes is discovered by seeing how facts can be endowed with the normative property of being a reason. We argue that this interpretation significantly deepens our understanding of the disagreement between subjectivism and objectivism. (shrink)

We study notions of independence appropriate for a stability theory of metric abstract elementary classes (for short, MAECs). We build on previous notions used in the discrete case, and adapt definitions to the metric case. In particular, we study notions that behave well under superstability‐like assumptions. Also, under uniqueness of limit models, we study domination, orthogonality and parallelism of Galois types in MAECs.

In this paper I critically examine the notion of explanation used in Artificial Intelligence in general, and in the theory of belief revision in particular. I focus on two of the best known accounts in the literature: Pagnucco’s abductive expansion functions and Gärdenfors’ counterfactual analysis. I argue that both accounts are at odds with the way in which this notion has historically been understood in philosophy. They are also at odds with the explanatory strategies used in actual scientific practice. At (...) the end of the paper I outline the desiderata for an epistemologically motivated, scientifically informed belief revision model for explanation. (shrink)

We study versions of limit models adapted to the context of metric abstract elementary classes. Under categoricity and superstability-like assumptions, we generalize some theorems from 7, 15-17. We prove criteria for existence and uniqueness of limit models in the metric context.

This paper analyzes the impact that Lamarckian evolutionary theory had in the scientific community during the period between the advent of Zoological Philosophy and the publication Origin of Species. During these 50 years Lamarck’s model was a well known theory and it was discussed by the scientific community as a hypothesis to explain the changing nature of the fossil record throughout the history of Earth. Lamarck’s transmutation theory established the foundation of an evolutionary model introducing a new way to research (...) in nature. Darwin’s selectionist theory was proposed in 1859 to explain the origin of species within this epistemological process. In this context, Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology and Auguste Comte’s Cours de Philosophie Positive appear as two major works for the dissemination of Lamarck’s evolutionary ideology after the death of the French naturalist in 1829. (shrink)

Depending on the dissemination of discursive forms through linguistic practices as well as a particular change in our contemporary doxa, the development language of collective social improvement has been based upon a particular mode of ontological naturalism. In a renewed version of the ontological mode that Descola termed “naturalism”, international development has set social expectations in terms of a progressive future framed by violent ruptures, crises, perils and a threat actual of human annihilation. This paper investigates how this developmental enterprise (...) and the consequent ideology of “developmentalism” have further expanded a bi-polar ontology. Since its inception, it articulates two radical sets of possibilities: one of infinite progress for humankind and one of its total annihilation according to the well-known metaphysics of possibilism. First, I will show how the institutionalization of development goes hand in hand with the emergence of a new form of naturalism that accentuates extreme possibilities as results of human action. My main claim here is that, after World War II, science and technology radicalized naturalism through the institutionalization of a new ideology. By presupposing a new transformational capability of science and technology, developmentalism furthers the naturalistic ontology. (shrink)

Some versions of moral naturalism are faulted for implausibly denying that moral obligations and prescriptions entail categorical reasons for action. Categorical reasons for action are normative reasons that exist and apply to agents independently of whatever desires they have. I argue that several defenses of moral naturalism against this charge are unsuccessful. To be a tenable meta-ethical theory, moral naturalism must accommodate the proposition that, necessarily, if anyone morally ought to do something, then s/he has a categorical reason to do (...) it. Versions of moral naturalism that deny this claim would, if widely believed, disable some crucial practical uses of moral concepts. In particular, if the existence of normative reasons for action is taken to be dependent on agents’ desires, it would breed profound skepticism about the legitimacy of evaluating others’ actions from a moral point of view. Also, it would raise doubts about whether people ought to correct their own behavior in light of moral considerations. Following Richard Joyce, I take these consequences to indicate that the concept of a categorical reason is a “non-negotiable” part of moral concepts. (shrink)

Background conditions are thought to explain how objects can have value in virtue of certain features and how reasons can consist in certain facts. The following paper provides an account of what background conditions are and what effect they have on normative features. It defends the idea that if values depend on reasons, then there is nothing really surprising or mysterious about the presence of background conditions in normative explanations. Background conditions turn out to be a natural and predictable result (...) of normative hierarchies that treat reasons as metaphysically fundamental relative to other normative features. The account is also shown to have advantages over competing accounts in that it is able to capture the functional criteria that characterize background conditions while remaining theoretically parsimonious. (shrink)

Historiographical accounts typically place the formulation of the first embryological theory of the evolutionary origin of vertebrates after the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. However, the French naturalist Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire developed an embryological evolutionary model in the 1820s that followed the Lamarckian theory. Geoffroy was the first to establish a direct embryological relationship between vertebrates and invertebrates. This idea was not forgotten, and the embryologists Anton Dohrn and Carl Semper subsequently updated it in their annelid theory (...) as part of a debate about the origin of vertebrates that occurred during the latter part of the nineteenth century. This paper reviews the traditional historiography, analyzing and integrating Geoffroy’s model into the current body of ideas. (shrink)

The use of metaphors and other tropes in science receives nowadays growing attention among the philosophers of science, mainly when related to theoretical models. In this paper I analyse basically issues like the cognitive value of scientific metaphors, the role played by analogy in the constructions of metaphors, and, mainly, the question of whether theoretical models are metaphors. Throughout the analysis of different current approaches to the relationships between metaphors and models in science, I claim that the analogy only plays (...) a fundamental role in the metaphorical proposals in science after analogue theoretical models are at our disposal. This nonetheless does not preclude for the analogy to become sometimes a guide in scientific creativity. (shrink)

I argue that there can be value relations without individual values to support them. The fact that an item is better than another item does not have to be explained by reference to the values of the individual items. Instead, value relations can be grounded directly and exhaustively in descriptive facts about their relata. I show that my suggestion fits well with plausible perspectives on the nature of values and reasons, respectively. One of them is the fitting‐attitudes view, according to (...) which facts about value and value relations are facts about reasons for attitudes. The other is the descriptive view, according to which facts about reasons for attitudes can be grounded directly and exhaustively in descriptive considerations. (shrink)

Explanation and understanding are intimately connected notions, but the nature of that connection has generally not been considered a topic worthy of serious philosophical investigation. Most authors have avoided making reference to the notion of understanding in their accounts of explanation because they fear that any mention of the epistemic states of the individuals involved compromises the objectivity of explanation. Understanding is a pragmatic notion, they argue, and pragmatics should be kept at a safe distance from the universal features of (...) explanation. My main contention in this dissertation is that there is a sense in which it is meaningful and useful to talk about objective understanding, and that to characterize this notion it is necessary to formulate an account of objective explanation that makes reference to the beliefs and epistemic goals of the participants in a cognitive enterprise. ;My account of explanation is based on the belief-doubt model of inquiry first proposed by Peirce. Using the tools provided by decision theory, and the models of belief revision developed by Isaac Levi and by Alchourron, Gardenfors, and Makinson, I analyze the objective and pragmatic conditions that a piece of information must fulfill to be both explanatory and epistemically useful to an inquiring agent. The objective basis for an explanation is provided by the relation of probabilistic relevance that the fact described by the explanans bares to the fact described by the explanandum. But an explanation is much more than its foundation. As an epistemological notion, a potential explanation can only be a bona fide explanation if it becomes part of inquiry, that is, if an agent or a group of agents can see any value in it for their cognitive purposes. I provide a way to evaluate an explanation in terms of its credibility, its content, and its explanatory value. I argue that although an objective measure of the credibility and content of an explanation can be established, in many cases a complete determination of its explanatory value will ultimately depend on the interests and goals of the individual inquirers. (shrink)

This book examines the human ability to participate in moments of joint feeling. It presents an answer to the question concerning the nature of our faculty to share in what might be called episodes of collective affective intentionality. The proposal develops the claim that our capacity to participate in such episodes is grounded in an ability central to our human condition: our capacity to care with one another about certain things. The author provides a phenomenologically adequate account of collective affective (...) intentionality that takes seriously the idea that feelings are at the core of our emotional relation to the world. He details a form of group emotional orientation that relies on the fact that the participating individuals have come to share a number of concerns. Readers will learn that at the heart of a collective affective intentional episode, one does not merely find a set of shared concerns, but also a particular mode of caring. In the end, the argument presented in this monograph makes plausible the idea that the emotions through which humans participate in moments of affective intentional community express our nature. In addition, it shows that the debate on collective affective intentionality also permits us to better understand the relationship between two conflicting philosophical pictures of ourselves: the idea that we are essentially social beings and the claim that we are creatures for whom our personal existence is an issue. Thus, aiming at an elucidation of the nature of our ability to feel together, the book offers a detailed account of what it is to situationally express our human nature by caring about something in a properly joint manner. (shrink)

Aim: The present work proposes the study of the neuromotor activity of the masseter-jaw-tongue articulation during diadochokinetic exercising to establish functional statistical relationships between surface Electromyography, 3D Accelerometry, and acoustic features extracted from the speech signal, with the aim of characterizing Hypokinetic Dysarthria. A database of multi-trait signals of recordings from an age-matched control and PD participants are used in the experimental study. Hypothesis: The main assumption is that information between sEMG and 3D acceleration, and acoustic features may be quantified (...) using linear regression methods. Methods: Recordings from a cohort of eight age-matched control participants and eight PD participants were collected during the utterance of a diadochokinetic exercise. The dynamic and acoustic absolute kinematic velocities produced during the exercises were estimated by acoustic filter inversion and numerical integration and differentiation of the speech signal. The amplitude distributions of the absolute kinematic and acoustic velocities are estimated to allow comparisons in terms of Mutual Information. Results: The regression results show the relationships between sEMG and dynamic and acoustic estimates. The projection methodology may help in understanding the basic neuromotor muscle activity regarding neurodegenerative speech in remote monitoring neuromotor and neurocognitive diseases using speech as the vehicular tool, and in the study of other speech-related disorders. The study also showed strong and significant cross-correlations between articulation kinematics, both for the control and the PD cohorts. The absolute kinematic variables presents an observable difference for the PD participants compared to the control group. Conclusion: Kinematic distributions derived from acoustic analysis may be useful biomarkers toward characterizing HD in neuromotor disorders providing new insights into PD. (shrink)

In this paper I examine the notion of ‘artifact’ and related notions in the dominant version of extended cognition theory grounded on extended functionalism. Although the term is ubiquitous in the literature, it is far from clear what ECT means by it. How are artifacts conceptualized in ECT? Is ‘artifact’ a meaningful and useful category for ECT? If the answer to the previous question is negative, should we worry? Is it important for ECT to have a coherent theory of artifacts? (...) And what are the demands and constraints that ECT imposes on this theory? I distinguish between two aspects of ECT, one narrow, aligned with extended functionalism ; and one broad or pluralistic, in which EF is combined with other theoretical resources in the context of diverse research programs. I begin by determining the problems in conceptualizing artifacts from EF. Then I address the question of why a concept of artifact may be relevant to ECT. Next, I examine the efforts of Richard Heersmink to combine ECT with dominant theories of artifacts in the philosophy of technology. I argue that both approaches fail to yield a meaningful notion of artifact, let alone one of ‘cognitive’ artifact. Finally, I argue that narrow ECT places rather strong constraints on a theory of artifacts, since it locates the specificity of ‘artifact’ in material aspects of realization that are, by definition, outside its theoretical purview. I examine, then discard, the possibility that a materialist and objectivist theory of artifacts may be of help. And finally I briefly explore some ways in which a broad, pluralistic ECT may address some of these shortcomings. (shrink)

When the first edition of Pediatric Psychopharmacology published in 2002, it filled a void in child and adolescent psychiatry and quickly establishing itself as the definitive text-reference in pediatric psychopharmacology. While numerous short, clinically focused paperbacks have been published since then, no competitors with the scholarly breadth, depth, and luster of this volume have emerged. In the second edition, Christopher Kratochvil, MD, a highly respected expert in pediatric psychopharmacology, joins the outstanding editorial team led by Dr. Martin and Dr. Scahill. (...) In the new edition, the editors streamline the flow of information to reflect the growth in scientific data since the first edition appeared. The overall structure of the book remains the same, with major sections on underlying biology; somatic interventions; assessment and treatment; and special considerations. (shrink)

The purpose of this article is to explore the concept of Philosophy within the works written by Wittgenstein if we take into account the ambivalent sense of the term phármakon. Thus, it will be outlined a contest of paradoxes between, on the one hand, healthiness, sanity, and the adaptable confidence produced by western rationality materialized into objective science, and, on the other hand, sickness, insanity, the world of perplexities, and the realm of desire and death, essential to philosophical thought. Bearing (...) in mind last Wittgenstein’s approaches, we will understand the Tractatus both critical to the deficiencies of western Reason and imprisoned within them. But the “enchanting” power of western Reason, conducting to identify rationality and scientificity in that work, will be conjured in the last Wittgenstein through the opening of plural realms of rationality and of discourses. In this way, philosophical questions will be rescued from silence and absurdity. (shrink)

This paper is an enquiry into the philosophical fault-line that leads from mechanicism to posthumanism. I focus on a central aspect of posthumanism: the erosion of the distinction between organism and machine, nature and art, and the biological and engineering sciences. I claim that this shift can be placed in the seventeenth century, in Descartes’s biology. The Cartesian fusion of the natural and technological opened the door to distinctly posthuman understandings of the living body, its relation to technological extensions, and (...) the possibility of its drastic alteration. Descartes’s mechanicism demanded a reconceptualization of bodily boundaries, organismic unity, natural finality, causation, and bio/technological instrumentality; all of which Descartes boldly theorized in terms of the wondrous technologies of his day. This radical proposal obscured the possibility of thinking the human as ontologically unique, or as having an ideal unity. This paper will examine the posthuman ramifications of these aspects of Descartes’s philosophy. (shrink)

In this paper I defend the idea that there is a sense in which it is meaningful and useful to talk about objective understanding, and that to characterize that notion it is necessary to formulate an account of explanation that makes reference to the beliefs and epistemic goals of the participants in a cognitive enterprise. Using the framework for belief revision developed by Isaac Levi, I analyze the conditions that information must fulfill to be both potentially explanatory and epistemically valuable (...) to an inquiring agent and to a scientific community. To be potentially explanatory, the information must state the relations of probabilistic relevance that the explanans bares to the explanandum. But a potential explanation con only be a bona fide explanation if it becomes part of inquiry, that is, if an agent or a group of agents can see any value in it for their cognitive purposes. I provide a way to evaluate the epistemic value of a potential explanation as a function of its credibility and its informational content. (shrink)

In this article I respond to Yuk Hui by revisiting the crossroads in the philosophy of technology as represented by the philosophies of Stiegler and Ihde. Whereas Hui proposes the concept of cosmotechnics as an integrating perspective, I conceive of the crossroads in other terms, namely from the perspective of substantivism. I characterize our present situation, what a philosophy of technology should address and then examine Hui’s notion of cosmotechnics from this alternative perspective. My main concern is to show future (...) paths of development for cosmotechnical thought. (shrink)