The received view of dynamical explanation is that dynamical cognitive science seeks to provide covering law explanations of cognitive phenomena. By analyzing three prominent examples of dynamicist research, I show that the received view is misleading: some dynamical explanations are mechanistic explanations, and in this way resemble computational and connectionist explanations. Interestingly, these dynamical explanations invoke the mathematical framework of dynamical systems theory to describe mechanisms far more complex and distributed than the ones typically considered by philosophers. Therefore, contemporary dynamicist (...) research reveals the need for a more sophisticated account of mechanistic explanation. (shrink)

A study in the logic of theory change, examining the properties of maxichoice contraction and revision operations.

Investigates the resolution of contradictions and ambiguous derogations in a code, by means of the imposition of partial orderings.

A descriptive-exploratory analysis of assurance practices is presented in this paper, by analysing the patterns of sustainability assurance reporting in two national contexts with different levels of assurance activity over a period of 11 years. The study is based on theoretical insights drawn from institutional sociology and normativity production. It is framed both in the Italian situation, where assurance statements consistently include a narrow set of formal and procedural communications, and in an unsettled situation in the U.S., where assurance activity (...) is more incipient, but where experimentation in substantial assurance disclosure practices has more room to develop. Its main implication is that the diffusion of sustainability assurance and the creation of sustainability assurance disclosure norms are not without its cost: information quality does not increase with patterned practice. The results also point towards the noteworthy role of specific professionals in the earlier and later stages of assurance practice norms. They reveal a significant influence of non-Big4 firms in the diffusion of sustainability assurance disclosure norms. In contrast, the Big4 firms appear to be positively associated with the narrowing down of the assurance focus to a selected subset of this activity in later stages of the development of the assurance norm. In this regard, this study provides insight into the circumstantial—but relevant—carrier role of the Big4 firms in determining what “assurance” means. (shrink)

A recent article by Burch-Brown and Archer provides compelling arguments that biodiversity is either a natural kind or a pragmatically-valid scientific entity. I call into question three of these arguments. The first argument contends that biodiversity is a Homeostatic Property Cluster. I respond that there is no plausible homeostatic mechanism that would make biodiversity an HPC natural kind. The second argument proposes that biodiversity is a multiply-realizable functional kind. I respond that there is no shared function to ground this account. (...) The final, and strongest, argument, is that biodiversity is an ineliminable explanans and explanandum in various subdisciplines of biology. I argue that once we look at the details of the relevant research, not only does biodiversity in a broad sense not function in explanatory roles, but we must eliminate biodiversity in favor of more specific concepts in order to make sense of the leading explanations in contemporary ecology and conservation science. (shrink)

Em Empirismo e subjetividade (1953) Gilles Deleuze irá afirmar que o principal problema do pensamento de Hume é determinar de que modo o espírito devém sujeito. Tomamos essa distinção geral no pensamento humeano para, a partir daí, efetuarmos distinções específicas que colocam em lados distintos animais humanos em sua vida na linguagem e na cultura e certos animais humanos cujos modos de vidas não se conformam aos gabaritos de um padrão majoritário e hegemônico que se tornou, por norma, o traço (...) distintivo do homem-que-nós-somos. Essa questão se alimentará em seus desdobramentos da crítica à linguagem efetuada por Fernand Deligny, em especial a partir de suas experiências com as crianças autistas não verbais com as quais conviveu nas montanhas de Cévennes, que trará uma nova ideia sobre o que é o humano para além de qualquer forma simbólica ou subjetiva. (shrink)

The Commentary on Plato's Parmenides by Proclus is the most important extant document on the interpretation of this enigmatic dialogue in antiquity, and has had a crucial influence on all subsequent readings. In Proclus' Commentary, the Parmenides provides the argumentative and conceptual framework for a scientific theology wherein all mythological discourse about the gods can be integrated. Its exposition was therefore the culmination of the curriculum of the Platonic school. This theological reading of the Parmenides persisted, through the medium of (...) Ficino, until the nineteenth century. Previously this important text was only accessible in the edition of V. Cousin. This new critical edition is based on an exhaustive study of both the Greek tradition and the medieval Latin translation. (shrink)

Analyzing Mediumistic Mentation - Alvarado Proposal for Short List of Best Papers in Parapsychology - Levin Kauffman Stokes.

En el presente artículo se analizará la propuesta teórica, del utilitarismo de la preferencia de Peter Singer, y se estudiará sus alcances y límites en relación con la defensa de un trato igualitario hacia animales no humanos. En un primer momento se presentará el modelo teórico del autor, posterior a ello, se abordarán tres críticas: a) el contraargumento de los recursos reemplazables; b) la determinación de la vida de los animales no humanos como valor intrínseco, y c) importancia del tratamiento (...) del concepto de derechos de los animales. Al finalizar, se evaluará la propuesta de Singer a la luz de estas críticason el fin de tener una propuesta teórica más coherente que ofrezca una defensa hacia las otras especies distintas a la humana. (shrink)

Although cognitive science was multidisciplinary from the start, an under-emphasis on anthropology has left the field with limited research in small scale, indigenous societies. Neglecting the anthropological perspective is risky, given that once-canonical cognitive science findings have often been shown to be artifacts of enculturation rather than cognitive universals. This imbalance has become more problematic as the increased use of Western theory-driven approaches, many of which assume human uniformity (“universality”), confronts the absence of a robust descriptive base that might provide (...) clarifying or even contrary evidence. We highlight the need for remedies to such shortcomings by suggesting a two-fold methodological shift. First, studies conducted in indigenous societies can benefit by relying on multidisciplinary research groups to diminish ethnocentrism and enhance the quality of the data. Second, studies devised for Western societies can readily be adapted to the changing settings encountered in the field. Here, we provide examples, drawn from the areas of emotion and facial expressions, to illustrate potential solutions to recurrent problems in enhancing the quality of data collection, hypothesis testing, and the interpretation of results. (shrink)

Effective vaccines for COVID‐19 are already available to humankind. In Peru, 86 million doses were administered to cover the demand for 33 million Peruvian people. Hence, vaccination has been prioritized in groups: health personnel, subjects with pre‐existing health conditions and those over 65 years of age. However, given the social problems and the public health situation in Peru, this work defends that the priority of vaccination should be focused on the population living in extreme poverty. The method used was an (...) ethical argumentation on the distribution of scarce antiSARS‐CoV2 vaccine in Peru. This argument is based on the analysis of the Peruvian population living in extreme poverty, which presents different layers of vulnerability, and that, in the face of an eventual SARS‐CoV2 infection, these would be exacerbated one after the other, through a cascade effect. This scenario would give rise to new vulnerabilities to those already existing, causing greater damage. Vaccination efforts on this key population would give them the opportunity to continue to find ways to bring food to their homes, significantly reducing the risk of contagion in their environment and mitigating the devastating effect of the local diseases to which they are already exposed. Four objections related to this argument are raised with their corresponding responses. Priority access to the vaccine would significantly reduce the humanitarian harm to people living in extreme poverty, prevailing the principles of justice and equity. (shrink)

Postulo que a través de una lectura hegeliana del trasfondo ontológico que subyace a la doctrina del liberalismo político es posible expandir su alcance teórico más allá de las cuestiones normativas de la filosofía política en las cuales suele quedar restringido bajo las lecturas más comunes; pragmática y kantiana. Hegel reconoce en la afirmación histórica del principio de igual-libertad la herencia del mensaje cristiano, pero como ha sostenido J. Doull, es sólo en Norteamérica que el ideal hegeliano de la libertad (...) encarnada en el Estado se ha cumplido sobre esta base. A partir de aquí se deduce una diferencia fundamental en el modo como son experimentados el paradigma y el ethos del liberalismo en los Estados Unidos y Europa, respectivamente. (shrink)

La floraison d’études sur le scepticisme antique de ces dernières décennies a fait au moins une victime, à savoir Philon d’Alexandrie, auquel elles ont accordé une part de plus en plus restreinte, alors même que Philon est incontestablement celle de nos sources la plus proche d’Énésidème qui refonda le pyrrhonisme au ier siècle avant J.-C. Il importe donc d’établir quelle confiance on peut accorder à ce que Philon nous dit, en plusieurs endroits de son œuvre, du courant sceptique. On propose (...) donc un bref status quaestionis, avant d’analyser la question des tropes. On soulève enfin le problème plus général de la technicisation croissante de la philosophie ancienne et de la place quasi hégémonique qu’occupe ac­tuellement la méthode analytique. Un auteur comme Philon est difficile à décomposer en propositions, dont on chercherait à définir les relations, et il n’a pas écrit – si l’on excepte le De aeternitate mundi, dont l’authenticité est discutée, le Probus, le De prouidentia et l’Alexander – une œuvre qui se présente comme explicitement philosophique. Il incarne donc un problème qui le dépasse : que peut faire la recherche lorsqu’elle est confrontée à tous ces textes dans lesquels la philosophie se trouve mêlée à ce qui n’est pas elle-même, qu’il s’agisse de littérature ou de religion? (shrink)

In the last two decades the growth of economic inequalities in Latin America has increased with unprecedented speed. Strategically the advance of neoclassical economic orthodoxy on Latin American, posed the issue in terms that it was their autochthonous economic Ideas (”structuralism”) the real cul..

Reseña del libro: Cortés, F.. Del arte de la paz: reflexiones filosóficas sobre justicia transicional. Siglo del Hombre.

Lo que quisiera sostener, de entrada, es que nuestra percepción o nuestro concepto del pluralismo es determinante para comprender el espacio público y esa unidad de agencia que denominaba, con Rawls, la Unión Social- o la unión social de las uniones sociales, por ser más fiel a su concepto. La hipótesis central que guiará mi reflexión es qué concebiremos, cómo es y cómo haya de ser el espacio público según sean nuestras concepciones de qué es lo que hace diferentes, diversas (...) a las personas y que, a su vez, distintas concepciones de esa diversidad conllevan diversas nociones de cómo es el espacio público y de cuál habría de ser su papel y su estructura y de cómo debería estar normativamente regulado. [Fragmento]. (shrink)

O presente artigo aborda dois sentidos do tema da crise em Husserl: um teórico e outro prático. O primeiro result a do projeto de naturalização da consciência e das ideias, ao passo que o segundo está relacionado a uma crise da humanidade europeia. O artigo mostra que o diagnóstico husserliano da crise somente se torna possível na medida em que o exercício da tarefa crítica denuncia os contrassensos da doutrina naturalista nos sentidos teórico e prático, revelando a relação indissociável entre (...) ambos. (shrink)

O artigo apresenta uma análise sobre o realismo político e os conflitos, a partir do pensamento do secretário florentino Nicolau Maquiavel. Para o autor de O Príncipe, o realismo é um guia para a ação política e entre os principais elementos do realismo, há a afirmação de que a realidade política é composta de conflitos. Maquiavel compreende o conflito como uma condição inerente a própria política. O conflito é fundamental para o equilíbrio das relações na vida política. O tratamento sobre (...) aos conflitos proposto pelo secretário florentino se coaduna com um ambiente democrático. O modelo republicano de Maquiavel não exclui nenhum segmento social. A república pensada por Maquiavel tem a marca da tolerância com as forças contrárias. (shrink)

El día 26 de octubre de 2006, en la ciudad de Salvador de Bahia, Brasil, la Sociedad Interamericana de Filosofía organizó un Homenaje Académico en memoria de Eduardo Rabossi. El Homenaje se llevó a cabo en el marco del XII Encuentro Nacional de Filosofía del Brasil, organizado por la Associação Nacional de Pós-graduação em Filosofi a (ANPOF), con ocasión del cual tuvo lugar igualmente una Asamblea Extraordinaria de la Sociedad. Los textos que incluimos a continuación fueron leídos en dicho Homenaje.

In 1836, at 19 years of age, Colombian philosopher José Eusebio Caro wrote a sociological and anthropological treatise titled Mecánica social that illustrates in context the reception of French philosophy in 19th-century Colombian philosophical thought. The purpose of this paper is to present critically Caro’s theory of the will and to bring to light the philosophical sources from which he draw, especially physiology and its role as theoretical basis for both ideology and a new “scientific” anthropology that could, in turn, (...) provide support for a science of morals and legislation, a major goal of French radical liberal thought. (shrink)

: One of the most compelling problems in science consists in understanding how living systems process information. After all, the way they process information defines their capacities to learning and adaptation. There is an increasing consensus in that living systems are not machines in any sense. Biological hypercomputation is the concept coined that expresses that living beings process information non-algorithmically. This paper aims at proving a positive understanding of “non-algorithmic” processes. Many arguments are brought that support the claim. This foster, (...) it is argued, a brand-new understanding of information processing among living beings. (shrink)