The organizational account of biological functions interprets functions as contributions of a trait to the maintenance of the organization that, in turn, maintains the trait. As has been recently argued, however, the account seems unable to provide a unified grounding for both intra- and cross-generation functions, since the latter do not contribute to the maintenance of the same organization which produces them. To face this ‘ontological problem’, a splitting account has been proposed, according to which the two kinds of functions (...) require distinct organizational definitions. In this article, we propose a solution for the ontological problem, by arguing that intra- and cross-generation functions can be said to contribute in the same way to the maintenance of the biological organization, characterized in terms of organizational self-maintenance. As a consequence, we suggest maintaining a unified organizational account of biological functions. (shrink)

O presente artigo estuda a ditadura militar no cinema brasileiro, e em especial, analisa a representação de dois líderes da esquerda armada: Carlos Marighella e Carlos Lamarca. O assassinato de Marighella foi evidenciado em filmes como Batismo de sangue (Helvécio Ratton, 2007) e Marighella, retrato falado de um guerrilheiro (Silvio Tendler, 2001). Assim como o caráter humanista de Lamarca foi destacado no filme Lamarca – o capitão da guerrilha (Sérgio Rezende, 1994). Portanto, partindo dessa identificação, buscamos estudar a relação entre (...) esses personagens, compreendendo que ambos são retratados como heróis nessas narrativas. (shrink)

En este artículo sostengo que muchos países deudores tienen el derecho moral de incurrir en cesación de pagos de sus deudas soberanas. Muestro que deben hacerse excepciones a la afirmación general de que los gobiernos tienen la obligación de devolver préstamos contraídos por gobiernos que le antecedieron.

The article compares two different interpretations of Kant's categorical imperative −the practical and the logical one− and defends the practical one, arguing that it is superior because it rejects cases of free riding without necessarily rejecting cases of coordination or timing. The logical interpretation, on the other hand, leads to the undesirable outcome that it does not reject immoral cases of free riding, and to the desired outcome that it does not reject maxims of coordination/timing. Given that neither of them (...) rejects maxims of coordination/timing (they are similar in that sense) and only the practical interpretation rejects free riding, the logical interpretation should be rejected. El artículo compara dos interpretaciones diferentes del imperativo categórico kantiano −la práctica y la lógica− y defiende la superioridad de la práctica debido a que rechaza los casos de free riding, sin rechazar necesariamente los casos de coordinación/tiempo. La interpretación lógica, en cambio, lleva al resultado indeseable de no rechazar casos inmorales de free riding, y al resultado deseable de rechazar las máximas de coordinación/tiempo. Dado que ninguna de las dos rechaza las máximas de coordinación/tiempo (y en este sentido son similares) y solamente la interpretación práctica rechaza los casos de free riding, debe rechazarse la interpretación lógica. (shrink)

From a Wittgensteinian point of view, my goal is to argue against the idea that teaching critical thinking should have as one of its aims the possibility of changing or adapting our deeply held beliefs. As pointed out by the Austrian philosopher in On Certainty, we have a world-picture which is neither true nor false, but above all, ‘it is the substratum of all my enquiring and asserting’. Besides that, in his remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough, Wittgenstein insists on the (...) idea that different communities have their own rituals that express ways of acting, which become crystallized in their customs and institutions, similar to the magical rituals described by Frazer. The degree of similarity among them is greater than we suspect, and what interested Wittgenstein was to understand how we see things by looking for the links between the various ritualistic events. Based on these remarks, I argue that, if our deeply held beliefs are a source of necessity, instead of aiming to change/adapt them, teaching critical thinking should—by showing the links between diverse cultures—essentially avoid employing them in a dogmatic way, since our own deeply held beliefs could have been different ones. (shrink)

The general idea of this investigation is to emphasize the elusiveness of the concept of terrorism and the pitfalls of the so-called “War on Terror” by way of confronting, roughly, the reflections made in the immediate following of 9/11 by Habermas and Derrida on the legacy of Enlightenment, globalization and tolerance, with Foucault’s concept of biopolitics seen as the modern political paradigm and Agamben’s understanding of “the state of exception” in the context of liberal democratic governments. The main argument will (...) state that the modern Western individual and the modern terrorist are in a way linked together as products of the same biopolitical network. So I shall argue that religious fundamentalism and international terrorism are not external factors to the Western civilization, nor even some radical late forms of ‘Counter-Enlightenment’ threatening the Western ‘way of life,’ but phenomena revealing what we could call, borrowing J. Derrida’s biological metaphor, a “crisis of autoimmunization” of Western neo-liberal democracies. The only long-term solution to the threat of global terrorism would have to involve the “deconstruction” of our common notion of tolerance and the experience of an unconditional hospitality that is actually the inversion of the terrorist action that is threatening us “from within,” according to Derrida. But we cannot reasonably hope for this radical change in our relationship to others unless we aren’t really trying to modify the relationship to the self that is prevalent in contemporary Western societies: a vision of us as self-encapsulated monads or ‘nuclear’ selves, for whom genuine community life is, at the most, only a nostalgic evocation of a past long gone, and the respect for the others, a strategic name for moral indifference. (shrink)

In postmodern society, many of the perceptions that people had about them, their lives, the values ​​that define them and the strategies that they can use to achieve their ideals have changed. Specifically, today we can talk about new paradigms, such as health, lifestyle focused on personal well-being, obtained through fitness and wellness, respectively wellbeing that adds the spiritual component, in an holistic interdependence. An important role in the changes we are talking about has been played by the media, which (...) promote living standards built on hedonistic principles, specific to the consumer society. The consequence is that more and more teenagers and young people want to look good and feel good, but only a small part of them reach the specialists, who are best able to provide individualized guidance, support, and programs to prevent any negative consequences of uninspired choices or poorly dosed enthusiasm The stakes of choice are high, because a healthy lifestyle, which should not be limited to body aesthetics, but also aims to develop the spiritual side, can support a more effective adaptation to the dynamics of changes in society. The last year, marked by a new challenge, the pandemic, has fully demonstrated the need to assume on a personal level a balanced and responsible lifestyle, which offers new values ​​of quality of life, as well as complementing proactive management with that managed by specialists. (shrink)

Cet article traite d’un agencement pictural proustien – un arc-en-ciel turnérien entre deux Rembrandt. Sont examinées : l’ascendance rembranesque de Turner et l’évolution négative du jugement de Ruskin, fervent turnérien, sur Rembrandt. La tentative proustienne de réconcilier Ruskin avec Rembrandt réussit-elle? Rembrandt reste-t-il trop moderne pour Ruskin? Un début de réponse se trouve dans la Bourgogne des Valois.

In contrast to the “normativist” view, “naturalist” theorists claim that the concept of health refers to natural or normal states and propose different characterizations of healthy and diseased conditions that are meant to be objectivist and biologically grounded. In this article, we examine the core concept of these naturalist accounts of disease, i.e., the concept of biological malfunction, and develop a new formulation of the notion of malfunction following the recent organizational approach to functions in the philosophy of biology. We (...) focus on the notions of adaptive regulation and functional presupposition to develop a new conceptual framework that justifies the ascription of malfunctional behaviors to biological systems according to the embodied normativity of biological organizations. (shrink)

The debate about how neurotechnologies impact authenticity has focused on two inter-related dimensions: self-discovery and self-creation. In this paper, we develop a broader framework that includes the experimental and relational dimensions of authenticity, both understood as decisive for shaping one’s narrative identity. In our view, neurointerventions that alter someone’s personality traits will also impact her very own self-understanding across time. We argue that experimental authenticity only needs a minimum conception of narrative coherence of the self and that reversibility should remain (...) a key feature in the ethical assessment of neurotechnologies. The relational dimension of authenticity derives from the fact that a process of self-constitution is never a solitary business. The significant others act not just as subsequent judges of one’s life decisions, but as real co-authors of one’s self. We discuss relevant cases in which others are actively contributing to the meaning-making process, as to the direction one’s life is taking. We also claim that the experimental and the relational dimensions of authenticity should aim to correct each other. The relational dimension introduces socially approved standards as well as limitations to the array of available possibilities of self-fashioning or human enhancement. The experimental side enables us to avoid confusing one’s personal identity with a social and narrative construct that only bears the mark of social pressure and conformism. (shrink)

The Anthropocene is seen by many scholars across the sciences and the humanities as a tool for political action. Yet the validation process for this term appears to be extremely conservative. According to geologists’ leading efforts to formalize the term, signals need to petrify in stratigraphic sequences in order to become candidates to mark the start of the Anthropocene. I argue that this emphasis results from a fossilized view of becoming, where time is seen as a punctuated accumulation of solid (...) surfaces that are accessible only in retrospect. I show that this petrified view of change relates to a tendency to divorce earth and sky, which currently divides the practices of humanities scholars and geologists, as well as those of earth system scientists and stratigraphers collaborating on the formalization of the Anthropocene. Challenging this tendency, I conclude, requires opening up earth’s history to the more-than-solid flows of environmental change. (shrink)

El propósito de este artículo es analizar la noción de subjetivación, clave en el último Foucault, a la luz de la metáfora barroca del _pliegue_. Según Deleuze, hay dos fuentes distintas, la memoria del Ser de Heidegger y la monadología de Leibniz, que se reúnen en cierto sentido en esta noción foucaultiana. A este respecto, pretendo destacar la importancia del concepto de subjetivación en el contexto de un giro performativo en la filosofía contemporánea, así como diversas formas históricas de entender (...) este concepto. Un aspecto técnico, pero crucial, que hay que subrayar es la compleja interacción y la mutua co-dependencia entre la subjetivación activa y la sujeción (_assujettissement_). La comprensión del «modo de la sujeción» en Foucault como uno de los «cuatro pliegues de la subjetivación» proporciona un argumento convincente para el pluralismo ético. Por último, esta perspectiva brinda una importante clave para revisar la interpretación de Deleuze de Foucault. Pues es la memoria violenta de Nietzsche, y no la memoria heideggeriana del Ser, la que se revela como decisiva en el proceso de subjetivación, y también como una vía de conversión necesaria de la libertad «negativa» en libertad positiva en el sentido de la autonomía y autodisciplina, en concordancia con el proyecto nietzscheano de hacer que el «ascetismo vuelva a ser natural». (shrink)

The debate about how neurotechnologies impact authenticity has focused on two inter-related dimensions: self-discovery and self-creation. In this paper, we develop a broader framework that includes the experimental and relational dimensions of authenticity, both understood as decisive for shaping one’s narrative identity. In our view, neurointerventions that alter someone’s personality traits will also impact her very own self-understanding across time. We argue that experimental authenticity only needs a minimum conception of narrative coherence of the self and that reversibility should remain (...) a key feature in the ethical assessment of neurotechnologies. The relational dimension of authenticity derives from the fact that a process of self-constitution is never a solitary business. The significant others act not just as subsequent judges of one’s life decisions, but as real co-authors of one’s self. We discuss relevant cases in which others are actively contributing to the meaning-making process, as to the direction one’s life is taking. We also claim that the experimental and the relational dimensions of authenticity should aim to correct each other. The relational dimension introduces socially approved standards as well as limitations to the array of available possibilities of self-fashioning or human enhancement. The experimental side enables us to avoid confusing one’s personal identity with a social and narrative construct that only bears the mark of social pressure and conformism. (shrink)

The concept of freedom is not just another concept in Kierkegaard’s thought. On the contrary, it is one of the most significant issues which the Danish philosopher deals with. Thus, the article examines the meaning of this concept within the philosophy of Kierkegaard by following the interpretation of Cornelio Fabro. In order to achieve such a purpose, firstly, the general features of the thought of the Italian philosopher are presented. Subsequently, the metaphysical foundation for Human freedom within the thought of (...) Kierkegaard is developed. Afterwards, the radical determination of the will in its choice of evil and sin are analyzed, as well as the existential reality of Self as the first principle of action. Lastly, the dispute that Kierkegaard has with Hegel, which motivates his writings, is briefly exposed; and some of the ideas that Fabro takes from the Danish philosopher are listed. (shrink)

Este artículo pretende señalar la importancia de la causa inmanente al interior de la doctrina de Baruch Spinoza. La ética es el tratado más importante de Spinoza y reúne el pensamiento maduro del filósofo holandés. La prop. XVIII del libro I tiene un rol fundamental y articula el mundo de la Naturaleza Naturante y la Naturaleza Naturada, mostrando por primera vez la manera en que la causa única se produce y produce todo: de forma inmanente. Intentamos, así, mostrar el rol (...) articulador de la causa immanens en el pensamiento de Spinoza y la importancia de la ética. (shrink)

This article discusses how resignifications of the human rights NGO Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo contributed to transformations of post-dictatorial culture. For decades hegemonic media and perpetrators engaged state terror’s reasoning to confront Abuelas’ call for “restitution” of the children who “disappeared” during the last dictatorship in Argentina. Drawing on both the junta’s self-appointed role of saviors and the benevolence of nurture, Catholic couples had thus rescued children from irresponsible “subversive” parents. In their struggle against state terror Abuelas’ metaphor apropiación (...) resignified nurture as violence, pushing politico-cultural change towards a universal right to identity. (shrink)

The objective of our research is to examine the diverse methods of judicial interpretation, taking off from that established in Article 4 of the Venezuelan Civil Code. We attempt to explain what and how to interpret using the exegetic method of interpretation through an exhaustive analysis of the article, in agreement with Article 22 of the Penal Process Organic Code. Emphasis is placed on the classical methods of legal interpretation: grammatical, logical-systematic, and historical-comparative, among others.

Considerando a emergência da forma híbrida de certa cinematografia brasileira contemporânea, a qual se utiliza em sua estratégia de realização a performance do ator-personagem em seus papéis sociais, pretendemos examinar a realização como um rito de passagem, a fim de compreender as transformações que ocorrem tanto no modo de fazer cinema, quanto às que ocorrem com o próprio ator-personagem ao se “iniciar” no meio cinematográfico.

This chapter explores the implications of moral vagueness for non-naturalist metaethical theories like those recently championed by Shafer-Landau, Parfit, and others. It characterizes non-naturalism in terms of its commitment to seven theses: Cognitivism, Correspondence, Atomism, Objectivism, Supervenience, Non-reductivism, and Rationalism. It starts by offering a number of reasons for thinking that moral predicates are vague in the same way in which “red,” “tall,” and “heap” are said to be. It then argues that the moral non-naturalist seeking to countenance moral vagueness (...) faces a dilemma: are moral properties vague, or perfectly sharp? On either horn of the dilemma, serious problems arise for some of the central tenets of non-naturalism: vague properties seem to threaten Objectivism, Supervenience, and Non-reductivism; on the other hand, sharp properties raise problems for Supervenience and Rationalism. The difficulties on each horn of the dilemma are real, and while they may not be insuperable, they do, at the very least, drastically limit the things non-naturalists can consistently say about moral properties, facts, and reasons. (shrink)

Archaeology, like most sciences that rely on stratigraphic excavation for studying the past, tends to conceptualize this past as lying deep underneath the ground. Accordingly, chronologies tend to be depicted as a movement from bottom to top, which contrast with sciences that illustrate the passage of time horizontally. By paying attention to the development of the visual language of disciplines that follow stratigraphy, I show how chronologies get entangled with other temporalities, particularly those of writing. Relying on recent ethnographic work (...) with archaeologists, the analysis reveals that excavation emerges as a double vertical movement of downward destruction and upward reconstruction that coincides with a systematic dissociation of time and space that has important effects for the understanding of the formation of sites. I conclude by looking at some of the implications of this dissociation for contemporary theoretical discussions, particularly those that emerged after the phenomenological push to horizontalize the discipline. Challenging this dissociation, I argue that the conceptualization of time in science should be understood as a process that depends on the body and unfolds in movement. (shrink)

El presente trabajo tiene como finalidad exponer la discusión entre Kierkegaard y Hegel en torno a la noción de libertad, de acuerdo con la interpretación que ofrece concretamente sobre la misma el filósofo italiano Cornelio Fabro. De este modo, se mencionarán primeramente algunos de los puntos principales de estudio que aborda el filósofo italiano en su obra. Posteriormente se analizarán las posiciones especulativas que Hegel y Kierkegaard desarrollan, respectivamente, sobre el tema en cuestión. Por último, se realizarán algunas apreciaciones sobre (...) la instancia existencial que presenta el pensador danés y que Fabro destaca. (shrink)

This paper is addressing Husserl’s critique of psychologism in order to gain a better understanding of an up to date phenomenological research. Staring with Maurice Merleau-Ponty, phenomenology became more and more interested in how psychoanalytic theory can contribute to its findings. The latest phenomenological research reflects this growing interest in psychoanalysis. I will demonstrate in this paper that Husserl’s critique of psychologism enables this interest and that the psychoanalytic theory offers the same critique in response. Thus, the ego problem leading (...) to the deadlock of intersubjectivity, represent one of the common grounds phenomenology and psychoanalysis can meet. In this respect I will use the works of Marc Richir and Jacques Lacan. Emphasizing Marc Richir’s conception of language as phenomenon and the twist he gives to the concept of perceptive phantasia introduced by Husserl in 1918, I will consider the concept of unconscious as a way to solve the intersubjectivity dilemma. (shrink)

The paper presents some knowledge of history of medicine – especially those from the embryological field – correlated with theological marks in order to motivate the rightfulness of the method of „bringing the mind down into the heart”, a procedure during the Jesus Prayer. The ascetic Fathers mentioned that the mind is an energy which starts from the heart and reaches the brain – which offers the possibility to express itself. It is possible to consider that this transfer begins since (...) the primitive heart is in the same plane and before the cerebral area. Then, after the folding of the embryo, the heart will be placed under the brain. So “bringing the mind down into the heart” is also biologically feasible. Although the primitive heart is structured after the neural tube, it starts beating at 21 to 22 days, unlike the brain which began its function on the 40th day. This explains the theological meaning of the heart, wider than the signification of the mind (attribute of the brain). (shrink)

Nicu Gavrilutã, Miscãri religioase orientale. O perspectivã socio-antropologicã asupra globalizãrii practicilor yoga Ed. Provopress, Cluj-Napoca, 2006.

Aun se utilizan insistentemente los conceptos de ‘paradigma’, ‘inconmensurabilidad’ y ‘regla’ tal como Thomas Kuhn lo propuso para referirse al modo en que se organizaría la ciencia. Lo problemático es que La estructura de las revoluciones científicas se cita como un caso de debate epistemológico, más que como un ensayo sobre la ciencia con perspectiva histórica. Se discute aquí el uso de Kuhn de estos conceptos para mostrar que esta posición no tiene otro apoyo más que una muy particular visión (...) de la ciencia expuesta en el contexto de las décadas de 1950 y 1960 en Estados Unidos.Palabras llave: paradigma; inconmensurabilidad; epistemología contemporáneaThe concepts of ‘paradigm’, ‘incommensurability’ and ‘rule’ are still widely quoted. Thomas Kuhn applied them to refer to the way in which science could be organized. The problem is that The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is quoted as a case of epistemological discussion, rather than a case of an historical perspective of science. In this paper Kuhn’s use of these concepts is commented upon to show that this position has no other backing than a particular vision of science as exposed in the context of the 1950s in the United States.Palabras llave: Thomas S. Kuhn; Thomas S; paradigm; incommensurability; contemporary epistemology. (shrink)

The paper presents three strong arguments advocating for the exclusion of the table of Ptolemy’s own planetary terms from the original text of the Tetrabiblos. This table was vastly used by Renaissance astrologers, and much work on its rationale and its manuscript variant readings has been published recently. The author argues that the table was the product of the systematic analysis of Ptolemy’s instructions for the terms in the late antique commentary on the Tetrabiblos edited by Wolf in 1559, and (...) that it entered the direct transmission of Ptolemy’s text in the Byzantine period, probably in the 11th century through cod. Laur. 28,34. The absence of the table in the original Tetrabiblos would explain Ptolemy’s recourse to a probably invented manuscript find and his limited account of the system’s workings. (shrink)

Kitcher has proposed an ideal-theory account—well-ordered science (WOS)— of the collective good that science’s research agenda should promote. Against criticism regarding WOS’s action-guidance, Kitcher has advised critics not to confuse substantive ideals and the ways to arrive at them, and he has defended WOS as a necessary and useful ideal for science policy. I provide a distinction between two types of ideal-theories that helps clarifying WOS’s elusive nature. I use this distinction to argue that the action-guidance problem that WOS faces (...) remains even under the aims/means distinction, because the WOS’s failure is more basic than critics have suggested. (shrink)

Our most current experience of violence is not predominantly violence “given in the flesh,” but violence given through the mediation of the image. The phenomenon of real violence is therefore modified through the imagistic experience, involving first of all its emotional, embodied and intersubjective dimensions. How is the emotion constituted in the face of depicted violence, in contrast to the lived experience of real violence? Is the intersubjectivity modified when violence appears pictorially? What specific embodied dimensions are particularly engaged when (...) violence is lived as an image, and not as a real phenomenon? The phenomenon of imagistic violence can also be understood in contrast with the experience of violence lived in phantasy, memory, or dreaming. Also, since each type of image puts into play certain possibilities of depicting violence, making possible various subjective experiences of violence, it crucial to explore how this experience fundamentally depends on the type of image by which the phenomenon of violence is depicted, be it painting, photography, fiction film, documentary or media image. (shrink)