The subject of the action and the politician, introduces to us necessarily in the consideration of the problem of the power. Arendt talks about the term to be able, like the human capacity to act of arranged way. For our author, the power never belongs to an individual but to a group of individuals and continues existing while the group stays united. In other words, a man must be able when he acts in name of a group of people; without (...) the consent of the group, the person lets have to be able. The man like individual, by itself, lacks only being able has power. We shared this notion of being able totally, considering to Arendt like one of the authors who better have analyzed it distinguishing it of the force (or violence), giving of him a definition us that ejemplariza resulting his “ontologic status” as makes specific of the voluntary organization of individualities, and founding it on basic the human condition of the plurality. Arendt understands clearly that to the power she only can oppose to it him the force or violence, but this one cannot really replace it: the violence is not for her to be able, but destructive of being able: “But the violence is able well to destroy to the power, never can become its substitute. From it is the frequent political combination of force and deficiency of being able there.”. (shrink)

Nanotechnology has in various ways been regarded as a technology that promises both innovations and risks and that has the potential to profoundly change the world. Yet for many people there are still two questions that remain unanswered: just what is nanotechnology, and why does it matter? What is nanotechnology and why does it matter?: from science to ethics, by a nanoscientist and two philosophers, aims to give the reader a balanced and informed understanding of this important technology. The book (...) not only focuses on providing the reader with normative reasons around why nanotechnology matters, such as its social impact and ethics, but also offers an accurate and generally accessible analysis of the science involved, highlighting what nanotechnology actually is and why it matters in terms of the applications and features that make it relevant.The book serves as a useful introduction to nanotechnology for those who know little about the subject but wish to learn about the impact this .. (shrink)

The question of Theodicy demands a reasonable justification of the nature, structures and goals of evil and suffering in the world. The paper attempts to explain the reasons for its presence in our lives and seeks to unveil its principles. If God is all knowing, almighty and also merciful, we must face the problem of the presence of evil and suffering in this world. The main goal of the paper is to show the way the New Testament deals with this (...) question, and further to show to what extent it has influenced the life of Christians from the point of view of teleology. (shrink)

Purpose: Appreciating the relationship between Sylvio Ceccato and Ernst von Glasersfeld, both as people and in their work. Approach: historical and personal accounts, archeological approach to written evidence. Findings: Ceccato’s work is introduced to an English speaking audience, and the roots of Glasersfeld’s work in Ceccato’s is explored. Flaws in Ceccato’s approach are indicated, together with how Glasersfeld’s work overcomes these, specially in language and automatic translation, and what became Radical Constructivism. Conclusion: Glasersfeld willingly acknowledges Ceccato, who he still refers (...) to as the Master. But Ceccato’s work is little known, specially in the English speaking world. The introduction, critique and delineation of extension and resolution of Ceccato’s ideas in Glasersfeld’s work is the intended value of the paper. (shrink)

A central issue of cognitive neuroscience is to understand how a large collection of coupled neurons combines external signals with internal memories into new coherent patterns of meaning. An external stimulus localized at some input spreads over a large assembly of coupled neurons, building up a collective state univocally corresponding to the stimulus. Thus, the synchronization of spike trains of many individual neurons is the basis of a coherent perception. Based on recent investigations of homoclinic chaotic systems and their synchronization, (...) a novel conjecture for the dynamics of single neurons and, consequently, for neuron assemblies is formulated. Homoclinic chaos is proposed as a suitable way to code information in time by trains of equal spikes occurring at apparently erratic times. In order to classify the set of different perceptions, the percept space can be given a metric structure by introducing a distance measure between distinct percepts. The distance in percept space is conjugate to the duration of the perception in the sense that an uncertainty relation in percept space is associated with time-limited perceptions. This coding of different percepts by synchronized spike trains entails fundamental quantum features which are not restricted to microscopic phenomena. It is conjectured that they are related to the details of the perceptual chain rather than depending on Planck's action. (shrink)

This book introduces a new category, in-between, that will have a far-reaching impact on classic ways of thinking. Husserl's description of consciousness and Whitehead's criticism of the prejudice of simple location are two starting points. Relativity theory's radical changes in the conception of space and time also motivate some of the lines of thought.