Provability, Computability and Reflection.

Este trabajo analiza algunas de las consecuencias jurídicas internacionales de la implicación de Estados extranjeros en el proceso de secesión catalán, presentando los datos de los que se dispone hasta ahora. Se seleccionan los comportamientos de la Federación de Rusia y del Reino de Bélgica y se analiza la posible subsunción de estos hechos en la norma internacional relativa a la prohibición de intervención en los asuntos de otros Estados. Se demuestra la difícil sino imposible imputación de responsabilidad internacional en (...) ambos casos. Pero, a la vez, los hechos muestran el interés ruso por ejercer su influencia en la zona y la irresponsabilidad política de algunos líderes secesionistas que consideraron que la República catalana bien valía la sumisión a un Estado autoritario como Rusia. Por su parte, el silencio de los dos Gobiernos de España ante los hechos de Waterloo, muestran, hacia el exterior, un posicionamiento de Estado débil ante los socios europeos y euroatlánticos; hacia el interior muestran a unos gobernantes con poco aprecio por la defensa de la Democracia y el Estado de Derecho, así como con un total desprecio por el derecho a la libre determinación interna de toda la población estatal. (shrink)

Abstract:When major waterfalls in Norway became possible to develop around 1900, a major step was achieved. The step was a major international technological leap paralleled with changes of established attitudes towards grand, and until then, useless nature. Taking the until-then-useless waterfall Rjukanfossen in Telemark into use was a convergence of grand nature, large technological installations, big business and strong emotions. Transforming this waterfall was a large undertaking and was considered to deserve artistic treatment. In 1907–1908 the Norwegian illustrator and painter (...) Theodor Kittelsen produced a series of five watercolors of the waterfall's transformation. They were hung up at the industrial company's representational villa in Notodden. Within traditional landscape painting, water, and especially cascading water, was a standard element. However, Kittelsen's paintings introduced new versions of nature and nature use. This waterfall was totally transformed by being put into service as part of a Norwegian fairy tale. Dragons, elves, and old men in the mountain appear in the waterfall as part of the transformation. The story the paintings tell did not fit well into the context of Norwegian national romanticism, where the Telemark region throughout the 1800s had been associated with “the nation's inner spirit.” The article will trace the production of these paintings, and the subjects depicted in them. It will analyse the nature versions the meeting between the company manager and the artist entailed. How did these paintings use Norwegian fairy tale images to depict a new version of controlled nature? The paintings did not simply thematize mastery over nature or grief over the loss of a waterfall, but a whole range of emotions like ambivalence, insecurity, envy and pride. They both confirmed and challenged the iconic status of major waterfalls in Norway. (shrink)

This book addresses the European Court of Human Rights’ fairness standards in criminal appeal, filling a gap in this less researched area of studies. Based on a fair trial immediacy requirement, the Court has found several violations of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights at the appellate level by at least eighteen States of the Council of Europe in a vast array of cases, particularly in contexts of first instance acquittals overturning and of sentences increasing on appeal. (...) -/- On the one hand, the book critically engages this case-law with the law revisions it has recently inspired in European countries, as well as with the critiques and difficulties that it continues to raise. On the other hand, it interweaves insight from criminal procedure theory with new discoveries in the field of cognitive sciences (neuroscience of memory, philosophy of knowledge, AI), shedding an interdisciplinary light on the (in)adequacy and limits of the Strasbourg Court’s jurisprudence. (shrink)

The study deals with the conception of personal immortality in Miguel de Unamuno’s works. The starting point of his reflections is a particular person of “flesh and blood“ and his authentic existence. Unamuno’s “hunger of immortality“ is inspired by man’s confrontation with the phenomenon of death. For Unamuno existential phenomena of suffering and anxiety seem to be the keyword to the authentic existence and God then becomes a guarantor of individual immortality. The study concentrates on Unamuno’s conception of God in (...) the spirit of panentheism and Spanish Krausism. It observes Unamuno’s philosophical sources of information when discussing the question of immortality from Pythagoras to Platon while opposing the views of impersonal immortality (e.g. B. Spinoza). His theological argumentation is based mainly on S. Kierkegaard, St. Paul and Spanish mystics. His philosophical ideas are extracted especially from his works The Tragic Sense of Life, The Agony of Christianity and The Intimate Diary. His novella Saint Emmanuel The Good, Martyr serves as a fictional illustration of his ideas. The study concludes with the evaluation of Unamuno as an author writing “philosophizing literature“ and as a predecessor of existentialist literature, who was orientated towards Christian personalism. (shrink)

This paper investigates the role of a pre-existing body-model that is an enabling constraint for the incorporation of objects into the body. This body-model is also a basis for the distinction between body extensions (e.g., in the case of tool-use) and incorporation (e.g., in the case of successful prosthesis use). It is argued that, in the case of incorporation, changes in the sense of body-ownership involve a reorganization of the body-model, whereas extension of the body with tools does not involve (...) changes in the sense of body-ownership. (shrink)

In this study, we aim to revisit the autobiography of Louis Althusser, titled «L’avenir dure Longtemps, suivi de Les Faits», in order to reflect upon the author’s substantiated belief that his dream, of 10 August 1964, is premonitory of the homicidal act he committed against his wife, Hélène Rytmann, on 16 November 1980. Based on the revisitation of this autobiographical testimony, we propound the following theses: 1) a sacrificial interpretation of the aforementioned dream by the French philosopher, in retrospect of (...) the fateful event, through the lens of hyper mimesis (René Girard), which is inherent to Althusser’s behavior and probably lies at the root of his deep-seated discomfort; 2) the possibility of a non sacrificial interpretation of the dream, hence bearer of a meaning with the potential to liberate (Jacques Derrida; Jean-Luc Marion) the dreamer from a certain mode of operation. With this perspective, we aim to emphasize the idea that the main purpose of the dream consists in psychological individuation (Carl G. Jung) vis-à-vis undifferentiation and uniformization phenomena, typical of socialization (René Girard), as well as to highlight the notion of gift, outlined by Althusser. (shrink)

The primary objective of this study is to revisit Thomas Aquinas’ notion of justice in light of the author’s own considerations regarding false testimony, specifically in its relation to sin. The intention is to emphasize, within the philosopher, theologian, and advisor’s thinking, the non-sacrificial dimension of justice, which aligns with a testimonial view of cultural evolution and, consequently, philosophical and theological thought. These topics will be addressed through an examination of the discussion surrounding antisemitism in S. Thomas Aquinas, a discussion (...) conducted and explored by Hippolyte Gayraud in his book titled L’Antisémitisme de Saint Thomas D’Aquin (The Antisemitism of Saint Thomas Aquinas). (shrink)

Rutherford and Lindell (2011) review the theoretical and empirical research conceptualizing emotion and emotional processing within an approach-avoidance framework. This is accompanied by an extensive discussion of the cerebral lateralization of approach-avoidance. Berntson, Norman, and Cacioppo (2011) extend this discussion by presenting a bivariate evaluative model of emotion which adopts a valence-based (positive, negative) dictum. Here we discuss this latter model in the context of an approach-avoidance perspective.

This article describes a policy-driven project Marketing of unhealthy food directed to children, which represents the first extensive study of food and beverage advertising and marketing to children in Sweden. The project mapped out food and beverage advertisements directed to Swedish children to provide policymakers with current data about marketing trends to inform the debate concerning the regulation of food advertising in response to childhood obesity. The nature, number and placement of advertisements on television and in the internet that encourage (...) children to buy food and beverages were surveyed during one week in 2005 and 2007. The article summarizes the TV and Internet study results, stakeholder views and public opinion, and discusses the policy implications of digital media and the marketing of unhealthy food and beverages to Swedish children. (shrink)

Transientism (whose name derives from the concept of transience of events) is the metaphysical hypothesis abuot the objectivity of becoming. Its opposite is permanentism (eternism). It is represented by a number of versions. In this paper some attention is given to „naive” transientism (which by no means may only be the point of view of scientifically and philosophically untutored minds) and most of it to the contemporarily most widespread (in philosophy) version which deserve the name of Aristotelian possibilism. The main (...) conclusions from the examination of the doctrine of transientism in the paper are following. All attempts of those authors who try to prove either that transientism is inconsistent or that the objetive import of all tenses statements can be rendered, without a loss of content, by means of the tenseless language of permanentism are doomed to be thwarted. While any model of the universe without a priviledged stratification of the space-time into instants is inconsistent with transientism (unless some unempirical conjectures are intoduced), any model with a priviledged stratification is compatible with Aristotelian possibilsm, both determinism and indeterminism are compatible with permanentism. According to the author transientism, even in case it is true, never can get a support of science to prevail over its rival. A thinker who does not assume that metaphysical intuitions growing out of the „immediate” everyday life experience furnish us with a reliable background for metaphysical doctrines cannot positively declare himself in favor of transientism. The import of Aristotelian possibilism for the dispute about the freewill problem also is briefly discussed in the paper; the implicit conclusion is that Aristotelian possibilism, even if its truth be asumed, could not support the doctrine of libertarianism. (shrink)

Using a comprehensive quotation from a book of Władysław Krajewski a characteristic of moderate scientism (to be called scientism below) is given. That is the stance I share with Krajewski. I complement the characteristic presenting scientism as an approved by me "naive trust in science". In the main part of the paper I discuss, however, the limitations imposed by contemporary science on the traditional epistemological optimism of scientism.

The modern conception of enactive cognition is under discussion from the standpoint concerning the notions of nonlinear dynamics and synergetics. The contribution of Francisco Varela and his precursors is considered. It is shown that the perceptual and mental processes are bound up with the “architecture” of human body and nonlinear and circular connecting links between the subject of cognition and the world constructed by him can be metaphorically called a nonlinear cobweb of cognition. Cognition is an autopoietic activity because it (...) is directed to the search of elements that are missed; it serves to completing integral structures. (shrink)

The dynamic approach to understanding of the human consciousness, its cognitive activities and cognitive architecture is one of the most promising approaches in the modern epistemology and cognitive science. The conception of embodied mind is under discussion in the light of nonlinear dynamics and of the idea co-evolution of complex systems developed by the Moscow scientific school. The cognitive architecture of the embodied mind is rather complex: data from senses and products of rational thinking, the verbal and the pictorial, logic (...) and intuition, the analytical and synthetic abilities of perception and of thinking, the local and the global, the analogue and the digital, the archaic and the post-modern are intertwined in it. In the process of cognition, co-evolution of embodied mind as an autopoietic system and its surroundings takes place. The perceptual and mental processes are bound up with the structure of human body. Nonlinear and circular connecting links between the subject of cognition and the world constructed by him can be metaphorically called a nonlinear cobweb of cognition. Cognition is an autopoietic activity because it is directed to the search of elements that are missed; it serves to completing integral structures. According to the theory of blow-up regimes in complex systems elaborated by Sergey P.Kudyumov and his followers, the idea of co-evolution is connected with the concept of tempoworlds. To co-evolve means to start to develop in one and the same tempoworld and to use the possibility – in case of a proper intergation into a whole structure – to accelerate the tempo of evolution. The cognitive activities of the human being can be considered as a movement (active walk) in landscapes of co-evolution when he cognizes and changes environment and is changed himself by the very activities. The similar conclusion can be drawn from Francisco Varela’s conception of enactive cognition. (shrink)

Klacel's "introduction to aesthetics" is the first attempt at aesthetic system according to hegelian and neohegelian system in neoczech language. in this work it is possible to differentiate three thematic parts: aesthetics as philosophy of beauty and art, the category of aesthetics, and the system of art. (edited).

The exchange of forensic DNA data is seen as an increasingly important tool in criminal investigations into organised crime, control strategies and counter-terrorism measures. On the basis of a set of interviews with police professionals involved in the transnational exchange of DNA data between EU countries, this paper examines how forensic DNA evidence is given meaning within the various different ways of constructing a police epistemic culture, it is, a set of shared values concerning valid knowledge and practices normatively considered (...) adequate and legitimate. The police epistemic culture is fuelled by multiple dynamics of boundary work, revealing how police professionals involved in international cooperation (i) define their specific core activities and competencies; (ii) construct particular understandings of valid knowledge and how it should be produced; (iii) enact the police epistemic culture in contrast to the epistemic cultures of the judicial authorities and forensic scientists. (shrink)

This book is a contribution to the research community towards thinking and reflecting on what Responsible Machine Translation really means. It was conceived as an open dialogue across disciplines, from philosophy to law, with the ultimate goal of providing a wide spectrum of topics to reflect on. It covers aspects related to the development of Machine translation systems, as well as its use in different scenarios, and the societal impact that it may have. This text appeals to students and researchers (...) in linguistics, translation, natural language processing, philosophy, and law as well as professionals working in these fields. (shrink)

An algebraic approach to programs called recursive coroutines — due to Janicki [3] — is based on the idea to consider certain complex algorithms as algebraics models of those programs. Complex algorithms are generalizations of pushdown algorithms being algebraic models of recursive procedures (see Mazurkiewicz [4]). LCA — logic of complex algorithms — was formulated in [11]. It formalizes algorithmic properties of a class of deterministic programs called here complex recursive ones or interacting stacks-programs, for which complex algorithms constitute mathematical (...) models. LCA is in a sense an extension of algorithmic logic as initiated by Salwicki [14] and of extended algorithmic logic EAL as formulated and examined by the present author in [8], [9], [10]. In LCA — similarly as in EAL-ω + -valued logic is applied as a tool to construct control systems (stacks) occurring in corresponding algorithms. The aim of this paper is to give a complete axiomatization. of LCA and to prove a completeness theorem. (shrink)

Background: Dignity is a multidimensional construct that includes perception, knowledge, and emotions related to competence or respect. Attitudes to aging are a comprehensive personal view of the experience of aging over the course of life, which can be influenced by various factors, such as the levels of health and self-sufficiency and social, psychological, or demographic factors. Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes to aging of home-dwelling and inpatient older adults, and whether dignity and other selected (...) factors belong among the predictors influencing attitudes to aging in these two different groups of older adults. Research design: Cross-sectional study using a set of questionnaires: Patient Dignity Inventory, Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire, and Barthel Index. Pearson and Spearman correlation analyses and multivariable linear regression were used for statistical processing. Participants and research context: 233 inpatients and 237 home-dwelling older adults participated in the research in two regions of the Czech Republic. Ethical considerations: Institutional Review Board approval was received from the authors’ university. Findings: The inpatients had more negative attitudes to aging (M = 74.9±10.9; P <0.0001). The predictors of their attitudes to aging were gender and dignity. Women ( β = −2.969, P = 0.045) and inpatients with poor dignity ratings ( β = −0.332, P <0.0001) had more negative attitudes to aging. The predictors for home-dwelling older adults were education, living arrangement, and dignity. More negative attitudes to aging were found in older adults with lower levels of education ( β = 2.716, P = 0.007) who lived alone ( β = 2.163, P = 0.046) and rated their dignity as low ( β = −0.325, P <0.0001). Discussion and Conclusions: The results of this study add to the understanding that a sense of dignity is an important predictor of attitudes to aging for both home-dwelling older adults and inpatients. (shrink)

In this paper, we discuss the following four alternative ways of understanding the outcomes of resurrection biology. Implications of each of the ways are discussed with respect to concepts of species and extinction. Replication: animals created by resurrection biology do not belong to the original species but are copies of it. The view is compatible with finality of extinction as well as with certain biological and ecological species concepts. Re-creation: animals created are members of the original species but, despite their (...) existence, the species remains extinct. The view is incompatible with all species concepts presented. Non-extinction: animals produced belong to the original species which actually never went extinct. The view may be consistent with phenetic and phylogenetic species concepts as well as with finality of extinction. According to literal resurrection, resurrection biology is successful in reversing extinction through the creation of new members of species that once went extinct. This view presupposes non-finality of extinction and it is compatible with phenetic species concepts. It is notable that no species or extinction concept is consistent with all possible views of resurrection biology nor is any view of resurrection biology consistent with all species or extinction concepts. Thus, one’s views regarding species and extinction determine which views one can adopt regarding resurrection biology and vice versa. (shrink)

The “flusserian” phenomenology regards itself as a process, a strategy and, sirnultaneously as a criticism: it would be named an “interrogative phenomenology” or paraphenomenology whose researches are authentic points of “repere”, features that distinguish boundaries and establish paths, connecting them in referential webs that creatively construct a describing and interpretative map of our experience such as it really is. Thus, it is a phenomenology supported by hermeneutics, being its purpose onto-existential. The proposed analysis, from the problematic core of the phenomenological (...) questioning, is that of grabbing the attention to something always expressed and, quite often, ignored or indifferent: a reftection on the gesture. This possible philosophy of the gesture enables the understanding of the relationship of a society/civilization in which the abyss between real and virtual was nullified, where it is possible to think things (Dinge) and the non-things/non-objects (Undinge), as much absurd as this last expression may seem. More important, though, is the openness to the understanding of a new emerging human condition and the strangeness of a society ruled by non-historical criteria: the entrance to the so called post-history. (shrink)