ch. 1. Ot ėpicheskikh teokosmogoniĭ do vozniknovenii︠a︡ atomistiki.

Economic methodologists most often study the relations between models and reality while focusing on the issues of the model's epistemic relevance in terms of its relation to the ‘real world’ and representing the real world in a model. We complement the discussion by bringing the model's constructive mechanisms or self-implementing technologies in play. By this, we mean the elements of the economic model that are aimed at ‘implementing’ it by envisaging the ways to change the reality in order to bring (...) it more in line with the model. We are thus concerned mainly not with the ways to change the model to ‘fit’ the reality, but rather with the model's own armature that is supposed to transform the world along theoretical lines. The case we study is Arrow–Debreu–McKenzie general equilibrium model. In particular, we show the following: gradient methods and stability could be regarded as constructive mechanisms of general equilibrium modeling in the context of market socialism debates; the obsession of general eq.. (shrink)

This paper offers several new insights into the epistemology of immunity to error through misidentification, by refining James Pryor’s distinction between de re misidentification and wh-misidentification. This is crucial for identifying exactly what is at issue in debates over the Immunity thesis that, roughly, all introspection-based beliefs about one’s own occurrent psychological states are immune to error through misidentification. I contend that the debate between John Campbell and Annalisa Coliva over whether the phenomenon of thought insertion provides empirical evidence against (...) claims like Immunity has wrongly focused on de re misidentification and largely overlooked the role of wh-misidentification. I argue that, once we properly distinguish the two notions, subjects of thought insertion can be seen to make an error of wh-misidentification in their judgments. I argue that this disproves the Immunity thesis, properly understood, and show what broader implications this has for our understanding of IEM and the first person. (shrink)

Sorensen has argued that one can exploit the vagueness of an ordinary predicate like ‘small’ to induce a sort of vagueness in ‘vague’, by constructing a series of predicates of the form ‘n-small’, where x is n- small if and only if x is small or x n. The resulting ‘Sorensen’ed’ predicates present a Sorites case for ‘vague’ ; hence the vagueness of ‘vague’. Hyde argues that this demonstrates that all vague predicates are higher-order vague. Others doubt whether Sorensen’s series (...) really delivers such a result, claiming Hyde’s argument to be either: unsound, because it misidentifies the true source of vagueness in Sorensen’s Sorites ; invalid, because it fails to generalize to all vague predicates ; or circular, because it presupposes the very thing it tries to prove, namely, higher-order vagueness. This paper contributes to the Sorensen-Hyde vs. Tye-Deas-Hull-Varzi debate by clarifying the relations between vague vagueness and higher-order vagueness. I show how claims of higher-order vagueness are derivable from claims of vague vagueness. This is the missing piece needed to complete Hyde’s argument and overcome the objections presented by Deas, Hull, Tye, and Varzi. I then show how Sorensen’s considerations, once properly generalized, pose more far-reaching consequences about the vagueness of ‘vague’ than either defenders or critics of Hyde’s argument have appreciated. (shrink)

While the history of Cold War social and human sciences has become an immensely productive line of inquiry and has generated some exciting research, a lot remains still to be done in studying more deeply the known stories, venturing into the unknown ones and, in particular, looking in greater detail at the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain. In our expository introduction to this special issue, we demonstrate how its articles enhance our understanding of the postwar social and human sciences. (...) The special issue invites us to rethink the role of the local intellectual and disciplinary contexts in the postwar cultures of knowledge; to pay more attention to the networks and institutions that fostered communication across the Iron Curtain; to trace various asymmetries at work in the divided academic world and the ambiguous status of many actors who enable the East–West contacts despite the general hostility and ideological cleavages; and finally to arrive at a more differentiated and complex view of the whole intellectual landscape in the history of social and human sciences opening up once all the Cold War protagonists, including the countries of the eastern bloc, are subject to a detailed study. This project, we believe, is worthwhile not just for the sake of historical accuracy but also for understanding and changing the societies we live in, which are often still contaminated by the maladies of the Cold War. (shrink)

While agreeing with Bernard Reginster that Nietzsche's advocacy of the will to power as a psychological thesis is much more fundamental than his extension of it as a cosmological or metaphysical thesis, I criticize him for failing to support this interpretation, and I attempt to supply an analysis that does support it. Then, I take issue with the common tendency to sanitize Nietzsche's theory of the will to power, to make it more palatable—and with Reginster's treatment of this issue. This (...) leads me to an examination of Nietzsche's conception of power—and a critique of Reginster's account of it. (shrink)

Este texto recoge parte de las reflexiones y del desarrollo del capítulo 5 del libro La barbarie que no vimos: Fotografía y memoria en Colombia. Aquí algunas preguntas que se intentan responder en este ensayo: ¿son las tecnologías las únicas responsables de la imposibilidad de ejercer una contemplación activa frente al infortunio de los demás? A propósito de la Parábola del Buen Samaritano, ¿este habría sido reemplazado por el espectador distante o implicado? ¿Qué sucede cuando ese espectador, de tanto ver (...) naufragios, termina fatigado? ¿Y de tanta fatiga, se vuelve indiferente? ¿Qué significa ser espectadores de naufragios en una época en la que la catástrofe no es ocasionada exclusivamente por fuerzas naturales sino por los propios seres humanos? ¿Es posible hallar hoy alguna orilla segura para reconocernos distanciados y salvados de las catástrofes ajenas? (shrink)

As result of the ongoing doctoral research, this paper composes the Communication delivered at the First National Post-Graduate Meeting in Philosophy of the University of Brasilia. The thesis relates to the real political action arising from liberty and immanent power. Structured in two moments of the Gramscian thought, that is: a) the juvenile phase (1914-1919), correspondent to the initial period of political engagement towards adherence to the Turin labor movement; and b) the analysis of the 48th § of Volume 3 (...) Prison Notebooks (Q 3, 48, 197) about the real political action. The whole problematic of the research relies in the investigation about Gramscian philosophical demands of the real political action that distinguishes it from the utopian idealism. In this sense, which are Gramscian´s contributions towards the Philosophy of praxis? The research indicates that the praxis requires a critical consciousness – passed through intellectual action in the formation of the people –, since the historical conditions are already given. (shrink)

The study offers an account of Hegel’s religious epistemology based on his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. It is understood as a result of Hegel’s efforts to determine the sufficient conditions, which make the knowledge of God possible. Firstly, Hegel’s philosophy of religion is sketched as an investigation of the religious consciousness as well its subject, i.e. God. Secondly, the concept of Absolute Spirit is construed as a self-manifestation to specify Hegel’s understanding of God. Finally, the paper shows Hegel’s (...) way to epistemological realism, which is a middle position between theological anti-realism and theological agnosticism. (shrink)

Recent anti-governmental social movements in countries of former Yugoslavia have awakened the spirit of contention which had been dormant for almost two decades. The overwhelming economic deprivation, accompanied by the massive violation of basic human rights of the citizens, urged the challengers to take the streets.This paper is focused on comparison of two movements, the “Citizens for Macedonia” movement in the Republic of Macedonia and the “Bosnian Spring” in Bosnia and Herzegovina, highlighting the role and influence of movements on the (...) occurrence of policy outputs which articulated claims put forward by social movement organizations as well as other movement actors in the two respective countries. The analysis will be conducted taking into consideration specific social movement related variables like forms/types of claims-making and repertoires of action, as well as wider political process factors such as repression by state actors, and the attitude of allies and opponents of the movements.Regarding the methodological approach, we will apply a mixed comparative research design, with variation both on side of the independent and the dependent variables. Since the outcomes of the movements are already tangible, we will also apply elements of process tracing methodology, reconstructing the events as much as possible. My primary data collection tools encompass in-depth interviews with four specific categories of interviewees as well as thorough document analysis referring to the policy outputs. (shrink)

El artículo contextualiza e investiga los detalles del «Mes de Reflexión Episcopal» organizado por el Departamento de Pastoral de Conjunto del Celam en julio de 1971, que reunió providencialmente varios obispos, algunos de los cuales no estuvieron en la II Conferencia General tres años antes, y que darían testimonio del espíritu de Medellín hasta el martirio o hasta una muerte trágica en cumplimiento de su misión: Oscar Arnulfo Romero, Juan Gerardi Conedera, Gerardo Valencia Cano y Raúl Zambrano Camader. El encuentro (...) se describe a partir de la revisión documental de las actas y de los pocos informes impresos. La tesis central del artículo es que el diálogo informal entre obispos, teólogos y otros expertos en el «Mes de Reflexión Episcopal» es fuente de propuestas novedosas para una Pastoral de Conjunto, contra la clericalización y el autoritarismo en la Iglesia latinoamericana. Desafortunadamente, no hay una reunión posterior similar debido a una controversia con la Congregación romana para los obispos. (shrink)

Vzaimodeistvie mezhdu fizicheskii︠a︡ i psikhicheskii︠a︡ mir -- Granit︠s︡ite na znanieto -- Svetŭt kato produkt na sŭznanieto -- Absoli︠u︡tnoto sŭznanie.

El presente ensayo no pretende hacer una investigación de las razones por la cualesHeidegger no escribió un tratado ético como tal, mucho menos, una apología acerca desu silencio, intencional o no, respecto a dicho asunto. Tampoco se pretende escribir unaética “de” Heidegger, sino más bien, encontrar las señales que “dejan-ver” la dimensiónética de su pensar y desde allí, llevar nuestro pensar por el camino que nos conduce a laposibilidad de rehabitar la tierra.

The main idea of quantum mechanics, whether formulated in terms of the Planck constant or the noncommutativity of certain observables, must be tied to the recognition of the relativity and nonuniversality of the abstract concept of set (manifold) in the description of quantum systems. This entails the necessarily probabilistic description of quantum systems: since a quantum system ultimately cannot be decomposed into elements or sets, we have to describe it in terms of probabilities of only a relative selection of certain (...) elements or sets in its structure. This gives rise to the potential possibilities of quantum systems in an actual physical situation, and as a result the corresponding probabilities are ontologically real, like any other physically verifiable relationships. In this way, the quantum potential possibilities (and probabilities as their measure) are no less objectively real than the conventional reality which we identify with the physically directly verifiable elements, particles, etc. Indeed, the distribution of probabilities described by the nonfactorizable wave function is as objectively real and concrete as chairs, walls and all other physical things. In the pure quantum state the probabilities of selection of elements from the ultimately detailed state of the system are mutually coordinated and correlated by the phenomenon of wholeness of the system, and form an implicative logical structure governed by this phenomenon of wholeness. This idea of the implicative logical organization of the probabilistic structure of a quantum system in the so-called pure (non-detailable) state, and the governing role of the phenomenon of wholeness (in the redistribution of probabilities depending on the nature of the development of the real experiment), is in good agreement with the results of quantum correlation experiments (for example, the experiments of Alain Aspect, Nicolas Gisin and others). (shrink)

¿Cuántas imágenes hacen un poema? ¿Cuántas palabras se necesitan para construir un pensamiento? Vemos palabras de la misma manera que vemos árboles y casas, pero no vemos el bosque ni la ciudad como no vemos el poema y el pensamiento; lo verdaderamente esencial de ambos permanece oculto a nuestra simple y cotidiana mirada. El ojo y el oído se han acostumbrado a ver y a oír, es natural, es lo que se espera de dos órganos que están hechos para cumplir (...) esta misión. Pero ni vemos ni oímos más allá de los límites creados por la rutina de nuestra cotidianidad, hemos fijado a la superficie el paisaje y todo cuanto lo contiene: colores, olores, sonidos y texturas; vemos sin ver, oímos sin oír, olemos sin oler, tocamos sin sentir; esto es, sin diferenciar. Sin duda, establecer la diferencia, en cada acontecimiento particular, nos permitiría ir más allá de lo que simplemente se pone frente a nosotros; estamos tentados a nombrar esta diferencia como profundidad, pero mucho me temo que la profundidad también es una trampa, se trataría más bien de saber moverse entre ambas; sería algo así como dejarse sorprender por lo nuevo que hay en lo mismo, por lo imperceptible e invisible que existe en lo real y visible de la cotidianidad. (shrink)

En este texto se busca elaborar una idea de formación en el pensamiento de Baruch de Spinoza, como alternativa a las ideas educativas que, de manera esencialista, mediante el proceso educativo pretenden hacer corresponder al educando a ciertos modelos preestablecidos. Para ello se construye una idea de auto-realización en Spinoza en la que resultan deseables diferentes caminos de auto-realización para diferentes individuos. Se propone que esta auto-realización consiste en ser capaz de obrar y ser afectado de muchas maneras, y se (...) propone que el conocimiento en Spinoza implica una cierta pasividad activa que se nutre de la diferencia y de lo otro. (shrink)

This article carries out a critical analysis of the discourse/practice of Business Ethics that has developed to an unprecedented extent in the last decade or so. It argues that in the late-modern global political economy (GPE) there develops a form of a Gramscian hegemony of transnational capital and the discourse/practice of Business Ethics can be seen as a form of moral leadership in the context of the emerging hegemonic order.

According to an “orthodox” reading proposed by Dummett and more recently endorsed by Lugg and Price, the later Wittgenstein rejects the idea of grouping together certain utterances as a single class of assertions. We offer an alternative commentary on the Philosophical Investigations §§21–24, developing what we call a Wittgensteinian role‐based account of assertion. We then examine whether this role‐based account can solve the problem of on‐stage utterances. In the course of this, the merits of the account are shown and compared (...) to an alternative proposal offered by Searle. (shrink)

Applying Heideggerian tool ontology to antiblack racism in the United States, Ontological Branding argues that race is a tool to constrain nonwhite persons, especially Black persons, to ways of being in service to the white world. U.S. law’s colorblind “equality” safeguards white supremacy, and racial justice instead requires ontological equality.