Javier Osorio Mancilla Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Granada, España Históricamente, las plantas han recibido un papel secundario … Read More →.

Javier Osorio Mancilla Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Granada, España Historically, plants have received a secondary role in … Read More →.

Scientific disagreements sometimes persist even if scientists fully share results of their research. In this paper we develop an agent-based model to study the impact of diverging diagnostic values scientists may assign to the evidence, given their different background assumptions, on the emergence of polarization in the scientific community. Scientists are represented as Bayesian updaters for whom the diagnosticity of evidence is given by the Bayes factor. Our results suggest that an initial disagreement on the diagnostic value of evidence can, (...) but does not necessarily, lead to polarization, depending on the sample size of the performed studies and the confidence interval within which scientists share their opinions. In particular, the more data scientists share,the more likely it is that the community will end up polarized. (shrink)

The purpose of this paper is to explore the connection between expressivism and disagreement. More in particular, the aim is to defend that one of the desiderata that can be derived from the study of disagreement, the explanation of ‘crossed disagreements’, can only be accommodated within a semantic theory that respects, at the meta-semantic level, certain expressivistic restrictions. We will compare contemporary dynamic expressivism with three different varieties of contextualist strategies to accommodate the specificities of evaluative language –indexical contextualism – (...) truth-conditional pragmatics –, pragmatic strategies using implicatures, and presuppositional accounts. Our conclusion will be that certain assumptions of expressivism are necessary in order to provide a semantic account of evaluative uses of language that can allow us to detect and prevent crossed disagreements. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo se aborda la proyección que tuvo la escuela histológica de Cajal en México. En primer lugar, se analiza la atención que despertó en los científicos mexicanos el renacer de la ciencia española y en particular los trabajos de la escuela cajaliana. Se estudia también el papel que desempeñó en su difusión Tomás Gutiérrez Perrín, histólogo vallisoletano afincado en México, discípulo de Cajal y catedrático de Histología en la Escuela Nacional de Medicina. Finalmente, se valora la contribución (...) de los exiliados republicanos, entre los que figuran varios discípulos de Cajal, como Isaac Costero y Dionisio Nieto, quienes al reanudar sus investigaciones histopatológicas y neuropsiquiátricas en México, dieron continuidad en este país a la prestigiosa escuela de Cajal. (shrink)

Las herramientas teóricas destinadas a señalar las injusticias que sufren ciertos grupos socialmente oprimidos pueden acabar siendo utilizadas con propósitos completamente opuestos a los iniciales. Modificar el alcance de una herramienta teórica no es necesariamente problemático: la popularización de un concepto abre las puertas a que se utilice estratégicamente para diferentes fines. La tesis que defendemos en este artículo es que algunos personajes públicos cultivan una imagen particular de sí mismos que parece satisfacer los requisitos de la noción de injusticia (...) testimonial y utilizan esta situación como medio para obtener beneficio político de ella. Más concretamente, estos personajes públicos se benefician de esta condición para generar situaciones de desacuerdos cruzados, que están estrechamente relacionados con el aumento de la polarización. (shrink)

Theoretical tools aimed at making explicit the injustices suffered by certain socially disadvantaged groups might end up serving purposes which were not foreseen when the tools were first introduced. Nothing is inherently wrong with a shift in the scope of a theoretical tool: the popularization of a concept opens up the possibility of its use for several strategic purposes. The thesis that we defend in this paper is that some public figures cultivate a public persona for whom the conditions of (...) the notion of testimonial injustice might be taken to apply, and this situation is exploited to their advantage, as a means to advance their political agendas. More specifically, they take advantage of this to generate situations of crossed disagreements, which in turn foster polarization. (shrink)

DOMÍNGUEZ, Javier. Cultura del juicio y experiencia del arte. Ensayos. Medellín: Editorial Universidad de Antioquia, 2003, 248 p.

El siguiente texto intenta exponer algunas de las ideas básicas de la tercera de las tres partes que componen Meditaciones del Quijote: la “Meditación primera. Breve tratado de la novela”. En las no muchas páginas que ocupa el texto de Ortega, se ofrece una visión sobre el inmortal libro de Cervantes que no puede dejar indiferentes a los filósofos.

This volume features essays that detail the distinctive ways authors and researchers in Spanish speaking countries express their thoughts on contemporary philosophy of technology. Written in English but fully capturing a Spanish perspective, the essays bring the views and ideas of pioneer authors and many new ones to an international readership. Coverage explores key topics in the philosophy of technology, the ontological and epistemological aspects of technology, development and innovation, and new technological frontiers like nanotechnology and cloud computing. In addition, (...) the book features case studies on philosophical queries. Readers will discover such voices as Miguel Ángel Quintanilla and Javier Echeverría, who are main references in the current landscape of philosophy of technology both in Spain and Spanish speaking countries; José Luis Luján, who is a leading Spanish author in research about technological risk; and Emilio Muñoz, former head of the Spanish National Research Council and an authority on Spanish science policy. The volume also covers thinkers in American Spanish speaking countries, such as León Olivé, an influential researcher in ethical issues; Judith Sutz, who has a very recognized work on social issues concerning innovation; Carlos Osorio, who focuses his work on technological determinism and the social appropriation of technology; and Diego Lawler, an important researcher in the ontological aspects of technology. (shrink)

This volume features essays that detail the distinctive ways authors and researchers in Spanish speaking countries express their thoughts on contemporary philosophy of technology. Written in English but fully capturing a Spanish perspective, the essays bring the views and ideas of pioneer authors and many new ones to an international readership. Coverage explores key topics in the philosophy of technology, the ontological and epistemological aspects of technology, development and innovation, and new technological frontiers like nanotechnology and cloud computing. In addition, (...) the book features case studies on philosophical queries. Readers will discover such voices as Miguel Ángel Quintanilla and Javier Echeverría, who are main references in the current landscape of philosophy of technology both in Spain and Spanish speaking countries; José Luis Luján, who is a leading Spanish author in research about technological risk; and Emilio Muñoz, former head of the Spanish National Research Council and an authority on Spanish science policy. The volume also covers thinkers in American Spanish speaking countries, such as Jorge Linares, an influential researcher in ethical issues; Judith Sutz, who has a very recognized work on social issues concerning innovation; Carlos Osorio, who focuses his work on technological determinism and the social appropriation of technology; and Diego Lawler, an important researcher in the ontological aspects of technology. (shrink)

El presente trabajo constará de tres partes. En la primera, trataré de ver qué es lo que significó para nuestro autor el asombrarse (staunen, wonder) ante el mundo considerado como un todo. En la segunda, intentaré relacionar ese pasmo o extrañeza con el sentido de la vida de cada uno de nosotros. Y es que la segunda parte es una explicitación de la primera. En la tercera, contextualizaré lo dicho en la cotidianidad de los humanos. Como creo, al igual que (...) Epicuro, que la filosofia que no cura las heridas del alma es vana, acabaré aterrizando, en lo posible, en el buen vivir que a todos, al menos como ideal, nos pertenece. (shrink)

I argue for the possibility of the thesis that metaphors are indispensable for grasping and expressing certain propositions. I defend this possibility against the objection that, if metaphors express propositions, once these propositions are identified they should be specifiable by non‐metaphorical means. I argue that this objection loses its strength if one adopts a Wittgensteinian, particularist view of thought, according to which grasping a propositional thought requires the ongoing exercise of a suitable skill often not characterizable by algorithmic rules. Within (...) this particularist framework, thus, it becomes possible that metaphorical skills have an indispensable role in cognition and communication. (shrink)

There is an interesting contrast between permissions to act and permissions to believe. Plausibly, if it is permissible to believe something from a perspective with incomplete evidence, it cannot become impermissible to believe it from a second perspective with complete evidence. In contrast, it seems that something permissible to do for an agent in a perspective with limited evidence can become impermissible in a second perspective in which all the relevant evidence is available. What is more, an agent with incomplete (...) evidence may be permitted to do something that she knows would be impermissible if she occupied a perspective of complete evidence. In this paper, I argue that this contrast is explained by a disanalogy between the role played by belief in epistemic deliberation and the role played by action in practical deliberation. Epistemic deliberation may be closed by adopting other attitudes than belief, whereas in general, practical deliberation can only be closed by endorsing some course of action. Thus, when there are pressures to close some practical deliberation, agents have to make a decision about what to do even if they lack relevant information. By contrast, lacking relevant evidence, agents may always refrain from forming a belief and close instead their epistemic deliberation by adopting some other attitude. (shrink)

Diferenciamos en este articulo entre problemas externos y problemas internos de la democracia. Los primeros los ejemplificamos en el teorema de Arrow, en el conflicto entre derechos fundamentales y principio de elección y en la paradoja de la derogación. Los problemas externos, en cuanto insolubles, no son responsabilidad nuestra. Los segundos sí lo son. De ahí que es un deber moral ensanchar al máximo la democracia. Lo contrario seria reducirla a su simple y avalorativa utilidad, quedarse en un academicismo que,escolásticamente, (...) se limita a pequeñas distinciones y confundir, además, ciencia política con filosofía política. (shrink)

I investigate the intrinsic/extrinsic nature of stemness in muscle stem cells (MSC) by relying on recent research on quiescence, with the aim of shedding light on the nature of dispositions and deriving some consequences about stem cells. First, I argue why the study of quiescence is the best available way to establish any claim about the intrinsicness/extrinsicness of stemness at least is some stem cells. Drawing on that, I argue that MSC’s stem capacities result from the combination of intrinsic cues (...) plus extrinsic factors from the stem cell niche, making stemness an extrinsic disposition in MSC. Importantly, it is shown that the niche allows the instantiation of stemness in MSC by acting as a masker of its manifestation. This shows that stemness is, at least in MSC, what I call an extrinsically structurally masked disposition (SMD); that is, a disposition whose instantiation requires, as a condition of possibility, the interaction between the bearer and a masker. Finally, I conclude by suggesting some potential consequences of this observation for the philosophical study of dispositions and for stem cell research. (shrink)

La concepción semántica en filosofía de la ciencia propuso las relaciones de isomorfismo (van Fraassen) y semejanza (Giere) para analizar las representaciones científicas. Recientemente, Ibarra y Mormann han sugerido una geometrización de la concepción representacional en filosofía de la ciencia. Este artículo afirma que es precisa una relación mas general (la de homeomorfismo) para reconstruir las representaciones científicas externas que son utilizadas en la practica científica contemporánea, y especialmente en la visualización científica digitalizada.The semantical view on philosophy of science has (...) proposed the relationships of isomorfism (van Fraassen) and similitude (Giere) in order to analyse scientific representations. Recently, Ibarra & Mormann have suggested a geometrization of the representational view on philosophy of science. This contribution claims that a more general relationship (homeomorfism) is needed to reconstruct external representations used in contemporary scientific practice and, specially, in scientific digitalized visualization. (shrink)