In Contagious Architecture, Luciana Parisi offers a philosophicalinquiry into the status of the algorithm in architectural and interaction design.

La cognition algorithmique joue un rôle central dans le capitalisme contemporain. Depuis la rationalisation du travail industriel et des relations sociales jusqu’à la finance, les algorithmes fondent un nouveau mode de pensée et de contrôle. Dans cette phase du tout-machinique dans l’évolution du capitalisme numérique, il ne suffit plus de se mettre du côté de la théorie critique pour accuser la computation de réduire la pensée humaine à des opérations mécaniques. Comme le théoricien de l’information Gregory Chaitin l’a démontré ; (...) l’incomputabilité et l’aléatoire doivent être conçus comme les conditions de bases de la computation. Si le technocapitalisme est contaminé par l’aléatoire computationnel et le chaos, la critique traditionnelle de la rationalité instrumentale doit elle aussi être remise en question : l’incomputable ne pleut plus être réduit au statut de contraire de la raison. (shrink)

In Western countries, a social trend toward delaying childbearing has been observed in women of reproductive age for the last two decades. This delay is due to different factors related to lifestyle, such as the development of a professional career or the absence of the right partner. As a consequence, women who defer childbearing may find themselves affected by age-related infertility when they decide to conceive. Fertility preservation techniques are, therefore, proposed as a solution for these women. Among all possible (...) solutions, social freezing is an alternative strongly discussed from a scientific, social and ethical point of view.A survey among 930 female students at the University of Padova (Italy) investigated their knowledge and attitudes on social egg freezing and their potential intentions regarding this procedure. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the level of awareness of age-related infertility in Italian young women and their attitudes regarding acceptable indications for elective oocyte freezing, their potential personal use, the circumstances in which they would then decide to use cryopreserved eggs, and their attitudes towards cost coverage and oocyte donation.Data collected in this study revealed some important points about young women and their knowledge about social oocyte freezing in Italy as compared to other European countries and the United States.Overall, 34.3% of the students reported having heard about the possibility of oocyte cryopreservation for non-medical reasons and being aware of the meaning of this procedure; only 19.5% were in favour of social egg freezing and 48.4% thought that the cost for this procedure should be borne entirely by the woman herself. Regarding egg donation, the majority of students (64.9%) would not accept donating their eggs to a known woman or couple and 42.5% would instead accept donating to a biobank.Our study shows that young Italian women are significantly less aware of age-related decline in fertility and the possibility of using social egg freezing compared to their similarly situated counterparts in other Western countries. (shrink)

Resumen: El artículo pretende dar cuenta de algunos de los problemas que caracterizan las prácticas contemporáneas de producción y validación de conocimiento científico en el ámbito de la ciencia jurídica. En general, y a diferencia de lo que sucede en otras áreas disciplinares de las ciencias sociales, entre el derecho y la ciencia jurídica se da una configuración singular según la cual los límites entre conocimiento producido y objeto de conocimiento aparecen ciertamente inestables. Esta singular configuración de la ciencia jurídica (...) permite comprender, entre otros problemas, la dificultad para los juristas de realizar investigaciones científicas propiamente, en lugar de comentarios de doctrina y/o jurisprudencia de marcado sesgo intervencionista, tendientes a proponer reformas interpretativas, legislativas o judiciales. En este trabajo nos abocaremos al análisis de tres obstáculos que condicionan esta singular configuración de la ciencia jurídica: la escasa reflexión sobre los supuestos epistemológicos de la ciencia jurídica, la identificación de lo jurídico con la norma y la reducción de éstas al texto de la ley y la presencia hegemónica de la dogmática jurídica como paradigma o concepción científica.: We intend to show some problems that characterize practices of production and validation of legal knowledge within juridical science. Unlike what happens in social sciences in general, between legal science and law there is a singular configuration by which the limits on knowledge and the object of knowledge are very uncertain. This singularity allows us to understand why it is so difficult for the jurists to make scientific research rather than mere comments on the law with a strong trend to propose institutional reforms and social interventions. In this paper, we will focus on three obstacles that contribute to explain this singularity on legal science: a lack of reflection about epistemological assumptions, identification between the juridical and positive laws and between positive laws and legal texts, and the hegemony of legal dogma in the paradigm of legal science. (shrink)

Resumen: En el presente artículo buscaremos analizar los diversos tratamientos que Walter Benjamin ha realizado a lo largo de su obra acerca de la crítica como temática eminentemente filosófica. Para ello abordaremos, en primer lugar, su acercamiento a la poesía del Romanticismo alemán, luego a la poesía barroca y, finalmente, a la obra de Baudelaire con el objetivo de justificar que una comprensión acabada de la crítica implica necesariamente para el filósofo alemán recuperar la actualización como clave de lectura de (...) la historia. En efecto, si actualizar presupone para Benjamin la asunción de la no coincidencia del tiempo consigo mismo, esto es, la supervivencia del pasado en el presente y el potencial significante de sus emergencias, buscaremos mostrar cómo la noción de crítica benjaminiana descansa en ese diferencial temporal y encuentra allí su fuente de sentido.: In this article we intend to analyze the different considerations that Walter Benjamin carried out in his work on the problem of critique as an eminently philosophical subject. To do this, we will address, first, his approach to German romantic poetry, then baroque poetry and, finally, Baudelaire’s work, in order to explain how a full comprehension of critique means, for the German philosopher, to recover the idea of “actualization” as a key for reading History. In fact, if the actualization presupposes, for Benjamin, the assumption of the non-coincidence of time with itself, that is, the survival of the past within the present and its potentiality to signify, we try to show how Benjamin’s notion of criticism rests on that temporal difference and finds there its source of meaning. (shrink)

According to attention-based theories, to explain organizational attention is to explain organizational behavior. In our study, we test the model of situated attention and firm behavior by examining the effects of attention structures and allocation of attention on organizational outcomes. We hypothesize a positive relationship between attention structures and the allocation of organizational attention that, in turn, has an effect on financial performance. Using a unique data set composed of indicators of social responsibility published by 338 Brazilian organizations between 2001 (...) and 2007, we find support for our hypotheses. Our findings suggest that organizational attention to social issues fully mediates the relationship between attention structures and financial performance. (shrink)

What is algorithmic thought? It is not possible to address this question without first reflecting on how the Universal Turing Machine transformed symbolic logic and brought to a halt the universality of mathematical formalism and the biocentric speciation of thought. The article draws on Sylvia Wynter’s discussion of the sociogenic principle to argue that both neurocognitive and formal models of automated cognition constitute the epistemological explanations of the origin of the human and of human sapience. Wynter’s argument will be related (...) to Gilbert Simondon’s reflections on ‘technical mentality’ to consider how socio-techno-genic assemblages can challenge the biocentricism and the formalism of modern epistemology. This article turns to ludic logic as one possible example of techno-semiotic languages as a speculative overturning of sociogenic programming. Algorithmic rules become technique-signs coinciding not with classic formalism but with interactive localities without re-originating the universality of colonial and patriarchal cosmogony. (shrink)

Imagem e afro-baianidade percorre a construção de conhecimento a partir de elementos indicativos de pertencimento entre estudantes do Curso de Áudio e Vídeo do ICEIA ao investigar visualmente vestígios do modo de se perceber afro-baiano no espaço definido pelo ambiente escolar. A ideia de refletir acerca do outro e, desse modo, poder permitir identificá-lo, se vê amparada nas discussões de Sodré (1998) no que tange à cultura a partir da relação do homem com o seu real e nesse contexto analisa (...) aspectos da formação da sociedade brasileira e suas culturas, em particular a afro-brasileira, na qual se insere a cultura afro-baiana.[...]; no sentido de imagem descrito por Abbagnano(2012) como espelho que identifica algo ou alguém. A percepção do modo dos estudantes de PAV do ICEIA se perceberem e serem percebidos enquanto cidadãos (as) nascidos e residentes em Salvador na contemporaneidade, inicialmente, parte de uma produção videográfica a partir da primeira tentativa de aproximação com referido público após observações prévias. Posteriormente, a imagem fotográfica atua como mediadora na relação com os participantes, na busca por traços de pertencimento afro-baiano. A percepção do pertencimento entre os participantes autodeclarados afro-baianos (as) a partir de suas falas indicaram elementos de pertencimento dentro das categorias: imagem, cultura, memória e identidade. (shrink)

The paper explores the extent to which “gender”, as category of analysis, can be a useful tool in explaining the nature and the impact of humanitarian aid of western organizations towards children in Europe, between 1980 and 2007, using as case study the relation France ‑Romania. By Humanitarian aid I refer to the material or logistical assistance provided for humanitarian purposes, as it evolved during the twentieth century and culminated with the emergence of a new, transnational humanitarianism, with permanent, professional (...) actors.”. For this study gender is understood as social construction and the assignment of specific roles, responsibilities and expectations to women and to men in the social sector, which includes the policies regarding health, education and sanitation. (shrink)

Nuestro trabajo ofrece algunas claves de lectura del proceso por el cual fue posible que la actividad de los tribunales de justicia, a comienzos de los años '90 en Latinoamérica en general y en Argentina de manera significativa, adquiriese una relevancia y una consideración singular respecto al ejercicio del poder político. Este fenómeno, habitualmente denominado "judicialización de la política", supone una tendencia a procesar y dar respuesta a conflictos de índole política, a través de instituciones judiciales. En relación a ello, (...) nos interesa mostrar las interconexiones, puntos de apoyo, resortes a través de los cuales es posible ligarlo al diagrama de relaciones de poder y procesos de subjetivación que caracterizan a la gubernamentalidad neoliberal. Our paper offers some lecture keys on the process through which made it possible the political relevance of judicial activity during the 1990's in Latin American in general, and in Argentina in particular. This phenomenon, commonly known as 'judicialization of politics', supposes a tendency of processing political conflicts through the judiciary. Related to that our paper proposes to show, to make it visible, interconnections and supports through which it is possible to understand it emergence within the diagram of power relations and processes of subjectivation that characterizes neoliberal governmentality. (shrink)

Se busca rastrear la imagen que Platón tiene de Heráclito y articularla con la estructura argumentativa del Cratilo, para comprender las necesidades textuales a las que responde la doctrina del flujo perpetuo, es decir, la discusión sobre la corrección (ὀρθότης) del nombre. Gracias a la inclusión del testimonio heraclíteo, resulta posible rastrear la presunta consolidación de la tesis sobre los nombres primarios y los secundarios como el eje de la separación entre dos planos de realidad (uno estable y uno móvil) (...) y de la teoría de las Ideas -es decir, como la base de la epistemología platónica presente en los diálogos de madurez-. The article seeks to trace the image Plato has of Heraclitus and connect it with the argumentative structure of the Cratylus in order to understand the textual needs that give rise to the doctrine of perpetual flux, that is, the discussion regarding the correctness (ὀρθότης) of names. The inclusion of Heraclitus's testimony makes it possible to trace the alleged consolidation of the thesis regarding primary and secondary names as the axis of separation between two levels of reality (one stable, the other, changing) and the theory of Ideas -that is, as the basis of Plato's epistemology as set forth in the late dialogues-. (shrink)

Offrire consulenza filosofica vuol dire creare lo spazio affinché i concetti cruciali di qualcuno si presentino per essere pensati, sostituire la domanda: "Che fare?" con: "Che cosa pensare?".

En las páginas que siguen podrá encontrarse esbozada, en sus líneas fundamentales, la concepción de historia sustentada por Maquiavelo, en el marco de su pensamiento político. Se intenta identificar los supuestos sobre los que aquella es construida y, al mismo tiempo, extraer sus consecuencias. En e..

As machines have become increasingly smart and have entangled human thinking with artificial intelligences, it seems no longer possible to distinguish among levels of decision-making that occur in the newly formed space between critical reasoning, logical inference and sheer calculation. Since the 1980s, computational systems of information processing have evolved to include not only deductive methods of decision, whereby results are already implicated in their premises, but have crucially shifted towards an adaptive practice of learning from data, an inductive method (...) of retrieving information from the environment and establishing general premises. This shift in logical methods of decision-making does not simply concern technical apparatuses, but is a symptom of a transformation in logical thinking activated with and through machines. This article discusses the pioneering work of Katherine Hayles, whose study of the cybernetic and computational infrastructures of our culture particularly clarifies this epistemological transformation of thinking in relation to machines. (shrink)

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar um panorama do percurso que levou ao esclarecimento da Síndrome de Down, principalmente a partir da segunda metade do século XX, no que diz respeito à sua caracterização e etiologia enquanto uma condição genética. Para isso, nos baseamos em fontes primárias e em fontes secundárias, levando também em conta os aspectos sociais envolvidos. Esta pesquisa mostra como o conhecimento sobre a Síndrome de Down foi sendo construído e seu impacto no tratamento pela sociedade, levando-a (...) reconhecer os indivíduos com a síndrome a partir de uma condição genética e não como doentes. Esperamos que este estudo possa contribuir para a compreensão das ideias atuais sobre o assunto. (shrink)

En el presente artículo sostenemos que el abordaje benjaminiano del problema de la melancolía en El origen del drama barroco alemán (1928) pone en juego la posibilidad de acceder a la estructura profunda del mundo material, mediante el establecimiento de una singular relación entre el sujeto melancólico y la naturaleza caída. Pues, si como el propio Benjamin afirma, todo sentimiento es la resultante de un objeto o de cierta conformación material que opera como su causa, la melancolía, por su parte, (...) es aquel sentimiento surgido del lamento profundo de la naturaleza revelado por medio del lenguaje, capaz de contemplar la tristeza que la constituye y el dolor que le genera la imposibilidad de redención. In this paper we argue that Walter Benjamin's approach to the problem of melancholy in The origin of German tragic drama (1928) brings an access to the deep structure of the material world through the establishment of a unique relationship between the melancholic human being and fallen nature. Therefore, if, as Benjamin says, every feeling is the result of an object or some material conformation that operates as its cause, melancholy, for its part, is that feeling emerged from the deep regret of nature revealed by the means of a language able to contemplate the sadness which constitutes it and the pain that generates the impossibility of redemption. (shrink)

1. The fact that Brazil, land of parrots and coffee, is also, by antonomasia, that of cannibals, is a commonplace that we find in the writings of foreigners and natives from the early years of the conquest up until our era of advanced civilization, at the level of anthropological reality (we should like to say anthropophagic) and at that of metaphor. As though, forgetful of the general accusation of anthropophagy launched by the first explorers against the various indigenous peoples of (...) America, beginning with the Caribs/Cannibals of Columbus, the colonizing and evangelizing Old World wanted to transfer to Vera Cruz and its inhabitants the exclusive rights to these “savage customs of a people without justice and law” that the first Western ethnographer, Herodotus, had attributed, in the Eurasia of his time, to the peoples of the Far North, at the other side of the extensive desert lying beyond the land of the Scythians—those who were called the Androphagi. And as if, of all the peoples and communities accused, in various latitudes and epochs of history, of having anthropophagic practices, the Brazilians were the only ones to not just defend themselves against the infamous accusation but to flaunt it as a symbol of their autonomy and originality when confronted with the menace of religious and cultural colonization. (shrink)

The remarks which follow arise from the daily and simultaneous consulting of two literatures and, in a larger sense, of two cultures, Portuguese and Brazilian, both expressed in the same language, Portuguese. They also arise from an attempt to describe and define by categories which are “internal” to literature the differences which exist between the two bodies of writing under discussion. But they are equally inspired by a desire to isolate in the corpus of the texts which conventionally constitute a (...) national literature those thematic and stylistic recurrences which may serve as starting points for an attempt at formalization. (shrink)

Ciência, religião e saúde Editorial v 14, n 41, jan./mar. 2016.

Este artigo se propõe a discutir a estética de Jean-François Lyotard a partir de dois eixos principais: 1) sua concepção de cultura de massa e 2) sua concepção de arte. Mediante a interpretação de algumas das principais obras de Lyotard, objetivamos mostrar como, ao longo da produção teórica de Lyotard sobre o pós-moderno, encontra-se uma valorização do novo, do exótico e do multiculturalismo que coloca o filósofo em dificuldades para definir cultura de massa e arte. A hipótese que norteia este (...) artigo é a de que Lyotard por vezes deliberadamente confunde os dois domínios, de modo que seu pensamento deixa de ser crítico em relação às produções culturais capitalistas, tornando-se conivente com o consumismo presente nas sociedades contemporâneas. (shrink)