This essay presents a model of a scientific field, as constituted by a domain of objective phenomena and a community of practitioners, interfaced by laboratory instrumentation and machinery. The relations between items in the domain, as well as those between the cognitive tools that shape the practices of the community are postulated to be relations of exteriority, that is, relations that do not determine the identity of what they relate. This move allows the model to avoid holism. The essay then (...) goes on to contrast the proposed model with Kuhn holistic theory of paradigms to highlight its advantages. (shrink)

Normative research has nearly vanished from the academic ‘mainstream’ in accounting. Due to its prescriptive and value-driven approach, normative accounting research has been stigmatized as being unscientific and largely replaced by positive studies. We put this stigma into perspective. We first conceptualize the ‘positive-normative’ distinction and identify this dichotomy in accounting research history. We then challenge the dogmatic confinement of science to descriptive (positive) approaches. Moreover, we debate the basic conditions for normative accounting research and conclude that methodological and epistemological (...) pluralism in accounting research may help address a wide range of potential research questions. We point out that normative research approaches are essential in an applied science such as accounting, lest practical implications and prescriptions are to be the exclusive domain of accounting practice. (shrink)

The growing use of genetic tests in medical practice has a strong influence on some widespread notions of health and unhealth. Two consequences of this phenomenon are: (i) important changes in the meaning of these current notions and, therefore, (ii) the arrival of a new taxonomy or rearrangement for the so-called “health-concepts”. This paper attempts to demonstrate that both facts fuel a theoretical change that might be considered a model of scientific Kuhnean change in a fundamental aspect. On the other (...) hand, this theoretical shift process offers the basis for approaching a present-day controversy, i.e. whether Western society is going through a period of geneticization or not, from a new perspective. (shrink)

From the standpoint of the theory of medicine, a formulation is given of three types of reasoning used by physicians. The first is deduction from probability models (as in prognosis or genetic counseling for Mendelian disorders). It is a branch of mathematics that leads to predictive statements about outcomes of individual events in terms of known formal assumptions and parameters. The second type is inference (as in interpreting clinical trials). In it the arguments from replications of the same process (data) (...) lead to conclusions about the parameters of a system, without calling into question either the probabilistic model or the criteria of evidence. The third is illation (as in the elucidation of symptoms in a patient). It is a process whereby, in the light of the total evidence and the conclusions from the other types of reasoning, one may modify, expand, simplify or demolish a conceptual framework proposed for deductions, and modify the nature of the evidence sought, the criteriology, the axioms, and the surmised complexity of the scientific theory. (The process of diagnosis as applied to a patient may in extreme cases lead to the discovery of an entirely new disease with its own, quite new, set of diagnostic criteria. This course cannot be accommodated inside either of the other two types of reasoning.) Illation has something of the character of Kuhn's scientific revolution in physics; but it differs in that it is the nature, not the degree or frequency of change that distinguishes it from Kuhn's normal science. (shrink)

El problema de la inconmensurabilidad y, en particular, el del progreso científico, está asociado a -dos nombres: Kuhn y Feyerabend, cuyas propuestas hicieron que muchos pusieran en duda la aparente evidencia del llamado “progreso científico, relativizando su validez a cada escuela o paradigma. En este escrito mostraremos que este tipo de relativismo epistémico — al igual que la teoría convergentista de la verdad — carecen de validez filosófica e histórica y de qué modo la idea de “progreso científico es (...) compatible con la tesis de la inconmensurabilidad más allá de las dificultades onto-semánticas que ella implica. Esto supone abandonar el llamado punto de vista enunciativo de las teorías científicas (centrado sobre sentencias o enunciados) y adoptar un punto de vista no-enunciativista (centrado sobre estructuras o sistemas donde la relación interteórica de aproximación permite subsumir diferentes casos de inconmensurablidad no triviales y validar en ellos la noción de progreso científico. (shrink)

In mid-twentieth-century Mexican philosophy, there was a peculiar nationalist existentialist project focused on the cultural conditions of agency. This article revisits some of those ideas, including the idea that there is an important but underappreciated experience of one's relationship to norms and social meanings. This experience—something called accidentality—casts new light on various forms of social subordination and socially scaffolded agency, including cultural alienation, biculturality, and double consciousness.

The aims of this paper are twofold. First, I offer a new insight into Shepherd’s theory of mind by demonstrating that she distinguishes a threefold ‘Variety of Intellect’, that is, three kinds of minds grouped according to their cognitive limitations. Following Shepherd, I call them (i) minds afflicted with idiocy, (ii) inferior understandings, and (iii) sound understandings. Second, I show how Shepherd’s distinction informs her theory of education. While Shepherd claims that her views serve to improve educational practices, she does (...) not explain how her threefold ‘Variety of intellect’ does so. I argue that Shepherd’s distinction contributes to her aim by providing pedagogues with a more comprehensive grasp of the various cognitive limitations of the people in their care. This allows the former to adjust their expectations and to provide need-oriented guidance. (shrink)

In this article, we put forward a new strategy for teaching the concept of energy. In the first section, we discuss how the concept is currently treated in educational programmes at primary and secondary level (taking the case of France), the learning difficulties that arise as well as the main teaching strategies presented in science education literature. In the second section, we argue that due to the complexity of the concept of energy, rethinking how it is taught should involve teacher (...) training specifically developed for the concept. In our view, Epistemology and the History of Science and Technology (EHST) is the best method for a full understanding of the concept of energy and should thus be included in the teacher training programme. In the third section, we provide a general framework for a teacher training programme on energy, based on the history and epistemology of the concept and structured on the following three questions: ‘What is the origin of the concept of energy?’, ‘What is energy?’ and ‘What purpose does the concept of energy serve?’. (shrink)

Die Philosophie der Lebenskunst begnügt sich nicht nur mit abstrakten Begründungen, sondern widmet sich praktischen Aspekten, die für ein gelungenes Leben entscheidend sind. Sie greift auf eine lange Tradition zurück, die bei Sokrates beginnt und bis zu Foucault und Wilhelm Schmid reicht. Bei den neueren Vertretern bildet die Auseinandersetzung mit Nietzsche und seiner Thematisierung der Selbstsorge einen zentralen Fokus. Als philosophischer Arzt suchte Nietzsche herauszufinden, was für den einzelnen Menschen und die Kultur im Gesamten förderlich oder schädlich sei. Das Handbuch (...) stellt Nietzsches Kontexte und Konzepte der Lebenskunst übersichtlich und polyphon dar. Mit Beiträgen von: Eike Brock, Almuth Bruder-Bezzel, Tobias Brücker, Marco Brusotti, Mirella Carbone, Gaia Domenici, Ferdinand Fellmann, Günter Gödde, Helmut Heit, Beatrix Himmelmann, Kristina Jaspers, Joachim Jung, Hans-Per Klie, Manuel Knoll, Rolf Kühn, Torsten Lerchner, Roman Lesmeister, Kevin Liggieri, Diana Lohwasser, Nikolaos Loukidelis, André Martins, Martin Morgenstern, Jörn Müller, Nicola Nicodemo, Johannes Oberthür, Manos Perrakis, Martin Poltrum, Birgit Recki, Renate Reschke, Pia Daniela Völz, Hans Gerd von Seggern, Werner Stegmaier, Michael Steinmann, Barbara Straka, Paul von Tongeren, Vivetta Vivarelli, Robert Zimmer, Jörg Zirfas. (shrink)

The question of the limit and the difference between man and animal has become a philosophical issue of special relevance. Just look at its political, social, economic, etc. implications. For the first time man can direct his evolutionary process. From that context, the Heideggerian arguments on the subject are analyzed and discussed, taking their Derridian reading as a conductive thread. It reveals the contradiction between the thematic and operational need for a limit and the impossibility of founding it.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the upholders of the thesis reported by Plutarch, De Stoicorum repugnantiis 23, aimed to reject Stoic determinism. A brief introduction will be devoted to the relationship between this text and the more general context of the Stoic philosophy. Then, I will take into account the objection against Stoic determinism raised by some anonymous philosophers: according to it, causal determinism would be inconsistent with the choice among indistinguishables. Chrysippus replied that if that choice (...) were not determined, it would occur without causes; and this would be absurd. Then I will summarize the most likely hypotheses about the identification of Chrysippus’ opponents, and I will opt for Academics. Finally, I will try to conjecture the link between Plutarch’s passage and the debate among Stoics and Academics about indistinguishables, as we know it from other sources. (shrink)

Examino Acerca del cielo (De caelo) I 2 con el fin de mostrar allí la presencia de la demostración científica. Este desarrollo pretende aportar nueva evidencia en favor de la no discrepancia entre teoría y praxis científica en Aristóteles (Barnes, 1969) y de relativizar la interpretación de que el método real y únicamente usado es la dialéctica (cuyo antecedente se remonta a Owen, 1980). Además, siguiendo la propuesta hermenéutica de Gotthelf (1987) y Detel (1993 y 1997), mostraré de qué modo (...) se utiliza la demostración científica en la prueba de la existencia del cuerpo simple o éter. Ofreceré también una reconstrucción de las pruebas mediante la elaboración de un esquema que abarque el conjunto de las deducciones. Estos últimos desarrollos constituyen el aporte más novedoso del presente artículo. I examine On the Heavens (DC) 12 in order to show there the presence of scientific demonstration. This development tries to contribute new evidence in favor of the not discrepancy between theory and scientific practice in Aristotle (Barnes, 1969) and to make the interpretation that method real and solely used is dialectic relative (whose precedent goes back to Owen, 1980). In addition, following the hermeneutic proposal of Gotthelf (1987) and Detel (1993 and 1997), I will show how scientific demonstration is used in the proof of simple body (ether) existence. I will offer also a reconstruction of the proof by means of the elaboration of a scheme that includes the set of deductions. The latter developments constitute the most new contribution of the present paper. (shrink)

The Bayesian brain hypothesis, predictive processing, and variational free energy minimisation are typically used to describe perceptual processes based on accurate generative models of the world. However, generative models need not be veridical representations of the environment. We suggest that they can be used to describe sensorimotor relationships relevant for behaviour rather than precise accounts of the world.

The way digital information technologies work and, more specifically, the possibilities for action that technological devices offer to us affect our processes of political belief formation. In particular, there seems to be a close connection between our digital affordances and the increase of the sort of polarization that threatens the proper functioning of democracy. In this paper, we analyze whether the type of polarization linked to the use of digital technologies, and which endangers the health of public deliberation, has to (...) do with the adoption of beliefs whose contents are increasingly extreme—extremism—or, on the contrary, has more to do with increasing our credence in the core beliefs of our political identity—radicalism. (shrink)

A través de una reconstrucción de la evolución de su pensamiento, en este artículo se estudia la utilización de infinitesimales por parte de Newton. Se distingue entre dos concepciones sucesivas de lo que denominó momento. A la primera de estas entidades la caracterizó como un infinitesimal, pero a la segunda (un indivisible generador de magnitudes finitas, que interviene en su método de las primeras y últimas razones) no la consideró como tal. Se entiende así su manifestación de rechazo a los (...) infinitesimales, formulada en una segunda etapa, y se ve que las dudas arrojadas por algunos investigadores sobre la veracidad de tal manifestación se deben a una determinada interpretación de esta última concepción de momento.This paper discusses Newton’s recourse to infinitesimals through the reconstruction of the evolution of his thought. Two successive concepts of what he termed “moment” are told apart. The first of those entities was characterized by him as an infinitesimal, while the second -an indivisible generating finite magnitudes, present in his method of first and last reasons- was not considered such an entity. This move makes understandable his express rejection of infinitesimals in the second stage, and exposes the doubts of some scholars about the sincerity of Newton’s rejection as due to a peculiar interpretation of his last concept of “moment”. (shrink)

En 1956, se introdujo el término de inteligencia artificial (IA) para referirse a una tecnología que es capaz de emular las operaciones cognoscitivas del ser humano mediante el uso de sistemas computacionales y programas informáticos, con el fin de ayudar a la toma de decisiones en distintas áreas de conocimiento.Sin embargo, se ha llegado a cuestionar si debe emplearse el calificativo de inteligencia a esos usos de la tecnología digital. También, se ha generado preocupación sobre sus implicaciones éticas, debido a (...) que la inteligencia artificial consiste en sistemas no autónomos que no son capaces de actos libres y responsables, lo cual exige que sean guiados por personas. Por tanto, el presente trabajo tiene como objeto presentar algunos fundamentos de la filosofía realista de santo Tomás de Aquino que nos permitan hacer una valoración de la inteligencia artificial. (shrink)

Diez, M.A. Discurso ... -- Urdaneta, A. Contestación ...

En la literatura jurídica existe un acuerdo generalizado en que los topes máximos de la pena establecidos la legislación son un límite infranqueable por los jueces. Sin embargo, al abordar el límite mínimo los desacuerdos comienzan a surgir. El objetivo del presente trabajo será el de defender que los mínimos penales, si bien son vinculantes para los jueces, pueden ser dejados de lado cuando las circunstancias particulares del caso lo ameriten. El método empleado será análisis conceptual, más precisamente, al contructivismo (...) interpretativista propuesto por Ronald Dworkin, aplicado al estudio de la jurisprudencia y la doctrina argentina. El resultado final será una justificación – apoyada en la concepción comunicativa del castigo – según la cual los límites mínimos pueden ser dejados de lado en casos concretos y excepcionales, como cuando la culpabilidad del acusado o la lesividad de su conducta se muestran desproporcionadas con el límite mínimo. De esta manera se busca dar respuesta a un problema que se encuentra presente en la práctica jurídica y, sobre todo, brindar herramientas argumentativas para que los operadores judiciales puedan resolver aquellos casos donde este límite se encuentre en discusión. (shrink)

In this paper, we study the effects of using an algorithm-based risk assessment instrument (RAI) to support the prediction of risk of violent recidivism upon release. The instrument we used is a machine learning version of RiskCanvi used by the Justice Department of Catalonia, Spain. It was hypothesized that people can improve their performance on defining the risk of recidivism when assisted with a RAI. Also, that professionals can perform better than non-experts on the domain. Participants had to predict whether (...) a person who has been released from prison will commit a new crime leading to re-incarceration, within the next two years. This user study is done with (1) general participants from diverse backgrounds recruited through a crowdsourcing platform, (2) targeted participants who are students and practitioners of data science, criminology, or social work and professionals who work with RisCanvi. We also run focus groups with participants of the targeted study, including people who use RisCanvi in a professional capacity, to interpret the quantitative results. Among other findings, we observe that algorithmic support systematically leads to more accurate predictions from all participants, but that statistically significant gains are only seen in the performance of targeted participants with respect to that of crowdsourced participants. Among other comments, professional participants indicate that they would not foresee using a fully-automated system in criminal risk assessment, but do consider it valuable for training, standardization, and to fine-tune or double-check their predictions on particularly difficult cases. We found that the revised prediction by using a RAI increases the performance of all groups, while professionals show a better performance in general. And, a RAI can be considered for extending professional capacities and skills along their careers. (shrink)

En una época en la que estamos cayendo en la barbarie de eliminar la filosofía y la literatura de los planes de estudio de ciertos niveles de la enseñanza, o bien en la excesiva especialización nacida de un pensamiento burdamente técnico, este libro reivindica esos dos espacios de creación entendidos no como identidades puras, sino como procesos en continuo trance de transformación y desfiguración. De este modo, se llava a cabo un recorrido por los principales momentos históricos de tal transformación (...) y desfiguración, teniendo en cuenta las ramificaciones que han tenido lugar en dicho recorrido: éticas, metafísicas, sexuales, formales, retóricas, etc. (shrink)

Kalinowski conceives metaphysics as a set of propositions which can be axiomatized. This paper exposes the typical rules of an axiomatic system comparing them with the metaphysical system developed by Kalinowski. These rules are linguistic rules, but also admission-rules and transformation-rules. They always refer to the metaphysical propositions (wich are first or second propositions, as it is usual in logical systems). This paper tries to evaluate Kalinowski's attempt.