A cien años del final de la Primera Guerra Mundial, el viejo continente vuelve actualmente a encontrarse en un estado de conmoción como aquel que antecedió a este cruel conflicto. El texto busca pensar cómo esta confrontación llegó a adquirir dimensiones apocalípticas, para, de esta forma, advertir a qué nos podemos ver avocados de continuar por este camino. La tesis propuesta aquí es que al menos cuatro aspectos confluyeron allí, a saber: 1. La propensión nihilista de occidente; 2. La perversión (...) “natural” propia a todos los hombres, largamente reprimida por la sociedad moralista del siglo XIX y que, con el estallido de la Gran Guerra, mostró su lado más siniestro; 3. En el conflicto de 1914 el espíritu de la guerra se compenetró con el alma del progreso; 4. En esta contienda bélica, por primera vez, desempeña un papel determinante el atmoterrorismo. Estas consideraciones tienen como punto de partida las reflexiones que hicieron, a propósito de cada uno de estos aspectos, Martin Heidegger, Sigmund Freud, Ernst Jünger, y Peter Sloterdijk. (shrink)

Las disciplinas humanísticas y, en concreto, la filosofía, están viendo reducidas su presencia en todos los niveles del sistema educativo. Orientados hacia la formación profesional, los itinerarios educativos siguen una agenda de maximización del beneficio. La educación es vista más como un gasto que como una inversión y se buscan los resultados inmediatamente. La necesidad de ofrecer una perspectiva distinta, que reivindique la presencia de los contenidos humanísticos en nuestra sociedad, es la única salida frente al auge de la nueva (...) barbarie, esa ignorancia insidiosa y pagada de sí misma que lleva a numerosas personas a la irreflexión, la superficialidad y la torpeza. Es la democracia y nuestra sociedad al completo las que están en juego. The humanities in general and philosophy in particular are seeing their presence reduced at all levels of the educational system. Oriented towards profesional training, the educational itineraries follow an agenda of profit maximization. Education is seen more as an expense that an investment and results are sought immediately. The need to offer a different perspective, that vindicates the presence of humanistic contents in our society, is the only way out against the rise of the new barbarism, that insidious and self-absorbed ignorance that leads many people to thoughtlessness, superficiality and unconsciousness. It is democracy and our society as a whole that are at stake. (shrink)

In this paper we explore in what sense we can claim that affordances, the objects of perception for ecological psychology, are related to normativity. First, we offer an account of normativity and provide some examples of how it is understood in the specialized literature. Affordances, we claim, lack correctness criteria and, hence, the possibility of error is not among their necessary conditions. For this reason we will oppose Chemero’s normative theory of affordances. Finally, we will show that there is a (...) way in which taking advantage of affordances could be considered as possessing a normative character, but only when they are evaluated within the framework of social normative standards in particular situations. This reinforces our claim that affordances, per se, lack normativity and can only be taken to be rule-governed in relation to established normative practices. (shrink)

The emphasis of systems and synthetic biology on quantitative understanding of biological objects and their eventual re-design has raised the question of whether description and construction standards that are commonplace in electric and mechanical engineering are applicable to live systems. The tuning of genetic devices to deliver a given activity is generally context-dependent, thereby undermining the re-usability of parts, and predictability of function, necessary for manufacturing new biological objects. Tolerance and allowance are key aspects of standardization that need to be (...) brought to biological design. These should endow functional building blocks with a pre-specified level of confidence for bespoke biosystems engineering. However, in the absence of more fundamental knowledge, fine-tuning necessarily relies on evolutionary/combinatorial gravitation toward a fixed objective. (shrink)

E. Machery and some collaborators have used survey data to criticize Kripke’s anti-descriptivism about proper names. I highlight a number of drawbacks in the tests of Machery et al. Some of my objections concern their ambiguity. In particular, the responses that–according to them–reveal descriptivist intuitions can be interpreted as anti-descriptivist responses. Furthermore, their vignettes are inconsistent. I also discuss other issues related to the role of intuitions in philosophy; Machery et al.’s theses depends on an unjustified assumption: there is not (...) expertise regarding intuitions. (shrink)

In June 1795, Fichte sent his second contribution to Schiller’s journal, The Hours : his article, Concerning the Spirit and the Letter within Philosophy, where he explains his views on the relation between aesthetic experience and virtue. Schiller, who had until then been rather well-disposed toward Fichte, violently and categorically rejected the article, thus putting an end to their friendship. Scholars commonly understand this conflict as a predictable confrontation between two irreconcilable conceptions of the moral ideal : that of the (...) cold philosopher, personified by Fichte, aiming to repress sensibility, and that of the warm-blooded artist, personified by Schiller, advocating for it. I shall argue that this interpretation is untenable, since Fichte and Schiller not only shared the same conception of virtue, but also agreed concerning the function assumed by the artist in mankind’s moral education. Rather, the conflict arose because Schiller could not bear the idealistic conception of nature – as pure representational activity – which Fichte thought was implied by these views. En juin 1795, Fichte fit parvenir à Schiller sa deuxième contribution destinée aux Heures : l’article Sur l’esprit et la lettre dans la philosophie, où il expose ses idées sur le rapport entre l’expérience esthétique et la vertu. Schiller, jusque-là plutôt bien disposé envers Fichte, lui opposa un refus de publication violent et catégorique, mettant ainsi un terme à leur amitié. On interprète habituellement cette rupture comme la conséquence prévisible d’une rencontre opposant deux conceptions irréconciliables de l’idéal moral : celle du froid philosophe, incarné par Fichte, visant à réprimer la sensibilité, et celle de l’artiste brûlant de passion, incarné par Schiller, souhaitant la glorifier. Je conteste pour ma part cette interprétation, Fichte et Schiller s’accordant non seulement sur la manière dont la vertu devait être conçue, mais également sur la fonction assumée par l’artiste dans l’éducation morale de l’être humain. À l’origine du conflit se trouve plutôt l’aversion de Schiller pour la conception idéaliste de la nature (comme activité purement représentative) qui, selon Fichte, était impliquée par ces idées. (shrink)

This dissertation focuses on the topic of analyticity. The traditional concept of analyticity characterizes analytic sentences in at least two ways. On the one hand, these sentences are thought to be true in virtue only of the meaning of the expressions that constitute them. On the other hand, they are thought to be such that they can be concluded by competent speakers in an a priori fashion--that is, merely on the basis of the speakers' knowledge of the meaning of the (...) expressions contained in the sentences. In the dissertation I argue that these two ways of characterizing analyticity do not single out the same set of sentences, and that at least two different notions of meaning should be postulated to account for this fact. ;To show this I focus first on the notion of truth in virtue of meaning. I identify two ways in which a sentence can be said to be true in virtue of meaning: on the one hand, if the condition it expresses necessarily obtains; on the other hand, if semantic facts concerning the reference of the expressions that constitute it determine that it has to be true. I argue that the sets of sentences that can be said to be true in virtue of meaning according to these two criteria and the set of sentences ordinarily deemed analytically true do not coincide. ;I focus then on the second traditional criterion for analyticity--i.e., apriority. This criterion determines a set of sentences--what I call a priori acceptable sentences--that seems to coincide most closely with the set of sentences we ordinarily judge to be analytic. To account for the disparity between the extensions of this and the 'truth in virtue of meaning' criteria I propose that a distinction should be made between truth-conditional meaning--which concerns the contribution of expressions to truth-conditions--and conceptual meaning--which concerns the abilities necessary for competence in a language. I finally argue that conceptual meaning cannot always guarantee the truth of a priori acceptable sentences. (shrink)

Synthetic biology aims at making life easier to an engineer by applying biotechnology engineering principles such as standardization and modularity. I argue that living organisms are inherently non-machine, non-standardized entities and that the current state-of-the-art in SynBio combines pre- and post-standardization efforts, in a scenario without evidence that full standardization in biology is even possible. I finally propose a new view on SynBio based on purpose rather than on technicalities.

Few elements of Aristotle’s practical philosophy have been more discussed than the so-called “practical syllogism”. But there are also few as suggestive to the commentators as this one. In this article I intend to define what the theory of practical syllogism would consist in, as a separated element within the Aristotelian ethical theory (or, more precise-ly, within his theory of action). It is not properly a demonstration of the existence of such a theory, but rather of the possibility that it (...) can take its place, even a necessary one, into the Stagirite’s general theory of action, in spite of some difficulties that I try to solve. This conclusion is reached through an analysis of the main elements of this theory. (shrink)

En este ensayo presentamos un recorrido sobre diversos materiales de la obra de Samuel Beckett, con especial énfasis en su única película llamada Film, para señalar, con la ayuda de diversos autores y pensadores, cómo en algunas obstinaciones beckettianas es pensable algo así como una imagen imperceptible.

Selon une interprétation très répandue, Fichte reprendrait dans la doctrine de la science le problème qui se trouve au cœur de la troisième Critique kantienne pour le résoudre à sa façon. Cette idée, parfaitement légitime en elle-même, est toutefois souvent adoptée pour des raisons contestables. À partir d’un examen approfondi de la correspondance et de certains écrits de jeunesse de Fichte, le présent article s’efforce de déterminer avec précision la manière dont le jeune penseur a interprété et cru devoir compléter (...) la philosophie critique de Kant, et notamment la Critique de la faculté de juger. (shrink)

La pregunta que se hiciera Hannah Arendt en su ensayo de 1943 We refugees, sobre la significación política del refugiado, sigue teniendo actualidad en pleno siglo xxi. Acontecimientos posteriores a este ensayo tales como la Declaración Universal de los Derechos Humanos y la propia gestación de la Unión Europea, no han logrado rectificar el primado moderno de la ciudadanía sobre la propia condición humana. Al hilo de reflexiones como las de Benjamin, Agamben y Semprún, cabe no obstante pensar la figura (...) del refugiado como germen de un nuevo universalismo y una ciudadanía sin exclusiones, liberada de restricciones nacionales. (shrink)