. The deep structural properties of a quantum information theoretic approach to formal languages and universal computation, as well as those of the topology problem of defining the presentation of the Mapping Class Group of a smooth, compact manifold are shown to be grounded in the common categorical features of the two problems.

A powerful critique of nudge theory and the paternalist policies of behavioral economics, and an argument for a more inclusive form of rationality.

Mario Bunge, author of the monumental Treatise on Basic Philosophy, is widely renowned as a philosopher of science. In this new and ambitious work he shifts his attention to the social sciences and the social technologies. He considers a number of disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, law, history, and management science. Bunge contends that social science research has fallen prey to a postmodern fascination with irrationalism and relativism. He urges social scientists to re-examine the philosophy and the (...) methodology at the base of their discipline. Bunge calls for objective and relevant fact-finding, rigorous theorizing, and empirical testing, as well as morally sensitive and socially responsible policy design. (shrink)

We put forth an analysis of causation. The analysis centers on the notion of a causal model that provides only partial information as to which events occur, but complete information about the dependences between the events. The basic idea is this: an event causes another just in case there is a causal model that is uninformative on both events and in which the first event makes a difference as to the occurrence of the other. We show that our analysis captures (...) more causal scenarios than the other counterfactual accounts to date. (shrink)

This paper investigates the historical origin and ancestors of typicality, which is now a central concept in Boltzmannian Statistical Mechanics and Bohmian Mechanics. Although Ludwig Boltzmann did not use the word typicality, its main idea, namely, that something happens almost always or is valid for almost all cases, plays a crucial role for his explanation of how thermodynamic systems approach equilibrium. At the beginning of the 20th century, the focus on almost always or almost everywhere was fruitful for developing measure (...) theory and probability theory. It was apparently Hugh Everett III who first mentioned typicality in physics in 1957 while searching for a justification of the Born rule in his interpretation of quantum mechanics. The historically closest concept before these developments is moral certainty, which was invented by the medieval French theologian Jean Gerson, and it became a standard concept at least until the Age of Enlightenment, when Jakob Bernoulli proved the Law of Large numbers. (shrink)

On the surface, the world of fashion may seem like a utopia: the glamour, the ability to purchase confidence and performance, giving people the freedom of self-expression. However, many of us are masked from the dystopia that drives this industry. The business models of fast fashion often thrive on exploiting land and people, through supply chains that are as opaque as offshore banking scandals, with many middlemen and much finger- pointing. The way clothing is consumed is much like a subscription (...) model, with consumers paying low costs more frequently, rather than investing a large amount into a long-lasting garment. This all results in poor-quality and -performance clothing, excessive waste of... (shrink)

The question of the animal is one of the most intensely debated in the contemporary philosophical arena. The present article makes the case that Husserl’s phenomenological approach offers a stimulating and open-ended perspective on this discussion. The animal, indeed, is an instance of extreme otherness, which pushes phenomenology to its limits. The paper opens with an outline of the methodological issues raised by the question of the animal. It then examines what the animal—at this point, taken as a whole—and the (...) human being have in common and what Husserl sees as the main differences between them. A critical aspect here is the question of personhood. Finally, Sect. 3 traces Husserl’s progression from a general concept of animality to detailed and nuanced phenomenological descriptions of different animals and their intra- and inter-specific relationships. Husserl understands that the threshold that joins and divides human beings and animals is difficult to pin down, because there is more than one threshold: it is plural. (shrink)

To go through the pages of the Autobiography of Mario Bunge is to accompany him through dozens of countries and examine the intellectual, political, philosophical and scientific spheres of the last hundred years. It is an experience that oscillates between two different worlds: the different and the similar, the professional and the personal. It is an established fact that one of his great loves was, and still is, science. He has always been dedicated to scientific work, teaching, research, and (...) training men and women in multiple disciplines. Life lessons fall like ripe fruit from this book, bringing us closer to a concept, a philosophical idea, a scientific digression, which had since been uncovered in numerous notes, articles or books. Bunge writes about the life experiences in this book with passion, naturalness and with a colloquial frankness, whether they be persecutions, banishment, imprisonment, successes, would-be losses, emotions, relationships, debates, impressions or opinions about people or things. In his pages we pass by the people with whom he shared a fruitful century of achievements and incredible depths of thought. Everything is remembered with sincerity and humor. This autobiography is, in truth, Bunge on Bunge, sharing everything that passes through the sieve of his memory, as he would say. Mario's many grandchildren are a testament to his proud standing as a family man, and at the age of 96 he gives us a book for everyone: for those who value the memories that hold the trauma of his life as well as for those who share his passion for science and culture. Also, perhaps, for some with whom he has had disagreements or controversy, for he still deserves recognition for being a staunch defender of his convictions. (shrink)

Originally published as Scientific Research, this pair of volumes constitutes a fundamental treatise on the strategy of science. Mario Bunge, one of the major figures of the century in the development of a scientific epistemology, describes and analyzes scientific philosophy, as well as discloses its philosophical presuppositions. This work may be used as a map to identify the various stages in the road to scientific knowledge. Philosophy of Science is divided into two volumes, each with two parts. Part 1 (...) offers a preview of the scheme of science and the logical and semantical took that will be used throughout the work. The account of scientific research begins with part 2, where Bunge discusses formulating the problem to be solved, hypothesis, scientific law, and theory. The second volume opens with part 3, which deals with the application of theories to explanation, prediction, and action. This section is graced by an outstanding discussion of the philosophy of technology. Part 4 begins with measurement and experiment. It then examines risks in jumping to conclusions from data to hypotheses as well as the converse procedure. Bunge begins this mammoth work with a section entitled "How to Use This Book." He writes that it is intended for both independent reading and reference as well as for use in courses on scientific method and the philosophy of science. It suits a variety of purposes from introductory to advanced levels. Philosophy of Science is a versatile, informative, and useful text that will benefit professors, researchers, and students in a variety of disciplines, ranging from the behavioral and biological sciences to the physical sciences. (shrink)

L'autore parte dall'analisi dei problemi etici espressi nei linguaggi della poesia, della tragedia e della storiografia, per passare poi alla lettura delle maggiori opere del pensiero antico, fornendo di ognuna puntuali introduzioni. Un'attenzione particolare, alla fine di ogni capitolo, è dedicata all'eredità moderna e al significato attuale dei problemi dell'etica antica, proponendo in modo esplicito un collegamento fra ricostruzione storica e discussione teorica contemporanea.

This article seeks to investigate the role that a symbol—connected to a legal event and a collective trauma—has in the construction of a past imaginary. It begins with a theoretical reflection on the role of the symbol as proposed by Juri Lotman and the function of repetition in the consolidation of collective memory. It subsequently focuses on the semiotic resonance of one specific object: the bulletproof cabin of the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann, used during his trial in Jerusalem, in 1961. (...) I consider the ‘afterlives’ of this object, examining the different ‘remakes’ of Eichmann’s cabin in several mediatic and artistic contexts, focusing on the modalities that have anchored it to the post-1961 imaginary of the perpetrator and the legal consequences of his actions. To do so, the article proposes a typology of uses of the cabin, identifying the different nuances of its representation and how they encapsulate the thorny issues surrounding that infamous legal event. (shrink)

According to St. Thomas, the formal constituent of the person is the act of being. This means that the person enriches human nature by moving it in the direction of morality, not through an ontological perfection of human nature, but because the person adds to human nature a perfection of its moral qualification, thanks to an act of being, created directly by God and, therefore, related, in terms of the constituent process, to divine goodness.

We argue that the asymmetry between diverging and converging electromagnetic waves is just one of many asymmetries in observed phenomena that can be explained by a past hypothesis and statistical postulate (together assigning probabilities to different states of matter and field in the early universe). The arrow of electromagnetic radiation is thus absorbed into a broader account of temporal asymmetries in nature. We give an accessible introduction to the problem of explaining the arrow of radiation and compare our preferred strategy (...) for explaining the arrow to three alternatives: (i) modifying the laws of electromagnetism by adding a radiation condition requiring that electromagnetic fields always be attributable to past sources, (ii) removing electromagnetic fields and having particles interact directly with one another through retarded action-at-a-distance, (iii) adopting the Wheeler-Feynman approach and having particles interact directly through half-retarded half-advanced action-at-a-distance. In addition to the asymmetry between diverging and converging waves, we also consider the related asymmetry of radiation reaction. (shrink)

Philosophy is sometimes perceived as an abstract and nerdy discipline dealing with problems of its own creation in an isolated chamber of the Ivory Tower. And there is some truth to this view. But philosophy can help us deal with common problems, such as the disagreements we have in our everyday lives.

This book is about politics, political theory, and political philosophy. Although these disciplines are often conflated because they interact, they actually are distinct. Political theory is part of political science, whereas political philosophy is a hybrid of political theory and philosophy. The former discipline is descriptive and explanatory, whereas the latter is prescriptive--to the point that it is often called "normative theory." It is in fact the evaluative study of political societies. Whereas political theorists describe and explain politics, political philosophers (...) examine it critically and venture to suggest improvements and, on occasion, radically different social futures. Political philosophers propose scenarios and dreams where political scientists offer snapshots of existing polities. While these disciplines are distinct, Mario Bunge asserts that they must inform each other. Political philosophy is not yet a well-defined field: it hovers between political theory and utopian fantasizing. Few, if any earlier thinkers could have anticipated any of the most pressing political issues of our time, such as the need to stop global warming, reduce nuclear armaments, stop the rise of inequality between individuals and nations, and fight authoritarianism, particularly when it comes disguised as democracy or as socialism. Not even more recent social thinkers had much to say about such topical issues as environmental degradation, gender and race discriminations, participative democracy, nationalism, imperialism, the North-South divide, resource wars, the industrial-military complex, or the connections between poverty and environmental degradation, and between inequality and bad health. Beyond ideological divergences, most political philosophers have been nearly unanimous in their indifference to the plight of the Third World. Bunge does not share that indifference. He also believes that political philosophers should pay more attention to numbers, such as the standard index of income inequality and the more comprehensive United Nations human development index for the various nations. It is pointless to write about redistributive policies unless we have some of idea of current wealth distribution. This is, in short a modern treatise of inherited concerns. (shrink)

El intento de estas páginas es el de seleccionar dentro de la semántica del miedo que contribuye a organizar la imagen moderna del orden político y jurídico el elemento específico del pánico, en la hipótesis de que este último constituya una diferencia que es asimismo un recurso epistémico. Dicho de un modo directo: si el miedo se presenta como una referencia constitutiva del orden, de su constitución como de su mantenimiento, el pánico parece, en cambio, cargado de un signo contrario; (...) nos habla de la disolución de un agregado dado por supuesto y es inclusivo en el perimetrar los límites y las condiciones de posibilidad. El objetivo es aquel de repasar algunos momentos de la historia del pánico buscando argumentar que el pánico es una pasión política, en el sentido de que se refiere a aquello de lo que la político está hecha, y al mismo tiempo es expresión de un límite "pasional" de la política, en tanto que define políticamente un límite interno. Respecto a tal objetivo, esta aportación no reivindica más que los caracteres de un hilvanado necesitante de un desarrollo ulterior por lo que se refiere no solo a aquello que no se incluye (y es obviamente mucho), sino también a los nudos que de forma conscientemente provisional se indican. Además, se limita a una periodizacion histórica que es de alguna manera preliminar, deteniéndose en el umbral de la fase en la cual el pánico es una palabra de un discurso disciplinar, es parte del objeto de un saber codificado (psicología, sociología, ciencia política), incluso si no desempeña necesariamente un rol apaciguador. (shrink)

This interview seeks to highlight some of the main characteristics of the new pandemic world, besides the main contradictions the philosophical thought runs into in this difficult time. Between a political world which is unable to react and the scientific world which is usually moved by political aims, this work tries to understand if there is any room for a role of a long range philosophical thought, which is able to defend its clarity prerogatives but it is also able to (...) speak with other disciplines which seem increasingly deafer. (shrink)

Los llamados a huir del capitalismo, a “cambiar el mundo sin tomar el poder” y construir inmediatamente un afuera de las relaciones de dominación intrínsecas al primero han capturado de forma efectiva el imaginario político de los movimientos sociales en las últimas décadas. Este artículo pretende criticar lo que llamaré la “ideología de la huida”, presentándola como un ejemplo de falsa alternativa al capitalismo. Me centraré para ello en el análisis crítico de John Holloway y Raúl Zibechi como exponentes teóricos (...) de la misma, y en las llamadas “Escuelas alternativas” como una de sus expresiones prácticas, para después exponer cómo El Capital de Marx contiene una crítica de esta clase de proyectos. Se argumentará, primero, que sus defensores yerran al tratar de ubicar las potencias revolucionarias en un elemento externo al capitalismo, pues este acaba revelándose como una ficción ideológica. Posteriormente se demostrará que los intentos de buscar o construir un “más allá” de las relaciones de producción capitalistas son tan viejos como el propio capitalismo, y que la necesidad de su fracaso viene dictada por la misma naturaleza de este último, para acabar argumentando que la concepción marxiana de la política revolucionaria contiene una alternativa real a la ideología de la huida en todas sus versiones. (shrink)

La discussione sull’idea del buono occupa uno spazio marginale nel libro VI della Repubblica, ma comporta un eccezionale impegno teorico : di qui la vastita della letteratura esegetica che contrasta con la brevita del testo platonico. Il problema cruciale e questo : in Repubblica VI 504a‑509c to agathon non e piu solo un principio di valorizzazione e un criterio di valutazione di cose e condotte – com’e consueto in Platone – ma assume il ruolo di principio ontologico ed epistemologico. Questa (...) posizione ha spesso suggerito interpretazioni di tipo “teologico” dell’idea del buono. Quello che si puo affermare sulla base del testo, e che Platone ha conferito in queste pagine della Repubblica un primato al vertice etico del triangolo i cui altri vertici sono quello ontologico e quello epistemologico ; l’intento e quello di offrire una fondazione etica assoluta, mediante la connessione della sfera del valore con quelle dell’essere e della verita.L’unificazione delle dimensioni etica, ontologica ed epistemologica sarebbe parsa teoricamente insostenibile ad Aristotele, cui si deve una critica devastante alla teoria platonica del buono. (shrink)

The extant manuscripts of Nicholas of Cusa’s private library are not only a unique testimony to the reading world of one of the most important philosophers of the 15th century. They also document the material context of a specific literary activity by their reader: as is well known, Cusanus frequently annotated his books, noting his thoughts in the margins. This paper focuses on Cusanus’ marginalia as an object of research and edition. In a first step, the essay reconstructs the 20th-century (...) editorial history of this special textual tradition and embeds it in the developments of the modern philological and historiographical work on Nicholas of Cusa. In a second step, it offers an interpretation of Cusanus’ marginalia as a coherent textual corpus and investigates the reading and writing practices to which this corpus bears witness. Finally, against this background, the paper presents a case for the scientific relevance of a continuation and re-conception of the critical edition of Cusanus’ marginalia, which began in 1941 with the first volume of the series Cusanus-Texte III. Marginalien and has remained unfinished to date. (shrink)

Resumen: El presente ar:tículo quiere criticar el tradicional enfoque histórico-biográfico en la exégesis de la obra de Francesco Petrarca, para proponer, en cambio, la aplicación de unas herramientas de análisis propiamente poéticas, enfatizando así la exigencia de una lectura que atienda más a este tipo de función, en lugar de la referencial, causa de muchos malentendidos y de una importante pérdida de significado que afecta todo el mensaje petrarquesco. Para ello, el artículo se centrará en los nombres propios, elemento constitutivo (...) muy frecuente en las obras del poeta de Arezzo y nudos de un entramado semántico que es connotativo, más que denotativo. Un planteamiento, esto es, que discrepa de la gran mayoría de las interpretaciones, siempre orientadas hacia la consideración de ellos como meros referentes de identidades históricas. Entre estos nombres toma especial valor, como es debido, el propio nombre del poeta, que lejos de ser la simple identificación referencial entre escritor, autor, narrador y protagonista, resulta ser más bien la semilla de una construcción mitopoética vasta y articulada, vehículo preciso de una parte importante del mensaje poético que el autor legó a la posteridad y que atiene a la virtud y a la mejora ética y moral. Abstract: This article aims to criticize the traditional historical-biographical approach in the exegesis of the work of Francesco Petrarca, to propose, instead, the application of some properly poetic analysis tools, thus emphasizing the need for a reading that pays more attention to this type of function, rather than to the referential one, cause of many misunderstandings and an important loss of meaning that affects the entire Petrarchan message. To do this, the article will focus on proper names, a very common constituent element in the works of the poet of Arezzo, and knots of a semantic structure that is connotative, rather than denotative. An approach, that is, that disagrees with most interpretations, always oriented towards the consideration of them as mere referents of historical identities. Among these names, the poet's own name takes a special value, as it should, which far from being the simple referential identification between writer, author, narrator, and protagonist, turns out to be rather the seed of a vast and articulated mythopoetic construction, precise vehicle of an important part of the poetic message that the author bequeaths to posterity and that holds to virtue and ethical and moral improvement. (shrink)

Este trabajo estudia el desarrollo de la Ilustración india, cuyas ideas reformistas sientan las bases del pensamiento político indio moderno. Su auge coincide con la expansión del gobierno de la Compañía de las Indias Orientales británica y de las ideas orientalistas ilustradas. El colonialismo, defendemos, espolea un debate entre la intelectualidad india acerca del orden social tradicional y la necesidad de su reforma. El artículo hace una distinción entre una Ilustración india moderada que desea modernizar la India manteniendo sus raíces (...) civilizatorias, y una radical, que busca reformular todo el edificio social y filosófico. Para ello se estudia el pensamiento y activismo de dos destacados ilustrados indios, el liberal Rammohun Roy y el radical Jotirao Phule. El artículo concluye que la Ilustración india es una Ilustración por derecho propio, que, aunque bebe y dialoga con la modernidad occidental, desarrolla sus propios debates y propuestas de reforma. El trabajo también busca contribuir a la expansión de la historia intelectual de la Ilustración fuera de Occidente. (shrink)

Estudio sobre una de las ciencias de la ciencia, la epistomología o filosofía de la ciencia que se encarga del estudio de la investigación científica y su producto, el conociemiento científico.

O conceito de significado em Aristóteles -- O conceito de intencionalidade em Tomás de Aquino -- Sobre o Platonismo de G. Frege -- O nominalismo utilitarista de J.L. Austin -- Da definição ostensiva -- Competência e desempenho em N. Chomsky -- Das semelhanças -- Da mentira como ato da fala -- Dos limites do sentido.