In this paper, using a multilevel approach, we defend the positive role of natural selection in the generation of organismal form. Despite the currently widespread opinion that natural selection only plays a negative role in the evolution of form, we argue, in contrast, that the Darwinian factor is a crucial (but not exclusive) factor in morphological organization. Analyzing some classic arguments, we propose incorporating the notion of ‘downward causation’ into the concept of ‘natural selection.’ In our opinion, this kind of (...) causation is fundamental to the operation of selection as a creative evolutionary process. (shrink)

If a thomist philosopher wonders how we get the idea of the infinite being, or why the act of being implies no limit, he will understand immediately what Polo intends by saying "mental limit" and its abandonment. The principles of such ab andonment are habitual and active thinking. That Theory of knowledge justifies the fact that we really know that the act (esse) is the fundamental of being (ens) and the judgements and discourses spreading out from the transcendental notion of (...) being. (shrink)

En este artículo defendemos la necesidad de reformular los conceptos de constreñimiento del desarrollo y variación considerando trabajos empíricos y teóricos recientes, principalmente sobre genes Hox, estado filotípico y morfogénesis. Argumentamos que la noción de variación isotrópica e ilimitada asociada con las teorías darwinianas y neodarwinianas deben ser reconsideradas a la luz de los aportes recientes de la biología del desarrollo. En esta visión, la variación estaría constreñida y sesgada. Esta reforma del concepto de variación coincide con la reformulación del (...) de constreñimiento, los cuales serían entendidos como un factor causal positivo en la evolución, en contraposición a como suelen ser entendidos en biología. (shrink)

Se trata de una reseña bibliográfica del libro de Rosa, Harmut, Alienación y aceleración. Hacía una teoría crítica de la temporalidad en la Modernidad Tardía, traducción a cargo del Centro de Investigaciones Interdisciplinarias en Ciencias y Humanidades, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Buenos Aires, Katz, 190 páginas.

Resumen: Este artículo corresponde a la segunda parte del artículo titulado Castigo y normas sociales: acerca de la validez ecológica del castigo en la economía experimental. En la primera parte me ocupé de desarrollar una serie de argumentos que arrojan incertidumbre acerca de la legitimidad de inferir que la causa de la aplicación del castigo en los juegos experimentales es unívocamente la transgresión de normas sociales. En esta parte me ocupo de ofrecer una defensa teórica de un método que tiene (...) el potencial de responder a los problemas de la irrelevancia normativa y la ilegitimidad del castigo en juegos experimentales, y que consiste en la introducción de normas explícitas.: This article corresponds to the second part of the article entitled Punishment and social norms: on the ecological validity of punishment in experimental economics. In the first part I developed a series of arguments that throw uncertainty about the legitimacy of inferring that the cause of the application of punishment in experimental games is univocally the transgression of social norms. In this part, I offer a theoretical defence of a method that has the potential to respond to the problems of normative irrelevance and the illegitimacy of punishment in experimental games, and which consists in the introduction of explicit norms. (shrink)

En una conocida carta redactada en 1671, Leibniz formula un esquema argumental que intenta resolver el problema de la existencia del mal, pero que sorprende por una conclusión necesitarista, según la cual toda la cadena de eventos existentes es la óptima, y por tanto es necesaria. El presente trabajo propone una reconstrucción detallada del argumento y un análisis de su significación modal. Este análisis revela que la necesidad atribuida por Leibniz al mundo actual expresa la fuerza modal que adquiere lo (...) óptimo en su filosofía, ya en 1671, como principio que rige indefectiblemente la acción de Dios. (shrink)

Argumentation is a form of reasoning where a claim is accepted or rejected according to the analysis of the arguments for and against it; furthermore, it provides a reasoning mechanism able to handle contradictory, incomplete and uncertain information in real-world situations. We combine Bipolar Argumentation Frameworks (an extension of Dung’s work) with an Algebra of Argumentation Labels modeling two independent types of interaction between arguments, representing meta-information associated with arguments, and introducing an acceptability notion that will give more information for (...) arguments acceptability. (shrink)

The present paper explores not only the psychological effects of 11 September in the political fields, but also connects with the risk of pre-emption in USinternational affairs. What is important to discuss in this work is the role played by the media in portraying news, and a pejorative image of Islam. This ancient religion is presented as being backward and barbaric in many senses. Beyond having an encompassing understanding of the history of Islam, the media dissuades public opinion the preventive (...) war is the only valid resource. The project of Enlightenment has been gone forever. It was replaced by modernity. As civilization West developed a technophile sentiment of superiority that fulfilled the gap given by secularization. It is hypothesized that 9/11 represents the encounter of two civilizations whose cultural values are at odds. This belief is oriented at creating a demonization of Islam. First and foremost, both religions, Islam and Christianity have coexisted in peace over centuries. Secondly, Arabs even supported Judaism in its attempts to achieve independence from Rome. This begs a striking question, to what groups these stereotypes are conducive? While demonization paves the ways to reduce the sentiment of culprit, preemption give a reason to act. (shrink)

La memoria como ideología: las “suturas” en los discursos sobre el pasado reciente en la Argentina (período 83-89). Resumen de Tesis de Doctorado en Filosofía de Maximiliano A. Garbarino.

The modern conception of race is often thought by philosophers to have developed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in response to a unique confluence of scientific, philosophical, and imperial forces; and in recent decades some impressive work has been done to excavate the details of its construction during this period. . . . I will argue, however, that an analysis of the visual images created by Europeans during the first half-century after 1492 reveals that the essential elements of the (...) late modern conception of race are put into place during that period. In brief, the tremendous social, economic, and political pressures that culminate in this comparatively brief moment yield the modern notion of "the savage." I will suggest that from its inception this notion is an inherently radicalized one, and that it is the nodal point for the more familiar eighteenth- and nineteenth-century understandings of non-European races. Moreover, I will argue that the modern notion of the savage is synthesized, not directly from the Noachic legends, but from images drawn, sometimes literally, on the margins of medieval understandings of humanity: powerful and deeply entrenched images of the Wild Man and the monstrous races. (shrink)

A ética do discurso justifica o conteúdo de uma moralidade que salienta a simetria entre os sujeitos e a solidariedade entre todos. Para Habermas “a solidariedade é a outra face da justiça” (1999, p. 42), ou seja, são duas faces da mesma moeda. Esta é uma afirmação chave em relação ao conteúdo cognitivo do âmbito moral. A validade das normas pressupõe uma fundamentação normativa estruturada linguisticamente, de forma a vincular a justiça com a solidariedade. A ênfase está em uma razão (...) prática capaz de fundamentar princípios igualitários e universalistas da moral e do direito (2009, p. 63). A legitimação do estado de direito deve preservar sua neutralidade ideológica, alicerçada em uma moral racional, isto é, laica (ou secular). Com isso, as exigências normativas devem ser aceitas por todos em uma sociedade pluralista, formada por cidadãos de diferentes credos e, inclusive, por não crentes (HABERMAS, 2009, p. 69). (shrink)

En esta primera parte de la entrevista, Mignolo ubica las coordenadas intelectuales en las que surge su primera obra (1995) junto con la necesidad del desarrollo del concepto de semiosis colonial, y la recepción de sus tesis en aquel momento. Describe también las posibilidades (o imposibilidades) de diálogo de la perspectiva decolonial con otras como la posmoderna y la poscolonial, refiriéndose a las diferentes inscripciones teóricas debidas, fundamentalmente, a diferencias geopolíticas. Por ello, plantea una alternativa pluri-versal al universalismo moderno occidental, (...) que intenta hacer pasar su provincialismo, cristiano primero, luego liberal y ahora neoliberal, por la verdad misma (eurocentrismo o atlanticismo). Finalmente, sitúa su “conformación cosmo-cultural” en relación con la reconstitución de conceptos que la civilización occidental fue destituyendo en su proceso de constitución del vocabulario y las subjetividades moderno-coloniales. Grupo de estudio Las nociones de transmodernidad y pluriversidad en la Filosofía de la Liberación y el giro decolonial. (shrink)

If a thomist philosopher wonders how we get the idea of the infinite being, or why the act of being implies no limit, he will understand immediately what Polo intends by saying “mental limit” and its abandonment. The principles of such abandonment are habitual and active thinking. That Theory of knowledge justifies the fact that we really know that the act (esse) is the fundamental of being (ens) and the judgements and discourses spreading out from the transcendental notion of being.

The nature of the climatic response to solar variability is assessed over a long-time scale, as in the case of the periodicity of 1500 years (Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle). For this reason it is important to perform an analysis to detect the existence of this periodicity in the Holocene and the possible influence of the sun on this periodicity. For this purpose, the method of Wavelet analysis in time-frequency was used. The information of oxygen isotopes (δ18O) and Berilium-10 (10Be) at the North (...) Pole reveals a periodicity of approximately 1000 years, whereas at the South Pole it shows the existence of a periodicity of about 1500 years. The comparison of the information of δ18O and 10Be suggests a possible solar influence on the appearance of these periodicities. Possibly the current global warming is due to Dansgaard-Oescher cycle and not by anthropogenic effects. (shrink)

Entrevista realizada a Fernando Bárcena Orbe, profesor de Filosofía de la Educación del Departamento de Teoría e Historia de la Educación de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid (España), por Maximiliano Valerio López, profesor de la Universidad Federal Fluminense (Brasil). Rio de Janeiro, setiembre de 2009.

In this article – and through a hermeneutical analysis of a textual nature – we will take a tour about a particular interpretatión of politics in Ludwig Feuerbach. The reading we make is that an idea of politics as self-limitation of man, implicitly overcoming criticism of Christianity, in the period 1839-1843. For its implementation, it is necessary – as we understanding it – to link politics and religión: understood as the passage of the critical gaze from the inside to the (...) outside. Through this link, man – by specifically claiming sensitivity – limits his political practice in space and time, thereby setting the stage for the effective exercise of praxis. Keywords: Self-limitation. Praxis. Christianity. Essence. State. (shrink)

Western societies characterize by promoting material well-being enrooted in legal-rational administration as a form of development. Although, the study of crime has been broadly studied in recent years, many scholars devoted attention in analysing the bridge between authority and penitentiaries. This paper obliges us to rethink the relationship between mythopoeia, punishment and crime. Social deviation is often represented as a taboo wherein offender is loathed. Each group in different ways legitimates their own ways of economical production. Our modern capitalist world (...) is provided with an impersonal logic based on imbalances of class and the exploitation of weaker workers. Inversely, the life in prison draws on solidarity considering violence and strength as a mechanism for social upward. From this point of view, everyone who abused of weakest in their crimes are subdued to the authority of all who are jailed due to crimes committed against strongest, the State or the Police. Not only the logic of civility is upheld, but also the prisoners trivialize the power of State in spite of rehearsed hardermethod of repression. Certainly, by understanding the nuances of this discourse in sites of imprisonment are a pathway to realize about the limitations of our own society and style of life. The otherness calls our difference questioning our proper way of constructing the reality. (shrink)

Centered in the analysis of discourse over films, the present work debates the general drawing of the film IRONMAN and its connection of Muslim terrorism. Ourmain thesis is that globalization plays a pervasive role since at a first glance homogenizes the domination of technology, economic linkages and rationalization while for the other side it entails a process of re-territorialization based on an elusive logic. Cynically, whether we accept that the doctrine of free-market postulates the exchange between developed and underdeveloped nations (...) physical and symbolic barriers to migration are erected from periphery to center. The poverty and lack of perspective pave the ways for the upsurge of national movements. Even though terrorism can be part of social discontent, some other alternatives within the law are possible. This discourse that nourished the American ethnocentrism in the last years can be viewed in several movies and the industry of entertainment. Muslim Terrorist as social construal has become in a social taboo, for one hand this generates fear but at the same time attraction. In terms of Eliade, Althusser, Wolf, Ricoeur and Zizek one might surmise that ideology works as something else than a dissuasive message. Ideology, and of course IRONMAN helps viewers to resolve the contradictions between nature and culture. (shrink)

Desde el origen de la Universidad de París en la segunda década del siglo XIII, los enfrentamientos entre los _magistri artium_ y teológos, además de ser muchos, tuvieron fuertes consecuencias contra los primeros: condenas por parte de la Iglesia, excomulgaciones, prohibiciones, y numerosos exilios de aquellos que seguían divulgando las tesis condenadas entre sus estudiantes. El siguiente estudio está basado en la única edición disponible, del _De Laudibus Parisiis_ 1 de Juan de Jandún, uno de los tantos maestros parisinos que (...) se vieron obligados al exilio _._ A lo largo del trabajo se introducirá a este polémico personaje abordando brevemente su biografía, las controversias en las que tuvo participación y, principalmente, el elogio de la ciudad parisina que surgió como respuesta a una de esas disputas vividas. Se mostrará también de qué manera su formación como maestro de artes lo llevará a defender posturas heterodoxas. 1 Iohannes de Janduno : _Tractatus de laudibus Parisius, _ on Le Roux de Lincy, L. M. Tisserand, _Paris et ses historiens aux XIV et XV siécles, _ Paris, 32-79. (shrink)

The proposition "God chooses the best" is for Leibniz an undeniable truth, as well as a fundamental premise in both his explanation of this world's existence and his theodicy. Leibniz thought it was necessary to clarify its modal status, in virtue of this matter's connection with God's freedom. Nevertheless, while dealing with this problem, he was led to violate his own modal theory's principles, in order to sustain the contingency of that proposition. This paper intends to show that Leibniz's main (...) view regarding the modality of this proposition represents a sort of exception in the framework of his modal conception, and that this uncertainty reveals the profound reasons of his numerous textual hesitations on the subject. (shrink)

In this article we argue that the classical—linear and bottom-up directed—models of causation in biology, and the ‘‘proximate/ultimate’’ dichotomy, are inappropriate to capture the complexity inherent to biological processes. We introduce a new notion of ‘‘multilevel causation’’ where old dichotomies such as proximate/ultimate and bottom-up/ top-down are reinterpreted within a multilevel, web-like, approach. In briefly reviewing some recent work on complexity, EvoDevo, carcinogenesis, autocatalysis, comparative genomics, animal regeneration, phenotypic plasticity, and niche construction, we will argue that such reinterpretation is a (...) necessary step for the advancement of the ‘‘Extended Synthesis.’’. (shrink)

The modern companies incur in costs at time of forming their statistic departments and marketing. They are ahead to the future, like doctrinal form of getting a competitive success. These same organizations are predisposed to articulate an entire series of legal-rational mechanisms with arrangements to established objectives. Manuals are written and many experts dictated courses of how to use the preference and projection techniques. In spite of this, we find a great bibliographical gap with regard to the same social origin (...) of statistic. According to our perspective, statistics are bound directly to the magic . In this sense, the social and politic Anthropology is predisposed to be an useful discipline since provides practical cases that allow to draw a relationship between both phenomena. (shrink)