This article explores links between the modern theory of rational choice and ethics. Ethics allows us to answer an unsolved question in modern decision theory: the structuring problem in decisions. Such a problem cannot be solved coming from the principle of expected utility. This principle can solve the problem of ‚choosing’ among given alternatives, but does not establish which alternatives should be taken into account in decision. In order to understand the structuring problem, the act of ‚choosing’ has to be (...) completed with three human acts: operating, predicting and evaluating. At the same time, the subjective criteria of rational choice – probability and utility – have to be completed with three objective criteria: efficiency, truth and goodness. Utility is a subjective value of an alternative considered in relation to another. Efficiency, truth and goodness are objective qualities of the joint alternatives in relation to the reality: the real operating possibilities of the agent, the real possibilities of his environment and the true good produced. So, the rule that guarantees a decision to be optimal would be: “do that which most certainly maximises our preferences, according to real operative resources, true knowledge and the right will”. However, this rule cannot be applied without the development of virtues, which could be seen as the main moral competences in decision-making. (shrink)

El texto refuta que el primer documento escrito en el que se encuentra el apelativo «escuela de Kioto» corresponda al artículo que escribiera Tosaka Jun (1900-1945) publicado en 1932 con el título «La filosofía de la escuela de Kioto». Se demuestra que fue otro pensador, Tsuchida Kyōson (1891-1934), quien en su obra Pensamiento contemporáneo de Japón y China, escrita originariamente en japonés en el año 1926 y, luego, en inglés, 1927, engloba a Nishida y Tanabe bajo el nombre «escuela de (...) Kioto», por lo tanto, años antes del texto tosakaniano. La inclusión de esta fuente desapercibida se suma al asunto sobre la significación histórica de la designación de la «escuela» en vida de sus miembros más célebres, además de revelar las confluencias en ciertos juicios críticos que Tsuchida y Tosaka hicieran sobre las ideas y sistemas de los filósofos de Kioto. Capítulo de libro: Crespín Perales, Montserrat, "El eslabón desapercibido. La denominación "escuela de Kioto" en la obra de Tsuchida Kyoson (1891-1934), Pensamiento contemporáneo de Japón y China (1926, 1927)", en Crespín Perales, Montserrat, y Wirtz, Fernando (eds.), Después de la nada. Dialéctica e ideología en la filosofía japonesa contemporánea, pp. 41-86. (shrink)

La explicación tradicional del concepto de "vacío" (τò κενóν) en la filosofía antigua lo sitúa como una invención del atomismo de Demócrito y Leucipo o, incluso, del eleático Meliso de Samos. De esta manera se ocultan las profundas razones que pudieron llevar a la necesidad y surgimiento de un tal concepto, y aparece como si hubiera sido creado ex nihilo. En este artículo se pretende descubrir tanto el principio mitológico como el origen racional del concepto de "vacío" en la filosofía (...) presocrática, que lo sitúa como anterior a las historias contadas hasta ahora. Mediante dos columnas que intentan aprehender lo mismo desde puntos de vista distintos, se llegará a la conclusión de que el concepto de "vacío" fue definido en el inicio como diferencia y repetición. En contra de una determinada visión de la historia de la filosofía que ve a los "clásicos" y a los "modernos" como dos compartimentos separados e incluso enfrentados, en el curso de esta interpretación se establecerá un diálogo entre la doxografía presocrática y la filosofía contemporánea de Schelling, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Schmitt, Irigaray, Derrida o Deleuze. (shrink)

This paper refutes that the first written document in which the name "Kyoto school" is found corresponds to the article written by Tosaka Jun (1900-1945) and published in 1932 with the title "The philosophy of the Kyoto school". It will be shown that it was another thinker, Tsuchida Kyōson (1891-1934), who in his Contemporary Thought of Japan and China, a book originally written in Japanese in 1926 and then in English in 1927, includes Nishida and Tanabe under the name "Kyoto (...) school", thus years before Tosaka's text. The inclusion of this unnoticed source contributes to the question about the historical significance of the designation of the "school" in the lifetime of its most famous members. Paper at XXV World Congress of Philosophy - Philosophy across Boundaries, Rome, 1st-8th august 2024. (shrink)

This article reports on ethnographic research into the practical and ethical consequences of the implementation and use of telecare devices for older people living at home in Spain and the United Kingdom. Telecare services are said to allow the maintenance of their users’ autonomy through connectedness, relieving the isolation from which many older people suffer amid rising demands for care. However, engaging with Science and Technology Studies literature on “user configuration” and implementation processes, we argue here that neither services nor (...) users preexist the installation of the service: they are better described as produced along with it. Moving beyond design and appropriation practices, our contribution stresses the importance of installations as specific moments where such emplacements take place. Using Etienne Souriau’s concept of instauration, we describe the ways in which, through installation work, telecare services “bring into existence” their very infrastructure of usership. Hence, both services and telecare users are effects of fulfilling the “felicity conditions” of an achieved installation. (shrink)

Freezers with biospecimen deposits became biobanks and later were networked at the pan-European level in 2013 under the Biobanking and BioMolecular Resources Research Infrastructure—European Research Infrastructure Consortium (BBMRI-ERIC). Drawing on document analysis about the BBMRI-ERIC and multi-sited fieldwork with biobankers in Spain from a science and technology studies approach, we explore what biobanks are expected to do and become under the BBMRI-ERIC framework, and how infrastructural transitions promote particular transformations in biobanking practices. The primary purpose of biobanks in Europe is (...) presented as being to become mediators in contemporary biomedical research (global sharing nodes) distribution, and distributed nodes of samples and their associated data. We argue that infrastructural transitions are complicated and heterogeneous, giving rise to unattended local concerns on adjusting their practices to fit into the BBMRI-ERIC framework, even for non-members, as the case of Spain illustrates, where “old practices” of collection and storage are questioned. In this article, we aim to encourage qualitative studies to explore the lags between pan-European policies and prospects, different contextual interpretations, and biobanking reconfigurations as an opportunity to explore what that lag is made of (e.g. tensions with “old practices,” unresolved conflicts with the national agendas, reservations on a possible centralization of the biobanking practices by regional biobanks, lack of funding, etc.). Such research could enrich not only policy guidance, but also the understanding of technoscientific infrastructures’ scalability. (shrink)

Miquel Seguró Mendlewicz, in On Vulnerability, projects vulnerability as a condition of human life and the central concept to understand our existential position in the world. Using René Descartes works, Mendlewicz discusses the existential reality of vulnerability and it's integration into an ethical and political reality.

The present paper examines the relationship between explicit and implicit memory and ultimate attainment in the native language. Two groups of native speakers of English with different levels of academic attainment (i.e., high vs. low) took part in three language tasks which assessed grammar, vocabulary and collocational knowledge, as well as phonological short-term memory (assessed using a forward digit-span task), explicit associative memory (assessed using a paired-associates task) and implicit memory (assessed using a deterministic serial reaction time task). Results revealed (...) strong relationships between phonological short-term memory and explicit associative memory on the one hand and the three language tasks on the other hand, and no relation between linguistic performance and implicit memory. Taken together, these results cast doubts on the common assumption that L1 grammar learning depends almost entirely on implicit memory and align with the claims of usage-based models of language acquisition that grammatical and lexical knowledge depend on the same cognitive mechanisms. (shrink)

Although we cannot find any Aesthetics system in the works of NISHIDA Kitarõ (1870-1945), the most significant and influential Japanese philosopher of the twentieth-century, one of his central themes is the role of art and aesthetics in relation with morality and religion. His aesthetics approaches are magnificent examples of his aim to overcome the innate dualism that sustains modern epistemology and a door, apparently hidden, to a better understanding of all his speculative scheme of philosophy. This paper attempts to throw (...) light to the importance of the first aesthetic approximation developed by Nishida eleven years before the publication of Zen no Kenkyû [ 善 の ?究 ] (An Inquiry into the Good) (1911) and twenty-three years before the publication of the more accurate system of aesthetics that we read in Geijutsu to dôtoku [芸術 と 道? ] (Art and Morality) (1923). We will analyze the small essay entitled "Bi no Setsumei" [美 の ?明] ("An explanation of Beauty") (1900) and Nishida's first definition of beauty as muga [無我] (self-effacement or ecstasy). (shrink)

Finnegans Wake es la última obra escrita por el escritor irlandés James Joyce. En ella, la creciente complejidad narrativa que lo caracterizó alcanza niveles extremos, rozando lo ininteligible. El autor no sólo mezcla diferentes idiomas, también inventa nuevos términos que germinan y se significan, en gran medida, desde su dimensión sonora. Personajes, y acontecimientos reales y ficticios se mezclan, formando una amalgama donde variantes de arquetipos mitológicos transcurren una glocalidad cíclica perpetua. La protagonista femenina, Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP), es un (...) personaje mutante que deviene diferentes elementos naturales a lo largo del texto. El murmullo del río se confunde con el suyo propio, en un pulso narrativo que sobrescribe la orilla en la historia. De fondo siempre se oyen voces y, aunque no son claras, sugieren. Esta obra literaria no se lee, se escucha; no se entiende, se deduce. La presente investigación se sitúa en el contexto actual de auge en la aplicación de la Inteligencia Artificial (IA) al procesado de textos. Somete a prueba la transcripción realizada a partir de la locución de algunos pasajes de Finnegans Wake, evaluando el grado de acierto y los posibles sesgos o desviaciones de los resultados. (shrink)

Resum: Aquesta tarda se’ns convida a dialogar, des de la filosofia i des del periodisme, sobre la «immortalitat». Tal com vam plantejar aquesta nova intervenció en format de pòdcast filosòfic, el mot «immortalitat» pot interpretar-se en diversos sentits perquè és, com gairebé cada noció, equívoc. Així, pot fer esment a la qualitat d’immortal, és a dir, la d’aquell ens que no pot morir; o pot referir a la duració indefinida –que no té un termini fix o conegut– d’alguna cosa a (...) la memòria dels humans encara «incessants». Part de: Comunicació a: Xè Festival de Filosofia - Barcelona Pensa Pòdcast filosòfic: La immortalitat. 13 de novembre de 2023. (shrink)

El presente artículo defiende que en _ Gorgias _ 521d Sócrates se atribuye a sí mismo una forma genuina de saber político. Para ello, se abordan los problemas planteados por la crítica reciente en lo que respecta a la aparente incompatibilidad de dicha atribución con (1) el reconocimiento explícito en _ Gorgias _ de no poseer un saber referido a lo justo, y (2) la aparente invalidez de la actividad desarrollada por Sócrates para contar, bajo los criterios que él mismo (...) establece en el _ Gorgias _, como efectivamente política. El trabajo responde a estas dificultades realizando un análisis del tipo de naturaleza que Sócrates atribuye a su propio saber en esta obra, así como de los efectos que su actividad dialógica demuestra ser capaz de producir sobre Calicles. De este modo, el artículo permite aclarar en qué sentido Sócrates es presentado en el _ Gorgias _ como el verdadero político. El presente artículo defiende que en _ Gorgias _ 521d Sócrates se atribuye a sí mismo una forma genuina de saber político. Para ello, se abordan los problemas planteados por la crítica reciente en lo que respecta a la aparente incompatibilidad de dicha atribución con (1) el reconocimiento explícito en _ Gorgias _ de no poseer un saber referido a lo justo, y (2) la aparente invalidez de la actividad desarrollada por Sócrates para contar, bajo los criterios que él mismo establece en el _ Gorgias _, como efectivamente política. El trabajo responde a estas dificultades realizando un análisis del tipo de naturaleza que Sócrates atribuye a su propio saber en esta obra, así como de los efectos que su actividad dialógica demuestra ser capaz de producir sobre Calicles. De este modo, el artículo permite aclarar en qué sentido Sócrates es presentado en el _ Gorgias _ como el verdadero político. (shrink)

Cine y filosofía. Miradas oblicuas concreta la relación entre la filosofía y el cine como espacios de reflexión mediante el lenguaje nacido, en este caso, de secuencias de imágenes. Desde sus inicios con los hermanos Lumière, el cine ha evolucionado hasta convertirse en el llamado séptimo arte, objeto, pues, del estudio y análisis estético, pero, también, en una herramienta cultural y educativa fundamental para la reflexión. A través de los distintos ensayos que componen la obra, el lector descubrirá de qué (...) modo el cine genera diálogos filosóficos, y un modo de penetrar en los problemas profundos del individuo y la sociedad. (shrink)

The paper dealt with the control on political corruption in Italy, in particular with the reasons why most of the control mechanisms did not work for a long time, allowingfor the development of"tangentopoli". First of all, we briefly discussed the reasons why the controls ''from below"--that is, from citizens or electors--did not function in Italy: the pervasive occupation of the administration and the civil society by the political parties, as well as "secret" agreements between political parties in order to avoid (...) political scandals were discussed.The paper continued by analyzing two types of institutional control: the administrative controls and the judiciary controls. In the second part, we presented some main characteristics of the Italian public administration that hampered internal controls, the informal control of parties over the bureaucrats through clientelism and complicity in corruption being one among them. In the third part, we focused on the peculiar characteristics of a magistracy that enjoyed of a very high degree of format autonomy from the political power, but was "pushed" towards politics for reasons as different as complicity in corruption and the need to "substitute" for the weak policy making capacity of political parties. In the fourth part, we reviewed some reform bills to deal with the control of political corruption. (shrink)

Children’s sociocultural experiences in their day-to-day lives markedly play a key role in learning about the world. This study investigated parent–child teaching during early childhood as it naturally occurs in the home setting. Thirty-nine families’ naturalistic interactions in the home setting were observed; 1033 teaching sequences were identified based on detailed transcriptions of verbal and non-verbal behavior. Within these sequences, three domains of learning (knowledge, skills, and dispositions) and subtopics were identified and analyzed in relation to gender, child birth order, (...) context, teaching strategies, and learner response. Findings show knowledge, skills, and dispositions were taught equally, marked by the most prominent subtopics taught within each domain, including cognitive (skill), game rule (knowledge), and social rule (disposition). Further, mothers and fathers were found to teach their children equally, however, fathers taught knowledge more than mothers, whereas mothers taught dispositions more than fathers. Differences between domains of learning and subtopics also existed between mother’s and father’s teaching based on child birth order and gender. This study also assessed the contrast between teaching knowledge, skills, and dispositions by context, parent teaching strategies, and child learner response. Results support the notion that family interactions in the home setting set a stage for children’s rich informal learning experiences. Vygotskian sociocultural conceptions underpin this research and findings are discussed using this central theoretical lens. (shrink)

La genealogia de la moral de Nietzsche, resulta extremadament pertinent per una epistemologia del bé relativa a les incisions institucionals sobre part de la població del Raval. Primer, sobre Raval s�haurien dut a terme tot tipus d�abusos, com destruccions d�habitatges i de trama urbana, així com persecucions o expulsions de població, pel bé del barri o de la ciutat. Si això és així, es pot afirmar que les convergències institucionals en aquest punt es sustenten en una epistemologia interessada. Segon, el (...) pathos de la distància definit per Nietzsche, així com l�assumpció per part de les noves ideologies urbanístiques del primitiu paper de la �casta sacerdotal�, permetrien actualitzar la crítica envers �el civisme�, entès aquest, com l�expressió més recent i efectiva de les cultures de control. I tercer, aquesta epistemologia interessada, permetria reclamar la noció marxiana de lluita de classes per interpretar un crònic i generalitzat menyspreu sobre una part important de la població més irredempta d�un dels barris més convulsos d�Europa. (shrink)

These two volumes consist of a critical edition and English translation of the two earliest known Armenian sets of scholia on the Heavenly Hierarchy of Dionysius the Areopagite. Composed in the monastic schools of Erznka in the late thirteenth century, these scholia provide significant insight into how the Heavenly Hierarchy in particular, and Armenian translations of Greek texts in general, were understood by Armenian scholars in the Middle Ages. This editio princeps of the scholia represents a rare critical edition of (...) a native Armenian composition from the medieval period. In addition to the text and translation, these volumes include a textual commentary as well as a critical collation and English translation of a number of scholia from the Armenian version of the Greek scholia on the Heavenly Hierarchy. (shrink)

Este artículo presenta los resultados de un análisis que tuvo como finalidad estudiar las colaboraciones en prensa de los filósofos españoles durante la transición política (1975-1981). Los periódicos elegidos han sido el diario El País y el ABC puesto que eran los periódicos más vendidos durante la época estudiada. Más concretamente, se analizan las tribunas periodísticas por ser el lugar donde suelen colaborar los filósofos. Mostramos cómo las posiciones filosóficas propias de la red oficial van perdiendo su espacio de poder (...) y atención en beneficio de una red alternativa. (shrink)

We design a project funding contract that provides optimal incentives to agents, in a setting where both principal and agent enjoy the benefits of the project in a non-rival form once completed but may differ in their valuation. To do so, we study optimal incentive payments in a dynamic principal-agent framework in which the principal cannot observe the agent’s investment, but only completed projects, and faces a Samaritan’s Dilemma: he cannot commit to terminate the contract before completion of the project. (...) The agent decides whether to undertake a investment or consume all received funds. We find that the optimal contract is stationary, and that either transfers equal to investment cost are incentive compatible or the cost of the contract is decreasing with the agent’s valuation of the projects. Given the intrinsic valuation of the project by the agent, he is always better off signing the contract in contraposition with the general moral hazard result. (shrink)

Este tema se plantea como una tesis teórica porque aborda la problemática de la feminidad desde la antropología de Karol Wojtyla. En sus escritos acerca de la moral sexual y de la persona, este autor, entrega bases que permiten elaborar respuestas a la temática actual del ser mujer y su rol en la sociedad. La perspectiva teórica de esta investigación es estudiar el trasfondo del personalismo ético en el pensamiento de este autor para analizar el valor de la feminidad. Respecto (...) a la declaración de la hipótesis, se postula que Wojtyla presenta una nueva antropología que nos permite plantear claramente el significado de lo femenino; aquello se refleja en sus obras dramáticas y poéticas. Para este artículo se analizará el drama El taller del orfebre (1960) en el cual se puede observar qué se entiende por feminidad y cuál es el rol de la mujer. (shrink)

Qui peut repondre a la question: qu'est-ce que la vie? le biologiste? le geneticien? le naturaliste? l'epistemologue? Comment se reperer dans la jungle des reponses proposees par ces differents specialistes? Ce petit livre met l'accent sur trois points qui sont actuellement l'objet de debats tres vifs. Tout d'abord le cadre de la reponse est celui d'une epistemologie non physicaliste, qui refuse d'accepter la double these de la completude et de la cloture causale du monde physique, et renvoie dos a dos (...) les deux positions metaphysiques intenables du physicalisme et du vitalisme. Ensuite, la vie apparait liee a un systeme d'objets hetero-organise qui ne peut etre completement decrit par l'ensemble de ses contraintes internes, contrairement aux systemes physiques ordinaires. Voila pourquoi la vie n'est pas simplement la replication ou la reproduction, ni l'heredite genetique, mais est liee au metabolisme, a la compartimentation cellulaire, a la selection naturelle, etc. Enfin il faut parler d'un systeme d'agents plutot que d'un systeme d'objets, car un systeme biologique se caracterise par le fait que le temps agit sur lui. Pour cette raison il est difficile d'en degager des invariants internes, la description initiale que nous pouvons en donner n'est pas celle de son fonctionnement. C'est en ce sens que nous nous proposons de parler de proprietes emergentes. Qu'est-ce que la vie, alors? une disposition? une essence? une structure atemporelle? Ne faut-il pas reformuler la question et se demander: d'ou vient la vie? comment la vie evolue? (shrink)

Resumen: El trabajo pretende esclarecer los motivos filosóficos que subyacen a la ambivalencia endógena que persigue a las éticas de la autorrealización, repasando para ello el debate que suscitó el uso del ideal ético de la «autorrealización» patente en los ensayos «La autorrealización como el ideal moral» (1893), de John Dewey, y «Autorrea-lización -una crítica» (1896), de Alfred Edward Taylor. Tras revisar las inconsistencias del principio ético de la autorrealización advertidas por estos filósofos en el siglo xix, se busca rastrear (...) las huellas de este ideal moral y su pervivencia en nuestro tiempo presente. Palabras clave: autorrealización, éticas idealistas, John Dewey, Alfred Edward Taylor. Abstract: This article seeks to clarify the philosophical problems that underlie the endogenous ambivalence of the ethics of self-realization, reviewing the debate raised by the moral ideal of «self-realization» as it is found in Dewey’s «Self-realization as the moral ideal» (1893), and Alfred Edward Taylor’s «Self-realization -a critique» (1896). After showing the philosophical inconsistencies around «self-realization», as described during the 19th century by both philosophers, the text proposes to find the traces of this moral ideal in our present time. Keywords: self-realization, idealistic ethics, John Dewey, Alfred Edward Taylor. (shrink)

In the twenty-first century, decisions to withhold or withdraw life-supporting measures commonly precede death in the neonatal intensive care unit without major ethical controversy. However, caregivers often feel much greater turmoil with regard to stopping medical hydration and nutrition than they do when considering discontinuation of mechanical ventilation or circulatory support. Nevertheless, forgoing medical fluids and food represents a morally acceptable option as part of a carefully developed palliative care plan considering the infant’s prognosis and the burdens of continued treatment. (...) Decisions to stop any form of life support should focus on the clinical circumstances, not the means used to sustain life. (shrink)

There have been many (and good) analyses of the Spanish left-populist party Podemos (2014-16) in terms of ideology, politics and class. However, this chapter focuses on an almost completely neglected dimension of its rise and fall: temporality. Firmly based on Nietzsche’s distinction in the Second Untimely Meditation between three “species of history” –the antiquarian, the critic and the monumental–, and moving on to Heidegger’s reinterpretation, which sees it as corresponding to the three “ecstatic times” –past, present and future–, the following (...) chapter applies this framework of analysis to the realm of politics by creating three different characters which may explain its relationship with time: the nostalgic (past), the opportunist (present) and the utopian (future). Through a detailed analysis of Podemos as a case study, the following chapter proposes that its internal conflict between the followers of Pablo Iglesias, Íñigo Errejón and the Anticapitalist Left cannot be only explained by recourse to the traditional categories of ideology, politics and class, but also more fundamentally as a dispute over time itself, in which the pablistas represented the primacy of the past (nostalgia), the errejonistas, the present (opportunity), and the anticapitalistas, the future (utopia). Since these three characters are equally one-sided if taken separately, this chapter ends with an attempt at a reconciliation of the three ecstatic times in a political reformulation of being-as-a-whole-within-time-ness. (shrink)