Political scientists have conventionally assumed that achieving democracy is a one-way ratchet. Only very recently has the question of ‘democratic backsliding’ attracted any research attention. We argue that democratic instability is best understood with tools from complexity science. The explanatory power of complexity science arises from several features of complex systems. Their relevance in the context of democracy is discussed. Several policy recommen- dations are offered to help stabilize current systems of representative democracy.

El presente ensayo se ocupa de la concepción de la psykhé en Platón e poner de relieve la contradicción que subyace en las diferentes formas en que el autor trata la naturaleza de la misma en los diálogos del Fedón y de la República. Una de las nociones clave para entender el salto que da Platón del alma simple al alma com-puesta es la alteración en el concepto de stásis (conflicto). Dicho salto dará lugar a una concepción diferente de la (...) psykhé provocando una escisión entre dichos diálogos en cuanto a la inmortalidad del alma, dejando abiertas diferentes posibilidades de interpretación e impidiendo una sólida conclusión que permita afirmar qué le ocurre al alma después de la muerte del cuerpo. (shrink)

Alberto Moretti en “La lógica y la trama de las cosas” presenta y defiende una concepción de la lógica según la cual existen principios lógicos que estructuran el lenguaje y, consecuentemente, el mundo. Este modo de entender la lógica ofrece una respuesta al problema de su normatividad, al tiempo que disuelve el problema de su justificación. En este trabajo, analizo críticamente esta mirada acerca de la lógica y propongo una concepción alternativa que permite vindicar la legitimidad de ambos problemas y (...) darles una respuesta satisfactoria. (shrink)

Shifting learning to distant formats especially at the higher education level has been unprecedented during the past decade. Diverse digital learning media have been emerging which allow learner autonomy, and at the same time, require the ability of efficient regulation of various aspects of the learning process for sustainable academic progress. In this context, supporting students in self-regulated learning in an optimal way becomes an important factor for their academic success. The present study attempts through a systematic review of 38 (...) studies to provide an overview of the interventions identified as supporting all areas of SRL, in its three phases in distance education environments at the higher education level. As the study results show, there are a number of SRL support interventions available with proven positive effect on SRL. However, their distribution has been found to be uneven. Whereas metacognition regulation and the performance phase of learning is vastly investigated, the emotion regulation, and the preparatory and appraisal phases of the SRL cycle are somewhat underexplored. As complex and multi-component as the process of SRL is, the combination of various interventions, and specific features, for more comprehensive support has also been found beneficial. Additionally, it has been revealed that the emotion regulation, in most cases, is closely related to motivation regulation, and similar interventions support these two. Future studies can further explore the efficiency and relevance of the identified interventions, taking closer look at the effects of various digital media, learner characteristics as well as different levels of education on learners’ self-regulation needs. (shrink)

This article explores the ethics of physical and verbal interpersonal relations which express themselves as displacements and intersections of genres in Pedro Almodovar’s film Speak to her . Ethics must be understood here in the strict sense of care for the self, which always presupposes care for the other. I will argue that the film suggests the demetaphorisation of corporeal experience as a path towards ethical relations between people. I argue too that the film proposes a feminisation of the masculine (...) as a step towards a higher level of humanism and mutual comprehension. (shrink)

Source: Author: Natalia Gerasimova, Inna Gerasymova The article reviews the current state of studying the problem of interpersonal conflict as a factor in adaptation, characterized by consideration of the relationship of these categories on two levels: intrapersonal conflict is studied as a driving force, a source of self-in the process of adaptation and as a leading indicator of complications adaptation. It is determined that the impact of interpersonal conflict in the course of adaptation depends on self-identity in a complex (...) interaction of external and internal factors. It is indicated that psychological content intrapersonal conflict experiences have a high degree of individual differentiation and thus determine the uniqueness of perception and interpretation of a specific person. An indicator of the transition from one level to another intrapersonal difficulties acts vulnerability to conflict self-relations context of inner experience. The nature of the adaptation of the student is determined by the internal model and solve interpersonal experiences complications, which are formed in the mind and form the basis of individual experience. ]]>. (shrink)

The photographic apparatus whose emergence is located in the mid-nineteenth century has not been perfectly located within the history of technology, sometimes considered as a simple tool or instrument whose utility was mainly in the field of scientific research, other times giving it the status of machine, accentuating this time the automatism of its operation. Both visions seem insufficient to us since both one and the other present a certain partiality in the understanding of the apparatus, which should not be (...) reduced to its mere optical character or to its automatism, since this is also a form of recording, of memory. Our interest will focus on demonstrating how photography should be thought of as “apparatus”, that is, as a complex element within the history of technology; that not only was able to perfect our vision considered as deficient, but at the same time was able to grant a new temporality and a specific type of perception to an entire era. (shrink)

We propose that human social learning is subject to a trade-off between the cost of performing a computation and the flexibility of its outputs. Viewing social learning through this lens sheds light on cases that seem to violate bifocal stance theory (BST) – such as high-fidelity imitation in instrumental action – and provides a mechanism by which causal insight can be bootstrapped from imitation of cultural practices.

I argue that the aesthetic theoretical virtues of beauty, simplicity, and unification, as well as the evidential virtue of explanatory depth, can transform theistic-friendly personal cause (PC) arguments—like the kalām cosmological argument (KCA) and the fine-tuning argument—into stand-alone arguments for monotheism. The aesthetic virtues allow this by providing us with the grounds to rationally accept a perfect personal cause (i.e., God) as the best PC to believe in given the success of some PC argument. Using the KCA as an example, (...) I argue that, once the KCA is accepted and a PC believed in, then a theory that posits a perfect PC as the cause of the universe is more beautiful, simpler, and has more unification and explanatory depth than the imperfect PC normally posited by the KCA’s standard conceptual analysis. And the same would hold true for any imperfect PC. Thus, once a PC argument has been accepted, the perfect PC theory is preferable to hold over any other PC theory. Finally, I address various objections to this reasoning. (shrink)

In philosophy of science, abstraction tends to be subsumed under representation, often being described as the omission of a target’s features when it is represented. This approach to abstraction sidesteps cognitive aspects of abstraction processes. However, cognitive aspects of abstraction are important in understanding the role of historically grounded epistemic criteria supporting modeling in science. Drawing on recent work on the relation between metaphor and abstraction, we introduce the concept of paths of abstraction, and use historical and contemporary examples to (...) point to their role in guiding the development of relevance criteria which support modeling strategies in science. (shrink)

Bertrand Russell’s Critique of the Arguments for the Existence of God The paper presents Bertrand Russell’s critique of arguments for the existence of God. I divided the theistic arguments which Russell criticizes into three groups. The first group involves arguments concerning the relation between Universe and God: the First Cause argument, the Natural law argument and the argument from Design. The second group is related to the concept of God as a moral Lawmaker and it contains the argument from morality (...) and the argument from remedy for injustice. The last group of arguments pertains to the relation between God and human beings. Here, I consider Russell's reflections on the validity of the argument from religious experience and his approach to the issue of the foundation of religion. The aim of this article is to consider whether Russellian argumentation against evidence for God's existence is justified. Keywords: Bertrand Russell, existence of God, argument, philosophy of religion, evidence. (shrink)

In this paper we aim to think systematically about, formulate, and begin addressing some of the challenges to applying theories of moral responsibility to behaviors shaped by a particular subset of unsettling psychological complexities: namely, implicit biases.

Natalia Carrillo and Tarja Knuuttila claim that there are two traditions of thinking about idealization offering almost opposite views on their functioning and epistemic status. While one tradition views idealizations as epistemic deficiencies, the other one highlights the epistemic benefits of idealization. Both of them treat idealizations as deliberate misrepresentations, however. They then argue for an artifactual account of idealization, comparing it to the traditional accounts of idealization, and exemplifying it through the Hodgkin and Huxley model of the nerve (...) impulse. From the artifactual perspective, the epistemic benefits and deficiencies introduced by idealization frequently come in a package due to the way idealization draws together different resources in model construction. Accordingly, idealization tends to be holistic in that it is not often easily attributable to some specific parts of the model. They conclude that the artifactual approach offers a unifying view into idealization in that it is able to recover several basic philosophical insights motivating both the deficiency and epistemic benefit accounts, while being simultaneously detached from the idea of distortion by misrepresentation. (shrink)

The Evil God (EG) challenge alleges that because arguments used to support belief in a Good God (GG) can be mirrored by the EG hypothesis, then belief in the former is no more reasonable than belief in the latter. Thus, there is an epistemic symmetry between both hypotheses. This paper argues that one of the EG’s secondary traits, specifically his maximal possessiveness, would render it very likely, if not certain, that the EG would _not_ create anything at all. By contrast, (...) the GG would very likely create. Consequently, the existence of anything non-divine would generate a significant asymmetry between the hypotheses—one that favors the GG hypothesis. Moreover, strategies to overcome this argument fail, and as such, the EG challenge is severely undermined. (shrink)

The article analyzes the activity of the greatest classic of the Islamic philosophy - Ibn Sina, aimed at the revision of Aristotelianism, mainly in terms of its synthesis with Islamic monotheism. Preferential attention is paid to the metaphysical section of Avicennian multivolume encyclopedia “The Healing”. Instead of Aristotelian God / the Prime Mover as the final cause, which serves as the source of the movement of the world, Avicenna establishes God / Necessary Being, who acts as the Giver of being. (...) Developing the ontological foundation of creationism, i.e. the creation of every thing in the world, the philosopher introduces a distinction between essence and existence, which will pass through the subsequent history of philosophy. Ibn Sina thoroughly modifies the Aristotelian doctrine of the unity of God and His essential cataphatic attributes. The intellectual narcissism of God, Who only knows Himself in Stagirite, he changes with the concept of Divine Omniscience and His providence of all existents. Ibn Sina transforms Aristotelian eternalism into eternalistic creationism, modifying the emanationist scheme of cosmogenesis advanced by al-Farabi, in which the process of proceeding of the existents from the First Principle appears as an intellectual act. The Muslim philosopher complements Aristotelian cosmology with the doctrine of angels, whom he identifies with cosmic intellects and souls as the governors of the celestial spheres. Avicennian radical innovation is in the doctrine of Active Intellect, who is not only the ruler of the sublunar world, but actually is its demiurge. This intellect is assigned with the function of the illumination of the human intellect, as well as with the role of the archangel Gabriel the transmitter of divine revelation according to Muslim tradition. From the philosophical perspective, Avicenna develops alien to Aristotelianism topics related to the prophecy and revelation, the immortality of the soul and its otherworldly fate. (shrink)

Internet memes – images and GIFs – have become part of internet pop culture and are here to stay. Memes’ success as an online communication phenomenon is due, to some extent, to the fact that memes are self-explanatory. Indeed, messages conveyed in memes, however complex, are instantaneously grasped. The themes that memes cover can be casual or serious, but the humour and wit they radiate diffuse the tension of most sombre topics. However, it is unclear what makes a particular meme (...) popular or, as they say, viral. Notably, when using the word viral to refer to a meme, internet users inadvertently uphold the take on memes as gene-like units of information that evolve as quasi-biological entities. In this article, the authors intend to move away from this approach and investigate memes from a semiotic and logical perspective. To do that, the authors deploy Peircean terminology that helps position memes in the sphere of signs and analyse meme structure using both ‘icon–index–symbol’ and ‘token-type’ classifications, as well as ‘the habit of inference’ concept. This analysis allows them to describe the mechanics of meme transformation and define the boundaries that memes do not cross. (shrink)

El intimismo de Alejandra Pizarnik, tejedora de palabras de tormento y locura, deja entrever los infiernos irracionales y musicales que atraviesan una particular expresión de psique poética: la palabra que se atreve a decir una noche que presagia elegía. La palabra herida y la vida fatalmente rota de esta autora ponen al lector en un diálogo permanente entre el vitalismo y el existencialismo. El propósito de este artículo es reflexionar sobre los límites de la voluntad humana y la relación entre (...) vida y obra literaria, a partir de una disertación sobre los textos de Pizarnik, quien más que afanarse en embellecer la resignación, prefiere indagar acerca del destino y el sentido de la palabra poética, enjaulada e incapaz de expresar las heridas del ser. Busca, desde figuras retóricas precisas y de incuestionable impacto sensorial, el lugar de los cuerpos poéticos en los entresijos de una existencia inadaptada y sin brújula. Existencia que es espejo (o acaso abismo) de la realidad develada por una poesía filosófica en busca de sentido y deseo imposibles, pero cuya búsqueda sigue siendo un tópico necesario de la literatura. (shrink)

The extremely extensive philosophical legacy of Roman Witold Ingarden, a student of Edmund Husserl, including papers in the fields of ontology, epistemology, and aesthetics, has been consistently arousing the interest of researchers from around the world for several decades. The year 2020 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Ingarden’s death. The present book constitutes a unique contribution honoring the philosopher’s memory and academic legacy. An ambitious project that brings together the thoughts of many intellectuals, the book includes research problems, contemporary interpretations (...) of Ingarden’s thought, and comparative studies, placing his philosophy in a broader historical and cultural context. This approach perfectly reflects the relevance, refinement, and depth of Ingarden’s theories. Although the essays presented in the book undoubtedly constitute a due tribute to an important figure in contemporary philosophy, this collection is not exclusively retrospective, but also shows the present and future development of philosophical thought inspired by Ingarden’s works. Including a substantial introduction by the editors, the book contains eight chapters from some of the most significant scholars in the field, covering the historical and comparative approach to Ingarden’s thought, as well as from young, ambitious scholars developing new interpretations of selected aspects of Ingarden’s theories. Specifically, the reader will find chapters on existential ontology (Peter Simons, Jan Woleński), Ingarden’s theory of questions (Giuditta Corbella), music ontology (Edward Świderski), empathy and aesthetic experience (Jeff Mitscherling), the aesthetics of computer games (Matthew Gladden), aesthetic attention (Harri Mäcklin), and Ingarden’s theory and aesthetics of time (Charlene Elsby). (shrink)

This paper analyses different retrospective links between the scientia generalis by Leibniz and the three key traditions of the Renaissance and Early Modern Europe – the philosophical, the rhetorical and the encyclopaedic one. The issue demonstrates the insufficient charachter of the two influential interpretations of the idea of scientia generalis by Leibniz – as a project of elaborating a a method of mathematical calculations for non-mathematical subjects (L. Couturat, J. Mittelstraß, V. Peckhaus etc.) and as a project of an encyclopaedic (...) synthesis combining ideas of the Lull’s Ars magna and humanistic rhetoric by M. Nizolius with the philosophical-theological encyclopaedism of J. Alsted and B. Keckermann (P. Rossi, W. Schmidt-Biggemann, T. Leinkauf etc.). The author presents the thesis that the formation of Leibniz’s idea of scientia generalis as well as some other concepts of the universal science in 17th century philosophy are the result of rethinking and expanding of the concept of the “first philosophy” delivered by Aristotle in his “Metaphysics”. (shrink)

A diferencia de las otras presentificaciones, lo característico del acto de la empatía consiste en poner al yo extraño en el modo de un “copresente”. De este modo, el tratamiento de la estructura de la empatía está estrechamente ligado con la constitución tanto de la temporalidad propia como de la vida extraña. De allí que sea problemático determinar cómo es posible que, si cada sujeto tiene su propia temporalidad, no obstante surja un tiempo común.

La presente investigación analiza la práctica de la ortografía rrazional propuesta por los neógrafos chilenos, un grupo de intelectuales radicales que retomó la discusión lingüística en los últimos años de la reforma ortográfica chilena, a fines del XIX y comienzos del XX, para establecer un proyecto ideológico que no solo se ocupaba del aspecto lingüístico. A partir del uso de esta ortografía no oficial, considerada como un acto glotopolítico en sí mismo, se pudo observar que los neógrafos también difundieron con (...) fuerza temáticas libertarias y positivistas que los caracterizaron como un grupo anarquista, pero que a diferencia de otras manifestaciones anarquistas chilenas de la época, hizo la revolución desde el campo ortográfico, proponiendo un proyecto contrahegemónico lingüístico, político y social, cuyas representaciones hoy podemos clasificar dentro de los estudios de enfoque etnortográfico. (shrink)

Este artículo tiene como objetivo estudiar el proceso de articulación del “estratonismo”, constructo histórico-filosófico creado en torno a la figura de Estratón de Lámpsaco, en la Ilustración francesa. Argumentaremos que el materialismo ateo ilustrado incorpora elementos estratonistas, centralmente la idea de la naturaleza como potencia productiva ciega. Nos abocaremos a reconstruir tal proceso de articulación, concentrándonos en la obra de autores de posiciones diversas como Cudworth, Bayle y d’Holbach. Examinaremos a continuación la reapropiación crítica del estratonismo que realiza Braschi, uno (...) de los personajes filósofos de la obra Histoire de Juliette de Sade, en su metafísica materialista atea. (shrink)

Whether it be in universities’ curricula or in traditional accounts of the history of philosophy, early modern women philosophers have frequently been treated as secondary, inconsequential characters. Although many valuable efforts are being made to counter this state of affairs, a generalized tendency to focus on well-known male philosophers and to establish them as representative figures of the early modern period still seems to exist. But does this strategy produce an accurate historical account of early modern philosophy? This essay explores (...) diverse causes of the exclusion of early modern women philosophers from the canon, reflecting on the historical and political aspects of this phenomenon. This piece also intends to highlight the importance of the innovative projects that have been recently created in the field of the digital humanities, which aim to mitigate and to counter said exclusion. (shrink)

Durante mucho tiempo la epistemología –rama de la filosofía que estudia lo referente al conocimiento y a la creencia justificada– había tenido un enfoque principalmente individualista, es decir, se centraba más que nada en las actitudes doxásticas de los individuos, abstrayéndolos de esta forma de su entorno social. No obstante, la situación epistémica humana no es meramente individual, pues está conformada en gran medida por las relaciones sociales. La epistemología social surge entonces como una rama de la epistemología, encargada de (...) investigar los efectos epistémicos de las interacciones sociales y las propiedades epistémicas de los individuos que surgen de sus relaciones con los demás. (shrink)

Russian philosophy has always lived on translations. Difficulties in the process of creating a conceptual language used to be overcome gradually, one by one. Now, in the post-Soviet period after all of the locks had been opened, the accelerated development of Russian culture often causes us to assimilate deconstructivism before constructivism and some newer versions of phenomenology before Husserl. It brings about a cultural paradox which cannot be solved by habitual philosophical means. My point here is that Russian philology is (...) able to contribute toward finding a way out. The paper aims to justify this idea. (shrink)

For the past half a century, Latin American scholars have been pointing toward the emergence of new social actors as agents of social and political democratization. The first wave of actors was characterized by the emergence of novel agents—mainly, new popular movements—of social transformation. At first, the second wave, epitomized by nongovernmental organizations, was celebrated as the upsurge of a new civil society, but later on, it was the target of harsh criticism. The literature often portrays this development in Latin (...) American civil society as a displacement trend of actors of the first wave by the second wave—“NGOization”—and even denounces new civil society as rootless, depoliticized, and functional to retrenchment. Thus, supposedly, NGOization encumbers social change. The authors argue that NGOization diagnosis is a flawed depiction of change within civil society. Rather than NGOization related to the depoliticization and neoliberalization of civil society, in Mexico City and São Paulo, there has been modernization of organizational ecologies, changes in the functional status of civil society, and interestingly, specialization aimed at shaping public agenda. The authors argue that such specialization, instead of encumbering social change, brings about different repertoires of strategies and skills purposively developed for influencing policy and politics. Their argument relies on comparative systematic evidence. Through network analysis, they examine the organizational ecology of civil society in Mexico City and São Paulo. (shrink)

The article deals with the role and significance of value-semantic reflection concerning teachers' professional positions. The purpose of study to reveal the strategy for the implementation of upbringing technologies for solving the problems of spiritual and moral formation of subjects of education. The complex picture of systemic ideas about a person, the nonlinearity of his formation leads to attempts to simplify technological solutions, which contradicts the essence of the individual's spiritual and moral upbringing. The scientific novelty lies in the description (...) of the function of value-semantic reflection in relation to the content of the teacher's professional position. As a result, the author proposes an algorithm for the application of educational technologies based on the systemic value-semantic reflection of the teacher's professional position. (shrink)

The aim of this text is to review the 2016 book by Reece Jones Violent Borders. Refugees and the Right to Move. In the book, the author presents how borders, fences, and walls reinforce social, political, and economic exclusion of many people, especially migrants and refugees. Jones argues that the way of creating borders should and must be changed since it deprives many individuals of the right to move freely.

This study analyses of the Living Memorial: a counter-monumental installation located since 2014 in the highly contested Szabadság (‘Liberty’) Square in central Budapest, Hungary. The focus on the LM allows showcasing it as a unique type of commemorative installation that not only contests the current Hungarian top-down, hegemonic narrations and practices of memory but also counteracts the country’s politicised and ideologised narrations of the past. The LM is explored as a dialogical ‘nexus’ of, on the one hand, individual, lived experiences (...) of the Holocaust in Hungary in 1944–45 and, on the other, of the wider historical and contemporary socio-historical narratives as well as commemorating practices. Presented in the article – and set against the wider input from memory and commemoration research – the systematic, discourse-ethnographic analysis of the Living Memorial links its discursive and visual as well as spatial aspects with the exploration of various types of spectator engagement. In doing so, the article connects the wider context of memory and commemoration in the national and city spaces – and specifically in the often strongly politicised capital milieus – to the specific, localised contexts of ‘commemorative battlegrounds’ wherein ‘official’ displays of memory clash with, and are opposed by, their bottom-up, counterhegemonic contestations. (shrink)