Astrobiocentrism is a vision that places us in a scenario of confirmation of life in the universe, either as a second genesis or as an expansion of humanity in space. It manages to raise consistent arguments in relation to questions such as what would happen to knowledge if life were confirmed in the universe, how would this change the way we understand our place in the cosmos? Astrobiocentrism raises a series of reflections in the context of confirmed discovery, and it (...) develops concepts that work directly with what would happen after irrefutable evidence has been obtained that we are not alone in space. Unlike biocentrism or ecocentrism, the astrobiocentric view is not limited to the Earth-centric perspective, and for it incorporates a multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary understanding. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to make a reflection on the astrobiocentric issues related to the challenges and problems of the discovery of life in the universe and the expansion of mankind into space. Here we explore some aspects of the transition from biogeocentrism to astrobiocentrism, astrobiosemiotics, homo mensura, moral community, planetary sustainability and astrotheology. (shrink)

La astrobioética es el estudio de las implicancias éticas de la búsqueda de vida en el universo. En esta constante, el ser humano trata de encontrar una respuesta a la pregunta milenaria sobre si estamos o no solos en el universo. Sin embargo, existen retos éticos que debemos afrontar si alguna vez llegamos a dar con esta respuesta, desde saber qué hacer si acaso encontramos vida microbiana en un planeta, hasta la de nuestra actitud frente a una posible detección de (...) vida inteligente. No importa qué forma de vida sea, existirá una reacción por parte de nosotros, y ello no se limitará a una cuestión meramente tecnológica. ¿Necesitaremos crear zonas de protección planetaria para posibles formas de vida microbiana extraterrestre?, ¿tendremos que desarrollar formas actualizadas de empatía para el cuidado preventivo de vida extraterrestre? Además, la astrobioética también aborda la problemática del futuro de la humanidad en el universo, la consideración de nosotros como especie multi e interplanetaria. ¿Será el hecho de convertirnos en una especie multiplanetaria la respuesta a los problemas éticos humanos?, ¿tendrán más voz los países con mayor influencia los que determinen finalmente cuál código ético interplanetario deberíamos desarrollar? Esta y otras cuestiones son las que reflejan algunas de las reflexiones astrobioéticas en torno a la búsqueda y expansión de la vida en el universo. (shrink)

Pensar epistémico, educación popular e investigación participativa es un testimonio intelectual acerca de tres figuras emblemáticas del pensamiento crítico latinoamericano: Orlando Fals Borda, Paulo Freire y Hugo Zemelman. Alfonso Torres Carrillo, educador popular colombiano, expone su propia interpretación, nutrida por el diálogo con estos tres pensadores, sobre la vigencia (y trascendencia) de sus propuestas críticas y de acción social. Redimensiona, así, estas tres vertientes teóricas y metodológicas en América Latina: el pensar epistémico, la educación popular y el modelo (...) de la investigación participativa. Acerca del autor: Alfonso Torres Carrillo. Educador popular e investigador social colombiano. Profesor del Departamento de Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Pedagógica Nacional. Magíster en Historia (Universidad Nacional de Colombia) y doctor en Estudios Latinoamericanos (UNAM, México), es autor de varios libros y numerosos artículos sobre educación popular, movimientos sociales e investigación alternativa. (shrink)

IntroductionRheumatologists are the primary healthcare professionals responsible for patients with rheumatic diseases and should acquire medical ethical competencies, such as the informed consent process (ICP). The objective clinical structured examination is a valuable tool for assessing clinical competencies. We report the performance of 90 rheumatologist trainees participating in a station designed to evaluate the ICP during the 2018 and 2019 national accreditations.MethodsThe station was validated and represented a medical encounter in which the rheumatologist informed a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus (...) with clinically active nephritis about renal biopsy. A trained patient–actor and an evaluator were instructed to assess ICP skills (with a focus on kidney biopsy benefits, how the biopsy is done and potential complications) in obtaining formal informed consent, delivering bad news and overall communication with patients. The evaluator used a tailored checklist and form.ResultsCandidate performance varied with ICP content and was superior for potential benefit information (achieved by 98.9% of the candidates) but significantly reduced for potential complications (37.8%) and biopsy description (42.2%). Only 17.8% of the candidates mentioned the legal perspective of ICP. Death (as a potential complication) was omitted by the majority of the candidates (93.3%); after the patient–actor challenged candidates, only 57.1% of them gave a clear and positive answer. Evaluators frequently rated candidate communications skills as superior (≥80%), but ≥1 negative aspect was identified in 69% of the candidates.ConclusionsEthical competencies are mandatory for professional rheumatologists. It seems necessary to include an ethics competency framework in the curriculum throughout the rheumatology residency. (shrink)

Unfounded—conspiracy and health—beliefs about COVID-19 have accompanied the pandemic worldwide. Here, we examined cross-nationally the structure and correlates of these beliefs with an 8-item scale, using a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. We obtained a two-factor model of unfounded (conspiracy and health) beliefs with good internal structure (average CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.05, SRMR = 0.04), but a high correlation between the two factors (average latent factor correlation = 0.57). This model was replicable across 50 countries (total N = 13,579), (...) as evidenced by metric invariance between countries (CFI = 0.96, RMSEA = 0.06, SRMS = 0.07) as well as scalar invariance across genders (CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMS = 0.03) and educational levels (CFI = 0.98, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMS = 0.03). Also, lower levels of education, more fear of COVID-19, and more cynicism were weakly associated with stronger conspiracy and health beliefs. The study contributes to knowledge about the structure of unfounded beliefs, and reveals the potential relevance of affective (i.e., fear of COVID-19) and cognitive (i.e., cynicism) factors along with demographics, in endorsing such beliefs. In summary, we obtained cross-cultural evidence for the distinctiveness of unfounded conspiracy and health beliefs about COVID-19 in terms of their structure and correlates. (shrink)

The purpose of this research is the analysis of a specific cultural and political tension, through two decisive concepts: imagocracy and imagomaquia. Our aim is to define the political battlefield in the arena of audiovisual communication. In the case of Latin America, we have identified two significant moments, in which the popular audiovisual strategies had crucial importance. Our material of research has been both the New Latin American Cinema and the sociology of the decolonial image. We have studied them in (...) depth in order to define the effectiveness of popular audiovisual strategies as nuclei of creation and aesthetic-political resistance, which opposes the hegemonic audiovisual order. (shrink)

Filósofos como Marcuse han subrayado las propiedades liberadoras del quehacer artístico. Pero si hemos de pensar el arte como el Gran Rechazo, es necesario mostrar qué rechaza el arte y con qué busca sustituirlo. Respecto a estas preguntas, existen dos respuestas antagónicas. Mientras una busca en la experiencia artística rechazar lo dado en nombre de una verdad intemporal, la otra también reniega de lo dado, pero admite el carácter provisorio de toda verdad. Aunque en apariencia sutil, esta distinción es sustancial. (...) A partir de una lectura de Platón, muestro por qué en la primera posición no hay cabida para lo humano, y por qué de ella se desprenden implicaciones totalitarias. Para caracterizar a la segunda posición, me sirvo de la concepción estética de Octavio Paz y de la propuesta escultórica de Alexander Calder. Ambas propuestas permiten conciliar la insatisfacción que palpita en el arte con la alteridad que caracteriza a lo humano. (shrink)

The volume is divided into three sections.

Many of the doctrines expounded by Alfonso de la Torre have found their inspiration in Maimonides’s Guide of the Perplexed and, indirectly, in some Arab authors. Mention must be made of the Maimonidean doctrine of prophecy and that of his predecessor the Arabic philosopher al-Fârâbî. It is also indicated that some of Avicenna’s works could have influenced both Maimonides and Alfonso.

The author of the Visión deleytable practiced the ironic-esoteric art of writing. This article demonstrates basically two thesis: Alfonso de la Torre was without question a Jewish writer, and his books constitutes a magnificent and insuperable expression of literary and philosophical marranism. Alfonso de la Torre was a Jewish master of the secret and irony. Marranism and secret are likewise both touchstone in Maimonides’ thought, whose influence in Alfonso de la Torre’s work became decisive, mostly regarding the (...) philosophical-political sphere. For these reasons, this article proves that the author of Visión deleytable, not only was a perfect connoisseur of Guide for the Perplexed ; the influence of the Sefardí reaches further. Alfonso de la Torre’s book incorporates other Maimonides’ books like The Art of Logic, Epistle about forced conversio n or Epistle to Yemen. (shrink)

A lexicon of Hebrew terms and their Romance equivalents from Maimónides’ treatise on logic and philosophy, al-Maqālah fi-ṣināʻat al-manṭiq, circulated in Hebrew aljamiado among Jews and conversos immersed in 15th-century humanism. This lexicon is one of several texts included in a manuscript which also includes literary works by converso authors such as Alfonso de la Torre’s Visión deleytable and Alfonso de Cartagena’s translation of sentenciae by Seneca, as well as three other philosophical lexicons. This collection of texts recorded (...) in MS Parma 2666 reveals that 15th-century Jews and/or conversos –the only people capable of reading the Hebrew aljamiado– read and interpreted De la Torre’s Visión in the context of the Judeo-Arabic philosophical tradition, which is also the basis for Maimónides’ Manṭiq, available in Hebrew and Latin translations. In this article I examine how the philosophic vocabulary developed in al-Manṭiq, accessible in Romance in the lexicons in MS Parma 2666, reflects the Maimonidean epistemology as it survived and developed among 15th-century Jewish and converso readers of the Visión deleytable. (shrink)

Alfonso de la Torre’s Visión deleitable was one of the most read works during the second half of the 15th century and its interest carried on until the Enlightenment, which allows us to reflect on the foundations of a critical text and review that inventory of interests that clarify us many aspects about the aesthetic and intellectual positioning for more than two centuries. With regard to the handwritten documentation, we have about twenty manuscripts in almost all the peninsular linguistic (...) variants of the 15th century, apart from five incunabula, one in Catalan and four in Castilian, and several editions printed during the 16th century, even one in Italian, which attests to the great demand obtained by the work of the Bachiller. (shrink)

“Llega a ser el que eres”, lema de Píndaro, es la nota final que unifica filosofía y biografía en Ortega porque actúa como vínculo, a la vez ético y vital, entre el yo y el mundo. Dicho vínculo se llama técnicamente “vocación”, y en la filosofía tardía de Ortega es la única fuente de sentido de la propia vida. La vocación decisiva de Ortega fue la intelectual o filosófica, en el sentido socrático-platónico, no la del “intelectual” como figura que interviene (...) en asuntos públicos, aunque asumiera ese papel con notable intensidad hasta 1932 o 1933. Desde que la Guerra Civil española estalla decidió no ma- nifestarse sobre temas políticos. Uno de los textos que más a fondo reflexiona sobre la condición del intelectual en el doble sentido indicado fue “El intelectual y el otro” (1940), que dialoga dramáticamente con la circunstancia argentina en la que y para la que fue escrito, pero que tuvo repercusiones en el mundo del exilio republi- cano en la América hispana, especialmente en México. (shrink)

In this chapter I will present, in a general way, Millikan's biosemantic theory of the phenomenon of intentionality. For this purpose, the text will take the following path. First, I will present the problem of intentionality and an overview of the dominant theories of intentional content during the twentieth century and part of the twenty-first century. Then, I will present a general version of Millikan's biosemantic theory, appearing in 1984, which will allow us to see what the relevance and originality (...) of his proposal consists in. Finally, in keeping with one of the central purposes of Las filósofas que nos formaron, I will share a brief interview that Millikan very kindly agreed to give for this publication, in which she tells us some non-theoretical aspects of her history as a philosopher. (shrink)

Educating students for democratic life requires teachers to make difficult judgment calls about whether controversial issues are appropriate for directive teaching (i.e., teaching that attempts to persuade students to adopt a particular view about the thing being taught). To help educators make these decisions, theorists have proposed criteria for systematically differentiating between issues that do and do not qualify for directive teaching. Unfortunately, the epistemic environment of political polarization degrades educators' abilities to reliably assess whether a broad class of politically (...) contested issues meet these criteria for directive teaching. In this paper Eric Torres argues that, while making judgments about whether individual cases warrant directive teaching remains essential and inevitable, educators can best address this problem by engaging in a practice of epistemic refocusing that makes the conditions of educators' own deliberations salient to students, thereby hedging against the effects of bad calls about which issues to teach directively while simultaneously illuminating the constraints of polarization on political cognition, an awareness that is essential to healthy democratic participation in the twenty-first century. (shrink)

In this paper, I argue that descriptive information associated with concepts plays a relevant role in the performance of different cognitive tasks, as suggested by Descriptivist Theories of Concepts (DTC). However, I argue that it does not follow that such information determines the extension of concepts, as also suggested by DTC. In support of these claims, I present an analysis of empirical evidence offered by cases of semantic dementia. According to this interpretation of such evidence, the information associated with concepts (...) is part of the cognitive content of concepts. It is involved in different cognitive tasks, but such evidence does not support the thesis that it is possible to determine the intentional content, i.e., the extension of a concept from the cognitive content, since to do so would face the objection of ignorance. (shrink)

El tema que trata este libro persigue dos objetivos principales. Por una parte, estudiar los saberes en el Renacimiento y en el Barroco, acercándose, entre otros autores, a Werner Rolewinck, Alfonso de la Torre, Pico de la Mirándola, Tomás Moro, Francisco de Vitoria y la escolástica, el Brocense, Montaigne, Descartes-San Agustín, Sebastián Izquierdo, Hobbes, hasta llegar a Leibniz. Y, por otra, elaborar una teoría de los saberes, esto es, considerarlos como modelos de significación y de ordenación del mundo, que (...) van configurando Europa y la modernidad europea. Así este libro reconstruye la historia de las variaciones de un discurso, el de los saberes en general y de sus disciplinas en particular. Muestra ese incesante esfuerzo por ordenar y comprender la realidad, que acabará sustituyendo un modelo teológico, o relaborando sus fundamentos, al ir pasando a primer plano la existencia, el sujeto moderno, encarnada en hombres concretos de «carne y hueso», con nombre y rostro. Y expresa la ensoñación de Europa, que a través de los mismos, fue buscando y ensayando: la concordia racional y mejor república que cabía esperar. (shrink)

This paper offers a renewed construction grammar analysis of linguistic constructions in a diachronic perspective. The present theory, termedAgentive Cognitive Construction Grammar(AgCCxG), is informed byactive inference(AIF), a process theory for the comprehension of intelligent agency. AgCCxG defends the idea that language bear traces of non-linguistic, bodily-acquired information that reflects sémiotico-biological processes of energy exchange and conservation. One of the major claims of the paper is that embodied cognition has evolved to facilitate ontogenic mental alignment among humans. This is demonstrated by (...) the results of a corpus study in which the patterns of association between verbs, the particle UP and argument structure in Old and Middle English have been studied. The conclusion is that, similar to biological systems, the linguistic sign system displays patterns of equilibrium and non-equilibrium. In other words, while in Old English usage near equilibrium was reached through the use of a conservative set of constructional semiotic templates (attachment patterns), associated with motor modalities, Middle English displays high rates of randomness resulting in a less stable, yet distinct, system of constructional attachment. (shrink)

El presente artículo realiza una lectura de la Visión Deleytable de Alfonso de la Torre cuyo objetivo es poner de manifi esto los distintos planos intelectuales que en ella se superponen. Entre ellos destaca la presencia de una forma de racionalidad “más allá de los límites de lo racional”, que es analizada críticamente desde un diálogo comparativo de la obra con el pensamiento de las dos autoridades fundamentales cuya referencia exige: Maimónides, de cuya Guía de perplejos es en gran (...) medida deudora; Santo Tomás de Aquino, cuya articulación de las relaciones fe-razón ignora de modo premeditado o substituye. (shrink)

En la Visión Deleytable encontramos la reivindicación de un racionalismo de inspiración maimonidiana y el despliegue de una amplia amalgama de saberes. Sin embargo, una pulsión de autolimitación racional recorre también la obra, una predisposición notable hacia lo esotérico y lo críptico, lo numinoso y lo arcano. Contrapunto de la vocación racionalizadora de la Visión, es esta una pulsión que se alimenta de la propia idiosincrasia de Alfonso de la Torre, de factores epocales, pero, sobre todo, de una tradición (...) cultural de la que es receptor, a la que se pliega gustoso y que cruza transversalmente la obra. Nos proponemos, en el presente artículo, una lectura de algunos de los ejemplos que mejor representan este polo de racionalidad invertida presente en esta obra excepcional. (shrink)

This commentary focuses on the notion of ‘epistemic community’ and its role in underpinning the general argument that Karen Frost-Arnold presents in Who Should You Be Online? (OUP, 2023). The first section presents the general argument of WSYBO, outlining the general structure of the book and its central concepts. In the second section, three possible senses of ‘epistemic community’ are distinguished – systemic, aggregate and group-oriented. The third section explores tensions around a variety of group-oriented epistemic community. It will address (...) two ways in which certain closed epistemic communities organized around a shared identity can deviate from the epistemic ideals that guide Frost-Arnold's project. Some enclosed epistemic communities can be organized around exclusionary dynamics. Other enclosed epistemic communities may organize and grant membership around debates or controversies, affecting the deliberative quality of those debates. The epistemic potential of closed epistemic communities organized around a shared identity depends largely on avoiding these two deviations. En este artículo se analliza el concepto de 'comunidad epistémica' usado por Karen Frost-Arnold en Who Should You Be Online? (OUP, 2023). La primera sección sitúa este concepto en el argumento general del libro. La segunda sección separa tres posibles sentidos de 'comunidad epistémica' - sistémico, agregativo y grupal - e integra esos sentidos en el argumento general desarrollado en WSYBO. La tercera sección se centra en el sentido que considero más problemático, el sentido grupal. Se argumenta que, aunque algunos grupos cerrados contribuyen a generar conocimiento dentro de una comunidad epistémica, esas ventaja opera dentro de un abánico de posibilidades bastante estrecho, limitado tanto por la posibilidad de estructurarse como un grupo excluyentes como por la possibilidad de conformar grupos que vician debates desde dinámicas de pertenencia grupal. This commentary focuses on the notion of ‘epistemic community’ and its role in underpinning the general argument that Karen Frost-Arnold presents in Who Should You Be Online? (OUP, 2023). The first section presents the general argument of WSYBO, outlining the general structure of the book and its central concepts. In the second section, three possible senses of ‘epistemic community’ are distinguished – systemic, aggregate and group-oriented. The third section explores tensions around a variety of group-oriented epistemic community. It will address two ways in which certain closed epistemic communities organized around a shared identity can deviate from the epistemic ideals that guide Frost-Arnold's project. Some enclosed epistemic communities can be organized around exclusionary dynamics. Other enclosed epistemic communities may organize and grant membership around debates or controversies, affecting the deliberative quality of those debates. The epistemic potential of closed epistemic communities organized around a shared identity depends largely on avoiding these two deviations. (shrink)

Hegel critica la falta de consecuencia de la teología cristiana tradicional por hacer de Diosalgo inaccesible, abstracto, desligado de la realidad finita, y por aceptar la facticidad de laconciencia religiosa como una postura alienada, que no lucha por la transformación de larealidad. Pero la racionalización de la fe cristiana introducida por el reduccionismo deHegel es desenmascarada por la teología consciente de que el discurso de la filosofía sobrela religión elimina el elemento de misterio y relación interpersonal que es constitutivo dela (...) experiencia religiosa cristiana. La fe cuestiona todo discurso sobre Dios. (shrink)

The purpose of this essay is to tackle the concerns brought up by Schopenhauer in his aesthetics and demonstrate a necessary relationship between human activity and the work of art, as well as how the latter might reframe and "rescue" man from his suffering condition, at least for some time. In this regard, we will start with his examination of the concept of the Idea, which was inspired by Plato's mold as a depiction of the Essence – or the Will (...) -, and how the knowledge through art is the only way to attain it. From now on, poetry, particularly in tragic forms, represents the greatest degree of knowledge, being capable of lifting man to the "Idea of humanity," as he refers to it, for reflecting more clearly the impetus of the Will, the foundation of the world. In this way, we will explore the tragic poem of T.S Eliot, The Hollow Men, through a Schopenhauerian lens to determine how he achieves the concept of humanity, in a symbiotic relationship between ethics and aesthetics, philosophy and poetry; the knowledge of mankind to take care of the self. (shrink)

In Visión Deleytable, after explaining the absurdities and contradictions contained in several opinions on providence, Sabieza declares that it will be revealed the one she considers true, but then she argues that all they are partly true. Our aim in this paper is to prove that, in the study of the contradictions found in the Prologue of Maimonides’ Guide of the Perplexed, as well as in the various conceptions of God that coexist in this work, and even in Rabbinical Literature, (...) is traceable in nuce a Kabbalistic doctrine that could foreshadow Alfonso de la Torre’s conception of providence, namely, that truth is in multiplicity merely ‘from the perspective of the recipients’. (shrink)

En el contexto de los riesgos generados por la creciente aplicación de las neurotecnologías en el cerebro humano, se destaca la aparición de un nuevo derecho conocido como la libertad cognitiva, que se constituye como la libertad de las personas a tomar sus propias decisiones sin la interferencia de las neurotecnologías en su cerebro. El surgir de este nuevo derecho ha traído consigo profundas reflexiones éticas y jurídicas. En ese marco, desde un enfoque de derechos humanos, existen diversos argumentos que (...) reconocen, o no, la factibilidad de reconocer a este nuevo derecho en la categoría de un derecho humano y/o fundamental. (shrink)

The aim of the present study was to determine statistical differences in a set of badminton competition matches in five different modalities with regard to competition level (Group Phase versus Eliminatory Phase). Data from 453 sets (125 in men’s singles; 108 sets in women’s singles; 77 sets in men’s doubles; 73 in women’s doubles and 70 in mixed doubles) from the RIO 2016 Olympics Games were recorded and classified in two groups of variables to analyse variables related to match (5) (...) and set (15). A descriptive analysis and univariate test (Mann Whitney U) for non-parametric data were conducted. The results show in men’s and women’s singles all the variables related to match were higher in the Elimination Phase than in the Group Phase (p<0.01). In Sets 1 and 3, the longest set duration, rally and average rally were found in the Elimination Phase than Group Stage (p<0.05). In women’s singles, these differences were also recorded in Set 2. For doubles, the results are more stable among groups. Men’s doubles had a longer duration of the match and set (set 1 and set 2) (p<0.01), and also scored highest for average rally strokes (set 1 and set 3) (p<0.05) and shuttles used in the Elimination Phase versus the Group Phase along the match (p<0.01). In women’s doubles, more shuttles were used in a match in the Elimination than in the Group Phase. Moreover, the same results are established for Set 2, including for average rally. Mixed doubles saw no match going to three sets. However, the greatest differences showed a longer rally and average rally being registered in the Elimination than in the Group Phase. In conclusion, the timing factors of the badminton singles and doubles games were different in the Elimination and Group Phases. This information may help players and coaches prepare and administer different types of workouts or, more specifically, competition schedules adapted to the characteristics of modern badminton. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Semiotica Jahrgang: 2018 Heft: 225 Seiten: 353-382.