El artículo aborda la pregunta por la tarea de la memoria histórica en Colombia desde una perspectiva filosófica, concentrada en los retos epistemológicos y éticos derivados de la elaboración e implementación de iniciativas de memoria en contex- tos de experiencia traumática. Se busca presentar y analizar estos retos desde las consecuencias conceptuales que los contextos traumáticos le plantean a los procesos de elaboración de memoria y a la práctica de escucha de testimonios provenientes de experiencias traumáticas. Se examinan los modos (...) para comprender, desde la filosofía, un aspecto de la tarea de la memoria que puede pasar desapercibido, con el propósito de imaginar e identificar cursos de acción y estrategias de escucha más responsables, inclusivas y plurales. (shrink)

This essay focuses on the intriguing relationship between mathematics and physical phenomena, arguing that the brain uses a single spatiotemporal- causal objective framework in order to characterize and manipulate basic external data and internal physical and emotional reactive information, into more complex thought and knowledge. It is proposed that multiple hierarchical permutations of this single format eventually give rise to increasingly precise visceral meaning. The main thesis overcomes the epistemological complexities of the Frame Problem by asserting that the primal frame (...) of reference – within which chaotic conscious thought ultimately emerges – is essentially a synchronous representation of the four macro properties of existence plus the genetically derived causal objective, and the embodied physical and emotional reactions that even the lowliest cognitive organisms are born with, and which they automatically express as they struggle to exist within an ever-changing and often hostile environment. -/-. (shrink)

An important milestone of 20th Century philosophy was the rise of personalism. After the crimes and atrocities against millions of human beings in two World Wars, especially the Second, some philosophers and other thinkers began to seek arguments showing the value of each human being, to expose and denounce the folly of political structures that violate the inalienable rights of the individual person. -/- Karol Wojtyla appeals to the ancient concept of 'person' to emphasize the particular value of each human (...) being. The person is unique because of their subjectivity by which they possesses an unrepeatable interior world in the history of humanity. Their rational nature grants them a special character among living beings, among which is the transcendence to the infinite. Wojtyla magisterially shows how each human being's personhood is rooted in a conscious and free subjectivity, which is marked also by personal and social responsibility. Wojtyla's original philosophical analysis takes for its starting point the human act, in which consciousness and experience consolidate voluntary choices, which are objectively efficacious. By their acts, the person determines their own personhood. This self-dominion manifests the person and enables them to live together in a community in which one's neighbor can be a companion on the voyage of life. -/- This work provides a clear guide to Karol Wojtyla's principal philosophical work, Person and Act, rigorously analyzing the meaning that the author intended in his exposition. An important feature of the work is that the authors rely on the original Polish text, Osoba i czyn, as well as the best translations into Italian and Spanish, rather than on a flawed and sometimes misleading English edition of the work. -/- Besides the analysis of Wojtyla's masterwork, this volume offers three chapters examining the impact of Wojtyla's anthropology on the relationship between faith and reason. (shrink)

In this article I address Schiller’s first response in his Kallias Briefe or Concerning the Beautiful, Letters to Gottfried Körner to Kant’s analysis of the beautiful in the first part of the Critique of Judgment. My main intention in the paper is to investigate Schiller’s emphasis on the notion of resistance (Widerstand) in his reading of Kant’s concept of beauty, and to ask how does this relate to Schiller’s own approach to aesthetics as an ethico-political realm. I am particularly interested (...) in the turn, in Schiller’s case, from Kant’s critique of aesthetics to the idea of aesthetics as critique. (shrink)

We make a first attempt to axiomatically formulate the Montevideo interpretation of quantum mechanics. In this interpretation environmental decoherence is supplemented with loss of coherence due to the use of realistic clocks to measure time to solve the measurement problem. The resulting formulation is framed entirely in terms of quantum objects without having to invoke the existence of measurable classical quantities like the time in ordinary quantum mechanics. The formulation eliminates any privileged role to the measurement process giving an objective (...) definition of when an event occurs in a system. (shrink)

Disconcerting findings from nascent sociological research suggest that Western youth are developing subjectivities that reflect neoliberal discursive formations of self-interest, competitiveness, and materialism. However, propositions about: (1) the cognitive-affective mechanisms that explain how youth acquire and reproduce neoliberal ideology, or (2) the dispositions and behaviours that typify a neoliberal subject, remain vague. Therefore, this article provides a novel conceptualization of these two psychosocial facets that can help advance understandings and investigations of the emerging modes and societal consequences of neoliberal subjectification, (...) Specifically, it reviews major theoretical tenets from the respective literatures on neurocognitive development, social cognition, neoliberalism, and neoliberal hegemony. It then synthesizes these tenets within a modified habitus formulation to sketch a testable cognitive-sociological model to explain and explore some of the distinct dispositional values, attitudes, and practices that youth raised in societies with institutionally and culturally prevalent neoliberal norms and discourses potentially may develop and enact. (shrink)

We study some operations that may be defined using the minimum operator in the context of a Heyting algebra. Our motivation comes from the fact that 1) already known compatible operations, such as the successor by Kuznetsov, the minimum dense by Smetanich and the operation G by Gabbay may be defined in this way, though almost never explicitly noted in the literature; 2) defining operations in this way is equivalent, from a logical point of view, to two clauses, one corresponding (...) to an introduction rule and the other to an elimination rule, thus providing a manageable way to deal with these operations. Our main result is negative: all operations that arise turn out to be Heyting terms or the mentioned already known operations or operations interdefinable with them. However, it should be noted that some of the operations that arise may exist even if the known operations do not. We also study the extension of Priestley duality to Heyting algebras enriched with the new operations. (shrink)

How does violence shape citizens’ preferences for conflict termination? The existing literature has argued that violence either begets sympathy for more violence or drives support for making peace. Focusing on the 2016 Colombian Peace Agreement, this article finds that victimhood dissociation strongly shapes these preferences. With victimhood dissociation, a discrepancy exists between objective and subjective victimization, and the effect of violence on peace attitudes depends on citizens’ subjective interpretations of their personal experiences of violence. Citizens who do not experience violence (...) often see themselves as victims of the conflict and vice versa. Victimhood dissociation is linked to cultural stereotypes of victimhood as portrayed in elite narratives concerning the conflict. In Colombia, political leaders framed victimhood around rurality, business entrepreneurship, kidnapping, extortion, and disappearance. In 2016, this widespread narrative was instrumental for politicians opposing the peace agreement. Citizens who disassociated their personal experiences of violence from their self-understanding as victims were instrumental to the failure of the peace plebiscite. (shrink)

In the present paper we study the relationship between the notions of force, cause and subject of motion in Leibniz’s early dynamics. First, we specify the role that the problem of the subject and cause of motion played in the development of his dynamics. Second, we analyze the distinction between force and quantity of motion and the validity and limits of his proof. Third, we study and evaluate the limits of the arguments for establishing that forces are inherent to bodies. (...) Our main goal is to show that between 1678 and 1686 Leibniz dissociates the problem of the subject from the problem of the cause of motion and, furthermore, that even though the problem of establishing that force is inherent to particular bodies played a major role in the discovery of his dynamics, it has no place in its justification. (shrink)

La intuición es un tipo de conocimiento que consiste en captar de modo inmediato la esencia de las cosas y comprenderlas de forma directa sin llevar a cabo un proceso discursivo. Algunas filosofías rechazan este modo de conocer por ser falible, otros la enmarcan dentro de los fenómenos extrasensoriales e incluso paranormales. En este trabajo se considera la intuición en Jacques Maritain, no en su aspecto de fenómeno sobrenatural, sino como una vía de aprehensión de la realidad adquirida por métodos (...) ordinarios de conocimiento que nos revelan aspectos a los que no podemos llegar de otra forma. (shrink)

We argue that it is fundamentally impossible to recover information about quantum superpositions when a quantum system has interacted with a sufficiently large number of degrees of freedom of the environment. This is due to the fact that gravity imposes fundamental limitations on how accurate measurements can be. This leads to the notion of undecidability: there is no way to tell, due to fundamental limitations, if a quantum system evolved unitarily or suffered wavefunction collapse. This in turn provides a solution (...) to the problem of outcomes in quantum measurement by providing a sharp criterion for defining when an event has taken place. We analyze in detail in examples two situations in which in principle one could recover information about quantum coherence: a) “revivals” of coherence in the interaction of a system with the measurement apparatus and the environment and b) the measurement of global observables of the system plus apparatus plus environment. We show in the examples that the fundamental limitations due to gravity and quantum mechanics in measurement prevent both revivals from occurring and the measurement of global observables. It can therefore be argued that the emerging picture provides a complete resolution to the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. (shrink)

Stem cell policy in the United States is an amalgam of federal and state policies. The scientific development of human pluripotent embryonic stem cells triggered a contentious national stem cell policy debate during the administration of President George W. Bush. The Bush “compromise” that allowed federal funding to study only a very limited number of ESC derived cell lines did not satisfy either the researchers or the patient advocates who saw great medical potential being stifled. Neither more restrictive legislation nor (...) expansion of federal funding proved politically possible and the federal impasse opened the door for a variety of state-based experiments. In 2004, California became the largest and most influential state venture into stem cell research by passing “Prop 71,” a voter initiative that created a new stem cell agency and funded it with $3 billion. Several states followed suit with similar programs to protect the right of investigators to do stem cell research and in some cases to invest state funding in such projects. Other states devised legislation to restrict stem cell research and in five states, criminal penalties were included. Thus, the US stem cell policy is a patchwork of multiple, often conflicting, state and federal policies. (shrink)

In reflection, emotions have been relegated to the field of subjectivity. A long time ago they were considered as an object of psychology, devoid of any interest for philosophical analysis. Thus, for scientific positivism and ethical emotivism, emotions lack epistemic value. Such convictions started to crumble after the studies pursued by thinkers such as Richard Rorty, Martha Nussbaum or Jon Elster. This paper highlights the importance of emotions for philosophy, referring to moral and political learning based on Colombian experiences It (...) also evaluates the importance of moral emotions in order to facilitate social transformation and to contribute to the emancipatory intentions of the Illustration. Keywords: emotions. (shrink)

A ciência experimental se concentra de forma peculiar, embora não exclusiva, no exame dos componentes materiais presentes na natureza e em suas relações quantitativas. Esta abordagem tem sido extremamente bem-sucedida, mesmo que haja lacunas e perplexidades a serem superadas, que, por sinal, também fazem parte do modus operandi da investigação experimental. Entretanto, se esta investigação é necessária para compreender a totalidade da natureza, ela já não é suficiente, o que é também corroborado por um sentimento de incompletude presente nas teorias. (...) Assim, existem razões justificáveis para se investigar a presença de uma estrutura não conceptualizável apenas em termos quantitativos chamada Realidade Velada pelo físico Bernard d'Espagnat, que pode ser assimilada à composição transcendental clássica de ser e essência, desde que este último elemento da composição, a essência, seja equivalente à estrutura forma-matéria, ou estrutura hilemórfica (aqui, matéria deve ser assimilada à matéria prima). Ora, a existência de tal estrutura reposicionaria a filosofia da natureza como conhecimento complementar ao da ciência experimental no sentido de que ele daria uma contribuição metafísica qualitativa relevante à pesquisa do que está além do limiar essencialmente quantitativo, conquanto necessário, oferecido pelas ciências da natureza. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se estudia la prueba a priori de Leibniz en favor de la medición de las fuerzas en su correspondencia con De Volder. El objetivo general es demostrar que este argumento no tiene privilegio para entender la noción leibniziana de acción primitiva de las sustancias. En primer lugar, se analiza el contexto histórico y conceptual que permite comprender dicha prueba a priori. En particular, se explica por qué Leibniz moviliza este argumento y se especifican las nociones allí (...) utilizadas, tales como la de fuerza, acción y acción formal. En segundo lugar, se estudia la estructura de la prueba para analizar su validez. Para ello, se presentan los principales problemas que fueron objeto de las críticas de De Volder y se muestra bajo qué supuesto la prueba es sólida. En tercer lugar, se examina el alcance de esta prueba en relación con el argumento a posteriori y se argumenta que no tiene ninguna ventaja en lo que concierne a la comprensión de la metafísica de Leibniz. (shrink)

There is growing worldwide concern that the rampant spread of digital fake news via new media technologies is detrimentally impacting Democratic elections. However, the actual influence of this recent Internet phenomenon on electoral decisions has not been directly examined. Accordingly, this study tested the effects of attention to DFN on readers’ Presidential candidate preferences via an experimental web-survey administered to a cross-sectional American sample. Results showed no main effect of exposure to DFN on participants’ candidate evaluations or vote choice. However, (...) the perceived believability of DFN about the Democratic candidate negatively mediated evaluations of that candidate—especially amongst far-right ideologues. These results suggest that DFN may at worst reinforce the partisan dispositions of mostly politically conservative Internet users, but does not cause or induce conversions in these dispositions. Overall, this study contributes novel experimental evidence, indicating that the potential electoral impact of DFN, although concerning, is strongly conditional on a reciprocal interaction between message receptibility and a pre-existing right-wing ideological orientation. The said impact is, therefore, likely narrow in scope. (shrink)

Originally published in Mexico in 1970, _Indigenous and Popular Thinking in América _is the first book by the Argentine philosopher Rodolfo Kusch to be translated into English. At its core is a binary created by colonization and the devaluation of indigenous practices and cosmologies: an opposition between the technologies and rationalities of European modernity and the popular mode of thinking, which is deeply tied to Indian ways of knowing and being. Arguing that this binary cuts through América, Kusch seeks (...) to identify and recover the indigenous and popular way of thinking, which he contends is dismissed or misunderstood by many urban Argentines, including leftist intellectuals. _Indigenous and Popular Thinking in América_ is a record of Kusch's attempt to immerse himself in the indigenous ways of knowing and being. At first glance, his methodology resembles ethnography. He speaks with and observes indigenous people and mestizos in Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina. He questions them about their agricultural practices and economic decisions; he observes rituals; he asks women in the market the meaning of indigenous talismans; he interviews shamans; he describes the spatial arrangement and the contents of shrines, altars, and temples; and he reproduces diagrams of archaeological sites, which he then interprets at length. Yet he does not present a "them" to a putative "us." Instead, he offers an inroad to a way of thinking and being that does not follow the logic or fit into the categories of Western social science and philosophy. In his introduction, Walter D. Mignolo discusses Kusch's work and its relation to that of other twentieth-century intellectuals, Argentine history, and contemporary scholarship on the subaltern and decoloniality. (shrink)

Tras una descripción de las características de nuestra actual cultura tecnocientífica y con ejemplos de su influencia en nuestra sociedad, se pone de manifiesto una tendencia en la educación superior que consiste en eliminar la reflexión acerca de quiénes somos y cómo vivimos en la sociedad. El futuro del conocimiento se orienta hacia una “hipertrofia” tecnológica produciendo una “atrofia” antropológica por dejar de lado “el saber sapiencial” de las Humanidades, sobre todo de la Filosofía, que ayuda a comprender mejor el (...) “todo” y no quedar anclados en “partes” desencajadas. Esto aumentaría las posibilidades de descubrir estrategias adecuadas para corregir muchos de los problemas que estamos viviendo en nuestra era tecnocientífica. (shrink)

En el trabajo evaluamos el impacto que la crítica de Leibniz a los números infinitos tiene en el desarrollo de su metafísica de los cuerpos. Luego de exponer el vínculo que el filósofo alemán traza entre el cuerpo, la extensión y las cantidades infinitas en su período juvenil (1663-1672), analizamos sus reflexiones del período parisino sobre las paradojas de los números infinitos (1672-1676) y argumentamos que la defensa de la inconsistencia de tales números constituye un punto de inflexión en su (...) comprension de los cuerpos y, asimismo, marca el inicio de su ofensiva contra la res extensa.In this paper we study the impact of Leibniz’s critique of infinite numbers in his metaphysics of bodies. After presenting the relation that the German philosopher establishes in his youth between the notions of body, extension and infinite quantities (1672-1673), we analyze his thoughts on the paradoxes of the infinite numbers (1672-1676) and we claim that his defense of the inconsistency of such numbers is an inflexion point in his conception of body and mark the beginning of his offensive against the res extensa. (shrink)

RESUMEN El pensamiento y las prácticas sociales de los atenienses de la Época Clásica se hallaban jerarquizados en favor de los varones, que se consideraban superiores naturalmente y con capacidad y derecho a gobernar en la polis y en la casa. Se muestra cómo el Agamenón de Esquilo cuestiona la naturalización de esta superioridad mediante el personaje de Clitemnestra, quien actúa, piensa y habla como varón, y muestra que matar a un familiar, cambiar de pareja, luchar por el mando se (...) justificaban si lo realizaba Agamenón. ¿Por qué se condenaban estas acciones cuando eran llevadas a cabo por Clitemnestra? ABSTRACT The thought and social practices of Athenians during the Classical period were hierarchized in favor of males, who were considered naturally superior and endowed with the capacity and right to rule the polis and the home. The article shows how Aeschylus' Agamemnon questions the naturalization of that superiority through the character of Clytemnestra, who acts, thinks, and speaks like a man, and shows that killing a family member, changing partners, and fighting for power were justified if Agamemnon did those things. Why were such actions condemned if Clytemnestra carried them out? (shrink)

La intención de este artículo será proponer una lectura tentativa del papel del mesianismo que sea acorde con la centralidad del concepto de experiencia y redención en Walter Benjamin y, al mismo tiempo, que sea capaz de dar con las tensiones teóricas propias de la maceración materialista de su pensamiento, así como la influencia inequívoca de problemas de cuño kantiano en la conformación de la atomización de la experiencia de la modernidad diagnosticada por Benjamin. Para ello, nos fijaremos en una (...) de las últimas y más acabadas modulaciones del concepto de crítica inmanente en la figura del historiador dialéctico tal y como es abordada en El libro de los Pasajes. (shrink)

It is proposed that subconscious retro-predictions in conjunction with brain state update cycles are instrumental in the physiological generation of conscious sensations and perceptions, and in all abstract thought. In this paper the hypothesis is supported by conducting a detailed a re-evaluation of the self-referential statements in Set Theory and Formal Logic known as antinomies. This study concludes that the recursive behavior exhibited by abstract enigmas such as "Russell’s Paradox" is analogous to the oscillations typical of bistable perceptual phenomena.