In this article, I examine the issue of the alleged circularity in the determination of homologies within cladistic analysis. More specifically, I focus on the claims made by the proponents of the dynamic homology approach, regarding the distinction (sometimes made in the literature) between primary and secondary homology. This distinction is sometimes invoked to dissolve the circularity issue, by upholding that characters in a cladistic data matrix have to be only primarily homologous, and thus can be determined independently of phylogenetic (...) hypotheses, by using the classical Owenian criteria (for morphological characters) or via multiple sequence alignment (for sequence data). However, since in the dynamic approach, sequence data can be analyzed without being pre-aligned, proponents have claimed that the distinction between primary and secondary homology has no place within cladistics. I will argue that this is not the case, since cladistic practice within the dynamic framework does presuppose primary homology statements at a higher level. (shrink)

ABSTRACTAutonomous weapons systems pose many challenges in complex battlefield environments. Previous discussions of them have largely focused on technological or policy issues. In contrast, we focus here on the challenge of trust in an AWS. One type of human trust depends only on judgments about the predictability or reliability of the trustee, and so are suitable for all manner of artifacts. However, AWSs that are worthy of the descriptor “autonomous” will not exhibit the required strong predictability in the complex, changing (...) contexts of war. Instead, warfighters need to develop deeper, interpersonal trust that is grounded in understanding the values, beliefs, and dispositions of the AWS. Current acquisition, training, and deployment processes preclude the development of such trust, and so there are currently no routes for a warfighter to develop trust in an AWS. We thus survey three possible changes to current practices in order to facilitate the type of deep trust that is required for appropri... (shrink)

An interesting metatheoretical controversy took place during the 1980’s and 1990’s between pattern and phylogenetic cladists. What was always at stake in the discussion was not how work in systematics should be carried out, but rather how this practice should be metatheoretically interpreted. In this article, we criticize Pearson’s account of the metatheoretical factors at play in this discussion. Following him, we focus on the issue of circularity, and on the role that phylogenetic hypotheses play in the determination of “primary (...) homologies”. Pearson argues that the recognition of primary homologies cannot be achieved without recourse to previous phylogenetic knowledge, and that to claim otherwise is to state that primary homologies are observable. To show why that view would be inadequate, he appeals to Hanson’s views about theory-laden observation, alongside with a specific case study, which allegedly illustrates the more complex relation between observation and theory. We will argue that the pattern cladists’ point is better addressed by taking a quite different approach: instead of thinking in terms of observability, the topic can be tackled by paying attention to the way in which concepts are determined. We will take the notion of T-theoricity from metatheoretical structuralism and show that, once the issue is discussed with the appropriate metatheoretical framework, the alleged counterexample brought up by Pearson is not problematic at all for pattern cladism. (shrink)

In this paper, we examine the issue of the empirical or non-empirical status of philosophical metatheories. In particular, we ask whether a specific type of metatheoretical product, formal reconstructions of scientific theories, can be empirically tested. To answer this, we take Metatheoretical Structuralism as a metatheory and Classical Mechanics as our case studies. We show how classical mechanics can be reconstructed from structuralism. We then present a computer program, called Reconstructor, and show how it can be used to test the (...) adequacy of the reconstruction. Finally, we discuss some philosophical points regarding these tests, namely, the issues of holism, circularity and metatheoretical predictions. (shrink)

Es una opinión extendida que la teoría de la selección natural, tal como fue formulada originalmente por Darwin de manera “cualitativa”, ha sido reemplazada por una versión cuantitativa superior, brindada por la genética de poblaciones. En este artículo se discute contra esa tesis, sosteniendo en cambio que ambas teorías son complementarias, no sucesivas. Para ello, se introduce una línea de argumentación novedosa, que toma su inspiración en la crítica al “inductivismo estrecho” de Hempel. Se sostiene que los genetistas de poblaciones (...) serían incapaces de aplicar exitosamente su teoría sin hipótesis “ecológicas” preconcebidas, provenientes de la teoría darwiniana, que permitan particionar a la población en rasgos selectivamente relevantes. Se enfatiza además que la falla en notar este punto se debe a una mala comprensión de la estructura de la teoría darwiniana y de su ley o principio fundamental. A la luz de una mejor reconstrucción de dicho principio, se reexamina en mayor detalle la relación existente entre ambas teorías. (shrink)

El presente trabajo propone explorar algunas de las alusiones de Tomás de Aquino al Comentario sobre las Categorías de Aristóteles del filósofo neoplatónico Simplicio, con el propósito de mostrar que algunas de las disonancias entre el Comentario de Simplicio y la interpretación que de él hace Tomás pueden deberse a la exégesis de las Categorías que circulaba en la Facultad de Artes de la Universidad de París antes de la traducción de Simplicio por Guillermo de Moerbeke (ca. 1266). El trabajo (...) se enfoca, en particular, en el capítulo 11 de las Categorías y en la primera de las Quaestiones de malo de Tomás, e incluye la discusión de algunas “incongruencias desconcertantes” puestas de relieve por R. Gaskin, traductor inglés del Comentario de Simplicio. (shrink)

Butler, Judith (2022)¿Quina mena de món és aquest?: Fenomenologia i pandèmia Barcelona: Arcàdia, 136 p.ISBN 978-84-124717-2-4.

El presente artículo razona sobre la construcción de la subjetividad de Emma Bovary, situando en el discurso amoroso enunciado por ella los fundamentos de su individualidad, que son profundamente modernos. En paralelo, se efectúa asimismo una lectura social de la insatisfacción permanente que caracteriza al personaje, analizando los aspectos de su sensibilidad que coinciden con la lógica de acumulación perpetua instaurada, también en el plano de la subjetividad, por el sistema de producción capitalista. El objetivo principal es contextualizar sociohistóricamente las (...) problemáticas planteadas en la obra de Flaubert y estimular la reflexión sobre el papel ambivalente de su protagonista. (shrink)

This article explores universal normative bases that could help to shape a workable legal construct that would facilitate a global use of advance directives. Although I believe that advance directives are of universal character, my primary aim in approaching this issue is to remain realistic. I will make three claims. First, I will argue that the principles of autonomy, dignity and informed consent, embodied in the Oviedo Convention and the UNESCO Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, could arguably be regarded (...) as universal bases for the global use of advance directives. Second, I will demonstrate that, despite the apparent consensus of ethical authorities in support of their global use, it is unlikely, for the time being, that such consensus could lead to unqualified legal recognition of advance directives, because of different understandings of the nature of the international rules, meanings of autonomy and dignity which are context‐specific and culture‐specific, and existing imperfections that make advance directives either unworkable or hardly applicable in practice. The third claim suggests that the fact that the concept of the advance directive is not universally shared does not mean that it should not become so, but never as the only option in managing incompetent patients. A way to proceed is to prioritize work on developing higher standards in managing incompetent patients and on progressing towards the realization of universal human rights in the sphere of bioethics, by advocating a universal, legally binding international convention that would outlaw human rights violations in end‐of‐life decision‐making. (shrink)

In a recent book, McShea and Brandon argue that the observed diversity and complexity of life are explainable by a principle they call the “zero-force evolutionary law” or “ZFEL”. Although this principle would be implicit in many explanations given by biologists, it would have never been made explicit. Assuming that this idea is interesting, and that the authors are right, we will discuss the metatheoretical way in which they present said principle, as being a part of probability theory. This allows (...) the authors to claim that probability theory provides the reductive basis for all evolutionary biology. We will defend, in accordance with them, that ZFEL is not a solely biological principle, but not because it is a part of probability theory, but rather because it is a specific version of the principle of common cause. (shrink)

Desde una perspectiva compleja aparecen claros cuestionamientos a los fundamentos y los razonamientos de la Economía Neoclásica (que es lo que se enseña en Chile cuando se enseña Economía), por ejemplo, la noción de emergencia: “el todo es más y menos que la suma de la partes” (Morin, 1981), la sociedad no es sólo un agregado de individuos. El conocimiento es incompleto: no hay información absoluta. Los contextos son determinantes para la comprensión de lo estudiado. Las esferas del conocimiento no (...) están aisladas, surge la necesidad de la transdisciplinariedad. Desde el teorema de la incompletitud de Gödel las demostraciones matemáticas no aseguran la veracidad de los resultados ni la ausencia de subjetividad (además de haber comportamientos, como el humano, que no son reductibles a la lógica matemática). Es necesario replantearse las comprensiones de la Economía y su enseñanza. Diseñar nuevas cátedras de economía que incluyan otros contenidos, metodologías y reflexiones epistemológicas, ya que, dada la complejidad de los tiempos que afrontamos, y la importancia de las decisiones que se toman en nombre de la Economía, no podemos contar con profesionales que cuenten con una visión reduccionista de los fenómenos económicos. (shrink)

James Pattison's argument for the assignment of a duty of humanitarian intervention is interesting and offers a new perspective in the humanitarian intervention debate. However, Pattison's argument suffers from three main problems, each increasingly serious: his definition of success is vague and raises questions about the content of a duty of humanitarian intervention; his consequentialist foundation raises problems of prospective and retrospective judgment; and his intentional omission of the distinction between perfect and imperfect duties leads to conceptual difficulties.

This article explores universal normative bases that could help to shape a workable legal construct that would facilitate a global use of advance directives. Although I believe that advance directives are of universal character, my primary aim in approaching this issue is to remain realistic. I will make three claims. First, I will argue that the principles of autonomy, dignity and informed consent, embodied in the Oviedo Convention and the UNESCO Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, could arguably be regarded (...) as universal bases for the global use of advance directives. Second, I will demonstrate that, despite the apparent consensus of ethical authorities in support of their global use, it is unlikely, for the time being, that such consensus could lead to unqualified legal recognition of advance directives, because of different understandings of the nature of the international rules, meanings of autonomy and dignity which are context-specific and culture-specific, and existing imperfections that make advance directives either unworkable or hardly applicable in practice. The third claim suggests that the fact that the concept of the advance directive is not universally shared does not mean that it should not become so, but never as the only option in managing incompetent patients. A way to proceed is to prioritize work on developing higher standards in managing incompetent patients and on progressing towards the realization of universal human rights in the sphere of bioethics, by advocating a universal, legally binding international convention that would outlaw human rights violations in end-of-life decision-making. (shrink)

Legal acts of the Republic of Lithuania establish several types of material liability of workers engaged in labour (professional) relations: material liability applied pursuant to the Labour Code of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter referred to as the LC) and material liability applied pursuant to the Law on Public Service of the Republic of Lithuania (hereinafter referred to as the LPC). In the present article, theoretical and practical aspects of material liability of Lithuanian public servants for material damage caused are (...) analysed. The authors of the article study the conditions for the application of the material liability and identify the main circumstances that must be determined in applying this type of legal compulsion. Furthermore, the authors investigate the relation between the material and disciplinary liabilities, study the limits of the application of labour law norms (that regulate material liability of employees) and civil law norms (regulating personal civil liability) in professional legal relations, identify the means and procedure for solving disputes arising in the application of the material liability. Practical mistakes in the application of the material liability of public servants and violations are analysed on the basis of a rather sparse case-law of the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania related to the material liability. (shrink)

Мета роботи полягає в аналітиці сучасних когнітивних та філософських досліджень патологічності суб’єкта. За допомогою феноменологічного методу були досліджені онтологічні умови конституювання суб’єкта в філософсько-клінічному дискурсі та смисл його існування. Проте, виявилося, що феноменологія не долає об’єктність фізикалізму, формально стверджуючи унікальність Dasein, але фактично ізолюючи девіантів у межах особистісного внутрішнього простору. У статті використовувалися методи міждисциплінарної епістемології насамперед структурно-семіотичні, які дозволили осмислити матеріали, де традиційна філософська проблематика суб’єкта синтезована із клінічними текстами. Науковою новизною є філософсько-клінічна аналітика патологічності суб’єкта, яка спрямована на (...) елімінацію категоріальної матриці фізикалізму в контексті інтеграції різноспрямованих філософських дискурсів. У діахронічному зрізі філософської традиції визначені діагностичні та терапевтичні стратегії переосмислення метафізики суб’єкта, що утворили предмет парадигмального узагальнення філософсько-клінічного дискурсу у горизонті сучасності. Показана необхідність трансформація концептуалізацій суб’єкта з орієнтованих на власне ствердження та автономію (тобто патологічних суб’єктів) у теорії, які нормальність суб'єкта пов'язують із відповідальністю та турботою про суще. Досліджено, що когнітивістська реставрація біологізму в клінічних теоріях суб’єктивності є симптомом того, що сучасна філософія втратила актуальний зв’язок з дискурсом клініки. Проаналізований філософський дискурс патології суб’єкта, який сформований доробками екзистенціально-феноменологічної традиції та представниками соціокультурної антропології хвороби парадигми. Доведено розуміння вад особистісного розвитку, за виключенням органічних патологій, як вкорінених не в тілесності особистості, а як похідних від системи відносин, у яких даний суб’єкт бере участь. (shrink)

The concept of quasi-cause is a relatively marginal one in the work of Gilles Deleuze, appearing briefly in The Logic of Sense and then Anti-Oedipus three years later. In part because of this marginality – the meagre degree to which it is integrated into the respective metaphysical system of the two works – it provides us with a useful vantage point from which to examine these systems themselves. In particular, a careful exposition of the two forms that the concept of (...) the quasi-cause takes provides us with an aperture on the shifting role of the concepts of the virtual and the intensive in Deleuze's ongoing project. In this paper, I will argue that, through this aperture, it is possible to see the displacement of the virtual in favour of the intensive. In turn, we can characterise Anti-Oedipus as the birth of a fully actualist Deleuzian metaphysics. (shrink)

The present debate over the creation and potential deployment of lethal autonomous weapons, or ‘killer robots’, is garnering more and more attention. Much of the argument revolves around whether such machines would be able to uphold the principle of noncombatant immunity. However, much of the present debate fails to take into consideration the practical realties of contemporary armed conflict, particularly generating military objectives and the adherence to a targeting process. This paper argues that we must look to the targeting process (...) if we are to gain a fuller picture of the consequences of creating or fielding lethal autonomous robots. This paper argues that once we look to how militaries actually create military objectives, and thus identify potential targets, we face an additional problem: the Strategic Robot Problem. The ability to create targeting lists using military doctrine and targeting processes is inherently strategic, and handing this capability over to a machine undermines existing comman.. (shrink)

The propensity account of fitness intends to solve the classical tautologicity issue by identifying fitness with a disposition, the ability to survive and reproduce. As proponents recognized early on, this account requires operational independence from actual reproductive success to avoid circularity and vacuousness charges. They suggested that operational independence is achieved by measuring fitness values through optimality models. Our goal in this article is to develop this suggestion. We show that one plausible procedure by which these independent operationalizations could be (...) thought to take place, and which is in accordance with what is said in the optimality literature, is unsound. We provide two independent lines of reasoning to show this. We then provide a sketch of a more adequate account of the role of optimality models in evolutionary contexts and draw some consequences. (shrink)

From the point of view of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, Raymond Ruyer's work appears to bear out two distinct tendencies of unequal appeal. On the one hand, Ruyer appears to be an anti-Aristotelian thinker of formation, rejecting any hylomorphic account of the production of reality. However, and notably despite his serious commitment to the work of the sciences of his day, he remains wedded to the ultimately conservative Leibnizian principle of closure. Nowhere is this dichotomy more striking than in (...) his account of human society. The aim of this paper is to show how his positive account of form finds a significant and convincing extension in Deleuze and Guattari's notion of social surface or socius in Anti-Oedipus. (shrink)

Jon Roffe shows how Empiricism and Subjectivity is the precursor for some of Deleuze's most well-known philosophical innovations. For those already familiar with Deleuze, he emphasises its novelty within his corpus. And, for all readers, he shows how it outlines Deleuze's powerful and striking theory of subjectivity, and of philosophy itself. Empiricism and Subjectivity is Gilles Deleuze's first book, and yet it is infrequently read and poorly understood. In fact, it constitutes a unique project in its own right, deserving of (...) the same close study that is now widely given to other, more well-known works. (shrink)

Third-party certification is an increasingly prevalent tactic which agrifood activists use to “help” consumers shop ethically, and also to reorganize commodity markets. While consumers embrace the chance to “vote with their dollar,” academics question the potential for labels to foster widespread political, economic, and agroecological change. Yet, despite widespread critique, a mounting body of work appears resigned to accept that certification may be the only option available to activist groups in the context of neoliberal socio-economic orders. At the extreme, Guthman (...) (Antipode 39(3): 457, 2007) posits that “at this political juncture… ‘there is no alternative.” This paper offers a different assessment of third-party certification, and points to interventions that are potentially more influential that are currently available to activist groups. Exploring the evolution of the Non-GMO Project—a novel certification for foods that are reasonably free of genetically engineered (GE) material—I make two arguments. First, I echo the literature’s critical perspective by illustrating how certification projects become vulnerable to industry capture. Reviewing its history and current context, I suggest that the Non-GMO Project would be better suited to helping companies avoid mounting public criticism than to substantially reorient agrifood production. Second, I explore the “politics of the possible” in the current political economy and argue that while neoliberalization and organizers’ places within the food system initially oriented the group towards the private sector, the choice to pursue certification arose directly from two industry partnerships. Consequently, current trends might favor market mechanisms, but certification is only one possible intervention that has emerged as a result of particular, and perhaps avoidable, circumstances. The article offers tentative delineation of alternatives ways that activists might intervene in agrifood and political economic systems given present constraints. (shrink)

En esta investigación se propuso y aplicó una evaluación exploratoria de la sustentabilidad de tres socio-ecosistemas ubicados en el Matorral y Bosque Esclerófilo (MBE) de Chile central: 1. Los Yuyos (75 ha.), Colliguay, V Región; 2. Tantehue (110 ha.), Provincia Melipilla, Región Metropolitana y 3. Panamá (138 ha.), Provincia de Colchagua, VI Región. Sustentabilidad fue definida como la interacción de 3 tipos de sustentabilidades: ecológica, económica y social. La sustentabilidad ecológica fue definida como: 1. Relación entre la Máxima Explotación Sustentable (...) y la Explotación Efectiva, 2. Grado de Naturalidad (Machado, 2004) y 3. Grado de Intervención Antrópica (González, 2000). La sustentabilidad económica fue definida como: 1. Rentabilidad y 2. Sostenibilidad de la Rentabilidad en el Tiempo. Y la sustentabilidad social fue definida como: 1. Nivel Socioeconómico, 2. Traspaso Generacional y 3. Nivel Educativo del núcleo familiar. En Colliguay se encontró un escenario general de “Sustentabilidad” y en Tantehue y Panamá se encontró una situación de “Insustentabilidad”. Se concluye que los socio-ecosistemas estudiados en el MBE de Chile central están en una situación crítica de sustentabilidad por lo que se enfatiza la importancia de conservar este tipo de ecosistema. (shrink)

A nivel nacional e internacional los desembarques de pesca se han incrementado cuantiosamente en los últimos decenios generando el colapso de diversas pesquerías. Los testimonios de los miembros de la comunidad de pescadores artesanales de la V región son uno de los ejemplos concretos de este proceso. Se argumentó que estas crisis eran provocadas por la “Tragedia de los Comunes” y que era necesario establecer Cuotas Individuales Transferibles (CIT) para asegurar los derechos de propiedad. La versión nacional, con la ley (...) 19.713, estableció la privatización del acceso a la pesca con los Límites Máximos de Captura por Armador (LMCA), para el sector industrial, y, posteriormente, con la ley 19.849, los Regímenes Artesanales de Extracción (RAE), para el sector artesanal. El 2012 vencen estas leyes y los pescadores artesanales deberían tener un rol significativo en la determinación de la nueva administración pesquera, por cuanto ellos, al depender de los ecosistemas marinos para su subsistencia, tienen genuino interés en la sustentablidad del manejo pesquero. (shrink)

This article explores the phenomenological analytics strategies ofmentally ill subject. With the help of phenomenological method the ontological conditions for the existence of the subject in a clinical discourse of philosophizing of twentieth century and meaning of its existence were revealed. The use of phenomenological descriptions provided an opportunity to describe how the mentally il lsubject is represented. It is shown that the world of feelings of the mentally ill can be understood with the assistance of methodology, based on the (...) Husserl's studies of human existence mode. The author disparated the methodological positions of phenomenology of L. Binswanger, M. Boss and Karl Jaspers about the studies of mentally ill subjects. In the submitted paper these methodologies are specified in clinical areas of philosophizing of Dasein-analysis and phenomenological psychiatry. L. Binsvanher's Dasein-analysis is considered as a synthesis of phenomenology, psychoanalysis and existential ideas transformed into a new paradigm. It is revealed that L.Binsvanher considers the reason of the mental illness of the subject as a narrowed horizon in which the subject builds its possible projects. Boss methodology is based not only on the phenomenological reduction for understanding of essential, but on the articulation of the organic unity of separate subject existence with being of others and being in general. Psychiatric pathology is considered as a consequence of the loss of openness and freedom. Jaspers phenomenology as a thorough description of the subjective experiences of patients is synthesized with method of comprehension. Involvement of phenomenology enabled the reconstruction of the inner world of the mentally ill subject through the study of the way he is going through categories of time, space, materiality and other categories. The article reveals that phenomenology for many professionals today is an alternative to the physiological direction of psychiatry. (shrink)

In this article, I develop three conceptual innovations within the area of formal metatheory, and present a computer program, called Reconstructor, that implements those developments. The first development consists in a methodology for testing formal reconstructions of scientific theories, which involves checking both whether translations of paradigmatically successful applications into models satisfy the formalisation of the laws, and also whether unsuccessful applications do not. I show how Reconstructor can help carry this out, since it allows the end-user to specify a (...) formal language, input axioms and models formulated in that language, and then ask if the models satisfy the axioms. The second innovation is the introduction of incomplete models (for which the denotation of some terms is missing) into scientific metatheory, in order to represent cases of missing information. I specify the paracomplete semantics built into Reconstructor to deal with sentences where denotation failures occur. The third development consists in a new way of explicating the structuralist notion of a determination method, by equating them with algorithms. This allows determination methods to be loaded into Reconstructor and then executed within a model to find out the value of a previously non-denoting term (i.e. it allows the formal reconstruction to make predictions). This, in turn, can help test the reconstruction in a different way. Finally, I conclude with some suggestions about additional uses the program may have. (shrink)

In this paper, we present a way to translate the metainferences of a mixed metainferential system into formulae of an extended-language system, called its associated σ-system. To do this, the σ-system will contain new operators (one for each standard), called the σ operators, which represent the notions of "belonging to a (given) standard". We first prove, in a model-theoretic way, that these translations preserve (in)validity. That is, that a metainference is valid in the base system if and only if its (...) translation is a tautology of its corresponding σ-system. We then use these results to obtain other key advantages. Most interestingly, we provide a recipe for building unlabeled sequent calculi for σ-systems. We then exemplify this with a σ-system useful for logics of the ST family, and prove soundness and completeness for it, which indirectly gives us a calculus for the metainferences of all those mixed systems. Finally, we respond to some possible objections and show how our σ-framework can shed light on the “obeying” discussion within mixed metainferential contexts. (shrink)

Barbara Vetter, Potentiality. From Dispositions to Modality, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2015, 321pp., ISBN: 978–0–19–871431–6.

El artículo presenta los principales estudios de Juan Carlos Rodríguez (1993, 2017), Fredric Jameson (2013, 2015) y Bolívar Echeverría (1996, 1998) que abordan el surgimiento de la modernidad, su impacto en la esfera de la cultura y la subsiguiente constitución de un tipo específico de individualidad. A partir de ciertos conceptos clave, aquellos ofrecen una explicación de las relaciones entre la economía de mercado que empieza a surgir en la transición que va del feudalismo al capitalismo y ciertas disposiciones que (...) aparecen en determinados productos culturales y comienzan a considerar al individuo como un sujeto que se autodetermina libremente, lo que da cuenta del hecho de que la ideología manifiesta un carácter constructivo. Analizando similitudes y diferencias, el texto propone una lectura complementaria de todos ellos argumentando que hacen referencia, de formas originales, a un fenómeno común. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se tratará de reflexionar acerca del estatus ontológico del concepto de identidad personal a partir de las así denominadas propuestas «narrativistas» de los filósofos Daniel Dennett y Clément Rosset. No se pretende tanto abordar la pregunta sobre la existencia última de dicha identidad cuanto hacerse cargo de cómo se nos aparece, las similitudes que presenta el proceso de construcción identitaria con el proceso narrativo y el papel activo tanto de uno mismo como de los demás en (...) su edificación. (shrink)

En un libro reciente McShea y Brandon defienden que la diversidad y la complejidad de la vida se explican, principalmente, por la acción de un principio que llaman “la ley evolutiva de fuerzas cero” o “ZFEL”. Tal principio actuaría de un modo implícito por detrás de muchas explicaciones de la biología, pero nunca habría sido explicitado. Asumiendo que esta idea es interesante, y que los autores en cuestión tienen razón, discutiremos el modo metateórico en que presentan dicho principio, como siendo (...) parte de la teoría de la probabilidad. Esto permite a los autores afirmar que la teoría de la probabilidad brindaría la base reductiva para toda la biología evolutiva (dado que consideran que otros principios, como el de selección natural, también serían parte de la teoría de la probabilidad). Defenderemos que, efectivamente, ZFEL no es propio de la biología únicamente, pero no por formar parte de la teoría de la probabilidad, sino por tratarse de una versión específica del principio de causa común. -/- In a recent book, McShea and Brandon argue that the observed diversity and complexity of life are explainable by a principle they call the “zero-force evolutionary law” or “ZFEL”. Although this principle would be implicit in many explanations given by biologists, it would have never been made explicit. Assuming that this idea is interesting, and that the authors are right, we will discuss the metatheoretical way in which they present said principle, as being a part of probability theory. This allows the authors to claim that probability theory provides the reductive basis for all evolutionary biology. We will defend, in accordance with them, that ZFEL is not a solely biological principle, but not because it is a part of probability theory, but rather because it is a specific version of the principle of common cause. (shrink)