In economic theory it is circumstances that dictate fashion. During the last quarter of the century, years marked by an unprecedented escalation of material production, economists of all persuasions, neoclassicals or Marxists, accorded an important place to theories of growth. Economic reductionism being fundamental, development was likened to growth, which tends to take pars pro toto and to ignore the difference between a necessary condition and a sufficient one. Suddenly economic theory, to which mechanical formalization would confer the appearance of (...) an almost scientific rigour, became a powerful argument for the ideology of growth. (shrink)

La producción de alternativas en el plano político y social implica además, la producción de alternativas en el plano simbólico, ya que estas dimensiones están íntimamente desarrolladas entre sí. En el caso de los piqueteros, esta preocupación está presente desde un principio, en el uso de los medios como mecanismo de visibilidad. Este trabajo representa una introducción al estudio del rol de los medios dentro de esta dinámica.

L’auteur définit l’extase comme l’union d’une âme avec un être qui lui est très supérieur, qui intensifie son intelligence et qui fortifie sa volonté. Cette union consiste dans un accord complet entre deux êtres inégaux qui s’aiment mutuellement. Elle élargit les connaissances et élève l’être inférieur moralement, d’une manière permanente. Il en résulte une plus grande aptitude à remplir les devoirs quotidiens. Comme exemple intéressant, l’auteur décrit un cas peu connu, l’extase mystique de Mickiewicz ; elle fournit la meilleure explication (...) du fait étrange et presque incompréhensible, que ce grand poète, à l’âge de 35 ans, renoncera entièrement à la poésie, et vouera les vingt dernières années de sa vie à une activité sociale, politique et religieuse. (shrink)

The strategic/terror bomber thought experiment is often employed in the contemporary debate on the principle of double effect (PDE). It is taken to show the intuitive appeal of PDE. In this paper, it is argued, however, that the thought experiment is used in a confused way. What is taken to be one thought experiments in fact is a series of subtly differing examples. Those differences, although subtle, bear on the applicability of these examples in the argumentation for PDE. The main (...) objectives of this paper are to provide a precise description and analysis of the variants of strategic/terror bomber thought experiments. The analysis shows that some variants are flawed mainly because of underdetermination of the cases by their descriptions and problems with rationality of the presented agents. This result seems to cast some new doubts on employment of the strategic/terror bomber thought experiment as an argumentative device supporting PDE. (shrink)

Political relations in today’s world are in a deep, perhaps even radically threatening disequilibrium; similarly, humanity’s home—the Earth—is treated with disdain and contempt despite its increasingly angry protests. Moreover, the rules and principles by which most of the world runs its economic affairs and strives to “modernize” its life are founded on a set of market laws devoid of all social context and only serve to deepen the dangerous contrasts between small islands of wealth and a sea of humanity doomed (...) to poverty and alienation. (shrink)

The aim of this paper is to present some philosophical considerations about the supposed AI emergence in the future. However, the predicted timeline of this process is uncertain. To avoid any kind of speculations on the proposed analysis from a scientific point of view, a metaphysical approach is undertaken as a modal context of the discussion. I argue that modal claim about possible AI emergence at a certain point of time in the future is justified from a temporal perspective. Therefore, (...) worldwide society must be prepared for possible AI emergence and the expected profound impact of such an event on the existential status of humanity. (shrink)

Wincenty Lutosławski was a multilingual Polish philosopher and author who coined the term 'stylometry'. Originally published in 1930, this book presents the outline of a course in metaphysics delivered by Lutosławski at a variety of academic institutions from 1890 onwards. Numerous aspects of reality are discussed in an effort to form a unified conception of it, from the material world through to abstract spirituality. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in metaphysics and the development (...) of philosophy. (shrink)

This is a new release of the original 1928 edition.