In this paper I develop a framework for relating dualities and emergence: two notions that are close to each other but also exclude one another. I adopt the conception of duality as 'isomorphism', from the physics literature, cashing it out in terms of three conditions. These three conditions prompt two conceptually different ways in which a duality can be modified to make room for emergence; and I argue that this exhausts the possibilities for combining dualities and emergence. I apply this (...) framework to gauge/gravity dualities, considering in detail three examples: AdS/CFT, Verlinde's scheme, and black holes. My main point about gauge/gravity dualities is that the theories involved, qua theories of gravity, must be background-independent. I distinguish two senses of background-independence: minimalistic and extended. I argue that the former is sufficiently strong to allow for a consistent theory of quantum gravity; and that AdS/CFT is background-independent on this account; while Verlinde's scheme best fits the extended sense of background-independence. I argue that this extended sense should be applied with some caution: on pain of throwing the baby out with the bath-water. Nevertheless, it is an interesting and potentially fruitful heuristic principle for quantum gravity theory construction. It suggests some directions for possible generalisations of gauge/gravity dualities. The interpretation of dualities is discussed; and the so-called 'internal' vs. 'external' viewpoints are articulated in terms of: epistemic and metaphysical commitments; parts vs. wholes. I then analyse the emergence of gravity in gauge/gravity dualities in terms of the two available conceptualisations of emergence; and I show how emergence in AdS/CFT and in Verlinde's scenario differ from each other. Finally, I give a novel derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy formula based on Verlinde's scheme; the derivation sheds light on several aspects of Verlinde's scheme and how it compares to Bekenstein's original calculation. (shrink)

We advocate an account of dualities between physical theories: the basic idea is that dual theories are isomorphic representations of a common core. We defend and illustrate this account, which we call a Schema, in relation to symmetries. Overall, the account meshes well with standard treatments of symmetries. But the distinction between the common core and the dual theories prompts a distinction between three kinds of symmetry: which we call ‘stipulated’, ‘accidental’ and ‘proper’.

In this essay I begin to lay out a conceptual scheme for: analysing dualities as cases of theoretical equivalence; assessing when cases of theoretical equivalence are also cases of physical equivalence. The scheme is applied to gauge/gravity dualities. I expound what I argue to be their contribution to questions about: the nature of spacetime in quantum gravity; broader philosophical and physical discussions of spacetime. - proceed by analysing duality through four contrasts. A duality will be a suitable isomorphism between models: (...) and the four relevant contrasts are as follows: Bare theory: a triple of states, quantities, and dynamics endowed with appropriate structures and symmetries; vs. interpreted theory: which is endowed with, in addition, a suitable pair of interpretative maps. Extendable vs. unextendable theories: which can, respectively cannot, be extended as regards their domains of application. External vs. internal intepretations: which are constructed, respectively, by coupling the theory to another interpreted theory vs. from within the theory itself. Theoretical vs. physical equivalence: which contrasts formal equivalence with the equivalence of fully interpreted theories. I will apply this scheme to answering questions - for gauge/gravity dualities. I will argue that the things that are physically relevant are those that stand in a bijective correspondence under duality: the common core of the two models. I therefore conclude that most of the mathematical and physical structures that we are familiar with, in these models, are largely, though crucially never entirely, not part of that common core. Thus, the interpretation of dualities for theories of quantum gravity compels us to rethink the roles that spacetime, and many other tools in theoretical physics, play in theories of spacetime. (shrink)

We discuss some aspects of the relation between dualities and gauge symmetries. Both of these ideas are of course multi-faceted, and we confine ourselves to making two points. Both points are about dualities in string theory, and both have the ‘flavour’ that two dual theories are ‘closer in content’ than you might think. For both points, we adopt a simple conception of a duality as an ‘isomorphism’ between theories: more precisely, as appropriate bijections between the two theories’ sets of states (...) and sets of quantities. The first point is that this conception of duality meshes with two dual theories being ‘gauge related’ in the general philosophical sense of being physically equivalent. For a string duality, such as T-duality and gauge/gravity duality, this means taking such features as the radius of a compact dimension, and the dimensionality of spacetime, to be ‘gauge’. The second point is much more specific. We give a result about gauge/gravity duality that shows its relation to gauge symmetries to be subtler than you might expect. For gauge theories, you might expect that the duality bijections relate only gauge-invariant quantities and states, in the sense that gauge symmetries in one theory will be unrelated to any symmetries in the other theory. This may be so in general; and indeed, it is suggested by discussions of Polchinski and Horowitz. But we show that in gauge/gravity duality, each of a certain class of gauge symmetries in the gravity/bulk theory, viz. diffeomorphisms, is related by the duality to a position-dependent symmetry of the gauge/boundary theory. (shrink)

Theoretical equivalence and duality are two closely related notions: but their interconnection has so far not been well understood. In this paper I explicate the contribution of a recent schema for duality to discussions of theoretical equivalence. I argue that duality suggests a construal of theoretical equivalence in the physical sciences. The construal is in terms of the isomorphism of models, as defined by the schema. This construal gives interpretative constraints that should be useful for discussions of theoretical equivalence more (...) generally. I illustrate the construal in various formulations of Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory. (shrink)

I conceptualise the role of dualities in quantum gravity, in terms of their functions for theory construction. I distinguish between two functions of duality in physical practice: namely, discovering and describing ‘equivalent physics’, versus suggesting ‘new physics’. I dub these the ‘theoretical’ versus the ‘heuristic’ functions of dualities. The distinction seems to have gone largely unnoticed in the philosophical literature: and it exists both for dualities, and for the more general relation of theoretical equivalence. The paper develops the heuristic function (...) of dualities: illustrating how they can be used, if one has any luck, to find and formulate new theories. I also point to the different physical commitments about the theories in question that underlie these two functions. I show how a recently developed schema for dualities articulates the differences between the two functions. (shrink)

This paper explores the options available to the anti-realist to defend a Quinean empirical under-determination thesis using examples of dualities. I first explicate a version of the empirical under-determination thesis that can be brought to bear on theories of contemporary physics. Then I identify a class of examples of dualities that lead to empirical under-determination. But I argue that the resulting under-determination is benign, and is not a threat to a cautious scientific realism. Thus dualities are not new ammunition for (...) the anti-realist. The paper also shows how the number of possible interpretative options about dualities that have been considered in the literature can be reduced, and suggests a general approach to scientific realism that one may take dualities to favour. (shrink)

We make two points about dualities in string theory. The first point is that the conception of duality, which we will discuss, meshes with two dual theories being ‘gauge related’ in the general philosophical sense of being physically equivalent. The second point is a result about gauge/gravity duality that shows its relation to gauge symmetries to be subtler than one might expect: each of a certain class of gauge symmetries in the gravity theory, that is, diffeomorphisms, is related to a (...) position-dependent symmetry of the gauge theory. (shrink)

I examine the relationship between \\)-dimensional Poincaré metrics and d-dimensional conformal manifolds, from both mathematical and physical perspectives. The results have a bearing on several conceptual issues relating to asymptotic symmetries in general relativity and in gauge–gravity duality, as follows: I draw from the remarkable work by Fefferman and Graham on conformal geometry, in order to prove two propositions and a theorem that characterise which classes of diffeomorphisms qualify as gravity-invisible. I define natural notions of gravity-invisibility that apply to the (...) diffeomorphisms of Poincaré metrics in any dimension. I apply the notions of invisibility, developed in, to gauge–gravity dualities: which, roughly, relate Poincaré metrics in \ dimensions to QFTs in d dimensions. I contrast QFT-visible versus QFT-invisible diffeomorphisms: those gravity diffeomorphisms that can, respectively cannot, be seen from the QFT. The QFT-invisible diffeomorphisms are the ones which are relevant to the hole argument in Einstein spaces. The results on dualities are surprising, because the class of QFT-visible diffeomorphisms is larger than expected, and the class of QFT-invisible ones is smaller than expected, or usually believed, i.e. larger than the PBH diffeomorphisms in Imbimbo et al. :1129, 2000, Eq. 2.6). I also give a general derivation of the asymptotic conformal Killing equation, which has not appeared in the literature before. (shrink)

Ortega y Gasset’s old lament that no one had so far attempted a rigorous phenomenology of pain no longer holds since the appearance of Christian Grüny’s recent monograph Zerstörte Erfahrung. Eine Phänomenologie des Schmerzes. Grüny argues for the use of phenomenological categories from Merleau-Ponty in order to understand physical pain as a “blocked escape-movement” , concluding that corporeal suffering makes impossible both a clean distinction and a pure identification between the lived body and the physical body that I am. In (...) my paper, I would like to suggest some improvements to Grüny’s approach through the utilization of the category of self-affection, as the material phenomenology of Michel Henry has developed it. In addition to the radical immanence in which hyle, noesis, and noema are unified into a “carnal cogito,” however, I argue that it is necessary to describe the painful self-affection not only in terms of any sensitive excess whatever , as Grüny posits, but also in terms of a mutation of the sensitive excess into the intra-tactile sphere of sensibility. Thus I endorse the Husserlian insight that makes tactility the primordial structure of sensibility. (shrink)

Este artículo expone los argumentos de Kant y Fichte a favor del deber ético de la beneficencia. De manera concreta, se evalúan las razones para que este deber, en sus respectivos sistemas de deberes morales, obtenga un posicionamiento particular y requiera consideraciones aparte de los criterios que, en general, estructuran dichos sistemas. Además, se hacen comentarios comparativos respecto al papel que juega la facultad de juzgar ante el margen de latitud o de juego que, en particular, implica este deber ético (...) en uno y otro autor. (shrink)

Entre los elementos básicos de la ética de Immanuel Kant destacan el imperativo categórico como fundamento de determinación de la ética, su apelación a la facultad de juzgar y la posibilidad de considerar a la ética kantiana del deber como un modelo de formación de carácter, y por tanto, como una ética de la virtud. El planteamiento de Kant es fecundo incluso en propuestas éticas que difieren de él, específicamente en lo que podría llamarse su "ética material". Finalmente, se muestra (...) cómo la discusión ética contemporánea no puede prescindir de las luces que ofrece el filósofo de Königsberg. (shrink)

Este ensayo asume que los dolores físicos son, con igual originariedad, vivencias intransferibles de conciencia y sucesos espaciales que presentan localización en el cuerpo. Defiende la antigua tesis de F. Buytendijk de que no cabe un dolor desubicado que, al modo del de Job, coincida con la totalidad del cuerpo, y añade que sí caben, en cambio, dolores simultáneos que se distinguen por su ubicación. La íntima unidad de cogitatio y extensio conduce a sostener que el dolor vivido remite a (...) una espacialidad más profunda que la imagen corporal perceptible y más primitiva también que el esquema corporal que opera en los movimientos deliberados del cuerpo. (shrink)

Mi ensayo revisa la ordenación de las experiencias aflictivas que elaboró Buytendijk con la mirada puesta en el dolor físico. Esta clasificación cuatripartita permite distanciarse del enfoque de Scheler en que el dolor físico se reduce a un estado afectivo más bien amorfo que sólo de manera mediata incumbe al yo. Las convergencias entre las cuatro formas de penalidad que distingue Buytendijk apoyan la determinación propuesta por García-Baró del dolor como experiencia del mal.

Mi ensayo trata de mostrar que es insostenible la ficción de Rorty de una civilización avanzada científicamente cuyos habitantes no sintieran el dolor como una vivencia sufrida en primera persona y que únicamente lo captaran como una excitación objetiva de su sistema nervioso. Entre otras dudas relativas a que esa captación objetiva y exacta se hallaría en indefinida reconstrucción teórica y a que ella no puede ser la experiencia primera del dolor ni siquiera en esa otra galaxia, aduzco que tener (...) un estado fisiológico no equivale por principio a captarlo y que captar determinados rasgos objetivos no puede equivaler por principio a sufrir, a padecer. Concluyo señalando que Rorty, en su empeño por impugnar las representaciones mentales, pierde de vista cómo la experiencia del dolor manifiesta sobre todo la condición originaria del cuerpo vivido.My paper tries to show that Rorty’s fiction of a scientifically developed civilization whose inhabitants should not feel pain as a first-person experience, but would grasp it rather as an objective state of their nervous system, is unsustainable from a phenomenological point of view. I point out several doubts concerning the facts that such an objective apprehension would be in an indefinite process of theoretical reconstruction, and that even in that other galaxy it could not be valid as the original pain situation. But then I focus on the principles that to have a physiological state cannot be equiva-lent to grasping it, and second that to grasp several objective features cannot be equivalent to suffering or to undergoing pain. I conclude by suggesting that Rorty’s eagerness to discard mental representations made him neglect the lived body as implied in everyday experience: the body, not the mind, comes to the fore in the experience of pain. (shrink)

Pulcro, sobrio, comedido, preciso, cotidiano, manual, podrían ser calificativos (demasiado fácilmente) aplicables al trabajo de Amaya Bombín. Como si se tratara de la labor de una cirujana, de una bordadora, de una artesana, de un ama de casa. Si afirmáramos esto no solamente estaríamos recurriendo a tópicos sobradamente manidos cuando se trata de hablar de la obra de mujeres artistas, sino que además estaríamos desviando nuestra atención de lo que se nos ha dado a experimentar para reflexionar. [...].

Las siguientes páginas versan sobre el pensamiento político de José Ortega y Gasset, mostrando –entre otras cosas– su evolución desde lo que sería el neokantismo de mocedad de Ortega hasta su madurez. Para cumplir con nuestro objetivo se ha recurrido a los escritos de Ortega, así como a autores especializados en su pensamiento. La historia del pensamiento político contemporáneo tiene una deuda contraída con Ortega que desde sus primeros escritos manifestó un claro interés por la política concebida ésta como pedagogía (...) social y cuyo fin debía ser, en primer lugar, solventar los problemas de la vida pública nacional. El pensamiento político de Ortega se define asimismo por la defensa de los valores liberales compatibles con los principios socialistas, que en una primera época de juventud idealista neokantiana adquieren un significado eminentemente cultural aunque también moral, que no se perderá completamente en su madurez o época de plenitud vital, aunque bien es verdad que aquellos dos conceptos, así como también su idea de democracia, irán respondiendo a la evolución de su pensamiento. (shrink)

Phenomenology is supposed to provide an intrinsic account of the possible types of conscious acts and of their relationship to each other. Husselr's enduring frame on this subject rests on the distinction between "objectifying acts" –representations– and "non-objectifying acts" –emotions and volitions–. But the sense of the dependence of every act on representations, suffered a deep change from Logical Investigations –the intentional reference of non-objectifying acts proceeds completely from cognitive reference– to Ideas –the peculiar emotional reference to values needs preferably (...) a doxic-objectifying modality–. Both theories remain, in the end, problematic. (shrink)

La posición sistemática de la Metafísica de las costumbres de Kant y en concreto de su segunda parte, la Doctrina de la virtud, es análoga a la del Sistema de la doctrina de las costumbres según los principios de la Doctrina de la Ciencia de Fichte. Sin embargo, en dicha obra, Fichte califica la ética kantiana de “formalista” y pretende que la suya es más concreta y aplicable por su teoría de la conciliación entre el impulso natural y el impulso (...) moral. En este artículo se explica y discute dicha postura de Fichte, mostrando que la crítica a Kant es injusta, dado que precisamente la Doctrina de la virtud ofrece, de un modo metódicamente diverso pero sólido y coherente con la ética de la autonomía, la “ética material” kantiana. (shrink)

El ensayo es una réplica al artículo de Claude Romano «Après la chair». Sostengo en él que las dos objeciones fundamentales que el filósofo francés plantea a la comprensión husserliana del cuerpo vivido se basan en una interpretación incorrecta de la distinción entre Körper y Leib. La condición corpórea de los vivientes no alude en absoluto a la objetivación científica de los organismos, sino a la dimensión de cosa de la experiencia, perceptible, visible, tocable, que posee todo ser vivo en (...) el mundo de la vida. La condición corporal de los vivientes, por su parte, no nace del fenómeno de las dobles sensaciones en que el cuerpo se toca a sí mismo, sino que remite a la condición espaciosa de la sensibilidad táctil que, al extenderse por principio, es el fundamento descriptivo de que puedan duplicarse las sensaciones en el contacto entre miembros corporales. La conclusión es que la pretendida superación de la fenomenología husserliana del cuerpo es, en este caso, una apuesta vacía. (shrink)

In this paper I analyse two closely related examples of duality and of emergence of gravity, namely AdS/CFT and Verlinde's scheme. Based on the notion of duality introduced in Dieks et al., I here elaborate on the conditions necessary for AdS/CFT to be a duality, in particular the condition of completeness. I also address what is usually seen as a desideratum for any candidate theory of quantum gravity: the background-independence of the theory and the diffeomorphism invariance of the observables. Then (...) I discuss Verlinde's scheme and the extent to which it gives a clear case of emergence of gravity. Finally, I give a novel derivation of the Bekenstein-Hawking black hole entropy formula based on Verlinde's scheme. (shrink)

Ante estas obras de Victoria Diehl es fácil pensar en conocidos modelos anatómicos en cera o en la iconografía de Venus y Evas de las que un vistazo rápido a cualquier libro de historia del arte nos mostraría múltiples variantes. Algo de todo ello hay aquí. Pero también hay algo que hace que los espectadores se detengan a pensar. Algo más allá de lo reconocible que hace que las lenguas del pasado se muevan a un ritmo actual. Hermes, al trasladar (...) sus mensajes los interpreta, los adapta al interlocutor y al medio; los transforma, los traduce, los recrea. Y logra ponernos en movimiento. [...]. (shrink)

Este artículo trata sobre cómo la imagen de la mujer en la pintura tradicional presenta un código de conducta y una realidad histórica. La mujer desnuda, en cuyo retrato tiene más importancia el cuerpo que la cabeza, la mujer pintada ofrecida como un paisaje, una comida o una presa, dificultará una relación de comunicación entre los sexos y encerrará a la mujer en un arquetipo denigrante. Por eso la primera respuesta de las mujeres pintoras ha sido siempre la búsqueda de (...) su propia imagen en el autorretrato. Actualmente las mujeres artistas buscan nuevos símbolos con qué definir su identidad en oposición a los símbolos clásicos de la tradición pictórica. (shrink)

Las siguientes páginas versan sobre la idea de democracia en la obra de José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955), mostrando el giro que se produce en su pensamiento. De ideal ético o imperativo moral, la democracia pasa a ser considerada por el filósofo español un “ideal” político en su obra de madurez intelectual. En su mocedad, un Ortega Moderno concibe la democracia en un sentido ilustrado, es decir, como ideal, como labor de cultura y como imperativo moral, mostrando su deuda con (...) la filosofía práctica de Kant, y vinculando aquella a la idea de comunidad (gemeinschaft), afirmando en 1909 lo siguiente: socialización de la cultura, comunidad del trabajo, resurrección de la moral: esto significa para mí democracia. En un segundo momento, y toda vez que Ortega ha perdido su fe viva en la Modernidad y en el ideal ético de mocedad, comenzará a dialogar con la tradición del pensamiento político liberal occidental, concibiendo la democracia principalmente como una norma de derecho político, así como alertando de sus posibles excesos o desvaríos. (shrink)

El autor evoca sus encuentros con Julia Iribarne, y las conversaciones y motivaciones intelectuales que de ellos se siguieron. Apunta su impresión de que el pensamiento de Husserl confirió una hondura más humana y entrañable a la reflexión de Julia Iribarne. En su caso, el verde de la vida no sufrió menoscabo por el gris de la teoría.The author recalls his encounters with Julia Iribarne, and the talks and intellectual motivations that followed them. He mentions the impression that Husserl’s thought (...) gave a more human depth to Julia Iribarne´s reflections. The green of life suffered by her no prejudice from a gray theory. (shrink)

En Self-Constitution. Agency, Identity, and Integrity (2009), Christine Korsgaard defiende la conclusión de que el imperativo categórico rige la acción humana porque es el único principio que permite alcanzar la unidad psíquica plena, la cual, según Korsgaard, es un prerrequisito esencial para la acción efectiva. Para los agentes humanos, alcanzar esa unidad -que consiste en hacer coherentes distintos impulsos hacia la acción- es una actividad constante, denominada "autoconstitución". De acuerdo con Korsgaard, ésta es la fuente originaria de la normatividad y (...) de las identidades prácticas e incluso de la identidad personal. Después de exponer las ideas centrales del libro, presento dos objeciones: primero, critico la equiparación del imperativo categórico con la autoconstitución exitosa, pues no toda falla de auto-constitución es una falla moral. Segundo, argumento que la tesis de que la identidad personal es producto de la autoconstitución es problemática y que, al defenderla, Korsgaard confunde identidad práctica con identidad personal. In Self-Constitution. Agency, Identity, and Integrity (2009), Christine Korsgaard argues that the categorical imperative rules human action because it is the sole principle that allows us to reach the complete psychic unity that, Korsgaard thinks, is an essential prerequisite for effective action. Reaching this unity -which consists in making cohere diverging impulses for action- is for human agents a constant activity called "self-constitution." According to Korsgaard, this activity is the source of normativity, of human practical identities and even of personal identity. After explaining the main ideas of the book, I present two objections. First, I criticize the linkage of the categorical imperative to successful self-constitution, for not every failure of the latter counts as a moral failure. Second, I argue that the thesis that personal identity is a product of self-constitution is problematic and that it betrays a confusion between practical identity and personal identity. (shrink)

Si en una fingida encuesta se planteara la cuestión más bien extraña, quizá un punto absurda ―como las de tantos otros sondeos de las opiniones de las gentes―, acerca de cuál es la obra que mejor expresa el derrotero histórico de la fenomenología en España a lo largo del siglo XX, yo al menos, sin pretender condicionar la dóxa de nadie, contestaría señalando no a una obra original sino a una peculiar traducción de Husserl al castellano. Dicha traducción, que iba (...) precedida de un largo estudio introductorio, se publicó incompleta, y, por si fuera poco, apareció además fuera de España: en México, en el año incierto de 1942. De una imprenta de la Ciudad de México salía al mundo en esa fecha, en efecto, la notable versión que José Gaos preparó de las Meditaciones cartesianas de Edmund Husserl. O mejor, salía a la luz su traducción de las cuatro primeras meditaciones, pues la versión castellana de la meditación quinta desapareció bajo los escombros del piso madrileño en que la familia Gaos vivía antes de la guerra (calle de Marqués de Urquijo 15). (shrink)

Resumen: Las siguientes páginas versan sobre la contribución del filósofo español José Ortega y Gasset al campo de la epistemología antropológica. Ortega conocía los avances que se estaban produciendo en el campo de la antropología desde los inicios de esta disciplina en el siglo XIX, que vio la disputa que entonces se producía entre las ciencias sociales y las ciencias naturales. Frente a la razón moderna naturalista y físico/matemática y el método intelectual o el pensamiento claro, lógico o racional, que (...) prevalecía en sus escritos de mocedad, en un segundo momento, Ortega, corrigiendo su punto de vista inicial, se decanta por un tipo de razón histórico-narrativa que convierte en razón antropológica que rescata la idea del “sentido histórico” a partir del cual aborda la pluralidad cultural y el método visionario, místico o fantastical propio de otros grupos humanos, frente al método intelectual por el que se ha decantado el llamado “hombre civilizado” y característico de la cultura occidental. Ortega acabará relativizando la importancia del método lógico y racional que somete al método propio de nuestra ciencia histórica. Según Ortega, progresa ésta en la medida en que sepamos negar metódicamente, ficticiamente, el exclusivismo de nuestra cultura.: The following pages deal with the contribution of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset to the field of anthropological epistemology. Ortega was aware of the advances that were taking place in the field of anthropology since the beginning of this discipline in the nineteenth century, which saw the dispute that then took place between the social sciences and the natural sciences. Faced with the modern naturalistic and physical / mathematical reason and the intellectual method or clear, logical or rational thought, which prevailed in his early writings, in a second moment, Ortega, correcting his initial point of view, opts for a type of historical-narrative reason that turns into anthropological reason that rescues the idea of the "historical sense" from which it addresses cultural plurality and the visionary, mystical or fantasy method typical of some human groups, as opposed to the intellectual method by which it is has chosen the so-called "civilized man" characteristic of Western culture. Ortega will end up relativizing the importance of the logical and rational method that he submits to the method of our historical science. According to Ortega, it progresses to the extent that we know how to deny methodically, fictitiously, the exclusivism of our culture. (shrink)

This essay, written on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Mariano Artigas’s death, examines Artigas’s engagement with analytic philosophy in his philosophy of science. I argue that, overall, Artigas’s project in the philosophy of science is one of—using his own metaphor—‘building bridges’ between distinct areas of knowledge. After reviewing the function of Artigas’s philosophy of science as a bridge between science and philosophy, I analyse how he moved from classical to analytic philosophy. I then assess the extent to which (...) Artigas’s work conforms to reasonable analytic standards of clarity and precision, which can be expected from work in the philosophy of science. I conclude that, while Artigas’s dedication and production were admirable, his work remains essentially unfinished, thus inviting further research that should develop and clarify his conception of science, of its aims, its methods, progress, and of how science leads to knowledge. I attempt to assess Artigas’s philosophy of science from an objective and detached perspective. Thus the essay should be of interest to both scholars in the philosophy of science, as well as to those generally interested in Artigas-scholarship. (shrink)

In this paper art history and visual studies, the disciplines that study visual culture, are presented as a field whose conjectural paradigm can be used to understand the epistemic problems associated with abduction. In order to do so, significant statements, concepts and arguments from the work of several specialists in this field have been highlighted. Their analysis shows the fruitfulness and potential for understanding the study of visual culture as a field that is interwoven with the assumptions of abductive cognition.

My essay is devoted to the very early and attractive understanding of the lived body in Ortega y Gasset’s thought. I focus especially on the text “Vitality, Soul, Spirit” of 1925, which can be considered a proto-phenomenological approach to the issue of embodiment. Ortega identifies “vitality” with “the intrabody” and makes the latter the founding dimension of subjectivity, at the basis of the affective sphere (“soul”) and at the basis of the intellectual and volitional sphere (“spirit”). In a manner very (...) close to Husserl’s unpublished manuscripts, he also shows how the body is the only reality of which there is simultaneously external perception, as if it were just another thing in the world that everyone else can see, and internal perception, which only the self can have and feel. The study also points out, however, the two major difficulties that I detect in Ortega’s precocious attempt. A first doubt concerns the too sharp stratification of vitality, soul and spirit, as can be seen in the analysis of the experiences of pain and of mobility. A second doubt concerns the ontological hesitations surrounding Ortega’s position, which is torn between a coherent phenomenological perspective and a vitalist position in which my body is only an emanation of the lifestream of the universe. (shrink)

Se presentan algunas de las experiencias llevadas a cabo en el ámbito de la innovación educativa con alumnos de ESO y Bachillerato en el centro concertado de educación primaria y secundaria Amor de Dios de Barcelona (www.amordedios.org). Se discuten las características de blogs, wikis y redes sociales, así como sus posibilidades de uso, todo ello en base a las experiencias realizadas con los alumnos. Igualmente se presentan algunas directrices que pueden ayudar para la selección de unos sistemas u otros según (...) las necesidades educativas del profesor. (shrink)

El empeño de claridad ilimitada del pensamiento fenomenológico no se distingue de la vocación de iluminar y orientar la acción humana en medio de la Historia y sus desastres. El redescubrimiento, nunca agotado, de las fuentes vivas del sentido (fenomenología genética) y la meditación sobre la experiencia radical del sentido (el mundo de la vida), sirven, de la mano del último Husserl, de Patocka, de Michel Henry, para sugerir que también la Historia terrible de nuestro siglo es, a la inversa, (...) pieza básica de contraste de la vitalidad de la fenomenología. (shrink)

El intento de expresar en fórmulas conceptuales tomadas de la tradición filosófica la novedad inaudita del totalitarismo contemporáneo arroja una luz peculiar sobre la cuestión tan debatida de la responsabilidad del pensamiento en la génesis de la catástrofe. Y la necesidad de recurrir a categorías centrales de la filosofía contemporánea -la noción de mundo de la vida, la del destino nihilista del mundo técnico-, para invertirlas y poner así bajo algún concepto la realización más genuina del totalitarismo, replantea a una (...) luz también poco habitual la cuestión decisiva de si es posible, y cómo, que el pensamiento filosófico esté "a la altura" de lo que el siglo ha revelado. La obra de Hannah Arendt y la del pensador judío Emil Fackenheim guían el avance simultáneo en ambos problemas. (shrink)

This is a review of Nicola Mößner’s Visual Representations in Science. Concept and Epistemology.

This is a review of Nicola Mößner’s Visual Representations in Science. Concept and Epistemology.

O artigo pretende formular cinco leis essenciais que possam servir para caracterizar a temporalidade imanente peculiar da dor física. As três primeiras leis são comuns a inúmeras experiências de consciência: natureza cursiva da dor, ou não instantaneidade do fenómeno; natureza atual da dor, no sentido em que o decurso anterior de retenção não é adicionado de forma cumulativa à impressão de sofrimento; caráter mutável de todo processo doloroso, que nunca pára. A quarta lei refere-‑se a como o presente doloroso não (...) se integra ao seu próprio passado numa manifestação coerente, mas resulta num longo agora que flui desajeitadamente, ora estagnando sobre si mesmo ora excitando ou persistindo. A dor não carece de uma “figura de tempo”, mas decompõem-‑na a todo o momento e é essencialmente arrítmica. A quinta lei assume uma contingência particular na duração efetiva da dor, que pode ser de curta duração, breve ou interminável. As duas últimas leis, profundamente “antimusicais”, permitem falar de uma temporalidade amorfa do sofrimento. (shrink)

Although several accounts of scientific understanding exist, the concept of understanding in relation to technology remains underexplored. This paper addresses this gap by proposing a philosophical account of technological understanding—the type of understanding that is required for and reflected by successfully designing and using technological artefacts. We develop this notion by building on the concept of scientific understanding. Drawing on parallels between science and technology, and specifically between scientific theories and technological artefacts, we extend the idea of scientific understanding into (...) the realm of technology. We argue that, just as scientific understanding involves the ability to explain a phenomenon using a theory, technological understanding involves the ability to use a technological artefact to realise a practical aim. Technological understanding can thus be considered a specific application of knowledge: it encompasses the cognitive skill of recognising how a practical aim can be achieved by using a technological artefact. In a context of design, this general notion of technological understanding is specified as the ability to design an artefact that, by producing a phenomenon through its physical structure, achieves the intended aim. We illustrate our concept of technological understanding through two running examples: magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and superconducting quantum computers. Our account highlights the epistemic dimension of engaging with technology and, by allowing for context-dependent specifications, provides guidance for testing and improving technological understanding in specific contexts. (shrink)

We argue that dualities offer new possibilities for relating fundamentality, levels, and emergence. Namely, dualities often relate two theories whose hierarchies of levels are inverted relative to each other, and so allow for new fundamentality relations, as well as for epistemic emergence. We find that the direction of emergence typically found in these cases is opposite to the direction of emergence followed in the standard accounts. Namely, the standard emergence direction is that of decreasing fundamentality: there is emergence of less (...) fundamental, high-level entities, out of more fundamental, low-level entities. But in cases of duality, a more fundamental entity can emerge out of a less fundamental one. This possibility can be traced back to the existence of different classical limits in quantum field theories and string theories. (shrink)

Las siguientes páginas versan sobre el giro antropológico que se produce en la obra de José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) en lo que sería el tránsito entre la razón moderna, a la que filósofo español se adhiere en su mocedad –época en que Ortega se decanta por la cultura occidental que con sus raíces en Grecia concibe como la cultura esencial–, y la razón histórico-vital, que, abierta a la pluralidad cultural, se impone en su pensamiento en los primeros años de (...) la década de los años 20 del siglo que dejamos atrás. Frente a la razón moderna europeísta de su pensamiento inicial, Ortega propone en la década de 1920, un tipo de razón vital que incorpora la idea del sentido histórico que es el elemento que definirá de aquí en adelante su pensamiento antropológico. El monismo culturalista que el filósofo español elogiaba en sus primeros años como intelectual, deja paso con el tiempo a un pluralismo de culturas característico de la contemporaneidad. (shrink)

The book Hidden Harmony—The Connected Worlds of Physics and Art by J.R. Leibowitz is critically reviewed. The book is intended for a general audience and does not assume prior knowledge of physics or the arts.

In this paper I review the problematic relationship between science and philosophy; in particular, I will address the question of whether science needs philosophy, and I will offer some positive perspectives that should be helpful in developing a synergetic relationship between the two. I will review three lines of reasoning often employed in arguing that philosophy is useless for science: philosophy’s death diagnosis ; the historic-agnostic argument/challenge “show me examples where philosophy has been useful for science, for I don’t know (...) of any”; the division of property argument. These arguments will be countered with three contentions to the effect that the natural sciences need philosophy. I will: point to the fallacy of anti-philosophicalism and examine the role of paradigms and presuppositions ; point out why the historical argument fails ; briefly sketch some domains of intersection of science and philosophy and how the two can have mutual synergy. I will conclude with some implications of this synergetic relationship between science and philosophy for the liberal arts and sciences. (shrink)

In this paper art history and visual studies, the disciplines that study visual culture, are presented as a field whose conjectural paradigm can be used to understand the epistemic problems associated with abduction. In order to do so, significant statements, concepts and arguments from the work of several specialists in this field have been highlighted. Their analysis shows the fruitfulness and potential for understanding the study of visual culture as a field that is interwoven with the assumptions of abductive cognition.

In this paper we have two aims: first, to draw attention to the close connexion between interpretation and scientific understanding; second, to give a detailed account of how theories without a spacetime can be interpreted, and so of how they can be understood. In order to do so, we of course need an account of what is meant by a theory ‘without a spacetime’: which we also provide in this paper. We describe three tools, used by physicists, aimed at constructing (...) interpretations which are adequate for the goal of understanding. We analyse examples from high-energy physics illustrating how physicists use these tools to construct interpretations and thereby attain understanding. The examples are: the ’t Hooft approximation of gauge theories, random matrix models, causal sets, loop quantum gravity, and group field theory. (shrink)

Las siguientes páginas versan sobre la propuesta humanista de nueva ilustración (Aufklärung) de José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) en Misión de la Universidad (1930), una obra donde el filósofo enfatiza el valor de una cultura de humanidades o cultura general que, como sistema de ideas sobre el mundo y la humanidad impulsaron las universidades medievales y que se necesita recuperar para contrarrestar la barbarie del especialismo o el terrorismo de los laboratorios que invade la universidad. En un mundo global que (...) cada vez reclama una mayor atención a la interdisciplinariedad para comprender mejor los asuntos que más nos conciernen y que no son otros que los plenamente humanos, la universidad juega un rol fundamental, debiendo potenciar el estudio de las humanidades pues, como dice Ortega, la espléndida palabra «humanidades» designa las disciplinas todas que se ocupan del conjunto de los hechos exclusivamente humanos. (shrink)

Mi ensayo reconstruye el curso universitario de Edmund Husserl que la joven Arendt escuchó en el semestre de invierno 1926/27 en la ciudad de Friburgo. Estas lecciones de “Introducción a la fenomenología” no han merecido atención ni de la literatura secundaria en torno a Husserl, dado que sólo disponemos de fragmentos del curso, ni de aquella en torno a Arendt, que da por descontado el que fueron irrelevantes para su trayectoria filosófica. El curso ofreció, sin embargo, una inmersión profunda en (...) la configuración madura de la fenomenología e incluyó una discusión avanzada de la problemática de la corporalidad y la intersubjetividad. Lo cual permite una nueva mirada sobre la posible latencia de motivos husserlianos en temas importantes del pensamiento arendtiano. Esta posibilidad se comenta aquí en cinco hipótesis finales, que culminan en la meditación de La vida del espíritu sobre la naturaleza fenoménica del mundo. (shrink)

This paper deals with the dialectic “nature/culture” in the thought of José Ortega y Gasset and related to the ideas of salvation and tragedy. Justify the elaboration of his article in the fact that this topic has not been studied in-depth through the complete works of the philosopher of the vital reason. The results/conclusions are the following ones: In a first period, it stands out the primate of culture in Ortega´s thought, who considers the last one as saviour and also (...) as something antagonistic in relation to the more instinctive and irrational nature of the individual human being as a member of humanity. We can say that submission to natural inclinations, that symbolize our barbarous, irrational and savage side, appears in Ortega’s early writings as a form of tragedy or “radical evil” ; on the other hand, in his latter thought those ones will be interpreted by Ortega not in negative terms, but as something in continuity with culture, which can became a form of tragedy. (shrink)

Introduction to the Spanish Universalist School offers a presentation of the main concepts, works and authors of the Spanish Universalist School, formed mostly by ex-Jesuits exiled to Italy at the end of the 18th century. The Universalist School is a Hispanic Enlightenment of great singularity, one that is not political but humanistic and scientific, with a cultural and educational orientation. In their different disciplinary fields, Juan Andrés, Lorenzo Hervás and Antonio Eximeno are the most relevant universalists of a School, whose (...) recent reconstruction has entailed an important contribution to the History of European Sciences and Letters, as well as to the History of Ideas and to the ideas of Universality and Globalization. (shrink)

Este artículo científico tiene como principal objetivo ofrecer las claves ético-filosóficas y antropológicas de Meditaciones del Quijote. Para lograr tal fin, recurriremos a la teoría del amor que Ortega, siguiendo toda una tradición, elabora y que vertebra su primera gran obra. Ortega meditó, y mucho, sobre el amor. El eterno insatisfecho, como Ortega define el amor en Estudios sobre el amor recorre sus páginas desde sus inicios hasta el final de su producción, pues no en vano Ortega fue un filósofo, (...) siendo para él la filosofía, como ya aclara desde 1914, la ciencia general del amor; dentro del globo intelectual representa el mayor ímpetu hacia una omnímoda conexión. Justificamos la elaboración de este trabajo en el hecho de que su reflexión sobre el amor y también el odio no se ha estudiado atendiendo a la teoría ético-filosófica y antropológica contenida en Meditaciones del Quijote, en el contexto de la cual Ortega dialoga con autores como Sócrates o Platón, Spinoza, Nietzsche o Scheler. Nos ocuparemos asimismo de las interferencias político-sociales de su meditación sobre el amor en la España de la Restauración. (shrink)