Este artículo investiga dos problemas principales en los conocidos argumentos de San Agustín en pro de la certeza, contra los escépticos. En realidad, son más bien dos niveles de una misma cuestión "metodológica": la interioridad del conocimiento y la reflexión, como vía de certeza. Conclusión principal de este estudio es que ambas dimensiones son correlativas: la reflexión supone interioridad, N la interioridad exige reflexión, como ría de certeza. La última parte del artículo examina la doctrina agustiniana de la reflexión, en (...) el contexto de su "filosofía del espíritu". La presente investigación intenta mostrar en este punto que, de hecho, San Agustín tematiza o supone, a lo largo de su obra tres grandes modos de reflexión, correspondientes a otros tantos modos de autoconocimiento del alma: el noticial, el cogitativo y el fenomenológico. (shrink)

Las Confesiones de San Agustín son una obra muy peculiar. Lectores e investigadores convienen en ello. No es fácil ‘definir’ ni comprender ese escrito. El presente estudio intenta una aproximación a su contenido mediante un examen de ciertos rasgos característicos de la obra que derivan de su propia singularidad. Y denunciamos también algunos impedimentos de comprensión y lectura. Confiemos en que esta mirada pueda ofrecer una guía inicial, pero orientadora, a la misma. Además, el estudio formal y temático revela una (...) dinámica interna, de su estructura misma, que va del relato autobiográfico a la reflexión , de lo narrativo al pensamiento. Este avance tendencial culmina al concluir el libro IX, donde la dimensión narrativa de la obra termina. Razón por la cual los libros X-XI alcanzan el vértice teorético de las Confesiones, con su investigación de la memoria y del tiempo. El presente estudio concluye con una breve exposición del problema agustiniano de la subjetividad o el yo, en la base de esos dos libros.t. Augustine’s Confessions is a very particular work. Readers and Scholarsagree upon it. Therefore, it’s ‘definition’ and understanding are not so easy. These paper tries to provide an approach to the contents of this difficult writing, by means of an examination of some main special traits, arising from the particular work’s kind. And we betray also some new difficulties for it’s reading and understanding. It is hoped that these brief look to the famous Augustinian writing could offer an initial but adviser guide to it. Moreover, the formal and thematic inquiry reveal an internal dynamics of it’s structure, which moves from the autobiographycal account to the reflection , from the story to the thinking. This aimed advance culminates at the end of the book IX, where the work’s narrative side concludes. That’s why the books X and XI reach the theoretical summit of the Confessions through their search for memory and time. Our paper ends with an exposition of the Augustinian inquiry on the human subiectivity, underlying both these books. (shrink)

Distensión de la finitud y belleza son paralelas en Agustín, su deducción y su calificación estética. Ontología de lo finito es, por ello, a la vez, discurso estético en tres grandes dimensiones: a) fundación y estructura de lo finito; b) sucesión temporal ; c) devenir histórico . Podríamos, sin reduccionismo alguno, interpretar su doctrina estética como >?.Distension of the finiteness and beauty are parallel in St. Augustine, its deduction and its aesthetic qualification. Ontology of finiteness is therefore, at the same (...) time, aesthetic thought in three dimensions: a) foundation and structure of the finetenesss; b) temporal succession ; c) historic becoming . Could we, with no reduction, interpret his aesthetic doctrine as >? (shrink)

Whether or not we achieve absolute generality in philosophical inquiry, most philosophers would agree that ordinary inquiry is rarely, if ever, absolutely general. Even if the quantifiers involved in an ordinary assertion are not explicitly restricted, we generally take the assertion’s domain of discourse to be implicitly restricted by context.1 Suppose someone asserts (2) while waiting for a plane to take off.

The problem of absolute generality has attracted much attention in recent philosophy. Agustin Rayo and Gabriel Uzquiano have assembled a distinguished team of contributors to write new essays on the topic. They investigate the question of whether it is possible to attain absolute generality in thought and language and the ramifications of this question in the philosophy of logic and mathematics.

Tanto Michel Foucault como Michel Henry han dedicado una parte importante de sus investigaciones a estudiar el enfoque cristiano de la carne. Sin embargo, sus perspectivas filosóficas son netamente diversas, aunque ambas tienen puntos de contacto significativos, en particular respecto de la crítica y de la alternativa a la fenomenología que los dos proponen. ¿En qué medida el paralelo y el contraste entre sus investigaciones sobre la carne permiten obtener una nueva perspectiva sobre la crítica que ambos realizan al enfoque (...) fenomenológico de la subjetividad? ¿Y de qué manera el “diálogo” entre ambos pone en evidencia el problema de la libertad, que constituye un tema clave en la reflexión que los dos filósofos realizan sobre la carne? Respondiendo estas preguntas, el artículo pone en relieve las paradojas que suscitan los enfoques de la carne propuestos por Foucault y Henry respecto del tema de la acción, entendido como puesta en práctica de la libertad del sujeto, subrayando así su importancia como tema clave en el campo de la filosofía contemporánea. (shrink)

The capacities required for both peace and war predate 100,000 years ago in the genus Homo are deeply entangled in the modes by which humans physically and perceptually construct their worlds and communities, and may not be sufficiently captured by economic models.

The purpose of this paper is to defend a conception of language that does not rely on linguistic meanings, and use it to address the Sorites and Liar paradoxes.

El presente trabajo desarrolla dos grandes objetivos. Por un lado, expone sintéticamente parte de la problemática filosófica y epistemológica del sujeto y del yo, mostrando la diversidad de conceptos y de genealogías históricas, así como parte de las controversias contemporáneas, elucidando preguntas y respuestas y apostando por vías no reduccionistas o simplificadoras. Por otro lado, se pretende solventar la paradoja de René Girard entre deconstrucción y reivindicación del sujeto, a través del yo del deseo de Jean-Michel Oughourlian y del paradigma (...) de la complejidad de Edgar Morin. (shrink)

We very often discover ourselves engaged in inner speech. It seems that this kind of silent, private, speech fulfils some role in our cognition, most probably related to conscious thinking. Yet, the study of inner speech has been neglected by philosophy and psychology alike for many years. However, things seem to have changed in the last two decades. Here we review some of the most influential accounts about the phenomenology and the functions of inner speech, as well as the methodological (...) problems that affect its study. (shrink)

Physicalism is the claim that that there is nothing in the world but the physical. Philosophers who defend physicalism have to confront a well-known dilemma, known as Hempel’s dilemma, concerning the definition of ‘the physical’: if ‘the physical’ is whatever current physics says there is, then physicalism is most probably false; but if ‘the physical’ is whatever the true theory of physics would say that there is, we have that physicalism is vacuous and runs the risk of becoming trivial. This (...) article has two parts. The first, negative, part is devoted to developing a criticism of the so-called via negativa response to Hempel’s dilemma. In the second, more substantial, part, I propose to take the first horn of Hempel’s dilemma. However, I argue for a broad construal of ‘current physics’ and characterize ‘the physical’ accordingly. The virtues of the broad characterization of ‘the physical’ are: first, it makes physicalism less likely to be false; and second, it ties our understanding of ‘the physical’ to the reasons we have for believing in physicalism. That is, it fulfills the desideratum of construing our theses according to the reasons we have to believe in them. (shrink)

We live longing for a utopia. However, we live in increasingly dystopian times. Whenever we imagine possible futures, a continuity of human progress in the direction of greater scientific-technological development comes to mind. We are completely certain that the reason that brought us current modern science and technology will lead us to this utopia, to a promising future. There is an association as intimate as it is indubitable between future, progress, technoscience and utopia. Isn't it time to question this undisputed (...) certainty? Is it true that reason, progress, science, technology and utopia will lead us to a healthy future for man and nature? Isn't it time to open our eyes and mind to see things differently? Isn't it time to stop frantically producing in pursuit of progress and take a rest to think? There is a fundamental and radical difference between reason and thinking. This book proposes a journey through the worlds of science fiction, utopianism, socialism, communism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, existentialism, Zen Buddhism, art, medievalism, alchemy, science, technology and philosophy. This book proposes to abandon the utopian-dystopian reason to embrace the eutopian life, a new mode of existence in which man needs to regain his rootedness with Earth to be able to think again and live in harmony with himself and nature. (shrink)

Este artículo hace una reflexión sobre la importancia de la divulgación de los derechos humanos en América Latina. El autor menciona que fuera de los am­bientes académicos y organizaciones de derechos humanos, se sabe poco acerca de los derechos humanos, su concepto, fundamentación, historia y sistemas de protección en la región. El autor resalta la labor de divulgación ilustrada de Gregorio Peces Barba en la cultura jurídica y política de España y otros países y sostiene que en América Latina se (...) necesita hacer algo similar. El autor men­ciona que en Chile, recientemente el tema de los derechos humanos ha vuelto al primer plano en el contexto del proceso constituyente y se han producido deba­tes públicos de mucho interés sobre los derechos fundamentales, incluyendo los de carácter social. (shrink)

Charles Travis has been forcefully arguing that meaning does not determine truth-conditions for more than two decades now. To this end, he has devised ingenious examples whereby different utterances of the same prima facie non-ambiguous and non-indexical expression type have different truth-conditions depending on the occasion on which they are delivered. However, Travis does not argue that meaning varies with circumstances; only that truth-conditions do. He assumes that meaning is a stable feature of both words and sentences. After surveying some (...) of the explanations that semanticists and pragmaticians have produced in order to account for Travis cases, I propose a view which differs substantially from all of them. I argue that the variability in the truth-conditions that an utterance type can have is due to meaning facts alone. To support my argument, I suggest that we think about the meanings of words (in particular, the meanings of nouns) as rich conceptual structures; so rich that the way in which a property concept applies to an object concept is not determined. (shrink)

Recently, many philosophers and psychologists have claimed that the explanation that grounds both passivity phenomena in the cognitive domain and passivity phenomena that occur with respect to overt actions is, along broad lines, the same. Furthermore, they claim that the best account we have of such phenomena in both scenarios is the “comparator” account. However, there are reasons to doubt whether the comparator model can be exported from the realm of overt actions to the cognitive domain in general. There is (...) a lingering worry concerning such explanations of thought insertion: the "What is compared to what?" problem. Here I examine two ways to tackle this problem. First: thought insertion consists of the misattribution of strings of inner speech which are not attenuated (thought insertion is thus another name for auditory verbal hallucinations). Second: thought insertion is misattributed inner speech which exhibits the same phenomenological characteristics as normal inner speech. After explaining the types of problem that each of these potential solutions faces, I conclude with a set of open questions that the comparator theorist has to tackle. (shrink)

Dan Greco and Jason Turner wrote two fantastic critiques of my book, The Construction of Logical Space. Greco’s critique suggests that the book can be given a Kuhnian interpretation, with a Carnapian twist. Here I embrace that interpretation. Turner criticizes one of the views I develop in the book. Here I identify an avenue of resistance.

My purpose in this paper is to show the evolution of the relationship between nonmonotonic logic and logic programming. I think that there are two periods in the evolution of this relationship. The first one isthe point of contact between these two fields that had been developed independently. In the second period, as I will show, the motivation to propose three-valued nonmonotonic logic comes from the study of the relationship between these two fields, and not from the study of nonmonotonic (...) logic itself. (shrink)

Synthetic biology is an emerging engineering discipline that attempts to design and rewire biological components, so as to achieve new functions in a robust and predictable manner. The new tools and strategies provided by synthetic biology have the potential to improve therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases. In particular, synthetic biology will help design small molecules, proteins, gene networks, and vectors to target disease‐related genes. Ultimately, new intelligent delivery systems will provide targeted and sustained therapeutic benefits. New treatments will arise from combining (...) ‘protect and repair’ strategies: the use of drug treatments, the promotion of neurotrophic factor synthesis, and gene targeting. Going beyond RNAi and artificial transcription factors, site‐specific genome modification is likely to play an increasing role, especially with newly available gene editing tools such as CRISPR/Cas9 systems. Taken together, these advances will help develop safe and long‐term therapies for many brain diseases in human patients. (shrink)

Este artículo dibuja cómo el pensamiento latinoamericano ha penetrado en las instituciones internacionales estudiando sus motivos y objetivos, así como sus consecuencias desde el período poscolonial hasta la actualidad. El principal objetivo del artículo es conocer si esa influencia está determinada por un deseocomún de los estados latinoamericanos de emanciparse de la directriz impuesta por la civilización occidental o de integrarse a ella en clave de igualdad. Este objetivo se fundamenta en el supuesto de que para alcanzar la emancipación sería (...) necesario actuar bajo una concepción de presente y futuro en común sostenida en la identidad latinoamericana. Para alcanzar el objetivo del artículo se consideran los estudios de los más reputados internacionalistas latinoamericanos en dos períodos diferentes, así como el influjo de los diplomáticos latinoamericanos en los procesos de negociación internacionales. Primero, en el período inmediatamente posterior a las independencias latinoamericanas y, segundo, en el surgimiento del derecho internacional moderno después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Analizando estas épocas a través de sus juristas internacionales más importantes y los representantes diplomáticos latinoamericanos en la construcción institucional internacional se conocerán cuáles son las diversas opiniones y motivaciones de los autores, la importancia de la identidad latinoamericana y sus resultados desde un punto de vista regional. (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)

There is an ongoing debate about the meaning of lexical words, i.e., words that contribute with content to the meaning of sentences. This debate has coincided with a renewal in the study of polysemy, which has taken place in the psycholinguistics camp mainly. There is already a fruitful interbreeding between two lines of research: the theoretical study of lexical word meaning, on the one hand, and the models of polysemy psycholinguists present, on the other. In this paper I aim at (...) deepening on this ongoing interbreeding, examine what is said about polysemy, particularly in the psycholinguistics literature, and then show how what we seem to know about the representation and storage of polysemous senses affects the models that we have about lexical word meaning. (shrink)

This article investigates Foucault’s account of desiring man by drawing upon History of Sexuality vol. 4, Confessions of the Flesh. In order to do so, the article focuses on Foucault’s diagnosis of the Christian elaboration of “the analytic of the subject of concupiscence” that closes Confessions of the Flesh. As the article shows, “the analytic of the subject of concupiscence” inspires Foucault’s account of desiring man. However, Foucault’s diagnosis of the Christian elaboration of “the analytic of concupiscence” proves to be (...) debatable as it relies on a problematic interplay between Cassian’s and Saint Augustine’s account of concupiscence. The article exposes the problems that such interplay supposes by addressing the contrast between Cassian’s and Augustine’s perspective on both concupiscence and the human condition. Despite this problematic aspect of Foucault’s investigation of Christianity, the article argues that the publication of Confessions of the Flesh is central to understanding Foucault’s History of Sexuality. By providing new elements of analysis, the book reopens Foucault’s genealogical diagnosis of the formation of the medical account of sexuality and allows us to problematise new avenues for developing Foucault’s investigation in depth. (shrink)

In Origins of Objectivity, Burge presents three arguments against what he calls ‘deflationism’: the project of explaining the representational function in terms of the notion of biological function. I evaluate these arguments and argue that they are not convincing.

Brain processes and social processes are not as separated as many of our Social Psychology and Neuroscience departments. This paper discusses the potential contribution of social neuroscience to the development of a multi-level, dynamic, and context-sensitive approach to prejudice. Specifically, the authors review research on event related potentials during social bias, stereotypes, and social attitudes measurements, showing that electrophysiological methods are powerful tools for analyzing the temporal fine-dynamics of psychological processes involved in implicit and explicit prejudice. Meta-theoretical implications are drawn (...) regarding the social psychological modeling of social attitudes, and for the integration of social neuroscience into a multi-level account of cultural behavior. (shrink)

Ahora que hacemos memoria de la celebración del décimo aniversario de Francisco y su responsabilidad como papa, realizamos este artículo que recoge nuestra última actividad docente y académica: mi ponencia “Ética y pensamiento social desde Francisco”; relacionada con una reciente publicación del que soy coautor y como investigador asociado, unido al proyecto universitario de investigación “Querida Amazonia” (Universidad Anáhuac, México). En esta intervención, planteé estas cuestiones y temáticas que son el inicio de dicho libro. Precedido del prólogo de Michael F. (...) Czerny, Cardenal y colaborador del papa. En este trabajo, profundizamos dichas temáticas, proponiendo claves o criterios para promover una educación y formación moral, social, solidaria y humanista. Unida a una ecología integral y bioética global, guiados por la enseñanza y testimonio de Francisco. (shrink)

According to an increasing number of authors, the best, if not the only, argument in favour of physicalism is the so-called 'overdetermination argument'. This argument, if sound, establishes that all the entities that enter into causal interactions with the physical world are physical. One key premise in the overdetermination argument is the principle of the causal closure of the physical world, said to be supported by contemporary physics. In this paper, I examine various ways in which physics may support the (...) principle, either as a methodological guide or as depending on some other laws and principles of physics. (shrink)

ABSTRACT: According to a model defended by some authors, dispositional predicates, or concepts, can be legiti- mately used in causal explanations, but such a use is not necessary. For every explanation couched in dispo- sitional terms, there is always a better, and complete, explanation that makes use of a different vocabulary, that of categorial bases. In what follows, I will develop this view, and then argue that there is a kind of use of dispositions in explanations that does not fall (...) within this model. That is, I will argue that we would miss some explanations if we were to forsake dispositional concepts and dispositional explanations. (shrink)

El presente artículo indaga algunas implicaciones ontológicas y políticas del fenómeno de reproducción técnica tal como se presenta a inicios del siglo XX. Hay cierto consenso básico en filosofía de la técnica sobre la idea de que las innovaciones sociales y políticas no pueden comprenderse independientemente de la emergencia y utilización de ciertos medios técnicos. Nuestro interés en este trabajo reside en explorar críticamente una faceta habitualmente subestimada en este tipo de indagación sobre la técnica: cómo las propiedades inherentemente técnicas (...) atadas a ciertos nuevos sistemas técnicos favorecen fácticamente a algunos fines y, por tanto, tienden hacia una serie de utilizaciones en desmedro de otras. Con este objetivo en mente, el presente trabajo reconstruye la posición de Walter Benjamin sobre el problema de la copia reproductible y lo pone en diálogo con las críticas recientes de Hennion y Latour. (shrink)

We study envy-free allocations in a many-to-many matching model with contracts in which agents on one side of the market (doctors) are endowed with substitutable choice functions and agents on the other side of the market (hospitals) are endowed with responsive preferences. Envy-freeness is a weakening of stability that allows blocking contracts involving a hospital with a vacant position and a doctor that does not envy any of the doctors that the hospital currently employs. We show that the set of (...) envy-free allocations has a lattice structure. Furthermore, we define a Tarski operator on this lattice and use it to model a vacancy chain dynamic process by which, starting from any envy-free allocation, a stable one is reached. (shrink)