Nos complace presentar este número especial de la Revista Las Torres de Lucca, dedicado íntegramente a la investigación sobre injusticia epistémica. El proyecto de esta publicación se gestó entre 2017 y 2018, en conversaciones entre Cristina Bernabéu e Isabel Gamero; a las que luego se sumaron Alba Moreno y Llanos Navarro. Los directores de Las Torres de Lucca, Diego Fernández Peychaux y Juan Antonio Fernández Manzano, aceptaron la propuesta con interés. Estamos muy agradecidas a ambos por ello, así (...) como por el acompañamiento que nos han hecho durante todo el proceso, desde la publicación de la convocatoria hasta la conclusión del número que ahora presentamos. La motivación que subyace a este trabajo es el interés en la noción de injusticia epistémica, en la que encontramos una poderosa herramienta para visibilizar qué voces tienen más presencia en los distintos contextos sociales situados en los que participamos y qué prácticas habría que aplicar para lograr una distribución más justa de capacidades, tan básicas y cruciales, como las de dar testimonio y comunicar las propias experiencias. El debate sobre injusticia epistémica ha crecido significativamente a raíz de la publicación del libro de Miranda Fricker Epistemic Injustice. Desde entonces, la discusión se ha desarrollado sobre todo en el contexto de la epistemología social feminista y antirracista, aunque ha tenido otras ramificaciones. Este número en particular reúne una serie de trabajos que aplican la noción de injusticia epistémica, tal y como fue propuesta por Fricker, a ámbitos diversos de discusión, que incluyen el análisis jurídico, el análisis del discurso y la estrategia políticos o el desarrollo de formas de resistencia epistémica, y que abordan problemas como la atribución errónea de género ─conocida como misgendering por su voz inglesa─ y el fenómeno del silenciamiento. Nos satisface comprobar que el debate es tan rico en sus ramificaciones y aplicaciones, así como haber podido reunir una muestra de esta riqueza. (shrink)

During the last decades the question of defining life has gained increased interest but, at the same time, the difficulty in reaching consensus on a possible answer has led many to skeptical positions. This, in turn, has raised a wider debate about why defining life is so hard and controversial. Such a debate introduces additional aspects to be considered, like the role and nature of a definition of life itself. In this paper, we will focus on those aspects, arguing that (...) progress can be made if we conceive definitions of life as open heuristic tools that contribute to develop specific research strategies in the biological sciences and, more generally, to increase our understanding of life’s complexity. In contrast with pragmatic or operationalist approaches, we will defend that definitions of life comprise a set of ontological assumptions, together with an inherent unifying vocation, so they should be subject to comparison and critical assessment, closely related to the success or failure of the corresponding research programs, but also to the success or failure in establishing well-grounded interconnections among the latter. We consider that the search for a more coherent, integrated and generalized theory of biology cannot be pursued without keeping an empirical standpoint, and the exercise of defining life should not be taken as an obstacle but as a valuable instrument to achieve that goal. (shrink)

In this paper, we bring together Foucault's biography and oeuvre to explore key concepts that support the analysis of nurses' acts of resistance. Foucault reflected on the power relations taking place in health services, making his contribution especially useful for the analysis of resistance in this context. Over three decades, he proposed a nonnormative philosophy while concomitantly engaging in transgressive practices guided by values such as human rights and social justice. Hence, Foucault's philosophy and public activism are an apparent contradiction, (...) but we argue that when analysed together they allow for a different understanding of his work. We describe the evolution of the concept of resistance in Foucault's work, supported by the approaches of Brent Picket (1996) and Miguel Morey (2013). Foucault started his work considering the idea of transgressiveness as it connects to being at the margins of society. He then spent considerable time elaborating the concept of power and identifying resistance strategies as forms of power exercise. In doing so, he considered that people engage with social change from multiple positions, including limited desire for change, fomenting reforms, or engaging in everyday revolutionary acts. As he further elaborated on power relations and defined resistance, Foucault asserted that resistance involves both repressive and productive dimensions of power, governance of biological life, state governance, and deliberate practices of illegalisms. Finally, Foucault shifted his attention to the freedom of ethical subjects, proposing the use of counter‐conduct and counter‐discourses to speak truth against oppression. Such framework offers a comprehensive lens for analysing nurses' acts of resistance within the complexities of the healthcare system and in society. In summary, Foucault's conceptual framework on resistance expands the role of nurses, to understand them not only as caregivers, but also as political agents capable of confronting and transforming oppressive institutional practices. (shrink)

Perfectionism is a multidimensional construct with both positive and negative aspects. Recently, the concept of appearance-oriented perfectionism has been introduced, which is associated with body image dissatisfaction and weight and shape control behaviors. The Physical Appearance Perfectionism Scale is a 12-item two-factor instrument developed to assess this new dimension of perfectionism. The aim of the study is to validate the Spanish version of PAPS among a representative sample of 850 male university students in Spain. Exploratory and confirmatory factorial structure, internal (...) consistency, convergent and concurrent validity, and associated predictor variables analyses have been carried out. Results showed that the Spanish version of the PAPS maintains the original factor structure with all items and proves to be a reliable instrument. Physical appearance-oriented perfectionism is associated with general perfectionism, higher body dissatisfaction, Eating Disorders and Muscle Dysmorphia symptomatology, and compulsive exercise, particularly in the Worry about Imperfection subscale. These variables also act as predictors of physical appearance perfectionism. The use of the PAPS-S and the analysis of its subscales is recommended in the context of body image-related pathologies such as Eating Disorders and Muscle Dysmorphia. (shrink)

In this paper we study the connection between the use of evaluative language and the building of both personal and social identities, from the perspective of Dynamical System Theory . We primarily discuss two issues: 1) The use of evaluation (in the sense given to the term by Alba-Juez and Thompson (forthcoming)) as a means to the construction of both individual and group identities, thus exploring how the connection between linguistic choices and social identities is shaped by interactional needs (...) for stancetaking. In order to illustrate this connection, we examine examples of the use of evaluative language in a web social network, and we analyze some of the discourse elements showing ways of positioning that act as catalysts for the emergence of a multifactorial dynamic system of identities. 2) The consideration of Dynamical System Theory (DST) as a theoretical framework for the modeling of language and identity. Although originally a mathematical theory, DST has been adopted by cognitive science as a valid framework for the study of cognitive phenomena, on the grounds that natural cognition is a dynamical phenomenon. Within the realm of (socio) linguistics and pragmatics, this study is to a certain degree in line with some recent studies such as Gibbs (2010), Geeraerts, Kristiansen and Peirsman (2010), or Moreno Fernández (2012). Thus, we herein focus on how linguistic evaluation intervenes in the intricate dynamical system of identity, and even though we do not engage in complex mathematical disquisition, we argue that the idea and philosophical foundation underlying DST can lead us towards the ‘integration’ of the complex equation of identity construction, and that consequently the field has great potential for further research. (shrink)

In this paper we study the connection between the use of evaluative language and the building of both personal and social identities, from the perspective of Dynamical System Theory. We primarily discuss two issues: 1) The use of evaluation ) as a means to the construction of both individual and group identities, thus exploring how the connection between linguistic choices and social identities is shaped by interactional needs for stancetaking. In order to illustrate this connection, we examine examples of the (...) use of evaluative language in a web social network, and we analyze some of the discourse elements showing ways of positioning that act as catalysts for the emergence of a multifactorial dynamic system of identities. 2) The consideration of Dynamical System Theory as a theoretical framework for the modeling of language and identity. Although originally a mathematical theory, DST has been adopted by cognitive science as a valid framework for the study of cognitive phenomena, on the grounds that natural cognition is a dynamical phenomenon. Within the realm of linguistics and pragmatics, this study is to a certain degree in line with some recent studies such as Gibbs, Geeraerts, Kristiansen and Peirsman, or Moreno Fernández. Thus, we herein focus on how linguistic evaluation intervenes in the intricate dynamical system of identity, and even though we do not engage in complex mathematical disquisition, we argue that the idea and philosophical foundation underlying DST can lead us towards the ‘integration’ of the complex equation of identity construction, and that consequently the field has great potential for further research. (shrink)

We developed a survey to explore the association between misconduct and stress, potential stressors and other possible contributing f.

Cognitive scientists distinguish between automatic and controlled mental processes. Automatic processes are either innately involuntary or become automatized through extensive practice. For example, reading words is a purportedly automatic process for proficient readers and the Stroop effect is consequently considered the “gold standard” of automated performance. Although the question of whether it is possible to regain control over an automatic process is mostly unasked, we provide compelling data showing that posthypnotic suggestion reduced and even removed Stroop interference in highly hypnotizable (...) individuals. Drawing on a large sample of highly hypnotizable participants, we examined the effects of suggestion on Stroop performance both with and without a posthypnotic suggestion to perceive the input stream as meaningless symbols. We show that suggestion administered to highly hypnotizable persons significantly reduced Stroop interference and derailed a seemingly automatic process. (shrink)

This article is an extended promenade strolling along the winding roads of identity, equality, nameability and completeness, looking for places where they converge. We have distinguished between identity and equality; the first is a binary relation between objects while the second is a symbolic relation between terms. Owing to the central role the notion of identity plays in logic, you can be interested either in how to define it using other logical concepts or in the opposite scheme. In the first (...) case, one investigates what kind of logic is required. In the second case, one is interested in the definition of the other logical concepts in terms of the identity relation, using also abstraction. The present paper investigates whether identity can be introduced by definition arriving to the conclusion that only in full higher-order logic a reliable definition of identity is possible. However, the definition needs the standard semantics and we know that with this semantics completeness is lost. We have also studied the relationship of equality with comprehension and extensionality and pointed out the relevant role played by these two axioms in Henkin’s completeness method. We finish our paper with a section devoted to general semantics, where the role played by the nameable hierarchy of types is the key in Henkin’s completeness method. (shrink)

We argue that the transition from unicellular to multicellular systems raises important conceptual challenges for understanding agency. We compare several MC systems displaying different forms of collective behavior, and we analyze whether these actions can be considered organismically integrated and attributable to the whole. We distinguish between a ‘constitutive’ and an ‘interactive’ dimension of organizational complexity, and we argue that MC agency requires a radical entanglement between the related processes which we call “the constitutive-interactive closure principle”. We explain in detail (...) that this is not possible without a regulatory center functionally integrating the two dimensions, and we also argue that, in turn, this type of regulation would not be possible without a special type of organization between the cells required for the development and maintenance of systems capable of integrated behavior. (shrink)

Constantine’s adherence to Christianity was a long process conditioned by personal motivations, as well as cultural and political factors. He observed the heathen cults and he did not recognize himself as a christian until the year 314, in his letter to the bishops met in Arelate. Since 324, after the defeat of Licinius, he declared his faith in the One and Only True God in different official texts. He resolved to receive the baptism a few days before his death, in (...) 337, perhaps in the hope of healing fromhis illness. His concept of Christianity was the one of an utilitarian religion, that offered him protection in war and guaranteed his authority in peace with the support of the Church. (shrink)

En este trabajo se discute la fundamentación de la posibilidad de una crítica de la lingüística general o lingüística teórica a partir de la interpretación de un pasaje de Carta sobre el “humanismo” de Heidegger. Nuestra interpretación es que la concepción metafísica del lenguaje genera una obliteración para comprender el fenómeno del lenguaje o las lenguas, pero esa misma concepción y, por tanto, esa misma obliteración pertenecen al fenómeno del lenguaje, y no son algo externo que pudiera evitarse. Por tanto, (...) nos preguntamos si acaso la lingüística sustenta esa concepción y se defiende que la obliteración que Heidegger diagnóstica exige un discernimiento de los conceptos fundamentales de la lingüística y de sus presupuestos. Planteamos como hipótesis de trabajo para el ejercicio crítico que no es la lingüística misma la que sustenta la concepción tal y como se puede observar siguiendo el discernimiento de sus conceptos fundamentales, sino sus presupuestos. Esto nos llevará a sostener que los conceptos fundamentales de la lingüística críticamente considerados deconstruyen los presupuestos desde donde la teoría lingüística concibe el lenguaje y su propia fundamentación teórica. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se analizará la propuesta teórica, del utilitarismo de la preferencia de Peter Singer, y se estudiará sus alcances y límites en relación con la defensa de un trato igualitario hacia animales no humanos. En un primer momento se presentará el modelo teórico del autor, posterior a ello, se abordarán tres críticas: a) el contraargumento de los recursos reemplazables; b) la determinación de la vida de los animales no humanos como valor intrínseco, y c) importancia del tratamiento (...) del concepto de derechos de los animales. Al finalizar, se evaluará la propuesta de Singer a la luz de estas críticason el fin de tener una propuesta teórica más coherente que ofrezca una defensa hacia las otras especies distintas a la humana. (shrink)

The main implication of the scientific consensus on human causality of climate change is the need to implement urgent and transformative policies. However, inaction remains. Much of the academic research has concentrated on discourses that question the evidence of climate science under the umbrella term "climate change denial", but the focus has recently started to shift to the arguments of those who, while accepting the evidence, criticize the processes by which it is obtained and, especially, oppose ambitious measures, in many (...) cases using misinformation. In this article, we will present a taxonomy of such arguments, categorized under the concept of "climate action obstructionism", and we will analyze how this discourse is "amplified" through the Internet; specifically, as an example, we will examine a YouTube video posted on Dalas Review’s channel. (shrink)

Recensión de Marco del Cano, Ana María y De la Torre, Javier (coords.). Y de nuevo la eutanasia. Una mirada nacional e internacional. Dykinson, Madrid, 2019, 217 páginas.

El artículo explora las posiciones discursivas valorativas multimodales, es decir, que integran el modo verbal y el de la imagen por medio de ensambles, en un corpus conformado por ocho pósteres académicos del curso Biología Celular de una universidad estatal chilena, realizados por estudiantes de primer año entre 2016 y 2019. De cada cohorte, se seleccionaron los dos afiches que obtuvieron la calificación más alta. El objetivo es identificar, a través del marco conceptual de la Lingüística Sistémico Funcional (LSF) (Halliday, (...) 2004, 2014; Martin y White, 2005) y de la Semiótica Social (Kress y van Leeuwen, 2006; Martin, 2010, 2017; Unsworth, 2021), cómo se codifican los significados interpersonales multimodales en el corpus. A partir del análisis, se aporta evidencia para la caracterización de este género académico desde la perspectiva de las posiciones valorativas verbales del texto que se ensamblan con los recursos visuales para configurar el espacio semántico. Los resultados muestran juicios evocados a agentes elididos que dan cuenta de valoración, como una estrategia discursiva de los estudiantes frente a temas controversiales de la ciencia, tales como utilización de células madre y experimentación con animales. Los hallazgos también evidencian la necesidad de incluir un abordaje multimodal en procesos pedagógicos que consideren la literacidad de las ciencias en el género póster académico, ya que los significados verbales se ensamblan con los visuales para marcar posiciones valorativas. Finalmente, se proponen sugerencias para que los estudiantes adquieran las estrategias valorativas adecuadas al discurso académico científico. (shrink)

Research investigating listeners’ neural sensitivity to speech sounds has largely focused on segmental features. We examined Australian English listeners’ perception and learning of a supra-segmental feature, pitch direction in a non-native tonal contrast, using a passive oddball paradigm and electroencephalography. The stimuli were two contours generated from naturally produced high-level and high-falling tones in Mandarin Chinese, differing only in pitch direction ( Liu and Kager, 2014 ). While both contours had similar pitch onsets, the pitch offset of the falling contour (...) was lower than that of the level one. The contrast was presented in two orientations (standard and deviant reversed) and tested in two blocks with the order of block presentation counterbalanced. Mismatch negativity (MMN) responses showed that listeners discriminated the non-native tonal contrast only in the second block, reflecting indications of learning through exposure during the first block. In addition, listeners showed a later MMN peak for their second block of test relative to listeners who did the same block first, suggesting linguistic (as opposed to acoustic) processing or a misapplication of perceptual strategies from the first to the second block. The results also showed a perceptual asymmetry for change in pitch direction: listeners who encountered a falling tone deviant in the first block had larger frontal MMN amplitudes than listeners who encountered a level tone deviant in the first block. The implications of our findings for second language speech and the developmental trajectory for tone perception are discussed. (shrink)

Cet article analyse la lecture effectuée par Foucault de la démocratie athénienne des années 1980 et la compare à la lecture de Cornelius Castoriadis. L’article propose donc deux interprétations différentes de la figure de Périclès par deux philosophes. Nous montrons que notre compréhension de l’idéologie de Foucault est plus profonde que notre compréhension de la réalité historique et des projets politiques de Périclès.

Radical enactivism supports radical embodied cognition (REC), which is the idea that basic or fundamental cognition (perception and action) does not need to be understood in representational, contentful terms. REC departs from the idea that the mind can be naturalized through biological functions, but rejects the idea that mental content, which is understood as having a representational nature, can be naturalized. For REC, the natural origins of content (or NOC) is a program based on the following hypothesis: first, we depart (...) from basic cognitive processes that are target-based and guided by an Ur-intentionality or directedness toward the world, and then sociality enters in the picture when language appears into the scene, allowing for establishing full-blown semantic content in which that content is about worldly states of affairs. Here, we are going to focus on the phenomenon of directedness since there are blind spots in this picture: as many authors claim, REC takes Ur-intentionality as the starting point, but there is simply no explanation to date of how this directedness or Ur-intentionality is established. Therefore, how could we account for Ur-intentionality? How does this kind of intentionality emerge? We believe that we can answer this question if we invoke the best scientific evidence from ecological perceptual learning especially in regard to the role of the environment and the information for perceiving affordances in our learning processes. This allows us to offer an answer to the question of how the most basic form of cognition (Ur-intentionality or directedness) emerges in nature. (shrink)

En el debate sobre la definición de vida algunos autores consideran que vida ha de entenderse como un género natural. Sin embargo, cuando se afirma que vida es un género natural se asumen también otras ideas vinculadas con la idea de género natural que conviene explicitar, tal y como han mostrado recientemente Bich y Green aunque de manera programática, y ese es precisamente el objetivo planteado aquí; mostrar cuáles son esas implicaciones y señalar las dificultades que surgen al adoptar el (...) discurso sobre los géneros naturales para entender y analizar categorías científicas complejas como, por ejemplo, vida. En este trabajo extendemos esta crítica a las distintas formas de entender los géneros naturales y señalamos cuál es la principal causa de las dificultades que derivan de este planteamiento. In the contemporary philosophy of biology, some authors claim that life is better undertood as a natural kind. This paper questions the metaphysical commitments related to the natural kind approach in relation with the debate of defining life. The goal of this paper is to show how considering life as a natural kind carries out some difficulties and costs. Those difficulties have been partialy shown by Bich and Green concerning the essentialist view of natural kinds. In this paper we extended this criticism to other ways of understanding natural kinds and we argue that such a difficulties are due to the acceptance of an inadequate frame of reference, based on a naïve idea of naturalness and on a natural/conventional dichotomy that is not properly justified. (shrink)

A lo largo del siglo XIX mexicano, la definición de las relaciones entre la Iglesia y el Estado estuvo siempre en la mesa de la discusión pública. Desde la independencia y hasta el movimiento de Reforma, se trató de delimitar el papel que la institución eclesiástica debía ocupar en la nueva nación. Así, a mediados de siglo se reconfiguró en respuesta la secularización que se produjo en México y en gran parte del mundo occidental.

Patients’ beliefs about the effectiveness of their treatments are key to the success of any intervention. However, since these beliefs are usually formed by sequentially accumulating evidence in the form of the covariation between the treatment use and the symptoms, it is not always easy to detect when a treatment is actually working. In Experiments 1 and 2, we presented participants with a contingency learning task in which a fictitious treatment was actually effective to reduce the symptoms of fictitious patients. (...) However, the base-rate of the symptoms was manipulated so that, for half of participants, the symptoms were very frequent before the treatment, whereas for the rest of participants, the symptoms were less frequently observed. Although the treatment was equally effective in all cases according to the objective contingency between the treatment and healings, the participants’ beliefs on the effectiveness of the treatment were influenced by the base-rate of the symptoms, so that those who observed frequent symptoms before the treatment tended to produce lower judgments of effectiveness. Experiment 3 showed that participants were probably basing their judgments on an estimate of effectiveness relative to the symptom base-rate, rather than on contingency in absolute terms. Data, materials, and R scripts to reproduce the figures are publicly available at the Open Science Framework. (shrink)

The World Health Organization, in its last review of its International Classification of Diseases, established a new classification for chronic pain. Among the principal categories, of particular interest is chronic primary pain as a new type of diagnosis in those cases in which the etiology of the disease is not clear, being termed as chronic primary visceral pain when it is situated in the thorax, abdomen, or pelvis. Due to the novelty of the term, the objective of the systematic review (...) was to examine the psychopathological and neuropsychological disorders associated with chronic primary visceral pain. We carried out a search of the scientific literature following the PRISMA directives using the Pubmed, Medline, PsycInfo and Scopus databases. A total of 33 articles were selected after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The analysis of the studies showed that most persons with chronic primary visceral pain suffer from at least one psychological disorder; the most prevalent being anxiety, depressive or somatoform disorders. The most frequent psychopathological symptoms are anxiety, depression and somatization. Similarly, the findings are insufficient to determine the existence of deficits in the domains of executive functioning, memory and intelligence. However, the existence of attention biases does seem to be clear. This review supposes a starting point for conceptualizing chronic primary visceral pain. It is necessary to continue further research so as to obtain a better understanding of this pathology and the disorders associated. (shrink)

La cultura procede de la vida y debe fomentar la vida. No basta el conocimiento científico intelectualizado, sino un saber humanístico. Nietzsche prefiere el saber meridional --provenzal-gay saber-- de los trovadores. A veces con sentido trágico, siempre acentuando la dimensión estética. Arte, creación y comunicación.

La economía en Leonardo Polo se ocupa de estudiar el accionar de las personas humanas. Su visión corrige el reduccionismo de quienes limitan el saber económico al análisis de precios, mercados y determinación de rentas individuales y excluyen el estudio de los fines humanos. Para el efecto se sirve de su antropología trascendental, distinguiendo en el hombre naturaleza, esencia y ser personal; sin limitarse a traslapar sino investigando mediante los métodos distintivos del saber estrictamente económico. Sostiene que sólo una organización (...) que integre aquellas tres dimensiones permite un verdadero ex-sistir humano. La empresa reúne tal condición. (shrink)

Ample attention is being paid in the higher education literature to promoting active learning among students. However, critical examination of educational purposes and ends is largely lacki...

Physical forces regulate numerous biological processes during development, physiology, and pathology. Forces between the external environment and intracellular actin cytoskeleton are primarily transmitted through integrin‐containing focal adhesions and cadherin‐containing adherens junctions. Crosstalk between these complexes is well established and modulates the mechanical landscape of the cell. However, integrins and cadherins constitute large families of adhesion receptors and form multiple complexes by interacting with different ligands, adaptor proteins, and cytoskeletal filaments. Recent findings indicate that integrin‐containing hemidesmosomes oppose force transduction and traction (...) force generation by focal adhesions. The cytolinker plectin mediates this crosstalk by coupling intermediate filaments to the actin cytoskeleton. Similarly, cadherins in desmosomes might modulate force generation by adherens junctions. Moreover, mechanotransduction can be influenced by podosomes, clathrin lattices, and tetraspanin‐enriched microdomains. This review discusses mechanotransduction by multiple integrin‐ and cadherin‐based cell adhesion complexes, which together with the associated cytoskeleton form an integrated network that allows cells to sense, process, and respond to their physical environment. (shrink)

In higher education, the conventional design of educational programs emphasises imparting knowledge and skills, in line with traditional Western epistemology. This emphasis is particularly evident in the design and implementation of many undergraduate programs in which bodies of knowledge and skills are decontextualised from the practices to which they belong. In contrast, the notion of knowledge as foundational and absolute has been extensively challenged. A transformation and pluralisation has occurred: knowledge has come to be seen as situated and localized into (...) various 'knowledges', and the status of the body has taken on renewed significance in epistemological debates. Rather than thinking of knowledge as transcending the body, the embodiment of knowledge has become a key factor in understanding the nature of knowledge and what it means to know. In this paper, we adopt a phenomenological perspective in exploring the notion of embodied knowing as it relates to higher education programs and, more specifically, the ways in which information and communication technologies (ICTs) are used in these programs. (shrink)

This paper aims to propose a version of the description theory of reference –for short, descriptivism– on natural kind terms. This version is grounded on some proposals of descriptivists, such as Searle and Strawson, about proper names, which will be extended to natural kind terms. According to Searle and Strawson the reference of a proper name is determined by a sufficient number of the descriptions that speakers associate with the name, but among the sorts of descriptions admitted by these authors (...) are those in which the average speaker defers the reference of a term to other speakers. In this regard, descriptivism can accept Putnam’s thesis of the division of linguistic labour and claim that some of the descriptions associated by non-experts have the function of deferring the reference of natural kind terms to their reference in the use by experts. Thus, descriptivism can maintain that the reference of a natural kind term is determined by a sufficient number of the descriptions that experts concerning a natural kind associate with the term. I will argue that this version of descriptivism, which grants more weight to social links than to historical links, can explain better than Kripke’s theory the reference of the use of natural kind terms by the average speaker. (shrink)

In this paper, I present a formal reconstruction of the classical argument for fatalism set forth by Aristotle in On Interpretation 9. From there, I expose two different formal solutions for avoiding the unwanted conclusion based on the traditional interpretation of Aristotle’s rejection of the Principle of Bivalence: On the one hand, Łukasiewicz's three-valued logic and, on the other hand, supervaluation semantics. I also address some criticisms made against these two proposals. To finish, I remark on some alternative interpretations of (...) Aristotle’s intentions maintaining that the Stagirite philosopher rejected fatalism without abandoning the Principle of Bivalence. (shrink)

En este artículo, abordo la disputa entre normativismo y descriptivismo centrándome en el problema del arbitraje. Para esto, propongo acercar a esta disputa la discusión sobre el problema del colapso que se ha dado recientemente en el marco de la filosofía de la lógica. Mi propuesta sostiene, por un lado, que el razonamiento humano, en cuanto práctica social, es una actividad esencialmente normada y, por otro lado, que los sistemas formales que se toman de referencia en la psicología del razonamiento (...) son el resultado de diversos procesos de equilibrio reflexivo. Esto permite defender el rol normativo de los sistemas formales como estándar para el razonamiento humano. Además, sostengo que la adecuación de un sistema formal está signada por los contextos específicos de razonamiento. Así, defiendo un pluralismo normativo respecto de los sistemas formales de inferencia en el marco de los estudios empíricos sobre el razonamiento humano. (shrink)