This text is an interview given by Prof. Dr. Alfredo Pereira Jr. to Leonardo Ferreira Almada, on the occasion of the call for publication of interviews with different Brazilian philosophers. In response to the goal of the Trans/Form/Ação journal call, we sought to carry out an interview in which a PhD professor with an established career presents some elements of his personal and academic stories, as well as clarifies important points of his research, some of his theses and vision (...) of the world based on questions asked by another professor, a historical research partner, and in-depth knowledge of the interviewee’s career. (shrink)

The Critique of Pure Reason—Kant’s First Critique—is one of the most studied texts in intellectual history, but as Alfredo Ferrarin points out in this radically original book, most of that study has focused only on very select parts. Likewise, Kant’s oeuvre as a whole has been compartmentalized, the three Critiques held in rigid isolation from one another. Working against the standard reading of Kant that such compartmentalization has produced, The Powers of Pure Reason explores forgotten parts of the First (...) Critique in order to find an exciting, new, and ultimately central set of concerns by which to read all of Kant’s works. Ferrarin blows the dust off of two egregiously overlooked sections of the First Critique—the Transcendental Dialectic and the Doctrine of Method. There he discovers what he argues is the Critique’s greatest achievement: a conception of the unity of reason and an exploration of the powers it has to reach beyond itself and legislate over the world. With this in mind, Ferrarin dismantles the common vision of Kant as a philosopher writing separately on epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics and natural teleology, showing that the three Critiques are united by this underlying theme: the autonomy and teleology of reason, its power and ends. The result is a refreshing new view of Kant, and of reason itself. (shrink)

This article describes the short but remarkable sociopolitical life of the Russian rock group Pussy Riot. The group became famous in 2012 not only for the political content of its performances but for its transgressive performativity: its violation of established public settings and its creation of disturbing anti-authoritarianism images of today’s official Russia. The analysis aims to establish Pussy Riot as part of an avant-garde movement and as a radicalization of the very idea of the avant-garde against the familiarity of (...) the public aspect of everyday life. Public ‘normalcy’ reveals itself to be complicit in that what should be criticized is instead taken for granted, and legitimized. Pussy Riot is a new art avant-garde in terms of both how it relates to activism, social justice, feminism, and art, and to the general public, not only to the art world. (shrink)

A method for the recursive identification of physiological models of the cardiovascular baroreflex is proposed and applied to the time-varying analysis of vagal and sympathetic activities. The proposed method was evaluated with data from five newborn lambs, which were acquired during injection of vasodilator and vasoconstrictors and the results show a close match between experimental and simulated signals. The model-based estimation of vagal and sympathetic contributions were consistent with physiological knowledge and the obtained estimators of vagal and sympathetic activities were (...) compared to traditional markers associated with baroreflex sensitivity. High correlations were observed between traditional markers and model-based indices. (shrink)

According to Williamson’s epistemology of modality, we know metaphysical necessities by means of our knowledge of some specific counterfactualconditionals. In particular, Williamson’s idea is that we come to have knowledge of metaphysical necessities—which have the form □A—via our knowledge ofcounterfactual conditionals which have the form ~A□→┴. In this paper I claim that there are two different ways in which Williamson’s position can plausibly bearticulated, and that both ways lead to circularity.

According to the semantic view of computation, computations cannot be individuated without invoking semantic properties. A traditional argument for the semantic view is what we shall refer to as the argument from the cognitive science practice. In its general form, this argument rests on the idea that, since cognitive scientists describe computations (in explanations and theories) in semantic terms, computations are individuated semantically. Although commonly invoked in the computational literature, the argument from the cognitive science practice has never been discussed (...) in detail. In this paper, we shall provide a critical reconstruction of this argument and an extensive analysis of its prospects, taking into account some ways of defending it that have never been explored so far. We shall argue that explanatory considerations support at best a weak version of the argument from the cognitive science practice, according to which semantic properties concur with formal syntactic properties in individuating computations in cognitive science, but not a strong version, according to which computation individuation in cognitive science is semantic as opposed to formal syntactic. (shrink)

The objective of this study is to provide insight into culinary systems. Each culture expresses its own identity through the way in which it transforms food into an elaborated cuisine. The phases of a cooking process start with the choice of ingredients, their preparation, their processing, how they are served, and how they are eaten. Each of these phases makes it possible to understand the semiotic and social behavior of a human group in the moment they choose to prepare and (...) eat a particular food. Therefore, this article contains a contrastive analysis of how Mexican, Texan, and Italian cuisines show how spicy and hot food is interpreted depending on the values that ​​are given to it in regards to being considered a dish, a spice or a vegetable. It bases its analysis on the mechanisms built around the meaning of chile in order to express cultural characteristics and differences. The recipes and their narrative processes, in addition to the use of color, allow the identification of parameters to describe the various cuisines through recipes books. (shrink)

This paper describes the first study of vasectomized men in Latin America; it is based on personal interviews with 172 men who had undergone the operation at least 3 months previously.

El artículo parte de la preocupación de saber cómo se está desarrollando la formación de investigadores en las universidades brasileñas. Una primera dificultad que se coloca es el predominio de un abordaje segmentado de la investigación científica. Eso lleva a un cuestionamiento sobre si particularmente las asignaturas de metodologías sirven para formar investigadores. Entre diversas dificultades, se incluyen desde aspectos epistemológicos hasta los impactos de las asignaturas metodológicas sobre la formación de los investigadores. Se cuestionan las estructuras de las disciplinas, (...) su relación con las metodologías, y las relaciones entre enseñanza metodológica y prácticas de investigación. Lo que está en juego es la formación de científicos sociales críticos en que se cuestionen diferentes separaciones extremamente rígidas de los procesos de formación.The present article focuses on the concern to know how the process of preparing investigators at Brazilian universities is being developed. One of the first difficulties being dealt with involves the predominant of segmented approach of the scientific investigation. This leads to the questioning of methodologies used to prepare these investigators. Among other several difficulties, the epistemological aspects up to the methodological ideas on the preparation of investigators are included. The structures of the subjects, their relation to the methodologies and the relations between methodological teaching and investigation practices are questioned. The preparation of critical social scientists in which extremely rigid different separations from the preparation processes is at stake here. (shrink)

In this study I propose an epistemological discussion of multiple spatio-temporal scales in neuroscience. Are such scales merely convenient levels of description of structure and function, or do they correspond to irreducible levels of brain organization? What criteria should we employ in order to reduce one level to another, or to identify levels that are not reducible to others? Should we think of these criteria as based on empirical and/or theoretical reasons? Beginning with an empirical criterion – the necessity of (...) different experimental methodologies for the measurement of different phenomena in the same system – I summarize spatial and temporal scales currently used in neuroscience and discuss the possibility of a more general theoretical criterion. I conclude that multiscaling should be recognized as a central concept in the epistemology of neuroscience. (shrink)

The importance of the collective management of immaterial resources is a key variable in the valorisation of products in a post-industrial economy. The purpose of this paper is to analyse how, in post-industrial economies, it is possible to devise alternative forms of mediation between producers and consumers, such as organic farmers' markets, to curb the appropriation of rent by transnational and/or local business elites from the value created by immaterial resources. More specifically, we analyse those aspects of the collective management (...) of ethical values that, in the case of organic farmers' markets, can be a strategic source of competitive advantage for local producers. In this paper, the Ecomercado de Granada is studied as an example of mediation between production and consumption in a post-industrial economy. (shrink)

For Kant as for Hegel method is not a structure or procedure imported into philosophy from without, as, e.g. a mathematical demonstration in modern physics or in the proof-structure of philosophies such as Spinoza’s or Wolff’s. For both Hegel and Kant method is the arrangement that reason gives its contents and cognitions; for both, that is, method and object do not fall asunder, unlike in all disciplines other than philosophy. For Kant method is the design and plan of the whole, (...) the scientific form that guides the organization of cognitions (KrV A 707/B 736, Ak 24, 780). Likewise, Hegel writes that method is the consciousness of the form of its inner movement (WL 1, 49, SL 53, W 3 47, PhS 28). Unfortunately, Hegel never considers Kant an example or a precursor or a positive role model. It is important to ask why Hegel never takes seriously Kant’s Doctrine of Method. Why, if he shares so many central points with the Architectonic of the first Critique, does he never acknowledge Kant as a possible ally? Why does he misunderstand Kant on analysis and synthesis as he does? These are some of the questions I plan to discuss in this paper. (shrink)

This article aims to present the Coimbra Commentaries as a critical source of the Cartesian Meditations. The Cursus Conimbricensis played an important role in shaping the philosophical pedagogy of the seventeenth century, and many modern scholars were formed through the pages of these volumes. Although we do not know for sure whether the Coimbra Commentaries were used as textbooks in La Flèche, there are solid reasons for believing that, when Descartes refers to the possibility of divine deception in the first (...) meditation, he is using some examples taken from the Commentary on Physics written by Manuel de Góis. (shrink)

El ensayo encuentra su sentido en la proximidad que tiene con el acontecimiento, la experiencia formativa y “con lo provisorio de la vida misma.” Surge de la reflexión de la práctica como docente universitario, en la vivencia del educador, en su actuar pedagógico reflexivo. Situado en la dinámica generativa: método/camino/ensayo/travesía/búsqueda/estrategia, se aproxima por medio de la observación y conceptualización a lo efímero, lo contingente, la novedad, la multiplicidad; fundamentado en principios métodológicos que dan cuenta de una iniciación en el pensar (...) complejo. Asumiendo los principios del pensamiento complejo a manera de conceptos sensibilizadores, se busca comprender la interacción educativa. Por último, se desarrollan temáticas emergentes, que pueden ser asumidas en próximas reflexiones e investigaciones sobre las múltiples y diferenciadas experiencias y acontecimientos formativos universitarios. (shrink)

Para entrever el futuro de la bioética lo primero que tenemos que pensar es la propia noción de futuro y nuestra relación práctica con el mismo. Expongo aquí a la crítica la idea de un futuro que esté ya de algún modo presente y a la vista. Es esta una idea que desposee al futuro de toda futureidad, una idea, por lo tanto, incoherente. Propongo, a cambio, pensar el futuro como tarea, como agenda, como aquello que no está y ha (...) de ser libremente hecho. En este sentido, resulta inútil tratar de vislumbrar o adivinar el futuro de la bioética, y en cambio es preciso proponernos como tarea la creación de la bioética futura. Vistas así las cosas, la función principal de la bioética no será ya la de deliberar y elegir entre las opciones que se nos presentan, sino la de crear nuevos cursos de acción que protejan y favorezcan mejor la vida en general y la vida humana en particular. Abogo, pues, en este texto, por una bioética de la creatividad y de la laboriosidad, superadora de la bioética de dilemas. (shrink)

Tenemos la sensación de que la tecnología nos resulta tan útil como peligrosa. Esta doble cara nos produce inquietud y desazón. De ahí derivan algunas prácticas que implican la renuncia total o parcial a ciertos modos tecnológicos. Dichas prácticas no siempre están dotadas de sentido y fundamentación suficientes. Constituyen, más bien, reacciones dispersas guiadas por sensaciones e intuiciones. En el otro polo, tenemos la obra de algunos pensadores que han reflexionado sobre la técnica. A partir de ahí, han enunciado valiosas (...) recomendaciones que permanecen, no obstante, en un plano abstracto. Nuestra hipótesis es que la noción de silencio tecnológico puede funcionar como un puente entre la especulación filosófica y la praxis efectiva, dando a la primera concreción y a la segunda lucidez. Para probarlo presentaremos, en primer lugar, la propia noción de silencio tecnológico (sección 1), para, a continuación, relatar algunas prácticas contemporáneas orientadas a la reducción de lo tecnológico (sección 2). En un tercer a paso expondremos las recomendaciones de Heidegger y Kierkegaard sobre lo técnico (sección 3). Veremos, acto seguido, en qué sentido el silencio tecnológico puede ejercer aquí de puente entre filosofía y praxis (sección 4). Recogeremos, por último, lo obtenido en un resumen conclusivo (sección 5). (shrink)

Introduzione Il problema filosofico centrale di Lexical Competence (Marconi 1997 — i riferimenti che faremo sono relativi all’edizione italiana apparsa due anni dopo) è che cosa distingue la comprensione del linguaggio da parte di un agente umano da quella che potrebbe essere attribuita a un sistema artificiale. Nel rispondere a questa domanda Marconi (d’ora in poi, M.) offre una teoria della conoscenza del significato, descrive cioè in che cosa consiste conoscere il significato delle parole...

This paper proposes to determine and identify the origin of the gens Valgia from Arpinum. It is possible that the Valgii, by taking advantage of the political success of Gaius Marius, like other Arpinum families, already succeeded in obtaining the senatorial rank towards the end of the 2nd and the beginning of the 1st century BC. Later, thanks to Sulla's and Caesar's reforms, who sought allies among the powerful local gentes, the Valgii could consolidate their presence in Rome, until reaching (...) the consulate in 12 BC. (shrink)

Este artigo está dividido em duas partes. Começo por oferecer algumas informações de fundo sobre as discussões e os debates que tiveram lugar na Europa no final da Idade Média e no início dos tempos modernos e que envolveram autoridades políticas e eclesiásticas. Não pretendo ser exaustivo nesta apresentação. Procuro apenas sugerir o contexto mais amplo das disputas entre o poder dos monarcas europeus e o da Igreja Católica durante os séculos XV, XVI e o início do século XVII. Na (...) segundaparte, trato especificamente da obra de Alonso de la Vera Cruz e utilizo a primeira parte como pano de fundo sobre o qual se pode compreender o pensamento de Frei Alonso. Buscarei sobretudo enfatizar o papel desempenhado pela Política de Aristóteles na concepção de Alonso sobre o casamento na Nova Espanha. (shrink)

O presente artigo divide-se em duas partes. Na primeira, analisa-se a noção de um ser mental como sujeito da lógica. O principal objetivo dessa parte é fornecer algumas notas históricas sobre a origem e a importância de uma noção bastante difundida nos séculos XIII e XIV. A segunda parte concentra-se na filosofia de Avicena e procura mostrar como esse autor opõe-se à existência de um ser mental como sujeito da lógica.

El transhumanismo es una moda intelectual que propone la transformación de los seres humanos mediante diversas tecnologías. Expondremos brevemente los rasgos más conspicuos del TH, así como las principales críticas que se le han hecho. Pero la intención de este artículo no es entrar en esta polémica; aportaremos tan solo las claves imprescindibles para poder seguir adelante. Y una de las claves más intrigantes del TH es que, por debajo de su pátina tecno-futurista, remite a ciertas ideas filosóficas tan viejas (...) como, en apariencia, incompatibles entre sí. El TH remite al naturalismo radical, tanto como al nihilismo existencialista. La tesis que aquí se defiende es que tanto el naturalismo radical como el nihilismo existencialista son producto de las diversas oleadas del dualismo: del dualismo platónico antiguo, del dualismo cartesiano moderno. Una vez que separamos, a la manera dualista, la libertad por un lado y la naturaleza por el otro, podemos contar hasta dos, como hacen los dualistas, o quedarnos solo en uno, como hacen los existencialistas, que se paran en la libertad, y los naturalistas, que solo cuentan con la naturaleza. En cualquier caso, la imagen del ser humano, que es libertad y naturaleza, sale dañada. Asoma entonces el animal aporético y enfermizo al cual hay que salvar… de sí mismo. ¿Cómo? Siguiendo el método de Procusto, pero ahora con los prefijos bio e info en lugar de sierra y martillo. Hasta que el pobre ser humano encaje en el lecho de la utopía que algunos visionarios han urdido. ¿Y no hay otra vía, otra forma de mejorar la vida humana que sea más respetuosa para con la humana envergadura? Quizá sí, mas para trazar esa tercera vía, entre el naturalismo radical que mutila y el nihilismo existencialista que descoyunta y estira, habría que negar de antemano el dualismo que a los dos engendra, y atenerse a la sensatez común, en línea con la tradición aristotélica, antes que a las ensoñaciones utópicas. En nuestra opinión, el concepto aristotélico de naturaleza humana nos habilita para juzgar las antropotecnias mejor que la normatividad extraída de las visiones futuristas propias del TH. (shrink)

Abstract: Research on the nature and varieties of the format of cognitive representations in philosophy and cognitive science have been partly shaped by analogies to external, public representations. In this paper, we argue that relying on such analogies contributes to framing the question of cognitive formats in problematic, potentially counterproductive ways. We show that cognitive and public representations differ in many of their central features, making analogies to public representations ill-suited to improving our understanding of cognitive formats. We illustrate these (...) points by examining two case studies in which analogies to public representations may have had a negative impact on research: the 80’s-90’s debate about compositionality and cognitive architecture between symbolicists and connectionists; and contemporary discussions about the nature of visual demonstratives. Finally, we outline an alternative, computational account of formats that does not share the shortcomings of appeal to public representations. (shrink)

Philosophers of perception frequently assume that we see actual states of affairs, or facts. Call this claim factualism. In his book, William Fish suggests that factualism is supported by phenomenological observation as well as by experimental studies on multiple object tracking and dynamic feature-object integration. In this paper, I examine the alleged evidence for factualism, focusing mainly on object detection and tracking. I argue that there is no scientific evidence for factualism. This conclusion has implications for studies on the phenomenology (...) and epistemology of visual perception. (shrink)