Este artículo demuestra los resultados de la aplicación de La Filosofía para Niños (FpN) como propuesta didáctica para el fortalecimiento de actitudes críticas y reflexivas sobre el tema de la identidad cultural de manera dialógica en un contexto escolar de Educación General Básica Superior en Cuenca (Ecuador). Para el análisis se utilizó la metodología hermenéutica, a través de la interpretación de las transcripciones de las tres sesiones aplicadas con base a historias creadas con preguntas que generaban discusiones y a través (...) de las cuales se logró fortalecer las actitudes críticas y reflexivas de los estudiantes. (shrink)

This paper presents the experience of applying the Social Intelligence Design (SID) paradigm in a multidisciplinary course planned with Collaborative Learning (CL). Through the experience, three levels of SID were discovered; one was the social product/artifact, the other two were the student’s social process and the professor’s social process. Authors propose a framework for SID-based education and CL as a possible tool for supporting and assessing such experiences. The experience of this approach seems very promising for social product innovation, social (...) entrepreneurship, and social awareness. (shrink)

Este artículo da cuenta de una entrevista realizada a doce profesores que ejercen docencia en un programa de Pedagogía en Inglés de una universidad chilena, que busca identificar los géneros que solicitan leer y escribir a los estudiantes durante su formación de pregrado, y las principales dificultades detectadas en ambas habilidades. Mediante análisis de contenido se pudo identificar una variedad de géneros en lecturas asignadas, no así en escritura, en donde tanto la práctica como la enseñanza explícita de los géneros (...) apareció limitada. Las principales debilidades declaradas incluyen conocimiento limitado de vocabulario en L1 y L2, falta de hábitos y estrategias de lectura y escritura, y dificultad para expresar ideas en forma escrita. Esta información es relevante para la planificación de actividades de lecto-escritura que ayuden a estos profesores en formación a superar los problemas identificados. (shrink)

In his new book Emotion: The Basics, Michael S. Brady introduces the fundamentals on the philosophical approach to emotions: by fleshing out these basic tenets Brady provides insight into a core component of all our lives and covers the nature of emotions, their relationship to knowledge and understanding, and their relationship to our moral and social selves. In my comments, I value the achievements of Brady's work as well as explore a critical approach to the book in which I emphasise (...) how the book deals with the dichotomy between emotions and reasons. I also engage with the limitations that emerge from a viewpoint of a scholar specialised on the history of philosophy and epistemology, and point towards some puzzles that ought to be further considered. (shrink)

The travelling salesman problem is one of the most popular problems in combinatorial optimization. It has been frequently used as a benchmark of the performance of evolutionary algorithms. For this reason, nowadays practitioners request new and more difficult instances of this problem. This leads to investigate how to evaluate the intrinsic difficulty of the instances and how to separate ease and difficult instances. By developing methodologies for separating easy- from difficult-to-solve instances, researchers can fairly test the performance of their combinatorial (...) optimizers. In this work, a methodology for evaluating the difficulty of instances of the travelling salesman problem near the optimal solution is proposed. The question is if the fitness landscape near the optimal solution encodes enough information to separate instances in function of their intrinsic difficulty. This methodology is based on the use of a random walk to explore the closeness of the optimal solution. The optimal solution is modified by altering one connection between two cities at each step, at the same time that the fitness of the altered solution is evaluated. This permits evaluating the slope of the fitness landscape. Later, and using the previous information, the difficulty of the instance is evaluated with random forests and artificial neural networks. In this work, this methodology is confronted with a wide set of instances. As a consequence, a methodology to separate the instances of the travelling salesman problem by their degree of difficulty is proposed and evaluated. (shrink)

All information results from a process, intrinsic to living beings, of info-autopoiesis or information self-production; a sensory commensurable, self-referential feedback process immanent to Bateson’s ‘difference which makes a difference’. To highlight and illustrate the fundamental nature of the info-autopoietic process, initially, two simulations based on one-parameter feedback are presented. The first, simulates a homeostatic control mechanism (thermostat) which is representative of a mechanistic, cybernetic system with very predictable dynamics, fully dependent on an external referent. The second, simulates a homeorhetic process, (...) inherent to biological systems, illustrating a self-referenced, autonomous system. Further, the active incorporation/interference of viral particles by prokaryotic cells and the activation of CRISPR-Cas can be understood as info-autopoiesis at the most fundamental cellular level, as well as constituting a planetary network of self-referenced information. Moreover, other examples of the info-autopoietic nature of information are presented to show the generality of its applicability. In short, info-autopoiesis is a recursive process that is sufficiently generic to be the only basis for information in nature: from the single cell, to multi-cellular organisms, to consideration of all types of natural and non-natural phenomena, including tools and artificial constructions. (shrink)

What happens during a near-death experience? In an accessible style, this text reviews recent research about unbelievable events, creating an account of activity at the boundaries of science. It also examines research concerns, current theories, methodological issues and clinical implications.

Pluralistic approaches in the philosophy of biological individuality suggest that reality is divisible into multiple types of biological individuals (evolutionary, genetic, physiological, etc.). In this research I will argue in favor of this pluralistic ontology. Inspired mainly by John Dupré’s processual metaphysics, Ronald Giere’s perspectivism, and Hasok Chang’s active realism, I will suggest that: (i) biological individuals are temporarily stable nexuses in a flow of causal processes, (ii) individuations in biology represent real individuals only under the scientific perspectives that support (...) them, (iii) biology’s ability to recognize diverse types of individuals comes from epistemically successful individuation practices. These practices not only contact us with multiple sites of reality, but also invite us to embrace pluralism as an effective way to increase our scientific knowledge of nature. (shrink)

Este trabajo busca reflexionar en torno al siguiente problema: ¿cuál es la mejor forma de concebir la felicidad en la filosofía contemporánea? Para ello, dividiremos esta interrogante en dos. En primer lugar, indagaremos si acaso la felicidad es algo similar a lo que los griegos entendían por “eudaimonia”, i.e., una vida buena o digna de ser vivida; o si, en cambio, la felicidad es mejor entendida como un estado de la mente, postura que comienza a recibir mayor aceptación desde los (...) inicios de la modernidad. Nuestra opinión es que actualmente la felicidad se debería concebir de la segunda forma: en primer lugar, “eudaimonia” es un término que está revestido de un innegable componente evaluativo. Esto, sumado al “criterio de pertinencia descriptiva” —según el cual, la definición técnica de un concepto no debería alejarse demasiado de la concepción cotidiana del mismo— y al hecho de que en el lenguaje vernáculo “felicidad” es de naturaleza eminentemente descriptiva y no evaluativa, nos lleva a concluir que el uso técnico de este término debe ser también descriptivo, coincidiendo así con un estado mental más que con una vida buena. Una vez resuelta esta dimensión del problema, procedemos a abordar la segunda cara del mismo: si la felicidad es un estado mental, ¿cómo debe describirse ese estado? Las teorías más aceptadas al respecto son el hedonismo con respecto a la felicidad, la satisfacción con la vida como un todo, y la condición emocional positiva. Ninguna de estas propuestas está libre de dificultades; sin embargo, concluimos que la teoría más prometedora es la de la condición emocional positiva, puesto que las incongruencias internas y los inconvenientes que debe resolver son de menor gravedad. De esta manera proponemos que actualmente la mejor manera de concebir la felicidad es como un estado mental que se puede describir como una condición emocional positiva, la cual consistiría, grosso modo, en la posesión de emociones positivas y/o placenteras, así como también en propensiones o disposiciones de ánimo positivos. (shrink)

La biología utiliza múltiples criterios para individuar fenómenos biológicos. Frente a esta diversidad, los enfoques monistas proponen criterios fundamentales para el reconocimiento unívoco de individuos, esto es, formas únicas de dividir el mundo biológico en entidades individuales. El pluralismo, por otro lado, argumenta que no deberíamos restringir el estudio de la individualidad a concepciones únicas, reconociendo, en su lugar, diferentes tipos de individuos. En este artículo, analizaré cómo ciertos enfoques monistas y pluralistas enfrentan la pluralidad de criterios de individuación utilizados (...) por la práctica científica. Siguiendo las recientes aproximaciones epistemológicas y pragmáticas en filosofía de la individualidad biológica, argumentaré por qué la diversidad de individuaciones no suele representar un inconveniente para la biología y por qué contribuye a nuestro conocimiento del mundo biológico. La conclusión general será que requerimos múltiples maneras de individuar la naturaleza para poder cumplir los diversos objetivos epistémicos de la biología, una labor que las aproximaciones monistas no suelen visibilizar. Palabras clave: Individuo Biológico, Pluralidad, Pluralismo, Monismo. (shrink)

Gregory Bateson is well known for defining information by stating “In fact what we mean by information – the elementary unit of information – is a difference which makes a difference…” This conceptual perspective has the merit of simplicity and generality. Simplicity, in addressing the complexity of information. Generality, in seeking applicability to any and every field of human experience. The purpose of this paper is to focus the applicability of this conceptual approach by Bateson and use it to perform (...) a calculation of taking the difference between two grey-level digital images that are shifted one relative to the other. The digital images take the place of the field of view that a human being would have access through her sense of vision at two different spatial/temporal instances. The results show that it is possible to highlight the edges of the objects under scrutiny, as well as to highlight other differences within the object. Bateson’s “difference that makes a difference” would seem to provide a first step in the elusive meaning making process of humans. (shrink)

ABSTRACTA cognitive autopoietic system is a dynamic, self-generating, organized and self-organizing thing which self-regulates with respect to an external medium. The present model of the effect of stress on a cognitive autopoietic system captures the notion of how a priori cognitive structures, combined with external sensations, constitute the basis for the development of cognitive structures and their architecture. The ESCA model integrates the fact that the mind–environment relation has a twofold effect: on one hand, it enables self-regulation of mind, but (...) on the other hand, it poses a potential perturbation on the same, which may result in the breakdown of the self-regulation of mind. The architecture of the CS developed on the basis of the ESCA model is consistent with the manifestations of the effect of stress on mind behavior at different levels. The ESCA model predicts that the faculty to concatenate... (shrink)

Paniel Reyes Cárdenas provides a novel reading of Josiah Royce’s Absolute Pragmatism in the context of the nineteenth-century origins of Classical Pragmatism. Royce’s proposal leads to an integrated philosophy that unfolds the synthetic-semiotic theory of community.

El trabajo identifica las fuentes teológicas patrísticas de la cosmología ambiental en el cristianismo ortodoxo manejadas en el pensamiento de Bartolomé, patriarca ecuménico de Constantinopla. El enfoque investigativo se enmarca en un proceso de análisis discursivo de carácter hermenéutico-interpretativo. Se observa que el despliegue de fuentes patrísticas usadas por el patriarca le permite construir profundos sentidos ambientales anclados en una visión cristiana que presenta canales de expresión desde una narrativa simbólica de corte religiosa, orientada a proporcionar soluciones a la crisis (...) planetaria que vive la humanidad contemporánea. (shrink)

In this paper we focus on the structural approach and structural method developed from Sampedro’s work. We propose that this approach is inside the systemic paradigm and it has two interdependent and necessary ideas. On the one hand, we take as a reference some schools of thought in economics and the structural method with two stages. On the other hand, some macroeconomic principles has been derived from the vision and the methodology, which give the structural approach an analytical, synthetic, aggregate (...) and historiographical character. In this sense, the main argument is that structural analysis has its own macro-theoretical characterization. In this way, the structural approach allows valid analysis in order to increase our knowledge of the economic reality. En este trabajo se realiza una aproximación al enfoque y método estructural, a partir de los conceptos postulados en la obra de Sampedro y su posterior inclusión dentro de un paradigma sistémico, distinguiéndose dos pilares interdependientes y mutuamente necesarios. Por un lado, para tratar los aspectos epistemológicos se distinguen las escuelas consideradas de referencia en economía y se detalla el método estructural basado en la etapa descriptiva y la de síntesis. Por otro lado, se tratan los principios macroeconómicos que se derivan de la visión y de la metodología y que otorgan al enfoque estructural un carácter analítico, sintético, agregado e historiográfico. En este sentido la tesis principal del artículo es que el análisis estructural posee una caracterización macroeconómica propia que permite realizar análisis válidos de modo sistemático, con el propósito de aumentar los conocimientos sobre la realidad económica. (shrink)

Las Tecnologías de Información y Comunicación se presentaron como una alternativa “efectiva o no”, tanto para quienes enseñan su uso como para quienes las utilizan; es un hecho, se quiera o no, que arribaron a nuestra sociedad para permanecer y multiplicarse, una realidad compleja ante la cual tenemos dos alternativas: las proporcionamos, las profundizamos. Tecnológicamente hablando, hasta el ocaso de la era paleolítica, nuestros congéneres no tenían nada que decir…, sin embargo, si podían hablar y comunicarse por medio de la (...) palabra. El lenguaje es consustancial al ser humano; es importante hacer esta aclaración. El cuerpo humano, sobre todo ambas extremidades, fueron los primeros instrumentos que empleó la humanidad como apoyo para recordar y contar. Los dedos de la mano, pueden considerarse los primeros apoyos de los que se valieron hombres y mujeres de la antigüedad para contar y constituyen, por tanto, la noción más elemental de la aritmética, anterior incluso a la noción de número. Es muy probable que los dedos de las manos y los pies hayan sido el origen de los sistemas numéricos quinario, decimal y vigesimal: es decir, el Hombre podía contar cinco, diez o veinte. Los constantes cambios tecnológicos —políticos y filosóficos— que se manifestaron en el Siglo XX dieron como resultado la aparición a lo que se ha dado en llamar “Era de las Tecnologías o Informática” que ha cambiado radicalmente la situación mundial en todos los aspectos, y que ha dado origen a una revolución tecnológica presente cada día. (shrink)

In his recent book Peirce and the Threat of Nominalism, Paul Forster presented how Peirce understood the nominalist scruple to individualise concepts for collections at the cost of denying properties of true continua. In that process Peirce showed some vibrant problems, as for example, the classic one of universals. Nonetheless that work is still incomplete; as long as that should be adequately related with what Peirce called his ‘scholastic realism’. Continuity is started by the theory of multitude and frees his (...) analysis from any constraints of the nominalist theories of reality as integrated by incognizable things-in-themselves. His theory of multitude, instead, can be derived with mathematics: By drawing in the work of the ways of abstraction in diagrammatic reasoning made by Sun Jo Shin and in continuum theories by Cathy Legg I will show the device of diagrammatic reasoning as a plausible pragmatic tool to represent those continua and make sense of his scholastic realism. The analysis of continuity is a perfect example of how the method of diagrammatic reasoning helps unblock the road of philosophical inquiry and also helps to clarify other problems as, for example, the applicability of Mathematics. General concepts define continua, and, while the properties of true continua are not reducible to properties of the individuals they comprise, they are still intelligible and necessary to ground any science of inquiry. (shrink)

Emotions and consciousness are intimately linked and often conceived from a purely intrapersonal perspective. This paper explores the implications of considering emotions as not only intrapersonal but also as interpersonal and transpersonal heterarchical (i.e., every component has potentially equal importance) systems. It is telling that in contemplative traditions and contemporary research on hypnotic experience, deep 'inner' experience is pregnant with interpersonal and transpersonal meanings. Similarly, the propensity to have porous conscious experiences is paralleled by the tendency to be affected by (...) the emotion of others. Anecdotal and experimental evidence on anomalous events clearly suggests that strong emotions can have non-local effects. That consciousness and emotions are embedded within interpersonal and transpersonal fields has important epistemological and ethical implications. (shrink)

The target article's use of core concepts is confused and excessively broad. Two main types of experiences have been described in relation to shamanism: magical flight and mediumship/possession. The first refers to visual and remembered experiences of events in other realms, the second to embodied experiences of ceding mental control and personality to a preternatural entity. These experiences grossly correspond to two main experience modalities exhibited by highly hypnotizable individuals in a secular setting.

Cultivating Consciousness: Enhancing Human Potential, Wellness, and Healing. Edited by K. Ramakrishna Rao. Connecticut: Praeger, 1993. 235 pp. (cloth). $55.00.

Este artículo revisa el proceso histórico de la ‘Conquista del desierto’ y la existencia de campos de concentración para indígenas en Argentina a través de una lectura de hermenéutica filosófica. El objetivo del artículo es interpretar el periodo y el uso de campos como instancias que configuraron la diferenciación del pueblo mapuche como sujeto racializado en la sociedad argentina. Los resultados de la exposición muestran que la marginación del cuerpo mapuche ocurre por el registro de excepciones y que aquella es (...) disputada por sujetos mapuche. This paper reviews the historical process of the ‘Conquest of the Desert’ and the existence of concentration camps for indigenous people in Argentina. The research is conducted through philosophical hermeneutics. The objective of the paper is to read the period and the use concentration camps as instances that shaped the differentiation of the Mapuche people as a racialized subject in Argentine society. The results of the argumentation show that marginalization of the Mapuche body occurs through the registration of exceptions, which is disputed by Mapuche subjects. (shrink)

¿“Quién asume la competencia en un caso para el cual no se ha previsto competencia alguna?”. Retomando esta pregunta de Carl Schmitt, el autor pretende unir la definición desgarradora de soberanía propuesta por este pensador con la idea de soberanía popular, consignada en las constituciones de los estados modernos y contemporáneos. El lector encontrará también una reflexión sobre la noción filosófica de estado de excepción y la ambivalencia entre peligro y oportunidad que este representa para el ejercicio del derecho y (...) de la política. (shrink)

The aim of this work is to respond to the following question: how did Charles S. Peirce find unity for his pragmatist philosophy through the formulation of Scholastic Realism? The author proposes the said doctrine to be a reading guide, leading us through the different stages of Peirce's work as a philosopher. By understanding his realist doctrine, we can see why he believed it was a viable theory for understanding the problem of Universals. This book demonstrates why, in Peirce's mind, (...) such a problem has pervaded the history of philosophy. The author's line of argument reveals that Scholastic Realism is crucial to the understanding of his philosophy, which is a new approach in Peirce scholarship. It provides a useful framework for asking questions about reality in the same way that Peirce himself did. As a result, the author shows that Peirce's realism addresses different yet related philosophical problems, leading Peirce to brand the final version of his philosophy as «Scientific Metaphysics». The conclusion offers an interpretation of the Scholastic Realism principle as a solution to Peirce's concerns - a useful idea to achieve a better theory of reality in his struggle to realize metaphysics a posteriori. Peirce's doctrine is presented alongside some of its uses, especially in the fields of abstraction theory, and also in the fundamental principles of mathematics. This work should advance our comprehension of the problems related to Peirce's philosophy as well as shedding light on pragmatism and its origins as well as the battle between realism and nominalism. (shrink)

En el presente trabajo se muestra cómo la filosofía política práctica se materializa en técnicas gubernamentales que han generado una institucionalidad que busca tener un impacto de pacificación, tolerancia, democratización y búsqueda de la equidad en la sociedad colombiana. La investigación se centra en el influjo del modelo democrático deliberativo en Colombia y su contribución a la configuración de la Constitución Política de 1991. La metodología empleada implica, en primer lugar, la conceptualización de la democracia deliberativa. A continuación, se analiza (...) la recepción de este modelo en Colombia, destacando las ideas que influyeron en la redacción constitucional. Finalmente, se exploran los impactos concretos de la democracia deliberativa en la mencionada Constitución, revelando cómo esta filosofía política práctica ha dejado su huella en la estructura normativa del país. (shrink)

El presente artículo hace un recorrido histórico de los procesos lógicos para lograr una formalización rigurosa del lenguaje. Desde sus inicios en Grecia hasta las propuestas contemporáneas de la lógica simbólica o matemática. Se realiza una ubicación general de los avances en las diferentes épocas para luego explicar el proceso de formalización lógico del lenguaje cotidiano a partir de la lógica clásica; luego de ello se postulan algunas limitaciones de la formalización clásica y se procede a explicar el proceso moderno (...) de formalización; en un tercer momento, se hace referencia a la importancia del manejo formal del lenguaje en el análisis del discurso y la validación de teorías cientí cas, valorando el lenguaje formal de la lógica y de la matemática como sistemas para la construcción de la ciencia. La formalización del lenguaje apoya con veracidad los manejos de la argumentación cientí ca y que luego se puede traducir en aplicaciones tecnológicas. El objetivo del artículo es analizar los procesos de formalización del lenguaje a través de un análisis histórico de la lógica, para la determinación de los elementos lógicos que aportan a la formalización del lenguaje y a la construcción de argumentos cientí cos válidos; y, se alcanzará por medio del planteamiento de las preguntas: ¿Qué aportes losó cos constituyen los postulados más relevantes para la evolución del análisis lógico? ¿Cuáles son las limitaciones que presenta la lógica clásica o aristotélica ante la lógica simbólica estructurada por Frege? ¿Cuáles son los aportes a partir de la formalización lógica del lenguaje para el análisis del discurso y la estructuración de la ciencia? (shrink)

The concept of information has been extensively studied and written about, yet no consensus on a unified definition of information has to date been reached. This paper seeks to establish the basis for a unified definition of information. We claim a biosemiotics perspective, based on Gregory Bateson’s definition of information, provides a footing on which to build because the frame this provides has applicability to both the sciences and humanities. A key issue in reaching a unified definition of information is (...) the fundamental problem of identifying how a human organism, in a self-referential process, develops from a state in which its knowledge of the human-organism-in-its-environment is almost non-existent to a state in which the human organism not only recognizes the existence of the environment but also sees itself as part of the human-organism-in-its-environment system. This allows a human organism not only to self-referentially engage with the environment and navigate through it, but also to transform it in its own image and likeness. In other words, the Fundamental Problem of the Science of Information concerns the phylogenetic development process, as well as the ontogenetic development process of Homo sapiens sapiens from a single cell to our current multicellular selves, all in a changing long-term and short-term environment, respectively. (shrink)

A hypnotic induction produces different patterns of spontaneous experiences across individuals. The magnitude and characteristics of these responses covary moderately with hypnotic suggestibility, but also differ within levels of hypnotic suggestibility. This study sought to identify discrete phenomenological profiles in response to a hypnotic induction and assess whether experiential variability among highly suggestible individuals matches the phenomenological profiles predicted by dissociative typological models of high hypnotic suggestibility. Phenomenological state scores indexed in reference to a resting epoch during hypnosis were submitted (...) to a latent profile analysis. The profiles in the derived four-class solution differed in multiple experiential dimensions and hypnotic suggestibility. Highly suggestible individuals were distributed across two classes that exhibited response patterns suggesting an inward attention subtype and a dissociative subtype. These results provide support for dissociative typological models of high hypnotic suggestibility and indicate that highly suggestible individuals do not display a uniform response to a hypnotic induction. (shrink)

ResumenEn este artículo me propongo realizar una defensa del naturalismo como fundamento metafísico de la ciencia, mostrando para ello que el “nuevo realismo” de Markus Gabriel es otra versión contemporánea del relativismo y del idealismo y a pesar de que Gabriel acepta la distinción fregeana de sentido y referencia, sus implicaciones son explícitamente antinaturalistas. En concreto, la defensa al naturalismo que intento ofrecer aquí es una crítica abierta a las consecuencias antinaturalistas y pseudocientíficas del “nuevo realismo” de Gabriel. Otra manera (...) de comprender este trabajo es mostrar que el naturalismo puede ser una pieza clave para entender la discusión contemporánea entre la ciencia y la pseudociencia.Palabras clave: Gabriel; naturalismo; nuevo realismo; demarcación; ciencia. (shrink)

This article presents a description and a critical reflection of some methodological issues involved in a number of participative planning projects that have been carried out in several cities and/or communities in Mexico and other Latin-American countries since 1994. The projects involved the design of regional development plans based on a vision shared by the corresponding communities. The projects include the participation of a large number of people, representing the various sectors of the populations concerned as well as the leading (...) opinion groups of those communities. The methodological approach of the projects is based on prospective and participative planning techniques. (shrink)

Exceptional, or anomalous, experiences (AE), including mystical, so‐called out‐of‐body and near‐death experiences, have intrigued humanity throughout history. In William James's program for a science of psychology at the end of the 19th century, all experiences, whether usual or exceptional were within its remit, yet the scientific consideration of AE has been mostly dormant until recently. This chapter provides an overview of the field, starting with a definition of AE, descriptions of various types, a brief history of their study, and a (...) list of why they are essential to a complete psychology of human experience. Other sections cover the (incidental) relation of AE to psychopathology, the proposal of an underlying personality trait, related neuroscientific studies, and the potential beneficial effects of AE. In the final section, I argue that rather than just being oddities or malfunctions, AE are essential to a comprehensive account of consciousness and may, more arguably, provide alternative epistemological pathways to that of the ordinary state of consciousness. (shrink)