The most recent tool for acting on the world, the exosomatization of cognitive activities, is often considered an autonomous and objective replacement of knowledge construction. We show the intrinsic limits of the mechanistic myths in AI, from classical to Deep Learning techniques, and its relation to the human construction of sense. Human activities in a changing ecosystem – in their somatic and sensible dimensionalities proper to any living experiences – are at the core of our analysis. By this, we stress (...) the key role of the knowing subject, far away from any allegedly objective big collections of data. The production of organized structures of physics, biology and in societal analysis will be compared and distinguished by trying to set on more robust grounds the constructive as well as the disruptive roles of entropic, negentropic, anti-entropic dynamics that are different concepts in different domains, to be handled with care: the use of machine learning and optimization methods as tools and models to analyse and manage human activities in view of their scientific and political ideology of technoscientific governance. They suppose that which they try to produce is objective, that is, standardized and controllable behaviours. In this dialogue we stress a mirror symmetry between the lack of theoretical interpretation of scientific data and the lack of democracy in this fiction of neutrality. Moreover, bad analogies constitute an obstacle to grasp the anteriority of biological and ecological constraints which enable and limit all artificial products of human intelligence. We will thus stress biological specificity, the role of normativity and constraints in evolution, of labour in structuring the human historical construction of sense by common activities. (shrink)

Au cours du xix e siècle, les théories transformistes et l’évolutionnisme permettaient de penser d’une nouvelle manière l’historicité de la nature et de la vie, y compris celle de l’homme. Historisation de la nature et naturalisation de l’homme marchent ensemble, mais la forme attribuée à la temporalité naturelle et la place de l’homme dans l’histoire de la vie restent sujets à des conceptions fort différentes dans les champs scientifiques et philosophiques et continuent à être objet de discussion tout au long (...) du xx e siècle. La question de l’articulation entre l’historicité biologique et anthropologique joue également un rôle décisif dans les œuvres de Friedrich Nietzsche et de Michel Foucault. Nous essayerons ici de contextualiser leurs réflexions à ce sujet, de montrer leurs relations et leurs spécificités, ainsi que leur actualité. (shrink)

Cet article commence par revenir sur certains thèmes et enjeux des contributions présentées dans le volume. Il évoque ensuite les problèmes liés aux paradigmes épistémologiques employés dans l’étude du rapport entre animaux et religions antiques, en proposant quelques pistes de réflexion pour la recherche sur ce thème.

El siguiente artículo trata de la cuestión del hombre como animal político (ζῷον πολιτικόν), como se desprende tanto de las obras ético-políticas de Aristóteles (la Política) como de sus textos más puramente biológicos (la Investigación sobre los animales). Frente a algunos problemas de las principales interpretaciones de esta cuestión, en este artículo se vincula el problema de la politicidad humana con el de la comunidad (κοινωνία), a la que también pertenece el hombre: de hecho, el hombre es uno ζῷον πολιτικόν (...) porque es uno ζῷον κοινωνικόν. (shrink)

La riflessione sullo statuto epistemologico e sul funzionamento politico del discorso biologico – nel suo carattere eterogeneo, plurale e conflittuale – è un tema centrale nelle opere di Michel Foucault e Georges Canguilhem. A partire dall’analisi delle relazioni e delle tensioni tra i loro orientamenti teorici, questo studio propone una rilettura critica delle loro ricerche, integrandole e utilizzandole nei dibattiti epistemologici e politici contemporanei. In tal senso, la filosofia biologica di Canguilhem permette di riesaminare la concezione foucaultiana della storia, della (...) società, della soggettività, della tecnica, dell’ambiente, e di reinterrogare in una prospettiva socio-ecologica ed eco-storica lo spazio d’intervento delle tecnologie biopolitiche. (shrink)

Is Nicholas of Cusa’s neglect of Aristotelian logic and a theory of substance that is both underlying and, at the same time, dependent on that logic sufficient to say that metaphysics disappears from his thought? The answer is, of course, in the negative. In the following, I will attempt to illustrate the characteristics of what could be called a metaphysics of mind rather than being, which is linked in Nicholas of Cusa’s writings both to mysticism and to a measuring theory. (...) Metaphysica paupera, mathesis, meta-mathesis, are non-asseverative knowledge, linked to a problematic nature, insufficiency, movement, shadow, rather than to the solidity and density of ontology, recognizable in those fields in which the disproportion between mensura and mesuratum, i.e., between the infinite and the finite, is most evident. (shrink)

En este artículo analizo el concepto de la democracia como un sistema de justicia procedimental en contraste con la democracia como mecanismo de toma de decisión y ejercicio del poder político de Schumpeter. La idea de la democracia como un sistema de justicia procedimental que expongo está vinculada al pensamiento de John Rawls. Al final del artículo muestro cómo esta conceptualización, en el contexto de las sociedades plurales, garantiza en mejor medida las libertades y la igualdad generando condiciones de estabilidad (...) institucional. (shrink)

Over the years of the printing of the Utopia by Thomas More, the paradigm of the bene ordinata res publica takes shape in Italian culture. It is a model both political and urbanistic, which is inspired by the neo-Platonic revival of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth century and concretized by the «new style» of Renaissance architects. The rationalization of the civitas, evident from the geometric definition of the urban plans, introduces a principle of order and measuring to which it is assigned (...) the task to re-form and harmonize the multiple instances of a real State – naturaliter unstable, corrupt, conflictual – within the form of an achievable eutopia. (shrink)

Il Rinascimento è un atelier nel quale si compongono in maniera originale esperienze e concetti radicati in tradizioni antiche ed eterogenee e destinati a esiti diversi. Saperi nuovi o rinnovati si caricano di valenze dottrinali inattese e concorrono ad arricchire il patrimonio concettuale degli uomini. Nella propensione a diffondere e frantumare la filosofia in una pluralità di artes e nel dialogo reciproco al quale queste sono richiamate, sta una peculiarità del pensiero rinascimentale, del quale i saggi qui pubblicati sono esemplificazione.

In this article I analyze the justification of rawlsian anti-perfectionism, present in both A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism. My aim is to show how justice as fairness, Rawls's conception of justice, lacks stability because of it. As an alternative to his anti-perfectionism, I propose, in the second part, the idea of progress as practical perfectionism by John Dewey. I argue that a perfectionist liberalism of this kind does not undermine reasonable pluralism as Rawls argued. Also I argue that (...) it is indispensable to establish a liberal society that is stable. In the end, I briefly show how the private sphere could be affected once the idea of progress is part of a conception of liberal justice. (shrink)

The following article is about the famous question of man as a political animal, that emerges from the ethical-political and biological works of Aristotle. In view of the problems connected with the main interpretations, we will try to link the problem of human politics to the horizon of the community, which is the real key to understand the meaning of this “politics”.

L’un des principaux arguments évoqués contre l’art contemporain au début des années 1990 en France (lors du débat autour de ce qui fut appelé la « crise de l’art contemporain ») consista en l’affirmation que puisqu’aujourd’hui n’importe quoi peut être de l’art, alors l’art d’aujourd’hui c’est n’importe quoi. Ce texte entend montrer que ce raisonnement en deux parties relève d’une confusion qui, une fois clarifiée, permettra de cerner la spécificité de l’art contemporain et des jugements qui peuvent être émis à (...) son égard. (shrink)

This paper discusses the representation of foreign gods as demons found in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. It investigates the category of δαιμόνιον in some Septuagint texts against the background of the Hellenistic literature, and the relationship between the notion of demon and that of idol. In doing this, it shows the relevance of the Septuagint for a better understanding of religious notions emerging during the Hellenistic period. Moreover, focusing on some uses of εἴδωλον in the Pentateuch, the (...) paper proposes a new interpretation for the word in the Greek version of the decalogue, in light of papyrological evidence. (shrink)

«Mettre les faits d’accord avec la philosophie de Platon»: voilà une maxime qui remonte au Commentaire de Proclus au premier livre des Éléments d’Euclide, oeuvre centrale pour la constitution du savoir au Cinquecento et plus particulièrement pour la définition du statut opératoire des mathématiques. Au cours du XVIe siècle, Euclide apparaît en effet comme le véritable médiateur entre platonisme et aristotélisme, au demeurant moins par son oeuvre de géomètre que par son geste épistémologique qui semble tracer l’unique voie possible pour (...) accéder à la connaissance de toutes les choses, soit sensibles soit métaphysiques. Les interprétations de Jacopo Mazzoni ("In universam Platonis et Aristotelis philosophiam praeludia, sive de comparatione Platonis et Aristotelis", 1597) et de Francesco Barozzi ("Opusculum, in quo una oratio, et duae quaestiones: Altera de certitudine, et altera de medietate mathematicarum continentur", 1560), que j’examine dans mon article, offrent deux perspectives différentes, qui redonnent une actualité philosophique au néoplatonisme mathématique de Proclus. (shrink)

In this article I analyze the justification of rawlsian anti-perfectionism, present in both A Theory of Justice and Political Liberalism. My aim is to show how justice as fairness, Rawls's conception of justice, lacks stability because of it. As an alternative to his anti-perfectionism, I propose, in the second part, the idea of progress as practical perfectionism by John Dewey. I argue that a perfectionist liberalism of this kind does not undermine reasonable pluralism as Rawls argued. Also I argue that (...) it is indispensable to establish a liberal society that is stable. In the end, I briefly show how the private sphere could be affected once the idea of progress is part of a conception of liberal justice. (shrink)

In this article, I give a counterexample to a claim made in that empirically equivalent theories can often be regarded as theoretically equivalent by treating one as having surplus structure, thereby overcoming the problem of underdetermination of theory choice. The case I present is that of Lorentz's ether theory and Einstein's theory of special relativity. I argue that Norton's suggestion that surplus structure is present in Lorentz's theory in the form of the ether state of rest is based on a (...) misunderstanding of the role that the ether plays in Lorentz's theory, and that in general, consideration of the conceptual framework in which a theory is embedded is vital to understanding the relationship between different theories. (shrink)

We address a recent proposal concerning ‘surplus structure’ due to Nguyen et al.. We argue that the sense of ‘surplus structure’ captured by their formal criterion is importantly different from—and in a sense, opposite to—another sense of ‘surplus structure’ used by philosophers. We argue that minimizing structure in one sense is generally incompatible with minimizing structure in the other sense. We then show how these distinctions bear on Nguyen et al.’s arguments about Yang-Mills theory and on the hole argument.

This paper develops and defends a paradigm-based explanation of respect. Paradigm-based explanations propose to illuminate subject matter that are basically disunified, by identifying a form of them (“the paradigm”) that is then shown to be explanatorily basic to the subject as a whole. This explanatory strategy is well-suited to the subject of respect, which is widely agreed to encompass two distinct kinds, appraisal respect and recognition respect. Accordingly, the paper sets out to determine which of these two kinds is paradigmatic (...) and which, derivative. It begins by advancing a novel account of appraisal respect (“perspectival respect”), which it also hypothesizes is respect in its paradigmatic form. On this hypothesis, perspectival respect is paradigmatic in virtue of its apparent “point” or function, which is that it constitutively aims at understanding another person’s perspective on things. The paper then tests the viability of this hypothesis by showing how one central form of recognition respect (“respect for persons”) can reasonably be understood to derive from respect in its paradigmatic form, by showing how it is illuminated by the aim of interpersonal understanding. (shrink)

In Gendered Readings of Change, Clara Fischer develops a unique theory of change by drawing on American philosophy and contemporary feminist thought. Via a select history of ancient Greek and Pragmatist philosophies of change, she argues for a reconstruction of transformation that is inclusive of women's experiences and thought. With wide-ranging analysis, this book addresses ontological, moral, epistemological, and political questions, and includes an insightful exploration of the philosophies of Parmenides, Aristotle, John Dewey, Iris Young, and Jane Addams.

We argue that several apparently distinct responses to the hole argument, all invoking formal or mathematical considerations, should be viewed as a unified “mathematical response.” We then consider and rebut two prominent critiques of the mathematical response before reflecting on what is ultimately at issue in this literature.

In the field of clinical practice, there does not seem to be too much contention about what schizophrenia is, at least from a high level. After all, there are various diagnostic systems and guidelines, all of which point toward schizophrenia as a psychotic syndrome which likely forms a continuum with other psychotic disorders. It may sound obvious that, according to the current definitions, the major commonality between schizophrenia and all other psychoses is psychotic symptoms; more precisely, delusions and hallucinations. Any (...) description, or ‘phenomenology’ as most clinicians view it, can be found in these diagnostic manuals. However, is there anything at all that sets schizophrenia apart from the other... (shrink)

This special issue explores the relevance of shame to feminist theory and practice. Across a number of contexts, theoretical frames, and disciplines, the articles collated here provide a stimulating engagement with shame, posing questions and developing analyses that have a direct bearing on feminism. For, the significance of shame to feminists lies in the complex and often troubling implications it holds as a feeling that may be experienced differently by people of certain genders (and none), and in its relation to (...) power. Indeed, as the contributions to this special issue highlight, shame may play a role in our moral development, but given its often readily acknowledged harmful effects, shame is frequently put to politically problematic and morally questionable ends. In patriarchal societies the outgrowths of this regularly entail gendered consequences, as gendered shame may form a disciplining device operating through structures of oppression, such as gender, but also class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, and related intersectional categories. The question of a politics of shame therefore arises in the context of a consideration of the social and political deployment and manipulation of shame, and the reported divergence in the shame experience itself, which feminists have attributed to its manifestation through, among others, gender. (shrink)

Universities increasingly play an important role in entrepreneurship, which has contributed to gender equality in the business world. The aim of this study is to establish a causal model of entrepreneurial intentions and explore it by gender, based on the dimensions of the Theory of Planned Behavior, and how these are mediated by the individuals’ resilience and psychological well-being. The previous work experience was considered as one of the control variables, in order to analyze whether this influence the entrepreneurial intention. (...) With a convenience sample of 644 Portuguese students, Structural Equation Modeling was used. For a better understanding, multivariate analyses were performed and each one was individually reported, and for appropriate comparisons by gender, the t-student test was used. The comparison of means, between genders, showed that there are differences only between perceived behavioral control, subjective norm, and entrepreneurial intention, with women scoring the highest values, and psychological well-being, with men scoring the higher. A serial mediation path was performed, and psychological resilience was found to mediate a significant effect between perceived behavioral control and intention in females, but not in males. It also mediates a significant effect between attitude and intention in females, but not in males. These results show that attitude is a determining factor for females to become entrepreneurs. Finally, after discussing the results, theoretical and practical contributions are analyzed, with regard to the field of entrepreneurship in Portugal, and alternatives are pointed out for a more entrepreneurial future, reinforcing the role of higher education institutions. (shrink)

Patients with psychotic disorders experience a range of reality distortions. These often include auditory-verbal hallucinations, and thought insertion to a lesser degree; however, their mechanisms and relationships between each other remain largely elusive. Here we attempt to establish a integrative model drawing from the phenomenology of both AVHs and TI and argue that they in fact can be seen as ‘spectra’ of experiences with varying degrees of agency and ownership, with ‘silent and internal own thoughts’ on one extreme and ‘fully (...) external and clearly audible voices’ in the absence of a speaker on the other. We believe a spectral model will add emphasis to the continuity of experience and help to better understand how one type of psychotic symptom may interact with another, and put forward the argument that the experience of TI itself is not sufficient to classify as a delusion. In addition we aim to discuss some of the conceptual issues surrounding AVHs and TI with first-person accounts and current philosophical and neuropsychological theories in mind. We propose that the mechanisms behind AVHs and TI are more complex than source-monitoring deficits; indeed, to understand such phenomena one must appreciate that their very ‘existence’ and ‘reality’ as experienced by the individual have much deeper implications and meaning, both philosophically and clinically. (shrink)