As a comparative politics scholar, it is more than a challenge to read and comment on the work of political theorists. The reason for this lies in the fact that comparative politics and political t...

According to John Rawls, the methods and conclusions of science—when these are non-controversial—constitute public reasons. However, several objections have been raised against this view. This paper focuses on two objections. On the one hand, the associational objection states that scientific reasons are the reasons of the scientific community, and thus paradigmatically non-public in the Rawlsian sense. On the other hand, the controversiality objection states that the non-controversiality requirement rules out their public character when scientific postulates are resisted by a significant (...) portion of the citizenry. The paper replies that both objections miss their mark. To the associational objection, it replies that the relevant test for a reason to be public is whether the reasons have been construed under the rules and constrains of a public frame of thought. Insofar as scientific methods and conclusions correspond to the principles of reasoning and rules of evidence that liberals understand as public, their associational origin is secondary. To the controversiality objection, it replies that the standard for a scientific argument to be regarded as non-controversial should refer to its degree of intra-scientific consensus, since ordinary citizens accept or reject scientific pronouncements conditioned to their particular comprehensive views. Nonetheless, a wide extra-scientific agreement on the epistemic virtues of the scientific method will be needed. The paper concludes that there is a good case to think about scientific reasons as public to the extent that scientific reasoning is a mode of inquiry that mirrors a central aspiration of Rawlsian political liberalism: having a public way of thought and an impersonal standpoint to adjudicate between competing claims. (shrink)

The status of scientific knowledge in political liberalism is controversial. Although Rawls argued that the noncontroversial methods and conclusions of science belong to the kind of reasons that citizens can legitimately call forth in public deliberation, critics have observed that the complexity and elaborateness of scientific arguments drive them away from the spirit of public reason, i.e., that which should reflect judgments that are the product of general beliefs and forms of reasoning found in common sense. In other words, scientific (...) claims remain as inaccessible as esoteric or religious reasons. This paper contends that this objection can be met by introducing a crucial assumption, drawn from W. V. O. Quine and the ‘naturalized epistemology’ tradition: that scientific reasoning and everyday reasoning are not two different epistemic categories but rather form a continuum. The former is just a filtered or refined version of the latter. Accordingly, evidence-based scientific reasoning is common to all citizens, regardless of their actual acceptance of specific scientific claims. Following the Quinean Assumption, political liberals may argue that, unlike religious or esoteric sources of knowledge, scientific reasoning is the expression of a cognitive operation that is fundamentally shared across comprehensive doctrines and politically reasonable individuals. (shrink)

Cristóbal Balbontin La phénoménologie française, et tout particulièrement la philosophie de Lévinas, cherche à critiquer la lutte pour la reconnaissance hégélienne en ce qu’elle est une philosophie qui cherche à réduire « l’Autre » au « Même ». Est-ce que cette critique vaut aussi pour la réactualisation honnethienne de la lutte pour la reconnaissance? Notre position est que, même si Honneth s’engage dans une réactualisation de la reconnaissance intersubjective qui met en valeur l’importance de l’altérité, cette démarche s’avère insuffisante (...) ; surtout par rapport à la place phénoménologique de la chair. (shrink)

Cristóbal Balbontin Dans Totalité et infini, Emmanuel Levinas s’attaque surtout à critiquer la dimension anonyme que comporte l’État. Proche du geste de Franz Rosenzweig dans L’étoile de la rédemption qui relie la fin de la Phénoménologie de l’esprit avec les Principes de la philosophie du droit, la critique lévinassienne vise surtout la philosophie politique hégélienne. Pourtant, chez Levinas — par opposition à Rosenzweig —, il ne s’agit pas seulement de dénoncer le devenir de la Raison dans la pensée occidentale, (...) mais sinon plus fondamentalement l’ontologie à partir de laquelle cette raison est devenue possible. Ce faisant, il s’agit de déceler les points de rapprochement aussi bien que les différences entre les deux philosophes à l’égard du politique. À ce propos, il s’agit de relever le tournant dans la démarche lévinassienne qu’implique une revalorisation du politique. (shrink)

Neil MacCormick says that his "version of institutional theory" about the law 'is "non positivist", or, if you wish, "post-positivist"'. He is aware, however, that his work could be perfectly labelled, from the point of view of the history of legal and moral thought, as a form of natural law theory, at least by those who adhere to some version of natural law. It is an important merit of MacCormick that, rising above the label walls and wars, his theory of (...) law has taken into account the main insights of the great authors belonging to both traditions, such as Hans Kelsen and Herbert Hart, on the so-called "positivist" side, and some authors in the Thomistic tradition, particularly John Finnis, as well as "the writings of seventeenth and eighteenth century jurists concerning natural jurisprudence and the law of nature", on the so-called "natural law" side. Writing with such openness to all sources and insights, Neil MacCormick, one of the most eminent legal philosophers of our time, does not surprise us when he chooses to end his lifetime's work with an attempt to dig into the ethical foundations of all that he has written on law and politics. Practical Reason in Law and Morality is, in a way, his most significant book. He tackles here the deeper issues that he himself realised were left open and uncertain in his salient works on legal theory. He considered this book as the last one in a quartet on "Law, State, and Practical Reason". The quartet itself has become the culmination of a life devoted to the common good, in academia and in politics, among many other endeavours. Notwithstanding its flaws, I am convinced that Neil MacCormick's last book can be illuminating for all those students, and even professors, who go about doing legal philosophy without ever reading anything antedating Hart's Concept of Law. They tend to be confused by sophisticated forms of scepticism, luxurious discussions on law and morality and metaethics, and all sorts of distrust of truth in practical matters. Hence they will surely benefit from reading how a great legal philosopher of our time, once equally confused but always honestly open to rational deliberation and fair discussion, freed himself of at least half of his misunderstandings, and learned a lot by reading some natural law theorists old and new. (shrink)

En el presente artículo nos proponemos desarrollar y discutir una posible hipótesis de lectura respecto a la obra de la filósofa Catherine Malabou. La crítica de la forma que lleva a cabo desde sus primeros escritos, permite valorarla más allá de la presencia, pero sin apelar a una trascendencia que se plantee por fuera del movimiento de la formación. En esa discusión sobre la forma, Malabou descubre una novedosa idea de materialismo, que hace posible considerar de otro modo la estructura (...) auto-afectiva que subyace al movimiento especulativo y a la naturaleza de la subjetividad. A partir de esta consideración, buscaremos mostrar que una impersonalidad y una indiferencia, que es en cierto sentido un momento de desafección, permite entender de una manera distinta la amplia reflexión sobre la plasticidad, concepto operativo clave que atraviesa gran parte de la obra de Malabou. (shrink)

There have been persistent philosophical efforts to demarcate the province of science. Fewer attempts have been made to explore whether these demarcation strategies are consistent with the liberal promise of religious neutrality. Within this framework, most liberal political theorists seem to agree that hypotheses suggesting supernatural agency should remain outside the purview of science by principle. In their view, this rule of methodological naturalism is neutral in the relevant sense, since it is silent towards ultimate questions. This paper examines whether (...) this is so, especially when discussing the content of the science curriculum in public education. In this context, advocates of the status of Intelligent Design creationism as a scientific theory argue that MN arbitrarily dismisses a type of supernatural agency that is fundamental to several branches of theistic belief. Drawing on Thomas Nagel’s position, the paper contends that MN assumes a meta-scientific position to which either god does not exist, or god does not intervene in cosmic history. To that extend, MN cannot be reconciled with LPRN. However, this conclusion does not entail that hypotheses that suggest supernatural agency must be included in the science curriculum. Creationist theories may remain excluded to the extent that they fall short of the standards that are required for a proficient scientific account. But, crucially, it will not be their religious character what keeps them out of the classroom, but a series of pseudoscientific wrongs which are non-exclusive to supernaturalistic hypotheses. The paper thus suggests the exploration of an alternative demarcation strategy, one that is consistent with LPRN. (shrink)

Entre los años 1678 y 1685 Leibniz compuso dos tratados – Circa Geometrica Generalia (C.G.G.) y Notationes Generales (N.G.) – en los cuales expone una críptica teoría del origen de los números enteros positivos estrechamente vinculada al Misterio de la Trinidad. Este trabajo propone una interpretación de las ideas matemáticas del filósofo mediante el concepto de determinatio. Tal hipótesis se utiliza para esclarecer el sentido teológico de la proposición leibniziana.

The purpose of this note is to clarify the meaning and philosophical scope of Cassirer ´s concept of "symbolic form".

Levinas est traditionnellement perçu comme une voix critique à propos de la pensée de la totalité de Hegel et, ainsi, comme un philosophe qui cherche à dénoncer la négation de toute différence dans la pensée de l’identité, que ce soit dans l’unité de la vie, de l’esprit, du savoir ou du concept. Or, le paradoxe de Levinas est de critiquer Hegel tout en réinterprétant et en s’appropriant certains de ses concepts fondamentaux. Plus particulièrement, c'est le cas avec la radicalisation de (...) la puissance du négatif. Il s’agit donc de s’interroger sur l’effort de Levinas pour développer une forme intrinsèque à la dialectique hégélienne que Hegel aurait entrevue sans développer dans sa philosophie, encore trop enracinée dans une métaphysique que Levinas tente de quitter. Ce faisant, il s’agit d’éclaircir si l’on peut même parler d’une dialectique négative lévinassienne. (shrink)

El artículo aborda el trabajo de un conjunto de filósofos chilenos, cuyo objetivo es mostrar que el pensamiento conservador ─y puntualmente la historiografía conservadora─ construye y transmite un imaginario nacional que, al sancionar la necesidad de una democracia tutelada, comparece como antecedente y justificación del golpe de Estado y la dictadura militar. Junto con exponer y discutir algunos de los supuestos del trabajo de estos autores, el artículo muestra que el mérito del mismo es poner de manifiesto que el relato (...) de la historia ─y la consiguiente construcción de memoria─ es el lugar de un diferendo, de un conflicto siempre abierto. (shrink)

Intercultural research poses critical ethical challenges. In 2019, in collaboration with more than 200 researchers from more than 30 countries, a group of researchers developed an ethical conflict analysis model that seems relevant for Latin America. The model proposes a flexible frame of reference where ethical challenges depend on four factors present throughout the research process: the place where the research is carried out, the people involved, the relevant ethical principles, and the precedents from previous research. This article discusses the (...) applicability of this model through two case analyses: one study with Indigenous peoples in Chile and the other with Latin-American migrants on the border between Mexico and US. (shrink)

The article discusses the concept of truth in social sciences. Based upon Leibniz’s sufficient reason principle, it is proposed three stadiums of the principle of sufficient reasons: ontological, epistemological and existential, which in turn allow three versions of the concept of truth in the social sciences. El artículo discute el concepto de verdad en las ciencias sociales. Basado en el principio de razón suficiente de Leibniz, se proponen tres estadios del principio de razón suficiente: ontológico, epistemológico y existencial, los cuales (...) permiten entender tres versiones del concepto de verdad en las ciencias sociales. (shrink)

En este artículo intentamos exponer algunas de las cuestiones principales elaboradas en _El anti-Edipo_, con el objeto de enfatizar su relevancia para la comprensión de una filosofía política novedosa. Para ello nos centramos en tres aspectos articulados que están presentes en el libro, pero que se vuelven más claros para nuestra actualidad al momento de ponerlos en contacto con algunas de las discusiones que han suscitado y con el corpus deleuziano-guattariano. Esos aspectos son: 1) la tematización del deseo, sometido a (...) una transformación a partir del concepto de “máquina”, 2) el análisis del capitalismo, a partir de la teorización de un _socius_ específico, donde el deseo adquiere un tratamiento singular, y 3) el descubrimiento de un fascismo molecular, que será desarrollado abiertamente en textos posteriores de ambos autores. (shrink)

En el presente artículo se analiza la relación problemática que el filósofo francés Gilbert Simondon establece entre la materia inerte y la materia viviente en el marco de su teoría de la individuación. Se intenta evidenciar que, pese a los esfuerzos teóricos de Simondon por fundar la naturaleza de la vida en el orden de los fenómenos inorgánicos o físico-químicos, los procesos de individuación vital dan lugar a modos de funcionamiento, estructuras y dinamismos que no tienen precedentes en la materia (...) inanimada, hecho que autoriza una definición de la vida como pura diferencia respecto de sí. (shrink)

En este texto buscamos hacer inteligible el lugar y los derroteros que sigue el concepto de auto-afección en el pensamiento de Jacques Derrida. Dicho concepto se desarrolla a partir de una interpretación de Kant y el problema de la metafísica, de Heidegger. En la elaboración del concepto en Derrida se enfatiza el momento de distancia en el que el sí-mismo no puede reducir al otro, sino que tiene que hacer patente la demora en su propia formación. Esto implicaría considerar que (...) la mismidad que se constituye en la auto-afección no puede ser separada de una hetero-afección, mediante la cual el otro no puede ser objetivado y no es otra cosa que el sí-mismo en su alteración. La forma de dicho espaciamiento que produce la alteración se pone a prueba en la voz y en la estructura del “oírse-hablar”, la que se revela como un espacio polifónico irreductible a una unidad, donde la auto-afección se desune de sí para retornar como aquello que no espera y como aquello que no puede replegarse en un lugar de reunión. In this paper we try to understand the status and the path followed by the concept of self-affection in the thought of Jacques Derrida. This concept is developed based on an interpretation of Martin Heidegger’s Kant and the problem of Metaphysics. In the elaboration of the concept, Derrida emphasizes the moment of distance in which the self cannot be reduced to the other, but the self makes clear the delay in its own formation. This means that the sameness that constitutes self-affection cannot be separated from hetero-affection, in which the other cannot be objectified and is nothing more than the self in its own alteration. The shape of the spacing that produces such alteration is tested in the voice and its own structure of “s’entendre-parler”, which is revealed as a polyphonic space irreducible to a unity, where self-affection is detached from itself in order to return as something that it does not expect and as something that cannot not retreat into a meeting place. (shrink)

Une étude du concept de reconnaissance chez Hegel demande une attention particulière à la pensée de Fichte et à son élaboration de la reconnaissance aussi bien que l’influence de Schelling. Notre propos est de montrer que le concept de reconnaissance, loin d’être une notion simple à exposer, se montre dans une multiplicité de niveaux de l’architecture hégélienne tout en étant soumis á une influence à géométrie variable des différents philosophes. Ainsi, tout en se rapportant les uns des autres de façon (...) complexe, ces niveau et influences jouent à leur tour avec une ensemble d’autres concepts fondamentaux de la pensée hégélienne qui font partie aussi des enjeux critiques de l’idéalisme allemand. (shrink)

Most debates surrounding the teaching of creationism in the science classroom have been addressed under a standard frame: whether creationism is science or religion. As creationism suggests supernatural causation, it has been understood as beyond the purview of science, and therefore as religion. This argument for methodological naturalism has been increasingly challenged by philosophers of science as a demarcation criterion. The disaggregation approach introduced by Cecile Laborde provides an alternative framework to address this debate. It suggests that the problem with (...) creationism lies in its epistemic inaccessibility, as it is a theory with weak explanatory capacity that has been superseded by Darwinian evolution. Thus, the exclusion of creationism from the science classroom is not grounded in its religious character, but rather in a set of epistemic shortcomings, which are shared by other fully secular pseudoscientific theories. In the same way that religion is not special as a legal-political category under Laborde’s analysis, creationism in the curriculum should not be treated as special either. (shrink)

Cet article passe en revue les principaux points à retenir des travaux de Gilles Fauconnier, en particulier de son travail collaboratif avec Mark Turner sur la théorie du _blending_, pour les lecteurs qui ne sont pas familiers avec ce cadre théorique ou qui pourraient bénéficier d'un regard extérieur. Je souligne les leçons globales à tirer des notions d'espaces mentaux et de leurs connexions ou _mappings_, les avantages d'utiliser de petits packages au lieu de grands domaines pour analyser l’activité conceptuelle, comment (...) les réseaux d'intégration (_blending networks_) nous permettent d'aller au-delà de simples projections ou correspondances entre domaines de l'expérience, ainsi que la nécessité d'étudier des modèles qui fournissent un pont entre les principes généraux et les exemples riches et contextualisés qui les exposent. Je cherche avant tout à transmettre le message de Gilles Fauconnier sur la fascination, la curiosité, l'ambition et l'humilité requises par l'entreprise scientifiq... (shrink)

This article analyses an important category from Deleuze's philosophy – the notion of intensity – and explores its significance for Deleuze and the ways it can be used to think about poetic cinema. I use the concept of the intensive-image to define a cinematic style that dissipates narrative action in favour of more contemplative and sensory experiences, hence films that are able to turn onscreen reality into purely affective phenomena. The notion of intensity, I argue, does not allow us to (...) reply easily to the question about representation (i.e., “what is the film about?”), mainly because its images are indeterminate and flowing, combined in a multiple manner that excludes any simple reduction to signification. The general argument that follows, illustrated by a careful reading of key poetic texts, is that the focus on the intensive-image inspires readers to reconsider Deleuze's classification of the cinema into two separate periods as well as to understand the ways in which intensity finds expression in films that produce problems, displacements and provocations. In the words of Pasolini, this is the poetic film tradition which must be placed diachronically in relation to the language of the film narrative, a diachronism that, he says, would appear destined to be always more pronounced. In the last section of this article, I look at Luis Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou (1929) as an early case of the poetic image and draw on key theorists and filmmakers who have discussed the cinema's power of affection and intensity. (shrink)

Eugen Fink propone 5 fenómenos fundamentales de la existencia humana, que son los siguientes: muerte, trabajo, dominio, Eros y juego. En el presente artículo nos ocupamos de dos de ellos: juego y muerte. A modo de destacar algunos de los rasgos primordiales de estos fenómenos -juego y muerte- cabe decir del primero que sobre todo destaca la fantasía, la ficción, y ambos relacionados a su vez con la estructura específicamente lúdica del como-si. De modo espontáneo el niño juega como-si fuera (...) policía, ladrón, rey, plebeyo, padre, madre e incluso niño, es decir, el niño transita con la mayor naturalidad a mundos ficticios. Y esto mismo hará posteriormente el actor profesional. Ello revela a la par el parentesco entre juego y arte. En el caso de la muerte, probablemente lo que más corresponde destacar es su carácter de fenómeno filosófico fundamental, dado que ella se asocia con la concepción del ser en tanto devenir, como que todo lo que es, está transido por el llegar a ser y dejar de ser. Y a la vez que la muerte tiene por lo mismo una peculiar cercanía con el ser, lo tiene también con la nada, y junto con ello, con la pregunta por el sentido. Eugen Fink proposes 5 fundamental phenomena of human existence, which are the following: death, work, dominion, Eros and play. In this article we are dealing with two of them: play and death. How to highlight some of the key features of these phenomena -play and death- it may be said of the first that stands out above all the fantasy, fiction, and both in turn related to the specifically playful structure of the as-if. Spontaneously the child plays as-if he was police, thief, king, plebeian, father, mother and even child, i.e. the child passes naturally to fictional worlds. And the same will do later on the professional actor. This shows at the same time the relationship between play and art. In the case of death, in the first place should be noted its condition as a fundamental philosophical phenomenon, since it is associated with the conception of being as becoming, which implies that everything that is, is determined by the coming to be and the passing away. Death has therefore a unique proximity to being, as with the nothing, and also with the question about meaning. (shrink)

En el pensamiento de Cassirer, la ciencia conforma un sistema de relaciones. En tal perspectiva la verdad se convierte en expresión funcional. Este trabajo expone ciertos aspectos de la teoría de la relatividad considerados a través de semejante prisma conceptual.