Our present models and theories of African history and prehistory are profoundly influenced by the physical anthropologists’ perceptions of human reality in present-day Africa. Professor P. V. Tobias has suggested that the present-day people of Africa, excluding the recent arrivals from Europe and Asia, descended from a common proto-Negriform stock which gave birth first to the so-called “Khoisan” (I am using here the terminology of my source, not the historically justified Khoe and San, meaning the Hottentots and the Bushmen) and (...) later to the Negro genetic type. Of greater importance to archaeologists, who deal mainly with the so-called pre-history, is the fact that, genetically speaking, the difference between the “Khoisan” and the Negroids is smaller than the difference between these two African racial types and all other non-African types. This realisation tends to have one consequence: the pre-historic and even historic developments are generally perceived as explainable from within Africa, without any need for external clues or explanations. Archaeological finds are thus taken for evidence of a basically internal evolution and the finds of foreign glass beads, though very frequent and spread all over Africa, are seen as belonging to the same category as Persian, Chinese, or Arab ceramics and are explained as indication of a coastal trade. (shrink)

Abductive problems have been widely studied in propositional logic. First order abduction, however, has been viewed as intractable, for the undecidability of logical consequence. In this paper, we propose a notion of abductive problem, N-abductive problem, which is relative to the cardinality of the minimal model satisfying the given theory. We use a notion of restricted satisfaction, also relative to a domain cardinality. Finally, we propose an effective procedure for the searching of abductive solutions, by means of a modification of (...) Beth's tableaux. (shrink)

An exploratory qualitative research was carried out in Madrid, Spain, focusing on early adolescents and adolescents from low-income families, most of them with a migration background. The main subject was to describe their perceptions about risk and harm in the use of information and communication technologies. Focus groups and creative workshops were conducted in order to identify risk perceptions, conflicts, solutions and the main agents involved in each case. Despite their lack of financial resources, these adolescents intensively use media and (...) modern technologies with the support of formal and informal institutions outside the family. In this context, they use technology as a set of different resources coordinated in a network in order to achieve specific goals of early adolescence and adolescence. Risks emerge as this network affects their family rules, the social construction of age, and the status inside the family and among peers. (shrink)

En este artículo revisamos la relación que se establece entre la democracia y el proyecto socialista. Debido a que las democracias actuales son predominantemente representativas de tradición liberal, también analizamos su ideal central: la libertad, en relación con el valor más importante de toda propuesta socialista: la igualdad. Nos referimos a la propuesta de Cornelius Castoriadis de un proyecto de autonomía personal y colectiva que entiende la libertad y la igualdad como propósitos políticos, por lo que la verdadera democracia se (...) identificaría con el socialismo. Palabras clave: Democracia; socialismo; libertad; igualdad; autonomía. Democracy and Socialism? An approach to Cornelius Castoriadis’ proposalIn this paper we review the relation between democracy and the socialist project. Since current democracies are predominantly representative and liberal, we also analyze their central ideal, namely, freedom, in connection with the most important value of every socialist proposal, namely, equality. We will refer to Cornelius Castoriadis’ proposal, centered on a project of personal and collective autonomy that recognizes both freedom and equality as political purposes, whereby true democracy would be identified with socialism. Keywords: Democracy; socialism; freedom; equality; autonomy. (shrink)

El presente texto constituye, por un lado, una continuación de una aproximación materialista al concepto de “raza” a partir de los Cuadernos negros de Heidegger, la cual nos llevó, luego de reconocer su carácter análogo a la “corporalidad”, a pensarla no como una determinación naturalista o biológica, sino como la posibilidad de un “mestizaje ontológico”. Por otro lado, “sexo”, “estirpe” y “estilo” hacen alusión a la polisemia del concepto de “Geschlecht” como una figura de lo que hemos llamado la ambigüedad (...) fenomenológica del eros en términos de una “prohibición y transgresión arquitectónicas”. Ello se traducirá, por un lado, en la prioridad del “estilo” como reunión del decir poético en lo impronunciado del poema, y no, como propondremos, en la “excripción” de una “transposición metonímica”, y, por otro lado, en el silenciamiento por Heidegger de la figura del “incesto” en la poesía de Trakl. (shrink)

La presente ponencia se origina a partir de la siguiente pregunta: ¿«raza» (Rasse) y «sexo» (Geschlecht) son conceptos bajo los cuales es posible hallar una filosofía latente del cuerpo en Heidegger? En cuanto concierne al concepto de «raza», es patente el carácter ambiguo de dicha pregunta, si se toma en consideración la recepción que han tenido los Cuadernos negros, a saber, como el material a partir del cual cabría determinar hasta qué punto el antisemitismo «contaminaría» la filosofía de Heidegger. Y (...) ello porque la aproximación heideggeriana al concepto de lo «racial» (rassisch) consistirá precisamente en rechazar toda comprensión naturalista o biológica para transponerla de manera digamos «ontológica» en el concepto de lo «de buena casta» (rassig), el cual está fundamentado en el «ser-arrojado» (Geworfenheit) como constituyente del «pueblo» (Volk) en su carácter historial. Por otro lado, es de común acuerdo el carácter problemático tanto de la corporalidad como de la espacialidad en la ontología heideggeriana, en tanto parece otorgárseles un lugar meramente «óntico» que debe ser reconducido asimismo de manera ontológica al «corporar» (leiben) codeterminante del «ser-en-el-mundo». Dicha aproximación a la corporalidad, por ejemplo, en los Seminarios de Zollikon, que consiste en calificarla de «condición necesaria pero no suficiente», es la misma que caracteriza su posición crítica con respecto a la «raza», la cual consistiría en el gesto impropio de elevar «una condición al estatuto de lo incondicionado». Dicho gesto mostrará su aporía en tanto debe al mismo tiempo expulsar fuera de sí un «resto»: en el caso de la raza, un pueblo que rehúsa su carácter de «pueblo». Finalmente, se abordará un intento de pensar la «raza» en su materialidad a través del concepto de «mestizaje». (shrink)

Como afirma Roland Vaschalde en Suivant Michel Henry (2022), el título se sirve de la expresión «siguiendo a» (suivant) tanto con el sentido de «según» como con el de «como se sigue de», con lo cual no pretende «repetir» a Henry, sino asimismo prolongar los horizontes de la fenomenología de la praxis viviente. Si, de acuerdo con la tópica henriana, dicho «seguir» en tanto uno de los haceres propios a mi «yo puedo» se funda en una «persecución», es decir, en (...) un «sufrirse» ya sea en la imposibilidad de apropiarse del otro, ya sea en tanto sentirse «perseguido», es decir, hallarse bajo la dominación del otro en la imposibilidad de liberarse del peso de mi propio yo, el cual a su vez se «goza» en el olvido de dicha imposibilidad en la ilusión trascendental de su «consecución» en tanto la coincidencia de mi yo con la vida, lo que queda por pensar es la posibilidad del «proseguir» en tanto la transformación de la propia topología. Y es dicho «proseguir» el cual impulsará nuestra lectura a través de las figuras de lo onírico, de lo poscolonial, de la psicopatología, del judaísmo y de la cartografía del cuerpo, en tanto lo «imperseguible» de la fenomenología henriana. (shrink)

The concept of ÒrÒ among the Yoruba people in Nigeria has a lot in common with the biblical concept of Λoγos. This paper explores Λoγos as derived from Greek Logos translated as Word into English, and its parallelisms with ÒrÒ a fêted concept among the Yoruba. The paper provides evidence that both conceptsare related to exoteric functions within their distinct cultural communities. Finally, the paper opens these issues to the possibilities of cross-cultural research and semiotics.

We introduce a two-party communication complexity problem in which the probability of success by using a particular strategy allows the parties to detect with certainty whether or not some forbidden communication has taken place. We show that theprobability of success is bounded by nature; any conceivable method which gives a probability of success outside these bounds is impossible. Moreover, any conceivable method to solve the problem which gives a probability success within these bounds is possible in nature. This example suggests (...) that a suitaby chosen set of communication complexity problems could be the basis of an information-theoretic axiomatization of quantum mechanics. (shrink)

Rawls’s political turn is the result of his struggle with the problem of stability in his theory of justice. Rawls’s late solution uses the concept of public reason. It requires that the members of the well-ordered society should abide by a political conception of justice for shared public reasons, thus fostering an overlapping consensus. This solution has been criticized by post-Rawlsian scholars endorsing a Diversity-Convergence account of the stability problem. I complement Rawls’s model of public reason by arguing that the (...) stability problem can be solved if members of the well-ordered society are community-based reasoners. This leads to a Wittgensteinian reinterpretation of the concept of public reason. This solution is only partial, however. At the bottom, stability without a minimal form of consensus is unlikely. (shrink)

Résumé Prenant pour exemple la figure littéraire de l’employé de bureau, notre étude se propose de saisir les particularités synchroniques et le cheminement diachronique d’une esthétique de l’impotence qui aurait émergé avec la tentation flaubertienne du « livre sur rien », pour se développer ensuite dans une large part du roman français de la première moitié du xx e siècle et trouver, enfin, son aboutissement dans l’œuvre de Samuel Beckett.

This paper pursues a naturalist endeavor in social ontology by arguing that the Beliefs-Rules-Equilibrium account of institutions can help to advance the debate over the nature of social kinds. This account of institutions emerges from a growing number of works in economics that use game theory to study the role and the functioning of institutions in human societies. I intend to show how recent developments in the economic analysis of rules and institutions can help solve issues that are generally considered (...) constitutive of any ontological inquiry. I argue that the Beliefs-Rules-Equilibrium account of institutions can contribute to advancing the debate on an issue of particular importance, regarding the specific form of dependence characterizing the relation between institutions and individuals’ attitudes about them. I tackle this issue by taking Francesco Guala's claims about the nature of institutions made in his book “Understanding Institutions” as a point of departure. In particular, I reject Guala’s functionalism about institutions. On the basis of the Beliefs-Rules-Equilibrium account, I claim that it is futile to search for constitutive features of general institutions (money, property rights, family…) and that the best we can have is a knowledge of what are the rules within a specific institution, which the agents consider to be essential in their institutional practice. (shrink)

This article presents a community-based account of salience as an alternative and a complement to the ‘natural salience’ approach which is endorsed by almost all game theorists who use this concept. While in the naturalistic approach, salience is understood as an objective and natural property of some entities, the community-based account claims that salience is a function of community membership. Building on David Lewis’s theory of common knowledge and on some of its recent refined accounts, I suggest that salience acts (...) as a correlating device in a correlated equilibrium. What is constitutive of salience is common understanding, the fact that agents have common knowledge that they share the same modes of reasoning with respect to a well-identified set of events. I argue that the basis for common understanding is community membership. The relevance of this account stems from the fact that it answers the objection that salience is either unnecessary or unable to account for coordination between rational agents. (shrink)

A growing number of recreational races are being held in different locations, drawing many local and visiting runners. This study examined the relationships between quality, value, satisfaction, and loyalty among runners in a recreational race and examines potential differences in relationships between these constructs based on the runners’ experience. The participants were 985 runners with a mean age of 40.74±9.41years. Validated, reliable ad hoc instruments were used. A multi-group analysis was performed to ascertain the existence of relationships between the constructs (...) and differences in the relationships between the different study groups. The results show that quality is a direct antecedent of value and satisfaction. Value is directly related to satisfaction and indirectly related to loyalty. Satisfaction is related to the loyalty of participants in the race. Differences in the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty were dependent upon the runners’ experience. Loyalty to a race depends primarily on satisfaction and is modified by the runners’ experience. (shrink)

I wish to correlate Bernard Lonergan’s functional specialty Communications with Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of novelistic discourse with the goal of teasing out how the Bakhtinian notion of discourse furthers on-going reflection on inculturation. Theology as a highly differentiated and specialized reflection on religion bears fruit in the final stage (Communications) of theological reflection. This fruit – inculturation – can be explained using different constructs. This paper privileges the Bakhtinian construct in that it addresses “the life and behavior of discourse in (...) a contradictory and multi-languaged world” in ways that Lonergan’s differentiated and specialized reflection on theology accounts for multiplicity of cultural traditions in an ever-changing world church. (shrink)

A proof of Bell’s theorem without inequalities is presented in which distant local setups do not need to be aligned, since the required perfect correlations are achieved for any local rotation of the local setups.

¿Cómo hacer un resumen de un escrito que problematiza el propio concepto de «sumilla»? En primer lugar, señalamos el carácter problemático de la sumilla, entendida como la pretensión de traer a presencia la ponencia y al mismo tiempo de postergarla. En segundo lugar, mostramos cómo en el proceder dialógico platónico acontece dicho carácter problemático de la presencia (eîdos) en términos del continuado fracaso respecto de todo intento de fijación del ser del ente, es decir, de su constante postergación. Más aún, (...) afirmamos que la pretensión meta-dialógica del diálogo platónico, es decir, de dar cuenta de aquello que en el diálogo mismo acontece, tiene lugar en términos de una toma de distancia respecto de su propio carácter escrito. En tercer lugar, escenificamos dicho carácter meta-dialógico mediante un tramo del Parménides, en el cual dicha toma de distancia asume la forma de la historia del robo del escrito de Zenón, lo cual quiere expresar que el eîdos no tiene lugar sino en su propio ausentarse. Y es que, en efecto, esto no habrá sido sino un resumen si remitimos al resumere latino, es decir, al re-asumir, a su vez reasunción del analambánein griego. Es precisamente dicho analambánein el que Platón liga con la anámnesis, es decir, con la reminiscencia, la cual a su vez remite a una ausencia constituyente. (shrink)

La serie de televisión Cárcel de Mujeres (TVN, 2007-2008) constituye un caso paradigmático para comprender el paulatino proceso de incorporación de personajes no heterosexuales en la pantalla chilena durante el siglo XXI. Esta creación audiovisual, emitida en horario nocturno y con éxito de rating, incluyó el mayor el número de personajes lésbicos y bisexuales visibles en una ficción televisiva nacional hasta la actualidad. El objetivo de esta investigación consiste en sacar a la luz visiones inusuales de las corporalidades sexo-disidentes ocultadas (...) en narrativas dominantes. Desde una perspectiva de análisis del lenguaje audiovisual este artículo describe los tipos de representaciones, tramas y relaciones sexo-afectivas en las que se ven involucradas diez personajes lesbianas, masculinas y femeninas, presentes en la ficción televisiva. La investigación devela los discursos lesbofóbicos que construyen una ficción que asocia estas mujeres disidentes sexuales a la criminalidad y la perversión sexual, a través de una estética que consolida la figura de la lesbiana oscura. El análisis crítico de estos personajes contribuye a construir un archivo de sexualidades queer desde una temporalidad local y sureada. (shrink)

This paper evaluates how Amartya Sen’s critique of revealed preference theory stands against the latter’s contemporary, ‘neo-Samuelsonian’ version. Neo- Samuelsonians have argued that Sen’s arguments against RPT are innocuous, in particular once it is acknowledged that RPT does not assume away the existence of motivations or other latent psychological or cognitive processes. Sen’s claims that preferences and choices need to be distinguished and that external factors need to be taken into account to analyze the act of choice then appear to (...) be irrelevant. However, while it is true that contemporary revealed preference theory partially evades Sen’s critique, I show that the latter is still relevant outside the restricted areas of consumer choice and market dynamics. In particular, Sen’s views regarding the importance of incomplete preferences and the multiplicity of levels of agency can hardly be integrated into the framework of CRPT. This is a significant limit, given the imperialistic claims of some of the proponents of the latter. (shrink)

Sermón en lengua de Chile, del jesuita granadino Luis de Valdivia, incluye, en su versión en español, varios términos en mapudungun, de estos ‘huecuvoe’, ‘marepuante’ y ‘pillan’ se explican como “equivalentes” a las divinidades del cristianismo. En este trabajo, apoyándonos en la etnohistoria, evaluamos su correspondencia con los referentes de la cultura mapuche y concluimos que se trata de conceptos que han sufrido un proceso de desplazamiento semántico motivado por la visión de mundo del locutor. De este modo, se genera (...) un discurso falible en su efectividad argumentativa. Sermón en lengua de Chile written by Spanish Jesuit Luis de Valdivia incorporates vocabulary from the Mapudungun language. Several terms in Mapudungun such as ‘huecovoe’, ‘marepuante’ and ‘pillan’, are explained as “equivalents” of Christian divinities. Based on ethnohistorical studies, in this paper we analyze the effective concept relationships and meaning in the Mapuche culture. The main findings suggest that these concepts have undergone a semantic change as a result of the writer’s worldviews. Thus, a fallible discourse is generated in its argument effectiveness. (shrink)

Cette étude met en confrontation Michel Henry avec Paul Ricoeur sur la question de la lecture de S. Freud. Il y est donc question de la psyché et de l’affectivité. L’auteur de l’étude rappelle combien le projet de la rationalité contemporaine conjoint des thèses philosophiques sur le statut du sujet et sur celui des schèmes perceptifs de la conscience, au gré d’une relation complexe entre l’étant et le phénomène. L’auteur rappelle les analyses husserliennes relatives à la psyché entendue comme « (...) vie » et ses effets de co-implication. Chez M. Henry, l’inconscient est toutefois compris, soit comme un « inconscient de la représentation », mais cela dans une perspective critique, soit comme cet autre nom de la « vie », spécifiquement dans ses structures d’auto-révélation et d’auto-affectivité. En reprenant la nature du débat entre M. Henry et P. Ricoeur, l’auteur montre que tout l’enjeu réside dans la place que l’on confère aux effets et opérations de la dialectique et de la réflexivité. (shrink)

This article proposes two interpretations of the concept of belief hierarchies in Bayesian game theory: the behaviorist interpretation and the mentalist interpretation. On the former, belief hierarchies are derived from the players’ preferences over acts. On the latter, they are causal mechanisms that are responsible for the players’ choices and preferences over acts. The claim is that the epistemic program in game theory is potentially confronted with a dilemma regarding which interpretation should be adopted. If the behaviorist interpretation of belief (...) hierarchies is retained, then Bayesian game theory cannot account for the players’ reasoning that leads to the generation of specific belief hierarchies and thus to the implementation of a specific strategy profile in a game. If the mentalist interpretation is retained, then belief hierarchies appear to be unnecessarily and unrealistically complex objects and that as a result they fail to provide reasonable epistemic foundations for various solution concepts. In other words, neither interpretation seems to allow the epistemic program to fulfill all its aims. I suggest however that the mentalist interpretation can be arranged to escape this dilemma. (shrink)

If quantum mechanics is correct and there is a finite upper bound for the speed of causal influences (e.g., the speed of light), then quantum mechanics is complete (i.e., it does not admit a more detailed description in terms of hidden variables). Here I show that the conclusion holds if we replace the assumption of bounded velocity by the assumption that there is a finite upper bound to the memory a finite physical system can store (e.g., the Holevo bound). On (...) the way to this conclusion I first show that, although the quantum violation of an inequality valid for any non-contextual model can be explained with a classical contextual model, the inequality can be promoted to a Bell inequality in which, if the model is contextual, then it must be also non-local. This suggests that there is something non-classical in any contextual explanation of the individual systems, and leads us to the question of which are the minimum resources (and specifically memory) any contextual explanation should consume. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and (...) made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

The theme of “presence” holds an ambivalent place in Gerald O'Collins’ Christology. On the one hand the theme is O'Collins’ “most creative contribution to contemporary Christology” and on the other hand the notion itself is a difficult and stubborn concept that can be best understood in an evolutionary way. This deeper analysis of “presence,” which is not offered by O'Collins, occupies a center stage in Bernard Lonergan's Christology. This essay mediates O'Collins’ account of “presence” with Lonergan's evolutionary understanding of the (...) term—a scientific theological account Lonergan worked out in dialogue with phenomenology and the sciences. The paper argues that such a mediation is necessitated by the fact that the meaning of “presence” is key to understanding the Chalcedonian definition of the union of the two natures of Christ, an important Christian dogmatic teaching that both O'Collins and Lonergan consider sacrosanct, and that a clarification of this meaning advances not only Christian understanding of Christ's presence in history, but also Christ's presence in non-Christian religions. (shrink)

Singulière, l’histoire d’Alban F. l’est à plus d’un titre. Au détour d’une instruction pour proxénétisme, une riche correspondance livre un matériau hors du commun. Un proxénète parle de lui, de son commerce, de la manière de le conduire. Confrontées à l’ensemble de la procédure judiciaire, ces quelques lettres permettent de camper une relation hors-norme, pour laquelle l’historien ne dispose bien souvent que de maigres sources, livrant une évocation tronquée d’une relation essentielle de la chaîne prostitutionnelle. En même temps qu’elles présentent (...) un homme tantôt affable, tantôt menaçant, elles détaillent la trajectoire individuelle d’un homme dont l’« entreprise » est désorganisée par le contexte de l’Occupation. (shrink)

This text expounds and relates the ethical and religious views of a philosopher that are usually discussed in terms of language. (Philosophy).